It was my wish! They promised me!
Twilight was up late at night. She was following one of her many past-times: Reading. Her room, thankfully, was refurbished enough to make her feel comfortable in it and little wooden bed like her old one from the library sat tranquilly on the cold ground, although this time it had Starswirl the Bearded blankets and pillow sheets. Three wooden shelves were placed to front and to the sides of the bed to give Twilight some good things to see when she wanted another, immediate read. At the base was the rounded, straw bed of Spike. It was always a wonder why he was so satisfied with such a thing. The window to the left of Twilight let pass the bright light of the stars and moon, illuminating her room enough that she didn't need any light crystals. The lavender alicorn snuggled herself deeper under her covers, letting the comfort warm her delicately.
"This is the best thing ever. I get to snuggle myself under my covers and read a book while doing so." Twilight giggled to herself like a little filly.
Little by little, she started finding difficulty in reading, and that wasn't because of her fatigue taking over. She had already stayed up for such a long time before.
"Huh?" She rubbed her eyes. "That's pretty bright. I didn't know the weather teams were working this late at night."
Twilight's cutie mark began to sparkle and shine, signaling that the table was calling for her. The mare reluctantly got out of bed, regretting that she had to leave her warm comfort and enter the cold void of the castle's air, but the second she was frozen, a thought crossed her mind. She hurried over to the window, stood up, and leaned against the wall. Looking outside, she noticed that there weren't any clouds to begin with. Yet, the night sky seemed darker than usual. She didn't understand why. The moon was out in its full glory and was shining brightly, so why did everything seem so dark?
"Another call?" Spike yawned. He wiped his eyes and blinked tiredly. He was doing his best to keep his eyes open.
"Oh! I'm sorry Spike. It's okay. You can go back to sleep. I'm going to see what's going on, then I'll be right back."
The little dragon didn't protest and rolled back into his doughnut position. The lavender alicorn galloped through the castle and towards the throne room. The table was showing Canterlot but was pointing to something beneath the whole city, if not the mountain.
"Huh? What is this supposed to mean?" Twilight wondered aloud.
"Oooo! Are we going mining?" Pinkie asked.
Twilight nearly had a heart attack and bounced away with a yelp. Her friend had already arrived and was sitting on her seat and looking at Twilight with a smile. Looking back at the table, the alicorn realized that all six marks were floating above the indicator, announcing the arrival of the other four soon after. The only one who was still in her night gown was Rarity. It was just a long cloth covering her whole body along with curlers in her hair and an eye cover to help her sleep.
"What's going on, Twilight? I was having a marvelous dream," she said.
"I don't know. The other times the table called us up there was always a clear indication of where we had to go. Here...there's nothing. It's just a blank area beneath Canterlot."
"Then maybe we should contact the princess 'n see what they might know 'bout this," Applejack proposed.
"If it's underground again, I'd rather stay here. I've had enough with going into dark chasms," Rainbow complained.
Rarity looked around curiously and noticed something was amiss. "Speaking of contacting the princesses, where is Spike?" she asked.
"He's still sleeping. He IS a baby dragon after all," Twilight answered.
"That's right, and baby dragons should...get their...sleep...Oh. I don't feel so good," Fluttershy moaned groggily.
The six all started getting blurred vision with their heads spinning. Rainbow fell onto the table with a loud thud and all six fell asleep right away. Twilight knew she was dreaming, but she couldn't make out anything. It was like she was looking at everything through blurry and messy water. She could see colors and shapes, but she couldn't make out any details let alone hear the muffled speech they were having, but judging by the varying tones of high volume, it was clear that it was a very heated discussion. A muffled voice seemed to be repeating the same thing over and over again and it became louder and louder until Twilight was awoken.
"Twilight! You have a message from Princess Celestia." The little dragon handed it over to Twilight who winced in the presence of sunlight blasting her in the face. "Did you all fall asleep?"
"I guess I was just a sleepy head," Pinkie answered.
While her friends woke up, Twilight opened the letter and read it carefully. Her face went from neutral to outright terrified.
"Girls, we have to go to Canterlot immediately!"
"Why?" Rainbow asked.
"We just do! Let's go!"
Spike was left behind to tend to the castle, leaving him to do whatever he pleased. Meanwhile, hours of travel later led to the to the six arriving at Canterlot castle in the stead of the guards who awaited their arrival. They were brought into Luna's room where a numerous amount of doctors, including those from Zebrika, had arrived. They were all packed around a large, round bed covered with deep blue covers. Luna's room was quite messy, actually, but it did have an aspect that Twilight absolutely adored. In the middle of the room, both on the night blue floor and in the white ceiling was a round fault of three, step-length levels. They both narrowed towards the last circle and were perfectly parallel to each other. It was here that Luna would often concentrate and view the cosmos all around her as well as create new aspects.
Holes akin to the shelves ancient libraries were built into the walls to hold an assortment of scrolls and parchments from ancient times. Quite a few of them had been strewn about a table on the right wall, and several more were on the floor. The deep purple drapes were strung to the sides of all three windows and let fresh and cold air into the room. Celestia was towering above everyone there, but her face was covered in concern.
"Princess Celestia!" Twilight called out.
The sun alicorn's ears perked up and she immediately looked to the six standing in the entrance with a smile. "Twilight Sparkle! I am so glad you could make it." She went towards Twilight to embrace her in a wing. "I am glad that you could all make it here, but, alas, my sisters will not be able to greet you as well."
"What's wrong with her?" Applejack asked.
