Prism Star
Prism Star sat next to Midnight Shine in the small lounge room, holding her hoof to his as a show of reassurance that she certainly didn't feel. After Prism got her cutie mark saving Midnight, the old pegasus stallion Peregrine Dive had sequestered them away in the somewhat cramped room jam-packed with admittedly comfortable sofas and chairs, and left to "call a conclave" - though neither Prism nor Midnight had had any clue what he'd meant by this or what "conclave" meant at all, and he certainly wasn't explaining it, which simply left the two of them alone to stew in their nervousness. Prism hoped it just had to do with her cutie mark, but both of them had a horrid suspicion that it had to do with the chaos spell Midnight had used. Midnight had repeatedly, and loudly, worried about what they would do to him for doing something like this.
"They're going to exile me. Or, or lock me up." He shook his head.
"Midnight, they're not going to exile you, their whole thing is supposed to be protecting us. And they're certainly not going to lock you up - it's not like they have a prison that can even hold you."
"Oh, so you think I'm just going to kill my way out like... like..." He blanched under his fur. "Oh, Celestia. I would, wouldn't I?"
"Midnight, you're not going to kill anypony!" She grabbed him by the shoulders and shook him roughly. "Get it together!" She sighed and shook her head. "You're not going to be put in that position, I promise. The worst they're going to do is yell at you, and you see worse than angry old ponies whenever you close your eyes."
"That's not true. You know I'm not having nightmares anymore." Midnight gave her a blank look, but she could tell he was lying - badly - from the way his ear twitched. Midnight really was a terrible liar for somepony who spent his whole life in hiding.
"You are. You're- stop it!" She took hold of his ear with her telekinesis to stop the annoying nervous twitch. "Midnight, we sleep in the same bed most nights, I can feel you tossing around. It's her again, isn't it? The, the..." She felt a little shiver of fear run down her spine as she remembered what she'd seen in his eyes. A flaming pony claiming her name, with a predatory smile of jagged teeth.
"I... I have to save you." Midnight's voice was small and quiet. "I can't let you become Supernova, I can't let you become like Nightmare Winter." His voice broke as his wide silver eyes filled with tears. "I can't lose you, Prism."
Prism just held his hooves in hers for a moment. "That's her name?" She'd never heard what the pony on fire had said - Discord had seen to that - but she realized that Midnight must have seen the whole, horrifying thing.
"We've both gotten so strong," Midnight said. "But I'm still not strong enough to help you if... if you..." He stammered off to a stop when Prism gave him a sudden hug.
"That's what all this has been about, isn't it? Your obsession with time travel, the... the chaos magic. You're trying to cheat fate."
"So what if I am?!" He suddenly seemed to take a hostile turn and broke away from her embrace. "So what if I won't just... just let it happen?!" Midnight half-shouted at her.
"You... you know what can happen if you try to change the future!" She'd gotten up on her hooves on the sofa and was shouting back. "Princess Twilight tried it and all she did was get herself hurt! Starlight Glimmer nearly destroyed the world trying to change time! You have no idea what might happen! And if you think I'm going to sit back and let you kill yourself with chaos magic, then you can just-"
"I can just what? What, Prism?!" His horn glowed with anger. "Do you think I'm just going to let you die?!"
Prism Star tackled him and quickly snuffed his horn. They started scuffling on the floor, half with magic and half just with their hooves. "We'll... we'll find... another... way!" Prism said between punches.
"What if... there isn't... another way?" Midnight blasted her off of him with lunar energy, and Prism was about to retaliate with sunfire when both of them felt a wave of dizziness as their horns flickered out and the spells they were readying dissipated like mist on wind, flowing into the jagged shard of black glass that had found its way onto the floor between them.
"Now, then," Shimmer said from the doorway. "Maybe the two of you can talk like grown ponies."
Prism glared at Midnight. "I don't... I don't think I have anything left to say to Midnight Shine. I need to be alone." She tried to muscle her way past Shimmer, only to be stopped by... her father.
"Now, now, Prism," he said in his gentle bass rumble. "I taught you better, didn't I?" The old unicorn's expression was stern, but his grey eyes seemed to twinkle with the joy of seeing his daughter again.
"I... Dad, I..." She really didn't want to parse their visions of Supernova with her father, and as she looked back at Midnight she felt a mutual accord pass between them. "It's fine now. We just... we were just having an argument about time travel that got out of hand." It wasn't entirely a lie, at least.
Thunderbolt surveyed her warily, and Prism felt herself get increasingly nervous under his knowing eyes. She had to resist the urge to sigh in relief when he finally broke eye contact and pulled her into a hug. "Well... I guess the two of you can at least agree that you don't want to tell me what you were really fighting about. That's somewhere to start, I guess." He looked back at Shimmer as he stepped back. "Now please put that thing away. I don't think they're going to attack each other again."
"I... I'm sorry." Prism flushed and looked down at her hooves as Shimmer gingerly put the Black Shard away in its case. Now that she had a moment to think, she couldn't believe she'd been about to hurt Midnight for wanting to help her - even if she hated how he wanted to go about it.
Midnight had taken the same ashamed expression as Prism. "I'm sorry too, sir..."
"Now let me get a look at the two ponies causing so much fuss," Thunderbolt said with a chuckle, looking Prism up and down. "You've gotten taller, dawnlight. You've got another inch on your horn, too, and I... I can't believe I missed your cutie marking..." He gently stroked her long mane. "Perry told me what happened. Nine years old, and you're already more powerful than your mother ever was. She would be so proud of you."
Prism's mind seemed to shut down as she tried to process the praise, or the fact that her father had mentioned Guiding Star without being asked directly. Was he... about to cry? He actually looked like he was about to cry.
Meanwhile, Midnight was snickering at the shortening of Peregrine Dive's name to 'Perry', and this quickly drew Thunderbolt's attention. "And you're the other one, are you? Come over here where I can get a look at you." Midnight scrambled over, and Thunderbolt examined him appraisingly. "A bit on the skinny side... Could use some better grooming habits..."
"Dad." Prism was giving the stallion an exasperated look. "He's fine. And more importantly, he's my best friend. So lay off."
"Of course." Thunderbolt laughed and ruffled Midnight's mane. "You seem like a perfectly fine young stallion, Midnight Shine. I've heard good things about you, too. Lancing Ray says you've got a talent for time magic."
"I..." Midnight hesitated. "I mean, I can shift back a few seconds at a time. And this one time I was able to speed up time around Prism when she was talking, that was-"
Prism interrupted him with a quick smack from her hoof. "You cast time magic on me without telling me?!"
"Shimmer put me up to it!" He stepped back a couple steps away from her. "And it was super funny! Your voice got all high like a squirrel and-"
"Ugh, I can't believe you! Either of you!" She said, turning on Shimmer, who appeared to be dying with silent laughter in the corner of the room. "You don't just..." She just huffed angrily, feeling how red her cheeks were. In truth, she was more mad that she didn't get to share in the joke, and that she'd missed such a great spell, than about being pranked. "You could have told me. Or gotten a camera and filmed it so I could see too."
Thunderbolt smiled knowingly at Shimmer and just shook his head. "It sounds like you're all bonding well."
Prism took a deep, sighing breath to calm her nerves. "So why are you here? I mean, I'm super happy to see you, but aren't you busy in Ponyville?"
