The Stars Will Aid Her Escape
Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and defended the land from all threats. The eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn, the youngest brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two maintained balance for their kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies.
But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger sister refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one’s heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness: Nightmare Moon.
She vowed that she would shroud the land in an eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister did battle with the youngest for the fate of Equestria. At the end of their struggle, the youngest sister’s body was broken and her spirit eternally trapped inside the moon she loved so much. Since that day, the elder sister has controlled both sun and moon and peace has reigned in Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle frowned, her ear twitching in annoyance. Somepony had the audacity to add their own comments to what she considered a priceless tome (Although in her mind, all tome’s were priceless): See Ancient Predictions & Prophecies, pg. 238 They couldn’t have just written their note on a piece of paper for their own reference, they had to mark up the library’s book as if they owned it. Ponies these days, she thought, had so little respect for the written word. She considered herself the exception, of course, as she had spent her entire life poring over ancient volumes of magic, and though. it was a requirement of her tutelage under Queen Celestia, but she had always considered it a perk more than a burden. Her hours of reading had left her with a most extensive knowledge of texts from and relating to the pre-classical era, which made it all the more annoying that she had never heard of Ancient Predictions & Prophecies before, while some mouth-breathing cretin was able to recall specific page numbers from the text. Twilight decided it was time to correct this.
The unicorn placed the book back in her saddlebags and stood up before heading back towards her study. Twilight’s mind was slowly chewing on the information in the text, comparing it to her own knowledge of Equestrian history. For the entirety of Equestrian history, they had been ruled over by their benevolent deity Queen Celestia, and under her rule, ponies everywhere had prospered. In her twelve years of studying, she had never come across any information that contradicted that. Now, this book she had found sitting outside her door this morning hinted at a whole history of Equestria that had been forgotten… Or possibly hidden by some nefarious forces. Wasting no time, she burst into a quick run.
“Spike!” She yelled as she galloped into her chambers, “I need you to find a copy of Ancient Predictions & Prophecies stat.”
Her sudden appearance had startled the infant dragon and caused him to fall from his ladder, with the books he had been restocking trailing after him. It seemed to him that every time he was in a position that required his utmost concentration, she would burst in barking orders at him. Twilight, for her part, failed to notice this as she was usually busy trying to convince herself there was no grand conspiracy working against the crown of Equestria..
“Ancient Predictions & Prophecies, huh?” He said as he got up on his feet, “I think I saw that book the other day when I was cleaning up after one of your all night study sessions.” Spike walked past bookcase after bookcase, each one seemingly dustier than the last, until he finally came upon the terminal bookcase, where the books had seemingly sat undisturbed for centuries. He thought it odd that neither he or Twilight had ever had cause to look through these books before, but then, it seemed plausible to him that Twilight was slowly working her way towards that shelf, moving in reverse order through the history of Equestria.
There, on the far right of the lowest bookshelf sat the thick black volume he had first glimpsed only a week ago. As he picked up the brown tome, a brief tremor ran through his body, and for a fleeting second he had the irrational fear that this one act would somehow spell the doom for both Twilight and the world at large.
“Here it is,” he said, putting his fears behind him as her magic ripped the book from his hands.
Twilight quickly flipped through page upon page of strange vistas and tableaus, on one page a thousand ponies were fused together, on the next stood a strange creature, seemingly a mishmash of every animal under the sun. Finally, she reached the chosen page and began to read the selected entry.
“The Mare in the Moon, or the Dead Queen,” she said aloud for the aid of her assistant, “Myth from olden pony times. A powerful pony who wanted to rule Equestria, defeated by the Queen Ascendant and imprisoned in the moon. Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year of the Queen Ascendant’s reign, the stars will aid in her escape and she will bring about nighttime eternal.” Meanwhile, far above Twilight Sparkle and the rest of Equestria, hidden by the light of the sun, six stars slowly journeyed towards the moon, determined to make their appointment and free the Queen of Nightmares.
