"Do not speak to us of flame or wrath! Lest we show thee what the words truly mean!" -- Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie go back in time to answer two questions: why did Celestia become Daybreaker, and how did Equestria survive?
"Do not speak to us of flame or wrath! Lest we show thee what the words truly mean!"
Twilight, Starlight, and Trixie go back in time to answer two questions: why did Celestia become Daybreaker, and how did Equestria survive?
Note: This story assumes the events of Friendmaker, but can also be read on its own.
A lone pony trotted sadly out of the Everfree Forest, and sat down with her back to a vine-strangled tree.
Before her, high on the hilltop, standing tall against a sky like molten iron, was the Castle of the Two Sisters. Its marble towers were limned in disturbing shades beneath the viciously burning light of the midnight sun. The grass on the hillsides was already brown and shriveled beneath the oppressive heat and glare. Leaves on the trees were beginning to crisp and fall to the ground, far too early.
And overhead, in the sky above the Castle, a face loomed. Her face, the self-proclaimed Queen of All Equestria...
Daybreaker!
The looming visage gazed hungrily upon a dominion over which she held authority absolute. Her fangs bared in a silent, exultant shriek as she contemplated plans for remaking the entire realm in Her image.
Far below, the pony sitting by the tree looked up at the face of her mentor, tears in her eyes.
This is how it happened! Twilight Sparkle fretted desperately. So what do we do NOW?
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Another time, another castle...
The glare of the morning sun blazed through the open window, falling like a sword across the bed and its occupant. The lilac unicorn gradually came awake, squinting against the light as she sat up, yawning and stretching sleepily. And then Starlight Glimmer snapped fully awake, a happy smile on her face. Because Trixie was back in Ponyville, having returned the night before following another month-long tour of her one-pony magic show.
A quick wash-up and comb-out later, Starlight trotted out through the door of her room and followed a carefully-memorized series of turns along the castle corridors. She was sure she was crossing her own path at least once, yet it was the only reliable way she had found to navigate the confusing interior of Friendship Castle and get to the guest room her friend normally occupied when she visited.
Just as she arrived at the room, the sky-blue, white-maned unicorn stepped out wearing her purple star-patterned cloak, minus her pointy hat.
"Hey, Starlight!" the show-pony called breezily.
"Hi, Trixie! Good to see you back. How was the tour?"
Trixie looked uncomfortable. "Want the truth? It was awful. I've still got bad word-of-mouth to live down. Houses aren't that great, so I'm barely making back travelling expenses. And after the Manticore Mouthdive it's like everypony expects me to, I dunno... Explode! Live on stage! or something like that, at every performance! I mean, come on! It was my most successful trick ever... and it only seems to have made my everyday work harder."
Starlight put a companionable hoof around her shoulders. "Well, you're here now, Trix. So you can put it all behind you, and the two of us can hang out and have fun. I mean, if you don't have other plans?"
"Not a one!" Trixie smirked. "Hangin' out is definitely on!"
"Great! I'll just let Twilight know, and we're off."
"Why? Is she your truant officer or something?"
"No! I'm just... well... being responsible I guess. I did want to check on her anyways. She was up late last night working on a research project, and you know how she gets when she's on a roll."
"Uh huh! Bet you five bits she's fallen asleep with her snout in a book."
"Well, that's not much of a bet." Starlight smiled. "What kind of book?"
"Ohhhh, right! Ahhh... I'll go with... a volume of Equestrian history covering the pre-classical era, specifically the period when the Princesses were being tutored by Star Swirl the Bearded."
Starlight stared at her suspiciously. "Wait a second..."
Trixie sniggered. "Yeah! I totally woke up early and went to grab a snack, and I saw her through the library door. Completely zonked! I was tempted to, you know, sneak in and slip something embarrassing under her nose, right? For her to find when she woke up? But I didn't want to wake her." Trixie rolled her eyes. "She might be nice to me or something."
"Trixie!"
"I know! I know! Look, she might be completely over disliking me, I'm still working off a grudge or two here. Gimme time, Starlight! I'll get there."
They trotted along the twisty corridors, which Trixie always seemed to be able to navigate much more easily than Starlight. Soon they were at the library doors and peering in. And Twilight was still fast asleep. The lavender alicorn was sitting in a chair behind her work-table, face down in a heavy volume spread open before her, other books stacked in piles to either side.
Starlight cautiously stepped up beside her, and touched her shoulder. "Twilight?"
Twilight jerked up, a crazed look on her face. "What? I'm awake! Rule of the Two Sisters! Year 15! Melvin the Manticore! Uhrrggh..." Her face thunked back down on the book again.
"It's okay, Twilight," Starlight said gently. "You're in your library. You haven't neglected your studies, or whatever it was you were dreaming about."
Twilight sat up slowly, yawning and rubbing her face with her hooves. "I'm so sorry about that. Good morning, Starlight. Um... what time is it?"
"Dinner time!" Trixie called mischevously from the doorway.
"Huh? Omigosh!" Twilight cried, shocked. "How long was I asleep?"
"Trixie!" Starlight glared at her friend.
"What?" Trixie shrugged. "It's the truth... sort of. I mean if you believe the spherists, it's gotta be dinner time somewhere, right?" She trotted over to the table and waved breezily. "Hey, Twi!"
"Oh. Morning, Trixie. And, uh... welcome back."
Starlight jumped in hurriedly. "Trixie and I were just going to do... um, stuff today. We don't know what yet. Welcome-back-besty kind of stuff."
"Sounds great," Twilight nodded encouragingly. "You two have fun!"
Starlight wanted to turn around, grab Trixie, and make an exit before anything else happened. But Trixie was staring pointedly at the book in front of Twilight. "Soooo... what's so fascinating about the pre-classical era? Oh, don't bother telling me. Not really interested. Just practicing making small talk."
Twilight, finding her automatic reply neatly sabotaged by Trixie's breezy cynicism, shut her mouth and fumed.
"Ah haha!" Starlight smiled uncomfortably. "Well, I'm interested. I mean, seriously, Twilight, you've been at this for days. What's up?"
Twilight stared at the book distastefully. "Well... It's kind of personal. Not me-personal, but somepony important. Can we keep this between us?"
"Of course!"
Twilight looked warningly at Trixie, but the show-pony merely gave her a smug look. "Oh, don't worry about me blabbing, Twilight. Starlight's already sworn me to secrecy on stuff like this. And if there's one thing a magician can do, it's keep a secret. My lips are sealed. So go ahead and spill!"
"O-kay... Starlight, you remember when the cutie-map sent you to help the Princesses, and you made Celestia take on Luna's duties for a day and she wound up walking your dreams? And you saw that evil, power-obsessed version of her?"
"Daybreaker!" Starlight shivered. "Pretty hard to forget, Twilight. That was a horrible nightmare!"
"Well... I have it on very good authority that it wasn't just a nightmare. Daybreaker actually existed for a time, back in the pre-classical era!"
Starlight goggled. "Seriously? What kind of authority?"
"Celestia. She told me herself."
"Woah!" Trixie's eyes went wide. "Starlight told me about the dream, but I hadn't heard about this! Celestia actually became Daybreaker? The Celestia?" She looked nonplussed. "What the hay brought that on?"
"I don't know!" Twilight slammed the book shut in frustration. "And none of the histories we have from that period go into any detail! It's like the whole thing was very carefully hushed up!"
"Well, maybe it was," Starlight pointed out. "I mean you can't very well have history books telling people that the very pony they rely on to rule them with kindness and sanity once flipped out and went on a rampage!"
"But that's pretty much the definition of history," Twilight grumbled. "To capture and report what happened, so future generations can learn from it."
"Don't be naive, Twilight!" Trixie waved a hoof. "History is written by the winners, who tell the story they want remembered. That's why no one takes history lessons seriously these days."
"Eee... yes! Moving right along," Starlight said quickly, "to something more practical... if there are still questions you need answers to, Twilight... why not just ask Celestia? Or Luna?"
"I plan to," Twilight nodded. "But I wanted to do my homework, gather as many details as I can from other sources first. I'm pretty sure the Princesses don't like to be reminded of that time, so I want all my ducks in a row, so to speak, before I trouble them with it again." She glared at the book on the table, and the others stacked in handy piles around it. "But none of the sources I've checked have given me any useful detail to work from!"
"Hmmm... what about asking someone else?" Starlight suggested. "Like maybe Star Swirl the Bearded? He knew the Princesses during that time, so maybe he could give you an outsider's perspective?"
Twilight shook her head. "Bad enough bothering the Princesses with this. But it would be completely unfair to be discussing it with anypony else behind their backs."
"Yeah, not at all like we're doing!" Trixie flopped herself down on one of the other chairs beside to the table and waved a hoof airily. "Well, you could always just pop back in time, Twilight, and talk to Star Swirl way back then. That way it's totally fair 'cause you're talking with someone who saw it happen at the time. But, nah... that would be just as bad, because changing history and stuff!"
Starlight cringed, expecting an explosion from Twilight about Trixie's cavalier attitude toward something as dangerous as time-travel. But Twilight was looking thoughtful. Oh no, Starlight thought to herself. I know that look! That's the "what-a-great-idea-let's-try-it-and-see-what-happens" look!
"Maybe we couldn't talk to him back then," Twilight mused, "but we could always go back and see what happened for ourselves... but to do that, we'd need to improve on Star Swirl's time-travel spell a thousand-fold..."
Don't ask me! Don't ask me!
"Starlight, you've already done most of the work revising Star Swirl's time-travel spell. Do you think you could extend the range further? Like all the way back to pre-classical times? And extend the duration so it doesn't reel us back in after only a few minutes?"
"Uhhhh... err... well... mmmm... maybe! But Twilight, I thought you hated anypony messing with time-travel magic. Especially after what I did with it!"
Twilight stared at her, surprised. "I'm not against time-travel spells, Starlight."
"What? You're not?"
"Of course not! A workable time-travel spell would be a boon for the study of history. Look around you --" She gestured to the shelves lining the room. "You know how many history books I have? One thousand six hundred and forty-five. I know that exactly because I've counted them -- twice -- the last time I reorganized. And you know how many I'd count on as reliable sources?"
She gestured to the small piles on the table. "You're looking at them! I'd always kind of accepted it as a natural limitation of scholarship, a cost of doing business as an historian. But now that I have a question I really want settled, the gaps in our history are really frustrating me! If we could actually visit history for ourselves, we could resolve so many unsettled questions, correct so many misunderstandings..."
"... and create a whole bunch of new ones," Trixie observed dryly. "You don't ever really settle an argument, Twilight. You just move the trenches around. Huh! And it's not like peeking into everypony's past would be in any way nosey or creepy. Some secrets are better off buried!"
"Maybe so," Twilight reluctantly agreed. "But... if handled responsibly, safe time-travel could be a huge benefit."
"But..." Starlight added, "there's still the teeny tiny problem of altering the timeline, right? Which is exactly what makes time-travel magic so un-safe! I mean we don't want to go rummaging around in the past without having some way for us to be there without affecting history, right?"
"Absolutely!" Twilight nodded. "And what I just realized is, if the goal is only to observe the past and not alter it, we can add components to the spell that would enforce just that! On top of the existing paradox safeguards, I mean."
"Oh, right...." Starlight bit her lip uneasily. "The ones that I ripped out in my version of the spell, because it meant I could get it working twenty times faster."
"Right!" Twilight was firmly in brainstorming mode and didn't even notice. "If we're only interested in the past, we could use the present-day end of the spell as an anchor, and disallow any action that doesn't lead up to it."
Despite herself, Starlight felt herself being drawn into it. I mean, if she's okay with just talking about the practical problems, she reminded herself. "But... that would require tons of power to maintain. And time-travel's already pretty costly. It's why the spell can't be maintained for long."
"That's only true for a spell that enables changing history," Twilight said. "A spell that only allows observation, and only of the past, could likely be made close to self-sustaining, at least for a reasonably useful duration."
"Yeah!" Starlight nodded. "And if we didn't have to expend so much energy on the cycling of the spell itself, we could use that to extend the range."
Trixie sat up worriedly, seeing her pleasant day with her friend slipping away from her.
"Uh... Starlight?"
Neither of the other ponies heard her. "If you can add guard components that will reduce the power cost," Starlight said, "then I could work on extending the range, assuming I can use that spare energy."
"I think I know a way to do just that!" Twilight replied. "There's a book we should look at. It's here somewhere..." She trotted off to the bookshelves ranged around the room.
"We'll need some paper and quills. I'll get them," Starlight called, heading over to the library's supply closet.
"Uh? Hello? Am I still here?" Trixie looked from one of them to the other. "Starlight? Are we still hanging out today, or what?"
"Trixie!" Twilight trotted over to her. "Just the pony we need!"
"Who, me? Seriously? The show-pony?" Trixie scowled at her. "You and I both know when it comes to Princess-level magic, that's all I am... apart from the few real spells that Starlight's been able to teach me."
"Right, but we need a critic," Twilight said. "Someone to bounce ideas off of. Someone to poke holes in our logic, point out things we've forgotten to consider in revising the spell and adding safeguards. Someone who wouldn't miss a chance to show us exactly where we went wrong! And I can't think of a better pony for the job than you!"
"Oh." Trixie raised an eyebrow. "Thanks, Twilight... I think!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As it turned out, Starlight's part of the effort was relatively easy. Given the assumption of more power it was easy to extend the range of the spell, as well as put back the safeguards she'd removed. She was able to finish that up shortly after lunch. She nervously handed over her revised version of Star Swirl's spell to Twilight, and then went out for a quick celebratory ice cream with Trixie.
Twilight barely registered their presence, so wrapped up was she in the intricate pattern of spell components she was sketching out on a carpet-sized roll of paper spread across the cutie-map table, the only table in the castle large enough to contain it easily.
If it had been any other pony, Starlight would have been certain she'd totally lost it and was ready for the coat with the long sleeves. With Twilight? It was far more likely that the incredible tangle of nested invocations she was scribbling would actually work.
Trixie, once she got over her natural reluctance to credit any other pony's skill but her own, found herself easily drawn into her role as gadfly, though more than once she found herself scuffing a hoof on the tabletop in boredom while Twilight and Starlight dove into details of magical theory.
"Oh, come on!" she groaned after one particularly lengthy discussion, "are you two really still going on about... what was it again?"
"Exponential renormalization at the boundary threshold," Twilight said.
Trixie sighed. "Once more from the top, with me getting it."
"The power cost of maintaining the safeguards," Starlight explained. "It becomes huge near the threshold of the spell in the past. The closer you get, the harder it becomes to forbid paradoxes that alter the flow of history. Like, exponentially hard... there's a runaway right at the boundary itself. Finding a way to manage that is making the safeguards ridiculously complex."
"Seriously? Like this whole thing wasn't already?" Trixie sighed. "Look, just make sure that end of the spell is located somewhere out of the way, so it's unlikely for anything important to bump into it. Then it doesn't have to be perfect."
Twilight and Starlight looked at each other. "She's absolutely right!" Twilight said. "If we assume a reasonable cutoff for the safeguards, the entire spell becomes tons simpler. Well done, Trixie!"
Surprised, Trixie immediately smirked. "Well, I'm not known as the Great and Powerful for nothing. You should see some of the crap I let myself get away with in my show. Uh, forget I said that!"
They continued working through the day, and Twilight was still at it that evening, carefully revising and recopying spell components to a fresh scroll, when Starlight and Trixie finally said good night and turned in.
Starlight hoped Twilight would wrap it up soon and get some sleep herself, but she feared she wouldn't. Something about the question that had started all this seemed to be driving Twilight to seek an answer. And Starlight suspected Twilight wasn't going to rest until she got one.
The next morning, right after breakfast, a tired yet triumphant Twilight asked both of them to come down to one of the palace's private audience chambers with her.
"I was able to resolve the last few issues early this morning, and even run a few quick tests of the subcomponents, doing low-power, short-range viewing. And everything works as it should. We have a working time-lens spell!"
"Time-lens?" Trixie asked, puzzled. "So you don't actually travel? You just look at stuff?"
"Well, you do travel," Twilight explained, "though only to points in the past on the same timeline. And you can walk around and observe events. Except that as we planned, you're prevented from interacting with anything in a way that would significantly alter the timeline you came from. It's look but don't touch, so it's safe. Hence, time-lens!"
"And it actually works?" Starlight said, nervously. "We can really extend it back that far? All the way back to the pre-classical era?"
"That's what we're about to find out!"
Twilight trotted ahead of them into the empty audience room, with the final, simplified version of the spell on a large scroll floating beside her in her magic. After shutting and locking the door so they wouldn't be interrupted, she unrolled the spell. With Starlight's help, the two of them powered it up while Trixie sat looking on. The show-pony seemed to have picked up some of Starlight's nervousness. She uneasily fidgeted with her magician's robe and the brim of her pointy hat, while trying all the while to look knowingly unconcerned.
The spell finally fired up. A hemisphere of glowing energy formed around them, shimmering and rippling like the surface of a lake. Beyond the rippling surface a stretch of woods gradually appeared. And all around them the trees were... changing. Leaves appeared, and disappeared. Branches appeared, then vanished. Snow fell, then was gone. Butterflies and birds flitted past, blinking on and off as the ripples of instability passed across them. Gradually, the instability settled down, becoming a smooth sheen of glowing power.
