The Stars, the Seal, and the Kraken

by CLAVDIVS CAESAR

Chapter 4: Shatter'd and Sunder'd

Celestia looked out over the ramparts of Canterlot Castle towards the conjured thunderhead hovering over the kraken's daytime shelter. Had anypony been around to see her, they would have thought her confident, determined, even serene. An unassailable rock of resolve behind which all of Equestria could find shelter.

Luna knew her too well to be fooled.

She approached her older sister slowly, cautiously, but let each step ring clearly against the stone so as not to accidentally surprise her. Celestia's only reaction was a subtle shift in stance, which Luna recognized as her changing gears from regent and defender to big sister. She stepped to her side, and waited for her elder to speak first.

After a quiet minute, she finally did. "I received another letter from Twilight. They're on their way, trying to make it here by dusk."

"Did you even try to dissuade her?"

"A good commander must recognize hopeless battles and allocate resources elsewhere."

Luna shot her an incredulous glare. "And what can the Elements of Harmony do against a foe their bearers cannot lay eyes upon? Do they know what trauma even of glimpse of this beast will inflict?"

"They do. Rainbow Dash, apparently, got quite an eyeful."

"Stars above! The poor girl..."

"She's fine, Luna. She was badly affected, but a good night's sleep and a spell to prevent nightmares was all she needed. Twilight even thinks she can protect them with a modified dragonfear ward."

Luna blinked for a few moments, thinking. "That... might actually work." She closed her eyes briefly, examining the more brute-force defense, a powerful and indiscriminate psychic shield, both sisters kept ready. Twilight's approach seemed far more elegant and efficient; she began to modify her shield in the same manner, but kept the general protection running on a trickle of power that could, if needed, be boosted with a moment's thought. The energy and concentration freed by the change was a welcome relief. Opening her eyes to look at her sister with her magical senses still active, she saw that's she'd already done the same.

Celestia smiled at her. "They're more capable than you realize, sister."

Luna's eyes drifted downward as she remembered how she first met the bearers of the Elements. "I suppose I should know most of all."

Celestia noticed her sister beginning to turn maudlin, and changed the subject. "How's the research going?"

"It... continues apace."

"Meaning you've found nothing else."

"At all." She sighed. "I wish I could discern the truth behind the claims that it would rise when 'the stars are right', but no alignments or bodies are ever mentioned with any specificity. I fear that the kraken's myths have merely been contaminated with my own."

"Nothing is without a weakness, Luna. We will learn the kraken's."

"And what of your plan? Do you still intend to endanger Canterlot for the sake of your conscience?"

Celestia's gaze turned hard. "To not defend ourselves would be foolish, but to start an unnecessary war would be more so. It is no mere animal, sister; it thinks, it plans, it works its own brand of magic. It did not merely fly directly towards Fillydelphia and on to Ponyville, it scouted around them first. It showed caution, cunning. It had to have noticed the seals protecting them from some distance, and yet approached anyway to test their effectiveness empirically." Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes briefly; they were softer again when they opened. "If it reasons, it can be reasoned with. I will not strike the first blow."

"I just fear what damage even one blow from that fiend can do."

"With me in its way? None."

"None to Canterlot, perhaps."

Celestia stretched out a wing to wrap around her sister. "Don't worry about me. In a way... I've been itching for something like this."

"What? Why?"

"It's been over a century since I last personally faced a foe that was a legitimate threat. It's a chance to flex muscles I never use, muscles I've trained myself not to use, much as I trained Twilight. It's perverse, I know, but a thrilling prospect nonetheless. For once, I won't have to hold back, not even a little."

"And if those disused muscles are not enough?"

"Then the Elements will smack it in the snout like a naughty puppy. I just hope they don't send it to the moon, imagine what it would do to the place!"

For the first time since learning of the threat, the sisters shared a genuine laugh.

---

"So Twi, I've been wondering something." Rainbow Dash leaned back against an oak tree and took a bite from an apple, swallowing before she continued. "Why is a flying creature that resembles a dragon more than anything else named after a mythical sea monster?"