Despite the imminent risk to Equestria, Twilight found herself looking forward to the next few days of studying, she would have the chance to research the magic and spells used to defeat Nightmare Moon and pour over both ancient and modern star charts. Taken together, it was a lovely combination of her favorite things, thamaturgy and astronomy. The two schools had always been of interest to her, and when her cutie mark (A starburst with five smaller stars surrounding) managed to tie in both of her loves, she was overjoyed. If only more world-ending threats involved the stars and magic.
“Spike!” She said, swirling around to face her assistant, and struggling to hide her enthusiasm at the idea of two days of intense studying, “Do you know what this means?”
“Uhmm… you uncovered some other myth about this Dead Queen lady and want me to inform Queen Celestia?”
“No… well, yes. I need you to take a letter,” she said, slamming the book shut and assuming what Spike thought of as her proper diction prose, while he dutifully found the scroll and quill.
“Dear Queen Celestia, I have uncovered evidence that the Dead Queen, Nightmare Moon, and the Mare in the Moon are connected and are in fact, the same pony. Not only that, but if the legends are true then her return is imminent. I humbly request that the Summer Sun Celebration be delayed until we have had time to properly investigate and deal with this potential threat. Also, I humbly wish to know if the rumors of her being your sister are true or not, as it would aid my study immensely. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”
“Got it!” Spike said, stabbing the quill down to deliver the final punctuation mark at the end of the letter, “But really Twilight, isn’t all this a bit excessive? I mean, the Summer Sun Celebration is in a few days and I don’t think we should be bothering the Queen with rumors and asking her to delay the Celebration because of a hunch, especially because you found some rumor that she is your sister.”
“Spike, what are the words on the seal of Equestria?”
The young dragon sighed, “Vigilance, Duty, Sacrifice. I’ll send the letter.” He exhaled his breath, and a spurt of green flame greedily devoured the scroll, “Still, I don’t think bothering the queen over this is a good idea.”
“Duly noted,” Twilight said, “But you will see, the queen has always valued my opinion and diligence.”
As if on cue, a jet of green fire burst from Spike’s lips and coalesced into a letter almost identical to the one that had been sent earlier. The dragon snatched it before it fell to the ground and used his claws to break the seal. “My dearest Twilight Sparkle, you know I always value your opinions, but these latest claims of yours are completely unfounded, and while the reports of my long lost sister are indeed true, it was Equestria that chose to forget her, not I, and I can safely say that all rumors of her return are spurious. You simply must spend less time with those dusty old books.”
Inside Twilight’s brain, a tiny voice screamed in agony. “A young pony’s life should be about more than study, and that is why I am sending you to oversee preparation for the Summer Sun Celebration in this year’s location: Ponyville.”
“Well,” Spike said, “At least you tried right, I am sure if there was a threat to Equestria, the queen would be right on it.”
“Don’t you see though,” she said, pacing anxiously, “The very fact that she HAS a forgotten sister shows just how much we don’t know and how much more investigating we have to do. This is way more important than going to some town in the middle of nowhere to help oversee preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration. There is no way in Equestria I am going to abandon my studies here for Ponyville.”
Her chariot for Ponyville left just after dawn the next morning, and Twilight had reluctantly packed her bags to follow the queen’s command. The town was, she had decided after a night of research, a complete mystery to her. Founded in the last century by a group of reclusive farmers, it had quickly developed a reputation as a place where strangers should not tread. Just why it had been chosen to host the Summer Sun Celebration was another one of the town’s mysteries, but then the queen always had her reasons, even if they were inscrutable to lesser ponies.
She and Spike flew by royal chariot across the countryside, Twilight flipping through several texts she had selected the night before while Spike looked down at the farmlands rolling by beneath them. “I still don’t see what the big deal is,” he said.
“The big deal is that we stand on the precipice of disaster and Celestia is sending me away to deal with party planning. The fate of Equestria could be in my hooves, and I know next to nothing about this long-lost sister of hers.”
“Don’t you think you are overreacting,” he said, looking back at her, “After all, this isn’t the first time you thought there was some big conspiracy against you or Equestria.”
“Spike, this is completely different from my twenty-first birthday party. There’s no comparison.”
