My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Starlight Sparkle
Dawn of Nightmares
One Week Later
Princess Astra stared at the fragments sadly. She had gathered up the broken window shards depicting the defeat of Nightmare Moon and Discord, reassembling them upon the floor of her new chambers. Twilight and her friends had twice saved Equestria from certain doom, as these images showed. Now however ...
Ever since Celestia had been vanquished by Twilight, Equestria had become trapped in a perpetual state of ... well, twilight. Neither fully light nor fully dark. The blue hour, as it was sometimes known. Except that in this case it was lasting a lot longer than an hour. Unless Celestia and Luna were restored somehow, then it would in all likelihood be an eternal twilight.
Oh yes, Luna. Astra had moved into her tower to save herself the trouble of making periodic trips to visit the second sovereign princess. Luna was curled up asleep. She had been sleeping all week, and showed no indication of ever waking up. Nothing anypony tried had been able to elicit a response from her in the slightest beyond the occasional snort or snore. Evidently Twilight had placed her under some kind of powerful enchantment. At least she hadn't been turned into a sunflower like her sister.
Astra sauntered over to the windowsill where said sunflower sat. She had made sure it received plenty of water and light (such as there was), but beyond that there was nothing she could do. For the past week she had made countless attempts to awaken Luna and return Celestia to her original form. It was no use. She simply wasn't powerful enough to break the spells cast upon them. Still she tried.
Now she moved over to a board, upon which was a map of Equestria. It was currently filled with coloured pins, each pin representing a location she had searched for the Elements of Harmony. Thus far she had found nothing. Not a trace of them anywhere. Twilight said she had hidden them somewhere nopony would ever think to look for them. Astra couldn't think where that might be.
She sighed and strolled back to the window, which overlooked the main courtyard of Canterlot Castle. In the centre of it was a new ornamentation created by Queen Twilight. It was a fountain of chocolate milk, with Discord as its centrepiece. Every day the Queen would strut in front of it and taunt Discord. Astra wasn't sure if the ancient draconequus remained aware whilst trapped in his stony prison, but Twilight certainly seemed to think so. Currently, ponies paraded proudly in their armour through the courtyard. Queen Twilight had instituted a military conscription policy, and more ponies were being trained every day. Astra had heard her admit that she had no need of a military, but everypony needed discipline and to learn to follow her orders.
Feeling utterly depressed, Astra dragged her hooves over to Princess Luna and slumped down beside her. When Astra had discovered her last week she had been slumbering upon the floor. Since then, Astra had levitated her onto the rug in front of the fireplace, where she slept even now.
"Oh Luna, I wish you would wake up ..." Astra lamented for perhaps the hundredth time. She didn't know if Luna could hear her or not, but she liked to think that she could. Talking to the sleeping princess sometimes made Astra feel better. Sometimes. It was hard to feel good when you were more or less responsible for putting an evil tyrant on the throne. Twilight had been in charge for only a week and already she ruled Equestria with an iron hoof. Every day royal proclamations were made passing new strict laws that everypony had to obey.
Some tried to defy her. At first. Twilight made an example of them to all the rest, and was generally so terrifying that most ponies were too afraid to do anything but bow down and obey her.
Just as Astra had bowed to her a week ago.
That particular memory still made her feel especially wretched. There they all stood, Twilight's voice booming at them as Princess Celestia relaxed in a flowerpot, and ... Astra's courage gave way. She was the first and only pony present to give in and bow down. Even Fluttershy had shown more courage than Astra, and tried to stand up to Twilight. Astra still did not know what had happened to them. She hadn't seen or heard from any of them all week.
In the end, Astra had remained more or less free and unharmed. Partly because she had bowed down, and partly because Twilight owed her newfound power and attitude to Astra's Starlight Sapphire. Twilight actually seemed to feel Astra had done her a great favour, and so allowed her to come and go as she pleased. Astra had thus used that freedom over the last week to try everything in her power to undo the damage she had caused. Yet nothing could dispel that horrible wretched feeling that all of this was her fault, and that she was an utterly useless coward.
She still remembered the looks of shocked disappointment the others had given her as she strode forward and bowed to Twilight. They haunted her dreams.
"What should I do?" Astra begged Luna, biting her lip with worry. "I can't wake you up. I can't restore Celestia. I haven't the faintest idea where the Elements of Harmony might be. I'm no match for Twilight, either. I mean just look at what she did to the both of you!"
Princess Luna snored on, seemingly oblivious to Astra's comment. On the windowsill Celestia swayed gently in the breeze, unable to speak even if she wanted to. Astra spread herself flat, feeling lower than she ever had before. Could things get any worse?
"Are you okay?"
Astra sat up and looked around. Spike was standing beside her, eyeing her with concern. She gave him a hopeful expression.
"Did you find anything?"
