Lunaverse Episode 4-Longest Night, Longest Day Part 4
Being as unaffected by the sirens as she had been, Spike was at Lyra's side before anypony else, but Trixie reacted faster, reaching out with telekinesis and hauling Lyra up and out of the river's bank. The other unicorn was shivering and had her teeth chattering, and was now covered head to hoof in mud and freezing water as she was laid onto Carrot Top's waiting back. Once she was firmly in place, the ponies, zebra, and baby dragon took off from the river at full-speed, Spike hopping once more onto Zecora's back after grabbing Lyra's fallen lyre.
"Anypony else having second thoughts about this?" Trixie asked as they galloped, before looking to Zecora. "And why weren't you helping Lyra? Those sirens were gonna kill us!"
"Yeah!" Cheerilee joined in. "You just stood there talking to yourself!"
Zecora shot the two of them glares as they finally came to a stop in a clearing far from the river. Most of the snow in it had melted, leaving wet, dead grass and mud that reached up to their fetlocks. "I am not immune to the siren's spell," she said, "without my mantra, they would have enthralled me as well. This way she had only five to save from a watery grave, rather than six from the sirens' tricks."
Trixie shook her head. "The sirens said that they'd met you before, though. I didn't think that Raindrops had to specify this, but you're supposed to be guiding us safely to the Palace, not right past a bunch of sirens! If you knew they were going to be there – "
Zecora looked indignant. "That river is many miles long," she interrupted, jabbing a hoof in the direction that they had galloped from. "I do not know the range of the siren's song, nor could I know where they chose to lair. I did not intentionally bring us there!"
Trixie opened her mouth to raise another objection, when she heard Lyra cough from atop Carrot Top's back. The zebra probably had some good points, but Trixie didn't have to acknowledge that, and she had more immediate concerns anyway. Trixie trotted over to Carrot Top and Lyra, looking her fellow unicorn over. Lyra's eyes were closed, and she was breathing in short, quick gasps and still shivering.
"Is she gonna be alright?" Carrot Top asked, craning her neck to look at the pony on her back. "What's wrong?"
"She's overchanneled," Trixie said, shaking her head again as she stepped back a few feet and looked down to the ground, her own horn glowing as she singled out a large section of grass. "Hang on, let me try to dry this – "
Her spell was interrupted by a burst of green flame across the grass. The other ponies backed away in fright, looking to the flame's source and seeing Spike, atop Zecora's back, exhaling as hard as he could. After a moment, he stopped, panting a little. The area of grass that Trixie had singled out was now blackened to a crisp, but thanks to the overall wetness of the clearing there was no danger of a fire. After a second, he made a curious gesture of extending a hand with fist clenched, except for his thumb, which pointed straight up.
"…thanks," Trixie decided, as she removed her cape and lay it across the burned grass, the enchantments in it ensuring that it was in no danger of catching fire, at least from the few fuel-starved embers that remained. She then took Lyra from Carrot Top's back and set her down on the ground.
"Overchanneled?" Ditzy Doo asked after she was done. "What is that? Like magically working yourself to exhaustion?"
"No," Trixie said, as she took Lyra's lyre from Spike and laid it down next to the prone unicorn, "it's like having ninety percent of the blood in your body sucked right out while trying to run a marathon." The others recoiled in shock at that, as Trixie continued. "She poured all the magic in her body into what she just did. She's running on fumes right now, basically."
"Will she be okay?" Cheerilee demanded, dropping to her knees next to her friend.
Trixie shook her head. "I don't know," she admitted. "She needs magic. If I had an ether she'd probably already be awake, but right now all she can do is sleep and recover her magic naturally. It might take hours or days or…longer."
"I could fly back to Ponyville and get an ether," Raindrops suggested. "The hospital would have a few, right?"
Trixie grimaced. "Or we could all go back – " she began, but was interrupted by Carrot Top.
"Wait," she said. "Ether? Like from an ether flower?"
Trixie blinked. "Um…sort of?" she guessed. "Except no, ether flowers are too rare, so they're really a mix of – "
"They're not rare," Carrot Top interrupted, again. "I mean, not really rare. They're just hard to get since they only grow in the Everfree and nopony wants to make a habit out of coming here. But they blossom year-round since they feed off of magic rather than sunlight! I could go looking for some."
"A flower that restores lost magic power?" Zecora asked. "Tell me the appearance of your claim; I may know it by another name."
"Blue, with red stripes," Carrot Top provided. "The petals sort of look like small maple leaves. The stem is very toxic, but the petals aren't. They grow low to the ground."
"Ah, in my tongue this plant is uchawi maua, and I am familiar with its power. I know of a grove where we can find the flower; we could be there in half an hour."
"And it'll still be there?" Trixie asked, not wholly trusting Zecora's sense of direction anymore. "Some animals won't of come along and eaten them, will they?"
Carrot Top and Zecora both shook their heads, however. "Like I said," the earth pony explained, "the stem is poisonous, so most animals stay away."
"Alright," Cheerilee said, pointing to herself and then Ditzy Doo. "Ditzy and I will stay with Lyra and keep an eye on her…I don't want to move her more. Ditzy can take to the air in half an hour and provide a way for Raindrops to find us when you're heading back."
"Got it," Raindrops said with a slight salute, while the rest of them turned and galloped off.
"You weren't serious about giving up, were you?" Raindrops asked. Despite the initial speed of their pace, the ground of the Everfree – covered with overgrown roots, mud, and still-mounting mist that was now reaching their knees – had slowed their stride quickly. Zecora assured them, however, that they were making good time. Despite this, Spike and Zecora seemed to of taken up arguing with each other over something, though in low voices and not entirely in Equestrian. The three ponies chose not to intercede.
Trixie looked to Raindrops. "Lyra's been hurt now. This is why I wanted to just come in here by myself."
"You'd be siren food if you had come in alone," Carrot Top pointed out. "Or worse. A lot of things that might attack a single pony would leave a group alone."
Trixie shivered slightly as she dwelled on that, though also for more natural reasons. She hadn't realize how much she had been relying on her cape to keep her warm; despite the sunlight being warm enough to melt snow and create fog and mist, it was still quite chilly in the Everfree, something that she wasn't really used to dealing with for the past few years ever since she had first enchanted her cape. At least she still had her hat. It didn't bear any elements-resisting enchantments of its own, but it was keeping her ears warm.
"So how do you know about ether flowers anyway?" Trixie asked, changing the subject.
"I tried to grow them once," Carrot Top said, chuckling slightly at the thought. "I thought that maybe all they'd need is a little earth pony magic and care. But the seeds I'd managed to find never even budded until I dug them back up and put them back in the Ever – uh, Zecora, stop walking!"
The zebra froze, looking back to Carrot Top curiously, then down. Poking just up and out of the mist was a shoot covered with blue leaves. Zecora's eyes widened and she said something else in her native language as she stepped backwards from it, Spike looking equally concerned atop her back, eyes very wide.
Carrot Top had stopped as well, as had Raindrops and Trixie. "What is it?" Trixie asked, eyes as wide as everypony else's. Carrot Top was waving a hoof, trying to disperse the fog, but to no avail. "Raindrops?" she asked, "do you think you could maybe move some of this?"
Raindrops nodded, rearing up on her hind legs and beating her wings furiously several times in rapid succession. Her natural pegasus abilities made her far better at moving fog than the others, and in a few moments a large area of the muddy, root-choked ground was revealed. However, where Zecora had been about to step was covered in blue plants, most of them only fetlock-high but some growing much taller.
Carrot Top breathed out a sigh of relief, though Zecora's own was larger. "Thank you, Carrot Top," the zebra said. "I would not have wanted to walk through that foul crop."
The earth pony nodded before looking to her companions. "Poison joke," she explained. "Another magical flower, grows largest in the winter. Its effects are…less than fun…if it touches you."
"No kidding," Spike noted in a low voice. From the sound of it, he probably had some kind of personal experience with it.
"These were not here when last I went this way," Zecora said. "Its presence my cause significant delay…"
Trixie decided not to raise a point about this being the second time Zecora had managed to nearly lead them to disaster, though not out of a sense of altruism. Trixie may not have been an official part of the Night Court until a few days ago, but she had certainly had ample opportunity to experience it. Amongst the Night Court, there was a saying: once was coincidence, but twice was conspiracy.
On the other hoof, Zecora had nearly walked into the poison joke herself, and her 'plan,' if it had been one, seemed poorly thought out. One used a poison because it could be done discretely, with little evidence leading back to the poisoner. One did not simply lead the hapless victims to a grove of poisonous plants and invite them to frolic.
Nevertheless, Trixie filed away her suspicions into her 'interesting' mental folder.
Raindrops trotted closer to the poison joke, rearing up and beating her wings once more and clearing more fog. The blue patch was large, stretching in the direction they had to go further than Raindrop's wings could clear, while also stretching a long ways to the left and right, even as the pegasus moved to clear as much ground as possible. "Nuts," Raindrops proclaimed as she settling back on her hooves, as Carrot Top and Trixie joined her. "This could take a while…"
"Time we don't really have," Trixie pointed out. "Leaving Lyra, Cheerilee, and Ditzy Doo by themselves, never mind whatever Corona is up to…"
"What does poison joke even do?" Raindrops asked.
"Depends on the pony," Carrot Top noted. "It basically takes whatever you're proudest of or something you really want and inverts it somehow, like some kind of cruel joke. It's not poisonous, exactly, it won't kill you or really harm you, and it takes hours to set in, but its effects can only be stopped by a special brew, which we can't make this time of year; or really, really powerful magic, which we don't have; or by just wearing off, which takes weeks."
"We'll have to find another patch of ether flowers," Spike said, looking to Zecora. Nopony noticed the slight smile on his face. "There's another one somewhere, right?"
"Indeed, that is true, one that is hopefully not obstructed by leaves of blue," Zecora responded with a nod as she looked back to the group. "But it is several hours from here. We will have to hurry, else – have you gone mad?"
Carrot Top had taken in a deep breath, closed her eyes, and before Trixie or Raindrops could stop her, leapt forward, into the poison joke. A part of Trixie's mind had registered that Zecora's rhyming habit had been broken in shock, but most of her was focused on what Carrot Top had done.
The earth pony opened her eyes, then let out a long sigh as she turned around. "We need those ether flowers as soon as possible," she stated in a determined voice. "Like I said, poison joke takes hours to set in. Zecora, just give me directions, I'll get them myself, and we can deal with me later, after we've saved the world."
Zecora blinked a few times. "Merely travel ten minutes that way," she said after a moment, still fighting shock from her voice as she pointed straight ahead. "After that time, you should be able to gather away."
"Alright, thanks." Carrot Top said as she turned around and began trotting off.
Raindrops and Trixie looked to each other, then the poison joke and Carrot Top, then back to each other. With a nearly simultaneous sigh, both started after Carrot Top, eliciting a gasp of surprise from Zecora and Spike and prompting Carrot Top to turn around, eyes wide. "What are you – ?" she began to demand.
"Don't ask stupid questions," Raindrops interrupted. "You said that the ether flower grows close to the ground, right? Might need my wings to clear the fog away."
"And you might need my spells for…stuff. Or junk," Trixie said, waving a hoof. "We're already on a time limit, think of this as extra motivation. Besides, we can't have you going off by yourself all martyr-like and making us look bad."
"Uh, for the record?" Spike called from atop Zecora's back, the zebra having not moved an inch as she was still trying to take in the insanity of the three ponies. "I'm perfectly okay with you going off by yourself all martyr-like. Me and Zecora will just stay right here."
"Understood," Raindrops responded, using a wing to give a lazy salute before turning back to Carrot Top. "Come on, let's get going," she said, trotting away. The unicorn and earth pony soon joined her.
"You two are idiots," Carrot Top proclaimed as the blue leaves of the poison joke brushed against their fetlocks, their knees, and occasionally their barrels.
"Yeah. Yeah we are," Trixie assured the earth pony. "Not that you're much better. What if I have a spell that could have gotten us through this without having to touch it?"
"Or I have, uh, these?" Raindrops reminded Carrot Top as she flapped her wings several times. "I could have gone after the ether flowers."
Carrot Top looked between Trixie and Raindrops, then hung her head. "I didn't think of that," she said morosely. "I was just thinking about Lyra."
"Yes, yes, yes, you're a giving mare to the point of being willing to walk through poison joke for somepony you don't even know all that well," Trixie said in a dry voice, though a smile appeared on her face as she said it. "And we're the stupid mares who followed you 'cause you're rubbing off on us."
"And making us look bad," Raindrops reminded Trixie.
"Yeah, that too. Plus, you're the one who pointed out how dangerous it is for a single pony in here, rather than a group."
Carrot Top let out a long sigh at that, before raising her head. "Okay," she said, forcing herself to smile.
The trio continued in relative silence at that point, soon finding themselves free from the poison joke that had dominated that part of the Everfree Forest. Raindrops beat her wings at regular intervals to dispel the fog, then the three of them would begin searching the ground for signs of the red-and-blue flower they were looking for. At length, they actually managed to find the grove Zecora had spoken of, set in the shadow of a cliff face where the sunlight probably rarely touched, even when it moved across the sky. The petals of the flowers did indeed look like maple leaves individually, though clustered together in bloom the appearance was more like a twelve-pointed, mostly blue star, with red lines running from the tips of the petals down the stem. The grove was large, at least as large as the poison joke grove, though compacted together rather than spread out.
"How many do we need?" Raindrops asked as she gingerly poked a few of the flowers.
"I don't know, exactly," Carrot Top admitted as she began using her teeth to tear off flower petals, carefully avoided the toxic stem. Trixie offered her hat to carry them. "I guess just fill up Trixie's hat?"
The unicorn took an experimental sniff as Carrot Top, Raindrops, and herself began gathering petals. The flowers smelled a bit like dandelions – not an unpleasant smell, so she wasn't going to regret this, at least, though a rumbling in her stomach suggested that she was going to be hungry from the experience of smelling something normally not available in winter. After several minutes, Trixie's hat was brimming, and the three ponies looked to each other.
"This was…anticlimactic," Trixie said, as the three began trotting back the way they had come from, Trixie using telekinesis to hold her hat aloft. As they reached the edge of the poison joke patch, Trixie continued. "I was expecting something more…well…more."
"Things can't be trying to eat us all the time," Carrot Top pointed out. "Besides, we'll be getting all the more we could want once the poison joke sets in."
