Spyra, part eleven

It began shortly after noon. Twilight Sparkle and Spike had spent a busy morning in town picking up supplies, along with negligibly iced cupcakes for the picnic that was planned for later.

She felt happy and relaxed – she had fallen into a dreamless sleep almost the second her head hit the pillow last night. Her chores were finished and she had a few hours to kill before she was supposed to meet her friends. She was considering whether she should settle down with a good book.

Her faithful dragon assistant was tying a bandage around his claw to give it some support, in hopes of easing the cramp he had earned from a long session of checklist ticking. He let out a sigh of relief as the pain in his wrist subsided.

Twilight smiled apologetically. "Thanks for your help this morning, Spike. Take the rest of the day off – you've earned it."

He was more than happy to accept her offer. "Alright! I'm going to bask in the Sun for a couple of hours," he said, already heading for the door. "Speaking of, I'm glad we didn't have a letter for Celestia this week. One more tick and I think my claw would have seized up completely."

Twilight's mood instantaneously flicked from calm to panic. Her friendship report! With the nightmares she had been having recently, it had completely slipped her mind.

Once she recovered from her initial shock, she realised she still had a chance. It was several hours before sundown, which was when her report was due. That was time enough to find a subject worth writing about.

Surely her friends would be able to help her.

****

"You're saying it was my piano? MY piano?" said Noteworthy, a note of outrage in his voice. "Talk about adding insult to injury."

The stallion had slept well and long through the night, exhausted from the physical trauma and the anaesthetics he had been dosed up with. He wasn't yet back to his normal self but he was more verbose than he had been the other day.

His fellow spies were discussing yesterday's attack and had closed the door to the ward. The other patient in the room had been discharged a short while ago.

"The Canterlot guard ran a few checks on the remains yesterday," said Lyra, who was standing at the foot of his hospital bed. "No visible hoofprints and no magical residue."

Berry frowned. "Would you mind translating that last part for the non-unicorns in the room?"

"Right," said Lyra, scanning the room for something she could use to demonstrate. She settled upon a book that was sitting on the cabinet beside Noteworthy's bed and used her magic to lift it up.

"You see the magical aura surrounding this book? Whenever a unicorn casts a spell, the dust in the air becomes magically charged and will reflect the light, making it visible. If you're casting a basic spell, the dust will lose its charge once you've finished.

"However, if it's something that's more complicated or needs extra effort, it's highly likely the dust will retain the charge. Every unicorn has a unique magic signature, so to speak, so if there had been any residue we would have been able to trace it back to them."

"So that's not really of any use to us, then?" asked Carrot Top.

"No, it is," said Lyra, "Because there wasn't any residue, that tells us whoever was responsible didn't find it difficult to lift a piano. It was effortless to them. We're dealing with a very powerful unicorn."

"That's assuming it was a pony," said Noteworthy, "It could well have been another species. A griffin, maybe even a manticore."

Berry shook her head. "I checked the sky just moments after it happened. There was no one in the air, no cloud cover to hide behind. Had to be a unicorn. I don't know of any other races that use magic."

"Zebras do," said Carrot Top, "I'll speak to Zecora, see if she has any ideas."

Noteworthy clicked his tongue in annoyance. "I wish I wasn't confined to this bed. I could be helping you all."

"You're staying here until you're better," she said, adopting an almost motherly tone, "And even when you're out of your bed and in a wheelchair, I'm not going to let you overexert yourself."

Berry made a "snrrrk" sound under her breath. The other ponies chose to ignore her.

"We should make a list of the most powerful unicorns we know," said Carrot Top, "Find out the most likely suspects."

"There aren't any strong magic users in Ponyville," said Berry. Then, one pony came to mind. She looked at Lyra. "Well, except for…"

"Twilight?" Lyra was aghast. "No. No chance. Whoever did this to Noteworthy was crazy. Twilight's one of the most level-headed ponies I know."

"In any case, you should all get moving. Nopony's safe until we catch whoever's responsible for this," said Noteworthy, pointing to his broken lower body. "I'll write to the castle to request an audience with Princess Celestia in the meantime. It's strange that she hasn't contacted us herself yet."

The three mares all agreed to this idea and said their goodbyes. Carrot Top left for the Everfree Forest to speak with her zebra colleague, while Berry Punch and Lyra went in the direction of Horte Cuisine's restaurant with the intention of writing up a list of suspects.