Twilight, laying on her stomach atop the picnic blanket they'd laid out for an early supper, looked up from her book. "Well, Clopcraft's stories described it as being imprisoned under the sea. Supposedly it had a lair on a rocky island in the ocean, but when the stars were no longer 'right', whatever that means, the island sunk and it was trapped inside. A character in one story speculated that, whatever was wrong about the stars, it needed to take shelter from it in the sea, even suggesting that the star-spawn, as he called it, was the inspiration for legends of the kraken."

"So, what, now the stars are right again, and it's not stuck underwater anymore?"

"That's what it sounds like."

Rainbow thought for a bit more as she finished the apple. "What the hay kinda name is 'star-spawn', anyway? Sounds like an unflattering nickname for some celebrity's bratty little foal, if you ask me." Pinkie and Applejack laughed at that, and even Rarity hid a demure chuckle behind a hoof. Fluttershy seemed to think it wasn't nice to make fun of children, even hypothetical ones, but didn't say anything.

"Its race is said to travel freely from star to star and whatever other worlds are out there. They don't even need ships, they just do it by force of will."

"Kinda like in the gal in A Prince of Ares?"

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash blankly. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Wow. I never thought I'd say this, but... Twilight, you need to read more."

Rainbow continued to regale Twilight with the adventures of Jane Teamster on the Red Planet, even as they packed up and continued down the road. They all noticed the sun getting low in the sky and the Eastern horizon beginning to turn red, and increased their pace without comment.

---

The city gates were in their sight as the sun finally set, the stars beginning to appear in the sky. Without warning or preamble, all six ponies felt the kraken's evil chill in the air as it emerged from its shelter and took flight under the thick storm clouds.

"Alright girls," Twilight said, "gather around." She lifted a notepad from her saddlebags, reviewing the formula for her modified dragonfear ward as her horn began to glow. After several seconds, the light flared and vanished, and the six of them felt the spell settle into them like a warm blanket around their minds. Immediately, the chill vanished.

Rainbow Dash spread her wings, trying to feel for it. "Huh. Well that's a good sign." She turned her eyes towards the wall between them and the city. "Home stretch, girls. Let's pick up the pace."

They sped up to a full gallop, attention focused on their goal. After several minutes, Twilight suddenly felt a threatening presence off to her right, but kept her eyes locked forward.

Fluttershy hadn't. "Oh... oh my goodness." The only time Twilight had heard her voice quiver like that was when she thought the princess' pet bird had died.

Twilight and the others reflexively looked, and saw in the distance that the kraken had emerged from the clouds, it's misshapen body hanging from impossibly large wings carrying it towards their own destination. Hopelessness fell upon her like a crushing weight, but she tore her eyes away and it passed. "Don't look! Just keep your eyes forward!"

"Twi, Ah don't..." Applejack struggled to string her words together. "Ah'm not sure that spell a yours is doin' a whole lot."

"It is," Rainbow assured her. "Even with a better view, this isn't even a tenth as bad as it was last night."

"Yer kiddin'." Applejack stared at the pegasus in horror, but Rainbow kept her gaze locked on the the city ahead.

As they crossed the last low hill in the road, they sprinted down the slope and across the plain. A tremendous impact shook the ground, and Twilight risked a furtive glance East. Fighting through the false despair that made it through her spell, she saw the kraken, as large as an Ursa Major, clinging to the mountain above Canterlot Castle with its enormous claws. Two points of light, one bright gold and the other soft blue, rose slowly in the air in front of it. The dozens of tentacles that dominated its face writhed and flexed, producing a series of foul noises that Twilight supposed was its own language.

"Twilight! Over here!"

Forcing her gaze forward, she saw a grey earth pony in golden armor. He stood near a sally port leading into a stone guard tower beside the main gate of the city, shielding his own eyes from the sight of the monster atop the mountain. Twilight veered slightly to the right, her friends following her lead. Lungs, legs and wings burning from the strain, they tore across the plain and through the door, breathing deeply in relief as it slammed shut behind them.

"Steely! Thank you..." Twilight struggled for breath after the hard sprint. "... for getting the... door for us."

"HRH told us to expect you." Many of the guards that Twilight had known were comfortable shifting into military slang and jargon around her, such as "HRH" for "Her Royal Highness", as she'd picked most of it up while living in the palace.

"Girls, I'd like to introduce you to Sergeant Danforth Steel-Eye. Spike and I know him from when we lived in Canterlot."

