Twilight Sparkle falls to madness and becomes something twisted and dark.
After being returned to the proper timeline, Twilight Sparkle, her mind and soul became corrupted by the combination of the curse placed on her by Daybreaker and the tantabus implanted in her mind by Nightmare Moon, becoming something dark and twisted.
That same night screams of horrified mares echo across the land as they find their foals stolen by a dark alicorn.
Heeding the call of her former teacher, Sunset Shimmer, along with her six friends come to the land of Equestria to save the fallen princess.
Can the Humane seven, along with the remaining Mane Six, Starlight Glimmer and Princesses Celestia, Luna and Cadance save Princess Twilight or will a new dark queen rise to rule?
EDIT: Due to the limit of 5 main characters/character groups able to be tagged, Starlight Glimmer is also a main character.
Twilight lay on the bed in the royal castle in Canterlot, a plate of uneaten food from breakfast, lay on the nearby end table. Guilt gnawed at her mind over the events that had happened over the past few weeks. She had stolen foals from their cribs, left seven of her friends stranded far from their homes and tried to burn the world. Looking over at a nearby news paper, her five friends from Ponyville, Sunset Shimmer, Starlight Glimmer and the duplicates from the human world were displayed on the front page, the headline read 'Hero Ponies saves Princess Twilight Sparkle and rescues foals!'. She scoffed to herself in disgust. Some Princess of Friendship I am. I don't deserve this title or friends.
Looking to the window the opened to the balcony, she rose to her hooves, pulling the tops sheet from the bed, Twilight tore a long strip from it and tied it around her barrel, securing her wings to her side. Flinging the window open with her magic, she walked out onto the balcony. Looking out, the city perched on the side of the Canterhorn, spread out below. Her gaze drifted to the spires of a crystal castle in the distance, towering over a familiar town. As she stared out at the crystal castle and the small town, tears welled up.
"I don't deserve this title, that castle or friends.", she whispered to herself, "Scum like me should be cleaned from the world." She climbed up on the railing of the balcony and balanced awkwardly.
At the moment the maid walked in pushing a cart holding a fresh plate of food. "Good afternoon Pri..." Her words were cut off as she stared in shock seeing Twilight perched on the railing of the balcony. As she rushed to the balcony, Twilight lit her horn, casting a barrier, blocking access to the balcony. "Princess! Don't do this! I know things seem bad, but this isn't the way!", she shouted, pounding on the barrier.
The shouting drew two guards. Bursting into the room, they paused for a split second taking in the scene. Rushing to the barrier, they nudged the maid aside and drew their spears. "Alert the princesses!", the first guard ordered the maid as the two of them started jabbing at the barrier with the spears.
Turning her head, Twilight looked at the two guards attacking the barrier with their spears and the maid sprinting out of the room. Turning her head back to the Castle of Friendship where seven of her friends had been staying until they either figured a new way back home or found new lives, tears leaked down her cheeks. "Be better than me Sunset. I'm sorry Starlight.", she said softly. Closing her eyes, she leaned her body over and let herself fall into into the empty air.
***Six weeks earlier***
Starlight Glimmer screamed in horror as she stared st the empty bassinet and the shattered window, disrupting the stillness of the night. Lights came on in nearby houses.
Cup Cake got up to check on Pound and Pumpkin, it was nearing the time when they usually woke up hungry and messy. She nudged her sleeping husband, "Carrot, I'm going to take care of the twins."
Carrot Cake groaned groggily as he rolled out of bed. He stumbled in a half-awake stupor, following his wife out of the room and heading to the kitchenette. He pulled two baby bottles out of the ice box and put them into a small sauce pot of water to warm them up. Hearing screaming echoing across the darkened Ponyville, he mumbled to himself, "We'll have to ask Fluttershy in the morning if she can get the shrieking owl to move."
Pinkie was roused from her sleep by a twitching in her left nostril, alerting her to a foalnapper. Springing out of bed, she opened her window, slipped out it and shimmied up the gutter to the roof. Seeing a dark alicorn flying towards the house, her brain started doing calculations and mapping out a plan to try and catch it.
As Cup raised her hoof to open the door to the twin's room, she heard the shattering of glass. Bursting through the door, she saw a dark alicorn levitating Pound and Pumpkin out of their cribs. As she charged the alicorn, a wave of force sent her tumbling out of the room.
Hearing the shattering of glass, Carrot immediately started stampeding through the house, leaving the two bottles of milk warming on the stove. As he entered the hallway, his hooves pounding hard on the floorboards, he saw his wife tumbling out of the twins' room and hit the banister with a loud crack. Without pausing he barreled into the room. He saw the dark alicorn turning to the window, levitating three foals in protective bubbles. "Oh no you don't!", he bellowed, charging the alicorn.
"Eh?", the dark alicorn muttered as she turned her head, revealing a pair of unnaturally glowing purple eyes, gleaming with madness. With a kick of her hind leg, her hoof connected hard with Carrot Cake's chest, sending him sailing across the room and into a wall. Slumping to the floor, he wheezed and gasped in pain, clutched his chest. The alicorn leapt out the window and spread her wings to take flight.
Pinkie perched on the edge of the roof above the twin's room like a cat. Wiggling her rump, she re-positioned her rear hooves for a better grip and lowered her front half in preparation to pounce. As the dark alicorn leapt out out the window and spread her wings to fly, the pink pony leapt. "Gotcha!", she shouted, landing on the alicorn's back and wrapping her forelegs around its neck, "It's not very nice to steal foals. It's bad, it's wrong, it's bad-wrong or brong!...or would the right word be wrad?"
"Get off you pink menace!", the alicorn snarled, shaking her body in an attempt to dislodge the unwanted passenger. She climbed, dove and barrel rolled in an attempt to dislodge the pink passenger.
"You're going to have to do better then that!", Pinkie shouted as she leaned back with all of her strength, forelegs still wrapped around the alicorn's neck, pulling it's head up. The two went into a loop-de-loop before the alicorn's flight stalled and started plummeting head first towards the ground. At the last second Pinkie back flipped off the alirorn and produced a parasol from seemingly nowhere, opening it, she gently floated gently to the ground.
The dark alicorn impacted the ground hard and lay in a heap, knocked unconscious from the fall. The foals, still in their protective bubbles, bounced on the ground unharmed. As Pinkie landed gently on the ground, she closed the parasol and stuffed it into her mane. "Whew! I sure am glad that the writer decided to not let me go splatsville! Now let's see about getting these foals out of these bubbles and back to their parents." As Pinkie walked over to the foals, she tapped the bubbles they were encased. She fumbled around in her mane pulling out random object. "Blender. Nope! Fishing pole. Nope! Map to the lost city of Marelantis. Nope! A signed June issue of Playmare featuring John Pones.", she turned to the fourth wall, a blush on her face as she slipped the magazine back in her mane, "Eh-heh-heh-heh! I like the articles. Don't look at me like that!", she blew out a sigh, "Fine! I look at the pictures too. But don't get all judge-y, I can see all of your search histories and I know the naughty things you all look at too. Sooooo...we'll just keep this between us. Okay?" She fumbled around in her mane again. "Ah, here we go!", she exclaimed pulling out a straight pin.
As Pinkie lined up the pin in an attempt to pop the first bubble containing Pound Cake, the dark alicorn stirred, raising her head. Pinkie didn't get a chance to react as a blast of magic sent her sailing through the night. "BBBBBBBAAAAAAAADDDDDDD WWWWWRRRRRRIIIIITTTTIIIINNNNNGGGGG!"
Cranky Doodle and Matilda snapped awake as a pink blur flew through their bedroom window sending broken glass sailing about the room. Switching on the lamp next to the bed, Cranky hopped out of bed. "Pinkie! What do you..." He stopped seeing the unconscious pink form, covered in bleeding cuts from the broken glass, laying in the middle of the bedroom floor. "Pinkie? Pinkie? Are you okay?" He gently nudged the unconscious pink party pony, who in turn groaned in her unconscious state, then turned his head to Matilda. "Stay here and make sure she's okay, I'm going to get help." He quickly pulled on a robe and hurried out of the house as quickly as his old legs could carry him.
The dark alicorn rose to her hooves and shook off the disorientation. She looked off in the direction that Pinkie was blasted off, her eyes stopped glowing an unnatural purple and reverted to a lavender, some of the dark blotches faded slightly, a single tear trickled down her cheek. "I'm sorry Pinkie, please forgive me. I don't know what's--NGH!" She placed a hoof to her head, wincing in pain, the dark blotches returned, spreading further across her coat, her eyes began glowing an unnatural purple again. "No time for that now. We've got more to do to complete the first step." She quickly checked the three bubbles containing the foals, ensuring they were still in stasis and gathered them up. Gathering the three bubbles around her in her telekinesis, she it her horn, purple and black energy writhing around its length, in a flash of dark purple, all four vanished.
All across Equestria, parents woke up to the sounds of shattering glass. Screams of terror broke the peace of the night as mothers and fathers found their foals stolen.
The castle in Canterlot was abuzz with activity, guards rushed through the hallways to secure the castle. Celestia stood next to Luna as the younger sister scanned the room where Twilight had been staying. "We art sure of it now, sister.", Luna said, "When Twilight Sparkle was trapped in the other timeline, she had been infected by Nightmare Moon."
Celestia gasped in shock. "A-are you sure Luna? I know she suffered greatly at their hands, but infected by the nightmare?"
"Verily. But there is more. We art sensing a bit of thine magic, though it is corrupted. We apparently did not remove all of the curse. It appears to not only have twisted her mind, but also corrupted her wellspring."
"Can she be saved?"
"If we get to her in time. Though if we art took late...", Luna raised her head to look at her sister, a grim expression on her face, "...we may have to do something thou had to do to us."
Celestia felt lightheaded as Luna continued, "It is something we must both consider, as a last resort. I do not blame you Tia, if you hadn't banished me to the moon, any remaining spark of me would have been completely consumed entirely by the nightmare.", blowing out a sigh, she turned her head to the shattered window, "It is not going to be easy to save Twilight Sparkle and we'll need help."
At this Celestia perked up. "I know who we can call Lulu."
At that moment a guard rushed in carrying a note in his mouth. As Celestia levitated the note from his mouth up to her face and read it, she paled slightly. "Luna! Three foals have been snatched from Ponyville!"
"What is the nightmare's plans?", Luna mused to herself, then said aloud, "We must make for Ponyville with much haste sister!"
As the two sisters hurried through the hallways of the castle, several more guards rushed up carrying messages of stolen foals from across Equestria.
***
Sunset Shimmer was awakened by her journal buzzing and shimmering. Stretching and yawning, she reached over and pulled the chain on the lamp by her bed, soft yellow light filled the room. Picking up the journal, she opened it and started reading the message.
Dear Sunset Shimmer, I'm not sure how time works in your world, I don't know if it's day or night over there and I apologize if I woke you, but Twilight has been infected by the nightmare and has fallen to madness. I All of Equestria needs your help!
Sunset blinked a few times and reread the passage again. She quickly grabbed a pen.
I'm coming!
Sunset picked up her phone and sent a mass text to her friends.
Princess Celestia just sent me a message. I've got to hurry over to Equestria. Twilight is in trouble!
I'm coming along to help you sugar.
ME TOO!
I'm coming too! You helped me when magic corrupted me, it's the least I can do if Princess Twilight is in trouble.
I'm coming as well darling!
I'm coming too.
ME SIX!!!!!1111!!!!!!
I don't want to put you guys in any danger. The nightmare is a real threat to everybody and everypony.
Try and make me stay. Danger is my middle name!
I thought your middle name was Mabel!
Look here sugar, we're coming along to help you and that's that. Don't waste your breath and your battery trying to convince us otherwise.
Well said darling.
Like I said, it's the least I can do for saving me.
Pinkie! If you say my middle name again, I'll scalp you. Also, like I said Sunset, try and stop me!
I'm coming too!
I'm coming too! Maybe their Pinkie throws superduperamazingtatious parties too! OOOOOO! Maybe we can throw a WEJUSTSAVEDPTWIANDTWOWORLDSATTHESAMETIME party!
Sunset clicked off her phone's screen, went to get dressed. Grabbing her helmet and journal, she went downstairs. Straddling the dirt bike that was given to her after the Friendship Games, she sped off through the mostly empty streets of Canterlot City. Pulling up to a house, she switched of the bike, walking up to the door she knocked on it loudly and hurriedly.
Principal Celestia, rubbing her eyes and blinking away the sleepiness, opened the door. "Sunset? Is something wrong?"
Sunset shoved the journal into the woman's hands. "I've got to go to Equestria! There's an emergency! My friends insisted on coming along too even though I tried to tell them not to. Keep it safe and nearby. If something happens, I'll message you through this, otherwise I should be back in a few weeks." With that she rushed back to her dirt bike and straddled it. "Oh! And I'm going to leave my bike in a faculty parking lot!", she shouted before jamming her foot down on the kick starter and sped off into the night.
Principal Celestia stared dumbfounded at the girl with red and blonde streaked hair speeding off into the night.
Sunset pulled her dirt bike into the parking lot of CHS. Her six friends were already waiting there for her. Pulling the bike around the side of the building to the faculty parking lot, she switched it off and hung the helmet off the handlebars. Pulling a pen and a piece of paper out of her backpack, she hastily scribbled an apology note to Vice-principal Luna, then stuffed the keys to the bike and the note inside the helmet, making sure both were secure.
As Sunset walked up, Rainbow called out, "Sunset! I didn't think you were going to make it."
Sunset rubbed her head. "Yeah, sorry about that. I had something to take care of before we all went through the portal." Walking over to the portal, she ran her hand across it, making rainbow-colored light dance across it like ripples in a pond. "Okay guys, you ready? This is going to feel really weird."
Rainbow puffed up her chest. "Oh yeah! I bet I'm going to be as awesome over there as I am here!"
"Just take it slow. Don't rush through. You're going to be disoriented and I don't want you to break your neck.", Sunset said in a firm tone.
One by one the girls stepped through the portal. Rainbow Dash stepped through first, followed by Fluttershy, Rarity, then Sci-Twi. Pinkie got down on all fours and bounded through the portal with a "Whee!"
Applejack laid a hand on Sunset's shoulder. "Ev'rythin's gon' be alright sugarcube. We'll all pop through, help out P-Twi an' be back b'fore ya know it."
"I know AJ. I'm just worried. I haven't been back to Equestria since--"
Applejack placed a finger on Sunset's lips, cutting off her words. "Like Ah said, ev'rythin's gon' be alright. Ah know you an' pony Celestia didn't leave off on th' best o' terms an' if'n she caint get past that, Ah'll punch her right in the nose."
The two girls hugged. As they separated, Sunset watched the farm girl step through the portal. Taking a breath, she braced herself, Equestria, her homeland, a place where she had once parted from the prince and former teacher on bad terms, where she had stolen the Element of Magic in a futile attempt to conqueror it. Now she was returning, not as a conqueror or as a student, but to save a friend whom had saved her once.
As Sunset reached a hand out to the portal, a car speeding out of the dark caught her attention. Turning her head, she watched as the car pulled into the parking lot. Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna stepped out. She gave them both a smile and stepped through the portal.
"Be safe and come back.", Celestia said softly as she watched the girl step through the portal.
"Godspeed Sunset Shimmer and may the angels carry you home.", Luna said softly.
