Downstream (MLP Fanfiction)

Chapter 9

Celestia stopped and turned around. "Well, I can't allow you to just come back and pretend this never happened. You need some kind of limitation."

Twilight raised her hoof. "Can't that wait? We need Rune's magic, it would be foolish to hinder it right now."

Celestia bit her lip, then looked back at Rune, trying to wrap her hooves around Luster's arm. "...Fine. But after we're done, you're having that horn limited in some way, Miss Forge."

"Figures as much, Tia."

"Don't call me that." Celestia said impassively. The world flooded with colour and they all returned to the rubble of Canterlot.

Rune had to shut her eyes, all the colour and light was too much for her to handle all at once.

Luster went over to her and put a hoof over her solid form. "Hey, you good?"

Rune nodded, then noticed that she was actually being touched for the first time in years. She immediately leapt up and took Luster into a tackle and hugged her tight. "You have no idea how much I've missed being hugged," she said, almost crushing Luster.

Luster tapped Rune's arm for her to let go. "Hey, we can hug all you want after. We need to fix this first." Luster gestured to their destroyed surroundings. The cheerful atmosphere immediately soured.

"...What happened here?" asked Rune.

Luster stood beside her. "You remember that pony I told you about?"

"They did this?" It almost broke Rune, seeing her home devastated like this.

"But we can set things right," Celestia looked around. "Do you remember the spell?"

"Uh, duh. It's all I had to read until you got rid of it."

Celestia snapped back "A pony used a spell like yours at the time. I got scared."

Rune wanted to argue, but she didn't want to risk changing Celestia's mind about coming back. There was a tense silence.

"So, how far back should we go?" asked Luster.

"2 days ago, about late evening," Twilight said plainly. "That was just before Flurry Heart went missing."

"I'm not Starswirl, you know" Rune butted in. "Precise spellwork isn't my forte whatsoever."

"Hey, you're not the only unicorn here, remember?" Luster pointed to her horn. "We can help."

Rune hesitated. "Well, I'm gonna need a scroll or something. It's not an easy spell."

Luster went to reach for her bookbag, then realised it wasn't even on her back. With a flash, the battered bookbag appeared next to Luster. "I always carry a few... supplies, just in case," she added, producing a blank scroll and a loaded quill.

Rune smiled a little. "I like your style, Luster." She grabbed the quill and frantically scribbled out the spell, pausing for brief moments every now and then.

As Rune finished writing the spell out, Luna landed in front of them. "Oh, my friends! Thank heavens you are all okay."

Luna noticed the strange new unicorn in front of her. Rune gave her a nervous wave. "So, this is the 'dangerous' unicorn you spoke of, dear sister? Doesn't look much to me."

"Dangerous? Oh, Celestia, you're giving me way too much credit here."

"We're getting off-topic," Twilight finally said. "Luna, please stay here while we fix this. If we don't make it back, it will be up to you to make sure ponykind can get back on it's hooves."