"Who else could have done this?" said Berry, "Which other unicorns are powerful enough to lift a piano without breaking a sweat?"

Lyra thought it over. "In Ponyville, hardly anypony. If you look to Canterlot though, there's an abundance of strong spellcasters. Blueblood, Fancy Pants – heck, the princesses could probably lift a piano shop without any difficulty."

"You're right. And all four of us are originally from Canterlot, so there could easily be a connection… there…" she trailed off, distracted by something.

Lyra turned her head to see where she was looking and almost did a double take. A bedraggled Twilight Sparkle was galloping towards them, her eyes wild and her mane frayed.

She brought herself to a stop right in front of the two ponies, digging her hooves into the road to arrest her momentum.

"Hi Heartstrings!" She was speaking a little too loudly through a frozen grin. "You two seem to getting along well. Two good friends out for a nice walk. No quarrels, conundrums or crises in need of resolution?"

Lyra was dumbstruck. "Er, Twilight? Are you okay?" she asked when she finally found her voice.

Twilight laughed. "Me? Oh, I'm fine, I'm fine! I – I…" The grin fell away as her face crumpled. "No. No, I'm not. I need your help. I really need your help."

"What is it? Are you in trouble?" she asked, now truly concerned.

"I forgot my friendship report for Princess Celestia. It's due by sundown and I don't have anything to write about and if I don't get something together soon then I'll be…" She swallowed hard. "Tardy."

"What, is that all? Why are you so upset?" asked Berry, who was quickly hushed by Lyra.

Twilight leaned forward on her front hooves, almost inadvertently butting Berry in the face. "This is the princess! Princess Celestia! Do you know what'll happen if I fail her? I'll be sent back to magic kindergarten!" She shuddered as she had a flashback to one of her more vivid nightmares. "Or even worse," she whispered.

"Worse than magic kindergarten?" cried Lyra, scarcely able to believe what she was hearing. "Twilight, this is crazy. Why don't you speak to the other Elements of Harmony? I'm sure you can work something out."

"I tried. I tried! But they just laughed at me. Don't sweat the small stuff, they said. We thought you were worried about something important, they said." Twilight pouted unhappily, then apropos of nothing dived on top of Lyra.

"You can help me, can't you? You have a friendship problem I can help you resolve, don't you?" she asked, grinding her teeth. "Please Heartstrings, I need something, anything! What about your love life?"

"Get off me!" cried Lyra, pushing her aside. "Twilight, you need to calm down."

She wasn't listening. Having apparently given up on getting anything from them, she was looking frantically for another pony she could accost for help, her ears twitching.

Her face lit up when she saw Dr Whooves, who was taking a quick break outside his surgery. Here was a chance to complete her friendship report and speak with the stallion she fancied.

She cast a teleportation spell and vanished in a purple flash. Berry reared back in surprise.

"Woah!" she cried, then looked at Lyra. "Did you know she could do that?"

Whooves had his eyes closed and was enjoying the sensation of the Sun's rays on his face when he heard a disturbed whinny from right next to him.

He was more than a little shocked to find Twilight standing far too close to him, with a slasher smile and fully dilated pupils.

"Hello doctor!" she said, moving her face even nearer to his, "Lovely day we're having, isn't it?"

He could only reply with a spattering of nervous splutters.

"So, I was wondering if you'd be able to help me out, you being such an intelligent and handsome stallion and all," she said, tilting her head to the point it was almost horizontal, "You see, I need to write up a friendship report for the princess by sundown but I don't have a friendship report that I can write up by sundown so I was just thinking maybe there's something I can help you with."

She shone a huge grin, squeeing as she did so. Whooves was sweating now, trying in vain to back away from the half-mad mare who kept advancing on him.

"You – you're being awfully forward today, Twilight," he said, "Are you feeling alright? I can get you some medication, if that's what you're after."

She let loose a giggle that ended in an unladylike snort. "Don't be silly. I just want to finish my friendship report for the princess, and to do that I need to help somepony with a friendship problem. So," she said, moving too close again. "Is there anything that a good friend like myself can help you out with?"

"Good friend? Twilight, we barely know each other," he said, desperately trying to extricate himself from the situation. "We've only spoken just the one time. We're more… more like acquaintances really. That's all we are."