***
Deep under a ruined castle atop a craggy butte in the badlands, a dark alicorn placed the last bubble containing a sleeping foal in stasis in a hollowed out chamber. Once the bubble was placed, it paused to look over its work, hundreds of bubbles, each holding a foal in stasis, were carefully placed about the chamber.
"Rest little ones.", she said running a hoof over a bubble, "Once I purify this land with fire from the heavens, you all shall inherit a clean world. Just one more to claim and step one shall be complete." In a flash of dark purple she vanished.
Shining Armor paced through the throne room of the palace in the Crystal Empire. He was disturbed by the message from Canterlot. Walking through the castle, he paused outside Flurry Heart's nursery room where Cadance was sitting in a rocking chair, holding their daughter in her forelegs while gently singing a song to her. Stepping through the door, his wife looked up at him and gave him a weary smile.
After laying Flurry in her crib, Cadance walked over and nuzzled Shining. "Flurry's fussy tonight."
"She knows something's wrong with Twily.", Shining replied with a heavy heart.
As the two turned to walk out the door, a crackling pop made them stop and turn. A dark alicorn was standing in the room with them. Shining Armor charged forward to confront the intruder and it fired a blast of magic at him. Cadance fired a beam of magic back, countering the blast. Shining continued to charge forward, only to get swatted aside by a powerful hoof.
Cadance quickly pulled her husband back with her magic and took a step forward. "Twilight, please, don't do this. Come with me, I can help you."
The dark alicorn glared at Cadance with unnaturally glowing purple eyes, wisps of dark magic curled from the corners of its eyes. "There is no Twilight anymore. She died in that land.", the alicorn said in a distorted voice.
"I know that's not true. The filly that I used to foalsit. the same filly who through her own endeavors ascended and became a princess in her own accord, the very same Twilight who has saved Equestria time and again, she's still in there. Twilight, if you can hear me, fight! Fight with everything you have! We all love you and will do anything to save you!"
The dark alicorn growled angrily. "There is no Twilight anymore!", she snapped and fired off a blast of magic.
Shining Armor, recovered and quickly summoned a raspberry-colored shield, deflecting this blast.
"Very well, if you are not Twilight, then who are you?", Cadance said, a tone of anger and concern in her voice.
The dark alicorn narrowed its gaze and replied in a distorted voice, "Nightmare Star."
"And what is it you want here in my kingdom?", Cadance said, flaring her wings as she rose to her full height.
Nightmare Star lit her horn and summoned a dark purple barrier between Flurry Heart and her parents. She began levitating the infant alicorn out of her crib and surrounding it with a stasis bubble. "A leader for my new world."
Flurry Heart snapped her eyes open just before the stasis bubble fully closed around her and summoned a golden shield around herself, shattering the bubble.
Nightmare Star stared at Flurry Heart. "Hello little one. Would you like to--AAAAUUUUUGH!" A golden blast of energy sent her tumbling across the room and crashing into the far wall.
Flurry Heart levitated in place for a few moments still surrounded by the golden shield. A golden aura surrounded the toy box, shelves, bottles and diapers. They were flung across the room at Nightmare Star.
Nightmare Star's eyes reverted to lavender as Twilight's voice spoke, "Shining Armor, Cadance. Stop me please! I can't stop her on my--NGH!" Her hooves went to her temples as she winced in pain.
"Naughty naughty little pony!", Nightmare Star's distorted voice came out. A dark purple shield scattered all the objects that had been thrown at her around the room and she rose to her hooves. Rising to her full height, she glared at Flurry Heart, who quickly flew away and hid behind her mother's forelegs. "You little brat! I gave you the chance to join me! Now you can burn with the rest of this world!"
"How dare you threaten my daughter!", Cadance snarled. She stepped forward, lighting her horn. "Release your hold on Twilight Sparkle."
Nightmare Star sneered. "Or what? You'll fight me? Pfft! You'd never harm you precious sister-in-law."
Cadance took a step forward and lowered her horn. "Though you inhabit her body, you have made it abundantly clear you are not her. I'll demand just one last time, release your hold on Twilight Sparkle and depart, or I'll be forced to to wrench you from her body, abomination."
A wicked smile crossed Nightmare Star's face, her sharp fangs gleaming. "Really? Calling names now?" She lowered her head and lit her horn. "Then have at you, whorse."
Cadance levitated Flurry onto Shining's back. "Get Flurry out of here and get a message to Celestia. I'll try and hold her here as long as I can."
Shining nodded and bolted out the door. As he scrambled down the stairs, an explosion shook the castle.
"What's going on your majesty?!", a crystal guard asked.
"Get the civilians to safety! The Empire's under attack!", Shining shouted. He staggered as another explosion shook the castle. Reaching the ground floor, he ran outside, narrowly dodging a chunk of palace falling and embedding into the street.
Cadance and Nightmare Star, standing in the ruins of Flurry Heart's nursery, both fired continuous beams of magic at each other, locked in a magical duel. Coiling streams of light blued and purplish-black magic clashed, forming an artificial sun that grew. The growing ball of magic reached critical mass and exploded, rocking the palace again, sending the two alicorns sliding backwards.
Shining Armor, running down the street, leading a crowd of crystal ponies to the train station, paused to look back at the palace. He watched as twin beams of magic made night temporarily turn to day. "Make it back to me safely Cady.", he whispered before continuing to rush towards the train station again with his daughter in tow.
Cadance leapt out the hole in the nursery wall and into the night and took flight, power flowing off of her making her shine like a comet in the night. Flapping her wings hard, she flew high into the air above the empire. Nightmare Star followed close behind. Two comets, one light blue, the other purplish-black, soared high above the Crystal Empire as the two alicorns dueled, one simultaneously trying to save her subjects and free her sister-in-law from corruption, the other seeking to overwhelm the first.
Cadance and Nightmare Star hovered in place, firing two continuous beams of magic at each other. As the artificial sun grew between the two Cadance called out, "Twilight! I know you're in there! Fight! Fight for everything you're worth!"
"Shut up already will you!"
Cadance steeled herself as she began pouring on more power. The growing ball of clashing magic grew and slowly moved towards Nightmare Star.
Cadance locked her eyes on her enemy, memories of her pushing a little lavender filly on a swing, teaching her a silly song, healing her boo-boos, seeing the filly grow into a mare, finding friends and finally becoming a princess in her own right. Suddenly she realized why Celestia couldn't bring herself to harm Nightmare Moon and she found that she couldn't bring herself to harm Nightmare Star. Tears poured down her cheeks as she stopped pouring on the power. "Twilight, come back to us.", she whispered
Nightmare Star took advantage of Cadance no longer pouring on the raw power and poured on a beam of raw magic in a devastating blast. Cadance shrieked in pain as the blast of magic overtook her, and she plummeted to the ground, smoke trailing from her singed feathers, mane, tail and coat.
Cadance's body dug out a small crater when she impacted the ground. She groaned as she raised her head. Nightmare Star landed and pressed her hoof hard on the Princess of Love's neck. As she prepared to give her hoof a twist, finishing off her opponent for good when a familiar surge of magic far off caught her attention.
Nightmare Star removed her hoof from Cadance's neck and stepped away. "Celestia, what do you have planned?" In a flash of dark purple light, she vanished.
Cadance, lying bloodied, broken, bruised and scorched, groan as she tried to lift her head again. Blackness slowly swam over her vision as the world slipped away.
***
Celestia and Luna stood before the mirror portal in the Castle of Friendship. One by on Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Sci-Twi and Applejack from the other world came through the portal and staggered disoriented as they tried to get acclimated to now being quadrupedal. A few moments later Sunset Shimmer stepped through. She staggered for a moment before getting her bearings and letting her pony instincts kick in. She immediately bowed before the Equestrian diarchs.
"Arise Sunset Shimmer.", Celestia said. Once the mare was to her hooves, she wrapped a foreleg around her in a hug.
Parting from the hug, Sunset said, "Princess, I'm so sorry for how I..."
Celestia pressed a hoof to her former students lips, silencing her. "Your past actions may have saddened me, but you have since then redeemed yourself and for that I am truly proud. Now tell me, why did you bring your friends along?"
Sunset rubbed a hoof to her head. "Uuuummmm....yeah, about that..."
"Now ya look here ya flashy-behind horse horse!",, Applejack interrupted as she defiantly interposed herself between her friend and the princess, "We..."
"Pony.", Celestia interrupted back.
"Beg yer pardon?", Applejack asked, caught off guard.
"I'm a pony, not a horse."
"Well I live on a farm where we raise horses an' ya ain't no pony. Y'all're too dang ol' big.", Applejack said in a matter-of-fact tone. She pointed a hoof at Luna, then at Celestia. "Yer as big as an Arabian an' yer as big as a draft horse."
"We're not from Saddle Arabia.", Luna said, "We came from Dream Valley."
"What in the heck is Dream Valley", Rainbow asked in a whisper.
"According to ancient Equestrian stories, it's where the three tribes came from before the Winter of the Windigoes.", Sunset whispered back.
"Applejack, darling. Let's not make the princesses mad or they might banish us or imprison us or imprison us where they banish us to.", Rarity said, interposing herself in front of Applejack.
Luna facehoofed. "Seriously?! First our little ponies were doing this, now the oomins are doing this? Where do they come up with this bullspit?"
Celestia ignored her sister and stepped forward. "Well you should continue with your tirade that you decided to so rudely interrupt the conversation between my former student and myself."
Applejack swallowed hard and steeled herself. "W-well as Ah was sayin' ya flashy-behind hor-pony, we all came o' our on accounts an' there's nothin'...", she jabbed a hoof at Celestia, then Luna and finally at Sunset, "...you, her or Sunset here could do tuh stop us."
"My my my sister, it appears this Applejack is very much like our Applejack.", Luna said.
"Very much so.", Celestia replied, "She's just as stubborn and pig-headed as our own apple farming Element Bearer."
The two sisters giggled that quickly turned to outright laughter for several minutes making the human-in-pony form raise an eyebrow in confusion. After they finished laughing, Celestia caught her breath and said, "It's refreshing to have a pony not afraid to speak their mind to me, especially if that pony is a oomin mare. Come along, I'll make us some refreshments and then we'll figure out somewhere to put you all down for the night."
As they all left the room holding the mirror portal, Luna paused and turned her head. "I was wondering when you'd arrive nightmare." She turned around to face Nightmare Star who was standing next to the mirror portal.
Nightmare Star gave a malicious grin at Luna. "I see now that you're in on summoning the humans too. No matter, they'll burn along with this world too." She lit her horn.
Luna stepped forward and lit her horn. "I know better that anypony else how to deal with a nightmare.", her tone became low and dangerous, "Go ahead, make my night."
Celestia stepped in the room, "Luna? Are you..." She paused seeing Nightmare Star. "Tw-Twilight?"
"Nay sister, though it is Twilight Sparkle's body, tis the nightmare in control."
Celestia lit her horn and stepped forward. "If you have come for battle, then you are a fool."
Nightmare Star chuckled evilly. "Oh poor ignorant Celestia, I did not come to fight the both of you."
"Then why have you come abomination?", Celestia said, a cold tone in her voice.
"Tia, practice caution. Though this nightmare has not come to fight, that does not mean it is not dangerous."
"You should listen to your sister.", Nightmare Star said, "You might just get out of here with your flank where it's supposed to be."
"So, is this your game?", Celestia said as an edge of violence entered her voice, "To come here to gloat?"
Nightmare Star laughed as fired a blast of magic at the mirror portal and the arcane machinery keeping it open. The resulting blinding and deafening explosion shook the palace as the mirror portal disintegrated into thousands of shards. Both princesses threw up shields around themselves, blocking the flying fragments. The blast brought the seven from Canterlot City rushing back to the room. When the smoke cleared, all nine stared in shock at the destroyed portal and machinery strewn about the room.
"Whu-What happened?!", Sunset exclaimed.
"The nightmare struck an destroyed the portal." Luna said coldly.
Rarity quailed and fainted. Applejack tried to catch her with her forelegs, but being used to a bipedal form, wound up falling over too.
"H-how are we supposed to get back now?", Rainbow Dash asked.
Celestia's face became a mask of cold, hard determination. "That's a question for another time. For now we've got to figure out how to cleanse Twilight of this corruption. Summon the Element Bearers."
***
Cadance groaned in pain as she felt herself being lifted off the ground. Weakly opening her eyes, she saw the blurry figures of crystal ponies gently hoisting her onto their backs.
"Just rest princess.", one crystal pony said as she checked Cadance's wounds, "We'll get you to the hospital."
Cadance went to say something, but her parched mouth and throat stole her words. Darkness swam over her vision as the world slipped away again.
***
One by one the five remaining element bearers groggily traipsed into the Castle of Friendship, as they entered into the map room, they were taken aback seeing their duplicates. Starlight followed behind, her eyes bloodshot and puffy, she paused seeing everypony's duplicate.
"Either I am still asleep or there are two of everypony here.", pony Rainbow Dash said.
"Thou art very much awake, Rainbow Dash.", Luna said.
Pony Pinkie Pie, bandages still covering her cuts and scrapes, trotted over to the human-in-pony form Pinkie Pie. The pink party pony and the pink party human-in-pony form squinted as they eyed each other. The two Pinkies mirrored each other's actions before each pulling a cup cake from their manes and shoving it into each other's mouths. "Well, she gets the Pinkie stamp of approval!", Pony Pinkie Pie said before pulling out a big rubber stamp from nowhere and pressed it to the human Pinkie Pie's forehead, leaving a big green check.
"And you get the Pinkie Pie sticker of approval!", the human Pinkie Pie exclaimed, pulling out a cup cake sticker and putting it on the pony Pinkie Pie's cheek. "It's a scratch and sniff sticker!", she said in a hoarse, loud whisper.
Pony Pinkie raised a hoof, scratched the sticker and took a sniff, immediately her face scrunched up. "Pee-yew!"
The human-in-pony form Pinkie started giggling. "Oopsie! I gave you a joke sticker by accident!" The two Pinkies fell over giggling, laughing, guffawing and snorting.
"Now there's two of 'em!", both Applejacks said at the same time.
Princess Celestia cleared her throat, drawing both the mare's and girl's attention. "We need to stop this nightmare before any stronger and why it has taken foals. Applejack..."
"Yes?", both the farm girl and mare said at the same time.
"This is going to get tiring very quickly if we have to keep saying pony or oomin before addressing these mares.", Luna said pressing a hoof between her eyes.
"Maybe we could use code names.", Sci-Twi said.
"Yeah!", formerly human Rainbow Dash said excitedly, "I could be Rainbow Dash one and she could be Rainbow Dash two."
"Why do I get to be two?!", Pony Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"Eh, you kinda feel like a number two."
"I'm not number two to anypony! Fine you can be number one, I'll be Rainbow Dash alpha!"
"Ooo! Ooo! Ooo! We could call our team the Fighting Mongooses! Mongeese? Mongoosi?", pony Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
Both Applejacks smacked a hoof to their faces. "Ow!", the formerly human exclaimed rubbing her eye. "Okay okay. How 'bout this, Back on th' farm...ya know...back in th' oth'r world, Big Mac sometimes called me Jackie. Ah guess y'all could call me that if'f ya want."
