How Moonstruck Got Her Groove Back

Finite Sledgehammer

Disclaimer: Hasbro's toybox, I'm just playing in it.

It was business as usual for several days after the meeting. Moonstruck did not see the prince around the tower (not that she was allowed out of her chambers much), but she did manage to duck out and buy some gear for Glenda. She already had a spare canteen, but figured a third wouldn't hurt. Lightly used saddlebags were easy to come by, but a good travel cloak and bedroll were proving tricky. Back in Trot, the off season was always the best time to buy winter gear, but Bridle-Dur didn't seem to roll that way, and most anything relating to winter was tucked away in storage, apparently – at least at the second hoof stores. Any sort of dried foodstuffs were nearly impossible to find as well, which wasn't particularly surprising.

She didn't doubt Josephs time estimates, but she wanted to be prepared for as much as possible. If this whole coup d'etat thing didn't work out, getting out of the country could be infinitely more complicated. She didn't think they'd be betrayed, but it was still possible they could be found out. She hadn't mentioned it to the others yet, but she was putting together their kits and affixing nodestones to them so that they could be summoned at a moments notice if need be. Summoning objects was fairly easy, but she needed to set up a more complex spell that would be responsive to the current situation if, for some reason, she couldn't grab them herself and teleport them directly to where they were – or were about to be.

Responsive magic was a new, and infinitely tricky field. She'd experimented with it before, but thus far she'd only really incorporated a tiny bit of it into her nodestone spells to make sure she (or Joseph or Glenda) was always teleported to the clearest space closest to the stone itself. Enchanting one that would register that it needed to meet a pony at a location that said pony wasn't currently occupying was something she hadn't yet figured out, much less how she'd go about controlling it via voice command.

She could set up safe-houses though. Or some sort of mini-base, wherein, Glenda and Joseph could teleport to, then summon the packs before they teleport elsewhere. That certainly cut out all of that fiddly responsive magic, and would be infinitely useful if they were separated, had lost communication capabilities, and needed to regroup.

"I think we have another invitation." Glenda said into her thoughts.

Moonstruck blinked a few times and turned her had, wondering how long she'd been staring into space. She hadn't even heard the door open. "Huh?"

Glenda set an envelope down in front of her. It was addressed to Duckless Angle In Francisco Banjo Fresno, and the return address was to some sort of publishing company somewhere in Dirtton. She snorted a laugh at the mangled name and flipped it over to see that it was sealed with blue wax. The insignia within the wax was different from the birthday invite, but she suspected the color was the real indicator. She opened the envelope and magicked the letter out, not bothering to read the offer for a catalog selling novelty garden whirligigs. Holding the letter up to the light coming in from the french doors, she squinted at the watermark.

"Warehouse, 6am, two days later." She read aloud. She moved the letter a little closer to her face to read some very tiny text that she was impressed that they'd been able to get on the paper that clearly in such a way. "All day event, but will be back before 8am. Bring water and snacks."

"All day but back before eight... time distortion, do you think?" Joseph scratched the back of his head.

"Probably." Moonstruck flipped it over to make sure nothing else was on there, then promptly disintegrated both it, and the envelope.

Moonstruck was to accompany the queen to a baronesses estate for lunch and a couple rounds of croquet, so she reluctantly hauled herself off the couch to get ready. She wondered what sort of distraction the prince would cook up, and whether or not it would actually pull Lucenas attention away from Bridle-Dur long enough for them to do whatever it was they were going to do.

What sort of distraction could he make that wouldn't result in the prince possibly being dragged along? She had a hard time coming up with something that would get Lucena out of town without him, unless she had a sudden urge to go visit Eira, and decided not to bring him along, although in that case Moonstruck would likely be the one being dragged off which was equally counterproductive.

The speculation and anticipation occupied her through much of the day and night, and the next day didn't seem to give off any hint as to what was going to happen. In fact, the only indication something was up, was that a message arrived at dinnertime informing her that the queen would be busy for the next three days, though it gave no explanation as to why.

Of all the maddening things about this country, Moonstruck was slightly embarrassed to admit (to herself) that this was possibly the worst.

At long last they teleported down to the warehouse at the designated time and date. Moonstruck had many questions, but foremost in her mind was...

"So, how'd you keep the queen busy for three days?" She blurted as soon as they were in earshot of the team that would be taking them down to the university.

The prince ducked his head sheepishly. "It's kind of silly, actually. Mother is very particular about how her magic library is arranged, so whenever I need to keep her distracted for a while, I move a few books around – nothing too disastrous, just enough to make her decide to redo the whole filing system. It usually takes her three days for she and Kyrenai to go through it all."

Moonstruck chortled. "That's it?"

He nodded, blushing slightly.

"That is hilarious!"

"So, how long could you keep her busy if you, say, blasted half her library?" Joseph asked.

"Oh, no, that would be too much – she'd fly into a fit of rage and start destroying neighborhoods again." The prince shook his head as the three dozen ponies surrounding him nodded with wide, haunted eyes.