All of Twilight's nervous energy left her as she was struck by a heavy, sinking feeling that almost physically forced her to the ground. Her ears flopped forward and even her mane seemed to droop. The only response she could make was a tiny, heartbroken: "Oh."

Whooves felt a stab of guilt as he realised what he had done. "I mean to say, just because we're acquaintances now doesn't mean we couldn't become friends in future. That is, wait, no, I didn't mean what I said, Twilight. You frightened me a little, that's all."

He smiled weakly but she didn't notice. She was staring at the ground, hunched over and trying to keep her tears at bay.

"Come on," he said, nudging her gently. "Tell me what it is you need help with. I'll do anything. Just, please don't cry."

"No, no, it's alright," she whispered, "I'll, I, I have to go now. Got a report to write."

Her voice dissolved as her emotions overtook her and she ran towards her library, barely able to see where she was going.

He felt absolutely terrible. This was why he tended not to make time for love – it always made things far more complicated than they needed to be. His current condition meant a relationship was impossible, especially with Twilight.

It was a tragedy really, because he had felt the first sparks of affection when he had spoken with her at the party that night. If the circumstances had been different…

He was forced to push those thoughts to the back of his mind when he saw an enraged Lyra marching purposefully towards him. He held up his right foreleg defensively and tried to appease her.

"Heartstrings, please! I didn't mean to…" He was interrupted by a smack across the face.

"What the hell was that?" she shouted, "Acquaintances? Acquaintances?! What did I tell you about letting her down gently? You're probably the first crush she's ever had, and you just broke her heart!"

"I'm sorry! You saw how she was. She frightened me – I'm sorry. I'll try to make it right."

"You're not going anywhere near her," said Lyra, who was becoming tearful herself. "You've done enough damage."

She walked away, closely followed by Berry Punch, who glared angrily at the doctor.

"Wait. Heartstrings, I'm sorry," he said, "Please, give me a chance to set things right."

She turned, silencing him with an angry stare. "I don't want to talk to you right now," she said venomously.

He sighed heavily as the two mares walked away. That could have gone better, he thought. Somepony who had lived as long as he had really should have been able to handle a situation like that without causing any upset.

Except it wasn't Twilight's behaviour that had unsettled him, but what it signified: the beginning of the end.

He had expected this to happen, but actually seeing the first signs of it had shaken him to the core. If he hadn't met Twilight and come to like her, this would have been so much easier.

He had a good idea of how this would end. The obvious fear in her demeanour showed how frightened she was of upsetting Princess Celestia. Sundown was edging ever closer and there was little chance she would find something to write about in the time she had left.

If his calculations were correct, this was going to lead to a confrontation. Twilight's fate was sealed.

If he hadn't become fond of her, he would have had no qualms with letting things run their course. One pony's life was nothing compared to the survival of civilisation.

Now he had a terrible conundrum to consider. He could leave it well alone and abandon Twilight to her fate, or he could save her – which would probably ruin Equestria's chances of a happy future.

****

Lyra sipped lemonade through a straw, resting her head dejectedly on her crossed forelegs upon the restaurant table.

She had tried knocking on the library door to speak to Twilight but it had been securely locked. Despite her best efforts, the purple unicorn steadfastly refused to answer it.

Afterwards, she had gone to Horte Cuisine's restaurant with Berry Punch to start drawing up a list of suspects. After about an hour of brain storming, the list consisted of the most powerful unicorns in Canterlot, including members of the royal family. Twilight's name was also included, despite Lyra's protests.

"The trickiest part of all of this is working out a motive," said Berry, "A reason why they would want to attack us – either they hold a grudge against one of us or they know we work for Celestia and are trying to strike at her through us."

Lyra looked up at her disinterestedly, not moving her head, then slurped on her straw in response.

"The only one of us who knows any of these ponies well – except Twilight – is Noteworthy, but he wasn't the initial target. Unless whoever attacked us miscalculated the drop, but I don't think that was the case." She lowered her head and quietly said: "No, if he hadn't saved them then it would have been dead on."

"None of these ponies had any reason to come after us," said Lyra, finally releasing the straw from her mouth. "The only ones who have ever attempted to truly harm anypony in the past few years have been Nightmare Moon and Discord, and they're not around any more."

