Princesses of Equestria

Chapter 21: The Riddles of Intellectus

"Equinox Flats Orphanage!"

Twilight Sparkle tried not to make a habit out of exclaiming the name of every new place she discovered, but come on. Equinox Flats Orphanage!

Excitement ran through her. There was no mistaking the strange confectionery structure that Celestia and Luna had shown her in Star Swirl's scrying scope. The broken walls, cookie. The collapsed roof, icing. The smashed windows, toffee.

Equus Nox's childhood home. Where she'd met the Princesses. Where she'd fought Discord. Where her old life had burned away, and Armonia had crawled from its ashes.

Twilight shivered.

Enough about the past, she chided herself. Focus on the future. Focus on the Heartstone.

Queen Eponia's last gift to Equestria was impossible to miss. The storm ward it generated filled half the sky, yet the air was still, and unnervingly silent.

Twilight tested her wings, ascending a foot. Defensive magics bristled. A breeze pushed against her, and thunder rumbled faintly. Twilight landed. Both breeze and thunder ceased.

Twilight calculated height to ward wind ratios. Thirty feet was acceptable. The full mile between ground and Heartstone was not.

Hmph. Flying's still out, then. Twilight pouted. But then, how in the hay do we get up there?

The Heartstone twinkled on its floating isle, tantalizingly out of reach.

"Yo Princess Sparks! You're holding up the line, here." Rainbow Dash from behind, followed in rapid succession by the others.

"The dumb magic rock's cyclone is holding us up, Dashie. Ah reckon Twi's figuring out how to change that."

"Well, I do hope she figures it out quickly. Standing here in this heat will turn our armor into portable ovens."

"Too late. Ugh ... I think I'm gonna pass ou—eek!"

"The correct term for when somepony pours a bucketful of refreshing icy water down your neck is, I believe, 'thank you.' "

"Eeek! Um. Oh. Thank you, Discord. This actually is rather refreshing."

"Do me, do me! Wait, not with a bucket, silly. With a fire hose. Eeek! Yeah! Super refreshing. Now do everypony else! Spray 'em!!"

"EEEK!"

Twilight absently blocked the icy blast of water, stifling a giggle. Then, she shut the shenanigans out, and reconsidered the problem. The Princesses wouldn't have sent them here if the Heartstone's defenses were impregnable. There had to be a way. There had to.

Twilight ignored her wings, and used her magical senses to probe the path ahead. Beyond the crumbled façade of Equinox Flats Orphanage, Twilight perceived a thick stone bridge, wooden fenced, wide as a Ponyville street. It reached halfway across the lake, leading directly beneath the calm eye of the Heartstone's storm.

Two things lay at the bridge's end. A peculiar ring-shaped island, and ...

Eureka!

A flawlessly circular hole in the storm ward, leading all the way to their destination.

"Alright, I've figured it out!" Twilight declared, turning to the others. They ceased their shenanigans, and listened. "The Heartstone's autonomic elemental barrier—the uh, dumb magic wind, Spike—has a hole in it. An open door."

Twilight pointed north, toward the lake. "All we have to do is cross that bridge, get to the end and, with a little help from Rainbow's awesome fire wings, fly straight up till we reach what we came for. Got it?"