It should never be forgotten that those who have been touched by Tirek are forever within his grasp.
The horrors of the catacombs have turned to distant memories for Celestia, Twilight, and Luna. Discord’s change of heart and Twilight’s coronation have helped to ease and erase the mental scars from that harrowing night. The three princesses can even smile and laugh as Nightmare Night moves into full swing.
Yet, it should never be forgotten that those who have been touched by Tirek are forever within his grasp.
“Strawberry! Strawberry! Okay, now a little kiwi. I said kiwi, not broccoli! Are you even listening?"
Discord, or rather one of the many Discords wearing yellow hardhats, stuck out his tongue at the one, true lord of chaos, who was wearing a white hardhat. The main hall of Canterlot Castle was bustling, decorations of frightful nature going up right and left. Jack-o-lanterns with changing faces, spiderwebs the size of bed sheets, and numerous bags of bones were tossed about in a neverending shuffle. It was an orchestra of accidents and happy coincidences, where any mistake ended up helping the room progress to its final form.
A place fit to host the castle’s annual Nightmare Night celebration.
“Now, where am I going to put those fourth-dimensional stairs?”
“I thought we agreed against decorations that break the fundamental laws of the universe.”
Discord turned to look at Celestia as she came into the room, leaving behind an assistant and a few ponies she had been previously speaking too. He tipped back his white construction hat, smiled, and held out his clipboard, which bore papers covered in little more than crayon scribbles. “But is it really breaking laws when one of your own ponies managed to imagine such a beautiful structure in a simple drawing?” Discord began to climb up in the air, as if walking up steps, yet even as he went higher his head began to materialize out of the floor like a ghost.
“A staircase that keeps climbing up through eternity and a waterfall that flows upwards only to fall down again. Honestly, it’s a shame I never got to meet that particular pony. He sounds like an artist after my own heart.”
Celestia just rolled her eyes as she looked about the room, taking in the decorations. Chandeliers of black licorice hung from the ceiling, glowing with flames colored like candy corn. One of the Discord’s clones was manifesting large, black spiders and dressing them with white ties to be waiters. The centerpiece of the room was a statue of Nightmare Moon, made from spools of silk that moved, turned, and even struck the occasional flirty pose.
“Just remember Nightmare Night is Luna’s holiday, Discord.”
“Sí, sí, sí,” Discord said, waving his claw. One of the worker clones brought up a tray of ice cubes in the shape of bats, a few of which were twitching with a desire to fly. Discord gave an approving nod, even tickling one of the ice-cube bats before looking back at Celestia. “Though this really isn’t Luna’s holiday, if we think of it honestly. This night belongs to Nightmare Moon.”
Discord chuckled to himself, grabbing a piece of construction paper from a passing clone. A few quick folds and it was an origami sculpture that looked like Luna. “I always wondered how she pulled it off, going from such a little thing into the frightful queen of eternal night. Leaning on demon power would certainly do the trick.” He refolded the paper again, even changing its colors so it looked like a jagged, monochromatic rainbow.
“Though, ever since that fateful night, she’s not the only one that’s used some dark power, is she, Celestia?”
“I do not want to discuss what happened that night, Discord. You know that,” Celestia said, her voice carrying an undercurrent of irritation from from all the times she had said the very same thing in the past.
“But I want to have my bedtime story.” Discord, in the blink of an eye, was dressed in bright pink pajamas and was tucked into an oversized bed. He transformed his face into that of a big-eyed puppy who was pouting and whining as if his favorite toy had been taken away.
“Discord, haven’t I said before that your desire to antagonize Celestia is just a cry for attention and that there are far more constructive ways for you to express yourself?”
The pair of immortals turned, seeing a stallion walking up to them from the main hall’s entrance. He had an air of comfort about him, a unicorn that had a subtle smile to his face and seemed totally at ease in his pumpkin-themed sweatervest. A few wrinkles of age marked his face, and his voice was smooth and gentle, a voice most ponies would use only to speak to a scared animal.
“Dr. Well Wish, I apologize. I did not realize it was already time for our appointment,” Celestia said, smiling at the good doctor while Discord’s face fell into a frown.
“Luna and I finished a bit early. She wanted to pay a visit to some ponies in Ponyville before coming back to the castle for this celebration,” the ember-orange unicorn said as he looked at the army of Discord clones going about the room. “I see the decorating is going well, though you really should have reached out and asked ponies for help, Discord. Organizing a crew of ponies and taking part in that kind of social interaction would be good for you.”
Discord snapped his claw, making the bed, pajamas, and puppydog face he had conjured disappear before glowering at the doctor. “Don’t shrink my brain with your babble, Doc. You don’t know me.”
“No, but I would like to. My invitation for you to join the princesses’ therapy sessions still stands. I think you three, together in a group therapy session, could make great progress.”
“Sorry, can’t hear you over the construction work,” Discord shouted, motioning for his clones to start making a cacophony of noises as he walked away.
Celestia chuckled and looked at the doctor with a toothy smile. “Have I told you before how much I like the effect you have on Discord?”
“Yes, multiple times,” the doctor said, returning the smile as he and Celestia left the din of Discord’s clones behind. “Though, as I’ve said in our sessions, perhaps telling Discord about the events of that night would not be so bad. It would sate his curiosity and help you come to better terms with what happened.”
“I am not ready to talk about it with him, doctor.”
“Yet you are willing to participate in Nightmare Night celebrations with your sister?”
Celestia nodded as the pair continued down the castle hallways. “Despite the origins of this holiday, Luna rediscovered friendship because of Nightmare Night. She has taken and claimed this day, a day where you laugh at the things you fear. A day where you perhaps see that the scary things do not even need to be feared in the first place.”
“You sound like you are looking forward to it as well,” Well Wish pointed out as the pair rounded a corner.
“I would not mind having a reason to laugh at the things that go bump in the night.”
“Are you having trouble with bad dreams again? I thought we had put these night terrors to bed a month ago.”
“We had. It was just one little bad dream last night. It is nothing to worry about.”
Celestia and Well Wish reached her study, the pair moving to their usual places. Celestia walked to her couch while the doctor sat in an oversized chair nearby. “Let’s review the dream anyway, just to be certain it’s nothing to worry about. Where did it begin?”
Celestia got comfortable, settling in as she had for every session with the doctor since her trip into the catacombs of the old castle. “It began like all the others, with a hand reaching out to touch my forehead.”
~~~
“Don’t you think we have enough candy?”
Pinkie Pie spun on her hooves, the long tail of her seapony costume gently slapping the faces of the fillies and colts who had been following in her wake. “Are you joking!? We haven’t even reached half the bowls yet!” Pinke then quickly spun back around, the children managing to duck before getting slapped by her seapony tail again. “Now, forward march!”
With a few anxious glances, the children followed Pinkie’s lead. They were all in the Oogie Boogie Blocks of Ponyville. A small section of the town had been cordoned off and turned into an open-air haunted house. Bowls of candy stood waiting in strategic locations. Those brave enough to try and steal a few pieces from any given bowl were quickly greeted by an accompanying scare.
And the bigger the candy reward, the bigger the danger.
“Then can we at least take a break and go back to the bowl with the apples?” the filly in a fairy costume asked.
A young colt dressed as a royal guard nodded his head. “Yeah, the only thing scary there was some ghosts made out of bed sheets.”
Pinkie Pie shook her head firmly, leading her group onward. “Nope. Fortune favors the bold, my little ponies, and I want to break my candy collection record this year. Now, where should we go next? There’s a sign outside of Quills and Sofas. We could go there. Or—”
Stopping dead in her tracks, Pinkie Pie’s eyes widened. She and the children had stepped into an intersection. Just ahead of them was Quills and Sofas, but Pinkie’s gaze wasn’t fixed there. Instead she was looking to her left. A half block away, resting on the rim of a plaza fountain, was a bowl of candy out in the open.
A bowl filled with king-sized chocolate bars.
“Troops! We have a new objective! Kingly Candy Confections at nine o’clock! To the left flank, march!”
“Do you really think this a good idea, Pinkie?” the filly dressed as a fairy asked as the group of children clustered closer together. The street was quiet, with no sign of danger to be seen. A cool wind blew at their necks. The sounds of their hoofsteps echoed off the buildings, making it sound as if something was stalking them from just beyond sight. “There could be something really scary over there.”
“Yeah, maybe we should just go to Quills and Sofas,” another filly, dressed as a flower, suggested.
“No!” Pinkie Pie pointed at the bowl of candy with her hooves. “Those are king-sized candy bars. You almost never see those given away on Nightmare Night. If we get those, we’ll be Nightmare Night legends. This will be a Nightmare Night worth remembering. That candy right over there is worth five... no, six more stops.
“Now, come on! Tonight! We eat candy like kings!”
The mood in the children shifted, inspired by Pinkie Pie’s words and raw energy. They cheered, stomped hooves, and, those who had them, waved toy weapons. The troop then set out, marching towards the unsuspecting bowl of candy. But the stillness lingered, and the children’s energy faded as their eyes searched every nearby shadow. They should have seen something. Should have heard the clatter of a rusty horseshoe or a moan from some ghoulishly costumed pony. But there was simply nothing. Nothing but the candy bowl.
“Almost there,” Pinkie Pie whispered as she started to stalk the bowl of candy like a predator, despite her seapony costume. They were just a few feet away now. A few more steps and the chocolatey goodness would be within reach. And still nothing had leapt out at them. For all the other bowls they had been scared before getting the candy. That was how it worked. The ponies in costumes scared them, then those same ponies would either give them the candy with warm smiles or let them grab their sugary reward as they ran off screaming.
Yet, for this one bowl with the biggest prize, there seemed to be no guards, no ghouls, and no ghosts.
“Maybe we got lucky,” the colt dressed as a royal guard said, trying to break the tension. “Maybe the ponies guarding this bowl are on break.”
The other children nodded, starting to let down their guard. They reached the bowl without incident, and after greedily snatching a king-sized bar for herself, Pinkie Pie let the children cluster around. Each took a candy bar, marveling at its size. Some began telling how they’d brag to their friends about getting a king-sized piece of candy. Others held their massive rectangle of chocolatey goodness, fighting the temptation to open the wrapper right then and there.
But as the last filly took her piece of candy, the bowl overturned. It fell off the side of the fountain, shattering against the ground. The remaining candy bars spilled, and, for a moment, everything went silent. A few hushed then whispers spread amongst the children.
“You broke it!”
“I didn’t break it! She broke it!”
“I did not!”
As some of the children argued, others watched the bowl’s shards as each fragment melted into the ground, becoming nothing but black smudges. Those smudges then moved with lives of their own, darting about. The insectile movement made some of the fillies scream and jump, dancing on their hooves.
The living smudges scampered off down the street, drawing the eyes of the children away from the fountain. On the wind, the children heard a whinny followed by the gruesome growl. The wind surged, whipping at their costumes while a thick plumes of steam rose from every nook and crack in the ground. Soon, the children were surrounded by a thick fog. The surrounding buildings disappeared into the white mist, and the few lit streetlights became nothing more than an amber glow in the fog.
Then, came a pattering. A quick passing sound of something running just beyond sight.
“What was that!?” The fairy filly shouted, stumbling back into the other fillies and colts. The pressed their backs against the fountain.
Another terrible whinny cut through the air, and it brought with it another gust of wind. The fog that had surrounded them was blown away in the matter of seconds. The filly and colts, for a moment, believed they were safe. There was nothing in the streets, no creature revealed by the lifting fog. But there was a sound, a slow dripping of water. It came from behind them, the splish and splash of water growing louder as a dark, massive shadow fell upon them.
For a few seconds none of the children had the courage to look back. They just stood perfectly still, listening to the dripping of water and a heavy, belabored breathing. Then, slowly, a few of the fillies and colts looked back, and saw just what was casting its shadow upon them. It was massive, covered in sickly green fish scales and with a wet, gangly, black mane that hung across the beast's muzzle. Its jagged, sharp fangs protruded from its mouth like the craggy edges of cave. Its odor of rotting fish washed over the children as a finned tail splashed in the shallow water of the fountain.
The creature looked at them for a few brief moments, then threw its head forward and unleashed a terrible whinny that had undertones of a roar. It sounded as if the creature was beginning its hunt. The fillies and colts all screamed, streaking down the street as fast as their hooves could carry them. Only one pony remained behind, so enchanted by her king-sized candy bar that she hadn’t even noticed the theatrics that had just gone on around her.
The beast drew in close to Pinkie Pie, extending its hoof and poking her once in the shoulder. This finally seemed to snap the party pony back to reality, and she looked over her shoulder. Her eyes then narrowed to dots, and for a moment she stared at the furred face just inches from her own.
The beast then gave a short, pointed snort as it bared its teeth.
“AH! KELPIE! RUN!”
Pinkie Pie was gone a moment later, the seapony tail of her costume flailing behind her as the kelpie howled into the night. Once Pinkie was gone, however, the fishy figure’s lips curled into a smile and a feminine chuckle escaped its lips. A magical glow enveloped the beast, its shape changing back into a more familiar figure. At the same time the black smudges that had hidden around the plaza came rushing back. They assembled themselves back into the bowl while a box of candy levitated down from the safety of the nearby roof to refresh the supply of chocolates.
“That was a good one, Princess Luna.”
The kelpie, or rather, Princess Luna, finished dispelling her illusion charm and stepped out of the fountain as Twilight walked up to her. “Thank you, Twilight, and your costume looks wonderful this evening.”
The recently coronated Twilight smiled, twirling on her hooves to show off her costume. The four princesses of Equestria had, at Twilight’s inspiration, decided to dress as one another the for Nightmare Night party in Canterlot. Twilight had dressed as Celestia, managing to get her mane and tail to mimic Celestia’s naturally magical hair very accurately. Truly, the only thing missing was how Celestia’s mane constantly waved in an non-existent wind.
The costume’s final touches were a few fake royal garments, though Twilight did make use of her real crown. Beyond that, Twilight, like all the princesses, kept her cutie mark and coat color the same. Still, despite the costume's visual simplicity, Twilight couldn’t help but smile at Luna’s compliment.
“Thank you,” Twilight said. “Still, we need to get going if we’re going to make it to Canterlot in time. Even with your teleportation spell, we do have to leave a few minutes early.”
“Yes, of course,” Luna said, calling on her own magic again. In another small flash of light, she had taken on Cadance’s colors. Tones of pink, purple, and yellow filled her mane and her royal garments were transfigured to more accurately match what Cadance normally wore. “Do you have a replacement for my position? I would hate for the children to get such candy treasure without any scare.”
Twilight waved her hoof reassuringly before the pair turned to leave. “Don’t worry, Zecora’s going to fill in for you. That magic powder she uses can pull of some really spooky effects. Though, I doubt she’ll be able to compete with such a convincing kelpie.”
“You flatter me, Twilight.” Luna turned to head down an alley, one of many that bridged the Oogie Boogie Blocks to Ponyville’s more traditional Nightmare Night festivities. Yet, as she began to step down the alley, she felt quite alone. Looking back, she saw that Twilight had stopped at the edge of the narrow passage. “Is something the matter?”
Forcing a smile, Twilight shook her head. “Oh, no... nothing’s wrong. Just thought I had forgotten something.” Twilight lifted a hoof, trying to take the first step into the alley. Yet she still hesitated, like she was trying to convince herself to dip her hoof into hot lava.
Luna knew the look and walked back to Twilight’s side before offering a comforting smile. “We can take the long way, if you would like.”
“Oh... yes. We’re not in that big of hurry. Let’s enjoy the walk. Yes, it’s a nice walk... the long way,” Twilight said, laughing nervously.
“You don’t have to try and conceal your feelings, Twilight,” Luna reassured her. “You’re still scared of small spaces, are you not?”
Twilight sighed, nodding as the pair took the wide, open street out of the Oogie Boogie Blocks. “I’m not mad that you put in me that coffin. That decision probably saved my life. I just... it still gets to me, a little bit.” She turned and looked to Luna as the pair continued to walk. “What about you? Are you still seeing your therapist?”
“I am,” Luna said with a confident grin. “I had a breakthrough with Dr. Well Wish a few weeks ago. It’s part of the reason why I felt I could still enjoy Nightmare Night this year.” Her grin softened into a content smile as her eyes wandered across the spooky decorations she and Twilight were passing. “It is interesting, the field of psychology. I have to wonder if things might have gone differently a thousand years ago if I had been able to talk to a pony educated in the matters of the mind.”
The pair stepped out of the Oogie Boogie Blocks and into the parts of Ponyville that were celebrating Nightmare Night in a more traditional sense, with dancing, festival games, and pumpkin toss. A few ponies smiled and waved at the two princesses, and they gladly waved back as they continued to talk. “It’s hard to say,” Twilight commented.
“Yes, it is, but we can’t let things like that pull us down, as Dr. Well Wish put it. After all, what do we truly have to worry about this evening? ” Luna asked.
“Oh, I could think of a few things,” Twilight answered. “This is the first time I’ll be attending the Nightmare Night party in Canterlot as a princess. There’s plenty to be worried about regarding that. We also can’t forget that Discord did the decorations this year. He could have set up some elaborate prank that will ruin your and Princess Celestia’s reputations with Canterlot’s upper class. And let’s not forget that Princess Celestia is going to see my costume and that I may have made my copy of her mane too poofy.
“It isn’t too poofy, is it?”
Princess Luna laughed, placing a reassuring wing over Twilight’s back as the pair arrived outside Ponyville’s library. “Your reproduction of my sister’s mane is flawless, Twilight. Also, if the fact Discord may have prepared a prank is our greatest concern, then I think we can say that tonight is going very well.”
Twilight laughed, nodding her head as she stepped toward the library's door. “Yeah, I guess things really are back to normal if the thing I’m worrying about the most is how my mane looks. Still, just let me grab a few things and then we can teleport to Canterlot.”
~~~
The teleportation spell occurred as so many had before. Twilight felt the sensation of being whisked away, like she was a feather in a tornado. The sensation was brief, and was over just as quickly as it had begun. She could feel firm ground beneath her hooves again. She opened her eyes and looked upon the warm lights of Canterlot Castle.
Discord had really outdone himself. The grand ballroom was like a wonderland of Nightmare Night, where spooky things were turned a bit silly for the amusement of the guests. Menacing spiders, the size of basketballs, crawled across the ceiling. But they were no threat. In fact, they were the servants attending to the crowd. They were dressed in little tuxedos, and descended on lines of silk to offer guests food and refreshments.
Though the spiders’ polite behavior didn’t stop them from scaring a few arachnophobic guests right out of the party.
A skeleton band played for the crowd, using some of their own bones for instruments. There was also a set of stone busts that, for some songs, sang in harmony like a barbershop quartet. Ghosts made of out of streamers floated about. Bats made of licorice fluttered through the air, spreading the aroma of candy all around. About the only thing normal was the food, which was prepared by the castle kitchens as the one bit of normalcy amidst Discord’s festive chaos.
“There you are!” Celestia said, coming up to Twilight and Luna. Her mane and tail were toned just as Twilight’s usually was, and Celestia had even taken the magic from her mane so her hair hung a bit more naturally. Though, to accommodate it, she had to wear some up in a bun. “I was beginning to worry you’d spend the whole night in Ponyville.”
“I could have, Sister,” Luna admitted. “But I’m glad Twilight and I arrived here as promised. The decorations are marvelous.”
“Oh, thank you, Luna. It’s so nice to have my work appreciated.”
The three mares turned to look at Discord. He was descending from the servant spider webs on the ceiling, a trail of silk streaming from his nose until he had his claw and hoof on the ground. He then gave the line a tug, making it pop free of its anchor before he snorted it back into his nose like a single, long booger.
It was a sight that made all the three princesses grimace.
“Though I wish I could say the same about your costumes. If you were going to do the swap, you could have at least dyed your coats.” Discord snickered. “I’d give up chaos for a day just to see Celestia and Luna walking around in purple and pink while they waited for their coats to grow back. Oh, can you imagine the look on the diplomats’ faces? It’d be worth the price of admission and popcorn, but not soda.”
“I find it difficult to take your criticism, Discord, when you don’t seem to be in costume,” Luna pointed out.
“Getting dressed up loses some of its luster when I can be whatever I want at the snap of my paw, or claw, or even tail.” To prove his point, Discord snapped his paw and, in a flash, became almost an exact doppelganger to Celestia, minus his manic red and yellow eyes. “Why, even the changeling queen doesn’t have anything on me.”
He snapped his claw this time, turning into the insectile queen of the changeling hive and speaking in the queen’s strange, insectile voice. “Though perhaps that would be the grandest of costumes. To be the changeling queen disguised as someone else. Or perhaps Luna as Nightmare Moon changed into the crown the changeling queen was wearing when she was disguised as Cadance. Or, maybe—”
“We understand, Discord,” Celestia said, cutting him off though a smile lingered on her lips. “It is good to see you are enjoying yourself.”
“I’d be enjoying myself more if you had let me do my original design. The fifth dimensional architecture would have really turned some heads. Still, I have guests to attend to, and you three should go find the fourth in your little masquerade swap. I believe she’s in the outer hall, muttering something about... spiders.”
~~~
“But they’re just things Discord made.”
“Did you see them, Twilight? They’re huge, and the whole ceiling is a web.”
“They seem nice enough to me.”
“You wouldn’t be saying that if they were snakes.”
Celestia chuckled quietly to herself as she stood back with Luna. Twilight and Cadance had been going around in circles for the past few minutes. Celestia would admit, she hadn’t foreseen Cadance’s arachnophobia being an issue when she first saw Discord’s decoration.
Trust the spirit of chaos to cause trouble in such a manner he could claim plausible deniability.
“Your Highnesses, it’s about time for you to make your speech.”
Celestia nodded to the guard who had poked his head out of the ballroom. “Thank you, we’ll be along in a few moments.”
“Of course, Your Highnesses. Also, this just arrived via messenger. It had orders with it to be delivered straight to you.”
Celestia arched an eyebrow and turned to face the guard. He held out the small wooden box. It was finely polished and looked almost like a jewelry box or something you’d put a very expensive quill into. “By whose orders was it to be delivered directly to me?”
“If the letter accompanying the messenger is to be believed, it was your order, Your Highness.”
Celestia gave a small humph, turning the box over as she tried to remember what it could be. Perhaps... was it the new stick for Philomena’s perch? No, that was to arrive by standard mail in a few days. Was it...
“Sister?”
Celestia turned her head quickly to look at Luna. “Sorry, what was that?”
“It appears Twilight has calmed Cadance down, at least enough she’ll stay with us on the bandstand during the address to the guests. Perhaps we should go before Cadance changes her mind again?”
“Yes, of course,” Celestia said, still levitating the box in her magic as she turned to the doors of the ballroom. “Let’s get this boring little speech out of the way so we can enjoy the night properly, and so you and Twilight can return to Ponyville if you so choose.”
Luna nodded, and after a few more moments, the four princesses walked out into the ballroom. The skeletal musicians on the bandstand stepped back, giving the small raised stage to the four mares as all the guests turned their attention to the princesses. Perhaps it was a bit old fashioned, but the higher-class sorts of Canterlot came to expect any party with the princess to be accompanied by at least a few short words.
On the stage, Twilight stood next to Cadance, the pair a few steps behind Celestia and Luna since they weren’t expected to say anything. Twilight was also holding Cadance’s hoof, keeping the Princess of the Crystal Empire from looking up at the many spider servants that watched the party from their web.
Luna was at the front, for Nightmare Night had become her night. She had chosen to own the holiday as her own rather than abolish it, and thus it was proper that it was she who made the speech for the castle’s festivities. Celestia stood just off to the side, the box still held in her magic.
“First of all, I would like to extend my sincere gratitude to Discord for graciously providing the decorations for this year’s party. I think we can all safely agree that we’ve never enjoyed such wonderful, creative, or lively decorations.”
The crowd chuckled a bit and applauded. Discord allowed himself to float a bit above the rest of the ponies as he took a few bows. The loudest applause came from the spiders, though one had to question their bias. Celestia applauded politely as well, though she couldn’t help but glance at the box in her magic. For a moment it felt as if it was about to slip from her grip, but as she looked at it, she was sure the hold of her levitation spell was still strong.
“And I would next like to thank those of you who have been gracious enough to spend your evening with us. Nightmare Night is a holiday about being afraid, but I feel it’s also a holiday about learning to face your fears. A night when the things that scare you aren’t as dangerous. A night when the spider or snake or ghost before you is really just a friend in a costume. A night when you can laugh and look upon the things that scare you with a new light.”
Once more the crowd applauded, Celestia joining in as well. But... she couldn’t take her eyes off the mysterious wooden box. Something was just... compelling her to look at it, to bring it in front of her chest... to even open it. All it took was a little effort, and the box snapped right open to reveal a rich, red velvet interior that cradled the box’s cargo with great care.
“Once upon a time,” Luna continued, “I was such a thing to fear. This holiday was made, in fact, by ponies who feared my return and what terrible disaster it would bring. True, the legends have changed over time. I personally do not recall a time when I gobbled children, and I would be much heavier set if I did eat such sugar-addled fillies and colts.”
The audience laughed, but Celestia almost didn’t hear it. Her eyes were fixed on the contents of the box. It was a horn crown, a type of jewelry worn directly over a unicorn’s horn. It was made of polished silver that spiraled like grasping vines. It almost looked like some piece of abstract art, and there were small words etched upon the silver as well.
“But now I want children to laugh at Nightmare Moon. I want them to laugh at the idea that I, their princess of the night, would ever truly want to hurt them. I want them to laugh so that those dark years can slowly fade into history. I want them to laugh so that, in time, the laughter will forgive the mistakes I once made. So, again, thank you all for attending, and now, a few final words from my sister.”
Everypony looked to Celestia, expecting her to step forward, but she remained perfectly still. She didn’t even notice the room full of eyes watching her. She was just focused on the horn crown. It was so... pretty. Perhaps she had seen it in a shop window. Yes... yes, or maybe... did she make it? She couldn’t remember, her thoughts like the vapors of a dream that disappeared in the morning sun.
“Sister?”
Luna’s pressed word made Celestia look up, and she quickly smiled before stepping forward. She still held the box in her magic, but ignored it entirely for a moment as she took Luna’s place at the center of the stage. She looked out across the ponies and began to speak even as her magic levitated the horn crown out of the box. Yes... she was remembering now. This was for tonight. It was something special, just for tonight. Maybe a gift for her sister?
“I would like to reiterate what my sister said. Tonight isn’t about being fearful of Nightmare Moon, of ghosts, of werewolves, of zombies, or of anything so silly. No, tonight...” Celestia’s voice trailed off as she looked at the horn crown. She began to levitate it higher, bringing its open, ringed bottom to the tip of her own horn. Yes... this wasn’t for Luna. This was for her. It was for her. She had made it for herself because he told her to make it. This is what he wanted.
“Tonight is when you’ll all learn true fear.”
A few amongst the crowd forced a few chuckles, taking Celestia’s odd behavior as some sort of joke. Amongst those who didn’t laugh was Discord, who was staring at Celestia as if she had just drawn a sword on him. Luna was concerned, walking up beside Celestia, her gaze shifting between her sister and the horn crown in Celestia’s magic. “What are you doing?”
“I’m just doing... what he wants me to do,” Celestia answered, her face stretched by a smile too large for the dark tone of her words. She began to lower the piece of silver down onto her horn, a cold chill filling the air as she did.
“Sister, what do you mean? Who is—”
“Luna! Stop her!” Discord shouted, the spirit of chaos disappearing out of existence only to reappear next to Celestia. He reached for the silver with his paw, but upon touching it he howled in pain and quickly stumbled back. His paw smoked as if burnt while red runes glowed upon the silver.
Before another thought could cross anyone’s mind, before Luna could attempt to stop Celestia, and before even another heart could beat in the room, Celestia let the silver horn crown go. It fell down upon her horn, sliding into place, and Celestia screamed. She screamed loud and long, forcing each creature in the room to shut its eyes just from the scream’s painful volume. It was a scream of pain and of pure, unbridled terror. A scream that chilled all who heard it straight to the bone.
Only when the scream began to fade did the attendants of the party open their eyes.
Only then did they realize the pure, unending darkness they had all been plunged into.
Twilight opened her eyes and lit her horn, trying to pierce the darkness around her. Her mind was still reeling. Too much had happened too quickly. Discord shouted, Celestia screamed, and then came a darkness her own magic was struggling to pierce.
Slowly but surely, though, her horn’s light began to reveal her surroundings. She was no longer in the ballroom. She didn’t even seem to be in the castle anymore. The stone beneath her hooves had been replaced by soft dirt and the decorated walls with trees. A forest, the Everfree Forest if she was not mistaken. It was still nighttime, though she could not see the moon nor stars through the canopy.
She was also alone.
“Celestia?” Twilight shouted, her voice carrying through the trees and echoing back like some mocking chorus. “Luna? Cadance? Discord? Where did everyone go?”
There was no reply from the forest, not even the flutter of birds startled from sleep by her shouts. She had truly never heard the Everfree Forest as quiet as it currently was. There was always the sound of wind in the trees and crickets chirping their songs to the stars. But right now, the loudest thing around was the sound of her own breathing.
“I bet this is one of Discord’s pranks. Best to just get back to the castle and help everyone sort out what happened,” Twilight muttered under her breath as she began to walk forward. She would find an opening in the forest’s canopy, find a place where she might take to the sky and get her bearings. All it would take is a glance at the stars and she would be able to fly back to Canterlot.
But no opening in the canopy came. The branches and leaves yielded no hole, not even one small enough for Twilight to see a single star. No part of the Everfree Forest was this thick, at least that she knew of. Maybe the soil was extremely fertile in this specific part of the forest. Twilight didn’t know for sure. All she could do was keep moving forward.
For several minutes, Twilight just walked, trying to gain her bearings and find her way to the sky, with no luck. It was then she finally saw open ground through the trees. The ground was barren, possibly made that way by fire or beast. For once, Twilight didn’t even care why the ground was the way it was. She picked up her pace, ducking nimbly between the trees as she drew closer to the clearing.
The closer she drew, the more she could see. She was starting to see a building and a few lights. She smiled and began to hope that, perhaps, she was near Ponyville. That would certainly make things easier. She could get back to the library, have Spike send a letter to Celestia, and find out just what happened. She picked up her pace, working into a jog as she closed the final few meters between her and the forest’s edge.
Once free of the trees, Twilight’s hooves came to rest on the barren dirt and her eyes looked up at the building. It was not Ponyville, nor was it Canterlot. It was a castle, large and grand, with spires stretched up into an inky, starless night sky. It was... a familiar castle, though Twilight could not place her hoof on why it felt like she had been there before. Maybe she had read about it in a book?
Walking further from the edge of the forest and approaching the castle gates, Twilight noticed it appeared equally abandoned and inhabited. The grounds and the gardens were all dead, populated by brittle grass and plants that would crumble to dust at even the slightest touch. The stone work was dirty, and she could not see through a single window. At the same time, there were lights on inside. A few key windows glowed with life, and Twilight could see the occasional shadow blocking the light’s source.
“Hello? Is there anyone here that can tell me where I am?” Twilight called out, hoping to be heard by a guard, servant, or perhaps the groundskeeper that needed to be fired. And this time she did hear a reply, though it was not in any intelligible language. It was a squeaking and a clattering, and when she turned to look she saw its source hanging in the center of the ill-tended garden.
It was a bat, flapping and screeching in a heavy iron birdcage. It was hanging from the hoof of a prancing pony statue. It might have even been a fountain, since the statue stood in the center of a dry, hoof-made pool. Above all, the bat didn’t seem to be happy about its confinement at all. If it shook the cage any more, Twilight wouldn’t have been surprised if the cage fell straight off the hoof holding it.
“Hey! There’s this bat here. Does it belong to anyone?!” Twilight called out, walking closer to the dry fountain. Sure, she had heard of ponies keeping bats as pets before. One of the pets vying to be Rainbow Dash’s loyal companion had been a bat. It was an interesting pet, though she would admit it was not an animal she’d put at the top of her personal possible pets list.
Twilight put her hooves up on the edge of the fountain, looking more closely at the bat. “Wow, you’re a big guy. Those wings of yours are bigger than mine. Didn’t even think bats could get that big, and I know for a fact there aren’t any bats as big as you in the Everfree Forest. You must be from someplace else in the world, and that means you're probably somepony’s pet. That also explains why you're in a cage. So, where’s your pony pal, big guy?”
The bat offered no perceivable answer and just kept tossing violently in its cage. “Stop that now, you’ll hurt yourself,” Twilight said. She reached out with her magic, intending to levitate the cage down so she could sedate the bat with a spell. But in that moment she heard a sharp pang in her ears and felt a bite.
It wasn’t a bite on any part of her body, though. It was a bite in her magic, a little shock that made her quickly draw her levitation spell back. Even that light touch, however, was all the bat needed. With a final screech and flap of its wings the bat managed to get its cage off the statue’s hoof. It dropped into the bottom of the dry fountain, the cage clattering loudly.
Twilight winced, flattening her ears against the sharp pang of the metal against stone as it reverberated off the nearby castle walls. She then felt a flurry of wind, and upon opening her eyes, saw the bat had escaped. The cage’s door had popped open from the fall, and the bat now flew towards the castle, screeching as if it was being chased by death itself.
“Okay, step one, find who owns this castle. Step two, apologize for letting their pet bat out. Step three, suggest they find a better place to keep said pet bat. Step four, find out the quickest way back to Canterlot castle.”
Twilight nodded to herself, turning away from the fountain and walking towards a large pair of doors she could see just beyond the garden. She walked briskly, feeling an odd chill in her spine after the encounter with the bat. Who would leave a bat alone outside like that, without food or water? Maybe it was better that she had released the poor thing.
A cool chill of what Twilight thought was guilt ran down her spine, and she turned back to look at the dry fountain. The cage still lay where it had fallen, its door bent open. Yet that wasn’t what drew Twilight’s eyes. No, her gaze instead moved to the prancing pony statue, which was now facing her.
But that couldn’t be right. Twilight knew the statue had been facing her when she came from the forest. And the bat’s cage, it could not have been lying where it was if the statue had always been facing towards the castle. Again, the chill ran down Twilight’s spine. She resumed her walk towards the castle’s doors, but every few steps she would glance back at the statue.
The first few glances back, the statue was facing her. When she reached the foot of the front steps and looked back, it was still just facing her. When she knocked on the door and looked back, the statue still remained as it was, facing her unmoving. Twilight began to think she was just psyching herself out. She knocked again when no one answered and looked back, once more finding the statue was still just facing her.
But after knocking a third time and looking back, Twilight saw the statue had changed. No longer was it a pony prancing happily on the pinnacle of the fountain. Now the statue had taken a step down, one hoof on the edge of the fountain as if it had begun walking in her direction.
The fear returned to Twilight, and did not wait a moment longer for somepony to answer at the door. She pushed her way inside and slammed the door shut behind her. She then quickly rushed to the window, looking outside.
The statue had returned to its original place on the fountain, and the fallen bat cage was once more hanging from its hoof.
~~~
Smiling and wiping sweat from her brow, Twilight finished levitating one final piece of furniture against the castle’s front door and inspected her work. She had collected two decorative tables and four large chairs from around the entrance foyer and placed them in front of the doors. The statue had not moved since she had looked at it through the window, but she wasn’t about to take any chances.
Through all the commotion she was making, she had expected somepony to come find out what was going on. A castle servant or even the owner should have come to stop her, to reassure her that she had not just seen the fountain statue move.
