Twilight needs to go on an adventure to get her old council back in order and save her mother from Nightmare Moon.
Twilight must go on an adventure to reunite with her council. This proves difficult when they are stretched all over Equestria and Nightmare Moon has taken control and brought forth eternal night. They must wield the Elements to rid Twilight’s mother of Nightmare Moon.
Commander Nocte Wing, Thestral Army-Camp, Canternhorn Mountain 1 day into Eternal Night
"Commander! We have received confirmation that our Empress Nightmare Moon is back."
A young thestral guard came running into the tent where Commander Nocte was staying. Nocte was skilled in reading ponies or creatures, this young guard only had excitement printed on his face. Nocte’s face lit up with determination and nodded.
"Very well, ready the troops, I want everypony to be available. Make sure to keep the operation a secret as long as possible." Nocte went ahead and put his armor on.
The young guard saluted before taking off to ready everyone for the attack. Nocte was left alone with his thoughts. The Elders had prepared him for the day their Empress returned from her banishment as well as her daughter.
A cold wind breeze battered the tent’s entrance. Nocte looked over in the direction of the entrance, the wind wasn’t supposed to blow in that direction. He went over to part the curtains to see what was going on when purple smoke started seeping in.
A malicious chuckle could be heard as the smoke formed itself into the shape of a pony. Nocte looked in wonder at his Empress, to his knowledge, it was the first time anyone had seen her. He bowed so low his muzzle touched the ground. Nightmare Moon nodded in approval.
"Thou hast done well in serving thy Empress while we hast been away. Now we must inquire. What is thy name?"
"Nocte Wing, at thy service thy majesty!"
"Very well, Nocte Wing. We shalt go now and meet our subjects, we do not want to keep thou waiting for thy well deserved victory."
"Of course not your magesty. Allow me to escort thou to thy victory!"
Nocte Wing got up and allowed Nightmare Moon to lead the way. They made their way to the Army-Camp’s center where Nightmare Moon was to address her new subjects before the battle for Canterlot began.
Twilight Sparkle, Star Council’s Head Quarters' Throne Room, 3 hours after the fall of Canterlot,
Twilight massaged her temples, her throne room was an uproar. It was filled with government officials and the highest ranking nobles all arguing about what to do next. Twilight wanted so badly to teleport them back to Canterlot and leave them to the mercy of her mother if only it weren’t for the fact that if she did, Nightmare Moon would trace her magic signature.
To her sides in the other thrones, were sitting her Aunt Celestia and the 'Puppet Princess' Cadence, Captain Shining Armor and General Courageous Lance. In the crowd was Sunset Shimmer, Celestia’s student, accompanied by her friends who were horrified at the news.
Celestia and Twilight were asking questions about the attack, Cadence, true to her tittle kept quiet and Shining Armor as well as Courageous Lance answered as many questions as possible.
“The opponents forces where Thestrals I believe, they used swift disarming tactics and-" before Lance was able to finish, Blueblood interrupted him.
"Yes, that is very true! Even I couldn’t do anything to stop them! They disarmed me and even suppressed my magic before attacking! Oh My Dear Aunt, they were hideous!"
Twilight winced at the comment, something that didn’t go unnoticed by the other Princesses, she then glared at Blueblood who shrunk under her gaze.
"I beg your pardon?! They art NOT hideous! They art ponies just like us! They art-" Twilight was stopped by Celestia raising a hoof to both silence and calm her down.
"I believe what my niece is trying to say is, that Thestrals are just like us daytime ponies, just more adapted to the night." Celestia tried comforting the increasingly tense crowd.
The rest of the emergency meeting went the same way, they ended up wasting hours sitting on those thrones. Twilight was getting increasingly worried at what might happen to her old friends.
In the end, they settled in letting the nobles stay in the Council’s Headquarters until it was safe.
'Don’t want the snobs to get injured in an ‘accident'' Twilight thought
Also that the Princesses would remain hidden as well with Shining Armor an Courageous Lance guarding them at all times. They would also expand the Headquarters to fit the nobles as well as Sunset Shimmer’s friends and families.
Twilight exited the room and walked to her old quarters. She wasn’t surprised to see her phoenix sleeping soundly, Twilight sighed and prepared her saddle-bags for the journey. Basic healing supplies, modern bits, some old bits, food and water all went into her bags. She also strapped her sword coaster around her waist and tied her mane back into a bun. She put on her old chest plate, preserved by several spells, and one of her best cloaks, made by Pisces, one of her old friends that was also maintained by spells.
She went over and nuzzled the sleeping phoenix.
"Sleep well, Do not fret Pyre, We shall return shortly." Twilight said before gulping, hoping she was right
Twilight walked over to the door, determined to save Equestria. She opened it and almost jumped back at the sight of ponies at the door. Instead she kept calm and took a closer look, Sunset Shimmer, her friends and Cadence were all there.
"Cadenza? What brings the Princess of Love to our quarters?" Twilight said with just a bit of sarcasm in her voice. "Or should we call thee...Cousin?"
"Cousin is fine and you can call me Cadence if you want too. Anyways we wanted to talk to you about some things."
"Oh? Well in that case, let’s proceed to our throne room..." Then Twilight growled slightly under her breath "again..."
"Can’t we just talk here?" Applejack asked.
"We are afraid not, Pyre is sleep and we do not wish to awake him."
The group returned to the throne room, no one was there, and they didn’t even leave a sign that they were ever there. Twilight flew over and sat down on her throne and took a sirius face.
"What does thou want to discuss about?" Twilight looked at the group who were still at the bottom of the dais subconsciously telling them to stay down there.
Sunset groaned at the obvious act of supremacy but was polite and tried to hide her disapproval.
"Well...We wanted to ask you if you had any idea of why we couldn’t wield the Elements." Rainbow finally spoke breaking the ice.
"Well, that decision is made by the Elements, when some pony tries to wield them they judge the pony and check to see if they are the best possible wielders." Twilight calmly answered trying to sound as diplomatic as possible, not trying to offend them.
The mares were indeed offended, well only two were offended, Sunset and Rainbow who both had their egos the size of Manehattan.
"Wait, are you trying to tell me...That I’m not worthy of something promised to me ever since I got my cutie mark?!" Sunset raged at Twilight followed by Rainbow Dash.
"What do you mean we aren’t worthy?!"
Twilight hummed. "We believe we made it quite clear, thou may be worthy, but there is some pony, most likely my friends, worthier than thy group."
Sunset was going to protest but her muzzled was closed by Cadence’s magic. Twilight smiled at the scene and nodded very discreetly at Cadence.
"We assume thou still have more questions?"
"Well darling, I simply must know. How are you Princess Celestia’s niece?" The white unicorn in the group asked before anyone could stop her.
"Like we have told thee in the Everfree, we art Princess Luna’s daughter, and so, Princess Celestia’s biological niece." Twilight took the opportunity to extend the word biological to make her point clear and to subconsciously take a jab at Cadence.
"But wait, Princess Celestia doesn’t have a sister! Even if she did, why isn’t she ruling by her side?" Sunset was now genuinely curious.
Twilight winced at the question, Sunset had very kindly opened up a recent wound. Well recent for her at least.
"W-Well..." Twilight paused to organize her thoughts and think on the best way to brake it to them. She cleared her throat to speak. "A little more than a thousand years ago, Princesses Luna and Celestia fought a powerful kirin warlock. They defeated him of course, but before passing, it casted a curse upon the Princesses and their Kingdom."
The room suddenly felt very cold as everyone was now staring and waiting to hear the finale. Sunset, Rainbow Dash and Applejack were all eager to hear the ending, Rarity, Fluttershy and Cadence were worried at what they might hear and Pinky...Well she was oblivious to everything so...yeah she was just being Pinky.
"The curse of course failed, the warlock was in no condition to cast any spell or curse, neither did it have the concentration to do so correctly. The curse, was only able to hit the closest thing to the warlock...Princess Luna."
There was a collective gasp. One that was loud enough to startle Twilight. This time, Sunset’s voice was careful and timid.
"Did it...kill...Princess Luna?"
The group was completely silent staring at Twilight for her to answer the question on everyone’s mind. Twilight could only give a sad smile and shook her head.
"No, it did not." The group let out a breath that they didn’t know they were holding. "But. After they got back to the capital, the curse started to take effect and turned mother into a wicked mare." Twilight took a sharp intake of air before speaking again. "The mare thou have fought today...er- yesterday, Nightmare Moon, is our mother."
The implications took a moment to settle in, and they all became visibly tense, probably forgetting about the curse. Twilight spoke again, trying to change the subject.
"Anything else that we could answer?"
"Um...Yes, well it isn’t really a question, it’s more like we needed you to now. We found this in my room." Cadence revealed a light blue papered scroll. It was had a crescent moon with a six pointed star inside as a seal.
Twilight’s eyes widened, she quickly took the scroll from Cadence unraveling it and reading.
'Dear Twilight,
If thou are reading this then thou has probably finally returned. We do not know where thou were sent after the Element’s...Fail but we are glad thou has returned. Me and the others were extremely worried, it has been 67 years since thy departure and we have separated looking for a way to bring thee back and eventually they gave up hope. We decided to stay behind and wait for thy return. We shalt always be waiting and every day, at sunrise and sunset. We are not in the Headquarters but in a small village to the south called Appleloosa, it is south east of Everfree City through the Everfree Forest.
We hope to see you very soon, Your Faithful Right Hoof Stallion and Friend, The Hunter Orion
Twilight’s hooves echoed through the Headquarters. She was galloping at a speed that would rival Rainbow’s, she did her best on the various corners she had to take to get to Celestia’s room.
Most ponies were a bit startled by the sudden gush of wind that blew past them, apart from a few curious glances, nobody intervened. Not like they could, they new better than to try and stop a galloping alicorn, even if they did, they weren’t certain that she wouldn’t beam them to ash.
Twilight finally arrived to Celestia’s room, a little farther to the right of her own room. She took a deep breath trying to calm herself before braking the news.
Knock, Knock, Knock
Twilight knocked ever so impatiently, she was practically hopping up and down. Finally for what seemed like ages to her, in reality only a few seconds, Celestia opened the door. The white alicorn was tackled into a hug by the younger alicorn.
"Tia, Tia! Auntie Tia! Have a look at this!"
Twilight lit up her horn and a scroll with light blue paper appeared next to her, levitated by her magical grasp.
"Our cousin, Cadenza, has found it in her chambers!" Twilight levitated the scroll to Celestia who was still recovering from the shock.
Celestia opened the scroll and started scanning through the page. Celestia lowered the scroll and looked at Twilight with a blank stare.
"There is nothing written my little star." She said calmly, not wanting to jump to conclusions but she was really considering if madness ran in the family.
"Pardon? But...We are sure that...B-but the letter-"
Her attempts at explaining herself stopped as she suddenly realized what was going on. She lit her horn and casted a spell to detect any spells placed upon the scroll. She facehooved, she sometimes hated how smart her friends were, it all made sense, the way that her 'new self-proclaimed' friends looked at her, her aunt’s confusion...
"Auntie, it is enchanted so only we can read it. It was left in Cadenza’s room by-"
Twilight was cut short by the sounds of multiple sets of hooves hammering the ground but also by a very familiar scream.
"Cadence!" The pink alicorn corrected as she made her way inside.
"Right, my apologies...Cadence, found this letter. Orion apparently wrote it 67 years after our... unanticipated departure. It contains information of where he is located!" Twilight did not let her excitement drop out of her voice.
Celestia hummed, she brought a hoof to her chin as if remembering what kind-of stallion he was. "Yes, if I recall correctly, he is the type I would assume would wait for his friend in the same place."
"Auntie, we have told thee that we are not lovers, nor have we ever been, we are just friends." Twilight rolled her eyes but couldn’t help her cheeks from darkening a bit.
'Although... We must admit, he looks like he could hold his own in a snowball figh-'
Twilight shook her head violently, trying to clear her head of such thoughts. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to her, a few stars turned a fiery pink as to further tease her, before remembering their mistress was underground and couldn’t see them.
Clearing her throat, Twilight spoke again. "A-Anyways, we learnt that our trusty right-hoof stallion is currently in a small village called...'Appoolesa'?, 'Aploosa'?, 'Applelosa?"
Cadence and Celestia giggled at Twilight’s attempts to remember and pronounce the city’s name.
"Appleloosa" Cadence corrected. "Although I would hardly call it small, it has grown to be a pretty big town, even if it retains some old country-like customs."
"Yes, what cousin has said." Twilight looked at Celestia with pleading eyes. "Auntie, does thou happens to know the fastest route to Aple..Apploo...UGH! The Town?"
"Yes, but you are not going anywhere." Celestia took a sip from her tea that she had on the table. "I’m not allowing a filly to go in the Everfree."
"A Filly?!" The door suddenly opened, revealing six mares eavesdropping. They all fell down with a loud thump.
"Auntie, technically we are now a thousand years older-" Twilight tried to explain but was interrupted by Applejack.
"With all due respect Princess, ah don’t think Twalight here is a filly. She looks even older than us!"
"Art thou calling me old?! We art not a a Filly but we aren’t as old as thou!"
All the mares ignored Twilight’s comment, specially Celestia who needed some sort of sibling rivalry. It wasn’t SIBLING rivalry but close enough.
"My little star was only twenty two when she disappeared-" Celestia tried to explain but was cut off by Twilight with an accusatory tone.
"Tis High Treason! Thou cannot simply tell everypony our age! Tis High Treason we tell thee!”
"Wait...You’re twenty two?!" Sunset Shimmer asked, she was the first one to snap out of her confused state. "With all due respect Princess, I doubt 22 is still a filly."
"Actually we art a thousand and twenty-"
Celestia sighed, interrupting her niece. "Yes, she might not technically be a filly but compared to Luna and I, she is." Celestia untied her bun, took an old brush and started brushing Twilight’s mane. "She looks like an older mare because she is very tall for her age due to her magical abilities, and because of her... Guard Training."
"That is what thou calls it now a days?" Twilight asked a bit confused.
"Why would a Princess need Guard Training?" Asked Cadence which caused Twilight to glance at her with an annoyed look.
"Because my dear cousin, we princesses used to get our hooves dirty INSTEAD of sending soldiers to die for us." She looked over to Celestia who had tied her mane into a bun...again. "We believe, dear auntie, that we art able to take care of ourselves perfectly inside the Everfree. Ponies may have forgotten us but we doubt that beast have forgotten who is in charge." She brought a hoof to her chest fur and polished it, then she pretended to admire it.
"No, I am NOT sending my niece to the Everfree ALONE... However, I will agree if you go with-" Celestia was cut off by a desperate Twilight.
"CADENZA! We shalt not take anypony else than our good cousin. She most likely has some fighting experience... Art we wrong?" She shot a menacing glance towards Cadence.
Cadence gulped and looked at Celestia with pleading eyes that clearly said 'No, please not THERE'. Celestia looked at Cadence and nodded.
"I’m afraid she doesn’t, you will be accompanied by my student and her friends. They will ensure you are safe."
"But-"
Celestia shook her head in a 'nope’ motion. Twilight sighed in defeat.
"Yes Auntie..."
"ALRIGHT!" Rainbow celebrated as she did a few flips. "I got my first royal mission!"
The rest were a little hesitant, especially Rarity and Fluttershy. Sunset was a little grumpy about it and Pinky didn’t really pay attention to what happened. Only Applejack was really taking it seriously.
"Thou must rest up and get prepared...We leave in an hour, if one of thee art not ready, we shalt depart without thee."
With that, Twilight left the room, plotting...
Captain Noctis Wing, Canterlot Castle, Throne room, Day and 12.5 hours into Eternal Night.
Noctis entered the Castle’s Throne room. It had really changed in only a few hours, the previously calm yet demanding aura it had, was turned into an imposing and terrifying one. The long walkway leading up to the dais was now dark and evil, only eliminated by green flames.
Noctis used his years of experience to prevent him from running away screaming. Approaching the dais, he could now see the hooves of his Empress, the rest of her body was hidden in the shadows.
He knelt down before her, his muzzle almost touching the ground, awaiting her command. Finally, her voice rang through the silent throne room.
"Captain, attend us."
Nightmare leapt from her throne, using her leathery wings to glide over Noctis and land behind him. Noctis quickly got to his hooves and hurried behind her alway keeping his stern face.
"As thou must have come to understand, our daughter seems to...have joined the party opposite to us. Tis of course, cannot be. We art aware of thy peculiar abilities to hunt down enemies."
Noctis stumbled for a moment, he didn’t like where the conversation was leading. He didn’t want to 'hunt down' their Crown Princess, nor hurt her in any manner. Stumbling back onto his feet he acted as if nothing had happened and waited for Nightmare Moon to continue.
"We require, that thou finds our daughter and bring her back unharmed in any way, ‘tis includes psychologically. We hope that thy personal team is enough for thy task?"
"Yes my Empress! We shalt do as thou commands." Noctis knelt again and grabbed the hoof Nightmare had extended out with his own, resting a feathery kiss upon it, signaling he had accepted his mission.
"Very well, gather thy men, our Captain, for thou shalt leave soon. We do not wish for her to escape, we last saw her in our old castle. We suggest searching around there."
Noctis bowed again and saluted before galloping out the room, preparing for his departure.
Twilight Capella Sparkle, Star Council Head-Quarters, Entrance Room, Day and 12.5 hours into Eternal Night,
Twilight was tip-toeing across most of the way to the Entrance, it was half an hour before they were to depart. She didn’t want to make their group too big and risk being seen by any Thestrals that were possibly looking for her.
She entered the room, it was filled with barrels and various supplies, there was also a doorway with a stairway behind it that led to the outside world.
She couldn’t help but smile, she had done it! No pony had seen her and she was free to go out. If it weren’t for one small detail...
"Where are you going without your ‘escorts'" Sunset Shimmer’s voice was clearly hinting at the fact that it was a rhetorical question.
"Sh!....Please Sunset" Twilight whispered loudly so only she could hear. "Do not inform anypony of our departure! We shalt reward thou afterwards we promise!"
Sunset hummed, she normally had the patience to play the game but after what had happened it very much lacked.
"Sorry princess, but as soon as you take the first step, I’ll run to get the girls and tell Princesses Celestia and Cadence." Sunset said with a stern voice. "Besides, friendship isn’t about rewards and material needs-"
"Good luck!" Twilight lit her horn before she could react and encased Sunset in a magic-suppressing crystal. She then did a small gesture, acting if she had taken off an invisible hat and tipped it towards Sunset. She then threw her hood on and galloped up the stairs.
It only took her about ten seconds with the help of her wings to get above ground. Her eyes took a moment to focus, she hadn’t been above ground in...a day...er night and a half and her eyes took their time to adjust from the orange light of the torches to the white light of her stars.
She took a moment to remember she had her stars back! She extended her spirit up towards the sky to check on them. Sure enough, like little children as soon as her spirit manifested in the heavens they all went running towards her.
Twilight smiled and extended her wings to catch as many foals as she could in a big group hug. The ones who didn’t make it into the bundle of stars went around and hugged her from behind. After a few seconds, they all let go. Well all except for Polaris who still hung onto her wing.
With a small giggle Twilight lifted her wings over her back and let Polaris jump onto it. Twilight smiled a her stars before walking with them, surveying the ground bellow.
"We art afraid we do not have much time, we must return very shortly to our physical form. But please do tell if thou have been having problems with the extended night."
The stars looked at each other and nodded 'no' pretty quickly. Twilight arched an eyebrow at them before, Capella, one of the oldest of the group spoke up.
"Yes Mistress-"
"Remember, just Twilight" Twilight patiently corrected
"Of course. Twilight, we have been growing a bit tired without being able to sleep so our lights will begin dimming."
Twilight’s facial expression became worried, she looked over to Polaris who was still on her back.
"How much time does thou think thou has Polaris?" She asked, not bothering to keep the worry out her voice.
"Hmm..." Polaris brought a tiny foal hoof to her chin, thinking. "Perhaps, four days to a week at most."
Twilight became panicked. Orion’s letter said her friends split up around Equestria, she wouldn’t have time to travel looking for them. She took a deep breath and let it out.
"That means that we must part and begin the search at once. Do not worry, we will be back shortly."
With a final goodbye and hundreds of little hooves waving goodbye, Twilight’s spirit began it’s quick descent to the ground.
It collided with her body and with a small gasp Twilight was back on the ground in-time to witness a group of Thestrals searching near the old capital’s ruins. Twilight quickly bagan to gallop southeast, using Polaris as a guide.
The forest became more and more dense, but that didn’t stop her. With a determination of a mother trying to save her children (the stars). She ducked and weave through branches and roots.
She looked up to see Thestrals flying on top of the tree line, likely trailing her. Their bat-like wings giving them the ability to catch more air than normal pegasi, they were flying with little effort. The armor they wore was the old kind, very dragon like and intimidating, a contrast to the Day-Guard. Twilight figured they were her mother’s, Nightmare-Sentinels.
Twilight was a good flyer, but her earth-pony stamina allowed her to fly longer distances than most. She made her decision.
Twilight suddenly lit her horn and stopped, catching the sentinels off guard and causing them to fly ahead. She then used her magic to enhance her wings and shoot upwards from beneath the tree line.
She flapped her wings as hard as possible, rocking the trees around violently. She rushed between the sentinels causing them to go off balance and wait to regroup. She scanned the forest for any sign of where the tree lime became so dense it was like a dome.
The experienced sentinel re grouped quickly and were gaining distance on her. Twilight’s magic was faltering, since that particular spell was very costly.
She found what she was looking for and dove towards the ground, clipping her wings on a few branches along the way. She barely landed on her hooves and it hurt...a lot... She let out a small whimper of pain before doing her best to gallop/limp inside. She found a good sized bush and hid behind it.
Twilight gathered as much magic as she could and casted a sound spell that imitated her hooves in a direction completely different to where she was going.
Suddenly, the five Thestrals dove through the tree line, but they actually managed to expertly land.
"Over there! Our Princess’ hooves sound!" A raspy voice called out from just in front her little bush of safety.
"Quick men, the sooner we bring her back safe the better!" Another one, clearly the leader spoke from in front them.
The Thestrals broke into a fierce gallop chasing after her spell. Twilight sighed in relief, she awkwardly got on her hooves and limped towards her goal of Appleloosa.
With each step, her body’s magic reserves kicked into action healing her small cuts and bruises. The pain lessened but she grew more tired as she went on.
She had asked a few ponies how long it took to get there on foot and they had told her that around half a day. She did the count, she had started of by galloping at full speed to try and loose the sentinels, then she had magically enhanced her wings and flew as fast as she could. She must’ve at least managed to cut a couple of hours off.
With each step the ground moss became more and more welcoming and seemed to grow more and more comfortable and cozy to walk on. Twilight shook her head, she knew it wasn’t true, she had to stay awake.
She had sent those sentinels on the wrong track to give herself a self start, she wasn’t going to waste it. She flared up her wings and started flapping them, it was no use, she had clipped them multiple times diving down. She started to gain speed though, her wings served as support and made her body lighter, making it easier to walk.
Twilight trotted for a couple of hours although it now felt more like days. The trees around started getting less and less dense until she found a small clearing with a small pond.
What caught Twilight’s attention was a small cottage to the side, it had been made with scrap wooden boards and on closer look looked more like a tree house. Twilight limped closer to the cottage, her eyes half closed. She made her way to a place between the floor of the house and the grass and collapsed there.
Her last moments of consciousness were a pair of hooves approaching her. A pony looked down and found her, it quickly asked if she was okay but all she could mutter out was.
Then all around her became dark as she drifted into unconsciousness, her head falling on some conveniently placed moss and her wings dropping to her sides.
Night Lilly, Everfree Forest, Cottage/Tree house Home, A Day and 14 hours into Eternal Night,
To say Lilly was stunned was an understatement. She had just been out getting some more ingredients to finish her mother’s soup special when she heard the sounds of metal hooves on the ground. She recognized them as the Nightmare Sentinels and hid, going through the opposite route to her house.
Only to find a pony dragging itself below her floor-board and falling in exhaustion. Lilly assumed it was the Nightmare Sentinel’s doing and quickly moved to help the pony.
Getting a closer look so she could see the pony, Lilly noticed she was a lavender unicorn mare.
'What hast thou done to upset the Empress so?
"Do not...tell anypony...er-creature...'bout me..." The weak mare said before falling unconscious.
Lilly was worried, she knew the Sentinels were ruthless but not that much. The mare had clipped wings, cuts and bruises, she was unconscious and... wait...
'Wings...Horn...Alicorn...'
Lilly took the opportunity to study the mare. She was definitely an alicorn with a stary mane and a six pointed star as a cutie mark, she wore an old style robe and a chest-plate. She was a taller stature than her and her wings faded into a dark blue at the tips.
