Two ponies dressed in clean white robes the color and sheen of polished opal strode through a hall deep beneath the academy, deep purple gems set affixed to the wall at measured intervals were glowing to a degree that caused both ponies to keep their heads low so as to shield their eyes from the glare. The Bleed Gems were an artifact of pre-equestrian times created to diffuse excess magical energy along fixed lines to prevent powerful rituals from adversely affecting the environment around them, normally it caused them to glow dimly as the power was distributed amongst the several hundred gems positioned throughout the academy, but then the gems had never needed to bleed off the magic of a goddess for sixteen hours straight before.

The two ponies approached the gate to the primary ritual chamber, two massive colts in heavy golden armour etched with hieroglyphs intended to break apart magical energy halted them.

“State your name, rank, and business,” the first guard said in a harsh tone, the hours were wearing on all in the area.

The first pony lowered her hood, a mare with startlingly blue eyes and a cream-white mane that matched her coat, “Mesmer Star, Luminarch, I’m here to relieve Luminarch Shimmer Shine from ritual duty.”

The second pony lowered his hood, he was rather ordinary-looking but had kind eyes the color of jade and an earthy brown coat to match his dirty blonde mane, “Astral Ether, Lunarch, here to relieve Lunarch Nova Black.”

The armoured pony inclined his head respectfully to the two senior magi and gestured to his fellow guard to open the massive double doors. Beyond them was a chamber built in a way that caused the gaze to falter, it was subconscious and bred a sense of unease into anypony who hadn’t passed through one before. It was a cleanse chamber, built in a manner that diffused all outside energies to a neutral state. Such precautions were necessary when entering during an ongoing ritual, even a stray strand of uncontrolled energy could cause an upset in the delicate balance necessary to maintain the kind of spells the room beyond this one was used for. Unfortunately it wasn’t a particularly fast process, it took anywhere from ten to twenty minutes to fully diffuse lambent energies off of two Unicorns as powerful as Mesmer and Astral. Used to the troublesome protocol the Unicorns settled themselves on the floor as the doors boomed shut behind them and the diffusion process began.

Astral spoke first, “Mez’, do you think we can manage this? I mean really manage it? This will be our second shift and I don’t know about you but last time we did this I felt like I was barely holding on to my sanity through all that power, much less actually accomplishing anything.”

Mesmer smiled wryly, for centuries the Lunarchs and the Luminarchs had been barely tolerant of one another, the relationship being cold at the best of times and outright hostile at the worst, but despite their differing magical disciplines Princess Celestia had insisted that her sister’s court of magi be maintained. It caused no small amount of contention, the Luminarchs always looking down on the Lunarchs as poor cousins or even possible traitors, and the Lunarchs themselves nursed the bitter grudge of having their founder and the head of their order banished. Only a hoofful of years ago she and Astral would’ve been at each other’s throats on a good day, now here she was chatting with her opposite number in the Lunarchs whom she was fairly certain had become her closest friend, or rather more than that if she were honest with herself. Something about Astral’s voice, the enunciated Manehattan accent, his use of his pet name for her, endeared him to her; Mesmer smiled as she recalled one particular night at the bar where they had spent several hours discussing theoretical metaphysics in a way she had never been able to with any of her colleagues. It wasn’t that they couldn’t keep up it’s that she enjoyed questioning standard practice and discussing such a thing with other Luminarchs brought condescending sneers at best. Astral Ether was different though, he listened and talked and was easily her match in wit, Mesmer recalled their first argument which turned into a discussion that went long into the night and only stopped at the crack of dawn. Astral was certainly more than a friend, especially after that one particular night at the bar outside Canterlot Castle when they’d both had one too many glasses of Chateau LeBlanc and decided to move the debate to her place where it became significantly less wordy. Mesmer felt a warmth rise to her face as she dismissed that particular memory and brought her mind back to Astrals question.

Mesmer thought for a moment before answering, soft smile still in place, “We’re not really here to be doing anything but serving as a buffer for the sheer amount of magic Princess Luna is using to maintain the barrier, without us to support the extra load even she would’ve burnt out hours ago.”

Astral Ether nodded but pressed the issue, “I know that of course but how long can we keep it up, I know she’s a goddess but everypony has limits, even our Caelestis Luna.” It was a sign of how highly Astral regarded Mesmer Star that he used the Lunarch’s secret name for their founder, in old Equestrian it meant something close to Luna of the Heavens, it was a name no Luminarch had heard but her and she appreciated what it meant about his trust in her.

“We can only hope, I have faith that the Sisters have a plan and we have to play our part in it,” Mesmer answered. She appreciated Astral’s fears, she would’ve been lying if she said that they hadn’t occurred to her as well, but there was nothing to be done but to trust Luna and Celestia, and hope that their magic could counteract the evil that was rising in the provincial town of Ponyville. “Say Astral, did you ever get a chance to meet Celestia’s protégé?”

Astral blinked as though caught off guard by the question but shook his head, causing his mane to tumble rakishly about his eyes in a way that Mesmer secretly appreciated more than she felt she should, “You mean the unicorn that supposedly caused all of this? No I can’t say that I have, although I’m skeptical that any one pony could cause this much damage, the kind of unparalleled power it would take is simply beyond belief.”

