Rainbow Dash had heard about teleportation, but she’d never thought she’d actually get to see it. Something seemed fundamentally off about it, as if it were cheating, something against the rules of the universe. She didn’t understand how something could be allowed to travel from Point A to Point B instantaneously, without travelling through the space in between. Speed became irrelevant, as did space and, perhaps, even time. She knew few unicorns were capable of pulling it off due to the extreme magical aptitude required to make use of it, and so thus far, her only exposure to it had been playing the unicorn mage fighter in an old two-player arcade cabinet back in Ponyville.

In the video game, the unicorn mage used teleportation to get behind her opponent and open them up for an attack if the other player didn’t about-face their own character and activate their block in time. It happened in just a few frames, and in the world of the game, it looked like the unicorn mage had only moved a few feet.

One moment she was there, and then she wasn’t. It seemed to be the magical equivalent of opening a door and walking through it before closing it behind oneself. Rainbow Dash sincerely wished that had been the sort of experience she had undergone when facing her first teleport.

Instead, when the odd violet unicorn had appeared and then disappeared once again, taking Rainbow and Applejack with her, they hadn’t reappeared somewhere else instantly so much as witnessed themselves floating away from the place in which they had just been. Or rather, the place they had just been floated away from them, as if reality were melting and swirling down a drain. The teleportation hadn’t taken them through a door, but through a hallway.

A long, dark, bleak, infinite void of nothingness. Rainbow Dash would have screamed had she a mouth to do so, but nothing existed out here save for one’s own consciousness. The magical translocation may have lasted no time at all, or lasted an eternity, but the world did at last come rushing back around them. Reality plucked them from the void, the resurgence of existence like a painful smack, as if they were children who had wondered out at night only for their mother to take them back home and give them a stern reprimand.

Walls spun themselves out of nothing and reassembled all around them, high, ornate columns holding up a vaulted ceiling with a skylight. The early afternoon sun streamed down into a large study lined with bookshelves, the book titles appearing to write themselves on the spines as Rainbow Dash exited out of nonexistence and once again took on the form of flesh and blood.

Her eyes were bulging, and she struggled for air. She felt like she was suffocating. The air had reappeared inside her lungs as soon as her lungs had reappeared, but the mere afterimage of that total nothingness told some primal part of her brain that there was no air at all. She kicked and flailed for a few moments before her more conscious mind took hold of the situation. She caught breath that was already there, and finally, she responded in the most rational way somepony could to such an experience.

She vomited.

“My books!” exclaimed a new voice, that of a young mare. Wiping the bile from her snout and breathing haggardly, Rainbow Dash raised weary, bloodshot eyes up to see the violet unicorn. She saw why the unicorn’s horn was so strange now, and under normal circumstances she would have been frightened all over again, but she was past the point of caring.

The unicorn pushed Rainbow out of the way, standing over where the pegasus had vomited over a stack of books, and her horn sparked as if in an attempt to levitate the gunk off of the tomes. Her horn, her humongous, twisted, pockmarked, spiky, swirling, nightmare of twisted bone that jutted from a scar-like fissure in the unicorn’s forehead. It was far larger than any unicorn horn Rainbow had ever seen, being easily longer than its owner’s head and looking quite heavy. Nevertheless, the unicorn moved about with practiced ease.

Her horn’s sparks died. She tried again, but nothing happened.

“Celestia’s Mane,” the unicorn cursed. “I burnt out again. She’s going to give me such a scolding when she finds out what I’ve done. I shouldn’t have been spying on you all in the first place, I know, but I couldn’t resist, and when I saw the meteor falling, I had to do something!”

“Where’s mah family?” Applejack’s voice inquired. Rainbow looked over to see the half-tree mare standing on legs less wobbly than Rainbow’s entire body felt, looking around the study with a furrowed brow. “Applebloom’s here, but where’s the rest?”

Rainbow spotted the little yellow-and-red filly lying down by Applejack’s root-like hooves, her head raised as she yawned and blinked open her eyes.

“Where are we, Applejack?” the filly inquired sleepily.