Celestia only pointed towards the bed, and a few of the doctors spread away to show Luna twisted and turning in her. A Zebrican removed a white towel placed on the mare's forehead, put it in his saddle pouch, then took another out of a small cauldron next to the bed and placed it on the same spot as the previous one.
"Enku...LiDae..." Luna said.
"We have to wake her up!" Twilight shouted.
Celestia shook her head and looked at Twilight with sadness. "I do not know how, Twilight Sparkle."
"Don't you have the zappy powers that Princess Luna has?" Pinkie poked her head several times as she stood on her rear leg.
"No. Unlike my sister, I do not have any connection to the dream world. I cannot travel to it."
"Then why did you call us, princess?"
"They promised...It was my final wish..." Luna strained again. She spoke as though gasping for air.
"I was hoping that you might be able to help me figure out the cause of this problem. Have any of you noticed anything strange before today?"
Rainbow Dash forward first and said: "During patrols, several of our flying squads have noticed many of the constellation monsters with almost no energy and others that became stone."
"And, last night, when I was reading under the moonlight, I noticed that it started to fade away. I went up to my window to look outside, but I couldn't see what was wrong. There were no clouds, either. Rainbow Dash can confirm this," Twilight said.
The rainbow pegasus nodded. Applejack turned to Fluttershy and said: " 'N what about you, Fluttershah? Y'all ain't said nothin' since we left the castle."
The timid mare tapped her forehooves together and finally mustered the courage to say: "The animals have been running away. I don't know why. They just flee every time the night comes. Even Mr. Bear is afraid, and he has always been the one to protect everypony."
"That isn't everything, princess. The Crystal Map called all of us and was pointing towards something WAY below Canterlot."
"It looked like it was at the base of the mountain, and who knows what sort of icky things live down there." Rarity stuck her tongue out in disgust.
"Below Canterlot...? Perhaps the map knows something down there could help us? And your sharing of the lights getting dimmer worries me, Twilight. Several Astronomers have told me that stars are disappearing from the sky. This could explain why my dear sister is in such pain and cannot awaken. Her words are still a mystery to me."
"Then do you know a way down there?"
"I...I do not. I was unaware that there was anything below the city, let alone the mountain. I know there are the crystal caves, but they aren't deep enough to--"
"A new adventure?"
Discord had popped up behind the mane six and was wearing climber's gear similar to what Rainbow Dash used at Griffinstone plus a yellow hardhat with a flashlight embedded in the front.
"So, when are we going and where are we going?" he smiled.
"You aren't comin' with us, Discord!" Applejack scolded and pointed at him.
The equipment poofed off of the draconequus, showing him with crossed arms and a pouty, lower lip. "And why not? You always get to go on adventures and leave little ol' me stuck at the castle bored to my wits end. I thought we became friends!" The draconequus floated behind Rainbow and Applejack and held them in a hug, one that they weren't too keen on staying in.
"No, Discord. We need to help Princess Luna and found out how to go beneath Canterlot."
"Beneath Canterlot, eh?" Discord put a talon to his chin and slowly floated over towards Luna with a deeply pensive look.
"Gah! Friends?...Liars!" Luna spurted as she twisted and turned more violently. "Grrr...Enku LiDae!"
"EnkuLidae?!" Discord clapped his hands together in a very giddy fashion. "Oh! An adventure!" He turned towards Twilight Sparkle and put on a tannish raincoat and large hat that completely covered his face. "You know, Twilight, I happen to know of a pathway to the 'basement' of Canterlot, so to speak. You'd like it, Pinkie!"
"Oh really? Why is that?" Pinkie narrowed her eyes. Discord levitated his mouth close to her ear and whispered something. "Oh! Oh! Let's go now! I want to go now!"
"Patience, Pinkie. It's all up to Twilight, now."
"Tell us where the entrance is and we'll go immediately," she answered. Her face was stern and very serious.
"Ah ah ah, Twilight!" The draconequus waggled one of his fingers. "Not so quickly, Twilight. My condition is that you bring me along on your adventure."
"No way," Rainbow Dash protested.
"Ah refuse!"
"You never know what this ruffian might be doing or what trick he's hiding behind his back." Rarity huffed.
"What? I would never trick anypony ever!" He raised his open left hand in a sign of innocence.
"Then why are your fingers crossed?" Pinkie asked.
Discord gave a light chuckle and nervously twiddled with his fingers. "Force of habit."
"Come on, Twilight. He's our friend now," Fluttershy said.
"Yes! Fluttershy is my dear best friend. I would never let anything happen to her nor to her friends. I wouldn't want her to be hurt."
Twilight pondered deeply, but her thoughts were interrupted by Celesta.
"Twilight, you should take Discord. His powers should be very useful for whatever lurks beneath the city. Even I cannot advise you towards something I know nothing of. And, after all, Discord is a god of chaos. I am certain that he will be able to react to anything down there."
The lavender unicorn turned to face the draconequus with a frown, but dropped her head down in defeat and sighed. "Fine. Discord can come with us."
"Great!" Discord flew in the air, cheering and tossing fireworks everywhere despite the frightened doctors nearby.
"While you explore the mountain, I will look into what is happening with the constellations," Celestia added.
"Okay, princess. I hope Princess Luna will get better so--"
"Of course she will!" Discord interrupted. "Do you want to go now?"
"Y--"
Pinkie jumped in front of her friend and shouted: "YES!"