"Uuuuummm...You could call me by my middle name, Moonchild...", the formerly human Fluttershy said, her cheeks turning red as she hid her face behind her man, "...if that's okay with you."
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "I never knew your middle name was Moonchild."
"Grandmother gave me the middle name, she was a hippie."
"Darling, that's nothing to be ashamed of.", the formerly human Rarity said, "We can't choose our family or how they name us."
Jackie raised an eyebrow, "Well then Rares, ya mind enlightenin' us on th' name ya were born to before ya made enough of a squealin' fer yer parents tuh change it when ya were twelve?"
The formerly human Rarity blushed bright red and sputtered.
"Well it looks like th' cat's got yer tongue. Maybe I'll tell 'em fer ya."
The formerly human Rarity glared at Jackie. "Don't you dare!"
"Now this Ah gotta hear.", Applejack said leaning forward.
"Me too!", the pony and formerly human Rainbow said at the same time.
The formerly human Rarity harrumphed before answering. "It used to be J B before it was changed."
Jackie snickered. "And when we were in fourth grade, th' teacher left a not on th' student roster fer th' substitute J only B only an' the substitute read it Jonly Bonly."
"Yes darling, and for years all the students cruelly mocked me for years by calling me such a childish nickname."
The formerly human Rainbow busted out laughing. "Ah-ha-ha-ha! Jonly Bonly!*gasp* Ah-ha-ha-ha!*gasp* *wheeze* Ah-ha-ha-ha! I can't breathe!*gasp* My side hurts!"
J B glared at her friend turned blue-furred pegasus. "It's not any better or worse than Mabel"
The girl-turned-pegasus mare blushed bright red.
Rainbow snickered. "Hey Applejack, don't you have a prize pig with the same name?!"
Mabel growled. "Why you!" She lunged at the blue pegasus mare, the two started tumbling on the ground, throwing blows as they snarled curses at each other.
Starlight cast a bubble shield between the two fighting blue mares, forcibly separating them. "ENOUGH! All we're doing is sitting around and squabbling over names. This is helping us get any closer to-to--" Fresh tears began to well up in her eyes and her voice began to crack. "I-I-I Just want Hope Beacon back.*hsnf* The one bright point of light that-that*hsnf* shone brighter than the sun." She laid her head on the table and began to weep bitterly, whimpering her daughter's name between sobs.
The mares and former humans all looked at the weeping Starlight, a twinge of guilt twisted in their chests, the manes of both Pinkies drooped slightly.
"It has seemed that have tarried too long.", Luna said. She turned to the formerly human Pinkie. "We guess we should ask what thou shalt be called."
The formerly human Pinkie tapped her chin. "Well my middle name is Dianne...sooo..."
Pony Pinkie let out a loud gasp. "My middle name's Dianne too!"
"I guess you could be Pinkie D and I could be P Dianne!"
Sunset let out a frustrated grunt as she plopped her face on the map table. "Of course Pinkies would be the same across universes!", she grumbled.
***
Nightmare Star stood outside the crumbling gate of the ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters. She paused looking up at the waxing gibbous moon. "Though there has been a couple of snags, step one has mostly been a success. In a couple of days I'll start step two."
As the seven former humans and eight ponies sat around the map table, introductions out of the way, they tried to wrack their overtired brains on what to do.
Sunset groaned in frustration. "I need coffee." She pushed away from the table and trundled through castle in search for the kitchen. Pausing outside a door, she turned an ear hearing a familiar voice sobbing softly. Gingerly lifting a hoof, she paused, debating on whether or not to knock.
As Sunset heard the soft sobbing continue, she decided to knock softly.
"Who is it?", Spike's voice said, the sorrow dripping off of it through the door.
"Spike? Are you okay? It's Sunset."
"I'm fine."
Sunset wasn't convinced. "I know you're not okay. If I were in your place, I think I'd pretty torn up. Why don't you come out and talk about it?""
Sunset's ears perked up as she heard Spike's claws click on the crystal floor approaching the door. Her ears flattened slightly and her sunk as she heard the lock on the door latch and the sound of claws clicking on the floor, retreating away.
"Go away, Sunset. I said I'm fine." Soft sobbing soon came from behind the door again.
Sunset took a slow, even breath, She wasn't about to let Spike sit alone in his misery, that could lead to outcomes that weren't...not good. She lit the magic in her horn and started reaching out with her aura. Let's see if I still know how to do this. She began feeling the lock on the other side of the door, looking for the latch. She had done something similar years ago, but this time she wasn't undo magically sealed locks and bypass spell crafted alarms, or even having to overpower royal guards to gain access to the mirror portal, she was trying to help a baby dragon who was beside himself with grief.
Success! Sunset found the latch and started slowly turning it, so the lock wouldn't make too much noise. With a soft click, she undid the lock and reached up with a hoof to open the door.
As the door swung open, the sobbing became louder. Sunset saw Spike sitting on the side of his bed, facing the window, his shoulders heaved with each sob. She walked over and gently laid a hoof on the drake's shoulder.
Spike turned his head, looking up at Sunset, his face was an absolute mask of grief, eyes red and bloodshot from crying, trails of salt cling to the scales on his cheeks as fresh tears poured out, dried and fresh snot clung to his snout, strand of saliva clung to his lips, connecting them. Overall, the purple dragon looked a mess and the amber unicorn couldn't blame him one bit.
Spike went to speak, but his words died, instead being replaced with blubbering. He buried his his face in Sunset's chest fluff and she wrapped a leg around him in a tight hug. Tears stung her eyes and began leaking down her cheeks.
After some time Spike's weeping became anguished screaming, muffled by Sunset's fluff. He pounded his fist on her chest, making her wince slightly.
Soon Spike wore himself and fell asleep. Sunset gently laid him on his bed and he curled up in a ball. Walking to the door, she paused when Spike spoke.
"Sunset?"
"Hmm?"
"Please don't go. I don't want to be alone."
Sunset turned seeing Spike half awake, his sad expression pulling on her heartstrings. "Of course I'll stay." As she walked over, he scooched over. She climbed up onto the bed and lay down, he snuggled up close.
The physical and emotional exhaustion caught up to Sunset and she drifted off to sleep with Spike nestling close to her. The last thought to go through her brain just before sleep overtook her was that she need to write in the journal on this side of the portal to Principal Celestia.
***
As Principal Celestia walked up to the front of the school, slurping down a cup of coffee, Sunset's journal began to chime, glow and buzz in her purse, making the woman jump with a start, accidentally spilling spilling some of the coffee on her blouse.
Celestia muttered a few curse words as she brushed the coffee from her blouse. Opening her purse, she pulled out the journal and started reading.
Dear Principal Celestia.
First I want to say that everyone made it safely over, however, there has been an incident. I won't go into much details right now, but the portal has been destroyed, stranding everyone over here. Nobody's been hurt and when we finish dealing with the problems here, Princesses Celestia and Luna, along with the greatest minds will be working around the clock to try and recreate Starswirl's spell that first created the portal. Please tell everyone's family where they are and that they're safe. We'll all try and write every weekend.
your friend and student, Sunset Shimmer
Celestia felt her heart sink and a pit form in her stomach. Seven of her students were now stranded on the other side of the portal in pony world. The world felt topsy-turvy. The seven girls...strike that...six girls and one pony were stranded in a completely different world. The walls of the school started to tip backwards.
Luna walked up seeing Celestia holding the journal in her hand. "Good morning, Celly. Did Sunset..." Her words were cut off, seeing her older sister fall bacwards. "CELLY!", she shouted, rushing forwards to catch her.
***
Sunset spat the quill out of her mouth after finishing writing in the journal. She hoped that the message made it to Principal Celestia.
She levitated the journal into her saddlebags and made her way into the dinning room where the smells of breakfast wafted in from the kitchen.
Her six friends and Spike were sitting around the table, their rumbling bellies loudly announcing their hunger.
Princess Celestia trotted in from the kitchen, levitating eight plates in her aura and glasses of juice in her aura. "Breakfast!", she said loudly in a sing-songy voice.
"I said I would have cooked breakfast.", Spike said grumpily.
Celestia rubbed the drake's back with a gold-shod hoof, placing the plate holding a short stack of pancakes with faces make from fruits and caramel syrup and a glass of juice in front of him. "Nonsense. I need you to help with finding Twilight." She paused looking at Sci-Twi. "Oops, sorry, I meant to say Princess Twilight."
"It's alright, Princess.", Sci-Twi replied, "You didn't hurt my feelings or offend me. I want to help her as much as possible." "I just hope my Spike isn't worrying too much.", she muttered and tipped her face downwards. Her glasses slid off of her snout and onto the table. With a grumble, she fumbled with her forehooves trying to pick them up, before grasping one of the arms between both hooves and holding them up to her face. "Well, crap.", she grumbled as she squinted, seeing the crack in the lens, "And here I am with my spare."
Celestia placed the plates in front of the seven former human girls and levitated the glasses away from Sci-Twi. "Here let me see if I can fix them."
Mabel wasted no time with breakfast. She grumbled and curse as she tried to pick up the fork with hooves she wasn't used to yet, then said loudly, "Ah, screw it!", and buried her muzzle into the pancakes, taking bites and chewing loudly. "Shese are aweshome!", she announced with a mouth full of food, spewing crumbs across the table.
"Rainbow Mabel Dash!", J.B. scolded, "That's not how a lady behaves at the table."
"Well J B, Ah'd like tuh see how a 'lady' eats, 'specially one that ain't used tuh hooves an' other pony parts.", Jackie said before leaning her snout down and started munching on the pancakes.
"Yeah Jonly, show me how a human girl stuck in a pony body eats like a lady.", Mabel said with a snicker.
J B narrowed her eyes at Mabel, then twisted her face up in concentration as she tried to pick up the fork with her hooves. "No, ah, no, uh, no." With a sigh, she finally resigned herself and slid the plate as close to the edge of the table as she could. Spreading the napkin out on one side of the plate, she leaned her face down to the edge of a pancake and took a bite. She wiped her muzzle on the napkin as she chewed delicately. "Most delicious. My compliments to the chef."
"Ah must agree here. Y'all've made some good grub.", Jackie said as she buried her muzzle back into the pancakes.
Moonchild and P Dianne said nothing as they ate. The former taking bites of the pancakes and wiping her snout on a napkin, the latter simply planting her face into the place, everyone swore they heard the sound of a vacuum just before the girl-turned-pink pony raised her head, her cheeks bulging as chewed, syrup dripping off her face. The pink former human girl swallowed, let out a loud burp and licked all the syrup off her face.
"Mmm-mm! That was sooper-dooper fan-yummy-tastic!"
"Pinkies' gonna Pinkie, no matter the world they're in.", Sunset said with a chuckle as she levitated the fork with pieces of the pancakes on them. She shoved the pieces of pancake in her mouth and her eyes fluttered. "Oh dear sweet everything! I've missed your cooking."
Celestia chuckled softly at the six former humans' and her former student's expressions at the breakfast as she continuied to inspect Sci-Twi's crack lens in the glasses. "I must say young mare, the crystalline structure in these lenses are quite intricate."
Sci-Twi finished the last of her pancakes, wiper her snout on the napkin. "Does that mean you can't fix them?"
With a flash of gold, Celestia repaired the cracked lens. "Nope! It just meant it took me a little longer than normal because I had yet to see a structure or grinding like that before." She touched her horn to the glasses and levitated them back onto the former human girl turned unicorn's face. "There! I've also put an enchantment on them so they won't fall off your face again, unless you actively take them off.
Sci-Twi blinked as she looked through the glasses. "Dear sweet...whatever you ponies swear to! You've fixed them like they're new, you even removed the scratches and fingerprints."
At that moment Shining Armor burst into the dining room, looking exhausted, with a fussy Flurry Heart on his back. "Princess Celestia! Twilight attacked the Empire! She was possessed by the--Twiy! You're here! You managed to..."
"Prince Armor, that is not your sister. That is the Twilight Sparkle from the other world.", Princess Celestia said.
Shining Armor took a moment to walk over to Sci-Twi to get a better look. "I see it now. No wings, not as tall, not as muscular and Twily hasn't worn glasses since she was eight, when mom took her to Dr. Lasik to get corrective surgery."
"What about the Empire Shining Armor? Is my niece okay?", Celestia asked.
"I don't knw. She gave me Flurry and told me to get the civilians to safety. She said she she was going to hold off the nightmare as long as possible.", Shining said. "Oh dear sweet Celestia! Twily managed to break through once after Flurry managed to blast her, but the nightmare took hold again."
"Hold that thought Prince Armor. Allow me to fetch Luna and then you tell that again." Celestia vanished in a flash of golden light.
***
Cadance groaned. The first thing she was aware of was a constant, annoying, rhythmic beeping. The next thing she was aware of was her everything hurt. With great effort she opened here eyes. Looking around the blurry scape she was in, everything slowly came into focus. She was lying in a hospital bed, a series of wires ran from her body to several nearby machines, a clear plastic object was over the end of her snout. She slowly raised her head, seeing a blurry figure on the other side of the room. "Wh-wh-where..."
With a snort, the crystal pony nurse who was dozing the the chair woke with a snort. Seeing the princess raising her head, she quickly jumped to her hooves and hurried over. "It's okay princess! You're in the hospital. You're safe. That bad pony that attacked left."
"Sh-Sh-Shi-Shining? F-F-Fl-Flurry?"
"You bought enough time for the Prince and your daughter to get away along with a bunch of crystal ponies."
Cadance nodded weakly and laid her head back down.
The nurse patted the princess gently on her hoof and said, "The told me to tell him as soon you were awake. I'll be right back. Okay?"
Cadance nodded her head on the pillow weakly.
The nurse hurried out of the room.
Cadance's thoughts turned to her husband and daughter, at least they made it to safety, her sacrifice wasn't in vain. Her thoughts then turned to Twilight and the nightmare that had taken hold of her, tears welled up in her eyes.
A few minutes later the nurse returned with the doctor.
"How are we feeling this morning?", the doctor asked as she started checking the princess over.
"H-h-hurts."
"I'll say. It was a little touch and go there for a while."
Cadance groaned as she went to turn to get out of bed.
The doctor gently placed a hoof on her chest. "Though I cannot keep you in here against your will, I urge you to stay in bed. You have several broken bones, some spinal trauma and suffered several burns." She pointed a hoof.
Cadance saw that both her hind legs and one wing were in casts, held in traction, How did she not notice this before? She groaned in defeat and laid her head back. "H-h-how bad?"
"Fortunately the burns to your body wasn't that bad, but we had to shave the burned fur away. Your feathers were nearly burned to a crisp and we had to pluck them. You have at least four broken ribs, two fractures to your skull, the primary bone in your left wing was snapped in half and the first and second spans have suffered compression fractures, both hind legs have multiple compound fractures and you suffered several ruptured discs in your back. If you weren't an alicorn, I don't think you would have survived.", the doctor said. Her expression turned slightly sour. "We had to put pins in both your legs and wing. Sadly we don't know enough about alicorn physiology to say for sure, but you have have to wear braces on your wing and legs. But don't worry, we'll send message to Clodsdale for the finest wing surgeon and as we speak, a message is being sent to your husband that you're injured, but alive."
Cadance laid her head back and closed her eyes. "Th-thank you doctor."