The guard gave them a casual salute. "Everypony calls me Steely Dan. Or just Steely. Pleasure to meet y'all." He turned back to Twilight, his tone more serious. "I'm to escort all of you to the armory. Celestia's already taken the Elements from the vault and stored them there for you to retrieve, but she gave clear instructions that--"

He was interrupted by a crack of thunder that stung their ears even through the stone walls.

"--that you're not to use them until the kraken demonstrates clear and unambiguous hostile intent in case peaceful negotiations are possible, but it sounds like that ship just sailed. Heads up, hooves forward!" He led them out of the tower, down the alley behind the city wall, and past security checkpoints that waved them through with barely a glance, until they entered a larger tower at the edge of the palace. Steely approached a window not unlike that of a bank teller with a metal grate in place of the glass, and had barely started his formal requisition from the unicorn behind it when she lifted an ornate wooden box to the opening on the counter and slid it through.

As Steely took a pen in his mouth and signed a form on a clipboard, Twilight took hold of the box with her own magic and opened it in the center of the group. "Okay. necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, necklace, aaand big crown thingy!" Her friends shared a chuckle at the memory.

The Elements of Harmony at last in the possession of their bearers, Steely led them through the tower and finally to another sally port. The sounds of magical battle rang out overhead.

"You know, Twilight," Steely began, a tone of regret in his voice, "you shouldn't have to do this. We've been talking about it all day, the other guards, I mean. The six of you, you're not soldiers. You didn't sign up for this. You've done plenty of good with the Elements, but we all agree, it's not fair that you have to, just because they chose you for the job."

Twilight looked around at her friends, and saw the same look in all their eyes: He doesn't get it. "You're wrong, Steely. We did sign up for this. The Elements chose us for the job because they knew we were willing to do it."

Sergeant Danforth Steel-Eye stared at them for a moment, his silver eyes wide, before saluting again. Not the casual salute of a career soldier greeting a friend, but the crisp, professional salute one gives to a superior officer. As Twilight returned it, he said to them, "May the stars guide you home."

Pinkie Pie smiled softly at the sergeant. "And may the earth carry you there."

Steely's demeanor softened, touched that the old-fashioned Manenite farewell was not only recognized, but returned. Turning to hide his misty eyes from the girls -- "Crying on duty is against regulations," he'd occasionally joked -- he opened the door for them, and watched as the six bravest ponies he'd ever met charged through it to join the princesses in their fight.

---

As they ran out onto the grass, the sight that greeted them was no less than a battle of titans.

The kraken dominated the scene, of course. It had clambered down the mountain and now fought the princesses in the foothills. Unlike an adult dragon, it stood and walked on its hind legs despite its immense bulk. Indeed, now that they had a good view of it, they could see that its form could only be called "draconic" because no other word fit any better. It bore only the most passing resemblance to one, with legs, arms, claws, wings and a head, but no finer details matched. Even its limbs moved strangely, as if it was not jointed like any known animal. Its wings seems much smaller folded against its back, and its body seemed even more bloated and flabby than before. Parts of it, like the tentacles of its face or the digits of its claws, seemed almost translucent when seen clearly, as if its skin were clear and its flesh composed of murky water.

The only thing familiar about the sight was the crushing despair that came with it. This time, they could not turn away; they had to be able to look at it in order to strike it with the Elements. Twilight found herself imagining a life without her friends, a life spent in dreary solitude without even magic or an academic career to motivate her. Her horn felt numb, like when she was a foal and had not yet developed her awareness of magic.

With the help of her mental shield and the support of her dearest friends, she drove the thought away. "Remember, girls, it's a trick. It's not real."

The others groaned with the effort of resisting the psychic assault, but with a few moments' reassurance, they pulled through. "Hell's bells," Applejack swore, "Ah really went weak in th' knees fer a minute there."

"I know what you mean," said Rainbow. "For a moment my wings felt like they just couldn't hold my weight anymore." The others shared looks and nods indicating that they'd all felt something similar.

As they began to shake off the effects, they took in more of the scene. Far above, Luna shepherded a storm cloud of her own, keeping it out of the reach of the kraken while Celestia called called down bolts of lightning from it. These seemed to hurt the monster, searing and tearing its flesh, but whatever wounds it suffered were healed with unnatural haste. The kraken seemed to grow frustrated with the assault, and with surprising speed unfurled a wing and swatted the cloud from the sky, dispersing it and forcing Luna to fall back.