Lilly began to panic, the mare fit the descriptions of their Princess, left to the Thestrals by their elders. She was pretty conflicted.
One one hoof, the elders had said that if Thestrals ever found the Princess they were to send her their way. On the other hoof, her Princess had told her not to inform anyone of her arrival.
She fell on her haunches, still thinking, she was a slow thinker and processor. Disobedience had gotten her exiled from her village to the Everfree, but her Princess’ command was more important second only to her Empress.
"Okay...Lilly, calm thyself... I know the PRINCESS IS LAYING BENEATH THY HOUSE BUT DO NOT PANIC!" Lilly told herself and ended up screaming. "Okay...okay...okay...just breath." She took a deep calming breath that would put the Love Princess’ 'technique' to shame. "Eeeee! But I can’t believe the Princess is here!"
A big goofy smile spread across her face, she did the best she could to lift Twilight. She got Twilight on her back with much effort but Twilight’s back legs still dragged on the floor.
Lilly hardly made it up the first flight of stairs. Her Tree house was made up with different platforms across three trees. They made it up to the first one, the living room, but still needed to walk up two more to get to her bedroom.
Lilly groaned.
'Why can’t anything be easy for me? Must I really have made three flights of stairs? Stars forgive me but. Why is the Princess so Night-Damn HEAVY?!'
She sighed, giving into her fate and started once again walking up the flights. Each step was a fight but Lilly was winning the war.
'Perhaps I could take thy chest plate off! Surely thou would be less heavy...no, surely that would be some sort of offense. HGN!' *step* 'Perhaps I could...No that’s just dumb. HGN!’ *step*
That cycle continued until Lilly was at her bedroom. She slowly walked inside, her legs hurt, her back hurt, her neck hurt, her wings had fallen asleep and everything was miserable for her.
Until she finally got to her bed. She placed the sleeping Twilight as slowly as possible on her bed. She took off her saddle bags and placed them next to the end of her bed. She left the chest plate alone, again not wanting to leave her highness 'naked'.
"Now, to start healing your wounds."
Lilly forgot all about the soup she was going to make and went to her little study to get the herbs needed to quickly heal Twilight’s wounds and also some wet towels to get her cleaned up.
Twilight Capella Sparkle, Mindscape, Unknown Time unknown,
Twilight’s eyes fluttered open, she blinked a few times to get her eyes adjusted to the brighter lighting of the field she was in.
She looked around searching for anyone who would tell her where she was, but of course she was alone. She looked up at her night sky. How long had she been asleep for?
Her mind started darting around trying to find any calculation that would tell her of the time, her internal clock wasn’t working for some reason.
Her mind was brought out of her thinking spree when a star in her sky blinked out. Then another faded away. Twilight looked up in utter horror as her stars all started fading for they were all like children to her.
A presence she recognized all too well appeared behind her. Twilight’s eyes teared up and her face turned pleading, she looked behind her.
"Mother?!" Twilight’s face changed to true happiness as her mother was standing behind her, smiling and in her familiar shorter and less intimidating form.
"Twilight, I’m so sorry... We can’t talk too much. I managed to break free from the chains in Nightmare Moon’s mind and come to you in dreams."
"Then this is a dream." Twilight sighed in relief and looked back at her stars. One by one they started re-appearing as her mind crafted the skies. "Don’t worry mother, I WILL save you from her. Though I must ask, can you do this with other ponies?"
"Yes perhaps I can, only if I know the dream signature so that Nightmare Moon doesn’t discover the affair. Why my little star?"
"Could you send a message to my friends that are further away in Equestria? We need to use the Elements to free you before the week’s end."
"Your friends...Yes perhaps I could but it would take a while send out the signals."
Around them the world began to fade. Twilight, realizing the dream was nearing it’s end, jumped and hugged Luna as if it were the last time.
"I love you mother."
"I love you mo-"
Luna couldn’t finish her line before the dream ended. And Twilight was brought back to a rather painful reality.
With an un-gracious groan, Twilight’s eyes fluttered open. Almost right away, the candle’s light hit her eyes and almost blinded her. She fell back in discomfort and brought a hoof to her close eyes to massage them.
It was then, her mind decided to catch up to her body and everything started aching, some of her wounds felt as if non-diluted alcohol had been dropped on them...Oh wait.
"Ow! Ow! Ow! Aaaaah it burns!"
Twilight squinted in pain and let herself drop pack down to the bed. Her clipped wings aching at the slightest touch. Twilight shook her head, if she was going to get to the bottom of what happened she would need to fight through the pain.
She got up in a flash, much to her body’s protests. She winced at her pain but lets her body grow accustomed to it. She took a deep intake of air and opened her eyes.
The lights almost blinded her again but she was expecting it that time and it had less of an effect. After blinking multiple times and squinting a bit, her eyes grew very much accustom.
She went to take a step but she found herself incredibly dizzy and her legs shaking. It didn’t take a detective to deduce it was better for her to sit back down on the bed.
The sounds of a door opening alerted her to the new pony. A white Thestral mare with a light pink mane and dark pink draconic eyes stumbled into view.
When Lilly saw the very awake Twilight staring at her with fear and attempting to get back up, she threw herself to the ground in a low bow.
"Y-Y...Thy royal highness! I am so sorry, I meant no offense!" Lilly muttered something underneath her breath un-catchable to Twilight. "My name is Night Lilly ,thy royal highness, I found thou?...thee?.. near our cottage and gave thee refuge. I followed thy command and did not tell any creature of thy presence. Please if thou will banish me at least allow me to pick a star! I like Polaris! Or...maybe Venus...Can you send people to the planets? Hm...maybe Mercury would be more cozy."
"Umm...Miss...Night was it?" Twilight tried to interrupt Lilly’s rant but it was basically impossible.
"But Mercury is too hot, Venus too but it would be less right?"
"Miss Night we shalt not banish thee for thy kindness." Twilight tried as calmly as possible despite her patience running low.
"Wait...Pardon? Thou won’t?" Lilly asked with disbelief.
"Now we shalt not punish thee in any way." Twilight said in a reassuring tone. "In fact, we art thankful! Without thee we surely would’ve ended up capture by mother." Twilight gave a sad smile and nodded. "Now, we art very sorry for inconveniencing thee and we shalt take our leave." She went to get up but she almost fell again.
"Your Highness!” Lilly hurried over to her side supporting her. "You mustn’t get up! You’re too weak!"
Lilly put her back to bed and handed her a bowl of food she had been carrying.
"Thank thee miss Night but we really must get going if we art to arrive in Appleloosa before...What is now the equivalent to sundown."
"Your Highness, Appleloosa is a few hours fly walk from here. I truly encourage you to reconsider and remain here until you are in condition to-" Lilly had forgotten to use the old dialect, something that Twilight noticed but didn’t mind.
"Yes Miss Night," Twilight intervened. "We understand that we art in no condition for a dangerous journey. Whoever, we do not wish to inconvenience thee any further. Once we art able to walk we shalt leave thee. Thou must understand we art in a great hurry and must travel across Equestria in a weeks time."
"Y-Yes of course your highness! I apologize for questioning you." Lilly bowed low trying to be as small as possible.
"Do not fret! Thou hast done nothing wrong." Twilight took the spoon with her magic and took a big sip from the soup. Her face lit up. "T-This is..."
"Is something wrong your highness?! D-Did I put in too many spices?" Lilly looked frantically at Twilight trying to see what was wrong, her keen eye not catching anything.
"Miss Night thy soup is incredible! We truly should have thou teach the royal cooks!"
"W-wait what?" Lilly looked shocked for a moment before beaming with excitement. "Oh! I’m so glad her highness liked it! It is my mother’s recipe, she is the real cook."
"Oh? Thy mother taught you? Then we must meet her someday. Does she live nearby?" Twilight started devouring her soup, she was as hungry as a dragon was greedy.
Lilly gave a sad sigh. "No I’m afraid not, she lives back in the Thestral-Lands to the south."
"Thestral-Lands? Last we remember, Thestrals lived in Equestria along with non-nocturnal ponies."
"Well your highness, when you and her highness Princess Lu- er I mean Empress Nightmare Moon disappeared, Thestrals were hunted down." Twilight’s face went from shock to indignation. "P-please do not get the wrong idea, Princess Celestia did her best to ensure our safety. She privately made refuges in the Equestrian border to keep us safe and they eventually became towns and then cities devoted to Thestrals."
"If we may ask, why does thou not live along side them?"
"I...uh...I disobeyed the Elders, they wanted to support Nightmare Moon but I remembered hearing storied of the kind and patient Princess Luna, a harsh contrast to her...I told them my opinions and they weren’t happy. They ended up banishing me."
Twilight gasped, processing the apparent cruelty of the Elders. She and Luna had spoken with the current Elders’ predecessors and they were kind, understanding and wise. Of course the had their darker side, but only when it was needed.
Twilight was also impressed at Lilly’s judgement and at how fair it seemed to be. She smiled and an idead came to mind.
"We apologize, we didn’t wish to rekindle any nasty memories. If it would make thee feel better, you art correct, Mother was cursed into becoming Nightmare Moon and the lunacy came along the curse." Twilight finished the last of her soup and levitated the bowl to a nearby table.
Lilly was going to say something before Twilight interrupted her. "We art going to Appleloosa to try and find one of the 'pieces' to freeing her and return harmony to the land. Unfortunately, the others art spread out across Equestria. Thou hast a noble heart and we’re right in thy judgement. Those art qualities deserving of respect and admiration even from Elders. We would be honored if thou were to join us and save the land and the stars.
Twilight Capella Sparkle, Everfree Forest, Appleloosan Route, A Day and Sixteen Hours into Eternal Night,
"Soooo...." Lilly broke the awkward silence the two of them had been walking in for a couple of hours. "Why are we heading to Appleloosa again? We are almost there."
Twilight, having her precious thinking silence broken, pushed away some branches with her telekinetic grip. She looked back at Lilly with a warm smile, well...as warm of a smile someone could muster while walking in the most dangerous forest while the world’s fate rested upon their shoulders.
"As thou wilt, hopefully, shortly see, we art going to reunite with the Beast Hunter Orion our right hoof stallion and-"
Twilight was interrupted by Lilly who eagerly shouted her response, causing Twilight to flinch and assume a defensive stance with her sword.
"ORION?! Like THE ACTUAL Orion?! The one from the legend of the council?!"
Twilight after realizing it was Lilly and that no one had heard her screams chuckled a bit and shook her head at her own silliness. "Indeed! We hast found a letter 'detailing' his whereabouts, he is housed in Appleloosa."
"A-And IM going to meet him?!" Lilly’s wings fluttered in anticipation, the leather creating a small wind current near their hooves.
Twilight pushed away another branch. The moonlight coming through the tree tops was now too dim. In response, she casted a light spell, lighting their path with a soft lavender hue.
Twilight hummed cheerily in response, she had to admit that she was excited to see him again in...well for her it felt like a month but for him, a month, a thousand years, a day and sixteen hours.
Twilight stumbled on her hooves but straightened herself before Lilly could notice. 'he left for that mission a month before our...untimely departure, plus a thousand years of ‘banishment' plus the day and roughly half that hast already past by...
The world around her blurted away, Lilly’s exiting re-calling of Orion’s exploits were involuntarily blocked out and her actions became secondary as she paid them no mind. Her previous smile turned into a sad frown as thoughts started pouring in.
‘A lot of time hast past...Will he even remember us?’ Twilight shook her head. ‘No that is extremely unlikely, he wouldn’t forget who he pledged allegiance to, especially to a friend. That being said...Would he be mad at us? A lot of time hast passed and maybe he assumed we left them alone...
Twilight didn’t notice the woods had begun clearing out, allowing the moonlight to illuminate the path so she kept her spell up. Her gaze was fixed unto her hooves and she subconsciously walked through the path that now led down a small cliff.
If she weren’t thinking about every single way their reunion could go wrong, Twilight would’ve recognized the cliff as the 'Everfree Breaker' The cliff that separated the lush green grass of the Everfree and the hot Appleloosan desert sand dunes.
Twilight and Lilly kept walking through a narrow path that led down the cliff. It was a dirt path, with only a few big stones being the only clue that it was once a proud stone path. The vegetation around them became rarer and rarer as they descended to the desert.
Cold sand began showing itself around halfway down the path, sending chills up both mare’s backs. Some small rocks also made it awkward to walk as one of them would often trip and stumble on one of them.
When they were nearing the bottom, Lilly spoke up, snapping Twilight out of her thoughts.
"Excuse me, Princess Twilight?"
“W-What?! Oh yes! What is it that’s troubling you Lilly? And again, call us Twilight."
"Ah yes of course Twilight! Anyways, I was wondering if when we got to Appleloosa, you might let me do the talking."
"Hmm...Is there something amiss about how we speak? Is my dialect no longer the standard for royalty?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, already expecting the response but aside from that, she just kept walking.
"Yes-N-No! I mean...Umm no offense Pri-...Twilight, but your dialect is no longer used not even by royalty, or at least not that I’ve read of. I just thought that maybe ponies might be confused or...might not understand it fully. I’m also aware with more common phrases!"
Twilight chuckled a bit. "Yes, We see thy point. Very astute! Then please, be the one to speak with them. Thought We must ask, and we expect an honest answer. How do royalty speak in the present day?"
"Twilight do you want me to be blunt or sprinkle some white lies?" Lilly asked in all seriousness.
They had now reached the bottom of the path and reached the Appleloosan desert completely. There were rocks from the cliffs above that denied them view of the city but they were quite close.
"Blunt. Absolutely honest." Twilight gave her a determined nod.
"Well...How do I start?"
After a long tirade, heavily filled with jabs at her dialect, Lilly had finally stopped. Twilight was left in self-evaluation and a bit slow. Then her mind finally caught up to the week’s events and she exploded with histeria.
"Hehe...Can th-you...hehe...Can you imagine the confusion We-I...hehe...Caused?!"
Lilly chuckled at that. "Yes, I can see that now." She cleared her throat before speaking again. "We’re almost there, if I remember correctly, Appleloosa should be right around the corne-"
She was interrupted by the sound of very loud engines nearby. Looking forward at where Appleloosa was supposed to be, they say a big dust cloud moving towards them.
Twilight looked at the wind that was lifting the sand and after a few moments looked up to see a massive airship almost on top of them. The airship was painted dark, with silver support beams, it had ‘fish-fins' to the side of what seamed to be the control quarters. The ship could easily have carried a few companies of soldiers on board and still would have enough space to fit good accommodations for each one.
Twilight’s jaw hit the sand, the moonlight of the 'Eternal' Night was allowing her to see most of the details almost perfectly. It had only a few lights coming from the control room, the rest was in the dark.
Twilight swallowed to try and hydrate her now dry throat. "Wh-What is it?" Her eyes lit up with curiosity.
Lilly brought a hoof to her shin and narrowed her slitted eyes at the ship. “S.S. Dark Pearl....Maybe a...commercial ship? Not really sure, the name sets off a few alarms. I haven’t seen or heard about it, maybe....a control flight?"
"No,No, We-err...I meant what is it?"
"Oh...Of course forgot the whole 'stuck in the Moon knows where for a thousand years', sorry."
“No need to apologize! Uh...one second."
Twilight lit her horn and a spherical shield appeared just in time to cover them both from the in-coming sand.
"There." Twilight said with a hint of pride. "Problem adverted though I do suggest that we remain put until it passes. I was never good with shields so I can only do the basics, can’t really move them."
Twilight sat down on the cold sand and Lilly did the same. Lilly then rummaged through her saddle-bags for something. After a little victorious 'Aha!' Lilly pulled out two gourds and handed one to Twilight.
"Here, I packed us some water since...you know...desert."
"Thank you Lilly. Anyways, you were telling me about...What that was."
"Oh right! They’re airships, they use magic to keep them afloat and those propellers you saw, well more like engines, help to move the ship. In addition, in that huge globe that’s on top of it has hot air, helping lift it up."
"Wow, you art really well studied!"
"When you are sent to exile from your home with the closest town being Appleloosa an actual hub for comercial aircrafts...you get a hold of various books. Besides I had to earn bits somehow to furnish my 'house' so I took a job as a shipyard worker sooo I know my stuff."
"Interesting...When you say shipyard worker you mean that you built aircraft or..." Twilight’s voice trailed off asking Lilly to continue her sentence.
"No...I just carried things from here to there. They really didn’t trust me with other jobs. Ponies are still paranoid about us Thestrals."
Twilight gave a sad, deafeated sigh. "I WAS trying to change that, before the incident but I see it has all gone to ruin."
The sand started to fall onto the shield, and the wind stopped hitting it. Twilight waited for a few more seconds before dispelling the shield. Sand fell all around them, causing Twilight to cast a spell to clean her coat and mane and Lilly to shake it off.
Now, Appleloosa was exposed to Twilight’s eyes. She admired all the little details it had to offer with wide-eyes.
The city was very alive, the streets were lit by lamps and the houses almost all had candles or lights on. To the west of the city, a train track laid on the desert sand, and a train was arriving. To the south was a big oasis with a river going to parts unknown.. the the east was a massive shipyard with at least fifty different vessels stocking up on supplies or being repaired. The town hall stood proudly in the middle, though the city was big, it was also incredibly south-western and the town hall was the only stone building in the whole city, the rest were wood.
Twilight’s heart started to beat faster than ever, one of her millennial-old friends was in there and nothing was stopping her.
She galloped at full speed towards the city, only barely hearing Lilly’s calls. Once she got into the outskirts, she had to slow down to be able to gallop through the sharp turns and to avoid hitting any-pony.
She was arriving near the center and the shops and houses seamed to get denser and denser. A shadow cast down from the sky met her head. And next thing she knew she was being slowed down by a very annoyed, very tired Lilly.
She spoke between pants. "Twi-Twilight...D-Don’t do that. We-We don’t want to-to..." She paused and took a big long breath. "Ah...much better. Like I was saying, we don’t want to attract too much attention. We want to appear and disappear almost immediately...okay?"
"'Okay'? What is that word? I’ve heard it several times now and-"
"I’m sorry for interrupting you but please focus."
"Alright. I shall have more caution and stay by your side."
"Great, now...Ah yes." She looked over at an earth-pony stallion walking unbothered through the street. "Excuse me sir, but could you please tell us if you know somepony named Orion?"
The earth-pony stallion looked at Lilly with a warm smile. "Oh howdy y’all! I don’ know why you’r searching for that guy but he lives in a small house near the outskirts-" The earth-pony’s eyes widened and his smile faltered. Then his eyes narrowed and his previous smile became a scowl. "THESTRALS!" He shouted at the too of his lungs.
Immediately, all the ponies around turned to stare at Lily and Twilight. The shared a look of worry and fear and no words were exchanged, they just nodded and flew away.
They flew slowly at first, conserving energy just in case. And that would prove to be a wise decision as they heard another shout behind them.
"GET ‘EM!"
The two mares turned back to find a medium sized 'flock' of pegasi flying towards them.
15 pegasi, 3 look highly trained, 4 only medium trained and the rest...amateurs.
Twilight looked at Lilly with a serious face and spoke with a commanding tone. "Split up, We’ll loose them and meet back at the outskirts from where we entered from."
"Yes ma’am!"
Twilight and Lilly flapped their wings hard, propelling them forward at great speeds. Twilight took of towards the east of the city and shipyard. Twilight looked back again, luckily she got the majority on her side and away from Lilly.
9, no time to analyze just loose them.
She dove into the roads, this time however she managed to lift herself up in time and avoided getting hurt. She spread out her wings to glide, only flapping once or twice when necessary.
She looked back again.
8? Where did the other one-?
A shadow showed itself above her, the moonlight was bright enough to notice it. Twilight noticed it was growing, meaning that whatever it was, it was going to slam into her.
In a matter of seconds, Twilight remembered a cheap tactic one of her friends, Aries, always used. She lifted her body upwards and flapped sending her back. She then flapped again but that time upwards propelling her downward, dodging the group behind her.
The pegasus that wanted to slam her didn’t have time to react or slow down and instead slammed into the wall. The group passed her and only one pegasus seamed to notice, he alerted the others with a shout and they turned around, loosing most of their inertia.
Twilight meanwhile stabilized her self and kept on flying at full speed through the road in the direction from whence she came. All the work re-opened one of her wounds not yet fully healed near the side of her back. Twilight still could fly normally albeit in a lot more pain.
Twilight looked back again.
7, one of them must’ve stayed behind to assist the his ally.
Twilight made a sharp turn into an alleyway. As expected, the pegasi followed suit and got in a line as to not hit each other. She only heard the sound of an amateur hitting a wall and falling out of control and hitting the floor.
The alley-way went into a dead end but Twilight was counting on that. She positioned herself to let only a few of her new entourage see the wall. Then, she flapped up at the last possible second exiting through the top of the alley. She heard three more pegasi hit the wall before getting out of earshot. She focused her sight to try and find Lilly but it was in vain.
Then she heard another pegasi shouting.
"UP THERE!"
Keep flying and loose them in the shipyard
Twilight took of again towards the east. Dodging and weaving around any pegasi that WASN’T chasing her. She even did a barrel roll to avoid one.
Heh, I’m getting a lot better at flying. Then I guess I should try using my instincts on other stuff
Twilight arrived at the shipyard in about three minutes, she could hear the flap in the pegasi’s wings begin to slow. She had her earth-pony endurance to thank for that. She dove and passed between one of the aircraft’s globe and the aircraft itself, taking the opportunity to examine it.
She emerged the other side and immediately flapped as hard a possible to get away, fighting the pain that came with it and heading northwest to the outskirts of the city. She looked back to confirm that in fact she had lost them.
After having found Lilly again, they strode into the small community of houses, the smallest was up a hill and pretty isolated.
Twilight took a shaky breath. Oh how she hopped that the second pony they had asked directions to was right.
The walked up the tiny plaza and up the hill. Twilight was sweating like crazy from the nerves. She took another weak breath in a futile attempt to comfort herself.
Well... I might as well just have him yell, acuse and everything else right bow then later...
Twilight gulped and lifted her hoof up to the door. Out of the corner of her eye she could see Lilly shifting and backing away, giving her space.
Twilight switched her resolve a max and got the strength to knock. She waited for what felt like an eternity until the door was opened all at once revealing the big mass of stallion the was Orion.
"T-Twily?" A tall muscled unicorn stallion stood, frozen outside his own house. The moonlight barely being enough to shine some light on his dark blue coat and purple lion-like mane. His face was one of disbelief. "That really you?"
Twilight flashed him a nervous smile before nodding. Lilly also scooted away.
And just like that, the dam broke. His already shiny pink eyes reflect more moonlight as his eyes started watering. He let out a breath he had been holding and jumped her, grabbing her in a tight bear-hug. He didn’t attempt to hide his sobs as he buried his muzzle in her shoulders.
Twilight patted him on the the back, seeing her friend cry made her eyes water.
"Shh...All is well I am here..." She reassured him. While technically not all was well, the world was still stuck on Eternal night.
I took Orion a while to calm down, his tears made a small puddle under them. Twilight used her wings to hug him and a hoof to wipe away his tears.
"W-Where..." Orion pulled a small handkerchief from a pocket on his jacket and blew his nose...very loudly. "Sorry." He cleared his throat. "Twily, how are you? Where were you all this time?"
"Well, I was basically imprisoned by the Elements all this time." She pulled away from the hug and gave him a reassuring smile. "I’m fine. But, I would like to know how you’ve been fairing."
"Don’t you worry about me Twi. I-I’ve been fine, waiting for you to return as my letter said...Still can’t believe you found me!" He chocked back another sob and grabbed her again. His huge hooves practically crushed her...again...
"Of course! I couldn’t leave my trusty right hoof behind! You would never leave me." Orion again let her go so Twilight could breath again. The cold temperatures bow became much more apparent as she shivered.
"Oh yes! Sorry I forgot how cold it could get during night-time."
Orion got up and opened his door with his magic. She held it opened for Twilight and was about to close it behind him when he caught Lilly in his peripheral vision. He stumbled but regained his bearings. He re-opened the door smiling at the Thestral and held it open for her.
Lilly went in, staring in thought at Orion who stared back. She could barely contain the excitement at meeting her hero and there was a small skip in her steps.
When Twilight saw Lilly enter she remembered not having introduced them to each other.
"Oh my! I’m so sorry I’ve forgotten introduce you. Ahem! Lilly, may I present Orion the beast hunter, right hoof stallion to the Third Princess of Equestria, Protector of Equestria, Winner of certain mare’s-" Twilight winked at Lilly as a smirk played on her face. "- hearts and all those tittles."
To that, Lilly blushed a bit but otherwise ignored Twilight.
