Gestalt

by The Writer's Group

Zwolfte

Ferlathin was given only the eleventh chapter and was asked to write this twelfth chapter.

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Silence. Silence and darkness.

“Is... is it gone?” Luna asked as she gave her elder sister an inquiring gaze. Celestia did not answer, instead she just stared blankly towards where Gestalt had been standing. Luna trotted over to her sister. “Tia?”

Celestia finally snapped out of her absent state and slowly turned her head towards her sister. She sighed. “Yes. He is indeed gone. However, the things that he set in motion... they will most likely happen. We need to figure out what he meant by those last words. ‘We are the land, and very soon, it will burn.’ “ Celestia coughed.

Luna looked with surprise at her sister. Usually, Celestia never got ill. “Are you alright?” she asked.

“Yes. I’m fine. Don’t worry about me. We need to hurry back to Canterlot to start our research.” Celestia turned around and started into a trot. “Are you coming, sister?” she said.

“Momentarily. I just wanted to see if there’s anything left of the Tools of Creation.”

“There shouldn’t be. Our powers are vastly superior to them, hence they should have been destroyed.”

“But even if there’s but a small piece left, we could take it to the castle and keep it as a memory, you know.”

“A fair point, sister. Ponies should know of, and remember, this day. See what you can find, then. I’ll be on my way, and we’ll meet up at Canterlot. Okay?”

“I’ll be right behind you, sis!” Luna said and trotted towards the place where Gestalt had been defeated. It took but a moment to find the Tools of Creation, or rather, what was left of them. The fan was in pieces, several pieces. The pocket watch was beyond recognition as well. Luna gathered what she could and just as she was about to turn back to catch up with her sister, something caught her eye. She brushed off some dust, and took a careful look at the object.

The Eye of Truth.

At first glance there was nothing extraordinary with the simple hand mirror. However, Luna knew the magic that resided within it and she figured that such a powerful artifact shouldn’t be left out here, in the middle of nowhere. She easily convinced herself that it was better protected in the royal castle of Canterlot.

Celestia cantered through the hall. She didn’t like rushing, but alas, being hasty was of the utmost importance. She turned left, away from the corridor and started trotting up a spiral staircase. A few minutes later, once she had gotten all the way up, she sighed in relief. She greeted the guards positioned outside the room with a nod as she entered.

The secluded area of Canterlot library. It had been years since she last used this section of the library, due to its exclusiveness. She took a deep breath and continued further in. The air was dry and the only light sources were lit candles scattered around the room. Celestia felt troubled, the most she had felt for a very long time in fact. She just had to find the book, if only she could remember where she had put it. She stopped for a while and let her memory take her back to a similar place, many, many years ago.

Meanwhile, Luna had just arrived at the Castle. She brought the small fragments of the Tools of Creation to the Hall of Memories, where she placed them inside a glass box, like many other such artifacts. Since they had lost their power there was no harm in putting them on public display. She did however not display the mirror, since she had another plan for it: To study it more careful in a place where she would not be disturbed. She trotted to her room and placed the mirror on her desk. She made sure to have all curtains drawn, just to make sure nopony saw what she was doing.

Yet before she could actually start studying it she needed to make sure that Celestia knew that she was back, and see if there was anything she could do to help her in her study. Luna already knew where she’d find her sister, in the oldest, most secluded part of the library. She trotted out of her room and started making her way to the library. After a short while she realized that she had not set any guards to watch over the entrance to her room. Usually it was not needed, since she knew that nopony would ever enter her room without permission, but this time, she felt that any extra protection would be well spent. Lost in her own thoughts she bumped into a passing stallion.

“Oh, excuse me, Princess.” he said, “I must have been lost in my own thoughts.” He held out his hoof to help her up. She let his hoof drag her back on four. Luna shone up.

“Shining Armor! You were actually the pony I was looking for!” she exclaimed.

“Really?” Shining Armor said with a hesitating look. “What can I do for the moon-princess today?” He recalled the several favours asked by that very mare standing in front of him. Many had ended up with him being on night watch just to keep her company, others... with questionable outcome. All that had taken place before he got married, however. He shook his head to get the thoughts out of his mind.

“I know what you’re thinking. This time it’s not that kind of favor I’m looking for. If you wouldn’t mind, could you just stand guard in front of my room? Just until I get back. It won’t be more than a couple of hours.”

Relieved that the favor was nothing but actual guarding he said, “Sure. I’m having the evening off.” He quickly added, “I didn’t have anything planned for tonight anyways.”

Luna trotted up the stairs to the library. She really wanted to get back to her room, to study the artifact in peace, but she knew that Celestia needed her.

“Celestia is here, right?” she asked one of the guards at the entrance. He replied only with a nod. She continued further in and found her sister. Celestia stood there, staring with a blank expression at seemingly nothing. “Sister?” Luna said.

“...” Celestia kept staring into the distance.