As a massive claw swung down towards Celestia, she disappeared in a flash of light, teleporting to her sister's side. The kraken's momentum carried it forward even after it noticed her escape, and the ground shook with the impact. As it struggled to rise, the sisters combined their magic, and a lance of golden light sprung from the fading red light in the West, reflected off the bright half of the moon, and pierced the kraken through its back. The beam, its energy mostly spent, blasted out from its abdomen and seared the ground before vanishing.

The six mares took a moment to cheer the sisters on as the kraken staggered forward, struggling to contain the gelatinous tissue spilling freely from the wound. It was gravely hurt, but not slain, and the gaping hole already began to close.

"They've got it on the ropes!" Twilight shouted. "Let's finish the job!"

The gems of the Elements pulsed with light, and their bearers felt the kraken's aura of despair vanish as the power of Harmony enveloped and shielded them. A band of colored light snaked out from each one, braiding together into a bright and beautiful rainbow. With a surge of power, the light of the combined Elements launched into the darkening sky.

Twilight struggled to see as her eyes shone like searchlights, but with her magical senses as much as her physical ones, she noticed Princess Celestia, her mentor and friend, streaking through the air towards them. She was shouting something, but over the roaring blood in her ears and the sickening noises made by the struggling kraken, Twilight couldn't make it out. She thought at first that the princess was cheering them on as they had for her and Luna, but something didn't seem right. She thought she could hear her own name, but there was something else.

As she came closer, Twilight could see the fear in her eyes. The rainbow began to descend towards the kraken, and Celestia's Royal Canterlot Voice rang out through the hills.

"TWILIGHT! RUN!"

Before she could react, the rainbow of Harmony seemed to crash into an invisible wall surrounding the kraken. It strained to pierce it, skittering across in search of a weakness, but found none. The individual colors began to separate, peeling apart and twisting away from one another, and the rainbow frayed along its length, up from the kraken, across the apex, and back down to the Elements themselves. Like flipping a switch, the light from each gem was suddenly gone.

Its wound almost fully healed, the kraken stood again and, with one enormous claw, swatted the distracted princess from the sky.

Celestia tumbled through the air like a rag doll. The six friends watched, expecting her to open her wings at any moment and control her descent, but she never did. Luna shot towards her like a rocket, and with a sparkling blue aura took hold of her sister and slowed her fall.

Steadying its footing, the kraken strode towards the group that has just attacked it. Its gait was slow and lumbering, yet each earthshaking step covered a great distance. With the Elements shut down, its aura bore down on their minds again, freezing them in place like frightened rabbits below a hawk. Twilight tried to call up their power again, just to bolster their mental defense, but their response was sluggish.

The horrible words of its language assaulted their ears, like the incoherent babbling of a drowning madpony, and the kraken abruptly froze in its tracks. Twilight looked up and saw Luna hovering a short distance above and in front of them, staring the beast down. The words rang out again, echoing like thunder, and she realized it was the moon princess speaking, challenging the kraken in its own tongue.

As the six mares again found the use of their legs, Luna turned her head towards them. Without words, she pointed a hoof back towards the door they'd emerged from, the length of a football field away, her eyes desperate. A trickle of blood flowed from the corner of her mouth, and Twilight thought she saw a spray of dark drops as she turned and spoke to the kraken once more.

As the beast bellowed with rage, its tentacles flailing like a nest of serpents, the bearers of the Elements turned and ran. Steely opened the door for them again, shutting and barring it behind them. The tower shook with a great impact, dust falling from the ceiling, and a siren blared through the stone structure, signalling the guards to evacuate. Steely urged them along, guiding them towards the exit into the city.

They and the other guards poured out onto the street, hopping over fallen blocks of stone. Another nearly came down on top of Steely, but Twilight caught it with her magic and brushed it aside safely. Once they were clear, they turned and saw the pulverized ramparts of the tower and the massive cracks throughout its structure.

Behind it, they saw the kraken, the wall barely concealing its waist even from their low angle, pointing an outstretched talon towards Luna. Speaking more of its horrid language, it curled the digits inward as if clutching an invisible ball, and a ripple in the air like the heat from a paved road in summer shot forth. Luna blocked the kraken's spell, a shell of bright blue magic appearing around her, but it distracted her and forced her back.