“Whatever you say.”
He spent a few more seconds looking at the mare who was both his boss, friend, and the closest thing he had to a sister. She was… well, for starters, she was purple. Her coat was purple, her mane was three different shades of purple, and her cutie mark, a large starburst surrounded by five smaller stars, was purple. Perhaps the only thing about her that wasn’t purple were the whites of her eyes and, he supposed, her pupils. But beyond the obvious things, she was smart. Definitely smarter than him, and possibly smarter than the queen. She certainly kept her mentor scrambling to find new things to teach her, and when Celestia had filled her apartment with tomes of ancient books for her 21st birthday, Twilight was simply ecstatic. After the fires had been extinguished, of course.
And that was the downside of all that intellect, it made her a more than a bit paranoid, as she was always trying to connect everything and find some grand overarching plan when, in his mind, there was none, and that tended to cause problems, like with the aforementioned 21st birthday party, which she thought was some grand conspiracy to disgrace her in front of the queen. Now she had decided that some ancient foal’s tale was a harbinger of the endtimes. He sighed, the mare needed to get out more.
“You know,” he said as the chariot began its descent, “Maybe you should try to make a few friends while you are out here, who knows it might turn out well.”
“Ugh, I don’t have time to make friends right now Spike, not when the world is in danger. Although once this is dealt with, I promise we will revisit the issue.”
A sharp jolt shook the chariot, and Twilight looked up to catch her first glimpse of Ponyville. It was an uncharacteristically gloomy place, built right next to the Everfree Forest, a place most sane ponies knew not to venture. The town seemed perpetually shrouded in dusk even when the sun was out, and the tall rakish buildings only served to heighten her feeling of foreboding. Again she found herself questioning her mentor’s reasoning for choosing this town to host the Summer Sun Celebration.
“Whoa,” Spike said, following her gaze, “You know, on second thought, maybe you shouldn’t make friends here. The place gives me the creeps.”
“No kidding,” Twilight said as the wheels of the chariot touched the ground, “Well, maybe we can rush through our job here and get back to researching.” As she spoke, a fog rolled through town, obscuring her view of the sun and adding to her mounting trepidation.
As she walked down Ponyville’s empty streets, she suddenly found herself staring into somepony’s dead blue eyes. The mare in question was a vivid and shocking shade of pink, one not naturally found in nature, and her eyes darted nervously from side to side while random body parts twitched erratically.
“Uhmm… Can I help you?” Twilight asked.
The mare stared at her for a few more seconds until her eyes finally rested upon Twilight’s cutie mark, at which point her head began to twitch spastically and with a loud gasp, she bolted off into the fog.
“Well, that was… different,” Twilight said to Spike before resuming her walk, “Now let’s see, the first thing we need to do is check on the food preparation, and that means we need to go to…” She pulled out her checklist and map, “Oh good, that means we get to spend some time out of town.”
The surrounding countryside was no better than Ponyville, indeed the moors that surrounded the town were what gave birth to its constant fog, and there were several points during Twilight’s journey that she almost lost the road. “Remind me to visit the weatherponies as soon as we are done here. I don’t know how ponies can live with all this fog.”
“Weatherponies, got it,” Spike said, making a quick addition to Twilight’s to-do list.
Finally, they arrived at Sweet Apple Acres, although so much of the sign had faded away it was difficult for Twilight to tell if she was at the right location.
“Hello? Is anypony here?”
As soon as the words were spoken, an orange mare came out of the fog, “Well howdy, you must be here for the festival, am Ah right?”
Twilight took a step back at her sudden appearance, “Uhmm… you sure are, can I see what you have prepared?”
“Sure can,” she said taking them to a table surrounded by ponies, each adding a new dish to the pile. “We got apple pie, apple dumplins, apple fritters, candied apples, sliced apples, apple kebabs, apple tarts, fried apples, and of course, the Ponyville Specialty.” With the exception of the orange mare, the ponies were pale and muted, their eyes threatening to bulge out of their head as they seemed to waddle around the table on their disproportionately long limbs. Twilight didn’t know if she found the effect comical or unnerving.
