Doctor Who: The Devouring Light

by Thait

Current Events...and Royalty.

Note.
If this chapter doesn't seem up to snuff please read the note at the end. Stupid power company.
end note.
thoughts
{mind to mind} This is mostly a Luna and Celestia thing though certain spells will mimic it.

Chapter 5

Golden light washed down across the land as the sun rose above the horizon bringing with it the sounds of birds waking to the bright rays. Ranma on the other hand only felt a wary nervousness as the golden orb began its ascent into the skies. Trixie had spent the entire last day telling him as much as she could about both the country they were in, called Equestria, and the world, called Equus, and she certainly hadn't glossed over the fact that their sun and moon were supposed to be controlled by the ruling princesses of the nation they were currently in. After everything else he had seen so far he wasn't sure if he could discount the idea, though it went against everything he had learned in the few schools he had attended. A very obvious conclusion that the two princesses were goddesses had received an odd answer. She seemed to find the idea both correct and wrong at the same time. According to her the princesses were revered by the average ponies to the point that many, if not most, would die to protect them if it was required and that the two were near universally loved by all ponies and even greatly respected by other races. Ranma knew there had to be a problem there as traveling with his old man he had found out quickly that no matter how loved someone seemed to be there were those who hated them and wanted them to fail. But he had to admit that if Trixie was correct the ponies and other nearby races hadn't had a real war in nearly a thousand years. Which beat out humanities best record, hell the two weren't even in the same galaxy of comparison.

She had mentioned a few minor border clashes and one larger conflict between the Diamond Dog kingdom and the Griffons that apparently happened five hundred years ago but it had been a swift conflict that ended in only a month. And he now knew there were griffons, and dragons, and harpies, and some kind of Zebra nation along with crystal ponies and...he shook his head in irritation and focused back on his training while waiting for Trixie to wake up. She had drilled him in plenty of things and he at least wouldn't make the mistake of using the incorrect terms when talking, most of the time anyway. He knew that because she had forced him to go over them until he wanted to smash his head into the nearest boulder in frustration. Still, he had to admit that she was pretty nice for a traveling companion as she was the first girl, 'mare' he mentally corrected himself, who hadn't started whining after spending most of the day traveling without stops. And her aura was concerning. He had been doing some exercises to try and widen and fine tune his aura reading which meant he was exposed to her aura constantly, and while she was very good at tossing up an arrogant and boastful front he could practically feel her buried depression. It was worse than he got after losing a fight which he would grudgingly admit was pretty bad.

Something had obviously happened to the traveling pony that had driven her into that forest and after spending a chunk of the night focusing on her for research, he had gotten worried about her aura. Aura reading was the entire basis of certain schools of martial arts and Genma had been adamant about him learning what he could from several experts in the short time they had been allowed to stay at a dojo in America. The short time being caused by his idiot of a father trying to steal some super secret scroll the masters of the dojo had that was supposed to be a particularly impressive aura technique. Thankfully they hadn't blamed him for his father's crimes but they also wouldn't teach him more than they already had, though they both told him that with his aptitude he had already learned the basics and that experimentation would lead him to the rest. Aura reading allowed one to read their opponents better, as well as detect opponents who were trying to attack unless said opponent was very good at hiding their presence. To an expert aura user an average person was an open book, with everything from mental health to physical health to truth and lies spoken and more right out there for them to see. A sufficiently skilled martial artist would be able to shield themselves from that to the point where the aura reader wouldn't know if they spoke truth or lies or what they really felt. As much as Ranma wanted to claim he was that good he knew that even with the basics down he was completely open to an expert. But the basics gave him some info on Trixie, who had no defenses against his aura sight, and those basics were...concerning.

While the grandmasters he had studied under simply read auras like it was second nature to them it took Ranma an hour of meditation just to get into the right state of mind to begin a deep reading of Trixie. Her aura was obviously different than a humans but he was able to make out certain things, like the colors that identified particular emotions. Reading those was easy once you saw them as they appeared to be the same in Trixie, and his new form, as when he was human. Blue was confidence, gold was arrogance, and let no one tell you they were the same thing. Red was anger, despair and depression were a sickly green color that usually made Ranma sick to his stomach for some reason. But he had to admit that the worst he had ever seen was black, the feelings of worthlessness, the belief one didn't deserve to live, that one's life was meaningless. When he had first begun to be better at the basics the masters had taken him to a hospital to learn to read the auras of those who were injured, to show him how physical and mental damage transferred into a person's aura.

He had learned quickly to spot the alterations in auras of those whose bodies had been injured both by deliberate means and by accident. It took him longer to begin to identify those who had been harmed mentally. He had been walking through the hospitals children's wing on his way to get something to eat when he had had his first breakthrough in reading mental damage. He had been keeping his aura sight open while walking, not an easy feat at all at his skill level, when he had happened to glance into one room and saw, for the first time, a black aura. The girl couldn't have been more than ten but it was obvious she had suffered badly under someone. He had had to ask the masters what a black aura meant to figure out how badly damaged the girl was. The worst thing was that her aura had been almost completely dominated by the black, only a little light still shone within telling anyone with sight that a part of her still had hope. He had done his best, spending time with her every day at the hospital but it was as if every time a spark would begin to break through that it would be gone the next day. He had figured out the problem quickly, and it happened to be her parents. Ranma had to admit that he was pretty damned proud of the fact nobody at the hospital, or anywhere else, had figured out who had flattened the two assholes. The look on the girls fathers face when his arm was broken by a thirteen year old was priceless and Ranma hadn't stopped there. He'd made sure the two jerks realized that he would come after them again if they didn't confess to their own actions. The last he'd heard the girl was being taken in by some relatives while her parents would be arrested, after they got out of the hospital of course. Thankfully the relatives seemed nice and he had at last seen at least a few cracks in the blackness of her aura before she was released from the hospital.

Trixie was different from that but damaged in other ways. The core of her aura was a brilliant shining blue with streaks of gold blazing through it overlaying the more average colors that signified things like kindness and other emotions. But that core was surrounded by walls of sickly green interspersed with a few thick strands of black constricting around the bright light. It was a battered aura that had obviously taken some heavy mental strain and damage. But the black seemed to be thinning, or cracking, letting jolts of light shimmer through. Even so he worried about it as it meant that she might have been in the forest with no plans of ever leaving it. It also meant he needed to be careful to keep an eye on her to make sure she didn't relapse back.

After examining Trixie's aura he had spent much of the rest of the night working on ki distribution throughout his body. Trying to figure out how to funnel ki where he wanted it instead of letting it bleed out all over. It hadn't gone great but he had found his frustrations melting away under the moonlight. Strangely just standing in it had been calming and given a feeling of being protected. Because of the calming nature of the moonlight he had actually gotten more done than he probably would have. He had found out that the reason he was bleeding so much ki outward was that that the pony equivalent of ki pathways were twice the size they should have been. While this would allow one to expel and move ki much easier than a human could it also left him wasting far too much energy. During one of the few times he had gotten irritated over the ki circulation he had shoved his aura into his right hoof, quite hard, in an attempt to force it around. The result had been a sore leg and hoof and a small crater in the ground where his forehoof had been pressed. It hadn't been big, and the energy expenditure had been huge due to bleed-off, but it was interesting to note the ease with which ponies could shift energy around and then expel it outward.

Trixie blinked blearily at the night pony some distance from her where he was going through movements she had once seen a defense instructor doing when teaching students in canterlot and found herself wondering if he had even slept at all. Grumbling vague insults at morning ponies she stumbled to her hooves and squinted in the general direction of the rising sun. They had traveled all yesterday and had bedded down for the night near some bushes off the side of the road to Hoofington. It would take several hours to reach the town and she needed to decide how to handle the situation when they did arrive. Mostly the part where she would get chased out of town if she showed her face there without a disguise. The problem with illusion magic was that a gifted unicorn would be able to see that a spell was active if they decided to pay enough attention to the pony the illusion was on. And the mere fact she was traveling with a night pony would get her plenty of attention which meant she needed some kind of easily overlooked illusion that would make those nearby not even consider glancing in her direction. Picking up a small pebble from the ground she launched it at the stallion to get his attention, not once expecting said pebble to suddenly be struck by a hoof and launched back at her.

Ranma had been mostly focusing on his new workout, that had taken a good chunk of the remaining night to figure out, when he heard a loud yelp from Trixie and looked to see the mare rubbing her head near her horn. Deciding he had trained enough he trotted over and watched her as she grumbled about irritating insane ponies. "You okay?"

