The Draconequus stood still, encased in stone. Pebbles sat upon the ground surrounding the base of his statue, their shadows spreading in all directions, causing the sea of mist to stretch and expand in random ways.
Discord mentally smiled, his eyes of stone taking in the mess of pebbles, each one representing another instance of chaos and disorder in the world. And while they were all small, their shadows not large enough to reach the master of Chaos himself, two pebbles stood, larger than the others.
Celestia and Fluttershy had now both gone against what they stood for: justice and Kindness.
And now, he was going to add two more.
He pulled his consciousness out of his body, focusing on a leaf that dangled before him, a focal point for his chaotic mind.
The disembodied spirit floated through the barriers Celestia had placed around his sepulchral clearing, the magic not stopping the essence of thought.
Discord floated towards Ponyville, sights set on the white Pony and her Soul Gems. He arrived at the perfect time, when she had to pour her very soul into the tricky minerals, the slightest lapse in concentration resulting in disastrous results.
Discord lay back, resting upon nothing, his amorphous tendril of thought invisible to the pony. He picked an idea out of the air and shoved it through Rarity's ear.
That won't be enough...
As Rarity's magic stream undulated between her and the Gems, the pony in question struggling to contain the magic, the disembodied spirit of Chaos enveloped the magic strands within himself, pulling them like the strings of a guitar, changing the outcome.
I want this pony good and dead...
The Element of Generosity went unconscious, her magic totally Discord's to control. He pulled himself into the Soul Gems, giving them a sickly green glow, and started forming a ball of energy above the mannequin: energy so concentrated that it could be changed into matter: a corporeal form for Discord to inhabit.
He split the dress into many parts, wanting this pony crushed under her own handiwork.
Yes...some irony will suit her well...
Suddenly, the marshmallow screamed, and in what seemed to be seconds to Discord, the door burst open, revealing the being that had set Discords' escape in motion by his arrival.
The human shouted, and Discord watched in boredom, the first parts of his body already forming in the dense center of the energy sphere.
The human walked over to Rarity and uncovered her. Discord multiplied the dresses again, while somehow missing his target.
Damn...no matter, I'll just have to kill him too...
Then the human did something that Discord had never expected from a creature belonging to such an evil race.
It walked over and reached for one of the Soul Gems, determined to save the pony it barely knew.
Well aware of how fragile the Soul Gems were at this stage, Discord pumped extra energy into the Soul Gems, pulling himself through them over and over again to gain more energy at the same time.
The human didn't care about the pain. When it felt how caustic the gem was, it simply gritted its teeth and took it, crushing the Discords' fragile focal point, sloughing the skin off of its palms, embedding the gems in its fingers.
No...no!
Discord tried to escape the quickly dissipating ball of energy. All he managed to do was give the human an angry look.
-----------------------------------------------------------------Peter------------------------------------------------
Peter woke up in an emergency room, his hands covered with linens, a red, angry spot in the center of each where the Soul Gem had burned his hands. Twilight sat next to her bed, observing the Soul Gem fragments, her lavender back and purple mane all Peter could see of her.
He tried to sit up, but immediately fell back down, pain coursing through his hands and head.
"Fuck, man..." Peter closed his eyes from the pain, his grogginess immediately replaced by his body's alarm.
Twilight immediately spun around, the Soul Gem fragments glowing red with an internal energy, surrounded by her purple magical aura.
"You're awake!"
Peter grimaced in pain. "In all honesty, I kind of wish I was asleep..."
Twilight chuckled a bit. Peter looked at her with a look that said 'I'm-serious-this-hurts-like-hell.'
Another shock of pain coursed through his nervous system, the fried nerves in his hand still sending distress signals to the brain. Peter gritted his teeth, eyes scrunched up, his teeth stifling a curse.
He opened his eyes, panting slightly from the pain. "Don't you guys...ponies...whatever, have any Morphine?"
Twilight nodded, magically placing a morphine distribution button in his hand. Peter thanked her and clicked the button, hard. He had never been in a hospital, but he knew enough about the technology to signal for morphine.
His clenched muscles relaxed as the Morphine took effect, slowly but surely, soothing his burning nerves with what felt like cool water.
"I would have healed you with magic, but these Soul Gems had a...strange effect on you. It seems as though...part of you is actually embedded in them now. I tried to catch a glimpse, but I had no luck."