Trixie winced at that. Took something she was good at and twisted it, huh? Probably every spell she'd try to cast would be a fireball or something, then. Either that or she'd become so clumsy as to trip over her own hooves.
It didn't take the three of them long to find Spike and Zecora again, the two of them being heard before they were seen – once again the two seemed to be arguing over something, though their argument quickly died when they spotted the returning three. "That was fast," Spike noted.
"I know, made for a nice change," Raindrops noted, as she beat her wings and climbed into the air so as to get a bead on Ditzy Doo.
Zecora looked over their haul of ether flowers. "With the power these petals can invoke," she noted, looking to Trixie, "you could perhaps cure yourself of the poison joke. It would be wise to do so soon, lest the plant's joke seal your doom."
"Doom?" Trixie asked, raising an eyebrow.
"That's a bit dramatic, don't you think?" Carrot Top asked. She looked to Trixie. "Like I said, whatever it does to you, it won't be dangerous. I mean, you might shrink down to half your height, or your voice might change, or something. But it won't be innately harmful."
Trixie blinked a few times as she considered. "We'll see how much Lyra needs first," Trixie decided. "Then see what we can do with the rest."
Lyra gagged as she felt something unbelievably bitter pressed into her mouth. She made to spit it out, but a pair of hooves clamped her mouth shut.
"No," Cheerilee ordered in a determined voice as she held Lyra's mouth closed. "You're eating that. I don't care how it tastes."
Grimacing, the unicorn obeyed her captor. Chewing only made whatever she was eating taste worse, but after a moment she was able – barely – to swallow whatever foul thing had been she had been forced to eat. "There," she said through clenched teeth, brushing Cheerilee's hooves off of her mouth as she stood on shaking hooves. "That…gah, that was awful!" She ran her teeth on her tongue and spat, trying to get the taste off of it, but to no avail. There was only one option, then – she trotted away from where she had been lying, as it was largely (for some reason) blackened, burnt grass, and bent her head low, ripping up as much grass as possible from the clearing and chewing thoroughly.
"It can't be that bad," Trixie said, as she looked into her hat, which was empty. "They smelled like dandelions…"
"Thah thased lik fank!" Lyra noted, as best she could with a mouth full of grass. After swallowing – not that it helped much – she glared at the five ponies who were staring at her hopefully. "What?" she demanded.
"How are you feeling?" Ditzy Doo asked. "Trixie says that you overchanneled."
Lyra blinked a few times, looking up at her horn as she willed some magic through it. It glowed gold, and the sensation of channeling magic felt normal. "Um…fine," she said, indignation at being made to eat whatever those things were disappearing at the sound of the word 'overchanneled.' "H…how long was I out?"
"Only about an hour," Cheerilee explained, eliciting a sigh of relief from Lyra – it could have been much, much longer. "Carrot Top came up with the idea of finding something called an ether flower, and Zecora helped her, Raindrops, and Trixie find some. We fed you the petals while you were asleep, you were just instinctively chewing and swallowing until a moment ago."
"Her body knew it needed magic and knew that the petals had them." Trixie explained, as she telekinetically hefted her cape from the ground and then shook it around a little, getting residual moisture and soot from the burned grass off of it before replacing it on her back. She looked morosely into her hat again, then sighed. "So she ate all of them."
Lyra's head tilted to the side. "How is that a bad thing?" she asked.
"To get the ether flowers, we had to walk through poison joke," Carrot Top explained. "Raindrops and Trixie and me. We'll be fine, it's not lethal, but its effects should begin in just a few hours."
The mint unicorn looked between Carrot Top, Raindrops, and Trixie, eyes wide. "What?" she asked. "Why? Why couldn't Raindrops just fly over the poison…whatever?"
Carrot Top looked down at that, dejected, but for that received a playful flank-bump from Raindrops. "Because she's an idiot," Raindrops said, though without any malice in her voice. "We're all idiots."
"We're also on a time limit," Trixie said, turning and looking to Zecora. She was at the edge of the clearing, talking to Spike, who was looking increasingly depressed at whatever it was Zecora had to say. Trixie didn't feel bad, therefore, when she interrupted. "We need to get moving again, to the palace," she said.
"I think I saw it when looking for Ditzy Doo," Raindrops said, looking around a moment before pointing. "That way, right?"
The zebra nodded. "This way to the ruined castle," she said, turning and beginning to trot, the ponies following her and Spike once more hopping onto Zecora's back. "Hopefully we can reach it without further hassle."
To this day, nopony quite understood what had possessed Luna and Corona – or rather, Celestia, as this had been prior to her fall from grace – to build the Palace of the Royal Pony Sisters in the Everfree Forest. It had been rebuilt and remodeled many times over the millennia, but its foundations was old – older than Equestria as a nation, maybe even older than the three pony nations that had preceded Equestria; indeed, possibly even older than ponies as a race.
With the sun hanging unmoving in the sky, it was difficult to tell what time it was, but if forced to guess Trixie would have supposed that it was probably past what should have been dawn. Given that, had Corona not been so inconsiderate as to escape from the sun and take over Equestria, around sunrise was when she and everypony else had been planning on going to sleep, having stayed up to celebrate the Longest Night. She was thoroughly exhausted when the trees parted to reveal a deep ravine, and on the other side, the Palace.
The Everfree was quiet and still as the ponies (and zebra, and baby dragon) approached the edge of their side of the ravine. By now, the fog that had been rising throughout the Everfree was reaching up to the pony's barrels, and was bright, almost painful to look at as it reflected sunlight, adding to the eerie, unearthly sight of the Palace. No sound reached their ears other than a low wind and the sound of their own breathing and their own hooves on the snow.
The Palace itself looked surprisingly small, and seemed to be divided into two sections. Further from the ponies was a tall tower, covered in melting snow and ice with dead vines running up along the gray stone of the structure. Closer was a shorter but far broader building, likely once the main palace itself, where Luna and Celestia would have held Court – for anypony brave enough to journey into the Everfree to reach them, anyway. Here and there, collapsed stone walls and edifices probably indicated that the tower and Court had once been part of a single, larger structure, but time and the encroachment of the Everfree's twisted boughs had seen to it that this was no longer the case. There was also the remains of a wooden bridge hanging on the far side of the ravine, the ravages of time having caused it to collapse; this was probably just as well, though, as it prevented Trixie from being stupid enough to try and cross a thousand-year-old wooden bridge that nopony had been maintaining.
Trixie glanced over the edge of the ravine. The fog from the snow, being heavier than air, was drifting over the edge, preventing her from seeing any further than about twenty feet down; it was impossible to judge just how far it was to the bottom. It was also too wide to risk jumping. "Guess we need to be carried," she remarked, glancing to Raindrops and Ditzy Doo. Something nagged at Trixie, but she couldn't place what at the moment, probably due to how tired she was.
"Guess so," was Raindrops response, flapping her wings a few times in preparation, before taking wing and scooping up Cheerilee after she volunteered to go first, along with Lyra in Ditzy Doo's hooves. Trixie took a moment to turn to Zecora and Spike. "Thank-you," she said, forcing her suspicions of the zebra aside – after all, Zecora had guided them safely to the Palace, siren and poison joke run-ins aside. "I don't know how long we would have been wandering around the Everfree without you."
"I assure you, it was no trouble at all," Zecora promised her. "But I must ask – how do you intend to free Equestria from Corona's thrall?"
Trixie made a face that was halfway between a grin and a grimace. "I have no idea," she admitted quietly. "The Elements of Harmony are in there, so – "
"Whoa," Spike interrupted, eyes wide. "I thought they were in Canterlot!"
Trixie's eyes widened a little as well, and she shook her head. She was really tired if she had let something like that slip. "No," Trixie said. "But, um…don't tell anypony, okay? I shouldn't of said that."
Zecora offered a nod, as Spike scratched the back of his head. "Where are they?" he asked.
"Can't tell you that, either," Trixie said, as Raindrops and Ditzy Doo returned for her and Carrot Top.
"I understand your concern," Zecora apologized. "Forgive Spike for asking out of turn." She looked past Trixie, to the palace. "Once that was a place of wonder, but that feeling was torn asunder. It is now a place of pain and regret, one which I would rather forget. We came here once to wait out a storm, and a repeat of that time I would not like to perform."
"So the traps still work, huh?" Trixie asked. Zecora inclined her head, and Spike nodded fervently. Trixie, herself, sighed. "Of course they do…"
"Good luck with that," Spike offered, as Raindrops picked up Trixie, and the baby dragon waved goodbye, Zecora doing likewise. Once Trixie was down on the other side, she returned the gesture. She waited a few moments as she watched Zecora and Spike begin walking off; they were soon out of sight due to the fog. She then turned around and looked ahead. There was a rough, worn stairway they'd have to climb to reach the Court.
"Okay, here we go…" Trixie intoned, beginning to trot up the steps, the other ponies following her. "The first trap is right at the top of the steps here, at the door."
"What's it do?" Cheerilee asked.
"It's a pressure plate," Trixie explained. "But also magical. Setting it off will cause a wall of fire to spring up. It's basically a 'go away' sign, the trap probably won't hurt anypony, but it'll scare them away…"
She paused at the door to the Court, staring down and making a face. "Unless somepony's set it off already…" she intoned, leaning down. The tiles in front of the door were all depressed, sunken about an inch into the ground, while in a half-circle surrounding them the floor was scorched black. Trixie tentatively put a hoof on the pressure plate, then leaned her weight onto it, but nothing happened. "That's not right…" she remarked in a low voice.
"Zecora and Spike have been here," Carrot Top pointed out. "They probably set it off."
"That's not what's odd," Trixie said. "The traps are self-resetting and magically self-sustaining. There shouldn't be any sprung traps…"
Raindrops stared a moment, then shook her mane and trotted into the Court before Trixie could stop her. Nothing happened, however, and the pegasus looked back the group. "Don't question good luck, I guess," she decided.
The ponies all wandered into the Court, getting their first look at it – or in Trixie's case, her second. Because it was her second, however, her eyes widened slightly, at how much was out of place. Here, there was a pit in the floor, lying open. Over there, an axe on a pendulum, embedded in a crumbling pillar. Another pillar had fallen over entirely, and would have been blocking the rear exit had its central section not been pushed out of the way by some force. There was an occasional scorch mark or acid pit on the floor, but the former were cool to the touch while in the latter the acid had calcified and was now harmless.
"What?" she demanded. "No, no, no…there's supposed to be death traps! Really clever ones!" Trixie trotted forward to a pit, looking down. At the bottom were spikes, but no sign of any kind of body of somepony who may have set it off.
"Maybe…" Lyra ventured. "Animals? Maybe animals set them off?"
"Oh, right," Trixie remarked, rolling her eyes. "Nine hundred ninety-five years or so passed before Luna and me came here and everything was in place. Then five years later the animals of the Everfree decide to hold a party here or something?"
Lyra's eyes narrowed slightly, and Trixie let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm sorry," she apologized. "Sorry. I'm tired. And no, not animals. There's an enchantment woven over the whole area that'll keep animals out. Somepony came here and set off the traps, and then somehow kept them from resetting. But why would…" Her eyes widened as she realized. "The Elements!"
It was taking the combined efforts of every single unicorn in the capital city, but Celestia was nevertheless being kept out of Canterlot.
The white alicorn stood in the sky directly over the city, not even bothering to beat her wings in order to remain suspended in the air. Beneath her, the city of Canterlot – which had grown quite large since last Celestia had laid her eyes upon it – was encased in a violet sphere, and had been since her arrival. Had it been created by a single unicorn, Celestia could have smashed through it long ago – but the white-coated unicorn who was generating it, who stood in the courtyard of Canterlot Castle wearing blue-and-silver armor that Celestia could only assume was the current uniform of the Royal Guard, was being fed a constant stream of additional magic by dozens of other unicorns in the Guard. And they were being aided by other unicorns themselves, and they by others, and so on. The result was a magical sphere that could defy even Celestia's power.
For a time, anyway.
The alicorn had set her hostages down on the ground beneath her, enclosing them within a wide circle of fire. She had previously been keeping them suspended in the air with her, but the crying of the foals – and more than a few of the adult ponies, as well – had begun to grate on her nerves, and her calls for silence had been disobeyed. She recognized, however, that their disobedience was not intentional, but rather born from the irrational fear the ponies felt towards her glorious person. Had she not already seen to Luna's banishment, her little sister would have had much to answer for.
Celestia walked forward along the air, striding right up to the edge of the magical bubble and glaring down into it. She was absolutely certain that, if she brought her full power to bear on the bubble, she could smash through it. She was equally certain that doing so would probably ignite the atmosphere for several miles in every direction, rendering Canterlot and much of the surrounding countryside a fiery wasteland of scorched glass and burned earth. She had to be patient with the ponies, she reminded herself. They had a thousand years of Luna's lies controlling their actions.
Celestia closed her eyes, willing herself forward. No matter how thick the mesh, some insects could always find their way through – and with magical shields, it was no different, albeit in a more metaphorical sense. She could not bring any true power down on Canterlot while it persisted, but she could project the tiniest portion of her power forward and will it to take on her shape and form inside the barrier, manifesting in front of the unicorn who projected the shield.
The reaction was just shy of instantaneous, of course – there were dozens of spears from nearby pegasus and earth pony guards trained on her, while numerous unicorns broke off their channeling energy into the shield-generating unicorn and turned their magic towards her avatar. None of them, however, were quite foolish enough to attack her. The shield's creator, himself, opened his eyes, but his horn continued to glow and project power to Canterlot's barrier.
"Peace, my subjects," Celestia assured the Guard ponies, bowing her head slightly to them. "I would speak with whomsoever my sister hath appointed as her – "
"Release Luna from the moon," The shield creator interrupted, stamping his hoof as he did so.
Celestia blinked several times at the affront. Such disrespect! Did Luna really tolerate such an attitude from her soldiers? "Dost thou speak for all of Canterlot in my sister's stead?"
The unicorn offered neither confirmation nor denial. Celestia's eyes narrowed at yet another blatant act of disrespect for a being of her station. "Thy shield is of impressive quality," she pressed on. "And thou art no doubt acting as thou believes thou must to protect thy charge. But I speak truly when I say that I intend no harm to Canterlot, nor to her inhabitants," she looked around to the Guard ponies surrounding her avatar, "nor her defenders! You are as mayflies standing against a hurricane. Your bravery is of the sort spoken of in legends, but it is misplaced! I would be a poor Queen indeed if I intended harm to my subjects.