"Trixie would be fine if you didn't hit her with rocks." Her glare got only a confused look back and she frowned "You can't tell Trixie that you don't even know you did that." See his confused look only get worse she decided to just let it go before she got a headache, or decided to do something she'd regret later. "Forget it. Let's just get moving so we can be in Hoofington before noon so Trixie can get a good meal."

As the sun rose and her stomach grumbled she tried to think of ways to get through town without truly getting examined by everypony they ran into. Or more to the point, keeping everypony from looking at her. Though she had to admit she could try and meld a minor misdirection spell with her illusion spell as both were enchantments which she was particularly good at. The trip continued in silence for quite some time until Trixie couldn't stand it anymore, she had been alone for so long that she actually wanted company and now that she had some he wasn't even talking.

"Trixie has seen that kind of fighting before." She noticed this perked up the other pony quickly enough.

"Really?" Ranma had to admit there might be hope for this world yet if there was martial arts on it. It also gave him hope of possibly learning some new things and maybe facing a true master of martial arts who was used to this type of body. It would be a good test of his new abilities.

"Yes, though she is unsure if they moved as wildly as you do." Honostly she found herself interested in what the night pony would say on the matter. Being a unicorn she had never really thought of learning to fight with anything but magic, and it had served her well in the few times she needed to defend herself from bandits and the like.

"Well...My form of martial arts is called the School of Indiscriminate Grappling but it's more commonly known as the Anything Goes school of martial arts. One of the most powerful fighting schools in the world." He felt better talking about something he knew so much of. "Our school works to take the best of every other form of martial arts and incorporate it into our own. That way we end up with all the strengths and none of the weaknesses of our opponents." True it meant their school relied on the theft of other schools secrets but he preferred to think of it as preserving the best of the best instead of letting it get lost. He stopped to lift his right forehoof from the ground and let some of his aura into it so that it gained a soft white glow.

"What is that?" Trixie cast a quick spell and received nothing in return, there was no magical energy there whatsoever.

"It's life energy, my life energy actually." He stopped the glow and started walking again. "The greatest schools of martial arts teach the wielder to access their life energy to bolster their abilities. With it I can do lots of things a normal person can't, reinforce my body to make me a lot tougher and stronger. You saw me pull those spiders in the caves?" Seeing her nod he continued "I used my aura to anchor myself to the floor so that they were pretty much trying to pull me and several tons of rock towards them instead of just me."

While life energy wasn't unknown to Trixie, the idea one could use it in the way Ranma was talking about was...crazy. She knew that unicorn doctors and nurses knew spells that would shift such life energy around to aid in healing but the idea one could use it to increase their strength was beyond anything Trixie had heard of. "How do you get such power?" She wouldn't profess to be an expert but she had read some medical books, a traveler needed to know these sorts of things on the off chance they ran into trouble on the road after all.

"Training. A lot of very hard brutal training that forces the body to reach a point where it can begin to access the energy. Once you can touch it you can use it, and once you can use it you can make it stronger." He leapt into the air to a height no normal pony should have been able to even come close to and then landed without even causing much of a disturbance in the roads dirt. "It's skill. Like your lightning spell in the caves, that was really cool. Use stuff like that any nobo-er-pony could beat ya."

Trixie was glad the stallion was looking ahead so he didn't see her blush. "Y-yes it was a modified spell." She thought of unicorns like Lulamoon "But all the training in the world won't help Trixie be stronger." Seeing he was about to say something she shook her head "Unicorns have a set level of power, it doesn't grow or change. What Trixie has is what Trixie has, she will never be more powerful than she is."

"Really? So you could'a done the same thing to that weirdo back in the caves at any time?" Ranma already figured he knew the answer to the question.

"No, Trixie just said she modified the spell to alter its abilities." Seeing the smirk on his face she snorted "don't try to equate a modified spell to more power."

"Power isn't just the raw strength of abilities, or spells. Being powerful can simply mean you're more skilled than your opponent."

"Trixie is already skilled. She knows plenty of spells." Of course plenty wasn't good enough when dealing with a celestial bear like an ursa minor. Especially when she hadn't even been prepared for something like that.

"I know lots of martial arts moves, but knowing the moves and understanding the moves are two different things. If I went up against a fighter who knew every move I did but he didn't really train in them I could kick his ass easily." He glanced at the unicorn hoping she would understand.

Trixie's mind was focusing on what Ranma had said but also on something she had read when she had been snowed in for nearly a week on her way to Trottingham once.

Most unicorns believe that simply learning a spell is good enough for them, as if learning the spell will give them all the insight necessary to understand the spell. In truth one must take the spell apart, examine every aspect of the spell to understand how it is cast, what parts of it use what magic, and why the component parts utilize the magic in the way they do. By doing this a unicorn can gain an understanding of the spell far greater than any simple common practitioner of the magical arts. This not only allows the caster to understand the spell they have, but also allows them to alter the spell in ways an opponent might never consider. This is the entire basis behind the elite arcanist squad known as the Nightmare Breakers, who were the greatest spell casters of the Equestrian army during the Nightmare War.

HISTORY OF SPELLCRAFT

BY: SHINING STAR

At the time she had scoffed at the idea she didn't know her spells. But with her own work in the caves, Ranma's statements about understanding his martial arts, and her memory of the book she had read, she was starting to wonder. The odd thing was that she knew for a fact that Celestia's school for gifted unicorns discouraged modification of known spells. While she herself hadn't gone to the school she had hung around in areas where the ones who did go would hang out and talk. They enjoyed mocking her as the failure who hadn't gotten in but in doing so, and trying to flaunt their knowledge, they had passed on quite a bit to her. She remembered her old mentor had also talked about not modifying spells. It was an oddity that she couldn't quite understand, sure her new lightning spell had a horrible feedback problem that she needed to figure out how to deal with but she was working on that. And she was fairly sure she could get it worked out eventually. Any other thought on the subject vanished as they crested a hill and looked down onto Hoofington.

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Hoofington. One hour later.
Daisy Chain Restaurant.

"I still don't know why you had to disguise yourself." Ranma managed the question around his seventh sandwich. Trixie had refused the enter the town looking like herself and had quickly layered a spell around herself that gave her a pale grey coat and a silver and black mane and tail.

"Tri...As I said I don't want anypony to recognize me." Trixie would have said it was a miracle that nopony had done so already but she had found, to her irritation, that most eyes had fallen directly on Ranma. Even now she could see three mares sitting in a booth on the other side of the room who were spending more time giggling and eyeing the stallion than they were eating the food in front of them. And it didn't seem to be just the mares, she was certain there were at least two stallions in the restaurant who had managed to move three tables closer to Ranma since they had gotten in. She would have been more irritated about the situation if she hadn't wanted it that way. She stayed silent for a moment before noticing a single mare that was paying attention to her, watching her sharply in fact. A mare with a gold coat and a black and gold mane. "Of all the mares to show up, why did Golden Lining have to be here." She looked to Ranma who was starting on his eighth sandwich and wondered where he was putting it all. "Take care of this. I need to take care of some things." She waved off his complaint "I'll meet you at the train station in an hour, as soon as I talk to somepony I know who might know where the Doctor went."

"What? But I need..." He didn't get to finish.

"I have to do this myself. Please." She glanced towards the golden mare once again only to see she was gone. "I promise I will meet you in an hour."

"Alright. One hour." It had been the 'please' that had gotten him, she hadn't been able to completely hide the almost desperation that had been buried in that word. With a sigh he went back to eating as Trixie got up and left only to suddenly realize he had no money. "Aw great. How the heck am I supposed to pay for this?" Those words got a gasp from the right and suddenly he found three different mares at the table.

"Did she just leave you here with no money?" The oldest of the three leaned forward looking as scandalized as she could "How rude! I'm sure my sisters and I could help you."

"Really?" Ranma wasn't completely clueless when it came to women, but these weren't women and he had no idea what he was getting into when it came to ponies. So it was that several minutes later he was being dragged from the restaurant, with many glares being leveled at the three mares who were clustered around him, and being led down the street.

"So where are you from? I've heard all the stories about the Lunar ponies, is it true you're more powerful under a full moon?" The youngest, which was probably around Ranma's own age, was the quickest with questions.