"And Orion, allow me to introduce, Night Lilly, savior of the Third Princess of Equestria, professional herbalist-"
"Well I wouldn’t say...professional..." Lilly interrupted Twilight. Just when Twilight was about to speak she interrupted again. "Could you...Keep my introduction short? I don’t really have any tittles."
Twilight huffed. "Fine..." She also mumbled underneath her breath 'Even if I love to use them' She cleared her throat and spoke again. "Orion, allow me to introduce Night Lilly."
Orion nodded with a smile. "It’s a pleasure to my your acquaintance Miss Night Lilly."
"I-um...The pleasure is all mine-!"
"You don’t say?" Twilight chuckled.
"Hey!" Lilly protested then cleared her throat. "And you can just call me Lilly."
"Likewise." Orion agreed the turned to face Twilight. "Soo...I guess we need to address the elephant in the room."
Twilight looked around the living room searching for the elephant or at least a small statue. "Umm...I don’t see it."
Lilly and Orion both face-hoofed. Orion let out a groan and Lilly just took a deep breath to give herself patience. "Twilight, 'the elephant in the room' is one of those phrases we talked about."
"Really? Pray tell Orion what did you mean?” Twilight raised an eyebrow at him.
"I meant, that we need to address the obvious issue." He pointed at a nearby window. "I don’t think you could explain why the moon hasn’t lowered for almost two straight days?"
Twilight sighed, it was a tired and sad sigh. "Yes, yes I can." She took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "What did Auntie tell you after you got back from you trip?"
"Well, she told me about the shaman she and Princess Luna fought, and the curse, apparently it found a way to complete itself and turned her into a wicked mare." He took a sharp intake of air. "She told me you had disappeared after the battle and was unable to give me more information."
"Well that is true, it at least spares me an explanation. Anyways, after a thousand years I woke in Canterlot, I waited until I could access my full power and used the stars to break the harmony chains on mother. She was brought back to Equus but she was still wicked and I and Auntie’s protégé failed to stop her. We hid in the head-quarters and mother hasn’t lowered the moon since."
Orion blinked a couple of times. "Huh, and I guess you need my help to save Equestria....again?"
Twilight winced slightly. "I’m sorry Orion, I really don’t want to impose such burden upon you but-"
"Twi, don’t you dare apologize! I swore allegiance to you! So I will ALWAYS stand by your side no matter what you do! Because not only are you my Princess but my friend."
After his cheesy speech, Orion’s already stary eyes twinkled even more, a spark also lit up in Twilight’s eyes. All of the sudden, a hexagonal sapphire appeared before him.
"The Element of Loyalty! Fit for you, don’t you think?" Twilight mused, her spirit was lifted at the sight and she started to resemble her previous personality.
The sapphire then started glowing and moving but not towards Orion, instead towards a small drawer to a side of the room. Twilight looked at it with wonder before turning to Orion with a quizzical look. Orion shrugged and carefully approached the drawer. He lit his horn and opened it, immediately the sapphire went in and a blinding white light caused everyone in the room cover their eyes with a hoof.
After the light died down Orion stared at the opened drawer with a smile. His big body covered it so Twilight took flight and motioned for Lilly to do the same. They flew and took positions to look over Orion’s shoulders.
In the drawer, was a golden chest piece almost identical to the one Twilight was wearing, the difference was that Orion’s had silver plates that covered the neck of the user. The sapphire incrusted itself into the chest piece near the middle.
Orion levitated the chest piece to his eye level inspecting it. He took a deep breath and blew the dust off causing Twilight and Lilly to cough and use their wings to blow away the dust. Orion then pulled out his handkerchief and polished the chest piece.
He then levitated something that was in a dark corner, causing both Twilight and Lilly to look over. When the moonlight that entered through the window hit it, they noticed it was a bow and quiver filled with arrows.
Orion donned the chest piece and adjusted his quiver behind his back and did the same with his bow.
"Say no more Princess!" He saluted at Twilight who rolled her eyes and nodded.
"We have to be quick, we still need to find the others...and head to Headquarters to make sure Auntie doesn’t worry her mind off...and also apologize for freezing Sunset..." Twilight said sheepishly.
"Who’s Sunset?" Both Orion and Lilly asked causing the both to look at each other.
"Auntie’s protégé apparently, she tried to stop me from coming into the Everfree as soon as possible so I froze her." Twilight shrugged as if nothing.
...
"Why art you looking at me like so?"
"No reason." Orión made his way towards the door and opened it."We better be going if we’re going to catch 'Le Voyageur'” He motioned to the door with his head.
"The what now?" Lilly asked.
"'Le Voyageur' if I remember correctly it means 'The Traveler' in prench." Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof.
"Correct. It’s a prench commercial aircraft, apparently it’ll depart towards Canterlot today and it’ll pass above the Everfree forest." Orion stated.
"How do you know?" Twilight asked.
"I might be ageless but I still need food, and bits to by set food, so I work at the administrative offices for the shipyard." Orion said as a matter of factly.
"Don’t get smart with me!" Twilight warned. "Why do we need to go on an aircraft? Can’t we fly through the Everfree?"
"Aircraft are currently the fastest wat to travel, it only takes them a few minutes to get to their full speed, this commercial aircraft should only take about...an hour to get to Canterlot meaning just above 30 minutes to Everfree City."
"Okay, I get your point. How art we getting on? Ponies didn’t react positively to us..."
"We could always fly and break-in!" Lilly broke into the conversation. "Twilight can levitate you behind us while we fly and intercept the ship."
"Great idea Lilly! Come on." Twilight grabbed Orion in her magic, earning a small protest from him. She the unfurled her wings and Lilly did the same. "Lilly, lead the way."
With powerful wing flaps the took off gaining a lot of altitude before hovering in the air for a few seconds. Once they were both ready, they glided in circles looking for the airship. The stayed like that a couple of minutes, flapping occasionally to gain altitude until-
"There! Twily at you six!" Orion yelled and pointed a hoof at a mass lifting itself from the ground.
"Understood! Lilly?" Twilight asked as she redirected herself towards the target.
"Ready!" Lilly nodded.
"Orion...I apologize. Hold onto thy stomach!" Twilight yelled as she plunged down to the aircraft.
Lilly followed suit, only a bit behind but her Thestral wings were able to catch up. They flapped furiously hopping to catch it before it got to max speed.
Poor Orion was screaming like a mad man as he was being pulled by Twilight’s telekinetic grab.
Lilly and Twilight turned a bit towards the direction of the Everfree anticipating some movement.
The wind blew their manes back as the reached speeds so incredibles they would make Rainbow shed liquid pride.
Suddenly, Twilight heard a voice that sounded like Lilly’s behind her.
"Can’t...this!...too....-ary!"
Twilight looked back in time to find Lilly had already turned upwards using the momentum to lift up. The glow around Twilight’s horn intensified a little when she grabbed Lilly in her telekinetic grab along with the still screaming Orion.
When she looked back in front of her, the airship was at her level maybe a little higher.
'It’s now or never!'
She flared out her wings catching a lot of wind, lifting her up. She glided at an angle that she caught up with the airship in no time. She aimed at the backside of the ship behind some boxes and flapped.
She stopped enough for her momentum to only skid when she hit the floor...But she missed. Instead on landing behind the boxes, she crashed into them. Her horn fizzled as her concentration broke. The two she had been continued they’re path without being able to stop and they too crashed into the boxes.
"Owee..." Lilly groaned.
"Ow! Ow! OOOoOoOooW! Sheesh Twi you need to AIM!" Orion shifted from his position but with every move, he winced from the pain.
"Oh shush! I did aim...just...a wind caught my right wing..." Twilight struggled to her feet and looked around, Lilly was laid above the crates and boxes but Orion had rolled at the wrong moment and ended up becoming a bowling ball, in the end he ended up upside down, his back to the wall of the cabin.
'The cabin crew! They must’ve heard the ruckus! They’ll be here any minute.'
Suddenly the sound of hooves coming answered Twilight’s suspicions. She grabbed both Lilly and Orion and teleported them to the cabin’s roof with small lavender pops. Then she very carefully flew up to join them.
She was greeted by a nauseated Lilly and a disoriented Orion.
"Stop...playing with...my stomach." Lilly grabbed her belly ready to throw up.
Twilight gestured a 'shh’ with her wing. Orion shook his head trying to shake away the daze. After that he and Twilight peeked of the ledge careful not to be seen, then were soon joined by a semi-recovered Lilly.
Down near the crates were a couple of ponies, three unicorns, two earth ponies and a Thestral all wearing black uniforms, the Thestral’s was slightly different with golden shoulder pats. All three of them looked at each other in confusion, Orion leaned in between them and whispered.
"I thought that they didn’t take kindly to Thestrals. Um...No offense Lilly."
"Nome taken" Lilly whispered back.
They looked back and this time they focused their ears to the six ponies below.
"Hey you!" The Thestral flared up her leather like wings and pointed a hoof at the unicorns. Her voice was raspy and strong, almost military-like. "Get these crates back in order! And take inventory too. I want to know if any crates are unaccounted for! Then you take them underground." Then she turned to the two earth ponies. "You! Go underground and check on the prisoners, make sure you find who’s responsible. Though I doubt those rich folk would raise a hoof against us."
"Yes ma’am!" Both groups answered at the same time and saluting before running of to fulfill their orders.
Twilight looked back at her two companions. She shared a look with Orion while Lilly stared in confusion. After a while they looked back at Lilly with a mischievous look.
Orion’s horn started to glow light blue and it surrounded his bow, levitating it off his back. He aimed his bow at the unicorns without taking an arrow from his quiver. His horn glowed brighter as a blue arrow made out of light materialized between the bow and it’s string ready to be fired.
Orion’s eyes narrowed at his targets, they too glowed light blue for a moment before turning back to their normal silver.
Twilight lifted a hoof to signal him to wait. She looked around and found a guard coming their way. With her wings she motioned at Lilly and then at the guard.
Lilly paled when she realized what they wanted. She sat on her flank and lifted her hooves up in defense before shaking her head violently in a 'no’ motion. Her ears folded back and she looked down. She wasn’t comfortable with hurting other ponies, not even if they were the enemy.
Twilight walked up to her and placed a hoof on her shoulder smiling warmly and nodding. Then her face turned harsh again as she turned towards the incoming guard.
'Earth Pony...average body type, so a very slim chance of him spotting us. Average walk meaning he’s either tired or new, either wat it benefits us and gives us an advantage.’
Her train of thought was interrupted by a slight tapping of hooves coming from Orion asking for permition to shoot.
Twilight raised her hoof again, stopping him. The guard was now nearing the rest of the unicorns. She turned back around to Orion and mouthed 'add him'. Orion’s horn glowed brighter for a moment before the enchantment was enhanced. The guard was now passing next to the unicorns. Twilight let her hoof down signaling Orion to open fire.
Orion released his hold on the arrow, and it flew through the air at incredible speeds, following his gaze. The arrow hit the deck between the ponies gaining their attention. Suddenly, the arrow split into four, all targeting individual ponies.
The first two hit the closest unicorns, making them fall unconscious with a 'thud' the other unicorn tried grabbing a crate and shielding himself with it but the arrow just suddenly changed directions hitting the unicorn where it hurts and he too fell unconscious.
The guard realized what was going and dodged to the side, the he rolled forward dodging when it came back. This continued for a few times before the enchantment ran out of power. Unluckily for the guard, Orion had already prepared a stunning arrow and had shot it. The arrow was no bigger than a blow-dart and it hit the guard right on the neck paralyzing him and making him fall.
Twilight was the first to leap off, using her wings to glide and turn her descent into an intimidating maneuver. She landed and stood at her full height above the guard. She lifted him up with her magic so they met at eye level.
Behind her landed Orion and Lilly although Orion’s was more graceful than Lilly’s since she was just trying, and failing, to copy Twilight which made Orion snicker.
"Tell us dear guard. Where doest this cargo go?" Twilight was glaring at him which made him gulp before answering.
"We’re taking it to her Majesty...Umm...Well more like to Commander Nocte Wing..."
"And why art thou transporting them in a FOREIGN, CIVILIAN, Aircraft?"
"We...ummm...captured it?..." The stallion squeaked and shrunk to the best of his abilities seeing as he was still paralyzed.
"And whom might be in charge?"
"Captain Rest..."
"Very well. Orion? Would thou be so kind as to do the honor?" She asked turning back to see Orion had already charged up his bow and was already aiming.
"Yes, I would love to." With that, he released the arrow and the guard fell unconscious.
Twilight pointed at Lilly and Orion then at the unicorns. "Orion and I will use their uniforms. Lilly? You’ll use the guard armor, you’ll be safer and less suspicious if a Thestral."
"Okay...But I won’t have to..." Lilly asked in a concerned tone.
"You shouldn’t have to, but you’ll never know, that’s why you’ll be 'guarding' me and Orion." Twilight nodded taking off the unicorn mare’s vest.
"Ahh...I get it now...We’re going undercover?" Lilly asked taking off the guard’s saddle.
"Yes, but we must hurry, we only have around twenty five minutes to find and save these ‘prisoners'." Twilight nodded and put on the vest and jacket, hiding her wings. "Hide the unicorns behind the cabin, that should buy us some time."
Twilight finished putting on the uniform and started levitating the sleeping stallions. Orion too levitated a couple and Lilly was struggling with a stallion on her back.
"Hey Lilly, let me help you with that one." Orion said as he levitated the sleeping stallion off Lilly’s back.
"Thanks!" Lilly gave him a warm smile. She trotted next to them never drooping her smile, always alert in case she heard somepony coming.
They put down the sleeping bodies 'gently' behind the cabin, where no pony would normally go if not on patrol. Then Twilight enforced Orion’s sleeping enchantment. Then they all fixed the crates to the ship with some conveniently placed rope.
When all that was done they walked around deck looking for the stairs down to the ship’s 'entre pont’. They found it rather quickly, next to the stairs was a sign:
1st Floor: Economy Class 2nd Floor: Business Class 3rd Floor: Noble Suites 4th Floor: Employee Rooms 5th Floor: Kitchen, Boiler Room, Armory 6th Floor: Storage
Orion turned to Lilly and Twilight. "So, where too?"
"Well..." Twilight started. "They won’t be in the Noble Suites or in the other two classes since they must at least have a basic level of comfort. They would probably be in the Storage or Armory, maybe both." She turned to look at Orion looking for confirmation and he simply nodded.
They walked down the stairs, they crossed a few guards but they just acted as if they were supposed to be there. They soon arrived at the sixth floor of the aircraft. There was a short hallway with a door that said 'storage' on top, next to it, were two Thestral guards. Twilight took the lead and spoke in a commanding tone to one of the guards.
"Clear the area."
The guards looked at each other for a moment but didn’t budge. One of them turned to them and asked. "You are not one to give us orders sun pony."
"We got DIRECT orders from Captain Rest, she wishes this area to be cleared immediately." Twilight stomped a hoof on the ground creating a slight crack on the wooden floor.
"Why would she have us leave the area unguarded?"
"Listen, If you wish to argue, take your complaints to her. Although...She’ll be furious to know you doubted her... And you don’t want that, do you?" Twilight’s low tone made the threat sound even more real.
The Thestral stallion gulped and nodded to his companion. He made a quick salute and entered the room. He stayed inside for a brief moment and then him and another fifteen guards walked out of the room. They started up the stairs and Twilight waited until the were out of earshot.
"Very well, Orion, stand guard. When the so called Captain Rest notices we need to be out so give us a signal. Lilly, come with me. We need to free as many of these prench ponies."
"Aye aye Captain!" Lilly joked and saluted, Orion said nothing but saluted none the less.
Twilight took a deep breath and signaled to Lilly to cover her ears. She blasted the door open and shouted in The Royal Canterlot Voice:
"Prench citizens! Dost not fear. We art here to set the free!"
The prench ponies looked around at each other until finally some pony decided to translate and there was a universal sigh of relief.
Meanwhile, Twilight counted all the prench citizens, there were 500 in total, 147 were pegasi, 163 were earth ponies and the rest unicorns. If the pegasi could carry twice their weight on average, they could evacuate 294 out of the 500 ponies. She turned to shout back to Orion.
"Orion! Get ready and grab as many ponies as possible, Lilly, grab Orion and fly down with him!" She turned back to the croud.
"Pegasi! Grab pony who can’t fly and aide them to the ground. Then, if thou can, return and aide another."
By that point, Orion had stepped in. Twilight grabbed the door and placed it back were it was supposed to be, then she used her magic to melt the metal around it and to cool it enough for it to stay put. She then used her magic to blast a hole on the wall to allow ponies to get out.
Suddenly a large gush of wind erupted from the opened wall causing the airship to slow down significantly. The wind also blew various ponies back, except for the strongest unicorns, pegasi and earth-ponies. They took a while to rearrange themselves and then the pegasi began carrying the passengers out.
When most of the weakest earth ponies and unicorns were gone, Twilight once again began shooting holes in the wall, the wind slowing the airship even more so some pegasi could return.
She nodded to Lilly and Orion on her struggling back, then stopped them with a hoof before they could take off.
"Apologies Lilly, I didn’t realize you couldn’t carry so much weight. Carry only the ponies you can, to prevent any...incidents."
A slightly panting Lilly responded. "Y-yes...Your Highness!"
"Just Twilight!" Twilight said in a commanding tone.
Lilly gave a slight smirk "Of course Highness Princess Twilight."
Twilight groaned in frustration and turned to Orion. "We don’t have time for this! Hop on my back and levitate as many as possible."
"Yes Twi!" He gave a quick salute before carefully getting on her back, something that was made difficult considering he was bigger than her.
"Off! Sweet Sun, Moon and Stars! Loose some weight!" Twilight protested.
"Hey! I ain’t THAT heavy. Besiiiides it’s all muscle!" He retorted.
"You wish! I’ll show you what it means to be made out of muscle!"
Twilight suddenly unfurled her wings and stood to full height. She lit her horn and a pinkish aura surrounded most of the remaining passengers. Orion did the same and a light blue aura surrounded the passengers that Twilight had left him. Lilly also grabbed two remaining foals and prepared to take off.
With powerful flaps they took off with the passengers floating behind them. She heard some 'wee's and 'OoOoH!'s behind then and the occasional ‘I’m going to me siiiick'...mostly coming from Orion.
They glided around for a while until they found the telltale sing of unicorn magic bellow. Twilight sped up their descent aiming towards the light under the tree tops. She stopped just before hitting the branches and carefully set down the ponies. She waited until Orion had done the same before levitating him off her back and safely down until he was about a foot above the ground. Then she dropped him without warning.
"Doest anypony speak Equuish?" Twilight asked to the crowd. They fell silent and looked around, some in confusion and others looking as if they were searching for someone. Eventually, a white unicorn stallion with a fiery red and orange mane stepped forward.
“I do, your Highness." He had a deep voice and a slight prench accent. "And if I may, I would like to thank you for saving us from those un-civilized pirates." He knelt down and took one of her hooves into his own and laid a feathered kiss on it. "And for that you have our eternal gratitude."
Twilight nodded in appreciation, not noticing the death-glare Orion was giving the unicorn. She carefully lifted her hoof and placed it down on the ground. "Thank thee...mister..."
“Glimmering Light, your Highness.” He responded.
"Mister Glimmering Light. Our prench isn’t the...best so we were hoping thou would be willing to translate." She turned to the silent crowd. "We art putting Mister Radiant Light in charge of thy group. You art to follow him North until thou find the ruins of an ancient city. Nearing the city-center there is a mostly intact fountain depicting two alicorns, to it’s right is a mostly destroyed building with a hidden entrance, descend the stairs and there thou wilt find a pony settlement were thou can take refuge.
Our entourage shalt make haste as we have some business that can not and wilt not wait, so thou wilt not have us to guide thee."
After Glimmering Light finished the translation, the prench ponies erupted in cheers before getting shushed by Twilight and the others before they got caught. Twilight smiled and waved goodbye with her wing. She turned over to a smiling Lilly and opened her wings, Lilly did the same and Orion braced himself to 'fly' back.
Twilight Capella Sparkle, Council HQ, Day and twenty hours into Eternal Night
Twilight sneaked into the Head Quarters, something that was made more difficult when her companions were either motion sick or extremely excited to enter. Nevertheless, she managed to enter through the main entrances without anyone finding out. She wasn't trying to avoid her aunt, her aunt's student, her aunt's student's friends and her cousin, she just didn't want to get lectured for leaving them behind.
Twilight looked back at her friends and helped Orion down the rest of the steps while Lilly was gawking at...the walls. Twilight let out a tired groan and turned back to the hallway that led to the bedrooms, then she stopped in her tracks looking at the entrance.
There standing with a very disappointed frown was her aunt, Celestia, and next to her was a very pissed off Sunset Shimmer. She looked back at her two companions and chuckled nervously. They came up to her side and from there things went south. Orion bowed respectfully at Princess Celestia but otherwise did not say or do anything. Lilly on the other hoof just stared at her not even bothering to nod her head causing Orion to nudge her and Sunset to glare. Twilight sighed and looked back to her aunt and friend.
"Auntie, Sunset." She addressed them politely. "May I present my two companions, Orion and-"
"Bow to Princess Celestia." Sunset said as she turned to glare at Lilly. ''She lifts the sun every day and is the most powerful pony there is so you WILL show respect." Sunset lit her horn with magic.
Lilly just raised an eyebrow and Orion got up, not turning his gaze from Sunset, his face was serious a big difference from his care free persona. Twilight and Celestia looked at each other with concern. Celestia turned to her student and put a hoof on her shoulder.
"Give it a rest Sunset-"
"But-!"
"LEAVE. IT. SUNSET SHIMMER." Celestia scolded, Sunset slowly nodded her head and looked at the ground even though the tension still remained in the room.
"-and this is Night Lilly. She saved me from some Thestral Scouts in the forest." Twilight continued her earlier introduction. Celestia nodded and turned to her two companions.
"Yes it's a pleasure to meet you Miss Night, you too Orion."
"Likewise Auntie Celly." He smirked at her and she stared blankly at him.
"And here I thought you had lost your sense of humor. But we're getting off track." Her face turned serious again and she looked at Twilight who flinched slightly. Seeing this, Lilly placed herself slightly in the middle of both of them ready to intercept any attack done by Celestia.
"Yes Auntie? What seems to be the problem?'' Twilight asked in faux innocence. She also stepped in front of Lilly so that they would be facing each other without somepony in the middle. She looked at Orion and used her eyes to discretely motion towards Lilly. Orion nodded slightly and did the same Lilly did to them to her.
"You did not only go against my wishes and leave ALONE you also froze-''
"Crystalized" Twilight corrected.
"-Crystalized my protege!" Celestia finished and pointed at Sunset who flinched. Twilight turned to Sunset and shot her a glare that basically screamed 'snitch'. She then turned to Celestia again and explained.
"I apologize for that, but I needed to reach Aploosa-"
"Appleloosa" It was Celestia who interrupted this time.
"-Appleloosa as soon as possible! Auntie, if I don't hurry, my stars will dim and eventually die in a week! I have a WEEK to re-awaken the Elements of Harmony and bring mother back to lower the moon and make way for the day!"
"No pressure...." Sunset mumbled under her breath, earning another glare from Orion.
Celestia was taken aback by Twilight's declaration and sighed sadly, suddenly her façade fell and her mood became depressed. Twilight caught this and flinched.
'That is never good...'
She turned to Sunset with a concerned face. "Sunset, would you mind stepping out of the room?''
"Sure Princess..."
After Sunset left the room Twilight added a sound-proof spell around the room to avoid any eavesdropping, not that she distrusted Sunset, she just didn't trust the other nobles that took up residence in her Head-Quarters. She took in a deep breath, readying herself for the bad news.
"Auntie, what happened?"
Celestia took her time to regain her voice and to collect her thoughts thinking how to put it. "Twilight...Have you looked at the stars recently?''
Twilight's mind went into overdrive, without letting Celestia continue, she lit up her horn and expanded her conscious out of her body and towards the sky. HE body materialized in a midnight blue void. Little foals and fillies also materialized almost immediately. Two older foals, a colt and a filly came running towards her with distressed frowns.
"Mistress!" They called out to her. The rest of the star children went and hugged her. When they pulled apart, Twilight spoke up.
"Capella, North Star, please tell me what's wrong... What stars are unaccounted for?" Cappella and North Star Looked at each other before Cappella cleared her throat and looking timidly up a Twilight.
"...The entirety of the Leo Guild..." She squeaked.
"WHAT?!...H-H-How?!...When?..." Twilight's eyes started filling with tears and their tracks stained her lavender coat. She fell to the 'floor'. All of the star children began running to her side and hugging her comforting her. "Leo..." She croaked out. They stayed like that for a while until Twilight could catch her voice, she turned to Cappella again and asked. "...How?"