"True, but there's a chance their influence could have spread. Maybe they affected somepony, somehow."

Lyra frowned at her, guessing what she was implying.

"Look, I'm just thinking out loud," she said, "You have to admit Twilight was acting pretty strange back there. I know as well as you do she would never willingly harm anypony, but neither would any of the ponies on our list. There's something we're missing, something we don't know about."

Lyra sighed. "I hope Carrot Top's having better luck with Zecora. Maybe I should just go and try to check on Twilight again."

The restaurant fell quiet again and Lyra went back to slurping on her soda. They were the only ponies in the venue – not even Horte Cuisine was anywhere to be seen.

Berry tilted her head to one side as she noticed a faint noise in the background, some sort of commotion.

"Do you hear that?" she asked. Before her companion could answer, the earth pony left the table and headed on outside. Lyra disengaged her mouth from her straw and followed her.

The sound grew louder as they headed towards the edge of town. It was coming from behind a small hillock – the pair increased their pace as they realised a fight was going on.

There was a lone, bewildered pony sitting on top of the grassy ridge, looking down on the scene.

"Whooves?" said Lyra, then she gasped as she crested the slope and saw the carnage before her. Just about every citizen of Ponyville was engaged in an all-out brawl, fighting tooth and hoof.

"What the heck's going on?" cried Berry.

"I haven't the slightest idea. I just got here," said the doctor, "I heard the noise and I…"

He was interrupted when a scraggy looking doll sailed through the air and bounced to a halt at his hooves. He looked down at it with a critical eye and realised it had been magically enchanted.

"Hmm," he said, "It looks like it's been infused with a 'want it, need it' spell, but one far stronger than I've ever seen. Why would anypony…"

"MINE!" screamed Berry Punch, diving on top of the doll and picking it up with her mouth. Incensed, Lyra gave chase after her and soon the pair of them were being pursued by the rest of Ponyville.

Whooves watched the insanity unfold in bemusement. He suddenly realised who was responsible for all this. Twilight was the only unicorn in town capable of making the spell this strong, and she had been so desperate to find a subject to write about for Princess Celestia that she would have tried anything.

But things had gotten completely out of control. He was probably the only sane pony left in town – despite his misgivings, maybe he could try to stop this.

He heard the thundering of hooves and barely managed to hop back out of the way in time as Big Macintosh charged past him.

Whooves took another look at the raging battle and realised there was little he could do. He wasn't physically strong enough to get the doll out of there. Somepony else was going to have to step in.

Big Mac narrowed his eyes as he saw his target. It had been captured by Mayor Mare and she was arguing with Derpy Hooves, trying to use her position of authority as a reason why she should be allowed to keep it. Her words were having no effect, mostly because they were totally muffled by the fluffy toy in her mouth.

Big Mac barged into her, then leapt up and caught the doll as it was sent into the air. He whinnied in triumph and increased his speed, intent on putting as much distance between him and his pursuers that he could manage.

But Berry Punch and Lyra were waiting just a few yards ahead of him, ready to attack. Seeing their chance, they jumped up in unison and delivered a double flying kick to his face.

The impact knocked him down and the two mares dived on the doll, both picking it up with their mouths at the same time. They began an angry tug of war, neither of them willing to give up their prize.

They didn't notice Big Mac had got back up until the red stallion launched a counter attack, reclaiming the target of his affection with another desperate charge.

Before the fight could continue any further, there was a blinding flash of light and a wave of magic rippled across the battlefield.

The chaos that had consumed them was replaced by a confused peace. The ponies felt their minds clear and their uncontrolled desire to grab hold of the doll faded away.

There was a moment of silence as they realised what they had been fighting for. A sense of almost universal embarrassment fell upon them, and they quickly dispersed. Only Berry and Lyra stayed behind, both astonished by what had just happened.

"What was that?" asked Lyra, "Just one look at that doll and I lost my mind."

"I hate to say this, but I think your friend Twilight Sparkle was behind this one," said Berry.

The mint green-coated unicorn was about to argue against that idea, but held her tongue when she noticed Berry was pointing at something in the distance.

She gasped – it was Princess Celestia herself. She must have been the one who broke the spell's hold over everypony. Twilight was walking a short distance behind her, her head held low to the ground as they headed towards the library.

Lyra grimaced. It looked like her friend was in real trouble.