"Umm..not sure really. I haven't been in any fights above ground at night yet." He blinked in confusion as the three giggled.

"What's your name?" The youngest again. Though in truth Ranma wasn't sure of her age, or the age of the others, as he really didn't have much of a lock on what ponies looked like at what age. "And your age?"

"Ranma, I'm sixteen." Ranma in truth was paying more attention to the buildings around him and trying to figure out where exactly Trixie might have been. As they passed a building that's sign bore the image of some kind of tankard he figured he had found the town bar. A flicker of color in the alley next to the bar caught his eye and he turned towards it moving to the head of the alley. The leader of the three sisters immediately tried to pull him away "It's just a drunk. Probably got tossed out when they started a fight or something. There's no need to go in there."

She might have been right but Ranma's eyes were much better than her's at seeing in the dark and he could easily pick out the fact that said drunk pony was female by just looking at her face, which was angled enough towards the street to be seen. And as much as he didn't want to go dragging a drunk from the gutter he had done it for his pops plenty of times and he felt he couldn't just leave a woman, or mare, collapsed in the alley. Pulling away from the three sisters he strode into the alley and picked his way past what looked to be trash though he was surprised it hadn't been picked up considering how clean the rest of the town was. Reaching the downed mare he looked her over seeing that she appeared to be an odd coloring of very light green, or maybe it was a mix of very light blue and green together, he wasn't quite sure. With a mane and tail of amber and orange and a cutie mark consisting of a Lightning bolt with three stars. He also saw that she had wings, which was interesting right away as that would mean this was the first pegasus he had seen, though Trixie had described them to him. He nudged the downed mare slightly but got only a groan in response for several moments before one orange eye opened to look blearily up at him.

"whadda you want?" The slur to the ponies voice told him she was still pretty trashed.

"You okay?" He wasn't sure why he was asking, or why he was even wasting his time in an alley with a drunk but his instincts were all he really had to go on in this world and they were telling him to stay put.

"F-fine..'s nothin w-w-w..." She twitched and then heaved, managing to avoid puking on herself or Ranma but impacting the wall near her. With a groan she slowly pushed herself up to sitting position and then ever so slowly tried to stand. It probably would have been a failed effort if Ranma hadn't stepped in to help. "Thanks. Name's Lightning Dust, now leave me alone." She nearly fell over turning around and had been about to make a her way to the street, or at least try to, when three figures blocked the alley entrance.

"Well, well. Bout time we found you." The leader of the three was probably the biggest pony Ranma had seen, standing a foot taller than Ranma himself and bulked up with more muscle than he thought any pony should have. His two friends were quite a bit smaller and didn't seem to have much in the muscle department. But it was the cutie marks that nearly had Ranma cracking up, the leaders was a set of brass knuckles, the one to his right a baseball bat, and the one to his left a pair of boxing gloves. Ranma wasn't sure if this was supposed to be a sports team or the local hired thugs. "You owe us."

"Yeah, yeah. Just give me the time to get in another race and I can pay you back in full." The pegasus swayed slightly looking almost as if she might fall down.

"You said that at the last race, and you didn't make near enough money to even cover the interest." The larger of the ponies stalked forward till he was nearly nose to nose with the mare and glared at her. "You owe use two thousand bits."

"Two thousand! That's way more than..." She never got to finish as the one Ranma had now dubbed Brass Knuckles lashed out with a blow that struck her in the face and slammed her into the nearby wall. He never got the chance to gloat as a second later his head impacted the ground with enough force to flip the rest of him forward and over. Before his body had even impacted the ground his two flunkies got introduced to Ranma launching himself at both of them, twisting around and kicking both with a back hoof sending them flying out into the street to tumble to an unconscious stop. He turned to see Lightning Dust puking up what she had left in her stomach before trying to look at him.

"When did your two brothers show up?" Her attempt to get up ended in a collapse and Ranma muttered a curse. The sound of shouting from down the street got his attention, the level of authority in the voices sounded too much like police for his tastes. It took a few attempts to get her onto his back but he stood in time to see the first of the armored ponies come to a stop near the unconscious duo in the street. It didn't take more than a second for them to look his way. "Halt!"

"Heck no." He spun and galloped down the alleyway towards the other end, deciding that avoiding local law enforcement was a better option than possibly getting in trouble for...well, whatever this crazy world might come up with. It didn't take long to realize that outrunning the guard was near impossible when they had pegasus guards in the air directing the others to wherever he went. And his passenger was not in the best medical condition, both from the blow to the head and the amount of drink she must have put away. His only thought at the moment was to find Trixie and see if she could help with her magic, if that was possible.

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Trixie knew that Golden Lining was following her, the annoying mare wouldn't attack or push her luck most likely purely because Trixie had entered town with a night pony. The irritating unicorn wouldn't know if she was working for the guards or not and so wouldn't do anything to jeopardize her future. Trixie had no doubt that she had seen through her disguise, it wasn't the best bit of work she had ever done but it was the best she could throw together on short notice. Deciding to ignore her follower for the time being she headed to Stitch's Emporium glad to see that it was still where she had remembered it to be even after all these years, even if it looked a bit more rundown than it had so many years ago. The door didn't make a noise but she knew Stitch would know she was here, he always knew when a costumer walked through his front door.

"It's been a long time Trixie." The words nearly caused the unicorn to jump in surprise as Stitch stepped out from the back.

"How did you know it was Trixie?" She banished the illusion and walked to the counter where the old tailor settled into a comfortable chair.

"You forget who you're talking to." He smiled at the showmare "I'm probably the second most perceptive unicorn in this town, behind Golden Lining of course."

"Of course." She couldn't keep bitterness out of her voice when thinking of the golden unicorn. "Well Trixie isn't here for old times, she needs information."

Stitch couldn't keep concern out of his mind when he looked at Trixie. She was attempting to keep up her old bluster and arrogance but as he had said, he was the second most perceptive unicorn in town. And he was easily able to pick out the wary shifting of the mares eyes, the tenseness she held herself with and the very minor but still there shimmer around the base of her horn speaking of power ready to be unleashed. "Trixie, you still have friends here." He stood warily, while speaking with as soothing a tone as he could muster.

"Really? Trixie seems to have missed when they spoke up on her behalf." The acid in her voice caused him to step back in surprise. "In fact Trixie seems to remember them standing way in the back when she was being chased out of town, almost as if they didn't want anypony to know they knew her."

"That wasn't..." He sighed as he got a look at her eyes, she wasn't going to believe him no matter what words he spoke. "What is it you wished to know?"

"Trixie is wondering if you remember a job you did for the great Lulamoon around twenty years ago? And if you do remember, Trixie needs to know where Lulamoon and her assistant were going." She was relying on Stitch only because he was the best at this sort of thing next to her, he had a memory like a steel trap that never let anything go once he learned it. Trixie was actually better at absorbing information than Stitch but unlike her he could remember even the tiny details that she might forget.

"Ah, Lulamoon. A beautiful mare, she and her friend were needing quite the wardrobe fix." He chuckled "They were heading to Manehattan, according to the Doctor they were off to see Sonata in her closing act." Seeing the look on her face he shrugged "That was what he said."

She could only assume that he had heard incorrectly as she knew that Sonata, a mare of great acclaim, had died nearly 80 years ago. In fact her closing act, the last act set before her retirement, was said to have been one impressive mess with rumors of dark unicorns and some kind of monster involved in the destruction of the entire theater she had been performing in. Just rumors though, the guards had stated that in the end it was simply a unicorn with a grudge against Sonata that had cast multiple illusions and other attacks to try and bring down the performers amazing final show. Still, Manehattan gave her the next place they would have to go in their search. "Thank you." She had almost made it to the door when he coughed politely, getting an irritated look from the showmare. "Do you desire something else? Trixie is busy."

"I have something for you." Using his magic he slid a small picture aside and pulled out a wrapped bundle from behind it. "I never got the chance to give this to you the last time you turned up in town."

"Truly surprising that you couldn't get a chance to give something to Trixie while cowering behind the mob." She took the item and unwrapped the twine that held the paper wrapping shut. She froze, staring at the item on top for a moment before levitating it up to get a better look. It was a hat much like her last though black, instead of purple, with blue and gold stars that seemed to shimmer slightly. The other item was a cape, like the hat it was black with blue and gold stars and used a red octagonal ruby within a gold setting to hold the cape in place. She had been paying attention to the clothes so much she nearly hadn't noticed the book that had also been inside the wrapping. A thin book with covers of dark crystal bearing an embedded emerald in the shape of a wisp of fire. Underneath the embedded emerald was the title of the book Magic of the Crystal Empire: A Guide to Stage Magic. Eye's wide with shock she stared at the spellbook in confusion before looking to Stitch. "Why?"