"Besides, she has a very short list of ponies who would do such a thing, and I'm at the top of it." He grimaced.

"She destroyed entire neighborhoods!?" Glenda yelped.

"Every so often she takes a notion." Lindsey sighed. "It's been a while though."

"I think she's due, actually." Wenchell drawled.

Everyone shushed him. He shrugged.

"Did you bring water and snacks?" Fern asked as the ponies on the loading docks joined them on the lower level.

"Yup."

"Good, there's water down there, but you can't drink it, and definitely nothing to eat."

"That's what we figured." Moonstruck nodded.

"We don't typically stay down there any longer than we have to, and it's best to come back before nightfall. It... gets weird at night." The prince added.

"Weirder." Lindsey muttered.

"Yeah, your message was a little confusing. We're guessing there's some kinda time distortion down there?" Moonstruck drawled as they started back across the warehouse.

"Yes one or two hours out here equals about eight in there, but the university also has its own sort of day/night cycle." Max nodded. "If we get down there first thing in the morning it's always 'morning' there, but if we come at any other time it can get a bit... interesting."

Once they were to the big double doors, they filed out into the storm drains. They crossed the canal, turned left, and walked a few miles down stream before turning down another offshoot of the tunnel. Unlike the side tunnel that led to the warehouse, this one was no larger than the rest of the storm drains and seemed to have an excess of glowing moss occupying it, making it fairly bright all and all. They remained largely silent as they went, and were careful to avoid any other ponies making their way through the drains the odd times they ran across them.

After passing several intersections they entered a section that likely housed a smaller storage area that ended in a blind alley. There was a rusted metal door at the end of the alley, and here the moss was especially bright. Wenchell produced a key out of one of his packs, and cautiously unlocked the door. The prince gave it a bit of a shove, and it creaked open slowly and reluctantly. It was pitch black beyond. They stared into the darkness, listening intently. Joseph pushed forward to sniff around at the door for a few moments.

After many exchanged glances, the prince cast a light spell (with a little bit of difficulty, Moonstruck noted), and stepped cautiously through the door, unicorns who were able to do so also making the tips of their horns glow as they passed the threshold. Once they were all inside, Wenchell shut the door, locked it, and cast his light spell.

Then they were off again, walking down the cramped corridor two by two. Moonstruck was not sure how long they walked, since she had forgotten to bring a clock, although she suspected clocks probably didn't work right in distorted areas like this. The tunnel finally opened up into a larger room that looked like it had been a pump house at some point, but was now long abandoned. Beyond the dilapidated equipment was the guard rail of a staircase that led downwards.

"We can speak now." The prince muttered. "Though it's advisable to stay fairly quiet until we get down into the cavern."

"I thought you said there wasn't anything to eat down here?" Joseph chuckled softly as he stepped away from the group. Moonstruck could make out the silhouette of a very large rat skittering along the far wall. It was easily the size of a small dog.

"That's a big one. Was wondering where all the rats got off to." She murmured. All cities had rats. Some were larger than others. One of the things she had noted about Bridle-Dur was that it was curiously lacking in rats – even in the worst of slums.

"What do you think pegasus ponies eat?" Evee snorted, rolling her eyes. "And don't bother with those big subterranean ones, they're too hard to - "

Joseph, whom had been stalking swiftly towards the rat, lunged, snatched it up in his jaws and bit down. There was a loud squeal that ended in a soft crunch. The struggling rat went limp.

"- kill." Evee finished lamely, jaw dropping open. She snapped it shut, then said, "and the other rats will mob whoever kills one of them, so you'll want to eat it quick before the others get here."

They were already pouring out of the equipment, hissing and chattering their teeth at Joseph as he eyed them coolly down the length of his snout. Moosntruck found herself drifting back with the rest of the group, though she also shifted so that she was safely behind the dragon, and out of the burn zone.

As the rats charged in at Joseph, he casually dropped his prize into one hand, planted his feet, and breathed a plume of fire along the floor at the rats. They slid to a stop before their whiskers could be singed, their cries turning more fearful as they began scrambling away. Joseph breathed again, herding a small group of them against the wall, then pounced once more, snatching up another in his jaws, then a third with his free hand, holding it by its scruff until he could drop the second carcass to finish the third rat off with a quick bite.

The rats panicked cries faded away as they scattered into the labyrinth of equipment. Joseph picked up his kill and ambled back over. "Want one Glenda?"

"Oh, thank you dear, that would be lovely." She beamed at him and happily trotted over to claim her meal.

"Are there more of him? Where do I get one?" Evee whispered to Moonstruck.

Moonstruck giggled.

She glanced over at the prince to see that he'd paled somewhat as he watched Joseph and Glenda stow their meals into packs for later, eyes mostly on Joseph. He sensed her gaze, glanced over, then looked away.

"Right, um, better keep moving. We can stop to eat once we get down there."