The draconequus snapped his fingers, and six holes appeared below the mane 6. Discord slid underneath Fluttershy to serve as a flotation device before she fell, and Rainbow was sucked into it as though it were a vacuum. All seven of them were sliding down extremely fast water slides made from a brown wood. Erratic amounts of light were given by the holes in the walls. Rarity found her air getting smacked and dirtied by all sorts of dirt and roots. Pinkie was laughing and criss-crossing with Discord and Fluttershy on their slides. Some parts of the slides went in a circle while others curved into a loop of three hundred and sixty degrees. Others had collapsed completely, allowing the rider to hop off unwillingly and land on another piece of the slide further below.
All six converged into a cone that caused them to slide all around the contraption before falling down the hole in the middle. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, and Applejack all fell in a single pile and were covered with water that fell from above. Here, all six passed out once more and were sent off to the dream lands.
Twilight could see more clearly this time. The images weren't blurred and the sounds muffled like before. She was seeing a time before even the Creek era. She was just seeing a large landscape of grassy plains with mountains in the background. The sky was very sunny and clear of most clouds. Twilight wasn't certain, but she could see hundreds of farmers both on the ground and, somehow, on the clouds being tended by pegasi. There was a massive group of ponies standing in front of two thrones sitting in the open, but whoever was on them still seemed blurry.
"Step forth, Cucumber," a booming voice commanded. Twilight had never heard such a loud and imposing, authoritarian voice.
"Whatever stallion has that voice must be very important and imposing," the alicorn thought to herself.
She couldn't try to concentrate to see what was on the thrones in the plains that a figure flashed in front of her eyes and stood in front of her, although its back was turned. She could see an aqua green-blue tail on a deep blue-green body, or was it the opposite? This pony's colors seemed to shift in the direction the light hit it. Try as she might, Twilight couldn't move from her spot, but she did see this pony cause the crowd to shift, but before she could see more, she was awoken by Discord tossing cupcake batter onto her face.
"Ah. Falling asleep on the job, are we? And you doubted MY credibility." Discord placed a talon on his chest in indignation.
"I...Ugh. It happened again," Twilight groaned.
She rubbed her head and tried to relax, but noticed that the others had also gone through the same thing.
"I feel like I have the Canterlot Nobles in my head."
"I think I ate too much cupcake batter," Pinkie added.
"Discord, could you help us?" Fluttershy asked.
The draconequus shrugged, snapped his fingers to make plungers appear, then placed them on the head of all sic ponies and pulled out whatever was bugging them. A massive sigh of relief echoed through wherever it was everyone was standing in.
"Thank you."
"No problem, Fluttershy."
"Discord, where are we?" Twilight asked.
Rainbow was already flying slightly, although she was too scared to go all the way up. They appeared to be in a gigantic, uneven cavern with several gigantic, neon blue mushrooms growing everywhere. They illuminated this place quite powerfully, but their shine was compliment by glowing green moss on the floors and the walls. In fact, the walls weren't actually true, cave walls. They were the walls of ruined buildings that stretched as high as the eyes could see and were supporting the whole mountain.
"These buildings...They're literally fused into the rock. And these markings on them...they look like they come from the Mesopotman era three thousand years ago," Twilight noted.
"What's that supposed ta mean?" Applejack wondered.
Twilight shook her head in disappointment at her lack of knowledge.
"Uhhh, guys? You'll want to come see this," Rainbow Dash called out.
Everyone walked towards a tall, dirt wall that had obviously collapsed a long time ago. It was underneath a large arc formed from the mountain rock, making it dangerously unstable. They all walked through the cracks in the dirt, although Discord found it more amusing to canoe through it instead. Dust and gravel rained down from the high ceiling every now and then, dusting the group, but it was just a small detail adding to their 'adventure'. Once they were finally through, everyone, except Discord, gasped in awe. There was a gigantic city several steps down. All the buildings were completely torn to pieces, letting stone, plant, and rock settle into their tan colored remains. They still stretched very high and supported the weight of the mountain, but just the slightest breath could knock them all down.
"Let's get down there, girls. I think I see a central plaza in the middle of all those buildings."
"Do we have to, Twilight? Who knows what horrid beasts lurk in the dark down there!" Rarity protested.
Discord wrapped his arm around her, literally, and said: "Come now, Rarity. This is the spirit of adventure! Even I have never seen this place before! Down we go!"
"No wait! AAAAAAAAAH!"
Discord flew downwards at great speeds, but he didn't go with just Rarity. Pinkie decided to grab onto his tail hitch a ride. The remaining four ponies just looked at the ruins before them and felt a great emptiness fill them.
"Twilight...I don't like this place. It's scary and I don't see any animals here," Fluttershy whined.
"I know but...our cutie marks are glowing again and brighter than ever, so we must be getting close."
"Twilight...Have you noticed that since we started this whole 'adventure', as Discord calls it, we keep fainting?" Rainbow Dash wondered.
The lavender alicorn tapped her chin a few times with her hoof and nodded. "You're right. I thought it was just because of the all-nighter we had, but I guess something else is affecting us."
"How 'bout we just go down there already 'n try ta see what the map wants 'n figure out the rest later?" Applejack suggested.
The other three nodded and everypony went down the gently angled hill to the city. It was a mess. Debris and gravel were everywhere as well as what seemed to become an iconic amount of mushrooms and moss. There appeared to have been a statue in the middle dedicated to two ponies, but Twilight wasn't certain of who they were let alone what tribe they were part of. The two ponies in question were standing on their hind legs with their forelegs kept in the air as though showing some form of pride and intimidation. The right statue had already lost most of its body. There was only a tiny portion of the main body attached to the hind legs and reaching to the right foreleg. The other didn't fare any better. It had lost its left hind leg and head, but the rest of the body was still intact. Unfortunately, vines and crystal had grown on them and were digging into the structure as hard as they could.