But no pony had come. It was like no one had even taken notice.
Still, with the door barricaded, Twilight felt secure enough to pause and take a better look at the grand foyer. The room’s centerpiece was a large staircase that swept up to the second floor. There were also a half dozen doors on the bottom floor, three on each side of the staircase. Beyond that the castle featured classical decorations: crown moldings, oil paintings, and a large chandelier that hung above the foyer’s floor.
Twilight reached to the chandelier, igniting its candles and bringing more light to the room. “Hello? Is anybody here?” Her call went unanswered, the silence of the castle creeping in like a swarm of bugs across the floor. Still, Twilight shook it off and steadied herself.
“Okay, I just need to be systematic about this. I saw lights on in the windows and I saw movement in those same windows. Somepony must be here. So I’ll just go room by room until I find someone.”
Nodding to herself, Twilight trotted to the door just off to her left-hoof side. She opened the door, shining the light from her horn inside. It was a dining room, elegantly decorated and set as if a meal was about to be served. Silverware glinted back at Twilight, spaced evenly around plates, glasses, and napkins folded in pyramid shapes. Everything was in order, everything was neatly placed. It was near perfect.
Except for the single pony sitting at the far end of the table, whose spoon clattered against a bowl as she ate something in the dark.
“Hello?” Twilight called out again as she stepped further into the room. “I don’t mean to intrude. I’m Princess Twilight Sparkle. I was lost in the forest and was just wondering if you could tell me the quickest way to get back to Canterlot. And I’m sorry about the mess I made in the foyer. Something spooked me outside and...”
The pony at the end of the table kept eating with a steady rhythm. She would put her spoon into her bowl, it would clatter, and then she’d slowly carry it to her mouth.
“Hello? Did you hear me?” Twilight asked as she began to trot towards the pony. “Why are you sitting in the da...” Her word’s died on her tongue as her light spell began to properly illuminate the pony who was eating. The mare looked like she hadn’t slept in days. Her coat and costume were roughed up, and her makeup was running down her face. It was like she had been crying.
“What are you doing?” Twilight asked as she came up beside the mare.
The mare said nothing, remaining focused on her bowl, but that only baffled Twilight more. The bowl the mare was eating from was empty, and not because she had eaten it all. No, the bowl looked freshly washed, spotless in almost every way. Yet the mare kept dipping her spoon into the empty bowl, bringing it to her lips, and placing it into her mouth. The whole motion was done as if playing to a silent tune, a steady, unmistakable rhythm.
Putting a hoof to the mare’s shoulder, Twilight gave her a gentle shake. “Are you all right? Do you know what happened? Have you seen Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, or Princess Cadance? What about Discord? Are you listening to me?”
Twilight tried to look into the mare’s face, tried to get her attention, but the mare remained focused on the bowl. “Please, talk to me! What is going on!?” Twilight pleaded before she looked down at the bowl. She reached for it, intending to take it away. Maybe that would snap the mare out of it.
Her hooves touched the bowl, and even that momentary contact had an effect. The mare stopped and her eyes started to flick around. It was like she was coming to realize where she was sitting. A tremor rolled down her body, one that grew more violent as the fear in the mare’s eyes grew. She began to convulse violently, sending some silverware to the floor. Twilight feared the mare was having an epileptic seizure.
But then, without warning, the mare locked up, body stiff as a statue. The changes came soon after. To Twilight, it was like watching oily paint run and smear on a canvas to reveal something beneath. The mare’s flat teeth were turning jagged, and her fearful eyes turned narrow and rabid. The mare began to move again, back arching as some painful cracks echoed against the walls.
She slammed a hoof down on the table, the sudden loud sound startling Twilight. She tumbled back, hooves leaving the bowl she had only just touched. And just like that, the transformation halted. The grisly changes befalling the mare disappeared like dust, and after a few seconds, the mare resumed her previous ritual. She dipped her spoon into her empty bowl, brought it to her lips, and sipped at the air.
But Twilight was still trembling, hooves shaking so much she couldn’t even pick herself up off the floor.
~~~
Twilight had to take several minutes to convince herself she would be okay. It was difficult. The sound of the mare’s spoon clattering against the bowl was a pickax against her thoughts. But she finally collected herself, and after shakily getting to her hooves, she continued to search. There had to be somepony who wasn't lost in a hypnotic trance. She knew she could find somepony to tell her what was going on.
Yet, all she could find were ponies with the same affliction.
In the kitchen, she walked by chefs and servants toiling repetitively yet accomplishing nothing. They worked with knives at cutting boards that had nothing to cut. They stirred pots that held nothing but air. Twilight recognized some as servants from the party. She even contemplated trying to wake some of them, but the memory of the mare’s transformation was too fresh. She did not want to risk it, especially with ponies in the room wielding sharp knives. What’s worse, she thought she began to hear variances in the rhythm of the knives: breaks in the pattern.
Twilight also couldn’t deny a sensation on the back of her neck, crawling like an insect. It felt like the servants were looking at her, even though their eyes were focused on their task whenever she turned to look.
Twilight searched all the rooms connected to the foyer, finding nothing but ponies lost in their hypnosis, before ascending the grand staircase to the second floor. She lit the candles and torches of the hallways as she went, slowly spreading illumination. She revealed a few more ponies as she went, familiar servants from Canterlot Castle who were trapped in loops. One was washing a window endlessly, hoof moving in circle after circle. Another kept picking up and setting down a vase of flowers. A guard near an intersection in the halls faced a mirror. He’d salute his reflection, return to parade rest, and then start the process all over again.
So she simply searched the rooms for some sign of a pony who was awake, for one of the ponies she had seen walking past lit windows from outside. She checked guest chambers, storage closets, and a number of other kinds of rooms on the second floor. She walked hallways, beginning to familiarize herself with the castle’s layout as she crossed intersections she had visited before.
But the whole situation scratched at Twilight’s nerves like nails digging into her spine. Each passing moment in silence put her more on edge. Each new, looping pony she discovered made her only more paranoid. What had happened? Had Discord done this? It didn’t seem like the way he normally did things, but she couldn’t claim the spirit of chaos was consistent either.
Twilight eventually had to take a break, to rest her hooves but to also try and get a grip on her mind. She sat against a wall, sliding down and feeling the cool stone against her back. “Okay, Twilight, just keep it together,” she told herself as she stared at a window in the hallway, seeing the vast forest which surrounded the castle.
“It has to be a spell of some kind, affecting all these ponies,” Twilight said. She needed to hear some voice, even if it was her own. “Maybe I could break the spell if I tried, but what if the pony starts changing like that mare did? She looked... I don’t even know, but those teeth of hers were looked really sharp.
“Maybe... maybe if find one in a good place I could try to undo the spell. There was that stallion in that guest bathroom. If I barricade him in, then maybe—”
Twilight fell silent, ears flicking as she quickly looked to her left and right. She hadn’t been sure she heard it at first. It might have very well just been her own imagination, or an odd sound produced by the echoing of her own voice. But then it came louder, more distinct and constant.
It was the sound of hoofsteps, moving hoofsteps.
Twilight scrambled up from her seat on the floor, sprinting to the nearest intersection in the hallways. She then skidded to a stop and froze in her tracks. Her eyes and ears strained themselves, trying to pierce the darkness and silence. She then heard the hoofsteps again. The echoes of the sound were making it difficult, but she eventually zeroed in on the source. It was the hallway to her right, and she galloped down it with all the haste she could muster.
She chased the sound down three hallways. It seemed to disappear and reappear, but she was gaining on it. Then, a glimpse of something stepping around the corner. It was purple and pink, a tail that was familiar. It was her tail, and in a moment Twilight’s hope sprung forth fresh. It was Princess Celestia, who, just like Twilight, was still in her Nightmare Night costume.
“Princess!” Twilight shouted, a relieved smile on her lips. Of all the ponies she could find, Princess Celestia was one of the best she could hope for. Surely the princess knew what was going on, knew where they were, and knew how to put everything right. Princess Celestia would save her, just as the princess had saved her from the catacombs.
Twilight rounded the corner, her smile widening at the sight of Celestia’s white coat. The Princess was standing at the far end of the hall, as if deciding which way to turn at the forked junction. “I’m so glad I found you. Something very bad is going on here, but you probably... noticed... th... th... tha... t...”
Twilight’s voice withered in her throat as she watched Celestia turn around. The Princess was much like she had been at the party. Her regal white coat shone like a star in the dark castle, oddly complemented by Twilight’s own mane and tail style. But Celestia’s face sent a chilling shiver crawling down Twilight’s back.
Saliva dripped from Celestia’s mouth, which seemed to have grown larger than was natural for her face. Pearly white and dagger sharp teeth gleamed, and as Celestia cracked her mouth open, a long, twisting tongue began to flick out between the gaps. Her eyes were manic, and they were focused on Twilight with a murderous intent.
“P... P... P... Pri... Princess...?” Twilight squeaked out. She took a few anxious steps back, muscles in her legs quivering with a desire to gallop away.
Celestia drew back then threw her head forward and opened her mouth wide, her jaw stretching, even unhinging like a snake’s. Twilight’s eyes fixed on the endless abyss that was Celestia’s throat, and her ears flattened against the bone-chilling roar that erupted from that darkness. Celestia then lunged forward like a runner out of the starting gate.
And Twilight turned, fleeing from her mentor with all the haste her hooves could muster.
Thus the chase was on. Twilight could hear Celestia’s thundering hooves keeping pace with her. She rounded corners, sprinted down corridors, and overturned furniture to try and elude Celestia, but the Princess kept pace. It was a speed Twilight didn’t know Celestia possessed.
Twilight's lungs began to burn from the effort of her galloping. She gasped for breath and her mind scrambled to try and remember anything that might aid her, but she was drawing a blank. She had nothing to stop the Princess. Why would she ever need such a thing? Celestia wouldn’t hurt her. Celestia would never hurt her.
Yet the very same Celestia was drawing closer, long strides letting her get closer to Twilight with each passing second.
“Help!” Twilight began to shout in desperation. “Somepony! Help me!” She looked back over her shoulder, seeing Celestia’s salivating maw mere inches from her. “Please! Celestia! Stop!”
A creak of hinges drew Twilight’s eyes forward again. A door had opened straight ahead of her, at the far end of hallway. It was a salvation, and she began to race towards it with what little stamina she had left. She’d rush inside and slam the door shut behind her. That would buy her time, a few precious moments at least.
“Twilight! Over here!”
Then the voice, a voice which came from a different direction, from her right. Twilight had to skid hard to make the turn at the intersection she had been about to pass, but it was worth it. There she saw another doorway, this one pouring light into the hallway as a familiar figure stood at the threshold. A friendly figure who was like an angel in the twisted reality of the castle.
It was Princess Luna.
Twilight leapt through the open doorway before her, passing Luna to land with a thud against the floor. In that same moment Luna unleashed a powerful blast from her horn, a spell that lanced out and struck Celestia in the chest. The attack caused Celestia to stumble, and that gave Luna the last moment she needed to slam the door shut, putting a few inches of heavy timber in front of Celestia.
Twilight turned around to look at the door just as a thunderous thud came from it. Celestia was trying to beat the door down, was still trying to pursue the prey she had been denied. Twilight even feared Celestia would be able to break down the door, but Luna acted first. A spell from the lunar princess’s horn formed across the door, reinforcing the timbers and securing the hinges.
A few more times Celestia threw herself against the door, but it did not give. Celestia then roared one final time in rage before the door grew quiet. There was only one sound that lingered, that of Celestia’s hoofsteps, but they soon faded into silence as well.
Twilight looked to Luna, who was like a black-winged angel, and then soundly passed out, body giving up to the exhaustion that had been caused by her panic.
~~~
Celestia growled and prowled the outside the door. She paced, watching the door with murderous intent as her drool left its splattered marks near her hooves. She would leave, but for the time being she waited for her prey to, by chance, reemerge from the room. So focused was she on that door that she didn’t notice a creaking that began to fill the hallway.
The sound came from another door, one that had opened to offer Twilight salvation moment’s before. A door that Twilight had turned away from, instead seeking her safety with Princess Luna in the moment of panic.
The door was shifting on its hinges, which moaned with every nudge as if they had never seen a drop of oil. There was no draft or breath of wind to explain the doors motion, yet it kept filling the hall with its moans.
It then began to close, hinges complaining through every step of the process. It was a whining that began to take on a intonation, pauses and stresses, until finally it sounded as if the hinges were speaking a single word.
“Twilight.”
The word was punctuated with the clicking of the door’s latch as it became flush with its frame.
Shining Armor smiled, tipping back the hat of his sheriff costume. He spread five cards on the table, an impressive full house comprised of three kings and two nines. Two of the other guards at the table groaned in defeat while the remaining three smiled in their own wisdom to fold early.
While the annual Nightmare Night celebration in the castle was a time-honored tradition, another tradition was the party held in the guard barracks. The decorations were simpler, the food was a potluck buffet, and the music came from a vinyl record. It was far from cultured, but it was a tradition many of the guards wouldn’t trade for even the fanciest of castle soirees.
Though he was now the prince of the Crystal Empire, Shining was still welcome amongst those that had once been his comrades in arms, even if he was winning at poker.
“A prince living in a castle shouldn’t be taking money from hard-working guards like us,” one of the other ponies at the table joked as she took and began to shuffle the cards.
“I can’t help it if I keep getting the good hoofs and you aren’t smart enough to fold,” he laughed before the sound of a ringing clock tower bell rose above the clamor of the party. “And it looks like I’m going to be ending tonight with a profit.”
Guards around the room put away the unreasonable parts of their costumes, from props to oversized hats, and began to grab their gear. The guards at the poker table got up as well, changing out the money in the pot for what chips they had left. The one that had been dealing left the deck of cards in the center of the table as she chuckled. “Why stop now? Don’t you want to stay and try to take the afternoon shift’s bits too?”
Shining shook his head, heading out the door. “No, I promised Cadance I’d come join the castle party when the guards changed shift. Thanks for the game, though. It was an enriching experience.”
“That joke hasn’t gotten any funnier since last year,” one of the guards shouted at Shining as he stepped out of the barracks. The night had an invigorating chill to it, and Shining breathed it in with a smile. He then began walking the path that lead from the barracks, which were tucked away next to the exterior wall, to the castle’s main entrance.
It was hard to ask for a better night for such spooky festivities. The moon was full. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky to mar the beauty of the stars. It was all made that much sweeter by the jingle of bits in his pocket. Yes, perhaps the winnings were a bit wasted on him. The monetary value, however, couldn’t compare to the simple satisfaction of beating other big-talking soldiers in cards.
He had been on the losing end of that very same poker table enough times to appreciate the victory for its sentimental reasons.
Shining reached the main gates of the castle, stepping into the warm light spilling from the open doors. He’d tell Cadance about how the poker game went later. At the moment, he turned his head to the right as he reached the top of the front steps, intending to smile and nod to the guard standing watch there.
Yet, there was no guard there, and upon looking left, Shining saw that the other guard who was supposed to be stationed at the door was also absent.
Knowledge and experience he possessed as previous captain of the guard rushed into Shining's mind. His eyes moved about the room. He looked to each place in the foyer where a guard was supposed to be standing, and each one was empty. The whole room was empty, without a soul to be seen.
Breaking his stride, Shining trotted through the castle, heading to the ballroom where the party was being held. With each step he took his concerns only grew. He saw no guards, no party guests, no servants. It was like the whole castle had gone out for ice cream. Such a thing would have usually been ridiculous, but with Discord it was not impossible.
Nor was it impossible that Discord had done something at the party to try and begin a new reign of chaos over Equestria.
His pace increasing to a gallop, Shining Armor raced through the last few hallways. He built up a burst of magic, holding the power in his horn until he had reached the doors to the ballroom. He then unleashed it, causing the doors to swing open with a clatter before he raced into the room.
The ballroom was decorated in the finest fashion. He saw the spider webs on the ceiling for the arachnid servants, and instruments for the band lay waiting to be played. The room was ready and willing to continue the party, but was lacking the living beings to enjoy the festivities.
There was no sign of anypony.
~~~
Twilight did not know how long she had been unconscious. It could have been as short as minutes or long as hours. As she came back to the waking world, her head felt like it was filled with bubbles. Her thoughts were light, floating and bumping against one another without rhyme or reason.
Still, slowly, her thoughts began to connect as she raised her head from the floor. Twilight remembered the party, the woods, the castle, and then—
“Celestia!”
Scrambling to her hooves, Twilight stumbled in circles like a dog chasing its tail. She expected to find a horrible bite mark or that she was missing a limb. She went down a mental checklist for ascertaining her level of bodily harm, and did it again to be sure. But with each check off her mental list a small portion of her panic subsided until she was able to breath a sigh of relief.
Minus a little dirt here and there on her fur, she was physically unharmed.
But this assurance sent Twilight’s mind chugging back down its previous train of thought. She had been saved by Luna, but where was the Princess of the Night?
To answer her own question, Twilight began to soak in her surroundings. It was a guest bedroom of a castle, likely the same castle she had been in when she passed out. The room itself was finely furnished. The piece of furniture directly before Twilight was a vanity carved from fine wood and decorated with golden inlays. It was a beautiful piece of craftsponyship, if not for one flaw.
The vanity’s mirrors had been destroyed. The trinity of wooden frames before Twilight clung to a few lingering shards of glass, and the top of the vanity was littered with small shards and dust. Where the rest of the mirrors’ pieces had gone, Twilight didn’t know. She began to crane her neck, thinking perhaps some had fallen behind the vanity, but it was then she noticed something. It was a flick of motion reflected in one of the mirror’s remaining shards.
Turning around, she expected to see Celestia or some monster standing behind her, ready to pounce. But, instead, what Twilight saw caused a wave of relief to roll over her like cool water on a hot day. Lying on the guest room’s bed, eyes closed and breathing calm, was Luna.
“Princess Luna!” Twilight said, rushing to the side of the bed. “I’m so thankful to see you. What’s going on? What happened to Princess Celestia? What is...” Twilight fell quiet, tilting her head to one side as she arched an eyebrow in confusion. “Are you sleeping?”
Luna offered no words in reply, her breathing remaining constant. She slept peacefully, as if the dangers and chaos that lived just beyond outside the room were as distant as a nightmare.
Twilight shifted anxiously on her hooves, unsure how to proceed. She wanted to wake Princess Luna up, but what if the princess had a good reason for being asleep? What that reason might be escaped her at the moment, but Twilight didn’t have any cause to doubt the princess. But she was worried about Celestia as well. Surely Luna knew what had happened to her sister.
Her mind bounced back and forth. Her hoof extended and retracted in time with her thoughts as she debated the wisdom of waking the princess. Each time she reached out, her hoof grew closer to touching Luna’s shoulder, and each time she pulled her hoof back, she did it faster than before.
It was an accident that finally made Twilight’s decision for her. As she withdrew her hoof once more, it nicked part of Luna’s foreleg. This caused the princess to stir, and she slowly opened her eyes. “Twilight Sparkle, is that you?” she whispered.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t know if I should wake you.”
“No, it is all right. I just cannot remain awake for long.”
“Why? What is going on?” Twilight asked. “What happened to Princess Celestia?”
Luna sat up, using a hoof to point. “Look in the vanity’s top drawer. I wrote some quick notes.” The princess winced, as if she had been overcome by a painful headache, and she promptly laid back down. “They aren’t much, but I know you can put a stop to Discord’s game. Just take to heart what I wrote and abide by the rules. That is your only hope.”
“What, Discord!? But... But what is going on? Why can’t you just—?” Twilight’s questions came too late. Luna was already back asleep, the lines of pain disappearing from her face as the peace of dreams enveloped her.
Twilight watched the princess sleep for a few moments, trying to piece together for herself what was going on. She then turned her head, looking to the vanity. Below its mirrors, the vanity had two drawers on the left, two on the right, and one long drawer in the center. Twilight used her magic to open all three of the top drawers. They were all empty except for a single piece of paper in the center drawer.
Twilight recognized Luna’s cursive upon the page, and hastily read the note, soaking in every line.
~~~
The creak of hinges once more broke the silence of the hallway. The darkness beyond slipped back from the glow of the light spell that seeped through the growing crack in the doorway. Twilight peeked through, straining her hearing and sight. Only when she believed the hallway beyond was empty did she dare to open the door further. It was a ten step process she had devised for herself. Step one, crack the door open and check for danger in the next room. Step two, stick her nose through the door and check for danger. Step three, put half her head through and check for danger.
Eventually, upon the completion of step ten, Twilight was on the other side of the door, her search through the castle ready to continue. Luna’s note had explained some information in vagaries and rules. It had obviously been written quickly, as if spending a single moment to write something more detailed posed a great risk.
A few of the rules certainly gave that impression. Rule two, do not wake the ponies spread through the castle. Rule five, do not wake Princess Luna unless it’s necessary.
Twilight’s mind grappled for some reason for these rules, beyond the most obvious that she had already experienced for herself. To wake the ponies in the halls was to begin some form of transformation, but what was the cause of the transformation? Luna’s note had placed blame on Discord for the present situation, that it was one of his games. Luna had even written down a riddle given by Discord, but Twilight still needed a chance to wrap her brain around the twisted rhyme.
In meantime, she had Luna’s notes and one goal, which provided her a mental security blanket against the dark unknown of the castle. The rules gave her a way to stay safe. The goal gave her something to do, something to try and complete so she wasn’t just sitting around waiting for a rescue that might not come.
The goal was simple. Find the three “lights” placed through the castle and snuff them. That would end Discord’s game.
So far, however, Twilight had found nothing she would describe as a “light,” or at least a light unique enough to be in a set of three. Even more unsettling was the castle's lack of even normal lights. She had doubled back along her previous path to resume her systematic search. She should have been greeted by the illumination from the candles, torches, and lanterns she had lit while performing her original search. But no such warm welcome existed. Even when she got back to the foyer, she found it was as dark as the moment she had come inside.
As if she had never been through there in the first place.
Still, Twilight tried to focus. Keeping the castle well lit was not part of rules for survival Luna had written. Being in the dark also gave her a better chance of seeing the lights. In perfect darkness, it was said a pony could see the glow from a single candle over three miles away.
And, after what felt like an hour of searching, Twilight saw such a flicker in the distance.
She was in one of the higher floors of the castle, where the guest bedrooms of the lower areas became offices, studies, and other, more personal rooms. It reminded her of Canterlot Castle, in the wings that were Princess Luna's and Princess Celestia’s private quarters.
Twilight had to pause. The hallway that stood before her, separating her from the light at its far end, felt far more menacing than any corridor she had ever seen in Canterlot Castle. It was also longer than it should have been when compared to the other corridors. It was all illogical, evidence that she was a player in what was likely the darkest “game” Discord had ever created.
Pacing on the threshold of the hallway, Twilight had to shore up her courage. She recited the rules Luna had given her as if they were a protective mantra that would drive away evil. She went through the list of rules twice, and only then did she take her first step.
Immediately, the chill in the air of the hallway hit Twilight, making her shiver and ruffle her wings. It was like she had stepped out of her warm, cozy library into the bitter cold of a sub-zero winter storm. Small, cloud-like puffs of hot breath escaped her lips with each exhale. The only mercy she had was the rug that ran the length of the corridor. It provided a barrier between her and the stone floor, which was probably cold enough to freeze her hooves off.
Things only grew colder the further she went down the hallway. She began to see frost clinging to the walls, and the chill began to sink deeper into her body. Twilight’s mind began to slip away from her mantra of the rules to everything she would give away to have a scarf and earmuffs. She’d give away her complete collection of Daring Do books. She’d give away the very expensive scientific equipment she kept in the library’s basement. She’d even give away her crown, as long as she got to remove her Element of Harmony beforehoof.
Halfway down the hall, the frost on the walls was becoming small, jutting spires of ice. It made the hallway look as if it was lined with teeth and that Twilight was a willing morsel of food heading for the stomach. Her ears and hooves were beginning to grow numb, otherwise she may have noticed the sticky sensation on the rug.
Then the silence broke. With little to no warning, the ice around her made cracking sounds. Pops and groans as different spires of ice jostled against one another for dominance. Twilight also heard something else, something that made her glance over her shoulder. It was a tinkling that came and went quickly, like cubes of ice falling into an empty glass. It was a sound that moved behind her, shifting from the floor to the walls to the ceiling and back down.
She was almost sure it sounded like the steps of some creature.
The urge to turn around was like marionette strings tied to her body and head. Her fear pulled her, trying to get her to go back, but the desire came too late. She had reached the end of the hallway, which had become an icy tunnel from the ceiling to the floor, and just beyond lay a cavern. A cavern marked with the frozen furnishings of a royal bath.
All the warmth that the bath chamber might have had was robbed by the chill in the air and the ice. Twilight could see a tub, easily large enough for several ponies, frozen over like a pristine pond. The sink had overflown, creating an icy waterfall that pooled and spread across the floor. The room also looked much larger than it should, the furnishings insufficient for the amount of space.
But where the furniture was lacking, spires of ice filled the gaps. On the walls, the ceilings, and the floor, they stood everywhere. To Twilight, it felt like each one was watching her like a silent sentinel. Their shape was uncommon. Ice tended to freeze with a unique rhyme and reason, but all the spires she saw were very geometric. They looked like crystals.
Fluttering her wings, Twilight tried to warm herself up as she took a few tentative steps into the bath chamber. She looked around anxiously at first, the foreboding feeling in her gut assuring her she’d find something wrong or dangerous. But, as she looked, the tenseness in her breathing began to fade as she took in the beauty of the room. It was the same kind of beauty held by a brisk winter day after a fresh snow, when the world outside is blanketed with snow. It looked pure and pristine.
Still, after shivering violently to try and shake off the cold, Twilight tried to find the light she had seen. She retraced her steps to the doorway and looked in. She saw the orange light again, but now saw it was a reflection. A spire of ice, with its flat, crystalline surface, was acting like a mirror.
Twilight approached that spire, putting her hoof on the surface. She began to shift around it slowly, trying to figure the angle the light was reflecting from. She stepped to right, making the light disappear from the mirror-like surface. It now reflected the overflowing sinks.
Another step, and Twilight was face to face with the mirror, clearly seeing her own reflection. She looked like she was about to freeze over herself, but her own visage wasn't what she was seeking to find in the icy mirror. Another two steps, and finally the image of the entrance doorway came into view.
If she could see the doorway in the reflection, that meant she was facing the surface from the same angle the light was. So she turned about, and looked to the far wall of the room. There, resting within a deep, square hole in the wall, was the orange light. Twilight looked to it with a smile, happy to know she could soon depart the frigid chambers. She trotted forward, her magic already reaching out to grasp the light and draw it from its hiding place.
However, her concentration broke when she ran into something. It was icy and stringy, and it clung to her. She tossed her head, coughed, shouted, and stumbled back before slipping on the ice near the sinks. She barely managed to catch herself before she tumbled to the floor. Twilight then cast a levitation spell, pulling away what clung to her face and holding it up so she could get a look at it.
It was a spider’s web, cold and shimmering as if made of ice.
Twilight struggled to calm her breathing, her voice trembling from both the cold and her fear. She began to hear the sounds again, the sound of ice hitting a glass. It came in through the door, and then slipped up above her. She almost didn’t dare to look. She couldn’t bring herself to even glance upward as the sound continued.
Then, as abruptly as it had started, the sound stopped, halting directly above Twilight’s head. Twilight’s breathing became more erratic, and her wings fluttered with an overwhelming desire to carry Twilight out the door and away. She shouldn’t look. She should just run. That was Luna’s first rule. If she encountered anything dangerous, she was just supposed to run.
But the light was so close. She could levitate it from there. She couldn’t decide whether to go forward or to go back. She knew too little about what was going on. She needed to know more to make a decision, and to know more she had to know what was above her. She had to look. She just had to tilt her head back a little bit and look.
She did just that, her heart skipping a beat when she saw what loomed above her.
The size of a buffalo at least, it looked to be a creature made of ice. A thick, heavy body with eight, thin, tiny legs that held it against the ceiling. Three body parts, one large abdomen of translucent ice connected to an equally translucent cephalothorax. In all, it was... a frighteningly sized spider. But there was something else.
Within the cephalothorax was a large, pink mass. And from the front of the spider, where its eyes and fangs should have been, poked a head. True spiders had no head like ponies, but there was no denying what Twilight saw. The spider had a head, a pink furred head with a long mane comprised of three colors: magenta, purple, and yellow.
That small utterance from Twilight’s lips caused the spider to shift. It raised and lowered a few legs while its head turned slowly, revealing to Twilight the fact she dreadfully feared. The pink mass frozen within the spider was Cadance. It was her head poking out from the front, but not because she was being eaten by the spider.
Eight eyes now dotted Cadance’s brow, each looking to Twilight with a primal hunger. Her mouth was filled with long, razor teeth, an eternal, frightening smile in every way like the one on Celestia’s face. Cadance was no victim of the spider.
She was the spider.
A low hiss was Twilight’s only warning before Cadance dropped from the ceiling, ear splitting roar accompanying her fall. Twilight screamed, magic surging as she teleported away. But it was not far. She reappeared on the surface of the bath chamber’s frozen tub. Her hooves slid, but Twilight made her struggle to stay upright as silent as possible.
Cadance was facing the other direction, legs clattering against the floor and hisses escaping her deformed mouth as she looked beneath her. Twilight had seconds before she would be seen, and the doorway out of the room stood unguarded. She could leap for it and run. The door frame was too narrow for Cadance to follow quickly.
But, in the periphery of her vision, Twilight also saw the light. It was her goal, the thing that would put an end to Discord’s game. If she left without snuffing it, then she would have to come back and face Cadance again. Escape for the moment or act to end Discord’s game. The two choices each pulled and called to Twilight, the pros and cons of each decision waging war in her mind.
She raised a hoof to take a step, still unsure what her decision was but knowing she had to start moving nonetheless. She placed the hoof on the edge of the tub, but it slipped away. She stumbled. She yelped, and it was all over.
In a moment Cadance attacked, raising her abdomen and launching a surge of icy, silken threads. Twilight was soon wrapped in the webs, yelps of panic escaping her throat as she struggled to free herself. She broke some of the threads, but for each one she snapped Cadance replaced it with ten more. She was losing sight of the bath chamber, becoming wrapped entirely in the webs.
The darkness began to close in, familiar darkness. It was so close. The walls... she couldn’t breathe. It was like a tomb, like a coffin. The threads were getting tighter. They were crushing the life from her. She struggled, but couldn’t get free. The walls were closing in. She had to get away. She wouldn’t be buried and forgotten. She wouldn't be left alone to die!
“NO!”
In a single, desperate act of magic, Twilight unleashed a heat spell. She could feel her horn scorching the fringes of her mane. But the heat she unleashed was salvation. The webbing melted away while Cadance hissed and stumbled back from the heat. Gasping and fighting free of the cocoon, Twilight clamored back to her hooves. She kept the heat spell up, spreading it further. Cadance continued to hiss and wave her legs, some of which were beginning to melt.
“Get back!” Twilight shouted, seeing not her sister-in-law and foalsitter but just the icy spider that had tried to cocoon her alive. She got down from the tub, and Cadance scrambled up onto the wall, hissing and roaring from a corner. She threw some more webbing at Twilight, but it all melted in the waves of heat coming from Twilight’s spell.
But the heat was beginning to get to Twilight as well. She was feeling lightheaded, her body struggling with the sudden change from hot to cold. She had to act before the spell made her pass out, and there was only one thing she could think to do. Turning her head, she looked to the orange light. She needed to snuff it, and so she did.
Levitating some of the melted snow and ice from the floor, Twilight threw a bucket’s worth of water into the hole where the light had been hidden. The light went out, and then came the scream. It wasn’t Cadance screaming, nor was it Twilight. The castle itself sounded as if it was screaming. Every wall, every brick, every grain of dust was screaming a mind-numbing chorus of pain and agony.
It was all too much.
~~~
Twilight awoke with a start later, unsure of how much time had passed. She got to her hooves and looked around for Cadance, but found the bath chamber had changed. The ice was gone, and the lights were lit. The bath chamber had regained what Twilight could only guess was its original splendor. More importantly, it was warm. The tub was filled with water, from which trails of steam curled into the air. The faucets on the sink were running as well, pouring hot water and steam. The whole room had a gentle, warm haze to it, and Twilight couldn’t help but stretch her wings and smile.
After being so cold, the warmth felt good.
The only thing out of place was a single candle, which lay on the floor near the far wall. Twilight picked it up with a spell, and turned it over. A single candle? Had that been the source of the orange light? It was hard to think the candle alone could be so special, but putting it out had worked. The ice was gone, and so was Cadance.
Had Cadance’s spider body melted away or did she flee? Twilight didn’t know, but she had to hope everything went back to normal once she beat Discord’s game, got back to her friends, and they used the Elements of Harmony. Yes, she could beat Discord. She was already one step closer. One light down, two to go.
Setting the candle on the edge of a sink, Twilight stood in front of it a moment to draw the warm steam into her lungs. She must not have been asleep long if the warmth still felt so good. She let her eyes slide closed. The warmth, it was like being wrapped in a nice, safe blanket. She was safe here. She had broken Discord’s hold on this part of the castle.
She was safe.
Or so she thought.
Opening her eyes, Twilight felt a pang of panic shoot through her body. She stepped back, eyes fixed on the mirror above the sink. In the thick layer of steam, words had been written.
Do not snuff the lights, Twilight!
Twilight stared at the words, then furrowed her brow. She lifted the mirror off the wall and then dropped it to the ground, causing it to shatter into a thousand pieces. She stared at the shards for a moment, then turned and trotted from the room. As she left, she spoke aloud, as if snapping at a spirit of chaos that might be listening in.
“Squad three reporting in. Still nothing. Continuing to next area.”
“Squad four, west guest chambers are clear. No sign of anypony.”
Shining Armor stood on the bandstand of the ballroom, orchestrating the command center that had been slapped together admist the party decorations. Messenger spells zipped in and out of the room, heading off to the search teams canvassing the castle. Before him, some of the unicorns in the guard were acting as dispatchers.
Others used their magic to manifest a three-dimensional illusion of the castle, allowing them to track the positions of all the search and rescue teams. Through the windows, the pegasi patrolling the perimeter could be seen flying by in regular intervals. The whole castle was on lockdown, and it would stay that way until they found somepony or some clue as to what had happened.
And for the moment, the guards were looking once more to Shining Armor for leadership. His replacement as captain of the Guard had gone missing as well.
Shining had tossed his cowboy costume aside, leaving it as a heap on the floor beside him. Most of the guards had done the same, though some still had lingering bits of their costume. There was no time to wash off makeup or to remove difficult costumes; the search had to come first. The search for the party guests, for their princesses, for Shining’s sister, and for his wife.
He was looking over the quick notes from the dispatchers, which were being shuffled to him on blank recipe cards scavenged from the kitchen. So far, no one in the castle had been found. No lingering guards from the previous shift. None of the servants, none of the staff. And worse, they had found no signs of struggle. It was as if they had all just up and vanished.
A frightening possibility that had to be considered in a world of magic and where a creature like Discord existed.
“Prince Armor.”
Looking up from his own stack of notes and messages, Shining watched as a familiar unicorn of the Solar Guard stepped up onto the bandstand. “Path Finder, do you have something?”
“Yes, sir, I double checked the matter you asked me to investigate,” Path Finder said, his tone flat and serious. It was, to a degree, not what Shining Armor had hoped to hear. He had hoped for a perhaps inappropriate but mood lifting joke. But Path Finder offered no such respite, remaining stoic as he came to a stop.