“There were other ponies there?!” the unicorn gasped. “I’m so sorry! I’ll ask the Princess to send the Royal Guard over as soon as possible. I mean, they should already be on their way, but I didn’t see anypony else in the scrying glass, so I thought it was just you three...”

“You left them there?” Applejack asked flatly.

“I’m so, so sorry!” the unicorn pleaded. “I’d go back if I could, but my horn burnt out, and it’ll take a few hours to recharge... Where they inside the house? Maybe they’ll stay hidden until the Royal Guard can stop the batpony soldiers...”

“They were the trees!” Applejack shouted, stomping her thick wooden hoof onto the ground and shaking the piles of books nearby, sending some toppling over. Rainbow noted that Applejack’s roots had sharpened into spikes once again. “Those batponies are gonna burn the whole orchard!”

“Where’s Mama and Papa?” Applebloom asked. “And Big Macintosh and Granny Smith?”

“The trees?” the unicorn echoed. “The Princess can make sure the Starfall Survival Fund makes a donation to your farm. We can give you lots of new trees.”

Tears welled in Applejack’s eyes. Her whole body was trembling, and dark-red mushrooms and odd plants with spiny green teeth were growing out of her tree-trunk legs.

“Wait, wait,” Rainbow said, stepping between them both. Her stomach did a somersault, but she fought it down. “You were spying on us? Then didn’t you hear the whole thing about Applejack’s family and the curse?”

“The scrying glass only projects images, not sounds,” the unicorn said. “It’s like a crystal-vision without any volume.”

She gestured to what Rainbow had mistaken to be a table a little ways off in the center of the study. It was a large, flat, glass disc raised on curved metal stands. Rainbow peered at it, and the disc lit up, images of mountainscapes and beaches and forests and canyons all swirling together.

“I wasn’t supposed to be using it at all,” the unicorn said. “It’s off-limits, but when I heard the lunar forces were searching for one particular pony, I had to do my own research. It took me ages to find you. Even the Princess couldn’t figure out where you were, but I used a magical algorhythm of my own design, and—”

“You left mah family behind to die!” Applejack shouted, lunging at the unicorn.

Rainbow kept between them, catching Applejack and trying her best to hold the mare back, which wasn’t easy. Applejack was far larger and stronger, and though Rainbow Dash was lithe with taut, wiry muscle, she was far smaller and her hollow bones were no match for whatever magical wood Applejack was slowly becoming.

“She didn’t know!” Rainbow shouted back. “It was a mistake, a misunderstanding! She would have saved them if she’d known, but if she hadn’t saved us, we’d be dead too. So would Applebloom.”

That stopped Applejack. Her body went rigid, and she let Rainbow Dash set her down gently. Silent tears were still streaming down her face, and she shook gently, but she was still.

“Ah need some time alone with Applebloom,” Applejack whispered.

Rainbow nodded, and did something she hadn’t done to another pony since she lost her own father. She leaned down to where her first real friend was lying, gently crying on the floor, and hugged her as tight as she could. It took a moment, but Applejack hugged her back.

“Come get me when you need me,” Rainbow whispered, and Applejack nodded.

Standing back up, Rainbow nodded at the unicorn, who lead them out of the study, quietly closing the doors behind them. Beyond was a large and long hallway that eventually curved down into a set of stairs. The entire place looked incredibly well-maintained. A perfectly clean scarlet carpet covered the floor. Paintings of unicorns in strange, antique robes lined the walls, and even a few old yet shiningly polished suits of armor stood on either side of a few other doors. It looked like the home of somepony incredibly wealthy.

“Um, I’m sorry, about whatever I—” the unicorn stammered.

“It’s okay,” Rainbow said. “And thank you. If you hadn’t saved us, we’d be dead too. Applejack’s really hurting right now, and I get that, I’ve been there, but I think she knows that too. She’s glad you saved Applebloom, and I’m sure you’ve earned her thanks for that.”

The unicorn bit her lip, still glancing back at the doors to the study, before she turned back to Rainbow and stuck out her hoof.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” she greeted. “I wish we could have met under better circumstances, Rainbow Dash.”