"Oh my. this town has seen better days," Fluttershy said.
Rarity came towards Twilight with an erratic walking and a very dizzy face. Discord shrugged and complained.
"Oh, come now. I only spun three hundred and seventy four times. Don't be such a filly." Discord casually gave Pinkie a secret, back high-five at that remark. "Besides that, have you noticed that statues of the smaller ponies? They're quite terrified and are still intact."
"What?"
Discord pointed to Twilight's left near an enormous group of destroyed buildings. There were three statues there: One unicorn, one pegasus who attempted to fly away, apparently; and one earth pony. They were all looking at something with terrified expressions illuminated by a giant mushroom in the building behind them.
"Careful, Twilight. There could be oogly booglies on them," Pinkie warned.
The lavender alicorn just shook her head, finding her friend's warning ridiculous. The second she touched the statue, however, the mane six's cutie marks glowed brightly before they all collapsed.
"Not again." Discord facepalmed.
This time, Twilight could move, and it seemed as though her dream had returned to where it last left off. Now she could see everything clearly, although the two on the throne still seemed somewhat blurry, she could make out that two ponies of immense size were on there. In fact, one seemed almost black in color and the other was bright and white.
"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna? But I thought they didn't know about this place. And what is going on here, anyways?"
Twilight hurried through the crowd, being careful not to hit anypony, and jumped to the right of the pathway, allowing her to see the pony being led towards the thrones. He was a stallion of a rather slender build, but his eyes seemed full of vigor and joy when he looked upon the two ponies of important stature.
"My friends," he cried with open forelegs, "it is so good to meet you again!"
"And we are glad to see you as well, Cucumber," the right mare spoke. Her voice was deeper than Celestia's but still had elegance.
"We called you here to thank you for your amazing discoveries and benefits to our culture," the dark colored one spoke. This one was the stallion from earlier. "You have discovered the magic that flows through all of us and have discovered how to awaken it in our friends and families. You have found new ways to cultivate, utilizing the magic you discovered within the newly formed pegasi to manipulate the clouds into helping our seeds grow and new fruits and vegetables to be harvested, and all this during our darkest hour of famine and helplessness."
"We understand that you have not awakened your own powers yet. Why is this?" the mare asked.
"I...I never thought I would need it. I have always lived like this and have decided to stay this way to humbly discover and help my fellow ponies."
Twilight couldn't make much out, but she could see the two regal ponies looking at each other and nodding.
"Good. Then by our immense power granted to us by the heavens and beyond, we will grant you three wishes," the stallion declared.
There was a large brouhaha starting in the crowds, and this was the greatest amount of unknown history that came before the tribes that ignited Twilight's interest. This sole stallion was the reason for magic in Equestrian kind to become active. She had so many questions!
"I wish to become immortal, so that I may watch over the achievements of ponykind and advise them in every age they enter."
"Are you certain? Immortality has dangers of its own," the mare asked.
Cucumber nodded eagerly. His tail was almost wagging. A slow but steady stream of paint-like magic came from the dark stallion and wrapped Cucumber up in its dark, starry appearance. He floated into the air, then was dropped back down.
"What is your second wish?" the mare asked.
"I wish to gain powers similar to your own, but only that of the Astral plane."
"What? What ever for?"
"So that I may explore the cosmos itself and bring treasures and knowledge to ponykind and expand their views of their life and look beyond just this world!" Cucumber pointed a hoof towards the sky like a superhero.
This time, immense amounts of magic from the two ponies enveloped him completely. Now Twilight could barely see him, but she could sense immense amounts of energy coming from his body.
"And what is your final wish?"
"A country to rule, so that I may bring my new knowledge there to be studied by everypony around! It would be a cultural center!"
There was a long bout of silence from the two ponies, but Twilight could see them shake their heads in refusal. "Refused," they both said in unison.
Almost immediately could Twilight feel Cucumber's happiness slowly fade away.
"What? What do you mean 'refused'?"
"You are not fit to rule over anypony. You are indeed brilliant and have brought a new age upon our people, but you cannot truly believe to have the charisma and patience to take care of so many. You already had trouble taking care of yourself!"
"I helped YOU two out when you had just started! I worked my whole life to help you two: My friends! And now you go and betray me?!"
"We have NOT betrayed you! We CARE for you, our dearest friend. This is why we can't let you have your own city to rule. You are blowing this whole affair out of proportion."
"I have not! You two lied to me! My friends! It was my final wish! A cultural center for all and a place to deposit my discoveries! EnkuLiDae hates being lied to!"
"TWILIGHT!" Rainbow shouted.
"Huh? WAAAAAA!" Twilight was nabbed out of her spot by Rainbow Dash before a pillar fell on top of her, kicking up dust everywhere and shattering the fragile tiles on the ground. The event created a nose wrenching, moldy smell to emanate into the air.
"What happened? The pillar just fell on its own!" Applejack shouted while galloping towards her friend.
"You should be cautious. There's a thing hiding in the shadows," Discord casually said. He was floating in the air with his legs crossed and was sipping some tea.
The three ponies looked behind themselves to see a pair of yellow eyes glaring at them from the shadows. A gigantic creature hopped out of the darkness and into the light, showing itself to be a very geometrical monster with the aspect of a wolf, but a weirdly mechanical one. The torso, where the two legs were, rotated in place, as did the head, and they continued to do so until they finally faced the three ponies.