He shook his head sadly. Crestfallen, Astra got up and magically placed another pin in the map over Appleloosa. Sighing wearily she stared at it for a long while, saying nothing. They were running out of places to search. She drooped and turned away from the map.
"Don't keep beating yourself up about this, Astra. It isn't your fault."
Astra tried to glare at him but she didn't have the heart to. Instead she just looked vaguely pathetic. "Do you really believe that Spike?"
Spike looked from her to Luna, then to Celestia. Finally he strolled over to the broken fragments of coloured glass depicting the past victories of his friends. Staring down at them with his little shoulders slumped, he didn't answer. Astra sighed again and turned away from him.
"That's what I thought."
Spike suddenly belched. Eyes wide, Astra rounded on him in time to see him catch the scroll that had materialised in the air. Frowning, the baby dragon unrolled it, his gaze dancing across the parchment as he read.
"What is it?"
"It's a message from Queen Twilight. Uhh ... well, basically she wants you to oversee the preparations for her coronation tomorrow."
Astra felt a fresh stab of guilt. "Oh fantastic. That's just what I need right now."
Spike's own eyes widened as he read on. "Astra! It says here she's holding her coronation in Ponyville!"
That was a shock. Why would she do that? This new Twilight loved to strut about in Canterlot. She'd made it perfectly plain that she thought of Ponyville as unworthy of her royal self. Astra glanced over at the map. Ponyville was one of the very few locations marked on it that did not yet have a pin over it. That was because Astra had not returned there since leaving with Celestia the night everything had happened. She couldn't bear to face the ponies there.
"Are you going to go?" Spike asked.
"What choice do I have?" Astra muttered darkly. "If I refuse she might turn me into a gemstone and feed me to a dragon."
Well then, it looked as if she was off to Ponyville again. Hurrah.
Astra thanked the pegasus ponies that had pulled the chariot. They departed without a word to return to Canterlot, leaving Astra and Spike standing in the Town Square. There were several other ponies about, none of whom paid her any attention. From the way they hung their heads it looked as if they had a lot on their minds.
"Alright Spike, let's get this over with. What's first on the list?"
Spike peered at the checklist intently. "Says here ... you need to make sure the food for the royal feast is ready." He gasped as he read on. "That's being handled by Applejack!" Spike glanced up from the list, his little face lighting up. "Twilight must not have done anything to punish her after all!"
The first good news Astra had heard all week. Still remembering how to get to Sweet Apple Acres from her last visit there, Astra trotted along the street with a spring in her step. Perhaps Applejack had some idea how to fix this whole mess.
"Is Applejack here?" Astra asked.
"Eeyup," said Big Macintosh, pointing to the apple orchards where Applejack had taught Astra how to pick apples last week. Astra smiled, oblivious to the sadness in his eyes.
"Thank you!" She trotted off, Spike sitting on her back. As they went the princess cast an excited look back at the baby dragon. "I never imagined that she would just let Applejack go free after what happened. This is great Spike! With her help maybe we can find the Elements."
They finally found the earth pony struggling to pull a basket towards a waiting apple tree, her limbs shaking with the effort. Astra was startled to see that the basket was completely empty. Even she could have moved it without any trouble. She stopped and watched as Applejack eventually succeeded in dragging it into position. Applejack then turned and tried to walk away, but fell over instead.
"AJ?" said Spike, somewhat confused by her behaviour.
"Spike! Astra! There y'are. Just gimme a minute ..."
They watched as she struggled to get up. And struggled. And then finally gave up, collapsing down into an exhausted heap. Astra trotted over and peered down worriedly at her.
"Gosh Applejack, how long have you been working?"
Applejack sighed, her eyes shut. "I'm jus gettin started. Took me all mornin just to drag this basket out here."
Both Astra and Spike regarded the empty basket once more. Finally Astra walked over to it and lifted it up. It was no heavier than usual, and she had little difficulty in lifting or moving it even without using her magic. Frowning, she set it down and moved back to stand over Applejack.
"I don't understand, you're the strongest pony I've ever seen. Why is it giving you so much trouble?"
AJ eventually managed to prize her eyelids open and stared up at the princess. She was sweating from exertion. "I thought you knew. Ever since Twilight cursed me last week, I've barely had the strength to stand, let alone work."
"Oh." Astra winced at her admission. So, Twilight had not simply allowed Applejack to go unpunished. She'd sapped her strength away and left the proud workhorse as weak as a kitten. "In that case you better let me help out; if the preparations for the feast aren't ready on time there's no telling what the Queen might do."
Applejack endeavoured to appear angry, though she was so exhausted that it was a pretty feeble attempt. Nevertheless her eyes flashed dangerously. "Oh of course; mustn't disappoint her royal high an mighty majesty now ..." She struggled to stand once more, trembling to an excessive degree for several seconds before giving up and slumping to the ground again.