The more she saw of the prince with his guard down, the more she realized that aside from his bizarre appearance, there was really nothing particularly draconic about him. In fact, she just didn't get the same vibe she did from Joseph. She trusted Joseph completely, but he still had a predatory aura that set off little alarm bells in the back of her head. The prince did not have this effect at all. Neither did the Roanamian pegasus, and they were omnivores. Perhaps it was because they were still adapting, and hadn't yet crossed the threshold to occupy the same headspace as Joseph, and other obligate carnivores.

"So what makes the rats hard to kill?" Joseph asked as they started down the stairs.

"They require sharper teeth, I guess." Evee shrugged. "And probably more jaw pressure."

"Definitely more jaw pressure." Another pegasus added.

"How do you kill larger animals then? Kicking them? Couldn't you just stomp the rats?"

"Tried that." A pegasus stallion sighed, he turned his head, the light of various glowing unicorn horn tips reflecting briefly off a set of raised scars on either side of his muzzle. "If you don't break their spine in one go, they whip around and attack. 'S how I got these scars."

"It's easier if you work as a team, but it takes a lot of effort for so little meat."

"Hmm." Joseph nodded slightly and stared off into the darkness ahead.

"You probably won't be able to kill them so easily again." Fern sighed. "They're incredibly smart – now that they know you're dangerous they'll probably steer clear."

"I'm used to it." Joseph sniffed.

Moonstruck threw a grin at him, which he returned.

They settled back into silence as descending the stairs became a single-file affair and some of the promised weirdness started to creep in on them. The stairs would twist on occasion into spirals, then open up into long flat hallways, some with doors, others with side corridors. Every so often Joseph would pause to stare down one of those hallways, though he never entered one to investigate whatever had drawn his attention.

Going by how long they walked, the University had to be many miles under ground, but Moonstruck knew better. No matter how far down they went the air never changed. No matter how many hallways they shuffled silently through, they did not cover much ground. Every three hallways there were chalk markings on the walls at the entrances and exits. If this was anything like the strange rituals they had to do out in the foothills, the markings were probably there to let the travelers know how many times they had to go around before they could exit out into the university. She estimated that they were maybe only a few hundred feet below the surface at most.

Her suspicions were confirmed as they finally reached the right "depth" to exit out into the university. The final hallway ended in a freight elevator, instead of another staircase. The elevator did not work, but the ponies were able to pry the doors open with practiced ease. They all stepped on the large elevator, then the door openers slid the doors shut behind them. The unicorns all canceled their light spells – Moonstruck followed suit a beat later as she realized she was the only one who hadn't. The ponies at the back of the elevator opened the second set of doors.

The space beyond the elevator doors was not pitch black. Going by the faint blue glow, there was a lot of moss out there. The ponies stepped out of the elevator and on to an iron catwalk of the sort one would expect to see in a factory or warehouse. It was suspended on the edge of a cliff that overlooked a massive chamber in which laid an entire city. In the center of the city was a lake, and in the middle of the lake was what could only be the base of the tower. It practically shimmered with magic. A dense, dark, oozing sort of magic, that Moonstruck could feel twisting in her guts.

"When the shield deflected that spell, things broke on the inside too." The prince said. "Parts of Bridle-Dur were demolished in the shockwave – at least above ground. For some reason a copy of part of the city ended up down here. Including the university, which did not survive the destruction on the surface."

"Cool!"

"Er, yes, I suppose it is pretty neat." The prince shuffled a little awkwardly and blushed.

"That's the base of the tower?" Moonstruck furrowed her brow as she stepped out onto the catwalk.

"Ah, no. And, also yes. The towers base only goes down four stories and is built on high ground. That is... we're not really sure what that is." The prince frowned, then cleared his throat. "The area is mostly stable, so we can fly if you wish to explore while the others go directly to the university."

"Sounds good to me. You guys coming?" Moonstruck glanced at Joseph and Glenda, whom were already making ready to take off. Several pegasus lunged off the catwalk, heading towards a large complex of buildings down below, and to their left. Unless there was some sort of visual distortion down here, it looked to be two or three miles away.

"So, shield spells, and something that can passively check the queens power levels, right?" Lindsey asked as she stepped past them.

"Yes. I know we ran across a bunch of shield spells we couldn't make heads or tails of." The prince nodded. "Perhaps the Duchess will be able to decipher them, since she has more extensive magical training."

"Yeah, probably." Moonstruck grunted absently, her wings twitching in anticipation. She didn't exactly get to fly for fun here, and most of her late night flights were limited at best.

The prince backed up a pace to give them room, then she, Joseph and Glenda bounded over the guard rail and into the cool subterranean air. The prince joined them a few beats later, flying slightly behind and to the left of them.

Moonstruck looked back, giving him a funny look. "So, are you gonna be the tour guide, or are you just stretching your wings?"

"I was thinking of conducting the tour from back here, but..." he smiled faintly then worked his broad, leathery wings, moving out to take the point of the formation.

"There's not much to say, really. This was known as Collegetown back before the cataclysm. It was home to the university, of course, and many shops, restaurants and parks. Most of the apartment buildings fell in the early earthquakes, you can see them in ruins across the neighborhood." He gestured to various features below.