The stallion sat down, pulling Prism onto the chair with him. "Peregrine Dive called a conclave. That means that the masters of every town and city cell are going to meet together, along with whatever other ponies Peregrine cares to invite."
"They invited Stormy, but he wouldn't come. He's still mad at us - um, the Order that is, not us us - because you got hurt." Shimmer shook her head in a way that indicated she thought he was being unreasonable. "A couple of your teachers are coming, though. And some mare from Canterlot, but none of us are really sure why. Oh, and me, and Sour Apple."
"What's going on?" Midnight asked. "Nopony will tell us anything. We've just been sitting in here for nearly a day."
"Without so much as a snack," Prism grumbled. "Anyway, how did you get here so fast? I want to know that, too."
Thunderbolt chuckled at all the questions and invited Midnight to come sit on the other side of him. "Well, for a start, Shimmer can probably find something for you." He looked at her and she nodded, getting the hint and leaving. "Now, I probably shouldn't tell you two this, but with as important as you seem to be getting, I guess you can be allowed to know a few secrets that would normally be above your age. In each House of Harmony, there's actually an enchanted mirror - most of them date back to the old, old days."
Prism snuggled into his side. "So are they portals?"
"You've got it in one, dawnlight." He gave her a little squeeze. "If you stand in front of it and say the right spells, you can go from one to another just like walking through a door. And it's enchanted so that even an earth pony or pegasus could work it if they know the incantation. As for the reason for us gathering," he began, switching his attention to Midnight Shine, "That's hard to say until we actually officially meet. But it might have to do with how powerful you two are. I know it's hard to believe, but you're the strongest descendant unicorns in generations. Maybe, in time, you could..." he paused uncertainly. "You could go all the way."
"You mean ascend? Like... like they did?" Midnight had a worried expression that Prism thought was a little silly. Having wings would be practically the best thing ever, after all.
Thunderbolt nodded. "Maybe. But I think that's a good ways off, or at least I hope it is. I'm more worried about how the other masters will look at you, now that you have your cutie mark, Prism." He hesitated again. "Long ago, when a pony got their cutie mark they were technically considered of age. I just hope Peregrine isn't planning to do something rash."
"Like what?" Prism asked.
"I don't know," he replied with a sigh. "But the meeting starts soon. There hasn't been an actual conclave in the entire time since I joined as Guiding Star's Protector, so I really don't know what we can expect. But it will likely be long, and very boring, so what I need the two of you to do is just try to stay awake, alright?" They nodded at this. "Alright. I'll send someone to get you when it's time." He kissed Prism on the horn and gave Midnight a little hoof bump before leaving.
It was several more hours before they were called, and in that time many more ponies, most of them the same age of Prism's father or older, came through the waiting lounge and through the door on the other side from the entrance. Many of them stopped to shake Prism's and Midnight's hooves, and Prism struggled to remember the litany of names that passed. It wasn't all bad, though. Shimmer did keep her promise and bring the foals some cheese bites to munch on, and many of the masters offered congratulations on Prism's new cutie mark. A few even brought small gifts for the two of them - Midnight notably got a book on dream interpretation and a small scrying glass of clear diamond from the Crystal Empire, while Prism's favorite item had to be the rainbow-patterned scarf she got from Master Firehoof of the Fillydelphia cell, simply for how perfectly it went with her cutie mark. Eventually, though, the long series of well-wishing attendees ended, and Shimmer came to retrieve Midnight and Prism for the conclave.
"Alright," she said as she led the two of them through the mysterious door into a small antechamber lit with a dull orange bulb. "We have some ceremony stuff to do before you guys enter. We know the Order's all about the past and tradition and all of that, but they're even crazier about ceremony than normal right now. Because I'm Prism's Protector, I have to go in first and introduce her like a herald, basically. Midnight, because you don't technically have a Protector yet, I've been asked to stand in and introduce you as well. You'll be able to hear everything from this chamber, so you two will know your cue to enter." They both nodded and shared a nervous glance. "And..." She sighed. "I should probably warn you that they're probably going to want to push more on you than you can take. To me, you're my little sister and her best friend, and I love you both to pieces. But they don't know you, and as far as they're concerned, you guys are royalty in every way but name and wings, and I have a bad feeling that they're going to treat you like adults no matter what me and Thunderbolt say. I can pull the two of you out of there anytime I see fit, though, so..." She nuzzled Prism. "Just let me know if things are getting too weird, and I'll have your backs. Prism, do me a favor and hold Midnight so he doesn't scream."
Prism shook her head. "He already knows. He, um..." She looked away with a sheepish expression. "He saw it in my dreams. I'm sorry, Shimmer."
"No, it's... you can't control that." Shimmer patted her gently and looked over at Midnight. "Thank you. Thanks for taking care of Prism, and thanks for keeping my secret."
"You don't have to be scared, you know," Midnight told her. "We all already know you're hiding something because half your journal entries are in some other language."
"Talon does the same thing!" Shimmer pointed out defensively.
Prism rolled her eyes. "Yeah, but Talon is awful at keeping a secret. We all already know she's just trying to get Stormy a coltfriend."
"And we all saw how that worked out," Midnight muttered. Talon had gone through a long series of potential contenders before arranging a blind date for Southern Storm, but it turned out to be a disaster that ended with the pegasus spending an entire weekend in tears.
Prism Star glared at him before continuing, "I think what's important here is that we all care about you, and everypony knows you're keeping some kind of secret. Sour and Stormy will just be relieved you're not in some kind of trouble, I bet, and Talon would probably be thrilled to learn there's another non-pony she can talk to."
"Also, Southern Storm has to give me fifty bits when you finally do come out," Midnight said.
"You- you're a little young to be gambling, aren't- You know what, no. I'm not going to touch that." Shimmer rolled her eyes as a pony before closing them and quickly shifting back to her native insectoid form. "You two just wait here."
Prism shook her head at Midnight as Shimmer went into the main chamber. "You really shouldn't bet on things when you already know them, especially since you have visions of the future or something. That's a little messed up, Mid."
"Like Stormy's going to miss fifty bits," Midnight scoffed.
Prism glared at him. "That's not the point, it's like... like an abuse of power or something, I don't know."
She was about to name-drop something that their history and philosophy teacher, Lemon Drop, had taught them but fell silent to try and hear as they heard Peregrine Dive's voice from the other room. "All masters are accounted for. As the host of this gathering, I accept the honorary role of Grandmaster and call the fourth conclave of the Order of Harmony to order," he called out. "This conclave will now heed the Protector Shimmerwing, of the line of Prince-Regent Thorax of the Changeling Hive."
There was a moment of silence, and Prism frowned. "They're... they're muttering at her. I can feel it from her mind." Her mental connection with Shimmer had matured just as promised, and she could feel the anxiety and resentment from the changeling's alien mind. "Because she's not a pony."
"This conclave will come to order!" They could hear Peregrine slamming a gavel. "Protector Shimmerwing has sworn her life to the service of Equestria, just as all of you have, and this conclave will give her the respect she is due!"
After a moment, in which Prism could feel Shimmer's anxiety recede some, Shimmer responded, "It is... my unique joy-" Prism could hear the resentment in her voice at those words even without their connection. "-to present to this conclave the rightful heir to Princess Celestia, Prism Star!"