From the ground before the monster's feet, its source obscured by the wall, a light like that of the dawn revealed its grotesqueness as never before. Twilight could finally see its eyes, black and uncaring, like the darkness between the stars. As those cold eyes focused on the source of the light, it raised one claw and brought it down like a hammer. The cracks in the tower widened, yet more stones fell, and the glorious, golden light vanished like a candle in a gust of wind.

Twilight stared dumbly at the creature as it rose to face Luna once more, unable to comprehend, or perhaps accept, what she had just seen. Only the voice of Sergeant Steel-Eye, bellowing like a drill instructor, cut through the fog.

"You have your orders, soldiers! RUN!"

On instinct alone, because no higher level of thought was available to her, she obeyed, her friends following behind.

---

After several blocks, their hard sprint slowed to a trot, and eventually the six of them stopped in their tracks, unsure where to go. Twilight's panicked eyes darted around, searching for any sign of hope.

"Twilight," Fluttershy said timidly, "Don't worry. I'm sure the princess isn't--"

"DON'T. Just... don't say it. Don't even think it. If I hear that word, I'll crack, I know it."

The sounds of the battle outside the city echoed through the streets. Rainbow Dash started to fly up to get a better view, but quickly decided against it. "So, what now? Any ideas?"

Twilight forced her breathing back to regularity, and scanned their surroundings. She'd never seen the streets of Canterlot this empty, even at night. A few lights shone out of windows, but the only ponies outside where them. She saw metal bars crossing from rooftop to rooftop, glowing bright white; the streets here were too tight and chaotic for the elder seal to fit, so it had been constructed above them instead. A variety of locked and barred storefronts surrounded them, and a poster at a nearby bus stop advertised an act at the theatre...

"I've got one! This way!" Without waiting, she bolted down the street, leaving her baffled friends to catch up.

After countless blocks and several twists and turns, they found themselves in front of the Royal Canterlot Theatre. Twilight grinned with satisfaction as the others read the marquee and balked.

Applejack snorted. "Oh you have got to be buckin' kidding me."

"Seriously?" Rainbow Dash sneered. "I mean... Seriously?"

"I don't mean to be harsh, dear," Rarity said, "but I wonder if your judgment is in full form at the moment. After all, her cutie mark is a wand."

"Rarity! That is just completely unfair."

Rainbow Dash raised a hoof. "Uh, someone mind filling in the slow kids in the class?"

Twilight's voice was hard as she explained. "Magicians of other races typically need some kind of focus item to use their magic. Griffons, for example, usually use staves or wands. But the only ponies with the potential for magic don't need any kind of tool; we have one right on our heads, with a direct nerve connection to the brain. The only ponies who ever use wands are stage magicians, performers who pretend to have magical powers as part of their act. I believe what Rarity was trying to imply is that this particular pony is a fraud."

Rarity gave her fellow unicorn a stern look through narrowed eyes. "I implied nothing of the sort. I thought I was being quite clear."

Thunder roared through the sky from the continuing struggle outside the city.

"Look, we don't have time for this!" Twilight said, exasperated. "Will you just trust me here? I have a plan, and we need her for it."

"Ya mind tellin' us what exactly this plan is, then?" asked Applejack.

"You can listen when I explain it to her. Come on!" Twilight's horn glowed, and the locked door of the theatre buckled and burst open. She led her friends through the lobby and down the hall to the dressing rooms, and through the crack under the door of the last one, they saw a dim light. Twilight stepped forward and knocked tentatively.

The pony inside yelped in surprise. After a few moments, the door swung open, revealing a bright blue unicorn with a pale, silvery-blue mane. Her violet eyes boggled at the six mares, still wearing the Elements of Harmony, before furrowing her brow in disbelief.

"What could you insufferable hecklers possibly want with The Great and Powerful Trixie at a time like this?"

Comments

[Draco Dei]

SPOILER ALERT!!!

"I received another letter from Twilight.
-Well, she did message ahead after all. Very much in character for her I think.

They're on their way, trying to make it here by dusk."
-Worth it to give them a few extra minutes... shoot, I wonder why she doesn't dispatch the chariots to pick them up.

