Chapter 1
Fluttershy was walking through the moonlit forest. Everything was peaceful and calm, just the way she liked it. But there was, she felt, something wrong. Something... not right. She looked this way and that, then shook her head and smiled to herself. No, it was just her imagination running on overload again, seeing shadows under every rock.
Suddenly she jerked to a stop. Her ears went forward and her eyes went wide in shock. For a moment her mind refused to believe what her eyes were telling her. It was unfathomable that such a thing could happen. Shaking herself out of her shock, she knew that the others had to know immediately.
She wheeled and headed back to Ponyville as fast as the combination of wings and hooves could carry her. Even as she ran her mind reeled with the shock of what she'd just seen. She hurtled into the main square and nearly collided with Twilight Sparkle. "Twilight!" she cried. "It's awful! Terrible!"
Twilight saw the obvious distress on her friend's face. "What's the matter, Fluttershy? What's the trouble?"
By now the others had seen the commotion and come running to investigate. They could all see the shocked look on the face of their friend and knew that something dire was in the wind. Fluttershy, meanwhile, was having trouble getting out the words. What she'd seen defied all her knowledge of Equestria. "I..." she swallowed hard, the implications of what she'd just seen seething in her mind. She stammered to a stop.
Twilight and the others managed to calm her down a little before trying again. "What happened, Fluttershy?" Twilight asked, attempting to hide her nervousness. For she knew that for Fluttershy to be this upset would take something rather devastating.
"I... I saw..." it was if she couldn't get the words out. "It was horrible. Terrible." she muttered.
"What was so terrible, Flutters?" Pinky Pie asked quietly. Even she was unnaturally subdued by her friend's obvious distress.
"I saw a sad bunny-rabbit." Fluttershy croaked out, before collapsing and covering her face with her hooves.
The other five looked at each other in shock. "A... a sad bunny-rabbit?" Applejack managed to say after some moments. "But... but that's... that's unheard of."
"I must tell Princess Luna at once." said Twilight, determinedly. "Spike, take a message."
It took several tries before Spike, who was as shocked and distressed as the rest of them, was able to take a message.
"Okay, okay." Twilight told the others. "Calm down or we'll have a major panic and that'll only make things worse." They helped Fluttershy to her hooves and took her to Sweet Apple Acres where there was a bit of privacy and far enough from town so as to avoid the crowds.
Then the ponies sat, looking at each other. Twilight hoped, desperately, that Luna would reply soon. Then Rarity spoke and voiced the thoughts of them all. "This... this can mean only one thing."
"What's that?" asked Rainbow Dash rhetorically. For they all knew that there could be only one outcome if what Fluttershy had really seen what she'd reported.
“You know.” Twilight replied. There was a significantly ominous tone in her voice. “That.”
"That?" that was Pinky Pie's stunned voice.
"Yes, Pinky." Twilight murmured. She looked around at the others. "I should have told you earlier, but I knew this was coming."
"You did? How?"
"Yesterday I saw a wilted flower."
"You saw a what?" Rarity gasped.
Twilight nodded. "I... I hoped I was mistaken. I was hoping I was wrong, but what Fluttershy saw today only confirmed it. A wilted flower and a sad bunny-rabbit."
"Come on," muttered Applejack, trying to rally the others. "Surely there's something we can do."
"Luna might know something I don't." Twilight replied. "But when I saw the wilted flower yesterday I went through all my books and every one that mentioned it said the same thing. If a wilted flower and a sad bunny rabbit are seen within a week of each other, it is a signal. A signal that...” she sighed. “You know."
In the palace, Luna was sitting in the throne room mesmerised by the short message she had in her hoof. She was in shock, unable to believe what she was reading. Twilight had, in a whispered conversation with Spike, also relayed the part about the wilted flower. She fought down the panic that rose within her like a wave and forced herself to remain calm. They were lucky not to have a panic on their hooves from Fluttershy's reaction and Princess Luna knew that if her people saw their princess panicking, they would know something dire was in the wind.
Luna knew what it was. She knew that it had to do with her banishment of Celestia. If Equestria was to avoid it, she had to find a way to get Celestia back. What she'd done had been an accident. The result of a misremembered spell, and now she had to find a way to reverse it.
With a calmness that belied the turmoil in her mind, she walked with stately deliberation to the main library and locked herself inside. She looked at the massive bookshelves that stretched from floor to ceiling all the way around the massive room. She knew that there had to be a spell that would bring Celestia back. There had to be; and it had to be in this room. The question was, could she find it in time? Could she find it before what was coming eventuated? That the wilted flower and the sad bunny-rabbit had been seen only a day apart spoke volumes. How many other sad bunny-rabbits had gone unseen? How many more wilted flowers?