"Well I just happened to be in the Crystal Empire on a vacation earlier this year and decided I'd check out their library. It just so happened that that book there caught my eye and I knew it would be good for you." He smiled as Trixie pulled the book close to her wrapping her legs around the item and hugging it close. He knew that after everything that had happened to the unicorn that she had lost everything she owned, quite frankly that was likely the only spellbook in her collection now. "Now you take care of that book. I got frisked by customs twice on the way out and had to bribe three ponies in Equestria when I got it back here." Seeing the look on her face he smiled "Let's just say books aren't exactly for sale from there right now. But I knew that it would be something for you."

Silence reigned in the shop for a moment as Trixie sat looking down at the book and Stitch watched in surprise as tears dripped onto the cover. "T-trixie is..." She looked up and he could for just a moment see the pain that she tried to hide so well. "Thank you." She rubbed furiously at her eyes for a moment before standing and levitating her hat and cape into place attaching the ruby to the cape. "Trixie is grateful for this...for everything. She promises to visit sometime in the future, when she isn't on a supposed super important quest." Thinking of her new spellbook she walked to the door and swung it open just in time for a pony to come dashing down the store fronts and slam right into it sending said pony to the floor with another on top of him.

"Ranma?" Confusion vanished as she heard shouting from down the street and could see guards rushing out of an alley. Trixie sighed "Celestia, you must be testing me." Dragging the two ponies inside she closed the door before pulling Ranma and the currently unknown pegasus to a corner of the shop and weaving a quick misdirection spell around the three of them. Both guards had looked like earth ponies so she doubted they'd see through a spell telling them to look somewhere else. It didn't take long for the guards to burst in, on directions from their pegasus spotter, and look around the shop quickly before being told by Stitch that the fugitives had gone out the back. When the guards were gone Stitch turned back to Trixie "It won't take long for them to realize they're going the wrong way. I suggest you disguise your friends and get them to the train station."

"Ow...What happened?" Ranma rubbed his head before noticing Lightning Dust lying next to him. Every now and then the mare would twitch and look like she wanted to retch up anything else she might have eaten. "Geeze what the hell happened to you? I've seen drunks and you've gone above and beyond even pops."

"Nothin...Jus...just ate something that didn agree wif me. And drank some stuff." She groaned clutching her stomach "Hurts."

Trixie frowned at the mare wondering who she was, and for that matter where she came from. But decided to just go with it for the moment and work on getting everypony to the train station so they could get out of here.

0000000

Friendship Express. On track to Manehattan.

Ranma looked out the window and watched the scenery rush by as the train chugged its way towards Manehattan. He had managed to get a bit more out of Lightning Dust but it was mostly just a push to be left alone. After the cooks of the dining car had whipped up a hangover cure, that had to nearly be forced down the mares throat, he had left her in her own car to sleep it off. Trixie though seemed to be in better moods now that she had a cape and hat, and apparently a new book to read, which she had been doing nearly nonstop since they'd boarded the train. Unfortunately he was relegated to training his aura sight and manipulation as he was stuck on a train until the morning after next. 'At least I can get some training in, even if it is only in my aura.'

0000000

Several Hours Later. Early Night.

The rumble of the train as it continued on its long trek to Manehattan echoed up through the railcar floors and into the beds that the few travelers where resting in. It was a soothing feeling that in a way reminded Lightning Dust of resting on storm clouds, something she usually did when she was having trouble sleeping. But now...what was the reason she couldn't sleep? It only took a small amount of thinking to figure it out, the question of the day if not the week. 'Why did he get involved? Why did a pony who didn't even know me defend and protect me?' Not that any of it mattered really, her life was officially over, and had been from the instant she'd been kicked from the Academy. Getting the chance of joining the Wonderbolts taken from her had been a blow she had never even considered could happen, but to have to listen to that sanctimonious ass Spitfire talk about her grandfather to her just before telling her to leave had nearly caused her to attack the older mare.

The pegasus curled tighter on her bed staring out the window at the darkness outside while extending a wing for a moment to stare at it. Her wings...the only two things she had ever trusted after her grandfathers death. After she had realized her parents were sabotaging every training exercise she had been so desperately trying in an attempt to get better. She could still remember the first time her parents had taken her to the doctor, when every other pegasus in her class had been flying for nearly a year already and she couldn't even get off the ground. Heck even the pegasi a year younger than her could at least hover, but she couldn't.

Doctors, specialists, and even some crackpot nuts her parents had eventually trusted all told them the same thing, she was doomed to be a weak flier. Her energy tap, that which allowed in the magic that gave a pegasus their abilities, was too small. She wasn't the only pegasus with this problem but for her it hit extra hard. Her grandfather, Lightning Blitz, had been a member of the Wonderbolts, the most elite flying team in the country if not the world. They were everything from Equestria's stunt flying teams to the elite of the royal air corps. They were the best of the best, and she so desperately wanted to join them after hearing so many stories from her grandfather. She had vowed to prove everypony wrong about her, told them all she'd be the best of the best. That no stupid magic deformity would hold her back, she would be the fastest, strongest, most skilled flier in all of Equestria.

Lightning Dust pulled her wing back in and stared out the window as lights moved in the distance, a small town they were passing in the night. Her mind going over everything that had gone wrong again and again. "She was right. You would've been disappointed in me grandpa." She remembered her last arrogant words to Rainbow Dash before the end and felt her spirits wilt even more. "You were right Grandpa...Everypony was right." She pulled her wings tighter to her sides and lowered her head onto her forelegs closing her eyes, she could feel tears starting. "I shouldn't have even tried."

"Feeling sorry for yourself will not make things better, Trixie has tried and it only adds to your problems." Lightning Dust nearly fell out of the bed at the sound of Trixie's voice and jerked around to stare at the unicorn who was sitting in the center of the sleeping car with her nose buried in her crystal spellbook.

"W-what do you know!" Lightning Dust shifted straight to defensive at realizing the other mare might have heard her.

"Trixie is well versed in feeling sorry for herself. " She looked up and smirked "But then she doesn't let it get to her as she is the Great and Powerful Trixie." It was the full title and name that finally caught Lightning Dusts memories.

"Wait, you're that mare who..."

"No. Trixie is many things but not what you are thinking. She is simply a traveling showmare." Trixie went back to looking with interest at the spellbook. The crystal ponies magic was very interesting. Unlike the ponies of Equestria they had no unicorns and so their spell casters channeled their power through their hooves. It reminded her of the spell she remembered seeing Lulamoon cast that activated the strange object under the Ursa Major. If this was correct then travelers among the crystal ponies wouldn't know which ponies were magic users and which weren't as it wasn't species but an innate skill that allowed ones to cast magic. They also didn't rely on normal magic but used something the book was referring to as rune magic, a type of magic that seemed to be over complicated to Trixie. But then she was a unicorn and any magic that needed an outside anything seemed overly complicated.

"Hmm...Trixie thinks she might try this spell." She stood and began to concentrate her magic in the way the spell was trying to tell her to do. Lightning Dust, who had been about to speak again grew quiet as she watched the strange light begin to grow. Trixie didn't have to channel magic in the way the crystal ponies did, and couldn't even if she wanted to, but magic was magic and she concentrated on bringing the spell to life before her. Slowly a circle of purple light drew itself in the air before her glowing with the same pulsing as her horn. Within the circle four small squiggles that Trixie wasn't completely sure of the meaning of came into existence spinning lazily within the circle until they suddenly came to a stop, locking into place. A second later the runes flared brighter and with a small pop a bouquet of roses snapped into existence. With a squeal of delight Trixie clapped her hooves together several times and then grabbed the roses from the air checking them for smell and solidity.

"What's the big deal, it's just some flowers." Lightning Dust watched as irritation swept across Trixie's face and surprisingly found no mirth at annoying the other pony like she often did when irritating others.

"Trixie is more than capable of doing such a spell through normal means." To prove it her horn lit with magic once more, and in half the time of the previous spell another bouquet of roses shimmered into existence. "But this is completely new magic. Trixie has never studied crystal pony magic and so she is starting with the smaller spells first so as to learn the basics and then going from there." As the mare shifted pages to look at more illustrations of rune magic Lightning Dust decided to change the subject.