Peter wracked his mind, looking for anything that seemed to be missing.
Well, I think I'm the same old me...but, even if I had changed, would I know it?
He went through his memories of the past five days. His memories of Earth abruptly ended in a Robotics meeting. He had no other memories of Earth.
Nope, all the same...even the odd cutoff...
He looked at Twilight, and then to the Soul Gems.
"Well, if you can't get to it, I don't think anybody can...I mean, you're the best with magic here, right? In all honesty, I would kind of appreciate it if you disposed of them. If I've lost a part of me, I don't want to cling to it."
Twilight blushed as he complimented her, but her blush was replaced by a look of shock.
"Dispose of it? Are you...are you sure?"
Peter nodded. He looked out the window, and saw the sun rising up.
Huh...it's morning already...
He wondered how long he had been out. That magic must have been-
Shit! I missed my da-I mean, meeting with Rainbow Dash!
He explained the situation to Twilight, who merely laughed.
"Twilight, this isn't funny! I was supposed to-"
He was cut off by a lavender hoof.
"Peter, you saved Rarity's life last night! I think Rainbow Dash would value that more than a meeting she had with you! And besides, she's here now, so you can talk to her alone now if you want. I don't mind one bit."
Seeing his look of confusion, Twilight pulled back the curtain, ushering a gasp from Peter at what it revealed.
Rarity was asleep on the hospital bed, her chest covered with a few bandages, her right hind leg obscured by a pristine, white cast, which was elevated by a hook.
Rainbow Dash slept in the chair beside her friend's bed, her rainbow mane spilling over the back of it as she snored.
"Two of her ribs were broken, and her hind right femur was practically snapped in half. Because all of the copies of clothing were magical, I couldn't fix her wounds with magic, just as I couldn't fix yours."
Rainbow Dash stirred at the sound of voices, her cyan eyelids flicking open.
Peter held down a second gasp, not wanting to appear rude.
Rainbow Dash's large, dark pink eyes were bloodshot from crying.
--------------------------------------------------------------Rainbow Dash--------------------------------------
After Rainbow Dash had flown away from Peter, she rested on a cloud, her practicing taking its toll on her stamina.
She heard Rarity scream in the distance, and saw Peter running off towards the Boutique.
Heh heh, Rarity probably just thought of a new design or something...
About seven minutes later, she saw her four friends rushing into the Boutique, Twilight in the head of the diamond of ponies, her horn glowing.
Rainbow quickly dove off of her cloud perch, worried as to what could have possibly transpired in the short amount of time she had been dosing off...
She rushed in to find the Boutique covered in clothing.
What the buck? She voiced her thoughts, drawing attention to herself.
"Rarity's spell on these Soul Gems went horribly wrong. I came to stop them, but it seems as though Peter stopped it. I have no idea how, though."
As she spoke, she removed all of the clothes in the Boutique, save the original Gala dress in the center, and poked Rarity with her horn. She frowned in frustration.
"It seems as though she has two cracked ribs and a broken right hoof. I can't heal them though, these wounds were made by a magical object. Only the caster can reverse the effects of her, or his, own spell."
Rainbow Dash remembered her dreams.
Her friends screamed as she slept on a cloud...
She reprimanded herself for being so ridiculous. Please, there was no burning here. Anyway, clothes don't burn by themselves, and-
Her thoughts were cut short by Twilight's scream of horror, her magical aura surrounding Peter's hands.
Rainbow Dash steeled her nerves, and walked over to her new friend.
She gasped and held down her stomach.
Unfortunately, Fluttershy wasn't as successful at holding down her meal of flowers and hay.
Applejack walked next to her, eyes wide at the scene in front of her, rubbing the yellow Pegasus' back as she panted, tears streaming in her eyes from both Peter's hands and having just thrown up.
Pinkie's sparkling eyes shrunk to the size of pin pricks, her poofy hair deflating as she beheld the damage done.
Peter's palms were devoid of skin in the center, revealing the meat underneath, both raw and singed. The area around the holes in his palms were dotted with red shards of what Rainbow Dash assumed to be a Soul Gem. The jagged edges had cut symmetrical holes in each palm, showing how hard he had grasped them.
And then, the smell. The smell of singed meat and vaporized blood, mixed in with a heavy mask of sweat, wafted into each of the five conscious ponies' nostrils.