"Before it ended up down here it was partially in the northwest corner of what is now Dirtton, and took up equal parts of Cypress Downs, and Pennyworth Park."

"So, northwest part of town, on high ground." Joseph muttered.

"Yes. Most of that is low ground now, since the quakes altered the flow of the river somewhat. The whole area sank quite a bit."

"When did the city layout get screwed up?" Moonstruck asked.

"Oh dear, that must have been one or two hundred years after the cataclysm." The prince tilted his head to the side. "Our records seem to indicate that Mother initially started putting things back the way they were, but over time began building erratically. The most neglected neighborhoods got the brunt of it at first, but eventually she decided that no one should be able to move through the city effectively. She also built up the lowest lying areas – those had remained empty for flood control purposes."

"How long has she been neglecting pegasus and earth ponies?" Glenda asked, scowling down at one of the ruined apartment buildings.

"From shortly after she assumed the throne. Presumably she didn't immediately start into it, but by the time outside alicorns got wind of it she'd already segregated the city. It ah, is actually less segregated now than it was. Not so much due to progress, but because magic using unicorns live on high ground, and everyone else on low."

The prince stumbled into an awkward silence as he tried to come up with something to point out. Moonstruck simply gazed down at the eerie city, letting her eyes wander among the shadows. It wasn't perfectly still; there was a bit of a breeze, and she could see rats darting along walls here and there.

"What was the universities claim to fame?" Moonstruck asked as the question popped up in her mind.

"Ah! Of course! Magic, dragonology, and horticulture – specifically roses." The prince brightened up. "I suppose we should just head down there. There's not much to see here from the air, and well, the only place you don't want to fly is out over the lake, near the tower." He banked, curving back towards the campus. The others followed.

"The University of Bridle-Dur was once one of the shining jewels in the crown of magical universities scattered across the world. We were at the forefront of runic development, and high energy magic usage, and we were the main hub of dragonology. Many powerful ponies came here to study, and make use of our extensive magical library." The prince lifted his head with pride, but then lowered it slightly, frowning. "At least until Mother started restricting foreign visitors and students."

"You wouldn't believe the requirements she started putting on new students! Only Roanamian ponies could come in as undergrads, and she'd only admit graduate and post graduate students under the condition that they would remain in Roanamia for at least ten years after graduating, but with no guarantee of a job." He shook his head. "It ended up working in the universities favor that the friction with the outside world drew her attention away from it, else we likely wouldn't have the library intact. Newspaper articles from the time indicated that she had practically gutted all of the public libraries in the country, stripping them of most high level magic books, and gradually replacing most history books with accounts that she personally approved of."

"She'd been planning this for a while." Moonstruck murmured.

"Yes, we believe so."

They dipped into a shallow dive as they reached the campus grounds, the prince leading them down to a large, central building with blown out stained glass windows. Moonstruck could just make out a great red rose in the remains of the largest window at the very front of the building. A few pegasus were already inside sorting through books. She'd spotted the land-bound ponies a few blocks away.

While Joseph and Glenda shuffled off to eat their rats, Moonstruck slowly spun around to take in the campus. It was beautiful once, full of green spaces, old growth trees, fountains, and climbing roses. She could easily see herself ditching classes here, or TP-ing some of those ancient oaks. Now the plants were long dead aside from the brightly glowing moss, and the fowl smelling algae growing in the putrid pools that were once elegant ponds and fountains. She couldn't place the architectural style, but it was most certainly old. Possibly one of the oldest buildings in the city – or had been. She had no idea if it would reappear on the surface if they managed to get the shield down, or if it would disappear forever.

The unicorn and earth ponies trotted into view, drawing her out of her thoughts. Once regrouped, they started into the library, Joseph and Glenda shouted something about catching up once they were done.

"Okay, group A start looking through what the pegasus have already pulled off the high shelves, group B, start searching the lower shelves. We want shield spells, and anything that might look like it has a spell for discreet power level assessment." Lindsey barked as they reached the appropriate floor.

"Max, are you going to keep searching for more information on Princess Nadia?"

"I may as well." He shrugged. "I think the duchess will be more of use with the spell books."

"Alright. Group C, history section – you know the drill."

"What happened to Princess Nadia?" Moonstruck asked as she started off with groups A and B to start sifting through spellbooks.

"No one knows." Lindsey shook her head. "All we know is that Lucena started going haywire after she died. Max thinks that if he can find out what happened to Nadia, he can figure out why Lucena has done what she's done."

"You don't agree." Moonstruck noted.

"I think it would be fascinating after we get everything sorted out, but for the immediate it isn't very useful." Lindsey sighed.

Moonstruck nodded. They turned down a widely spaced aisle to see books already piled on a large table. Pegasus ponies were perched on top of the high shelves, leaning over the edge to draw books out. They skimmed through them quickly to see if they were worth tossing down to the unicorns below. If this were anywhere but here, the unicorns would be drawing books out with magic, and pegasus would be hovering easily to browse the higher shelves. Here, the unicorns only pulled things a little above eye level.