Everything about it was angular, but it did present the usual aspects of a wolf. Wood-carved whiskers, pointed ears, and various, albeit faded, colors were painted onto its body. Its eyes were bright yellow and its claws were a bright, metallic hue. Its tail was just a jagged, horizontal lining of zigzags devoid of the color that had left them ages past. Even its mouth was simplistic: It was just two flat planks of thick wood that had metallic triangles placed into them. In essence, it was really just a block that rotated its parts from side to side in an uneven fashion.
Without a moment's notice, it pounced onto Twilight and Rainbow Dash, but the lavender mare put up a shield that blocked it. Despite this, it tried its best to claw through the shield in static, robotic movements. Applejack galloped around it, took her lasso out from under her hat, then roped it around the neck.
"Come on, Rarity! Pinkie Pie! Help me pull this thing down!"
All three of them grabbed hold of the rope with their teeth and pulled with all their might. It was pretty heavy, but the beast still ended up falling onto its back. It struggled and struggled, but it could not right itself up.
"There. It shouldn't bother us no more," Applejack wiped her forehead of sweat.
"He's not down yet," Discord warned with a chuckle.
The creature's body rotated forward, placing its head where its tail would be and vice versa. The legs bent down then rotated on their ball joints, just as the head and tail did, causing it to be ready once more for an attack
"Discord!" Fluttershy scolded.
The draconequus sighed, levitated a rock towards his hand, grabbed it, then threw it behind himself. Fluttershy was confused at first but saw the beast get hit by a snowball on its head. The snow caused it to spark with electricity, howl a bit and make its yellow eyes flash erratically. It started spinning uncontrollably and wobbling around everywhere until it smashed into the statues and collapsed with them through the ground. The smell of mold became exceptionally powerful here.
The draconequus smiled and praised himself. "There you go. No need to thank me."
DIscord opened one eye and pouted while looking at the group. Fluttershy hugged him. "Thank you, Discord," she said.
"You're welcome, Fluttershy. At least SOMEpony is polite enough to say thank you."
"Thank you, Discord," Pinkie cheerfully shouted.
"Oh no! I wanted to get that statue under a fine study to know who it was for and its significance to this lost culture!" Twilight whined. Applejack patted her on the back to encourage her.
Rarity, meanwhile, put a hoof to her mouth and turned green. "What is that ghastly smell?"
"I think it's coming from the hole in the road that the wolf thing made," Rainbow Dash pointed out.
There was an insane amount of dust kicked up at the collapse point, but Twilight's magic quickly spread it all apart to reveal an old, circular stairway carved into the rock.
"ADVENTURE!" Discord shouted.
All six went down the stairway into the increasing darkness, forcing Twilght to create an orb of light to illuminate the pathway for everyone. It was here that Pinkie noticed something.
"Hey, did you notice there are no cobwebs here? I mean, it's strange when you think about it. Spiders can get everywhere and it's really annoying because you don't know where they come which makes it really hard to keep them from getting into the house and ruining your pastries and--"
The pink pony was cut short by a clothes pin being placed onto her mouth by Discord who frowned in annoyance.
"Wow. And I thought I was the chaotic one."
"You goin' ta spout constant one-liners lak that all the time?" Applejack asked sarcastically.
"Maybe. It is my thing, after all."
"I thought bringing chaos was your thing?" Rarity quipped.
"That is also my thing." Discord proudly grinned.
Twilight turned towards her friends with worry and yelled: "Stop!" followed by "Oof!"
The others weren't paying attention to the road in front of them and decided to smash into the lavender alicorn without warning.
"Ow. S-sorry, Twilight," Rainbow apologized.
Applejack adjusted her stetson and asked: "Why'd we stop?"
"There's a pair of huge doors here...but they look like they've rotted." Twilight slowly extended a hoof forward in a bid to touch the doors. "I wonder what would happen if I were to touch the-Yah!"
The lavender alicorn nearly jumped back when the doors broke off their hinges at her light touch and crumpled into a mushy pile, the pieces sliding off some mushrooms that had grown behind them.
"Woah," Rainbow exclaimed.
All seven entered the newly open area to see that it had also been ravaged by time. What was once, certainly, a beautiful chamber had been reduced a mere pile of moss and lichen. Shelves of wood had long since rotten over time. Tables and chairs were covered with dirt and moss, and whatever paintings were encrusted into the wall had chipped off some time ago. All in all, the room was pretty small in width, but it was tall enough for Discord to stand upright in.
"This place really needs a clean up," the draconequus noted.
"I...I don't understand. There's nothing here! Maybe the solution we're looking for is in the city itself?"
Twilight paced back in forth, mumbling to herself, when Discord noticed her cutie mark would change in brightness every time she came into proximity with a mound of dirt. He grabbed her without saying a word and slung her underneath his right arm, using her behind as a pointer. Discord didn't really care about her protests, and when her cutie mark shone brightly, he tossed her onto Rarity, reached into the pile, and took out what looked like an ancient parchment untouched by anything.
"Oh. I've always loved treasure hunting," he exclaimed.
"What was that for?" Twilight complained.
"Oh. Heehee. Sorry. I forgot you were a pony. Let's have a look at the parchment, then. Oh; Fluttershy, be a dear and help me keep this thing open."
"Alright."
Discord unrolled the parchment and Fluttershy held the other side. However, she caused another flash to cross the eyes of the elements. This time, though, they didn't fall asleep. Rather, their eyes became enveloped in a white light.
"Twilight?" Fluttershy asked.