"There!" Twilight sighed in relief. "The spell should be locked onto a point near the edge of the Everfree Forest, close to the Castle of the Two Sisters, at roughly the right time in the pre-classical era."
"Hmph! Assuming it's actually working," Trixie sneered, even as she gazed around herself in worried astonishment.
"How can we be sure about the time?" Starlight asked. Despite her nervousness she too was impressed. Her amended version of the time-travel spell had merely produced an unstable maelstrom of energy that sucked ponies through and spat them out the other side. This went way beyond that. "You said the history books didn't go into detail about when things happened."
"Not about Daybreaker, no. But we do know from the Two Sisters' Journal it happened at some point after the Princesses were summoned to the Crystal Empire, and before they got their marks by raising the Sun and the Moon, and those events are well-documented at least. So this is a good point to start looking."
"And how do we do that?" Trixie asked. "We can't see anything from here, apart from a lot of trees!"
"We go for a walk," Twilight said. And she unhesitatingly trotted straight out through the shimmering glow.
Reluctantly Starlight and Trixie followed her. They found themselves standing in the forest they had seen from inside the dome. Looking at themselves, they saw they were insubstantial, almost see-through. Like ghosts, Starlight thought, uncomfortably. Haunting the past, because of an unsatisfied need. She shivered at the thought.
"That effect's part of the lensing aspect of the spell," Twilight explained. "No one can see or hear us, or sense magic we use on ourselves. And apart from minimal physical interaction, like being able to see and walk on things, we can't affect anything significant. So let's go! The Castle's this way."
She trotted off down a track through the forest.
"Trixie!" Starlight whispered.
"What?"
"Quit looking for butterflies to step on!"
"Was not!"
"Were too! Oh, c'mon, let's go!"
In short order they emerged from the forest onto the banks of the river Aurum, on a beautiful sunlit day. And beyond, standing tall and proud atop the green hill on the far side, was the Castle of the Two Sisters. It looked brand new, its arched buttresses and multiple spires reaching up into the clear blue sky.
"Wow!" Twilight came to a halt, as if suddenly aware of the magnitude of what they were doing. Up to now it had simply been a research project, a hard problem to be worried to submission, a challenge to be overcome.
And now it was real.
"Wow... is right!" Starlight agreed. "You think the Princesses are at home?"
"Only one way to find out." Twilight beamed happily, overcome with anticipation. "I'll bet they're busy resolving friendship issues no one in Equestria has had to face yet."
Trixie looked up at the castle. Then at her awestruck friends.
"Meh," she said, "I bet they're just yelling their heads off at each other."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"But Luna! That was completely unfair!"
A very young-looking Princess Celestia squared off against an equally young-looking Princess Luna, who arched an eyebrow at her.
"Perhaps thou would be good enough to explain how, Sister Mine?" Luna's hoof pointed to a thick scroll held in her magic. "We turned in a complete and thorough analysis, with references, of the weaknesses and logical inconsistencies of the defensive spell-set provided us."
She gestured dismissively at Celestia's sheet of paper.
"Thou wrote an essay on how it made thee feel!"
A short distance away along the corridor, an astonished Twilight and Starlight -- and a smugly un-surprised Trixie -- watched the young Princesses tearing into each other with the fury of long-nursed grievance.
Celestia ground her teeth. "I pointed out the practical consequences of a security spell like that on our subjects. How it could undermine their confidence in us, having a spell like that tracking their every move."
"And if the spell failed, once applied? They would trust us even more?"
"That isn't the point and you know it!"
"Oh?" Luna looked totally unimpressed. "Then what is?"
"The point is our subjects are ponies, Luna, not variables in an equation! If we are to serve them effectively, we need to remember to see things from their point of view."
"And which point of view is that?" Luna replied calmly. "The nobles? The common folk? The tradespeople? The butcher, the baker, the candle-stick maker? Opinion is all well and good, Sister, but spellwork will not be fooled! It is either completely correct or it is not worth bothering with."
LUNA!
Celestia's lips pressed together, quivering. Her eyes glistened.
"Hmph. Are we descending to using the Voice on each other?" Luna said dangerously. BECAUSE WE CAN SHOUT JUST AS LOUDLY AS THEE CAN!
"Ahem."
The quietly stern voice from the classroom doorway made both of them turn. Star Swirl the Bearded, wearing his familiar wizard's robe and hat decorated with bells, glared sternly at both of them.
"I am not deaf, your Highnesses! And what is all this childish shouting meant to accomplish?"
Celestia looked ashamed, and was about to say something. But Luna spoke first. "Our sister feels that her less than stellar mark for today's assignment was undeserved."
"Luna!" Celestia stared at her.
"Did I misstate your position, Tia? I thought I put it quite plainly."
"Blunt as a truncheon, as usual!" Celestia retorted. She took a steadying breath. "Star Swirl, I know you're generously taking time to educate us both in the art of spell construction. I simply feel that a pure focus on the mechanics of spellwork without consideration of its applications leaves something out -- something very important to us as rulers of an increasingly diverse land! If you'd just let me explain..."
"Celestia," Star Swirl interrupted, unmoved, "we have spoken about this often enough already. We must learn to walk before we run! You cannot play a symphony unless you are so at home with the notes that you don't even think about them anymore. I set you problems such as these to stretch your minds and your skills. When you are more experienced, then will be the time to start going into the niceties of the applications of your spellwork."
He gestured proudly at Luna with a forehoof. "Your sister understands this! She applies herself to the exercises as they are set. You could learn a lot by following her example."
Luna nodded gratefully at the compliment, and then looked archly at Celestia.
And Celestia's face fell. She looked away, ashamed.
"Ouch," Twilight whispered. "I know what that feels like!"
"Come, Luna," Star Swirl said. "I promised you I'd start you on constructing transfiguration spells, and today's work proves you're more than ready to handle the potential issues and pitfalls. And Celestia, take another look at the spell-set I assigned you, and let me know what you come up with. I'm sure with time and patience you'll eventually get there."
The two of them walked off together, leaving Celestia alone in the corridor. But Luna could not resist adding insult to injury. Just as they turned the corner, she looked back and stuck out her tongue sassily.
Celestia simply stood where she was for a long moment. Then she turned and ran off the other way.
"Come on!" Twilight called. The others belatedly followed after her.
Celestia's longer legs easily left them in the dust but it wasn't hard to figure out where she was headed. She took every staircase leading upward, and finally ended in a heavily-guarded suite of rooms at the top of one of the towers.
She hadn't even bothered to close the bedroom doors behind her. Twilight and the others walked up to the downy bed, where the Princess of Equestria lay with her snout buried underneath a pillow. She wasn't crying. She definitely wasn't crying. She was taking lengthy, steadying breaths... which occasionally ended in a sob.
Twilight automatically reached out a comforting forehoof, disturbed at seeing her mentor so unhappy. Then she drew it back, remembering.
Starlight put her own hoof around Twilight's shoulders. "I'm sure she'd appreciate the thought, Twilight!" she whispered.
Twilight just nodded sadly.
"Ahem, excuse me, your Highness."
Celestia spoke from under the pillow, her voice steady, though a little muffled. "Yes. What is it, Sharp Quill?"
The black-maned clerk pony who had spoken consulted her clipboard briefly, then replied professionally as if nothing was amiss. "You are scheduled for afternoon Court today, Highness, alhough if you wish we can cancel. There are no diplomatic petitioners on the agenda at the moment."
"No." Celestia drew her snout from under the pillow, then sat up, rubbing her face with her hooves. "Duty to our subjects comes first. Give me a few minutes."
"Of course, Highness!" The clerk withdrew.
Celestia stalked over to a mirror above a nearby vanity and glared at her image. "Maybe Star Swirl doesn't value our diplomacy nearly as much as he should. We know its importance, don't we?"
Shaking her head, she swiftly dealt with her appearance, ran a brush through her ethereal mane, mostly on principle, then squared her shoulders and marched from the room.
Twilight and the others followed as she trotted back downstairs to the main audience chamber, then up the rightmost of its two red carpets, between the earth pony and unicorn delegations of waiting petitioners.
Arriving at last at the base of the dais with its twin Moon and Sun thrones, Celestia passed through the small army of clerks and guard ponies stationed immediately before the dais, and ascended the right-hand staircase to the gold-upholstered throne beneath its Sun banner.
Settling herself on the throne, she sat wordlessly, her head held high and serene, as the business of the Court commenced. But her expression was just a little too stiff, her gaze just a hair too cold, for Twilight's comfort.
"I'm going up there," she whispered. "Even if she can't see us, I can't stand seeing her sitting alone like this."
"Um... okay, Twilight!" Starlight whispered back. "We'll be here if you need us."
"Ready to run for it!" Trixie added.
Twilight frowned at her, then she cautiously made her way through the crowd of clerks, and up the right-hand set of stairs. It felt almost sacrilegious, sneaking up to the throne like this, uninvited. As close as she was to the Celestia from her own time, she'd never been up here before, on the high platform of the Princess's throne.
Reaching the top she trotted over next to the throne and gently sat down. She looked up, and gazed out at a sea of pony faces.
All looking right at her. No, she reminded herself, anxiously. At Celestia. They can't see me. She turned to look up at the shockingly youthful face of her beloved mentor.
And realized the Princess was muttering to herself under her breath.
"Oh, look!" she grumbled. "It's Lady Rose Clipping, again. Probably still expects me to give her little gardens the royal imprimatur. And there's Lady Walking Stick, likely here to demand another guest ticket for the Gala next month, so she can show off to all her socialites. And Lord Chuffleworth... oh, Me! He won't have anything of substance to discuss. Just wants to be seen talking to me. Oh yes, and he can just drone on and on..."
The call of the Chief Steward rose above the hubbub of the Court. "His Excellency, Lord Snaffleback of the Unicorn Council!"
Twilight looked down the staircase to where a pompous, overdressed unicorn stallion with a gold-frosted mane was trotting forward from the middle group of petitioners to stand before the Sun throne. With the barest semblance of an acknowledging bow to the throne, he spoke up.
"Your Highness -- and I'm certain I speak for the great majority of the nobility when I say this -- the time has come for action against the Griffons! They invade our airspace, try to blame it all on us, and all but start a war in the process. We need to show them there are limits, and that they have crossed them!"
"We already have, Lord Snaffleback," Celestia retorted flatly. "As I reported to the Council last week. We have established a new treaty --"
"A new treaty?" Snaffleback interrupted. "And what good will that do, when they so quickly dismissed the last one over a legal technicality?"
"And we have re-established good relations between our realms."
"With a plate of éclairs!" He hooted. "Because their own pastry chef was on strike! I mean, really! What kind of incompetents and mental deficients are we dealing with here? If their hearts are so easily turned today, what will keep them from turning against us tomorrow? We can't trust them and their sneaky ways! They're too clever by half! Probably plotting against us behind our backs!"
"Calmly, Lord Snaffleback," Celestia said, through gritted teeth. "Luna and I have plans..."
"This is not a time for plans!" Snaffleback pointed a hoof at her. "This is a time for decisive action! You need to show that the Three Kingdoms made the right decision in placing our future in the hooves of the Two Sisters. You need to show strength! Decisiveness! You need to let Equestria see it is led by ponies of conviction, who have the power to rule and are not afraid to use it! As I have always said..."
Celestia's teeth ground, and her eyes narrowed angrily. "Keeping your comfortable life and pleasant little social circle safe isn't enough for you?" she muttered softly as he finished speaking. "You don't know the half of what I could do to you, you little stuffed-shirt ingrate!"
More loudly, she said:
"We... appreciate thy suggestion, Lord Snaffleback. We shall... take it under advisement. If there is nothing further...?"
"Oh, but there is! I haven't even started! Did you know..."
And he went on, for upwards of twenty minutes, shouting and posturing and making grand sweeps of his forehooves. And Celestia merely sat on her throne, grim and silent, as he berated her like a filly.
Twilight could see how tensely annoyed the Princess was, all but quivering with repressed rage. End it! Twilight thought to herself. Cut it short! It's what you would do! I mean, the you that I know a thousand plus years in the future. Gently but firmly end the audience... let him know he's gone too far!
But Celestia meekly allowed the noble to run down on his own.
"Well," he concluded smugly, "I hope I've made my feelings -- I mean our feelings -- on the subject quite clear!"
"I would say you have!" Celestia replied levelly, as if she didn't trust herself to express any emotion at that moment. "Good day, Lord Snaffleback."
Immensely proud of himself, Snaffleback again offered the merest hint of a bow, then turned and swept away surrounded by a small coterie of friends and business associates.
And Celestia allowed a long, slow, hissing breath to escape her teeth.
Then she inhaled, squared her shoulders, and looked to the Chief Steward to announce the next petitioner.
Who was an overweight Lady pony with a ridiculously coiffed silver mane, who spent ten minutes complaining about everything from the price of tea to the lack of deference being displayed to the nobility "by those of lower station", as she put it.
And then there was another Lord, a business-pony, who pointedly wanted to know why taxes were so high, and complained about what it was doing to his many ventures and their ability to turn a profit.
And on. And on. Twilight felt so sad for Celestia, having to just sit there and take it, letting everypony thoughtlessly dump their concerns on her without raising a hoof to stop it. More than once Twilight wished there was something she could say, or do, or even just make happen, to help in some way.
But, she told herself, that's the point. This was what had happened, and the time-lens spell was letting her see it for herself.... but at a cost: being unable to change a single line of it.
After a while she simply couldn't take any more. She crept back down the stairs and through the clerks, and over to where Starlight and Trixie were sitting near the crowd of waiting petitioners. And she felt horrible for doing it. She was supposed to be Princess material, and here she was all but abandoning her beloved mentor to her fate.
Starlight gave her an understanding look when she rejoined them. "That looked... painful to experience. I'm sorry, Twilight! At least you have the comfort of knowing Celestia gets better at it."
"But what does she have, right here and now?" Twilight gestured towards the throne. "She works so hard, keeps it all together, and everything she does just flies right over their heads! They don't have the basic decency to thank her for anything!"
"They might," Trixie put in, "if she just stood up for herself! If she told them off, now and then! First rule of crowd control: you're in control, so act like it! Even a show-pony like me knows that!"
Starlight nudged her furiously. But Twilight just nodded. "You're right, Trixie. I felt the same way, sitting up there next to her. I suppose it's just something she learns how to do eventually."
"You want to stick around?" Starlight asked. "I mean, it is a little dull, but I'm still amazed that the spell has held together for this long."
"No. It's not fair to the two of you. We should see if there's anything else we can learn while we're here, and then head back."
Trixie smirked. "I bet she wants to check out the library!"
"No! Well... yeah," Twilight shrugged. "You know me! There's always a chance we might come across a book that's been lost in our time."
"Would we be able to take it down from the shelf and read it?" Starlight asked. "Wouldn't the spell prevent that?"
"Not if where it happened to end up was inconsequential. And as long as no one saw the book being moved around. The self-healing variance we added to the spell would allow for that."
"And as long as moving the book didn't keep it from being lost," Starlight pointed out. "But that's only if its being lost actually mattered. Aaah! My head hurts just thinking about the practical effects... and I wrote that variance into the spell!"
"Are you two having fun, geeking out over spell construction?"
"Sorry, Trixie," Twilight sighed. "Maybe we should head back to the spell portal and move it ahead a few days or weeks, and see if we can find out when the Sisters actually travelled to the Crystal Empire. Then we could come back on the right day."
"Sounds like a plan to me!" Starlight agreed.
"Uh, oh!" Trixie said suddenly. "Hold that thought!"
They all looked up. Celestia had risen from her throne. There was a scroll held tightly in the gleam of her magic.
"Please pardon us, everypony!" she called, tensely. "A matter of some urgency has arisen. We must therefore end Court earlier than planned this afternoon. Steward, please reschedule our guests accordingly!"
"At once, your Highness!"
Without another word, Celestia all but ran down the stairs and strode swiftly down the length of the hall. Belatedly, Twilight and her friends got up and hurried after her.
"Did we somehow manage to hit the right day?" Starlight asked.
"No idea," Twilight replied. "But don't look a gift pig in the teeth!"
They followed Celestia as she hurried outside and down the corridor, then swept through a guarded doorway into a private wing of the palace.
But once the doors had shut behind her, Celestia suddenly came to a halt. She sat down, right in the middle of the corridor, head down and breathing hard. Twilight and the others gathered around her, puzzled.
Trixie spoke first. "She couldn't take it either... she ducked out!"
"Shhh!" Twilight said automatically. Then slapped a hoof to her mouth, embarrassed. After all, they couldn't be heard anyway.
Celestia lifted her head, opened the scroll, and read it. Her breath caught, her eyes brimming with tears. The scroll slipped from her magic, falling to the floor. Her head fell to her breast again, as she sobbed inconsolably.
There was a sound of hoofsteps from further up the corridor. "Sister?"
"Ohhhh.... not now, Luna!" Celestia groaned, not even looking up.
Princess Luna stepped closer, slowly and watchfully.
"It is... early, Sister," she said. "We had not expected to find you available so soon."
Celestia sighed resignedly. "Come to gloat some more, have you?"
"Actually, we did not," Luna said, confused. "We... wished to apologize."
"For what?" Celestia laughed humorlessly. "Being more intelligent, more diligent than your big sister?"