“And?” Shining asked, almost like he was pleading from some good news.
Path Finder sighed, removing his helmet and revealing some of the costume makeup he still had on. He had been dressed as the Hoofenstein monster, with fake surgical scars and a few spare, fake organs as extra decoration. He had been smiling at the party. For Shining it had felt good, like a warm sun breaking through the clouds on a chilly day, to see Path Finder being himself again, smiling again.
There were no smiles anymore, only the biting cold of an uncertain future if they were unable to locate the princesses.
“I’m sorry, sir, but most of the ponies from the top of the order of succession were at this party. There was only one in the first twenty on the list that wasn’t here. He was boycotting the party after getting pranked by Discord back at the start of fall.”
Shining groaned, rubbing his face. “How long do we have until we have to tell Prince Blueblood he’s the ruler of Equestria?”
“Princess Luna had some meetings this evening, but we’ve been able to turn those ponies away at the gate with an excuse that the princess had some emergency Nightmare Night duties to attend to. But once the morning comes, and the castle is due to open for general business, I’m afraid we won’t be able to keep this a secret any longer sir. And—”
“And the ponies of Equestria will need to know someone is leading,” Shining interrupted, his face souring as if the words had left a bad taste in his mouth. “Let’s not think about that right now. Thank you, Path Finder, for looking into that. You can join the dispatchers if you like.”
“Of course, but... sir?” Path Finder hesitated a moment. “Has there been any word about Twin Blades?”
Shining shook his head. “We haven’t found anyone from the previous shift, but don’t worry, Path Finder. We’ll find her. Both you and she got out of those catacombs alive. I’m sure she’s fine.”
“We got out of those catacombs because other ponies gave their lives, not because we knew what we were doing,” Path Finder said solemnly before turning and stepping down from the bandstand. Shining watched as Path Finder joined the dispatchers, easing the workload of organizing the search. Shining lifted a hoof and opened his mouth as if to say something comforting, but his effort was cut off by another shout.
From the entrance of the ballroom, one of the search teams returned. “Prince Armor, we found something.”
Shining stepped down from the bandstand and rushed over to the returning team. The dispatcher ponies also paused from their work, looking over to see and hear what could be good news. “What did you find?”
The squad leader lifted the item from his back, setting it down on the floor in front of Shining Armor. “It’s Philomena’s bird cage, sir. It was overturned in Her Royal Highness’s bedchamber and there were some feathers on the floor around it.”
“But... Princess Celestia never puts Philomena in her cage when she is at the castle.” Shining lifted the cage in his magic, turning it slowly. “I honestly can’t think of a time when the princess actually kept Philomena in her cage. It’s supposed to be for travel, but even then Philomena usually just sits on Princess Celestia’s back.”
“That was something else we thought of after seeing the cage, Prince Shining,” one of the guards said. “When we were heading out to the barracks, we passed by the party. We stopped a moment to look at the decorations, but thinking back, we can’t remember seeing Philomena anywhere.”
“She wasn’t at the party? But Princess Celestia always lets Philomena come to the Nightmare Night party,” Shining said, scratching his chin. “It’s the one big party of the year where the guests don’t usually complain about Philomena’s little tricks and pranks.”
Shining Armor continued to look intently at the cage, turning it around as the gears in his own mind began to spin. Everything seemed in order about the cage. The door was intact, but the lock was open. If Philomena had been inside, then why couldn’t she have opened the door for herself? Shining knew the phoenix was smart enough for that. And why would Princess Celestia put Philomena in the cage in the first place, on Nightmare Night especially?
Leaning the cage forward, Shining tried to get a closer look at the lock itself. Some of the newspapers at the bottom of the cage slid. It was then Shining caught a glimpse of something, the edge of something that had been hidden beneath the newspaper.
In a flash he set the cage down on the table, reaching inside with his magic and pulling away the newspaper in one fell swoop. He then looked to the base of the cage, eyes narrowing at what had been etched in the cage’s metal base.
~~~
The hallway bridging the royal baths was far shorter than it had been before when Twilight stepped out the door, a billow of steam following behind her. The warm air had soothed her after her confrontation with Cadance. Though, once the relief of survival had passed, Twilight had searched the room. She looked in the small towel closet and anywhere else she could think, but she could not find Cadance.
Where had her sister-in-law gone? Was she hurt? Those and so many other questions buzzed in Twilight’s mind as she returned to the dark corridors of the castle. Once more, even though she'd lit candles and lanterns as she gone, the hallway was dark. It was like something followed behind her, as if her tracks needed to be covered for some reason.
The thought of there being a stalker in the dark, staying just out of her sight, brought back the sense of unease Twilight had only just been able to free herself from.
“Just keep going, Twilight,” she reassured herself. “Just find the next light. There’s only two left. Only two left.”
She turned, using her horn to light the candles and lanterns of the hallway as she resumed her search. It was an effort that would prove fruitless later, she knew that, but it was also a distraction for her mind. Something to think about, to distract her from seriousness of all that was going on around her.
It was easily Discord’s darkest game, with a riddle just as unnerving.
Chaotic night, what a fright, soon your fears will come to bite. Change will come, cannot run, the transformation has begun. Fear takes hold, bitter cold, your minds to terror will be sold. Snuff three stars, break the bars, or suffer from the night bizarre.
Even in reading those lines from Luna’s note, she could hear the old Nightmare Night rhyme underneath. Twisted to Discord’s game, the foalish saying, meant to ask just for a sweet bite, spoke of the strange occurrences going on in the castle. Ponies, becoming horrendous things... the things they fear. What else did Cadance fear in the world more than spiders? Twilight couldn’t remember anything herself, though thinking back, she realized something.
The bathroom, when it was still frozen, resembled the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot.
“Can’t think about that right now,” Twilight said, wrangling in her wandering thoughts. “I must do what Luna’s note said. I have to find the lights and snuff them. Discord’s game will be over then. Discord may make the game difficult, but you can always win the game with him. You can always win the game with Discord.”
Reaching the end of the current corridor, Twilight found herself on a side of the castle. The grand, if dirty, windows looked out onto the grounds of the estate. Twilight could see the front courtyard, with the prancing pony statue still holding the battered and broken bat cage. She watched that statue for a time, just to see if it would move again.
It did not, much to Twilight’s relief. But, as her eyes scanned the exterior landscape, she saw something glistening in the distance.
In a dark corner of the estate, she saw the glimmer of a pink light. The next light to snuff, she could only guess, and it was hidden deep within the dead, dry corridors of a long untended hedge maze.
“Always with the mazes.”
~~~
Twilight raised the lantern she had brought from the castle, using its light to extend the reach of her own illuminating spell. The hedge maze was dead, that was the only word that came to Twilight’s mind to describe what she was seeing. The hedges, which should have been green and leafy, were nothing but dry, bare, thorny branches. Yet, the branches were still so thick and clustered, there was no way to see through. Utterly dead, yet seemed as impregnable as they had been in life.
The dry leaves on the ground crinkled as Twilight stepped forward, crossing the threshold into the maze. It smelled of autumn in the worst way. The rot of dead leaves hung like smoke. The chill in the air, which should have been heralding a happy winter, felt only like a grip of death on the lungs.
Twilight had been tempted to just fly over the maze to reach the light in the center, but something... felt dangerous about doing that. Even now, as she stepped further and began to navigate the twists and turns, her wings remained clutched tightly against her sides.
It was as if extending her wings was an invitation to have them cut off.
On hoof she continued deeper, mentally mapping the maze even though she knew Discord could easily be changing the corridors. But there were landmarks. She had seen them from an overlooking hill. There were statues placed through the labyrinth. Each one marked a four way intersection and, for Twilight, would be a means of marking her progress through the maze.
She had even found the first one.
A few turns into the branching paths, Twilight stepped into the intersection. The walls fell away, forming a circular bulge in the maze where the four paths crossed. At the center, standing on a short, square pedestal, was a statue of a sneering beast. It was a creature Twilight did not recognize. It seemed similar to a griffin, with a head, forelegs, chest, and wings that were similar in nature to an eagle. But the back half was equine in nature, not feline, and it stood taller than most griffins she had seen.
The creature’s mystery, however, lasted only until Twilight approached its pedestal. The letters were carved into a smooth part of the stone, almost like the letters on a grave.
“Hippogryph,” Twilight read aloud, her eyes wandering across the letters again before looking at the statue. Was this a long forgotten race of creature? Was it sentient, like ponies and griffins, or was it a creature of the forest like a manticore?
And... did the statue just move?
Twilight took an anxious step back, memories of the prancing pony surging forward. She watched the statue, straining her eyes and trying to resist any urge to blink. Had it moved? She had seen something, but as she watched, all she could see was a few shadows. Shadows that could be explained. Some were caused by the lantern, swinging from its handle. Others by the movement of her own horn.
Seconds stretched into minutes, and still the statue remained still as stone. Twilight’s panic began to subside, but her anxiousness remained. She didn’t turn her back on the statue, choosing instead to walk sideways and backward to one of the other paths of the intersection. Her view had changed. Now, she wished that the maze had no landmarks. That she could just wander about the dark, branching, winding paths.
Even that seemed preferable to dealing with the statues and the possible threat they posed.
Twilight contemplated ways to change the maze as she worked deeper. She thought of throwing the statues from the maze with her magic. She contemplated smashing them or, at the very least, pushing them off their pedestals. But each thought felt like it would be a transgression, like it would only be inviting the maze or something else to retaliate. She had freed the bat, and that made the prancing pony statue start to move.
Perhaps the safest thing to do was just to leave the statues alone.
Twilight came across the other statues as she delved deeper into the maze, getting closer and closer to its end and the light she sought. One was of a chimera, roaring with its lion and goat head on the front while its serpentine tail had been carved into a dreadful hiss. The sight of the hooded cobra sprouting from the back of the statue’s lion body sent shivers down Twilight’s spine. It looked ready to spit its deadly venom and to sink its fangs deep.
Twilight could almost feel the poison from the serpent's bite in her veins, as if the statute had already leapt down from its pedestal and attacked. A crawling sensation on her skin, as if it was about to melt off. An itch in her horn like it was turning to dust. Her imagination was coming up with a thousand ways the poison could affect her in Discord’s twisted game. The thoughts alone were like a venom, turning her stomach sour and legs weak. She turned and fled from the statue, needing to get away before her own imagination got the better of her.
The next statue, after passing some similar to those she had seen in Canterlot’s garden, was one of a dragon, but not a dragon of Equestria. No, this was a creature she had studied, her interest for dragons piqued when she had been told Spike was going to be her assistant and friend. Coiled, bearing claw and fang, with antlers and long whiskers, was a dragon of the eastern nations, from across the ocean. A dragon who used its serpentine body to delve to the jewel rich sands at the bottom of the ocean.
Twilight circled the eastern dragon a few times, taking in the details and grandeur of a beast she had never seen. Yet, as she came back to the front, her skin crawled. The statue’s eyes. When she first entered the intersection, the statue had been looking straight forward. Now, it felt like it was looking at her, perhaps even staring through her. The eyes were still forward, but it was looking at her. She knew it was. She didn’t know how she knew, but she knew.
She did not linger to wait and see if the feeling would fade. She left, working further into the maze, now with the added goal of getting away from the dragon statue.
~~~
One more corner and Twilight saw a flicker of light shine through the dark, dry hedges of the maze. She had reached the far end of the maze, the part buried deep in the shadow of the surrounding forest. The pink light, which she had seen as nothing but a glimmer from the castle windows, now lay before her. A single candle, with a gentle pink flame, sat protected from wind and rain in the embrace of a glass and metal lantern. The lantern itself hung from a hook that extended from the back wall of the maze, supported by a post hidden amongst the dead hedges.
Twilight stepped cautiously into the last opening of the maze, looking all around for something. Cadance, twisted by magic and fear, had been guarding the light in the royal bath chamber. Surely there was another guard, something standing watch. Maybe it watched from the shadows or from the hedges. Maybe it was perched on the branches of the forest trees that formed a canopy above the maze’s end.
She stopped dead in her track several times, freezing and listening at the slightest sound that had reached her ears. There had to be something yet nothing appeared. No spiders in the trees, no eyes in the hedges, no hiss, growl, or sound on the wind. It was quiet as death, as cold as death.
It reminded Twilight too much of the tomb she had been sealed in.
Several minutes passed as Twilight inched her way across the space, drawing within foreleg’s reach of the lantern. She could see the dancing of the flame with fine detail, see it twist and dance. It seemed almost too easy. All she had to do was open the lantern’s door and blow out light, and it would be done.
She set down her own lantern in the dirt, letting her light spell fade as she focused on using her magic to open the door. Yet, her spell slipped off the latch. Like slick ice, her magic could not get a grip. After the third failed attempt, she let the energy from her horn fade and lifted a foreleg. She was able to get a hold of the latch with her hoof, but it was then she noticed something.
Her hoof was stained black.
Quickly checking her other legs, Twilight found each of her hooves was caked with black dust, the same black dust she now noticed covered the ground around her. She turned quickly, and that’s when she smelt it. She caught a whiff of the cloud of dust she had just kicked up. It was sharp, pungent, and in a stronger dose would have likely made her eyes water.
It was the smell of ash.
A single, weak cough reached Twilight’s ears. She reignited her light spell and turned it on the ground behind her. From the thick layer of ash, something began to well up. It coughed once more, sending a small cloud of the ash into the air. It took shape slowly, a shape Twilight had only seen once before. It had been in Fluttershy’s cabin, on a day that, looking back, was far less serious than she believed.
“Philomena, is that you?”
The small figure of ash coughed once more. Then, from within, a red light began to glow. The ash shifted beneath Twilight's hooves. It was circling and gathering, growing into a massive cloud. It was like an angry thunder storm, rumbles and thunder and flashes of red emanating from within. Then, the mass shifted, extending great wings and revealing a pair of fiery eyes. Twilight’s stumbled back, coughing through the ash in the air as her eyes burned. The tears blurred her vision, but she never took her eyes off what was taking shape before her.
The ash formed a featherless skin, cracked like the bottom of a dry river bed. Through the cracks the light of the phoenix's last embers of life glowed, like enraged lava. The eyes burned like searing coals and the talons were cruel, curved razors that glowed red with heat.
It was a creature of vengeful rage she had only read about. A creature born when someone interfered with a phoenix’s reincarnation by desecrating its ashes, ending the nearly eternal cycle of rebirth. It was the final life of a phoenix, the last step before the mythical bird passed from the world. It was perhaps the only kind of death a creature like Philomena could endure.
Philomena was an ash phoenix.
“Oh no,” was all Twilight could say before Philomena took to her wings, leaving a choking trail of smoke behind her. Twilight lost sight of the pink light in the cloud and struggled to breath. She could taste the sulfur in her mouth, and she coughed to clear it from her lungs. She began to gallop, not knowing or caring which way she was going.
She cleared the smoke, finding herself back in the maze. For a brief moment she looked back, knowing the pink light was her true goal. Still, the snuffing of the light became the least of Twilight’s concerns when an ear-splitting screech cut the air above her.
Looking up, Twilight saw Philomena. She was flying, her body and trail blocking the stars like a spool of black fabric being drawn across the sky. She was on the hunt, her vengeance for some reason focused solely on Twilight. Each flap of her ashen wings sent more soot into the air, and then Philomena dove. Wings tucked, she plummeted towards the earth, like a wrathful lightning bolt from a storm cloud.
Twilight dove to the ground, flattening herself as much as she could. She felt the rush of wind on neck, heard the snapping of twigs as Philomena skimmed the tops of the hedges. Then came the cloud of smoke, a thick, choking shroud of ash. The burning in Twilight’s eyes refreshed. She coughed violently as she pulled herself off the ground.
There was heat and red glow to the cloud. The dry hedges of the maze had been set ablaze by Philomena’s talons. The maze was becoming a deathtrap. Tears poured from Twilight’s eyes, some from fear but most from the soot burning her eyes. She stumbled ahead, coughing and hacking. The cloud Philomena had left behind was dispersing, but not fast enough for Twilight just to wait it out.
Finally, she reached the edge, stepping out into fresher air. She rubbed at her eyes, trying to clear her blurry vision. There was something large and gray in front of her, but it was only when she was close enough to put her hoof on it that she realize what it was. It was a stone pedestal, belonging to one of the statues she had passed on her way in.
Twilight coughed and hacked, spitting up the ash darkened mucus from her mouth. The stone was cool, a welcome relief after being surrounded by the heat of the fires. She rested her cheek against it, her breathing finally start to calm. She just needed a few moments to recover.
It was a few moments, however, she would not receive.
A sound reached Twilight’s ears, one that set the hairs on the back of her neck on edge. It was not the screech of the predator in the sky but the growl of something else nearby. The source was the cloud she had just escaped, which was dissipating as the soot settled to the ground.
As more and more of the cloud faded away, Twilight began to see the true source of the growl. A thing of stone stood before her, marked with fractures where its joints had come to life. It had burning red eyes, similar to Philomena’s. The creature blocked the way back to the light as it growled with murderous intent.
It was the eastern dragon, and it was rearing back as fire licked at its lips.
Twilight had to dive away from the pedestal to avoid being scorched. Fire-breathing statues? Didn’t she have enough fire to deal with?! However, she couldn’t argue the fairness of the game to Philomena or the statues. No, she had to run. More and more of the maze was catching fire, the blaze feeding greedily on the dry hedges.
The maze began to come alive with the fire, like it was a whicker dragon that had been roused from its slumber. The night’s chill fled from the heat of the flames, and darkness fell back as the light of the blaze grew in strength. Shadows flickered and danced, as if celebrating the rise of a fiery master. Even Twilight’s shadow seemed to betray her, joining in the dance as she ran, fighting through the burning sensation of the ash in her lungs. The eastern dragon was joined by the chimera, which breathed fire from all of its heads, as well as the hippogryph, which joined Philomena as another aerial threat. The maze had become a blazing death trap.
What’s worse, Twilight could sense what was going on as she continued to flee for her life. Each time she tried to turn back, to maybe loop back around to try and snuff the light, her path was cut off, either by fire, by Philomena, or by a living statue. She could only ever move away from the light. She was being herded, and she didn’t want to think of what would happen if she was chased all the way back to the maze’s entrance.
For all Twilight knew, she’d be plucked off the ground by Philomena as soon as she left cover.
She needed to get back get back to the light. That would make this all stop, would make it all go away just like it did with Cadance. But she couldn’t get back on hoof, and teleportation... no, she didn’t remember what the end of the maze looked like well enough. That was the nuance to her teleportation magic: she had to know where she was going. Misjudge it and she could slam herself into the ground or even bury herself alive.
That meant her options were limited. She could try to blast her way back, use magic to blow away the fire and the dry hedges, but the fire might cook her alive before she could reach the end of the maze if she did something like that. There was another option, one that would involve putting herself where Philomena and the hippogryph statue could attack. It also, technically, would be breaking the rules of the maze.
But when her life was already in mortal danger, Twilight feared the repercussions of breaking the rules far less than she had before.
Twilight kept running, waiting until Philomena dove her again. She hit the dirt one final time, flattening herself out and waiting until Philomena had swooped by. She drew in a deep breath and shut her eyes before Philomena’s trail of ash hit her. Then, she waited, counting out the seconds and preparing herself like a runner at the starting line.
3... 2... 1... Go!
Like she had heard the tweet of a starting whistle, Twilight leapt to her hooves, spread her wings, and flew out of the cloud. Her wings caught the warm air currents from the fire, carrying her upward quickly. She kept her eyes shut and kept flying until she felt cool night air again. That meant she was, likely, clear of the smoke, and Twilight sucked in a deep breath of clean, fresh air and opened her eyes.
For a brief moment, she celebrated that feeling. The night air on her face and in her lungs, it was such a welcome relief after being trapped in the smoky inferno the maze had become. A screech from Philomena, however, brought Twilight back to her horrible reality.
The race wasn’t over yet.
Flapping her wings, Twilight flew forward, looking back only briefly to see Philomena swooping in behind her. Like a tiny bird fleeing an eagle, Twilight zigged and zagged through the air, avoiding Philomena’s beak and talons. The ash phoenix seemed even more monstrous accented by the light of the maze, which filled the area with its harsh red light.
Spouts of flame erupted from the maze as the eastern dragon and chimera statues tried to shoot Twilight down. The hippogryph statue aided in the aerial pursuit, diving and harassing Twilight so that Philomena might finally be able to end the game of cat and mouse.
But Twilight stayed ahead by luck and, at times, her own inexperience in flying. And that was all she needed to do for a few minutes, was just to stay ahead. She was just waiting for one thing, and she kept a constant eye on the back of the maze. Finally, she saw what she wanted to see. The hedges at the back of the maze were burning out. The smoke was starting to lessen.
She could see the flicker of the pink light.
Taking a few deep breaths to ready herself, Twilight banked hard and dove. She squinted her eyes against the smoke, silently praying that her vision would stay clear long enough for her gambit to work. So far, it was. Philomena followed Twilight, diving right behind the young princess.
When she was a few feet above the maze Twilight spread her wings, ending her dive and shooting forward towards the pink light. Philomena did the same, her superior flying skills allowing her to close the gap. Twilight could feel the heat on her belly and neck, the heat from the fires and Philomena’s claws respectively. Even the wing beats of the ash phoenix were ominous, like the rumblings of a volcano about to erupt.
Every instinct was telling Twilight to back away, to zip in another direction, but she stayed her course. She flew beneath the canopy of trees that shielded the back of the maze. Twilight had a small hope Philomena would not follow her below the treeline, but the phoenix would not be deterred. Philomena barreled through the branches of the trees, cutting a swath with her wings as her claws drew closer to catching Twilight.
The pink was but a few feet away. It was so close, Twilight could even make out the lantern and the little pink flame. Philomena, however, was even closer. A few inches was all that spared Twilight from being grasped by those talons, from being burned by their searing heat. It was a race, and Twilight looked to be moments from losing.
It was then Twilight turned.
Putting all her weight into a single turn, Twilight banked away at the last second. She then put her hooves down, landing and skidding to a stop as she folded her wings. Philomena screeched, not in rage but in panic, and soon after Twilight heard the sound of snapping branches and felt the impact in the earth.
Looking back, Twilight saw the results of her gambit. Philomena had crashed into the end of the maze, ash body slumped against the trees that stood on the far side of where the maze’s back hedge wall had been. Twilight also saw the lantern. It and its post had been sliced in half by Philomena’s searing claws. The shattered remnants laid scattered on the ground, and amongst them was the candle that had burnt with the small pink flame.
It had landed top down, its wick buried in the cold ground.
The pink light had been snuffed.
Twilight smiled, daring to take few steps closer to Philomena. It was done. Surely the maze would return to normal, as the bath chamber did. Green, leafy hedges and happy statues that depicted dancing ponies and not dangerous creatures.
Yet, unlike the bath chamber, things did not change. The hedges remained dead. No new life was breathed into the maze, and the fires in the distance still raged. Instead, the glowing red lines in Philomena’s ashen skin began to glow brighter, as if a fire within was growing stronger. Twilight’s mind tripped back, remembering the lore she had read about ash phoenixes. The last life stage, vengeful spirit, created by desecrating ashes, explodes when it dies.
Twilight’s eyes widened.
In a panic she spread her wings, flying back into the skies. She flapped her wings with all her strength, trying to put as much distance between her and Philomena as possible. It was, however, too little too late. The fire that had been Philomena’s life, blood, and existence came bursting forth from her body.
The force of the explosion hit Twilight, kicking her in the back like a whole army of bucking broncos. She tumbled, falling head over heels as she arced through the air, her singed tail leaving a smoke trail behind her. She tried to right herself, tried to remember what Rainbow Dash had told her to do when she was out of control, but it was simply too much.
She hit a window of the castle, breaking through the glass and crashing to the floor inside. Her head hit hard. Her vision swam, her body ached. She struggled to keep herself conscious, but the darkness soon overtook her. She passed out, there on the floor, in the pile of shattered glass as the small cuts on her body began to weep blood.
~~~
Outside the castle, the last embers of fire glistened like stars in the night. Philomena’s explosion had destroyed yet, at the same time, saved parts of the maze. The back end of the maze, and the forest that neighbored it, were nothing but a crater. But the force of the explosion had blown out the other fires around the maze, stopping the blaze from turning into a wildfire that could consume the castle and surrounding forest.
Amidst the ash and burnt branches, the shattered remains of the statues lay across the ground. The life was gone from them, their parts strewn about. The chimera’s heads were separated from their body and serpentine tail. The hippogryph, which had fallen from the air, was nothing but crumbled dust except for a couple lucky limbs. The eastern dragon had, by chance, fared the best of all them. While its head had turned to rubble, much of it’s body and its antlers were intact.
There was only one flutter of life nearby, one thing that had come to the maze after the explosion should have scared away any and all things from the area. It watched from the branch of a tree that had been spared from the fires and explosions, hanging upside down. Its leathery wings were wrapped tightly around its small frame, and its large ears stood erect, twitching and listening to the area.
The bat surveyed the scene for several minutes, ensuring the maze’s guardian, Philomena, wouldn’t find some way to rise from her ashes again. Only then, when all seemed safe and the last of the linger fires were shrinking away, did the bat spread its wings. It fell from its branch and flew into the maze, eventually landing on top of a piece of broken statue before sniffing at it intently.
Pinkie Pie bounced towards the festival games of Nightmare Night, her seapony tail swinging behind her and smacking unsuspecting ponies in her wake. Pinkie’s candy bag bulged, threatening to burst at the seams from the weight of the sugary confections it carried. She was heading towards Applejack, who was packing up her family’s traditional apple bobbing booth.
Applejack couldn’t help but chuckle at Pinkie’s enthusiasm, pushing back the hat of her train engineer costume. “Glad you had fun, and congratulations on the Oogie Boogie Blocks. All I heard ponies talking about was how much fun they had in that part of town.” Applejack put her hooves on the apple bobbing trough and tipped it over, pouring out its water into a nearby storm drain.
“I know! It was so much fun! Oh, and look what I got out of it!” Pinkie Pie’s hoof dove into her candy bag. She rummaged around inside it for a few moments before pulling out a king size chocolate bar. “Isn’t it the biggest hunk of milk chocolate you’ve ever seen?”
“Well, I don’t know about that, but it sure is big though.” Applejack set the trough back down on its bottom. She then smiled and waved at a pony coming up behind Pinkie. “Better late than never, I suppose. Right, Rarity?”
Rarity sighed as she came to a stop beside her friends, wearing the costume she had finally brought to her lofty standards. She had chosen to go as a mad scientist who would bring true fashion to the world, but that meant making a lab coat fashionable. A task that had proven challenging since the lab coat kept ending up looking like just a regular coat when made fashionable. The final bit of inspiration that had made the coat presentable was to cut it short on the bottom and combine it with long boots. Black boots on her back legs and purple on her forelegs that reached up to her gaskin and knee respectively.
“After finally finishing it I couldn’t just let it hang in the closet like all the other ones,” Rarity said, giving a mall twirl so at least Applejack and Pinkie Pie would be able to appreciate the whole design.
“I don’t understand why you don’t just wear one of the old costumes you made,” Applejack said as she pulled the empty bobbing trough to the back of a nearby cart. “It’s not like anypony has seen them anyway.”
Rarity huffed. “Applejack, as a mare of fashion I can never wear an outfit I made for a previous year. It would just be—”
“Unfashionable,” Pinkie Pie answered in a dramatic gasp, briefly putting her forehoof against her head.
“No, it would be—” Rarity began, only to blink and look to Pinkie, bewildered. “Actually, yes, that is correct.”
Pinkie Pie smiled, like a student complimented for giving the right answer by a teacher. She then dove her nose into her bag of candy, rooting around inside as empty candy wrappers dropped to the ground.
“Well, maybe you’ll have better luck next year,” Applejack said. “Still, while you’re here, mind helping me load this stuff into the cart.”
“There’s no time for that!”
Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack looked skyward and stepped to the side in the nick of time. Rainbow Dash came in fast, barely slowing down as she put her hooves to the ground and skidded to a stop. It was a landing fitting of her costume, a jumpsuit like the one worn by legendary stuntmare: Daredevil. “We need to get to the library now!”
“Why? What’s wrong?” Applejack asked, lines of concern already forming on her brow.
“Something’s happened to Twilight!”
~~~
“Everyone in the castle vanished?!” five voices chimed in unison.
Spike could only nod his head as he hurriedly climbed a ladder, his eyes searching the shelves of the library. All five of Twilight’s friends were looking up at him from the floor, each unable to believe what he had just told them. “That’s what the letter from Shining Armor said.”
“But how could that happen?” Rarity asked.
“I don’t know,” Spike said, taking a book of the shelf. He turned around on the library ladder, using his tail to keep himself balanced while cracking the book open in his claws. “He said he’d explain more of what happened when you got there. He’s sending the fastest pegasi he can with a royal chariot to pick you up.”
Applejack snorted, stomping a hoof. “It must have been Discord! He’s up to his old tricks again. He probably booby trapped the party when the princesses had him decorating.”
“No, he wouldn’t do something like this,” Fluttershy protested, her voice taking on a rare tone of certainty.
Rarity put a hoof on Fluttershy’s shoulder. “Not to cast doubt on him, Fluttershy, but who else do we know that could make everypony in the castle just disappear? I doubt the princesses even have the magic necessary to pull off such a feat.”
“If Twilight’s estimates on Princess Celestia’s and Princess Luna’s magic levels are at all correct, they’re far from it.” Spike said. He descended the ladder with the chosen book tucked under his arm.
“Twilight was estimating how much magic the princesses have?”
Spike nodded his head as he reached the bottom of the ladder. “She was paranoid that the princesses would want to take a vacation sometime and that they’d ask her to control the sun and moon in their absence. I told her it probably wouldn’t happen, but she wanted to do the estimates anyway.” He set the book down on the reading table before climbing back up the ladder to find another.
“Still, that only proves my point, Fluttershy,” Rarity said. “Who else but Discord could be responsible?”
“Well, I didn’t say that.” Spike grabbed the library shelf, using it to push him and the wheeled library ladder to the right.
Rainbow Dash flew up next to Spike, hovering over his shoulder as his he drug his claw across the spines of books. “What do you mean? Does Shining Armor suspect it was somepony else?”
“He sent something with his letter, something he and the guards found on the bottom of Philomena’s cage. It’s a magic rune.”
“A magic spoon! Oh, does it make cereal taste super yummy?” Pinkie Pie asked. She bounded up beside Spike’s ladder and now held the base with her forehooves as her eyes glinted with anticipation.
“Not spoon, rune.” Spike corrected. “It’s a kind of magic picture, like a recipe for a spell.” He took another book of the shelves and descended the ladder before holding the book open for all the mares to see. There was a cleanly drawn illustration, a circle with squiggly words and lines crisscrossing its center. “Here, see this? This is a magic rune designed to freeze water. If you put magic into it, it will make the spell happen.”
“Huh, I didn’t even know things like that existed,” Applejack said.
“It’s a very old form of magic,” Rarity said. “It has not been practiced in a long time because of how complex the diagrams have to be and how dangerous they are. If there is a flaw in the rune or if it gets damaged, then the spell can backfire with unpredictable results.”
Rarity glanced away from the book, noticing that all her friends were suddenly staring at her. “What? My life may be devoted to fashion, but I’m also a unicorn. I’d be going against my nature if I didn’t take a few classes in magic. After all, don’t pegasi take flying classes and don’t earth ponies take... take...” Rarity fell silent as she motioned towards Applejack and Pinkie Pie. She then coughed, politely backing away from the hole she had almost verbally stepped into. “Anyway, they found a spell rune on the bottom of Philomena’s cage?”
Spike nodded as he closed the book and set it on top of the first tome he had pulled from the shelves. “He sent it along with his letter. He’s contacting some professors from Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns to help figure out what the rune was designed to do, but he sent it along here so I could try and help as well. As Shining said in his letter, the fact they found this in Philomena’s cage could mean the someone planned this in advance.
“He’s also...” Spike hesitated, wringing his claws a moment as he looked at the mares. “He’s also afraid that the only way a pony could put something like this in Philomena’s cage is if it was an inside job.”
Rainbow Dash swung her forehooves and shook her head firmly. “What!? No way! There’s no way anypony would betray the princesses like that.”
“Unless it was somepony who wasn’t a pony,” Applejack said plainly, her brow furrowed as she looked to her friends. “We all know at least one big bug who’s got a knack for crawling in and hiding where she isn’t wanted.”
“Heavens, is it possible she’s behind this?” Rarity asked, glancing around as if she would see changelings crawling on the walls like the insects they were. “Is that why Shining wants us in Canterlot?”
“No, the reason he wants you all there is he thinks you can help find everypony.” Spike walked to Twilight’s writing desk, digging around in one drawer before pulling out a key. He then went over to the magically protected display case which contained the Elements of Harmony. “She was wearing her crown with the Element of Magic when she disappeared, and Shining thinks you might be able to use your necklaces to help find her.”
“Can they even work without the Element of Magic?” Fluttershy asked as Spike gave each mare her respective necklace.
“I don’t know. Last time we tried to use them with a mare down was when Discord was causing trouble, and Twilight made me the ‘new Rainbow Dash.’” Spike saved Rarity’s necklace for last, helping her put it on while she used her magic to hold her mane out of the way. “But this is different, so maybe we’ll get lucky.”
“It makes sense to me,” Applejack said. “The Elements of Harmony are connected, just like we are to Twilight. Why, I reckon these little stones want to be reunited with the one in Twilight’s crown just as badly as we want to find her. We just have to let them show us the way.”
“And even if they don’t work, we can help Shining Armor with the search in Canterlot.” Rainbow flew to the door, pulling it open and looking expectantly outside. “We aren’t going to rest one second until Twilight, the princesses, and everypony else has been found. Now, where is that chariot? If they’re the fastest pegasi Shining could find they should be here by now.”
~~~
Twilight woke to a ringing in her ears. When had she set her alarm clock? Why? It was the day after Nightmare Night. She was going to sleep in. She groaned, feeling something sticky on the side of her head. Candy in the bed. She should never eat candy in the bed. Now she’d have to wash all the sheets, but first she had to shut off the alarm clock. The ringing was too much.
Lifting a hoof, Twilight felt around for her clock. She rolled onto her back, knowing she usually liked to sleep facing the window when she was on her side. She kept feeling, trying to find the alarm clock. Though, the ringing was too quiet for her alarm clock. Maybe it was the egg timer in the kitchen.
“Spike,” Twilight mumbled, still trying to feel her way around her bed. Maybe she hadn’t fallen asleep on her bed? It felt hard... maybe it was a pile of books. It wouldn’t be the first time she had slept on bed of hardbacks. “Whatever you're cooking, it’s done. Shut off the timer.”
Finally, Twilight cracked her eyes open. Instinctively she winced, trying to protect her vision from the glare of the sun through the window. But there was no glare. She opened her eyes further, seeing the cold stone walls of a dark corridor. She shifted, trying to sit up and feeling the sharp edges of the shattered glass beneath her. The ringing her ears ground at her mind, but slowly her thoughts fought through the noise. She began to remember. The fire consuming the maze. Philomena stalking from the sky. Each piece began to fall into line as Twilight pulled herself up off the floor.
She turned back and saw the small puddles of congealed blood, of her blood, amongst the shards of glass. She could feel the cuts. The stickiness in her hair, which she thought had been candy in the bed, was a head wound that had swollen up into a lump. Twilight used a hoof to feel its shape, wincing with each ginger touch. It felt like she had sprouted another horn behind her ear.