"Woah! I'm flying!" Pinkie shouted. She stretched out her arms and started to zoom around like plane. She was even making the sounds to go with it.
"You're with me now?" Twilight exclaimed.
Everypony nodded, then Rarity just squeed with glamor.
"Look down there! It's the city! It's beautiful!"
Looking down, the city was indeed beautiful. The buildings still had a clay-like appearance, and they had no doors or windows, but they were covered in a golden hue. Ponies were walking around casually, and many, many pegasi were having trouble flying even in a straight line. Despite this, the buildings didn't look as tall as they did in the ruins, and they looked rather squarish and without much detail. Everypony had noticed some sort of artistic carvings in the few walls they had seen, but they were too faded to be probably seen. The statues were still there in the middle of the huge city, though.
"Oh, the statues are there. Let's get closer. I want to see who they are," Twilight said.
She was about to float down there that the ground started to sparkle in quickly changing amounts of light and darkness.
"Woah! Disco ball!" Pinkie laughed.
Twilight turned around to look up at the sky, as did many ponies below her. There was a gigantic silvery storm clouds with with brightly shining white dots in its mass. It was moving and undulating at incredibly speeds, and it sounded exactly like a storm cloud too. Without warning, several crescent-shaped waves of magic burst out of it and struck the city several times, making whatever it hit sparkle like a starry night. The waves weren't being aimed, though. Rainbow knew this from her own experience in seeing pegasi trying to aim rain clouds just right. These waves of magic were random and uncontrollable.
It had been several minutes of harmful display that two immense bursts of magic pulsated out of the ground, destroying every crescent that rained down onto the city. Two ponies flew high into the air, right in front of the elements, and faced off with the eldritch entity. To their surprise, these two were alicorns. The largest, a stallion, was completely clad in a nightly-blue sheen with many stars twinkling about his coat. The ends of his body, save for his muzzle, waved in nonexistent wind and faded into a black void of color. His scelera were black, but his iris were a mixture of blue colors that swayed around in the place and putting the white pupils into perspective. His face was very lean and imposing with its squarish shape and rugged jaw. The other, a mare, was a bright white color. This left way for a sunset-orange near the middle of the legs and muzzle and set way for a light purple of early sunrise at the ends. Her mane and tail gradually changed colors very slowly; It was similar to the changing moments of sunrise and sunset. So similar, yet so different. She had a smoother and more gentle appearance to her, but her rage was apparent even through the glowing of her sparkling coat.
"I will get the world I was promised!" the entity yelled.
The six mares heard chants below of some ponies that were still in the city. The names they shouted were completely unknown to Twilight.
"Queen Cosmium! King Astros!"
"Who are they?" Rarity asked loudly.
"Shhh!" Twilight hushed.
Three forces of magic clashed together, creating bright flashes of light and throwing sparks in all directions. Several space-decorated shockwaves erupted from their encounter and their energies pushing against each other. King Astros was swiped aside by a whip of astral energy, leaving Cosmium to fend off bolts of astral energy being tossed at her. She was more than capable of fending them off, leaving Astros to fuse magic to his left side and barrel into EnkuLiDae. The ensuing magic explosion caused the amorphous, cloudy mass to be tossed to the side and howl in pain as well as causing several buildings below to crack and fissure. A figure formed from the cloud, showing a left foreleg stepping out of it and revealing the head of a pony. It was insanely bright and had a bizarre appearance. While the pony was still, technically, pony shaped, it had what looked like a weird mask covering its left face. It covered the left eye and most of the left muzzle to stretch upwards into three different spikes, two that turned inwards over the bridge of the nose, and the last that stretch far above its head to stretch gently to the left and stopping at the middle, vertical axis of the body.
The two alicorns put their horns together and started charging up a vibrating star of energy.
"We told you not to come here with your thoughts! We told you we would protect everything we had," Cosmium shouted.
"We cared for you, but now we must banish you, EnkuLiDae!" Astros added.
"No! I will have my last wish! You promised me!"
A bright flash of white blinded everypony. When they opened their eyes, they were back in the ruined chamber.
"About time you came back. I can't read these," Discord complained.
Twilight was trying to keep her balance. "I'm sorry...Discord. We all had another 'dream', but I think I know now what is happening."
She slowly fumbled towards the scroll and looked at the symbols. "Oh. This is easy. I studied these symbols awhile ago. They're just a primitive form of communication based off an activity. It's like a comic, really. Let's see...Oh. Oh no."
"What is it?" Fluttershy asked.
"It says here that the two rulers 'left', whatever that means, but they let their ponies take care of everything afterwards. Apparently, though, they left something behind to fight off EnkuLiDae during their absence."
"And where is that thing?" Applejack wondered.
"I don't know. I can't find it anywhere on here."
"Here it is!" Pinkie shouted. She had just find a place to insert somepony's horn hidden behind a mass of moss growing on the wall. "I just hope it's a goodie lock and not a baddie lock."
Twilight gulped and moved towards the lock. She felt her heart race and the palpitation was killing her.
"Oh, be careful, darling. We don't know what is that hole or what it will do."
"I know, but I need to help Princess Luna...Wait." Twilight looked towards Discord with a frown and gaping glare that peered into his very, balloon filled being. "Why didn't you try helping the princess, Discord? You certainly have the power to do so!"
"Heeeey...That's true," Rainbow Dash noted.
Discord shrugged. "Pfff. You think I didn't try? Plus, her problem is linked to the stars. I have no power over the stars. Now hurry up with the 'secret weapon' or whatever it's supposed to be. I didn't come her for you to accuse me of things I never did. Shoo!" Discord pushed Twilight towards the socket with a gigantic hand.