Luna grimaced, then set her face in its usual sternly calm expression.
"For mocking you. That was... undignified of us. We were... well, we were carried away a bit. The research we did took a lot of time and attention, and Star Swirl's response to it was most gratifying."
"You're his star pupil, that's for certain!" Celestia replied.
"Only by dint of hard work, and application, Sister. And his praise for our work made us feel... a little full of ourselves. Our diligence is often taken for granted. It is... agreeable when it is acknowledged, is it not?"
"You have no idea," Celestia murmured, shaking her head.
"Excuse me, Sister? Didn't catch that."
"Because you weren't listening, were you?" Celestia snapped at her. "You never listen! Just like always, going on and on about yourself! About how you're so important, how you work so hard, and so everything naturally revolves around you!"
"Sister..."
"And you're not apologizing for that at all, are you? Oh, no, not my brilliant little sister who runs rings around me at every opportunity. You're sorry because you went just a little too far, and broke your normal mask of cold, calculating indifference! You want to pretend that never happened! You want to take back a trivial slight! As if that somehow makes all the rest of it any better!"
Luna looked at a loss for words. Then her face set angrily.
"We came to apologize in order to avoid further disagreement, Sister," she replied sharply. "We shall come back later, when thou has had a chance to cool off."
Celestia managed to contain herself until Luna had almost turned the corner. Then the Royal Voice rang out.
COME BACK WHEN TARTARUS ICES OVER, LOONY LULU!
Luna froze. She turned her head, lofting a chilly eyebrow at Celestia.
Then she departed, her armored shoes ringing on the marble floor.
Celestia gasped, screwed her eyes shut, and shook her head in frustration. "Stupid, stupid, stupid!" she told herself. "Why did I say that?"
Then she halted, and looked up angrily. "Still... it isn't as if she didn't deserve it."
And then she leapt up from the floor and stalked away up the corridor, leaving three astonished ponies in her wake.
And the scroll as well, lying partly unrolled on the floor. Twilight cautiously inched toward it until she could read the part of the message that was visible:
My Dearest Princess Celestia --
I must begin by apologizing for not presenting this missive to you myself. I feel it is better this way.
I have honorably sought your hoof for some time, and have always felt we would be well-matched for each other. My respect and care for you demands I tell you the truth. I have discovered a true love, a special somepony, one whom I must be with, she who lights my heart with a unquestionable passion whenever I see her.
Know always you shall remain my one true sovereign, and I shall keep our correspondence totally confidential...
"No...!" Twilight whispered in disbelief, eyes wide. She could not read the name, which was hidden inside the curve of the paper. And she was not at all certain she wanted to know who it was. "What kind of monster could do that to her... dump Princess Celestia for somepony else? And not even have the courage to tell her face-to-face?"
She heard Celestia's steps suddenly come to a halt. She looked up. For a horrified instant she found herself looking directly into Celestia's eyes. Did the spell fail? Twilight wondered. Can she see me?
Then she realized it was the scroll Celestia was staring at... with a glare of unmitigated fury.
Twilight dove out of the way just in time as a blast from Celestia's horn immolated the scroll, searing it to ash and charred fragments of parchment.
Then Celestia wheeled round and disappeared around the nearest corner.
And Twilight simply lay where she'd fallen, wondering if her heart would ever stop pounding.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The three ponies silently returned to the spell's endpoint in the Everfree Forest. Twilight and Starlight cautiously unlocked the spell's duty-cycle, and then brought it to a halt. The forest faded out around them, and was replaced by the audience chamber in Twilight's castle, just as they had left it.
A little nervously they went out for an early lunch at Sugarcube Corner, more to reassure themselves that their journey through time had had no ill effects than because they were hungry.
All was as it had been, as far as they could tell from observation and careful questioning. Celestia and Luna still ruled Equestria. The Elements of Harmony were still located in Ponyville, and they were the same six ponies. And Pinkie Pie was still Pinkie Pie, serving up muffins and punch at the counter with gleeful abandon. Near as they could tell, the first major trial of a time-lens spell was an unqualified success.
And none of them felt like talking about it.
Twilight morosely fidgeted with her muffin, having barely nibbled a few crumbs from its brown-sugar topping.
"They say never look too closely at your heroes," Starlight finally said. "Also it makes a difference whether you've grown up with someone... like with A.J. and Countess Coloratura. Then you can remember who they were, and can put how they've changed in perspective."
"I know," Twilight groaned. "And I get it, she's not the Celestia I know and love beyond all other ponies. Did I just say that? Well, I meant it! What really hurts is that I couldn't do anything! I had to just sit there and watch her take it! When everything she's taught me made me want to stand up for her, pitch in and help out!"
Trixie was unusually subdued. "She's lucky she has someone who'd want to stand up for her like that... even knowing it would change history."
"Soooo..." Starlight asked, after another long pause. "Are we going back again?"
"We have to!" Twilight said, slapping the table with a hoof. "We still don't know what we went back to find out!" She glanced around, and then lowered her voice. "We don't even know when the Princesses are going to be summoned to the Crystal Empire."
"Oh! Well!" Trixie put on an extremely smug look. "The Grrreat and Powerful Trrrixie can help you there, Twilight. They'll be going tomorrow!"
The others stared at her.
"Trixie..." Starlight asked warningly, "what did you do...?"
Trixie examined a hoof coolly. "Oh, just had a peek at a scroll that some courier pony from the Crystal Empire was most anxious to deliver. And would have done, if Celestia hadn't ducked out so suddenly." She gave the others a look of mock surprise. "What can I say? I was getting bored just sitting there. And I never miss a chance to keep my hoof in, so to speak. You think I, Equestria's greatest stage magician, can't pull off a simple sleight-of-hoof?" She giggled mischievously. "He never even knew I lifted it! And unsealing and resealing a scroll is easy if you're not too worried about anyone checking it closely. The courier didn't look like he'd been told what it said, and looked spineless enough not to insist on delivering it immediately, so he'll just wait for the next session of the court, and..."
She looked at their staring faces. "What?"
"WHAT DID THE SCROLL SAY?" Twilight and Starlight chorused anxiously.
"Oh! Sorry! It was from Princess Amore of the Crystal Empire, asking the Princesses for their assistance because the Crystal Heart has been stolen!"
"The moment they read that," Twilight said, "they'll be off like a flash!"
"They might have left already!" Starlight agreed.
"Uh huh! Pretty good for a simple show-pony, wouldn't you say?"
Trixie looked around. She was suddenly alone at the table.
Trixie caught up with them back at the Friendship Castle. Twilight and Starlight were already powering up the spell, once Starlight had adjusted the time and place of its far end based on a best guess of the flight time to the Empire. Trixie dove into the circle of the spell's effect just as the shimmering wall went up, a hoof pressed to her hat to keep it in place.
Starlight rounded on her angrily. "Trixie! You didn't even think to mention this?" she demanded. "I mean, while we were still there?"
Trixie looked affronted. "Uh, hello? I thought this was a time-lens spell! So there was no rush. We were going to have to come back here to adjust the endpoint anyways. And yeah, I totally wanted to wait for just the right moment to spring it on the two of you. Come on, Starlight! Allow a professional show-pony her big dramatic reveal, huh?"
Starlight looked like she was about to scream, but Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder. "She's right. We do need to keep our heads here, not rush into things. And I admit we were all a bit shell-shocked -- especially me -- and needed a break to clear our heads first. Good call, Trixie!"
Trixie blinked, unused to both the compliment and its source. "Well! Thanks, Twilight!"
"But next time, tell us!"
Trixie shrugged. "Knew it was too good to last."
The shimmering dome was already settling down. Around them they could see what looked like a back alley, complete with dustbins and assorted barrels and boxes. When they had safely locked the spell in its duty-cycle and trotted around the corner and out onto the main street, they found themselves smack in the city center of the Crystal Empire, on a brilliantly clear morning.
It didn't look all that different from the Empire they were familiar with: the same chunky houses and shop-fronts carved from crystal, the same glass-like crystal streets. And in the distance up the street was the glittering white spire of the Crystal Palace itself, standing foursquare over the plaza where the Crystal Heart normally spun in its sconce, powering the protective field that kept the entire Empire safe and comfortable.
The Crystal Heart itself was missing, of course. And beyond, approaching across the borders of the Empire, they could already see the stormclouds and snowy winds of the icy Frozen North encroaching on the unprotected realm. There was a distinctly icy chill in the air. A few initial flakes were falling in the city center, and starting to pile up on rooftops and awnings.
"So, are the Princesses here yet?" Starlight asked.
"Incoming!" Trixie pointed the other way down the street. In the sky overhead they could see both Celestia's Golden Chariot and Luna's Night Chariot swiftly descending, surrounded by a flying phalanx of armored guards. The two chariots came to a landing and the Princesses dismounted. Surrounded by pony guards, they strode together up the main street -- deliberately maintaining a distance of several paces between them all the while.
Twilight winced. "They still haven't made up yet. I hope that doesn't work against them."
Then she looked toward the Crystal Palace and saw another Princess had emerged from its lower entrance and was striding forward to meet the Two Sisters, surrounded by a small crowd of her pony subjects.
"Wait... is that Cadance?" Twilight stared. "No! What am I thinking? Omigosh! It's Princess Amore!"
"Who?" Starlight asked. "Oh, wait, I remember... the first Princess of the Crystal Empire! Before Sombra's rule?"
Twilight nodded, excitedly. "The very same. The founder of the Crystal Faire! And it's her magic that's holding back the storms right now."
"Uh, are we just here Princess-spotting?" Trixie gestured with a hoof. "Or do we actually want to hear what they have to say to each other?"
"Oops. Good point!" Twilight agreed.
As Celestia and Luna passed by, the three ponies fell in with them. They had to step quickly to avoid colliding with either the Princesses or their encircling guards, but somehow they managed it.
As they trotted along, Twilight stared ahead at Princess Amore. She did look like a taller, more mature version of Cadance. She had the same light-pink coat, the same flowing mane and tail -- though Amore's was a rich crimson -- and the same welcoming eyes and warm, open smile. Princess Amore wore a harness, horn pendant, and anklets formed from strung blue beads and heart emblems. Her crown was an elegant tiara of cut blue crystal. Her cutie-mark was an image of the Crystal Heart itself.
And she was a unicorn.
Starlight had noticed it too. "Uh, aren't Princesses usually alicorns?"
"Things were different back here," Twilight said. "Royalty wasn't as stratified as it is in our time."
"Well!" Trixie said smugly. "I guess this shows even us simple unicorns can make it big! Right, Starlight?"
"Now who's Princess-spotting?" Starlight chided her, though she was smiling at the thought herself.
"Welcome, Celestia! Welcome, Luna!" Amore called out in a lilting voice as they approached, though her expression showed the worry she felt. "Our deepest gratitude for thy quick arrival!"
"There is no time to waste!" Luna snapped. "Who hast taken the Crystal Heart?"
"Luna!" Celestia growled. "First things first! Princess Amore, is thy magic still strong enough to protect the Empire from the North?"
"For the moment, though without the Heart we fear are we weakening fast!"
"Then should we consider an evacuation?"
Amore looked distressed by the thought. "We would hope it would not come to that! With any luck, we should recover the Heart quickly, and then our magic will be restored."
"Then thou dost know who has it?" Luna demanded sternly.
"Oh yes! And also where it is." Turning, Amore gestured with a forehoof towards a tall mountain peak in the distance. "The Crystalline Mountain... according to legend its mines are the source of the crystal used to build the entire Empire. Also according to legend, the mines were abandoned long ago, when they became too dangerous to work because a dragon had made its lair deep within them.
"We now know that part of the legend was true... because the dragon itself has awoken. It is he who has taken the Heart from us!"
Celestia and Luna exchanged a glance. "Then we shall recover it," Celestia said confidently. "Leave it with us, and look to your subjects here!"
"Again, my thanks! Our thoughts and hopes accompany thee."
The Two Sisters nodded in return. Then they swept away and headed back towards the waiting chariots.
"We should prepare for combat," Luna snapped. "Commander Hurricane!"
"Highness?" The aged but still spry leader of the Pegasi snapped to attention.
"Assemble the elite squadron. Have them ready to move in."
"If we should call for them!" Celestia interrupted. "Sister, I think we should at least attempt diplomacy first."
"But will this dragon be willing to listen?" Luna objected.
"Dragons may be independently-minded, but they are also wise and rational creatures. Talking is always an option."
"And if talk fails? We should summon Melvin the Manticore, and see if the Griffons can provide additional air support..."
"Luna, there isn't time! We need that Heart back now!"
And with that, Celestia spread her wings and took to the sky, heading for the mountain in the distance under her own power. After a moment's startled silence the Pegasi guards flung themselves into the air, following her lead.
"Annnnd... discussion would be out of the question," Luna grumbled. Then she belatedly took wing herself to follow.
"Now what?" Trixie said.
"Quick, Twilight!" Starlight called. "Get after them! We'll catch up!"
Twilight nodded, jumped into the air and flapped away madly in pursuit.
"And what are we going to do?" Trixie demanded. "Steal a chariot?"
Then she saw Starlight's horn powering up. "Oh, no! No, no, no! Nonononono--aaaauuuughhh!!!"
"Sure you do! And does the ground way down there know that?" Trixie clung desperately to her hat and cloak against the slipstream, as the two of them sped through the air in Starlight's magic field.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
A lengthy, stomach-churning flight later, nearly freezing from the icy winds that batted at them from every direction, Starlight and Trixie neared the upper peak of the mountain.
After circling for a bit Starlight brought them down toward a broad snow-drifted plateau, fronting onto a massive cave entrance set into the granite peak itself. The cave itself could have served as storage space for several large cathedrals. It was very large, very dark, and very foreboding. Tendrils of smoke drifted out of it, and were instantly whipped away in the stiff breeze.
Standing before the cave were Celestia and Luna, with Twilight sitting a short distance away to the left. And in a semicircle around all of them were the Pegasi guards, stamping and snorting anxiously in the chill air.
Starlight carefully landed Trixie and herself close to Twilight, and then relievedly shut down her magic field, not liking how close she'd been to running short on power. Then she cautiously fired it up again to apply a light warming spell to herself and Trixie. Even with the spell, Trixie sat huddled in her cloak and hat against the chill breeze.
And all three of them could see what held the Princesses' attention.
Ahead of them, lying on the plateau in front of the cave, as if it had simply been abandoned there... was an ice-blue, heart-shaped gemstone.
"Seriously?" Trixie grumbled, her teeth chattering. "We come all this way and it's just lying there, waiting for us to pick it up?"
Apparently Luna was thinking along similar lines. "We should take it and leave, Sister," she said. "And consider ourselves fortunate."
"No," Celestia shot back. "I don't think so!"
"Sister...!" Luna said warningly, "Now is not the time for grand gestures. A battle with a full-grown dragon..."
"... should not be necessary. We are here to talk, not fight!"
"Talking can wait! Right now we have an Empire to save!"
"And how are we to keep it safe? If the Heart can just be stolen, at any time?" Celestia shook her head. "We need to deal with this issue, here and now, so it doesn't happen again!"
Before Luna could object, Celestia strode forward to stand just shy of the Heart, then directed her voice to the cave entrance.
"Hail to thee, noble and proud dragon!" she called.
A pair of glowing eyes slid open in the darkness within the cave. Very large eyes, very high in the darkness. There was a snort of derision, echoing across the plateau like a volley of cannon-fire.
"WHO ART THOU?" the dragon boomed down at her. "TO DISTURB ME?"
"We are the Princess Celestia! We seek to discuss a matter that is of importance to both of us."
"DRAGONS ARE NOT THY CONCERN, PRINCESS OF PONIES. BEGONE!"
"There has clearly been a misunderstanding," Celestia went on. "Thou hast taken the Crystal Heart." She gestured to it with a forehoof, making no move to touch it or claim it. "It is important to the well-being of the Crystal Empire, thy neighbors in this land. Please return it to us, and we shall leave thee in peace."
With a crash of claws and a roar, the dragon suddenly swept forward from the cave, a mountain of red crystal scales and golden spines, coming to a halt with its snout bare yards from Celestia. It grinned with a disturbing number of spike-like teeth, its golden eyes glaring down at her.
Celestia almost managed to hold her ground, faltering a step and then recovering, her eyes wide. Behind her, the pegasi guards snorted in surprise and anger, ready to leap to her defense.
"AND IF I DO NOT?" the dragon sneered. A massive claw lifted and swung down... and then scooped up the Heart as if it was a coin found in the street. The dragon idly tossed the crystal stone in the air and caught it, playing with it as if it was nothing at all, a toy or trinket.
"The Crystal Empire requires it," Celestia said patiently, keeping her voice steady. "It holds back the cold, allows them to live here in the North. It is a small thing, almost nothing to thee. But it would mean so much to them. They would be most grateful to thee for its safe return."
"THY PRECIOUS CRYSTAL EMPIRE STOLE IT FROM MY LAIR! FROM MY HOARD, HERE IN THIS MOUNTAIN. WHY SHOULD I TROUBLE MYSELF ABOUT THEM, LITTLE PRINCESS?"
Celestia's teeth grated at the slight. "As Princess of Equestria, we seek only the peaceful co-existence of all inhabitants of this realm. Thou art right to seek to protect thy home and property. We ask merely that thou show the wisdom of thy dragon race, by a simple act of generosity towards the Empire, which wishes only to live in peace with thee as neighbors in this land."