She pulled a stool up to the table as one of the earth ponies produced a small electric lantern out of one of her packs and set it down in the middle of the table to offer better light. Next she set a wooden tripod on the table, opened up all three legs, then moved it over next to the lantern so that it was well lit. A magnet on a string dangled down through the center of the tripod, spinning slowly from being shoved around.

"That's our timer." The mare said, smiling faintly.

Moonstruck shrugged. "Alright, what do we have so far?"

"These are all shield theory books." Wenchell grunted, lifting a stack of heavy tomes with some effort and setting it down next to her. "They have some weirder spells, as near as we can tell."

Moonstruck let out a long sigh, then pulled the first book off the pile as she fired up her light spell. Although the script was in the common tongue, the book was absolutely ancient, which made reading the actual theory bits difficult. Luckily, from her quick survey of the contents of the book, none of it was anything new to her. It did, however, contain some more complex shield spells that she had never encountered before. After muddling through the archaic wording of the explanations of the spells various functions, she went ahead and cast a few of them on a paperweight to see what, exactly they did.

Although they might prove useful at some point, none of them did what Lucenas shield was doing. Nor could they be altered to do it without a great deal of difficulty, and modern magic theory. Joseph and Glenda wandered in as she slid the first book aside and grabbed the next one.

"Enjoy your meaty meal?" She asked as she opened the dusty cover.

"Yeah, they weren't bad tasting." Joseph grunted.

"I've had better. You want rats that have been eating fruit, or grain." Glenda sniffed.

Joseph chortled. "Where do you need us?"

"Um, top shelf, I guess." Lindsey furrowed her brow. "Do you know what to look for?"

"Not really." Joseph shrugged. "I don't know enough about magic to know what would be useful."

"I'm not an advanced enough reader yet." Glenda ducked her head sheepishly.

"Considering how quickly you've picked it up, you're doing just fine." Joseph rolled his eyes.

"Right." Lindsey frowned. "I guess you can explore or something, or go help Max. He's down in the history section."

Joseph and Glenda exchanged glances.

"I think I may go see what the prince is up to." Glenda said slowly. "I know next to nothing of magic. History is more my speed."

"I'm gonna go sniff around."

"Alright, don't wander too close to the tower, and don't get in the lake." Lindsey nodded. "I can take you down to the history section, Glenda."

"Thank you, dear." Glenda beamed, as Joseph ambled towards the blown out windows.

"Holler if you find something interesting." Moonstruck called absently.

"Will do." Joseph saluted with one hand, then hopped out the largest window.

"I'm kinda surprised you let Glenda go down to help the prince by herself." Wenchell noted after Lindsey and Glenda were out of earshot.

"She can take care of herself." Moonstruck muttered, then paused and looked up. "Should I be worried?"

"Nah." Wenchell shook his head. "Just sayin'."

"I'd be more afraid of Glenda, to be honest." Evee commented from the top of the shelf. "A pegasus doesn't make it to that age without knowing how to mess someone up."

Moonstruck pointed up at Evee and grunted. The others giggled.

"So, what are we looking for, exactly?" Fern asked after a while. "We've been through all of these books before... although no one here can actually cast any of the spells, much less knows what half of this all means." She frowned.

Moonstruck looked up from the hoof-written book in front of her, trying to switch gears enough to formulate a coherent response. "I'm not really sure myself, to be honest. Probably something with an absurdly long and complex equation or algorithm attached to it."

"I don't think we've run across one of those. Shield spells seem to be short on math." Lindsey wrinkled her snout and scowled at the book in front of her.

"Shield spells are nothing but math!" Moonstruck chortled. "These might just be too old for that. Most of the publication dates I've seen put them well before somepony worked out the mathematical components and standardized a core set of spells, upon which, all modern shield spells are built."

She mulled that over for a moment. "What's the newest magic book you have?"

The ponies exchanged glances.

"Elbrights Guide to Advanced Spellcasting." Wenchell said after a beat. "I think I remember where it is." He got up and trotted down the aisle.

"What if it isn't a spell using modern magic?" Lindsey asked. "Or, more recent magic, anyway."

"Then you're probably out of luck. Back in the day, wizards didn't really record their more powerful spells. They'd teach them to any favorite apprentices they might have, but none of it was written down in detail." Moonstruck inclined her snout towards her stack of books. "Even though these seem complex, they're actually pretty basic from a modern context. If Lucena is using an ancient spell, it probably wasn't published widely – if it was published at all."

The others looked crestfallen.

"We don't need to know exactly how it works, just how to disrupt it." Moonstruck added hastily.

Wenchell returned with an especially large tome that was perhaps only a little over a thousand years old – far newer than many of the other books scattered around the table. "Here you go."

"Thanks." Moonstruck accepted the book and set it down in front of herself. Opening it, she skimmed over the table of contents, then flipped to the section on shield spells. She recalled reading a much later edition of Elbrights Guide during her magical education. It was more of a broad overview of advanced spells, but it did cover teleporting and shield projections extensively. It also had some basic nodestone spells, though most of her nodestone knowledge came from her father, whom made a career out of taking an old trick and using it in new and novel ways.