“Where am I?” Twilight asked to the darkness. She went to the window she had crashed through and looked out to the maze. She wanted to see what had happened, see what remained, but the night was too dark. It was darker than she remembered it being. She used to be able to see the maze from the castle, but now it was nothing more than an inky blackness. Maybe she was on the dark side of the castle, away from the moon. Maybe the moon had moved. Maybe there were thick clouds blocking the sky.
No matter the explanation, the darkness looked wrong to Twilight for a reason she couldn’t explain. It made a tightness form in her stomach like she was being gripped there, as if something had sunk its claws into her. It felt like she was running out of time.
Moving away from the broken window, Twilight took a few steps down the hall to the window’s neighbor. She conjured a light spell and looked at her reflection in the glass. Twilight looked like she had been tromping through the forest, a prickly forest with nasty branches that snagged and cut her up. Her mane was still done up like Celestia’s, though it was now dotted with bits of rubble and glass. And her crown...
Where was her crown?
Twilight looked back to the layer of broken glass that had been her bed moments before, and her moment of panic left as quickly as it came. She reached out with a levitation spell, the shimmering grip of her magic levitating her crown off the floor. She found so much solace in it. She held it before her face, looking into the Element of Magic which sat perfectly mounted into the metal. She picked a few bits of glass out of her mane before settling the crown back on her head. It hurt, a little. The crown was rubbing against the lump behind her ear, but its weight against her brow was comforting. It was her Element, and it represented the bond she had with her friends. A bond that gave her strength, no matter how far away she was from them.
“Just one more, Twilight,” she said to herself. “One more light and Discord’s game will be over. I just have to keep looking.” She took a step forward, igniting the nearby hallway lights with her magic as she walked down the hall. “I can do this. I. Can. Do this.”
Twilight faltered in her steps. She winced, bit her lip, and took her weight off one of her hooves. Her magic enveloped her leg for a moment, then she winced again before removing a grain of glass that had remained wedged in one of her wounds. “Ow.”
~~~
With a whimper, Twilight poked her head out from behind the edge of the door frame, looking into the room beyond. The hallway she had landed in was more like an enclosed patio. It separated the neighboring rooms from castle’s exterior wall, providing a place to enjoy sunlight and acting as a connection between those said rooms. The corridor, however, didn’t connect with the rest of the castle’s hallways. The only way for Twilight to get back, to continue her search, was to go through one of the adjoining rooms.
She had tried to do just that. She had gone to the nearest door and opened it, only to find the door opened into a stone brick wall. It was like the room beyond had disappeared from existence, or that the doors themselves were just meant for decoration. Twilight had even tried blasting her way through, but getting through one layer of bricks only revealed another layer underneath.
Only one door was more than just decoration.
On the exterior, the door had been unassuming: simple wood with a single sign nailed to the front. A word was cut into the sign. Little flakes of red in the grooves of the word’s letters were evidence the sign had once been painted, but even without the color the plaque was clearly legible.
The word “Infirmary” stood out, making a smile crawl onto Twilight's face as a flicker of hope sprang to life inside her. Though any medicines might be expired, there was a chance she could find clean bandages to at least cover the cuts she had gotten from crashing through the window.
But upon opening the door, Twilight was met with a sight that sent chills down her spine. It made her heart sink while her stomach tried to force itself and all of its contents up her throat in a single upheaval.
The room beyond was like a house of mirrors that had been assembled from centuries’ worth of yard sales. Mirrors, of every shape and size, lined the walls. Mountains of mirrors stretched from the floor to the ceiling, leaving only a few narrow paths that lead into the depths of the room beyond. It was like someone was trying to recreate some craggy landscape, like the mountain ranges beyond Equestria’s borders, using nothing but mirrors.
For a moment, Luna’s rules rang in Twilight’s head. Rule three: she was supposed to smash any mirrors she found. But Luna couldn’t expect her to break all of these? That would take too long, and who knows what might hear her. She knew, at the very least, that Celestia still stalked the hallways, and who knew what else waited in the dark.
That thought led to another, one that bullied all others out of Twilight’s mind. All the mirrors were a sign of something. She hoped that there was another explanation for it. Maybe Luna had done this, gathering all of the mirrors and putting them in a single room. Maybe it had been Discord himself, keeping a storehouse of mirrors ready to replace those that were broken.
The simplest answer, however, was the one Twilight dreaded the most. Like the royal bath chamber or the maze outside, there was a chance, a good chance... it was almost a certainty that something stalked the valleys between the mountains of mirrors. There was something in this room, and for a moment Twilight contemplated her other options.
She could just break another window in the hallway, blast it out with magic. Then she could fly out and get back to the front entrance. That route would ensure she’d never have to know what lurked in the room. But another thought crossed her mind, making Twilight frown as she saw her silhouette reflected in the few mirrors that happened to be facing the doorway. If this was like the bath chamber and the hedge maze, then there was a chance the final light was inside. She couldn’t see it, as she had been able to see the others, but this was Discord’s game, wasn’t it?
The light was in this room, and if she snuffed it the game would finally be over.
It would all finally be over.
“Okay, Twilight, you can do this,” she said to herself, taking her first cautious step into the room. Everything was peaceful and calm. Nothing seemed ready to leap out at her, but then again that’s how it always started. There would be nothing, and then the moment she got close to the light, whatever guarding it would make its move. It was... a strange security blanket, when Twilight thought about it further. There was nothing to fear until she found the light.
Still, her nerves continued to grow as she walked the valleys between the mountains of mirrors. There was a heavy smell of dust in the air, though she caught whiffs of other strange odors. They’d disappear as fast as she they came, but it was never the same smell twice. Sometimes it was sweet, other times it was rotten. Sometimes it was like sniffing a flower, others were like the Cakes’ twins dirty diapers.
But perhaps the worst part was the mirrors themselves. They reflected the light from her horn, playing tricks on her eyes. Sometimes she’d be blinded by a mirror that bounced her light back into her eyes. Other times, it would be movement in the periphery of her vision. A twitch of something that would make Twilight snap her head to one side, only to realize that it was her own reflection.
Like the corridor of ice, the mountains of mirrors seemed to extend further than should have been physically possible. Twilight lost sight of the walls, and the mountains of mirrors grew, pushing away the ceiling until it too faded into darkness. It was like the doorway had been a portal to another world, a world far different from the Equestria she knew and cared for.
Twilight couldn’t say how long she had been wandering the paths of the foreign, reflective landscape before she saw the glow of something in the mirrors. She saw it in the distance, a few piles of mirrors that were lit up from one side. For a moment, Twilight believed it could possibly be the third and final light she needed to snuff, but... it didn’t fit. The previous two lights had been candles. What she saw had to come from something larger, something brighter.
The closer Twilight drew, the more she was able to make out. A few glimpses in mirrors showed her a campfire and pedestals. She saw an open basin amidst mountains, and an equine figure walking back and forth. For a brief moment she thought it might have been Princess Luna, but that didn’t make sense. Luna was asleep in that guest room. As Twilight understood the rules, Princess Luna was trying to put off the transformation that had befallen Princess Celestia, Cadance, and Philomena.
The odd smells in the air grew more frequent and began to remind Twilight of the times she had been at Zecora’s when the zebra was working on a potion. It was the smell of ingredients being opened, prepared, and eventually added to a brew. For a moment Twilight even hoped that, perhaps, it was Zecora. That she would find a friendly face that could help her snuff the final light.
But Zecora was not at the castle’s Nightmare Night party. If Twilight did come across her, it would be a sign that Discord’s game had stretched further, perhaps encompassing the entirety of Equestria.
Only one final bend in the path separated Twilight from the basin amidst the mountains, and she slowed down as she drew closer. She took each step with caution, raising and lowering only one hoof at a time as she inched herself closer.
The bits and pieces she had only seen reflected in mirrors came together. The fire was at the center, sitting beneath a cauldron that bubbled and broiled with a sickly green brew. The pedestals were piles of mismatched mirrors that dotted the rim of the basin, each one paired with a larger, freestanding mirror.
But a detail Twilight had not seen before were the shrunken heads.
Each pedestal displayed a shrunken pony head. No larger than her hoof, each head had its lips and eyes sewn shut by orange toned thread. Some didn’t even have pedestals, hanging from sticks and strings attached to large standing mirrors. It was grotesque, especially since Twilight recognized a few ponies from the party. Though, they were also ponies she had seen in other parts of the castle, alive and well. How could they be in two places at once?
Were these just reproductions or were the ponies she had seen alive just illusions?
Twilight didn’t know, and perhaps that was worse than knowing for sure. For, the shrunken head nearest to her looked dreadfully familiar. White fur, with a mane that was the original her current style was trying to mimic. It looked like Princess Celestia’s head, and Twilight’s fears were confirmed when she stepped close enough to read the wooden plaque hung haphazardly from the pedestal. It was Celestia, her sewn shut eyes staring into a mirror that didn’t show a true reflection of the things around it.
Instead, the image reflected in the glassy surface was of the princess silently screaming. She was bound in chains, unable to escape, as a hand, rimmed in red, reached out to her from the darkness. It stretched towards her forehead, always inching closer but never reaching the princess. Twilight watched with horrified eyes, fighting every urge to rush forward and try to help.
The situation was similar for every shrunken head. The mirrors reflected back the pony the head belonged to, each one trapped in twisted scene being played on an endless loop. One showed a pony being chased endless by a pack of dogs through the streets of the city, each dog foaming at the mouth. Another showed a pony with a noose around her neck as she stood in front of a crowd of ponies, a microphone before her mouth and notecards scattered at her hooves.
Dozens of silent horror shows, each one as unique as the shrunken heads themselves.
So silent was the scene, the interruption of hoofsteps made every muscle in Twilight’s body tense. She looked to one side, eyes searching for the source of the sound. At first she could see only the cauldron, but then a figure loomed behind it. Coming from the far side of the basin, the equine figure stepped into the light of the fire.
The pony’s coat was like dark, dying embers, and the tatters of what looked to be a sweatervest clung to his chest. From the gangly remnants of his orange mane and tail hung more shrunken heads. They clattered against one another quietly, like leaf-filled paper bags. The sound would not have been audible at such distance if there weren’t so many of them. Bits of feathers, body paint, and a bone necklace completed the look. “Witch doctor” was the only title Twilight could give to the pony.
To the pony that lacked a head of his own.
“The Headless Horse,” Twilight whimpered, watching from her spot at the edge of the basin. The witch doctor tossed something into the cauldron, causing its contents to froth and boil over. The liquid sizzled as it seeped down the sides of scalding hot metal. He then moved to one pedestal of mirrors, the only one lacking a head. The Headless Horse adjusted and straightened the plaque for that pedestal, then began walking to the rest.
Like a clock spring being wound, the grip of panic tightened on Twilight’s body as the headless pony drew closer. All the versions of the Headless Horse story Twilight had heard ran through her mind. While the facts varied, one remained constant: he took your head. Immediately Twilight’s imagination ran away with her. She saw her own shrunken head on the last remaining pedestal. What her mirror would show she couldn't say, but that didn’t seem to matter compared to the prospect of being headless.
Instincts told Twilight to run, to just turn and flee down the path that had brought her to the witch doctor’s lair, but one thing held her hooves to the ground. There was only one light left to snuff, and it had to be here. Where else would it be but here, being guarded by such a gruesome creature. She had to find it. If she found the light and snuffed it before the Headless Horse noticed her, then she could end Discord’s game.
Yet there was no light to be seen. There was no glimmer in the mirrors and no glow in the distance. There was just the cauldron’s fire, and that didn’t make sense. All the other lights were candles. She wouldn’t need to try and put out the campfire, would she? It wasn’t beyond Discord to play around his own rules. The time he brainwashed her friends in the maze came to mind as an example.
The rhyming riddle he gave never said the lights would be candles.
The Headless Horse was now just a few steps away, and Twilight heard her heart pumping in her ears. She sucked in a breath as every fiber of her being prepared to run away. The witch doctor was going to lunge at her any moment. She needed a plan. She needed to jump away when he attacked. Needed to take off and fly around. Yes, she’d do that and then try to get to the cauldron. She’d overturn it with her magic and douse the fire with the brew. Unless the brew was flammable. If it was, then turning it over might set the whole place on fire.
She had already escaped one flaming death trap. She didn’t need to push her luck with a second.
But then what should she do? A wind spell to blow the fire out. What if she just tried to smother it? Would the Headless Horse be able to stop her?
No matter what the plan, Twilight waited for the Headless Horse to make the first move. He was right beside her now, with the menacing stature of a horse. Twilight’s head barely even reached its shoulder blades. Any moment now the creature would pounce her. She knew it. He took another step. Twilight shook in her hooves. When was he going to attack? He was right there. He could just tackle her before she could get away. Why hadn’t she taken off already?
The witch doctor took another step and another, continuing his patrol without pause. Twilight turned her neck very slowly, her mind racing. He hadn’t attacked? Why hadn’t he attacked? Hadn’t he seen her?
Her eyes drifted to the stump of a neck. He... couldn’t see her, could he? No eyes. Relief washed over Twilight like the warm water from a shower head on a cold morning. She exhaled, even laughing a little as the air passed her lips.
That was when the Headless Horse stopped dead in his tracks. The many shrunken heads hanging from his tail and mane twisted to face Twilight. Their ears were turned forward, and after a moment’s hesitation the Headless Horse himself turned and stomped toward her.
Twilight sucked in another deep breath, as if trying to recapture the relieved laugh she had let escape. She then held it, taking a few steps back as the Headless Horse brought himself within inches of her nose. The ears of the shrunken heads pivoted, searching for any sound.
Second after second crawled while the Headless Horse loomed over Twilight. Her lungs began to burn and her body began to rebel. Her diaphragm shoved at the air in her lungs, trying to expel it from her body like her stomach would vomit food. Her cheeks puffed and she choked on the held breath that was spoiling inside her. Still, the Headless Horse stood before her, silent and still as a statue as the ears of his shrunken heads searched for her.
The world began to dim to Twilight’s eyes from lack of breathing, her body nearing the brink of either taking a breath or passing out. It was then that the Headless Horse finally turned, stepping away and returning to his patrol. Twilight’s eyes followed the witch doctor as he walked away, her body holding on a final few moments until the Headless Horse was once more on the far side of the cauldron. Only then did she dare to breathe. She exhaled the air she had trapped inside and greedily sucked in a fresh breath.
Retreating from the edge of the basin as quietly as possible, Twilight hid behind the bend in the path as she waited for her breathing to return to normal. That had been too close. She leaned her back against the nearest pile of mirrors, her eyes wandering to one mirror on the far side of the path. It was turned at just the right angle, letting her see the Headless Horse’s lair as he continued his patrol, passing by each of the shrunken heads.
The headless witch doctor was blind. He had no eyes of his own to see and no ears of his own to listen. But somehow he was able to listen with the ears of the shrunken heads. But with their eyes sewn shut, the heads could not see for him. That gave her an advantage.
The last light, it had to be the fire beneath the cauldron. If she could extinguish it, the game would be over. Smiling, Twilight called on her magic. It was a bit far away, but even from where she sat she could reach the fire. Her magic formed a barrier around it, an air tight seal. Slowly, the flames began to die, Twilight smiling as she watched the fire smother itself with its own smoke.
Then there was triumph. After a few final flickers the fire was out and the mountains of mirrors were plunged into darkness. Twilight smiled and laid back. It was over. She had won. Soon, everything would go back to normal. Discord would pop in, perhaps curse at his failure, but he’d honor the game. She had to believe he would. He’d honor it and everything would go back to normal. Cadence, Philomena, and Princess Celestia would be back to normal.
It was all going to be okay.
So Twilight stared into the darkness, waiting to see or feel something change. But there was nothing. She didn’t hear Discord’s voice or the sound of him snapping his claw. The cold surface of the mirror she rested her back against remained the same. The smell of the pungent potion ingredients lingered in the air. It all stayed the same. Nothing changed.
The game wasn’t over. The campfire hadn’t been the final light.
Twilight climbed back to her hooves. Her triumphant smile fell into a deep frown. Her eyes searched the darkness around her for something. She brought a hoof to her head, as if she might reach into her brain and find the fact she had missed. If that wasn’t the final light, then where was it? It had to be here. Why else would there be a creature like the Headless Horse? Was this a red herring meant to put her off the trail? Then Discord would have to have known she would come to this room? Had he planned for her to get caught in Philomena’s explosion?
Twilight trembled, looking over her shoulder as if expecting to find Discord’s eyes looking at her from the dark, silently laughing at her the way only his eyes could. Had she been playing into his game the whole time? No, that couldn’t be right, could it? She knew better than to be tricked like this. Discord had gotten her once with his riddle, when she thought the Elements were in the hedge maze at Canterlot Castle. She was sure she had understood it correctly this time.
A clack of stone against metal reached Twilight’s ears, and light began to return to the reflective hills. The Headless Horse had relit the fire and had already returned to his patrol of the shrunken heads. It must have been important for the potion, though Twilight could not tell what purpose the brew had. Perhaps it was how he shrank heads, or perhaps it was the potion that caused the horrific, silent visions to dance in the mirrors in front of the heads.
No matter what, Twilight had lost the one reason to stay at the Headless Horse’s lair. There was no light here to snuff. So, she turned and snuck quietly back into the dark mountains of mirrors, retracing the path back to the hallway where she would use her first plan. She would break a window, fly outside, and get back to the front entrance of the castle.
~~~
Twilight looked on into the lair of the Headless Horse, who was still patrolling the shrunken heads. It was hard for to say how long she was gone. Her sense of time was fading like smoke in the air. She knew it had been a long while, though. Her legs were sore and her eyes heavy. She had been walking for so long, trying to find her way back to the hallway where she had crashed.
But she had been unable to find the way. The paths between the hills were a maze of their own. The mirrors made for poor landmarks, and the strange effect of darkness on the castle plagued her as well. She had tried breaking mirrors to mark her path, but like the candles and torches in the corridors, things reverted back to their previous state whenever she got too far away.
She had no evidence to prove it, but she was sure she had been walking in circles. Circles that had brought her back time and again to the lair of the headless witch doctor.
There was only one hope Twilight saw. The Headless Horse had come into his lair from the other side when she had first discovered the basin amidst the mirrored mountains. There had to be a path on the far side. A path that might finally lead her out of the room and to the rest of the castle. But to get there, she had to cross the Headless Horse’s lair.
Twilight stood back a few ginger steps from the edge of the Headless Horse’s patrol route, contemplating her options.The simplest thing to would be to fly over. Yes, just glide through the air, well above the reach of the Headless Horse, and land once she was well out of earshot. She wouldn’t have to worry about the Headless Horse hearing her. Even if he managed to pick up on the sound of her wings, he didn’t pose the same threat as Philomena had. The Headless Horse had no wings.
Twilight flexed the muscles of her wings, extending them from her body in preparation for the simple, straight forward, foolproof plan.
“Ah!”
The stab of pain from her wing hit Twilight hard, and she was unable to quiet her voice before the yelp escaped. The Headless Horse hesitated only a moment before he came galloping at her, hooves like thunder against the floor. He was like a force of nature, and in her panic Twilight could only think of one thing to do. She called on her magic, blinking away just before the Headless Horse could trample her.
She reappeared just a few feet back, landing on one of the towering piles of mirrors. Her hooves scrambled, trying to get a grip until she managed to grasp the top of a long, full body mirror. She held tight, belly pressed against the surface as her legs dangled back. She was not far from the safe, level ground. She’d just have to slide a few inches down the mirror to be back on her own hooves.
But Twilight did not dare make a move as her eyes remained locked on the Headless Horse. The monstrous equine was standing exactly where she had been, hooves shifting anxiously as the ears of his shrunken heads twitched and turned in every direction on. Twilight didn’t even dare to breathe as she watched, waited, and mentally begged that the Headless Horse would not hear her. “Please, don’t come closer,” she thought to herself. “Don’t turn me into a shrunken head.”
For several tortuous seconds, the Headless Horse remained resolute, not moving an inch as his shrunken heads searched for any sounds. But finally he turned away, returning to the patrol he maintained like it was an unforsakable duty.
Twilight let herself breathe again when he turned away, sliding down the mirror and putting her hooves back on solid ground. She then looked to her wing, carefully extending it. It had been sore, like much of her body. After enduring an explosion and a crash landing through a window, Twilight was thankful she wasn’t in worse condition.
She had not, however, noticed how injured one of her wings was. The joint was swollen. When it was folded against her side, it wasn’t so bad. It just ached a little. Extending it, however, sent a bolt of pain shooting up her nervous system to stab at the core of her brain.
Flying wasn’t an option anymore.
Gingerly tucking her wing back against her side, Twilight looked to the Headless Horse. He was still walking the edge of his lair, his path still passing by each pedestal and its accompanying shrunken head. His pace was constant and controlled. The steady rhythm of his hoofsteps was like the reliable clicking of a metronome.
She still needed to get across to the far side of the headless witch doctor’s lair. She had to get to the other path and hope it would lead her out of the mirrored mountains. But she couldn’t fly, and once more teleportation felt like a risk. She could not see the path on the far side. Her view was blocked by the cauldron. And her teleportation spell was not silent. There was sound when she disappeared and another when she reappeared.
She had lucked out with her previous teleportation spell. The galloping of the Headless Horse had masked the sound of her blinking back into reality. She could not count on being that lucky a second time. There was only one way across. It was possible. She just had to do all she could to ensure the Headless Horse did not notice her.
So Twilight began with a single, tentative step. As if creeping across a creaky floor, she gingerly tipped-hoofed into the lair of the Headless Horse. She watched the witch doctor intently. With each step he took, Twilight tried to take one of her own. It was difficult. With the difference in their heights, the Headless Horse took much longer strides then Twilight could manage silently. She had to take steps when she could, sometimes waiting for the witch doctor to take five to six strides before finally making another move of her own.
It was an excruciating experience. She had never had to think so much about the mechanics of walking. She had to control every muscle with such precision to ensure the sound of her steps was minimized. A gnawing headache began to form at the base of her horn, and the aches and pains of her body magnified from the strain. But through it all, her plan was working.
The Headless Horse had not noticed her, and she had reached the halfway point.
She now stood next to his bubbling cauldron, the pungent smell of the ingredients mixing to form a coordinated attack against her nose. The few sweet smells she had caught on the wind when approaching the witch doctor’s lair were washed away by the odors of rot and decay. The smell alone made Twilight want to gag, but she forced down the urge to cough and refocused on the Headless Horse. She took another step with him, synchronizing the fall of her right front hoof with his back left. They touched at the same time, any sound she made was muffled by his own hoofstep.
She was that much closer to the exit.
There was only one more thing Twilight had to circumvent before she’d have a straight shot to the other path. The empty pedestal stood before her. There was no shrunken head, and its mirror acted as a mirror should. It reflected the surroundings as they were and nothing more. It would take a few steps to walk around the pedestal, to give it the wide birth Twilight felt was necessary. But that was okay. It was just a few more steps. Everything was going well so far. She could afford to take a few more steps.
One step to the right. Another step to the right and slightly forward. A third step forward and she was already halfway passed the pedestal. The path was within clear sight now, and the urge just to teleport to it was overwhelming. But Twilight stuck to her plan. She’d make no sound, raise no suspicion. The Headless Horse would not even know she was there.
The Headless Horse was looping back around to Twilight’s right side as she took a fourth step, putting the pedestal next to her left wing. She could now see the reflection of the mirror in the periphery of her vision. She could see the shrunken heads, but something was wrong. The mirrors, they weren’t showing the horrors anymore. They were all showing the same thing: a welcoming office. There was a comfortable looking chair and a large couch where the pony the accompanying shrunken head belonged to sat on, as if waiting.
Twilight turned her head to the right, stopping in her tracks as her mind tried to piece together the discrepancies in what she was seeing. When she looked directly at the mirrors paired with the shrunken heads, they showed horrific scenes. They showed ponies being mauled, being chased, and otherwise being tormented. But the mirror next to her, when it reflected the horrible visions of its brothers, they changed.
And the Headless Horse changed as well.
The Headless Horse’s reflection was an ember orange pony in a festive, pumpkin themed sweatervest. He was a pony that looked stressed and worn out. He was muttering something to himself and looking to the shrunken heads. Twilight tried to make out what he was saying, but could only pick up on a few words from reading his lips: “Can’t,” “Problems,” “Own,” “Doctor,” “Rock,” and “Mountain.”
The Headless Horse stepped out of the mirror’s view, and so too did the reflected pony disappear. There was a temptation in Twilight’s mind to stay where she was, to wait until the Headless Horse had made another lap and to try and read his lips once more. But Luna’s note rang in her mind as well. She had to smash the mirrors. Why did she have to smash the mirrors? Were they part of Discord’s game? Were they meant to confuse her?
If that was their purpose, they were working.
In thinking of the draconequus, Twilight’s eyes were drawn to the empty pedestal that accompanied the mirror. She turned her head, her mane brushing against the stack of mirrors and the plaque that had been hung from one, small nail. Like the other plaques, this one had been engraved with a name. Seven letters that only drove Twilight’s mind into greater confusion.
DISCORD
The pedestal beside her was meant for Discord’s shrunken head, but that didn’t make sense. Discord would never let himself get caught by one of his own traps unless it was to make some cruel joke. Twilight expected to see the letters in the wood morph as she watched them, to change into her name perhaps. But they remained, as permanent as they could be.
It was too much to process. There were too many questions that needed to be answered, but Twilight knew she couldn’t stay and try figure everything out where she was. She had to get away from the Headless Horse. Then she could sit down, rest, and try to make sense of everything. She was so close. All she had to do was turn her head back and—
The sound of the wooden plaque clattering the floor made Twilight’s heart skip a beat. Her mane, in its reproduction of Princess Celestia’s hair, had brushed against the plaque. When she had turned to look at the pedestal the slight nudge had caused no harm. When she turned back, however, her mane caught on the edge of the plaque, tugging at its corner gently. Twilight hadn’t even felt it, but the result unmistakably echoed across the mirrored mountains.
From behind, Twilight could already hear the thundering gallop of the Headless Horse.
She leapt forward, avoiding an enraged stomp from the witch doctor by mere inches. She galloped, closing the final few feet of the Headless Horse’s lair and entering the winding path that had been her goal. The Headless Horse, however, did not give up his pursuit as he had before. He was like a living earthquake, every step sending tremors through the reflective hills that bordered the path.
Mirrors began to fall from the piles, crashing against the floor in explosions of shards. Twilight had to dodge left and right to avoid the rockslide of glass, metal, and wood. She stumbled and leapt. She skidded around turns and shielded herself magically against mirrors she could not avoid. She did everything and anything she could to keep galloping.
To slow down was to become another shrunken head of the headless witch doctor.
But a glimmer of hope showed through the dark. The endless expanse of reflective hills was receding. The ceiling and walls of the room were coming back into view. Twilight even caught glimpses of a door in some of the mirrors. There was a way out, and she was getting closer. She just had to keep running. The burn of her lungs, the throb of her strained muscles, they had been hindrances earlier when she fled from other monstrosities in the castle.
She was numb to that pain now. To be tired, sore, and alive was a million times better than what would happen to her if she was caught by something like the headless witch doctor. You never wanted to be caught by the Headless Horse. No matter the form, no matter how he appeared, and no matter how you told the story, you couldn’t let yourself get caught.
If he caught you, you were never heard from again.
A clatter reached Twilight’s ears, rising out from the cacophony of stomping hooves and falling mirrors. It was a thick thud accompanied by the scraping of metal against stone. It sounded too big and heavy to be a mirror, and soon Twilight caught a glimpse of its source. She was nearing the exit. A few more bends in the path, and she would have been able to escape.
If Princess Celestia had not just broken down the door.
The sun princess stood in the doorway, lips still turned into a sneering smile. Drool dripped to the floor as the light from her horn flooded the room. She was still on the hunt, her eyes focused like those of a hungry predator.
Twilight looked back over her shoulder. The Headless Horse was chasing her and Princess Celestia was now at the exit, blocking the only way out. She was trapped, stuck between two creatures who wanted nothing more to put an end to her existence, either as a meal or a shrunken head.
What could she do? There were no offshoots on the path. She couldn’t turn around and go the other way. She couldn’t fly. All she had was her magic, but even that would be difficult to use. She couldn’t concentrate on anything but running. Going this fast, sprinting this hard, and pushing through pain took all the mental fortitude she could muster. She would not have even been able to sustain the light from her own horn if the spell required even a scrap of concentration.
She rounded the last bend in the path. It was just a straight shot to the door, and Celestia had seen her now. The princess unleashed her gruesome roar again, her mouth and jaw stretching and unhinging like the maw of a snake. The princess began to gallop at Twilight, the thunder of her hooves mixing with the sound of the Headless Horse. They were like two trains barreling towards one another on the same track, and she was stuck in the middle.
Two trains on the same track with no way to avoid one another.
It was her last hope. A last desperate chance, and Twilight seized it with her mind and soul. She slowed her speed, still running but not at a breakneck pace. She cleared her mind, even as the Headless Horse and Celestia drew in. One spell, that’s all it would take. One dangerous, blind teleport. She could not see where she would land. If she teleported too high, she would fall and could injure herself. If she sent herself too low, parts of her legs could get magically fused to the floor. Too far to the left or right and the surrounding mirrors would become part of her anatomy.
So many risks, only once chance, and with Celestia and the Headless Horse inches away, Twilight took the leap.
She blinked out of existence, disappearing moments before the Headless Horse and Princess Celestia collided.
Twilight reappeared after the collision had occurred, her hooves reaching for the ground. She had been a little high. She had stumbled a little bit. But she had performed the spell within a safe margin for error. She had done it and gladly galloped towards the open door even as her legs felt like they were turning to jelly. She got out into the hallway that adjoined the Headless Horse’s room. She then turned, calling on her magic to pick up the door that Princess Celestia had beaten down.
It was then, when she was looking back, that Twilight caught a glimpse of something. Celestia was now in the throes of combat, she and the Headless Horse duking it out there amongst the mountains of mirrors. Celestia cast magic and tried to sink her teeth into the Headless Horse while he fought like a primitive equine, swinging his forelegs and trying to land the occasional buck.
That, however, was not what drew Twilight's eyes. She looked in the mirrors surrounding the pair, her eyes fixed on the reflections. She saw, once more, the plain, simple, ember-orange pony in a sweater vest, just as she had seen him in the mirror’s reflection back in the Headless Horse’s lair.
But what she didn’t see was Princess Celestia.
No, the mirrors did not reflect Celestia’s white coat. They did not reflect the princess’s mane, still dyed purple to match Twilight's normal style. They did not reflect a sun cutie mark. No, they reflected a black coat and a starfield mane. They reflected piercing emerald eyes, and a purple, splotchy cutie mark with a crescent moon.
Celestia’s reflection was that of Nightmare Moon, the only semblance between the two being their twisted mouths filled beyond capacity with drool-dripping fangs.
Twilight stared for several seconds before the crash of breaking mirrors brought her back to reality. Celestia had just blasted the Headless Horse into one pile of mirrors. Perhaps it was the end of the fight. Perhaps it was just the first devastating blow of many. For Twilight, it didn’t matter. She refocused her magic, hauling the door back into its frame. She used her magic to repair the hinges and latch as much as she could.
She then turned and ran, trying to put as much distance between herself and that door as possible.
~~~
Exhausted, hungry, and aching, Twilight leaned her body against the cool, comforting stone of the castle’s corridor. She couldn’t say how far she ran. She didn’t know for certain if she was safe from Celestia or the Headless Horse. It truly didn’t matter. She needed to stop. She needed to rest. She needed the nightmare to be over.
Legs giving out beneath her, Twilight slid down until she was laying on the ground. Tears slipped from her eyes. It was too much. She couldn’t do it by herself. She needed help. She wanted her friends. She wanted her brother. She wanted her sister-in-law. She wanted her mother and father. She wanted the game to be over.
Bringing her legs close to her body, she began to curl into a fetal position. She grabbed her tail with her forehooves, holding it. She trembled, thinking of Celestia, Cadance, and Philomena. Had they tried to snuff the three lights as she had? Was that what happened to a pony if they failed?
What about Luna’s rules? Princess Luna had said the rules would keep her safe, but Twilight felt they had done nothing but lead her to the darkest horrors of the castle. Those rules were to keep her safe, but now she was bruised, beaten, and bloodied. She couldn’t fly. She wouldn’t be able to save herself if Princess Celestia found her right now. It was... it was just over.
The only comfort was the looming embrace of sleep. She wanted to sleep. She didn’t want to see the end coming. She wanted to be asleep when the Headless Horse or Celestia or Cadance or Philomena or whoever finally caught up with her. It would be over quick if she got taken in her sleep.
For once, she wanted to go someplace small and quiet. She gladly pick being buried alive in a casket over this. She’d trade her bed for a stone tomb and let Spike seal her in every night like a vampire if it meant she didn’t have to deal with this. She wanted to scream her plea bargain to the darkness, in hopes that it might give her the peace and solitude of the tomb.
But she still feared Princess Celestia. She was afraid her own mentor, a pony she looked up to above so many others, would round a corner with that sneering mouth full of teeth. And this, perhaps, was the greatest pain. Celestia had fallen to this darkness, had failed at Discord’s game.
What hope did she have of succeeding?
“Please, anypony, I need help. Please,” Twilight whimpered. She took one forehoof from her tail, rubbing at her eyes to try clear her tear blurred vision.
And it was after that, when she opened her eyes to look again, she saw a light. It was down the hallway, coming from a room with a cracked door. There was a sound in the air, a scraping of metal against stone. Twilight pressed herself against the wall, fearing the worst, but nothing came from the door. It just remained cracked, light seeping between its seams while the scraping sound continued.
Twilight stared at that door for a long time before finally mustering the strength and courage to get to her hooves. She walked gingerly, muscles aching from the strain they had been put through. She second guessed her decision with every step. She turned her back on the door more than once, intending to just walk away.
But the light was warm, like the light in the room where Luna slept. Maybe this was where Luna was sleeping. She had just seen Celestia. She could have been back in that part of the castle. Luna’s room was a sanctuary against everything, a place to be safe. She could sleep there and recover her strength.
It was like finding an oasis in the desert, and Twilight wanted to believe it was real more than anything. She wanted to believe it wasn’t a trap or some other part of the sick game. So she raised a hoof, placed it on the door, and pushed. The light poured over Twilight, and she stepped into the room.
It was a guest bedchamber, very similar to the one where Luna slept. The light was coming from a lantern hanging from one of the bed’s posts. The furniture had been shoved around, leaving a single large part of the stone wall exposed. One pony sat facing that wall, a royal guard of Canterlot.
The mare was lost in a dream, like so many other ponies in the castle. But this mare was one Twilight recognized. This guard was a pony she had met that fateful night, one of the few to survive the trip into the catacombs of the ancient castle. It was a guard who possessed two swords. One lay on the ground near her flank. The other was held in the mare’s teeth, being used as a tool to scratch at the wall.
“Twin Blades,” Twilight said, stepping up behind the mare. She reached out a hoof, but then retracted it. She didn’t know what would happen if she disturbed Twin Blades. She might start to change, like all the other ponies Twilight had seen. But that concern fell away to other, more pressing thoughts as Twilight's eyes moved to the wall.