Midnight nudged her at these words, and Prism nervously started walking slowly into the main chamber. It was a big room that looked like an amphitheater- the entrance was at the center of the curved stands, and across the semicircular floor where Shimmer was standing and beckoning towards her were a pair of wooden thrones - one carved with Celestia's sun symbol, and the other with a crescent moon. The pounding of Prism's heart filled her ears, and was only drowned out when she reached the middle where Shimmer was and the ponies in the stands began to stamp their hooves in approval. Shimmer helped Prism up into the sun throne, and from here she could see that the assembled masters were all wearing a hooded robe that mostly concealed their faces, and the stands were only lit by set of candles, one in front of each pony. Even considering that she could make out her father's yellow beard towards the back, the overall effect certainly didn't fill her with confidence. In fact, she thought as Shimmer began to call out Midnight Shine, it was actually pretty terrifying. Clearly, from the look on his face, Midnight felt the same way, and when he sat up with her, she reached over to hold his hoof - as much for her own benefit as his.
"The conclave recognizes the heirs Prism Star and Midnight Shine." She could see where Peregrine was sitting, even if she couldn't see his face. He was separated from the others at the top of the stands, holding a large gavel. "We have many points to attend to, and many of you have already been told about them out of session. The remainder likely have their suspicions, but I will let them rest for now. For the first act of this conclave, I call to try Midnight Shine at tribunal for the use of forbidden chaos magic."
Prism felt Midnight go cold, and she squeezed on his arm in an attempt to comfort him as the stands exploded with angry arguments. She was actually even more shocked to see her father's horn crackle with lightning than at what Peregrine had said - they'd both feared that some form of punishment would be a possibility, but Prism had never seen her father so angry he lost control of his magic. As Peregine tried in vain to call the other masters to order, she leaned to whisper loudly to Midnight, "We have to do something. They're going to kill each other."
"They're-" Midnight whined. "What do you want me to do? There's no way these ponies are going to listen to us."
"They think we're royalty!" she hissed. "Do something princely!" She looked up at the arguing grown-ups and growled. "I don't think it's going to matter what I do or say. They're fighting over you."
"I, I..." He shook his head. "I could have the most amazing friendship speech from Princess Twilight's journal memorized by heart and they wouldn't listen to me! I don't think they can even hear us!"
"Midnight, I don't know, I-" Her eyes went wide. "Sonic magic! You can use an amplification spell-"
"-and mimic the Royal Canterlot Voice Celestia and Luna used!" He popped up to his hooves with a grin. "Prism, that's perfect!"
He took a deep breath to calm himself and stepped down from the throne, taking a position in the middle of the room - the pit where a stage would be if this were an actual amphitheater. He looked back at Prism and she gave him an encouraging grin. "E-enough! Shut up!" Even with the amplification spell going from his horn, it wasn't enough. "Stop it! Stop-" His horn stopped as the spell failed with his frustration. "STOP ARGUING!!!" The stands fell silent as Midnight's voice boomed, loud enough that Prism could see actual shockwaves in the air. "ALL OF YOU STOP IT!" The little colt suddenly felt silent with a shocked expression, as if even he couldn't believe what had just happened. "I..." he faltered, still seeming stunned as the ponies who had been directly in front of him were adjusting their robes and papers - though it was hard to see them now, as the force of his voice had snuffed many of the candles that lit the stands.
"The... the conclave recognizes Midnight Shine." Peregrine leaned forward, taking a tone of quiet awe. His hood had fallen backwards off of his head, and Prism could see him adjusting his glasses. "You have the floor, y-your majesty."
It took Midnight another moment to respond, as being called 'your majesty' had shaken him again just as he was seeming to recover. "I... I accept the conclave's decision to try me for my actions. What I..." He looked backwards at Prism with great watering eyes before returning his focus to Peregrine. "What I almost did to Prism is unforgivable. It was.. it was reckless and stupid and spiteful, and I will accept any punishment that this conclave decides is appropriate for my actions. I deserve it for trying to hurt my friend."
"I see... that is very mature of you, young stallion," Peregrine said with a surprised expression as the ponies in the stands began to murmur. "The motion to try Midnight Shine for the use of chaos magic has been seconded by... Midnight Shine. The matter is to be put to a voice vote."
The vote was quick, and Midnight's speech appeared to have tilted what had seemed an even balance into an overwhelming majority... against the trial. Even Peregrine voted against it. "This conclave rejects the motion to try Midnight Shine for his actions," Peregrine said after the vote. He continued after a pause, "I think we can all agree to being moved by his words. On a personal note, I will advise Midnight Shine not to take punishment into his own hooves." He regarded Midnight with a stern expression. "The creation of a Tantabus will be punished most severely. Now please return to your seat."
Prism gave Midnight a massive hug when he got back to the paired thrones. "That was amazing, Mid. The amping spell, the speech, all of it. It's..." She hesitated. "It's not unforgivable what you did. I forgive you."
Midnight hugged her back. "I guess I just can't forgive myself. We both almost died. And, um..." He shook his head. "That wasn't a spell. My horn fizzled out when I got all flustered. That was-"
"-you actually did it," she finished with wide eyes. "You used the Voice. How did you know you could?"
"I didn't! I-" He was interrupted as Peregrine slammed the gavel again.
"We move to the second, and far more important order of business - the reason I have called you all here. You have all heard, in one way or another, about yesterday's events. However, before we begin, I would like to invite Prism Star to recount the events of her duel with Midnight Shine. Please... leave no details out."
The murmuring masters fell silent as Prism stepped forward into the well. "I... alright..." She began, haltingly, to explain what had happened, occasionally stopping to field a question from a pony in the stands. At first the crowd seemed bored, but she quickly sensed their growing interest as she described Midnight's timeshifting and her own use of solar energy to cheat with her construct.
"I'm sorry..." a mare from the back began.
"The conclave recognizes Mistress Emerald of South Manehattan," Peregrine allowed.
Emerald continued, in a skeptical tone, "Am I to understand that an eight year old colt not only traveled through time, but used time travel as an effective combat technique?"
Prism hesitated. "Um... yes, I said so, didn't I?" Normally she'd show a little more respect for an elder, but this mare annoyed her with the implication that she was lying about Midnight's capabilities. Hadn't Mid just used the Royal Canterlot Voice and admitted to chaos magic? "Midnight would react to some of my attacks by traveling back in time a few seconds to avoid them after he saw them happen. I'd seen him do it before, and in our studies of magic Smudged Ink taught us to recognize different forms of magical energy. There was temporal magic all over the place."
The mare huffed at this but asked no further questions, and after a moment Prism continued, only to be interrupted by a stallion almost immediately.
"You channeled sunfire?" His accent was much like Southern Storm's, though thicker.
"The conclave recognizes Master Pot Pie of Trottingham," said Peregrine.
Prism was distracted trying to figure out how such a stodgy pony could be a potential relative of Pinkie Pie, but she managed something resembling a 'yes' with an exasperated sigh. Why couldn't they just let her talk instead of asking obvious questions?
"Let me clarify. You channeled sunfire without preparation or meditation, and still have full control of your magical faculties?"