“Let me guess,” Twilight said, “It’s some sort of apple.”
“Nope,” Applejack said, walking towards a silver platter and pulling off the cover, revealing a thin brown strip of… something Twilight almost certainly didn’t recognize, sitting in its own juices, “It’s meat.”
Twilight’s heart suddenly found itself lodged in her throat, and the mare felt as if she were about to pass out. “Sorry, did I just hear you say that Ponyville’s special dish is… meat?”
“Sure is,” the orange mare said, still perpetually smiling, “Folks here had to deal with lean times twenty years back and… well ain’t nobody’d complain if a couple cattle went missin. Then it turned out that meat was actually pretty tasty, so it kind of became our favored dish for special occasions. Care to try a bite?”
“No, that… that’s okay,” she said, nervously taking a step back. “I ate on my way here.” As she spoke, her stomach growled, giving away her lie.
“Oh come on, I promise it ain’t that bad, and all we’re askin’ is one bite. I promise you’ll like it, but if you want to go about shirkin’ the duties the queen gave you, then Ah suppose you can.” As the orange one spoke, the other ponies slowly made their way to surround Twilight, neatly encircling her without her notice.
Twilight groaned, unable to see a way out of this, and beginning to fear for her own safety, “Just one bite, okay.” She levitated a fork and knife towards her, and with great care, she cut off the smallest piece of meat imaginable before bringing it to her mouth. As her teeth ripped into the flesh and the juices ran down her throat, she found herself surprised by just how much she enjoyed the taste. Certainly, she thought, ponies were mostly herbivores, but what harm was there in having a bit of meat every now and then? No, that meat came from something, something with a mind and feelings and… It was so good. Without thinking, her knife and fork moved to cut off a larger slice before she stopped herself.
“It… It’s not bad,” she said, almost reluctantly, worried that her admittance would somehow doom her. The Apples smiled as one, their faces twisted into a grotesque mockery of a regular smile.
“Have some more,” they said in unison, with Applejack gesturing towards the platter again.
“No, that’s okay, thank you though,” Twilight said, sprinting out of the farm gates and jostling past the other ponies, wrapping Spike in her telekinetic field as she fled the farm.
“So,” he said as they fled the farm, “How did you like your first taste of meat? Was it steak? Steak is the best.”
“Spike!” She said, suddenly coming to a halt and throwing the tiny dragon off her back, “I can’t believe what I am hearing from you. Does the queen approve of you eating… flesh?”
“She sure does, a growing dragon has dietary needs that can’t be met by eating gemstones all day, so she makes sure to keep the royal pantry stocked for me.”
“Informative,” she said as she resumed her walk through the ever thickening fog, “And slightly disturbing, although I suppose it’s no less disturbing than anything else that happens in this town.”
He laughed, “Yeah, Celestia sure knows how to pick em, right? I mean, a few years ago the celebration was at that town in the desert that was raided by buffalo and now we are in the spooky capital of Equestria.”
Twilight was surprised to find herself smiling at a joke she didn’t find particularly humorous, but she supposed after the day she had been having, she would take any excuse she could to smile. Perhaps it was a nervous reaction. “Spike, you know she has been trying to make the more remote areas of Equestria feel included these past few Summer Sun Celebrations, and I suppose it doesn’t get more remote than this.”
“Yeah, I know,” he said, kicking at a pebble on the ground.
The two walked for some time in silence until Twilight suddenly stepped in a pool of water. “Spike,” she said, “How long do you think we’ve been walking?”
He shrugged, “I dunno, about an hour maybe?”
Twilight swallowed hard, working to keep her growing panic in check, “And how long did it take us to GET to Sweet Apple Acres?”
“Definitely no more than half an-” He paused as realization struck, “We’re lost, aren’t we?”
She nodded, looking down at the marshlands she had just stepped in, “I certainly don’t recall having to cross any bogs on the way out of town.”
“What do we do?”
“Well,” she said, “We could stay here and wait for the fog to go away or somepony to find us, or we could walk in a straight line in the hopes of either finding the town or getting out of this fog. I think the latter would be better.”