"We...We don't know...But we have theories! You see Mistress, apparently, before Sir Starswirl the Bearded disappeared into limbo, he found a way to actually hurt star beasts with a magical artifact. Since star beasts are made from stars as well as the Sky Lords' cores. Somepony must have found his notes and recreated the artifact to be able to 'kill' stars."
"But...How did I not sense it with my magic?" Twilight asked, shedding more tears.
"I believe North Star is more qualified to answer that." Cappella nodded to North Star who cleared his throat and stepped up next to Cappella.
"Indeed I can, you see Mistress, you're magic reserves were cut off temporarily by the Elements, when you forced them open it may have damaged your ability to sense us and our well-being temporarily." North Star came up to Twilight and hugged her muzzle with his tiny hooves. "It wasn't your fault Mistress. You couldn't have done anything to stop this, and neither could we."
Twilight sighed, her tears began being more scares but they still came out. "I know North Star, and thank you...All of you. I-I need to head back, I've been gone long enough and I still need to inform Orion and Auntie about...This."
Hundreds if of little heads nodded in agreement, some faces were sad for the lose of their comrades and some were trying to lift the spirits of their Mistress by giving encouraging smiles. As Twilights spirit started to descend again, she could now tell the painful lack of Leo's constellation .
Twilight came back to her senses to see a very worried looking Orion and Lilly and a sad Celestia. Although it now looked more like pity towards Twilight...And she hated it. Twilight brought a hoof to her face, it was still very wet and stained from all the crying. She always suspected that her body also had physical reactions while she was up in the skies and this confirmed her theory, but she didn't have the strength to be happy, not after what happened. She looked at the waiting eyes of her friends and family and worked up the courage and voice to speak.
"Leo...was...killed."
For a moment the room was silent, her friend's faces were a mix of confusion, fear and in Orion's case, sadness. Even her aunt's ever perfect façade faltered and seemed surprised.
"I-It's not funny Twi...That...He can't be..." Orion's eyes filled with tears once again, but instead of his tears of joy from earlier that day, these were filled with deep sorrow and pain for the loss of his friend and brother. Twilight ran to comfort him in a similar fashion her stars had done to her. Then Lilly too joined the group hug spreading her wings and encasing her two crying friends.
Celestia tried approaching them and opening her mouth to speak but her words came off silent when caught by a glare from Lilly. She ended up having to sit there and look as her niece was comforted by her basically brother and an instinct-driven Thestral that didn't let her close to try and help.
Celestia Invictus, Council HQ, At That Moment,
'Thestral instincts are sometimes extreme but this? I haven't seen one so "aggressive" in a long time. It probably has to do with Twilight being Luna's daughter. Sometimes I wonder why Luna created those instincts to such lengths to protect Twilight. Not that she doesn't deserve it mind me! It's just that she sacrificed her subject's rights to decision in doing so... '
Celestia sighed, she looked back at the scene before her, specifically to Lilly with sadness. She remembered the moment she found out what Luna had done. It was before her descent into madness by the curse, maybe a few months before. They were in the old castle, Everfree City was currently booming with activity and Equestria was prospering without much problems. Luna had come up to her with a big smile on her face and had interrupted Day Court, something that was very unexpected of her since she was a 'hardcore night owl'.
"Sister!" Celestia could hear Luna's happy voice clearly in her head. "We have found the most wondrous thing! Our subjects, the Thestrals have an instinct deep within their spirits to serve the current Night Regent, or in our case Night Regents! "
The scene in Celestia's head shifted, she was now in front on Luna, she was explaining her recent discoveries concerning her Thestrals subjects. She too was happy for her until Luna continued.
"And so, deer sister, we have managed to increase their instincts to incredible sizes! They will now go into something resembling a trance, all just to protect us! Isn't it wonderful? What magic can do nowadays is truly a sight to behold! "
"Sister, what art thou thinking?!" Celestia heard herself screaming. "Thou art sacrificing our subjects WILL in thy persoute for knowledge!"
"It is for our protection! Hath thou forgotten about that cursed shaman that hath cursed us and our daughter?! She needs as much protection as possible! How can thou be so selfish to deny her of her subjects' love and adoration through their oaths?!"
"Of course she deserves that! But thou cannot simply control them or take advantage of them because of their natures!"
Their argument had ended in Luna flying away in anger, and Celestia conducting her own research on Thestrals and curses making her find out about the Shaman's curse failure and it's possession of Luna, but by then it was too late to reverse it in anyway other than the Elements of Harmony.
Celestia sighed for what seemed like the umpteenth time and brought her mind to the present again. She saw two mourning ponies and a Thestral resting her wings on both of them. Twilight and Orion had finished crying and melted into the group hug. They sat in silence just looking at the ground, their eyes red from crying.
Celestia got up making them look at her. She looked down and wore her best smile although it still seemed sad. She opened the door to the chamber with her magic and said to them.
"I'll have somepony prepare you a room. I'll also have them desert the hallway towards your bedroom so you have all the privacy you'll need... It's truly a pleasure meeting you Miss Night."
"Lilly" The Thestral mare said before Celestia left. She turned around to face the mare and smiled.
"Then you can call me Celestia"
Celestia walked out and gently closed the door behind her leaving the others inside and left to fulfill what she set out to do.
Twilight Capella Sparkle, Council HQ, At That Moment,
Twilight sniffed and wiped away her tears with her hoof and did the same to Orion. She turned to Lilly with a grateful smile. "T-Thanks Lilly..."
Orion looked up to her too and managed to croak out. "Ye-Yeah thank you...You really didn't need to."
Lilly shrugged with a kind smile. "You guys are right, I didn't have to. BUT I wanted to. That's just how I am, I see somepony sad and I just have to comfort them, no matter how much time it takes me."
Twilight chuckled lightly but ended up coughing. She yawned and stretched, suddenly her exhaustion became very apparent. "Well...I don't know about you but I'm exhausted...."
Twilight lit up her horn and opened the door, as Celestia promised, the hallway was empty except for an awkward looking Sunset Shimmer standing next to the door. She stammered for a moment before composing herself and coughing into her hoof to clear her throat.
"I-Uh....I wanted to apologize to Lilly and-"
"Apology accepted Sunbutt!" Lilly responded with her bubblely mood coming back, which lifted the Twilight's and Orion's spirits.
"S-Sunbutt?! That's my new nickname? Really Fang-Mouth?" Sunset retorted.
"It doesn't have the same ring to it as Sunbutt. So, why else are you here? Not that I don't mind." Lilly said with a shrug.
"I'm also here to show you guys to your bedroom." Sunset said looking at Twilight strangely but deciding not to voice any concerns she had.
"Aren't we using my room?" Twilight asked.
"Uhh...Yes, but Princess Celestia made some 'modifications' to the room."
Twilight looked troubled, her tastes and her Auntie's didn't exactly match. "...What did she do?"
"You'll see!"
'Wow...' Was all Twilight thought as she gazed at her improved room. Her Auntie normally had no skills in figuring out what she liked in the past, but this time?
Her room was 'slightly' bigger, the worn out stone bricks that composed the room were now clean and smooth, they were painted in a dark lavender tone. The floor's wood was magically repaired and painted in a dark blue-ish/purple-ish hue. The room was lighted by torches placed in a way they gave the room an uniform orange glow.
A circular queen sized bed sat to the right, it's back against the wall. A lavender rug with Twilight's cutie mark was embroidered on it laid in the middle of the room. To the left, was a big dark wooden desk with sufficient quills and paper.
'I wonder where Auntie got those.'
There were two doors next to her bed, which she assumed to be her closet and bathroom.
Twilight stood speechless for a moment before shaking her head and re-organizing her thoughts. She looked back to Sunset who was looking at her nervously. Twilight saw something else in her though, anxiety. Why would she be anxious? Then it clicked, Sunset had done this, not Celestia. Twilight smiled at Sunset.
"I know you did this, Sunset." She commented with a bright smile. "I must say it is a wondrous job. Did you do this yourself?"
"You really like it?" Sunset beamed and when Twilight nodded she got even more excited. "No, my friends helped out, specially Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Rarity helped me design it, Applejack helped assemble and paint it and Rainbow helped get us the resources."
"That is so kind of them, although I have to ask...Why?" Twilight inquired.
"Well...They wanted it to be kind of a thank you gift. For allowing their little sisters and, in Applejack's case her whole family." Sunset explained to Twilight who winced.
"Even after I offended you in the throne room and disgraced you by leaving you behind?" Twilight prodded looking slightly sheepish.
Sunset chuckled slightly. "heh, Yup! To them you saved their families from certain doom. And for that they feel like they're forever in your debt."
"I-I-I don't..." Twilight stammered but was cut off by Sunset before she could continue.
"Oh I wouldn't worry too much about that. I'll leave you guys alone now. Good night!"
"'Night Sunbutt!" Lilly chimed in and waved with a hoof. Sunset was going to retort but Orion closed the door before they could start throwing insults at each other.
Twilight unceremoniously walked over to her bed and threw herself unto it she scooted over to the right side and pointed with her wings towards door to the left of the room that was well hidden at first sight. She turned to her friends and spoke.
"I'm really tired, in there is another room for my personal guests, there are two beds, I would suggest getting some rest. Tomorrow..err...Tomorrow night?...Tonight? Doesn't matter just..." She yawned deeply and closed her eyes and laid her head on the pillow. "Wake me up so we can continue our search."
"O-Of course Twi. Good night." Orion opened the door Twilight had pointed to and stepped in holding the door open for Lilly to step through.
"'Night Princess! Sweet dreams!" Lilly joyfully said before slipping into the side room and closing the door behind her. Twilights felt her consciousness slip away as she fell asleep.
When Twilight opened her eyes she wasn't in her room. She was in a plaza, in the middle was a fountain with a statue of two adult alicorns, a little alicorn filly and a incredibly tall unicorn with a bulky build. She recognized it as Everfree City's centre. Of in a distance and the sea of colorful ponies she spotted two familiar figures coming her way. When they neared the fountain Twilight recognized them as her mother and...Herself? A filly Twilight walked happily beside her mother.
Mini Twilight walked through Everfree City until she reached what Twilight recognized as her favorite gardens. They looked over the hill that led to the castle and looked over he city and her subjects. Mini Twilight struggled to get up on a bench that was nearby. Mini Twilight was helped up onto the bench by her mother.
Suddenly, the sky darkened and the moon replaced the sun but Twilight didn't notice. The midnight alicorn came up to Mini Twilight and sat on the bench with her. They were looking at the stars that felt...different for some reason. Twilight smiled and looked at the mare towering beside the small filly. Twilight remembered all the nights spending time with Luna star gazing and learning all about them.
"Mother, how doest the stars work?" Mini Twilight asked.
"I'm afraid I do not understand my little star." Luna responded with a kind and patient voice.
"If I shalt rule over them some day, shouldn't I know everything about them?" When her mother nodded, mini Twilight continued. "So how do they work? Act? Can they love? Can they make friends? Alliances?"
Her mother chuckled. "Please, calm yourself my little star. It will take a while to explain everything but you always were an excellent listener." She brought her hoof to her throat and cleared it. ''Listen then, my child. The stars are very peculiar, they allow us to cast spell, we borrow their power through our wellsprings and use it to bend magic to our will. But, they art sentient just like us. They art like little children, Capella and North Star who will become your future advisors art more mature then the rest, like prodigies children." Luna looked down to check if mini Twilight was still listening.
"Sooo...Mother art Capella and North Star like you and Auntie 'Tia? Like...Princesses?''
Luna chuckled lightly. "No, it will be up to you to be like us but up there. Anyways, back to your earlier questions, I believe you have been too close to nobles, asking about alliances." Luna looked at mini Twilight with a small smile and had to contain herself when she saw her pouting. "Hehe. You see, my little star, they can. Their alliances art called Guilds-"
"Like the Mages Guild? Or the Astronomers Guild? Or...Maybe-" Mini Twilight's rant was stopped by a midnight blue hoof on her mouth.
"Star Guilds art different. Ponies, even the astronomers who should know better, know them as constellations."
"OooOooh! That explains a lot mother!"
"Yes, alliances between guilds art called families, each family has a representative constellations and they ask us to choose one of our ponies to represent them in the mortal plain."
"Like Pisces, Andromeda, Aries, Orion and Leo?"
"Yes, exactly like them. Alliance representatives art called Sky Lords."
"That's amazing! But...Wouldn't you need to find a new representative every time they...Leave the mortal plain?" Mini Twilight's mood went down and she looked at the ground. Twilight winced at the question, suddenly a pang of sadness went through her but she couldn't remember why.
"Oh,no,no,no. Thanks to our blessing, they're connected to the stars they represent so as long as they're alive so art the stars, and as long as their stars are alive they art too."
"So they can't die?!" Mini Twilight asked with a huge smile. Twilight's ears perked up and she paid close attention, looking at the scene with pleading eyes.
"I won't lie to you, they can be killed, but it would take immense levels of magic. Enough to snuff out all of the stars' life reserves. But rest assure nopony has enough magic to do so in the present day." Luna smiled down at Twilight and she smiled back. Luna nuzzled mini Twilight and pushed her towards her friends to play.
Twilight jolted awake, she was gasping for air and shivered slightly. After calming herself she looked around, she noticed she wasn't lying in her bed, and she wasn't in her room either. Instead she was...In the sky? It was a place similar to the void where she and her stars met but it was more light. Instead of being it's normal midnight blue it was a teal hue fading into light blue.
"Twily? That you?'' A familiar voice called from behind her. Twilight turned around so fast her mane temporarily blinded her. When her hair cleared she saw a tan earth pony stallion with a white mane and tail. His mane was neatly pushed back and brushed, his tail was neatly brushed and long. He had a big smile and a few tears in the corner of his eyes and he was staring at her in shock.
"Leo?!" Twilight galloped over and hugged him tightly. "I thought you were dead!"
Leo nuzzled Twilight lightly and she felt a few tears stain her coat.
"Heh...I did but I refused to go before seeing my little sister again." He pulled away from the hug. "I can't believe you're finally back, the others will be thrilled! I'm sure Orion already knows and that you're probably with hi back in the real world."
"Where are we exactly?'' Twilight asked looking around and wiping a tear away with a hoof. "Am I still dreaming?"
"Heh nope! Me and a friend of mine, to whom I trusted our secret, helped me copy my conscious into something similar to the dream realm." He chuckled and poked Twilight's horn with his hoof. "Y'know she's a really talented unicorn kinda reminds me of you."
"Hold on, does this mean that I can see whenever I want?!" Twilight beamed.
"Ummm..No, not yet. You see, you need an specific spell to access this plain. Only she has the spell so when you wake up you won't be able to find me before...Y'know, find her."
"Oh..." Twilight drooped. "So... I am dreaming"
"Hey! Y'know that ain't true! And y'know I'm not that patient. Listen Twi, you are not dreaming! Now, before you wake up remember to find my friend so we can speak again."
"Y-Yes of course, I'll do it after we defeat Nightmare Moon and-"
"Nightmare Moon? Umm...Sorry Twi but I don't follow, my conscious got copied...Err let me calculate...3 years ago? I don't know anything about the outside world, that's all dead Leo's information.''
"Oh...Mother got turned into a wicked mare by a shaman's failed curse. You already know she was imprisoned on the moon. Well...She returned, defeated me and Auntie Celestia and then brought forth Eternal Night. We must use the Elements of Harmony to hopefully heal her and bring her back."
"...Wow." He deadpanned.
The world around them started fading into white. Leo's eyes widened and he grabbed Twilight tightly into a bear hug. "You're waking up! Find Starlight, our village was to the north east of old Everfree City...I love you little sis...Good luck!
"I-I love you too-" Twilight was cut off by the world they were in fading into white completely, as she woke up from her sleep.
Twilight was woken up by a slight shaking, next thing she knew was a worried voice calling out to her.
"Princess! Pri- er...Twilight! Wake up!" A female voice whispered.
Twilight mumbled something of a haphazardly made reply and sunk deeper into the confinement of her bed. Then, she felt something wet against her cheeks. Was she crying? Yes, she could feel some tears rolling out. Twilight steeled herself and opened her eyes. She didn’t see much, all of the torches were turned off but she could make out the faint silhouettes of two ponies.
Twilight flinched a bit at seeing two ponies looking down at her but it only took her mind a moment to catch up. Her horn lighting on instinct to create a shield around her. A big hoof went and poked her horn, the magic fizzled and then dissipated leaving Twilight a bit stunned.
"Eaaasy there Twilight." A voice called out. Twilight's brain decided to go on a vacation apparently since it took her a few moments for her to recognize it as Orion's.
"Orion?..." Twilights squinted and recognized small tuffs of fur on the other silhouette's ears. "And...Lilly? What, pray tell, art thou doing in my chambers?"
"First, Twi, wake up, you're switching to your old dialect." Twilight muttered something even she didn't understand and turned to her other side so that her back faced them. "Twilight, the ponies we save arrived about three hours and they're starting to ask for you."
"..Why meee?..." Twilight groaned and folded her ears, blocking out as much sound as she could.
She heard some shuffling behind her and a set of hooves walking to the other side of the bed while a set of wings started beating above her sending a wind current onto her. Twilight muttered something cursing the wind and pulled the covers over her head.
Orion groaned and Twilight heard him facehoof. "This is why Princess Luna entrusted ME to wake you up...You are completely unawakenable...To any mortal." Orion smirked and turned to a flying Lilly. "I love this part of my duty."
Twilight's ear twitched when she heard that. She mumbled something again and heard Orion walking away. Then she heard his hooves galloping towards her. The galloping sound suddenly stopped, Twilight's eyelids opened slightly, curiosity getting the best of her. Before she could register what she saw she felt something heavy land on top of her.
Her eyelids opened completely and she gasped for air. She pushed against whatever had interfered with her sleep but the weight proved to be greater. After a bit of struggling Twilight started lifting it up. Twilight heard Orion speak again and felt the figure above her move with his words. She put two and two together and realized Orion had cannonballed onto her to wake her up.
"Quick! She's getting stronger!''
"What do you want me to do?!" Lilly asked him.
"Help me! Jump on top of me! Together we shalt be victorious over this sleeping ogre of a mare!" He bellowed.
Suddenly Twilight felt more weight land on her and her strength dwindle. "I am not an ogre!" She screamed and then suddenly, her horn flashed. Both Lilly and Orion were thrown off of her and to the ground. With a great war cry, Twilight flapped her wings to get some air and let herself fall on them at great speed. They struggled to catch their breaths until Lilly could gasp out.
"Sweet Mother of all things powerful! Princess, you're heavy! Last time I thought it was just you little chestplate thingy but-" Lilly was interrupted by a groan from Orion.
"Do you girls mind? I know your conversation is interesting and stuff but...GET OFF ME!" He complained. They all looked at each other and then laughed. Lilly fell to her sides and to the floor while Twilight fell back wards. They continued to laugh for a few moments before calming down.
"It's nice to see you guys laughing." Lilly commented while wiping away a tear with her hoof.
"Yes, it was nice to relax a bit." Twilight agreed with her and turned to Orion, something made difficult by the darkness of the room, she lit her horn and magically lit the torches bathing the room in a soft even yellow glow. "You said something about the prench that we rescued?"
Orion looked confused for a moment before remembering. "Oh! That's right, they wanted to see you before we left to find the others."
"About that...Do you know where they might be?" Twilight asked him.
"Last I heard, Andromeda was a famous model at Las Pegasus." He said as it were common knowledge. Twilight looked at him with confusion.
"Las..Pegasus?"
"You'll see when we get there." He smiled and nodded towards the door. "Let's go meet your suitors."
"Of course- Wait WHAT NO, no, no, no, nonononononononnoonoonoonnono."
Nightmare Moon, Canterlot Castle, Throne Room, Two hours before,
"I BEG YOUR PARDON!?" Nightmare's voice boomed through the Throne room. The lower nobility and the few equine farmers flinched at the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice. "HOW CAN THOU HAVE THE GAL TO DEMAND OF US TO 'LIFT THE SUN'?!".
A mare from the crowd hesitantly lifted her hoof as if she were in school. Nightmare narrowed her eyes and focused on the mare. She turned out to be a very young mare, maybe slightly older than a filly. Nightmare's hate-filled gaze 'softened', well as much as it could, and was replaced with a stoic face. She nodded at the mare and she stepped up.
"Your Highness," Nightmare had to suppress a growl at the wrong way to address her but decided to spare the mare. "I was wondering...Well I guess that we are all wondering...Um...How are we supposed to grow our crops without the sun. It could de-stabilized Equestria's agricultural sector and-"
Nightmare lifted a hoof to 'politely' silence her. She turned towards the rest of the petitioners of that night and asked "Can thou confirm her concerns as you own?" There were multiple nods and several affirmative "mhm's''. Nightmare made a 'shoo' motion to return the mare to the crowd. "We can assure thee, our moon has enough energy and it's magic enough properties to grow crops normally. Nevertheless, we must warn thee, thy crops wilt grow at a slightly lower rate and a bit sweeter."
Most of the farmers seemed to be satisficed with her answer but many were still a bit skeptical. Honestly, Nightmare did not have enough patience left to deal with them so she magically lifted an iron bowl and slammed her hoof inside creating a ear splitting noise.
"Court is adjourned! Guards, please escort our...Guests, out of the room." The petitioners grumbled quietly and reluctantly left with the guards behind them. Before the doors closed the guards caught themselves and opened them again. Nightmare straightened up and looked down at the Thestral that entered.
"Commander Nocte." Nightmare acknowledged the commander as he walked in.
The Thestral walked up yo Nightmare's throne and bowed as low as he could hopping he could become smaller just to get away from the fury he was about to light. This did not go unnoticed by a certain Nightmare, she turned to the guards stationed next to her throne and nodded, dismissing them. Then she turned to the still bowing Nocte.
"We hope thou hast brought us good news, commander." She spoke and saw how the stoic and serious Thestral commander shuddered and tried to hide it..
"No my queen."
"I see, but of course thou hast gotten a clue of the whereabouts of my daughter." Nightmare suggested.
"N-No my queen, we lost her in the Everfree Forest-"
"Thou art telling us, that you did not only fail to return her but also not have NO CLUE WHERE SHE IS. OH AND SHALT WE GET STARTED ON THE FACT THAT THOU LOST HER IN THE EVERFREE, THE MOST UNTAMED PLACE IN EQUESTRIA" Nightmare's boomed through the room. Nocte quickly fell back down into a bow so low he kissed the ground. "AM I CORRECT?!"
"Y-y-y-yes my queen!"
Nightmare Moon's horn lit up and magic exploded outwards. The magic hit the walls and the whole castle shook with her rage.
"GET OUT! DON'T STEP IN MY PRESCENSE UNTIL YOU HAVE FOUND HER!" Nightmare used her magic to open the doors to the throne room and unceremoniously lifted Nocte and booted him out before closing the door behind him.
Nightmare sighed, her day couldn't get worse. First some snobby nobles bothered her with selfish new laws, then the farmers comity came in with their ridiculous petition to bring the sun back, and then Nocte had to return empty hoofed. Anger started to boil within her, her power threatening to come out and begging for use. She brought up the energy into a teleportation spell, not wanting to destroy her new castle.
With a flash the image of the throne room disappeared and was replaced with grassy planes. Nightmare looked around finding nothing near her. She lit up her horn and channeled the anger into raw magic, shooting it out like a flare from the tip of her horn.
That type of 'spell' was very costly and tiring but was taught to every unicorn old enough to have a sense of moderation high enough, just in case they absorbed too much power or felt like a magic flare was beginning within them.
After she let all of the extra power out, Nightmare made a sigh of relief and fell down on her haunches. The grass felt nice under her body and was moist, as if it had rained, something that she very much enjoyed and cherished after having spent a millennium on her moon.
Suddenly she felt something at the back of her head as if someone was trying to pull something out or.
"Push themselves out..." Nightmare spat. She lit her horn again and blocked passage into and out her mind. She then used her multitasking skills she earned when she possessed Luna and entered her own mind.
A dark almost black plain came into view, Nightmare's horn was still alight and the form of Luna slowly materialized inside the plane, struggling against Nightmare's magic surrounding her and holding her in place.
"Art thou going somewhere Luna?" Nightmare asked with an annoyed look and voice. "Thou should know better, you know what happens when you try..." Nightmare sang. Luna stopped her struggling and looked at Nightmare with angry tears running down her face.
"Nightmare." Luna spat. "Thou should know better than to challenge me in the dream realm." Luna's scowl became a smug grin. "Thou doest know we managed to reach the dreams of two of the Element's bearers and pass on our daughter's message."