Prism growled angrily and summoned it right then, her horn and eyes glowing golden-orange as fiery vigor flowed into her body. "Yeah. Yeah, you want to see my magical fac-faculties?" She said frustratedly, stumbling over the last word and ignoring the muttering crowds. She didn't let the energy go until she felt Shimmer's chitinous hoof tugging on her, and that was when she noticed the way everypony was looking at her.
"Prism," the changeling said quietly. "Please calm down."
"I..." Prism let the last of it flow out of her. "I'm sorry. I just got so angry. I, I-"
Shimmer pulled her into a hug. "Shhh. Breathe. Try to keep it calm."
Prism took a few deep breaths and then sighed. "Thanks, Shimmer." She separated out from the hug and returned to her position. "I'm sorry for losing my temper," she said in general to the stands.
"It's... It's quite alright, little miss. Please continue your story." Pot Pie seemed nervous at her brazen display of power.
Prism continued with how she'd gotten frustrated enough with Midnight's evasive tactics to use the wide sunbeam that she used. When asked if it was a deliberate tactical choice to create a wide enough beam that he wouldn't be able to escape in the few seconds of his time shift, Prism found that she had to admit that it wasn't. In hindsight, that made it sound like a much better idea than it was, but she found herself admitting that she'd just acted blindly out of her frustration - she'd just wanted so badly to hit him with something that she used everything she had. The masters asked no questions when she described the way Midnight retaliated with the beam of chaos magic, though they seemed to mutter and discuss amongst themselves.
And then she hesitated and stopped. Should she share her encounter with Twilight Sparkle? Would they even believe her? She decided it was better not to tell them, lest they think she was a crazy pony, and so instead she began describing the spell she'd used as though it was her own idea - but she was quickly interrupted by Thunderbolt.
"Prism Star..." he began, before allowing Peregrine a chance to announce his name and cell for the room. "Please tell us the truth. All of the truth." He leaned forward, and Prism could see the knowing grey eyes under his hood. "I know it may not seem significant, and I know that we have given you little reason to trust us with our badgering questions-" A few of the other members nodded at this and glanced towards Emerald and Pot Pie. "-But I believe that we are finally reaching the crux of the matter. The most important part, that is. The spell that you describe, or rather, the modification you made to a standard shielding spell, is a very advanced form of emotion-based magic that was lost long ago when Flurry Heart and the Crystal Empire conquered Equestria. So I want you to tell me the absolute truth when I ask you... who taught you to use that magic?"
Prism couldn't respond to this with anything but stunned silence. She'd always suspected her father knew more than he let on, about nearly everything, but this was just uncanny. It's like he knew exactly what she was concealing, and had just called it out in everything but name. "I... um..." She hemmed for time, scratching her hoof on the wood floor. "I learned it from Twilight Sparkle."
The room exploded with questions, and Prism quailed against Shimmer while Peregrine worked to calm everypony down. "Everypony! Everypony, please calm down!".
His gavel banged out in vain, as the room continued to boil over until Midnight finally silenced them with a resounding call for "QUIET!" in his newfound Royal Canterlot Voice. Prism couldn't personally imagine ever being more grateful to him in her life. She took a moment to recover and collect herself, and then she continued her story by recounting the way the world had seemed to go white on her, and the conversation she'd had with Princess Twilight. The room stayed silent for this, and maintained their silence until she'd finished her story by describing how she stopped Midnight and got her cutie mark.
"Was Princess Twilight corporeal?" Emerald asked. "You described her touching you. Could you actually feel her body?"
"I... yes?" Prism was confused, and looked back at her with one eyebrow raised.
"Does it matter?" This question was asked by somepony on the other side, who she recognized as Firehoof. "A dream or a hallucination could easily involve a corporeal component."
"But it rules out astral projection," another master mused.
Emerald took a thoughtful tone as she responded. "The information didn't come from nowhere. The spell, as she described it, bears a striking resemblance to how the Elements of Harmony are reputed to have worked through the Element of Magic, and only two ponies have ever wielded that artifact." She shook her head. "I do not believe the workings of this spell came from her subconscious or her imagination."
A murmuring debate seemed to run back and forth along the stands until Peregrine brought down his gavel. "Master Thunderbolt. You've always been a proponent of the idea that Twilight Sparkle's exile was not permanent." He paused and looked over at Prism's father. "For once, I'm willing to admit that I may be wrong. What do you think?"
It was a minute or so before Thunderbolt responded, in a slow and cautious tone. "The stars of the Alicorn have shined brightly over this last decade... Brighter than ever in living memory. Could she escape?" He sighed into his small microphone. "I don't believe so- at least not without outside intervention of some form. What intervention that would be, I'm not sure. In her private writings, my ancestor Starlight Glimmer seemed of the opinion that because it was alicorn magic that sealed Twilight Sparkle away, only alicorn magic would be able to free her. But it's possible that when her prison is weak, she may be able to use her own magic to influence events."
"Are you referring to the superstition that the Alicorn can grant wishes?" Peregrine seemed skeptical, but Prism felt her heart plummet down through her stomach. Hadn't she wished on those stars two months ago? Hadn't the protective barriers of every city fallen the morning after she'd wished to see the sun without them in the way? The idea that she might be responsible for the Shieldfall, even if the other masters seemed not to believe it, made Prism feel physically ill. She quickly tugged on one of Shimmer's wings and begged quietly to be excused, and a couple minutes later, Prism was pacing in the lounge room and whimpering softly as she tried to process her guilt.
After a few minutes of pacing, Prism Star ran blindly into a pony and came to a stop, looking up to see her father. "Prism... is everything alright?" He was still wearing his robe, but had pulled back the hood so she could see his face.
"I... I don't know." She shook her head, feeling like she wanted to cry. "When... when you showed me those stars, the, the Alicorn, I made a wish. I think I made a horrible mistake, I think everything that happened the next day was my fault and all... all the ponies that died or got hurt..."
Thunderbolt shushed her gently and stroked her hair. "It wasn't your fault. It could never be your fault. Princess Twilight would never lay that guilt on your shoulders."
"How do you know that?" She glared up at him. "How do you know any of this?"
"I..." He paused and sighed, smiling at her softly. "Let me show you." Thunderbolt led her out of the room and through the halls of the House of Harmony, passing off of the floor where she'd spent the last two months and down a labyrinthine series of stairs and hallways she'd never seen before. Prism had always been teleported directly in and out of the House by a unicorn, and had never actually been to any of these parts.
"How is it so big?" She asked, panting a little from the long, brisk walk. "This place must be massive - how does nopony ever see it?"
Thunderbolt chuckled at this. "Many things are possible with magic - especially with the mastery of time and space that wizards like Starswirl the Bearded, Snowfall Frost, and Starlight Glimmer once possessed. This House of Harmony is far larger on the inside than without, and-"
"Wait, Snowfall Frost was a real pony?"
"As real as you or I." He'd led her to a metal door locked with a complicated series of discs that he began to turn with magic.
"What's in here, dad?" Prism looked up at him after she lost track of the discs and gave up on trying to follow his combination.