“Agreed,” he said, “I don’t exactly like the idea of somepony from Creepyville finding us while we are alone.”
They resumed their walk, as an unnatural cold began to sink into Twilight’s skin, “Sp-spike,” she said, “Wh-why? Is it s-so cold in the mid-middle of summer?”
“I don’t know,” he said shivering, “Can we maybe make a fire somewhere?”
“Where,” she said, “We’ve spent the last hour walking through marsh and brush. When I’m not walking through freezing water, I am walking through a bunch of thorns that are cutting up my fetlocks.”
“Maybe we c-could get some of the brush and light it on fire?”
“Not in this fog, we cou-couldn’t, now come on, let’s g-get back to walking.”
Something swooshed over their heads, and for the first time in what felt like hours, they could see the sun shining down on them. It swooshed again and the two could see a rainbow-colored blur flying above them, working to clear out the fog. In a few minutes time, it had managed to clear the sky before landing. On closer inspection, the blur turned out to be a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane and tail. “Just what the hay do you think you are doing out on the moors? Do you know how easy it is to get lost out here?”
“Uhmm… yes, actually, yes I do. Are you the weather captain?”
The blue pegasus nodded.
“Okay, first of all, thank you for rescuing me, and second of all, why did you let things get so foggy. Isn’t keeping the sky clear your job.”
“It sure is,” she said, “But something about the sun being over the moorlands turns the whole place into fog city. I can try to clean it up, but it just comes back in an hour. Only time you can get a decent view of the sky is at night.”
Twilight stopped for a second as her mind went back to her reading yesterday. Okay, she thought, it is a bit of a coincidence that just yesterday I was reading about how Nightmare Moon wanted more ponies to enjoy her night, and I now found myself in a town where the sky is only visible at night, but it is important that I don’t go running off with unformed assumptions. That is how we get disasters like my last birthday party.
“Besides,” the cyan mare continued, “Nopony is crazy enough to go visit Sweet Apple Acres during the day. Even the Apples don’t head to town after dawn.”
“Of course,” Twilight said, “Well Miss…”
“Rainbow Dash.”
“Miss Rainbow Dash, I really do have to get back, so would you be so kind as to guide me back to town.”
“Yeah, sure,” she said, flapping her wings a few times to hover in the air, “Just follow me and we will be back in Ponyville in no time.”
She wasn’t wrong about that, and Twilight found herself struggling to keep up with the mare, and by the time she made it back to town, she was cold, bloodied, and now exhausted. At least she didn’t have to leave the town anymore today, she thought as she walked through the outskirts of town, fog already rising from the moorlands.
“So,” Twilight said, shivering, “You seem friendlier than most of the ponies around town, can you tell me why this town is so…”
“Weird?” Rainbow Dash supplied.
“I was trying to be diplomatic.”
Dash laughed, “It’s alright, the ponies here take a little while to warm up to strangers and they do have a bunch of customs and traditions that seem strange to outsiders. Throw in these weird moorlands, and its kind of a no brainer that most ponies think the town is spooky.”
“Pardon me for asking this, but were you born here? Because you seem a bit less…” She trailed off, struggling to find a diplomatic synonym for creepy.
“Culty than the other ponies around here,” Spike said, causing Twilight to groan.
“Nope!” She said, “Cloudsdale, born and raised. I only came here because they needed a new weather captain, and then it turned out that my only real responsibility is to make sure it rains on time. Still, the ponies here are,” she paused, eyes shifting back and forth scanning the surrounding environs, “Nice. Real nice.”
“Just nice?” Twilight asked, certain that Dash had intended to say something else.
“Yep, just nice,” she said, flapping her wings to rise higher into the air, “Oh hey, look at the time, there is a cloud I have to kick. Uhmm… I will see you at the Summer Sun Ceremony I guess.”
“It’s a celebration!” Twilight yelled as the pegasus flew off into the distance. “Well, at least she didn’t seem too crazy.”