This edition was more sparse on shield theory, and it was even missing a few pages here and there. She wondered if the missing pages had anything to do with Lucenas adventures in monster-shield crafting, or if it was all just a coincidence. She closed the book and tapped her hoof on the table as the others watched her expectantly. What she wouldn't give to hit the Trot City Library right about now...

"Okay, maybe we should shift gears a little, and try looking for books that explain how to set up an alternate power source for a shield."

The ponies exchanged glances, then began sifting through their piles. The pegasus overhead started putting some books back, while pulling others out. Moonstruck went back to her pile of books, setting aside the more ancient ones that lacked any sort of table of contents. She'd need to browse through them more carefully later.

She was beginning to wonder if Lucena actually had stumbled across an old spell. With her insistence that alicorns were gods, she might have found a treasure trove of ancient magical techniques that would allow her to do things no alicorn has been able to do for eons – or at least look like she is. Of all the alicorns born in the last four or five thousand years, Celestia, Luna, and arguably her mother have been the most powerful. That's three truly near-god level alicorns in a pretty big stretch of time. According to the lore, in ancient times alicorns were wielders of immense elemental magic, but that was so obscenely long ago that nopony knew for certain if the stories were true or merely old mares tales. The reality was that while an exceptionally powerful alicorn might come along every once and a while, for the most part they were about as varied as the common ponies when it came to abilities and specialization.

Moonstruck frowned as she flipped through a few more pages of the book in front of her. No. This wasn't some sort of ancient elemental magic. It was a complex spell that had a clear methodology to it. No matter how powerful a pony was, one could not summon a shield like this through sheer force of will, much less maintain it for a thousand years. There had to be a way to unravel it. They just needed to find a loose thread.

"I think I found a way to check power levels..." One of the unicorns piped up from the other end of the table.

Moonstruck looked up from the book she'd been staring at (but not reading), then hustled around to the unicorn in question, as the others piled around to see.

"What'cha got?"

"Um, it's..." She tapped the page. "You can enchant an object that will change color depending on power level. So... I guess, if you could get the queen to pick something up, you'd be able to go by what color it turns? But she'd probably be able to see it to so maybe it won't work..."

Moonstruck flicked her eyes over the spell. It was a more modern spell, which meant it had a fair bit of math involved, but most of it was determining what colors corresponded to what amount of power – which was fairly simple all and all.

"This will work." Moonstruck nodded. "I know how to mask the results so that only I could see them. Good find! Er... I'm sorry, I didn't catch your name?"

"Jessica." The unicorn blushed as the others erupted into excited chatter.

"Jessica!" Moonstruck patted her on the back, then pulled a pad of paper out of one of her saddlebags. "Lemme just jot this down 'cause I assume you can't take anything out of here..."

"Oh, no we can't." Jessica shook her head.

"Can you leave a book mark?" Moonstruck asked as she scribbled down the spell.

"That we can do." Lindsey answered, sliding over a piece of paper that looked like it can come out of a different book. "Some of the books were partially destroyed, so we use the pages as bookmarks."

"Right, take nothing, leave nothing." Moonstruck nodded. She finished up, then retreated back to her seat to fiddle with the paperweight a bit. It took her about an hour to get the spell right. Her once relatively neat sheet of paper was covered in notes, since the spell didn't seem to quite work as written, although it could be because of some sort of distortion down here. She'd have to fiddle with it more topside.

The day went by surprisingly quickly. While they found two more spells that could discreetly check power levels, nothing seemed promising on the shield front. It was too soon to tell, but Moonstruck wondered if Lucena had already pulled any pertinent books out of the university library, perhaps long before she put her plans in to action. Books got lost all the time, it would be pretty easy to make it disappear – especially if it was something obscure that wasn't in high demand.

She was just about to ask where the card catalog was, when the room abruptly went dead silent. Moonstruck leaned around the book shelf she was currently rifling through to see all of the ponies staring in small horror at the magnet dangling from its tripod. It was spinning. Quickly.

"It's early today." Someone muttered.

And then everyone began putting things away, stowing notebooks and munchies in packs, putting books back on shelves, cleaning up any semblance of a mess.

"Time to go." Lindsey said, noticing her confusion. "We can come back in the morning and pick up where we left off."

Moonstruck scowled, but shrugged and slid the books she'd had half way off the shelf back to their resting places. Then she called up Josephs nodestone.

"I guess we're leaving." She said softly.

"What? Already?" He asked, voice crackling over their magical link. It was probably the distortion down here.

"Yeah, come on back, everyone's kinda freaked..."

Somewhere out in the city, a bell rang out. A large bell, like at a chapel. All motion ceased as the ponies paused to stare out the broken windows. At the stroke of three, they began moving even faster.

"Was that you ringing that?" Moonstruck asked, trotting over to her piles and shoving things back into her saddlebags.