“You know my name?” Rainbow said, shaking the offered hoof.

“I’m not supposed to know it, but yes,” Twilight said. “I’ve been sneaking peeks at the the reports the agency brings to the Princess. They don’t know much, but they do know the lunar forces are targeting you specifically for some reason, and have been for years. Something to do with a codename they use over and over. The Princess seems to recognize it, but she won’t tell me what it means.”

“Loyalty?” Rainbow guessed.

“That’s it!” Twilight agreed. “Do you know what it means?”

“No idea,” Rainbow admitted. “You keep mentioning the Princess. Are you talking about Princess Celestia?”

“Yes,” Twilight said proudly. “I’m her personal student. She’s educating me in the magical arts.”

“That’s neat,” Rainbow said, meaning it. She frowned, remembering something. “You said that doohickey of yours that spied on us couldn’t hear sound, right?”

Twilight nodded.

“I think this thing might be bigger than just me,” Rainbow said. “When it was just one batpony, before the meteor fell, she called Applejack ‘Honesty’.”

“Princess Celestia will have to know about this at once,” Twilight said, her eyes widening. “This is a major development! One moment, let me find Agent Gamma, he’ll know—”

“Wait!” Rainbow hissed, placing her hoof over Twilight’s mouth. “How long have you been watching us? What did you see?”

“There was a lot of magical interference, so things kept going in and out,” Twilight said. “The scrying glass is a bird’s eye view, so even when things were mostly clear, the trees obscured a lot. Why do you ask?”

Rainbow looked about surreptitiously, keeping her voice low.

“This is going to sound freaky, because it is,” she whispered. “That first batpony, the one who called down the meteor, she was possessing one of the agents you guys sent.”

“What?!” Twilight gasped. “But, that’s not possible! Batponies have access to umbral magics, certainly, but only the highest and darkest of unicorn mages are capable of enthrallment.”

“She was... Inside his shadow, or something,” Rainbow said. “It was disturbing.”

Twilight was silent for a moment.

“If what you’re saying is true,” Twilight said. “And I have no reason to believe you’d lie, then there’s no way of knowing who in the agency has been... Compromised. The batponies could have spies hidden all over Equestria, taking over anypony, and we’d never even know it!”

Rainbow nodded grimly.

“But the Princess, we can tell her,” Twilight said. “She’ll know what to do, she always does.”

“Where is she now?”

“Just one moment,” Twilight said, smiling nervously, almost cringing. “I am so in for it... Spike!”

One of the doors down the hall opened, a long shadow cast out of it, covered in spikes, with fingers that ended in long, sharp claws. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she backed away nervously. She breathed a sigh of relief as a creature half her size wandered out sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

“I was taking a nap!” the diminutive being said.

“This is important, Spike!” Twilight said, trotting over to the creature and meeting it halfway. Rainbow followed, never having seen anything quite like it, or at least, not in this small a size. Dragons flew around Cloudsdale fairly frequently, the thunder cannons always carefully tracking them, just in case. Luckily, there hadn’t been a dragon attack on Cloudsdale in decades, but something that huge and powerful was not to be trifled with lightly. This little pipsqueak, however, looked more like a scaly stuffed toy than anything that could immolate entire cities.

“Who’s the new girl?” the tiny dragon asked, looking up at Rainbow. “And what’s up with...”

He trailed off awkwardly, eyeing the shattered, bent, and broken remnants of Rainbow’s prosthetic wing. She angled herself away, hiding it as best she could.

“Sorry, touchy subject,” he said. “What is it now, Twi?”

“I’ll explain everything later,” Twilight said. “But you need to send a letter to Princess Celestia, right now. Tell her it’s an emergency.”

“Is everything okay?” Spike asked, quirking an eyebrow. “Did you set fire to the study again? Or raise the dead? You know Princess Celestia said never to look at the Neponomicon!”

“Spike!” Twilight said, stomping a hoof. “This is deadly serious! It’s a matter of national security. The entire fate of the world could hang in the balance.”