***
Luna sat with a stern expression on her face as Shining Armor recounted what he was witness to in the confrontation with Nightmare Star. Once he finished, she sat there musing for a moment. Finally she spoke. "That does sound grim. Though it is good that there is a sign that Twilight Sparkle is fighting the nightmare and sometimes it loses its rip on her. That shows she didn't willingly surrender to it like..."
Celestia gently laid a hoof on her sister's foreleg, cutting her words off. "No need wasting your energy on the past Lulu. It does us all better to focus our energies on the present and future. For now I'll send a runner to the Crystal Empire and check on Cadance."
Shining and Luna nodded, then the three turned to to the six former human girls, the one unicorn and the drake.
"It's good that Twilight is fighting the nightmare.", Spike said, wiping a tear away from his eye with a claw, "I just want the thing gone from her for good."
Sci-Twi lowered her head, bangs hanging over her eyes. "The way you described Nightmare Star, it sounds a lot like..."
Sunset wrapped her foreleg around Sci-Twi's wither, pulling her in close. "That wasn't your fault. Principal Cinch manipulated you into using something neither she nor you really understood."
At this Celestia and Luna each raised an eyebrow. "Pray tell young Twilight Sparkle, what happened?"
Sci-Twi recounted the story of her modifying a basic EM detector and discovering Equestrian magic, the creating a small device that could detect and contain it which could be worn like a medallion. Finally she recounted how with strong urging and veiled threats from Cinch, she used the device, unleashing equestrian magic which corrupted her, transforming her into Midnight Sparkle and how she ripped open portals everywhere to Equestria with the desire to consume all the magic and finally how Sunset shattered the medallion, grew fiery wings and managed to help save her from herself.
Upon hearing this, Celestia turned her head to Sunset, rose to her hoove and walked over inspecting her former student with her eyes and magic. "Fascinating."
Sunset shifted uncomfortably. "Uh...Celestia...what are you doing."
Celestia muttered quietly to herself, "Could it be? Were the ramblings of the mad prophet Marestrodomas true?"
Sunset raised an eyebrow. "You means that Itailian pony who wrote nonsensical poems?"
"The sun shall lay witness to four take flight to the heavens. The first two shall sail on wings of love, then from the far north a third shall take flight, in glittering light the sister of chaos shall reveal her true form, finally the fourth who abandoned the herd shall return to the fold with a new herd and take sail on wings of vengeance.", Celestia whispered to herself, "I'm sensing no mass increase in her wellspring. No surges of magic."
Sunset looked to Luna. "I think your sister has gone senile."
Celestia gave a small grunt. "I guess he was just a crazy old poet."
For two day and two nights Nightmare Star stood in the ruins of the Castle of Two Sisters watching the sky. On the night of the full moon, she waited for the moon to reach its zenith and reached out with her magic.
Luna stood on the balcony of the tallest tower of the Royal Castle. She stood tall and proud diving into the dream aether of ponies searching for any sign of the nightmare or the abducted foals. She parted from the dreams to peer through the enchanted telescope, searching for threats.
As Luna was preparing to dive back into the dream aether, she paused, feeling blighted magic grasping her moon. She felt it lurch ever so slightly from its orbit and immediately reached out with her magic to grasp the celestial orb, holding it in its orbit.
Beads of sweat appeared on Luna's face and began to trickle down as she and Nightmare Star engaged in a titanic magic struggle for the natural satellite. "Guards!", she cried out with urgency. When two night guard hurried out, she turned an eye to them. "Go with great hast and alert Celestia. The nightmare is attempting to pull my moon from the sky!"
The two guards glanced at each other for a split second, then bolted inside.
Upon the moon, clouds of regolith swirled into the dark sky, mountain rages trembled and the lips of many craters collapsed as the two powerful ponies struggled in a titanic battle of will and magic, one trying to pull the celestial orb down onto the planet below, the other trying to keep it in its orbit.
Celestia appeared on the balcony in a flash of gold. Seeing Luna fighting to hold the moon in its orbit, she chose to act immediately and interwove her magic with her sister's. Now that the titanic struggle for the moon had two alicorns working in tandem to keep the celestial orb in its orbit, it was a fight the nightmare was going to lose.
As Nightmare Star relinquished her hold on the celestial orb, the two sisters traced her magic back to their old castle. The sisters vanished in flashed of golden and dark blue light, reappearing in their rooms. They flung open old cabinets holding armor they had not worn since their campaign against Sombra.
As the armor whirled around the two sisters, Celestia lifted an ancient ceremonial dagger and closed her eyes. "The first time I faced the nightmare, I hesitated and it cost me my sister. If the time comes, I shall not hesitate again." Celestia placed the dagger in a pocket dimension and finished donning the armor.
The two sisters strode out into the hallway, their armored hooves ringing loudly on the polished stone floor. As guards in battle gear ran up, Celestia waved them off. "Go to Ponyville and protect the element bearers and the mares from the other world. Have them await our summons."
The guards quickly popped salutes and rushed off to complete their orders.
Nightmare Star knew she didn't have long before the two sisters arrived. Grasping the moon had been a ruse. She reached out with her magic and grasped several asteroids, altering their orbits, instead of passing by the planet centuries from now, they sailed towards the planet and would make impact in a manner of weeks.
The sisters appeared in a flash of light.
"First you poisoned my student's mind and soul, now you try to drag the moon from its orbit, threatening the lives our little ponies. You really have made this personal.", Celestia snarled, "I will give you one last chance to willingly release Twilight Sparkle and I shall be merciful by making sure your destruction is as painless as possible."
Nightmare Star threw her head back in laughter, fangs gleaming in the moonlight. "An if I don't."
Luna slapped her face guard down and drew her twin swords from their scabbards. "That's what I'm here for, abomination. I have no desire to harm my good friend Twilight Sparkle's body, but if that is what is required to drag you kicking and screaming from her soul, then I consider it a small sacrifice."
Nightmare Star locked her eyes on Luna and smiled maliciously, "Dear sweet Luna, I was only trying to do what you failed to do, make the night last forever. I just needed to bring the moon a little closer to do that."
Luna charged forward with a snarl and swung her swords in a pair of arcs. Nightmare Star ducked and weaved away from the attacks. Celestia teleported in, wielding her battle scepter and swung in a downwards arc, attempting to know Nightmare Star unconscious.
Nightmare Star cast a blink, teleporting several paces to the right, avoiding the attack. As the two sisters squared up up to take her on in another rush of attacks, she pouted and mocked them, "Aw, no fair. The two of you have weapons and I have none. Not very fair." In a flash of purplish-black magic, she vanished in a teleport. The two sisters followed her spell trace and followed with their own teleports.
Flashes of purplish-black, golden and dark blue light appeared seemingly at random across the Everfree, followed by the clattering of weapons or explosions of magic as the three battled. Nightmare Star appeared in the hut of Zecora, startling the zebra and waking her. "What is the meaning--", she shouted as Celestia and Luna appeared in flashed of light, cutting the zebra's words off.
Nightmare Star grabbed Zecora's cauldron with her magic and hurled it at Luna, who had to teleport to avoid the heavy iron pot.
Zecora hurled several objects Nightmare Star. "Shoo! Shoo! Do not attack the princesses in my hut! Away with you! I don't want to hear an if, and, or but!" She yelped in shock when the corrupted alicorn grasped her in her magic and hurled her at Celestia.
The white alicorn caught the zebra in her magic and set her gently down on the floor. Luna teleported back in the hut, Dozens of potions, tinctures and other things created by the zebra healer were grasped in a purplish-black aura and hurled at the two sisters. They threw a shield around themselves and the zebra simultaneously.
As the various potions, tinctures and whatnot shattered against the sister's shield, Zecora's eyes became pinpricks as the various alchemical substances mixed. "That is not good! Get our of here we should!"
Luna sense Nightmare Star charging up a teleport and she swung her swords. The mare of the moon felt one of her blades make purchase a split second before the corrupted alicorn vanished as the alchemical substances reacted with each other violently, creating a fiery explosion. The two sisters coughed as they drug the zebra out of her hut. Multicolored smoke billowed from the windows and door as flames of odd coloration cast strange shadows in the Everfree Forest.
"Are you unharmed, Tia?"
"I am fine Lulu."
The two sisters lit their horns and snuffed the flames in Zecora's hut. The zebra rushed to the doorway of her hurt and peered in, her breath caught in her chest seeing her gutted home. Years of work were gone in matter of seconds and she fainted from a combination of shock and smoke inhalation.
The two sisters quickly teleported themselves and the zebra to Ponyville hospital.
In a flash of purplish-black, Nightmare Star materialized atop a peak in the foal mountains. She rubbed a hoof across the cut on her right foreleg where Luna had caught her just before she teleported out. Using her magic, she closed the wound, then reached out grasping more asteroids, hurling them towards the planet. Bracing herself for another round of fighting, after a few seconds when the two sisters didn't appear, she used her magic to check on the asteroids. dozens of them of various sizes were still tumbling through the void towards the planet. "Giving up so soon? Very well, I figured you wouldn't have made step two easier. No matter." In a flash of purplish-black, she vanished.
The two sisters walked side by side towards the Castle of Friendship. Celestia took off her helmet and scrubbed the soot from around her eyes. "I know I caught her with my sword, sister.", Luna said, "It should have disrupted her teleportation spell...unless she already had it primed." The elder sister scowled. "She may have had the spell already primed, remember this nightmare has all of the memories and abilities of Twilight, that includes her obsessive planning. We need to use our knowledge of Twilight, regroup and press her hard again so she'll make a mistake." The younger sister nodded her head.
As the two entered into the castle, they saw Sunset constructing a strange box with an antenna sticking out the top and Sci-Twi instructed her. "What are you two doing?", Celestia asked.
"Oh! Princi...Princess, I'm giving Sunset the instructions on how I made my EM detector that first picked up equestrian magic. Though it has been a little difficult doing so in a world that hasn't invented micro-circuitry yet.", Sci-Twi said.
"Micro...circuitry?", Luna asked.
Sunset tightened the last screw and then showed her work to Sci-Twi. "Is this right?" After the former human girl nodded, she continued, "Micro-circuitry is kinda like the circuits that carry electricity to ponies' houses, except tiny and uses electrons to carry information rather than power lights. I told her we could use silver wire and magically imbued crystals to track down whoever we need to. This is just a prototype and is a bit over-designed. In order to compensate for the background of all the magical ponies, we added a reservoir that can contain a small piece of the pony we're trying to track...", she used her magic to open a little drawer on the side, "...here. If we're right, all it needs is a strand of hair or drop of blood."
"How accurate is it?", Celestia asked.
"Honestly, for an average pony, it can probably only tell if they are up down, left, right, near or far from your relative position.", Sci-Twi replied, "But if my hypothesis holds true, the more powerful the individual is, the more precisely we can track their position. But that's just a guess."
Sunset plucked a hair from her mane and slipped it into the little drawer. "Alright everypony, I need you all to make as much magical interference as possible while I go hide." She passed the detector off to Rarity. "Help Twilight with whatever she needs as she doesn't know how to use her horn yet." She vanished in a flash of red sparks.
The unicorn guards lit their horns, some of them making them glow, others levitating and tossing balls. Rainbow, Fluttershy and several pegasi guards flew lazy circles around the room, some of them using their magic to cling to walls or ceilings momentarily. Applejack ran from plant to plant, making them bloom. Spike help up several blank scrolls and sent them to avrious ponies in the rooms with green puffs of flame. The sisters joined in, lighting their horns and extending their auras around the room. Sci-Twi directed Rarity to sweep the detector around in slow, wide arcs to ensure they weren't getting false positives from the other ponies in the room. The needle raised and lowered as the detector swung back and forth, their white unicorn mare and the lavender former human girl quickly zeroed in on Sunset's position a trundled across the room. Sci-Twi lifted her hoof and opened the door to a broom closet, revealing Sunset sitting inside.
"Success!", the lavender former human girl exclaimed, "The prototype works, but it did have a little problem with the background interference. The next model will have ways to adjust for a narrower field of detection."
"We may not have the luxury of having enough time to build another model.", Celestia said.
"Why? What happened?", Sunset asked. When the elder princess balked, she pressed, "Celestia, I know that look. I saw it when I first looked into the mirror portal. Something bad, happened didn't it?"
Luna sighed. "There's no need to keep secrets, sister. Yes, Sunset Shimmer, something did happen. The nightmare grabbed my moon and tried to pull it down from its orbit. Without Celestia's help in breaking its grasp, I would have been locked in a struggle keeping the moon locked in place, permanently interfering with the planet's tides."
"That dun make a whole lick o' sense.", Jackie said, "If'n th' nightmare's wantin' tuh take o'er th' whole world, why risk breakin' th' whole world up if'n she succeeded in pullin' th' moon down."
Luna's went wide with a sudden realization. "Sister! I think I know why she snatched foals. She's not wanting to take the world over, she's wanting to start over from scratch."
"Are you sure Luna?", Celestia asked.
"Verily! That's why I haven't been able to find the foals in the dream aether. They're in stasis somewhere underground! I need to check the meteor showers!"
Before you go, Luna. You said you managed to strike the nightmare just before she teleported out? your sword might have some blood on it."
Luna quickly drew her swords and tossed them to Celestia, then vanished in a flash of dark blue. Sure enough, there was a small amount of dried blood on one sword.
Sunset quickly grabbed a sterilized specimen dish and scalpel from the basement and started scraping some dried blood into it.
"What did she mean she needed to check the meteor showers?", Sci-Twi asked.
"For the past three thousand years, Luna and I have kept several of asteroids in orbit around the planet to for the annual meteor showers. All was have to do is occasionally break one up into small particles and throw them at the planet, the gravity and natural magic of our world makes for a spectacular light show."
"Uh...I'm no expert in space and whatnot, but how do you keep from...ya know...having your eyes bug outa your heads and your bodies from exploding?", Mabel asked.
"As long as the magic in our wellsprings hold out, we alicorns can keep replenishing the air in our lungs. Plus there are natural bubbles of air on the moon. If Luna needs a fresh breath of air or to quickly recover from decompression sickness, she can quickly to one of them.", Celestia replied and then her countenance fell, "I sent her to one of those when I banished her all those years ago."
Luna reappeared in a flash of dark blue wild-eyed. "Sister! Asteroids! Hundreds of them! Couldn't deflect them all! Ran out of air and had to turn back!"
"Couldn't you, ya know, break them all up and have the tiny pieces fall into the air? Ya know giving the whole world one massive light show for a few weeks?", Rainbow asked.
"No Rainbow Dash.", Celestia said, "That many meteors would heat the atmosphere us and at the very least creating massive droughts."
"If that's the best, then what's the worst?", Moonchild asked with a shudder.
"Do you remember in chemistry class when Hoops held his butt up to the Bunsen burner, farted and set his pants on fire? Think that, but with the whole planet.", Sci-Twi said.
The gathered ponies and former humans had a visible shiver run across their bodies.
Sunset cleaned her mane hair out f the detector's drawer and poured the collected flakes of dried blood in. Almost immediately the needle jumped to life. "I can't sure what her exact location is, but she's definitely on the move."
In the cave that held the Tree of Harmony, a cloud of sparkling white light swirled around the tree. It coalesced into a sparkling white feminine draconequus for a split second, before merging back into the tree.