Suddenly, Rainbow Dash's lunch felt a sudden need to get some fresh air.
Pinkie put a hoof around her friend's shoulder, rubbing up and down, a tear in her eye as both the stench and the image took their tolls on her.
Twilight silently lifted both of her injured friends, slightly green in the face.
-----------------------------------20 Minutes Later-------------------------------------------
Rainbow Dash leaned on Peter's bed, staring at his bandaged hands, the red dot in the center having spread to a rather large circle.
All because I didn't go in and help him...what kind of friend, what kind of Element of Loyalty am I?
She wept openly, not caring that her four friends watched on. After about an hour, she moved to Rarity's bedside, crying once again, her eyes itching as the salty tears fell from her eyes.
She cried herself to sleep by Rarity's bed, images of burning ponies and humans filling her mind.
A school with hundreds of people in it...Good God, what has this world become...
--------------------------------------Twilight Sparkle-----------------------------
"I need everything to be perfect for when Peter comes back. I want him to feel like he's at home."
"Yes, Twilight."
"And Spike, let me see that book. 'Equestrian History and You'...yes, put this on his bed."
"'K, Twi'."
"Oh, and clean up that mess! I simply will not tolerate having guest sleep in such a sordid room!"
The purple dragon didn't respond.
The lavender unicorn opened her eyes, looking for Spike.
She instead met the blue eyes of a yellow coated, pink maned Pegasus.
"Fluttershy? Why are you here? And where's Spike?"
"Uh...Twilight? Are you feeling okay?"
"Yes, why wouldn't I be?"
Fluttershy kicked at a piece of wood with her hoof.
"It's just that, uh, you teleported into my house..."
Twilight looked around, incredulity spreading across her lavender face as she took in the rampant destruction.
"But, Fluttershy, I fixed your house already...what...what happened?"
"Angel kind of let Devil out..."
Twilight looked at her friend, her eyebrows raised in a dubious fashion. "A little chinchilla did all of this, Fluttershy? Are you sure?"
The yellow Pegasus' face grew red with embarrassment.
"Well...uh...remember at....the Gala...when I...lost it?"
Twilight felt her right eye twitch. Oh, Celestia, not again...
"So you went insane on a chinchilla?"
Fluttershy nodded, her face ridiculously red, her voice lost to her.
"Do you need my help catching it?"
Fluttershy shook her head in denial.
"So, you caught it after destroying your house?"
Fluttershy shook her head.
"Then, who did?"
A whisper escaped the Pegasus' lips.
"What was that?"
The Pegasus sighed. "Peter. Peter caught it. After I...after I gave him the Stare...I'm sorry, Twilight, I...I wasn't in control..."
Twilight nodded. She understood completely. When Fluttershy got out of control, things could get real messy, real fast.
"Well, I might as well help you clean up this mess..."
"Oh, thank you, Twilight."
After a quick cleaning and reversal spell, the room was back to its former glory.
"Well, I'd better go, Fluttershy. I kind of...left Spike."
She was still confused as to why she had been teleported here.
Is it because her house was messed up again? Or is it something...bigger?
"Oh, and Peter was just here before you...uh, arrived. I think he was going to Sugarcube Corner, if you want to catch him."
Twilight was broken out of her reverie by the yellow Pegasus. "Oh, it's fine. I'm still trying to get his room cleaned up, so I'd actually prefer it if he was out for a bit."
Does it have something to do with Peter?
As Fluttershy saw her out, waving a yellow hoof to Twilight, who returned the gesture, Twilight shook her head.
Nah, don't be ridiculous, Twilight. It's probably just a coincidence. However, I must make a mental note to ask Celestia about this later...
She pushed the strange matter out of her mind and continued on her way to the tree library.
--------------------------------------------------Spike-----------------------------------------------
Twilight slammed the door to her library, startling the purple dragon who was busy cleaning up the guest room.
"Spike!"
The dragon fell flat on his face, sending the sheets on the guest bed into disarray.
"I just teleported."
Spike rubbed his stinging cheek. "Uh, congratulations?"
Twilight let out a hearty grunt.
"No, Spike, I teleported unintentionally to Fluttershy's house." She explained what had transpired at Fluttershy's house, leaving out her thought that Peter had something to do with her teleporting.