"Ah, yes of course! The great Sir Leo Golden Hooves and Lady Andromeda Courageous Song?"
''...How did thou-?" Luna's voice was filled with worry but she was interrupted by Nightmare.
"How can the sole shepherd of her subject's dreams drive the wolves away from her own dreams? Luna dearest, doesn't thou think we wouldn't notice? Too bad that that thy messengers won't be able to reach their destination."
"WHAT HAST THOU DONE TO THEM?!" Luna boomed, she lunged forward but was stopped by Nightmare's magic strengthening it's grip.
"Us? Luna We would never get our hooves dirtied! No, they shall remain clean for Celestia. Neigh, one of our subjects presented us with a very peculiar artifact he created capable of... Why art we telling thee? Tis not the point. What is however, that we sent him after Leo, and we can see he succeeded, next shall be Andromeda."
"No!" Luna lunged again but this time Nightmare's magic crystallized around her trapping her in place.
"Doest thou like the spell? We learnt it from thy paramour." Nightmare said with a sing-song tone.
"Don't call him that!"
"Do not worry my dearest Luna! Thou shalt get to watch Andromeda's last moments! Do not try to evade my spell for it shalt end in failure..."
"Thou won't get away with this! My daughter and friends will-"
"Ugh...So cliché!...Tata~"
Twilight Capella Sparkle, Council Head-Quarters, Main hallway, Three hours later,
"Never. Again." Twilight shut her throne room door behind the last on the prench.
"Oh c'mon Twily! It wasn't that bad." Orion gently shoved her and laughed along with Lilly.
"Not that bad?! Did you not hear them? They were snobby, self-centered bastards that like to kiss flank to get what they-" Twilight let all of her frustrations with a ver un-princess like groan. "I am NEVER going to get those er...Catch phrases?" After looking at Orion for confirmation that she actually used the term correctly she continued. "Out of my head!"
"Surely it wasn't that bad." A voice sounded from the side of the room. A pink hoof stepped out from behind a pillar revealing a pink alicorn.
"Ah, Cadenza-" Twilight started but was interrupted by Cadence.
"Cadence." She corrected
"Oh, yes my apologies. Cadenza, just the cousin I wanted to see!" Twilight smiled to herself, feeling proud to get a small reaction from Cadence. "Pray tell, what does the Princess of Love think of my...suitors"
"Uh...They were fine, I guess." Her voice trailed off and she looked at Twilight. She narrowed her eyes and her face lit up with realization. "Twilight, can I borrow you for a while?"
"Whatever for?" Twilight tried reading Cadence to see what she wanted and to see if she could talk her out it, the answer was 'no'. "Of course...Let's go guys."
"Actually, I want to talk to you alone."
Twilight lifted her brow and looked down at Cadence skeptically from her throne. "Very well, lead the way." Twilight stood on the marble, crescent shaped table before the six thrones that adorned the room and leapt off it into a glide that took her next to Cadence at the bottom of the dais.
Cadence shot Twilight a worried glanced and opened the door at the end of the hallway with her magic. They walked out together, and then through the hallways until they arrived at the room Cadence was temporarily using.
Twilight cautiously entered the room and looked around while Cadence closed the door an lit up her horn.
Twilight noticed the sudden change in light and violently turned around while conjuring up a magical shield between both of them. Cadence was a bit taken aback but continued her spell. Her light blue aura painted the room's walls and then dissipated.
"Calm down Twilight, it's just a privacy spell...Well more like a 'Sound proof' spell. Heh, you never know with the nobility, they have ears EVERYWHERE.'' Twilight's defensive position melted into a relieved one.
"Phew...My apologies cousin...You're right, you can't be too careful nowadays, I can tell." She frowned sadly to herself and started to space out before noticing and snapping out of it. "Ahem...Back to the point of this conversation. What can I help you with?"
"You can't, but I can." Cadence's expression became serious, something that differed greatly from what Twilight had seen of her earlier. She looked at Twilight in the eyes and it made a chill run down her spine.
"What do you mean?" Twilight attempted to remain calm and match her stare. She took a deep, silent breath, fixed her posture to lift herself to Cadence's height and unfurled her wings. "I do not need any help." Twilight walked past Cadence and towards the door.
"You can stop the 'though' act. It doesn't work with me." Cadence patiently called out and Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and looked back towards Cadence with a perplexed look. "I may be the Princess of Love but I can also easily read ponies' emotions. You are not well, and you know that. You have been avoiding thinking about it and facing them. You can't continue to do so, it'll rip you from the inside."
Twilight looked at the ground in contemplation, her outside might have looked calm but inside her mind was in a riot.
'Is she right? Have I really been doing that? No. Forget about that. H-Have I been forgetting on purpose? What else have I done? Nothing. I couldn't have, I wouldn't do that...Right? How do I feel?-'
A sharp pain appeared in Twilight's head which caused her to wince and bring a hoof to her head. She looked back at Cadence with wide eyes.
"For how long?" Cadence asked Twilight, both her voice and face betrayed her worry.
"I-I don't know..." Twilight's breath became uneven as she and Cadence realized the implications. Cadence lit up her horn with her light blue aura and cautiously walked towards Twilight. "No, not now...Sorry." Twilight's horn also lit up and she disappeared in a magenta flash.
She reappeared back in the throne room. Her friends, who were heading out of the throne room, stopped startled and looked back at her. Twilight took another deep breath and pushed her headache to the back of her mind. "We need to leave now. Pack quickly and meet me at the secret exit...If you see him, tell Pyre to accompany us too."
"Pyre?" Lilly asked and brought a hoof to her chin similar to a fangirl trying to remember a certain character of they're favorite story.
"You'll see soon." Was the only answer she got from Orion. He then turned back to Twilight with a worried expression. "Is everything okay Twi-?"
"Yes, everything is fine. We've just wasted too much time, if we want to find the others before the...'murderer' does, we have to move fast." With that Twilight teleported again, disappearing to her room to prepare before Cadence could find her.
Twilight silently walked through the halls adorned with torches shedding light on her features. She was once again wearing her saddle bags, filled with quills and a few journals. To her left side was her sword holder with the handle neatly stowed away. On her head was her crown, the Element of Magic fused to the top of it. On her chest was her golden chest-plate exactly like Orion's.
She arrived at a dead-end with a torch placed on the wall in front of her. She reached out with her magic and channeled it through some hidden runes at the back of the torch. Twilight stepped closer to the wall and mentally counted to three, once she reached three the wall did a one-eighty and Twilight appeared at the other side of the hall.
"I've got to say Princess, these secret passages are awesome! Imagine how fun it would be playing hide and seek in here." Lilly exclaimed looking in awe around the secret passage.
"Tell me about it, never could beat Twilight...Yet again she always cheated!" Orion accused and Lilly giggled a bit.
Twilight smiled, looking over at her partners. Orion hadn't prepared much, she just noticed that he had more arrows then before...A lot more. He had his gold chestplate on, the sapphire of Loyalty shone in the dim light of Orion's horn. Lilly on the other hand had nothing...Literally nothing.
"Umm..Lilly don't you have something to...defend yourself or protect yourself?" Twilight asked lighting her own horn so she could see better.
"Nope! We're going to Fillydelphia right? That's not a dangerous place...Or at least I don't think so. Besiiides I don't have any weapons or any armor. I never needed it." Lilly shrugged.
"Actually-" Orion started drawing the attention of both mares "-as far as I am aware, there's currently a pirate war in the area."
"Really? A pirate war? Orion don't tell me that you actually believe that Aunty would let that slip past when she has the E.U.P at her services?" Twilight inquired sarcastically.
"They operate during the night, only a few guard patrols are active during that time. They also chose the area between Fillydelphia and Canterlot since the Ria Mountains are in the middle. Apart from a few sentries on their peaks, Central-Eastern Equestria is unguarded. I wouldn't be surprised if the crown knows nothing of them." Orion finished with his scholarly tone.
"And how do you know about this captain?" Twilight raised an eyebrow as she accused.
"I worked in a public airship yard, it's my job to know!" He said as if it were common knowledge.
"Oh..." Then Twilight turned to Lilly. "Well then, that only proves my point, you need armor. we'll make a quick pass-by the armory."
"Are you sure? I don't want to be a nuisance-" Lilly tried but was interrupted by Orion.
"Nonsense! You're way too important for that!'' He boomed and turned towards the right which Twilight noticed was the wrong way towards the armory.
Twilight smirked at the pair. Lilly noticing what he had said blushed slightly while Orion was trying to look away and hide his own blush. Twilight used all of her will power to not laugh at their awkwardness, instead...She decided to make it worse.
As Orion started to walk of Twilight spoke up. "Hey, Brother...You're going the wrong way, the armory is that way " She pointed a hoof at the other side of the hall. Orion froze and turned around, still a little red.
"Oh, um right..." He said and hurried down the other side. When he was almost out of earshot Twilight leaned in and whisper to Lilly.
"You got him wrapped around your hoof~" Twilight winked at her and went to follow Orion.
'Oh this is going to be fun!'
'This was a mistake.'
After they had arrived at the armory Twilight had started embarrassing Orion in front of Lilly but she failed to see when everything went wrong. Orion had caught up to her plan pretty early on and spent most of his time ignoring Twilight's taunts while he searched something for Lilly to wear and remembering every embarrassing thing Twilight had done in her earlier years. He stayed pretty quiet until he saw an opening and struck.
And now Twilight was in the middle of a smug looking Orion and a laughing Lilly. She groaned in annoyance and got up to continue Orion's job of looking for something suitable for Lilly while trying to block out every tale he continued to tell.
Ignoring him became easy when something caught her eye. In one of the many opened chests in the armory was a purple set of leathery armor. The set was clearly meant for a small female body, 'not as small s Pisces's' Twilight commented. It had a pink six pointed star broach that connected both halves of the set. "That won't due." Twilight silently muttered.
She carefully turned her head as to not be seen by her friends. She searched for Lilly's cutie mark and found...Nothing. Then Twilight looked back to the suit and facehoofed. She had forgotten that Thestrals didn't have cutie marks. She opened her eyes and pondered the broach.
Her horn lit up with magic and her aura surrounded the broach. It's crystal form started to shift and reformed itself into the image of a small lily. Twilight smiled at her small magical act, she had always liked working with crystals, it was a very rare and difficult magic to master but it always came naturally to her.
She replaced the broach and lifted the leather set and turned it around, examining it. The set was made of the best leather there was, chimaera leather, and in some parts there was soft dragon skin for greater mobility. Twilight nodded in agreement with her mind. The other only thing she did was darken the color of the set in order for it to be less visible during the night.
"Lilly?" She called back causing her friends to look at her. "Is this something that would be likeable to thy tastes?''
"Princess, you're going back to your old dialect." Lilly pointed out, making her way next to her and looking over the set. "Oooh that's a nice set! I'll take it." She smiled and then caught sight of the broach. "Wooah that's a pretty broach...D-Did you make this yourself?''
"Yes, it's crystal magic. I reshaped it to be a form of a lily, it's tradition to have you're armor or weapons with a broach or a symbol to represent the owner." Twilight explained. "I'm glad you like it. It's yours to keep"
''I don't know what to say Princess...Thank you! This is an honor!"
"Don't worry Lilly, we're friends! Consider it a favor that doesn't need repaying from one of your Thestral friends" Twilight levitated the set to Lilly's open hooves. "Put it on! I'll go and get Pyre 'real quick' and wait for you at the secret entrance! Orion, stay here and helped her to the exit when she's ready please." With that she attempted to leave Orion in the room with Lilly but before she could magically close the door Orion used his own magic to keep the door open and shot Twilight a serious glance.
"Twilight, a word..." He growled out.
Twilight attempted to scape but was held in place by Orion's magic. She lit up her horn to overpower his magic but Orion, having anticipated this, quickly added a disabling barrier around her horn to prevent her from using magic
"You know that Princess Luna-" He started with a scolding tone but was interrupted by Twilight.
"'Does not approve of thy use of crystal magic.' I knooow. But I'm a grown mare capable of making my own decisions. You can't just tell me not to do something that is up to my liking and not give me any explanation!" She let out her frustrations with a tone louder than was appropriate.
"And you should know by now what I'm going to say." He continued.
"'It's not our right to tell thee' But who?! Tell me Orion who has the right to tell me?!" Twilight barked. "Now let me go, we don't have time for this and you know it!" she ordered but Orion did not move.
"Twily, I'm doing this to protect you so-"
"Protect me from what?! Or perhaps Who?" She inquired and when Orion flinched she elaborated further. "Tell me exactly who you're to protect me from."
"No."
"Then let me go! There is no use in you keeping me here hostage in a battle against time that if loose you do too!"
"Swear to me by your honor that you won't-"
"I, Twilight C. Sparkle, being of sane mind and health, swear on my honor not to practice the art of crystal magic..." Twilight waited for a moment just so Orion would loosen his grip on her horn, then in one swift motion she freed herself. "For the rest of this night, on condition that Beast Hunter Orion doest not keep me captive against my will until the oath expires.''
Twilight smirked smugly and lit her horn again preparing for a teleportation spell. "Now if thou wilt excuse me, I have a phoenix to wake up." And teleported away. This was not her night.
Commander Nocte Wing, Lands between Ponyville and Canterlot, Meanwhile...,
This was not his night. Not only had his Empress bucked him out of the throne room in front of his guards, personal squadron and rivaling commanders of rivaling armies but now he was now banished from Canterlot and the presence of his Empress until he found that runaway princess and brought her before Nightmare Moon unharmed.
And now he was flying back to the Castle of the Three Royal Pony Alicorns that was probably miles away from Canterlot along with his seven other comrades to search...Actually it didn't seem too bad now that he was reconsidering it, but he needed to complain about something.
"Commander, permission to speak freely." A red, male Thestral next to him spoke up.
"Permission granted, Lieutenant Sunfall Fang." Nocte replied, never taking his eyes away from course.
"With all due respect to the Empress Goddess, but why would she want to capture her own daughter, I mean she escaped for a reason right?" Sunfall asked not only Nocte but his other squad members.
"Sir, permission to spe-" A Thestral mare's voice spoke up behind Nocte but he interrupted her.
"You are all to speak freely on the matter." Nocte instructed and although he could not see it they all nodded.
The same Thestral mare spoke up again. "Princess Twilight Sparkle, from what the Elders have told us, has always been the rebellious type."
"Yeah, Crescent, do you really believe those old-timers?" A very dark colored Thestral commented, getting a few annoyed glances his way. "I mean she was raised by the great Princess Luna, it's no surprise she'd want to get as far away as possible from Nightmare Moon-"
"THAT'S ENOUGH WILLOWSHADE!" Barked out Nocte. "While I share your beliefs, we swore a blood oath to the Nightmare as legitimate as that to Princess Luna, as such we shall refrain from disrespect her and shall follow her command. And thus the matter is resolved, we shall now continue the flight in silence until otherwise ordered."
"Yes sir!" The squadron of seven Thestrals all shouted.
Twilight C. Sparkle, Council HeadQuarters, Secret Private Armory, Meanwhile,
"We have returned!" Twilight boomed as she entered the armory with an arguably better mood. On her back Pyre screeched softly.
"Just in time!" Lilly said. "It took me a while to figure it out but I got it on! So, how does it look?" Lilly started cat-walking in front of the duo...well trio if you count Pyre.
"Hmm...I think it's a bit big...What do you think Orion?'' Twilight asked.
"Maybe...Yes, it's a bit too big, that could lower it's effectiveness and be a hazard...Soo a shrinking spell?'' He confirmed.
"Half a caliber." Twilight nodded and they both lit their horns. Their magic sowed together and connected with Lilly's set and started carefully shrinking it in the certain parts to have it fit without crushing Lilly. When they were done they stopped fueling the spell and let it fade away. "Hmm...I believe we did a fine job.'' Twilight smiled.
"Yup, It really fits you Lilly." Orion agreed.
"Thank you guys!" Lilly started walking towards Twilight. "So this is Pyre? He's really cute." Pyre smiled proudly and shot a smug look at Twilight and Orion who rolled their eyes.
"We've lost enough time already." Twilight drew attention to herself. "Lilly, get ready to fly..And I'll warn you, you might get sick." Twilight gave her saddle bags to Orion and lifted him onto her back and Pyre perched himself on her head. Twilight gathered her magic and teleported them several feet above them and to the sky above the ruined Everfree City.
They staggered a bit before Twilight and Lilly leveled out in the air. Pyre got off Twilight's head and started leading them to Fillydelphia. They started flying behind Pyre and they very soon passed over The Castle of the Three Royal Pony Alicorns...just when Nocte's squadron arrived.
Twilight spotted a slight glimmer under them. She looked down to see eight flying forms quickly gaining height. As they got closer she recognized them as the night guard armor.
"Not again!" Twilight complained "Quick! Fly faster!" She ordered, Lilly looked back at her with a questioning look until she spotted the Thestrals following them and started flapping her wings harder.
Twilight struggled to gain speed with Orion hanging onto her for dear life. She turned her head to face him. "Hold onto my mane! Your life depends on it!" She screamed back, struggling to be heard through the gashing wind. She got her answer as she felt Orion grab onto her mane with great force. She summoned magic into her horn and slowly started crafting it into a spell that wrapped around Orion and started to slowly shrink him to the size of a mouse, and then she brought her magic into a second layer to her spell making Orion slowly weigh a lot less.
"Pyre!" She called out to her phoenix and it slowed to go at her speed. "Grab Orion in your claws." Pyre did as she asked and grabbed a very squeaky sounding Orion trying to complain.
Twilight now started to speed up in time to see a shadow being cast upon her. She looked up to find a very annoyed Nocte looking down at her like a hawk would eye it's prey. When he realized she had noticed him he dove at break neck speed. Twilight rolled sideways and barely avoided his strike, proud that she managed to do the stunt.
Nocte didn't have time to break, it would slow him down, instead he continued and used the momentum to glide and gain height using his speed. Meanwhile, Crescent kept up pressure on Twilight. She flapped her wings faster to level out with Twilight she then switched her weight and placed herself under Twilight, then she used her superior speed to make a backflip passing in front of Twilight and went to tackle her from above.
Twilight, having anticipated this conjured up a shield before Crescent slammed into her, Crescent instead slammed into her shield and knocked herself out, falling and making another Thestral catch her, keeping them both out of the pursuit. Twilight staggered but recovered from the blow to her shield.
She looked at her companions, Pyre was playing with three of the pursuers making them hit each other while he joyfully glided between them with great agility and accuracy. Lilly was doing loopy loops without stopped and confusing her pursuers. Twilight smiled and almost missed the blur coming towards her, when she noticed Nocte coming after her again she used her wing power to stop dead in her track. Nocte slowed down in time to stop before her and charge her.
With a powerful flap, Twilight did an aerial swan dive over Nocte. She raced towards her friends, Lilly had already lost her pursuers and grouped up with Twilight, together they approached Pyre, who was still busying himself playing with the Thestrals, Twilight waved him over and he dashed next to her. "Lilly, prepare you stomach, you too Orion. Pyre, let's show these sentinels what speed really means!"
Twilight grabbed Lilly with her magic before she could ask what she was going to do. Twilight gathered a large amount of magic in her horn, the static caused her bangs to start raising until she sent all that magic into her wings. She and Pyre dashed away, leaving the pursuing Nocte in the dust, or wind, and two streaks in the night sky, one was orange and yellow ant the other was dark purple with magenta and pink streaks and with stars in it. They also left the panicked screams of Lilly and Orion, Lilly being dragged along with a magic rope and Orion trapped in Pyre's claws.
To say that Twilight's wings ached would be an understatement. Twilight flew next to Pyre, leaving two streaks in the night sky. They were currently flying over Foal Mountains, the snowflakes hit her in the face and her breathe became more and more frigid with every flap. She turned towards Pyre, holding the mouse sized Orion in his claws.
"Pyre, we need to find shelter...I can't keep going for long." Twilight coughed out and looked over to see Lilly who was being dragged by her magical aura. "H-How about you Lilly?"
"I'm pretty cold but my thicker skin allows me to withstand lower temperatures..." She trailed off when she saw Twilight's wingtips trying to freeze over. "We need to glide to lower grounds, we can't let your primal feathers freeze over."
"Well...If we fly any lower we risk getting caught, I wouldn't be surprised if every outpost has our wanted sings on their front doors." Twilight worried.
"Yeah, because that's worse than probably dying frozen or having you loose your ability to fly." Lilly deadpanned.
Twilight looked at her wings and at Pyre, then she looked a the plains down below, she couldn't see much, there was a thick fog. They wouldn't be able to see any outposts but they wouldn't be seen either. Twilight looked back at Lilly and Pyre and nodded, she ceased to power her spell to power her wings and Pyre slowed down to match her pace. Twilight let her grip on Lilly dwindle and they all started to glide down the mountain.
As they lost height, the wind became warmer and it slowly began to melt the frost from Twilight's wings. Twilight was panting heavily from the effort of flying all the way from the Everfree and cold sweat ran down her brow. The fog was now closer and nearing quickly. Twilight turned to Lilly and Pyre, they seemed to be just fine, she was envious of them, they didn't have to cope with fatigue like her.
"Stay close..." Twilight instructed. "We can't see the floor or other buildings and I'm not one to slam myself into any of the-" Twilight was interrupted as she slammed into a metal structure with a 'thunk'. She started sliding down the rounded structure while Pyre and Lilly caught up with her, when they did they helped her regain her baring.
"What were you saying princess?" Lilly taunted. Twilight grunted but didn't say anything.
Then, without warning there was a sound of metal moving, the all turned to the structure and realized it was coming their way. Twilight and Lilly looked at each other before looking at Pyre before attempting to escape the way from where they came from. Unfortunately the structure appeared to be gaining speed, and fast.
Twilight looked back and through the fog she saw as a door opened like a mouth and a orange light came out of it. "Quick!" She screamed "Fly faster!'' The air around them became warmer and Twilight turned her gaze to the right to see the mouth encasing her. "Oh horseapples-"
Nightmare Moon, Canterlot Castle's Throne Room,
Nightmare sat on her throne, looking out a window to the right at the beautiful Canterhorn Mountain illuminated by her moon and her 'daughter's' stars. She was expecting her new commander for a meeting about Equestria's defences, which by what she saw were inexistent.
The throne room's door were slowly opened by the set of guards posted at the entrance. A dark teal unicorn stallion clad in the purple night guard armor but with golden trimmings, gracefully walked in. He was slightly taller than most stallions, standing about a hoof over most of them. His white mane was elegantly brushed back and spiked slightly at the ends. His silver eyes reflecting the moonlight from the windows.
When he neared the dais he put down his helmet next to him and bowed low to the ground. "Your Majesty.'' He finally spoke.
"Commander Moondrop, I hope you have everything that I requested for?" Nightmare gazed at him expectantly.
"Yes your Majesty, I have received reports of recent pirate activities near the foal mountains. It turns out that they have avoided...um...." He stammered a bit around a word and Nightmare stepped in.
"What is it Commander? You will find that I have no patience for such foolery."
"Of course not your Majesty! I was just wondering how to properly address um...Princess Celestia-."
''Sunscorched Princess." Nightmare quickly told him. "You and all in my presence shall address her as the Sunscorched Princess. Flaming Quill!" She called one of her servants who quickly came to her side. "Be sure all of the diplomats or petitioners that come next court session know of this!" She then turned her attention to Moondrop. "As you were?"
"Yes, of course! Apparently these pirates have avoided the Sunscorched Princess' and her officer's radar for years."
"That is no surprise, I had imagined my sister being soft but this is insane. Have the pirates brought to me, I think we could find benefit in doing so. Now, have your agents located my daughter?"
"We have an idea of where she is, following the trail left behind her and her phoenix's spell, she is near the Foal Mountains..."
"Where she is most at risk. We can't send a platoon of guards to apprehend the pirates because she'll spot them and flee.." Nightmare groaned and glared out the window to the right causing a chill to creep up Moondrop's spine.
"Your Majesty, if I may-"
"Speak freely."
"May suggest sending Captain Nocte?
"Neigh! You may not suggest him. Twice has he failed to fulfill his order and I shall not let that indignity fall upon my Army again! Let us drop this subject and continue later. For now, unto other matters, how are the revolts?"
"Well, they were mostly peasant farmers believing that their crops wouldn't grow with the moon, but with the increased brightness most have been either stopped or were quelled by our forces."
"And the others? You said 'mostly' implying that there are others."
"Yes Your Majesty...And I must say they are the most worrisome. It appears the noble houses have decided to create a secret underground 'rebellion'. Though many of the houses have refrained from doing so in fear of Your Majesty's wrath."
"I see...I have been refraining from using fear as my way of control of my ponies." Nightmare sighed. "But now it seems I should have a talk with the heads of the noble houses.