The dragon rested his head on one claw, and rolled the Heart about in the fingers of the other. Celestia winced at the fragile clinking noise it made, skipping and sliding across the dragon's scales.
"PRETTY WORDS," the dragon rumbled. "FROM A PRETTY LITTLE PONY."
Celestia's breath hissed softly. Her shoulders tensed.
The dragon's claw closed on the Heart. "TRUE, IT MEANS NOTHING TO ME. I HAVE THOUSANDS MORE GEMS, OF MUCH HIGHER QUALITY. AND THOU ASKS SO NICELY! I COULD EASILY RETURN IT TO THEM AS... AH... A GESTURE OF GOODWILL?"
It grinned, chuckling massively.
"BUT I WILL NOT! I CARE NOT FOR THY CRYSTAL EMPIRE OR ITS THIEVING PONIES, WHO HUDDLE LIKE VERMIN BENEATH MY MOUNTAIN. THE SOONER THEY ARE GONE FROM MY SIGHT THE BETTER! NOR DO I CARE A JOT FOR THY SO-CALLED UPSTART REALM OF EQUESTRIA. IT MEANS NAUGHT TO ME... DRAGONS BOW TO NO LORD, SAVE OUR OWN!"
Celestia's forehoof angrily pawed at the stone of the ground. Her eyes narrowed.
The dragon leaned closer, sneering down at her as at a pet. Or a bug.
"AND I CARE NOT FOR THEE... MISERABLE, FRIGHTENED LITTLE PRINCESS PONY!"
Celestia's forehoof stopped scraping. She glared up at the dragon.
There was a horribly tense silence.
"Then we shall MAKE thee care..."
"Sister!" Luna called out worriedly. But Celestia wasn't listening. She shut her eyes. And when she opened them again, they were ablaze with the light of the Sun itself.
The Royal Voice thundered across the plateau like the roar of an avalanche:
WHO ART THOU TO ADDRESS US SO!
Celestia flung her wings wide and leapt into the air, rising high above the dragon. Her body burst into flame, roaring and blazing. A furnace blast of heat smashed across the plateau in every direction. In an instant, the snow drifts on the ground wilted into puddles, then whiffed up as steam. And within the swirling, billowing clouds, Celestia burned with fury.
WE ARE NO MERE PONY! WE ARE THE PRINCESS CELESTIA, ABSOLUTE RULER OF THE LANDS OF EQUESTRIA!
And then Celestia simply exploded into brilliant, blinding light... and suddenly there were two Suns in the sky.
BE WARNED, CAVE-DWELLING WYRM! YOU TRIFLE WITH US AT YOUR PERIL! RETURN TO US THE CRYSTAL HEART, OR PAY THE PRICE OF THY INSOLENCE!
The dragon's eyes went wide. It suddenly crouched in fear, a mountain of scale and claw trying futilely to hide behind itself.
It gently set the Crystal Heart down before Celestia, almost as if making an offering of it.
And then it turned tail and ran, deep into the depths of its cave, the frantic clashing of its claws on the stone fading into a distance which suggested it would be unlikely to return any time soon.
The blinding light in the sky suddenly winked out. And in its place, Celestia hung in the air, whole and unharmed... and looking utterly shellshocked.
Breathing heavily, she gently lowered herself to the still steaming ground, and looked herself over.
Then she looked at Luna. And smiled uneasily.
"Told you, Sister!" She gasped, on the verge of panicky laughter. "A little persuasive talk can work wonders!"
"That and a continent-wide forest fire!" Luna trotted closer, examining Celestia herself. "Art thou quite all right, Sister?"
Celestia paused, astonished. "Luna..." She replied archly, "right now I feel better than I have in years. Come! Let's return this --" She swept up the Crystal Heart in her magic. "-- to the ponies who need it!"
Wheeling about, she spread her wings and vaulted into the air, the Heart held firmly in her magic. And then she started turning ecstatic loops and barrel rolls, tossing and catching the Heart in her magic with wild abandon.
Shaking her head in amazement, Luna leapt into the air after her. And after a moment's startled pause, so did the Pegasus detachment.
Leaving three stunned ponies huddled together in the rapidly chilling air on the plateau.
"Oh. My. Gosh!" Twilight gaped. "It's one thing to have read about it in the Two Sisters' Journal," she finally managed to get out. "It's totally different having actually seen it for myself!"
"Uh... what she said!" Starlight shook her head, staring out at the rapidly disappearing Princesses, unable to find further words.
Trixie was shivering, and not from the cold. She was staring at something that neither of them could see, something she found terrifying. "When we get back, Starlight..." she whispered, "remind me never to sass Celestia again!"
"You okay, Trixie?" Twilight asked.
"Oh, Trixie is just fine! Never better!" The show-pony lofted her head, eyeing them disdainfully. "Trixie has but one question..."
She suddenly cringed miserably.
"Is there some other way than flying to get back down from here?"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When they finally landed back in the plaza of the Crystal Palace, amidst an ever-expanding crowd of celebratory ponies, Princess Amore was just finishing slotting the Crystal Heart back into place in its sconce. At once its calming blue energy lit up the Palace spires, and then shot into the sky, reinforcing the protective field over the entire Empire. And Amore herself glowed with a roseate, sparkling light as she recharged her own magical potential from the Heart.
"We owe thee a great debt, your Highnesses!" Amore exclaimed proudly over the cheering of her subjects. "The Empire is secure once more."
"And it shall remain so," Celestia replied confidently. "If that cowardly lizard even looks your way again, let us know! We shall deal with him! Come, Luna!" She swept about. "It's time we returned to our own domain." And without further word to anyone she stalked away.
Luna stared after her, open-mouthed. Then she turned and nodded uncomfortably to Amore, unused to having to deal with pleasantries. "Until next time, Princess!" She hurried to catch up with her sister, who was already heading for the waiting chariots.
Luna wasn't the only one who was concerned.
"We should stick close to them," Twilight said. "And keep an eye on Celestia in particular. That's not like her at all, simply forgetting social courtesies!"
"You want to sneak onto her chariot and ride back with her?" Starlight asked. "Is that even possible? Would I be able to move the other end of the spell on my own? And then we'd meet up with you back at the Everfree Forest?"
"Hmmm... yeah, best not to risk it. We'll head back together, and try to adjust the spell so we arrive there with them. If we do find we missed something, we can always backtrack."
"Uh... could we take a creature comfort break?" Trixie asked, shivering. "Please? I could murder a mug of hot cocoa right now!"
"I'll second that!" Starlight agreed. "I need to let my magic recharge in any case."
Twilight appeared about to object. Then reluctantly, she nodded. "You're right. And I need a break too... I'm still trying to process all this! And I'm still operating on too little sleep from last night. All right, let's head back home."
They trotted down the side street to the alley, unlocked the spell, and returned to their own time.
Spike was a little puzzled when Trixie and Starlight asked him to stoke the fireplace in the map room, considering that it was the middle of summer, but willingly brought cocoa and cookies for them to snack on while warming themselves up in front of it. Twilight managed to put her head down for a brief nap, but all too soon was up again, pacing anxiously back and forth around the room behind them, muttering to herself.
The two ponies looked at her, then at each other.
"You ready to go back?" Starlight asked.
Trixie looked astonished. "Are you kidding? You think you could stop me from coming along now?" She glanced around conspiratorially, then leaned closer.
They retargeted the spell on the Everfree Forest the following morning, then trotted quickly up the hill to the Castle. They saw the two Chariots parked outside the Royal Mews, so they knew the Princesses had returned. Yet when they managed to slip past the guards and into the main audience chamber, they found it full of irate waiting petitioners, but neither of the Princesses was in attendance.
After an increasingly frantic search they found the Princesses were still in their private wing, seated on an outer balcony of the Castle overlooking the river Aurum. Princess Celestia was sitting by the balcony railing, face upturned, basking in the warm sunlight, smiling to herself.
Princess Luna was seated a short distance away from her, stonily silent and watchful.
"... and I have always felt a special affinity with the Sun," Celestia was saying as Twilight and the others arrived. "I simply never realized that it ran this deep!"
"We have always felt the same about our Moon and the Night," Luna said cautiously. "Yet we have never taken on the form of either one in the expression of our powers. Star Swirl has been tutoring us in encouraging and harnessing our affinities with the Sun and Moon... I think he hopes that one day we may take over the management of them from the Unicorn Council."
"And finally obtain our marks? No longer the blank-flanked Princesses?"
"Perhaps so. It does appear to be our intended role. In any case, what you experienced... it may simply be the next step in our development as uplifted alicorns. You are the elder sister. You would encounter it first." "Perhaps..." Celestia said. "But somehow it feels like more than that. Luna, I have been reminded of something vitally important: I am Princess of Equestria!"
"Co-Princess," Luna reminded her.
"Excuse me?"
"We rule together, as equals. Our decrees are by mutual consent."
"Whatever," Celestia rolled her eyes. "The point is, as Princess, I've been granted authority to make decisions on behalf of this land. And it's about time I started acting like it. My alicorn nature grants me capabilities beyond the ponies I lead and guide... and up to now I have been carefully reserved in their use. I'm thinking that needs to change!"
"Sister, we agreed our full powers should be held in reserve, in case a situation arose above and beyond the norm."
"Thus making us prey to every adventurer who thinks themselves our equal? And perhaps thereby catches us off guard, before we can truly act?" Celestia shook her head. "No, Sister, we have been far too reticent. You saw what happened with the dragon: a simple show of force, of our true powers, and the problem was solved."
"We recall thou saying we should talk first!" Luna pointed out, dryly.
"Because I didn't yet realize what I was truly capable of," Celestia replied. "And from now on I don't intend to hold anything in reserve. I am going to be the Princess I know that I am!" Abruptly, she turned and called through the door behind them.
"Sharp Quill!"
"Highness?" The clerk seemed to materialize out of nowhere.
"Inform the Chief Steward that the Princesses shall both attend Morning Court. We have an announcement to make."
"At once, Highness!"
"Sister..." Luna objected, but Celestia cut her off with a look.
"No more hesitation, Luna! No more restraint! From now on we show them what the Two Sisters truly are!"
Worried, Twilight followed the Princesses down to the audience chamber, with Starlight and Trixie close behind her.
Celestia and Luna ascended the dais and took their places on their respective thrones. The Chief Steward rapped his staff on the tiles for silence, then called in rolling tones for attention to the words of their Highnesses.
Celestia rose, looked left and right, and then called out:
"Good citizens of Equestria! A grave threat to our neighbors to the north, the Crystal Empire, has been averted by the swift action of thy Princesses. We were able to recover the Crystal Heart from the dragon who had taken it, and thus rescued the Empire from obliteration by the storms of the North. Once again we have demonstrated the principles of Friendship upon which this realm was founded, and the swift action that follows upon any threat to its inhabitants!"
"Ahh... excuse me, your Highness?" It was Lord Snaffleback. He trotted forward from the Unicorn section, made his non-bow, and went on. "Is this the 'announcement' we were warned to expect? Dear, dear, dear! Yet again, we are told of Equestria providing aid and comfort to other nations, while at the same time we keep ignoring the very real problems we have right here at home in our own Three Kingdoms! As I have always said..."
"If thou hast always said it," Celestia interrupted, in a forbidding tone, "then there is very little value in hearing it yet again!"
Snaffleback's eyes went wide. "Now just a minute, your Majesty...!"
"In fact," Celestia continued, just loudly enough to steamroll his objection into silence, "we are not certain we have heard anything useful of late from the Unicorn Council."
Luna's gaze snapped round, and she stared at Celestia. But she remained silent, apparently not wanting the royals to be seen openly contradicting each other.
"Thou speakst of a need for action," Celestia thundered, "yet when has thy Council truly taken action against the so-called threats thou inveighs against at every opportunity? What hast thou done for Equestria lately?"
Lord Snaffleback drew himself up haughtily, flourishing his horn.
"We raise and lower the Sun and Moon each day, your Highness!"
Twilight cringed, worried Celestia had put her hoof in it. But Celestia merely smirked. Her voice became softly mocking.
"And why is it thy Council has to do that, Lord Snaffleback? Something about a Council member's daylight-saving spell having gone awry, wasn't it? Very interesting thou should bring up that example. We seem to recall thee speaking of incompetence. Sometimes it seems like the only real purpose of the Unicorn Council is to clean up after its own mistakes!"
"The purpose of the Council," Snaffleback growled, "is to render competent, mature guidance to the throne! And to serve as a check on its excesses, if need be! So if your Highness is unprepared to heed our well-considered advice, then..."
Celestia's horn sang with power, and Lord Snaffleback suddenly found himself hauled into the air and dangled upside down by his tail. His carefully coiffed hair flopped over his face, and he sputtered angrily.
"Thou wert saying something about excesses, we believe?" Celestia said. "Help us out here... does this qualify?"
"How dare you!" Lord Snaffleback struggled to right himself, then contorted angrily to glare at her. "You have no right to treat me -- I mean, a member of the Council! -- so disgracefully!"
"Really?" Celestia looked astonished. "How shocking! We had thought we had been granted absolute dispensation to render decisions on behalf of our subjects! Yet thou seems to differ with this opinion? Why is that?"
"We shall have you deposed!" Lord Snaffleback raged lividly. "We shall show you the limits of your so-called authority! We will..."
"Oh, we see now!" Celestia forcefully interrupted him again. "Thou art more than happy to make endless demands for strong leadership... just so long as it is thou who is in charge, eh?"
She brought him closer, eyeing him levelly.
"Yet what if it were not thee?" Her gaze became a cold threat. "What if it never was thee again?"
With a mere toss of her head, Lord Snaffleback was flung screaming the length of the hall and through the rear doors, which opened to allow him to pass, and then slammed shut with thunderous finality.
There was stunned silence in the hall for a long moment.
And then there was a pounding on the doors. And a muffled shouting from outside, in an increasingly strident and plaintive tone. "Celestia! Open these doors this instant! I am an official of the Council! I'll break you! Let me innnnnn! You cannot do this to me!"
Celestia snorted derisively, and smiled. "We rather think we just did."
She gazed around at the astonished petitioners. "As long as we are here, perhaps it is best to make a clean sweep of it. It is our decision... that henceforth the Thrones shall no longer be advised by the Unicorn Council! Instead, we shall seek out knowledgeable council of our own choice... when we feel it necessary!"
She glanced at Luna, who clearly did not think much of the decree. Yet again, she appeared not to want to present a spectacle of open disagreement. She merely nodded her head minutely.
Twilight nervously looked at the crowd, expecting the worst -- calls for Celestia's crown or her head, open revolt, even outright panic...
Yet there was at most a murmuring of approval from the assembled Lord and Lady ponies. Apparently Lord Snaffleback had managed to make himself extremely unpopular, even amongst those who so recently flocked around him. And his expulsion from the room -- though the general opinion was that it was rather extreme in its execution -- was viewed as a well-deserved comeuppance for his Lordship.
"Now," Celestia went on, pleasantly. "Are there any important issues that need to be brought before us?"
And the business of the Royal Court resumed, just as if nothing had happened. Yet Twilight could also sense a change in the atmosphere of the audience hall: the petitioners were quieter, more respectful, even timid in presenting their issues and concerns to the Two Sisters. And Celestia was much quicker to respond, more forceful in her decisions, and brooked no delays or perambulations in those addressing her.
And to Twilight it was all very familiar. Twilight was shocked to realize that this was the Celestia she knew so well from her own time: the calm but assertive demigoddess, the unquestioned ruler of Equestria, whom everyone tiptoed around in nervous concern about what she might think, say, or even worse do, if she were displeased.
Like send me back to magic kindergarten, Twilight ruefully remembered her own freaked-out fear on one occasion. Or throw me in the dungeon in the place she banished me to, as Fluttershy had once feared.
And the assembled nobles, commoners, and even the guards, once they'd gotten over the initial shock, were all commenting among themselves about how they liked this new, strong Celestia. It boded well for the future, was their general reaction.
Twilight looked sadly at Starlight and Trixie. "Maybe I was wrong," she said, amazed to hear herself say it. "Maybe the battle with the dragon was just what Celestia needed, to shake her out of her funk and help her feel comfortable about taking charge."
Starlight bit her lip uncomfortably. "I don't know, Twilight... I think it's a little early to tell."
"Yeah, give it time, Twilight!" Trixie said. "Just wait 'til she runs into somepony she can't chuck out of the room so easily."
At that moment, the doors to the throne room crashed open, so forcibly that chips of plaster rained down from the walls behind them.
Star Swirl the Bearded calmly trotted through them.
A silence fell over the chamber as he made his way up the carpet on Luna's side of the chamber, and then crossed to stand in the center of the open space before the twin thrones.
He bowed respectfully. And when his head came back up, he eyed the Princesses sternly from beneath his belled wizard's hat. "Your Highnesses... I missed seeing you for lessons this morning! I came to inquire as to whether everything was all right."
"Perfectly, old friend!" Celestia said, before Luna could even open her mouth. "We were simply attending to some minor... ah... diplomatic matters. Nothing to trouble you with, I'm sure."
"Indeed." Star Swirl's gaze narrowed. "I also heard a rumor that your Highness was able to rout a dragon single-handedly! Most impressive, I must say!"