“Yeah,” he said pulling out her to-do list, “And that takes care of the weatherponies as well. I am thinking we go check on decorations at city hall on the way back to the library then spend an hour or so resting.”
“That sounds great,” Twilight said, floating the list towards here, “Hopefully this Rarity has everything under control so I can go and bandage my hooves.”
Several failed attempts at navigating Ponyville’s byzantine street layout, Twilight finally reached the town hall.
“The decorations are very… black,” Twilight said as she stepped inside, looking up at the many banners hanging in the town hall.
“Well of course, darling,” the white unicorn said, hanging up another banner, “I used only the finest black velvet for these banners and spend days embroidering the stars, making sure they were just right. It is of the utmost importance that the stars are right.”
The stars will aid in her escape.
Twilight took a nervous step backwards, the words racing through her head, “Well, I love technical accuracy as much as the next mare, but why are we focusing so much on the stars for the Summer Sun Celebration?”
The unicorn, Rarity, just laughed, “Why dear, Ponyville has always had a strong connection to the stars, just look at the town’s seal.”
She pointed towards the seal emblazoned in the center of the room, a drawing of the town at night, six stars watching over the town. as it slept. Around the borders were the words The town shaped by stars. Without a second thought, Twilight ran for the door.
“This is bad Spike, this is really bad!” Twilight said, her mind filling with unpleasant thoughts.
The night will fall.
“What’s the big deal?” Spike asked, clutching on to Twilight’s back as the mare raced through the town’s winding streets, “So they like the night sky, that should be a good thing to you considering how much you like astronomy.”
The Dead Queen will rise.
“Don’t you see?” She said, “The stars must be right, the fog that always obscures the sun, their strange customs. This isn’t a town, it’s a cult and they are working towards Nightmare Moon’s return.”
The Nightmare will reign eternal.
“And even as we speak, Queen Celestia is flying right into whatever they have planned.”
And it will all be my fault.
“Twilight, you are being paranoid again.”
She whipped her head back to stare at him, her pupils had shrunk down to pinpricks and a few errant hairs had popped out of her mane, “I am not being paranoid!”
Yep, he thought as they raced towards the library, dusk falling across the land, 21st birthday party all over again. Hopefully the Equestrian military won’t be called out this time.
“Okay,” Twilight said as she burst through the door to the library, “We need to send a letter to the queen and then get out of here.”
“That’s a very good idea,” somepony said as the lights were suddenly switched on.
Twilight turned to examine the intruder, it was the same pink pony from this morning. Her mane was almost perfectly straight, hiding one of her eyes, and more alarmingly, a network of white scar tissue criscrossed her body. She decided that it would be a very good idea to leave the library.
“It’s alright,” the pink pony said, “I’m friendly… well, friendlier than everypony else in this town. But you need to leave, that’s what’s important. You have to get out of town right now and never let the Cult of Nightmares find you as long as you live.”
“But why?” Twilight asked, gesturing for Spike to find a quill and scroll upstairs, “The ritual is going to take place tonight. It’s much more important that I inform the queen about what is happening.”
The pink pony cackled for almost a minute, “She still doesn’t see does she? No, no, should we tell her? Ruin the surprise? Oh, oh we must,” she said to herself as she moved towards a bookcase, “She must know her role in the scheme of things. The stars are right, and right they are, but it’s not the stars above she should be worried about. No, those stars bend to her will for her will is the stars.”
As she spoke to herself, she grabbed a thick black volume from the shelf and brought it before Twilight, flipping through page after page as she did. “You’ll see, you see, with your own eyes the stars that must aid in her escape.”
Twilight grabbed the book in her telekinetic field, her sense of self-preservation overwhelmed by the chance to see a new book of lore. The second she had it in her grasp, a sense of revulsion filled her. It was bound with real leather, and the words seemed to dance and shift before her eyes, making her head hurt the longer she looked at them. That didn’t matter though, Twilight’s eyes were transfixed on the illustration the pink pony was pointing towards, the image of a purple starburst surrounded by five smaller stars.
“The stars will aid in her escape,” she said, laughing again. “Now you see the stars they spoke of. Now you see your role here and why you must leave. You’ve consumed the sacrament, the altar is readied, all they need now is you.”