"Why did he do it?"

"Trixie doubts he really thinks ahead. He saw you were in trouble and helped you." She flipped a page and her eyes widened "Ohhh...Trixie wants to learn this spell!" If she was reading the book correctly the runes in the last spell might have been about the summon, dealing with color, number, casing for, and position of, the roses.

"That's it? I was in trouble so he risked his own life to help me?" It was a foreign thought to her, the idea that anypony would simply want to help her just because. Everything in her life so far had practically been the opposite of that and yet she somehow managed to run into one pony who did things that way.

"He did the same for Trixie, and don't think he was in danger from whatever ponies where after you." She smirked "Trixie was being threatened by timber wolves." Trixie stood and secured her book before trying to decide whether to take a solo room in one of the other cars or stay here.

"Don't go." Lightning Dust froze after she spoke the words and tried to decide why she had done so. Maybe it was loneliness, she had been alone before the academy and then again afterwards and really didn't want to be alone right now. "I...I'd like to see some more magic."

Trixie raised an eyebrow looking at the other mare for a moment and then smirked. "Then prepare to be amazed by the show stopping talent of the Great and Powerful Trixie!" Trixie's cape flared out as she reared up and prepared to cast what spells she could within the confines of the railcar.

0000000

Dreamscape.

Grassy plains spread out as far as the eye could see broken only by a handful of tall rock spires that jutted up over the plains like tall silent sentinels watching over the few who wandered into what some would call a paradise. A short distance from one spire an alicorn stood watching the suns trajectory as it moved through the skies. Her coat was the white of freshly fallen snow, while her mane and tail were a rippling mass of golden solar flame. Her wings, like her mane and tail, were a construct of light and fire though only a small amount of heat pulsed outward from her. Lowering her head she looked at a small white filly with a pink mane and tail and smiled "Do you think you can find your sister Tia?"

"Yep." The small filly turned and dashed into the tall grass on a course for the nearest rock spire. Every now and then she'd jump to clear the grass to orient on the spire as she dashed along. Reaching the end of the tall grass she skidded to a stop on the much shorter grass that existed around the base of the rock spire for nearly ten feet in every direction. The spire was a thick chunk of grey rock covered by vines and flowers that the family had been staying by for the last few years while Celestia and Luna grew older. Giggling evilly she crouched down and slunk along the base of the spire until she reached a small upward path of rock. Slinking along the tiny path of rock she rounded the spires base until she reached where the rock ledge ended and she could look down to the ground. Below her a small filly with a dark blue coat stood with hooves planted firmly on the ground, face scrunched up with concentration while her horn gave a light fitful glow as she focused on something Celestia couldn't see. Smile widening Celestia crouched even more before launching herself off the rock ledge and plummeting towards her sister.

"Ninja pony!" Celestia's shout got the attention of Luna who managed a surprised scream before her sister landed on her sending the two of them rolling across the ground to a large pile of cut grass that was the two fillies bed.

"TIA!" Luna struggled out from under her sister to glare at the older pony who had now vanished into the long grass of the bed.

"I am ninja pony! Destroyer of evil." Celestia's voice echoed from under the grass.

"Stop it." Luna tried to act serious even as she couldn't stop a giggle as Celestia slinked out of the grass making over exaggerated expressions while looking around for the supposed evil. "I was really busy." Her sister abandoned her ninja pony act and hopped up smiling.

"What were ya doin?" She could see where Luna had been looking and now saw there was several objects in the shadow of the rock ledge.

Luna turned and trotted over to where she had originally been standing and stomped her hooves, settling herself in place, and started to concentrate as hard as she could. Her face scrunched up in concentration as her horn began to glow and ever so slowly a large rock, carved into the image of a crescent moon, began to lift from the ground until it hovered in the air wobbling for a moment before she smiled widely and let it drop. "I did it!" She bounced around in a circle for a moment before turning to face her sister. "See, I raised the moon!"

"Yeah!" Celestia smiled as she danced around with her sister.

"Someday I'll run the big moon all by myself." The thump from behind the girls got their attention and they spun around.

"Will you now? Run the whole moon all by yourself? Are you sure such a little filly can do that all by herself?" The two fillies dashed forward with a happy cry. "Papa!"

As a direct opposite of the fillies mother this alicorn's coat was pitch black with points of light shimmering within. His mane and tail were a deeper black that flowed with shimmering stars and his wings seemed as parts of the night sky. "And what have my two precious little foals been up to?"

"I was ninja pony! Defeater of the evil moon monster. Just like your stories." Celestia crouched and began to slink around her father's legs while trying to look intimidating, she received a laugh from her father for her effort.

"I raised the moon papa!" Luna pointed to the rock she had levitated. "Someday real soon I'll have a cutie mark just like you and mama." She pointed to her father's cutie mark, the image of a spiral galaxy, and tried to look serious. "And I'll control the moon and all the stars in the night sky." She hopped closer to her father as he laid down in the grass.

"Nuh-uh!" Celestia abandoned her ninja pony act and scrambled onto her father's back. "The stars are suns. Mama says so. And when I get all grown up the sun is mine so all suns are mine." She smirked in victory as Luna glared at her.

"Stars! And stars are the night sky." The younger sister glared at Celestia until their father chuckled gaining their attention.

"You're both right actually." He smiled as the fillies groaned. "The stars of the night sky are suns. Each one a bright sphere of fire comprised of many elements that puts out the light you see both during the day and night."

Celestia wasn't sure exactly what her father had said but to her it sounded like she was one in the right. "The sun is the only reason the moon even has any light. It's way better than some dumb rock."

"Tia!" Her father's voice, sharp and angry, stopped the filly and she noticed her sister looked to be about to cry.

"It's n-not a d-dumb rock." Luna sniffled as she looked to her father. "I-is it?"

"Of course not Luna. The moon is very important to the world, and with the responsibility of moving it comes the care of the entire night sky." He swept a wing forward and pulled the young filly to him. "There are even times when the moon blocks out the sun, making it so the sky goes dark even in the middle of the day." He watched as Celestia slid off his back and rushed to her sisters side.

"I'm sorry Lulu." She hugged her sister and their father smiled.

"So this is where you all are." All three looked up to see the white alicorn approaching, her flaming mane rippling in a unfelt breeze. "You're three days late Alpha." Lying down next to him she smiled as Luna dashed over and snuggled under one of her wings as Celestia crawled under one of Alpha's.

"Sorry. I had to be sure." He looked worriedly to the sky. "There was nothing left, just a few scraps of the planet. Whatever it is happens to be on a direct course for Equus. Though it's quite a long way away." He smiled as he looked to his wife. "Didn't you like having the girls to yourself Omega?"

"For a time, but they can be hard to handle." She shot him a look "Especially Tia after your ninja tales." Both ponies looked to the sky with worried frowns while Celestia peeked out from under her father's wing.

The dream shook.

With a brilliant flash of light two figures appeared on a hill overlooking the large city below as faint crashes and booms sounded. Celestia was surprised her legs hadn't given out after the teleport as she stared down into the valley in horror at what was happening. Entire massive buildings were wrenched from the ground to float into the air as ponies and other races tumbled from them to fall screaming towards the ground far below. Some would spontaneously stop falling and begin to float, others would grow wings, some would simply plummet to a ground now altered in strange ways to the point of being soap in some places and acid pools in others. She could feel the fabric of reality torn and split asunder while the being that was the cause of it all floated above the chaotic destruction and laughed.

"Mama...papa?" The shocked, broken whisper from beside her pulled Celestia's view from the destruction to where her sister lay staring at the land below. "W-we have to go back." She struggled to her hooves and started to take a step towards the cliff edge spreading her wings only for Celestia to grab her. "Let me go! We have to help mama and papa!"

Celestia shuddered at the thought of reentering the city below. Their father had used his power to fling them from that place and whether she wanted to admit it or not deep down she knew that the last titanic boom she had heard afterwards had been the last stand of her parents. A part of her wanted to simply collapse and cry for a week but she had to take care of Luna who was barely holding it together. They needed to escape before the creature calling itself Discord found an interest in them. Even as she struggled to hold her sister back and concentrate on a teleport she heard a loud booming followed by Discord looking to the west as an object rocketed across the skies. To Celestia it looked like a large blue box that was spinning and whirling as it plummeted through the air. As a laughing Discord rushed away after it she felt joy that he would be giving the races in the city a bit of a respite, and sorrow for whomever was within that box as Discord was likely to concentrate on them for a time. Holding her crying sister she teleported them away.