Celestia and Luna looked at the device Sunset was levitating it in her aura, sweeping it back and forth, up and down. The needle clicked as it jumped back and forth while Sunset moved it in smaller and smaller circles. The two princesses stared in silent amusement at the device and how the formerly human Twilight had said it was "a crude prototype".
"It's hard to tell, but it seems she keeps centering her movements to a single location.", Sunset said.
Sci-Twi walked over, looked at the needle. It clicked as it dropped down. When Sunset moved the tracking device, the needle jumped up again. When the needle dropped again, she moved it back and the needle jumped up again. "See? Though I'm not sure how far away she is, she keeps moving back to what I assume is the same central location."
Sci-Twi started doing some mental calculations. "Could someone put a mark on that wall?", she asked, gesturing with a hoof and wobbling slightly, nearly losing her balance, "The tracker was able to locate you at a short range to within a meter, though I'm not sure how powerful a pegasus-unicorn is and that's the one of the things interfering with my calculations."
"Alicorn.", Celestia corrected.
"Huh?"
"It was what Starswirl referred to us.", Celestia said, "Because we have the traits of all three tribes, along with our own magic, he called us alicorns. It's short for all-in-one-icorn. Not the most original name, but it stuck."
Sci-Twi mused for a second. "If we had a way to determine the baseline magical signature of a pe--alicorn, maybe we could more effectively track her location."
"That's what we need!", Sunset exclaimed, clopping a hoof against the floor, "A thaumat-o-meter and a geomatic pendulum!"
"A whositwhatsit an' a geo-what?!", Jackie said confused.
"You stole the words out of my mouth.", Sci-Twi replied.
"If someone stole the words out of my mouth, I'd be all mmmmmmffffmmfmfmmfff!", P Dianne exclaimed.
"Plus that would be sooper-dooper meanie-weenie if somepony did that!", Pinkie D exclaimed.
All the ponies, former humans and one dragon in the room simultaneously facehooved/clawed.
"A thaumat-o-meter is a simple enchanted device that is used in the medical and criminal investigation fields to test the natural magical aura of a pony. A geomantic pendulum is an enchanted crystal, usually a diamond, suspended from a silver or gold chain usually contained in a clear quartz box that can be attuned to a specific magical signature, it's usually used by the magical surveying corps to track the natural ley lines and even mark the borders of strong natural magical fields.", Sunset said, "We could combine the two to help get a better fix on her location."
"I could use both of those devices to better track Princess Twilight.", Sci-Twi said.
"What about making...what was it you called it...micro...circuitry?", Luna asked.
"That would help make my readings be more precise.", Sci-Twi replied, "But that bit of technology can be very tricky to make from scratch."
"What materials would you need to make one micro-circuitry?", Celestia asked.
"For the board itself fiberglass is generally used because of weight issues, but in a pinch any non-conductive material can be used, cardboard or a thin veneer of wood. For the actual circuits, virgin copper is usually used, though gold and silver are the best, even if they are a bit expensive. For the microchips and resistors, I'll need silicone, purified carbon and palladium.", Sci-Twi replied after a moment of contemplation.
"Oooo! Microchips! Are they anything like potato chips?", Pinkie D asked.
"Nope! In fact they're icky-wicky!", P Dianne replied.
Sci-Twi started to ask when P Dianne would have eaten microchips, then thought better of it and justified it to herself as a Pinkie being a Pinkie.
Spike tapped his chin with a claw, then snapped his fingers. "Twilight has a lab down in the basement. I helped her build several machines. They might not contain micro-circuitry, but they do have banks of vacuum tubes. Could you work with that?"
Sci-Twi's face lit up. "Spike, you're a genius!" Almost immediately her countenance fell and she slumped onto her belly. Tears welled up in her eyes as she covered her face with her hooves. "I'm such an idiot!", she whimpered, "I left poor Spike behind. He's probably running himself ragged trying to find out what happened to me. How could I be so stupid?!"
Sunset knelt down next to the formerly human girl and gently rubbed her back. "Please don't beat yourself up. We all left in a rush and there are things we all left behind. I left my journal with Principal Celestia so we could write home. How about you be the first one to write back and have Celestia deliver messages to Spike, your mom and dad, and Cadance and Shining Armor?"
Sci-Twi sat up and nodded meekly. Sunset wrapped her forelegs around the former human girl-turned lavender unicorn mare. Both yelped in surprise when they found themselves squished in a massive group hug from the ten other mares.
"Y'all four c'mon over here, there's plenty o' room in this here big ole group hug fer ev'ryone!", Jackie said gesturing to Celestia, Luna, Starlight and Spike.
Celestia and Spike trundled over to joint the hug. Luna stayed where she was, feeling a bit uncomfortable, she scrapped a hoof against her foreleg. "I've...uh...never really--YEEP!" Her words were cut off when she was surrounded by a golden aura and drug into a giant pony group hug.
Starlight sat by the map table, feeling a bit uncomfortable. She yelped in surprise when she was drug over to the massive group hug by various magical auras.
After they parted from the group hug, Spike fetched the journal along with a quill and an ink pot. "Here ya go, Twi!", he said in a chipper tone, passing her the quill and ink pot.
Sci-Twi looked at the quill, then at her hooves. "Uuuuuummmmmm...how do I..."
"Oh! Most ponies use their mouths or you can dictate to me and I can write it down.", Spike said.
As Sci-Twi debated internally about either holding the quill in her teeth or dictating the message to the dragon, Sunset spoke up, "I think I have something that might be a little easier." She quickly fumbled in her saddlebags and pulled out a retractable pen.
Sunset levitated the pen in her magic and clicked the button, making the ball point extend. Sci-Twi took the pen between her teeth and began writing in the journal.
***
Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna sat in the school's main office. Their nerves tingled with nervous energy. They had, just a few moments ago, lied directly to the faces of two police officers who were asking if the knew of the whereabouts the seven girls who were missing. They knew that as soon as their families realized they weren't at home or at their usual haunts, would call the police and file a missing person's report, the two sisters just hoped that they would have believed the myth about three days.
The two sisters took a deep breath and swallowed hard, they heard the conversations of the concerned parents and guardians outside the door with the cops. It would only be a matter of minutes before the six families came into the office to ask if either of them knew about their daughters. The two glanced at each other, debating silently about where or not to tell them about the portal and that the seven girls went through to a world of magical horses.
The door to the office opened and in walked Granny Smith, Twilight Velvet, Night Light, Bow Hothoof, Windy Whistles, Hondo Flanks, Cookie Crumbles, Igneous Rock, Cloudy Quartz, and Mr and Mrs Shy.
As Celestia and Luna internally debated on how they were going tell them that the girls were through the portal that made up part of the plinth that the horse statue in front of the school. The journal in Celestia's bag started chiming and buzzing answered that little debate.
Celestia reached into her bag and pulled out the glowing journal. Predictably the gathered adults took a cautious step back. "I ask you all to be calm and hear us out before I open this journal." She took a breath to steel her nerves. "Your daughters traveled to a parallel world ruled by magical talking horses." She blew out a sigh. "I know how this sounds, but Luna and I have seen firsthand on three different occasions what that kind of magic can do in the wrong hands. I know you're all scared, but we don't need to create an inter-dimensional incident by having a bunch of swat teams or soldiers storming through to a different world. From what I understand, there two rulers literally move the sun and moon. If they can do that, how much power do you all think they wield? All my sister and I ask is to let level heads prevail."
After the gathered adults settled down, Celestia opened the journal. "Twilight Velvet and Night Light, I believe this first message if for the two of you."
As Sci-Twi's parents read the journal, Celestia felt something nudge her on the leg. Looking down, she saw a familiar purple and green dog. "Could you send a message to Twilight for me?"
Celestia's eyes went wide with surprise. A talking dog?! As Spike laid a paw on her leg and started to ask if she was okay, she instinctively jerked in shock and the whole world tipped wrong end-up as she fell backwards with her office chair in tow, then blackness.
The first sensation Celestia was aware of was something warm and wet rubbing on her face. Opening her eyes, a purple face was close to hers, licking her on the face. Groaning as she sat up, she gently pushed Spike away and saw the concerned looks on the faces of the gathered adults. Her cheeks felt hot with embarrassment. "I-I'm sorry everyone. I was startled by..."
"Don't worry about it.", Spike interrupted, "I'm used to it. I sometimes forget that people aren't used to a dog that can talk."
Celestia stood up, righted her chair and sat back down. "So...how is it that you can talk? Did Twilight perform some kind of experiment on you?"
"Something like that.", Spike replied. He then proceeded to recount how at the Friendship Games how Sci-Twi had accidentally opened a portal to Equestria and when he was a normal dog, he had jumped through, getting exposed to Equestrian magic that expanded his intellect. All gathered sat quietly as they listened to the dog tell his tale.
After Spike had finished talking, Granny Smith spoke up, "Ya know, when I heard th' girls talkin' 'bout magic, Ah thought it was jus' a bunch o' wild stories told by a buncha teenage girls an' was jus' a bunch o' hooey, road apples an' what fell outa the north end o' a southbound bull."
The parents all murmured their agreement.
Celestia opened a drawer of her desk and pulled out an ink pen, offering it the parents and guardians of the girls.
***
The former humans read the responses their parents and guardians had sent back through the journal with misty eyes. The messages for the six girls spoke of concern and said for them to get back safely, except for the messages sent by Mabel's parents, who lauded how they were so proud of her and that she was the "greatest inter-dimensional savior ever".
Rainbow Dash had read the message over Mabel's shoulder. "I see things on the other side aren't that much different.", she teased, nudging her inter-dimensional duplicate with an elbow.
Sunset took a breath to brace herself and wrote a message for Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna about the mirror portal being destroyed.
The response came several minutes later.
That's not good. Will you be working on a way to repair the portal?
Sunset read the short message and then wrote back: I will as soon as finish freeing Princess Twilight from the nightmare. You have my promise.
Snapping the journal closed, Sunset passed it to Spike, who promptly placed it on a nearby table. As she went to put the retractable pen back in her saddle bag, Celestia spoke up, "Sunset, may I take a closer look at your quill?"
"Sure." Sunset levitated the pen over to her former teacher, who took it in her magic, clicking the button, making the ball point extend and retract.
"Fascinating. Oomans make such wondrous magical devices."
Sunset chuckled and took the pen back in her magic. "It's not magic, it's a very simple piece of technology." She unscrewed the pen and took out the little tube within. "This little tube is the reservoir of ink. at the end it a little ball bearing that allows the ink to come out more evenly when you write. No need to dab excess ink or the risk of drips and splatters." She put the pen back together. "The little button on the back serves for more that extending and retracting the ball point. You can click it over and over when in thought, stressed or just want to annoy someone."
Luna took the pen in her magic and started clicking the button over and over.
After a couple of minutes of continuous clicking, an annoyed expression spread across Celestia's face. "Alright Luna, you've had your fun. Give Sunset her pen back."
A mischievously wicked grin spread across Luna's lips. "Never!" She started clicking the pen faster. "I am now Ink Pen Moon and the clicks shall last forever!" She held the pen next to her sister's ear and started clicking it faster and faster.
"Very mature Luna."
In response, Luna guffawed as she continued clicking the pen.
Celestia tried to snatch the pen several times with her magic, only to have Luna move it away. She tried to grab the pin with her mouth and wings, only to have it moved away again.
Growling with frustration, Celestia lunged at Luna. The two tumbled across the floor for a moment, ultimate Luna wound up on top of her older sister, sitting on her chest. "You want to be like that, fine!" She clicked the pen one last time, extending the ballpoint and started being the tip to Celestia's face.
"Don't you dare!", Celestia snapped, trying to fend off the pen with her hooves and wings.
Luna pinned her older sister's forehooves to the floor with her own and used her hind legs to pin the white alicorn mare's wings. "What a dapper mustache you have there m'lady and what a dashing goatee.", Luna said as she doodled on her sister's face.
Celestia blew at the pen in a futile attempt to keep her sister from vandalizing the fur on her face.
"A fancy monocle so you can attend high society soirees.", Luna said with a chuckle, drawing a circle around one of Celestia's eyes, with a swirly line coiling down the side of her face. "Oh! Look who's got acne just before her date with that handsome pegasus." She drew dots on her sister's cheeks.
Celestia wriggled out from underneath Luna and walked over to a mirror. She tried in vain to suppress a snicker at the curly mustache, triangle-shaped goatee, monocle and spots Luna had drawn on her face. Turning her head, she did her best to shoot a death glare at Luna, then looked at Sunset. "See what she did? Vandalizing my face in suck a manner!", she attempted another death glare at her sister, "I'll get you back!"
Luna snickered as the flipped the pen back to Sunset. "How so? Maybe you failed to notice, but I was born with dark fur, unlike a certain cake muncher."
"I don't eat cake that often."
Luna quirked an eyebrow.
"I only eat cake at baking competitions...and sometimes for dessert." Celestia wiped a hoof across her face and scowled at the smeared ink on her fetlock.
"Soap and water will clean that off.", Sunset said.
A few minutes later Celestia walked out of the bathroom, face freshly washed. "Do oomans graffiti each other's faces with ink pens?", she asked Sunset.
"Yeah, but usually we write cuss words and draw penises on each other's faces when they're sleeping.", Mabel interjected.
"That was you?!", Sunset exclaimed, giving Mabel a shove, causing the human girl-turned pegasus to unsteady.
"That...um...the was me.", Moonchild said softly, hiding behind her mane, which prompted surprised gasps from the remaining formerly human girls.
"Granny always said t'were th' quiet ones ya had tuh watch out fer.", Jackie said with a chuckle.
Small chuckles and snickers were shared by ponies, former humans and one dragon around the room for a few minutes.
After regaining their composure, the group made their way to the Castle of Friendship's basement. Sunset and the natural-born ponies casually trotted down the stairs that lead into the basement, the former human girls tentatively shuffled down the stairs sideways, like a line of toddlers taking their first expedition down stairs, Mabel was the exception. The formerly blue-skinned human girl with rainbow-colored hair-turned blue pegasus with rainbow colored mane puffed out her chest and tried to gallantly trot down the stairs. Her hoof slipped off one of the stairs and she tumbled end-over-end down the stairs, coming to a crashing halt at the bottom.
The other former humans clung to the railing with their forelegs tightly as they watched their friend tumble out of control down the stairs and to the bottom.
Mabel sat up, wobbling as her eyes spun in her sockets.
"Oh my gosh! Rai--Mabel, are you okay?!", Sunset exclaimed, rushing over.
"Yeah, I've been there a time or two.", Rainbow said flapping over and helping to prop Mabel up.
"Yeah, but she ain't a former ooman-turned mare who just went plot over tea kettle down a flight o' stairs.", Applejack said trotting up. She held up a hoof in front of Mabel's face. "How many hooves do ya see?"
Mabel blinked her eyes and shook her head head a few timed in an attempt to get some of her sense back. "Uh, eight? But your waving them around in circles."
Fluttershy quickly shooed away Sunset, Rainbow and Applejack and lay Mabel gently on the floor. She quickly checked the former human girl over. "It looks like she gave herself a nasty bump to the head. Rainbow, get me a cold compress from the first aid kit." After the rainbow-maned pegasus brought it over, Fluttershy activated the magical compound that immediately created cold and brought it close to the former human girl's head. "It's going to be cold." She placed the compress on the former human's head.
Mabel yelped in surprise, then sighed as the cold compress made the swelling knot on her head go down, she sighed.