The lavender alicorn shook her head in annoyance, but resigned herself to the wall. "Okay. We'll never know unless I do this."
She put her horn into the socket and turned her head, creating a clicking noise, then removed her head. For awhile, nothing happened. Applejack was just about to speak about that that the room began shaking violently and was going to collapse on the seven before they could escape. Discord wrapped around them all, and with a spinning of his whole body, they all shrunk into nothing then reappeared in the skies above Canterlot, standing on Discord's long body.
They cloud was there once more, and the night sky was out and waving like an ocean. There was even an aurora of starlight flying everywhere. Canterlot had suffered under an attack, and the guards were no match for this creature. Fluttershy spotted a group of unicorns getting ready to launch some yellow, paralyzing balls at the eldritch abomination, but an enormous crescent wave of astral energy hit them head on as well as a massive portion of the block around them. They were all frozen in place like statues and had taken the aspect of space.
"Yes! Finally! First I'll remold all of this, and then I'll get the ponies and city I wanted to rule over as part of my last wish!" the cloud shouted. "And one wave here, and one there, and...What's that shaking?"
Clicking and clanking came from somewhere below Canterlot and appeared to be creating tremors along the mountainside. Then slams started rising along the walls. They were becoming louder and louder and louder until a giant, square hand smashed right next to Canterlot.
"Bzzzz. Bzzzzz."
A tall biped rose above the horizon and stomped on towards EnkuLiDae. It had a very similar design to the wolf, but Twilight just couldn't figure out how they were made during such a primitive time. Its whole body was just a mass of clay-colored blocks, and although its build was quite tall and an automaton of that age was extremely impressive, it was definitely not very advanced. It's body moved in static, immediate motions, and its cube head didn't even have a face! It stood in the starry market square and right in front of the eldritch abomination, allowing it to lift its arms towards it, the gears in its shoulders slowly rotating into place.
"What is that? It looks...strange," the creature wondered aloud.
The finger tips of the giant construct glowed with the same magical energies as the ones from the king and queen in the elements' flashback. They erupted forth as a wide, conic shape to push back the creature.
"Ow! What, the power of those two again?! I won't have my dreams pushed away from my grasp again!"
EnkuLiDae was too focused on pushing back the magic coming from the machine that it didn't notice the six mares galloping and flying towards the feet of the machine.
"Twah, ah don't think this thing is gonna hold 'im fer long," Applejack panicked.
Rainbow tapped her chin and put her fore hooves together. "She's right. We really need to think of something. Why not--"
"Why not use that 'rainbow power' thing you have now?" Discord interrupted.
The rainbow pegasus crossed her forelegs in annoyance. "I was just about to say that." She pouted.
"But we don't know how to activate it," Fluttershy complained.
"Oh pffff! You knew well how to activate the elements when Nightmare Moon was around."
"How do you...That's not the same anyways!" Twilight stomped a hoof. "That was--"
" 'Just me feeling my true potential and understanding that I made new friends'. Is that what you were going to say?"
"I--"
Discord shoved a sock in Twilight's mouth and floated away somewhat. "Haha. If you want to make this adventure fun, you'll have to bring out that 'rainbow power' at one point." Discord shook his hands in mockery of the name.
"Twilight, think about Princess Luna. She might never get to eat cakes again!" Pinkie whined.
"And the stars are still disappearing. Better hurry up." Discord's head and neck became a pendulum with his arms serving as an hour and minute hand. "Tick Tock, Twilight Sparkle."
Twilight didn't have enough time to think with her friends that a loud explosion resonated in her ears. The sound of a steam engine slowly shutting down followed shortly after. The right shoulder of the machine belched black smoke before the whole arm fell to the side of the machine. Within a few short moments, the machine had crumpled down and was now just standing in a very bizarre position. Its head was hanging low, its two legs were bent haphazardly, as were its arms, and its body was tilted to the left.
"Ha! Got ya," the cloud shouted.
"It seems very...playful for something that wants to change us all," Rarity whispered.
The same figure from the flashback shifted out of the cloud then jumped back as it was startled by the seven on the ground. "What are those? A weird, serpenty thingy and...a winged unicorn?! Like those two..."
It bore its teeth then opened its mouth, letting loose a beam of energy that impacted Twilight's shield with full force. It held, but everypony found themselves thrown backwards and further down the block, past the market square, and into a narrow street.
"Ow!" Pinkie shouted.
Fluttershy stood up and sternly put her hoof down. "Girls, if we don't stop Cucumber right now, everypony in Equestria, including the princesses, will be hurt, and I refuse to let that happen!"
"Fluttershy is right! My little sister will be hurt!" Rarity and Applejack shouted in unison.
"Scootaloo too!" Rainbow answered.
"All my friends will be hurt, like Gummy and Maud!" Pinkie shouted.
"Then it's settled! We'll protect everypony in Equestria, even if that means we'll be changed too!"
The six ponies standing up to the astral entity caught it off guard, but it was further blinded by the massively bright lights coming from the cutie marks of the six ponies.
"Ooo. That' bright. Luckily I came prepared for such an occasion."
Discord pulled out a bronzing mirror and sunglasses and lied down in the air with a smile. After the flashes ceased, he pulled down his sunglasses to see the mane six had entered into their...ahem...'rainbow forms'.