Words had been haphazardly scratched into the stone, all seemingly done by Twin Blades’ and her sword. Some things were repeated ad nauseum. “Mirrors,” “Library,” and “Five Lights” dotted the wall at different sizes and angles. Other phrases appeared only once.
“Don’t Snuff The Lights”
“Truths Mirrored are Lies”
“Lies Mirrored are Truth”
“Not Discord”
At the center of it all, scratched with the largest lettering and with the deepest cuts, were two words. Two words that left Twilight’s jaw hanging as her mind reeled in disbelief. Two words that brought into question everything she had done. Two words that made other oddities she had seen seem like more than just random occurrences.
“Hold it! Hold it! I think I feel something happening. Yes, I think... wait... oh no! Keep it together, girls! Keep it togeth-ah!”
Rarity’s yelp of panic was the final sound before the pyramid of five mares collapsed into a heap on the floor of the ballroom. Guards, who had been watching hopefully, rushed forward to help the mares back to their hooves. Rainbow Dash, however, had no patience for assistance. By the sheer force of her own frustration, she pulled herself free of the pony pile before looking back at her friends.
“That’s the fifth time we’ve tried that stupid pyramid, Rarity. It doesn’t work!”
“Well, I don’t see you coming up with any bright ideas,” Rarity snapped back. She offered a quick smile and quiet thank you to the guard who had just aided. The moment the polite pleasantry was complete, however, her brow furrowed, and she glared at Rainbow Dash. “And, before you say a word, doing a sonic rainboom in the middle of the castle ballroom is still not a good idea.”
“I wasn’t going to say that,” Rainbow Dash argued, glaring at Rarity with her forehooves crossed, hovering just above the ground. “But since you mentioned, yeah, I still think one of my rainbooms would work.”
Rarity slapped her hoof against her face. “Oh, of all the thickheaded things.”
“Hey, are you saying I have a thick head?”
“Oh, no darling, I’d never say that,” Rarity replied with a smile, her voice sweet. A growl then entered her voice, pent up frustration flowing venting like the heat released when opening an oven. “I’m just saying there’s a reason that, when you crash, everything seems to break except your skull!”
Dragging her hoof across her face, Applejack turned away from her friends as the argument broke out. Rarity and Rainbow Dash went at it. Fluttershy kept trying to calm the disagreement while Pinkie Pie flip flopped over who she agreed with. It was the same thing that had happen just ten minutes earlier, the first time their frustration had reached a boiling point.
“Any of y’all having better luck than we are?” Applejack asked as she approached what had been the refreshment table for the castle’s party. The guards had been picking at it since the search had began, using the snacks to try and keep their energy up. Most of it was gone at this point, but there was more than enough punch left. Applejack poured herself a cup before turning to look at Shining Armor. He was holding his own cold, ice-filled cup against his forehead.
“No, all we’ve managed to find are more spell runes,” he answered. He took a drink from his before pressing the cup back against his head. “The detector spell Spike sent has been really helpful. The runes are littered across the castle. Somepony’s been planning this for a long time, but we still haven’t been able to find any clue that could tell us where everypony went. What about you? Have you gotten anything out of the Elements?”
“Not even a twinkle. Twilight’s always made it look so easy, but I don’t know if we’ll be able to do this without her and the Element of Magic. We’ve tried standing in every kind of shape Rarity can think of. We’ve tried shouting. We’ve tried singing. I just don’t know what else we can do.”
“It’s okay. We knew from the start that getting the Elements of Harmony to work with a piece missing was going to be a long shot.” Shining Armor swigged down the remainder of his punch before tossing the paper cup into the nearby garbage can, which had been pulled in from the kitchen. “We’ve finished checking the west side guest rooms for spell runes. There’s lots of open beds if any of you want to get some sleep.”
“Thanks, but I think we’ll be able to go a little bit longer. After all, Rainbow and Rarity still have enough energy to argue.”
The small, verbal jab at the situation made Shining crack a smile for a brief moment before his lips fell back into a worried frown. He turned away, returning to the bandstand which had become the nerve center of the search efforts. Applejack lingered by the refreshment table, refilling her cup and taking another deep swig. A bit of punch dribbled from her lips, dripping down to her Element of Honesty. Cursing under her breath, Applejack set down her cup and grabbed a napkin, trying to wipe off the punch before it got sticky.
As she tried to clean the necklace, Applejack looked at the Element. The irritating orange, stubborn, refusing-to-work, apple-shaped jewel. That was one thing that had confused her right from the start. Yes, she was orange, but the apples on her cutie mark were red. Why wasn’t her element a red apple or even a green apple? The gem looked more like a tangerine than an honest apple.
Some of Applejack’s frustration vented as she let her mind wander and wonder why her jewel was orange, but the jewel also brought back memories. So much had changed since they had first used the unassuming jewels. As crazy as Pinkie Pie was, Twilight was the one that seemed like a magnet for trouble. Ponyville was never quite the same after that brainy unicorn moved into the library.
Yet, even with all the trouble Twilight brought in her wake, Applejack wouldn’t have wanted a thing to be different. They had gotten through thick and thin as friends and had become better friends because of it. And that was what mattered. Twilight was their friend, and they’d find their friend even if they had to search every mile of Equestria themselves. It didn’t matter if they never got the Elements of Harmony to light up again.
It was then a glint caught Applejack’s eye, a small sparkle that preluded a weak but warm glow. Her jewel of her necklace was lighting up just a little. The metal parts grew warm against her fur. Her element was awakening, and as it did, Applejack smiled while wiping the napkin one final time across the gem’s surface.
“Greatest power anypony’s ever known, yet yer as simple as biting into an apple. It ain’t about trying to get ya to work. It’s about finding Twilight,” Applejack said to herself as the glow from the gem grew brighter, as if responding positively to her words. She tossed the used napkin into the trash then walked back to her friends. Rarity and Rainbow Dash were now giving one another the silent treatment. Fluttershy was trying to convince Rainbow to apologize while Pinkie Pie was acting out an apologetic puppet show, trying to inspire Rarity to do the same.
Applejack whistled, drawing the attention of the four mares and several of the guards in the room. “Girls, I think I’ve figured it out.”
~~~
Twilight laid on the bed of the disheveled guestroom, resting on her side as she stared into the distance. She looked at the bare wall of the room, where Twin Blades continued to scratch at the stone with her sword. The same wall where the words, including the phrase “Luna Lies,” stared back at Twilight, as if silently mocking her.
Her mind was fractured on whether or not to believe the words. On one hoof, it fit with some of the discrepancies she had faced in her original understanding of the situation. On another, she couldn’t think of any creature that could do this much except Discord. Who else could warp reality to such an extent? Who else could make monsters out of ponies she cared about?
On still another hoof, there was a chance the words were another part of the game. Discord could be trying to dissuade her from snuffing the final light, to question herself. But on her fourth and final hoof, she could have misunderstood everything from the beginning. After all, when she and her friends first met Discord, she had been so sure the Elements of Harmony had been hidden in the Canterlot Castle maze. But she had been wrong then.
Could she be wrong now?
There was no way to know what was fact and what was lie. Even physical evidence had to be questioned when you were dealing with Discord, if she was dealing with Discord at all. If she wasn’t dealing with the believed-to-be-reformed spirit of chaos, then there were so many other questions to be asked. If it was someone else, how did they do it? More importantly, why did they do it?
She wished she could talk to somepony, to get another opinion on all the thoughts rattling around in her head. She wanted to talk to Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Cadance, her friends, to hear them say it was going to be okay. She also wanted to talk to Twin Blades. If the words scratched into the wall truly belonged to the solar guard, then Twin Blades knew something. In her mind could be a single fact that could help clear up Twilight’s own thoughts.
If only she knew a spell. Sure, Twilight knew several charms that were close to the effect she wanted. Her memory spell could make a pony remember who they are, but that’s not what she needed. She needed to know what Twin Blades knew, or at the very least, she needed to be able to view Twin Blades’ memories. She knew no spell for that, and trying to guess at it would put Twin Blades at risk.
Twilight needed to do research, but for that she needed a library. The castle had one. Luna had mentioned it, and Twin Blades had scratched the word “Library” into the wall in several places. But Twilight also remembered Luna’s rules. The library and the halls surrounding it was were Princess Celestia’s territory. To go there would be putting herself at risk. She would also be ignoring the single remaining light.
If Luna’s words were true, if what Twin Blades had scratched on the wall was just another part of Discord’s game, this could be what Discord wanted. Perhaps he had planned for her to get caught by Cadance or Philomena. Perhaps now he was trying to prevent her from finishing the game as it was intended.
But to snuff the final light, when there was a possibility that was the wrong thing to do...
Twilight cursed, getting up from the bed. Though she was still mentally exhausted, her body had rested. The aches had eased and wounds had scabbed over completely. She couldn’t fly—her wing was still too injured—but she wouldn’t let that stop her.
She didn’t know what the right decision was, and when that happened she needed to trust her instincts. And right now, her instincts were telling her to go to the library, find a spell, and get more information about what was going on.
She needed to know more, or risk making an irreparable mistake.
~~~
Inching her head to the side, Twilight peeked around the corner. She cast out her magic, her tiny orb of light floating slowly through the air. She scanned the corridor ahead of her with the illumination spell. There was no sign of Princess Celestia, no sign of the Headless Horse, and no sign of some yet unencountered horror in the dark. That was good, though Twilight didn’t let her guard drop.
She had scouted the hallway, and now she had to scout the connecting rooms. She licked her lips as the magic from her horn grew stronger. A rectangular shape, a magically conjured mirror, joined the sphere of light. Twilight then directed the two spells, using them in tandem to check the rooms adjacent to this particular hallway. She opened each door, using the light and mirror spells to check the rooms, working with the same finesse as a dentist with her tools.
This had been Twilight’s procedure since departing from the room where Twin Blades remained, still scratching words into the wall. It was a time consuming procedure, but Twilight knew her next encounter with one of the castle’s horrors might be her last. Her escape from Princess Celestia and the Headless Horse had been luck. If her blind teleport had gone even a little bit differently, she could have injured herself and been unable to defend herself.
Her extra caution also came from one simple fact. She knew she was treading into dangerous territory. If there was any truth to be taken from Luna’s rules, Princess Celestia’s hunting grounds surrounded the library. That meant that, if the princess got away from the Headless Horse, she’d likely return to her territory.
So Twilight knew she had to be cautious but also move with some efficiency. The longer she dawdled, the greater the chance she’d run into Celestia, or the princess might pick up on her scent. She had to keep moving, and for the past several hallways she had just done that.
She was being as systematic as possible in her search, mentally mapping her path. She had to be sure she wasn’t going back over places she had already searched. She also had to be sure she could find her way back to Twin Blades. The search for the library and the appropriate memory spell would be pointless if she was unable to get back to that particular room. For all that to work, Twilight had to maintain a detailed map in her mind. She could leave no marks in the path or track her progress with lit candles and torches. No, the castle’s nature prevented that. Once she got too far away, the lights would be snuffed and any marks would be erased.
It was so nerve-wracking, like the castle itself was erasing every trace of her existence.
Twilight couldn't focus on that mystery, though. She had the plan ahead of her. Find the library, find the spell, see Twin Blades’ memories, and then use that new information to decide if snuffing the final light was truly the right thing to do.
And it seemed she had finally accomplished the first step of her plan. At the far end of the corridor, she had been using her light and mirror spell to explore stood a pair of large doors. Her magic had opened those doors, and with the combination of her two charms, Twilight was able to see inside the distant room. She saw shelves filled with books.
Without a doubt, Twilight knew a library when she saw it.
There was an urge in Twilight just to rush to the library, but she held herself back. She had to stick to her procedure. It had kept her safe so far, and she wasn’t about to abandon it.
She rounded the corner, entering the hallway. She pulled shut all the doors she had opened, then returned to the end of the corridor from which she had entered. There she laid down a spell, a trip wire that would make a very unique, unignorable sound if it was triggered. It was her early warning.
Yes, she could not know for sure the spell would remain when she went into the library. But so far the castle’s nature of undoing her changes didn’t occur unless she got too far away. A single hallway’s length seemed to be a short enough distance where her spells would remain. She had to hope that would remain true once she went into the library. Otherwise, she would have no warning should some dark horror start following her trail.
The setting of the tripwire spell was the last step though. With a small sense of safety, Twilight now turned and trotted to the library doors. She stepped through, eyes quickly scanning for some new nightmare. When she saw none, Twilight promptly turned, shut, and locked the doors behind her. She was in the heart of Celestia’s territory now. For all she knew, she had entered the den of her snake-mouthed mentor.
There was no telling when Celestia could return, but a locked door would at least slow her down.
Tripwire in place and doors locked, Twilight felt it was safe enough to really take in her new surroundings. The library was an impressive sight. Not as grand as say the Crystal Empire’s or Canterlot’s library, but the sight of bookshelves stretching from the floor to the ceiling was like a warm blanket for Twilight. She was in her element in this place.
The library itself, from the perspective of its main entrance, was lopsided. To Twilight’s right was the majority of the shelves, stretching out into clean rows and columns like soldiers of literature. On the left was a reading area. The room was capped with a half-circle wall striped with tall, thin windows. Comfortable chairs and tables, intended for reading, stood surrounding a cold fireplace at the crest of the wall’s half-circle.
Twilight approached that fireplace. Lighting a nice, warm fire appealed to her, and a stack of firewood next to the hearth made the opportunity too inviting to resist. She checked the flume, stacked the logs, and ignited a bit of kindling with a spark of magic. A few moments of magical nurturing later and the fireplace crackled and popped with flames. Immediately the warmth washed over Twilight, and she soaked it in as she let her eyes wander.
“Doesn’t look like there’s a card catalog,” she muttered, though she was the only one to hear the observation. “It must be a private collection. That’s okay. There’s not that many, and I’m sure they’re organized by subject. I just have to find the books on magic.”
Despite Twilight’s attempt to reassure herself, other thoughts swirled in the back of her mind, whispering and clawing at her optimism. The books could easily have no rhyme or reason to their placement. If that was so, she doubted she’d have enough time to check even this relatively small library before something or someone came pounding at the door.
Shifting to warm the other side of her body, Twilight turned her head away from the rows of shelves and looked to the fireplace. There was a mantel above the hearth, on which sat a line of what Twilight could only describe as glass cases. Empty wooden stands of varying shapes and sizes stood contained within rectangles of glass. There were no labels to indicate what might have been there, though one of the six display cases was occupied. It held a single scroll, carefully rolled and supported by a pair of Y-shaped wooden poles.
Twilight’s vision, however, soon focused on the wall behind the mantel. The ambient light from the fireplace revealed a painting hanging on the wall. The portrait was huge, as wide as the chimney was across and twice as tall as Twilight. The frame looked like it was on the verge of collapse. Its wood was brittle, partially burnt, and pulling apart at the seams.
The painting, however, was pristine. The delicate brushstrokes depicted a summertime scene atop a hill. A tall pony posed with wings spread grandly while, in the background, a castle stood amidst a dense forest. White coat, pastel mane, and a gentle, motherly smile Twilight knew all too well.
“Princess Celestia,” Twilight whispered, the words escaping her mouth like thieves in the night. She couldn’t help but stare at the painting, baffled by its mere presence. The portrait was too flattering to be part of Discord’s game. Maybe it was an antique, something the castle’s true owner had bought at an auction. It didn’t seem that old, but she had seen some impressively restored artifacts in Canterlot.
Through the running confusion in her mind, a smile crawled onto Twilight’s lips. It was really a good portrait. It was helping her remember the real Celestia while burying recent memories. That was the real Celestia, the way she was supposed to be. Whatever this game, whether it was caused by Discord or not, Twilight knew she had to figure this out. For Cadance, for Philomena, and for Princess Celestia.
“Don’t worry, Princess. I promise I will figure this out. I just need that—”
A cacophony of snaps and thuds, like the rumble of thunder, made Twilight jump. She spun on her hooves. Her eyes first moved to the door. She expected it to be broken down or buckled from the weight of something smashing against its far side. The doors, however, stood tall. Her eyes then scanned the room. She looked for some figure, some beast looming in the dark she had previously missed. All the while she was mentally scolding herself. She had let her guard down for a painting. Who knows what could have crept up behind her while she had been staring at the wall.
Yet, there was no evil librarian or creature made of book pages. She was still the only living soul in the library. What she did see, however, was a pile of fallen books next to a splintered shelf. Like the frame of the painting, the wood on the shelves showed their age. One shelf had given up the ghost, snapping under the weight of the books it supported. The timing was unsettling, and Twilight’s eye continued to scan the room for something that could be blamed for the collapse.
She began taking tentative steps, eyes and ears shifting back and forth. Almost like she was crossing several dozen streets in quick succession, Twilight formed a rhythm. She took a few steps, looked left and right, and then repeated as she moved towards the collapsed shelf. Every ten steps she stopped to look back at the library’s door, checking to be sure it was still closed. It felt like the books were bait, luring her into some trap, yet everything continued to remain as it was.
Twilight reached the fallen books unharmed. She could see the broken shelf and lingering bent nails. She tried to see some sign of foul play. She used a charm to try and detect some kind of magic and looked for some evidence of tampering. Yet, there was nothing. The shelf looked as if it had simply failed from age and a lack of maintenance. And, once more, it was a strange dichotomy. The books were pristine, as if they had been freshly printed, unlike the aged shelves.
Time seemed only to ravage the furniture that held such precious knowledge, leaving the wisdom within the book pages unharmed.
Without even thinking about it, Twilight began to pick up and stack the books. She couldn't just leave them on the floor after all. She began forming stacks, placing titles that looked like fictions in one pile while organizing the others by subject matter. There was a book on cooking and another on modern weather control concepts. It was as Twilight feared: The library seemed to have no organization. Books of such different topics were just thrown on the shelf next to one another. A book entitled Fine Teas and Coffees of the World was sitting right next to Whispered Songs, a piece of classical fiction. Next to both of those was a spellbook: Spells and Enchantments of the Mind.
Twilight paused on that tome, cracking it open. She checked the table of contents, and then quickly turned to a specific page. There, written in fine lettering across the top of the page in question, were the words “Advanced Memory Viewing.”
It was the spell she needed, laid out before her in clear and concise instructions. The pony whose memories being viewed had to be willing, and it was not a perfect recollection. You get bits and pieces, mostly blurred visuals and muffled sounds except for the things that the mind had been focused upon. It was relying on the subject’s recollection, not like some other memory spells she had seen which were, in truth, mixed with temporal spells to get a more accurate result.
It was not perfect, but it was what she needed. Twilight couldn’t help but smile as she shut the book. She finished quickly stacking the other books into a single tall pile, forgoing her usual orderly tendencies in favor of haste. She then turned and trotted back towards the door, carrying the book in her magic. Twilight left the library, pausing only momentarily to ensure the hallway beyond was safe before slipping outside.
It was a rapid departure, one that had been watched by a pair of keen, unblinking eyes.
~~~
Retracing her steps flawlessly, it did not take long for Twilight to return to the room where Twin Blades sat, still scratching at the wall with her sword. The Solar Guard had etched a few more words into the stone and was now working on the third letter to a new one. It was the one difference Twin Blades had compared to the other mindless sleepwalkers in the castle. The others performed acts ad nauseum without yielding any result. Twin Blades was, somehow, being productive. She was trying to get a message out.
And now, Twilight felt she had a way of receiving that message was.
She prepared the spell quickly. First, she shoved the bedrooms dresser across the door. To perform the spell would involve her entering a hypnotic state. She didn’t want anything intruding into the room when she couldn’t defend herself.
Second, she had to position herself. She had to sit back to back with Twin Blades, a thankfully easy step since Twin Blades was facing her wall etchings. Twilight borrowed a pillow off the bed and got comfortable, using the books guidelines to position herself at an ideal distance away from Twin Blades.
The third step involved casting preparatory spells. A tether between her mind and her own body, so she would not get lost in the memories and be unable to return. Then, a tether between herself and Twin Blades, which would act like a conduit between their two minds.
After that, only one thing remained. Twilight had to project her consciousness out of her body. It was, to a degree, like the astral projection spell she had learned from Luna. Her mind had to leave her body and travel to Twin Blades’ thoughts. Then, if her presence was welcome, she would be able to look into Twin Blades’ memories. If she was rejected, her mind would be driven back into her own body. It was all relatively safe, according to the book.
Of course, that was all assuming she got the spell right the first time.
Still, Twilight knew she had to at least try. So she took a cleansing breath and shut her eyes. She called on her magic, forming the spell while reciting the book’s mantra in her head. It was part self-hypnosis, part magic, and part just going to sleep. The body rested while the mind wandered. Her mind was a cloud, drifting away from her earthly body but still connected, as if tied together by a string. Her mind could wander to wherever it wanted but would never get lost.
She was a leaf of the breeze, being blown from a tree to a nearby pond. From the home she knew to a new place, with its own feelings and nature. Her mind was calm. Her body was sleepy. Her consciousness was slipping away, pouring out of her head like a graceful waterfall. She was stepping into another plane of existence. She was entering a place few ponies had seen with their mind’s eye. The astral plane, where flesh and material things were transparent. There was no moon, no sun, just the calm darkness and the twinkling lights of minds and souls that, together, formed a place with the same beauty as a pristine night sky.
The spell began to take effect, a tingling sensation creeping across Twilight’s body. It was a kind of paralysis that occurred naturally when a pony was sleeping. The muscles in her body were turning off. They were relaxing, regenerating, and that was okay. This was what Twilight wanted. Her body was peaceful, calm. Her mind was ready to wander. The door was open; she just had to move through it. There was no stepping. Her consciousness had no hooves. She was a balloon on a string, floating wherever she wanted to. She could go anywhere.
She chose to float out the door of her mind.
In a blurry shift of colors, like watercolors flowing across a paper canvas, the astral plane came into focus. A field of stars, each one representing the mind and soul of a pony. It was a familiar sensation, like being submerged underwater on a pristine summer night. Twinkling stars, a sea of lights that were beautiful both in appearance and in the lives they represented.
But there were differences to the astral projection spell, sensations that were not like the other times she had cast it. For one thing, she felt the magical tethers on her consciousness. It inspired thoughts of her library. The smell of the books. Spike’s smiling face. The simple warmth of having a place to call home.
The other tether was pulling on Twilight gently. She could not feel anything from this tether, but knew it was her link to Twin Blades’ mind. She let her consciousness be pulled by that tether, seeing she was being drawn closer to one star in particular. It was a dim star, weak... but it was constant and unwavering. It did not twinkle as other stars did.
She would be in Twin Blades’ memories soon. Until then, she let the focus of her consciousness wander. She could see the clusters of lights that represented distant towns and cities. There were a lot of stars above her, though. It was like a city in the sky. Were they near Cloudsdale? Or was Cloudsdale near them? It was hard to say for sure when the city of pegasi could move as easily as a boat on the water.
There were also several stars nearby. A few hundred points of light surrounded Twilight’s consciousness. It was hard to judge distance, but she picked up on a feeling of fear as she focused in on the nearby lights. Were these the stars of the ponies trapped in the castle? They seemed too close, yet Twilight could think of no other explanation. Perhaps they appeared closer because of the differences between the memory spell and a standard astral projection charm.
The proximity of the other stars, however, wasn’t the only thing out of place. The other stars were tethered. Like the charms Twilight had cast on herself, every other nearby star had a tether connected to it. Some were thin, like spider’s thread. Others were thicker, like kite string or yarn. Yet, no matter the difference in diameter, all the threads had some commonality. They were all the same color, a steely gray, and they were all connected at the same point.
One star in particular was the linchpin. That one light twinkled a great deal, like it was a candle struggling to stay lit in the face of an unforgiving wind. Even as Twilight’s consciousness was drawn closer and closer to Twin Blades’ mind, she could not take her attention away from that one light.
There were a few broken tethers hanging limp from that central light, four in total if Twilight was counting correctly. There was also one tether that was a different color. Instead of gray, one of the lines was purple. Twilight’s eyes began to trace the path of the off-color tether, watching it weave amongst the others before reaching a single star.
Twilight’s consciousness began to enter Twin Blades’ mind. The astral plane began to fade. But before the spell could complete, Twilight was able to see where the one off-color tether went. The purple line connected her own star to the central one. And, from her own home star, she saw the dangling remains of a steely gray tether that had been broken.
The astral plane was gone. Twilight... no... she wasn’t Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was Twin Blades of the Solar Guard. She could remember graduation day from the training camp. Her parents were there, and her professors. But... no, she didn’t have professors at the training camp. Yet, she did have professors. She remembered attending classes on magic. But why would she attend classes on magic? She wasn’t a unicorn.
But Twilight... no Twin Blades... no Twilight... she remembered using magic. Levitation, teleportation, transfiguration: those were all spells she knew. She had to have a horn, but she wasn’t born with one. No, she was born with wings. She could remember learning to fly when she was young. But, no... she remembered learning to fly from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. She didn’t know them when she was young. They taught her to fly when she first got her wings, for the coronation. But... why would she need any of that? She wasn’t a princess, so she wouldn’t get coronated, and she wouldn’t need to get wings because she had always had them.
Was she a unicorn or a pegasus? Had she trained with the Guard or as a student of magic? Did she have friends in Ponyville or play cards with other soldiers in the barracks? Was Shining Armor her commanding officer or brother? Was she supposed to guard Princess Celestia or learn from her? She didn’t know, but she did know. Yet she didn’t know, yet somehow she knew both were true.
Who... who was she? Where was she? What was going on? Why was she looking into a mirror?
A mirror... a mirror where she saw a familiar figure standing. It was her reflection... but... no, it wasn’t. It was Twin Blades’ reflected in the mirror, with her eyes shut as if she was sleeping while standing. But... she could see the the mirror. How could she see the mirror if Twin Blades’ eyes were shut? That meant she wasn’t Twin Blades.
She was Twilight Sparkle.
With that single thought, Twilgiht’s mind began to calm and sort itself. She remembered now the warning of the spell. That until the melding was complete, the minds would not be able to separate themselves. For that brief time, she had been both herself and Twin Blades. The contradictions in the memories caused what Twilight could only describe as variety of insanity.
It was not an experience she’d ever look forward to having again.
Still, the spell was now complete, and the division between her mind and Twin Blades’ was now presented before her consciousness in a way conducive to her mind: a mirror. A mirror that seperated minds, in a way separating the worlds of two ponies. In a way, it reminded Twilight of the mirror that lead to the strange world of two legged creatures and fiddly things called fingers. The mirror now presented to her consciousness was the thin veil that separated her mind from Twin Blades’.
Yet the reflective veil seemed only to label the information. Her mind could still remember aspects of Twin Blades’ life. She could recal bits she had skipped over during her brief insanity as if they were from her own life. Twin Blades’ training with wing swords and her service as a guard. She knew those memories, yet the spell... the veil before her let her mind know those memories were not her own.
She could access them, but she would not be driven mad by the contradictions they created.
Still, that did not mean Twilight would walk away from the spell simply knowing everything Twin Blades’ did. Once the connection was broken, she’d lose all those memories. The only way to keep the information for herself was to experience it. To make a copy in her own memories, like taking notes from a book she borrowed from a library.
As Twilight came to appreciate these distinctions, she realized the difficulty of her goal. If Twin Blades’ mind was truly compared to a book, it was like a dictionary that had been scrambled around. Twilight knew the information she sought was within, but she had no way of picking it out.
She had to remember things she didn’t even know she knew, which was a paradox of thinking.
Twilight had studied some books about the mind while at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns; It’s how she was able to make use of the memory spell when she needed to free her friends from Discord’s influence. One way to think of memories was as an association. If she thought of a word, then things connected so that word would come to mind. If she thought of a Rainboom, then she’d think of Rainbow Dash and of Cloudsdale’s Best Young Flyers Competition. She’d even think of the day when she and her friends realized they had a special bond before they even met one another because of Rainbow’s very first Sonic Rainboom.
That was how her memory spell restored her friends. Her magic caused a cascade effect. She got them to remember one true thing about themselves, and then that one thing connected to other memories. Those memories then connected to others, and the domino effect continued until their minds had been restored.
All she needed was a sight or a smell or a sound that could trigger the memories she needed.
Or maybe... all she needed were a few key phrases.
It was then the realization flooded Twilight, and in a moment the miasma around her focused. It could have been her own memory or one that belonged to Twin Blades. It didn’t matter. The memory presenting itself before Twilight was one they both shared. It was a memory of the wall, marred and marked by the scratches of Twin Blades’ sword. Those words, those phrases, they were the keys. Each one was tied to something important, and by tugging on the metaphorical string, Twilight could draw Twin Blades’ memories to the surface.
She could get the message Twin Blades was trying to leave in her scratches.
Twilight only had to pick which phrase she would use first.
~~~
“Five Lights”
It wouldn’t be the same this time. It would turn out alright. It wouldn’t be the same this time. It would turn out alright.
That mantra was a background to all Twin Blades’ thoughts as she pressed her body against the cool stone wall. She inched toward the intersection and peered around the corner to the connecting hall. She remained perfectly still for a few moments, scanning for any sign of danger. When she saw none, she made a single motion with her wing. A clatter of armor came from behind her as the three other guards in her squad came up at her command. The formation moved like water flowing down a river. They were of single mind, acting on maneuvers they had practiced to the point they were muscle memory.
The quartet searched rooms, checking each one they came across thoroughly before moving on to the next. They acted silently, fulfilling the mission they had been given. While many of their comrades stayed behind to protect Princess Luna and the party guests, they and a few other squads searched the castle. They were looking for Princesses Celestia, Cadance, and Twilight, as well as Discord’s stars, which needed to be snuffed to end the twisted game.
And, as luck would have it, the first star was very close.
Twin Blades opened one unsuspecting door to find it did not lead to a room. Instead, the space inside was a cavern. The seams between the bricks of the stone floor melted away, the floor becoming solid rock. Spires grew from the floor and hung from the ceiling, like the ragged teeth of an all devouring monster.
It was in the depths of that dank, dark cavern that a single point of light twinkled. It was sky blue, like the exit of a tunnel that lead to a lush meadow on the brightest of sunny days. But the cavern still stood between Twin Blades’ squad and that welcoming light. A cavern too large to fit in the castle and far too quiet. A cavern that put Twin Blades’ on edge, making every muscle in her body tense as if she was glaring down an Ursa Major all by herself.
Twin Blades inched away, even as her fellows came up beside her. Her legs were starting to quiver, and she heard the faint screams of someone she knew was already dead. No, this wasn’t right. This was too much like the catacombs. How long before the bent reality started to spill into their sense of time? What if it was already happening? The guests, the princess... would they return to find they had suffered the same fate as Fortress? What about Night Gaze? Was something lurking in the cavern to crush them, like the bones crushed him?
Would any of them make it out alive?
“Lieutenant!”
A shout from one of the other guards finally brought Twin Blades back. She was sweating profusely, her breathing heavy. “S-sorry,” she forced out, coughing to clear her throat. She had to keep it together. She was the leader of this squad. If she faltered, it would put them all in danger. No, she wouldn’t let any of that happen this time. It would work out okay. She had to believe that.
“Keep a tight formation and watch our flanks,” Twin Blades told her squadmates. “We get in, snuff that star, and get out. If something goes wrong, we retreat together and bring back reinforcements. I don’t know if that is the star from Discord’s riddle, and I don’t know if it will move if we leave to get help. I do know one thing, though: I’m not losing any soldiers tonight.”
The others in the squad nodded, all four proceeding into the room with Twin Blades at the lead. They found a path between the stalagmites. One soldier watched the flank, the other two watched the sides, and Twin Blades was at the front. It was a full circle of protection.
The star they had seen, twinkling from the cave entrance, became more distinct as they drew closer. Twin Blades began to make out a ring of white wax around the light’s base. It was the flame of a candle, which danced as if waving to them.
They closed in on the candle, traversing the cavern without incident. They, however, never felt it was safe to lower their guard. Twin Blades’ paranoia was proving infectious, every soldier feeling a growing sense of dread on their skin the further the group got from the exit.
Just a few dozen steps away from the candle, Twin Blades stopped, bringing the whole squad to a hault. She flicked her ears and turned her head. She was sure she had heard something. A clatter of a tiny stone against the floor. Perhaps the pebble had been kicked by her or one of her comrades. If that was true, then they had nothing to fear.
But Twin Blades wasn’t going to take a risk. She glanced back to one of the other guards in the squad, a unicorn. She mouthed her instructions, her words nothing but the smallest wisps of whispers. The unicorn, however, got the message. The magic built in his horn while Twin Blades and the other two guards readied themselves. The magic was cast, and the room became bathed in the burning red light of the flare spell.
With the bright light came a hissing, one which made the three quickly look to the stalactite-riddled ceiling. There, they saw the furry mass of a mishmash horror. Leathery wings the size of chariots and a large, fang-filled muzzle sprouted from the petite frame of a pale coated mare. The hooves on her legs had become grasping claws, yet about her neck hung the ravaged remains of white collar and red tie.
“Is... is that... Raven?” the unicorn guard asked.
One of the other guards took an anxious step back. “Is this what Discord’s riddle meant? Are we all going to change like that?”
“Pull yourselves together,” Twin Blades snapped, flaring her wings to draw the swords strapped to her feathered appendages. Though, she couldn't deny it either. The creature above them bore an uncanny resemblance to Princess Celestia’s personal assistant. “We can’t think about that now. Two of you, on me. Flash Flare, get to that candle. If that is the ‘star’ Discord mentioned, we have to put it out.”
The hulking mass above the quartet shifted, as if reacting to the words. The light from the flare spell was fading, and as it did so did the pained hisses of the horrifically disfigured Raven. She turned her body slowly, claws clinging to the ceiling. She bent her head down to look at them. Her eyes were wild, as if not an ounce of sanity remained in her.
“I think she heard you,” the unicorn guard whispered.
“It doesn’t matter. We aren’t losing anyone tonight!”
~~~
The memory finished playing, Twilight soaking it in. It was similar to what happened when she found Cadance. Twin Blades and her fellow guards managed to snuff the light, and the moment they did, everything regained a sense of normalcy. The room became an office, simple and well-kept, and Celestia’s assistant, the bat-like monstrosity, disappeared just as Cadance had. Though, Twilight knew she couldn’t have expected any other result. Twin Blades was alive and well, after all.
But some information Twilight questioned had been proven true. There had been more than just three lights before she arrived at the castle. There had to be at least four, though the existence of even one more likely meant that there were in fact two others. Two candles that had been put out before Twilight even reached the foyer.
But then why would Luna lie to her? Why would Luna change Discord’s riddle to say just three stars instead of saying there were five? The big, center message of Twin Blades’ wall scratchings seemed more and more plausible, that Luna was lying. But why? What reason would the princess have to lie?
Twilight couldn’t help but hope that the answer to that question and others lay in Twin Blades’ memories. She had to keep going. She had find out the truth. She recalled the memory of the scratched wall once more and selected another phrase. She held it in her mind, and as before, Twin Blades’ memories responded, one memory rushing forward to answer Twilight’s summons.
~~~
“Library”
They were the only two left. All the others had fallen to Discord’s game, consumed by horrific transformations of their own. Princess Luna had been able to reverse the effects, to a degree. Discord’s magic was transforming ponies into their fears. It explained why Raven, Princess Celestia’s assistant, had morphed partially into a bat. It was no secret she found bats and many varieties of rodents unbearable.
Princess Luna’s magic, however, proved ideal for undoing the effects. She put ponies in waking dreams, charms of sleepwalking. Their minds became occupied with dreams so sweet and pure, it hid away the fears of their minds. Without fear to latch onto, Discord’s transformations reversed, returning the ponies to normal. It meant most of the party guests and Twin Blades’ fellow guards were safe, but also meant that she and Princess Luna were racing against the clock. So far, they two had been spared.