The remaining former humans made their way to the base of the stairs gingerly and stood around watching the yellow-furred pegasus performing first aid on their friend.
"Keep that on your head for about twenty minutes.", Fluttershy said as she moved Mabel's hoof to hold the compress in place.
Spike showed Sunset and Sci-Twi the various various machines he had help Princess Twilight build. Sunset opened the access panels with her magic to get a better view at the banks of vacuum tubes inside.
"Hmm.", Sci-Twi mused and clicked her tongue in thought, "It appears, technology-wise, you all are only about sixty years or so behind. I think I can work with this." She blew and brushed some dust off the screws. "Yes! I can work with this! I just need a Philip's head screwdriver to get started."
"A what?", Spike asked.
Sunset walked over to a nearby workbench, looked over the various gathered tools and levitated a couple of screwdrivers. "I forget sometimes that ponies have different names for things than humans do. For future reference, Philips's head means cross-head and flat-head means, well I guess that one's the same."
Sunset and Sci-Twi set about opening up the various scientific machines, the latter grasping the screwdriver in her teeth and twisting her neck.
Finishing up removing the last of the screws from the cases of the machines, Sci-Twi spat out said screwdriver, wiped the drool from her chin and rubbed her jaw and neck. "This would be easier if I still had hands and thumbs."
Sunset gathered up the screws and screwdrivers, placing the former in a small cup on the workbench. "Girls, you need to work on getting used to your pony bodies. You each pair up with you duplicates and learn how to use your bodies properly...uh...that came out wrong. What I meant...well you know what I meant. I'll stay here and help Twi learn to use her magic."
Sci-Twi opened her mouth to protest, but Sunset raised a hoof to cut her off. "It's going to take a lot longer to make the gadgets we need if I'm the one doing all the work." She smirked at her now lavender-furred friend, "Besides it's not every day I can teach someone about magic from scratch."
***
Shining Armor sat uncomfortably on the bench of the passenger car, tending to his fussy daughter as the high-speed train pulled up to the station in the Crystal Empire. He laid his ears flat against his head and winced as the powerful brakes engaged, squealing loudly, making the train come to a stop.
Standing up, Shining levitated Flurry onto his back and hurried out of the passenger car. His heart was in his throat when the exhausted pegasus had delivered the message the Cadance was in the hospital alive. Ignoring bowing servants and guards, he rushed along the platform. Frightening images played out in his head of his wife wrapped up in bandages like a mummy, or lying comatose in a room, or her body being horribly mangled and her face scarred. Tears welled in his eyes as he ran full tilt through the streets.
Bursting through the front door of the hospital, the prince of the Crystal Empire rushed to the nurse's desk. "My*pant* wife!*pant-pant* Where?!*pant-pant*" The running and worry caught up with him, a burning stitch formed in his side and his stomach started feeling like it was doing the lambada. He rushed over to a trashcan as the nurse was talking and his stomach lurched, his meager lunch spattered in the bottom of the waste receptacle.
"Prince Armor, are you okay?!", the nurse exclaimed, hurrying over.
Shining wiped his mouth with a fetlock. "Sorry, I ran all the way here from the station." The nurse offered him a small cup of water which he took gratefully. After rinsing out his mouth while musing that 'food tastes much better going down', he thanked her and asked her what she had said.
The nurse smiled softly. "I said Princess Cadance is awake and doing well."
Immediately images of Cadance with tubes and wires sticking out of Celestia knows where as she stared at him in pain-filled eyes filled his mind. "W-w-where's her room?" The nurse directed him to her room. Hurrying down the hallway, he stopped outside the room that help his wife. Lifting a trembling hoof to the door, he hesitated for a moment, taking a breath to steel himself for the absolute worst, he opened it and walked in.
Shining blew out a sigh of relief, Cadance was lying on the hospital bed, talking with a nurse while eating her dinner. His eyes wondered to the casts on her legs, the wing in a brace and the padded collar around her neck.
"Other than the throbbing aches in my legs and my wing itching like Tartarus, I'm not experiencing any...Shiny!"
Shining Armor blushed slightly as the nurse looked over and her eyes went wide, she quickly bowed. "Many apologies your majesty."
"You have nothing to apologize for, you're doing your job.", He said, gesturing with his hoof for her to rise.
Flurry Heart squealed with delight as she leapt off of her father's back and landed on her mother's chest, who in turn let out a grunt.
Cadance lifted Flurry off of her chest and gave her daught a quick nuzzle and kiss. "You gotta be careful sweetie, mommy's still hurt.", she said nuzzling the little alicorn again.
The nurse quickly finished filling out her paperwork and hurried out of the room. "I'll be back in a bit to check up on you again.", she said before closing the door.
Shining looked his wife over. "So how bad is it?"
Cadance took a breath to steel herself. "Honestly? I'm busted up pretty good. At least a dozen broken bones, the worst of which is in my back and neck. The doctors said if I wasn't an alicorn, they would have had to scrape me up off the ground." When she noted the pained look on her husband's face, she reached out with a forehoof and patted it on his chest.
"Do they know how long you will be laid up?"
Cadance's gaze fell. "No. The last time an alicorn was injured that required medical aid was over a thousand years ago. And the medicine at that time wasn't that great, they used mercury, leaches and enemas to treat everything. They won't know anything for at least a week." She grabbed her husband in her aura and pulled him closer. "Now I'm no medical expert, but I think a kiss from a big strong stallion will help a lot." As the two moved their lips closer to each other, Flurry interjected between her parents, causing them to kiss her on both cheeks. This elicited soft chuckles from both.
After parting from their daughter's cheeks, Cadance gently moved Flurry aside and drew Shining close again for a kiss.
Shining parted from his wife and licked his lips, tasting her lips on his. He scratched a hoof sheepishly on one of his forelegs. "Uh, Cady? Sunset came through the portal and brought her friends through. Shortly after the nightmare destroyed it.
Cadance's eyes went wide. "What?!"
***
Applejack brought Jackie to Sweet Apple Acres to better teach her how to better use her earth pony magic. After Applejack telling Granny Smith, Big Mac and Apple Bloom about what had happened and why there was now two Applejacks on the farm, Granny simply shrugged and said, "Ah dun got no problem with all o' this as long as ya earn yer keep." The other two Apple sibling, though they didn't fully understand, nodded in agreement with the matriarch of the Apple clan.
"Ya dun hafta worry 'bout me none Gra--Mrs. Smith, my Granny Smith taught me all 'bout a hard day's work an' Ah will do my best to keep up 'round here."
"You c'n call me Granny if'n ya like.", Granny Smith said, "It looks like yer Granny Smith brought ya up tuh be a right-n-proper mare soes Ah know ya will do yer best."
Jackie wiped a tear from her eye. "Yes ma'am, Granny, Ah mean my Granny taught me tuh be an upright an' hardworkin' young woman. Thank ya Mrs.--Ah mean Granny."
"Now go on an' git! Yer burnin' daylight an' th' apples in th' southwest field won't buck themselves."
Fluttershy and Moonchild stood on a low rock outside Fluttershy's cottage. The former human stared at the ground, legs trembling. "A-are you sure it's safe?", Moonchild asked nervously, "It seems awfully high." "It'll be okay. Just spread your wings and glide gently onto the ground.", Fluttershy replied, spreading her wings in demonstration. The butter creme yellow pegasus took a delicate leap and glided across the ground for a several body lengths before flapping her wings to maintain lift and banked back aroud to land on the low rock. "Just like that. Come on, I'll do it with you."
Moonchild swallowed hard and prepared to leap, but her legs froze up "O-o-oh my." Angel bunny sat behind Fluttershy and Moonchild shaking his head. He gestured to get Fluttershy's attention and mad a mock kicking motion with one of his hind legs. The mare shook her head no ever so slightly. He made a shoving gesture and again Fluttershy shook her head no. The white fluffy bunny pinched the bridge of his wiggly pink nose and gave an aggravated, squeaky sigh. Angel bunny leapt up and bit Moonchild on the base of her pink tail. The former human girl-turned pegasus mare let out a yelp of surprise and leapt off the rock.
Moonchild kicked her legs in the air like she was trying to run and frantically flapped her wings.
Fluttershy flew next to Moonchild. "Flap your wings smooth and easy like mine." When she saw Moonchild was still panicking, she quickly turned the former human's head to focus on her. "Just focus on my wings and copy my motions."
After a few false starts and a couple of clumsy crashes, Moonchild, with Fluttershy at her side, finally figured out flying. She soared over flowers and dandelion puffs. "I'm flying! I'm flying!" She banked around. caught some low thermals and flapped her wings to gain altitude. She circled around the cottage made from the hollow of the oak tree, steadily gaining altitude. Flying over the top of the tree, she suddenly realized how she was. Panic set in and her wings folded up with a snap.
Bangs and crashes sounded as Moonchild bounced off of trees of the oak tree and in through the top of the cottage.
Fluttershy rushed over to the door of her cottage and opened it. Clouds of dust, fuzzy critters and birds rushed out the door. Moonchild was upside down of the head of a grumbling Harry, who had been awoken from his nap. The bear's expression shifted from mild annoyance to shock seeing Fluttershy standing at the door and a copy on his head. "It's okay, Harry. She's a friend from another world. I was teaching her how to fly."
Harry shrugged, spun around on his bed a few times, the upside down Moonchild still on his head and lay back down.
Fluttershy helped Moonchild of of Harry's head and checked her over, ensuring she wasn't injured. Using her wing to dust the former human girl off, she said, "You did good. We'll work on landing...later."
Mabel and Rainbow Dash stood on the balcony of the Castle of Friendship. "I'm not sure how you oomans teach each other how to fly, or if you ll even know how to fly. But this is Equestria and this is how pegasi have taught each other for like ever.", Rainbow said, "Just open your wings and get ready to glide."
Mabel stood on the railing and opened her wings. Before she could ask what to do next, Rainbow shoved her off.
"Glide or crash!", Rainbow shouted.
Mabel's wings caught the air and she started gliding.
Rainbow flew up beside her. "Not bad newbie. You ready for the next step."
"Bring it on! I was born ready."
Before long the two were zooming across Ponyville, leaving twin rainbow contrails behind them. They bounced off of clouds, causing some to fire bolts of lightning and claps of thunder, busting others apart. Rainbow flew around one cloud, shaping it into the Wonderbolts logo, Mabel flew around another cloud, shaping it into the Wondercolts mascot. The two arced high into the air and gave an epic high hoof.
Rainbow and Mabel landed on a cloud, panting out of breath.
"You're looking*pant pant* a little winded there newbie.", Rainbow said.
"If I am, it's only*pant pant gasp* that I'm having to carry your butt.", Mabel retorted.
"You up for a race?"
"Only if you are."
"Alright wisepony, first one to the far side Sweet Apple Acres and back here wins."
The two took off in a flash of rainbow contrails. The jockeyed for position, bumped and nudged, performed high speed tricks to impress the other.
Derpy, wearing her mailmare uniform, was watching two different butterflies flutter by, she didn't see Rainbow and Mable speeding towards her until the last second. Derpy ducked down, covering her head, as the two racers split away, missing her by the narrowest of margins. As the slipstreams washed over her, she stuck her head up and waved at them, then flapped away lazily.
Mabel tried to regain control, but caught an awkward cross breeze, sending her into an out of control corkscrew dive. She desperately steered herself towards the canopy of an apple tree that was quickly approaching. "Llllloooooookkkkk ooooouuuuutttttt bbbbbeeeeeeeeeellllllooooowwwwwww!"
Below said Apple tree, Applejack, Jackie and Apple Bloom had made a game out of launching apples that were too bruised, rotten or bug eaten to be sold into nearby baskets. The sound of screaming drew their attention upwards as Mabel crashed into the branches of the tree, sending apples, leaves and sticks raining down on the three.
Applejack, Jackie and Apple Bloom popped theri heads out of three piles of apples, leaves and sticks.
"Hah heh.", Mabel chuckled unsure as she hung from the tree branch, "You think my flying is getting as good as Rainbow Dash's?"
A split second later Rainbow crashed into the tree, sending more leaves and sticks raining down.
Applejack, Apple Bloom and Jackie looked up at Rainbow and Mabel, the former hanging upside down from a tangle of branches, and said at the same time, "Eeyup."
Sunset laid a quill on the table in front of Sci-Twi. "Alright, think of your unicorn magic like a hand, just a little more glow-y. First make your horn glow, then reach out with your aura and touch the quill. When you can feel it with your magic, simply wrap your aura around it like fingers and pick it up."
Sci-Twi went cross-eyed as she focused. Her horn glowed, then she reached out with a magenta aura and touched it to the quill. She enveloped the quill in the aura and lifted with it. The feathery writing implement stayed where it was as the magenta aura raised into the air.
Sci-Twi snorted in frustration. "This is harder than it looks."
Sunset patted her friend on her back. "It's okay Twilight. Nopony gets it on their first try. Let's try again."
Sci-Twi nodded and went through the steps again...with the same results. A groan of frustration.
Celestia stepped forward and nuzzled Sci-Twi's cheek. "It's okay Twilight. Here is an exercise--"
"That would be fine if we had a year, sister.", Luna interjected, "But we have three days for her to learn how to use her magic." She looked over to Spike. "Get me a big red bouncy ball."
A few minutes later Spike returned bouncing a big red bouncy ball.
Luna took the ball in her aura, then using her magic, she formed a lane of two dark blue shimmering walls, holding herself and Sci-Twi. "Alright Twilight, the name of the game is bombardment. The rules are simple, I throw this ball at your face, you have to catch it with your magic and throw it back at my face."
"So kinda like dodgeball?", Sci-Twi asked.
"Ah, good. It seems oomans know of this game. It shall save me some time explaining the subtleties." Luna narrowed her eyes. "Game on."
Sci-Twi lit her horn as Luna hurled the ball down the magical lane. She reached out with her aura as the ball sped at her. The big red bouncy orb passed unfazed through the sparkling magenta aura, smacking Sci-Twi straight in her snout.
Luna snatched up the big red bouncy ball as the lavender former human scrubbed her fetlock across her nose.
Sci-Twi lit her horn again as Luna drew back the ball in her magic and threw it again. Once again the ball passed unaffected through the magenta aura, striking the former human on her cheek, causing her to stumble.
"Thou needs to strive to do better, Twilight Sparkle, else yon orb shalt remove thine head from thine shoulders." Luna levitated the ball in her aura again, preparing to throw it.
Setting her jaw, Sci-Twi lit her horn again, a small crackle of energy from its tip to its base.
Ceestia opened her mouth to tell her sister not to throw the ball so hard, but a touch on her foreleg by Sunset interrupted her. Looking down at her former student, she noted that the amber unicorn was pointing a hoof. Looking over, she saw it, dust motes around the former human's hooves were levitating up off of the floor ever so slightly.
Luna hurled the ball again. A magenta field surrounded the ball, causing it to slow down and stop midair for a split second, before it flickered out, causing the red orb to fall to the ground.
Luna quickly snatched the ball in her aura once again. "A mark'd improvement." She readied the ball once again. "Have at thee!" The ball hurled through the air once again, a shock cone forming at the front.
The ball stopped a hair's breadth from Sci-Twi's face, levitating in a sparkling magenta aura, the rush of now displaced air making her mane and tail blow backwards slightly.