“Fine, fine,” Spike said, yawning. “I’ll go get the quill and parchment.”

He shuffled off back the way he’d come, seemingly in no hurry whatsoever.

“You have a baby dragon?” Rainbow said, even more impressed now than she had been when learning Twilight’s title. “That’s wicked.”

“I assure you, he’s quite benign,” Twilight said, walking back towards the other end of the hall, Rainbow trotting alongside her.

“What?”

“He’s not wicked at all,” Twilight assured.

“It’s a figure of speech,” Rainbow chuckled, leaving Twilight looking thoroughly confused.

They trotted up to the floor-to-ceiling window at the end of the hall, where the sun was now slightly lower in the afternoon sky. Twilight looked up at it and sighed.

“She’s really going to be furious,” she murmured.

They sat for a few minutes more in silence. It might have been awkward, but after the day she’d had, Rainbow was honestly grateful for a few moments in which her life wasn’t in mortal peril. The sun was warm, and despite everything that had happened, for the first time in a long while, Rainbow felt relatively content.

After a few minutes had passed, though, Rainbow caught Twilight glancing at her shattered prosthetic wing.

“It doesn’t hurt,” Rainbow said. “I’ll have to get a doctor to take it out. Hopefully I can get a new one. By the way, what’s with your horn?”

Twilight looked sheepish, though whether from being caught staring or being asked about her horn, Rainbow couldn’t tell. Before Twilight could answer, though, the sun quickly grew warmer, and brighter as well. The gleam it shown on the carpet beyond them grew to blinding levels, and Rainbow had to shield her eyes when she turned, following the unnaturally luminous sunbeams. The light rose up and coalesced into a towering equine form, hardening and darkening, but only slightly, into a most impressive figure.

Rainbow Dash had seen plenty of pictures of Princess Celestia, of her towering ivory countenance, of her moving, ethereal mane and tail that seemed to be like semi-liquid rainbows, forever generating and then fading.

None of them compared to the real thing.

“What is it, Twilight?” the Princess asked in a surprisingly soft voice for one so imposing. “Is it your horn?”

“No, Princess,” Twilight said, bowing. She nudged Rainbow, who hastily bowed too. “There’s been a bit of a... Situation...”

“Who is...” Princess Celestia trailed off, looking over Rainbow. Her eyes narrowed, and Rainbow flinched, shrinking back. “Do not fret, my child. I have no wrath for you.”

Twilight gulped as Celestia’s gaze turned to her.

“You, however, my faithful student...”

. . .

Rainbow had her ear pressed up against the door to the room where the Princess had led Twilight. Rainbow very quickly realized this was unnecessary.

“I cannot believe you would be so rash and foolish!” Celestia bellowed. Rainbow almost bit her tongue as she fell back from the door. “You have not only endangered your own life, but the lives of countless others as well. Do you have any idea what would have happened if your tunnel broke, even for an instant? The force could have damaged reality in that area for years! You could have pulled ponies into the void, and they wouldn’t have been protected. It sounds like you were barely able to protect the ponies you took with you. You’re lucky you didn’t turn them inside out. I told you, Twilight, spells of that caliber are not to be used unless you have fully mastered them.”

What in the world was the Princess talking about? And... Turned them inside out? Had that been a real possibility?

“And that’s not even mentioning the scrying glass,” Celestia sighed. “You do realize why I told you never to use it without me, don’t you? You don’t know how to properly shield it yet. It’s a two-way catalyst, Twilight. If you can see out, then the lunar forces—anypony who knew what to look for—could have hijacked it and fed you false information, or worse, used it to spy back on you and the palace! If a powerful enough person got to it, they could even use it to enter the palace, bypassing all our defenses!”

Twilight was silent.

“You did save those three poor mares,” Celestia conceded after a few tense moments. “Your heart was in the right place. But my dear, dear child, if you ever try a stunt like that again... If something were to happen to you... I don’t think I’d ever be able to forgive myself.”

The clip-clopping of hooves approached the door.

Rainbow barely managed to dash out of the way, assuming a position leaning against a wall, trying her best to look disinterested and none the wiser.