"A mirror, much like the one I came through - but older. There were originally seven of these mirrors, one of which the scholar Sunburst reverse-engineered to give us the magic mirrors we know today." He opened the door and led her into a dark, dusty room, lighting the way with his horn. "Our mirrors are simply a network of portals through space on this plane. But the ancient mirrors are different - each had a different purpose and a singular, powerful spell laid upon it. One was a spring of clear and calm water - a Mirror Pool that duplicated those brave enough to look into it and speak its words. It was sealed away by Twilight Sparkle and Pinkie Pie, and its location has been lost to time. The second was the Mirror of Potentials. Ponies claimed that they could see the future in it, but its stories were contradictory, and it almost always drove the looker mad. It was broken long ago. The name of the third mirror has been forgotten, but it came to be known as Sunset's Mirror after a student of Celestia who tried to use its power for evil - it was a portal to another world, reputed by Princess Twilight's writings to be strange and alien, filled with creatures just like us and yet very different. Not long after the war began to turn in Flurry Heart's favor, it was shattered from the other side - I can only assume to protect their world from ours. The last three have not been found as far as I know, only referenced in other writings. And the fourth..." He stopped in front of a huge standing mirror, easily ten feet tall and three feet wide. "This is the Mirror of Memory. While the Mirror of Potentials shows us the future, the Mirror of Memory shows us the past." Thunderbolt lit his horn and began casting a spell that caused the edges of the mirror to glow with his blue aura. "I want you to see something that may help you understand. My favorite memory of all, a time when your mother and I were happy."
He ended the spell, and Prism stepped through the mirror to be swept off her hooves in a cyclone of color.
***Ten Years Ago***
Prism fell to her hooves with a soft 'oof' and looked around. Entering somepony's memory was never not going to be weird no matter how many times she did it, and her main consolation was that hopefully Discord wouldn't be here to taunt her. She was standing in what looked like a palatial bedroom- furniture of carved mahogany, silk sheets on the bed, a plush white carpet under Prism's hooves, and sconces lit with brilliant white sun crystals instead of traditional light bulbs. At the vanity, a white-furred unicorn mare was sitting on a small stool and brushing her hair - a beautiful, wavy mane that came down nearly to the floor in a pastel tumble of pink, blue, and purple - with a telekinetically-controlled brush. She wore a long gown of shimmering green satin in the same shade as the eyes Prism saw in the mirror - the same pale green as her own. Prism's breath caught in her throat as she looked at her mother. She was so... young, and she looked so much like Prism herself.
As Guiding Star began shaking little sprinkles of glitter into her mane and tail, Prism heard her father's voice behind her. "She never needed the dresses, or the glitter, or the hoof polish." He sounded sad, and she turned around to see that he had entered the mirror behind her. "She was just as beautiful covered in sawdust and paint, or wearing a buckball uniform." Seeing the confused look on Prism's face, he chuckled. "I first met your mother when we were studying magic at Canterlot University. We almost never saw each other in class - I was majoring in weather manipulation, and Guiding Star wanted to be a Celestial Wizard like her grandfather. But we stumbled into one another - literally - in tryouts for the buckball team, and ever since the clubs I joined were largely decided by whether or not she was in them." He shook his head with a look of amusement. "This memory is about three years after we both graduated, and four years after we started dating. I relayed weather orders to and fro from Canterlot to the weather guilds in the other cities, and your mother, as I've told you, had already become the greatest Celestial Wizard of her generation."
"Why didn't Nightmare Winter come after her? If Mom was so powerful, then..." Prism trailed off and looked at him curiously after glancing to see her mother putting on eyeshadow. "Wait, how are we even watching this if you're not here? Isn't this your memory?"
"The Mirror of Memory is not a precise instrument, if the stories are to be believed. If the ponies involved in an event are closely linked, their perspectives can bleed into one another. Ask Midnight Shine how the dream realm works sometime. I think you'll do exactly what I did, which is to say, give up and realize that some things are beyond our understanding." Thunderbolt laughed at this. "Guiding Star was powerful in more than just her magic. She was born into wealth and privilege, from a long line of Celestial Wizards - many of whom likely got their talent from Celestia herself in some form or another, though most of them weren't much stronger than your average unicorn, so... Flurry Heart likely didn't see them as much of a threat. Between her family's fortune, and her own incredible talent and sense of showmanship, your mother became something of a minor celebrity in her time - too famous and respected, at least, for the queen to strike at publicly. And in private, well..." He smiled. "She had her Protector. He should be coming in..." Thunderbolt paused. "Now."
Somepony knocked at the door, and Guiding Star opened it with her magic to reveal Prism's father on the other side- a young Thunderbolt. Somehow the sight of her father looking so young was stranger to Prism than seeing her dead mother. His normally bushy mane was slicked down into a tight knot at the back of his neck, his signature beard was nothing but the barest stubble barely visible under the fur on his chin, and he was wearing a nice-looking suit of storm-cloud gray with a bowtie, and a goofy grin. "Well, look at you," the young stallion said to Guiding Star in a tone that Shimmer would describe in a disgusted way as 'cutesy-wutesy'. "You really are the best jewel in Equestria, my little pookie-bear."
Prism made a gagging noise from behind her hoof as her mother responded in kind and nuzzled young Thunderbolt on the cheek. Mercifully, the real Thunderbolt chuckled at this and began to accelerate time with his horn. "It... is a miracle that our relationship survived moments like that. Too much love can make a pony do very silly things, and I don't think it's possible to love anypony more than I loved her." He shook his head with another small laugh. "The date was... it was a disaster. I'd invited your mother to the opera, but we soon discovered that we both hated opera. It was her suggestion that we make our exit and go to our special place instead."
"The top of the tower, right?" Prism asked as time began to slow back down to normal and she could start seeing clearly again.
"The top of the tower," Thunderbolt agreed. They were now standing atop a gently domed tower with a majestic view of Canterlot - not to mention the surrounding countryside - but the young lovers in front of them seemed to only have eyes for the starry sky in the rapidly darkening dusk, laid out in all its glory here above Canterlot's pink dome shield. Guiding Star and young Thunderbolt were cuddled up together against a cold wind that Prism could see but not feel, and Guiding Star nuzzled her mate's neck as they murmured softly to one another about the constellations.
One star shined brighter than any other, and Prism could see her mother tracing out the Alicorn in light just as she had, starting with the horn. It made her feel so much closer to this mare she had never known. "You know," she heard young Thunderbolt say. "I think it worked out pretty well when I wished you would notice me. Why don't you make a wish this time?"
Guiding Star smiled mischievously. "Any wish?"
"Any wish," said Thunderbolt. Prism Star could see the real stallion mouthing the words even as his memory counterpart said them, with a sad, wistful smile on his face.
"Then I wish..." Prism's mother thought for a moment, looking back up at the stars, then smirked out of the corner of her eye at young Thunderbolt. "I wish for a foal."
He seemed to be taken by surprise, and stammered for a moment before collecting his wits. "A-a foal? But..." Thunderbolt shook his head. "It's too dangerous! Much too dangerous, as... as powerful as you are, if you have a baby, if Nightmare Winter thinks they could be an heir, she-she-she-"
"-she'll kill you," the real Thunderbolt said along with the memory. His eyes were closed, and Prism could see tears starting to roll slowly down his cheeks.