"Now, noble Guard. I see no reason why – "
"Release Luna from the moon," the unicorn repeated, "now."
A second interruption! Celestia's eyes narrowed further as she forced herself not to grow angry with the gnat in front of her. "Thou art only mortal. No other pony in Canterlot could create this shield, and it is only through the aid of so many other unicorns that thou create a barrier that I cannot penetrate. Thy helpers shalt grow weary. Thou shalt grow weary. But I – I am immortal. I am the Sun. I need never sleep, nor eat, nor do anything but wait for thy failure. One way or another I shall enter Canterlot. Dost thou really wish for me to do so with flames at my hooves and my eyes filled with burning wrath? Art thou so callous towards the ponies thou art sworn to protect?"
Only silence greeted Celestia's appeal to reason. Her eyes had slimmed to become narrow slits by this point. "Thou art – "
"Release Luna from the moon, now!" The Guard interrupted. A third time. Deliberately. He had waited to interrupt Corona in such a fashion. Even worse, even more unbelievably, he had shouted at her.
"Thou shalt not speak to me in such a manner!" Celestia exclaimed, as she felt her control on her temper slip. She did nothing to rein it in. "Dost thou not know who I am?"
"Of course I do," the guard responded. "You're the Tyrant Sun – Corona."
"That is not my name!" Celestia shouted, stomping a hoof. It had significantly less force in this mere avatar's body than it would have in person, but it certainly served to accentuate her point. "That is a lie constructed by my treacherous sister! I am Celestia, foal! I am the Sun! I am thy Queen! Thou hast no right to bar me from assuming my throne! It is mine! Equestria is mine! All of it! Mine!"
The way in which the white-coated unicorn waited for Celestia to finish shouting at him reminded her far too much of a parent nonchalantly observing a foal's temper tantrum. The carefully neutral, almost conciliatory tone to his voice as he spoke next did not help with the impression. "Equestria doesn't have a queen," he said, "it has a princess. And as long as there is a breath in my body, I will never let you have Canterlot…Corona."
Celestia snarled, an animalistic, alien expression and sound for an equine being. Her head dipped somewhat as her wings spread. "What is thy name?" she inquired in a low voice.
The unicorn drew himself up fully, to his admittedly impressive height, though he was still noticeably shorter than Celestia herself. "Shining Armor," he declared.
The alicorn offered a bright grin that was totally out of place on her otherwise incensed features. "A hundred years from now," she said, "when ponies walk by the still-burning crater that this city will become, when foals turn to their parents and ask what happened here, those parents shall tell their foals a story of the hubris and the arrogance of one pony who dared to try and hold back the glory of the Sun. And the pony they speak of shalt be thou, Shining Armor!"
Celestia withdrew her avatar from Canterlot, bringing her consciousness back to her own body. Her wings beat once, dragging her backwards and away from Canterlot, even as her horn glowed and her hostages, the ponies taken from Ponyville, were wrapped in several layers of protective magic. She had no intention of betraying her word to the Ponyvillians – and besides, she would need ponies to bear witness to the rightful wrath she was about to bring down upon Canterlot. All the better that so many of them were foals: they would carry this divine retribution in their memories for all their lives.
Her horn glowed brighter as she began dragging the pure power of the Sun into her being. She would destroy Canterlot utterly, reducing it to molten rock and blackened glass. She could build a capital elsewhere, after all, it mattered not where she reigned from, and this would probably be the surest way to wipe out the majority of her sister's influence in a single stroke –
There was a flash of green in front of Celestia. The alicorn paused in her gathering of power, as the flash realized itself as a rolled-up, short scroll, which began to fall until Celestia grasped it with her telekinesis. Was it an attempted apology on Shining Armor's part? However much she deserved it, Celestia doubted that the foal's tiny number of brain cells could have interacted enough to realize the depths of his mistake in speaking to Celestia as he had. Curiosity drove the alicorn forward as she unfurled the scroll and began to read.
O Queen Corona, I am your faithful servant,
Towards the signs of your return I have been most observant
I journeyed to the Everfree Forest to bring aid to you,
And serving by your side is all I pursue.
"…verse?" Celestia asked nopony, blinking several times in confusion. This letter was written in verse? Who had written it? A zebra? The sheer novelty – not to mention the genuinely servile tone which was the right and proper way to address her – was even enough to make her ignore that the letter was addressed to the lie that was Corona.
This letter is not how I wished to contact your majesty,
But in the Everfree there is a problem, a travesty.
Six ponies have entered here and despite my impediments
They are near now to reaching the Harmonious Elements.
Celestia's eyes grew wide as something – not fear! – but something stabbed at her heart. The Elements of Harmony? Surely that was what the author of this letter was referring to, Harmonious Elements being used instead simply to continue the rhyme.
I fear that I am no match for these ponies alone,
And I beg forgiveness for drawing you away from your throne,
But if these ponies reach the ruined Palace, their destination,
They could in their foolishness cause you endless frustration!
I implore you my Queen to come to the Everfree castle
Before these ponies can cause you hassle
I offer my services and skills in plethora
Your faithful servant,
– Zecora.
Zecora. Definitely a zebra name, which explained the rhyming as well as her devotion – though the territory of Equestria had never stretched to the zebra homeland in the far south, the zebras had always been sun-worshippers, offering constant praise and supplication to the sun and, therefore, to Celestia. This particular zebra also had a gift for understatement if she thought that ponies getting their mortal hooves on the Elements of Harmony would be merely frustrating. Corrupted by dark magic as they had been by Luna (for how else could her wayward sister have turned them upon her?) the Elements of Harmony could conceivably be used to banish her once more, consign her once again to a thousand years of exile on the sun!
Celestia's magic reached down, and she grasped her hostages and levitated them into the air again, ignoring their screams of terror as she turned and began flying with all speed towards the Everfree Forest, the site of old palace. Canterlot could wait. This was a problem that had to be dealt with, now.
Trixie shot off, running for the rear entrance of the Court. The other five ponies followed quickly. Beyond the ruined Court was a wide plaza, probably a former courtyard. The trees of the Everfree had yet to encroach on it, meaning the entire plaza was covered in slushy, melting snow that covered the tiled ground beneath them. Trixie had paused as she entered, letting out a huge sigh of relief as she did. A slight tingling sensation was running across her body, but she chalked it up to nervousness, fear, and mounting exhaustion.
Sitting in the plaza, near the exact center, was what looked like a sculpture made from obsidian. Rising in its center was a pillar of the volcanic glass, about ten feet tall. At its tip stretched more than a dozen long spikes made from the same stone, each a different length. The five longest spikes, at their ends, were impaling five stone spheres, each of which bore a different marking carved into their surfaces. It looked almost like a sculpture of a star in nova, and definitely looked far too delicate to have possibly withstood a millennium of not being tended to by master stonemasons. The most interesting part of the statue, though, was that it was bare and smooth. Despite the low fog and the snow all around it, the statue itself was dry. Even more so than the rest of the palace, this place seemed somehow utterly still and inert.
Trixie let out a sigh of relief as she turned around, gesturing to the statue. "The Elements of – " she began, when she noticed that the other five ponies were casting their gazes around in panic, none of them looking at her.
"Where'd she go?" Carrot Top demanded as she trotted forward several paces, nearly running down Trixie before the unicorn side-stepped out of the way. "Trixie?"
"I'm right here," Trixie said, looking down at her hooves – or trying to, anyway, as her hooves seemed to have vanished, along with the rest of her body and clothing. "Or not…okay, I'm invisible, must be the poison joke – "
"She can't have just disappeared," Cheerilee interrupted.
"I totally can, actually," Trixie noted, "but I'm – "
"Maybe one of the traps was still active?" Ditzy Doo asked, as she beat her wings several times, getting to the air as she searched the courtyard's surface, presumably for any sign of a trap having gone off. "Everypony stay in place for a second…"
"…and I'm inaudible." Trixie observed, eyes narrowing. Not that anypony could see her look of consternation, apparently, but at least she knew she was making it as she trotted over to Carrot Top, who was nearest. "Except I can hear me. I can't see me, though. That doesn't make a lot of sense." Trixie extended a hoof and poked Carrot Top's neck.
"Gah!" The earth pony exclaimed, leaping sideways in fright. "Something just touched me!"
"What?" Raindrops asked, joining Ditzy Doo in the air, though looking more like she intended to land with extreme prejudice on something rather than remain in the air for safety. "What was it?"
"I don't know!"
Trixie sighed, looking down at the slush in the ground and drawing out a few letters – or trying to. Her hoof just seemed to pass through the slush without being able to interact with it at all – which admittedly made sense, to an extent, since nopony had noted hoof-tracks with no owner being made when she had gone up to Carrot Top.
"But I can touch you guys," Trixie noted. She tried her telekinesis, and found it similarly unable to affect the slush, but a brush of Carrot Top's hair was apparently possible – eliciting another surprised shout from her, as despite her telekinesis working, the normal telltale blue effervescence was missing.
Trixie thought a moment, then stamped her hoof – not that it made a sound – when an idea came to her. She took off her hat and cape (also rendered invisible – somehow – Trixie did not understand poison joke's rules) and threw the latter around Carrot Top's back, despite her protests, and then setting the former down on top of the earth pony's head.
Carrot Top froze in place. "it's on me…" she said in a very quiet, frightened voice. "Whatever it is…it's on me…my back and my head…"
The other ponies approached cautiously, as Trixie observed, waiting for them to figure things out on their own. She frowned even as she did, though. "You walked into the poison joke first," she observed. "Why weren't you affected first?"
Lyra had reached Carrot Top first. "Your head?" she asked softly, staring just above Carrot Top. The earth pony nodded slowly.
"Must be earth pony fortitude," Trixie decided, waving her hoof through the slush again. It was a unique sensation, passing through solid matter, or solid-ish matter, anyway. "Unicorns are more delicate than earth ponies. Raindrops will probably be next, then you."
"Hold real still," Lyra said, as her horn began glowing. With a shout, she lashed out with telekinesis, grabbing "whatever" it was that had perched on top of Carrot Top's head. As her golden aura wrapped around it, it outlined the general shape of Trixie's hat.
"There," Trixie said happily. "See? Just my – "
"It was trying to eat my head!" Carrot Top exclaimed as she backed away. "Look at the size of its mouth! Gah! And something's still on my back!"
Trixie's eyes narrowed in annoyance. They swiftly widened, however, when Lyra threw her hat down onto the slush, and Raindrops landed on it with all four hooves, stomping several times. "You idiots!" The normally blue, currently transparent unicorn exclaimed, stomping up to Raindrops. "Leave my hat alone!"
Raindrops paused in her stomping, hefting the hat upwards with one hoof – still grasped in Lyra's telekinesis – and regarding the shape and feel of it. "I don't think it's a monster," Raindrops observed. "I think it's a hat."
Carrot Top paused. She had been wrestling with Trixie's cape, Ditzy Doo and Cheerilee having grasped its ends in their mouths and pulling at it as well. Trixie wasn't as concerned for the cape, as it bore several fortifying enhancements that made it far sturdier than its plain cloth would suggest – but her hat did not have such protection. Worst of all, she couldn't even see the damage.
"A hat?" Carrot Top asked, then paused as she shifted a little, feeling the invisible thing on her. "And…this feels kind of like cloth...wet cloth, but that's probably the slush…"
"Thank you for that, by the way," Trixie said, sighing as she stuck a hoof up her hat and began waving it around. The other ponies all started at the sight of Lyra's aura moving of its own accord.
"Ith Twikthie!" Cheerilee exclaimed suddenly, though she still had a mouthful of cape. She spat it out and tried again. "It's Trixie! She's invisible!"
Lyra frowned at that, extending her telekinesis. Sure enough, her aura spreading around Trixie outlined the general shape of a unicorn, as Trixie set her hat on top of her head, ignoring the fact that it was now wet. Somehow. Despite her not being able to interact with the slush.
Poison joke didn't make sense.
She waved at Lyra as she grasped her cape on Carrot Top's back and retrieved it, ignoring its wetness as well. What she got in return for the wave, however, was a series of annoyed stares. "This isn't funny, Trixie," Cheerilee observed.
"I'm not doing it on purpose!" Trixie exclaimed, throwing her forehooves in the air. She jabbed a hoof at Raindrops, then Carrot Top, then herself, and proceeded to repeat the process.
"Oh!" Carrot Top exclaimed. "The poison joke!"
"Thank you!"
"It can turn somepony invisible?" Ditzy Doo asked.
"It can do just about anything, it's magic." Carrot Top explained. "Like I've said, it plays a joke on you, takes something you love and twists it."
"Oh, I get it!" Cheerilee said. "So I guess…it's because Trixie always wants to be flashy and noticed, so the poison joke turned her invisible and silent!"
Trixie made a mental note to make sure to later inform Cheerilee that she had been glaring at her after that comment.
"Probably," Carrot Top confirmed. "It probably affected Trixie first since she's a unicorn. Unicorns on average don't have the same kind of toughness as pegasi or earth ponies – no offense, Lyra."
"And Trixie," Trixie appended.
"None taken," Lyra said simultaneously.
"So Raindrops, you'll probably be – "
Poomf.
There was an explosion of green from Carrot Top's mane and tail. The two of them almost instantly tripled in size, at least, and changed color from orange to a dark green, shooting out from her head and dock like streamers. Even after the initial explosion of length, they continued to visibly grow, albeit at a much slower rate.
Carrot Top had frozen in place again, eyes wide – probably, anyway, as her eyes were now covered by a mass of green. She looked behind her as well. "M…my mane!" she exclaimed. "My tail!" she tried to flick her tail, but sheer mass meant that she got nothing more than a vague twitch.
The other ponies rushed over to her, the golden aura around Trixie disappearing as she joined them, despite not being visible.
"Are you okay?" Ditzy Doo asked, eyes wide and mostly coming into focus as she examined Carrot Top's mane, holding it up in her hooves The longest strands were an easy six feet long at this point. "It's still growing!"
"Where's it coming from?" Raindrops asked.
"Magic," Trixie said, then face-hoofed when she remembered her predicament. Fortunately, Lyra said as much a moment later.
Carrot Top had closed her eyes, forcing herself to calm down. "I've always been proud of my mane," she stated. "So that's how the poison joke got me."