Mesmer laughed softly, a sound Astral was growing to enjoy more and more as he spent time with the lovely and intelligent mare. “I suppose the idea of that much power in one unicorn does beggar belief a little, but if you ever get a chance to meet her you’ll probably change your mind. Quite frankly I’ve never felt that kind of untapped potential in anypony before, I once saw Celestia spend a single lesson teaching her basic kinetomancy, moving objects around, and by the time the Princess had finished Twilight had already moved the twenty kilogram training sphere to the other side of the room.”

Astral stared at Mesmer in disbelief, “Twenty kilograms? The final exam for Kinetomancy 201 at the academy was only fifteen, and that was after three months of practice!”

Mesmer nodded at his response, “Oh believe me I know how you feel, after seeing that I was depressed for days, a foal had mastered in mere moments what it had taken me months to manage, and only then just barely, but once I had time to process it I stopped being depressed and…” Mesmer paused as she considered her next words carefully.

“What is it? You stopped being depressed and started being what?” Astral asked softly, seeing the distress on Mesmer’s face.

“I was scared Astral, more than that I was terrified, the academy had been teaching Kinetomancy for centuries and the fastest anypony had even mastered it was at least a couple of months. It felt… abnormal for anypony to master the magical arts that fast. Unnatural even.” She said softly as she laid her head down on her hooves. Astral scooted over to her and laid a hoof across her shoulders and she leaned into him, inhaling the calming scent of his coat. “And I felt like a monster for thinking about her that way, I mean, she was just a foal, she couldn’t know what other ponies thought of her, what they whispered about her.”

“I remember hearing some of those rumors circulating about, but I’d never really put any stock in them, I mean, a foal who could use translocation magic? Absurd. Or at least I thought so until now…” He said, his voice becoming softer as he took in her words completely. If a pony could master even the advanced arts that quickly what did that mean? What kind of magical potential would that take? It was mind-boggling.

“So if this Twilight Sparkle is so powerful why would Celestia send her away? To someplace like Ponyville of all places? To keep her out of the way?” Astral mused partially to himself and partially to Mesmer who was still tucked under his right foreleg.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Mesmer raised her head level to Astrals own.

“Well, why do you think she would do it?” Astral asked, genuinely curious to hear her theories, Mesmer had always been a brilliant maga, even the Lunarchs held a sort of grudging respect for her before the return of Caelestis Luna and the mending of the fence between the two orders.

“I think it was because Celestia knew that Twilight needed more than just training, she needed connections and relationships… in short she needed to live. We’re taught that control isn’t learned in a classroom it’s achieved over the course of our lives, Twilight never left the Canterlot Library really, she never made any real friends, never seriously talked to anypony except the Princess.” Mesmer tried to reach her point, to make Astral get where she was coming from. “It’s lessons, life lessons that you only really learn by going out on your own and making mistakes and learning from them.”

“I think I understand what you mean, Celestia figured that unless Twilight experienced life in all its troublesome glory she would ill-prepared to deal with hardship and would be less able to maintain control over her powers if she did,” Astral said softly, slowly grasping Mesmer’s point and marveling at the depth of her natural deductive understanding.

“Exactly,” replied Astral, glad that he had understood her reasoning, “Not only that though… I think Princess Celestia knew Twilight would need friends, I mean, imagine what kind of distance her power would put between her and other ponies, that’s probably why the Princess sent her somewhere like Ponyville, it was a place nopony would’ve heard of her or the rumors that surrounded her. Somewhere she could…” she trailed off searching for the words.

“Start fresh?” Astral supplied thoughtfully and Mesmer nodded with a smile.

“Yea, start fresh, that’s exactly it,” Mesmer agreed.

“But it didn’t work did it? I mean, look at the situation we’re in now…” Astral said somewhat bitterly, but Mesmer just shook her head.

“That’s not fair Astral,” she chided him, “I’d like to see how well you would handle seeing the things that poor mare saw, not to mention having two of her friends die horribly as well as finding out one of them was no less than the worst serial killer Equestria has ever seen.”

Astral had the grace to look admonished and accepted Mesmers words, “You’re right of course, that was thoughtless of me, I really couldn’t imagine that kind of trauma, I’m sorry.”

“It’s alright Astral just remember that you’re talking about another pony here, she’s not a monster, just… different,” Mesmer said, though Astral felt she was half talking to herself as well as him.

“So what do we do?” Astral asked, not directing the question to anypony in particular.

“We do what we were trained to do, support our Princesses and hope that Equestria comes out of this one in one piece,” Mesmer answered as the sound of the locking mechanism attached to the door leading to the primary ritual chamber unlocked with a pneumatic hiss signaling the completion of the diffusion process.

Both ponies stood hastily and rearranged their robes, the Luminarchs and the Lunarchs were on friendlier terms but friendship wasn’t quite there, several centuries of rivalry and occasional hate weren’t easy to ignore. All the same before the doors opened Mesmer touched her hoof to Astrals and pulled him into a soft but insistent kiss. They smiled softly to each other as the double doors swung wide and the cacophony of energy spilled into the chamber.

Surrounding the edges of the ritual circle were fourteen of the most powerful magi in Equestria and at the center was a living goddess suspended in midair, her body seemingly made of starlight and undiluted power, her voice was like the whisper of the night breeze over the peaks of high mountains. As they entered the two magi they were assigned to replace disengaged from the ritual circle with the proper litanies and side-by-side Astral Ether and Mesmer Star took their places and they knew no more as their consciousness’s were swept up into the roiling power of the goddess Luna.