“It is impolite to eavesdrop, young mare,” Celestia said, not so much as looking at Rainbow as she headed towards Twilight’s study. The doors opened in front of her, glowing with her horn’s golden aura, warm and bright as the sun.

Rainbow Dash bit her lip and followed, wondering if she should apologize or if doing so would just make things worse. Applejack and Applebloom were still where she had left them, sleeping fitfully, leaning against one another.

Princess Celestia frowned as she saw them, then gave a small smile. She leaned down her horn to Applejack’s legs, gently prodding them. Then, wordlessly, she levitated a blanket from a nearby corner of the room and carefully draped it across the two sleeping forms.

The Princess exited, extending a wing to sweep Rainbow along with her, magically closing the doors behind them.

“What was that about?” Rainbow asked when they were back in the hallway.

“I was seeing if I could reverse the curse,” the Princess answered. “I cannot.”

“Huh?” Rainbow said, cocking her head. “But... Aren’t you supposed to be able to do pretty much anything?”

“Hardly,” Celestia chuckled. “I am fire, and I am the Sun. The Sun can either nurture the natural order of life with its warmth, or burn it with fire, but it cannot directly meddle with the workings of life. All I could do would be to kill those parts of your friend that are cursed or accelerate her changes.”

“Do you know what did that to her?” Rainbow asked as the Princess set off again. Rainbow had to trot briskly to keep up with her long-legged stride. “She said her grandmother made a deal with something in the Everfree forest, and then they all started to turn into trees.”

“Unfortunately, I am well acquainted with the source of her enchantment,” Celestia said. “It is not something easily dealt with. It would be best for you to leave it alone.”

“There’s nothing you could do to stop it?”

“No,” Celestia said as they entered the other room, where Twilight sat sulking. “Only that which placed the curse may lift it, and it would not do so unless it were allowed to place a new, more powerful curse in exchange. You may spare that poor mare and her sister their fates, but you would merely be making things all the worse for somepony else. The best thing that can be done is to leave well enough alone.”

Princess Celestia sat in the center of the room, which looked to be Twilight’s bedroom. However, aside from the presence of a bed and some other basic necessities, it looked like a smaller version of the study. Twilight herself was sitting in a corner, continuing to sulk.

Celestia rolled her eyes with a playful smile as she extended her wing, pulling Twilight closer. Twilight looked up, revealing that she had been crying.

“Are you still mad at me?” Twilight asked with a choking sob.

“I was never mad at you, child,” Celestia said softly. “I was mad for you. I was afraid of losing you.”

Twilight wiped her eyes and looked up, smiling waveringly.

Rainbow half-smiled as well, giving a sad glance back towards Twilight’s study.

“I suppose we should get down to it,” Celestia said. “Twilight, how much of this do you know?”

Twilight told the Princess all she had told Rainbow Dash, as well as all that Rainbow Dash had told her.

“I thought as much,” Celestia said, nuzzling Twilight gently. It almost seemed like motherly affection. Perhaps it was; Rainbow had never heard of the Princess having any children. Perhaps immortal beings couldn’t do so. “You always were too curious for your own good.”

Celestia turned to face Rainbow.

“I know from the reports that you are Rainbow Dash and, as far as we can tell, the mare whom our enemies on the Moon know as ‘Loyalty’,” the Princess said. “Although it sounds like the reports may no longer be as trustworthy as we had once hoped. We do have one leg up, though, in that ‘Honesty’ is now safe with us as well.”

“Do you know what all of this means?” Rainbow asked. “I’ve been dying to know. Uh, pun not intended.”

Princess Celestia chuckled.

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell you all, as it concerns you perhaps more than anypony else in Equestria,” she said. “You’ll have to fill in your friend when she and her sister are done recovering.

“What do you know of the origin of the war with the Moon,” Celestia asked. “As well as the source of the starfalls?”

“I know!” Twilight said quickly. “Almost a thousand years ago, the Goddess of Darkness made war on Equestria, and you used six magical artifacts to defeat her and banish she and her followers to the Moon.”