"Still growing," Trixie observed, hefting up a mass of it with one hoof – eliciting a slight jump from Carrot Top. "Maybe an inch every ten seconds…"
Carrot Top stared more-or-less at Trixie. "Do you think you could keep Trixie highlighted, Lyra?" she asked. "I'm…I don't need constant scares."
"Not really," Lyra observed. "I mean, I could, but then Trixie wouldn't be able to walk around on her own. I doubt she wants that."
Ditzy Doo trotted over to where she guessed Trixie was, extending a hoof cautiously. Trixie tapped it back, and Ditzy used that as a guide to get beside Trixie and extend one wing over her back. "There," she said. "She's here."
"Thanks," Trixie and Carrot Top said simultaneously.
Raindrops tapped a hoof on the ground. "So I'm guessing it's really just random," she said, as she, Cheerilee, and Lyra helped Carrot Top get her still-growing mane out of her eyes. "But I'm next either way."
"We need to focus, though," Cheerilee said, as Carrot Top looked morosely at her mane. "The Elements of Harmony. Trixie ran off looking for them. Are they here?"
"Yes," Trixie responded, before sighing at her own forgetfulness. She gently extended her telekinesis around Ditzy Doo's head and neck and made the pegasus nod. Surprisingly, Ditzy didn't resist – apparently she'd anticipated that Trixie would need to do that exact thing.
"She's making me nod my head," Ditzy said. "So that's a yes – "
Poomf.
Everypony blinked at the sound, and turned to look upwards, except for Raindrops. The jasmine-coated pegasus, having grown to be more than thirty feet tall, looked down instead at the other five ponies. She blinked a few times. "And now we know," she boomed, everypony else covering their ears at the sound of her voice, which had dropped several octaves and was loud enough to be felt as much as it was heard. "Sorry," she whispered after a moment, as she backed away from them gingerly – her hoof-steps shaking the ground slightly – and sat down as best she could in what had suddenly become a somewhat narrow space for her.
"You okay?" Carrot Top asked, brushing her still-growing mane out of her eyes. It was now at least eight feet long, and her tail was even longer.
"Fine," Raindrops whispered, though her size meant that it was still as loud as a normal-sized pony's regular speaking voice. She looked between each of them.
"Why are you a giant now?" Cheerilee asked.
"Insecurities about being a big, clumsy oaf when flying, probably," Raindrops observed. "Either that or insecurities about my anger problem and the possibility that I might hurt somepony when I'm being a big, stupid ball of fury."
"You have an anger problem?" Lyra asked. "But you seem…calm."
"Oh, she has them," Trixie confirmed, vividly remembering the events of – stars above, had it really only been yesterday afternoon? It seemed like forever...Trixie stifled a yawn, then realized that nopony could really see her anyway so there wasn't much point.
Raindrops also nodded in confirmation to Lyra's question. "I've got a lid on it. Mostly." She looked to Cheerilee. "Anyway. You were saying?"
The earth pony blinked a few times at how well Raindrops was taking her new size, then shook her head and looked back to Ditzy Doo, or rather Ditzy's left, where Trixie was still under the pegasus' wing. "So the Elements are here," she said. "Where?"
Trixie pointed at the obsidian statue, paused, slapped her face with her hoof, and then grasped Ditzy's hoof and made the pegasus point. The other ponies all looked at the statue, Lyra's horn beginning to glow as she examined the statue. "I…don't feel anything," she said.
Raindrops groaned. "They're fake?" she demanded, forgetting to whisper.
Lyra shook her head quickly lest she anger Raindrops the Titan. "No. I don't feel anything. Magic is supposed to be everywhere and in everything. Even when I was overchanneled I still had a bit left in me and always would…but looking at that statue, it's almost like all the magic has been stripped away from it." She shivered slightly. "I didn't know that was possible. I was happier not knowing that was possible."
Trixie nudged Ditzy Doo slightly, and the two began trotting forward, up to the statue, stopping within a few feet of it. Trixie reached out telekinetically and began yanking on one of the orbs. It came free surprisingly easily – when it reached Trixie, it was completely smooth stone, except for an arcane mark carved into its surface. The spot where the obsidian spike should have been impaling it had simply disappeared "Kindness," she stated, handing the orb off to Ditzy Doo. The other ponies, sans Raindrops and with Carrot Top now lugging an easy twelve feet of mane and tail, crowded around, looking at it.
"That's…Kindness, I think?" Cheerilee remarked, with Lyra nodding. "Lyra, Trixie, do you think you could get the other four down?"
It took only a few seconds for the two unicorns to take down the five orbs, setting them down in a pile that the ponies quickly surrounded, looking over. "Generosity," Lyra said, pointing to the one in front of Carrot Top, then began counting them off "Honesty, Laughter, Kindness, and Loyalty," she finished with the one in front of her. "At least that's what they told us in Canterlot."
"We're missing one," Cheerilee noted. "The sixth Element."
"Which one was that?" Carrot Top asked.
Cheerilee, Lyra, and Trixie all shrugged. "It's a mystery," Cheerilee explained. "Nopony knows. And whenever anypony asked Princess Luna, the rumors say that she just smiles."
"It's not a rumor," Trixie said. "Luna loves being mysterious. It's annoying."
Nopony heard her, of course. Instead, Cheerilee began trotting around the statue. "I don't see the sixth Element…"
"It's not here," Trixie said. "It wasn't last time, either. When I asked Luna where it…why am I bothering?"
"Did somepony steal it?" Raindrops asked, as she squinted and leaned forward, looking closely at the nearest Element to her, Honesty.
Trixie once again grasped Ditzy Doo's head, though this time she made it shake. "Trixie says no," Ditzy Doo answered.
"So where is it?" Lyra asked. After a moment, she realized her mistake. "Right, yes or no questions…is it nearby?"
"Maybe?" Trixie asked, sighing. She tried to conjure up an illusion of words with her horn, but like her telekinetic aura, it was invisible, and nor could she conjure ghost sounds.
"Just write in the slush already," Lyra insisted.
"You're being added to my list of 'ponies I'm going to glare at later,'" Trixie responded. She shook Ditzy Doo's head.
"I don't think she can," the pegasus said, as her head shook. "She'd probably have thought of that already if she could."
"I like you the most, Ditzy Doo," Trixie said as she got out from under her wing, then put a hoof to her shoulder and used the point of it to trace out a letter on Ditzy's coat. She continued doing this a few times, until Ditzy Doo put the idea together.
"Okay," Ditzy said. "Hang on, Trixie's going to write on my coat…sort of. I get the idea, Trixie, just go slowly."
"It's my first time too…" Trixie said under her breath, chuckling a little, as she began to 'write.'
"Nopony…knows," Ditzy read. "Luna…didn't…tell…me. Just…gave…stupid…riddle."
"What was it?" Cheerilee asked.
"Said…it…was…right…beside…me."
The ponies all thought about that one. "That?" Raindrops asked, extending a massive hoof and pointing at the statue. "The statue itself?"
"No," Ditzy responded as Trixie 'wrote.' "That…was…behind…me…"
"Oh!" Cheerilee exclaimed. "Magic! Like your cutie mark? Get it? Because it's beside you?"
Trixie rolled her eyes. "No," she had Ditzy say. "That's…on…me…not…beside…me."
Cheerilee deflated somewhat. "Oh…" she said. "Right…"
"Maybe it was Princess Luna?" Ditzy guessed, then 'read' out her response. "No, she says Luna was in front of her." The pegasus paused. "And that she hates Luna right now."
"Gotta admit I'm not too fond of her right now either," Raindrops whispered. "Saving the world shouldn't be this hard. The steps shouldn't be something like journeying through a deadly forest to a ruined castle past death traps in order to retrieve ancient artifacts and then figure out how to use them. It should be something simple. Like 'push this button.'"
"Trixie agrees," Ditzy said as Trixie made her nod her head, then 'read' as Trixie wrote. "Trixie says she's tired."
Cheerilee sighed at that. "She's got a point. We need to rest. We've all been up too long and aren't thinking straight. We should just take the Elements and hide them somewhere…"
Trixie sighed. "Can't move them, remember?" she asked as she hefted one at random – the Element of Generosity – and threw it. After about thirty feet, it hit some kind of barrier and bounced back. Trixie caught it as it did, and set it down in front of Carrot Top.
"I think Trixie just showed us that we can't take them from here," Lyra observed. She sighed. "And we still don't know who set off all those traps…"
"We'll rest while we can," Cheerilee said. "Corona will be tied up for days dealing with Canterlot and all the other cities and towns in Equestria, we have time. Two of us will stay awake, the rest of us should sleep for a few hours, then those two can rest."
"I'll stay awake," Raindrops volunteered, as she blushed slightly – and a look of embarrassment was the last thing anypony had ever expected to see on her face. "I, um…snore. Given how big I am right now…"
"And me," Ditzy Doo volunteered. "I'm used to not getting a lot of sleep."
"Okay," Cheerilee confirmed, as she trotted forward. "Let's see if we can't save the world once we've got clearer heads…"
Celestia alighted atop a tall ridge that overlooked the Palace, about a half-mile away from it. Truly, the place had seen better days – far, far better days. To see the once proud structure fallen into disrepair and ruin, fighting a losing battle against the encroaching vegetation of the Everfree Forest, nearly broke her heart. Perhaps, once Canterlot was dealt with, she would rebuild the Palace, and make her capital. Yes, it would be in the midst of the Everfree forest, but for all its peculiarities, the Everfree was still made of leaves and wood, which would burn as easily as in any other forest. It would be a small matter for the rightful Queen of Equestria to shape the Everfree to her desires…
Ah, but she was getting ahead of herself. Glancing over her shoulder, she set down her hostages, surrounding them in fire once more, albeit this time it was as much for their protection against the savage monsters of the Everfree as to keep them contained. Having done thus, she turned around once more to the palace, or intended to, but her intention was instead drawn to a more interesting sight much closer – just at the bottom of the ridge she stood upon, in fact. Approaching her was a zebra, wearing a brown cloak, though as the zebra approached she threw off the cloak, revealing, emblazoned on her flank, a cutie mark of a spiral surrounded by outward-pointing triangles – a sun. The zebra – Zecora, Celestia supposed – knelt when she had drawn close enough, head pressed to the ground.
It took a considerably amount of effort on Celestia's part, despite how un-Queenlike it would have been, to stop herself from exclaiming Finally! at the sight.
"Queen Corona, it gladdens me to set my eyes upon your majesty!" The zebra exclaimed whole-heartedly, as she looked up.
That ruined Celestia's good mood, though only a little. "Thy respect is genuine enough," Corona announced, "but thou shalt not address me by that name. Corona is a false title invented by my treacherous sister to assuage her own guilt over her betrayal. I am Celestia."
"As you wish it to be. I shall follow your decree."
Celestia noted with some further dissatisfaction that Zecora seemed to have the same poor grasp of Equestrian that everypony did these days. Celestia was no stranger to the evolution of languages – she herself did not know precisely how old she was, as neither she nor Luna had bothered to keep track of the first few millennia of their existences – but Equestrian had reached a certain nobility a thousand years ago, a nobility which had fallen far by the wayside in the intervening years of her imprisonment, it seemed.
Dissatisfied or no, however, this zebra's intentions were pure enough, and Celestia had far more pressing concerns right now. She looked up from Zecora, to the ruined palace. "They have arrived?"
"It is so, my Queen," Zecora said apologetically. "In the palace they convene. I would have stopped them before, but my skills are not those of war. I beg forgiveness of your majesty."
"What skills dost thou possess then, Zecora?" Celestia asked, surprised that the zebra had not rhymed the last thing she had said. Had that peculiar zebra quirk also begun to fall by the wayside?
"My queen, I am blessed with the gift of prophecy."
Ah, there it is, Celestia noted, as one eyebrow raised. Aloud, she continued. "Prophecy?" she inquired. "Certainly thou couldst have taken greater steps to prevent any from challenging my right to rule with such a gift."
The zebra bowed her head. "Forgive me, your highness, for being unable. But for some time the future has been unstable. Your return has been all I could see with my gift of prophecy. I do have other talents, brewing potions and rituals I can run – I used the last to aid your escape from the sun."
Celestia had been looking again to the ruins of the palace, but froze slightly as she heard Zecora finish speaking, and looked down at the zebra. "What?" she demanded. "Thou…thou believeth that I required thine aid to free myself?"
Zecora blinked. "The possibility of your return has been known to me for some time," she said cautiously, "and so we journeyed to the site of your sister's crime…using ancient testaments, I worked magic over the Elements, created a storm of great power at the appropriate hour – "
"Silence!" Celestia exclaimed, as she leapt down from the ridge and landed evenly in front of the zebra. "I required naught from thee! My escape was under my own power! The Elements are strong, but I am the Sun! Thou didst nothing!"
"H…hey! Leave Z alone!"
Celestia had been glaring down at the zebra - to the mortal's credit, she didn't flee from the wrathful alicorn – but at the sound of the small voice from several dozen feet away, she looked up. Charging towards her was a small, green-and-purple creature. He stumbled, however, when her gaze fell upon him, and looked terrified when a white aura wrapped around him and dragged him before Celestia.
"What have we here?" Celestia asked as she held the creature in place, leaning down. "A little dragon? And thou knows this zebra?" The alicorn looked to Zecora. "Thy familiar?"
Zecora eyed the baby dragon, who was now looking like he had seriously reconsidered his suicidal charge. Celestia, however, only laughed as she leaned back, releasing the dragon from her grip. "Misplaced courage seems to have grown in abundance in mine absence," she observed. "Stupidity as well, but with my sister in charge for a thousand years, this is hardly surprising. What is thy name, little dragon?"
The dragon stared, eyes wide. "Spike," he said.
Celestia tapped a hoof to her chin in thought. "Spike. A simple name. For that I am grateful – far too many dragons pick names of unnecessary length, as though the number of syllables in their names somehow grants them power." Celestia turned once more to Zecora. "Thou art in error, my servant. I did not require thy aid. But…what is the saying…'tis the idea that matters."
Spike looked for a moment like he wanted to speak but then thought better of it. Celestia turned, leaping once more onto the ridge and looking back to the palace. She had wasted a significant amount of time dealing with the zebra and the dragon. For all she knew, the treacherous ponies – perhaps prepared by her sister for this very eventuality? – already had the corrupted Elements and were waiting for her even now to strike. Regardless, the Elements would be protecting the Palace from any great works of magic, at least from this distance – she could not simply call down a solar flare and immolate the Palace, no. She would need, instead, to test the waters somehow, something that would be enough to reveal whether or not the ponies already had the Elements but which would not put her in danger.