"Come on," said Berry quietly, beckoning with her hoof. "We should go after them. If anything else, this might be a chance to get some answers from the princess."

****

Twilight closed the door behind her with a small shiver of trepidation. The princess was waiting for her, looking down on her with a stern expression on her face.

She walked over to her, getting as close as she dared, and met her gaze.

"Would you care to explain your behaviour today, Twilight?"

The young student coughed to clear her throat. "I was late with my friendship report and I couldn't find anything to write about. All this business with Discord made me forget my deadline. I didn't want to disappoint you so, seeing as I couldn't find a friendship problem, I decided I'd make a friendship problem. But things just got out of hoof."

Her voice faltered, but she found the strength to continue. "I failed you. I didn't get my report completed on time. I'm a bad student."

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and shook her head. "You could have easily asked for a time extension. For you to…"

The library door burst open and a rainbow-maned pegasus flew inside, placing herself between Twilight and Celestia.

"Wait!" cried Rainbow Dash, who was closely followed by the other Elements of Harmony. "You can't punish her. This is all our fault."

Celestia narrowed her eyes, annoyed by the interruption. "I'm listening," she said, adopting an air of aloofness.

"Twilight came to us earlier today and told us she was having trouble with her report, but we just didn't listen," said Applejack.

"That was wrong of us," said Fluttershy, "If we had realised how important it was to her, we would have done anything to help her out."

"Yes," agreed Rarity, "We're her friends. We should have paid attention to what she was saying."

Pinkie finished her train of thought. "And not let an itty-bitty problem turn into a ponies-fighting-to-the-death-over-a-doll-so-Celestia-has-to-save-the-day problem!"

The room fell quiet and the atmosphere became uneasy as the princess took her time in answering. Twilight felt her stomach turn as the goddess fixed them all with a condescending glare.

"Are you all quite finished?" she asked, the contempt in her tone shocking everypony in the room.

"Your apology does not make up for what Twilight did to the citizens of Ponyville," she said, before focusing her attention on her student. "In the space of an afternoon, you unleashed more chaos than Discord did in the entire time he was free. He may have turned your town upside down, but he never drove its inhabitants to the point where they were willing to seriously harm each other just for a doll!

"You are supposed to set an example, Twilight. As the leader of the elements, you are supposed to promote harmony throughout the land. I entrusted you with a great responsibility when I selected you to become the Element of Magic. It appears I have made a grave misjudgement."

She lowered her head so she was looking Twilight in the eye. "And all of this over something as insignificant as a friendship report. I set you that task as a simple excuse so you could stay in Ponyville. I thought you were intelligent enough to realise that."

By now, the purple unicorn was so upset that she was trembling. The only thing preventing her from crying was her new-found fear of the princess.

Celestia stood upright. "I need some time to consider what I'm going to do with you. I want you to meet me at the castle at noon tomorrow, when you will receive my final judgement."

She walked past the six stunned ponies and opened the door to leave. She stopped and turned her head. "And you had better make sure you arrive on time. I will not accept any excuses if you're tardy."

On that note, she left the library and almost bumped into Lyra and Berry Punch, who had been waiting outside.

"Princess!" said Lyra, "We've been wanting to speak to you. We were wondering why you set us…"

"Not now, Lyra," she said viciously, "I am in no mood. If you have any questions for me, then you can write me a letter."

She spread out her wings and took to the air, leaving two astonished spies staring at her silhouette as it faded into the night.

Lyra shot a look of deep concern at Berry, then went to the front door of the library to find out exactly what had just happened in there.

Twilight was lying on the floor, sobbing uncontrollably as her friends tried to comfort her. Applejack came to the entrance, her eyes welling with tears.

"Ah'm sorry, girls. Now ain't really a good time," she whispered hoarsely, closing the door slowly.

Berry was visibly shaken. "What's going on?" she asked, "First Celestia pits the four of us against each other, then she doesn't make any response when one of us almost gets murdered, and now she does this to her favourite student? This isn't… this isn't like her at all."

Lyra was unable to respond. A dozen thoughts were swirling round her head at once but one thing had become abundantly clear. The princess, who had ruled over Equestria for centuries with kindness and fairness, was acting completely out of character.

Princess Celestia, who was renowned for her unchanging empathy and care for all living things, had become cruel.