"Huh. That's weird. Well, just contact the Princess later."
The dragon turned on his heels, sighing as he did so.
"Great. Now I have to make the bed...again."
"And you have to help me get my books out of this room."
Spike looked around, despairing as he saw the giant stacks of books.
"Fine."
After making the guest bed, again, Spike started carrying books with Twilight, the unicorn's horn glowing as she moved books, the small dragon straining under their surprising weight.
Couldn't they have...made these...a bit...lighter? I mean, they're only...paper...
As forty five minutes passed, the boring work tiring both Spike and Twilight, Twilight's horn began to glow brighter.
Spike thought nothing of it. Probably just trying to move books faster because she found one she likes...
However, the dragon was proven wrong as Twilight disappeared in a flash of light, forcing him to shield his eyes from the glare.
Once the sun streaks faded from Spike's vision, he looked around the library.
"T...Twilight?"
He shrugged and continued cleaning, deciding that it would be better to wait for her to come back again.
------------------------------------------Applejack-----------------------------------------------
The orange work pony shielded her eyes, the yellow Pegasus next to her doing the same, as Twilight flashed into existence besides them.
They watched her walking, obviously concentrated on something.
Applejack leaned over to Fluttershy and whispered into her ear.
"Ah think it's best that we leave her alone for now. She looks like she's concentratin' mighty hard."
Fluttershy nodded, watching the lavender unicorn walk...
Right into the side of Applejack's house.
"Okay, forget leavin' her alone."
The two ponies rushed over to their friends' side.
"Twilight? Are you feelin' okay, sugar cube?"
The unicorn opened her eyes to see the sky, not the roof of her tree library.
"How...how did I get here?"
Aw, horseapples, she must be really out of it...
"Twilight, you teleported again."
Applejack looked up in surprise, her mane smacking Twilight in the face.
"Again?"
"Yes, she teleported into my house earlier."
"Well, ah'll be darned....Twi' are you sure you're feeling okay?"
The lavender unicorn shook her head, and stood up, spitting strands of Applejack's mane out of her mouth, causing the work pony to blush.
Twilight struggled to talk between spits, trying to get the mane strands all out of her mouth.
"Yeah....I....think something's......ahoof, girls."
The three friends looked at each other. Applejack spoke up first, breaking the veil of silence that had descended upon the trio.
"But, what?"
Twilight shook her head, her mane flopping as she did so. "I don't know, Applejack. I don't know why, Applejack. But...I'm starting to think it has something to do with Peter. When did he come here?"
Applejack looked at Twilight in confusion. "But, sugarcube, Peter hasn't been here all day."
Fluttershy nodded. "He's probably still at Sugarcube Corner with Pinkie Pie."
Twilight nodded in return. "Alright, let's go!"
The three ponies rushed off to Sugarcube Corner, not even noticing the human that they passed, their collective focus set on Sugarcube Corner.
-----------------------------------Pinkie Pie---------------------------------------
Pinkie burst into Twilight's library tree home...thing, startling the purple and green dragon inside.
"Spike, where's Twilight?"
The Spike shrugged in response, reminding the party pony of the shrug wave she and Peter had shared.
Ah, good times....
"I dunno, Pink. One second she was here, and the next she wasn't. She's teleported like this twice so far today, just totally random and unintentional."
Pinkie nodded. The fact that she wasn't here was all she heard, her mind on hyper drive about the cupcake designs currently in her mane, next to the nutmeg imported from Manehattan and her spare invitation envolopes.
Wait, didn't I put it between Gummy's bed and my extra confetti canister?....
She nodded to herself. She remembered the confetti falling out of her mane, dislodged by the rolled up paper.
"Thanks, Spike! I think I'll head back to Sugarcube Corner now.
She bounced off, leaving the dragon confused.
----------------------Twilight Sparkle-----------------------------------
Twilight leaned against the door frame in Sugarcube Corner, fatigued.
Everything's just...going....too fast....
Not only was her head hurting from teleporting so much, but her eyes were hurting at the mess in front of her.
There was cake splattered everywhere: the walls, the floor, and even the ceiling, which Twilight discovered as a large piece of cake dislodged itself from above her, landing with a rather large splat.
"Uh, where's Pinkie?"
Twilight looked over at the orange work pony.
"Obviously not here. Come on, let's go find Peter. Maybe he knows what's going on."