Not that she was in the least bit afraid. Just…cautious.
Celestia's eyes once more turned to Zecora, and then to Spike. They lingered on him for some time, before she smiled, and her horn began to glow.
Trixie's special talent was magic in general, but her chosen specialty was illusion spells – spells that created ghost sounds or false sensations, or which manipulated light and shadow to create fake images or impressions. Of the numerous tricks she had both learned and developed herself, her favorite was, by far, the light-bending glamor that allowed her to turn invisible, followed closely by its companion spell that negated the sound of her hoof-steps. It was just so useful to not be seen or heard by anypony, and therefore become privy to things she probably shouldn't of been. Trixie used her invisibility glamor more often than any other spell she knew by far, and so had been sure that she knew just about everything about being invisible.
As it turned out, she was wrong, as she had overlooked something significant, yet obvious in hindsight: while invisible, her eyelids were transparent. This was not particularly conducive to achieving sleep, especially during Corona's perpetual midday. Ordinarily, if it was too bright out, she would have simply pulled her hat down over her eyes, but she was beginning to understand why (if not how) the poison joke had rendered that and her cape invisible as well. Thus, no matter how exhausted she was, sleep was simply not coming.
"Stupid poison joke!" Trixie proclaimed loudly. Nopony could hear her anyway, so she didn't feel a need to keep quiet. She turned her attention to Carrot Top. "And stupid you! Raindrops had wings, you idiot! This is your fault! And mine! Because I followed you! Because I'm an idiot too! A bigger one! And Lyra! If you hadn't overchanneled I wouldn't be in the situation either! And none of you should have followed me in here! Corona shouldn't of escaped! Luna should have been able to kick her flank! She was useless! Morons! Idiots! Foals! All of us! We're all idiots!" Trixie paused, breathing in and out deeply a few times. "…wow that was cathartic."
Carrot Top let out a slight sigh. She had managed to fall asleep, somehow, possibly because she had an excellent blanket in the form of a mane and tail that had finally stopped growing at around twenty feet in length, give or take a yard. Trixie had considered burying herself under the other pony's hair, but several things stopped her. Firstly, the thought of sleeping wrapped in a blanket made from another pony's hair was more than a little creepy, especially one she barely knew. Secondly, Trixie was fairly certain covering her eyes in a hair-blanket would be uncomfortable.
But the third, and probably the overriding reason, was that doing so would require getting out from underneath Ditzy Doo's wing. Despite the pegasus' comment about being used to long hours, she had fallen asleep while sitting next to Trixie. Raindrops had noticed, but hadn't done or said anything about it. Trixie had almost moved, when Ditzy had muttered a name in her sleep – Dinky Doo's.
Trixie could be a terrifically cruel pony at times, but even she couldn't bring herself to wake Ditzy Doo from whatever dream she was in with her daughter. It was good to escape from reality sometimes, even if only for a little while. "Of course, that's basically what I've done," Trixie observed. "Escaped from reality. I am a reality expatriate. Good on me. Or really, it's more like I was shoved from reality by the poison joke. Which is a stupid flower. Hate it. Hate, hate, hate, hate…"
Ditzy Doo shifted a little, her wing's grip tightening on Trixie for a moment. Trixie did her best not to flinch as she sighed, laying her head down on her hooves, eyes looking around the plaza as she examined it out of mind-numbing boredom. Ordinarily, if forced to sit in one place for a time, she would have been practicing her illusions, amusing herself in one way or another with them, but the poison joke had rendered even her magic invisible. All she could do was sit and wait for sheer exhaustion to force her asleep. Sit and wait…sit and wait…sit…wait…sit…wait…
…sit…wait…
...yeah, this isn't happening, Trixie thought.
"Here me now, O thou bleak and unbearable world!" Trixie sang idly, trying to keep herself amused somehow. "Thou art base and debauched as can be…and a knight with his banner so bravely unfurled, now hurls down his gauntlet to thee! I am Don Rocinante, hero of Equestria, destroyer of evil and I…I am an awful singer." Trixie laughed at her own interruption, looking to Lyra. "Right? Gah, stars, that's right, you can't hear me…"
Lyra, like Trixie, had not been able to find sleep. She was sitting in a back-breaking position again, leaning against a wall with her harp (lyre, whatever) in hoof and gently plucking out a slow, sad melody. Lyra's eyes were closed, and she looked like she had totally lost herself in whatever she was playing, some tears in her eyes. It was obvious that she was thinking about BonBon.
"Ugh," Trixie objected, looking to Cheerilee's sleeping form. "Well, it was a good idea while it lasted, Cheerilee." The magenta pony had been doing a good job of keeping all their minds on anything other than Corona, but the admittedly necessary sleep was giving Ditzy Doo and Lyra all the time they needed to focus on their losses.
Trixie looked down, tapping her hooves on the plaza beneath her. Not that it made any sound. The slush had been cleared away, too, to give them someplace to sleep; Trixie's telekinesis was still unable to affect it. Trixie tried to come up with a plausible explanation for why she couldn't touch or affect slush but could touch and affect other ponies and the Elements of Harmony, but the best she could conjure up was "because magic."
"Bored," Trixie stated. "Bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored, bored…"
From somewhere in the Everfree, there was a roar.
"What was that?" Carrot Top asked, even as she struggled to get out from under her own hair. It was not an easy task
"I don't know," Raindrops whispered, as she cautiously stood, careful not to step on anypony. The roar came a second time, this time followed by a crashing sound in the far distance, like trees being shoved out of the way. A sound which was getting louder – or closer.
"Um," Raindrops said, not bothering to keep her voice down as she got up on her hind legs, affording her a better view of the direction the sound was coming from, roughly in the direction of the castle's tower. Her eyes widened when she saw whatever it was. "Hide. Hide now."
The other five ponies – well, four, certainly, but Raindrops assumed that Trixie was smart enough to follow suit – did so by running back into the former Court, Cheerilee and an invisible Trixie helping Carrot Top with her mane and tail, Lyra grabbing the Elements with telekinesis and dragging them as far back as they would go, and Ditzy Doo instead taking to the air, looking in the same direction Raindrops was as soon as she was a good fifty feet up or so.
"Is…is that Spike – " Ditzy began, when the crashing sound stopped as the sound of displaced air reached their ears. Whatever was coming had leapt into the air, and moments later it came crashing down inside of the courtyard, hunched over at first, but quickly rearing to a full forty-foot height and letting out a roar that was felt more than it was heard.
A dragon, mostly purple, with a pale underbelly and a long series of green, wickedly sharp spines running from the top of its head down along its spine, and across the top of a long, whip-like tail that ensured that the dragon was at least twice as long as it was tall. It also, further, sported a pair of large, bat-like wings, covered in purple scales and with a translucent green membrane between its fingers.
"Spike?" Ditzy Doo asked. The dragon turned its gaze to her and let loose another bellow, then charged forward, at Raindrops. The giant pegasus reared up and lashed out with her hooves. Neither hoof connected, but the dragon did stop its assault and creep backwards, affording the giant pegasus new respect even as it growled in anger.
"How are you looking at that and thinking 'Spike?'" Raindrops demanded as she felt back onto all fours, beating her wings a few times as she adopted a fighting stance – wings out, three hooves on the ground, but her right front hoof raised and ready to strike.
"Ssspike?" The dragon hissed, as it too adopted a four-legged posture and began drawing in a deep breath. Both Ditzy Doo and Raindrops started at the sibilant, deep, yet somehow familiar tone to its voice even as the back of the dragon's throat began to glow a sickly green, licks of flame escaping from between the its tightly clenched teeth. "Ssspike…hungry! Ssspike mad!"
The dragon exhaled a gout of green fire. Raindrops leapt upwards instinctively, spreading her wings and beating them frantically, sending gusts of air downwards. Apparently, cruel though poison joke could be, it hadn't robbed her of her ability to fly. Unfortunately, it hadn't done much for her speed or agility, either, and a portion of Spike's flames caught the tip of her tail, singing it. The dragon leapt into the air as soon as it had finished exhaling, grasping Raindrops by a back leg and throwing her down to the plaza below. The pegasus landed on her shoulder without breaking anything, getting up just as her foe landed nearby, mouth once more glowing green.
"Ssspike burn, and sssmash, and eat!" The dragon proclaimed.
That didn't work out quite as well as it had the first time, however. Raindrops leapt right at it, bringing her right hoof down on the top of its muzzle. The dragon's jaw snapped shut – making it bite off maybe six inches of its long tongue as it did so – and it staggered under the blow, then began coughing and belching green-tinted smoke as the fire it had been preparing was forcefully quenched. It was too preoccupied to notice Raindrops raise her hoof a second time, this time striking the dragon's back, where its two shoulders met. It collapsed to the plaza floor with a loud roar of rage, claws scrabbling in the slush and tiled stone as it scurried backwards from Raindrops, or tried to – Raindrops followed its every step, hooves coming down as she tried to step on the beast, which suddenly seemed considerably less eager to dine upon pony flambé. Its back was quickly against a wall, however, and on realizing this, its expression changed from concerned to terrified.
"Wait!" Ditzy Doo called, as she flew near Raindrops. "That is Spike!
Raindrops stopped her stomping advance, resuming the pose she had struck earlier. "And he was trying to eat us," she noted, eyes never leaving the dragon, though they did narrow as she regarded it. "Which, by the way: why?"
The dragon didn't answer as it remained pressed against the wall, wings held high in defense, eyes darting between Raindrops and Ditzy Doo, looking at the latter hungrily but the former with a considerable amount of fear.
"He's not in his right mind," Ditzy Doo noted. "Maybe…maybe that poison joke stuff? We need to find Zecora."
"Ten bits says he ate her," Raindrops said, as she noticed movement from the corner of her eye. The others were coming out from where they had taken cover, slowly, making sure to stay close to the wall and well out of the way of Spike an Raindrops. "How can you even tell that's Spike?"
"I just can," Ditzy explained, though not helpfully, as she alighted atop Raindrops' head and stared at Spike. "Spike. What happened?"
The dragon was breathing heavily. "Hungry…mad…" it hissed, teeth still clenched. Its head whipped around to Raindrops. "Hung – !" it shouted as it lunged at Raindrops again. Once more, it received a hoof square to its jaw, sending it reeling backwards and into the courtyard's wall. The stress proved too much for the ancient structure, and it crumbled under his impact, sending the dragon sprawling under collapsing stone and mortar.
"You're good at that," Lyra noted from the back wall.
"Iron hoof martial arts," Raindrops explained. "The discipline helps when I get really angry. Which is sort of happening right now."
Ditzy Doo took to the air once more, staring down at the dragon as it lay in the rubble, breathing heavily and blinking rapidly, before its eyes rolled back and it began to glow with the same sickly green glow its fire had possessed. The glow obscured its features, but began to shrink and compress, and after several moments there was no longer a massive, winged, hungry-looking purple wyrm, but instead a tiny green-and-purple baby dragon, groaning in pain.
"Okay, what?" Cheerilee asked, as the ponies, sans Raindrops, picked their way over the debris – Carrot Top having a harder time than most thanks to her hair getting caught in just about everything, but she seemed determined to not be left behind – and towards Spike just as the baby dragon slipped into unconsciousness. A few tentative pokes from Ditzy Doo got no real response from him.
"Somepony please explain to me what the hay just happened!" Raindrops exclaimed, almost stomping her hoof in frustration before she managed to stop herself, as it might have brought the entire Palace ruins crashing down. "Is this normal for dragons or what?"
"I don't think – " Carrot Top began.
There was an explosion in the sky, a blast of heat and light that shoved the ponies who were standing to the ground, covering their ears with their forelegs and shouting in fright at the sudden sound. Even Raindrops was forced to the ground.
Then – wings. The sound of large wings beating steadily.
Then all was black.
Consciousness was a thing that had to be grabbed with teeth and telekinesis and dragged, kicking and screaming, back to Trixie. She awoke only slowly, to the too-bright sight of fire and a glaring sun overhead that penetrated her invisible eyelids with impunity, not to mention a white aura wrapped firmly around her being that glowed of its own accord, keeping her pressed to the now-dry ground and outlined for all to see.
Hearing was the next thing to return. She heard the cackling of flames, yes, but over that, she heard the whimpers and sobs of frightened foals, and the hushed assurances of other ponies, trying to keep them calm. Trixie couldn't move her head thanks to the aura, but her eyes were her own still. Glancing around, she saw – beyond the flames that surrounded her in a wide circle – a second fiery prison, far larger than her own and holding dozens of ponies in place.
Above even those sounds, however, Trixie heard a voice.
"I do not understand this foreign mindset that grips you," Corona said. Looking around with just her eyes, Trixie saw her five companions, each trapped in circles of flame and held in place by a white aura of their own, though they at least were standing. Even Raindrops was held in place with no additional effort on Corona's part, while Carrot Top's mane and tail had been wrapped around her in a way that might have been funny, were they in any other situation. The Tyrant Sun was facing them, wings spread wide, with the obsidian statue and the five orbs that contained the Elements of Harmony behind her.
"Were my intentions not clear?" Corona asked, as she folded her wings against her body and began to pace back and forth in front of the ponies. "Was I not precise? Did I not tell you the exact consequence for actions such as this?" She swept a hoof at the Elements. "Do you not care for your friends and loved ones?
"You admit to having no true plan," Corona continued, "yet you would defy me anyway! And I tell you now, the Elements would not have worked for creatures as you. You are mere ponies. It takes alicorn magic to direct the Elements, even in the inert, corrupted state that Luna left them in."
Corona looked between the five of them like they were children being scolded. Raindrops was managing to meet her glare head-on, while Cheerilee and Carrot Top were trying desperately to look away, though all they could move were their eyes. Lyra and Ditzy Doo, meanwhile, were alternating between watching Corona, and looking into the crowd of captured ponies. Trixie couldn't see BonBon or Dinky Doo, but she knew they were in there – somewhere.