But there was no telling how long it would be before they succumbed.
“And you’re sure it was Princess Celestia?”
“It was,” Luna answered as she and Twin Blades continued down the hall. “I wish to believe some part of her is resisting the transformation. That would explain why she has suffered only minor changes. Still, the only answer she gave to my words were snarls. I fear she is not in control of her actions, and she is too powerful for me to subdue with the sleep walking spell as I have the others. But do not worry, Twin Blades. I led her away to a far corner of the castle. We should have more than enough time to snuff the star I saw before she returns to guard it.”
Twin Blades nodded but did not lower her guard. She stayed a few steps ahead of the princess, trying to make herself the target for any beasts that might pounce on them from the dark. It was not ideal, but the princess’s safety was above her own. Luna had the best chance of beating Discord’s game. They could end this before anypony got seriously hurt, before anything happened to them. They could prevent others from suffering as her comrades had in the catacombs.
“We’re here,” Princess Luna said, the pair coming to a stop outside a pair of large doors. A single surge of the princess’s magic and the doors swung open to reveal the room beyond. The light was closer than the previous had been. Even from the doorway Twin Blades could make out the details of the candle.
The candle rested in a lantern, which itself lay on top of a pile of splintered wood. The wreckage of the room’s furnishings, which looked to be comprised largely of smashed book shelves, was stacked into a high pile which reached all the way to the room’s ceiling. In the pile was a large hole, which to Twin Blades looked like a burrow or nest. There was something in this room, something else guarding the light which lay just at the opening of the burrow.
“Princess, stay here,” Twin Blades said, stepping forward gingerly. “Let me take a look first.”
“As you wish, Twin Blades,” Luna replied, letting her venture into the room. Already a sensation of déjà vu washed over Twin Blades. She remembered all too clearly what happened with Raven, and now she could sense the same looming danger. There had to be something in the room with her. There was no other reason why the room would be as it was. Discord’s magic had changed the room, had created the pile of smashed bookshelves, to be the nest for something.
There had to be something.
And Twin Blades heard the first sound of that something, a shifting of stone. It came from within the burrow. The lantern containing the candle rose up, as if being lifted by a pegasus to be hung on a streetlamp. But that was far from the truth. Slowly, slithering into the light that poured in from the hallway and windows, the true guardian of the candle came into view. A creature who held it’s head as tall as the mountain, the movements of its body sounding like a tumbling bookshelf and a rockslide all rolled into one.
It was a snake as large as a full grown dragon. A snake comprised not of skin and flesh, but of a maelstrom of broken books that flowed, ripped, and molded around one another. Rectangular, stone boxes dotted the length of the creature's body, armoring it against attack. To Twin Blades, they looked like tombs, and each one looked to be about two sizes too small for the part of the snake’s body it protected. It looked as if each one was squeezing down on the serpent of books.
More and more of the snake’s body slithered out of it’s den, until finally its tail came slipping out. The tip was that of a rattlesnake, with hollow book covers forming the characteristic segments and bulge. Yet, at the tip of the rattle was hair, a purple tail with a few colored streaks. Twin Blades recognized that tail almost instantly and looked to the head of the snake, jaw hanging in shocked disbelief.
“Princess Twilight?”
The snake flicked out a tongue made of scrolls before opening its mouth, its fangs formed of ragged book pages. It hissed while rattling its tail, the defining sound of the rattle mixing with the pained screams of Twilight, though her exact words were lost in the natural sound of the serpent’s tail.
“Hold on!” Twin Blades shouted, flaring her wings and drawing her namesake two swords. “I’m coming!” She took to the air in a single leap. Her wings surged, carrying her to the snake’s eye level while her wing blades glinted in the moonlight from the windows. The serpent lunged, paper fangs bare and bookend mouth gaping. It snapped shut just short of catching Twin Blades, the sound like a thousand books being slammed closed all at once.
But Twin Blades did not let the sound make her falter. She banked hard, using the opportunity to strike at the snake. She raked one of her swords along the side of the beast’s face, the sharpened edge cleaving pages and book covers cleanly. She left a deep mark, and from that cut pages surged out like spraying blood. At the same time the snake hissed in pain, and Twilight’s own wails intensified, a few of her words managing to break through the cacophony.
“DON’T DESTROY MY BOOKS!”
The serpent spun, the books on the back of its neck rattling. Pages ripped from those tomes, growing and spreading until the rattlesnake had the hood of a cobra. At the same time its eyes, which had been little more than a spherical balls of paper, began to glow. A sickly green hue overtook them, and a black essence spilled from them as if they were embers leaking wisps of smoke. The snake reared its head back, then lunged forward. Its mouth spread wide, and from the depths of its throat spewed a hailstorm of black crystals.
Twin Blades had to summon every ounce of strength she had in her wings to save herself. She banked upward, zipping away from the volley of dagger-like crystals, even as a few managed to slice hairs off from the end of her tail. She continued to climb, flying along the edge of the wall while the snake continued its assault. It turned its head, trying to point the spray of crystals at Twin Blades.
The crystals began zip past Twin Blades’ back legs, a few leaving deep cuts. Yet she did not falter, pushing herself to fly faster, to stay ahead of the onslaught. She acted on instinct, flying circles around the serpent of books as the walls became filled with the jagged, spiky crystals. It was never enough to stop the snake’s assault, which was as relentless as it seemed unending.
But Twin Blades saw an opportunity, and she dove hard from the ceiling to seize it. She tucked her wings, trying to gain as much momentum as possible. The spray of crystals followed her as always, but that was what she wanted. When she was but moments from hitting the floor, Twin Blades spread her wings and leveled off. Her momentum carried her above the floor with the speed of an arrow launched from a bow. She soared past the body of the snake and glanced back just in time to see it strike itself with its own spray of crystals.
As her own blade had done, the crystals cut and sliced at the books that made up the snake’s body, shredded pages flowing from the wounds like blood. But the injuries did not seem to slow the snake. In fact, it’s motions became only quicker and more erratic. Twilight’s screams grew louder as well, fluctuating constantly from crushing fear to unbridled rage.
Twin Blades grimaced, eyes searching the beast for weakness in its seemingly impenetrable body. Her blades could not cut the stone tombs that guarded much of the snake’s body, and cutting the books only seemed to make the creature, and by extension Twilight, angrier. It made sense, in a way. A book sliced to pieces was still a pile of paper. The only way to make a book something other than a stack of paper would be to...
Inspiration hit Twin Blades, and her eyes quickly went to the lantern that still hung from the base of the serpent’s neck. The beast was still enraged from striking itself. It was her best opportunity, and she had to seize it before the snake recovered.
So Twin Blades flew to the nearest wall, turning her body and landing against the stone surface with all four hooves. Her legs tensed like coiled springs, and a moment later she pushed off from the wall, wings spread as she flew straight at the serpent. Time seemed to slow as Twin Blades readied her swords. The serpent recovered from its own attack, and its eyes focused on her with murderous intent.
With a hiss the great snake lunged forward, jaws ready to snap closed around Twin Blades. But she did not bank away as she did before. No, Twin Blades flew straight into the waiting maw of the snake, diving in without a hint of hesitation. The snake’s mouth snapped shut, and for a brief moment there was silence.
It was a silence of death as the snake began to relax its body in triumph.
Yet, a moment later, shrieks of pain and hisses of agony erupted from the snake. The glint of a sword stuck out from the bottom of its jaw, the weapon driven through the beast’s paper-flesh. The sword shifted and jerked, sawing open a bigger wound. Free pages of paper spewed into the air from the cut, and the snake threw its body around. It smashed its head against walls and the tombs that lined its body crashed against the floor, leaving deep, cracked impressions.
Still, from within the snake’s mouth, Twin Blades continued her assault. Using one wingblade to keep herself anchored to the serpent’s jaw, she used the other to make cut after cut. She poked and hunted around, searching for what she knew was close to her location. She panted from the exertion, but she did not relent until she struck something, her sword singing out with a metallic clink.
She had struck the lantern, and with another powerful shove on her blade, she dislodged the lantern and its candle from the bottom of the snake’s jaw. The lantern fell, smashing into a thousand pieces against the snake’s body. The candle inside bounced away. The flame remained lit, but with each bounce the red fire of the candle ignited ordinary, orange flames. It caught fire to the books of the snake’s body and to the pile of wooden shelves that were its burrow.
Twilight’s screams pierced the snake’s own hissing shrieks. It tossed its head hard, and this time Twin Blades allowed herself to be flung out of the serpent’s jaw. She spread her wings, catching the air and entering a hover. She turned, looking on as more and more of the snake’s body caught fire. It was being consumed, burning alive, and Twin Blades kept a watchful eye on the fire. She kept her swords at the ready. At a moment’s notice, if she feared the real Twilight was in danger in the snake’s tail, she would soar in to slice the rattle off.
But that was not necessary. Admist the fire the candle lay, wax melting away under the intense heat. The wick of the candle became exposed and began to burn in multiple places. In but a few seconds, the candle itself was consumed, and the small flame it supported, the single red flame amongst the glowing oranges of the serpent’s body, went out.
The moment that fire was gone, all the others disappeared. Only the smoldering remains of the snake lingered, and even they began to fade. The books repaired themselves. Pages returned to their spines, and burnt ashes formed together again. The stone tombs along the snake’s body crumbled into bricks, which assembled themselves into a chimney at one end of the room. The smashed shelves repaired themselves and formed neat rows as books filled every available space.
In the span of but a few moments, the snake returned to its true form: that of the castle’s library.
And laying on the floor, at the foot of the fireplace, was Twilight.
~~~
She... had been a guardian.
That one thought left Twilight reeling like she had been struck in the head by a high, popfly baseball. She wanted to believe it was a lie, or perhaps just some dream. Yet, she also knew that the memories couldn’t be modified. They were the raw recollections of Twin Blades. That meant she had been one of the guardians. That she had been a slithering, spitting, spine-shivering snake.
She couldn’t remember how it happened herself, but Twilight’s imagination was more than happy to fill in the blanks. Maybe she had been reading, looking for some clue, when her magic betrayed her. Her levitation layered the books on her, cocooning her inside. The sensation of the dark crystal magic surging through her. Feeling the pain of the ripping pages. And that was only one possibility. What if it had been the crystal magic first? What if it had started with a paper cut?
Twilight caught her imagination, reeling it back in when she realized that such fear of her own imagination had to wait. There were more important things to think about.
But that would have to be something Twilight dealt with later.
That memory only brought more questions. Why wouldn’t Luna mention that in her notes? Why had things been different that one time? When all the other lights were snuffed, the pony guarding them disappeared as well. Yet she had remained. For a moment, Twilight thought of what she had seen in the astral plane. Could the tethers she had seen been a representation of Discord’s influence?
Twilight needed to know more. She needed to see more of what happened. Another word, another memory. She had to figure this out.
~~~
“Mirrors”
Twin Blades rushed over to Twilight. The princess's purple-striped mane was a mess, and her crown rested haphazardly on her brow. Still, Twin Blades heard the subtle rushing of air from Twilight's mouth and felt a pulse in the princess's neck. Twilight was alive, and Twin Blades let a smile crawl onto her face. She took a few steps back, letting herself fall limp in one of the library's reading seats. “It’s alright, Princess Luna. You can come in now,” She said, waving a hoof as she went
“Remind me to award you a commendation when all this is over, Twin Blades.” Luna walked past, coming to a stop when she was standing next to Twilight. “You handled that expertly.”
Twin Blades sat up in her seat, giving a respectful nod. “Thank you, Your Highness.” She then let her eyes wander to Twilight. “So, she didn't disappear like Raven did. Do you think we can wake her up? She might be able to tell us more about what's going on or even just help us find the last three candles.”
“They're stars, Lieutenant. Don't forget Discord's riddle, as it can have multiple meanings. A candle in the darkness can be like a twinkling star in the night. In a way, I wonder if Discord is trying to mock me with this game,” Luna mused, her eyes locked on Twilight's unconscious form. “But other things can be stars. Other things can be the twinkling light that chooses to defy the darkness. After all, I believe Discord would not have placed Twilight and my sister to guard the library for just one candle.”
“You think there's another star nearby?”
Luna nodded as her horn began to glow. She was casting a spell, though Twin Blades could not see what was being affected by the princess's magic. “I believe there is. Lieutenant, please, go take a look around the shelves while I tend to Twilight Sparkle.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” Twin Blades shifted her weight, sliding down from the seat. Her hooves hit the floor, their landing accompanied by a metallic clank. She looked quickly to her side, extending her wing to reveal her left wing blade was swinging limply in its mounting assembly.
“It would seem your equipment got damaged in the fight,” Luna said, the glow of her levitation spell encompassing the broken blade. With the release of a few snaps and buckles, the princess removed the sword and set it on a nearby table. “Don't worry, I'll try to fix it after I've made sure Twilight Sparkle is comfortable.”
“Thank you,” Twin Blades said, awkwardly refolding her wing as she took a step back. As a guard, she should have noticed something had happened to her sword in the fight. It must have been when she was using it to keep herself pinned to the inside of the snake's mouth. The embarrassment only seemed to increase as she realized the princess was the one going to fix her weapon. Such a thing would normally be unheard of for the Royal Guard.
But then again this was far from a “normal” situation.
Still, Twin Blades turned, taking a few steps towards the looming rows of bookshelves. Any sense of dread or danger the room had possessed when she first entered was gone. Now it was just a plain library. She dared to think it almost felt safe. The room had been cleansed with the extinguishing of the candle. Yes, there was a chance Princess Celestia was still out there. That, sooner or later, she would return to hunt them as Princess Luna had warned. But for the moment everything felt safe and secure.
The feeling of being able to relax for the first time since Discord began his twisted game was like taking a long swig from something ice cold at the bar.
The books looked to be in order, as far as she could tell. Her eyes skimmed their spines without really taking in any of the titles. It made some odd sense that they had found Princess Twilight in the castle's library. It was hard to picture her being anywhere else, even if she had become some snake made out of her own precious books. The Royal Guard even had a betting pool going, placing wagers on when they'd see Princess Twilight sneaking around the castle again. She used to have a stake in that pot too, almost winning when Twilight snuck into the Starswirl the Bearded wing.
She had withdrawn not long after that. It didn't feel the same betting on the princess when they had almost lost her, Princess Luna, and Princess Celestia in the catacombs.
A lot of things didn't feel right after that night.
A rush of air by Twin Blades' face drew her mind back into focus. She flared one wing, drawing her remaining sword. Her eyes needed only a few moments to search her surroundings before she found the source. It was a plain, ordinary bat. The little ball of blue-tinted fuzz was glaring down at her from one of the ceiling's rafters. Twin Blades glared right back, but lowered her sword as she did. After having to face the transfigured Raven earlier, the regular bat seemed like an annoyance at best.
The bat, however, seemed intent to prove otherwise. The moment Twin Blades lowered her sword, it launched itself from the ceiling. It flew down, screeching and flapping its wings. It landed on her face, grabbing her nose with its claws and continuing to screech and flap its wings. It was flailing on her, and in response she began to flail as well. She tossed her head, bucked, and waved her wings trying to dislodge the bat from her face. She swatted it with her hooves, but it remained persistent.
In the chaos, Twin Blades' other sword broke. The blade became disconnected from the leather straps that supported them, flinging through the air and wedging itself between the books of a nearby shelf. The flying of the sword, however, seemed to finally scare the bat away. It released Twin Blades' face, shrieking as it returned to the rafters of the ceiling. Its beady little eyes watched her, but Twin Blades glared it right back.
She was tempted to fly right up there and teach that bat a lesson.
But getting aggravated at a bat in a moment of crisis wasn't smart. It had stopped its attack, and she had something more important to deal with. She was now weaponless, with her second sword busted. She'd have to ask Luna to fix this one as well. The princess would probably get a chuckle out of it, and the other guards would as well when they heard. Twin Blades broke her only sword fighting a bat: har de har har.
Moving up to the sword, Twin Blades lifted a hoof to retrieve it from the shelves. She was just going to grab it and take it back to Luna, but then she froze. Her eyes were looking past the sword, caught in the reflection of the well polished blade. She could see the reading area. She could see Princess Twilight laying unconscious at the base of the hearth.
And, above the princess, Twin Blades could see her other sword being held, with murderous intent, by a dark silhouette.
In a flash, Twin Blades turned and leapt into the air. With wings spread, she sprinted the short distance that separated her from Twilight's assailant. She made no effort to slow herself, nor did she try to use any disarming technique she learned as a guard. She acted with the swiftest option possible, tackling the assailant before they could plunge her sword into Princess Twilight's chest.
She and the mysterious silouhette fell to the ground, the pair landing hard as her sword clattered a few feet away. Twin Blades began to wrestle, struggling to get any sort of disabling hold on such a large attacker.
“Lieutenant! What are you doing!?”
Twin Blades stopped herself immediately, stumbling away. The mysterious figure beneath her was Luna. She had just tackled the princess. She opened her mouth, grappling with some words to explain what she just did. “I... I just saw... you were standing over Twilight with my sword and... and...”
“I was fixing your sword,” Luna answered as she picked herself up off the ground.
“But I thought you were going to try and move Twilight first,” Twin Blades said, still trying to comprehend how she had not recognized the mysterious figure as Princess Luna.
“I was, but my magic could not lift her. Also, you may notice that something is different.” Luna pointed a hoof at Twilight, showing that the young alicorn's mane had changed. It now looked like Princess Celestia's, swirling lines of pastel pink, green, and blue. It resembled greatly the costume mane Twilight had been wearing to the Nightmare Night party. “I believe Twilight is starting to transform again, into something different and possibly more dangerous.”
Twin Blades lowered her head. “I am so sorry, Your Highness,” she said, keeping her eyes fixed on the floor as she turned to retrieve her wingblade, which had fallen to the ground a few feet away. “I thought you were someone else, someone trying to attack Twilight.”
“Well, I assure you Lieutenant I am the only other one in here,” Princess Luna said as she brushed some dust from her shoulder. “Perhaps it would be best if you stood guard outside while I tend to Twilight. We need to be sure my sister does not sneak up on us, and it would help guarantee that, in your own paranoia, you don't tackle me again.”
“Of course, Your Highness.” Twin Blades picked up her wing blade, daring not to turn and look back at the princess. It was repaired, so she quickly secured it to her wing and gave it a few quick tests. She withdrew it and sheathed it, then repeated the process. On the third time, she drew the blade out and held it front of her face. Though she trusted the princess's magic, she had to satisfy her habitual need to inspect the weapon upon putting it on. The mounting straps were tight, and the blade was firmly secured to the spring-loaded mechanisms.
The sharp edge was still pristine, as were the flat faces of the sword. Twin Blades could clearly see her own eyes reflected in the surface, but that wasn't all.
“Lies Mirrored Are Truth”
In the reflection, Twin Blades could see Twilight laying unconscious, but something was different. Twilight's mane was its natural color, purple with a few stripes. There was also... something else. A flicker of color danced on the edge of the reflection, forcing Twin Blades to adjust her sword to bring it into focus. It was the portrait of Celestia above the mantel. It’s mane was waving, as if alive, and the princess’s facial expression had changed. She was now frowning, looking down at Twilight with pained, sad eyes. Like she was watching her student suffer with no way of easing or preventing her pain.
Yet, it was then Celestia’s reflected eyes turned. As if noticing she was being watched, the mirrored image of the portrait was now looking straight at Twin Blades. The stare was bone chilling, like Celestia was suddenly putting the weight of the world on the lieutenant’s shoulders. Twin Blades almost wanted to look away, but her eyes remained locked with Celestia’s as the princess mouthed, in silence, two words.
“Protect Twilight.”
“Is something the matter, Lieutenant?” Luna asked.
“N... no,” she answered, stowing the wing blade and folding her wing. She turned and began walking towards the door. Her every intent was to do as she had been told, to stand watch outside. But, before she reached the door, she stopped. For several seconds she just stood there, debating whether or not the thoughts in her head were baseless paranoia. She drew her sword again, doing it slowly and quietly. A moment later she almost put it away, wanting nothing more than to dismiss her thoughts.
But, instead, she positioned the sword, tilting the blade so its reflective surface showed Twin Blades what stood directly behind her. Once more she saw Princess Twilight, looking as normal as ever, and standing above her was something that was decidedly not Luna.
“Your Highness,” Twin Blades said quietly, not taking her eyes off the reflection. “Why do you think Twilight Sparkle didn't disappear like Raven did?”
“It's hard for me to say,” Luna answered, the dark silhouette in the reflection of Twin Blades' sword taking a step to one side. It was turning, slowly bringing itself around to face her. “I have little doubt that Twilight was guarding the candle you were able to put out, but then one must wonder why my sister was guarding this library. There is no obvious sign of a second star in this room, yet Twilight remains. Yes, maybe Discord put them both to guard that one star, but perhaps we must contemplate that the word star could have a broader definition.”
Twin Blades tensed herself, watching her sword as the silhouette drew closer to her. “What, are you saying Twilight is one of the stars from Discord's riddle?”
“Maybe,” the princess answered, her voice getting closer as the figure in the sword's reflection drew near. “A star in a dark night is a metaphor for hope, after all. Twilight certainly brings a great deal of hope to situations that seem otherwise bleak. She has saved this kingdom numerous times, and on top of that, she wields the Element of Magic. Yes, in many ways my sister's student is a veritable star.”
“But you wouldn't suggest we snuff that star, would you, Princess Luna?”
“No, of course not,” the voice answered, beginning to lose it's sweetness. “I would never dream of that. I’d be betraying my sister even contemplating such a notion.”
The silhouette stepped outside the sword’s reflection. Twin Blades shifted the blade, trying to locate the figure. She even dared to turn her head, to look and find where Princess Luna had gone. She allowed her body to turn. She put the door to her back and held her sword defensively. There, however, was still no sign of Princess Luna or the silhouette from the sword’s reflection.
“But now that you mention it, this is a golden opportunity to snuff a star. Don’t you agree, Lieutenant?”
Twin Blades could feel a hot puff of breath on her neck, as if a great beast was within moments of biting down on her spine and snapping it like a twig. How had that thing gotten behind her? How could she get out of this alive? The enemy was to close. It could make a move before she could even react. She was dead. Every way the situation played out in her head she was dead.
At least, until, she heard the screeching of the bat.
~~~
“Don't Snuff The Lights”
Twin Blades landed in the forest, her breathing labored. She leaned to one side, sliding Twilight’s unconscious form off onto the soft dirt. She was trembling, body on the verge of collapse. She bore a few cuts here and there, but as much as she wanted to linger, she couldn’t. She could hear that thing following her. The bat... that crazy bat had saved her life. But it wasn’t enough to stop Princess Luna... or maybe that had been Discord. The chaotic creature surely had enough power to pass himself off as the princess.
Still, her sword, the reflective surface, had revealed the truth, and the bat gave her a chance to escape with Princess Twilight. But what now? Discord or Luna or whoever was still following them. She could hear it stomping through the trees, and she couldn't carry Twilight any further. She had to lead it away, but to where?
The only option she could think of was the castle. She could fly back there, retrieve and repair her other wing blade, and then try to keep Discord distracted. If she did that long enough, the trail would go cold. Discord would have trouble finding Twilight, and once Twilight woke up she’d have a chance to find help.
It was a gambit, a risk, but so was staying with Twilight. Everypony else, she couldn't’ save them. But Twilight could do it. She could get help or figure out Discord’s game and save everypony. It was... a moment that made Twin Blades recall what Night Gaze had done in the catacombs.
He gave his life so the rest could get out alive. Now, it was her turn.
It was the burden of a guard of the kingdom, one she was ready to bear.
~~~
“Not Discord”
Twin Blades pressed her back against the door of the guest room, trying to quiet her labored breathing. She heard the hoof steps outside. She heard Luna calling to her, trying to lure her out like she was a lost puppy who didn’t know any better. Twin Blades, however, would not be tricked or confused. She stayed silent, barely allowing herself to breathe as she listened to the hoofsteps outside the door. They lingered and circled, as if Princess Luna or Discord or whoever was closing in. The princess even stopped right outside the door, and for a brief moment Twin Blades was sure she heard somepony touching the door latch.
But then the hoofsteps resumed, fading away until all was silent.
Even then, Twin Blades didn't dare move for several minutes. She kept waiting and listening, as if expecting Luna to return the moment she let her guard down. Minutes crawled on, and when the silence persisted Twin Blades dared to step away from the door. She walked gingerly, crossing the room to the window. This was her chance. She could fly outside and go to another part of the castle. She opened the window, feeling the chill of the night air on her face. It was like a whispered promise of freedom and continued survival.
She also heard a screeching and clanking.
Looking down from the window, Twin Blades saw a prancing pony statue standing in front of the castle's main entrance. On it's extended hoof it was holding a cage, within which a bat screamed and flailed without rest. Though she couldn't be sure from such a far distance, Twin Blades believed it was the same bat that had saved her. She had seen no other bats around the castle, and the one below certainly sounded the same. The bat also had the same level of tenacity as the one that attacked her in the library. After being locked in a cage for several minutes, it was still fighting and flailing as if the princess had only just shut the door.
For a moment, Twin Blades debated freeing the bat. It would probably attack her afterwards, but it had saved her. She felt some sense of responsibility to pay back the owed debt, even if the bat ended up being a different one from before.
Yet, at the same time, the screeching... there was something about the screeching. It was... painful. Twin Blades stepped back from the window, holding her head. The screeching was getting into her brain, soaking in deeper than it should have. It felt like claws against her skull, driving out all thoughts except for one.
Something was wrong.
She felt her stomach twist and knot, like she was being turned inside out. She gagged, but upon clenching her jaw found her teeth felt too big. In fact, they were still growing, pushing apart her lips to the point she couldn’t keep them completely shut. She lifted a hoof to her mouth, frantically feeling the sharp triangles where blunt squares should have been. She was... no, she couldn’t be... not now.
Stumbling forward, Twin Blades rested her hooves on the vanity. She tried to lift her head, but it suddenly felt so heavy. The muscles in her neck strained, eventually managing to lift her weighty skull. It came with a sense of vertigo. Her neck was longer, she could see it in the mirror, and she could see the teeth. Fangs larger than her eyes that were still growing, beginning to push her jaw to it’s limit.
Everything simply felt wrong. Her hooves, her legs... they didn’t feel like her own as she gripped the vanity, leaving shallow claw marks in the surface. The world was swimming, her vision blurring. Things were feeling more and more alien, but also growing more and more distant. She was losing control, transforming and becoming who knew what. Her bones felt too large inside her legs. Throbbing pain began to emanate from her joints. She turned her elongated head just enough to see little spots of white starting to rise from her skin.
She tried to will herself to fight it. She tried to imagine everything undoing itself. She tried commanding it all to go back to what it was, but it didn’t. It just continued, and her mind grew more and more disconnected from what was happening. Her body felt almost like a costume now, a beastly shape she had put on for Nightmare Night. She heard the rattling of bones, vaguely perceiving them coming from her own rib cage yet being unable to look. A beast of bone, of snarling teeth and undying determination.
The same kind of thing that killed Night Gaze.
The bat’s screeching, however, stayed with Twin Blades. Even as everything else grew numb, even as her vision faded and her ears grew mute, the screeching remained. The screeching, it was just so painful. She was being stabbed by it, and yet even that pain was beginning to drift away. The sound remained, but the ache disappeared. Now it was just a sound, a noise that fell to the background. It had a beat to it, subtle yet distinguishable. A beat that made the numbness feel all right.
Like it was all just a dream.
Yes, a dream. What had she been dreaming about? Twin Blades honestly couldn’t remember at first, but the details began to flow back as if they were being whispered into her ear by a voice she could not hear. A voice mixing and being hidden by the bat’s background screeching.
It was late at night. She was dreaming of working late. The sun had set, so she needed to light a lantern. She found it and hung it from a hook on the wall. The hook was low, almost like it was the same height as an average bedpost. But that didn’t matter. She just needed some light, and the lantern was providing that.
But why did she need the light?
Twin Blades... she needed to write something down. It was for Princess Twilight. Yes, Princess Twilight needed to know about certain things, things that she knew a lot about. She just... needed to remember what to tell the princess. She didn't need to write it all down. All she needed was the bullet points. A few bullet points was all she needed to write down. She used what seemed like an oversized quill to start writing those bullet points on an equally large piece of paper. This had to be very important if she needed to use such a large quill and piece of paper.
What she needed to do was... warn Princess Twilight. Yes, warn her about the castle that she and Princess Luna escaped from. Luna was... Luna wasn't telling the whole story. It was like what she did at the catacombs. She withheld information, and now she was doing it again. Luna was lying, and Twin Blades knew how to prove it. She just had to write down her bullet points. There was nothing scary, nothing bad. She just had to write down the bullet points.
She began to write with the large quill. It sounded wrong against the paper, but... that was okay. The quill was still writing. It was a special quill. She didn't even have to dip it in ink. She just had to write on the extra large piece of paper.
All she had to do was make her notes so she could tell Princess Twilight Sparkle what she knew.
~~~
The Elements of Harmony were alive with energy, glowing trails of rainbows connecting the five jewels. Applejack and her friends floated in the air, halfway between the ballroom’s ceiling and floor. The guards below watched in awe. None of them had ever seen the Elements of Harmony in use, but they kept their distance, ensuring that whatever was about to happen had plenty of room to work with.
Shining Armor was on the edge of this perimeter, looking on as the five gems fulfilled the wish of the mares that wielded them. That had been the trick they overlooked. Twilight’s friends couldn’t command the Elements of Harmony to find its missing piece, nor could they ask them to. No, the desire that had to be foremost in the heart was their wish to find Twilight. That pure concern for their missing friend, that was what gave the Elements their power.
The light from the necklaces grew almost blinding as the spell continued. A few guards had to shy away, shielding their eyes with a forehoof. Shining Armor forced himself to keep watching, eyes watering from the brightness.
The circle of glowing, ethereal rainbows that connected the five elements began to fold into one another, condensing in until they were but a single, spherical, swirling point of color. That was when Twilight’s friends began to descend, the spell gently returning them to the floor as their eyes began to flutter open.
“Did it work?” Rarity asked, stumbling a bit. She was caught by a quick-acting guard, and she couldn’t help but flash a thankful smile in his direction.
“I think it did,” Shining Armor answered, watching as the sphere of swirling rainbows began to float down as well. It was like a snowflake in its descent. It twirled and danced, nudged by even the slightest stream of air. A few guards tried to step forward, but Shining Armor waved them back. Everypony watched intently, some even holding their breath, as the little sphere continued to sink.
It touched the cool stone of the castle floor, sinking into a crack as if it was made of thick syrup. But then, from that tiny dot, a stream of rainbows began to flow along the seams in the brickwork. Some of the streams extended only to stop a few inches away. But others continued to stretch out, forming a distinctive path that was beginning to lead out of the ballroom.
“I think it’s leading the way!” Rainbow Dash shouted, starting to trot along side the flowing rivulets. Twilight’s friends, Shining Armor, and a few guards followed this lead, trotting behind her as they were led out of the ballroom. It was a steady walk at first, but then a few guards had to break into a trot. Others followed soon after. The flow of magic was increasing in speed, the rivulets stretching out with greater and greater haste.
Within minutes, the group of ponies were running through the halls of Canterlot Castle after the trail of magic. Guards were beginning to fall behind. Rainbow Dash had taken to the air, the only one managing to keep pace with the edge of the rivulets that were, slowly but surely, getting further and further away from the others.
Soon, as the rainbow rivulets descended a castle staircase, even Rainbow Dash began to have trouble. The tight spaces and sharp turns were slowing her down. She could still outpace the magic with raw speed, but it was beginning to get ahead of her because of its sheer maneuverability. But Rainbow continued to push herself, not to be outpace by a thing as silly as rivulets.
She stopped paying attention to where she was being led. It was a race, one she couldn’t afford to lose yet was unable to truly win, since she did not know where it would all end. All she could do was keep pace with the rivulets, never letting them get too far ahead. She passed by some of the lingering guards on patrol from the later shifts. She heard the shouts from her friends asking her to slow down. But she couldn't do that. After all, if she let the rivulets get away, there was a chance the trail could disappear. Then they’d have to take the time to try and activate the Elements a second time.
It was time that Rainbow Dash didn’t want to waste.
Down more stairs and through more corridors the rivulets went, leading Dash to parts of the castle that were rarely visited by a living soul. Hallways connected to storage rooms that held decorations from celebrations both recent and past. Dungeons that had not been put into service for decades, left to sit hollow and empty as law breakers of the kingdom were placed into the prison system. It was to the castle's greatest depths that the rivulets flowed, and Rainbow Dash followed them until they came upon a singular door.
Flapping her wings and shifting her weight, Rainbow Dash just barely managed to stop herself from crashing headlong into the door. The rivulets flowed unimpeded beneath the seam in the door, but passing through the frame would not be so easy for Rainbow Dash. The door was sealed with three thick, parallel iron-cross bars, each one padlocked to metal mounts that protruded from both sides of the door's frame. It was like the door itself was in shackles, suffering some punishment in the castle's lowest chambers.
Rainbow Dash tugged at a few of the crossbars, seeing if she could pry them lose as the sound of galloping hooves began to come up behind her. The others came to the end of the hallway, Rarity and Shining Armor's horns providing light as they all looked upon the door. “We have to get through this,” Rainbow Dash told them, still trying to pull the bars off with her own strength. “Those rainbow river things went under the door.”
“Shining, do you have the key to these locks?” Applejack asked, holding one of the padlocks in a forehoof.
“No, I don't. There are only three copies of the key that opens that lock, and two of them are only supposed to be held by the princesses.”
“Why is that? What's behind this door?” Rarity asked.
“It leads to the crystal caverns beneath Canterlot, the place where the changeling queen imprisoned Cadance during our wedding,” Shining Armor answered, his words ushering in a silence across the whole group as they looked to the door.
Twilight galloped down the hallway, the compounding echoes of her hooves making it sound as a stampede was raging through the castle. Every subtlety she had previously employed to navigate the halls without raising attention was left behind, her mind and body focused solely on reaching her destination as quickly as possible.
Twin Blades memories, at the end, streamed together, falling from one to another like a line of dominos. The memories of the library, of Luna’s reflection, and then finally the transformation. It had been so horrific. What Twin Blades felt and experienced had been burned into Twilight’s mind so deep, it was like she had endured the pain herself. But in enduring that pain, Twin Blades had passed on the message Twilight needed to see.
If her title as princess meant anything, she was going to ensure Twin Blades was properly rewarded and honored for her actions.
But that would have to wait. At the moment, only one thing mattered to Twilight. She had to see the painting in the library. The mirrors... they were the truth in a castle that was filled with lies. Princess Luna, or whoever the creature was she had first met in the castle, wanted her to smash any mirrors she found. The bathroom mirror, after she had defeated Cadance, warned her not to snuff the lights.
The mirrors in the lair of the Headless Horse reflected Princess Celestia as Nightmare Moon. That had to be the real Princess Luna, twisted by fear. Who else would be afraid of becoming Nightmare Moon? Who else, in a fear-driven transformation, would develop a jaw so perfect for gobbling up ponies whole?
Yet, there were inconsistencies. The headless horse, when viewed in a mirror, looked like a regular pony. Yet, when fake Princess Celestia was reflected, she looked as Nightmare Moon. If things were consistent, the fake Celestia should have been reflected as Princess Luna. But that wasn’t what happened. There was still something else going on, still questions left to be answered.