The golden flash of their arrival in the underground cave was the only light the place had seen in quite some time and she stumbled with weariness before simply collapsing to the cave floor unable to stop the sobbing as she thought of her parents. The last thing she felt before blacking out was Luna collapsing next to her.

The dream shattered.

"Your Highness!" The shout echoed through the royal suite of the solar princess as the doors slammed open and three ponies, lead by the captain of the guard, rushed into the apartments. "Your highness!"

Celestia jerked awake at the shout and for a moment her muddled mind was confused as to where she was but it took only moments for her to settle her memories and stand. Lifting a foreleg she rubbed at her eyes, pushing away sleep and the few tears that had leaked out due to a dream she hadn't had in centuries. She had just strode from her bed when the guard ponies rushed into the room nearly falling over each other to get to her. To her surprise the two following the captain took up guard positions at her flank while the captain examined the room for a moment before turning to her.

"Your highness, we are glad to see you safe." Seeing her confused look he answered before she could even begin to question. "Princess Luna has taken two squads into the lower archives when word of treachery reached the court. We were ordered to rouse the guard and wake you."

"Treachery?" Celestia's horn glowed a gentle gold as she reached out to her sister...and found emptiness instead. "How long has she been down there?"

"No longer than it took for me to reach here." It was then that she noticed he didn't even have his armor on. It was likely that he had been roused from bed and had opted to follow his orders as quickly as possible. Celestia strode past the captain glancing to her regalia as she passed it and bringing the collar to her. The crown and boots were mostly just filled with minor enchantments that would be useless compared to the might contained within her collar. The gold slipped around her neck and snapped closed bringing with it a feeling of warmth and protection as the magical enchantments layered throughout it settled around her.

"To me." The guards closed in and with a flash of gold they all vanished before reappearing in the outer offices of the EIA to a scene of near chaos as the Lunar and Solar guards dashed to and fro shouting orders and trying to tend to wounded ponies. The sudden appearance of the princess and her guard didn't go unnoticed, and one extremely jumpy soldier nearly launched a crossbow bolt their direction before recognition set in. Not even acknowledging the shock of her appearance to the guards Celestia strode through a room now nearly silent as they looked with surprise on the solar princesses arrival.

"Captain." The request inherent in the word was obvious.

"What in tartarus do you think you're doing! Get back to work or I'll personally see you mucking out the dungeons for the next three years!" The captains bellow sent ponies scrambling back to their jobs even as he was diverted from following the princess by the fact he had to captain both the Solar and Lunar guard as Shadow Lance was currently down in the lower archives.

Celestia stopped near four Lunar pegasi as they stood guard over three tied up ponies. "Report."

"Captain Lance sent word that there was an attack on the agents within the lower archives and that they were in need of immediate assistance. The princess grabbed two squads and headed down, we were trying to catch up to help when our way to the archives was blocked by a magical barrier keeping us from following the princess and the others in." The pegasi glared angrily at the captured ponies. "When we decided to retreat and inform others we were ambushed by seven enemies. We lost Sure Shot and Striker on the way out of the hallway but we caught these traitors."

Celestia looked at the injured and contained ponies frowning as she saw each appeared to be workers in the archive. "Guard them well, and send word to the Nova and Shadow guards that their interrogators are required." Turning she strode deeper in the agencies central offices and into the upper archives heading towards the hallway that would lead down to the lower archives. The archives held an impressive amount of information, not all of it from the EIA, that had been collected over several thousand years. It contained everything from birth and death records, to rarer basic information on the elements of harmony. The lower archives on the other hoof had sensitive information that dealt with everything from lost treasures of immense power to information on the retuning of the elements of harmony and ways to access power from places like Tartarus. As well as also containing several rooms of all copied files from the upper archives. It was a redundancy measure that Celestia had always believed was going too far until they had actually needed it now.

She could smell blood before she even reached the hallway entrance and rounded a set of shelves to see the entrance of the downward sloping hallway that lead to the lower archives. The bodies of six lunar pegasi lay collapsed by the hallway entrance and four other pegasi were tending the wounds of several injured. Another ten were clustered near an injured unicorn who was snapping orders to the few who looked to still be in fighting form. Celestia could see that several of the ponies armor bore deep gashes in the dark metal. Talk stopped as she approached and the guards saluted.

"Princess!" The unicorn struggled to stand only to have his back legs give out and drop him to the floor again.

"Easy Sergeant, do not injure yourself worse than you are." She looked worriedly at the injured and dead. "Report."

"We attempted to breach the shield that is blocking us access to the lower archives. Once we had Day and Night to give us some aid on the shield we were starting to make headway when something came out." He shook his head grimacing "Lost four just trying to push it back. I think it's a pony but I've never fought a pony with that kind of power before. Followed us as we retreated up the hallway but headed back after we both retreated out of the hallway and attempted to disengage."

"The shield?"

"If I didn't know any better I'd have sworn it was one of your creations your Highness." Confusion was obvious in his voice. "It bears your magic signature but also about a dozen others burrowed through it." He looked to the dead that were just now being moved away from where they had fallen. "I have no idea how they could do it unless they had their hooves on an old shield crystal."

"Princess." Captain Spear galloped up bringing with him a small squad comprised of solar and lunar guardsponies. "The Nova and Shadow guards are securing the train station and aiding in securing the castle. They report that Princess Luna's apartments appear to have been broken into." He shifted nervously "They report finding seven different magical traps set in the bedroom alone." Captain Bright Spear had to admit he'd been happier when Shining Armor was captain of the royal guard and he didn't have to worry if things were correct. But with Shining Armor now a prince consort and general of the Crystal Empires forces he had ended up promoted into the spot, and now he found himself facing eyes filled with a deadly calm that he had never seen in his life.

Before Celestia could head for the hallway leading into the lower archives a pulse of power washed outwards in a blue wave that dissipated harmlessly after leaving the end of the hallway. In an instant Celestia could feel her sisters presence again, and the immense irritation Luna was feeling right at that moment. "Captain, Luna has dealt with the situation below. And with the enemy in the hallway. Send guards back for medics and make sure the area is cleared of any traps left behind." {Lulu, what happened?}

{The agents and captain Lance were attacked. When I and my guards attempted to aid we were attacked as well. I do not know who these ponies are Tia but four times they attempted to bypass my guard to strike directly at me.} Celestia could hear both confusion and a hint of sadness buried beneath it. She knew Luna still worried about how the ponies of Equestria viewed her since her return and the lunar princess was wondering if this was some form of attack based on those feelings.

{We don't know who they are yet but they tore up your bedroom and put some traps in it as well.} Celestia could sense Luna's growing anger, she had spent nearly a year getting the rooms how she liked them and it was likely that now they would have to be stripped clean to clear them of danger.

{They set fire to the lower archives but we were able to put it out. One of them used a murkstone to summon a shade but it has been dealt with.} A shade would have explained the dangerous pony that the guards had faced in the tunnel. {They also had a shield crystal, I know not where they acquired such an item.} Even as the last mental exchange was finished Luna and her guards strode from the hallway to the obvious relief of the Lunar guards nearby. The guards with Luna had brought their injured with them as well as a trussed up, and currently unconscious unicorn that looked to be only slightly injured. Several nearby unicorns shivered at the sight of the black ring that now adorned the base of the prisoners horn. Being cut off from ones magic was a horrible experience that unicorn guards knew of only because they were required to spend one month of basic wearing a magic inhibiter to see how they could function in the field without their magic. It was a process that weeded out nearly half of all unicorns who tried to enter the guard.

Celestia couldn't help but give a double take at the sight of the massive war hammer that was floating next to Luna as she came to a stop near her sister. She hadn't seen that hammer in almost two thousand years and the head still bore a few faded crude paintings and drawings on it from Luna's younger days. "Really Luna?"

"Don't mock Mr. Smashy." Luna looked with fondness on the giant war hammer before banishing it back to wherever she stored it. Celestia still hadn't figured out where Luna kept her things.

A minor pulse of magic from Luna and the unicorn on the floor woke with a start, only to see himself surrounded by guards and princesses. Luna smiled coldly as she stalked forward to glare down at the injured pony. "Thou will tell us of thy reason for assaulting our person." The unicorn simply looked to the floor refusing to answer.