"And thou," Corona intoned, looking to Trixie, apparently perfectly aware of Trixie being awake and, more to the point, having no apparent difficulty seeing her. Trixie was lifted up and stood like a doll or figurine, her muscles straining against the aura that gripped her and yet unable to move. "Thou, whom I entrusted with the governance of that settlement. Yet you waited not a moment before turning against thy Queen. I revise my opinion of thee yet again. Thou art not brave. Thou art not even a coward, nor an opportunist. Thou art simply stupid." She leaned in close to Trixie. "Stupidity has a price. A very, very dear price."
Trixie blinked a few times. "It…" she began, surprised Corona was letting her speak, surprised even more when the alicorn's head turned slightly, indicating that the Tyrant Sun heard her. "It was my idea. It was all my idea. Don't – "
"Silence!" Corona commanded, making a sweeping gesture with one wing as her horn flared. "I will believe no more of thy lies. Even if thou were telling the truth it would matter not. Thy idea it may have been, but they endorsed it. It is fortunate indeed that I yet have allies in Equestria or I might have been unaware of thy treachery."
"Allies?" Trixie echoed, eyes wide, before narrowing. "Zecora."
"Indeed," Corona observed with a smile as she drew back, looking to the side and turning Trixie's head as she did. Sitting – no, kneeling, in obeisance – to the Tyrant Sun was the zebra, cloak still removed. Somehow, Trixie was able to take note of the fact that on her flank was a stylized sun cutie mark. She had lied about not having one, it seemed, though that hardly came as much of a surprise.
But why? That was still the question. What pony – what anything – would be insane enough to support Corona?
Corona continued to glare at them all like they were children who had been caught with their hooves in the cookie jar. At length, she shook her head. "I have much to do," she said. "I can waste no more time on traitors whilst Canterlot yet defies me." She turned her back on the six ponies, instead facing her captives. "Yet behold that I am merciful! Far from here, Ponyville sits peaceful and orderly, as I commanded. 'Tis only these six who defy my orders. And so my wrath shall fall solely upon them!"
The captive ponies seemed anything but grateful for Corona's 'mercy,' but the white alicorn didn't take any notice of it as she turned back around. "First," she proclaimed, looking to the obsidian statue and the Elements. "I shall deal with far older traitors than you." She raised one hoof, and slammed it into the ground, even as her horn glowed. The impact sent a reverberation through the ground as strong as any earthquake, as well as a cracking sound like thunder. In front of the ponies' eyes, the obsidian statue – and the stone that were the Elements of Harmony – shattered. There was a brief flare of magic from each, but then nothing.
Trixie felt another thing shatter, as well – hope. All of it, everywhere, but most especially inside of her.
"Whatever dark magic my sister used on the Elements," Corona proclaimed as she used a hoof to brush them aside, "rendered them corrupt and base. They were gone long ago, only these black echoes had remained. But I do not need them, for I am Celestia! I am the Sun!"
Corona chuckled slightly as she looked up, eyes focusing on Trixie. The blue unicorn was aware of the white aura that had surrounded her leaving her body, and the flames around her dying down. In fact, the same had happened for all of her companions. After all…
…what could they do?
Run? What was the point? Corona didn't even seem to notice that Trixie was invisible.
Beg? For what reason would Corona be convinced to spare them?
Fight? Against a being that had tossed Luna aside like she was a rag doll?
Trixie stared at the plaza beneath her, tears in her eyes, real tears, the first she had cried in stars knew how long. She had failed. She had failed in everything, and she'd managed to take these five ponies with her in the process. This was it. Everything was over. Luna was gone. Canterlot would fall to Corona's flames. The Elements were destroyed. The Tyrant Sun would reign forever over all of Equestria.
Trixie looked to the five ponies she'd doomed. Three of them – Cheerilee, Carrot Top, even Raindrops – had looks on their faces that had to mirror Trixie's own, maybe even surpass hers. Ditzy Doo and Lyra, meanwhile, were both focused on the ponies that Corona held captive – on Dinky Doo and BonBon, most likely, seeing them where Trixie couldn't, trying to ensure that the last sight they held was that of their loved ones.
Corona wouldn't even give them that as she approached, spreading her wings wide, blocking their view, as her blank eyes looked to each of them. Her eyes settled on Cheerilee. "Thou shalt go first – "
"It's you shall, you throwback."
For a few moments, silence, rather than Corona, reigned over Equestria. Corona's eyes were surprisingly wide, and everypony – even Cheerilee herself – seemed to need a moment to comprehend what the magenta pony, the schoolteacher, had just said.
"I beg thy miniscule pardon?" Corona demanded.
"You!" Cheerilee shouted, eyes wide as she stepped forward. "It's you! Nopony has used thou or thee or thy for hundreds of years! And it's shall, no matter the subject! I don't care – "
"Cheerilee," Lyra interrupted the earth pony's tirade, or tried to. It didn't work.
" – if you've been locked up in the sun for a thousand years, you said Luna will be able to watch Equestria so I only assume that you could too, how could you not know how to speak Equestrian?"
Corona's eyes narrowed as she seemed to take a surprising amount of offence from a being that she considered so far beneath her. "My command of the tongue far surpasses thy own mangled – "
Cheerilee laughed. After a moment – after realizing what Cheerilee was laughing at – Raindrops and Carrot Top both joined in. Corona only stared uncomprehendingly. "You are hysterical," she noted of the three of them.
"Command of the tongue…" Cheerilee echoed, leaning forward towards Corona. She licked her lips. "Well, Lyra says I'm out of practice, maybe you could show me some of your command…"
Corona's eyes fluttered rapidly at that for a moment as realization of how Cheerilee and the other two were interpreting her words hit her, and she recoiled. It was a very interesting sight, seeing the Tyrant Sun blushing in embarrassment and utterly flabbergasted. "I – thou – thou dare?"
"Yeah, I do!" Cheerilee proclaimed. She set her hooves as though prepared to take the brunt of a charge. Tears still stained her eyes, but they were narrowed and challenging. "I'm dead anyway. So why not? I'm going to die laughing and I'm going to die making everypony else laugh at how ridiculous you are – "
For the second time in far too recent memory, there was an explosion, though this one far smaller than whatever one had occurred on Corona's arrival, centered on a number of the shards that Corona had shattered the Elements into. They took on a light blue glow and shot off of the ground, arcing towards and beginning to orbit around Cheerilee's neck.
"What?" The white alicorn demanded as she retreated several more steps at the sight. "What black sorcery is this?"
Cheerilee stared at the stones orbiting her neck, seemingly unsure herself and blinking away her tears. "I think…" she said, then giggled slightly in amazement. "I think I'm the Element of Laughter now…"
"What?" Trixie demanded. She ignored the fact that nopony could hear her – it still had to be said. "Why?"
Lyra wiped her own tears away from her eyes as she looked at her second-oldest friend. "The Elements made the world," the unicorn noted as she stood, and cautiously approached her friend. "They're not a bunch of rocks, you can't destroy them!"
"But why Cheerilee?" Carrot Top asked. "Because she said she was the Element of Laughter?"
Cheerilee shook her head. "Not because of that," she said. "Because I made ponies laugh. I made Raindrops and Carrot Top laugh right when it mattered most, when everything looked doomed."
"Or earlier in the forest," Ditzy Doo said. Both her eyes were focused on Cheerilee. "That school activity you made us do. You made us laugh to forget our troubles."
"It matters not!" Corona proclaimed, stomping her hoof as her horn glowed. A bolt of hot, white light lashed towards Cheerilee, or tried to. Lyra saw it and leapt in the way, closing her eyes and preparing for the end...and finding herself pleasantly disappointed when instead, she landed evenly on her hooves, neck now orbited by another collection of shattered stones, Corona's beam of death having been harmlessly deflected away into the sky. The shards were glowing red.
"What – " Trixie began.
Lyra interrupted her, albeit without realizing she was doing so. "Loyalty," she stated, as though it were both obvious fact and a great revelation. "The Element of Loyalty. Because…because of the forest. Because I wouldn't let the sirens get any of you, no matter what. Even if it killed me."
One by one, the remaining shards of the shattered elements picked themselves off of the ground, levitating and glowing and forming a barrier between Corona and the six ponies, but not moving further. Corona's head was whipping around as she looked between each of them, eyes wide as she tried desperately to understand what was going on.
She wasn't the only one. Trixie stomped a hoof. "But why?" she asked, even if nopony could hear her. "Why now?"
Lyra and Cheerilee looked to Raindrops, who looked down at them. "I don't get it," she stated.
"Like I said," Lyra explained, "the Elements can't be destroyed. They made the world. Not even Corona can destroy them."
"That is not my name!" Corona shouted from behind the barrier the Elements' shards had created, as she glared upwards. The sun flared brightly, and a jet of flame and plasma shot down from it, towards the ponies. The shards glowed, however, and the flare splashed against a multi-hued shield without effect, hundreds of feet before reaching them. All that reached them was a wind, although it was admittedly a strong one – strong enough to blow Trixie's hat from her head.
"The Elements aren't something physical," Cheerilee said, "but they do need containers. Those containers were always those rocks…but I guess they don't have to be. They can be ponies, too."
"That's ridiculous!" Trixie shouted, not caring that nopony could hear her. "There's more magic in one Element than in Corona and Luna combined! They'd kill any normal pony!" Trixie blinked a few times even as she said that, looking between Cheerilee and Lyra and how they seemed very much alive and unharmed. "…right?"
A series of shards separated from the wall they had created, and began orbiting around Carrot Top, taking up a purple glow, which spread throughout Carrot Top's body. Her hair changed color, back to its normal orange, and both her mane and tail began to shrink back down to their normal length. Her eyes widened at the sight. "Generosity!" she exclaimed. "I…how do I know that?"
"Because what else would you get?" Lyra asked. "You walked through poison joke for me!"
"Anypony else notice a pattern here?" Cheerilee said with a smile, looking to the ponies. "I think the Elements want us as the new containers. Us. We've all earned them. Trying to get here, trying to get them to get rid of Corona, we want to protect the world they created."
"The Elements aren't alive," Trixie objected. To her own ears, though, she sounded far from sure.
"In that case," Raindrops observed, even as shards took up an orbit around her neck and began shrinking her down to normal size, glowing yellow-orange as they did, "Honesty. That's the one I want. That's the one I am." She had reached her normal size, and she offered something of a smile as she checked her hooves and looked over her normal-size body again. "But I think I earned it before the Everfree, when we were in Carrot Top's house. When I convinced all of us to go on this. Stay honest with ourselves, what we knew we had to do, whether or not we wanted to."
"Sounds about right," Carrot Top said.
Ditzy Doo blinked a few times, even as the last series of shards – green – began to twirl around her throat. "Oh, no," she said, shaking her head. "No, no, no. Not Kindness. I don't deserve – "
"Shut up, yes you do," Raindrops said as she came up to her fellow pegasus, rubbing a hoof on her head. "And don't try to call me wrong. Apparently I'm a reliable source." She jerked a hoof at her shard satellites.
"But – "
"You stopped Raindrops from pounding in Spike's face," Carrot Top noted. "You had no reason to do that."
"He…he wasn't himself, it wouldn't of been right – "
"And," Lyra said, "let's be honest, you're the only one who's been able to consistantly put up with Trixie despite her being a gigantic jerk."
"Hey!" Trixie objected.
"She's not a jerk," Ditzy Doo pointed out. "She was just stressed. And she hasn't been a jerk at all since we came into the Everfree!"
"See?" Cheerilee said, smiling. "And I happen to have it on good authority from a student of mine that you are the hardest-working, best mother in the world."
Ditzy Doo blinked, looking down at the shards. "I…yeah. Kindness. Okay. I can get behind that, I guess…"
Trixie looked between the five other ponies standing beside her, all of whom were glowing slightly, surrounded by an effervescent aura of energy. It occurred to Trixie, idly, that Corona had been lashing out at them the whole time, with fire, with lightning, with tremendous magical power. None of it got through, or even came close to getting through, the multicolored barrier that the Elements had created between the six of them and the Tyrant Sun. But…
"But…but it doesn't matter!" Trixie objected, even as Corona stopped throwing magic, glaring and breathing heavily – actually winded. Trixie looked to Corona, who stared back at her. "It doesn't matter…we still don't have the sixth Element."
Corona paused at that – then began chuckling. "Thou art correct…" she intoned, then laughed aloud. "She is right! I have nothing to fear from this light show! I know not what dark magics you have worked over the former Elements, but you don't have them all! The Element of Magic isn't here! I have but to wait for this parlor trick to run its course, and then – then I shall have you all at my mercy!"
Trixie paused.
She stared.
Her mouth hung open for several moments before words made their way out. "The…Element of Magic?" she asked.
Corona glared at her. "Yes, foal. Know thee not the list of the Elements?"
"Who are you talking to?" Ditzy Doo asked, then realized. "Oh! Trixie! We forgot her!" Her eyes swept over the courtyard. "Where is she?"
"Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Honesty, Loyalty…and Magic?" Trixie asked incredulously.
"Of course," Corona proclaimed, leaning towards Trixie. "All the other Elements are useless without Magic. It is power. Who but the powerful can afford to be caring or giving? Who but the powerful can expect sincerity or faithfulness from those they surround themselves by? Who but the powerful can waste their days in comfort and joy?"
Trixie felt a hoof hit her head, a little harder than its owner, Cheerilee, probably intended. "Ah, found her," she said. The rest of the ponies, who had been reaching out blindly, stopped and stared at Cheerilee as she wrapped her left hoof around what must have, to them, looked like nothing. "Trixie, like I said…there seems to be a kind of pattern here."
"By which she means," Lyra said, coming up along Trixie's right, "that we're pretty sure we're all supposed to have an Element. Maybe it's our destiny or something."
"Or maybe it's just random chance," Ditzy Doo said with a shrug, as she placed herself in front of Trixie for a moment, staring into where she must have guessed Trixie's eyes were. "Doesn't really matter." With that, she went and stood to Lyra's right.
"What does matter is that you pony up," Raindrops said as she tapped Trixie on the head a few times, then sitting down on Cheerilee's right side. "Come on. Corona just figured everything out for you. It's the Element of Magic."
"Oh!" Carrot Top said after a moment. She also got in front of Trixie, looking her in where she supposed her eyes were, a broad grin on her features. "And I just noticed something. Remember Princess Luna's 'stupid' riddle?" With that, she trotted over and stood to Ditzy Doo's right, though she kept her eyes focused on the empty space that Trixie occupied. "Take a look beside you."