"Nope. Was that one of you guys?"

"Don't think so."

"Interesting. I'll be there in a minute or two."

"Good. Meet you in the courtyard." Moonstruck severed the link, then gathered up the books she'd pulled herself to put back on the shelves.

By the time she returned, everyone else was ready. She pulled her saddle bags on, then fell in with the group as they trotted out to the grand sweeping staircases that led down to the ground floor. The princes group appeared from a door down below, looking hurried and fearful as well.

"Is Joseph back yet?" He asked as they came within earshot. "I don't know what will happen if he decides to linger past dark but ponies shouldn't remain!"

"He's on his way." Moonstruck grunted as the two groups merged into one, Glenda falling into step beside her.

The prince nodded. "Spotters, three block radius, please."

A half dozen pegasus nodded and picked up the pace, bounding into the air as soon as they were out the doors. Joseph was just settling into the courtyard, looking around suspiciously.

"See anything weird?" Moonstruck asked as they moved past him.

"Lots." He grunted. "I'm surprised this place has its own weather."

"Really?"

"The fog was rolling in? Where!?" The prince barked, whirling around to trot backwards.

"Uh, off thattaway." Joseph jerked a thumb over his shoulder, indicating the neighborhood beyond the university.

"This is entirely too early." Wenchell hissed, looking around suspiciously.

"Maybe we just lost track of time?" Fern grimaced. "We can't exactly use watches or anything down here."

"Alright, quiet down. We need to make it back to the catwalk pronto." Lindsey whispered harshly. "Eyes forward, keep low."

Moonstruck, Joseph and Glenda exchanged glances. There couldn't be something – or someone living down here, could there? Aside from the rats, anyway.

The fog began to overtake them a minute or so later, rolling out from behind them and along the ground. Their legs whipped it up as it oozed in around them, reminding Moonstruck of the layers of thick graveyard fog that clung to fields in autumn, but with an odd, sickly wetness to it, instead of merely a cool damp. Up ahead, the prince kept his eye on the pegasus overhead. Occasionally they would signal with a few hoof signs, prompting him to lead them down a different street.

They were passing through an intersection when Moonstruck spotted motion out of the corner of her eye. Intuitively she glanced over to get a better look, then felt her blood run cold as her body came to a stop of its own accord.

There was a pony standing six blocks away. Though it was too far to see it clearly, Moonstruck knew it was staring at them. At her, specifically. She could feel it at the edge of her senses; an insistent, fleeting flicker of awareness and emptiness mingled with a cold and sorrowful hunger that sent a chill down her spine and made her fur stand on end.

It was not alive, she knew. But nor was it dead.

She felt strangely compelled to go to it, but she resisted, even as the chill crept into her bones, and she could faintly see her breath frosting in the air that was rapidly turning colder and colder around her. The fog managed to feel inexplicably heavy around her hooves, but it flowed off towards the distant creature, as if trying to draw her towards it.

"Mooney!" Someone shook her shoulder.

Moonstruck sucked in a sharp breath and turned to see Joseph looking at her with great concern. The cold dissipated, the fog returned to it's damp state. She blinked a few times then turned her head to see that the rest of the group had crossed the intersection, and were huddled in the shadow of a building, staring at her with wide eyes.

When she looked back down the street, the creature was gone as if it had never been.

"How long was I out?" She croaked.

"Only a minute." Joseph sighed.

She nodded, swallowed hard, then put her head down and trotted to catch up to the rest, Joseph loping along beside her.

"You're lucky, usually they, er... draw ponies out more." The prince grimaced.

"To their dooms, I'd imagine." Moonstruck frowned. "What was that?"

"We don't know."

"And we don't want to know, lets get out of here!" Lindsey hissed.

This was a very popular opinion. They set off again at a swift trot, winding their way through the curiously darkening neighborhoods. The glow of the moss didn't seem to fade to create this effect – indeed, if anything it seemed to become more intense. Moonstruck realized that the moss likely wasn't what was actually illuminating the underground city. It was like a lamp in daylight. You could see that the bulb was glowing, but the sun was still far brighter. Now that the "sun" was going down, the moss seemed more intense without all of the competition.

It was downright dark by the time they reached the catwalk, and the moss all around them was the most intense blue Moonstruck had ever seen. She didn't spend any time investigating it; there was motion everywhere in the deeper shadows. The creatures kept their distance, but it was only a matter of time before they became more bold. Luckily, the historical society was already bolting up the stairs.

"So, was this catwalk here when you found the place, or did you install it?" She asked as they reached the top.

"It was here. We think part of this wall was part of a warehouse district on the hills that once stood here, but it... I don't know what happened to it. The catwalk and the freight elevator are the only parts we can access, but there are points in the city where you can see how it used to look." The prince shrugged. "I can show you next time, if you'd like."

Moonstruck shrugged as well. "Just curious. Seems convenient."

"It does." He chuckled. "We wondered about that ourselves, when we first stumbled across this place."