“Correct,” Celestia said, nodding. Rainbow was following along so far; every foal in school learned this early enough. “Do you know what those artifacts were?”

“The historical records never specify,” Twilight answered, almost as quickly as the first time. “Though I’ve been working on some theories, since you never tell me when I ask. I’m guessing you combined the magical essences of the lost Crystal Heart, the—”

“Good guesses, I’m sure,” Celestia cut her off. “But no. The artifacts were not physical constructs. In a way, I called them ‘artifacts’ to lead ponies astray. I was afraid that if the truth was known, ponies might seek out these powers for themselves, harming those who wielded them.”

“Those who wielded them?” Twilight echoed. “I don’t understand.”

“The ‘artifacts’ were, in actuality, qualities of character,” the Princess went on. “They are known as the Elements of Harmony. Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, Loyalty, and finally, the elusive sixth quality that bound them all together—Magic.”

“Magic?” Twilight said, her eyes lighting up.

“Yes, Twilight,” Celestia said. “These qualities, these primal forces, are an integral part of ponykind. They have always existed, and always will exist. When I first used them, they were between hosts, dormant. I drew them from the ether, calling upon them in a time of need. I was fortunate enough that they saw my cause as worthy enough to answer. When they are not flowing through the tides of time, however, they reside in physical hosts, ponies who exemplify them best. I kept this a secret, out of fear that unscrupulous souls would seek out possible hosts and exploit their power for their own selfish ends.

“But our enemy, the leader of the lunar forces, the dread Nightmare Moon,” Celestia went on. “She is nearly as old as I am. She learned the secrets of the Elements around the same time I did, and she has remembered that information all these many long centuries in her exile. It seems that now that the Elements have resurfaced in hosts, she is seeking them out to destroy them lest they be called upon to defeat her upon her return.”

“Hosts?” Rainbow echoed.

“Return?!” Twilight gasped.

“Yes,” Celestia said, looking out the window. The sun was still above its eventide descent, and the Moon was far from rising, but she seemed to be looking at something other than the here and now. “The powers of the Elements are fickle. They fluctuate with the ages, and now that they have changed form once again, their original hold on Nightmare Moon is fading. The moment she can break free of her bonds, she will do so, and return to Equestria in an attempt to conquer and rule it.”

“But, you used the Elements to defeat her before, right?” Twilight said. “Couldn’t you just do so again.”

Celestia shook her head.

“I called upon them when they were incorporeal,” she said. “But now that they have taken physical form, they are bound by physical laws. They are more limited, but in the ways they can still act, they are more powerful than they ever were when adrift in the ether. Furthermore, they will now only answer to their chosen hosts.”

“You mean,” Rainbow Dash said slowly, trying to comprehend all this. “I’m a host for some sort of magical spirit-thing?”

“That is exactly what I mean, yes,” Celestia agreed. “In time, you could grow to harness and use this power. I would have been happy to train you, but all six Elements are needed to activate their full potential. Alone, you would be powerless against Nightmare Moon. That is why we hid you away with your mother after the batponies found you, although I haven’t the slightest idea how Nightmare Moon discovered which ponies were the modern hosts. I apologize, but I must admit we used you as bait, Rainbow. We always watched and planned to protect you and your mother in case of an attack, but we had hoped to draw out the would-be assassins and question them for information. Strangely, though, no attack ever came. It seems Nightmare Moon completely lost track of you whilst you resided in Ponyville. Or perhaps, somehow, she knew of our plan and stayed away, biding her time. Whatever the case, something kept her forces away.”

“That’s right,” Rainbow said, remembering something. “The batpony who attacked us, she said something about ‘while I hid in the mists of the Aberration’ back in Ponyville, or something. Do you know what that means?”

Celestia looked pale. She murmured something to herself, something Rainbow couldn’t make out. The Princess glanced out the window sharply, but seemed vaguely reassured that something was still there. Rainbow craned her neck, but all she could see out the window were a number of statues in a hedge maze.

“I know what it means,” Celestia said. “But I don’t know how that would be possible. It seems we shall have to drop by Ponyville ourselves and find out.”