Trixie blinked a few times at that, doing so. To her left was Lyra, Ditzy Doo, and Carrot Top. To her left, Raindrops and Cheerilee. Beside her.
Beside her.
"The sixth Element is Magic," Trixie reasoned aloud, closing her eyes. To her surprise, it actually worked; that was, she managed to block out her view of the world. Opening her eyes again, she saw that she had, somehow, become visible again. Maybe due to the close proximity of the other Elements. In fact…yes, that was definitely it. That was a clue, she knew.
"The sixth Element is Magic," Trixie repeated. "And…and it's right beside me. You're all right beside me."
"A regular genius, you," Raindrops noted, though she was grinning slightly.
"So, what?" Trixie asked, looking to her left and her right, trying to puzzle things through. She'd lived with Luna for ten years, she should have been better than this at puzzles. "Ponies are magic? Mares are magic? The Elements are magic? What?"
"Friendship is magic?" Cheerilee suggested.
"Stop ignoring me!" Corona shouted. "I am thy Queen! I am the Sun! Give me the respect I am due!"
Trixie ignored her. "You're not my friends," she objected. "You all hate me."
Cheerilee laughed. "Trixie, we don't hate you. So you can be a jerk. So what? So can everypony. But we wouldn't even be here without you."
"You made my muffin smile," Dinky Doo pointed out. "That makes you a friend in my book."
"You also walked through poison joke for me," Lyra pointed out.
"You helped my farm," Carrot Top added.
"And…well, your heart was in the right place with the weather-for-hire team," Raindrops admitted. "So…yeah. Friends?"
"Friends," the other four ponies agreed.
Trixie's eyes were wide. "Friends," she echoed softly.
"Good," Cheerilee said. "Now could you hurry up and figure out how to get the Element of Magic already so that – "
There was a bright, lavender flash from above Trixie, and an orb of that same color appeared in front of her head. Trixie stared into it. Somehow, it stared back. And Trixie got the distinct impression that it liked what it saw.
"Already did," Trixie observed, as the orb and the stones surrounding each other pony flashed and coalesced around them. In the case of the others – of Trixie's friends – they became gilt necklaces, emblazoned with arcane designs and each holding a gem of a different color, that took the shape of their cutie marks. In Trixie's case, the orb of light instead became a tiara that set itself upon her head, glowing with radiant energy.
And Trixie saw…something. Maybe everything. She felt herself, and her friends, being lifted off of the ground by magical force, their bodies glowing painfully bright. Corona backed away at the sight.
"No!" The Tyrant Sun exclaimed. "No! This is impossible! You are mortals! You cannot wield the power of the Elements!"
"Anypony could," Trixie said, as she felt eldritch might gathering around her – but oddly, not within her. In each of her friends, yes…but she, herself, contained nothing. Not yet. That wasn't Magic's role in this. "Anypony could have become the Elements. You're wrong, Corona. Power isn't magic. Friendship is magic."
Corona paused at that. "That," she proclaimed, " is the stupidest, most insipid, worthless dross I have ever heard!"
The eldritch energies that had been gathering in the others now left them, and flowed into Trixie. Now she felt her body brimming with magic. She could never have gathered it on her own, but that was the point. Now that it was gathered, however, she was the one who aimed it. She pointed a hoof at Corona.
The white alicorn stood firm. "Thou shalt not banish me once more to the sun," she proclaimed slyly. "I have sealed away my treacherous sister. With her gone, and I as well, who will move the heavens?"
"We'll think of something."
Corona's eyes widened at that. "No!" she exclaimed, as a rainbow-hued beam shot upwards from the ponies and began arching down towards her. She beat her wings, taking to the air frantically and sailing away, but she couldn't outrun the prismatic force that chased her. It caught up to Corona just as she passed over the tower of the ruined Palace, and she fell down to its roof, the rainbow wrapping around her and assaulting her.
"No!" the Tyrant Sun repeated in defiance as the light grew brighter. "No! I shall not fall to thee! I am Celestia! I am the Sun!"
Trixie wanted to remark on that – to say something witty – but she couldn't, as the last of the power that the Elements had gathered chose that moment to leave her body. She gasped at the sudden vacuum of magic within her as she and her friends were lowered to the ground, their descent mercifully gentle, at least until whatever held them up failed and they all collapsed. Trixie had just enough time to hear Lyra groan "not again," before everything once more plunged into darkness.
The light that spread across Trixie's prone form and forced her awake was cool, and seemed to spread gradually, more like fog than actual light. As her eyes fluttered open, she saw the Palace ruins around her, lit brilliantly by the full moon's light –
Moonlight!
Trixie was almost instantly on all four hooves, and almost immediately thereafter had fallen back on her side after her body took the time to remind her that she was exhausted, drained both mentally and magically, and in all ways should not be trying to move as she just did. The blue unicorn took a few deep breaths to steady herself, then climbed onto her hooves at a more measured pace, casting her gaze upwards. Greeting her vision was a star-studded night sky, with a moon hanging high overhead. The moon looked different, however – emblazoned on it was a new pattern that had never been there before, a series of dark patches in the shape of a unicorn's head and horn. Even as Trixie watched, however, the pattern disappeared in a flash.
"Huh," Raindrops said. Trixie looked, and saw her companions – her friends – beginning to pick themselves up as well. "Wonder what that was all – whoa!" Raindrops had to leap backwards as two streaks, one mint green and white and the other pale gray and blonde, whipped past her, nearly bowling her over. As it stood, she was still clipped and sent staggering.
Neither Ditzy Doo nor Lyra seemed to notice as they rushed over to the collapsed foals and older ponies. Trixie's heart fluttered at the sight of so many fallen ponies, and she rushed forward, her remaining friends following. She doubted that the Elements could have possibly harmed them, but Corona hadn't seemed particularly cautious with her spell-casting prior to the end…even as those dark thoughts seeped into her mind, however, they were dispelled, as the merely unconscious foals and mares and stallions began to wake up, completely unharmed.
Though for two of them, at least, that looked like it may have been only a temporary thing. Lyra had found BonBon just as the mare had gotten her hooves under her, and impacted against her with slightly less speed than an unladen train engine with its furnace burning hotter than the fires of Tartaros, sending the two tumbling and ending with Lyra pinning BonBon to the ground, her lips pressed firmly to her love's. Dinky Doo, meanwhile, once found by her mother, "suffered" a similar fate, scooped up into the pegasus mare's forelegs and held tightly against Ditzy's chest, Ditzy showing no signs of ever intending to let her daughter go. Tears were in no short supply, but they were tears of joy, not sorrow.
"Is everypony alright?" Cheerilee asked, as the rest of Trixie's friends caught up to the group. Cheerilee moved quickly into the mass of foals, most of whom gathered around her familiar face, though several remained with the other adults, the ones "lucky" enough to have had relatives kidnapped by Corona as well. "Is anypony hurt?" As the foals all shook their heads or confirmed that they were alright – though scared – Cheerilee looked to Carrot Top and Raindrops, who were amongst the mares and stallions. "How about them?"
"Fine," Raindrops announced as the adults all confirmed that they were alright. "Everypony's okay."
Trixie let out a sigh of relief at that, though her elation was short-lived as she forced her sleep-deprived mind – being forced to unconsciousness was not the same thing, as it turned out – to press forward.
First – she searched the ground near where she had fallen, and found her hat. It was covered in dirt and hoof-marks, a little frayed, and still somewhat damp, but Trixie ignored this as she removed the tiara she still wore – all her friends were, in fact, wearing the jewelry that the Elements had manifested as – and put her hat back on her head. After a moment's consideration, she slipped the tiara on over it, and found to her surprise that the ornament fit rather snugly on her wizard's hat, almost as though it was designed to be there.
That important part having been taken care of, Trixie turned her attentions to the next-most important matter. "Zecora," she said, trotting forward and looking around. "Spike. Where are they?"
There was a moment's pause, before Raindrops took to the sky, looking around. "I don't see them," she announced after a moment of searching.
"Ponyfeathers," Trixie cursed. "No use searching for them now – "
She paused as a flash of silver-white light spread across the courtyard. The ponies there all froze, looking in horror towards the flash's source – the ruined tower of the Palace, the same place that Corona had fallen when the beam from the Elements had finally overtaken her. It was enough to tear Lyra's eyes away from BonBon's, and for Ditzy Doo to squeeze her daughter even tighter.
"No," Carrot Top whispered. "That's…no."
Trixie swallowed, as she looked to the formerly kidnapped mares and stallions, then to the foals, then to her friends. She grit her teeth. "Come on," she insisted, setting off at a gallop. The other five followed her quickly, grim determination setting in.
Reaching the tower was easy, climbing it only slightly harder. The stairs were steep, but they were also stone, and had not worn away over time. The stairs they climbed brought the six Elements of Harmony inside after their climb. They ended up standing in a wide chamber, its roof having long disappeared over time. At its far end was a pedestal set in front of a shattered stained-glass window.
Standing just inside the entrance, her back to the Elements, was a pony, taller than most stallions, deep blue in coloration, with an animate mane tail that were like flowing water catching the reflection of the star-filled sky, possessed of both wings and a horn, and with a cutie mark of a black patch of night broken by a white crescent moon –
"Luna!" Trixie exclaimed, forgetting formal titles. The Princess turned in time to see Trixie rush towards her, though the unicorn skidded to a halt before she could get too close, as memories of her last conversation with the alicorn came rushing back. Her mouth opened and closed a few times before sound came out, and Luna took the time to look at Trixie, then to each of her friends behind her, who had all bowed in respect. "H…hello, princess."
Luna inclined her head. "Hello, Trixie," she responded after a moment. To the blue unicorn's surprise, Luna seemed just as unsure as Trixie herself was as to where this conversation should be going. After a long bout of silence, Luna looked at the tiara on Trixie's head. "The Element of Magic," she noted.
Trixie nodded. "Yes," she confirmed. "It…it took me a little bit, but I finally figured out what you meant when you said that the sixth element was right beside me."
Luna grinned slightly, though it was forced. "That's…good," she decided.
Trixie scuffed a hoof, glancing around a moment. "So…how did you know?" Trixie asked.
"Know what?" Luna inquired.
"Know about them," Trixie responded, waving a hoof to her friends. "How did you know that they'd be beside me, five years ago? Did you know that Corona was going to escape? Was this some kind of plan, or something?"
Luna paused, a look of genuine confusion overcoming her features. It was matched, after several seconds, by Trixie's own expression. "Trixie…" Luna explained, "I meant your cutie mark."
"Ha!" A magenta voice exclaimed. Trixie wasn't certain how a voice could be magenta, but glancing behind her, she saw Cheerilee grinning broadly. The other five had risen from their bows, looking relieved that the silver-white flash had apparently just been Luna returning from exile on the moon, and not the signal to start another round with Corona.
Trixie turned back to her mentor. "But…" she objected. "But my cutie mark isn't beside me! It's on me!"
"On your side," Luna noted.
"But not beside! This is just like that 'always moves but never wanders' riddle – "
"A tree," Carrot Top chimed in. She, along with the other ponies, made their way forward, so that they were standing next to Trixie.
The blue unicorn glared at Carrot Top. "Trees don't move."
"Yes they do," Ditzy Doo explained. "They blow in the wind."
"That's doesn't count as moving! And even if it did, it's not always windy so they don't always move!"
"Trixie, I heard that riddle when I was…one? Maybe?" Raindrops asked. "You're over-analzying it."
"Everypony knows the answer," Lyra added.
"I know it too, it's just that it's a stupid answer," Trixie grumbled.
Luna looked between the six of them, a far more genuine smile on her features at the antics of the ponies before her. "Congratulations," she offered, starting to incline her head, then pausing as she thought better of it. She instead backed away a few paces, and actually bowed to the six ponies. The sight was enough to leave them speechless. "You saved Equestria," Luna continued. "All of you, working together. More than that, you have earned the Elements of Harmony – No. You are the Elements, now. You restored them from their inert state, a feat even I couldn't accomplish. And you did this in order to stand against a monster…against the Tyrant Sun, one of the worst enemies Equestria has ever had."
Luna lifted herself up from her bow. Her expression had changed, her smile dropping and instead a look of melancholy coming over her features as she turned around, looking down the length of the tower's room, as she had on first entering. "Now if you will excuse me," Luna said grimly, "there is somepony that I must talk to."
Celestia was in a considerable amount of pain, but she was alive. She was whole. And she was not trapped once more in her sun. As the alicorn forced her eyes to open, finding herself behind a stone pillar, she began laughing, ignoring that it hurt to do so.
"H…ha!" she exclaimed, climbing to her hooves. "N-not…n-not even the Elements can…can s-stop the Sun!"
"You are typically the more powerful one," Luna admitted.
Celestia's eyes widened, and she spun around, ignoring the ache in her body as she lashed out with magic, calling down a solar flare that burned her treacherous sister's body to a crisp –
– or that was what was supposed to happen. Instead, only a few golden sparks escaped her horn, and even that took everything Celestia had. She nearly fell to her knees from the effort, but she forced herself to remain standing, though with her head drooped. Pink locks of hair fell down over her eyes – her fiery mane was gone. Her eyes would no longer be glowing either, she knew, instead having reverted to reverted to normal-looking ones, with pink irises.
And was it just her, or was Luna taller than she used to be…? No – the opposite. She was shorter than Luna, the consequence of having so much magic pulled from her at once. She would still be taller than many stallions – but not all.
Celestia grit her teeth and flared her wings in challenge. "S-so, sister…" she hissed. "Come…come to finish what the Elements c-could not? The s-sun again? I will escape. I will always escape! Though it take me a thousand years again, or ten thousand, or a hundred thousand! Equestria is still mine, it belongs to me!"
Luna just looked at her, and a terrible clarity gripped Celestia as she realized what she would do if she were Luna and had just heard Celestia proclaim that. "No!" the white alicorn exclaimed, stumbling backwards, wings beating furiously as she tried to take to the air. They lifted her for a moment, but then their strength gave out and she fell once more to the ground. Her hooves scrabbled on the stone floor beneath her as she picked herself up and began running, towards the exit to this ancient palace – and finding her way blocked by the corrupted Elements.
"No!" Celestia proclaimed again, backing away, eyes wide – nearly as wide as their own as the Elements took in her changed appearance, her mundane mane and tail, her shrunken form. Looking away, looking once more for somewhere to run, she saw her sister coming out from behind the pillar Celestia had been at moments ago, the same look on her face.