She turned around to walk out, and fell flat on her back as Pinkie did an over the top bounce right into her, the pink pony ending up on her back, her mane bulging at the ends like a squeezed balloon.
"Hi Twilight!"
Twilight braced herself as the hyper pony took a deep breath.
"Iwenttoyourhouseandyouweren'tthereandSpikewasalllike'Idunno'andIwasalllike'okay,bye'andthenIcamehereand..." Pinkie inhaled, her mouth growing to twice its usual size to intake the ridiculous amount of oxygen. "thenIbumpedintoyou!"
Twilight looked at the pony through half-closed eyes. Pinkie apparently didn't notice the petulant look.
"Pinkie Pie, do you know where Peter is?"
Twilight immediately regretted asking, as the pink pony inhaled quickly.
Before Twilight could interrupt her and just tell her where the buck this guy was, a shrill scream cut the hyperactive pony for her.
The four ponies looked at each other. They knew that scream.
"Rarity!"
They turned around to run out the door, Twilight's horn suddenly glowing.
They all teleported out of Sugarcube Corner into a world of darkness.
The four ponies all assumed tactical stances: Twilight dug in, prepared to use her magic to its extent; Fluttershy closed her eyes, waiting for a catalyst to set off the Stare; Applejack turned around, ready to bash in the head of anything that moved; and Pinkie assumed a random stance, ready to sing the enemy into tactical submission.
And then, they were separated.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My family...dead...the world in chaos...mother fucker, what has this world become?
Twilight denied the thoughts, struggling to regain control of her own psyche.
No. My family is safe in Canterlot. This world is ruled by Harmony!
Her magical orb of light broke through the darkness, illuminating everypony with its healing light, forming a heart in the darkness above the four friends, just like in the Heart's Warming Eve storybook Twilight had read as a filly...
The four ponies nodded, Twilight's horn glowing mysteriously, the purple aura spreading around it like mist.
They ran into the Boutique, Rainbow Dash following them.
Twilight ran to the center and removed all of the clothes, suppressing emotions for duty.
She looked over at Rarity and poked the marshmallow like surface of her skin with her horn, doing a Wounds Search spell: she fond two cracked ribs and a broken femur.
She attempted to heal Rarity, but was thwarted, the wounds caused by a magical source. Only the caster could heal her now, and Rarity herself was the caster, and was also in no fit shape to do anything about it.
She moved over to Peter, and simply pulled his clasped hands apart, revealing the bloody mess that sent Applejack to chucking.
What's...what's happening? Why did that happen with the dress...
She examined Peter's palms. He had obviously tried, and succeeded, stopping the dress from killing Rarity, a pony he barely even knew...
Twilight realized now why she had been sent by her magic to her friends.
She had been sent to Fluttershy's to compel her to go to Sweet Apple Acres to ask Applejack about Twilight.
She had been sent to Sweet Apple Acres to find her friends.
But that darkness...with memories that were not her own...
She looked over at Rainbow Dash.
Those ideas...those images...were they what Rainbow had seen?
She shook her head, bigger issues filling her mind.
She picked up Rarity and Peter in silence, telekinetically hoisting them towards the Ponyville hospital.
Rainbow Dash left them then, and sat on a cloud, her rainbow tail falling over the edge of it.
Fluttershy made a move to go to her, but Twilight stopped the concerned Pegasus.
"She needs to be alone. She'll tell us why when she's ready."
Fluttershy nodded, staying quiet, her caring gaze switching between Peter and Rarity.
As they entered the hospital, Twilight told the colt at the desk what injuries the two new patients had. Slightly green, the colt lead them to two beds side by side.
It was then that Rainbow Dash entered, her cyan fur under her eyes already stained with tears.
They were stained again as she cried over Peter's unconscious form, and Rarity's body of broken bones.
---------------------------------Later...----------------------------
Twilight sat next to Spike, the fragments of Soul Gem spinning before her, filling her vision with red sun streaks, a book on the malicious properties of the Gem open before her.
"Spike, according to this book..."
"Twilight, stop reading so much! You're not going to heal Peter by finding out why the Gem color changed to a solid, delicious looking, vivid red..."
The baby dragons' mouth watered, and Twilight rolled her eyes.
"First, no, you can't eat them. Second, why is because I have found out why the gem changed color in this book, thank you very much!"