"I suggest you answer the princess." Captain Spear glared at the prisoner "The princesses will go much easier on you than the Nova guard interrogators will." Not a complete truth. The interrogators had a reputation as cold hearted brutal information gatherers who never failed to get information from their subjects at any cost. The truth was that they were just general soldiers who employed a few mental spells to ferret out information from the minds of their prisoners. The spell work was heavily monitored by medics and the spells were tailored only to seek out the info they were looking for. He'd actually seen one interrogator look utterly mortified when her spell had grabbed information not pertinent to her investigation. Such a failure in the spell work was usually followed by a minor reprimand unless said mistakes kept happening. Three mistakes within a certain timeframe and the interrogator would have to retrain. More mistakes after that and said interrogator would be demoted to normal guard duty. But the interrogators enjoyed the reputation as it meant that prisoners entered their care with the belief that they would have to put great effort into guarding their secrets, which made it all the easier for the spell to find them quickly.

"I do not answer to the tyrant moon." The shocked and angry cries from many of the Lunar guard only seemed to make the pony happy.

"Insult the princess again and I'll personally see to breaking your horn from your head." Captain Spear glared darkly at the injured unicorn making sure his message got across. "Now you will explain what this is about. Why you attacked the agents sent to work in the archives. And why your forces have made an attempt on the princess's life."

"All you need to know is that our purpose cannot be stopped, the seer Far Sight saw our future and we will bring it to fruition." He clammed up afterwards and refused to speak again.

"Give him to the interrogators." Celestia looked towards the lower archives before shaking her head "Once the medics are finished I want the commanders of the guard to attend Luna and I in the strategy room. Send orders to Lock and Key to be there as well."

5 HOURS LATER.

Papers were scattered across the table detailing everything from captured archivists to complaints from the train station crew on the actions of the elite guard in closing the station. Captain Lance and Spear were sitting on one side of the massive table while the elite Shadow and Nova guard captains were on the other. Lock and Key were both there, with bandages wrapped tightly around the base of Lock's left wing and Key's right wing. It had taken quite a while to get every pony brought in, especially those who were injured as they had been given orders by the medics to rest, but in the end even the medics couldn't overrule orders from the princesses.

"The interrogators will likely be done soon." Bright Spear looked to Lock and Key "Until they are can you tell us what you found?"

"Yes." Lock looked to Celestia "There is no information on who the captured archivists actually are, but we have found information in the areas they attempted to burn. Though there is much more there to look through than we've seen so far."

"It is likely that they wouldn't have even shown themselves if we hadn't moved into the area that held information they desired no pony to know about. And again this seems to be in some way linked to the unicorn Trixie." Key brought several pages into existence with her earring and pushed one towards Celestia who looked it over with a frown.

"We do not understand how a simple unicorn could arise such interest." Luna looked at the pages as well and frowned. "In what way does this mare connect with our Lunar ponies?"

"There was little information on Trixie herself, we originally thought that this was due to her being born in griffon territory. while we know from other information that Sifter certainly didn't have a foal while in the Griffon kingdom and she didn't have one when she and her husband left High Peak they had a young filly with them when they arrived in Equestria. We later found that there is little information because they do not use the name Trixie." Lock shuffled some other papers before finding the one she wanted. "Her original name, according to the files kept by this faction, is Lulamoon." The name got the reaction she expected, everything from an 'impossible!' from the Nova guard captain to a shocked gasp from Celestia.

"You must be mistaken." Before Celestia could continue Key interrupted.

"No your highness. According to the files she is the daughter of an earth pony mare named Pepper and a pegasus stallion named Bright Bolt." She had expected at least some recognition but not the shocked look Celestia held.

"That's not possible, they died. The bodies were found."

"Were they your highness?" The captain of the Nova guard, the eldest of the guards in the room looked around the table before turning to the princess. "I know this is a hard subject to speak of even after such a long time but we never found the filly, or all the bodies of the guards. It is possible that she might have survived."

"We desire to know of what you are speaking of." Luna looked expectantly at Celestia who let out a low sigh.

"It was nearly thirty five years ago, a super storm came in from the ocean sweeping across the Wandering Island and picking up a large amount of magical energy from there. It took six weather teams to break it up with the oversight of several of the Wonderbolts. When at last the storm came apart a pony fell from the central funnel, he was saved only because of the sharp eyes of one of the Wonderbolts there, I believe his name was Lightning Blitz. The pony that came from the storm was a Lunar pegasus, the weather teams had never seen such a pony before and the Wonderbolts only knew of them because they still teach their teams about their battles against the Shadowbolts." She stayed silent for a moment organizing her thoughts on what had happened back then.

"He was badly injured as well as malnourished and dehydrated, and so was brought to Canterlot to be looked after until he could get back on his hooves. Unfortunately, when he did wake up he had little memory of what had happened, in fact he couldn't even remember his own name or where he was from. We could have contacted the Lunar ponies but he seemed adamant on not doing so even if he couldn't remember why he didn't want them to know where he was. I decided to allow him to stay as he desired and so wove an illusion around him to make him appear as a normal pegasus to allow his easier integration into the population once he was well. During his time in the castle he was looked after by one of the royal cooks, a mare named Pepper. Needles to say they two fell in love fairly quickly." She smiled at the memory of the twos original attempts to hide their attraction and outings and the bets that had changed hooves all over the court on how quickly they would realize everypony already knew. "Eventually they got married and eight years after he fell from the storm they had a little unicorn foal they named Lulamoon in honor of the legendary spellcaster. In fact the legendary spellcaster herself was actually in the palace when the younger Lulamoon was born." Celestia left out the part about the ghosts and stone creatures that had been in the lower caverns of the mountain which was the real reason Lulamoon had been there, she was one of only a small group who knew of it anyway.

"Nearly a year later we were asked to aid against the griffon revolutionaries who were attempting to dethrone the High King, so we dispatched the Wonderbolts as well as three squads of the royal air corps to back them up. The battle was extremely hard and the allied forces lost many a good fighter." She bowed her head in sadness "But our greatest loss was Bright Bolt, he had been leader of one of the Wonderbolts teams and had fallen near the end of the battle. The news was hard on Pepper who was left with only their little filly to look after and remind herself of her husband. I did what I could to aid her for several years but in the end she decided that she wished to travel to her husband's home, she wanted to see the Lunar ponies mountains."

"At first I tried to talk her out of such a trip as it took her through griffon territory, the rebels were still active in some areas and the trip was long and very hard for even prepared expeditions and with little Lulamoon being so young it would extra hard on her. But she could not be swayed and so an ambassador was sent to the Crescent Mountains seeking an audience with the ponies there. All were surprised when they agreed. Before that they had at worst never showed themselves to an ambassador, or at best just told the ambassador to leave and never bother them again. But this time they seemed almost excited by the prospect of Lulamoon's arrival."

"It is no surprise." The words were spoken by the captain of the shadow guard as he contemplated a hybrid Lunar and Solar pony. Celestia could see nods from both the Lunar guard captain and Luna herself but only got a minute shake of the head from Luna when she looked askance at her. Resolving to speak to Luna about it later she turned back to the table and tried to push her emotions to the back of her mind. "I ordered the dispatching of thirty of the royal guard to protect her on her trip and sent word ahead to the Crescent Mountains about the expedition...they never made it." Pepper had been a good friend of hers and she had found little Lulamoon to be absolutely adorable. Cadence had had great fun playing with a filly her own age at the time and they got along wonderfully. They loss of Pepper had hit her very hard, but the loss of little Lulamoon had hurt Cadence far more than it had anyone else. "They were attacked in griffon territory by the remnants of the revolutionaries, the entire group was wiped out. The griffon scout forces were the ones to find them, many of the bodies had been...devoured by scavangers to the point that some were nothing but bones. We never found five of the guards or Lulamoon, but considering how small she was and how many predators there were out in the snows there was no hope she survived." She frowned in thought "Spells were cast to see if any survived but every attempt returned nothing."

"They shielded her, made certain that if spells were tried it would come back with nothing making all think she had died." Lock nodded to herself, adding parts together for her full report. "She survived somehow and was found by Sifter and Pie Plate as their caravan traveled for Whitewing to set sail for Equestria. Files pertaining to that time suggest that the griffon revolutionaries were actually hired muscle meant to bring down the royal guards and capture Lulamoon. This seems to have failed and one report mentions that the griffons were eliminated from service after botching the operation by failing to kill all the guards. Though by the fact that spells were used in an attempt to find anypony still living it would appear the last of the guards likely fell to wounds suffered before they could be found."