"Ugh. That's what they look like when they became empowered by this newfangled rainbow magic? Looks like somepony with terrible design choices. I bet Rarity would hide if she knew what she looked like. Seriously. I'm a god of chaos and even I find that horrible to look at."
EnkuLiDae didn't know what to expect when he saw the form the ponies had taken and were floating in the air. The cloud simply lift an eyebrow in confusion. "What is that? Looks weird," he pondered.
"Now!" Twilight shouted.
Almost instinctively did EnkuLiDae raised a shield of silvery, astral energy to protect himself. A gigantic rainbow came from the six and hit his shield with full force, but it held.
"Nooooo! I can't be defeated now! My wish!"
"Come on, girls. We can do this! Concentrate on everypony you care about."
The rainbow intensified in power. It started cracking the shield of the astral entity who tried forcing more energy into his defense, but it was no use. The rainbow magic broke through and engulfed him whole.
"I just figured out how to use my powers! I hate new magiiiiiiiiiiiiiic!"
A rainbow pulse ran over the whole of Canterlot, returning it and its denizens to normal. Almost immediately afterwards Celestia arrived by flight and dived down. She was breathing heavily but calmed down and regained her composure when she saw the six elements in their new forms that faded soon after.
"Twilight, I apologize for my late arrival. I needed to care for my sister."
"I understand, Princess Celestia. We wanted to help her too," Twilight answered.
"Oh, did they help," Discord said as he levitated down. "That was the most fun I had in years."
"But you didn't do anything!" Rainbow accused. "You could have helped us with that thing, but you didn't!"
"Excuse me? I recall me being the only one able to get you down there, helping you out when that thing attacked you, and getting you all out of that place when everything came tumbling down."
"Speaking of machines, this creation came from below?"
The six nodded.
"That reminds me, why didn't you get us down there the proper way?" Rarity asked.
"There is no 'proper' way my overly compulsive beauty liner. The whole placed is surrounded by a mountain."
"I guess so...But--"
"Hey look! Here's a weird looking pony I found!" Pinkie shouted.
She had dragged what was once a cloud in front of everypony. It was a young stallion with an astral sheen of a coat. Even its mane and tail had the dark, silvery hue of the night sky that the astral entity possessed, and the appearance changed when you looked at it from an angle. It even had the weird face-mask.
"Wakey wakey," Pinkie said with a smile.
He slowly came to his senses, his blurred vision stabilizing. When he saw the group staring down at him, he immediately panicked and backed away. He smacked into a group of Canterlot guards who had been 'frozen' by his powers.
"What are you?! What is that you're wearing?! What's wrong with the buildings?!"
"He...he's just a young colt who has barely entered his teen years." Celestia eyes widened in surprise.
"I...I spent the last three thousand years trying to control my powers, and you come and ruin my gifts again!"
The young colt started crying right in front of everypony, completely surprising and confusing them all.
"Wow. He's definitely not like all the others we fought," Rainbow noted with a raised eyebrow.
"Mhhmm. Guards, take this colt into custody and bring him to the castle," Celestia said.
The armored ponies saluted and grabbed the whining colt by his forelegs. "Come on, you crybaby," one guard scolded.
"What are you going to do with that poor little dear?" Fluttershy wondered.
"Well, I'm going to reeducate him. I'm certain you know how he came across such powers and acquired such an...altered shape, Twilight Sparkle, but I plan on taking immediate care of the situation. This is an unprecedented situation, after all. I will be expecting a full report on this when you return to the castle, Twilight."
"You don't want to hear it now?"
"No. No time. I must tend to both my sister and...What is his name?"
"Well, in our visions, he was called cucumber by what looked like two alicorns. One of them was a stallion and the other a mare." Celestia's eyes widened and her pupils shrunk in surprise. "Then Cucumber started to call himself 'EnkuLiDae'."
"I see...Discord, do be a dear and help the dig teams I will organize later to discover this city. There's so much history that needs to be discovered."
"I was thinking the same thing!" Twilight shouted.
The draconequus rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. "I am not your errand pony, Celestia."
"You can remove the stone however you feel like, as long as it doesn't harm any pony."
"Ah. So a recreational activity. Perfect. I'll be able to test my new 'toys'." Discord wrung his hands menacingly together. "I'll be right back!" He said before opening a door to nowhere and closing it immediately afterwards.
"I will be awaiting your report eagerly," Celestia said to the mane six.
"Well, ah'm glad that's fahnally over," Applejack said with a stretching over her body.
"You said it. I'm beat. I could go for some of Pinkie's cupcakes right about now," Rainbow added.
Pinkie's eyes glowed brightly.
"I'm worried for my animal friends as well. I've been gone for a long time, and they probably have hungry tummies now."
"Yes, and I could do with a bath and a trip to the salon to get properly cleaned up. My mane is just a mess!" Rarity pulled some moss out of her hair and caught glimpse of Twilight thinking deeply with a worried look.
"Twilight? What's wrong? We saved the day and discovered how to activate the rainbow magic when we needed it."
"It's just...there are so many questions left unanswered. Just who were those two alicorns we never heard about before? Why would they give such magic to a young colt like that? Was he really the source of ponykind's sudden discovery of magic? Was he draining the stars to get his powers back? And what happened to the city beneath Canterlot? It was damaged and changed long after Cucumber's attack on it."
"Well, we'll be here to help you whenever you need," Rarity smiled.
"You can count on all of us," Rainbow added with an aerial hoof pump.
"Thanks a lot, girls. I don't know what I would do without you six. I just hope Celestia knows what she's doing with that colt. He may even hold all the answers I need to solve this mystery."