The game was not simple, and the longer she didn’t understand what was going on, the greater danger of making a fatal mistake. Skidding around a corner, the doors of the library came into view. Twilight pushed herself into one final sprint, galloping into the library before slamming the doors shut behind her. Then, as she had done upon first entering the castle, she fortified. Suppressing and struggling against her usual level of respect for libraries, she grabbed books off the shelves and threw into a pile against the door. Spines got bent. Pages became folded and torn. It was a literary massacre, but Twilight didn’t have time to scold herself.
With the door secure she began running between the shelves. There was something there, a final tool left behind by Twin Blades. There was a chance it had faded away, disappearing like any other changes made to the castle when somepony wasn’t looking. Yet, for the second time in that one library, Twilight’s luck bore fruit. She saw a glint of metal, and with a triumphant smile she yanked the source from the bookshelves with her magic.
It was the broken sword from the Twin Blades’ wingblade, and the surface was just as reflective as it had been in its master’s memories.
With the blade held in her levitation spell, Twilight ran out from between the bookshelves and up to the library’s hearth, which still burnt with the fire she had set upon her first visit. The portrait of Princess Celestia was still there, hanging and looking as beautiful as it had been upon her first visit. The frame, however, seemed to have deteriorated more. A few pieces had fallen to the floor below, and the whole painting was now hanging lopsided.
It looked as if it could fall from the wall at any moment.
Twilight cast her magic out to try and straighten the picture. There was simply something unnaturally disturbing about the fact it wasn’t level. The picture of her mentor had been straight when she first came to the library, and it had been straight in Twin Blades memory. The fact that it was now crooked, that something in the castle had changed without her being there, was unsettling.
The portrait, however, would not budge. No matter which angle Twilight applied her magic, it was like the canvas and its supporting frame had been cemented to the wall. It only made Twilight’s concern about the state of the painting grow. It was another question, one more thing that didn’t make sense. Why was this painting different from the rest of the castle? Why could she affect everything else except this?
More questions. Even with the answers she found, Twilight felt the list of questions in her head was only growing longer. Still, she had a belief that some answer would soon come. Gripping the broken blade tighter in her magic, Twilight turned her back to the painting then held the reflective sword up to her eyes. She tilted and turned it for a few moments before finding the appropriate angle, viewing the portrait in the reflective surface.
The Princess Celestia in the portrait was already looking at her, eyes locked with Twilight’s through the reflection. Her gaze was a happy one at first, but changed quickly into one of concern and urgency. Not even giving Twilight a chance to speak, Celestia began to mouth words. Her lips slowly formed each syllable, constructing the words with as much emphasis as she could.
Twilight watched and read those lips, trying to mouth out the words for herself as Celestia’s spoke. “Ga... Go... T... To... Mm... Mi... Miz... Maze. Go to maze,” she said, to which the portrait of the princess gave an encouraging nod. Twilight returned the smile, continuing to speak aloud. “F... Fa... Fan... Fand? No, find! Find... B... Ba... Bat. L.. Li... Lit... Lite... Light... S... St... Stars.”
The portrait princess nodded her head, mouthing the syllables in smoother stream that Twilight echoed with her own voice. “Go to maze, find bat, and light stars. But what does the bat have to do with anything?”
Celestia began to mouth new words, but then she stopped. She turned her head, about the only part of her drawn body she could move, and looked at the door. The portrait princess looked back, eyes wide in panic as she frantically mouthed a new word. Twilight stared, trying to read the haphazardly formed syllable on Celestia’s lips. A chill ran down her spine as her mind finally recognized what was being said.
“Run.”
“Twilight! Are you in there?” Princess Luna’s voice called from the far side of the barricade doors. “I have finally overcome Discord’s game. If you would believe, I am sleepwalking right now in a lucid dream. It is the kind of loophole even Discord would appreciate. Still, I need your help, Twilight. I know where the last light is. Please, open the door.”
“Run!” Celestia’s portrait mouthed once more with greater urgency.
“Twilight? I know you're in there. Please, let me in. We can finally be done with game. We just need to put out the last candle. It’s nearby, even. Just down the hall. Why don’t you come out?”
“RUN!”
“Twilight, let me in!” Something pounded against exterior of the door, each impact carrying with it additional weight. “Twilight, as a fellow princess I demand you let me in. This is no time for foals’ games. Twilight! Twilight Sparkle, let me in!”
A strong impact against the door caused it to bow in, the hinges starting to pull themselves from the wooden frame. Twilight frozen in place, looking between the door, Celestia’s portrait, and the rest of the library. Celestia kept mouthing to run, but run where? The library had no other doors. Twilight began to bounce anxiously on her hooves. Where should she go? How was she get away?
The doors were hit again, this time sounding as if a freight train had crashed into them from the far side. The hinges were on the verge of giving way while the wooden doors themselves were beginning to splinter. Twilight had a few more seconds, at best, before the fake Princess Luna got through.
She had to think of something!
~~~
“Prince Armor, we located Luna’s key.”
Shining Armor turned, stretching out his own magic as he accepted the key. Around the sealed entrance to the crystal caverns, he had assembled five squads of guards. Others were on their way to reinforce them, but in Shining’s mind, they had already wasted too much time. On the floor, one key already laid discarded. It was the key given to the castle guard, to be used only in emergency situations when they absolutely needed to get into the crystal caverns.
It was a key that hadn’t worked in the lock.
“What about Princess Celestia’s key?” Shining asked.
“We weren’t able to locate it, sir.”
“Well, we had better hope this one does the trick, then.” With that, Shining turned and slid the key into the lock. He then tried to turn it, but like the guards’ key before, it only turned an eighth of the way before coming to a stop. Shining furrowed his brow and tried to force the key to turn. The padlock and chains about the door began to glow in reaction, the magic they contained fighting back.
The key proved the first to fail, its metal growing red hot and melting out of the lock and into a pool on the ground. Shining Armor cursed and threw what little bit of the key his magic still held. He then looked back at the guards, glaring them down coldly. “Go back upstairs and get the breaching squad.”
“But, sir, that’s one of Princess Celestia’s spells,” Path Finder said. “Do you think they’ll even put a dent in it?”
“It’s a long shot, I know, but we have to keep trying,” he said, to which the other guards nodded. Those soldiers who had delivered Luna’s key turned and galloped back up stairs. The other squads resumed preparing themselves while Shining Armor walked over to where Twilight’s friends were sitting.
“What the hay, Shining. I thought that key was supposed to open the door.” Rainbow huffed, hovering anxiously.
“It was, but it’s like somepony changed the lock.” He glanced back at the door. “I’m not even sure Princess Celestia’s key would work, even if we did find it.”
“Aren’t there any other ways into those crystal caverns?” Applejack asked.
“If there were, they were sealed. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna wanted to be sure that if the changelings or any creature tried to attack Canterlot again, they wouldn’t be able to use the caverns to their advantage. Some tunnels were closed with cave-ins. At others we used unicorn magic to cause the crystals to grow and seal the passages themselves. I even supervised some of the sealing teams as one of my last duties as Captain of the Guard.”
Shining Armor turned and pointed to the chained door. “This door protects the only passage into those tunnels that wasn’t more permanently sealed. Breaking down Princess Celestia’s barrier spell is a huge obstacle, but it’s still our fastest option. It would take weeks to dig out one of the other entrances.”
“Well, we can’t just sit here waiting until you can open a door.” Rainbow Dash landed with a stomp before pointing her hoof at door. “That glowy trail the Elements of Harmony left could disappear at any second, and who knows if we’d get the Elements to do it again. This may be our only chance of finding out where Twilight and the princesses were taken.”
“I know, Rainbow,” Shining Armor snapped. He then caught himself, reigning in his frustration. “I know, but unless one of you has a crazy idea how we can get past the door, then all we can do is wait.”
“A crazy idea, you say,” Rarity mused, a smile creeping onto her face. It was a familiar smile to her, one she often wore when she got a burst of inspiration for a new fashion line. “Well, Shining, not to put a friend on the spot, but I believe we have a mare amongst us who is the undefeated champion of crazy ideas.”
“Really, who’s that?” Pinkie Pie asked with a bounce. “She sounds like fun? Do I know her?”
“I think Rarity was talking about you,” Fluttershy pointed out.
Pinkie Pie blinked, but then smiled and bounded over to Rarity. She pulled her into a tight hug, squeezing the air from her lungs. “Oh, that’s so nice of you to say. I don’t think we can say I’m undefeated, since I’ve never been in a crazy idea competition, but that sure sounds like a fun idea!”
“One thing at a time, dear.” Rarity struggled in Pinkie Pie’s hug, gasping for a few breaths of air. “But, before that, you wouldn’t happen to have any thoughts on how we can get through that door, would you?”
Letting go of Rarity, Pinkie Pie turned and bounded to the door. She stopped directly in front of it, tilting her head to one side as her bright, attentive eyes swept up, down, left, right, and every direction in between. She raised a hoof to grab the chains as well as to knock on the door. She even rested her head against door, as if it was whispering some dark secret to her.
“You got anything, Sugarcube?” Applejack asked, she and the others standing back to ensure Pinkie Pie had all the space she needed.
Pinkie Pie looked back at her friends and smiled. “I may just have a little something.” She then zipped away and galloped back up the stairs. Everypony around the door listened as the sound of her hoofsteps faded on the staircase, eventually growing silent. The silence persisted for several long seconds, causing Shining Armor and the others to glance at one another. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak, breaking the silence left by Pinkie’s departure.
“Is she coming back?”
“Oh, I’m sure she is,” Fluttershy said. “Why wouldn’t she?”
Rarity took a single step toward the staircase before glancing at Shining Armor. “Do you think she’s getting something?”
“Maybe, though I don’t know what it would be,” Applejack said as she scratched her head. She then perked her ears as the sound of hoofsteps once more starting to emanate from the staircase. “But it sounds like she’s already on her way back.”
“Not just on my way, silly, I am back!” Pinkie Pie emerged from the staircase, pushing along a familiar sight. It was her little blue party canon. The decorative piece of party artillery looked out of place admist the guards who were sharpening weapons and securing armor. Still, Pinkie Pie took no notice of their confused stares as she wheeled her party cannon up to the door.
Rarity stepped up beside her, wearing the forced smile of somepony not wanting to hurt a friends feelings. “Pinkie, not to rain on your parade, but I don’t think your party cannon is designed to break through a door that was sealed by Princess Celestia.”
“Yeah, all it does is shoot streamers and confetti,” Rainbow Dash said.
“And balloons. Don’t forget about the balloons!” Pinkie Pie corrected as she popped open the back of the cannon. Party decorations spilled out from the cannon’s interior, a few pre-inflated balloons even floating to the ceiling of the small space. But Pinkie Pie’s focus wasn’t on her decorations. She instead stuck her hoof up inside the cannon, and pulled out a set of small, colorful paper cylinders. “But you're right. Those won’t get through the door. But these might.”
“And what are those?” Applejack asked as Pinkie Pie carried the small cylinders to the door. She began licking each one and sticking them to the door’s frame, as if they were covered in envelope glue.
“Well, the confetti, streamers, and balloons don’t come out of my party cannon all by themselves. No, something has to push them out with a fun, explosive pop. Otherwise my party cannon would be more like a party bucket. Or maybe a party vase. It could really go either way.”
“That really didn’t answer my question.”
“Don’t worry, I’m sure this will.” Pinkie Pie backed up from the door, having placed all paper tubes. She then went back to her party cannon, removing from it a spool of string. “Rarity, you mind lending a hoof. We need to tie a piece of string to every one of those party poppers.”
“Of course, I’d be happy to help,” Rarity said, her lips fluttering between a concerned frown and forced smile. Still, with the aid of unicorn magic, soon each party popper was tied to a piece of string. The strings themselves led back to Pinkie’s party cannon, where she was tying them to some mechanism inside the cannon.
“There we go. Now there’s only one more thing we need to do,” Pinkie Pie said as she wrapped her hoof around the trigger string of her cannon.
“And what is that?” Rainbow asked.
“Hit the deck!”
Pinkie Pie’s surprisingly serious shout made everypony in the room do just that. Every head went down, and Pinkie Pie’s smile grew wide as she tugged on the string of her cannon. In an instant a spark of magic was released by the cannon and was sent shooting up the strings. The dozen or so sparks hit the party poppers all at the same time and caused a single castle-shaking explosion. Plooms of colorful smoke, confetti, and a few streamers went everywhere. Everypony coughed through the choking shroud while Pinkie Pie cheered loudly from a victorious pose atop her party cannon.
“Ta-Dah!”
“What?” Path Finder shouted, his ears ringing from his proximity to the explosion.
When the smoke cleared, everypony was able to see the fruit of Pinkie Pie’s efforts. The door, frame and all, was laying on the floor, leaving the crystal tunnel beyond accessible to all.
“But how did—?” Shining Armor began to ask, only to be cut off by Pinkie Pie.
“Oh, silly, the enchantment was only on the chains! You see, that door there looks really, really old. A lot older than any enchantment the princess might have put on it. But the chains were really new. So I thought that maybe the princess enchanted the chains and just used them to seal the door. If that was true, then the door and wall wouldn’t enchanted, and what we really want to do is get on the other side of the wall, not just open the door. So—”
“So you had the weird idea of just blowing the door out of the wall,” Applejack said, chuckling under her breath.
“Yep. It’s just a good thing I have an emergency party cannon stashed in every major party location we’ve been to. I don’t know where we would have gotten my special, custom ordered party poppers otherwise.”
“I am... just going to ignore the fact that your party poppers are military grade explosives for now. Still, good work, Pinkie Pie.” Shining Armor looked to the squads, his brow furrowing as he began to bark orders. “Squads, I want you down that tunnel now. Do initial recon and secure a perimeter if necessary. If there’s anything dangerous or suspicious, retreat back here immediately. I’ll be joining you once our reinforcements arrive.”
The soldiers nodded, quickly forming up and galloping down the now exposed crystalline tunnel. Shining Armor began to prepare himself as well for the unknown dangers. He cast a levitation spell on his helmet and was about to put it on when he felt a tap on his shoulder.
“Don’t you mean ‘we’ll’ be joining you once the reinforcements arrive.”
Shining Armor looked at Rainbow Dash and shook his head. “No. You five have done what I hoped you would. You’ve given us a trail, but now we’re rushing headlong into who knows what. I’d rather not risk your safety.” Shining Armor let his eyes wander to the crystalline cavern. “The last time I sent soldiers into a place like this, beneath a castle, a lot of them didn’t come back.”
“We appreciate the concern, Shining, but we are going with you,” Rarity said.
Applejack nodded. “She’s right, we’ve come too far just to stand on the sidelines now. Besides, you need all the bodies you can get right now.”
“Yeah, the more of us there are, the faster we’ll find Twilight and the princesses. And the sooner all that happens, the sooner I can throw a party celebrating the fact we found them,” Pinkie Pie said with a optimistic bounce.
“Fluttershy?” Shining Armor asked, looking around for the quiet member of the group.
Fluttershy poked her head out from the staircase that lead to the rest of the castle, still shaking a little from Pinkie’s explosions. “I... I know it’s going to be scary but... but the girls are right. None of us can abandon Twilight.”
Shining Armor sighed, a frown on his lips as he put his helmet on. “Okay, but remember this place is like a maze. Cadance wandered for days trying to find a way out and ended up walking in a lot of circles. You stay with me at all times, and you do what I say when I say it. Do we understand one another?”
The mares nodded.
“Then let’s move out.”
~~~
With an explosive blast, the doors of the library were blown off their hinges. The barricade of books that had held them shut were tossed like shrapnel, some bursting into shreds of paper and binding while others crash through windows and against walls. In the center of all the destruction, Princess Luna stood with a firm frown on her face. She stepped into the library, eyes slowly scanning the interior.
“Twilight, end this game this instant. We have no time for such foolishness,” Princess Luna shouted. She glanced first to the reading area. She then walked the edge of the library’s shelves, looking down each row as she passed. “Twilight Sparkle, my patience is running thin. I know you are in here.”
She passed the last row of shelves and began to follow the curved wall back into the cozy reading area. The fire in the hearth still crackled and popped, its warm light stretching across the room. “This fire did not start itself, Twilight, nor did the door barricade itself. I also sensed no teleportation magic. I know you are still here. Why hide from me at all? If it is because you fear me, then you must realize Discord’s game is taking hold. You must resist it, at least until I can cast the spell on you that I placed on myself.”
Luna paused at the odd sensation of something under hoof. She looked down and raised a foreleg, revealing the broken wingblade she had just stepped on. She lifted it in her magic, eyes hardening as she looked into the reflective surface. “I see. It would seem Princess Celestia’s regard for your sleuthing is not without merit. Though, I can’t help but feel you got some help.” Her eyes wandered to the portrait, glaring it down. “Even with your dwindling influence, Celestia, you still managed to resist. I would even find such persistence admirable if there had been any hope to begin with.
“But, I do suppose this revelation has its advantages. I can end this farce, for one, and begin to be more direct. Twilight Sparkle, I am going to kill you.”
~~~
Twilight tightened her muscles, trying to shrink her body more as she hung from the rafters of the library. With Luna pounding on the door, hiding had been the only thought to cross her mind. She had tried to scramble beneath one of the library’s reading couches, but the space was too small. And after her experience with the Headless Horse being able to zone in on her teleportation magic, she didn’t dare try to blink someplace else. With options dwindling, Twilight had taken hold of the simplest hope of hiding.
Levitating herself up with as little magic as possible and clinging to the support beams of the high ceiling and praying Princess Luna didn’t look up.
Princess Luna was still just below her, moving casually as if she was preparing for a leisurely day. With a few flicks of her horn, she was moving furniture back from the reading area, creating an open space in front of the hearth. She let one of the endtables remain, on which she set down the broken wingblade. Princess Luna then began to call on her magic again, conjuring and drawing in books and shredded pages.
In but a few moments, she had assembled a paper statue of Princess Celestia. It was amazingly lifelike. The mane and tail even began to move and flow, as the princess's did. The legs began to fidget, and the chest began to swell and retract with rhythmic pattern of breathing. It was like the statue was alive.
That was when Princess Luna stabbed it.
Using the broken wingblade as her tool, Luna pierced the pages of the statue. And the statue screamed, voicing its pain in Princess Celestia’s own voice. It curdled Twilight’s blood, nearly making her lose her grip on the ceiling beam. There was no blood, no ink. Nothing but the cut in the paper, but the pain in the statue’s scream... It was like Luna had driven the broken sword straight into Twilight’s own chest.
“You hear that, Twilight? Do you hear how she screams?” Princess Luna asked, plunging the blade in again and eliciting another wail from the statue. “Even in pain, her voice still manages a musical quality. Could you imagine such a symphony of sounds? I can. In fact, I once had a piano that worked just like that. I’d press the keys, and the ponies within would get stabbed, making each scream in his or her own unique key.”
Those words were like poison being poured into Twilight’s mind. She could see the grotesque contraption. She could hear the ponies within howling in pain as the keys were pressed. She shut her eyes and pressed her ears against her head, trying to drown it all out. She couldn’t stop herself from thinking about it, no matter how she tried. She pictured friends and family being bound inside the piano. She heard them scream as their keys were pressed, unable to stop or ease their pain.
“But she’s not the only one with us tonight that has such a pretty voice,” Princess Luna said, the paper statue changing. It shrank in size, transforming from Princess Celestia into Cadance. And, once more, Luna stabbed the statue with the broken blade. Twilight began to tremble, her breathing becoming unsteady. She wanted to block it out, but she couldn’t. It was a flood in her mind, washing away all other thoughts.
“You... you have pretty voice too, don’t you, Twilight Sparkle?” Princess Luna twirled the blade in her magic as the paper statute changed again, taking on Twilight’s appearance. “Why don’t you let me hear it?”
Unlike before, Luna did not plunge the blade straight into the statue. Instead she rested the tip of it gingerly on the statue’s cheek and then dragged it in a short line. It left a shallow cut on the paper statue, but unlike those before the doppelganger did not scream.
But unlike those before, Twilight felt the pain. She felt the sharp edge across her cheek, though it left no wound on her body. It was like a voodoo doll, and the shivering in Twilight’s body grew in parallel to her panic. It was like watching herself be tortured.
“Oh, come now. Don’t you want to sing? I’m sure you have a lovely voice.” Luna placed the blade against the statue’s flank, beginning to slowly turn it. It began to bore into the paper like a drill, and on the ceiling above Twilight had to place a hoof over her mouth to silence herself. Tears welled in her eyes, and it became a struggle breath. She wanted to scream. She wanted to shout so much. It seemed like the only way to release the pain building up inside her.
But to do so would mean letting Luna know where she was, and Twilight feared that more and more with each passing moment. She was beginning to imagine herself in the statue’s place, not just feeling the pain but receiving the wounds as well. This thing, whatever it was, that masqueraded as Luna... She could not let herself fall into its clutches.
“My my, you really are a shy one. Even after all this you don’t want to sing for me? Well, don’t worry. I know just how to cure stage fright.” Luna moved to the front of the statue, position the tip of the blade just above the fake, paper eye. She touched the tip to the surface, and Twilight could feel the pressure on her eye. She moved the hoof on her mouth to that eye, as if covering it might stop what she was about to feel. But the subtle sensation of pressure remained, warning of the pain that was to come.
“One... two...” Luna counted out from below. She was using her magic to hold the blade in place, but her hoof was resting against the base. She glanced around, lingering on the last count before the smile on her face grew a little bigger. “Three.”
The pain hit Twilight like a lightning bolt, and she screamed. She lost her grip on the ceiling beams, and fell to the floor as she writhed. She held both hooves to her eye, rolling on the floor and wailing. The pain was all that was in her mind. There were no other thoughts. Everything was consumed by the pain.
~~~
The scream hit everypony like a bolt from a crossbow. There was no questioning of what they heard. They all know Twilight’s voice, even when it was twisted into a blood-curdling scream. In an instant they all broke into a gallop. With Shining Armor leading the charge, there was no more waiting for the reinforcements to arrive. The five mares and stallion stampeded down the crystalline tunnel, catching up to the five preceding squads of guards. They had heard the scream as well and were racing towards its source as quickly as their hooves could carry.
“I think I see something!” Rainbow Dash shouted, pointing ahead. She took to her wings as the crystalline tunnel grew larger, letting her race ahead of the others. The sound of Twilight’s continued screams grew louder, and there was no doubt where they were coming from. It looked to be a mirror grown directly from the crystal. Its bordering frame was well defined, as if shaped from magic, and the surface contained was perfectly flat.
“It’s coming from here!” Rainbow shouted back to her friends as she put her hooves on the mirror.
“But how?” Fluttershy asked.
“Look at it! It must be a mirror like the one in the Crystal Empire,” Rainbow Dash said, still trying to push her way through the reflective surface. “Whatever took Twilight and everypony else must have come through during the party.”
“But it would have taken an army to kidnap that many ponies,” Rarity pointed out. “And wouldn’t we have seen signs of a struggle up stairs?”
“How it happened doesn’t matter,” Applejack said. She went up beside Rainbow Dash before turning around and starting to buck at the mirror. “What matters is Twilight’s in a heap of trouble, and we need to help her. Now come on, we have to get this thing to open.”
~~~
“Ah, there you are.” Luna said, as if she hadn’t heard the screaming for the past several seconds. She took the blade from the statue and started to walk towards Twilight. “I’ll admit, I wouldn’t have thought to look for you up there. You’ve been taking pointers from a particular bat, haven’t you?
The pain was beginning to fade, the strange magic of the statute leaving. She began to regain control of herself, lowering her hooves from her eye. She was still trembling, but she began to struggle against the unrelenting quaver in her muscles. Reaching out a hoof, Twilight tried to pull herself away. She tried to crawl, if only to delay her capture.
But she felt a hoof on her back, pushing her against the ground. She managed to turn her head enough to see Princess Luna pinning her down. The fire from the hearth cast dark shadows on her face, revealing a twisted smile. She held the broken blade, its tip pointed directly at Twilight’s exposed back.
“Now my conquest will be complete.”
Twilight shut her eyes, not wanting to see it coming. This was it. It was over. She’d never see her friends or family again. She’d never read another book, or have another hayberger. All the little and big things in life that made it all worth living, it was all being taken away in a single stroke of a broken sword. She could feel Luna’s weight shifting, the pressure on her back getting lighter. Princess Luna was rearing back, preparing herself.
The blade would come at any moment. Where would it hit? How long would it take? How painful would it be? Twilight didn’t know, and as tears streamed down her eyes, she drew in a breath. A last act of resistance. A last act of her struggle to cling to life and all that it entailed. She filled her lungs with every ounce of air they could fit, and then she screamed.
“I don’t want to die! Please! Somepony! Help! I don’t want to die!”
~~~
“Twilight! We’re coming!” Shining Armor shouted while unleashing a blast from his horn. They were barraging the mirror with everything they could think of. Every unicorn was blasting it with magic. All the earth ponies had joined Applejack in trying to buck their way through. The crystalline mirror, however, was proving resilient. The pegasi were making flying passes, trying to use their momentum to buck their way through from the air.
“This isn’t working!” Rarity shouted.
“Well, what else are we supposed to do?” Rainbow Dash asked.
Fluttershy flew down beside Rarity, hovering in the air she touched her necklace. “Maybe the Elements can get through?” She used her free hoof to point to the ground, showing that the rainbow trail they had originally been following lead right up to the edge of the mirror.
“It’s worth a shot,” Applejack said, finishing one final buck at the mirror before galloping forward. The five friends formed a circle, remembering the lesson they had learned in the castle above. They couldn’t tell the Elements what to do. They had to trust the mysterious, magical artifacts would do what was necessary based on what they desired. And what they desired, above all else, was to help Twilight. And the Elements were glowing, the five jewels shining brilliantly like stars. Yet, they were not activating. There were no trails of rainbows or surge of magic.
“They’re not doing anything!” Rainbow shouted, starting to hit hers with her hoof. “Come on, you stupid things. Work!”
The lights began to flicker before Applejack grabbed Rainbow’s hoof. “We can’t make them do it. Just keep your mind on what’s important: saving Twilight. Now come, y’all, focus!”
The others nodded, bowing their heads and closing their eyes as the light from their Elements of Harmony continued to glow with greater and greater brilliance.
~~~
“Oh, my little pony, who exactly is going to hear you scre—”
A piercing roar cut the air. It was followed soon after by the smack of two bodies crashing into one another. Twilight felt the weight of Luna’s hoof disappear from her back, and without hesitating a moment, she scrambled forward. Crawling on her belly, she reached the door before daring to look back. That’s when she saw it: the twisted, snake-mouthed Princess Celestia was attacking the fake Luna. Its fangs were sunk into Luna’s foreleg, but she acted as if it didn’t hurt at all as she swung the broken sword around in her magic.
It was a moment of disbelief as Twilight recalled Twin Blades’ memories. Two beasts had guarded the one candle that had been in the library. She, as the snake beast, had defended the candle itself. If that was true, then was this version of Princess Celestia supposed to be her guardian?
Had she spent the whole night running away from a creature whose true intention had only been to protect her?
The crash of the two fighting ponies into a shelf drew Twilight back to reality. Despite the ferocity of the snake-mouthed Celestia, she looked to be losing the fight against the fake Luna. Once the fight was over, if Luna still stood, Twilight knew she would be the focus of the mare’s attention once more. This was her only chance to get away, but to where? That Luna would be able to chase her anywhere.
“Squeek.”
Twilight spun her head around, looking to the corridor outside the library. There, hanging from a loose brick in the ceiling, was the bat. The bat from the cage outside the castle, who played a much larger role than Twilight could have ever surmised. The portrait Celestia had told her to find the bat, and now it was just hanging there, looking at her.
“Please, help me,” she said, and to her surprise the bat seemed to reply. It took to its wings started to fly down the corridor. Twilight had to jump to her hooves and gallop to keep up, but she did. She raced after the bat, leaving the fighting in the library behind as she was led to who knew where.
~~~
It wasn’t long before Twilight felt the cool air of the night on her face. The bat had led her outside, the pair passing the statue where she had found it caged. It flew from roost to roost, stopping to hang upside down periodically as it waited for Twilight to catch up. Still, soon Twilight recognized the path she was being led down. The acrid smell of ash began to reach her nose, and her hooves began to blacken from the soot on the ground.
They were approaching the burnt remains of the castle’s maze, which had been all but leveled by the explosive force of Philomena’s demise. Twilight, when she had looked at the aftermath from one of the castle windows, had been sure nothing had survived the blast. But now, as she was lead back, she began to notice small mounds sticking out of the otherwise flat blanket of ash.
From a few of those mounds some pale bits of stone stuck out, and the more of them she saw, the more Twilight recognized what they were. They were the bits of the statues that had dotted the maze. She saw the half shattered face of the dragon and one of the wide-spread wings of the griffin. To say the statues survived the explosion wasn’t accurate, but they had fared better than all of the flammable foliage that had once comprised the maze.
What was she supposed to find here? She had already done two of the three things the portrait Celestia had been able to tell her. She had found the bat and gone to the maze. But how was she supposed to relight the stars. The candles were gone. They disappeared when all the rooms went back to normal. This felt like it was important. These were the three instructions the portrait Celestia had managed to give her before they were interrupted. This was maybe her one chance to stop all this, to really stop it.
But she didn’t know what to do!
Another squeak from the bat drew Twilight out of her panic. She turned, looking to see the bat had landed on the ground. It was sitting on top of a bit of statue, one amongst a half dozen or so others. These pieces were different. They weren’t covered in soot, and from the lines in the ash surrounding them, the pieces had been dragged closer together. Twilight trotted closer, looking over each piece.
The biggest piece, the one that hadn’t been moved like the others, was the body of the eastern dragon. She then saw some limbs from the other statues. The chimera’s paw, the hippogryphs claw and hind hoof. There was a horn from the chimera’s goat head, and one of the antlers from the dragon statue as well. The hippogryphs other wing was laying amongst the pieces. It was all just random bits and parts, and yet... they were familiar bits and parts.
The realization hit Twilight, a familiar spark in her eyes. She began to levitate the pieces, taking each one and starting to assemble it into a familiar shape. Her confidence was growing as she found the pieces beginning to fit together. Even though they were from different statues originally, it was like they had been made to go together. It was a creature she knew. It was a creature her friends knew. One they had to deal with yet called friend.
It was Discord.
Was this what Princess Celestia wanted her to find? It had to be. He could help her put everything right. She just had to get him back together. The bat had even taken its place, resting on the statue’s back with one of its wings extended. It was all fitting together. The claw, the paw, the snake tail. Even the goat head, though she had to replace one of its eyes with the eye from the hippogryph.
“The desperate flailings of the doomed are so amusing.”
Twilight froze, holding Discord’s singular fang in her magic. It was the last piece. She made a moments panicked decision and jammed it up into place. The statue was complete, but... nothing happened. It didn’t start to move or change into Discord’s real body. It was just a statue. Even the bat, from earlier, had become part of the stone.
A meaty thud made Twilight turn around. The beaten form of the serpent-mouthed Celestia had been tossed at her hooves, broken, bloody, and on the brink of death. Further away, standing triumphant with no scar or wound of her own to speak of, was the fake Luna. She was still holding the broken blade, which now dripped with blood.
“I’m afraid you lost this game a long time ago, Twilight Sparkle,” the fake Luna said, beginning to walk towards Twilight very slowly. Each step she took forward made Twilight inch backward, until her flank was pressed against the statue of Discord. There was so much room to run. She could dart left or right, but all of it felt hopeless. Luna’s eyes were locked on her, carrying a murderous intent that should never exist in a pony’s gaze.
“You lost before you even began playing. You lost the moment she wielded my power.” Luna’s body began to contort, growing in size with each step. At the same time her features began to fade, becoming nothing more than a shadow. The blade, which had been previously held by magic, was now grasped in a grisly hand. “You lost the moment her sister opened that book.”
The figure came to a stop, towering over Twilight like a mountain. Twilight looked into the darkness of the silhouette, her mind flood with poisonous thoughts. Hopelessness and fear began to consume her, leaving her a shivering mess at the figure’s hooves. “Just as you could not turn his stone to flesh, you cannot stop what I am.”
Twilight froze, her eyes drifting away from the figure. She looked up through the bangs of her hair, seeing Discord’s statue standing behind her. She also saw the glint of her crown, which she had held onto through the entire ordeal. There was... there was a chance. If the statue really was Discord, she could turn his stone to flesh. She had the tool to do it resting right on her head. But... her friends were nowhere nearby. Her Element of Magic was almost powerless without the others. Just as friendship was meaningless without the ponies you called friends.
Looking back to the figure, Twilight saw it raising the broken blade above its head. There was no other hope. If she teleported away, the creature would chase, and she couldn't fight it head on. Discord was her only hope. So... she had to try. Even as she watched the figure’s arm tense. Even as the blade began to plunge towards her with murderous intent, she had to try.
She called out to the Element of Magic, making the one request that, at the moment, stood out as the strongest thing in her mind. The one light that, like the candles she had snuffed, seemed to glow brightly against the coming darkness of death. One thought that Twilight clung too as her last saving grace.
“I want to see my friends again. All my friends, even Discord!”
The blade’s tip was but inches away when Twilight felt the crown upon her brow grow warm.
Twilight groaned as she shifted her legs, which were stiff and unresponsive. Her mind was coming awake, but she refused to open her eyes. It felt like she had been up all night studying while wrestling a hydra. She wanted more sleep. Thankfully, it was nice and dark. No bright light shining in her eyes. Yes, nice and dark.
Like that figure that...
Swinging from partially asleep to fully awake, Twilight’s mind recalled the dire situation she was last in. Her heart started pounding in her chest, and her eyes zipped in all directions, trying to find the murderous figure that had been moments away from stabbing her.
Yet, none of that was there. She didn’t see the maze or the mysterious castle. She wasn’t in the forest. She was in a hospital room, with the window’s blinds pulled shut and the sterile smell of sanitizers hitting her nose. There were numerous flowers on her bedside table, along with an untouched apple pie and some balloons. It was all very safe, very calm, and entirely ordinary.
Twilight didn’t know whether to be calm or even more freaked out.
“Well, you took your sweet time waking up.”
Turning away from the window and present-laden bedside table, Twilight looked to her right to see Discord sitting—actually sitting—in the hospital provided waiting chair. He looked like he was flipping through a magazine, probably borrowed from a waiting area. The spirit of chaos, who could conjure things with the snap of his claw, had borrowed something from the hospital.
“W-what—?”
“What happened?” Discord interrupted, tossing the magazine over his shoulder. It folded itself into a complex paper airplane, which did a few loop-de-loops before flying out of the room. “To put it bluntly, you, Celestia, Twin Blades, and I saved Equestria from Tirek.”
“Tirek... but I thought we defeated him back in the catacombs. Princess Celestia told me that she blasted him with his own Dark Rainbow.”
“Oh, yes, it was a gripping tale of triumph over the darkness,” Discord mused. “But, take it from me, Tirek is never beaten that easily. Here, let me ask you if this rings a bell.” Putting his paw behind his back, Discord withdrew a small, round, white frosted cake with a blue, green, and pink trim. The top of the cake was decorated with a frosting sun. He set the cake in Twilight’s lap before once more reaching behind his back again.