"Huzzah!" Luna turned to face Celestia. "You see sister I can--OOF!" The big red bouncy ball slammed into the side of her face with great force.
Sunset and Celestia looked in a mixture of surprise and no small amount of amusement at Sci-Twi, who stood still staring at Luna, a smile like unto a Cheshire cat on her lips.
Luna turned her head to the former human girl, a small trickle of red on her lip. She ran her tongue across her lip, licking the small trickle of blood away. "It seems I forgot Rockhoof's first law of engagement, 'never take your eyes off of your opponent.'"
Rarity and J B stood in the creation room of Carousel Boutique looking over a partially finished peach-colored dress.
Rarity levitated up a small cluster of silvery gems to the collar.
"What do you think you're doing, darling?", J B asked, "Silver gems clash too much with that color." She scooped up a light blue sapphire in her hoof and held it up to the dress. "See? This compliments the color much better."
Rarity snagged the sapphire in her magic and tossed over to the cluttered desk in the corner, then levitated one of the silver gems up to the neck of the dress. "No no no, darling. This will much better compliment the mare's mane much better." She levitated a photograph of the are she was making the dress for. "See? This much better compliments her mane."
J B's eyes went crossed for a second as she concentrated hard, making her horn shimmer with a blue aura. She snatched the photograph from Rarity, studied it for a second, then levitate the sapphire from the desk. "Oh nonononono, darling! As you can see, sapphires work much better with her eye color and makes them just pop!"
Rarity flicked the blue gem away with her magic. "I can tell that they don't teach you oomans about basic color theory. The stallions and mares of your world must walk around in the most amateurish fashions."
Soon the two were face to face, pressing their noses against the other's, practically snorting steam. They quickly devolved into each placing gems on the dress while knocking the other's away, often shouting 'blue!' or 'silver!'.
Sweetie Belle, who had been walking by, stopped dead in her tracks seeing her sister and her sister's doppelganger, arguing about what color of gems and their placement. "Great! Now there's two of them.", she muttered to herself. She walked off grumbling about 'being too old for this.'
Rarity and J B, after the big fight, slumped on a fainting couch, both of their immaculately coiffed manes a mess, shoveling spoonfuls of ice cream into their mouths as they marveled that somehow in their tizzy, they had managed to complete the dress, which now sported an elaborate neck piece, made from blue and silver gems.
"You know darling, the dress came out more beautiful than I originally intended. We should argue more while making masterpieces.", Rarity said around a mouthful of ice cream.
"Indubitably."
Over the next three day the former humans worked with their counterparts to better learn how to work with their bodies.
***
Cadance spent a week, her legs and wing in traction. The doctors closely monitored her healing process, so they would a point of reference for modern medical journals involving alicorn anatomy.
On the seventh day the doctor cut away the hard casts on Cadance's hind legs. "You're healing faster than we first anticipated, princess. We're going to place walking casts onto your legs, after they set, we'll fit you with a pair padded boots. We'll also fit you with a brace for your back and wing. Unless there's unforeseen complications, we'll be releasing you tomorrow. I'll urge you to get as much rest as possible and if you have to walk, wear the padded boots and the back brace. We'll give you a padded neck brace just in case you're having trouble with your neck. Until the braces on your wing comes off, no flying.
The next morning as the sun came up, Cadance slowly made her way through the lobby of the hospital, a race around her barrel to support her back, a series of braces on her wing to keep it from being further injured, a pair of walking casts one her hind legs with padded boots over them. Shining Armor walked by her side so she could use his body to lean on.
Outside the front of the hospital, a carriage await, surrounded by several crystal guards. As the princess made her way into the carriage, they helped her inside. Once the royal family was secured inside, the guards at the front began trotting, drawing the carriage with them.
***
For four days and nights, Sunset and Sci-Twi worked almost nonstop on a new device using many of the vacuum tubes from Princess Twilight's scientific instruments.
Sci-Twi, levitating a spool of soldering wire, melted the soft metal to complete the last of the circuits. She looked over at Sunset who was closing the housing for the monitor. With a grunt of satisfaction, she blew on the still melted solder to hurry along its cooling, then closed up everything.
Sunset hooked up the power supple as Celestia and Luna teleported in. "Hang on to your butts." Using a hoof, she flipped the switch into the 'on' position.
With some sparks, a low hum that grew in pitch until it was a high whine, and a couple of whiffs of ozone, the machine powered up and the screen came to life with a green glow.
Sci-Twi hooked up the thaumat-o-mater to the machine as Sunset placed the geomantic pendulum into a recessed slot on the machine. A topographical map of Equestria faded in on the screen, followed by several wavering blobs of indicating active natural magical fields.
Sunset looped a length of silver wire of the princesses horns and passed them a small silver rod each attached to a length of wire. "Place these between your teeth. You may feel some tingling and mild discomfort. If you feel any pain or small anything burning, spit them out immediately."
Celestia paused. "Pain? Burning?"
"Yes.", Sci-Twi replied, "This is mostly an untested technology, well untested on alicorns anyways."
After the princesses did as they were instructed, the wavering blobs vanished and were replaced by five dots. Sunset and Sci-Twi quickly checked their math and adjusted a few nobs on the control panel.
"Alright, I think we've got the baseline down. You can remove the rods and wires now..", Sunset said.
Luna spat out the rod and wiped down her tongue with her fetlock. "Bleh! That tasted like I was holding a bunch of ants in my mouth."
After Celestia removed the wire and rod, she walked over to the machine, watching the green glowing monitor with five dots on it.
Sunset gave a last few adjustments, then pointed to the monitor. "Alright, these two up north I can guess are Cadance and Flurry Heart. Then these two here towards the center are you and Luna. This one here must be Twilight."
The four watched as the fifth dot would disappear, then reappear at a point, only to disappear and return to the original point.
After several minutes of watching the fifth dot disappear and reappear, Sci-Twi tapped on the screen. "She seems to return to that same point on the map. It looks like some kind large rock formation, probably a butte."
Celestia quietly mused. I know that place. What was it called? Think. Think. Think.
Luna touched the edge of her hoof to the monitor that depicted an old river valley. "Sister, that's where Dream Valley once was before the windigoes consumed it." She touched her hoof to where the fifth dot keeps returning to. "And that's the ruins of..."
Both sisters looked at each other. "...Nightmare Castle."
Sci-Twi looked a bit perplexed at the two royal sisters after they had pointed out the two places on the map. "Dream Valley? Nightmare Castle? What exactly are they?"
Celestia and Luna looked at each other, a silent conversation played out between the two of the. "We'll wait for everypony to be here so we don't have to tell the history of the pony folk multiple times.", the elder sister replied.
A couple of hours later, the former human-turned-ponies and natural born ponies had gathered at the Castle of Friendship. Celestia began to recount the ancient story of dream Valley. "I was a foal and had barely seen my third summer, Luna was barely a yearling at the time, when the windigos had started to devour all life in Dream Valley. I had accompanied my father, known today as Chancellor Puddinghead, across the mountains and into the land we now know as Equestria. Sadly mother didn't survive the trip. Most ponies remember my father as an imbecile, but he was far from it, at least before mother died, in reality he was quite sharp and an astute leader, if a bit stubborn. After mother's passing, grief slowly consumed him and took his mind, until he was just a shadow of of the stallion he used to be. Of course this was long before Luna and I ascended."
She blew out a weary sigh and blinked away few misty tears the bitter memories had brought.
"Back on topic, as I am the only pony alive who still remembers the old home country. Though I was born many years after it happened, both mother and grandmother used to recount the stories about a great hero who strode upon two legs, had a mane the color of the sun and wielded a powerful weapon. With the powerful weapon, she struck down the great enslaver and the terrible emperor. By the ruins of Dream Valley, a single pegasus' day's flight from Dream Castle stands the ruins of the of the terrible keep now known to all pony-folk as Nightmare Caste, but in the days of the great champion it was called a different name. Midnight Castle."
The uttering of the name Midnight Castle made the natural born ponies and humans-turned-ponies fur bristle and the air feel like it had dropped a few degrees. The humans-turned-ponies cocked their heads in confusion.
"What in the heck is Nightmare Castle an' why does saying its name make th' air feel cold?", Jackie asked.
"It was the home to the great enslaver. Though his name has been lost to time, all that remains of him is a description in ancient writings.", Luna replied, "It is said he was a centaur with black fur and red skin, who enslaved ponies and turned them into terrible beasts spawned from nightmares to pull his chariot. Even to this day explorers, archaeologists and treasure hunters stay from that place. If that is where the nightmare that has taken possession of Twilight Sparkle has taken the stolen foals, it makes sense, as it's the one place nopony would venture as it would appear as a fool's journey."
"So why don't we just get an army up, storm the place and take the babies back by force?", Mabel asked.
"Not only would an army be easily spotted by the nightmare, the changelings live somewhere in the badlands. If they saw that a massive force of the EUP was sent into their territory, they would launch a full scale invasion of Equestria.", Celestia replied.
"I say let 'em try!", Mabel retorted, "You have two literal god-like rulers who could nuke 'em off the--mmmmmmppppphhh!" She found her words cut off when Rainbow Dash and Applejack clamped her mouth shut with their hooves.
"Dude! Everypony knows that if an alicorn marches to war, we're in deep doo-doo up to our withers!", Rainbow hissed into Mabel's ear, "Equestria is still recovering from Twilight's brawl with Tirek, and that barely lasted two minutes."
"Verily.", Luna replied to the statement, "The last time Sister and I marched to war, a great and terrible sorcerer ram that hailed from neighboring Tambelon, declared himself emperor and had unleashed all sorts of nightmare beasts upon the ponies."
"What happened to Tambelon?", Sci-Twi asked.
"The bones of the kingdom are now buried under the sands of the Too Dry Desert.", Celestia answered.
This sent a visible shiver through the gathered ponies and former humans. A palpable silence descended onto the room.
The chiming from the Friendship Map broke the silence and the glowing of fifteen flanks drew the attention of the two princesses, seven natural born ponies and six humans-turned ponies. Making their way to the map room, they saw sixteen cutie marks circling a ravine in the Everfree Forest, adjacent to the ruins of the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sisters.
***
"But Cady, you're still injured!", Shining Armor snapped, seeing his wife's cutie mark glowing and pulsing. As soon as it started glowing, she had insisted going to Twilight's castle. "I nearly lost it when I thought you had died." His voice cracked as he choked back a sob. "If I lose you for real this time, I-I don't know what I would do." He clenched his eyes shut and turned his face away to fight his tears.
Cadance placed her hoof under Shining's chin, turned his face to face hers and gave his cheek a nuzzle. "Do you remember when I along with aunties Celestia and Luna gave Twilight our magic?"
Shining nodded.
"When I told you to stay here to protect the empire, what did you say?"
"That I was a captain of the guard first and it was my duty to to protect the ponies of Equestria."
"Now when Tirek found out that Twilight had the magic of four alicorns and went to confront her, she chose to stand and fight him. After he had been defeated, returned to Tartarus and restored our magic back to us, auntie Tia asked her why she chose to stand and fight instead of running and hiding, like she was commanded to. You wanna know what she answered?"
"That as a princess, it is her duty to protect the ponies of Equestria?"
"That and as long as she had one gasp left to breath and one drop left to bleed, she'd fight for for her friends and family as well. I know you Shiny. If the map had summoned you, you'd charge out there to to bring Twily back to us, even if it took your last gasp of breath and last drop of blood to do so." Cadance gave Shining a quick peck on the lips. "Now what kind of example would I be setting for my daughter if I ran and hid when the call to action came?"
***
For the moment the nightmare slumbered and Twilight was in control of her body, though she knew it would only be for a couple of minutes, maybe a little bit longer if she was lucky. She stood in a cave in the badlands, staring at a painting on the wall depicting a two-legged creature, with a blonde mane, holding a rainbow in its outstretched hands. She knew from her short time in the world on the other side of the mirror portal that this was a depiction of a human, but unlike the humans on the other side of the portal, this one had an unusual coloring to its skin.
Knowing that she didn't have the time to ponder why this human wasn't turned into a pony when coming to this world, Twilight lit her horn and carved out a series of patterns on the wall, ceiling and floor that to a pony standing in the right position, would show a hidden message.
To all whom may read this. My name is Twilight Sparkle, the Princess of Friendship. Every day the nightmare consumes me a little more and it's getting harder and harder to retain control. Please know that I did everything I could to stop this world from being consumed by the fires of a meteor storm. To princess Celestia, I'm sorry that I failed you. To Princess Luna, I'm sorry I wasn't a better friend to you. To Sunset and her human friends, I'm sorry I couldn't stop myself from destroying the portal, dooming you all to the firestorm. To Shining Armor, I regret not spending more time hanging out with you. To Cadance, I'm sorry I couldn't be the princess you taught me to be. To my friends, I'm sorry I didn't make more time to be with you all. To Starlight, I forgive you. When the next time I am able to break free of the nightmare's hold, I will hurl myself onto the rocks below the ruins of Nightmare Castle. I don't ask for your forgiveness, I only ask that you take my remains to the valley below the Canterhorn and bury them where Ponyville once stood. I have left a series of maps covertly carved into several caves and buttes.
"NGGH!" Twilight put a hoof to her temple as she felt the nightmare waking up. She quickly ran out of the cave and down a disused trail, making turns that would seem erratic and panicky, in the hopes that they would fool the nightmare and disguise her true intent.
Twilight came to a stop in front of a weather worn statue, depicting a human girl, holding her hand over head in a heroic stance.
"Ngh! NNNGH! NNNNNNGGGGGHHHHHH!", Twilight cried out in agony, throwing both forehooves to her temples, as she struggled with all of her might to hold back the nightmare. "Gah!" An agonized gasp escaped her as she collapsed into the dust. Nightmare Star rose to her hooves, looking first up to the statue, the behind her at the seemingly random hoofprints in the dust. "My my my Twilight Sparkle, what have you been up to clever mare?" She considered following the tracks to see where the lavender alicorn had come from and what she may have been up to, but decided against it as she didn't want to play into the hoof of Twilight. Besides she knew it would only be a matter of time before the princesses figured out her plan, and send the remaining element bearers, along with those blasted humans after her. In a blink of dark light, she teleported back to the ruined castle atop the butte.
***
The high speed Crystal Express, its brakes squealing loudly, came to a stop at Ponyville station. Cadance had ordered the engineers to stoke the fire high and hot, and as such, the ride took less than two hours. With a flick of her uninjured wing, the Princess of Love gave the silent order for her guards to stay on the train. Slowly, with much care as to not unnecessarily aggravate her injuries, she strode out of the car and onto the platform with as much poise and grace as she could muster. Once clear of the train, she gave a quick nod to the engineers, who quickly switched the tracks and backed the train onto an unused spur.
Standing on the platform to greet her was Celestia and Luna. The three princesses dipped their head in small bows.
"Niece, you should have stayed home and allow your injuries to better heal.", Luna said, "Though time and disease may not touch us, death can still claim us."
"And if you were the one injured by the nightmare while trying to free Twilight from its grasp and the tree summoned you, would you stay in bed or would you be standing here on this platform before me?", Cadance asked.
Luna nodded her head and cast her eyes downwards.
Cadance put put a hoof under Luna's chine, lifted her face and nuzzled her cheek. "I know you're scared auntie. Nopony knows the horrors that a nightmare can bring better than you."