"I don't care. And it doesn't matter anyway- I've already made my wish." Guiding Star giggled at the stammering, terrified young Thunderbolt. "And I'm going to do a lot of wishing tonight," she said with a grin, kissing Thunderbolt deeply and starting to undo his bowtie. "I wish that you'll give me a filly as beautiful as the sun itself, with-"
"-a mane of every color and fire in her eyes," the real Thunderbolt said in a choked voice as the memory dissolved into a swirl of color. He was crying openly now, and appeared to have lost control of the mirror. "I.. I want... I want a daughter as, as wise as Celestia and, and as passionate..." His breathing was ragged, and he could barely recite the words. "As passionate as Starlight Glimmer. And when I'm gone she'll befriend the sun just... just as I did... and she'll make her father... She'll make her father the proudest stallion in Equestria."
Prism tried to comfort him, feeling her own eyes starting to water, but he just shook his head. "You were born eleven months later," Thunderbolt said after collecting himself as best as he could. "I held my wife and my daughter both, and for one moment I was the happiest a pony could possibly be." He stopped, taking a couple of deep breaths. "Three days later Nightmare Winter murdered your mother, and I... ran." He was on the verge of crying again. "I took you and I ran all the way to Ponyville." He managed, with visible effort, to focus and re-establish the memory spell, re-tuning the mirror and putting them on a balcony in Ponyville's crystal castle. The younger Thunderbolt was standing looking out at the twilit sky, wearing the robes of a junior Weather Wizard. "The Order helped me create a new identity and establish myself with the local Weather Guild. But I didn't care about any of that because you had fallen ill on the way to Ponyville. You ran a terrible fever, and cried constantly, and no doctor could tell me what was wrong with you. I wished on the stars your mother loved so much for somepony who could help you, and keep you safe."
"What happened?" She stepped out onto the balcony and looked out over her hometown, before turning back to her real father. "I... I didn't die."
Thunderbolt shook his head. "The next morning I found Shimmerwing. She was alone and scared, just like I was. Just a little thing no older than you are now, shivering in the snow and too exhausted to even maintain her pony form anymore. She was almost dead herself, but when she saw you she... she saved you. She gave you all of the love she had to give, and somehow it cured you."
"So Twilight's always been looking out for me," Prism said quietly. "But... but how's it supposed to make me feel better?"
"Because the night before you left Ponyville, I made one more wish. I asked one more thing of the pony who has given you more than I ever could, because I am old, and greedy, and selfish..." He seemed guilty about it. "You were just so sad. You thought you were weak, and helpless, and you had no idea of the gifts you possess because I was too stubborn and scared to find you a proper teacher. You were... alone, and picked on, and you had no other friends but Shimmer."
"Dad..." Prism had a horrid sinking sensation - it wasn't like her father to make preemptive excuses and dance around the point like this. "What did you wish for?"
"I... I wished..." Thunderbolt closed his eyes and sighed. "I wished you could have the chance to show the world your true potential. I wished for you to find your other half and become the pony your mother always knew you could be." He took a deep, shaky breath. "And when I face my final judgement, I will have the souls of nearly a thousand ponies to answer for, because Princess Twilight granted my wish."
Prism Star felt a cold weight pressing down on her heart, and all she could think to do was to run.
******
Prism ran until her hooves simply couldn't take it anymore. She somehow ran out of the House of Harmony entirely, and when she finally flopped down onto her belly, it was into the soft grass of a park at the very edge of the city's central island, late at night - the moon was low in the sky, and it would be morning soon. Somehow the ponies of Las Pegasus had recreated one of the multicolored waterfalls she'd seen on a postcard from Rainbow Falls, and as she sat looking into the swirling wellspring that it flowed from, she tried to imagine a pony like the one her mother had wished for, with multicolored hair and fiery eyes. It certainly wasn't her. She certainly didn't have much wisdom either, and the only passion she seemed to show was crying one moment and hurting her friends the next. It didn't feel like Twilight granted her mother anything she'd wanted.
"Prism." She turned around to see Midnight standing behind her at a fair distance. Even though this was the real world - at least she thought so - his eyes had the soft glow of the dream realm. "We're all very worried about you, you know. You've been gone for hours. Shimmer and Sour and your father have all been looking for you."
"I don't know if you should." She sighed. "I'll admit I'm a little lost, but I... I..." She stammered to a stop. "What are you even doing here?"
"Astral projection! It's actually really cool!" Midnight took the bait on her deflection, momentarily distracted by his pride on mastering a new spell. "I'm not really here, I'm actually back in bed doing my dream trance but I came to you instead of into somepony's dream!"
"How in the hay did you learn to do that?!" Prism stepped up to him and tried to poke him - sure enough, she slid her hoof through like he wasn't even there.
"It's, um.. um, please don't do that." He took a couple of steps back, smiling at her sheepishly. "You're not the only one who sees dead princesses, you know. I've been getting visits from some other world's Princess Luna since the night of the Shieldfall. That first time we met, when my horn was overloaded... it was because she'd saved me from a bunch of Finders by forcing so much lunar energy into my body that it nearly killed me."
"You know, a couple days ago I'd have called you crazy," Prism admitted.
"And if Midnight told anypony what you dreamed about, I'm sure they'd call you crazy," a rich, deep mare's voice said. Prism scrambled backwards, just barely avoiding falling into the rainbow water, and hastily fell to her knees as Princess Luna materialized midstride and came to stand by Midnight. "My young student thought you might be having a crisis. I thought it best to show up myself."
Prism hesitated as she looked at Luna, and after a moment stood and turned around to stare into the water again. "I... Twilight has done so much to put me here. So many ponies have been sacrificed in some insane plan, or... or because of my dad's stupid wishes, or... or just because. What did I do to deserve any of this? Why does it have to be me?" She hadn't meant it to come out that way, so petulant and ungrateful. But why did all of this have to revolve around her? Why was she the one on this mysterious quest? Why was she the one who had to live in terror of becoming Supernova? "Why... why couldn't it be somepony better? Somepony like the filly my mom asked for..."
"You are the filly your mother asked for." This time Prism did fall into the spring, because the swirling colors had revealed themselves into the face of Twilight Sparkle. By the time the spluttering unicorn pulled herself out, she looked like she'd been bathing in watercolors.
"Ew, that's not water," Prism managed weakly. "That's real rainbow and it turns out rainbows taste disgusting..." The filly coughed and spat as she flopped forward onto the grass, trying desperately to get the bizarre, and surprisingly spicy, taste out of her mouth. "H-help..."
She felt Twilight and Luna both cast spells on her, and in a moment she was good as new - though the rainbow did still leave a bad aftertaste in her mouth. "I'm... ugh." Prism coughed a little more and spat up the last of it. "I'm alright. But see, I don't even have the wisdom to avoid falling into a rainbow."
Luna approached her, looking down at Prism with a gentle smile. "I was once doubtful, too. My sister was always the confident one... the first to get her wings, the first to accept the crown from Starswirl, the first to learn a new spell, and all the time knowing how good she was. It infuriated me as a filly. She was always stronger, always first, and more than anything else, she was always so arrogant." She shook her head, closing her eyes with a sad expression. "Her overconfidence made her easy prey for the Nightmare, though. And all of my jealousy, all of my resentment, made it so much worse when I had to face Daybreaker." She said this with a knowing look to Midnight. "I lived with a thousand years of regret and guilt because I knew in my heart my feelings had led me to the wrong choice in sealing my sister away. I'm just glad that when she returned, my faithful student was there to make all the right choices."