Once everyone had piled into the elevators, and the headcount came back with the proper amount of ponies (plus one dragon) they closed the rear doors, then opened the front ones. Light spells were fired up, then they filed back out into the hallway.

"Find anything useful?" Glenda asked once they were a few minutes away from the elevator.

"Yeah, a couple of spells." Moonstruck nodded. "What was that weird stuff you saw, Joseph?"

"Oh, there's a couple of chunks of broken space down there. One on the campus, and a great big one around the tower. Really, that cavern is more of a fragmented crescent than a whole space." He scratched his jaw. "Though as near as I can tell most of the fragments are just in slightly different times, so you don't really notice when you pass through them."

"Ah, yes, the area on campus was the high energy magic building. We haven't been able to get close enough to it to investigate it. Keep getting sent in circles." The prince piped up, shaking his head. "Bad things tend to happen around the lake and tower, so we avoid it."

"Smart move." Joseph nodded. "I might be able to get through there, but even I can sense how dense the magic is, so I'm not gonna risk it."

"More dense than back in the crystal mines?"

"Eh... I don't know. More concentrated maybe." Joseph scowled.

Moonstruck shrugged. Seemed logical. Her mind flashed back to the creature in the street. "But really, what was that thing? Ghost? Zombie?"

"Both? Neither?" Lindsey sighed. "We haven't tried to get close enough to find out. All we know is that if they catch you out in the open by yourself they'll lead you in to the lake."

"Have they ever managed to get anyone?" Glenda gulped.

"They've come close." The prince shuddered. "We used to explore in smaller groups, but after a few ponies almost got dragged into the lake, we started moving in larger groups, and limiting our time down there. Mostly we just go straight to the university anymore."

"We've got the timing down now, and we know not to go near the lake, so it's usually okay to wander off by yourself for a bit." Lindsey added.

"Except for today." Moonstruck grunted.

"Yes, that was very strange. It doesn't usually do that." The prince grimaced. "It's impossible to get a precise read on the time elapsed in there, but generally if we can get down there before seven, we can stay for a full eight hours in the university before 'night', and we typically even have about an hour of 'evening' to make our way out before it becomes dangerous."

"How can you tell it's eight hours?" Joseph furrowed his brow.

"My grandmas carrot and parsnip soup recipe. It's a slow cooker, and it always tastes best after it's been simmering on low for eight hours." Fern giggled. "So we put the soup together, took it down to the university, and cooked it on a hot plate. We taste-tested it every so often to see if it was ready yet. It was done right about the time we needed to leave."

"Awesome!" Moonstruck quipped.

"So what was it you found?" The prince asked.

"Jessica found 'em actually. A couple of discreet power level assessment spells." Moonstruck wrinkled her snout. "I'm gonna need to mess with 'em topside to find out how much I need to tweak 'em. They weren't working quite right as-written when I tried casting them down in the library."

"Ah, of course, of course." The prince nodded. "Anything pertaining to shield spells?"

"Nothing useful." Moonstruck frowned. "That's probably gonna take a lot of digging."

"Was afraid of that." The prince grimaced.

Unlike the trip down to the university, the trip out only seemed to take two or three circuits up the hallways and stairwells. They were back in the room with the pump equipment in short order, and back out in the storm drains a few minutes after that.

"Same time tomorrow?" She asked once they were back in the drains.

"Yup." Lindsey nodded.

They parted ways once they were out in the main part of the storm drains, Moonstruck teleporting she, Joseph and Glenda to their maintenance entrance, as the historical society trekked back to their base.

It didn't occur to her until later, when she was fiddling with the spells after lunch, that their time spent down in the university was essentially adding an extra day, to their day. Joseph and Glenda were already sprawled across the furniture asleep, and she was having a hard time staying awake herself. She stared at the clock for a few moments. It was after noon, which meant...

"No wonder I can't get any of this right, been awake for fourteen hours or something." She muttered to herself. She cleaned up her mess, stashed it in the wardrobe, then flopped on her bed. Maybe this was part of why the prince was so dour when she saw him at various events. It wasn't just dealing with his mother (and/or Eira and the various barons), nor that he was leading a double life – it was a double life with a time distortion that meant a full days work could easily top twenty four hours. Dour might be the best he could manage.

She awoke a few hours later to Joseph and Glenda puttering around out in the living room, and resumed her spell-tinkering. The first spell that Jessica found seemed to be the most solid one, and the easiest to alter to suit their needs. Moonstruck just needed to figure out a way to get the queen to pick up an enchanted object for it to work. She tested it out on herself a few times to work out the color coding. She decided to go with a typical fire-color scale. Dark red being the lowest level, and blue-white being the highest.

The pencil she had enchanted as a guinea pig glowed a bright, light yellow when she poked it. A hotter fire, but not the hottest by any means. Glenda could hardly get a reaction out of it, and Joseph made it glow faintly purple, which was not supposed to be in the spells designated color range, but it also wasn't really designed to measure dragon magic. She'd have to test it on more ponies later to work out any bugs.

For the immediate, she needed to go out into the city to see if she could round up the last of Glendas gear.