“Tia? What’s wrong?” Still there was no reply from her sister, and Luna started to feel a little bit worried. Finally, after what seemed to be an eternity, Celestia snapped out of her absent state. She coughed twice and looked at her sister.

“Oh, you’re here, good.”

“Sister! What’s wrong! Why do you keep coughing? Tell me what’s going on!” Luna said.

Celestia spoke as softly as she could, “As I said before. Do not worry about me.”

“But you seemed to be so... distant.”

“I was. I looked deep into my memory, to remember what happened that day, many years ago. And I remembered. I need to get back out there, there’s something that needs to be retrieved.”

“Back out where?”

“Where we defeated Gestalt. The mirror that he held. It has far more power than I thought. It may look innocent, but in his possession that mirror could be devastating. I can only fear what happens if any mortal gets his or her hooves on it.”

Luna gasped. “What’s wrong?” Celestia said.

“I... I took the mirror.”

“You did what!?”

“I only wanted to study it... I didn’t know it was that dangerous. It’s in my room, we can go get it right away. I put our best guard on duty protecting it, so nopony should have gotten close.”

“Well thought, little sister. But who will protect him from it? We need to get there right away. Hopefully nothing bad has occurred, yet.”

The two rulers of Equestria rushed out of the secluded library tower and swiftly descended the stairs. They literally flew through the many halls and corridors leading back to Luna’s room. Once there they noticed that the door to the room was ajar. Slowly, they approached the door and peeked inside. Shining Armor stood in front of the desk, holding the mirror between his two hooves and looking at the reflection. “S-so... many...” he stuttered to himself. Above him was transparent creature floating in the air.

As Celestia saw the creature she immediately entered the room, “Gestalt! Leave that poor stallion alone!”

Shining Armor turned around, took one look at the princess, and smirked. “Oh, but I will not. This one suits my interests perfectly.” His voice was far from his own, it sounded really elderly. It was as if Gestalt talked through him. “It’s not my fault that your little sister brought the innocent little artifact to the heart of Canterlot.”

“You planned this all along, didn’t you!? Pretending to have been defeated so we’d lower our guard.”

“Hmm... That thought did cross my mind, yes.”

“It doesn’t matter. I will destroy you here, once and for all. And by doing so, I’ll free Shining Armor from you!”

“Celesta, Celestia. Please. Let’s be reasonable. Neither you nor I want you to do that. I advice you to reconsider.”

“Bah! Have I not learned to ignore your counsel?” Celestia said angrily and closed her eyes in focus. Her white horn started glowing immensely, bathing the room in magical light, and after a brief charge she focused a powerful beam on Shining Armor. However, before it could reach him the beam shifted colors and a black taint started to blend in with the white. “What!? What’s going on!” Celestia exclaimed, and focused even more magic into the attack. After several seconds of struggling the white gave in to the black and the beam turned around to head for the alabaster alicorn.

“No!” Luna despaired, too slow to interfere.

The beam hit Celestia, who fell to her knees in a gasp of pain. “Are you alright, sister!?” Luna said.

“Foolish pony. What did I tell you? Haven’t you seen the signs? How is your cough anyways, heh. With that sickness in your body you’ll never be able to keep your royal glow pure white.”

“I... I still had to try, didn’t I?” Celestia said. She was filled with both anger and disappointment. She should have foreseen this.

“Yes. Yes you did. That was the amusing part.” Gestalt said and chuckled briefly before it turned into coughing. “Now... Enough of this foolery.” He turned around towards the window.

“You... you’ll let us live?” Celestia said.

“Yes. Why not? What could be a better punishment for a ruler than to see her land fall in front of her eyes, whilst she can do nothing to prevent it?” Gestalt said and trotted to the window, opening it with a flick of magic. Before taking off he turned to the princesses and said, “This will be the last time you’ll see me. However, despite the fact that I will not be seen, my work will indeed be witnessed. And mark my words; We are the land, and very soon, it will burn.”

With those words, he took off.

Celestia was now weaker than ever before, she couldn’t even stand up without help from Luna. Later that night, Luna kept her sister company in the bedroom.

“Luna...” Celestia said.

“Yes, Tia?”

“It’s time.”

“Time for what? ... Oh, you mean...”

“Yes, I do.”

“But... At such a young age...”

“I know. But we don’t have any choice, do we?”

“I agree. I’ll leave my duty of the stars to its rightful owner.”

“Finally, the trinity will be complete. The moon, the sun and the stars together.

Spike burped. The magic scroll fell down onto the library floor and he quickly picked it up. Hmm. The Princess never sends a message this late... he thought to himself. “Twilight! There’s a message from Princess Celestia!”

Twilight descended the stairs hastily and said, “Go on, read it!”

Spike cleared his throat and began to read aloud;

Dear Twilight,

Your presence is required at the royal castle in Canterlot

immediately. Should you so choose, you may bring your friends.

There’s a train leaving Ponyville at 06.00 tomorrow. I can not

stress how important it is that you come as soon as possible.

Best regards,

Celestia and Luna