She said this with a smile towards the pool Twilight, but Twilight looked confused by this. "It was... I don't think that's what happened. At least for us. For us, your jealousy of your sister caused you to become Nightmare Moon... and she had to live with the thought that she could have saved you if she hadn't been so self-centered."
Prism was completely lost by now, looking between the two alicorns and trying to figure out how she fit into this discussion. "What does all of this have to do with me, though?"
"That confidence can be just as bad as doubt."
"That even the most powerful ponies doubted themselves."
Luna and Twilight spoke at the same time, only confusing Prism more as they looked at each other. They both stared at Prism for a moment, and then Luna stepped over to the pool. "Please give us a moment to speak, Prism Star." Prism stepped over to Midnight.
"You know, I sometimes think that the grown ponies aren't as smart as they say," she said to him as the images of Luna and Twilight started to have a quiet, pointed conversation.
"This is really not when I had in mind when I asked for help," he replied. "I thought Luna would have some kind of amazing advice on being a princess or something."
"But it wouldn't even apply! I'm not a princess!" Prism glared at him - he was being just as unhelpful, and she'd had it with all three of them. "You... and you! And you!" She pointed at all of them in succession, raising her voice as her temper got hold of her. "All of you can just take your ghostly flanks and just... and just GO AWAY!" Her Royal Canterlot Voice momentarily disrupted Luna's image, and stripped the leaves from a bush in front of her, and Prism just laid down in the grass and started to sob. After a moment, she could hear Midnight saying something indistinct to Luna, and the princess disappeared - not that Prism much cared at this point.
She didn't know how long she sat there crying, and all she could hope was that they'd all finally left her alone. Eventually, she heard Midnight Shine's voice again. "Prism... what time is it?"
"I- what?" For a moment she was so confused by the question that she forgot to be angry at him.
"What time is it, Prism?" He gestured up at the sky. "What's wrong here?"
"If.. if you came back just to ask stupid questions..." She glared at him and then looked up at the night sky through its shield bubble. "It's night. There's nothing wrong with it." The stars twinkled softly, though she noticed the Alicorn had faded. Hopefully this meant that Twilight would leave her alone - nothing wrong there as far as she was concerned. "Wait, no..." The moon was gone - completely gone. "Where's..."
"The Celestial Wizards of the Lunar Sect successfully raised and lowered the moon with minimal losses," Midnight said softly. "But the Solar Sect never showed up to raise the sun."
Prism Star turned to him with a look of growing horror. "What... Midnight... what did you do?"
"Help isn't coming," he said - pointedly ignoring her question. "It has to be you."
"What. Did. You. Do?" Prism pounced on him angrily and just passed through his image, causing him to take a couple steps backward.
"It doesn't matter what I did! You have to do it or there will never be another sunrise again!"
This hung between them for a moment like an exploded bomb. Prism couldn't believe he'd do something like this... whatever he did. "Midnight.. I, I can't. Nopony can. I'm not Celestia, no matter how much everypony seems to think I am!"
"You have to try." In contrast with Prism's growing panic, Midnight seemed eerily calm. "You saw just like I did how shocked they were at what you can do. All of them. Your father said that you're already stronger than your mother, and she raised the sun."
"She... She had a hundred wizards at her back. I don't have anypony." She knew he was wrong somehow. She wasn't as strong as Celestia - not strong enough to raise the sun alone.
Midnight asked, "But you have magic Celestia didn't have, don't you? Twilight taught you her friendship magic."
"I... how the hay is friendship going to help?!" She yelled at him.
"Just try, please." Midnight looked like he was about to hug her and then remembered he wasn't really there. "As the Order's little song goes, just give it a chance. You might find that you'll start to understand."
"I... but..." Prism sighed and turned away from him, walking to the edge of the pool and looking up at the eerily empty sky. She'd always been up at dawn to watch the sun rise. She'd always wished, so much, that she could see it for real, that she could feel it. But Prism had learned so much in these past months. All that time spent practicing to channel the sun's fire, all those sparring sessions with Midnight where she would turn its energy against him, all those late nights she spent trying to perfect her light constructs. Even at night, Prism had learned to feel the sun as her constant companion - like a stone wall that had lasted her whole life had been chipped at and chipped at until she could reach through, and on the other side was endless, eternal fire. But... raising the sun? How would she even begin to attempt a spell so advanced? She'd certainly never learned it from Solar Flare. She had to try, though - Midnight was right about that. This was always going to happen eventually. The sun was just a big ball of magic fire, right? So maybe... Prism opened herself to as much of the sun's energy as she could take, and tried to just... lift the sun. For a moment it felt like it would work- she could feel it slowly starting to move... but then she felt all that energy burning her up inside and had to let it go.
What was wrong? Was she just not strong enough, or... or was there something Prism was missing? She took a breath to resist the urge to cry and give up, and instead did her best to think about what Solar Flare had taught her about the sun. "'The sun, to the best that we know from science, is just a ball of fire fueled by some form of magic we don't understand...'" She muttered, in imitation of what she remembered.
Midnight said from behind her, "'...But science often fails to tell us the truth behind our world.'" She looked back at him and he chuckled a little at her. "You know, you really do just tune out the moment he starts talking about the mystical stuff."
"Well, I mean, what..." Prism stammered a little in a defensive tone. What in Equestria was Midnight talking about?
"'...Whereas in ancient times, the unicorns of the Lost Continent are believed to have worshiped the sun as a god. They were likely wrong about this, but I suspect from my own experience that they might have been wiser than those who claim to know the science,'" Midnight recited, seeming to look down at a book that wasn't there, and Prism had the odd mental image of Mid trying to check his meticulous notes without breaking the dream trance. From the way his projection was flickering in and out, that might have even been what he was doing. "'Celestia and Luna, the progenitors of modern Celestial Magic, thought of the sun and moon not simply as powerful magical entities, or balls of fire and rock, but as living beings to be approached as equals.' He went on to explain from there why there's always one Speaker who sits in the middle of all the wizards and actually raises the sun with everypony else's power, but I think the more important thing is the bit where he said that they're 'living beings', Prism."
Prism scoffed. "What, am I supposed to make friends with the sun? 'Oh hello, it's good to see you, where have you been all this time, why didn't you help when Nightmare Winter murdered my mother?'"
Midnight seemed to ignore her hostile tone and responded matter-of-factly, "It wouldn't hurt."
She just sighed at him and turned back to look at the east sky. A... living being? Maybe Midnight had a point... Prism took a few deep breaths to steady herself, and then she opened herself up to the sun's fire just as before. But instead of trying to lift it, she thought about how to possibly befriend a celestial body, and then her thoughts drifted to her actual friends. Shimmerwing had been her friend for as long as she could remember - and had apparently saved her life with some kind of changeling love magic when she was a baby. Midnight was always by her side these days, and now she couldn't imagine life without him. She'd stopped mooning over Southern Storm when Talon had told her he was gay, but Sosi - as they still sometimes called him with giggles behind his back - had become a true friend, and the little parties he threw to charge the windigo wards around his house were always the highlight of her week. Sour Apple always found an excuse to tease her, but he was brave and strong, and always ready to help whether it was trying to reach a high book in the library or sneak something in that they weren't allowed to have. And Talon had somehow gone from shifty and snarky and rude to becoming an immovable rock who never took her eyes off of their friendship quest. Prism thought about these five wonderful ponies in her life and how they made her feel, the way they all gave so much of themselves without any second thought... and then she opened her heart to one more friend.