“See, once upon a time there was this rather know-it-all mare whose sister decided to throw a tantrum. That mare needed to put her sister in time-out for about a thousand years, give or take, and to do it used some very pretty jewelry. In doing so, the jewelry was sealed in stone for a long time. But a part of their power lingered with the know-it-all mare.”
At that Discord produced six candles, sat them on the cake, and lit them. Each one burnt with its own unique color. “That magic tagged along with the mare for centuries, silently protecting her from any nasty, dark influence that might have tried to control or corrupt her. That is, until, that mare went down into a very dark basement to fix a problem her sister started.”
“The catacombs of the old castle?” Twilight asked, only for Discord to put his claw on her lips.
“Twilight, you know its rude to interrupt. Now, where was I? Oh yes. In those catacombs, that mare met a nasty creature. He wanted to do awful things, but he couldn’t leave his dark little corner of the basement without help. So he reached out to touch the mare, hoping he could make her carry him outside. And when he did that, this happened.”
Discord licked his finger and used it to put out one of the candles on the cake. That left five candles, burning and flickering with their own unique flames. Twilight stared at those candles, her mind seeing something familiar. She then gasped. “Five lights... Five stars! Those were the Elements of Harmony!”
“I’d scold you for interrupting again, but I suppose I’m getting bored telling the story this way anyway. After everything that happened, even I’ve lost a bit of my normal pep and vigor.” Discord spun his wrist, turning his claw into a knife as he began to cut his Celestia-metaphor cake. “Yes, those lights you were being tricked into putting out represented the lingering essence of the Elements within Celestia.”
Discord offered Twilight a slice of the cake, and while she would normally refuse, a grumble from her stomach made her hunger apparent. She took the slice, using her magic to break off a chunk and place it in her mouth. Rarity would probably have a fit she wasn’t using a fork, but at that moment, Twilight felt magic was suitable enough.
“So,” she said, talking through the small morsel of cake, “what really happened?”
“Oh, a mixture of things,” Discord said. He took one of the flowers from Twilight’s beside boquete and began to fold and twist it, as if he was making origami. “It seems our dear Celestia was sleepwalking several nights a week after her little excursion into the catacombs. Her therapist attributed it to bad dreams, but it was, in fact, a little bit of Tirek’s essence taking control when the princess’s defenses were at their lowest.
“Tirek must have used Celestia like a puppet for weeks to get this plan of his set up. He was always very patient. He’d actually have a redeeming quality if that patience extended to anything but his own schemes. Still, he made his preparations and then made a trigger.” Discord took the flower he had been folding and held it above Twilight's head.
He then let go, its new, conical shape falling perfectly onto her horn. “It really is amazing what you can do with a little bit of hypnosis, especially if you do it during a dream. Tirek had Celestia trained like a little dog that drools when it hears its food bell. The moment the horn crown was delivered to her, she had a subconscious need to put it on.”
“But why Nightmare Night?” Twilight asked.
“Oh, Tirek couldn’t care a flying horseshoe about pony holidays. He probably just needed Celestia to put it on during some big shindig at the castle. Though, I will admit, it was rather appropriate timing.” Discord served himself a slice of cake. Then, with another spin of his wrist, his claw became a fork which he used to slip a bit of cake into his mouth.
“So, Princess Celestia was being influenced by Tirek because he touched her that night in the catacombs. She made the spell that was tied to the horn crown. But... what was that spell supposed to do, anyway? Was it a teleportation spell that took us to that castle?”
“Oh no. That big of a spell would have been too much for Tirek’s little cancer to do,” Discord said as he finished his first slice of cake and served himself a second. “No, the original spell was meant to do three things. First, it would connect the mind of everypony in the castle to Celestia’s consciousness. Second, it would take over her mind entirely. Third, as a result of the first two steps, Tirek’s cancerous influence would have spread to everypony connected to Celestia by the spell, basically giving him a small army in the matter of moments.”
“But then why didn't it do exa...” Twilight began to ask, only to look to Discord. “That moment when you grabbed the crown. You did something, didn’t you?”
“Very astute of you, Twilight. You deserve a gold star.” Discord stuck said gold star sticker on Twilight’s cheek as he beamed like some proud teacher. “Yes. The moment I saw that nasty little thing, I could tell it was Tirek’s. It just exuded his particular artistic vision, not to mention some of his dark magic. That’s why I tried to grab it. Unfortunately, it seems even he’s heard about my reformation into a law-abiding citizen of Equestria. He put in some nasty counter measures to keep me from interfering.
“So, while I couldn’t stop what was about to happen, I did make it... more interesting.” Discord stuck his fork-claw into his slice of cake, but as he pulled it up the cake itself morphed. It grew into a tall, regal looking castle, though still made entirely of cake.
“So it was your game. The fake Luna inside was telling the truth.”
“About that much, yes. The game was mine, though for once I was playing for Equestria’s benefit,” Discord said as he broke off a tower of his castle cake and popped it into his mouth. “Every pony caught in the initial spell’s web was pulled into Celestia’s dream. There, they would start to be overcome with their nightmares until they became monstrous beasts. Beasts that, I hoped, would hunt down Tirek’s little cancer and clean it out of Celestia’s head.
“Of course, there were a few ponies that started out transformed, ones I selected to guard the candles in Celestia’s mind. After all, I couldn’t leave the goal of the game completely undefended at the beginning.”
“So... wait... you were the one that turned me into a giant book snake!” Twilight snapped, pointing an accusing hoof at Discord.
“No, I wasn’t, but I must say that was an excellent transformation. A very inspired mix of all your little phobias. A fear of snakes, destroyed books, dark magic, tombs, and claustrophobia all rolled into a deadly package. You really must try to do that again for next Nightmare Night. I promise, you’d win every costume contest you could enter.”
“But then why did that snake-mouthed Celestia look like Nightmare Moon in mirrors? Why did that Celestia have my mane? Why did I have Celestia’s mane? Why did you make me one of the candles?” Twilight asked, her mind trying to wrap around the fact that it had been Discord’s game the whole time, even if it was his attempt at helping.
“Let me answer the first three, because they’re really all the same question,” Discord said as he stood up from his seat, stretching after finishing his castle-shaped slice of cake. “I may have made the rules to the game, Twilight, but that didn’t stop Tirek’s little cancer from trying to cheat. When it realized it wouldn’t be able to blow out the candles on its own, it began to manipulate the ponies in the dream. It gave some of them sweet dreams so they wouldn’t become monsters. It tried to use others to its advantage. You know this, especially after that little swim you took in Twin Blades’ memories.
“That’s also why it made Luna, whose fear had turned her into a foal-gobbling Nightmare Moon, look like Celestia with your mane. Tirek was trying to convince you that you had been taken to some far off castle, a goal I think we both agree he succeeded in accomplishing.” Discord turned and put his paw and claw at the end of the bed, chuckling as he looked Twilight. “You can be so narrow minded sometimes. It’s part of the reason why you’re so fun to be around.”
“If he was cheating, why didn't you stop him?” Twilight asked, glaring down Discord with her forehooves crossed.
“Because I wasn’t really part of the game,” Discord answered, brushing of Twilight’s glare as if it was dust on his chest. “Sure, I had my little bat, but that was about all I could do. After all, sending my chaotic magic across a mental bridge without frying the pony brain on the other side isn’t exactly easy. We’re honestly lucky Celestia’s brain didn’t turn into a hard-boiled egg having that many ponies running around her dream.”
“And what about the fact that I was one of the ‘stars?’” Twilight asked, not allowing herself to get led off-topic by Discord’s tangent. “That thing wanted to kill me.”
“I must admit, that was a surprise for me as well,” Discord said, using his claw to remove a screw from the end of Twilight’s bed. “There was supposed to be five candles, but the essence of the Element of Magic inside Celestia apparently had another idea.”
Discord flicked the screw, which flew through the air and stuck to Twilight’s horn as if she was casting a magnetism charm. “It was drawn to you. You are the current wielder of the Element of Magic, after all. Who better to represent the essence in my little game.”
“But Tirek was trying. To. Kill me!”
“Oh wha wha wha.” Discord snapped his claw, popping out of existence and appearing next to Twilight before quickly putting a pacifier in her mouth. “You really shouldn’t whine about what was, in the end, a fortuitous turn of events. The fact you bonded with that light is the reason you got a second chance to be in Celestia’s head, unlike Cadance, Philomena, or Raven, who were disconnected from the dream the moment their candles were snuffed. To be quite honest, you were cheating almost as bad as Tirek’s little cancer, but then how could I expect anything else when your precious mentor, Princess Celestia, was setting such a bad example.”
Twilight spat out the pacifier. “Princess Celestia was there too?”
“Well of course, all this was happening in her little noggin. She, perhaps, didn’t have a piece on the board like everypony else, but since when do you expect the game board in a boardgame to be a player as well.”
“She was... the game board,” Twilight said, tilting her head to one side before taking in a small breath in realization. “She was the castle.”
“To an extent,” Discord confirmed as he began to open the blinds, letting warm rays of sunlight flood into the room. The view beyond the window was of a desolate desert. “Everything was just her dream, but certain things did represent certain aspects of your dear princess’s psyche. The library, for example, was all her wisdom and knowledge while the painting in that library was the core of her consciousness. That’s why it remained pristine even as the frame, its protection, deteriorated.
“By the way, you should really thank her for helping you find that spell to get into Twin Blades’ head. You might not have made it without that little trick.”
Twilight chewed on another bite of the cake, her eyes wandering as she was deep in thought. “Then... that must have been why everything kept changing back to what it had been after I left a hallway or a room. Celestia was forgetting what parts I changed. But then what happened at the end? Why did your bat led me to a statue of you if you weren’t even really there?”
“To get you to use this,” Discord said, his arm stretching to twice its length to pick up Twilight’s crown off her bedside table. “After you helped Tirek’s cancer snuff all the stars but yourself, the only way we were going to win was if I got you to use this. By using the Elements, you purged Tirek’s little cancer out of Celestia’s head, restored their lingering essence in the princess’s body, and broke the spell of the horn crown.
“But, I know you, Twilight. You didn’t even think of trying to use the little trinket in your crown without your friends being there with you. So, I had to give you a reason to try, and that’s why I put the statue in. I have to give credit to Tirek, though. Hiding my body as parts of others statues in the maze was a rare moment of creativeness on his behalf.”
Discord chuckled, tossing the crown to Twilight as he began to stroll towards the door. “So, once more the day is saved thanks to six little ponies and their pretty jewelry, with a little assistance from a pegasus guard, a royal know-it-all, and the beloved yours truly. Celestia’s just down the hall if you want to visit her. Besides you and me, she’s about the only one that really remembers everything that happened. All the others were spared the details of the experience, believing it was nothing more than a bad dream.
“And in many ways,” Discord said as he placed his paw on the door handle, “that’s all it was.”
“Wait, I have one more question,” Twilight asked, sitting up in her hospital bed as Discord turned around in the door.
“Just one, Twilight? Oh, I don’t believe that.”
“The way you were talking just now, it sounds like you know Tirek.”
Discord’s characteristic smile faded, and he looked away from Twilight. “Once more, your astuteness shines through, my dear Twilight. You see, in my life I’ve been blasted by the Rainbow of Light, also known as the Elements of Harmony, three times. Two times was by you ponies of Equestria, which turned me to stone. The first time—which was a very long time ago—I was sent to the great jail of Tartarus.”
Discord’s grip on the handle tightened as he his claw balled into a fist. “I pray you never see the inside of that place, Twilight. For all the horrors you experienced during my game, that place is far, far worse. It is a fate I wouldn’t wish on any soul.
“A fate I barely managed to escape.”
Turning slowly, Discord looked at Twilight. For a moment she was frightened by the look in his eye, one so dead serious it nearly rivaled Fluttershy’s stare in its sheer crippling power. “I am never going back, nor am I going to let Tirek turn this pony paradise into just extension of his prison. I will... never go back.”
“Discord...”
Twilight’s one word, spoken with concern and kindness, snapped the draconequus out of his moment. He put on a smile, turning and flourishing his arms. “Oops, I got a little bit too serious right there. Can’t let that happen. After all, I’m a spirit of chaos. I can’t let myself get caught up in moody stuff like that. Now, if you'll excuse me, dear Twilight, I’m going to go brighten Princess Celestia’s day. Sayonara.”
“But Discord—” She tried to protest. The draconequus, however, put his paw on the door and pushed it open. In that moment, a stampede of chromatic mares and one young dragon rushed into the room, encircling Twilight’s bed. They were all chattering at the same time, saying how good it was to see she was awake and how worried they were.
In the confusion Discord slipped out, pulling the door shut. Still, even as Twilight began to greet and thank her friends for the gifts on her bedside table, her imagination chewed on what Discord said like a dog with a bone. If Tartarus was even worse than what she went through, then she had to wonder.
Just what horrors had Discord been through that he seemed so intent on keeping buried?
~~~
Discord lingered outside the door for a few seconds, lifting his claw and slowly counting down on his talons. 3... 2... 1...
“I’ve been asleep how long!?”
The draconequus couldn’t help but smirk, finding a moment's joy in hearing Twilight shout like that. Still, he was a busy spirit of chaos. So much to do. So many places to be. It was almost impossible to think even he could get around to all of it.
“Dr. Discord, Patient Cumquat is ready for her checkout examination.”
Discord turned, a doctor’s white coat rising out of his skin like a snowstorm of dandrif. He took a clipboard from the nurse, a strikingly handsome draconequus. Discord couldn’t help but feel he was looking into a mirror when he saw that nurse, but then again the same could be said of the hospital’s entire staff.
Pushing the limits of even his chaotic magic, Discord had multiplied himself into an army of caregivers. An army that had taken a small broom closet of Canterlot Castle and turned it into extensive medical facility. To say the least, Fluttershy was very pleased with how earnestly Discord was trying to help the ponies who had been caught up in the Nightmare Night incident.
He didn’t have the heart to tell her it was more to remove every trace of Tirek from Equestria than to help ponies.
“Anything else?” he asked as he walked alongside one of his nurse clones. The nurse handed him a clipboard, and he flipped through the pages of cartoon scribbles, fine classical art, and ink splots it held.
“Patient Cumquat asked if she could visit Patient Scribble before she is released today. There is also a stallion here to pick up Patient Scribble, a Mr. Finder.”
“Have Mr. Finder meet me in Patient Scribble’s room,” Discord answered as he passed back the clipboard. “I’ll be along shortly for the exit examination.”
The nurse nodded, diverging to another hallway while Discord continued on his way. The hospital had been much bigger at the start, for multiple reasons, but as ponies were released Discord let his little pocket dimension collapse in size. Now, there were only a few dozen rooms remaining, a few stubborn cases that still needed to be sorted out.
Discord felt he’d almost miss his little mad house, but he had been playing this particular role for long enough. He’d need to go out and do about a dozen other professions in twenty-four hours to get himself out of what had been become a very orderly routine.
Still, he couldn’t fantasize about retirement from his short medical career for much longer. He did have patients to see. He reached one of the patient room doors on the hallway and stepped through it as if it was nothing but strips of fabric. “How are you this afternoon? Did you sleep well?”
Celestia sat up in her bed, actually smiling a little at the sight of the Draconequus. “I did, actually.”
“Well, I believe we both know who you need to thank for that. So many patients started doing better when Luna resumed her royal duties.” Discord stepped up to the bed, using a yoyo string to bring the medical chart to his claw. He then brought out a tuning fork, and tapped it against Celestia’s horn. The tuning fork sounded like a barbershop quartet singing a warm up for a performance, but it was a tone that made Discord smile. “Really, as the big sister, I can’t believe you’ve let yourself lay around in bed so much longer than she did. Tell me, are you just playing sick just so you can have a vacation?”
“No, I’m just following my doctors orders,” Celestia said, still smiling, through her grin accentuated several wrinkles on her face. She looked older than any pony had ever seen the believed-to-be immortal princess.
“Yes, I must admit being your taskmaster has been a delightful experience. Though, you worked off the extra weight from your all-cake meal regiment faster than I anticipated. I do believe some mares would consider assassinating you if they thought it would give them your metabolism. Perhaps I should consider spreading that rumor. Now, open your mouth an say ‘awwww.’”
Celestia did as she was requested, and the draconequus leaned. He withdrew a dentist's mirror from his coat and then held it just inside the princesses mouth. He had to push it in deep, to the point where the back of the mirror was pressing against the back of her throat. Celestia gagged, just a little, but otherwise suppressed her reflex while Discord had his look.
Still, in the mirror Discord saw the glint of six little lights, shining brightly.
“Well, it seems I’ll have to save my new all-pie treatment for somepony else,” he said as he withdrew the dental tool. “You are ready to be released, after your group therapy session of course. Still, keep the ruling to a minimum and limit your magic to raising the sun slowly.” Discord put a claw to his mouth and whistled loudly. In a flash the door to the room burst open, a wheelchair screeching to a stop next to the bed. “Your chariot awaits.”
Celestia nodded, slowly pulling herself out of bed and putting her hooves on the floor. Her steps were a bit weak, but she made it to the wheelchair and sat down. “Thank you, Discord.”
“Oh, don’t thank me yet. Just wait until you get my bill,” he said with a sly grin as he took hold of the equine wheelchair’s handles and began to push it towards the door. “I accept payment in practical jokes, chaotic freedom, and national holidays when everypony celebrates the wonders of chaos. I have also been thinking about getting a little kingdom of my own, you know, like what Cadance has. A little city-state of chaos. Doesn’t that sound wonderful? I did truly enjoy the idea of making Ponyville the chaos capital of the world.
“Then again, Twilight probably would have something say to that now that she’s awake.”
Celestia perked up and looked over her shoulder. “Twilight is awake?”
“Oh yes, she came to just a few minutes ago. She’s currently being swarmed by her friends, but you can see her after your therapy. Right now, I believe you and I have somepony else to meet.”
~~~
Path Finder knocked at the door cautiously, not in fear of disturbing the pony within but of the door itself. On every visit he had made to Discord’s hospital, the door before him had done something different. The first day it had swung upward, almost clocking him in the jaw. On another day it turned into a flaming hoop, and the only way through was to make the jump. His tail was still a little singed from that ordeal.
But, today, the door simply swung inward, as if on normal hinges. Path Finder didn’t want to believe it. He lingered in the hallway fearing the door was going to snap back in his face for some cruel trick. Still, he didn’t want to leave the mare inside waiting, so he took a tentative step. One hoof across the threshold and the door remained normal. Halfway through and still nothing had happened.
Path Finder didn’t know how to explain why he was in the door’s good graces today, but he wasn’t going to question it either. He just finished stepping inside and let the door shut itself as he moved to the side of the room’s hospital bed. “Hey, what are you doing still in bed?”
The mare laying on top of the sheets was Twin Blades, though Path Finder still had trouble recognizing his fellow royal guard out of uniform. In stark contrast to the white coats their armor magically gave them, hers was a rich yellow. It went well with her short cut red mane and tail as well as the pair of crossed swords that were her cutie mark.
They were real, vibrant colors, unlike him who had a color pallette that matched his namesake talent of finding a path: brown coat on wheat-colored mane. It was a very earth pony color palette, like his father, even though they were both unicorns. His cutie mark was a lighter brown piece of paper with a red dotted line on it.
Twin Blades slowly rose into a sitting position, wincing noticeably as some of her joints popped. “Sorry, guess I was about ready to doze off again. It seems all I’ve been doing lately is sleeping.”
“Well, sleeping is healing, but tonight you’ll be able to do that in your own bed,” Path Finder said. Horn glowing, he opened the flaps of his saddle bags and began to levitate a few things from around the room. Most were small gifts and well meant cards from comrades in the Royal Guard. But, as Path Finder packed things away, he also took something out.
“It’s too bad you couldn’t be there to receive this in person. You're practically a national hero now. The first to receive this award in a thousand years.” Path Finder levitated the wooden case to Twin Blades, slowly cracking it open to reveal its contents. A medal was displayed against the soft, silken interior along with an accompanying certificate. The medal itself was a sun and crescent moon imposed upon one another and surrounded by six gems in familiar colors.
“The Harmony Medal of Honor,” Path Finder said as he stacked the get well cards into a neat pile and slipped them into his saddle bags. “It was originally created to honor ponies who displayed exceptional valor during and after Discord’s reign of chaos. From what Princess Luna said, Princess Celestia hasn’t given it to anypony since the first Nightmare Moon incident. It was an award they were meant to give together, after all. It’s either equal to or one step above the Solar Medal of Honor, depending on who you ask.”
Twin Blades slowly closed the wooden case and set it on the bed beside her. “It’s very nice. Thank you for accepting it for me.”
“It’s the least I could do,” he said, smiling in hopes that the gesture might brighten Twin Blades’ mood as well. But she remained distant, reminding Path Finder all too well of how his comrade was after their trip into the catacombs. Still, he didn’t let his grin fade as he took the medal case into his magic and stowed it back into his saddle bags. “Well, that’s just about everything, then. How about we get you home?”
Path Finder lifted a foreleg, intending to walk to the side of the bed to help Twin Blades get to her hooves. However, he was promptly interrupted by the slamming of the room’s door. It had fallen open like a bridge that crossed a moat, and standing on the far side were two familiar faces.
Discord wheeled Celestia in, smiling and waving a claw dramatically in the air. “Ah, another patient who is ready to return to the outside world, and this one has a strapping young stallion here to help her home. Try not to be jealous, Celestia. I’m sure Cadance could fix you up with a nice fossil if you want somepony your own age.”
“Your highness.” Path Finder bowed to the princess, though he couldn’t help but notice a distinct lack of movement in the periphery of his vision. Glancing to his side, he was able to confirm that Twin Blades was not bowing. She hadn’t even bothered to tilt her head. She had just sat there as the princess was wheeled in by her chaotic doctor.
“Discord, if I may,” Celestia said, placing her forehooves on the wheels of the chair. The draconequus obliged, releasing his grip on the chairs handles and letting Celestia wheel herself closer. Path Finder slowly rose out of his bow, taking note of how tired Celestia seemed to be. In all the days he had seen her as a guard, she had always been vibrant. But today, she seemed older. Wrinkles around her eyes and lack of vigor in her voice. Yet the motherly kindness the princess was known for still remained.
“I don’t want to keep you for long,” Princess Celestia said as she came to a stop beside Twin Blades’ bed. “I just have to say thank you. No pony should have been forced to endure what you’ve been through. Twice now you’ve been instrumental in protecting me, my sister, and all of Equestria from a very dangerous enemy. There is no way for me to truly repay the debt I owe you, but I would like to try.
“My door will always be open for you, Twin Blades. If you wish to retire from the Guard, then know I will ensure you never have to work another day in your life unless you choose to. If you wish to remain in the Guard, then I’ll grant you any promotion you want. You have proven to have the fortitude, bravery, and intellect to be amongst my top generals. If you wish to leave Equestria behind and live in another land, to put this all behind you, then I’ll ensure you are welcomed warmly wherever you choose to go.”
Path Finder was struck in awe of what he was hearing. It was basically a blank check from the princess. Anything Twin Blades wanted, Princess Celestia would try to give her. It was no less than Twin Blades probably deserved, but seeing the princess make the offer herself was something he’d never forget. He’d even imagine that, if Princess Celestia wasn’t in a wheelchair, she would have bowed.
The princess of the sun would have bowed to a pegasus solar guard who, some would argue, was just doing her job.
Twin Blades looked just as shocked by the offer, as if it was all some cruel joke after everything that happened. Still, after a few moments of silence, Twin Blades began to shift in her bed. She pulled back the sheets, working herself to the edge before sliding down and landing on her hooves. She then turned to face Princess Celestia, looking up to the princess with what Path Finder believed was a tiny smile.
“I... Thank you for the offer. I have a lot to think about, so it may take a while for me to give you an answer.”
Celestia extended a forehoof, setting it on Twin Blades’ shoulder. “Take as long as you need. Until you decide otherwise, consider yourself on paid leave from the Guard.”
Twin Blades nodded, tapping her forehoof against Celestia’s a few times before turning away. “Thank you, princess.” She walked over to Path Finder, still wearing her tiny smile. “I’d like to go home now.”
Path Finder nodded, giving a quick farewell bow to the princess before he and Twin Blades walked to the door. It wasn’t a long walk to Twin Blades’ apartment from the castle, something that could be said of most ponies in the guard. Still, it was a walk the pair would make in silence. Twin Blades happy to see the sun again and be outside. Path Finder happy just to see Twin Blades wearing a smile, even if it was just a small one.
~~~
“That’s highly inappropriate, Discord,” Celestia said as she was wheeled out of Twin Blades’ now vacant room and down the hospital hallway.
“What? I’m just saying that Path Finder is playing the reliable coworker really well. I’m not saying he’ll make anything off it. He may respect the mare too much as a ‘friend.’ I’m just saying he’s in a good position. That and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had a thing for red-maned mares.”
“Path Finder is just being a good friend,” Celestia said, trying to defend the pair in their absence.
“Ah, that is true, but there is something I’ve heard Cadance say,” Discord mused as he and Celestia passed the nurse’s station staffed with his clones, who were doing their work while also making a pack of crayons put on a musical broadway show for their amusement. “I mean, besides screaming at the top of her lungs when she first came around with a few extra hooves than she’s used to. No, I believe she likes to say that a romantic partner should also be one of your best friends.”
“I don’t know if Cadance would appreciate you twisting her words like that.”
“Well, we’ll be able to ask her, won’t we?” Discord came to a stop at a large pair of double doors. Through the small square windows, it was easy to see a comfortable, very welcoming room. Composed of warm colors and numerous soft cushions, it was the one part of the hospital Discord had been forced to give up control of. The group therapy room was, as it had been explained to him, a sovereign embassy of order amidst his chaotic hospital.
With a snap of his tail, Discord commanded the doors to open. He turned Celestia’s wheelchair to face inside, where he could see Princess Luna and Princess Cadance were already seated in their favored cushions. There was, however, a third, unexpected guest. One who was now marching towards him and Celestia with what appeared to be grand purpose.
“Shining Armor, so nice of you to join us. I think the therapist would applaud you for supporting your wife, though I thought we agreed these meetings were going to be closed door.”
“I want to talk to you, Discord,” Shining Armor snapped.
“Oh, well, I sense I’m about to receive a new piece of paper in my complaint box. Celestia, I presume you can make it the rest of the way yourself.”
“Yes, I can,” Celestia answered, drawing herself out of the wheelchair and walking gingerly towards an empty cushion next to Luna.
“Wonderful. Then Shining Armor and I will just be a moment.” Discord jumped into the wheelchair, expertly drawing it back so he was balancing on just the two big wheels. He then rolled into the hallway, waiting there until Shining Armor had come outside before using another snap of his tail to shut the door. “So, Mr. Mi Amora Armor, what can I do for you?”
“It’s about—”
“No, wait, don’t tell me. I can read it on your face,” Discord said, smiling mischievously as held Shining’s lips shut with a claw. “There’s no reason to hide the secret from me. You’re a hoof stallion, and you’d like to have something to remember the eight-legged Cadance by. Well, I didn’t really take any pictures, but you should know I am a master of the arts.”
In a flash of chaotic magic, Discord had replaced his wheelchair with an artist’s canvas on an easel and his doctor’s jacket with a paintbrush in his claw while his paw supported a painter’s palette. “Shall I draw her like one of the Canterlot mares, or would you prefer something more Crystal Empire in style?”
“Why did you lie to Twilight?”
“Oh, that’s what this is about,” Discord said, touching the brush to a splotch of color on the palette before beginning to paint on his canvas. “Well, I’ll still send you a nice painting of Cadance anyway. Please be sure to have a photographer ready when she sees it. I want to know what her face looks like when she beholds my artwork for the first time.”
“Discord, you told Twilight it was all just a dream.”
“Yes, I did,” the draconequus answered nonchalantly.
“Even though that’s not what really happened.”
“Yes, I believe there’s even a word for it. What is that word again? Oh yes, I remember now. The word is ‘lying.’”
Shining Armor furrowed his brow, the aggravated rumble in his voice growing in intensity. “She just woke up and you're already playing games with her head. Didn’t you think that I or one of her friends would tell her the truth?”
“Did you tell her the truth?” Discord asked, pausing from his painting for just a moment.
“No, we didn’t, but—”
“Then you are just as guilty as me of this imagined crime.”
“It’s not imagined,” Shining Armor snapped.
“Okay, yes, I’ll give you that much. My ‘crime’ of withholding information from your dear LSBFF is very true. I plead guilty on all counts. I, however, will not have my good name besmirched with these insinuations that it was in anything but Princess Twilight’s best interest.” Discord, after making a dramatic stroke with his paint brush, grabbed his painter’s palette with both claw and paw and pressed it into the canvas. He then began pushing it around with an almost child-like glee, like he was playing with hoof paints.
“After all, like you said, somepony will tell her the truth eventually,” Discord continued, a few freckles popping up on his fur before he used his tail to pull a large cowpony hat out of his ear and put it on his head. “In fact, I think I know just the mare who will tell her everything when the time is right. But, for your dear sister, the past few weeks have passed in a moment. The last thing she remembers is being face to face with that little cancer Tirek put in Celestia’s head.”
Discord put his hand on the edge of his canvas, slowly turning it around to reveal what he had been painting. “Do you really think it’s in her best interest to tell her the truth right now?”
The painting depicted a moment in time, one that had been burned into Shining Armor’s mind. It was the crystal caverns below Canterlot. While he and his guards had been trying to break through what they believed was a portal, Twilight’s friends had been calling to the Elements of Harmony. Without warning, the Elements activated. A rainbow shot forth from the gemstones, striking against the crystalline mirror and blowing through it as it were tissue paper.
At first, they had all feared the Elements had destroyed the portal, as if to seal off something horrible from Equestria. Shining Armor had been amongst the first to rush forward, and it was then they saw the truth. The crystal surface had been a mirror, but not a portal like the one in the Crystal Empire. It had simply been a separating wall; beyond lay a large cavern.
It was in this cavern they found the party guests, but not as they expected them to be. Many were twisted, their bodies mutated by some strange magic. One guard had to back away from the sight, losing his lunch in a quiet corner. Shining Armor couldn’t blame him, as his own stomach wanted to empty itself onto the floor at what he saw.
This moment, when Shining Armor and the other guards first looked upon the hidden room, was what Discord had depicted in his painting. A mass of ponies lay upon a crystal floor, and like a spiraling whirlpool, those closer to the center began to look more and more disfigured. Some of the transformations were reverting before their very eyes, being washed away by the Elements of Harmony. Others, however, remained as they were, partially or completely changed.
Towards the middle of the room were five hulking creatures in particular: a pink spider, an ash phoenix, a carnivorous-looking Nightmare Moon, a bat, and the largest of them all, a purple-scaled snake with a cobra hood. A hood that resembled the mane of a mare Shining Armor knew all too well.
And at the very center of it all lay a black-coated, centaur figure. A figure that bore Celestia’s mane but had no other features that resembled the sun princess. A figure of lore and legend, who nopony had looked upon in the flesh in several thousand years.
“Twilight will be able to handle the truth in time. I have little doubt about that.” Discord raked his claw against the nearby wall, making it spark to life as if a match. “But I don’t think she needs to know just yet that those transformations inside Celestia’s mind were a reflection of what Tirek’s magic was doing to them in the real world. After all, even Tirek needs an army if he is to reconquer the world.
“Truth mirrored are lies,” Discord mused as he used his finger to ignite the bottom edge of the canvas he had just painted. “And lies mirrored are truth. So many ways to interpret such a little phrase, especially when it was one of the loosey goosey rules of my little game. In truth, I’m the only one that knows entirely what happened.”
The flames across the bottom of the canvas spread up the surface quickly, causing the previous image to change into a much more pleasant one. It showed Twilight being surrounded by her friends in her hospital bed, each mare wearing a warm, relieved smile.
“And I think it’s best that no one, not even you, Shining Armor, knows how close we were to losing that little game.” Discord stepped away from the easel, once more putting a smile on his face. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I am running a bit late.”
“Yes... of course,” Shining Armor said, taking a step back so Discord could head back towards the rest of the hospital. The draconequus, however, instead stepped over Shining Armor, heading towards the room where all the princesses were gathered around in a circle. “Wait, I thought you said those meetings were closed?”
“Oh, they are,” Discord answered, on paw on the door as he prepared to go inside. “Didn’t Cadance tell you? I’m joining their little group. It is a delightful show seeing those mares spill their fears so willingly. If I had known group therapy was so entertaining, I would have started going much earlier.”
Discord leaned in a little, chuckling under his voice. “Also, since Dr. Well Wish is taking a little sabbatical, I thought it would be fun to go and see one of his colleagues. Oh, the look on his face when he gets back. Besides, Dr. Ink Blot is far easier on the eyes and ears. Now, if you’ll excuse me.”
Discord slipped into the room, flying through the air before nestling himself into a cushion. Shining Armor followed behind a moment, holding the door open and peaking inside as another mare came in from a back door. She took a seat on one cushion that faced all the others, a clipboard in hoof as she looked over the rim of her glasses.
“Good day, everypony. I’m glad to see we are all here, including our newest friend Discord. Now, let’s begin as always by going around the room and discussing how our week went. We’ll then branch off from there wherever we desire. This is a safe place. This is a calm place. This is a place where you need not fear being judged by others. In here you are not princess nor a spirit of chaos. In here you are intellectual beings who have suffered a great ordeal, and together we are going to continue the healing process.
“Discord, please put the popcorn away.”
~~~
“Are these the complete records, ma’am?”
“Oh yes,” the librarian said as she adjusted her glasses. “Just as you requested, an accurate record of every book Princess Celestia checked out of the royal library during the evening shift for the past year.”
“Thank you,” the guard said as he took the report and slipped it into the his saddlebags. “We know this has been a difficult time for everypony, but we must be sure to account for every one of Princess Celestia’s late night activities while under evil influence. Still, we believe we’re nearing the end of the search. These library reports are among the last we need to track the princesses movements for the past few months.”
“I’m glad to hear it. It will be nice to know we can come to work again without having to worry about the whole castle getting caught up in a silly spell that gave the whole night shift nightmares.” The librarian gave a small wave as the guard turned to leave. “Thanks again, and be sure to give Princess Celestia my best wishes if you see her.”
“Yes ma’am, I will.”
“Head librarian?”
Turning away from her seat at her desk, the head librarian looked into the face of one of the junior assistants. “Oh, yes? What is it?”
“Ma’am, I was reshelving books when I found this book in the wrong place. I went to check our card catalogue to see where it belongs, but I couldn’t find in the records.”
The head librarian took the book, turning it over a few times before cracking it open and taking look at the title page. “Clavicula Concorida Regis? With a name like that it must be a spell book, but it looks hoof written. Kind of looks like Princess Celestia’s writing, but with all the crazy stuff going on, when would she have found the time to write a spell book?”
“I don’t know, Ma’am.”
“Well, seems nice enough,” she said as she flipped through the pages, briefly noting some of the accurately drawn diagrams and spell instructions. “Must have been a private donation we didn’t get marked. Put it in the research-journal section next to the other spell books while I add it to our records.”
“Yes, ma’am,” the junior assistant said, taking the book and tossing it on his cart. The head librarian took up her quill, jotting down the name of the book while it was still fresh in her mind. The junior assistant walked further and further away, carrying the book deeper into labyrinth of the library shelves, not knowing what it contained. Not knowing it was meant to replace a book previously burned by Princess Celestia herself.
Not knowing what one phrase that was contained in the book’s pages.
Those who have been touched by Tirek are forever within his grasp.