Celestia looked to her sister. "Did thee hear that, Sister? We did something Star Swirl finds impressive! Doesn't happen every day, does it?"
"Sister..."
"Hush now, Luna!" Celestia interrupted. "Thy learned tutor wishes to say something."
Luna gaped, and then snapped her mouth shut, annoyed.
"Celestia," Star Swirl said, sternly. "I think we should discuss this, privately."
"And we would be only too pleased to," she replied coolly. "After our Morning Court has concluded. After all, the needs of our subjects do come first, do they not?"
Star Swirl drew back, surprised. But then he simply bowed respectfully, trotted to the side of the throne, and settled down to wait.
And Celestia kept him waiting, for upwards of fourty-five minutes, while dealing with one petitioner after another, on matters that Twilight could tell were absolutely trivial, a complete waste of time. Just to drive the point home.
And when the Chief Steward finally announced the close of business for the morning, and the Princesses retired to their quarters with Star Swirl trotting along beside them, Twilight was amazed the wizard's belled hat wasn't already belching smoke like a chimney.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
There was a further delay while the servants set out a light lunch for three on the balcony table outside the Princesses' quarters, and then swiftly departed. But nopony made a move to touch it.
Celestia and Star Swirl faced each other near the balcony railing, with Luna seated nearby, looking on like an unwilling spectator at a prizefight.
"So, you persuaded this dragon to return the Crystal Heart willingly?" Star Swirl summarized.
"More than willingly!" Celestia nodded. "We persuaded him to depart without it... and in rather a big hurry!"
"Astonishing! If one might make so bold," Star Swirl went on, cautiously, "how did your Highness manage it?"
"We simply drew on our innate connection with the Sun... and discovered in so doing that we had all the power we needed. That we have always had that power! And then we showed that miserable lizard who he was dealing with!"
"That must have been quite the display, your Highness."
"Oh it was! Wasn't it, Luna?" Not waiting for an answer, she turned back Star Swirl.
"It looked much like this..."
Her eyes flared. And Star Swirl found himself encased in a blazing golden hemisphere of magic. Twilight flinched from the waves of heat that pulsed from it.
But Star Swirl merely looked moderately bored, and teleported out of it...
...or rather, tried to, and found to his surprise that he was still inside the gleaming prison. He tried again, with the same result. After a moment's consideration, he attempted a counterspell. Twilight could tell that on its own it would have stripped the marble from the railing beside him, molecular layer by molecular layer... and it uselessly fizzled out against the dome of energy.
His lips pursed thoughtfully as he stared out at Celestia.
"Oh, what's the matter, Teacher?" Celestia asked innocently. "Dear, dear! Such a simple spell cannot be beyond the abilities of an expert spellcaster such as Star Swirl the Bearded."
"Tia!" Luna called worriedly. But Celestia put up a hoof.
"You see, Sister? It is as we said. No restraint! All or nothing! If we hold anything back we simply give the opponent time to prepare a response."
"Celestia..." Star Swirl rumbled crossly.
"Oh, and do allow us --" Celestia interrupted him, "-- to demonstrate our 'homework' assignment, Teacher! That security spell you set us to study?"
A flash of light from her horn... and Star Swirl was surrounded by countless pairs of eyes... golden, blazing eyes, unblinking and unnervingly watchful. They swirled around him, never looking away, cold and unreadable.
"And here's a small addition of my own..." Celestia said.
A brilliant, shining sword of hot, blazing light materialized -- poised directly over Star Swirl's head, moving as he moved, inescapably.
Celestia smiled evenly. "Disquieting, is it not? Experiencing such spells thyself? Gives them a whole new meaning, doesn't it? Oh, but of course you were completely right, Teacher. It's far too soon in our lessons to consider the practical impact of such magic on our subjects." Her eyes narrowed, her voice lowering to a dangerous hiss. "Isn't it?"
Star Swirl coughed irritatedly. "You have a point to make, your Highness?"
Celestia shrugged, and waved her hoof, dismissing the spells.
"Only that we grow tired of being set lessons that ignore the real-world concerns we have to deal with, as ruler of Equestria. To our mind, the impact on our subjects should always come first! And given the power we have to draw upon, it is more than time that our opinion was taken into consideration. Hence, we intend to continue focusing on the practical aspects of our spells... for exactly as long as we deem it necessary!"
Star Swirl drew himself up haughtily. "Well! If thou hast so much power, Highness, and are so sure of thy skills... then thou hast no further need for me as tutor!"
"Star Swirl, wait!" Luna called anxiously.
Celestia glanced at her, smirking. "Oh, don't let me interfere with your studies, Luna," she said. "By all means, the two of you should continue your lessons together. I wouldn't want to deprive Star Swirl of his prize pupil. Maybe he'll give you another star or three for effort!"
Star Swirl harrumphed. Clearly he'd heard enough. "I shall return to my studies, your Highnesses, and trouble thee with my presence no further. But... if thou should ever have need of me again, you have but to ask. I shall be ever at thy service!" Once again he bowed respectfully to the Princesses.
"Don't hurry back!" Celestia sneered.
Star Swirl glared, tight-lipped. And with a thunderous clap of imploding air, he was gone.
Celestia sniffed, and looked moderately affronted. "So touchy, so easily goaded. I wonder why we never noticed that!" She turned away and settled herself at the table, bringing over the teapot to pour herself a cup.
Luna simply stared at her, openly astonished.
So did Twilight and her friends.
"Starlight, am I seeing things?" Trixie said nervously. "Did Celestia just hand Star Swirl his walking papers?"
"I think she did!" Starlight said, equally nervous.
Twilight was beside herself. "I can't believe it! Celestia never had anything but kind words for Star Swirl. How is this possible?"
"She doesn't have to remember every tiff, Twilight," Trixie said.
"Tiff? This goes way beyond a tiff!" Twilight paced anxiously, as Luna cautiously stepped over to the table and sat down. "This is catastrophic! This simply can't be! Starlight, are we certain the time-lens spell isn't affecting events here?"
"As certain as we can be." Starlight shrugged. "You double-checked the variances, so you should know."
"I triple-checked! You know me!"
"And I put back in all the safeguards I took out!" Starlight shook her head, not believing it herself. "What we're seeing is what happened."
Further conversation was interrupted by Luna, leaning closer to Celestia and reaching out a forehoof. "Sister," she said. "I think you may have been somewhat hasty... Star Swirl has been an excellent guide and mentor to us."
"To you, perhaps," Celestia objected, drawing her own hoof away. "To my mind he holds us back, keeps us from using our full potential --"
"He teaches us to exercise restraint," Luna corrected gently. "So that we are certain we make the best use of our potential."
"Restraint? Ha! Perhaps that is suitable enough for you, as Princess of the Moon."
Luna was taken aback. "And what does that mean?"
"Pale, quiet, subtle, retiring," Celestia said loftily. "Not at all like our Sun... bold and strong, confident, powerful!"
"Thou thinkst the Sun and the Day can compare at all with our Night?" Luna glared crossly. "Thou hast but one star to call thy own. We have the entire heavens, uncounted stars, endless and infinite -- hah!"
"A million weak, twinkling little stars," Celestia sneered. "And when was the last time you honestly stood up for yourself, Luna?" Celestia smirked at her. "When was the last time you had the nerve to stand forth on your own and face our subjects? Instead of sneaking around, lurking in our shadow, allowing us to do all the important work of managing the realm."
"Thou thinks we do nothing?" Luna was incensed. "We who walk the dreams of our subjects each Night, protecting them from their own worst fears. We who accept the petitions of the creatures of the Night that thee fears to contend with? We who have taken on the burden of the tax code and the Royal accounting -- when we are not too busy assisting thee with thy sums!" Luna snorted. "We have just as much to do, and just as great a responsibility. Do not speak of our Moon and Night being any less important than thy Day!"
"I can, and I do!" Celestia said. "The Sun is the far greater light in our heavens. As are we the superior voice in delivering our joint opinions."
"And that is another thing, Sister." Luna rapped the tabletop with her hoof. "We would appreciate being consulted before thou issues decrees that presume our consent! We do not wish to appear at odds with thee, yet neither should our opinion be ignored!"
"Come now, Sister," Celestia shook her head. "You and I both know that I speak for our throne because of my experience, as the Elder Sister. I know your opinion so well you should not need to voice it. And where we happen to differ, you should simply accept the wisdom of my decrees. You know I try always to set a good example for you."
Luna stared at her, open-mouthed. "Thou... try to set a good example...?" She lifted her head, hooting derisively. "And we thought thou had no sense of humor!" Then she glared angrily at Celestia. "If thou thinkst thou are the stronger of us, just try crossing us again! We shall set thee straight!"
"Are you challenging our authority, Sister?"
"Depends on what thou means by a challenge, now doesn't it?"
It was Celestia's turn to slam a hoof on the table, making the china rattle loudly. "Very well! We shall prove that our Day is infinitely superior to thy Night!"
Luna snorted. "Have a care thou dost not break it in the process!"
Celestia blinked. And suddenly smiled. "Sister, that is exactly what we shall do..."
Luna tilted her head to one side, and waved a hoof dismissively. "Impress us, then! In thy own time, Sister Mine!"
Celestia's gaze narrowed dangerously. Her eyes blazed hotly.
Across the table, Twilight gripped the table edge, not sure if she wanted to watch...
And then Celestia's eyes returned to normal, and she sat back, a broad smile spreading across her face.
"Done!" she said, simply.
Luna looked around, puzzled. "What dost thou mean, done? Done what?"
Celestia said nothing. She just smirked, her snout lofted airily.
And then Luna froze. Her eyes darted about, her expression becoming increasingly anxious.
"Oh no... Sister... our Moon... what have you..."
Celestia giggled. And then laughed -- long and loud. "Just as you suggested, Luna! I have broken the cycle of the Day and the Night!"
Luna gasped. "Thou hast stopped the Sun and the Moon! Sister, thou cannot do that!"
"I can, and I have!" Celestia shrieked. She jabbed a forehoof skyward. "I have brought my Sun to a halt! At its height! At its full solstice strength! And there it shall stay! From this moment forward...
The Day shall last Forever!
Twilight and the others gazed up at the sky, at the Sun blazing directly overhead. It was much hotter than they were used to, its light painfully bright. And the sky itself was gradually shifting in color -- becoming first pale blue, then yellow, and then ramping up to a color like molten iron. The ponies felt themselves sweating in the increasingly oppressive heat -- and the hot, dry wind that swept across them immediately stole the moisture away, leaving them feeling desiccated and sun-bleached.
And, as if nothing unusual had happened, Celestia got up from the table. "Come, Sister," she said. "Let us return to the Court. We have another important announcement to make!"
She swept away before Luna even had a chance to react. The Night Princess shook herself, then crossly leapt to her hooves to follow her...
... shadowed closely by three very frightened ponies.
They returned to the audience chamber, which was already full of waiting petitioners, muttering worriedly amongst themselves. Celestia ascended the dais, shadowed closely and watchfully by Luna. The Chief Steward called for order, and for attendance to the words of her Highnesses Celestia and Luna.
Celestia stood forth on the dais, smiled at her subjects, and spoke.
"Before we proceed with the Afternoon Court, we have an announcement. It is our decision that, as the Elder Sister, we should assume a larger role in our co-rulership. Actually it is one we have already held for some time." She smirked at Luna. "This role is deserving of a special title... thus, it is our proclamation that henceforth we shall be addressed as Queen Celestia, and shall rule all Equestria in our own name... aided of course by the excellent advice of our regal second, Princess Luna!"
In the silence that followed, the crash of an armored hoof on the stone dais was a thunderous explosion. "We do NOT concur!" Luna glared contemptuously at Celestia. "This high-handed, unilateral decree-making shall cease! Now! Thou hast overstepped thy authority, Sister!"
Celestia looked askance at her. "Come now, Luna. Such disloyalty is not like thee at all. We are merely formalizing the arrangement that has been in existence for years!"
Luna's eyes went wide in disbelief. "The only arrangement we recognize is the equal jurisdiction of our thrones! Thou accuses us of disloyalty? The very nerve! Do not test us on this point, Sister!"
"Thou wouldst actually set thyself against us?" Celestia looked moderately amused by the idea.
Luna's head lowered. Her horn sang with power. "Just try us!"
"Well!" Celestia shook her head. "If it's open combat you desire, Sister, we had best arm ourselves for it!"
A wash of fire swept over Celestia. And flame-orange armor appeared: a rugged harness over her chest and barrel, dagger-like shoes, edge guards on her pinions, and a viciously-spiked crown encircling her head. And her eyes glared from beneath the crown, dark, sunken, and vicious. She grinned in anticipation, baring knife-edged fangs.
And then she threw back her head and laughed insanely.
"What's the matter, Sister? No stomach for a real challenge?"
For Luna had taken a half-step backward, the gleam of her horn fading and extinguishing, her eyes wide in shock.
She wasn't the only one. Starlight stared in horror at Celestia's armored form. It was all too familiar, exactly like the image from her dream... "Daybreaker!" she whispered.
She looked around for Twilight, who was no longer standing beside her. She found that Twilight had backed away, bumping into a nearby column and collapsing helplessly against it, staring in wordless horror at the grinning monster on the dais.
"No, no, no! Not Celestia!" Twilight finally said, shaking her head in disbelief.
"Twilight! Are you all right?"
"No, I'm not!" Twilight shook her head, at a loss. "This must be why the map sent you to help the Princesses instead of me, Starlight. I'd never have been able to deal with seeing her like this... I'd have been a basket case!"
"Don't sell yourself short! Most of the time I was flat on my face, bawling my eyes out because I thought I'd failed." She looked up at the dais, where Celestia and Luna were still glaring at each other like a pair of gunfighters, each waiting for the other to make a move.
Trixie had been staring at Celestia as well, but in awed amazement. She finally looked round, and then hurried over. "Did you see that, Starlight?" she shook Starlight's shoulder excitedly. "Now that's a transfiguration spell! I gotta find out how she does that!"
"Trixie! Not helping! Focus!" Starlight shook her head, annoyance warring with outright panic. "We need to figure out what to do about this."
"What can we do?" Twilight asked, hopelessly. "We can't interfere in this! This is what actually happened!"
And then something even worse happened. Princess Luna... simply turned away. Then she raced down the stairs on her side of the dais, took wing over the crowd, and vanished in a flash of teleportation. All that remained was a fading glow in the air.
Celestia looked as if she felt cheated. "Awww... we were looking forward to settling a score or two with our dear Sister!"
Seeing that Luna was not a concern for the present, she swung around to the astonished guards, clerks, and petitioners. As one, the crowd inched back nervously.
"Calm thyselves, my little ponies!" Celestia said, in a tone achingly close to her normal, comforting, reassuring voice. "Thou hast nothing to fear from us. And the best is yet to come! Now -- attend us!" And she swept down the steps, through the clerks who scuttled out of her way, past the guards who had encircled the throne in confusion, and down the length of red carpet towards the rear doors, drawing the stunned crowds after her like a magnet.
Twilight and the others followed, but owing to the crush of guards, staff, and subjects who were all moving to follow Celestia, they were forced to fall behind, and only managed to catch up when Celestia had strode out onto the broad tiled patio outside the palace's main entrance.
"Now, observe!" Celestia called, her horn charging with power, so that it shimmered and crackled with fire. "We shall demonstrate the power by which we claim our new title!"
She tossed her head high, and a blazing arc of light flashed skyward. It spread out into a massive glow in the hot, burning sky overhead. And out of the glow, features steadily resolved, immense and imposing. It was Celestia's armored face, her wings spread out about her, her forehoof raised in triumph at the scale and scope of her capabilities.
It was the very image of her -- literally so. The projected image moved and turned as Celestia herself did. It was an extension of herself, of her near-boundless power, on display across the entire land.
WE ARE QUEEN CELESTIA! she cried out, in the Royal Voice, and her words echoed across the courtyard, across the hillside, and across the entirety of the realm beyond. WE DECLARE OURSELVES SOLE RULER OF ALL EQUESTRIA! LET ANY WHO WOULD CHALLENGE US GAZE UPON OUR MAJESTY AND POWER... AND RECONSIDER!
Twilight stared up at Celestia's face. She shook her head helplessly.
"This can't be... it just can't be!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Some ponies find solace in hard work. Some in flying so fast the worries are left miles behind. Some in a tub of mint-chip ice cream -- and if that doesn't do it, the next one is certain to, dahling. Some throw a party, on the theory that if everyone else is laughing, it will be hard not to do so along with them. And some hug a bear.
Twilight's method was simple: study. Reading, and then writing. Industry. Put the hooves to work, and the mind will follow! As grim as things seemed, she told herself, she was here to do a job: to capture what had happened for the benefit of history. And by Celestia... She winced at the thought, but didn't correct herself... That's what I'm going to do!
She set herself to tail Celestia, as she strutted about the castle, fiercely snapping out orders for its redecoration in her new, flame-bright colors. Far from being rejected, Celestia's tyrannical orders and demonstrations of strength had made her even more popular with her subjects -- at least, those who crowded around her, vying for her favor. And anyone else simply tried hard not to bring themselves to her attention. Even the guards cautiously trotted around after her, not sure if they were supposed to be guarding her, or guarding everypony else from her.