''Now, unto the next subject Commander."
"Yes, I was to inform you that the new 'Airforce' is coming along nicely, we will soon name a Chief-"
"Yes of course, I had expected nothing less but I'm afraid our time, and by extension my patience is running low. Commander,"
"Y-Your Majesty." He bowed low and headed out with a swift pace, leaving Nightmare Moon alone with her guards in the throne room.
"You won't find her." Nightmare heard a very familiar, and very annoying, voice in her head.
"And what makes you think that?" Nightmare growled beneath her breath.
"She's too smart for you to find her, I would be surprised if she isn't ready to kill you"
"Grr DON'T YOU-"
The doors shot open once again and a standard white earth pony came rushing in, he took off his helmet and bowed. "Your Majesty! A fleet of pirate aircraft have departed from Water Steam Town!"
"Bring Dimming Sunbeam and have her take over my duties until I return." She said while descending the dais.
"Pardon me, majesty, but what shall we do about the pirates?"
"I implied I would be leaving, didn't I? Do nothing, I shall take care of the pirates that dared invade our land. Where are they heading?"
"Our intelligence suggest they are coming to Canterlot-"
"Say no more." Nightmare gathered her magic, the raw power fizzled around and she disappeared in a flash.
Twilight Sparkle, Unknown, Meanwhile,
Twilight was currently tied up against Orion and Lilly, or at least she hoped it was them, she couldn't see because of the blindfolds. She had already tried using magic but apparently her foalnapers were smart enough to put an inhibitor ring on her horn. She turned to whom she hoped was Orion and whispered.
"Can you use your magic?"
"No, inhibitor ring. I take that you can't either."
"No. Lilly is that you?" Twilight asked as she felt something tickle her. "It's not funny!" She hissed.
"Um...That isn't me..." Was the response Twilight got. She felt a chill travel down her spine and a lump created itself in her throat but she braved it. "Alright...Show yourselves!"
"You seriously don't recognize us? I mean yeah, it has been a while but come ooon!" A male voice replied. The voice didn't ring any bells for Twilight.
"I don't recognize your voice, besides how am I supposed to recognize you if I can't see you?!" Twilight was getting annoyed. "I think you got the wrong pony."
"Yeah, of course you're right how can confuse a pony that I know with an alicorn. Silly me!" He replied sarcastically.
"Thank you Beast Hunter." Added a female voice that neither recognized.
"Aaah, Captain Rest! Great for you to join us."
"Save it, what I want to know is why our guest are blindfolded. Are you okay?" She asked them.
"Well, we're kinda being held here against here against our will...But aside from that we are quite comfortable." Lilly responded.
"That's good. Listen, I don't like having 'hostages' I prefer having them as guests. So, I'll let you off and give you free roam of our ship IF you answer my riddle." Twilight heard her drag something across the wooden surface of the floor. "I have all day."
"Miss Rest with all due respect but, we don't-" Twilight tried but was interrupted.
"Yes, I understand that, your Highness. I too lost somepony dear to me recently so let's not waste more time."
Twilight took a deep and counted to ten before exhaling. "Alright, what is your riddle?''
"I love February and Mai, Try as may, I can't help but have fun in the waves, I have two parts to me, That swim around in sync Who am I?"
"Can I have a moment with my friends to discuss it?...You know without being blindfolds and without being tied up?"
"Let me think about it...No." Replied the male voice.
"Okay..." Twilight murmured to herself.
'Wait...a female that recognized me and Orion...That is polite to her hostages, which means she must be nice to ANYPONY...Apparently likes water, which means she probably isn't a Thestral so the the only way she can know us is if...she...knew us...Pisces' favorite months were February and Mai. '
''Orion...could she be Pisces?" She asked him in a low tone.
"And he could be Aries? I thought so too."
"Then...Pisces, Aries! Is that you?!" Their blind folds were taken off to reveal two pegasi smiling down at them.
The mare had a light blue coat with violet highlights and it appeared to radiate the soft yellow candle light, her mane was a little darker shade of blue and curled up at the end, it also faded into white which made it look like waves breaking. The stallion was orange and his coat sometimes faded into yellow, his mane was black and he wore a brown eye patch on his right eye.
"Care if we join you?" Aries asked them as the rest of the crew untied Twilight, Lilly and Orion.
Twilight threw herself at the siblings, followed by Orion. The pegasi in the hug wrapped their wings around the hug while Lilly stood awkwardly to the side. Seeing this, Twilight decided to open the hug to allow Lilly to join in and called her with a hoof motion. The group stayed in the hug for a few minutes before parting.
"My, my, Twilight, you haven't aged a day since I last saw you!...and...That was a thousand years ago." Pisces deadpanned.
"Oh...yes about that, I um...was stuck in someplace similar to limbo...or maybe I just time traveled...I don't really know."
"Well that just sounded like lazy writing..." Aries murmured underneath his breath.
"What?" Twilight asked him.
"What?" He repeated "...Oh yeah! Um...I would ask how you've been but I guess I kind off already know." He looked downcast before piping back up with a determined smile. "But we get to kick monster ass again-!"
Pisces used her wing to give her brother a quick slap. "What Aries meant to say was...you know how insensitive he can get, we're here for you and ready to fight alongside you once more!"
"Yeah! So let's get to it shall we? We can't just ait around while uuuh...Princess Luna continues to...you know." Aries smiled sheepishly and shrunk under the intensified glare Pisces shot him. "I should shut up now." He muttered.
"Actually, I was hoping we could use this airship to continue, I have to rest my wings...And my magic." Responded Twilight.
"Of course! You must be so tired! Come with me, I'll take care of you!"
"Thank you Pisces, but I don't-"
"Nonsense Twilight! I can't let you go tired like this, you too um...Miss?..."
"Lilly, you can just call me Lilly."
"Right, Lilly come with me and help me drag Twilight. Orion, would you mind telling Aries were we're going?'' Pisces asked while she and Lilly pushed a protesting Twilight to the door while a pirate mare opened the door.
"Sure thing, so 'lil A -" The door was shot behind them and Twilight didn't get to hear the rest of the phrase.
Pisces led them through the wooden halls lit by small light blue crystals for about five minutes before stopping before a medium sized door. She opened it to reveal a pretty modest spa, it had a bathtub to the right and a little waiting area to the left. Next to the tub was a shelve with a lot of flasks of what Twilight thought were bathing or healing supplies. The room was lit with a big orange crystal that hung from the centre of the roof.
Pisces led Twilight and Lilly to the couches and started filling it up wit warm water. "Do you want some tea?" She asked.
"That's a yes from me, how about you Lilly?" Twilight regarded her friend.
"Yes, I'd love some! If it isn't a problem."
"Of course not dear! Any friend of Twilight's is a friend of mine." She said as she searched through a cabinet for leaves.
"Do you mind if I have a look at your ingredients?" Lilly asked while she made her way towards the shelves. Her eyes skimming curiously around.
"Go ahead. I never really got around to understanding them, never was any good with herbs and such. I usually have one of my pirates to help me get what I need." Pisces curiously peeped her head up from behind the cabinet, the funny sight causing Twilight try and fight back a giggle.
"Well, I'm a herbalist. Not professionally...but my mother taught me everything she knew before I was banished from the town. And-" Lilly gasped "No way you have blue-rose petals?!" She gushed and opened the flask. "These are so rare! I've never seen one in my life! Just heard legends on them! My mom and I used to dream about being the first thestrals to ever manage to brew a potion with these!"
"Well then, keep them. Actually, feel free to grab any you want, I won't need them so it's ok. Who knows maybe you'll be able to achieve your dream"
Twilight's eyes widened as she felt a sudden gush of wind fly past her. She turned around in time to see Lilly tackling Pisces to the ground in a hug like an excited little filly.
"Oh thank you, thank you thaaaank yooouuuu!" She cried out causing Twilight to chuckle a bit at the scene. Lilly then leapt from there and onto the shelves examining the contents of each one and putting the once she found interesting in her saddle bags.
Three minutes later she was still going at it, ignoring the tea and the bemused looks she was getting from the other mares in the room. Then, Twilight noticed the tub was filled about half way and turned to point it out to Pisces who had yet to notice it.
"Pisces, I think the water is ready."
"Hmm, you're right, I'll turn it off." Pisces walked towards the tub to do just that and Twilight decide to go rouse Lilly from her daydreams.
"Lilly, the bath is ready. Let's go relax our wings for a while and then you can go back to raiding the shelves.''
Lilly's cheeks flushed in embarrassment and she huffed. "I haven't raided it! Besides if I hadn't gone though it I wouldn't have found this!" she said as she showed a flask containing a peculiar yellow powder.
"I-I-Ah...Pardon me Lilly but I can't help but feel that I'm supposed to know what that is." Twilight deadpanned.
"Figured you wouldn't know. But this powder is a mashed up manticore tooth.'' She said a matter of factly, although Twilight had to suppress a gag at the thought of a tooth being ripped out and mashed into powder. "Manticores-"
"Have a magical properties to their teeth that relax the muscles of their prey. That's how they manage to fight and eat very large and strong animals. One tooth of them has enough magic to sedate a pony." Pisces interrupted, seemingly catching on faster than Twilight.
"Exactly! And so, if mashed in a certain way, just a few scoops on a filled bathtub can help relax muscles a great deal."Lilly carefully took the cap of the flask and grabbed a small plate which she placed on the edge of the tub. Then she gently served a bit of the powder before letting it fall into the water which started to fizzle and pop. "We're going to have to wait a feeeew moments so it can finish dissolving-Ah! It's done."
Pisces and Lilly stepped in without hesitating but Twilight just stood there staring at the water.
"Princess, what's wrong?" Lilly asked in concern.
"Yes Twilight are you ok-OooooOh. Didn't you overcome your fear of teeth?" Pisces asked.
"Y-Yes...But it still irks me...And also, I'm not afraid of teeth that's just ridiculous I'm just...not comfortable with a single tooth laying around." Twilight took in a deep breath and stepped into the water and instantly felt her muscles relax. "Actually, this isn't that bad." She said and the three relaxed.
"Oh please Sanguine, tell me, how is this not that bad?" Nocte deadpanned. "We just lost sight of the Princess."
"Buuut we did see which way she went, North East!" She retorted.
"Oh yes, because she can't change direction when she wants."
After that, the conversation fell as the group of thestrals flew above the green hills near Canterhorn mountain. They left Nocte to sulk as they were about to pass Canterhorn, he caught a blur in the left corner of his eye. Reacting quickly he changed course towards the mountain to stalk the blur.
Upon a closer look Nocte made out the equine form of Nightmare Moon. He gulped, he didn't want to risk being seen by her, so he walked back into the mountain pushing his team along. He waited there for what felt like an eternity, his sweat tainting his dark blue coat, until she was out of sight. He gave a relieved sigh before looking back to his team.
"We'll follow her, she must know were the Princess is." He figure and opened his wings to do just that but a voice from behind stopped him and made him falter almost falling from the mountain.
"And how to you plan to do that, brother?" The voice was deep and almost predatory.
"Noctis?!'' He looked up behind his teammates to see another-and bigger- group of thestrals wearing armor looking down at them with amber eyes from on top a rock. Noctis, the leader was different from the rest, his eyes were blue but had an intimidating glow to them, his coat was blood red, his mane and tale were lavender and the thing that distinguished him the most was a big scar that ran down from above his left eye down to his jaw.
''That's Vice-Commander Noctis to you!'' Noctis boasted. "What are you doing here, Her Majesty prohibited you from putting a hoof on Canterhorn. She thinks you a failure of a Commander." He taunted.
"But she apparently thinks you to be Vice-Commander material?" Nocte scoffed "Please, if that were so she would've given you the Commander rank, like me. Who is the new Commander anyways?"
Noctis, as well as some of the thestrals visibly became madder. "Some sunpony unicorn that used to be a Lieutenant Colonel of the Royal Guard. His name is Nightlash I believe."
"Surprising name for a sunpony but I, unlike you, trust Her Majesty's wishes. Now if you don't mind Vice-Commander Noctis, we'll be on our wa-" He started to walk away with his group only to be blocked by two wings being brought up by his brother's thestrals.
"No, no, no my der brother. I've got my orders, 'Don't let them near Canterhorn, if they do make sure Her Majesty doesn't see them ever again, at any means.' I can't simply let you go, brother."
"So what, now you're taking orders from a sunpony? We're brothers you wouldn't kill me, we're family, and family is sacred!"
"Yeah, yeah, you don't need to repeat what the Elders thought us. Listen, don't try to shame me out of killing you, we both know I never believed in that horseapples. Now," He flashed his golden hoof-claws at him. "How about we get you a similar scar."
Nocte turned to his group and gulped. "Guys...FLY!" He jumped over the two wings blocking him and shot up to the sky, followed by his group and his brother.
He felt a gush of wind behind, him and rolled to the side, moments later his brother tackled the air where he was. Then Nocte tackled him, pushing him aside and making him falter. Noctis recovered and went to slash at Nocte who barely blocked it with his own claws, Noctis kicked Nocte straight in the gut causing him to gape as the air got kicked out of him. He started falling while trying to regain his breath, he saw his brother flying down towards him to give the finishing blow when Willowshade tackled him aside before rescuing Nocte from falling to his death.
"C'mon Captain we need to go!" Nocte took a deep breath to regain some oxygen before flying off Willowshade's grab.
"Thanks Willow.'' He turned to look at his fleeing squad. "Let's go! Full speed ahead everypony!"
Twilight slowly opened her eyes when someone knocked on the bathroom's door. Pisces raised an eyebrow quizzically. "Hmm that's strange, we shouldn't arrive in Fillydelphia for another hour." She commented to Twilight and Lilly before turning to the door. "Yes, what is it?"
"Captain, it's me, Brightport. There's something you need to see." Came back the muffled reply from behind the door.
"Interesting...I'll go as well, just in case." Twilight added, being the first to get up. She took one of the towels that hung nearby and used it to dry the excess water of her mane and coat, even though they still remained a little soaked. She turned around to see Pisces doing the same, albeit more effectively. "Brightport," Twilight called out, getting a small 'yes your highness' response in return. "Where is this thing?"
"Well, we first saw it around five minutes ago before we turned and changed course towards Fillydelphia. The object has been following us for a while. Sir Orion and First Attendant Aries told me to get you."
'Huh, it may be serious.' Twilight thought. "Alright we're going." She turned to look at her friends, Pisces was looking at her while Lilly was placing the flasks she had chosen beforehoof into her saddle bags. "Lilly you coming?"
The thestral looked at her with a rushed smile. "Yeah, I'll catch up just need to finish fitting these in.''
"Alright, Lilly let's go!' Twilight opened te door with her magic allowing them to exit. They retraced their previous steps until they reached the bridge of the airship.
Twilight trotted towards the backside of the ship where she saw Aries and Orion. What was different is that Aries wore his moonsilver hoof-claws and the standard golden council chest piece albeit it expanded into a leather body suit with iron pads, while Orion had his bow at the ready, aimed at the floor next to him, with his gaze unwavering to the sky before them. Twilight could see the determination in their eyes but also, buried in their depts could see...regret? She shook her head to erase the idea before making her way next to them.
"What is it?" She asked.
Orion visibly winced and looked at her with a calculating gaze. "Um...How do I say this...W-Well you see-"
"An evil Princess Luna is flying our way with a murderous glare, and let's be honest she's probably fantasizing on how to kill us.'' Aries tried to hide the worry in his voice, though he failed miserably.
"Aries! Maybe you should me more gentle?" Orion asked rhetorically.
"Orion, It's no like she's a thousand and twenty something years old. She needs cold hard honesty." He defended his point. "Something you should really learn. Maybe it's time for you to tell h-"
"Aries!" Pisces called back, catching up to them after being delayed when she started giving orders to hopefully loose whatever it was that was following them. "What is it?" It was then they all noticed the appalled Twilight.
'M-Mom?!' Twilight could feel her legs shaking, mentally cursing her weakness. She went to voice her thoughts but found that there was a lump in her throat. A sudden sense of dread and guilt crept up her heart and-
Thump, Thump
That was knew for Twilight, she could hear her heartbeat thumping in her ear and it was...irritating.
"Twilig-...'' A voice called out but trailed off. "Twiligh-..." Again but now it was slightly louder. "TWILIGHT!" The mare in question jumped as she gaped for air she hadn't realize she lacked. It was now she realized that her friends, even Lilly were huddled up around her.
"W-What? Uh...Wait...M-M-...Nightmare Moon is h-here?! N-Now!?'' Her eyes darted to the equine form now closely trailing behind.
"Twilight are you ok?" Asked an extremely worried Aries. "It's not really like you to stutter. Specially before a foe."
"Aries, those foes weren't her mother, maybe be more kind?'' Pisces deadpanned.
"I'm so sorry Twilight I didn't mean to-''
"I-I need to prepare! S-She's too close! Stall for me I'll be back!" Twilight started to gallop towards the bathhouse where she had foolishly left her sword, tiara, and armor. Although she managed to hear Orion take control of the situation.
"Pisces, quick follow her! Aries, try to slow Nightmare Moon down, be careful not to hurt her. Lilly, take this." He handed her a mirror. "Reflect the moonlight onto Nightmare's eyes. I'll get a shield around the airship to protect it."
Twilight reached the bathhouse and she threw on her sword and saddle bags. Then she reached for her golden chest piece, it was now she noticed she was the only one who hadn't customized it. She then placed on her tiara with her Element of Harmony neatly perched on top it. She looked herself in the mirror and for a moment she could have sworn she saw cat-like eyes staring back at her.
"Twilight! Don't run off like that- and what are you staring at?'' Pisces approached the trembling mare and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "Twilight, you may be a princess but you don't have to be a fortress around us. As your friends we'll be here, always. Talk to us."
Twilight felt a tear go down her cheek. ''Pisces, I can't do this. I've fought against countless foes but never something...Somepony close to me! H-How am I supposed to fight my mom? I just can't...Believe me I tried to fight her back at the castle but it was futile...I failed and now we're stuck in this mess because of ME!" She stomped the ground with one of her front hooves, the impact creating a crack on the polished wooden floor. "Sorry."
"Hey, it's ok. Sometimes a little force is needed to let out all the emotion." she said as she grabbed Twilight into a hug. "You know, I remember somepony telling something while I the mist of our snowball wars: 'You can't let the result of one battle dictate the result of your war.' It's time I return that same advice to you." Twilight felt herself returning the hug, feeling much better after telling her fears to Pisces. "You can't let your fear of the results prevent you from trying, you must always have hope, because in the end, that's the only thing that saves us from despair."
Pulling away from the hug, Twilight gave Pisces a grateful smile. "Thanks Pisces." She felt a small spark light up within her and saw a similar spark in Pisces eye. Soon enough Pisces' golden chest piece appeared as well as a rectangular war hammer and a familiar pink gem. "The Element of Kindness!" Twilight wondered at loud. Then the Element fused with the chest piece that put itself on around Pisces.
Pisces grabbed the hammer and her chest piece started glowing, slowly encasing her in a golden set of heavy armor. "Good to know the enchantments still work. Are you ready Twilight?"
Twilight smirked, rubbing of a tear with her hoof and looking at the huge orange crystal that served as the room's light source. "Not quite yet...do you mind if I take this?"
Pisces gave her just a quick worried glance before her expression softened. "Go for it.''
Orion was keeping the shield up, but he was increasingly struggling against Nightmare's magic blows. They had started shortly after Twilight and Pisces had gone under the deck and they hadn't stopped since.
Then Orion felt the magical surge he felt whenever somepony used crystal magic in his proximity. Knowing that the only one in the airship with such an ability was Twilight he tensed up more. He needed her to stop, his adoptive mother, Princess Luna, had asked him...More like begged him not to let her use the crystal magic she processed.
But as it seemed he couldn't keep his promise and Twilight was taking full advantage of that fact. He cursed under his breath as another beam hit his shield looking up just in time to see Aries sent flying into his shield. Luckily he managed to open up a small hole for him to pass through without getting hurt.
"Bring me as many unicorns as you can." Orion ordered him. After a quick salute he went into the captains cabin and the ship was filled with his voice.
"Attention all unicorns. Report to the stern of the ship as quickly as you can!'' The order was followed up with the sounds of hooves approaching.
"I need to refrain from casting the shield so-" Orion groaned as another beam hit the shield. "-So I'll need every capable unicorn to create another shield level under mine! Anypony who can't use your magic to power you comrade's spells!" The order was met with a unified salute and the unicorn pirates gathered magic to their horns as a shield of different hues was draped over the airship, following that, Orion let go of his spell letting the unicorns take the blows.
'Twilight, for both of your sakes I hope you know what you're doing'
"Alright Pisces, care to pass me my crown? Ooh! And another chunk, please." Twilight asked as she placed her front hooves on small chunks of the orange crystals. She channeled her magic through her horn and towards the crystal and it slowly began to crawl up her hoof, becoming hoof-guards.
The rest of her body was draped in crystal armor. Her original golden chest plate now had crystal extensions that reached her sides. There were to holes for her wings, which also had crystal plates on the main feathers expertly cut to allow full mobility.
"Sure thing Twi." Pisces then paused and looked at it. "Are you sure you want to...change it?"
"I won't 'change it' completely, I can always take the crystals off later using magic." She levitated the crown in front of her and cut small diamond shaped crystals from the chunk and stuck them to the sides. They slowly started to creep down the sides creating a crown like helmet that flow upwards where her jaw would be. "What do you think?"
Pisces narrowed her eyes as if inspecting it then smiled. "Looka great, now-" She was interrupted by a loud bang and the ship shaking making them falter.
"Well, let's get going before...Mom decides to destroy us." Twilight put on her crown/helmet and chuckled quietly Long live the Queen! She rolled her eyes at her thoughts and followed Pisces out onto the deck.
What she saw shocked her to say the least. Most of the unicorns were out cold, they had small puffs of dark blue smoke coming out of their whole bodies, one sniff confirmed to Twilight that it was dark magic. Orion was struggling to keep up a shield to protect himself from the same dark magic as the other unicorns. The pegasi were dodging and taking jabs at Nightmare Moon, the ones who were hit were rendered unconscious, while their comrades dove in to save them and threw them unto the deck. The earthponies grabbed the falling pegasi, some tried to tend to the others while some made repairs to the deck and sails.
Twilight drew her sword and galloped towards Orion. With one powerful cut, she cut the dark magic in half. She lit her horn and the magic was turned to a mulberry colored crystals, trapping it inside. She went and extended a hoof to Orion who had fallen on his flanks from the effort of holding a shield against dark magic for so long.
"Are you alright?" She asked.
"Yeah." Then they looked back out to the battlefield. "Nightmare Moon is being distracted by the pegasi. The unicorns had begun a shield wall but it didn't last under her assault. I tried to stall until you got here."
"Thanks Orion" Twilight answered with a small smile and then pondered the battlefield again. "Get the ship back in order and to full speed." She addressed Pisces and Orion. ''I'll stall for as much time as I can."
"Are you mad?! Let at least one of us help you-" Orion tried but was interrupted by Twilight.
"No!" Then she grew mindful of her tone and continued in a much softer voice. "I won't let any of you get hurt. Don't worry about me, this time I don't plan to hold back." She said with finality, galloping and dramatically jumping overboard before flapping her wings and flying towards the Nightmare. Or, I hope I don't hold back... Twilight thought with a gulp.
Taking in a deep breath she ordered at the fast approaching pegasi. "Retreat to the ship!" Then she threw her blade at Nightmare Moon who barely dodged it. Aries and Lilly stopped next to her, hesitating, silently asking if they should follow the order, one reassuring look from Twilight was all that it took to get them hurrying back to the ship.
Twilight dove in after her sword and grabbed it with telekinetic grab before pulling, hoping to meet at the half way point. She looked up in time to see Nightmare descending on her with her own blade. Twilight rolled to the side while bringing her sword up in time to parry Nightmare's.
"Well look who it is! The traitor of a princess. And in crystal armor no less, why, Luna would be soo proud!" Nightmare Moon mocked, going in for another slash.
"Does it really surprise you to see yourself?" Twilight retorted, creating a shield to block the incoming blade and bringing down her own to throw it to the side before causing her shield to 'explode' in a wave of pure mana, pushing the Nightmare back. "Oh, where are my manners! Thank you so much! It didn't take much work to get it done, only a few crystal chunks."
Nightmare shot a beam of pure energy at Twilight, which she dodged with a loopie-loop in the air. "I learned this trick from your Commander." Twilight commented before blasting Nightmare Moon to the ground. In response, Nightmare created a shield to stop the beam, and with a powerful flap of her wings dove out of the way.