"That gives us a history lesson but it doesn't tell us why this particular group is after her, or how they infiltrated the archives so deeply." Captain Spark of the Nova guard rested his hooves on the table and glaring at the pictures of the burned archives. "To be embedded this deeply into the intel agency they would need to have been active for decades if not centuries."

"Centuries most likely. All of the lower archivists appear to be part of this group and at least some of the upper archivists, agents, and at least two guards we've caught so far." Key brought out several more papers "Whoever they happen to be they are very good at hiding their name and numbers. While there are multiple files dealing with plans and activities there is no names within the files to draw from, no overall name of the organization and if what we have learned is correct then they are very good at covering their tracks. Their actions against Trixie seem to have no purpose that we can see though. Or they have not put those reasons into the files they left in the archives." This time she passed out several more papers that detailed exactly what plans the unknown group had perpetrated against the showmare.

"I see." Celestia looked at the paper trying to contain the shock of seeing the actions that had been done to the innocent mare. "I had wondered why she sought out the amulet, why she believed it was her only chance." It was one thing to think of the fact, quite another to see a report filled with facts on the complete destruction of a ponies life. To know they had worked so hard to take everything from her to the point she had felt no other option than to take drastic measures. She felt the power that rippled outward from her sister and turned in time to see the paper in front of Luna combust into ash.

Before Luna could express more anger the door to the room swung open and a regal white unicorn strode in looking around at the occupants haughtily. "Auntie I need to speak with you."

"All here are trusted Blueblood, you need not retain the act." Celestia smiled at her nephew as he let out a sigh and the foppish overly vain act vanished in a second replaced by the more serious prince she only got to speak to in private.

"Thank you, you can't imagine how irritating it is to have to keep that act up." The unicorn strode to the table and quickly conjured up several papers. "The interrogators got to narrow their field of prisoners quicker than they would have liked. Three of our prisoners killed themselves with embedded magic before they could be stopped. The last few that were taken appear to be the type who are to cowardly to take their own lives. We have received some vital intel but will need to do more work to learn everything they know of what is happening. What we do know is they refer to themselves as the Order of the Crimson Horn and seek to bring about a future that was seen by the ancient seer Far Sight." he brought out a large scroll and unrolled it upon the table, it was an image of Canterlot burning. Dead guards littered the area and black crystalline creatures that vaguely appeared to be ponylike perched on destroyed buildings, carts and even some fallen guards. But it was the unicorn in the center of the image that dominated the picture, a azure blue mare with glowing green eyes and a curved horn of crimson. She wore a black cape secured by the Alicorn Amulet and seemed to stare from the image with cruel mirth, one forehoof placed upon the dead body of what was easily seen to be the captain of the Nova guard. The cape was up far enough to allow the ponies to see the unicorns cutie mark, a star topped wand trailing pixie dust. "They seem to believe this mare will bring down the kingdom and usher in a thousand years of darkness. This picture was drawn by one of the interrogators after she saw it in the mind of one of the prisoners. None of those still alive seem to know how this is to happen, only that their leaders said that it was seen by the great seer and thus it would happen."

"Thank you Blueblood." Celestia stared at the image feeling only a deep sadness welling up within. 'Oh lulamoon, what have they done to you.' Was this another of her failures? Should she have sent more guards? Ordered Pepper to stay in the castle? In the end she knew that this group likely would have reached Pepper and her foal no matter what had been done. 'I've grown complacent, to trusting down the years.' She blinked in surprise as she realized everypony was looking to her. "I'm sorry, what is it?"

"It regards my other work." Blueblood shifted uncomfortably. "It appears that you were right, and General Cutter has vanished, left rather quickly to when he found his office had been raided." He conjured up a group of binders and hesitantly passed them to his aunt, the others in the room noticed that he immediately edged back away from her as she looked at the first files. The top one reading Elements of Harmony: Contingency Plans.

"HE WANTS TO DO WHAT!" Dust rained down from the ceiling as the ponies in the room, thankfully with ears shielded by a quickly cast spell from Blueblood, cowered as the section of the castle they were in shook leaving many desperately hoping the structural stability of the palace held. The words after that devolved into curses and statements of what Celestia would do to the general and any of his compatriots. Blueblood had to admit that he had never known his aunt knew that much about anatomy and exactly what you could do to a pony and still leave them alive. It was his aunt Luna that was far more scary though, there was no tantrum, no rage and insult filled rant, no explosion of power. There was simply dark deathly calm as she perused the files, examining everything the general had planned as his 'contingencies' in case the element bearers were deemed compromised. Of course said deeming would be made by him and his compatriots as would any and all responses to rectify what he thought the problem was. He watched as Luna calmly tapped the files into a neat pile and set them on the table before giving a simple nod to the Shadow guard captain who slipped from the room while Celestia was still ranting about what body part was going to go where. Blueblood had no doubt about the orders that would already be being give, and he almost felt sorry for the members of the royal army that were about to find Lunar guards kicking down their doors.

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Minor Notes. (Author note will have info on chapter, this is about characters.)

Next on the list, Lightning Dust. An interesting character when you take into account that she actually was doing everything Spitfire wanted in the academy. She pushed herself more than any other pony to be the fastest and most skilled and Spitfire acknowledged that. Yes Lightning Dust is at fault for her actions with the tornado and the way she acted afterwards. But instead of giving her a second chance Spitfire simply boots her after getting a talking to by Rainbow Dash. Spitfire herself is a horrible leader as she seems to spend little time observing the academy students and most of her time signing autographs. She also encourages Lightning Dusts actions instead of explaining to her immediately after the first time Rainbow Dash clips her wing that the lives and health of her teammates would be reliant on her during team actions. If she had right away told Lightning Dust that recklessness was wrong and that being in the Wonderbolts meant teamwork the entire situation would likely have been different. Either way Lightning Dust in this story is going to have a somewhat tragic past. As a young filly she was a lot like scootaloo in flying ability though probably weaker than even she is, except with a future of flying like Fluttershy. She didn't accept that and worked actively to change it, ending up beating all expectations and becoming one of the fastest fliers in Equestria. I will say outright that I got the idea to include her after reading a comic on deviantart that showed her in a sad light after her being kicked out.

Second, Blueblood. I can already hear people going "You made Blueblood intelligent!" Yes I did. Think of him like a spymaster, his job is essentially to wander around the elite and high society ponies and act like a vain, arrogant airhead who couldn't figure his way out of a room with one door if his life depended on it. You'd be surprised how much people will yap about when they think you're too stupid to understand their little coded phrases. It puts a major spin on how he acted to Rarity and Applejack, especially when in this story Celestia literally had to directly order him to act that way towards them because he attempted to refuse to do so. After all, do you think he would act like that to two parts of the kingdoms most powerful weapon? Especially when they are the reason his aunt Luna is now free of evil and hatred. He absolutely despises the fact he had to treat Rarity and Applejack the way he did but he did both as ordered and as his job required. In this story he's actually one of kingdoms best tacticians and an extremely proficient fighter and spellcaster. I'm not sure how often he'll show up but I figured since nearly everyone makes him and idiot I'd pull out a twist on his actions.

Author's Note:

This chapter might seem like it's not up to snuff, sorry bout that and it's entirely the freakin power companies fault (okay I should have saved more). I had this chapter about three quarters done when all of a sudden the power cuts out and I go from thousands of words to about three hundred, all because my stupid freaking battery backup's battery is dead! And I just replaced the stupid thing to. I've seen writers scrap entire fanfics over that sort of loss and honestly i was pissed as heck. This chapter should have been done a week ago if it hadn't been for that and i had some severe trouble rewriting it. It was a painful slog the entire way and i still dont think it's nearly as good as it should be and I think it's missing a few parts it probably should have but honestly I really can't do anymore to it without driving myself nuts. Now that my screwup is out of the way though I should be able to get the next chapter done quicker.

Comments

[Firebirdbtops]

Good world-building, and can I just say that Stitch seems familiar to me? Meanwhile, I have to say that an Amiguriken with hooves would really hurt.

[Ranakastrasz]

Ninja Celestia is best Celestia
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[mlpengineer]

Please white more.