Thankfully, so far no one had tried to stand up to her, to challenge her outright. But that wouldn't last forever. Sooner or later ponies were going to get hurt, one way or another. That sky outside -- it was like the worst, most record-breaking hot summer day ever. That couldn't be good for the farms, forests, and animals that Equestria depended upon for its resources. To say nothing of the ponies who did the work farming and gathering... she desperately hoped they were alright out there...
Twilight shook her head. Focus, she told herself firmly. Watch Celestia closely. There must be something you haven't considered, some way that she could be brought back to her senses. Something that can help everypony!
But even if I find that answer, Twilight realized, I can't do anything with it! I can't change the past! I just have to hope they see it as well!
Grimly, she continued to follow Celestia, mentally cataloguing events, planning to write it all up when she got back home.
She heard a clattering of hooves behind her, and turned to find Starlight and Trixie hurrying to rejoin her.
"We checked around, like you asked," Starlight said. "And frankly I'm disgusted. I mean really! Nobody's talking about how to put a stop to this. The nobles are all talking about the best way to curry favor with the new and improved Queen Celestia! They're commissioning artworks and decorations, planning Galas and garden parties they can invite her to! They're watching Equestria go down the drain and not lifting a hoof to stop it!"
Trixie nodded. "I checked around the kitchens and the staff rooms. And it's even worse there! Sounds like the common pony doesn't much care what Celestia does. She could go bouncing down the middle of street on a pogo stick! As long as they're kept safe from invaders, and they know who to send their taxes to so they don't get in trouble, they could care less who runs the country and what they choose to do with it."
"That image in the sky, though!" Twilight pointed out. "That's got to scare them."
"Nope!" Trixie shook her head. "Weirdly enough, most of them find it reassuring! They don't mind her watching them like that, so long as she's watching everyone else too. It's like, they think they're special, so they don't have to worry that she could turn against them. They're just waiting and hoping to see her turn against somepony else... somepony they dislike!"
Starlight nodded in agreement. "That's one thing the new Celestia has, for certain. She's got charisma!"
"Is it just charisma, though?" Twilight asked. "Or is this part of Daybreaker's abilities: the power to control and pacify her subjects by sheer force of will?"
"I haven't felt anything like that," Starlight observed. "Though that could be due to the time-lensing spell... in a very real sense, we're not actually here."
"And right now I almost wish I wasn't!" Twilight frowned. "I've been following Celestia around, listening in on the scrolls she's been receiving from the countryside... and she's already receiving letters and gifts from suitors! I mean, what the hay? Some idiot ponies are seeing that hideous face leering at them from the sky... and then sending her love letters?"
"Takes all kinds, I suppose," Starlight agreed.
"And you should see her when they're read to her, praising her strength and beauty! You'd think she was married to that hoof-mirror she keeps close to her so she can smirk at herself!"
Trixie had wandered over to a window, and was staring through it, at Celestia's image in the sky, occasionally turning to compare it with the real Celestia standing a short distance away. "You've got to hand it to her," she said, mostly to herself. "That is one ace of an illusion! I mean, putting your face on the entire sky? If I could pull off something like that, it would be better than the best poster-and-hoofbill marketing campaign ever! I'd have every pony in the world crowding in to see my act!"
"Trixie!" Starlight yelled. "What is the matter with you? This is serious! Will you please give it a rest with wanting to learn a new trick for your show!"
Trixie swung to look at her, startled. And the show-pony's face suddenly plummeted from gleeful cynicism to cowed misery. So much so that, despite her anger, Starlight went over to her friend and hugged her reassuringly.
"I'm sorry, Starlight!" Trixie finally said. "Things are bad, I get it. But, well... this is just how I cope! Whenever things get really bad I fall back on planning stuff for my next show. Because in the past whenever things got really bad, my show... well, it was all I had!"
"I know, Trix." Starlight said. "And I'm sorry I yelled. This whole thing has got me on edge, too. I keep feeling like I'm somehow responsible for it all, just knowing about it, even though there's no way I could be. And my coping mechanism has always been going off and doing something stupidly over-the-top with my magic. Ha! Can't get away with doin' that anymore!"
The two of them shared a laugh at that.
The moment was interrupted by the arrival of an out-of-breath guard pony.
"Your Highness! Come quickly, there's --"
"Calm yourself, you quivering foal!" Celestia sneered at him. "There is nothing you need fear... save my wrath at your lack of proper decorum!"
The guard took a moment to catch his breath, and came to attention.
"My... Queen... there is a delegation here, demanding to speak with your Highness."
"Demanding?" Celestia laughed delightedly. "How rich! What sort of delegation? Whence from?"
"From the Dragonlands, my Queen!"
Celestia actually looked astonished by that. "Already? Quick off the mark, aren't they? But perhaps that whelp of theirs that I saw off yesterday went crawling back to his own kind for help. All the better!"
Wheeling about, she strode after the guard pony as he led the way down to the main entrance and out into the courtyard. Facing them were not one but three full-grown dragons: one with green scales and golden spines, another with jet-black scales and gleaming crimson eyes, and in the middle, a third who was much larger than the others, stone-gray in coloring with ram-like curling horns. He strongly resembled a looming, fuming volcano.
"WE HAVE HEARD TELL OF A POWERFUL PONY," the gray dragon rumbled. "WHO DARES SET HER MISERABLE MAGIC AGAINST THE MIGHT OF DRAGONKIND. BRING FORTH THIS PRINCESS OF THE PONIES!"
Celestia flung her wings wide, and her image in the sky did likewise.
"Spineless wyrms! Thou camest seeking a Princess! And thou hast found a Queen! Make no demands here, or be sent home with wounds to remember us by!"
"WE LIKE A CHALLENGE!" The dragon bellowed with laughter. "PROVE THAT THOU ART EVEN A DISTRACTION!"
Celestia glanced around at her subjects. And laughed. "Well... he did ask for it!"
Her horn blazed. And an invisible hand grabbed each of the dragons by the throat, and brought their heads smashing down onto the stone tiling of the patio. The huge creatures struggled crossly, their claws scarring the stone, their tails flailing madly. But they might as well have been nailed to the ground, as Celestia strode forward to stand eye to eye with the large gray dragon.
"Now," she said chattily, "thou hast a choice! We can immediately open peaceful, cooperative diplomatic relations... starting with thy so-called 'Dragon Lord' swearing an oath of fealty and non-aggression to the Throne of Equestria! Or..." She paused, giving the dragon a gleefully unpleasant look. "Well... let's just say thou really doesn't want to know what the other option is!"
"RELEASE US, PONY! OR YOUR LANDS WILL BURN BENEATH THE FLAMING WRATH OF ALL DRAGONKIND!"
"Oh, do not speak to us of flame or wrath, wyrm! Lest we show thee what the words truly mean!"
Celestia threw herself into the air. And became the Sun itself, blazing fierce and implacable above the pinned dragons.
LAST CHANCE! The Voice seemed to come from the sky itself. OR THIS DAY SHALL BE THE LAST FOR ALL DRAGONKIND!
The dragons ceased their struggling, finally getting the message, their eyes wide in fright.
"Highness!"
The blinding light suddenly winked out, and Celestia hovered in the air again. "What is it now?" She glared fiercely at the guard who had spoken. "Canst thou not see we are delivering an ultimatum here?"
"Er... my apologies, my Queen, but look!"
Celestia looked to the sky where the guard was pointing. "Oh my!" She sounded decidedly pleased. "It looks like... it is! A flight of Griffons, come to pay their own diplomatic call! Ha! Now we are talking!"
She gazed down at the pinned dragons.
"Take a moment to think about it!" she advised them.
And then she launched into the air, heading straight for the center of the Griffon wing.
It wasn't possible to hear the exchange, but it was pretty clear what the result was. The Griffons swung round about Celestia, preparing to attack. And Celestia simply waved a hoof in a circle. The air around her became a vast whirling, blazing maelstrom, a hurricane of light and vicious wind, which tossed the Griffons about like rag dolls, knocking many of them out of the sky altogether.
Celestia grabbed two of the remaining Griffons with her magic, and then flew back down to land on the patio again. Her prisoners landed roughly on the stone tiles before her, pinned as the dragons still were.
"Now, emissaries of the Griffon lands, we are a fair-minded monarch! So we shall make thee the same offer we have made the dragons..." She lowered her head to grin evilly at the leader of the Griffons.
SURRENDER... OR ELSE!
"Ahem."
Everyone turned to look at the stern figure who had just trotted out of the open doors of the palace, with a jingling of bells from his hat and cloak. It was Star Swirl the Bearded.
"I think," he said softly, with an implacable edge to his voice, "that this has gone on quite long enough, your Majesty."
She didn't even turn to face him, just glanced at him over her shoulder.
"Oh, really? And what do you plan to do about it?"
"It's not what I'm going to do," he said, unruffled. "It's what you're going to do, isn't it? Come now, Celestia! This really isn't you. This isn't the Princess I've come to honor and respect... the calm, sensible ruler who can be counted on to make the right decisions, and to know what her limits are. End this now, before it goes any further!"
"Oh, you are so right, old friend!" Celestia said, coming about.
Her magic lashed out.
And there was a stone statue of Star Swirl, wearing a very surprised look, standing before the entrance to the palace.
Celestia stared at the statue, as if amazed she had gotten away with it. And then she threw back her head and laughed -- long and loud and utterly insane.
"Is there anyone else?" She finally demanded, when she'd caught her breath. "Anyone else to challenge our power and authority to rule? Anyone else to be subdued and brought to heel?"
She looked around. "No? No one?" She pouted. "How disappointing!" Then she turned back to her prisoners, fangs bared in a mad grin.
"Now where were we? What were we discussing? Ah, yes, we remember... TOTAL CAPITULATION!"
And this time it was Twilight who turned away.... and then ran off, as fast as her hooves could take her, unable to bear it any longer.
They returned to the time-lens portal in the Forest, unlocked it, and returned home. And found that it was now very late in the evening.
Starlight and Trixie looked at each other, and then at Twilight, who hadn't said a word all the way back. The lavender alicorn trudged along with her head lowered, her shoulders and wings sagging in despair.
"Um... might be a good idea to think about dinner!" Starlight suggested brightly. She nudged Trixie. "Whose turn is it to cook, do you remember?"
"Uhhh... I call not it," Trixie replied, dispiritedly, trying for her usual archly cynical tone and failing.
"And a good night's rest," Starlight went on. "We've been on our hooves practically the entire day. And maybe the answer will become clear if we're thinking about it when we're not dead tired."
"Yeah. Great. Sounds like a plan." Twilight's tone was flat, lifeless, devoid of hope.
"Come on, Twilight!" Trixie said. "You know the world doesn't end in... um, however far back we were. Obviously, things worked out somehow. Celestia doesn't stay Daybreaker forever! She gets better!"
"But we still don't know how!" Twilight came about to face them, an utterly devastated look in her eyes. "And I'm still not sure whether by going back in time we haven't somehow been the cause of it all!"
Starlight shook her head, even as her own guilt nagged at her. "All the safeguards we wrote into the spell are in place, and active. I checked them while we were on the way back. The time-lensing effect is working perfectly. We can't be responsible for any of this!"
Twilight sat down with a thump. "And that just makes it worse!"
"Pardon?"
"If we're not to blame..." Twilight sighed. "... then Princess Celestia, my teacher, my mentor, my greatest and most wonderful friend -- she's to blame! She let it happen, and she enjoyed it! I just can't take that!"
Starlight came over to sit next to her, and cautiously put a forehoof around her for a gentle hug. "I hear you, Twi. I don't know her half as well as you do, and I don't like seeing her behaving like that either. It was bad enough in my dream -- but knowing that it was real..." She stopped, feeling Twilight tense up. This wasn't helping.
Starlight thought fast. "What about," she suggested, "moving the target end of the spell forward in time? Seeing how things resolved themselves?"
"I'm afraid to," Twilight said. "What if just by looking at things, we're somehow confirming them? What if we find out that no matter how far ahead we look, Celestia never recovers? That our history has been altered irrevocably, and we're just dead ponies walking, waiting for history to catch up with us?" She sighed, rolling her eyes. "When it was just about historical research, it was one thing. But this is the future of Equestria we're talking about! We can't just sit here and do nothing!"
Starlight nodded, and hugged her again. "It's hard to let go, isn't it? So... maybe you shouldn't. Why don't you go write down everything, like you were planning to? Not to find an answer, just getting what you've seen down on paper. Get that load off your shoulders, and maybe once it's all sorted out and on paper you'll have a better idea what to do next."
Twilight was silent for a long moment. Then she nodded. "Good idea. I'll do that!"
"And Trixie and I will find Spike and see if the three of us can come up with dinner. Worst case, we order in a pizza and hay-fries. How about that?"
"Fine." Twilight got up and trudged away, heading for her library. "Gimme a yell if I can actually help... with anything."
Starlight watched her go, uneasily. This morning I wanted to get her out of the library, she thought. And now I've just sent her right back into it. Yeah. Smooth move, Starlight!
Shaking her head, she collected Trixie, and they set off in search of food.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
After a rough paper-plate-and-mug meal around the map table, Twilight was back sitting in her library again, very late at night, staring at the page before her. She'd done what Starlight suggested. She'd captured her notes from the day. Or at least, an initial overall sketch. She could fill in the details in the next draft.
And it had been like pulling teeth, every word. Having written it, she began to understand why the histories she'd read had been so uselessly circumspect. And she began to feel empathy for the historians who'd written them. There were things you just didn't want to write down, because writing them down meant acknowledging them... and it somehow forced you to accept them as real, when that was the last thing you wanted to do.
Even having gotten it all down on paper, it still wasn't enough. She still felt uneasy, sitting here doing nothing... when back then things were going to Tartarus in a hoofbasket!
Trixie was right, of course. Somehow, it all did sort itself out. But how, for Celestia's sake!
She was safe here, in her library, at a millenium-plus remove from whatever had happened. And she felt horrible for it. Like she was hiding from the truth, from exactly what she'd set out to discover: how it was that Celestia was able to pull herself back from the abyss.
And what if she couldn't?
Twilight felt an overwhelming urge to go back there, to help out, in any way that she could. Even if it meant destroying her own past. And even if she did nothing else, she just wanted to be there, as the walls came crashing down. So that no one could ever claim that she didn't care.
Uneasily, she got up from the table and trotted down to the audience chamber. The spell was still configured for the right time, so it didn't take nearly as much power to fire it up. Twilight wasn't at all sure it was safe, going back into the past alone like this. But she didn't want to wake up Starlight or Trixie.
So that, whatever happened to her, they'd have plausible deniability.
The Everfree Forest appeared around her. It was still brightly lit as if it was daytime, though a somewhat confused and sleepy owl hooted at her as she stepped out of the dome of energy and headed down the forest trail.
She trotted sadly out of the verge of the forest. And then, totally unsure where to go next, she simply sat down with her back to a vine-strangled tree.
Before her, high on the hilltop, standing tall against a sky like molten iron, was the Castle of the Two Sisters. Its marble towers were limned in disturbing shades beneath the viciously burning light of the midnight sun. The grass on the hillsides was already brown and shriveled beneath the oppressive heat and glare. Leaves on the trees were beginning to crisp and fall to the ground, far too early.
And overhead, in the sky above the Castle, the face still loomed. Her face, the self-proclaimed Queen of All Equestria.
Twilight looked up at the face of her mentor, tears in her eyes.
This is how it happened! Twilight Sparkle fretted desperately. So what do we do NOW?
She sat for a long while, feeling helpless. And very, very tired.
It probably was not a good idea, she reminded herself, to fall asleep back here in the past. This was still the Everfree Forest behind her, even if it wasn't nearly as black and corrupted as it was in her own time. And if anything happened to her, she hadn't even left a note behind. What would Starlight and Trixie do, finding her gone and the spell running without them?
Just five more minutes, she told herself.
Just one more minute.
And in less than a minute, her head sagged wearily, and she was gently snoring.
Uneasy images flashed before her... Daybreaker rampaging across Equestria... towns burning... fields alight... hordes of ponies stampeding across the countryside trying to escape... starving, fighting mobs... and above it all the insanely laughing face, its eyes burning with rage and mad desire...
... and then Daybreaker spotted her. Daybreaker had found her! The tyrant Queen laughed insanely as she pounced on Twilight, imprisoning her in a glittering torture chamber of searing flame, blinding light, and intricately subtle spellwork that Twilight could never... ever... quite... figure out...
Daybreaker tormented her mercilessly... she ripped from Twilight's thoughts the secret of the time-travel spell... and then launched an assault on Twilight's own time, attacking Ponyville, then Canterlot and Celestia herself, annihilating an Equestria that never even knew what hit it... disrupting the timeline beyond any hope of recovery...
and then...
and then...
"Please pardon us... we do not wish to intrude."
The dream slammed to a halt, so suddenly that Twilight was flung overboard, figuratively speaking. It was a long, confused moment before she could piece together her scattered wits enough to think straight.
And when she looked up, a familiar night-blue alicorn mare was standing before her.
"Princess Luna!" Twilight gasped. Then she cringed. "I'm so sorry! I know I should have come to you and Celestia sooner, but I didn't want to bother you, and I so got wrapped up in possibility of researching the questions I wanted to ask of both of you, so I travelled back in time, and now Daybreaker is loose and everything's falling apart, and I just don't see how we ever got out of this, and..."