Nightmare turned to a cloud of smoke and dashed towards Twilight, it re-formed itself before unlashing another beam. Twilight, teleported behind Nightmare Moon and stabbed her left with her sword. Nightmare let out a wale similar to that of a wounded Timberwolf and then growled.
Sorry Mom! Twilight winced at the thought of that being her mother's body she just stabbed but a sharp pain on her unexposed fore-hooves shot her back to reality. She looked to see Nightmare Moon's blade cut a medium sized gash on her coat, the dark red blood staining her lavender coat. Twilight brought up her sword and parried Nightmare's blade away before it could do more damage.
They both flew backwards, creating a big gap between both of them. That was a mistake on your part. Twilight mused as she suddenly seemed to stand on the air, levitating her sword above her head so that the tip was facing the sky she mentally chanted.
'Oh stars of the heavens, heed my call Come and help me achieve my goals! Come forth my starbeasts Canines! So that this threat ends tonight!'
Once she finished, her eyes glowed white and so did her sword. Soon enough if one looked closely at the sky, they could make out two dog like figures running to earth from the sky at great speeds. Twilight shot another beam at Nightmare Moon to gain her attention once more. Nightmare ducked as the beam barely scrapped her and retaliated with one of her own. Twilight moved to the right in time but the gash on her fore hoof made the mouvement a pain.
She snapped her wings close and dove towards the ground followed by an angry Nightmare. When she was sure that Nightmare was right on her tail and the ground close she opened her wings and copied the move she had seen the thestrals that were chasing her use. She propelled herself upward and loopie-looped on top of Nightmare, using her momentum and strength to push her against the ground with a crash.
The wolves arrived next to her in that moment. They were big, Twilight came up to their knees, they were translucent, one pink and another purple, both with sparkling coats and a big white stars on their foreheads. The pink on put his paw on Nightmare, trapping her beneath it so Twilight could move away.
Twilight walked around to face Nightmare, panting from the battle. "Why are you here?" She asked her.
Nightmare glared up ahead, lighting her horn with magic ready to blast them away but Twilight took control of it and dispelled any spell. "Do you really think that's going to stop ME?" Nightmare spat. "You insult me daughter."
"Humor me." Twilight glared back. "Wouldn't you want to lull me into a false sense of security? Now, humor me again. Why are you here?"
Nightmare huffed. "Well I came to take care of those pirates you helped. But also supervise a certain job in Fillydelphia." She smirked evilly.
Twilight felt panic creeping up her. "What job?" She asked struggling to keep her voice composed.
"Hmm...Is this fear I see daughter dearest?" She taunted.
"Answer the question!'' Twilight glared down at her stomping th ground with her hoof, flinching when it turned out to be her injured hoof. Nightmare just glared up at her without saying anything. "You're stalling." The realization hit Twilight like a bag of bricks.
"Yes, and I believe-" Nightmare shattered Twilight's control off her magic causing the latter to be pushed back gaping at the wild magic power. "-that I must get going, since let's face it, you won't get there in time. Oooh by the way! I think my acquaintance will love to say hi to Andromeda for you." Then she summoned a dome of mana and let it expand outward, pushing Twilight into a tree and dissolving the wolves into stardust which ascended back to the skies. The pulse of the wave nocked down the surrounding trees with powerful cracks. Nightmare looked down at Twilight with an arrogant smirk.
"You won't get away with this." Twilight managed to spit out between gasps, trying to get air back in her lungs.
"So cliche!" Nightmare rolled her eyes at Twilight before flying away.
Twilight couldn't really make out much from her spot against the tree, only the dark indigo of the night sky. Then there was a flash of teal light from where the airship was supposed to be. Twilight gasped and she found the strength to get up and fly.
Nearing the ship, she saw the whole crew walking toward her friends menacingly in trance-like motions with neon teal smoke coming out of their eyes. Twilight flapped her wings faster when she saw the unicorns flash their horns and her friends fell unconscious to the deck. Twilight narrowed her eyes and readied herself for her stunt.
When she was in a good position above the deckline she made a final flap and pushed herself down, opening her wings to glide. She lit her horn just in time and pushed the crew back before she touched deck, she then used her magic to grab her friends and levitate them behind her. Once her front hooves touched the wooden surface of the deck her wings shot upwards and she kicked up with her back hooves, doing a fly-by.
She breathed sigh of relief when she saw her friend's chests gently rising and falling to their breathing. She slowly found her wings were starting to grow incredibly tired so she just glided down to the hills, softly landing and beginning to gallop towards Fillydelphia.
She sighed tiredly ''This is literally and figuratively going to be a looooooong night."
Twilight had been walking for at least two hours. She looked back over her shoulders, her friends were still unconscious and Pyre was busy keeping them warm. She had made a magic scan to make sure they were okay, luckily it was just a very strong sedative spell, and unluckily for her she had been carrying them for miles. She would let her life down for them, but she was growing tired, and her hooves ached. Talking about pain and hooves, she still had that gash from earlier, oh, and of course her wings started aching. How she longed Aries' advice, he was always good with directions.
She let out another tired sigh, and watched the hot air of her breath condense into a small cloud. She squinted at something in the distance. It was dark and stretched for miles. A forest perhaps? A forest would do them good, if not to shield them from the wind that was currently hitting them, then to provide some firewood for a campfire. Her ears perked up at the thought of a nice and warm camp, she smiled hopefully as she picked up the pace, with her friends following closely behind, levitated by her magic.
Once they were closer, Twilight confirmed her suspicions, it was a forest. By the looks of it, the forest had been once tropical but thanks to winter nearing and the temperatures dropping, curtesy of the eternal night, the forest had started dying. The leaves were becoming more pastel and some even started freezing.
Not good, if I am correct, this forest should almost never freeze up, even during winter. The coldest the temperatures get are during autumn...Yet again a lot can change in a thousand years. Twilight thought.
She stopped when she came to a small clearing that was drier that the rest she had encountered and set her stuff down. Then she slowly placed her friends in a circle around Pyre so that they keep warm. Once her magic had dissipated she couldn't help but sigh in relief.
"Who would've guessed that carrying four grown ponies, their amour and weapons they were carrying for at least fifteen miles, could be so magically exhausting?" Twilight picked up her sword and shakily brought it above her head and sliced down on a branch. With careful measure she cut the branch until she had quite a few small logs. She unceremoniously threw them on a patch dirt, where no grass grew, and charged her horn with a fire spell. Slowly, the logs caught fire and Twilight fought the urge to throw herself into the warmth, instead opting to take the less painful route and laid next to it.
"Pyre, want to join me?" After receiving a happy squeak he and Twilight moved the prone bodies of her friends near the fire. "You know what?" She yawned loudly. "I'll go ahead anndd...take...a...nap" Her eyelids slowly closed and Pyre slowly crept up to her side and snuggled into her, putting a wing over her, drafting her in a metaphorical blanket.
"What are they doing here?'' asked ruff male voice.
"I don't know Pharynx, I'm not a little witch to see the future." huffed a female voice.
They were currently behind a bush looking at five prone equine bodies and a bird.
"Yeah you're right, I'm sorry. You aren't a little witch, you're a big witch."
"SShhhhhhhhh" She brought a hoof to her mouth. "They'll hear us!"
"C'mon they're out cold we could just-" He was interrupted when an orange was stuffed into his mouth. "Whem difd hyou get thisgh?!"
"Magic! Now shush and watch the master do her job." She smirked and channeled her magic through her curved horn, as warm red light lit the surrounding area and a red flame raised around her. When they subsided, a female phoenix was in her place.
She flew up and landed in the quickly set up camp. She screeched and woke up the phoenix who at first had a defensive stance before relaxing. He gave another screech and flew towards her. When he was very close, the flames erupted once again and in her place was now a white female kirin. "BOO!"
The phoenix screeched louder than he had ever screeched in his immortal life he fell backwards and landed on a glassy coated mare, who woke up with a start and scream that began a chain reaction until all of the group was awake and screaming. They looked around wide-eye.
"What- Where are we?!" The only thestral asked while looking around.
"I don't know all I remember is-" The glass-like began but was interrupted by a fuming the orange one.
"They betrayed us all of them!" Then his ears twitched to a side. "Wait, did you guys hear that?"
The kirin, who had return to her bush in the chaos, tensed up she turned her head back to see that her changeling friend had accidentally crunched down on the apple. They both looked at each other wide eye.
'My, how the tables can turn...Ponyfeathers! The kirin mused at her misfortune. She poked her head out the bush but this time she was met by two ruby red orbs. Her eyes followed the orange-red fur until she found that they had a muzzle. She looked back at the orbs who was looking at her sternly and she smiled sheepishly.
"H-Heeeeeey there. Crazy weather we're having huh?" She tried but he reached out and pulled her out of the bush. He then but one of his front hooves on her back to hold her down.
"Who are you, and where are we?" He growled.
"Aries! Don't be so brutish" The thestral scolded him.
"Yes! I think we're moving too fast! You haven't even taken me out on a date!" The kirin taunted and in return she received a blush and a scoff from him. "I'll take that as a no. Well to answer your questions, lover boy. My name is Winter Melody, I'm a kirin as you are no doubt unaware of-"
"Actually," Aries said. "We know what kirin are."
''That's a pleasant surprise! You're a strong adventurer with a brain, that's great for our relationship, my love, I hate cliche guys." That earned a few chuckles from the rest on his expense. "Anyways, like I was saying. I'm a kirin, and you my friends, are a few minutes away from the kirin village. Annd before you ask, I woke you up -my way- because your lavender friend over there is maybeee...kind offf...bleeding from that injury."
Their heads shot to look at the lavender mare's prone body. The big dark blue stallion is the first to react. "Twilight!" It's become apparent ,now that Melody could see clearly, that the lavender mare was not...in the best of conditions. There was a small pool of blood under her leg. Her chest was slowly raising and falling.
'Yes, I shouldn't have tried to sugar coated that. Oh well, they probably won't remember after this. Speaking about remembering, where is Pharynx?'
As she thought that, there was a ruffle of leaves behind her. "Hey! Get off of her!" Then, the weight was lifted of her back. Looking up she saw her changeling friend on top of who she guessed was Aries. He snarled, and bared his fangs at Aries who struggle to get back up. Slowly he stated rising, but before Pharynx could react he was lifted off by Melody.
"Now Pharynx! We're friendly." She stretched out the word 'friendly' to emphasize her point. "If you don't calm down I will tell Thorax.'' She threatened the struggling changeling, until he eventually calmed down. "We are so sorry. My friend here can get a little carried away, he's very overprotective. Oh but don't worry he isn't competition."
"W-Whaha?! Melody! I'm going to pretend you didn't just insult me!" He sounded slightly indignant but Melody ignored him.
"Now, we're going to help you. You just tell us what to do." She addressed Aries.
"A-Ah- yes. Well I can't tell you, I'm not too good at...Healing stuff." He explained circling his hoof in the air, looking a bit flustered. "Listen, I still don't trust you completely. But thank you for waking us up I guess. And sorry for pouncing on you, Winter Melody, right?"
"Yes love, you can call me Melody. All my friends call me Melody."
"Right. Could you stop calling me love now? The joke is kind off getting old."
"Nonsense! Only I can say when it get's old, and trust me that nickname is staying." Winter smirked.
Aries groaned, but then couldn't help but chuckling at her. "You know what? I think we're going to be good friends."
"Wow, what a way to friend-zone me." She made the effort to seem downcast and sad. Which by the way had the desired effect, and Aries looked distressed.
"No! That wasn't what I meant. I-"
"So you do love me!" She beamed.
Now it was Pharynx who groaned. "Don't worry she's just playing with you, she's really good at that. She always makes others laugh, at your expense."
"You're making me seem evil!" Melody complained.
"Okay, okay. I'll admit she makes it up to you later, but still." Then he pointed to the lavender mare on the floor, now with the others around her, talking in hushed tones. "You should probably go to them. Don't give me that look, ok? I know how you feel, you don't trust me enough to leave me alone. But believe me, me and my brother completely left the hive, we don't even have access to the hive mind anymore."
"Hive? Sorry, I'm not familiar with your species..." Aries trailed off.
"Changeling." Pharynx responded, his tone becoming cold.
"Right...Anyways, Melody-"
"Huh?'' She asked, getting caught off guard. Yes, she had been paying attention to the conversation, but she was still caught off guard.
"If it's okay to you guys. I'll be keeping you captive until I can be assured you won't hurt us in any way." Aries said as a matter of factly.
"Wait, what?!"
Orion was frustrated. Who wouldn't be? His sister once again insisted to do things alone and ignore his previous warnings NOT to do that. Granted, it was over a thousand years ago, but still. Oh and by the way cette sister was now currently bleeding out before him.
The wound wasn't mortally deep, but the fact that they didn't know how much time had passed didn't leave them with a good feeling. Orion tensed up as he heard a sharp sound to his left. Pisces and Lilly were tending to her. Lilly as the 'lead doctor' and Pisces serving as her assistant and he was the assistant of the assistant. Yes, he had fallen far, not that he minded. In fact, he was happy to help to keep his sister...you know...alive.
He watched as Lilly inspected the wound. Her expression a worried frown mixed with an unsettling professional face. "Orion, get me the 'manticore tooth'."
He reached for her saddle-bags, luckily Twilight had carried their saddle-bags, he hesitated at the multiple veils and ingredients. "You have them labelled right?"
"Yes, and if not it's the golden powder. Don't inhale it or touch it." She responded , never tearing her gaze from Twilight's leg and started removing the hoof guard.
Orion reached in with his magic and levitated the glass containing the powder she described. "Ah' got it!'' He called back. when he turned he was met with two confused faces. Pisces spoke up first.
"Since when did you have a country accent?"
"Well you don't spend 900+ years in Appleloosa without it growing on you. It just slips out sometimes." He shrugged. "Now, not to be rude or anything, but we should focus on what's important right now." He pointed his head at Twilight's prone body.
"You're right.'' Lilly sighed and grabbed the glass with her mouth, but then she hesitated and unfolded on of her wings and placing the glass on top of them with expert balance. "Pass me my tools. A bowl, spoon and grinding stone."
"Right away!'' Orion complied, getting what he was asked for faster than last time. He stole a quick glance at Aries, only to see him tying up an insect like creature and the kirin, back to back.
"Okay, Pisces, I need you to find water as quickly as possible. Orion take her place and apply pressure on the wound."
Orion did so immediately and quickly noticed her body temperature going down. "Lilly, her temperature is lowering, should I get Pyre to warm her up?"
"It is?! It wasn't lowering before...Ah sharp-fangs! Yes, we need him right now. Where is he anyways?''
Orion looked around and spotted his orange feathers from behind a bush, cowering. "Pyre, come on! She's just a kirin don't be afraid. Twilight needs you right now." At the mention of his friend/princess/owner he dashed out of the bush and dapped his wings around her.
"Good. Orion, how fast can Pisces fly?"
"Pretty fast but nowhere near professional thestral flyers. Luckily thanks to her small size she's very agile, something very useful in this forest setting. If anything she's our best choice." He assessed.
Lilly nodded with a relived sigh. She sat on her haunches and rotated her wing to keep the glass upright and balanced. "Well then, looks like we'll have some time before we start healing the wound. It wasn't infected, or I couldn't find any infections at least."
"So...Sharp-fangs?" He teased, a playful smirk played at his lips.
Lilly blushed a little and scratched the back of her ears. "It's a thestral expression, like pony-feathers. It started when a thestral bit his tongue with his fangs. I believe he screamed 'damn my sharp-fangs!'" She dramatically waved her arms around and made a crazy face. "And then it stuck." She concluded causing them both to laugh.
When the laughter subsided an awkward silence replaced it. Or at least it was awkward for Orion, he couldn't tell if Lilly was feeling the same. The forest temperature felt like it was raising and he began sweating. 'Okay, I need to see Pisces about this. This is getting ridiculous!'
"Soo..." He started. "How is life in...Thestral-land?"
"It's actually called Noxtralya. And well, I don't know where to start." She replied. While she talked the unscrewed the lid to the glass containing the manticore tooth. "Depends on what you want to know." She grabbed the glass with her mouth and poured some in the bowl, filling it more than half way.
"Hmm. Well what about any games or sports?" He suggested.
"To talk about sports I need to explain our magic real quick. Unless you know of it?" She sealed the glass once again and plopped it in her saddle-bags.
"I-I could use a little reminder." He looked away in shame. He knew absolutely nothing about thestral magic. All he knew were the things they couldn't do, like walk on clouds or control the weather.
"Thestrals don't have the same magic as pegasi. We can't walk on clouds or directly control the weather. HOWEVER!" She said in an enthusiastic that caused Orion to jump a little. "Our wings allow us to catch and control air currents. So we can beat the fastest pegasi in open air. But in an enclosed space we risk getting injured or if we're in limited air space...like a racetrack! We run the risk of loosing control of the currents and it can cause accidents. It also allows us to do tricks with little to no momentum needed." She emphasized the fact by opening her wings. She made a small jump and suddenly shot up in a loop-d-loop, landing gracefully on the ground.
"Using the currents we can also 'push' clouds. We just control them and the wind carries the cloud, so in a way we can control whether it rains or not." She puffed out her chest in pride and tried to look a little bigger but Orion still towered over her. "So, sports. We have races, in fact we have two 'race-sports'. 'The Tidal' which is who can better use the currents to fly at amazing speeds and beat the other to the finish, it's a straight line that stretches a long distance. The other is 'The Rings'. As the name suggest is a regular equine race track, the sport is to prove your control. The goal is to make more laps than your opponent in a set amount of time.''
"Which one was your best?"
''The Rings definetly-"
"Lilly, I got the water!" Lilly came dashing in. She held a gourd in her mouth that leaked with water.
"Great! Sorry Orion we'll have to finish the conversation some other time."
Lilly grabbed the gourd and added some water to the manticore tooth. Orion saw it bubble and fizzle, slowly dissipating into the water. Lilly then used the spoon to dissipate it further. Orion was going to ask what it was but Pisces beat him.
"Why are you using the manticore tooth? I mean yes, it relaxes her but how could it heal her?"
"It's not supposed to heal her, but imagine waking up to a burning leg while it's being disinfected. It's just an anesthetic. To disinfect the wound I need a little bit of help, and only Twilight can do that."
Lilly leaned in and nudged Twilight on the side with her muzzle. Twilight groand but otherwise remained asleep. "Twilight, wake up..." Lilly said, an edge of caution in her voice.
"Mmmno...." Twilight grumbled as she folded her ears in defense.
Orion watched with amusement. Lilly was always afraid to overstep her boundaries with Twilight. He sighed and placed a hoof on Lilly’s shoulder. "Here, let me show you. Oh! And take some notes." He smirked. Oh he had waited for this moment to mess with Twilight. "Twilight quick!" He said, his voice drenched in fake worry. "Blueblood is coming! And he has a small red engagement ring-box with him!"
"NO!" Twilight woke with a start. She looked around with irritation before settling her gaze on him. "Don’t. EVER. Do. That. Again."
He gave her his best sympathetic smile...Even though on the inside he was feeling very smug. "Sorry Twilight but we found you passed out when we got woken up."
"Woken up? By who? I though I told Pyre to let you sleep." She glanced at Pyre’s sheepish smile with suspicion.
"That’s not important right now. What is important though, is disinfecting this." Lilly pointed at Twilight’s hoof.
Twilight for her part regarded it as nothing important. "Does it have a little infection? I’m sure it’s that important. What I want to know is, are you guys o-?"
"Nononono no. Princess." Lilly did her best scolding tone. "I am fixing you up, like it or not. Besides you have little cuts and bruises everywhere." Lilly used her hooves to gently part her coat to reveal Twilight’s very bruised back.
Lilly used the spoon and poured the manticore tooth all over Twilight’s wound. "This will help, but trust me, this may hurt...and burn...at the same time."
"Oh dear stars, what have I gotten myself into?"
"Relax, it won’t be too bad. Besides I need your help. I need your earthpony magic to correctly smash the Foogle Leaves."
"Foogle Leaves?"
"Yes, they are regarded as the best disinfectant and healer plant in Equus." Lilly beamed as she reached into her saddle bags and pulling out pink leaves with green spots.
"Then why isn’t it used in hospitals? I heard they aren’t that rare." Pisces asked, eyeing the leaves wearily.
"Because without a strong enough anesthetic like manticore tooth...The patient will faint because of the pain, some might endure long-term damage." Lilly said with a serious frown on her face.
Now, Orion trusted Lilly. But his big brother instincts were telling him to burry those leaves miles away from were they stood. He had to restrain himself from stomping on them.
"Twilight, I need you to grab these in one hoof. Channel earthpony magic and then slam it against a flat surface. Orion could you get something like that?"
"Yes Orion, will you please help contribute to my suffering at the hooves of a healing plant." Twilight begged sarcastically.
"It won’t be that bad! Trust me." Lilly grumbled.
"I do trust you, it's just...You made it sound terrible."
Orion looked around until he found a large flat rock next to the fire. He touched a hoof to it and yelped back. Hot. Definitely hot. He grabbed the rock in his magic and levitated it next to Lilly while he went towards Aries.
He was engaged in a conversation with the two captives, and he seemed to be enjoying it. He decided to wait a few seconds until a break in the conversation occurred, then he went to speak with him.
"Aries."
"Yeah?”
"Twilight’s awake, also, who are they?"
"My name is Winter Melody, just call me Melody. And this here is my friend Pharynx, he’s a little rough around the edges but he can be a really good friend if he tries."
"Not to be rude or anything, but what are you?" Orion asked looking at the bug like creature before him. He was black and had holes in his hooves, it reminded him of cheese...And he just destroyed cheese for his tastebuds.
"None taken." Came his hoarse reply. "I’m a changeling, shapeshifters who feed on ponies’ love."
"Oh...Well that is...Interesting." Orion laughed weakly and rubbed the back of his neck, suddenly finding the forest vegetation very interesting.
"Oh don’t sugarcoat it. You don’t trust me, and honestly I don’t blame you. Our new pal Aries said that honesty is the best way to show you’re harmless."
"Well that sounded like we’re trying to get on their good side for something." Melody, the kirin, sighed looking at Pharynx with an annoyed expression. "That’s not it. We just want to prove that we don’t want, have, need to hurt you guys. We just wanna help...In our own way." She said smiling.
"Aries, why are they still tied up?"
"Uuhh...I forgot. I was so caught up in the conversation I forgot to untie you guys." He said sheepishly. "Sorry."
"It’s okay. But you aren’t making a good first impression for our date."
"Are you saying you’re quitting on me? And this fast?" Aries said smugly.
Orion, now very confused turned to Pharynx for some insight, only to be met with a simple shrug.
"They’re competing on who gets fed up with the joke the fastest." Pharynx groaned. "They even bet bits. And I, somehow, got roped into being the referee."
"Ah." Came Orion’s sympathetic response. "I’m Orion, his friend." Orion offered a hoof to Pharynx and a small smile.
Pharynx, on his part seemed pleasently surprised. "Are you sure you want me to shake your hoof? All the ponies or kirin that we’ve met never offered or took our hooves."
"Positive." Pharynx smiled and took Orion’s hoof into a firm shake. "Excuse me for asking but, 'we'?
"Oh! Right. You see me and my brother, Thorax are crashing at Melody’s until we get a place and identities figured out. When I said ‘we’ I meant me and him."
"I see. Well, you hang on tight, when this is over I’ll try to get you sorted out. If I can’t, maybe Twilight can."
"Twilight...The bleeding mare? I didn’t get a good look of her but I did notice a horn and wings. How come no other ponies have both?"
"She’s an alicorn she has pegasus, unicorn and earthpony magic." Orion quickly explained. "We-"
"AH! BY MY STARS, THAT BURNS."
"Are...On an adventure...More like a quest really."
"To do what?"
"To save our mother from herself and thus ending the eternal night with the Elements of Harmony." Orion sighed.
"Wow. That’s rough buddy."
"Yeah. Sorry to keep this short but, I’m going to check up on her." Orion said pointing at a restrained Twilight. She was, in fact, being restrained by Lilly and Pisces while the former was struggling with the medicine.
"Twilight, for the love of everything that is good on Equus...STAY PUT!" Lilly screamed at Twilight.
"NO! HOW CAN I STAY PUT WHILE YOU TORTURE ME?!" Twilight screamed, the noise reaching The Royal Canterlot Voice levels.
"W-What do you mean?! I’m curing you!"
"WITH POISON?!"
"No! Now young princess chin up and take it like a mare!"
"Well. I’M SORRY. I DONT NORMALLY LIKE WAKING UP TO SOME TARTERUS FORGED PLANT!"
"Twilight! Honestly you can be quite foalish." Orion, having watched the scene from a far, saw Aries approaching the mares with a deadpanned expression.