Flurry Heart
Nightmare Winter returned from the meeting with the Celestial Wizards in a fury, barely maintaining the glamour of oh so beautiful and generous Flurry Heart as she threw open the palace doors and stormed into the throne room with frost spreading into the rich blue carpet with each step of her iron-shod hooves, slowly spreading in circles around her hoofprints. The Solar Sect had failed to raise the sun today, and in confronting the Celestial Wizards all she got were excuses and ridiculous stories. For the Lunar Sect to claim that the ghost of Luna had appeared and put the entire Solar Sect to sleep was... it was patently ridiculous, and the grandmaster of the sect had paid with her life for those lies. Luna was dead- hadn't she forced the ice into Luna's heart herself?
In a fit of rage, she shattered one of the old windows with an incoherent cry and a blast of black energy; the stained-glass windows that Celestia had so prized had long ago become crusted with rime, but she knew very well from her childhood which one depicted Luna. Sweet, innocent Luna who had always gotten a pass, who had been too weak to wield the power of the Nightmare - defeated by both Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, but Nightmare Winter had claimed both of them hadn't she? 'I stopped all of them,' she thought with savage triumph.
"Ooh, Luna always did get you, didn't she?" Nightmare Winter heard a mocking voice and a high-pitched giggle from the far side of the room, and turned to see Flurry Heart sitting on the throne - young and beautiful as she'd been so long ago, the cruel smile on her muzzle half-hidden by the curly, multicolored mane that tumbled down her face and chest. "Oh, you pretended to be me for so long but Luna always had your number." Flurry pushed the hair out of her face and grinned wickedly. "Oh don't worry, Winty. I'm sure somepony will do your job for you and raise the sun. You never did learn that trick, did you?"
Nightmare Winter hurled a barrage of ice shards at the crystal throne, letting her glamour drop in the process to reveal her true, cruel form - but her double was already gone. "Begone with you, spirit!" She growled angrily. "I am in control!"
Somehow she knew even before Flurry responded that the princess was behind her. "Maybe it'll be that little filly from years ago. That one you couldn't kill. Wouldn't that be so sweet?" Nightmare Winter tried to turn and face her but felt paralyzed. "I was so scared that you would end the line of Celestia once and for all. But you... hesitated." She whispered this last word into Nightmare Winter's ear and disappeared with another malicious giggle, leaving the dark queen free to move again.
"There's..." She breathed to control herself. It was just an illusion. There was no reason to argue with a figment of her imagination... but the suggestion that she'd hesitated rankled her. "There's no reason to think she's alive," she finally said more to herself than anypony as she was still trying to ignore the specter of Flurry Heart. "She'd tasted of the Nightmare, I made sure of that. There's no way a foal could survive that much power."
"But you're worried, aren't you, Winty? You promised you wouldn't kill unless you had to- wasn't that the deal we made? Oh, but you did a number on that poor old mare, just because she said something that scared you." Flurry Heart was sitting up in the sill of one of the stained-glass windows. "You thought she was one of Starlight's little friends, didn't you? Oh, when you found out who she really served... that was delicious to watch." Flurry winked, and Nightmare Winter forced herself to resist attacking again. Breaking another of these windows, while cathartic, would to little to stop the taunting.
"I dealt with that traitor. I was a fool to think she'd ever serve anypony but Twilight Sparkle, but her rebellion died with her." She wasn't nearly as confident as she tried to sound, though. Her trusted Finders had sparred for years with a group of ponies trying to steal artifacts from under her grasp and keep the descendants of Celestia and Luna out of her hooves.
"Auntie Twily always was so crafty, wasn't she?" Flurry Heart laughed again, that knowing, vindictive giggle that always made Nightmare Winter want to murder the next pony she met. "She always was cleverer than you. She protected Prism Star somehow, and when she finally comes back for you..." The specter of the Crystal Heir shook her head and grinned. "Ooh, I'm going to laugh and laugh and laugh." This time Nightmare Winter did smash the window, and it did feel good to blast a hole through Twilight Sparkle's smug face. Twilight had always thought herself so clever, hadn't she? Always giving her insipid friendship lectures, always holding her back so that she could always be better. "Why don't you look at your little mirror? The one they found in the Frozen North. Go ask it where Prism Star is." Flurry Heart looked out the hole in the window with a smirk. "It'll probably be morning soon. You don't want to miss the show, Winty~" This last bit was added in a mocking singsong before Flurry evaporated, leaving Nightmare Winter alone in a soft snowfall that she'd summoned without even thinking.
Could it be true? Could... Nightmare Winter rushed upstairs, trailing ice behind her on the stone as she stopped bothering to try and contain her power. There was no way that Guiding Star's daughter could have survived even a sliver of the Nightmare power she'd given them both. That... no, it was that imbecile stallion, with his baby talk and his little lightning tricks. The one that Guiding Star was always with, who seemed to constantly fill her head with ridiculous stories of Twilight Sparkle. He had to be one of Starlight Glimmer's minions. He had taken her, and they'd somehow cured her and hidden the both of them. Nightmare Winter slammed open the door to her chambers and quickly used her ice-blue magic to pull the black cloth covering over a tall standing mirror caked in frost- the Mirror of Sight, acquired at great cost in horsepower from a frozen cave beyond recorded lands.
"Show me... Prism Star."
She hoped desperately that nothing would happen, but to her horror the ice covering the mirror began to recede. She saw a rainbow waterfall flowing from a city in the sky that she knew was Las Pegasus, and at its source she saw a little white unicorn sitting in deep thought, her horn shining bright with the same golden energy Celestia had once wielded. A colt about the same size as her was standing behind her, barely visible in the darkness - even without how dark the blue of his coat was, the Mirror of Sight revealed his form as simply an illusion. Of course it was; her great-aunt Luna had always been a master of astral travel. She would flit from dream to dream, visit faraway places... and even other worlds, Nightmare Winter remembered with the terrible fear of somepony who had forgotten a great danger. Even as her mother and Aunt Twilight had applauded Luna for her claims to have visited Sunset Shimmer's mirrorworld in astral form, Flurry had never believed them... but perhaps she should have. Certainly somepony had warned Sunset Shimmer to smash her half of the magic mirror that bore her name before Nightmare Winter had a chance to claim its Equestrian counterpart. More alarming was the possibility that another world's Luna had visited this one in the same way, and perhaps the Celestial Wizards had not lied after all. As little Prism Star started to glow and levitate off of the ground, Nightmare Winter saw the ghostly form of Twilight Sparkle by her side, her own horn glowing with the secret magics that she'd kept from Flurry, and all her worst fears were confirmed. Some alien Luna had set the stage for this filly, but it was ever-brilliant Aunt Twilight who wrote the script.
Her mounting rage only increased as she saw the filly's mane and tail shine in every color of the rainbow, flowing from an unseen wind just as Celestia's always had, as her previously green irises burned with orange sunfire. Nightmare Winter's hate became a swirling blizzard as she saw the sunrise, a dawn like Equestria hadn't seen in a thousand years - painting the world with reds and pinks like a master artist, burning away ice and shields and winter cloud alike as the sky itself rejoiced at the birth of a new Sun Princess.
And all Nightmare Winter felt was cold fear.