"Shhhhh! Calmly, my little pony!" Luna soothed. "It is but a nightmare. Which we halted so that we might speak with thee. We do have one question, however..."
Princess Luna peered at Twilight curiously.
"Should we know thee?"
Twilight blinked. And realized the Luna she was speaking to was far too young to be the Luna she knew from her own time.
She leapt to her feet. "Your Majesty?" Twilight asked, puzzled. "You're aware of me? How is that possible?"
Luna regarded her with the dour poker-face that Twilight knew all too well. "Ask thyself! Thou art the one asleep at the edge of our forest."
"But... the time-lens spell! It has safeguards! It should be preventing you from seeing me -- unless..." Twilight suddenly felt cold. "It's because I'm close to the endpoint in this time." She smacked her forehead with a hoof. "The cutoff! We had to weaken the constraints near the endpoint."
Luna nodded. "Apparently enough that we were allowed to be aware of thy dreams as thou sat here, and thus to enter them. Though it was hardly difficult for us to be aware of thee. Even with the unusual nightmares we are dealing with at the moment, thy dream was, shall we say, of singular intensity!" Luna paused, considering Twilight's words cautiously. "A time-lens spell, thou says? So we take it thee are from our future? A future where these events have reached a... satisfactory conclusion?"
Twilight gritted her teeth. She wanted so much to tell Luna everything, to talk with her, ask her advice. But what if she said too much? Even a simple conversation with the Princess was full of potential landmines. Then she decided the barrel was already over the falls, and at this point hiding anything would only make things worse.
"Yes, your Highness! I'm from over a thousand years in your future. And Equestria is safe. My friends and I help you and Celestia defend it."
"And my sister and I are...?"
"You and Celestia are both safe and well, and rule the land together."
"Well! This is clearly a desirable outcome!"
"But, Princess Luna, about that..."
Luna put up a forehoof to silence her. "Enough! As long as our realm is secure, our subjects are safe, and we -- Celestia and I -- are well and happy together, that is and must be sufficient! The rest we shall learn on our own, in its proper time."
Twilight clamped her mouth tightly, ashamed. I almost mentioned Nightmare Moon! That was not the best of topics to bring up at a time like this!
"But, your Highness, we shouldn't even be talking!" Twilight objected. "It might change history!"
Luna stamped a hoof, and the dream around them shifted, becoming a vision of the reality around Twilight's still-sleeping form -- the Everfree Forest, the Castle, the iron sky, the looming image in it...
Luna's gaze became coldly fierce. "Look around thee, child!" she snapped. "Does any of this look at all the way your history is meant to unfold?"
"Well, no..." Twilight said, cowed by her anger. "I mean... well..." She sighed in frustration. "I just don't know! That's the whole point! That's why I'm here! Nothing was written down, so I had no idea how it happened! I came back in time to find out!"
Luna drew back from her half-crazed outburst. Twilight grimaced, ashamed of herself.
"What is thy name?" Luna finally asked.
Twilight hesitated. In for a penny... she thought grimly.
"Twilight Sparkle, your Highness."
"And thou art an uplifted alicorn, like Celestia and myself."
"Yes, your Highness. In my time, I'm the Princess of Friendship Magic."
Luna bowed her head formally. "Then we greet thee, Princess! And welcome thee to our domain. And to our time, apparently! Now, dost thou wish to aid our Sister as much as we do?"
"Celestia is my mentor!" Twilight said. "She taught me herself. And I love her more than just about any other pony I know! Seeing her like this --" She gestured at the image of Daybreaker, looming in the sky above them. "-- it's just unbearable!"
"I see..." Luna nodded. "Then we concur on what must be done. Yet we know not how it is to be accomplished. I am my Sister's equal in most things, and I could attempt to use my own powers to stop her, but that would at best leave us at an impasse... I could never hope to restrain her on my own. And the way she is now, our sister will not respond well to any such use of force. Every attempt to balk her power, to restrain her ambitions, has driven her even further down the path of madness!"
"Yet somehow she must have recovered," Twilight pointed out, "for her to be the Celestia I know from my time. Maybe it does all work out somehow. Maybe I'm just obsessing about nothing. It wouldn't be the first time!"
Luna glared at her. "Who is to say what the true path of time must be?" She snapped. "If we do nothing, Celestia's mental state may deteriorate further, beyond anything we might do to stop it. Thou wishes to help her, so do we! It only remains to decide what is to be done, the two of us together."
Twilight stared. "But I can't take that kind of risk! Changing the past... using my magic on Celestia! Who knows what might happen?"
Luna eyed her coldly. "Thou art a Princess of Equestria," she said flatly. "It is given to us to make these kinds of decisions, for the good of our subjects. Wouldst thou abandon thy title so easily?"
"But... well... no, you're right! I started this, I need to finish it. But, your Highness --"
"Luna, Twilight. We are both Princesses of Equestria. We have a task ahead of us. For the moment, we are the acting co--Princesses of the realm. We need to put our minds to it together, approach it as equals."
"All right, then... Luna... I just need to ask..."
She took a breath, and then launched into it.
"Are you actually okay with me possibly changing history?"
Luna looked surprised.
"As ruler of Equestria, we would be remiss in passing up any opportunity to preserve our land and our subjects... no matter how unusual it might be! So yes, Twilight! If thou art prepared to risk thy own future to save us, then... just this once..."
She glanced about conspiratorially, then bent closer and whispered:
"... we are prepared to look the other way!"
Despite her fears, Twilight couldn't help smiling, seeing just a hint of the pranksterish Luna in the Princess's serious gaze.
"Okay. Let's do this!" Twilight said. "So, Princess... I mean, Luna!" Twilight said, a glimmer of hope in her eyes, "could I ask you to wait here for juuuussst a few minutes?"
Then she looked around, realizing.
"Oh. And I'm going to need to wake up now, too!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"Mmmmph... mermmm... ermmm... uhh, Twilight?"
Starlight blinked sleepily in the light projecting from Twilight's horn. Seeing she was awake, Twilight stopped shaking her shoulder. "Sorry to wake you so early, Starlight, but it's really important. Go wake up Trixie. I'll collect a few things we're gonna need."
Turning, she raced for the open door of Starlight's room.
"Twilight... what...?"
"No time, Starlight! We gotta move! Now!"
Shaking her head to clear it, Starlight dragged herself out of bed and blearily hunted for a comb.
Twilight looked back into the room. "Starlight! Trixie, now! Go-go-go!"
"Okay! All right!" Starlight grumbled. "You know, I think I liked you better when you were hopelessly depressed!" she yelled after the sound of hooves rapidly disappearing down the corridor outside.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
As Trixie herself informed them -- repeatedly -- she wasn't a morning pony. Nor an evening pony, for that matter. And she very definitely was not a middle-of-the-night-what-the-heck-hour-is-it-anyway pony!
Yet when they'd all returned to the Everfree Forest, with Twilight and Starlight dressed in nondescript brown cloaks by way of disguises, and Trixie was introduced to a very surprised-looking Princess Luna, she quieted down somewhat, sensing something big, risky, and above all mischievous in the works. And that was something Trixie was definitely good at!
"And this is Starlight," Twilight said. "She's my student in Friendship Magic, much as I was Celestia's. But don't let that fool you, Princess. She's easily my equal in the application of magic."
"Your Highness!" Starlight said, bowing nervously and blushing at the compliment. "How come she can see and talk with us?" she whispered urgently out of the corner of her mouth.
"Because I adjusted the time-lens aspects of the spell," Twilight told her, "to allow us to be seen and to act in the area of the Two Sisters Castle. It means the spell will run out faster, but we should still have more than enough time to do what needs doing. And if we don't, it won't matter anyway!"
"Oh." Starlight looked mildly dazed. "I love a good desperation play, so early in the morning."
Princess Luna looked at each of them in turn. "And the three of you work together to help our Sister protect Equestria?"
Realizing the Princess's mistake, Twilight was about to explain about her other friends, the Elements of Harmony, and all the rest of it. But then Trixie jumped in between them, hugging Starlight with one forehoof, and Twilight with the other, and smiling at Luna.
"Yep! That's us!" she said. "We're the Reformed Villains Society!"
Starlight and Twilight stared at her, aghast. Trixie didn't even notice. "We've each done something world-shakingly awful," she went on, "and learned our lesson from it. I mean, I once enslaved an entire town while I was under the influence of a magical artifact of great power, which I was only using in the first place to get revenge on a pony I felt had seriously wronged me!" She glared at Twilight.
"Trixie..." Starlight muttered, warningly.
"Oh, but Starlight here turned an entire village into a hypocritical cult of personality, and then later nearly destroyed the entire world with an out-of-control time-travel spell!"
"Trixie!" Twilight gasped.
"And Twilight here, she nearly turned herself into a demigoddess of compulsive friendship, out to enslave the world by being nice to it!"
"TRIXIE!" Starlight and Twilight chorused together.
"What?" she demanded crossly. "I'm just making it clear that we've all had experience in dealing with world-threatening situations like this! So we're the perfect ponies for the job!"
Twilight quickly shoved Trixie behind her. "Yes, well! None of us are perfect, your Highness!" she said to Luna. "But we care about Celestia, we're aware of what's at stake, and you can count on us to do what needs doing!"
Luna looked uncertainly at all three of them, but apparently realized she had little option. "Very well. We need to restrain my Sister long enough to convince her to come to her senses, and return to the limited use of her power that we have always felt was proper for our roles as the rulers of Equestria."
"Fine!" Twilight said. "So here's what we'll do. I'll approach Celestia in disguise, and try to reason with her. Luna and Starlight, you'll be my backup if we need to use force. Between the three of us, we should have the power we need to stop her... I hope! And Trixie, you can use your stage-magic to distract her if it looks like she's getting away from us."
Trixie looked at each of them in turn. Scornfully.
"Ah, nonononono!" she said, waving a hoof dismissively. "That's just not how we're gonna pull this off!"
Princess Luna stared at Trixie, astonished. Starlight looked about to say something, but then Twilight kicked her, recognizing Trixie's signature warm-up arrogance, and Starlight fell silent.
Trixie trotted in front of them, snout in the air, smirk on her face. "It can't be any of you. Look --" She jabbed a forehoof at Luna. "She hates your guts right now, so if she sees you we're only making the problem worse!" Trixie's hoof swung on Twilight. "And you... you care too much about her. You won't be able to lower the boom on her in a clinch! And Starlight... well, about you..."
Starlight frowned. "What about me?"
Trixie shook her head. "Hate to break it to ya, besty, but as good at magic as you are, you're simply not show-pony enough to pull off an act like this. We need someone who can dazzle Celestia, astound Celestia, completely disarm Celestia! Make her realize that even with all her power she still doesn't have it all, so she has to listen to reason! And that, my friends, is the kind of performance that can only be handled by..."
THE GRRREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRIXIE!!!
She threw her forehooves wide triumphantly... complete with fireworks.
Luna leaned towards Twilight. "Is she often like this?"
"Often... is not the word!" Twilight whispered back. "Just roll with it, trust me on this! Okay, Trixie!" Twilight said louder, nodding to her. "What's the plan?"
"Huh?" Trixie stared at her, suddenly frightened out of her wits. "No, no, no! You're not supposed to agree with me, Twilight! Not just like that! You're supposed to argue! You're supposed to say it's a dumb idea! You're supposed to try and stop me! What is wrong with you, Twilight! Urrhhh! Now I actually have to go through with it!"
She swung away from them, talking aloud to herself. "Okay, Trixie, chill! You've got this! What's the worst that could happen? Daybreaker could just turn you into a teeny tiny little pile of cinders! Yeah! Worst case! How bad could that be? Okay, so here's what we need..."
And she began reeling off a list of props and materials, which only got more grandiose and insane as she went on, envisioning the stage show to end all stage shows. Somewhere in there was a live rabbit, a keg of gunpowder, and a marching band... and that was just for starters!
"Ahem," Twilight gently reminded her. "Trixie, you've got the three of us, these disguises," she held up the hem of her cloak, "and we're very short on time!"
"Not to worry, Twilight!" Trixie rounded on her, her stage-arrogance firmly back in place. She waved a hoof. "We don't need all that crap anyway. I just came up with a doozy of a plan! And a performer of Trixie's caliber always works best under pressure!" She gestured airily with her forehooves. "So, gather 'round, my willing and humble assistants! And prepare to be astounded!"
Twilight glanced nervously at Luna. The Night Princess glared back at her. This had better be good! her look said.
Daybreaker awoke, and then arose languorously from her bed, sighing happily. No need to look at the clock to tell what time it was any more. The Queen of All Equestria had arisen, so it was officially a new Day. And that was all that should matter to any pony in her realm!
She summoned her armor and crown, and then, accompanied by her nervous guards, strode haughtily down to the Throne Room... her Throne Room, no one else's.
She frowned at the empty chair to the left of hers on the dais. She would really need to do something about that, it spoiled the whole effect. She needed a single throne, dead center, of solid gold, with multiple tiers in case she had guests or consorts to entertain. And fountains, she wanted fountains... flame fountains. Yes, that would do! She'd have plans drawn up, and then put the hard-working construction crews to work reshaping things the way she wanted them.
She settled herself on her throne, and nodded for the Chief Steward to open the Court for the day.
Silence fell in the Throne Room. Daybreaker looked around. "Well?" she asked, a little testily. "Doesn't anyone have business to put before us?"
The waiting petitioners all looked at each other, nervously. Go ahead! No, after you, I insist! their looks said.
"Hmph!" Daybreaker frowned. "Don't keep us waiting! You know we don't handle boredom well!"
In the silence that followed, the sound of the main doors of the Throne Room being blown off their hinges was deafening.
<<<BOOM>>>
When the smoke cleared, a single pony stood framed in the ruined doorway. A pony dressed in a star-spangled wizard's hat and cape. Who smiled... with absolute confidence.
"Fear not, Queen Celestia!" she called, easily audible across the length of the Throne Room. "Your morning's entertainment has arrived! Behold! And prepare to be dazzled! By the one! The only!
THE GRRREAT AND POWERFUL TRRRIXIE!!!
Coming smoothly out of her dramatic pose, she dropped to her hooves and trotted up the middle of the hall, not bothering with the red carpet to the left or the right. She simply walked straight into the middle crowd of waiting ponies... who found themselves gently lifted into the air and swept aside to the left and right, clearing a broad path along which she trotted with perfect aplomb.
"One performance! Today only!" she said as she drew closer. "Saw your calling-card up there in the sky, and just had to pay a call on a fellow Great and Powerful pony!"
So focused was everyone on Trixie's entrance, none of them noticed the three other cloaked figures who snuck into the room by side entrances, and positioned themselves strategically about the hall.
Even Daybreaker herself was staring down at Trixie. She appeared moderately amused. "Thou claims to be our equal?" she sneered. "Thou had best be ready to prove it!"
"Oh, but I am, your Highness!" Trixie reared and lofted her forehooves. "Behold, the Greatest Magician in All Equestria! I have wonders! Thrills! Astonishments galore! Powers undreamt of by mortal pony... and perhaps, dare I say it, even by your good self? Observe!"
She gestured with a hoof. A bolt of lightning from nowhere struck the carpet where she stood, leaving nothing but a star-shaped burnt mark.
"And that's just for starters!" Trixie said, from her comfortable seat on Luna's throne. "Plenty more where that came from!" Getting up from the throne, she trotted down the stairs to stand before Daybreaker again, and bowed dramatically.
"Thou hast our attention," Daybreaker said, a sharp edge in her tone. "Make good use of it!"
"I intend to, your Highness! I heard your Highness has an opening for a court magician, and I'm perfect for the job!"
"Have a care!" Daybreaker warned with a smirk. "The last one ended up as a lawn ornament!"
"Not this pony, your Highness! By the end of this performance I'll have you begging for more. Regardez!"
Whipping off her hat, she plunged a hoof into it. She felt around dramatically, seemed to be struggling with something...
And then she hauled out Daybreaker's crown.
"Oops!" she called out, in feigned surprise. "How'd that get in there?"
The crowds around her burst into nervous laughter. Which died away immediately at the look on Daybreaker's face as she felt her mane with a hoof. Her gaze fell back to Trixie, cold and malevolent. "Thou thinkst to jest with us?" she snarled.
Trixie was unrepentant. "Do I look like the jesting type, Highness?" Slapping the hat back on her head, she waved her hoof. And in a flash, Daybreaker's crown was back in place.
But the Queen of All Equestria was not amused. "See how thou manages with this trick!"
Daybreaker's eyes gleamed. And Trixie was encased by a glowing bubble of energy.
She looked around at it, completely at ease. And then slow-clapped with her forehooves. "Very nice, your Highness! Did it come as a prize in the box? Oh, of course, it means nothing at all to me..."
She pointed with a forehoof. A vase of flowers across the room exploded. She gestured in the other direction. A guard was turned upside down and hung in the air by his hooves. Left and right, she jabbed her hooves, making objects fall, or explode, or turn topsy-turvey, while she giggled with joy at the unending mayhem she was causing.
And all the while Daybreaker's eyes glared ever more fiercely, pouring layer on layer of force into the gleaming sphere -- which appeared to have no ability at all to block Trixie's magic.
Trixie finally ceased waving her hooves. The guard and other levitating objects were released and fell to the floor. "And just so you know, Highness," Trixie said, with icy calm. "You're not the only one who can play with forces of nature!"