"Aries. Not. Now." Pisces grumbled, her voice quivering as she attempted to further restrain Twilight.
"Let me do this." He gave a sly wink Pisces way. Never a good sign, Orion noted. "Twilight listen to me. You. Are. A. Princess. You can’t be going around like a filly! Now, as Lilly best put it. CHIN UP. You have been named, in the distant past mind you, The defender of Equestria, Vanquisher of Monsters and Sheper of dreams-"
"Not yet, mother still won’t let me dream walk. Something about-"
"Don’t interrupt me."
"Right, Sorry."
"Ahem. Among other titles. Now are you going to let something as insignificant as an herb-"
"Not insignificant." Lilly grumbled. "I’ll have you know that this herb is very-"
"AHEM." This got a sheepish grin from Lilly. "-Are you going to let something as insignificant as an herb defeat you?!"
"No." Twilight sighed and muttered out.
"Are you going to let Nightmare Moon defeat you?!"
"Now, let’s not get caried away-"
"Twilight! We can do this! Repeat after me. We.Can.Do.This!"
"How can you be so sure?"
"Please Twilight, when have I ever been wrong?"
"Multiple times actually. For example, this one time-"
"Like I was saying... You don’t have to worry! We’re all here for each other! Trust me." He smiled at her and she smiled back.
"Lilly," She called out to their thestral friend. "Administer the poison." She nodded determined.
"Still not poison." Lilly grumbled but otherwise took the leaves and pressed then against Twilight’s wound. The leaves began to fizzle and bubble, and they also started radiating heat.
Smoke began to come out Twilight’s nose and ears and she started to flush. Everypony, plus Melody and Pharynx who had approached them earlier, began to back away, very confused.
Then the leaves calmed down, dissapearing completely. Everyone seemed to calm down, including Twilight.
"You know what, that was bad, but not as bad as I thought-" Twilight was interrupted by her mane catching fire, her coat turning white and her eye color changing to a blood red. After a few moments the transformation died down and Twilight was back to normal.
Everyone sat there, dumbfounded, staring at Twilight who in turn stared back with utter confusion on her face.
Melody whistled after a few seconds, breaking the silence. "Wow Princess! Are you sure you’re NOT a kirin?" She asked in a jolly tone.
The whole group began laughing together.
She definitely wasn’t a kirin, Twilight knew that much was true. Even though they were laughing together she couldn’t help but feel melancholic. Remembering truly all the times she had been right to trust in what Aries had said.
Twilight then felt the now familiar spark light within her once again. A hexagonal fire ruby appeared over the group. It slowly descended and incrusted itself in Aries’ golden torc.
"Honesty." Twilight acknowledged. "Ironic given how well you lie."
"Doesn’t mean I have to like it..." He grumbled. "I’ll have you know I value honesty above else. You just have to be a liar in my career."
"Pirating?"
"We’re merchants!" Screamed Aries and Pisces, seeming very annoyed. Much to everyone else’s amusement.
"Hold up! Merchants?" The kirin asked. Now that she thought about it, Twilight hadn’t given the kirin a second thought, until now of course. She also noticed the bug-like creature besides her.
"Pardon me, but I believe we haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Tw-"
"Twilight. I’m Winter Melody, but my friends call me Melody. Orion introduced you to me."
"Oh. Thank you Orion. That simplifies things." Twilight thanked him with a small smile. Although, deep down she was secretly envying him. She had wanted to do her very special, over the top, royal introduction that her mother had taught her. But now she couldn’t.
"Yes, yes, pleasantries. Now, is there a particular reason why you asked about us being merchants?" Aries rushed. He seemed a little too excited.
"Yes. You see." She urged everyone to sit down. Twilight didn’t know HOW she did it, but she made them, well, she made Twilight feel like a filly listening to her mother retell stories of great victories.
"Our village was once a thriving land." She conjured up a pretty novice illusion of what Twilight guessed was the kirin village. "Our citizens were the friendliest there was!" The next illusion was of kirins playing and laughing together.
"But then, a fight broke out. To this day no kirin knows why. But it quickly escalated. We became fiery beings that accidentally destroyed their homes." The illusion of kirins, seemingly on fire, fighting each other in verbal smack downs. The fire grew until it ingulfed the houses until it receded and only a few planks remained.
"'No more talking!’ Exclaimed our leader. She led us all to the stream of silence that left us mute and quelled our flames. Me and Autumn Blaze escaped before we got taken to the river. Autumn eventually convinced them to take an antidote she conjured up but-"
"It didn’t work?" Lilly asked, intrigued.
"Yes, very good, my child." Melody smiled. Petting the unsuspecting thestral. Lilly for her part just looked amused at the kirin’s antics.
"Anyways, I was wondering if you had anything that could help." Melody asked with a giddy smile.
Pisces and Aries looked at each other. Both were thinking, likely reviewing their inventory. They both shrugged and looked back at Melody. Aries was the first to speak.
"We aren’t the ‘healy’ stuff experts. You’ll have to ask Lilly to see if she managed to rescue anything." He pointed at Lilly.
At first she seemed surprised but then she began thinking. Bringing a hoof to her chin and closed her eyes in concentration. Everyone was staring at her expecting a response in total silence.
Eventually Melody leaned into Twilight’s ear and cooed . "She looks like a pouting puppy." Twilight snickered and brought a hoof to her mouth to keep from laughing. Taking a good look at Lilly, she noticed that, Lilly, indeed looked like a pouting puppy when she thought.
"Well I don’t know. Depends on what I have the rest was on the ship. And I didn’t take much..." Twilight watched as she started looking around in her saddle bags. I took a few moments for her to look back up again, sighing. "I haven’t heard a thing about the river of silence or it’s magical constitution. But I guess we could counteract the voice lost with some of the things I have here."
"No. That may not work." Twilight spoke up gaining everypony’s attention. "Magical landmarks are all unique and have different magical immunities and such. Don’t get me wrong, it’s worth trying but it’ll be best to have a backup." She turned to Melody. "Does your village by chance have a library?"
"Yeah but the books there are written in Old Equine. Only our leader can read it."
"Oh please. You think a little Old Equine is going to get in the way of research? Pleaaase. While Lilly makes the potion, I’ll look for a backup plan." Twilight offered.
There were some resounding agreements among the group and they decided that Melody would take them to the village while Pharynx would return to their house in the outskirts.
The whole way back, a question was nagging at Twilight’s mind, her mother's words resounding in her head. And they soon began to grow in number.
'What did she mean by: I think my acquaintance will love to say hi to Andromeda for you?’
'Will she harm her? No no. Andromeda’s too smart for that right? Surely I would’ve felt something...'
'Has anything changed? Not that I can tell...’
At that moment her hoof tripped on a root. Thankfully she didn’t fall and managed to regain her bearings. But it only helped to spark another question.
She slowed her passes and soon she was situated near the back of the group near Orion. She gently tapped him with her wings to get his attention and leaned in to whisper.
"Why did my gash not heal quickly?"
"You depleted your earthpony magic." He responded in a mechanical way.
"How? You were with me all along. The only time I used it was with those Tarterus-damed leaves. Long after It should’ve healed."
He opened his mouth but his retort died out, something Twilight had hopped wouldn’t happen. Since he didn’t say it she would.
"My stars are dimming...waning. So is my magic. I have as much as a powerful unicorn. If we waste more time I won’t be able to lower them."
"Don’t say that!” He hissed. Twilight saw Aries’ ears perk up and face towards them. He was listening, though she doubted Orion noticed. "It’ll be hard but you can do it. You always find a way to pull through."
"Care to share with the class?" Aries, who was now besides them asked. Yet it lacked the usual sarcastic or joyful tone, replaced by a much serious and cold tone shared by the duo.
"You’re a smart colt when you want to. I think you can deduce everything from Orion’s outburst."
He sighed and looked down at his hooves. "Yes. I may not be as smart as you two, but you were talking about that, right?"
"Yes. But I’m telling her not to worry, we’ll get this sorted out and...If the worst comes to pass I’ll help you with my magic and..."
"Risk magical exhaustion. I don’t want you-"
"'Risking yourselves for my sake.' We’ve heard it before and let me tell you, Twilight. We want to. No matter what you say. You’ll either have to accept it or suffer through it." Aries cut in. Despite the seriousness in his voice it regained some of his confidence.
"Alright." Twilight sighed out.
"Wait really?"
"Yes. I now see that you’re right. Unless I order you not to, you’ll always do it. And in that regard I’m not like my mother."
"You’re not like her in a lot of ways Twilight."
"What do you mean-?"
"We’re here!" Sounded Melody’s sing song voice.
The group came to a stop before a few reeds. Melody magically and dramatically parted the reeds. A warm yellow light invaded their eyes. When they adjusted they were met by the kirin village.
Some houses were mounted on the trees and others were ingraved in the trees. A small stream wound around and there was a small market place.
All in all, the illusion Melody had created earlier was pretty spot on.
"All right let’s get to work." Twilight called, the coldness in her voice gone. "Lilly I trust you can find your way around?" This was met with a small affirmative nod. "I’ll try to find the library. Melody, will you mind telling me what you know about the stream? Maybe I can meet with your leader?"
"Sure! I’ll be happy to take you to her. Right this way."
"Thank you."
The three mentioned departed from the group, leaving them to their own devices. She turned to Melody, who was giving her an odd look.
"You’re worried." Melody stated.
"It’s that obvious?"
"No. You hide it well. I should congratulate you on that. You’re diplomatically trained?"
"You could say that... But I learnt how to hide things on my own. I’m guessing you learnt how to read ponies or kirins the same way?"
"Eeeeeh not exactly. My mom actually taught me some things herself, I just expanded on them."
Twilight chuckled lightly "Well we have that in common. Anyways the stream of silence, what do you know about it’s magical attributes?"
"Absolutely nothing." This caused both of them to chuckle. "We’re almost to her Highness’ house. It’s up this small hill. She should know about the stream."
"Very well. I first want to ask you a few questions. What is she? A princess, queen, duchess..."
"Lady. Lady Early Morning."
"How would you describe her?"
"Mostly calm, she does have her temper, but one must reaaaally be searching for it. Other than that, I guess...Ah, wise? Or at least she tries to be. You'll understand when you see her."
Twilight nodded in understanding. "That reminds me of my aunt. Thanks Melody, I’ll see you around, I would prefer to meet her alone if you don’t mind."
"Not at all. Have fun I guess." Melody walked away with a small smile on her face that turned out to be infectious, since Twilight found herself smiling along.
She walked up the hill. The house was bigger than the rest. It was half engraved into the tree and the other stuck out. She walked to the door and knocked firmly.
"Come in!" She heard a hurried voice call out.
Twilight wrapped her telekinesis around the door knob an pushed the door open. Her worries were only incremented by the fact that she felt the more pressure than usual on her horn, meaning her magic was weaker.
'I really need to get this over with. Then figure out how I'll lower the stars without killing myself.'
"Is there something I can help you with-. A-Actually wait you c-can't talk...sorry."
What she saw wasn't what Twilight had expected. A kirin younger than Melody and was sitting in front on a desk facing away from the door. She had a white coat and yellow mane, her horn was nothing more than a stick with a single red stripe. She was hastily jotting down notes and lifting other parchments.
"Well, not exactly." Twilight replied looking around the room. It was messy, nothing compared to the organized studies of the rulers she knew. Papers were stacked along side books on various subjects, mostly magic, even more papers were glued to the walls. There were food stains on the books!
She grit her teeth, now was not the time to lecture the young kirin about proper book and note organization. The kirin jumped at the sound of her voice and scrambled to turn around.
"You found a cure?!" She asked with glee. She finally managed to look up and face Twilight. Her glee diminished significantly but she still retained a spark of hope. "Who are..." her voice trailed off when she noticed Twilight's wings and horn. "An alicorn?!" She quickly stood up rigidly and cleared her throat. "I mean. An alicorn. I wasn't aware that there was another alicorn aside from Equestria's princesses." She explained. "What brings you to our village. Can We aid you in any way?"
"No, in fact I am here to help you. I would like to speak with Lady Early Morning." Twilight stated.
"You are speaking to her. I am Lady Early Morning, leader of the kirin village."
"Oh." Twilight smiled. "Then in that case, it is a pleasure to meet your acquaintance, I am Princess Twilight Sparkle. You see, I am very well versed in the arcane and I shall help you find a cure to the stream of silence."
"P-Princess?! Equestria has a third princess? I have been so caught up trying to find a cure I-I haven't been keeping up with foreign politics."
"Don't fret. This has been a recent development, and to answer your question, there are currently four Equine Princesses. Though relations are a bit tense, concerning the Eternal Night."
"Eternal Night? I-Uh oh... I haven't addressed my subjects! They must be panicking out there! I-"
"Have other issues to worry about currently." Twilight answered with a small smile. "My friends and I are on an...adventure of sorts, a quest, to end the Eternal Night. But first we will help you, it shouldn't be too hard." Twilight levitated the various parchments and notes glued to the wall towards her in an attempt to find something useful within the texts.
Characteristics: 1- Somehow silences us and quells our flames. 2- I don't know!
She frowned. The notes had useless comments Early wrote to herself. Maybe this was a mistake after all.
I found a couple of references in folk lore dating back to around the 500's.
-Snow White and the Seven Kirin p38
-The Fall of the Empire -passing mention- p584 (and yes I read it completely. Don't judge future me, I need time off.)
-The Rise of Firebreath p213
"Tell me about Firebreath is he...?" Twilight let her voice trail off letting the question finish in Early's mind.
"He was a fairy tale hero. He supposedly fought against the zebras during the Second Land War. But I couldn't find anything in historical texts of the SLW that even mention the stream."
"Second, that means there was a first." Twilight muttered under her breath. She teleported an empty parchment and quill she spotted on the desk and began writing her thoughts. At the same time whispering them under her breath. "If it was over lands then, it must've exchanged hooves often. The stream could be made of either's magic, probably and attempt to weaken the other side. Zebra magic consists of mostly chanting and herbology, while an enraged kirin is much worse than an normal unicorn..."
A thought occurred to her. The stream was currently in kirin territory. Early only mentioned having searched through records of the Second War.
"I have an idea." Twilight stated out loud. "It may be a stretch but is a lead non the less. Do you have records of the First War? I'm looking for maps specifically, all the maps you can find from the start of the War to the end."
"I-Uh- Yes we have some in the local library. But it'll take me a while to get them back here to you."
"There's no need." Twilight replied with a wave of her hoof. "Libraries are my second domain. I shall do the research while you organize your study. It's no wonder you couldn't find the answer, you wouldn't be able to find the right notes in this mess. A good ruler must always be organized, consider it a rule of thumb."
Without waiting for a reply Twilight walked back out. The temperature difference becoming more obvious as she stepped out and into the cold of the continuous night. Now there was barely any other light apart from the moon that shone too brightly for it to be normal.
She let her thoughts wander to her mother, as she walked the streets to the plaza, ignoring the crowing crowd she was walking in. They soon moved on from Luna and, unfortunately towards a topic Twilight wanted to ignore. 'What was she going to do now the her world didn't exist anymore?' She had been robbed of a thousand years, dozens of acquaintances and friends, customs, home, culture.
Twilight shook her head and ruffled her wings, mentally scolding herself. 'Not now. Focus on the task at hoof.'
Now she was painfully aware of her surroundings. She was in a large kirin crowd, but she as the only not facing the plaza's center. Curiosity got the better of her and she decided to check what all the fuss was about before heading to the library...Which she didn't know how to get to.
"Careful...Careful..." Lilly repeated as a stack of ponies stretched above a boiling pot, Lilly was holding a flask, gently letting the liquid down. The others grunted under the weight, specially Orion who was at the bottom.
"Why in the name of Equestria can we not use magic?!" Aries who held unto Pisces and Lilly, complained.
"Do you want to explode?" Came Pisces' snarky reply.
"Guys! Shush!" Lilly hissed. The liquid almost done pouring.
Suddenly the door to the library was thrown open, Orion jumped and winced at the sound, something that started a domino effect that resulted in Lilly losing her grip on the flask. The four of them stumbled to catch the slippery little thing. Pisces managed to jump over the pot and catch the flask between her hooves. The group sighed in relief and turned to glare at the door.
A dumb-struck kirin greeted them. The kirin gulped and slowly left the library, leaving it as empty as before. All four of them got up and regarded the potion that was brewing.
"How sure are you about this?" Aries asked.
"Pretty sure. This should counteract the effects of the stream. And if not...Twilight can always do her voodoo da she do."
The door to the library was once again opened, only this time softer, and a familiar kirin walked in.
"I have finished delivering Twilight to Early Morning." She announced in an over the top fashion, wearing an old announcer's illusion.
She looked really proud , and the others were about to comment before the door was thrown and slammed into the the wall, taking Melody with it. A mad, panting alicorn was at the door.
"This village. Has. No. Signs!" She stomped in and went into the history section.
The door slowly closed, revealing Melody, comically splatted into the wall.
"Worth it." She smiled.
Twilight sat in a big pile of books. Whoever were the previous kirin in charge before Early Morning, reached out from the centuries to steal their precious time. Yes, she had been the one to offer their help, kind of, but this was ridiculous! She looked up to a clock, quite the invention, fifteen minutes had passed and she had yet to find anything. For something as big as a war, there seemed to be nothing everything had been erased. Ironically there were a lot of records on zebras.
She reshelf all the books, taking a lot of care to preserve their order. They had at least served as a reminder to touch up on the kirin language, even if it was 'dead' as Orion had put it, after she asked for his help.
If she had inherited anything from her mother, it had been her temper. She was in a desperate need to alleviate her tired frustration, not to mention she was still weak from the blood loss and magic depletion. She walked baack where the rest of her friends were preparing the potion. They were laughing between themselves, and Twilight felt a pang of envy, but decided not To ruin the mood. She took in a deep breath and approached with a small smile.
Aries noticed and immediately asked "Any luck in finding what you needed?"
Twilight winced and fell onto the spare cushion in the circle. "No. There are no records about the war nor zebra magic. I found the average size of a male zebra's reproductive organ, but no magic!" She threw her front hooves up and fell backwards, her wings opened.
"Well, luckily, I'm almost done with the potion." Lilly smiled from behind the cauldron. "I just need the apple blood in the bag." She pointed at the bag next to Melody. But they all stared at her.
"It's not from an apple family member right?" Pisces asked Aries, very confused.
"I don't know..." He cringed as multiple glares were sent his way. "I bought it 'cause it sounded cool!"
Lilly chuckled and corrected. "It's actually blood from a special kind of apple grown to the north. They bleed for some reason."
"Magic! Literally!" Melody exclaimed, earning a few chuckles, she smiled proudly. Then she reached into the bag, the empty bag. "It's empty." she declared, showing everypony the bag.
"What?" Lilly asked with a hopeful smile.
"It's empty." Melody repeated.
There was a long silence. Everypony knows what happens if you don't add all the ingredients into a potion in time. It explodes in your face, quite literally.
"FIND IT!"
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH-Ooof!" A group of exiled thestral soldiers crashed into the ground and the branches of a forest.
One of them landed in front of a vial containing a red liquid. She took it and sniffed. "Yeeeeeees" she squealed. "Captn', I found apple blood! Can I? Can I?" She asked, not like he could answer, he had his face slammed into the dirt by her.
"MMMrgh"
"Thank you!"
"Hey!"
"I already looked over there!"
"I got it- No wait...URgh"
"Twilight!"
"What?!"
"You dropped your crown!"
"Thank y-OW. Aries! You stomped my hoof!"
"Sorry. We don't have much time!"
Twilight stopped amidst the pandemonium. They were all looking everywhere without avail. Out of the corner she saw Lilly stop. Lilly turned suddenly, with a determined look on her face. she marched until she got to her saddle bags and began searching through them. Then she suddenly took out the blue rose petals.
Twilight's face lit up with recognition and understanding. She watched as she added the petals into the mix. The potion fizzled and then settled.
She gave up her dream for these kirin... Twilight thought in awe.
Yes, quite commendable.. She looked around, she could've sworn she'd heard somepony. She felt a familiar spark within her. He eyes looked up to see a gold torc and a deep purple gem levitate down and rest against her shoulders.
Twilight walked through the halls of the castle. The stone halls illuminated only by the light of the moon seeping through the windows, no stars tonight. The magical candles were unlit, the lavender that usually adorned the halls were missing, the castle felt colder than usual.
Her small hooves, adorned with small golden slippers tapped through the halls at a hesitant pace. All those signs, ones she knew not to ignore, her mother was not happy.
She should’ve turned back, but she trod on despite her increasing remorse. After all she had great news. A cutie mark was an important moment in any foal’s life, normally one that a parent was either part of or informed off immediately.
Key word normally. Everypony knew, except her mother. She looked back proudly at her starburst cutie mark. Everypony knew she had gotten hers, except for her mother, and know she had to tell her, when she had a bad day.
She slowly approached the gigantic door to her mother's study. The door was made of dark wood, with a moon made out of steel in the middle. Two stoic thestrals guards stood at attention next to the door. Seeing Twilight approaching the hesitantly blocked her way and regarded her with sympathetic looks.
"I wish to pass. I have important news for Princess Luna." Twilight tried, regarding the guards with a curious looks.
"Your Highness, we have direct orders. Her Majesty shall not be disturbed." The guard fidgeted his wings and regarded is companion.
"It is a very important matter. I am aware that Princess Luna may not be in the best of moods. Nevertheless I believe that these news shall impact her positively." Twilight smiled.
The guards cringed, the second one took a deep breath and with a hesitant motion moved in to whisper. "Princess Twilight, I'm afraid that your mother is...Well she..." The guard trailed off and looked away.
Suddenly, there was a loud sound from inside the study, similar to a clatter of various items, then multiple breaking and crashing sounds. All present winced and moved lightly away from the door.
"Princess, the matter has no cure. She is livid this night, we-" He motioned to himself and his partner. "-implore you not to enter, lest you get hurt." More crashes sounded from within, followed by various pops of spells, then everything became eerily quiet.
Twilight gulped and took in a long, calming breath. "Thank you for thy concerns. But I shall stand by my intentions to deliver these news." Twilight gave them a small smile, copying her aunt, and hoping it was reassuring.
The guards nodded with hesitance and stepped aside allowing her access to the door. Their faces lit up with understanding and smiled. "Princess, congratulations on obtaining your cutie mark! May thy rein be long and fruitful and may thy talents befit thy position." They bowed low after reciting the phrase they had been taught since the first day of guard training. They made sure to show as much support as they could while keeping their place, they knew she would need it.
"Thank you." Twilight smiled, her worries almost erased. Everypony had acted excited and proud, why would her mother be any different?
She knocked once, knowing that her mother had heard her and not wanting to irritate her, but she still could hear a low growl. She waited patiently until she heard her mother's commanding voice from inside. "Enter."
Twilight did so, swiftly, as she was told. The room was again immaculate, the expensive gifts from various countries made of ceramic, glass, porcelain and more were all where they were supposed to be. Everything still glowing from the various mending spells her mother used. Speaking of which, Princess Luna sat on a desk looking over a star map inspecting every single detail.
"What is of such importance that We art to be bothered?" She asked not even lifting her eyes to see who it was, her tone harsh.
Twilight winced and began to worry. Perhaps this was a mistake. Yet she continued, just as her mother had taught her. "M-Mother I-"
"No stuttering Princess Twilight." Princess Luna lifted her gaze up, her eyes focused and stern, reminding Twilight she must not show weakness.
Twilight gulped and started again. "Mother I come bearing news..."
"Yes?"
"I have obtained my cutie mark." She said excitedly turning and lifting her wings for her mother to see.
Her eyes widened as she stared at the starburst star surrounded by five smaller ones and another behind the main one. She muttered something under her breath and returned her attention to the map and then back to Twilight.
"Well, that explains a few things." She said evenly, then she got up and walked up to an increasingly nervous Twilight, no reaction? "I have been reviewing the star map you created. It was sent to me, earlier this night. Quite impressive, I believe the stars have chosen a new princess." She placed a hoof over her withers. "Good work." She turned and sat back on her chair. "Tomorrow night your training shall be accelerated, Equus cannot be left without stars for much time. You must learn to raise and lower the stars in half a month. Dismissed." She motioned with a hoof, but Twilight stood there shocked.
Nothing. No reaction. No joyful expression. Just a mutter and more demands.
"Is there am problem Princess Twilight? Something else you wished to discuss."
Twilight frowned, and bowed her head in respect. "No Your Highness that shall be all." She turned around and stormed out of the study. The guards outside looked to the ground, already knowing what had happened and refusing to look at the small princess.
As soon as they closed the door and the silence wards glowed as they were put into place once again, Twilight let out a weak sob and a shudder and teleported away.