Before, when she'd first, realised what had happened to Celestia, her search for the spell to reverse the banishment had been rather random. Now. Now she knew that she had to find it or face the what was coming if she didn't. A something that would effect not only her subjects, but Equestria itself. She knew she had to find it the spell she needed. She had to.
She chose a place to begin and started looking. She'd pull out a book, flip through it while using a seek spell and then push the book back into the shelf. Book after book flipped beneath her hooves. Row after row of shelves. Then she saw something. Not in a book, but behind one. A small slip of paper. Scooping it out with a hoof, she began to read it. "Yes!" she exclaimed. This was the one she wanted. This was the 'Reversal of Banishment' spell. She unfolded the piece of paper and could only watch in horror as the paper suddenly crumbled into small fragments and fluttered down from the shelf she had pulled it from all the way to the floor, many pony-heights below.
Dropping to the floor, the alicorn gathered up all the pieces she could see. But that was the easy part. Now she had to assemble them in the right order or the spell could come out disastrously wrong. A wrong word, or a wrong incantation and Celestia might arrive with her head stuck up her butt. 'Not that that would be too different from normal', Luna muttered to herself, but for it to be literal would be a rather heaping helping of 'not good'. The disharmony which had had such devastating effects would not be improved if Celestia suddenly found herself looking at herself from the inside.
She carefully arranged all the parts she'd managed to scoop together, but there was still a hole with some very important words. She hunted high and low for them, knowing that time was of the essence, but unable to work faster than she already was.
Meanwhile, in Ponyville, things were going from bad to worse. Several more sad bunny-rabbits had been seen and one had actually been eating a wilted flower. The report of this had sent Twilight hurrying to her library to look up the relevant books and she was horrified by what she read. She fired off another note to Princess Luna, wondering why she hadn't had an answer.
Luna had just found the missing piece of the note up on one of the shelves. She was reaching for it when Twilight's note suddenly flashed into existence right in front of her face, startling her. She slipped and with a small cry, fell to the floor below, the impact scattering the pieces of the paper she'd been trying to assemble.
She lay there, stunned and disoriented for a moment before realising what had happened. She climbed shakily to her hooves and looked around in dismay at the scattered pieces of the spell. Then the note from Twilight floated down to land on her horn. Dashing it off with a hoof, she read it and her worry only increased. Reading the note revealed that she'd been in the library, without a break, for over two days and things were only getting worse outside. If she didn't manage to get her sister back soon and get harmony restored, the results would be most unpleasant indeed.
Luna finally managed to assemble the spell, but some of the words were unknown to her and she couldn't find any reference to those words in her spell-books. She knew she had to get the pronunciation right or it would be just as bad as saying the wrong words.
Finally she found the book that told her of the pronunciations and annunciations of the various words and incantations within the spell. She knew she couldn't rush this as it was important so she was studying them carefully when there was a knocking at the door.
"What is it?" she called out.
"Your highness. It's Shining Armour, I must speak with you on a matter of urgency."
'Bother.' Luna thought. 'What's wrong now?' Then her mind supplied an idea of what exactly might be wrong and she shivered. "Come in."
Shining Armour, living up to his name as always, came into the room. "Your Highness." he murmured, bowing deeply to her. He turned and made sure the door was firmly shut before turning back to her.
"You wished to see me?" Luna asked, trying to conceal her impatience and her worry.
"Ma'am. The ponies are beginning to panic. There are a growing number of reports of sad bunny-rabbits, Ma'am." The guard's eyes rolled in fright and it was obvious that only his training was holding him in check. "Sad bunny-rabbits and wilted flowers!" the way he spoke relayed plainly of the horror he felt. "And not just one or two. They've been seen from Fillydelphia to Gallopoli and as far south as Perlino." He steadied himself with an effort. "Both sad bunny-rabbits and wilted flowers Your Highness."
Luna was horrified. She knew that some were bound to have been spotted, but to have so many in such a wide area told her just how dire the situation was. Forcing herself to be calm, she smiled at her trusted guard. "Rest assured, my faithful guardian, I will have a solution shortly."
"Can..." Shining looked nervous as if it were wrong to question his princess. "Can you undo the damage?"
"I believe I can. I have been in here several days now studying the situation and reading the ancient books. I believe there is a way to solve the problem, but I must have peace and quiet."
"Yes, Your Highness. My apologies. I should not have doubted you. It's just that..." He shut his mouth firmly.