Spike sat down and crossed his arms, now interested in what the book had to say.
"Well? Why did it change color?"
Twilight looked at him, emotion filling her as she prepared herself to reveal what she really held in her magical grasp.
"Spike, according to this book, these fragments now contain a..." she gulped, apprehension filling her as she read off the next line. "A....a part of Peter!"
Spike sat up in shock, and immediately fell to his stomach, holding back a retch.
"Aw, Celestia, and I wanted to eat them....auughhhh!!"
Twilight waited until the baby dragon had his stomach back under control to continue on.
"It says here that it can be anywhere from knowledge learned in school to a memory, and that when the Soul Gem is released and a memory is sucked into it, those thinking of him will actually experience a small part of the memory..."
She blinked. Is that what happened to us? Was that his...his memory?! Why didn't he tell us anything about it? It sounded...tortured...
Spike thought for a bit, a small click signifying his scaled finger hitting his scaled cheek. "Is there...is there a way to get it back in him?"
Twilight bit her lower lip. If his memories are this tortured, should I really try to get them back into him?
She turned the page, obscuring the small section on reversing the effects of the Soul Gem from the baby dragons' line of sight.
"Nope, at least not yet."
Spike nodded.
"Well, I'm going to bed. It's midnight already!"
Twilight conceded with Spike.
"Yeah, I think I'll call it a day too..."
Twilight sighed.
This should be more than a day...it feels like a hundred mashed together...
She closed her eyes and slowly nodded off into a fitful sleep, one question taking a predominent position in her sleep.
What the buck is going on...
----------------------------------------Pinkamena Diane Pie------------------------
Pinkamena shivered in her bed, remembering what she had seen in that darkness.
No longer did the people run around the park, no longer did the brass swing glow with brilliance. Now everything was...gone. Gone, gone, gone...all happiness...all replaced by sorrow...
Pinkie pushed the sentences out of her mind, remembering the strange echoes it had had in the darkness.
---------------------------------Applejack--------------------------------
Only Applejack's tail was visible as she cowered beneath the sheets covering her bed and body.
All the trees that had once supplied life and happiness...the entire park, all of it, burning down...even the water evaporated with the heat that day...the ground was parched, devoid of life...and at the center of it, the once grand tree sat, its beautiful ornaments melting in the fire, its small electric lights replaced with electrical fires as the circuitry melted...
The orange pony pushed her bed so that she could look out the window, disturbing Apple Bloom and Big Mac in the two adjacent rooms. Granny smith snored on below her, rocking back and forth.
Applejack stared out the window all night, keeping the flashing images of dead trees at bay with the way the crescent sun struck her apple farm.
------------------------------Fluttershy----------------------------
Almost none of Fluttershy was visible as she cowered under her sheets that night, her front hooves holding open a small gap for air to pass through.
All of the innocent animals that had lived here...all gone...ashes to ashes, dust to dust...no bird songs accompanied the day, no sweet chirp adorned the raise of the sun, and no small animals heralded the beginning of spring, and even those who were alive would not come out ,as the sun was obscured by ash and smog...the ash and smog of destruction, death, blood, corruption, hanging over all of the mans' small world like a blanket...
Fluttershy peeped her head out of her own blanket, keeping the sleeping Angel in her sight, watching the bouncing Devil as it awoke in its nocturnal frenzy...
---------------------------------Rainbow Dash----------------------
In her fitful sleep that night, the cyan Pegasus saw more than any other pony alive had seen.
The building burned as thousands of voices screamed, echoing the voices of the damned, lamenting those who died with them, lamenting those who had to continue on living in this world of pain...this world of rampant death...
Rainbow Dash instinctively curled up in the chair next to Rarity's bed, shaking in her sleep.
She saw never ending darkness, and then saw what seemed to be a never ending street. Her vision shook vigorously as she ran down the concrete road, hooves smacking against its surface. She turned around, and was blinded by the bomb that detonated in the place she had thought of as a second home, her place of wonderful memories melting and twisting before her eyes, the ponies inside melting and twisting in the same way, their screams of agony and pain reaching her ears...she pushed on, tears blurring her vision.
She squirmed in her sleep. She wanted to wake up, as she had done for the past three weeks of torture...
And, lo and behold, her eyes flicked open to the darkness of Rarity's closed off bed.