"A good commander must recognize hopeless battles and allocate resources elsewhere."
-I still say that Twilight is obedient enough that she could be restrained with the right words.

Luna blinked for a few moments, thinking. "That... might actually work."
-Wait... Twilight's grasp of the theory of spell-craft has outdone the Alicorns? Maybe there was something to what I said about "old fears"... but then I would have expected one of the professors at the university to come up with that... maybe they haven't gotten around to it or maybe Celestia over-briefed them and imprinted her prejudices on the issue onto them.

She closed her eyes briefly, examining the more brute-force defense, a powerful and indiscriminate psychic shield, both sisters kept ready. Twilight's approach seemed far more elegant and efficient; she began to modify her shield in the same manner, but kept the general protection running on a trickle of power that could, if needed, be boosted with a moment's thought.
-Wise... experimenting, but still keeping the tried and true method ready.

"Nothing it without a weakness, Luna.
-Should be "is" not "it".

"If it reasons, it can be reasoned with. I will not strike the first blow."
-Ah... but I wonder how this would endanger Canterlot... is she going to have the seal their covered or smudged so that she can lure it in for parlay, rather than flying out to it? Actually if a single messenger is indicated, I would think that Luna would be in the running given its activity cycle, but... it may not make much of a difference depending on what you set their abilities as. Certainly Celestia strikes me as the superior diplomat.

"With me in its way? None."
"None to Canterlot, perhaps."
-Indeed...

In a way... I've been itching for something like this."
-Ah yes... "world of cardboard" and all that. This is the first foe in a thousand years that is worthy of her that she is both able (which she knew she wasn't with Discord) and willing (I hold with the view that she surrendered to NMM without a fight as part of her gambit) confront directly.

It's been over a century since I last personally faced a foe that was a legitimate threat.
-Ah... so the bit about "peace and harmony reigned" at the start S1E1 didn't include she herself. Also, I have it that soon after Luna was purified, the sisters were back to their old sparring matches (cover it in my story "Scratching a Diamond" actually).

"Kinda like in the gal in A Prince of Ares?"
-Pony version of "A Princess of Mars"?

Jane Teamster on the Red Planet
-Eeyup.

"Yer kiddin'." Applejack stared at the pegasus in horror, but Rainbow kept her gaze locked on the the city ahead.
-Truly, Dash's guts in the face of physical/magical danger are not to be underestimated. Social problems are another issue.

Two points of light, one bright gold and the other soft blue, rose slowly in the air in front of it.
-Did they disable the seal? Interesting that Celestia wasn't able to talk her sister out of following her. I imagine that having the sun and the moon fall back on the unicorns of Equestria would be... a large burden, not to mention lacking leadership.

"--that you're not to use them until the kraken demonstrates clear and unambiguous hostile intent in case peaceful negotiations are possible, but it sounds like that ship just sailed.
-Given that Luna uses lightning for punctuation (as Sun Tzu said in his WIW thread on the Rpg.net forums), and the Kraken has shown it can manipulate clouds, I don't know where he is getting that conclusion.

As Steely took a pen in his mouth and signed a form on a clipboard,
-Ah, even in the fact of Armageddon, the paperwork must get done... maybe he and/or the Pony behind the grating are from near Trottingham... seems like an English "stiff upper lip" response... or maybe it is just military stuff. I should remember to ask someone I know... they are actually a supply officer.

The sounds of magical battle rang out overhead.
-Ah... now it is confirmed.

The Elements chose us for the job because they knew we were willing to do it."
-Ah... so it isn't just having the given Element in your heart, you ALSO have to have a heroic spirit.

but the crisp, professional salute one gives to a superior officer.
-I don't know if any of them are fit to command in any circumstance that ISN'T focused around the EoH, but it doesn't matter in this case. (Of course, Twilight could get up to speed in record time, and Dash already has a head-start, between her fandom for the Wonderbolts and her leading the weather team).

Pinkie Pie smiled softly at the sergeant. "And may the earth carry you there."
-Sounds like funeral rites...

Manenite farewell
-Ah... even if I had thought of that, it wouldn't have occurred to me that there would be non-earthpony Manenites, or that Earthponies would talk about the stars in a reverent way.