“Sacrament?” She said, already knowing the answer.
“The thrice-blessed flesh of the Dead Queen, attuning your spirit to hers. Already she whispers inside your mind, drawing you to your doom. You must flee and flee now. Take your dragon and never return to this town.” As the pink pony spoke, a crash came from the upstairs window and Twilight heard Spike’s muffled scream.
“Be sure not to hurt anypony Rainbow, even the traitor Pinkamina, we all have important roles to play tonight and… oh aren’t you just the cutest baby dragon ever?” A faint voice from upstairs said.
“Go and go now,” Pinkamina said, “I will hold them off and buy you time.”
“But what about Spike?” Twilight asked.
“Fluttershy will be sure not to harm him, your fate is less clear, and as your fate goes, so does Equestria.” She picked up a large candlestick and laughed, swinging it towards the stairs. “They won’t be taking me back to the dark and the madness so easily.”
Saying an apology to Spike under her breath, she fled. Racing down the streets of Ponyville, heading towards the town’s exit. As she ran, her legs felt leaden and the cold from earlier returned with a vengeance. She ignored it. At that moment, the only thing that mattered was fleeing Ponyville, and Twilight Sparkle never failed at something she set her mind to.
As she reached the last houses in Ponyville, she saw the one thing in Equestria that could give her pause. Queen Celestia’s personal chariot sat on the outskirts of town, adorned in gold and rubies and completely and utterly abandoned.
Twilight wanted to run, she even considered abandoning the Queen to her fate, certain that the Queen of Light and Fire could handle a few crazed cultists.
And if not, the cultists would take their bloody revenge on her, break your mentor, your friend, and your rightful sovereign just as she broke her sister, and it will all be your fault. All your fault.
She closed her eyes, she knew what she had to do. She had to save the queen and Equestria, no matter the risk to her, if she could reach the queen, she knew Celestia could protect her, and together they could stop the cult’s ritual. Giving one last sigh, she turned and ran back into the town.
As she ran, the setting sun burned through the fog, setting the world around Twilight ablaze. Soon the stars would be out and the cultists would put their plan into action. Soon the world would be plunged into eternal darkness, unless Twilight could find the queen and warn her. She was confident that with the two of them working together there was no problem they couldn’t solve. Each step towards the town’s center warmed her frozen limbs and filled her with a second wind as she ran towards the center of the Summer Sun Celebration and the heart of cult activity. If she hurried, she could get there before nightfall.
Running faster than she ever had in her life, she completely ignored the groups of cultists blocking select streets and guiding her towards the town hall. The chanting that filled the air became nothing more than a faint background noise to her. Twilight didn’t have time for doubt, she would not fail the queen.
The doors to town hall slammed open as Twilight ran through them, and she saw a tall alabaster mare with aurora mane standing on the far side of the central pavillion. There was still time, she thought as she sprinted towards the queen. “Queen Celestia, we have to get out of here, the whole town is-”
She froze as her back legs crossed the town’s seal. Not just froze, she realized, she couldn’t move a single muscle. She couldn’t talk, couldn’t blink, and she was no longer sure that she could breathe. Inside her chest, her heart was still.
“A part of a cult that worships my long vanquished sister,” Celestia said, turning to face her student, “Yes Twilight, I know, and I thank you for coming. For a few minutes there, I wasn’t sure you would.” Celestia gave her a faint smile, a smile Twilight always thought masked a deep and profound sadness. The smile she had whenever she looked at the moon.
The smile she gave when she told her followers that I had been vanquished
Twilight tried to ask why, to furrow her brow to show her confusion, she tried to do anything at all, even the faintest flicker of an eyelash would have been a positive change at this point.
“If you are curious, you won’t die. I wanted to make sure this would be as easy and painless for you as possible. You will ascend and then my beloved sister will take possession of your body, forcing you to exist as a shadow in the back of your mind. In fact, you and my sister should be able to communicate, and I hope the two of you will get along after she has been redeemed.” She smiled, “I would like that very much, in fact.”