She had expected the dreams to go away when she met Peter. That human was so nice to Fluttershy and the others, he even laughed along with everything Pinkie Pie had done...
She sighed, remembering how everypony had tried to cheer her up with how nice he was, and how happy she would be to talk to him...
If only I had been brave enough to ask him right then and there...then I could have helped Rarity, and I could have gotten to know him...
She thought through how she would ask him this time, without looking weird at how it would break her no-nonsense, anti-school personality.
Maybe I should just work around to the subject? Maybe I should just ask him outright...? Oh, yeah, that would sound great! 'Hey, Peter, I know you have a burned hand and everything, but can you please explain to me how the planets moved by themselves in your world, what with the absence of a Sun Goddess?'
She sighed deeply, and went back to sleep, her head awash with grief.
-----------------------------------Celestia--------------------------------------------
Celestia sat next to Luna, the Book of Prophecies open wide before them on the 'Historical' page, Twilight Sparkles' note opened and read beside them, the part on the Soul Gem outlined in a golden glow.
Celestia muttered the Prophecies on the left page, skimming through the titles.
"Defeat of Nightmare Moon...Raise of Discord..."
To her right, Luna muttered the Prophecies on the right page of the dusty book, likewise skimming the titles.
"The Seventh Element..."
Something triggered in Celestia when she heard her sister mutter the name of the legend.
"Luna, can I see the Prophecy of the Seventh Element?"
The Princess of the Moon nodded in confusion, levitating the book so that the right page lay in front of her sister.
"The Seventh Element...said to raise from the ashes of war, this Element is even more elusive and powerful than Magic itself...It is said that this war shall start when Discord once again escapes, and the being that holds within him the Seventh Element shall be the catalyst...and he will find the Seventh Element when the time comes."
She blinked. Is that it?
She looked around the entire page, but found no other mention of the elusive Element.
"'Tia?"
Celestia looked down at her little sister. "Yes?"
"I don't think we'll find out anything in this stupid, dusty book. It's a waste of our time. We should just go down to Ponyville and investigate the Soul Gem."
Celestia stood, her authoritative aura expanding as she did so.
"Luna, never tamper with the soul and the mind. It is something dangerous that can send someone into insanity."
The blue Alicorn shrunk as her sister used a voice of muffled anger.
"Okay, sis..."
Celestia nodded, and walked over to her balcony.
She sighed in the night air, observing how carelessly Luna had arranged the stars that night.
Well, in the light of everything, I think she can be a bit careless now...
She rested her front hooves on her balcony railing, her golden oriental shoes clicking on the marble with a pristine, royal noise.
She whispered to the night, asking for guidance from the Elements of Harmony.
"Please...show me what I must do..."
A glowing orb suddenly descended from the heavens, landing right in front of her.
------------------------------------Luna-------------------------
The Princess of the Moon looked down as her sister walked onto the balcony.
I hope she doesn't mind how I just scattered the stars tonight...
She heard the click of gold on marble, and a whisper.
Suddenly, she saw a golden orb of light.
Luna stood, intending to move towards her sister, but was held by an unseen force, a force too powerful for even a Princess.
She tried to scream in protest as Celestia closed her eyes and dipped her long, white horn into the pulsing orb, but her voice was stopped in her throat by a sudden cork of air.
"Mhmm!"
After what seemed to be ages, Celestia opened her eyes, and nodded slowly, the ball of light tracking her horn, sticking to its tip.
"MHHHMMMM!"
Luna watched in horror as the light enveloped all of her sister's regal horn, using the magical pinnacle as a focal point to pour itself into her body, the orb growing smaller and dimmer as it was sucked into her body.
Celestia looked to the stars, and then walked inside. As soon as her golden hoof clicked on the floor of her chambers, Luna was released from the mysterious magic.
Celestia walked over to Luna and looked deep into her eyes. Luna saw her fear reflected in her big sisters' eyes.
Celestia touched horn tips with Luna, and the light orb enveloped both of them.
And Luna understood what the light had to say, and she understood why Celestia had agreed to carry it, and she understood its pain.
She looked back at the book, and so did Celestia.
They simultaneously touched horn tips to the passage that explained the prophecy of the Seventh Element of Harmony.
A beacon of light shot high into the sky, signaling the beginning.
Of the end.