Celestia grit her teeth, trying to call upon her magic. Sparks once more flew from her horn even as she backed away from the steadily advancing Luna. "No! Thou cannot!" she exclaimed. "I am the Sun! I am thy Queen! Thy elder! Thou has no right to judge me! Equestria is mine! Mine to do with as I please – "
"Celestia," Luna tried.
" – as is everypony in it!" Celestia continued, as she tried once more to call on magic. She was certain her mane and tail ignited even for the barest moment, as she continued to back away from Luna. "The ponies are like gnats! They need protection! A strong hoof – "
"Celestia!"
" – lest chaos reign! They are weak and mortal and do not know the dangers that surround them!" Celestia had backed herself against a stone pillar. She tried to move around it, but Luna was there, in front of her, faster than her considerably weaker senses could follow, wings spread wide and creating a wall. "Without me," Celestia continued, "the griffins…the dragons…Discord…Tirek…thou were there, Luna! Thou knowest the world as I do! How canst thou deny my right? My cause is just! My – "
"Tia!"
The name cut through Celestia's tirade, and her defenses, like a hot knife through butter. She blinked several times. The word had possessed no magic, in and of itself, but…
…how long? How long since her sister had called her that? Longer than a millennium, certainly. She gazed upwards at Luna, who returned the stare evenly. For the first time, Celestia looked at her sister, and saw not murderous resolve, not treacherous intent, but…but sadness. Resignation.
Celestia lunged with her horn. Luna blinked, and Celestia's entire body was wrapped in a midnight blue aura, her horn-charge stopped before coming anywhere near Luna's throat. "Don't…" Luna said, though her voice cracked. She paused, closing her eyes, before starting over without opening them. "Please, Tia. Don't make me do this again. A thousand years ago, I thought I'd lost you forever and it destroyed me. But if this…if this is going to turn into some kind of cycle…" The princess paused once more, before opening her eyes and looking Celestia in the face. "We were meant to rule together, sister – "
"No!" Celestia shouted. "It's mine! All of it! Everything! Mine! All mine!"
Luna retreated several steps at the exclamation, eyes wide, as Celestia began struggling against Luna's telekinetic grip. "Tia, you're not well. You need help. Let me – "
"Release me! Release me or next time, I will not spare thee! Thou shalt burn!"
Luna blinked several times more, mouth hanging slightly open as she watched Celestia struggle, and cry out in anger. The princess was breathing heavily at the sight, and looked like she was on the verge of collapsing and just dying on the spot from sorrow at what her sister had become. After several long moments, however, her eyes narrowed, and she forced her breathing to steady. "Corona," she proclaimed, ignoring the alicorn's cries of protest about her name. "You leave me no choice. You will once more be banished to the heart of the sun. Escape, if you can, but next time, I will be waiting. I will be prepared."
Celestia spat at Luna. "Thou shalt suffer!" she shouted, even as Luna's horn began to glow brighter. "You shall all suffer for denying me my right – "
Luna's horn was glowing bright enough, now, to transcend its normal blue aura, and be glowing white instead. She opened her eyes – similarly gleaming with power…when a green-tinged cloud of particles passed in front of her face.
The princess stumbled backwards and out of the cloud, coughing and sputtering at whatever she had inhaled. Her concentration slipped, and Celestia fell to the floor, out of Luna's magical grip, while Luna's own magic spun wildly out of control, sending off jets of light and power in random directions. Several nearly struck the Elements of Harmony, but their accessories glowed, and created a barrier against the unintentional assault, protecting them.
Celestia lifted herself to her hooves, intent on charging forward with her horn once more, when she felt the presence of a pony beside her. Glancing, she saw Zecora, once more wearing her brown cape, and with an unconscious Spike on her back. "Quickly, your majesty!" Zecora exclaimed, as she reached into her cloak and produced a bottle of a liquid that somehow managed to be striped blue and red, and unstopped it. "This brew will restore power to you!"
Celestia didn't need to hear anything else, biting down on the end of the bottle and throwing her head back, swallowing the concoction in one fell gulp, ignoring its bitter taste. She felt it work almost immediately, but pathetically. It gave her only a fraction of her total power. Next to her sister she would still be weak as a foal, and now Luna looked like she was recovering from whatever Zecora had done to her, glaring angrily at the zebra and her sister.
Celestia was a very, very old alicorn, however, and however much it felt like a slap to her face, she knew when to fall back, make a tactical withdrawal, and any other euphemism one cared to think up for run away. Her horn glowed – still gold, not the pure white she preferred – and she wrapped herself in teleportation magic.
Almost as an afterthought, she included Zecora, and by extension Spike, in her spell as well. That made it twice that the zebra had forestalled disaster. Celestia would not let a follower like that go to waste. As for Spike…well, one never knew when brute, dumb muscle could be useful, and Spike was just that when Celestia forced him to age prematurely.
In a flash of light, Celestia was gone.
But she would return.
Celebrating would come later. For now, hours later as the moon left its high position in the sky and began a gradual, measured, and above all else proper descent towards the horizon, all Ponyville could do was focus on the return of their loved ones.
Most of Ponyville, anyway.
Trixie nodded her head slightly. "It's actually in better condition than I thought it would be," she remarked as she picked her way through her living room, careful not to step on broken glass or splintered wood. The hole Raindrops had made in her window, remained, of course, but it had been added to a dozen times over by ponies that looked like they had been literally tearing up the floorboards looking for Trixie.
Luna moved with somewhat less caution, a scowl on her features as she surveyed the damage, deepening when she saw that the storybook mural on the wall that had contained the legend of Celestia's fall and Corona's rise has been left largely untouched. "This…" Luna said, "this is unacceptable. Whatever their imagined issue with you, this house is…" she paused as her gaze centered on a hole in the ceiling of the room, "was property of the Crown."
Trixie looked to Luna. "It's just a house," Trixie remarked. She forced herself to be cheerful. "They were angry and scared. And taking that out on wood and plaster is better than taking it out on each other, right?" Trixie paused a moment as she thought. "Or me."
Luna's scowl persisted for several long minutes. Her gaze had drifted back to the mural once more, and she had stepped up to it, looking into the painted eyes of Corona. The wall stared back emotionlessly. "You're right," Luna admitted with a sigh.
Trixie watched Luna closely. Finally, she asked the question that had to be asked. "Are you alright?"
"Of course I'm not!" Luna snapped. The unicorn didn't budge at the burst of emotion, nor the glare that followed, albeit only for a few moments before Luna reigned herself in, taking in a deep breath and letting it out slowly. "Every history text talks about Cel - about Corona and the revolution against her and my brave and noble sacrifice by sending her into the sun. But everypony seems to of selectively forgotten what happened next. Everypony but me, and I am trying very, very hard to stop myself from having a relapse. I was as bad as Corona."
Trixie blinked at that. "I really don't think that's possible," she said.
Luna glared at her again. "I was worse," the princess insisted. "Corona was a tyrant. I was absent and utterly useless at affairs of state because I spent the better part of twelve years in a drunken stupor, trying to block out what I had done, what Corona had forced me to do. I would let days pass without raising the sun, and would set it early as the mood struck me, and probably only raised it at all because barley and grapes need sunlight. I would arrange the stars however I wished. I would descend upon a settlement and make the inhabitants wait on my every wish and amuse myself by manipulating their lives and dolling out favor and misfortune as I desired. I did anything, anything, to make myself forget, and ponies everywhere suffered for it." Luna snorted as she looked away from Trixie.
Trixie considered. For whatever reason, she wasn't actually very surprised by Luna's admission. "Did you hurt anypony?" she asked.
"Countless thousands."
"I mean in a permanent way. An unforgiveable way, rather than just you being a big, drunk jerk wandering the countryside."
Luna stifled a burst of laughter at that. Trixie's statement made Luna sound like she had been a sorority head leading a hazing ritual more than anything. "I have not forgiven myself," Luna stated.
"Princess…"
The alicorn shook her head. "No. I was capricious and melancholy, not a monster. But I was essentially a little Discord. A storm of chaos followed me wherever I went."
Trixie had made her way to an overturned bookcase. It had been full of a fairly generic collection of books, mostly the classics like Foalnapped and The History of the Decline and Fall of the Griffon Empire. Trixie had added only a single book to the collection since moving in, and breathed out a sigh of relief as she found her copy of Don Rocinante unharmed. "What snapped you out of it?"
"A family of dragons decided that Equestria was weak and ripe for pillaging. I happened to be nearby as they crossed the border and…convinced them that they were mistaken. But after that I realized what I'd been doing. That I was letting my pain and suffering become the pain and suffering of others."
"But you did realize," Trixie noted. "Corona didn't…she still hasn't. That makes you better. And you're right, everypony seems to of forgotten that bit of history. It must not of been as bad as you make it out to be."
That didn't seem to improved Luna's mood. She breathed in deeply, and let her breath out slowly. "Celest…Corona…will be weak for a long time," Luna stated. "She will recover the depth of her magical reserves in just a few days, but the power will take longer…perhaps five or six months. But she will not be quiet in that time." The alicorn ruffled her wings a few times as she thought, then looked back to Trixie. "We should return to Canterlot."
Trixie blinked a few times at that. "We?" she asked.
Luna grinned slightly. It was forced, but only because Luna still didn't seem to be much in the mood – the intent behind it was genuine enough. "Trixie, you saved Equestria, saved the lives of some five dozen captives Corona had taken. Surely you don't think that I'm still angry with you." She looked away. "I…I was lying when I said I didn't banish you here. I did. It is an excellent first appointment, in a way, but it is also small and easily forgotten and has little standing in the Night Court. Sending you here was intended as a punishment."
Luna looked back to Trixie. "The Night Court is the strictest meritocracy. You have to climb through its ranks yourself, Trixie, get noticed yourself, collect your own favors and prestation. But there was no need for me to send you here, where you'll essentially be locked out of the Night Court. I will arrange for a proper appointment elsewhere. A junior advisory position in Manehattan or Neigh Orleans, or a minister to one of the protectorate states like Cavallia or Pferdreich, something where, if you're clever enough, you could actually get noticed – "
"I was actually hoping I could stay," Trixie interrupted. Luna looked surprised at Trixie's desire as the unicorn pressed on. "I mean…I made a horrible first impression on everypony…the residency is a bit of a fixer-upper…Ponyville is kind of the wasteland of Equestria…I'm not sure about the mental stability of some of the ponies here…" she trailed off as she realized that, if she contiued listing all the flaws of Ponyville, the two would be there all night, "…anyway. My friends are here. It's close to Canterlot so I could even attend the Night Court directly from time to time. And given that I'm your apprentice and I sort of just helped save Equestria, I don't think being noticed will be a problem."
Luna considered Trixie carefully, before nodding. "Very well," she said, as she turned around to leave. Trixie followed, both of them exiting through the front door of the residency (the front aperture, at least, the door itself Trixie had not been able to find), out a sense of tradition if not necessity given the numerous other options Ponyville had seen fit to provide Trixie with. "Stay at a hotel for now, I will arrange for the residency's repairs."
Trixie nodded at that, though a second later she flinched a little. "About that…" she said. "I might have spent my entire stipend when I was trying to…well…spite you."
Luna glanced at Trixie incredulously. "How?" she asked.
"Weather-for-hire ponies aren't cheap, especially when they're rushed down from Cloudsdale."
"But they ended up being superfluous."
"Their contract specifies 'no refunds.'"
Luna shrugged. "I suppose I could float you some bits," she remarked as her horn glowed. With a pop, a small cloth bag appeared in front of Trixie, who caught it telekinetically.
Trixie was puzzled a moment, before sighing. "It was you. The random pony I stopped on the street and paid thirty bits to find Lyra." She considered as she remembered Luna's trick prior to the official beginning of the Longest Night. "One of you, anyway."
"Indeed. I will arrange for more money to be sent to you. But that," she pointed a hoof at the bag, "is a loan. I expect to be paid back."
Trixie blinked. "Why? You're the princess! You haven't paid for anything in centuries! Millennia, even!"
Luna offered a grin, a more honest one than any she had been able to produce for some time. "Maybe that's because as the princess, I never get paid. It was a novel experience, and I had plans for those bits."
"What plans?"
Luna didn't answer as the two reached the residency's front gate and stepped out into the street. Previously, it having been nighttime for the first time in what Luna had told them was nearly twenty hours of daylight – the longest day in Equestrian history, though far short of Corona's promised ten days of uninterrupted sunshine – everypony had been asleep or, more likely, lying awake, fearing what Corona was doing to their loved ones. Now, the entire town was up and active in their homes, the sheer elation of having their foals and loved ones returned to them an almost palpable sensation, though that probably wouldn't persist for long as exhaustion set in and everypony got some much-deserved rest.
Luna turned to Trixie as they stopped. "Now then, Trixie," she said. "You have friends here, and that's good. But you've had those in the past, too, and managed to drive them away. You must try, hard, not to do that again."
"I know," Trixie said, images of previous friends she'd had in Canterlot drifting by in her mind's eye. Sea Swirl, Amethyst Star, Chocolate Tail… she nodded, looking up at her hat. The Element of Magic was still there. It was, perhaps, a bit gaudy, and Trixie didn't think she'd make a habit of wearing it all the time. Probably just for formal occasions and whenever she needed to save the world, the latter of which would hopefully be a rare event. "Friendship is magic and all that."
Luna blinked. "Not the phrasing I would have used…" she admitted, "but completely valid in its own way. But I don't mean you should keep your friends just to keep the Elements functioning. That would be a hollow, meaningless thing. More than anything else, you should be happy."
Trixie nodded. "I'll try," she promised, bowing. "And I'll see you soon, princess Luna."
The alicorn inclined her head in acknowledgement, then thought better of it and instead came forward and pulled Trixie into a deep embrace. Trixie remained a not particularly touchy-feely pony and flinched, but after a moment returned the show of affection. Eventually, Luna pulled away, and closed her eyes, horn glowing. In a moment, she had become a nebulous, star-studded mass that rose into the night sky, then shot off.
Trixie watched Luna disappear, then looked to the bag of bits she held. A thought occurred to her, that hadn't before, but in hindsight it was one she really should have considered first.
"Does Ponyville even have a hotel?" she asked, then paused again. "Would I even be able to check in at this hour? I wonder if Carrot Top has a spare bedroom…"