"For a moment my wings felt like they just couldn't hold my weight anymore."
-One wonders if Fluttershy, who could get by pretty well without her wings, or Pinkie Pie, who as I implied wouldn't let paraplegia harsh her groove felt the same things... IE is it striking at their racial gifts, or at their personal sources of power (or rather the image of power)?

dispersing it and forcing Luna to fall back.
-No meteors or refocusing several square miles of sunlight onto a space a pony-length or smaller in radius. But that could just be because they are so close to Canterlot.

As it struggled to rise, the sisters combined their magic, and a lance of golden light sprung from the fading red light in the West, reflected off the bright half of the moon, and pierced the kraken through its back.
-Ah, there we go... just needed it to stay still for a second.

She thought she could hear her own name, but there was something else.
-Kraken has a ranged attack that it is aiming at them? (seems likely... even if it is only throwing a bigger rock than Celestia can catch with TK... (IE something the size of Canterlot Castle). The words rang out again, echoing like thunder, and she realized it was the moon princess speaking,

challenging the kraken in its own tongue.Maybe it absorbs good energy (thus the aura of despair), and will only grow stronger from the blast? (doubtful)
-Fast enough learner to get it in one conversation, or did she actually open her mind to it? Don't know how much vocabulary would be in the books (assuming they got it right, which I could see being the case).

a light like that of the dawn revealed its grotesqueness as never before.
-This confused me a minute, thinking that it was twisting Celestia so her light was an abomination to look upon, and twisting their memories so they thought that there was always something unnerving about Celestia's glow.

"I've got one! This way!"
-Going to TK the sign up and flip it over onto the Kraken? That might be within her abilities.

"but I wonder if your judgment is in full form at the moment. After all, her cutie mark is a wand."
-Ah... well craft illusions can be a lethal force... and in this case, even stuff that looks like neon signs might do the trick if they can be drawn at the right scale and with enough precision... It only takes 4 sides to make a tetrahedron... and an dodecahedron should be fairly tight when made with circles. Twilight + Rarity (see the second fashion show in "Suited for Success") + Trixie + Luna equals one side each for the tetrahedron, or three sides each for the dodecahedron. If it can't burrow through rock very well, then you don't even need a fourth side on the tetrahedron.

Griffons, for example, usually use staves or wands. But the only ponies with the potential for magic don't need any kind of tool; we have one right on our heads, with a direct nerve connection to the brain.
-Interesting world-building. Wonder what she makes of Zecora's potions (or the Love Poison), and illusion dust... which reminds me, I wonder what the dust Zecora gave her will get used for? Might be good to trace out the signs with.

[Comma-Kazie]

I have to say, I was most intrigued by the idea that there's finally a problem that the the Elements of Harmony can't deus ex machina the Mane 6 out of.

If this story didn't have me tracking it before, it certainly does now. WHY is it not on Equestria Daily?

[sarahpenguin]

Oh no things seem grim! I hope the princesses and the guards are OK. Wonder what would happen if you put elder signs on the EOH then fired them off...perhaps uses them, mid-blast, to form a seal and then ram *that* into captain cthulhu :) If *that* doesn't work I'd call up the Elder Gods and ask for a refund :)

[Borg]

"Kinda like in the gal in A Prince of Ares?"

Twilight looked at Rainbow Dash blankly. "I'm sorry, what?"

"Wow. I never thought I'd say this, but... Twilight, you need to read more."

Seconded. An appropriate dose of Edgar Horse Burroughs is entirely necessary.
And this is why I normally leave the horse puns to the writing staff and Pun Pony. There has got to be a better ponification.

"You know, Twilight," Steely began, a tone of regret in his voice, "you shouldn't have to do this. We've been talking about it all day, the other guards, I mean. The six of you, you're not soldiers. You didn't sign up for this. You've done plenty of good with the Elements, but we all agree, it's not fair that you have to, just because they chose you for the job."

When a powerful villain out of myth took over Equestria, they chose to oppose it by chasing a legend into the most dangerous part of Equestria, even after their lives were repeatedly put in danger. On that night, by demonstrating their willingness to pursue heroism through adversity, they signed up to do whatever Equestria needs, whenever it needs them.

You know, I didn't entirely mean it when I said Tia was going to die. I knew that she would at some point do battle with the Kraken, and that this would go poorly, but my precognition was silent on whether her injuries would be fatal, or merely life-threatening. At this point, I'm as much in the dark as everybody else.