She moved forward and nuzzled Twilight’s cheek, it had always been her way of showing affection towards her student, but now it only served to heighten her shock and fear. “It…” She paused, “You were my favorite student Twilight. ARE my favorite student. It would… I think it would kill me to watch you wither and die like everypony else, while knowing that I could have saved you, preserved a fragment of you while redeeming my sister. There have been so many wonderful ponies since I banished her, so many I was honored to call my friend, and to a mare, they died. Every last one of them rotted away before my eyes, leaving me that much emptier, and each time I buried them, I would see the moon and know that I had banished the one mare I could share my burdens with. That this pain was my own fault, and so I vowed to make it up for her.”
As she spoke, the doors opened again, and five more mares entered. Rainbow Dash, the orange mare from Sweet Apple Acres, and the white unicorn entered of their own accord, while Pinkamina was bound and dragged into the room. At the head of the procession, was a yellow pegasus with flowing pink mane. Celestia turned and greeted her with a smile.
“Ahh, High Priestess Fluttershy, I am so glad you could make it.”
The pegasus blushed, “Of course my queen, you know we would do anything to free your sister. The two of you must be so lonely without each other.”
“Your kindness and sincerity humble me.” She said, gracing the pegasus with a smile, “Is it time yet?”
“Soon enough,” she said, “The stars aren’t quite right yet, and I would hate to rush things. Will the vessel be okay waiting?”
“She can wait,” Celestia said, “The spell keeps her frozen in time, so there is no risk of harm coming to her. And as for me… I appreciate having the chance to explain myself to her.”
Fluttershy smiled and patted Celestia’s foreleg reassuringly, “Please, don’t be too hard on yourself, I am sure in a few years Twilight will be perfectly happy with the new arrangement. You are gracing her with the greatest gifts known to ponydom, royal blood and eternal life, and through her we are redeeming two-thirds of the celestial triarchy. What great fates that she should be so honored.”
She turned to address Twilight, “You have to understand just how ecstatic Celestia was when she found you. The incarnation of the stars themselves, the one that was prophesied, the only one who could help redeem her sister. Who knows, in a few years you might have been able to achieve divinity on your own, but now I am afraid we must accelerate the process. The moon is closer to Equestria than it has ever been, and even as we speak a connection is formi-”
“Boring,” Rainbow Dash said, “Get to the part where do our magic thing to purify the Dead Queen.”
“The gift of heartsblood from the manifestations of harmony,” Celestia said, “The sacrifice of the five and one where you bind your fate to hers. It is amazing just how often the symbol of the five and one appeared when researching this ritual. The position of the stars, your cutie mark, and finally the path to exorcising the Nightmare that has taken hold of my sister. You are all doing a great thing, and I will make sure the realm never forgets your names.”
“Not that it matters,” Rainbow Dash said, “Because as soon as this ritual is done, we get to live as long as Luna does right? And that means we get to live forever. I won’t LET ponies forget about me.”
“I am sorry to interject,” the white unicorn said, “But I do believe the stars are now right in the sky and it is, as they say, now or never.”
Celestia nodded and the six began to chant, Twilight felt the hair on the back of her neck stand up as the room filled with magical energy. The stars… her stars, she realized, filled her with their power and she felt herself rising above the petty mundanity that had been her life up until the moment. She expanded ever outward, filling the whole of the firmament. The stars twinkled with her laughter, she had always loved the night sky, and now NOW she was the night sky, free to watch the world turn by, to see all the transpired beneath her.
And yet, she was also something else, a small mare of flesh and blood and bone and sinew, a mare whose body was breaking as the powers of a malevolent god were funneling through her horn, growing and reshaping her flesh to their will, as a new consciousness took seat in her mind, and obliterating everything she had once thought of as her. The long nights of study, the days spent sitting next to the queen and basking in her radiance, the faces of her friends and family, and all the things she hoped she might accomplish were burned away, and forcing the thing that once called itself Twilight Sparkle to hide in the shadows of the new consciousness. At that particular moment, the stars found themselves wishing that they could scream.