“How long do we have to wait?” Twilight Velvet asked, worried for her daughter…both of her daughters. One was missing, again, and the other was pacing so much back and forth the mare was going to wear a trench in the library floor. Trixie herself was worried sick, wanting to rush off blindly after Twilight which shocked a few of the ponies in town. The Elements themselves even seemed shocked as they still believed Trixie to be a pony who was full of hot air. She loved her sister though and would walk through Tartarus itself to rescue Twilight.
Night Light was upstairs with Summer keeping an eye on the filly thankfully as Trixie and Velvet waited from word from the others. They were taking care of things in their homes while Princess Celestia had returned to Canterlot to get something that she had claimed may help with this problem. Not that any of them were sure if much could be done. If Discord himself was afraid of this…dempony…what could they really do against it?
“There isn’t much in any of these texts about demponies or this Legion.” Velvet sighed, closing another ancient tome that was kept locked up there. It was a book from Twilight’s private collection, the unicorn collecting any rare and valuable books that she could get her hooves on even since she was a filly. It didn’t matter what they were, and they had proven useful over the years as one of them was actually what led Twilight to discovering Nightmare Moon.
“I’m not a hundred percent sure we can trust Discord on this.” Trixie sighed, stopping her pacing as she looked up at her mother. “He is known as a trickster, right? Maybe Twilight is fine and just freaked out after attacking Princess Mi Amore Cadenza.”
“I wish that was the case…didn’t you feel the evil radiating off that magical spike earlier? I never felt something so purely evil before in my life.” Velvet said with a shudder. It was true, Trixie had felt it, but she wanted to deny it. She had never felt something so…scary in her entire life. “What I do know is that this Legion feeds off fear and other negative emotions. Also, from what Discord told me when I asked before he left with the Princess, Legion has contracts laying all over the world and when some pony finds one and uses it to gain power, they pay for it with a piece of their soul and a fraction of their power when they either die or get defeated. Those…payments…they make Legion stronger and stronger with each one.”
“At a great cost.” Luna said, melting from the shadows surprising both of them. “I believe I made a deal with this Legion. I found a contact long ago that used blood magic when I became Nightmare Moon. It led me to the creation of my Threstrals…and perhaps part of my anger.”
“What do you mean, Princess Luna?” Velvet asked, curious as to what the Princess was talking about.
“I’m saying, even with my anger and jealousy, I never wanted to seriously harm my sister until after I got involved with blood magic. I knew better, but the temptation was too great to be able to create a people who would…love me. No pony loved me and…all I wanted was to feel wanted…appreciated.” Luna admitted, hanging her head. “I knew how dangerous it was, my sister and myself have seen a few blood mages kill entire towns for power. A power that drove them insane. Yet I still turned to it when I found all I needed was a little blood from myself.”
“Wait…so you created the threstrals?” Trixie asked in shock, not knowing that fact. She always thought they were just some kind of pegasus that mutated from the others.
“Yes…at an attempt to create ponies who would appreciate all of the hard work I put into the night.” Luna sighed.
“I love your night, Princess, we all do. I can’t tell you how many nights my sister, niece and myself relaxed under the stars and just watched up at the night sky talking about our hopes and dreams for the future.” Trixie said, “The night sky is one of the most beautiful and most relaxing things to look at.”
“You don’t need to flatter me.” Luna said, blushing a little at the praise.
“I’m not, Princess, I’m only speaking the truth.” Trixie said, beginning to wonder if she said something wrong when she noticed how Luna was wiping away tears from her eyes.
“Thank you, but we need to meet up with the others. My sister just returned with the Elements of Harmony.” Luna said.
“Wait…I thought the Elements were sacrificed to save the Tree of Harmony a few years ago.” Velvet said, remembering when Discord came clean about what happened and Princess Cadence returned from the Crystal Empire to get them and bring them to Ponyville where the girls took them, and Twilight’s, to the tree where Discord instructed them on how to save the tree.
It made sense now, how Discord knew what to do with it. It was supposed Starswirl the Bearded who took the damaged Rainbow of Light and separated it into six Elements of Harmony, the seventh being too damaged to salvage from the original Rainbow. If it was true that Discord was Starswirl, then that would explain his knowledge of the Tree of Harmony and the Elements of harmony.
“They were, but my sister had some of our most brightest create duplicates of them. They aren’t as powerful, but they should amplify the bond between the Bearers and the Elements embedded in the tree to give them close to the level of power they had before. There is only one problem…we don’t have a pony to wield the Element of Magic. We were hoping that when we got to Twilight we could give it to her and hope that being back here helped restore the bond between the girls enough to use them.” Luna explained.
“I guess it’s a start.” Velvet sighed, “What are we waiting for?”
“No.” Trixie said, turning to look at Velvet while refusing to back down as her mother gave her a look of shock. “You aren’t coming with us.”
“I will not sit here while one of my daughters is out there in danger.” Velvet growled out.
“Mom…I…I do want you there with us…but I need you to stay here. If worse comes to worse, I want you to take care of Summer.” Trixie said, her eyes tearing a little as she realized what she said. Her legs wanted to let go, but she willed them to remain strong in front of her mother. She knew there was a very good possibility that some of them may not come back from this if this Legion was truly as powerful and evil as that. She was afraid that if any of them were to not come back, she was sure that she would be one of them. She wasn’t going to come back without her sister, and that was final.