Despite the urgency of the situation, Luna knew that this had to be dealt with properly. "It is most understandable." she told him. "The presence of sad bunny-rabbits and wilted flowers is a serious matter indeed, but I do believe I shall have the situation under control shortly."
"Very good, Princess." Shining Armour bowed again and left the room.
Luna was less confident than she hoped she'd sounded. There were so many things that could go wrong here and she didn't have much time. That said, she couldn't hurry it. She only had one shot at this and it had to be done properly.
She checked everything for the last time and then prepared herself to cast the spell. She cast the spell, the words rolling off her tongue with all the authority of her command of magic and Equestria. No doubt clouded her voice, no hesitancy, no fear. The casting ended and for a moment nothing happened. Then there was an actinic flash and suddenly Celestia stood in the middle of the great library. Luna was so relieved that a most frivolous thought crossed her mind. 'Well, she hasn't got her head stuck up her butt.' She grinned in relief.
"Little Sister!" Celestia's voice broke the silence. "What have you done, now?" the voice carried the almost-but-not-quite-sneering tone it so often did when Celestia was talking to her.
"Stow it, Sister." Luna replied harshly. "We're equal, you know that." Her words seemed to stun Celestia and she reared back in shock.
"Don't you speak to me like that." she commanded, putting on the Royal Canterlot Voice.
"I don't have time for this." Luna muttered. She slapped a 'silence' spell on Celestia. “Now I know you'll be quiet for a moment, let me say this. The disharmony between us is causing havoc here. There have been many sightings of sad bunny-rabbits and wilted flowers.”
Celestia's eyes went wide with shock and her knees trembled. Then a look of anger slammed down across her countenance and Luna could see her attempt to cast a spell. Luna was a little surprised when it didn't work and the 'quiet' spell remained in place. “This is bigger than both of us. I will accept part of the blame but, my sister, you have also been cause of much of the disharmony between us.” She removed the spell so that Celestia could speak.
“Is that so, Little Sister?” she almost-sneered. “Perhaps you should have thought of that before you banished me.”
“You've pushed that 'little sister' tripe long enough, Celly.” Luna said calmly. “You knew I'd have to get sick of it some day.”
“Well, if I hadn't had to banish you to the moon.”
Luna looked at her sister. “Is it that, or is it the fact you had to use the elements to defeat me. That, at that time, I was more powerful than you.”
Celestia opened her mouth to speak, then shut it again. What Luna said had rankled.
“Sister.” Luna tried to be patient, even though she knew time was ticking away. Valuable time that might mean the difference between success and.... “Isn't it time we put that aside? I am willing. All I ever wanted was for you to treat me as an equal.”
Celestia looked at the floor and pawed gently with a hoof. “It did surprise me that I needed the elements to defeat you.” she said quietly. “And... When you were in the moon I got used to ruling alone. You've always been 'little sister' to me, but I....”
Luna went up to her sister. “Sister. I don't wish to fight you, now. I don't want what is happening to continue. I wish... I wish that you could see that all I wanted was to be treated as you equal, not your underling.” So saying, she extended a hoof towards her sister.
Celestia looked at it for a long moment.
“As equals?” Celestia asked, looking up into Luna's eyes. “You've grown, li... You've grown, sister.” she said, realising that Luna was now as big as she was.
“Equals.” Luna repeated, “That is all I've ever wanted.” Luna made a face, “Well, almost all.”
Celestia looked at her sister. “You might have to remind me, sometimes. It's been so long.”
Luna's heart tripped. Could this be it? She had to go as carefully here as with the spell. Perhaps even more so. “You are a pony of your word.” she said quietly.
Celestia thought for a moment. “It will take some getting used to, but...” she smiled. “It will be good.” She extended her own hoof and the two touched. Then, as if this wasn't enough, the two came together. Horns touched and an almost visible shockwave spread out from where they stood. No walls stopped that wave. It spread as fast as the fastest pegasus, ranging outwards from the castle. As it flowed over the ground flowers swayed and stood upright, bunny-rabbits smiled again and started playing their bunny-rabbit games.
The wave swept through Ponyville and every pony felt the change. They realised what they'd been missing. True harmony. It had been absent but now it had returned. Every pony basked in the new feeling, greatly relieved that what had been coming had been averted. Equestria had been changed, for now the harmony between Celestia and Luna was stronger than it had ever been. Equestria, therefore, had become an even more wonderful place than before.
Twilight sighed with relief as she saw the bunny-rabbits smiling again and looked for signs of wilted flowers but saw none. She knew what had been averted. She knew what the result would have been if things had continued and could only be very thankful that Luna had, somehow, stopped it and restored Equestria.