She dramatically whipped off her hat, dug her hoof into it...
... and pulled out Night itself, spangled with the stars of the heavens. She whipped it about her like a cloak, and it filled the interior of the glowing sphere with utter, inky, concealing blackness.
Trixie's voice suddenly boomed from the air of the Throne Room, seemingly coming from every direction at once: CAN YOU SEE ME NOW, HIGHNESS? AM I HERE... OR HERE... OR MAYBE HERE? Her voice seemingly leapt around the room, even once coming from directly behind Daybreaker's throne.
Snarling, Daybreaker dismissed the sphere of energy, leaving Trixie's bubble of Night behind. Which evaporated, revealing Trixie lying on the carpet, idly reading a small book. Startled, she looked around.
"Oh, right! Me again!" Stuffing the book back into her hat, she jumped to her hooves, slapped the hat back on...
... just as Daybreaker opened her mouth and unleashed a torrent of hot flame, straight at Trixie. The glare of it striking its target was overwhelming, causing nearby ponies to crowd away anxiously.
And then Trixie leaned out around the blazing glow, wearing a pair of industrial-grade sunglasses. "Whenever you get tired, Highness," she said cheekily, "just let me know!"
Astonished, Daybreaker ceased her attack, and stared at Trixie, an evaluating look in her eyes.
Trixie patted out a couple small flames on her cloak, then turned back to the Queen. "Now, let's talk seriously, Highness! You want to rule the country, all by your lonesome. Fine, I get it! Trixie's a one-pony show too. But you're gonna need some powerful backup. And who better than a pony who has everything you've got, and more... and doesn't need anything else!"
She idly huffed on a hoof, then polished it on her cloak.
"I'm already the Greatest Magician in All Equestria! What more do I need?"
Daybreaker leapt up from her throne. "You'll be needing pallbearers when I'm done with you!" she raged.
Trixie leaned forward. A bead of sweat ran down her cheek as she unflinchingly looked Daybreaker square in the eyes.
"Give it your best shot, cupcake!"
Daybreaker shrieked, and leapt into the air, blazing with fire, setting the hangings about the throne ablaze.
"Oh yeah? Two can play at that game! Alley-oop!" Trixie cried, hopping up from the carpet herself. And then she was swept up by a cloud of star-spangled Night, which concealed her from view.
Daybreaker fired blast after blast of Sun-bright magic through the cloud. Which, completely unharmed, snickered loudly at her.
GONNA TAKE MORE THAN THAT, HIGHNESS!
Daybreaker's fury was unbounded -- she flung wide her wings, and exploded into the brilliance of the Sun itself. In the confines of the Throne room, the air swiftly became hot as an oven...
... except for the part behind the dark cloud, which remainined safely cool and comfortable for the assembled ponies looking on, frozen in terror.
And the dark cloud itself contracted into a perfect sphere, becoming a Black Star, the ultimate form of Night, from which even Light itself could not hope to escape.
YIELD! Daybreaker's voice boomed.
NOT HAPPENING! Trixie's voice thrummed in reply.
YOU CANNOT STAND AGAINST ME!
I'VE ALREADY DONE WAY BETTER, HIGHNESS! Trixie's voice replied. I'VE SHOWN YOU THE ONE WEAKNESS POWER ALWAYS HAS -- IT HAS LIMITS!
Daybreaker attacked, the full, blazing fury of the Sun lancing out at the Black Star, which stolidly rebuffed it, unbroken and unmoved... and not striking back. And nothing else could have been more infuriating to the Queen of All Equestria. She wanted victory, she wanted dominance, she wanted fear and terror, absolute acknowledgement of her might. And she got nothing, nothing but stolid, unrelenting indifference!
The Sun screamed in rage, in agony... and fear of defeat.
"Aaaand... for my next trick," Trixie said, in an almost conversational tone of voice, "Trrrixie will need some help from her esteemed assistant. Come on down, Madame Amore! You're on!"
Twilight, from her position on a high balcony near the front of the hall, looked across to Starlight, and then to Luna, positioned on similar balconies to either side of the hall. They both nodded, their faces contorted with the combined effort of holding back the living inferno of the Sun Princess.
And then Twilight teleported herself into the airspace right next to the Black Star. It was like hurling herself into an active volcano. She winced at the raging heat that threatened to set her cloak alight. She kept her wings tight at her sides, hovering in her own magic, afraid that the power crackling through the air around her might simply set her pinions alight if she tried to use her wings.
"Any time, Madame Amore! Any time!" Trixie's voice called, sounding just a little worried. "Can't keep the audience waiting for your special trick!"
But Twilight wasn't sure what to do. With Celestia in her Sun form, there was no way she could get anywhere near that blazing inferno without incinerating herself...
... and then she remembered. Duh! Princess! Why do I keep forgetting!
For a brief moment she wondered if her entire life had been leading up to this: freeing Luna from Nightmare Moon, releasing Stygian from the Pony of Shadows, surviving her own experience as Friendmaker... and even the discovery of her unearthly ability to catch fire and not be consumed by it. It all came down to this. And now she would do the same again, to rescue her beloved mentor...
...or die in the attempt, as Trixie would say. Taking a deep, steadying breath, she held it in, flung off her cloak...
... and exploded in flame herself.
"Twilight!" She barely heard Starlight call out behind her.
And then she dove headfirst into the Sun.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
When her overwhelmed eyes finally adjusted, she found herself standing in a featureless white space, with the suggestion of a floor to stand on and air to breathe, but nothing else.
The Vault, she thought to herself. Where Celestia taught me my very first lessons in Magic. And she was beginning to realize that it was much more than that... it was Celestia herself. She created a safe space around me, for me to unleash my Magic in, Twilight thought. She made herself into a playroom for my very first clumsy attempts at magic...
... and now's my chance to pay her back for that.
There was a pony lying a short distance away. A young white-coated pony with a pink cotton-candy mane. She was huddled into herself, sobbing quietly.
Quickly, Twilight cast an illusion spell, made herself appear to be a plain-looking cream-coated unicorn. Then she advanced slowly towards the huddled pony.
"Princess?" Twilight called out cautiously.
Celestia looked up, startled. "Who are you?"
Twilight gritted her teeth. "I'm... a friend. A good friend! And that's all that matters right now. I'm here to help you, if you'll let me."
Celestia shook her head, lowering her eyes. "It's too late! I've gone too far. I didn't mean for it to get out of hand like this. I was just so tired of being seen as weak and powerless. Having to hold it all in, not show anyone what I could really do. Always serving some other pony's needs, and never my own. Never being able to have things the way I wanted them. And the more attuned I became to the Sun's power, the more I wanted to let it out..."
Her eyes suddenly blazed, her voice roared. "... TO UNLEASH IT!"
Twilight nodded, keeping her own voice steady. "I know... I saw... and I understand completely. I felt for you, I really did! And we can find a way to make it all work. You can be the kind of Princess you want to be. You can stand up for yourself, and be respected for your strength and restraint. I know that you can! I know it for a fact!" Because I've seen it, she whispered to herself, desperately wanting but not daring to speak the whole truth.
Celestia shook her head again. "They'll never accept me now. My subjects, my Sister, and poor Star Swirl -- why did I do that to him? And the Dragons and the Griffons, it will be war or worse now! It's all too late! I cannot go back to what was! I've destroyed it, destroyed it all!"
Twilight trotted close, looked Celestia directly in the eyes. "Highness, I'm here to tell you that it's not too late! It's never too late. You have friends who love you, subjects who need you, and you can work out any disagreements given time. I know you can! You can go back. All you have to do... is want it, more than anything else in the world! And then ask for it!"
Celestia nodded, tears on her cheeks. "I do want it! More than anything!"
Twilight held out a hoof.
Celestia looked at it. For a moment she drew back, her eyes glowing fiercely, rejectingly. And then the glow in her eyes faded, replaced by a familiar depth and clarity.
And her hoof touched Twilight's.
She stood up, restored to herself, calm and self-assured.
Amazed, she took a deep, steadying breath. "Where did you learn how to do that?" she finally said. "You must have had a brilliant teacher!"
"You'd... be surprised, your Highness!" Twilight said. She glanced around. "But I think we should discuss this later." Before I open my big mouth and blow the whole thing!
Celestia nodded. "You're absolutely right." She gazed around at the featureless void, as if seeing beyond it to the battle raging outside.
"Let's end this!"
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In the Throne Room, Luna and Starlight eyed each other worriedly, from their hiding places on balconies to either side of the hall. Luna was coming to the end of even her vast reserves of magic, and Starlight was nearly out herself. In a minute or less they were going to have to yield -- and Daybreaker wasn't even close to being tapped out.
She's going to mop the floor with us, Starlight thought helplessly. She concentrated on remote-projecting her last reserves to Luna, hoping against hope that the Princess of the Night could use it to stand a few moments longer.
"Come on, Starlight!" Trixie whispered, from her seat beside her. Trixie had her hat in her hooves and was having to visibly restrain herself from gnawing on its brim. "Don't give up! You can do it! I know you can! And if you do give up, we're all toast! I hope you're remembering that!"
"Not... helping... Trixie..." Starlight ground out between clenched teeth.
And then she felt Trixie's hoof on her shoulder, felt the magician lean close and touch her horn to Starlight's, contributing what little power she had into an emotion spell, bolstering Starlight's confidence.
"A little of the ol' Trixie bravado," she whispered. "Because you know you need it, besty!"
"Thanks!" Starlight said, even as she felt her horn sputter, her magic reserves utterly drained. She looked up, saw the black sphere flicker, and then dissipate, like the illusion spell it always was.
Revealed beyond it was the blinding inferno of Daybreaker, who would sweep forward and consume them all.
Then a voice boomed in the hall:
WHAT? NO! YOU CANNOT REJECT ME! I AM EVERYTHING YOU WANT TO BE!
She was answered by another, similar voice. A stronger, more determined voice:
NO! NO, YOU ARE NOT! I... I AM... I AM PRINCESS CELESTIA!
There was an endless, anguished scream.
Starlight tensed, and shut her eyes, waiting for death.
"Oh... my... gosh!" she heard Trixie say. And then she was being crushed in an excited hug. "She did it! She did it!" Trixie shouted. "Twilight did it! She talked her down!"
Starlight gave her an exhausted look. "And the rest of us had nothing to do with it!" she muttered, annoyed.
"Come on, Starlight! I had total confidence in you!"
"You did, huh?"
"Of course! I wasn't sure about Twilight, though! I mean what if she freaked out and went all to pieces right at the end? Where would we be? But she pulled it off! Look!" She pointed with a hoof.
On the charred carpet before the dais, a weakened, shame-faced Celestia was rising to her hooves. She looked around at the assembled crowd of ponies, then cleared her throat for attention. Her voice caught once, but then she tried again, and the Royal Voice rang out in the chamber.
MY LOYAL SUBJECTS! QUEEN CELESTIA... IS DEAD! LONG LIVE PRINCESS CELESTIA AND PRINCESS LUNA, THE ROYAL SISTERS OF EQUESTRIA!
There was a stunned pause. And then the guards took it up: "Long live Celestia and Luna!"
The crowd of clerks, nobles, and petitioners echoed it. The cry went up once, twice, three times. And then broke into a rousing cheer as they crowded forward in relief around their beloved Princess. She was swiftly joined by Princess Luna, who flapped down from her balcony, shoved her way through the crowd, and relievedly shared a hug with her sister.
For a while it was total bedlam. But it was the nice kind of bedlam, so no one tried to stop it.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
In the days that followed, once Celestia had carefully re-started the cycle of the Day and Night with Luna's help, and the immediate damage had been repaired to the main audience chamber, and allowing time for the shock of the event to wear off, Celestia found to her surprise that her subjects were only too willing to welcome her back. Apparently the general feeling was that "Queen Celestia" had merely been a masterful demonstration of the Princess's true strength, and an object lesson in what could happen, if they did not take her position as co-ruler of Equestria seriously.
Even when she released Star Swirl from his stone prison, and had a profuse apology all prepared, he merely complimented her on her wise decision and her advancement in skill and strength, and appeared quite ready to put the whole thing behind them. "I never once lost faith in you, Highness. Even trapped in my prison I knew you would eventually come to your senses! And my apologies for not taking your opinions as seriously as I should have. Seems I'm a better teacher than a listener. But I suppose that will always be the case, I'm afraid!"
Celestia also found that the damage to Equestria itself was less than she had feared. The Dragons, far from being angered by her show of force, were impressed by her display of strength and ferocity, and were finally ready to acknowledge the ponies of Equestria as a power to be reckoned with. The Griffons apparently felt similarly, once a few suitable trade agreements had been struck to appease their desire for results to show the flocks back home. Rather than having damaged her realm beyond repair, she found herself the arbiter of new alliances that would only help to strengthen and secure it.
She wanted more than anything else to properly thank the three strange ponies who had appeared out of nowhere to help them all. But they were already gone. In the shock of her recovery from her... excesses... as Queen Celestia, she found she had lost even the name of the show-pony who had faced her down. Luna, for her part, would say nothing about the three mysterious visitors other than to compliment them on their skill, endurance, and experience with magic. Even the show-pony who led them, whom Luna merely described as "the greatest and most powerful fraud we have ever met!"
And Celestia especially wanted to say goodbye to that cream-colored pony that had appeared at the end, in the depths of her self-imposed prison, drawing her out of herself with nothing more than friendship and an offered hoof. She hoped against hope that she might meet that pony again, someday. She'd been so kind, so caring, so selfless...
Celestia hoped that she might one day live up to an example like that.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
"So! Not a bad day's work, besty!" Trixie said, smirking. "We battled Daybreaker to a standstill and won! We saved Equestria... yet again! And I just put on the performance... of... a... lifetime!" She pounded the table, then punched the air proudly. "Yes! Trixie the Great and Powerful, For The Win!"
"I'm proud of you, Trix," Starlight said. "Even if Luna and I did pull most of the strings, you put on one heck of a good show!"
Trixie smirked, and nudged her shoulder. "Couldn't have done it without you, my Great and Powerful assistant!"
They were all sitting at the map-table in Twilight's castle, celebrating with a late breakfast of pancakes and hay-fries. They were all there... Trixie, Starlight, Twilight... and even Princess Luna, whom Twilight had invited to join them as a first step toward the less-than-pleasant task of making a full report on the experience to the Princesses of her own time.
Luna simply regarded Trixie with a raised eyebrow. "It was remarkably well-handled," she said to Twilight. "And we were most grateful for your help. As was I, for your forbearance in not telling me what lay ahead!"
"I wanted to warn you, your Highness. I really did! I'm just not certain what it would have done. Even now, I'm not sure we might not have screwed something up by interfering back there."
"Twilight, you are many things, yet when it comes to magic... you are astonishingly brilliant. Ahem. Almost up to our standards!" she added hastily. "Yet you still have a lot to learn about the practical effects of spells. Your time-lens spell was operating perfectly the whole time, even at the end when you thought you'd modified the safeguards, allowing yourselves to be seen and to act... but it really wasn't necessary. You were always able to interfere with the past, precisely because the past needed to be interfered with, in order to become the future you came from!"
"So... we actually couldn't prevent ourselves from changing the past..." Starlight summed up. "Because the changed past actually was our own timeline, all along?" She facehoofed. "And now my head hurts!"
Luna nodded, with a rueful smile. "There is no such thing as inalterable destiny. We simply exchange one set of mistakes and ill-informed guesses for another."
Twilight bit her lip. There was something else she needed to ask. And Luna waited patiently, poker-faced, for her to ask it. "Luna, you knew about all of us, back then. How is it you didn't recognize us, when you met us again here in the present?"
"Twilight!" she shook her head. "We are the Princess of the Night, the Walker of Dreams... which means, like young Trixie here, we know how to keep secrets. Oh, do we ever! And one thing you must learn, as a walker of the dream realm, one thing it is absolutely critical to learn for the sake of your own sanity, is when it is proper to remember and to hold a memory tight in your mind... and when it is proper, nay vital, to let one go. To put a thing behind you so completely and thoroughly that it never troubles you again. To forget, and never look back!"
"But you can't just choose to forget things," Starlight objected. "I've tried, believe me. Doesn't work!"
"True," Luna retorted. "But one of the branches of illusion magic concerns memory. And there is a spell one can apply to cause oneself to forget a thing so utterly, it is as if it never happened. But that is not a spell to be used lightly, believe me! Once a memory is lost in that way, it is gone, and no force of any kind could ever summon it back. And a part of yourself is lost with it!"
She paused, looking a little sad. "I did at least permit myself to recall that we were helped by ponies who traveled in time," she said. "However, it has been so many centuries since then that I did not connect that with the three of you, not until you invited me here to make your report."
She looked at Twilight, with a particular arch of her eyebrow. That's all I'm saying, her look said, and it's all you should expect to get out of me!
"But Princess," Twilight asked, "when you were teaching me about Shadow Magic, you never mentioned an illusion spell concerning memory!"
Luna looked surprised at that.
"Did we forget to teach thee the memory spell?" She asked innocently, with a playfully devious smirk. "Hmm... wonder why we did that..."
The End
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, its characters and indicia are the property of Hasbro. No infringement is intended. This story is a work of fan fiction, written by fans for fans of the series.