"Is everypony else gathered at the castle?" , Cadance asked.
"They are.", Celestia replied, "And Cadance? You might want to brace yourself. The doppelgangers from the other side of the mirror came across with Sunset. It seems that they refused to stay behind when their friend came across to face the nightmare."
As the three made their way off the platform, Luna extended a wing. "Here dearest niece, lean thine weight onto me."
***
Though it had been a few days since the girls had gone through the portal into Equestria, Spike the dog refused to be more than a few feet from the journal in case Twilight, his Twilight, wrote again, only leaving to relieve himself or eat. Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna decided that they've adopted a dog until the day that Twilight, their Twilight, could return.
The purple and green dog stared out the window at the bright blue afternoon sky wistfully, at the same time, his dragon counterpart was doing the same thing.
***
The group of sixteen ponies trekked through the dark shadows and dense undergrowth of the Everfree Forest following the trail that lead to the ruins of the Castle of the Two Sister, with Celestia at the lead, her horn glowing bright, banishing the shadows and scaring off any creatures that may impede their path, while Luna took up the rear of the column.
It was early in the evening when the sun began to dip close to the horizon. The group made their way to the edge of the chasm that held the cave where the Tree of Harmony stood and descended the stairs. They made camp to rest and recoup as the sisters prepared to lower the sun and raise the moon respectively.
Once the sun was down and the moon up, the group made their way to where the tree stood. The ponies and former humans gasped in awe at the gems and crystalline structures in the cave, and at the crystalline tree that glowed with light from within.
"Ah caint tell ya how many time's Ah've been here an' seen the tree, an' ev'ry time Ah'm still amazed by it.", Applejack said, her eyes sparkling with wonder.
"You and I both sister.", Rarity replied.
There was a swirl of energy and what looked like a see through, glittering Twilight Sparkle walked out from the shadows from behind the tree. The see through, sparkling alicorn looked over the gathered ponies and former humans.
The former humans looked on in stunned silence as Celestia, Luna, Cadance, the five element bearers and Starlight bowed low. "Oh great Spirit of Harmony, we hast heard thy summon and came of one accord to hear thine wisdom.", celestia said, her voice full of reverence.
"Celly Celly Celly!", Discord's voice cackled from the moth of the cave, "There's no need to show off to everypony your shapely flank."
The Spirit of Harmony turned its attention to the mouth of the cave as the ponies and former humans looked over their withers at the Spirit of Chaos standing on the ceiling, leaning his serpentine form against the wall.
"Discord, why are you here?", Celestia snapped as she rose to her hooves and turned to face the Spirit of Chaos.
"I just came to see if the stories were true that there were two Fluttershys.", he said walking down the wall and draping a mismatched limb over Fluttershy's neck. "Don't worry, you're the only mare for me." A Discord clone appeared by Moonchild. "Why don't you come by my place Wednesday for a tea part--OW!" He rubbed his head where Fluttershy had smacked him.
"Discord! Don't tease Moonchild!" Fluttershy scolded the draconequis.
Discord grumbled under his breath for a moment before his mood changed and he turned his attention to the see through replica of Twilight. "Dearest sister, why do you hide and only send out a cheap illusion? I'm sure mommy and daddy-dearest would have something to say about that, if they ever get back from vacation to that dreadful two-dimensional plane populated by circles, squares and triangles...two dimensions. Ha! Such a bore."
"Discord, what in th' tarnation are ya yammerin' on about?", Applejack asked.
"Stole th' words right outa my mouth.", Jackie replied.
"If the words were stole out of my mouth, I would be like..." Pinkie D said as she began to silently mouth words.
The ponies and former humans chose to answer it as it was a Pinkie being a Pinkie.
Discord walked over to the Tree of Harmony and rapped the knuckles on his eagle's talon on it. "Come on out sis! I know you can hear me. You can't ignore me! You want to be that way, fine! Then I guess I'm coming in!"
The ponies and former humans stared in dumbfounded shock as the spirit of chaos pulled a large suit case from nowhere, plopped it down, flipped it open and started saying "Nope nope nope!" as he flung cream pies, bottles containing oddly colored light, roped of handkerchiefs, strange tube-shaped metallic devices that emitted strange glowing cylinders of every color that burned holes in the ceiling and floor, six dozen butterflies, one very confused looking blue hedgehog and a chilidog cart. He recoiled from the suit case, a baseball bat appearing in his hand, a strange gurgling, warbling snarl came from it. "Get. Back. In. There. You!", he shouted, hitting something unseen with the bat. "I told Cthulhu to not let his star spawn near my luggage!", he grumbled to no one in particular, "But no! He was all like *incomprehensible and madness-inducing gurgling*!"
"Discord, we don't have time for your games.", Celestia said crossly.
"Aha! I remember where I put it!", Discord said as he snapped his fingers, making the suitcase and the things that had been pulled out of it vanish. Stepping over to Celestia, he reached up to her ear, and with a flourish of his lion's paw, he pulled out a doorknob.
Celestia blinked in indignation as Luna giggled at her, that devolved into rolling on the ground and belly laughing. "Ah-ha-ha-ha! Sister! Hee-hee-hee-hee! How many times have We told thee to wash thine ears?!" The elder sister looked down at her laughing sibling nonplussed.
Discord walked over to the Tree of Harmony, doorknob in hand."I'm giving you one last chance. Come out of your own accord."
"Discord, if I've told you once, I've told you at least a billion times in at least a dozen alternate universes and timelines that I don't have an Accord, I have a Miata.", a pale white female draconequis said as she stepped out of the trunk of the tree.
The ponies and former humans could only gape in disbelief at the pale white female draconequis, whose tone was almost the same as the crystalline tree. Harmony, like Discord, was a mishmash of various creatures, but her appearance was more lithe, almost serpentine. Instead of fur she was covered in pale white, nearly translucent scales and sported two pairs of catfish-like barbels on her snout. Her eyes were more uniform, looking more like a pony's eyes, though they were of mismatched color, the left being a jade green and the right being an amethyst hue. She lacked the goat's beard her brother had. A wreath of living ivy wove around her mismatched horns.
"This is I never showed my true form, Discord.", Harmony said as she pointed at the ponies and former humans. "Now they're there catching flies. Let me deal with that for you." She snapped fingers. Strips of fly paper appeared on the ponies and former humans' faces.
The gathered princesses and element bearers spat and sputtered as they wiped the fly paper from their faces...except for Pinkie D and P Dianne, who fell into one another in fits of giggle-snorts. "Catching flies! Good one!", they said between giggle-snorts.
Cadance stepped forward, her mind trying to make sense of everything. "So you're his--"
"Yep.", Discord said nonchalantly
"And she's your--"
"Mm-hmm.", Harmony replied as she buffed her eagle's talons on her chest scales.
"But how?"
"You see, eons and eons ago in the fires of rapid expansion, or as some would call it, 'the big bang', special energies were created that spread out all across what would become the multiverse.", Discord said, suddenly dressed as a college professor. "As the energies moved across the ever-expanding space-time, they created echoes. These echoes coalesced into six singularities, and these singularities were compressed into gems of great power. Great and terrible beings that lived out of space and time took possession of these gems. With them they could create or destroy civilizations on a whim. These great and powerful beings ran into a civilization whose home planet was blasted by deadly radiation from their star. This civilization reached out to these beings for help, but the beings had grown arrogant of their power, so they refused them. The civilization grew angry and with the help of star eating beings made entirely out of gas and energy, were turned into spooky space robot skeletons and made war against the beings who denied them help."
"Discord, no.", Harmony said as she facepalmed. "That's the history of at least three completely different and unrelated universes."
"Well excuuuuuuuuuse me, Harmony!", Discord said, wearing a green tunic, green pants, a green floppy hat and holding a sword.
Harmony sighed. " The origins of draconequii...draconequises?...draconequisees?...draconequiseseses?"
A horde of human knights standing by a lake appeared and shouted, "Get on with it!"
The ponies and former humans stared dumbfounded at the horde of human knights that appeared, shouted, and just as quickly disappeared.
Harmony continued, "We...*ahem*...draconequises and alicorns are made in pairs. We draconequii are made in opposing pairs. Discord is the draconequis of chaos, where I am the draconequis of order. Mother is the draconequis of matter, while father is the draconequis of antimatter. Alicorns on the other hand, or this case...hoof, when created are created in pairs to embody the same elements." She gestured to Celestia and Luna. "Light." She gestured to Cadance and turned herself into the image of Twilight. "Love." She held a confused looking Flurry Heart in her arms. "And in the case of this 'ball of joy and wonder', empathy...but her other half...has yet to show herself, but she got close once already." With a snap of her fingers, Flurry Heart disappeared.
***
Back in the Crystal Palace, Flurry Heart appeared in a flash of light back in her crib, much to the shock and surprise of her nannies. She looked around the room for a moment, her infant mind unable to make heads or tales of what happened, so she did what all babies would do in that situation. "Wwwwwaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh!"
The servants and nannies that weren't bowled over by the wall of sound struggled against the waves of sound to comfort the yearling princess.
Flurry Heart bawled here eyes out, making the Crystal Empire shake like it was in an earthquake, until one intrepid nanny, against all odds, managed to get her whammy to her. The living WMD gurgled and cooed happily, stuck one end of the stuffed snail into her mouth, sucked on it, curled up and went to sleep.
Shining Armor, Sunburst and a corps of crack, elite guards burst into the nursery. The nanny let out a half-mad chuckle and collapsed to the floor. Shining Armor resigned himself to writing up the paperwork to present the nanny a medal. " May the heavens help the enemies of the Crystal Empire when Flurry reaches five. Her nannies will be so hardened that not even an elder dragon will shake them.", he whispered as he walked over and kissed the forehead of his sleeping daughter.
***
Celestia raised an eyebrow at what Harmony had said, then drifted her gaze over to Sunset. "So you are ascending!", she gushed. "But why hasn't your wellspring grown? Have you been experiencing any itchiness or aching in your back? What about any heaviness in your hooves? What about any tingling or heat in your core? What about any aching around your horn or headaches? "
"I'm starting to get a headache now.", Sunset grumbled under her breath. She cleared her throat. "Magic doesn't work that way in the human world, Princess Celestia. Until the last year or so, there hasn't been much in the way of magic."
Celestia rubbed her chin in thought. "It's been a long time since I've read Clover's treaties on the effect on wellsprings in low-magic environments. It's highly plausible that your wellspring's growth has been retarded."
"Ya hear that, Sunset? Sun-butt called you retarded!", Mabel said with a stifled guffaw.
Sunset glared at the rainbow-haired girl-turned-pony for a moment. "Could I have damaged my wellspring when I stole and put on Twilight's crown, transforming myself into a demon?"
Celestia studied Sunset for a moment. The amber-coated unicorn shuddered, it was almost as if her former teacher's gaze was peering down through her. "I'm not sensing any damage. If there was any damage, your wellspring's natural energy cycles would have healed any damage. I'm sensing a normal, albeit powerful, unicorn's wellspring."
"If we can get back on topic...time's a-ticking and there's a deadline you all must meet.", Discord said, taping a ridiculously oversized wrist watch that appeared on his wrist.
Harmony leaned down, got face-to-face with Sunset and wound around the unicorn's body, her expression was stern. "This one here I've been watching for a long time. For so long all she ever saw was her own ambitions to the point where they blinded her to everything around her. Thank goodness that rainbow sucker punch knocked some sense into her." She then directed her attention to Starlight and long shadows stretched across her expression. "This one here has so much natural talent, so much raw potential, she could have completely rewritten treatises on magical practice, but between losing her mother at a young age, the neglect of her father and her only friend being sent to Celestia's school, she could not see past her own pain and desire to control everything around her. When she had taken from her what she had stolen, she chose not to reach out to others and get help, but instead she chose to retreat into her own darkness. It was only when she experienced the worst days of her life that she was humbled to the point where she could see past own darkness. There is still hope for you, but there is one last line of red in your ledger that must be balanced before you can be fully healed. I wonder what you will sacrifice to attain that?"
As Starlight stared at Harmony, she saw a stylized shadow play of a unicorn standing before a nightmarish creature on the wall behind the female draconequis.
Harmony rose once again to her full height and a brilliant light shown from her eyes. "In the darkness the seventh will aid the six from a land far and away, who in turn will help the first six to reclaim the lost champion. With two circles will the champion awaken the Daydream and aid in throwing down the nightmare. Like a snake, will the wretched one attempt to slither away. Only with a sacrifice of blood will the light entrap the darkness. Fret not, Little Moon, the nightmare will be confronted by the shadow cast by the light and be banished into all-consuming flames. Through suffering and toil will you be victorious. Flames and wrath threaten to fall upon all, but the stars will dance and swirl with victory. The darkness may whisper lies and offer you empty promises, but you shall remember your inner light. Your fellow champion is lost and believes she is struggling alone against the darkness. Bring her back to the light. Go now and seize your destinies!"
Harmony faded back into the tree. The ponies and former humans started their trek back to Ponyville, their thoughts on the events that had transpired and will transpire. Discord lingered in the cave that held the crystalline tree. Once he was certain that the princesses and both sets of bearers were out of earshot, he spoke up. "And ponies accuse me of dramatics, dear sister."
Harmony reappeared next to her brother,holding a dagger in her eagle's talon. "Nah! I just told them what they already knew and needed to hear somedraconequis else say. Like grandfather always said, 'When you do something right, it'll seem like you've done nothing at all.'" She examined the dagger. "Now Celestia, why do you need Mistmane's dagger? Are you planning to sacrifice yourself to save your protege or are you playing at a longer game?" With a snap she sent the dagger back to the pocket dimension Celestia had stashed it in.
***
The next morning Celestia, Luna, Cadance and both sets of bearers sat quietly around a dinning table eating breakfast. Their thoughts were heavy with their task ahead. Once they had finished eating and clearing the table, the former human bearers each wrote a message in the journal for their loved ones back home. Once they had finished writing in the journal, Sunset gripped the pen in her teeth and began writing a message for Principal Celestia and Vice-principal Luna.
Dear Principals Celestia and Luna,
We are preparing to go out to find and save Princess Twilight. It may be several days before any of us can write back again. Please make sure my friends' families know they love them and miss them. I also want to say thank you to both of you for giving me the chance to prove myself after the fiasco at the Fall Formal. I promise that I won't let you down and will strive every day once we save Princess Twilight, I shall strive tirelessly to get my friends home. Know that I consider both of you as valuable of teachers for me as Princess Celestia was. I must keep this brief as I must pack for the journey ahead.
Your friend and student always, Sunset Shimmer
Celestia and Luna teleported back to Canterlot to set up the daily runnings of the government in their absence and to place an enchantment on their sun and moon for a fortnight.
Cadance quickly teleported back to the Crystal Empire to spend a few last hours with her husband and daughter as she knew not when she would return.
The pony bearers spent a few hours with their loved ones and getting their affairs in order, just in case.
Noon rolled around and both sets of bearers met on the platform of Ponyville Station. Packs were slung across their backs, heavy with provisions. In a brilliant flash, the engine for the Royal express with a single car appeared on the tracks. The bearers stepped into the car where Celestia,Luna and Cadance were waiting for them. With a steady chugging, the Royal Express set out from the station bound for its last stop on the edge of the Badlands.