Astra flashed Spike a miserable look before setting to work collecting the apples. All trace of her earlier excitement had evaporated like morning dew. Just how much suffering had been caused thanks to her actions?
Next on the checklist was the weather. Rainbow Dash was supposed to be clearing the clouds from the sky for the coronation, but as they could clearly see she had not done so. Spike curbed his earlier enthusiasm upon learning that Rainbow Dash had also returned to Ponyville, and together he and Astra set off to find the pegasus pony.
"Ow! Watch where you're putting your hooves will ya?"
Astra recoiled and looked down. She had unwittingly stepped on the very pony she sought. This was because Dash had flattened herself to the ground. Unlike Applejack, this was not because she was too weak to stand. Astra and Spike watched as she crawled across the ground with remarkable speed. They exchanged confused glances and then hurried to catch up.
"Rainbow Dash?" said Spike, "What are you doing crawling around like that?"
"Oh, hey Spike," Dash said brightly. "Oh, hey Astra," she said darkly. "I'm just getting some exercise. What can I do you for?"
Exercise? Astra blinked several times before speaking. "Well the Queen sent me to oversee the preparations for her coronation tomorrow. It says here you're supposed to be clearing the skies."
Rainbow Dash glanced upwards at said skies. As she did so her gaze filled with panic and she yelped loudly. Screwing her eyes shut, she buried her face in the ground and threw her hooves over her head, her whole body shaking with fear.
"Are you okay Rainbow Dash?" Astra asked tentatively, shooting a quick look upwards to see if there was anything frightening in the air above them. There wasn't, unless you found clouds frightening.
"S-S-Sorry!" Dash whimpered loudly, "Gonna have to take a rain check on that. You mind asking somepony else to do it instead?"
"Why? What's the matter?"
"I'd rather not say."
"C'mon Rainbow Dash, you can tell us," Spike assured her. She slowly lowered her hooves and peered cautiously up at him, her eyes brimming with fear.
"Only if you promise not to laugh."
"We promise," they answered in unison. Dash visibly swallowed before telling them.
"I can't clear the skies because ... because ..."
"Yes?" Astra prompted.
"I'M AFRAID OF HEIGHTS!"
Astra eventually managed to convince Ditzy Doo to clear the skies above Ponyville before moving on to the next item on the checklist. By now she was feeling even more wretched than she had been earlier, and both she and Spike were dreading their next task.
Carousel Boutique loomed before them. As pretty as it was, Spike and Astra regarded it as if it were the ultimate fortress of doom. They exchanged worried looks.
"Can't we skip this one, Astra?" Spike pleaded, almost on the verge of tears. She shook her head sadly.
"We need to make sure that Rarity has everything she needs to set up the decorations. It's on the list, which means we have to do it."
"But ... but ..." Spike's lips quivered, "I really don't want to see what Twilight has done to Rarity. I don't think I could stand it, Astra. Please don't make me go in there!"
She couldn't blame him, she really couldn't. Wilting like a dying flower, she told him to wait outside while she went in. She opened the door to Carousel Boutique with some trepidation, her heart pounding.
"Rarity? Hello? Are you here?"
"Oh! I recognise that voice. Princess Astra isn't it?" Rarity called out, "Please come on in!"
Astra stared. The inside of the dress shop was a complete mess. It looked as if an attempt had been made to tidy it, albeit a spectacularly unsuccessful one. It was a tip. The fact that Rarity now had a couple of stone pony statues standing around the middle of the floor really didn't help matters.
"Please excuse the mess, I've been meaning to tidy it up but I've been too afraid to take off my blindfold."
"Blindfold?" Astra navigated through the clutter and frowned at the statues. "What do you-" She stopped as Rarity stepped out from behind a screen and very nearly screamed at the sight of her.
"Don't be alarmed, I assure you I have no intention of harming you," Rarity said earnestly, turning her head this way and that as she tried to locate Astra. The princess goggled at her, utterly speechless. She thought that the punishments inflicted upon Applejack and Rainbow Dash were bad, but this ... of all the things Twilight could have done to her friend, this was the. Worst. Possible. Thing.
Rarity had a beautiful mane, everypony said so. It was thick and lustrous, expertly styled and simply stunning to behold. Not for nothing did Spike swoon at the sight of her. Even Astra had felt attracted towards Rarity when she had first met her. Now though ... her mane had been transformed into a hideous mass of writhing snakes that hissed menacingly. In addition to this Rarity was also wearing a blindfold over her eyes.
"R-Rarity?" Astra breathed, horrified by the sight of her. She gulped and struggled to get a hold of herself. "Umm ... why are you wearing a blindfold?"
Rarity gently felt her way across the floor, testing the ground in front of herself with a careful prod of her hoof. "Oh that. Well that is a bit awkward. You see those two statues there?"
Astra glanced at them. "Yes?"
Rarity gave a hesitant chuckle. "Those were my last customers ..."
