Lunar Cabinet #58

Chapter 4
Encounters

"Alright, where to?" Flare asked.
"The time period we shall be entering is the past of when Princess Luna is at the castle." Shimmer replied matter of factly.
Flare began to prepare to cast magic.
"Must you have thrown yourself into this predicament?" sighed Shimmer.
"You know I couldn't avoid it. There was nothing I could do." Flare replied.
"You could have been careful." Shimmer answered back.
Flare shrugged.
"I don't find trouble, trouble finds me."
"Then we're on the same boat my friend." Shimmer said.
Flare studied him. Shimmer had made plenty of enemies in the past, and had annoyed other ponies before. It wasn't a surprise. Shimmer was a mastermind, but he had a good heart. His intentions were unknown, but they were good. He was calm and could get out on any dire situation. He had to be cautious for his enemies were always tracking him down.
"Let's move along now Flare." he said.
"Of course." Flare said.
His horn started to glow, and he casted the time travel spell. Light appeared brightly on his horn and it and spread outward. The light began to glow brighter and brighter, and bigger every second. The wind was fierce, and leaves flew everywhere. Suddenly the light glowed once and disappeared with a bang along with the two ponies. As the last of the light shimmered away, a sonic rainbow could be heard. The sonic rainbow went straight into the light barely in time, and nothing else stirred...

The light appeared again once more and with one crackling sound disappeared. The two unicorns looked around at their surrouding.
"Well, we made it. The past." Flare said.
"Shhh..." Shimmer said whispering.
"Huh? But I don't see anypony..."
Flare said timidly. Shimmer pulled him aside and teleported. As soon as they disappeared one of the royal guards appeared, hearing the noise and was taking a look of what was going on. They appeared inside the castle, which was deserted. Flare looked out the window. It was nearly nighttime and the sun was setting.
"Let's not waste any time now." Shimmer said.
The two ponies walked forward and arrived at the main hall filled with the glass paintings of all that had happened in the history of Equestria.
"Hmm, now I remember why it was so easy sneaking around Canterlot Castle. Our dear Princess Celestia has poor security." Shimmer said amused.
Flare said nothing. He knew the reason why. Nopony dared to mess with Celestia, lest they get punishment. The only ponies who didn't fear her was probably only Shimmer and Om. Shimmer knew the exact time when there was patrols, and where guards were patrol at any time of day. Usually at this time the castle was nearly deserted, for everypony was getting ready for the night.
They arrived at the end, where a door was magically sealed which contained the Elements of Harmony.
"Now we go." Shimmer said.
He casted a spell and both became invisible. Shimmer casted a series of spells after that and sighed with satisfaction.
"That should prevent us from being detected by magic, sight, or sound."
Just then, Princess Luna appeared. The princess of the night, she had an air of beauty, and authority about her. She was divine and beautiful, and carried herself gracefully. None could match her, for she was the true picture of the night. She was an image of harmony, and her hooves walked in perfect rythm, and her mane drifted like the wind. She was a princess loved, admired, and feared.
As she passed them unknowingly, Shimmer shuddered. Flare laughed to himself, Shimmer must have remembered that he had narrowly escaped from being sent to the moon. The princess was muttering to herself, and looking in both directions as if expecting something to pop out. She stopped at the end of the hall.
"Brace yourself." Shimmer said and smiled. Flare learned that whenever Shimmer smiled like that he knew something was going to happen. Something was amiss. The princess casted a spell, her horn glowing night blue as a portal opened.
"Woah!" Flare said to himself. He clung on tightly to the ground, the portal was attempting to eat up everything. The princess calmly entered it though, acting like nothing was going.
"Come, we must hurry!" Shimmer said. They both headed straight for the portal. As they got nearer and nearer, the pull of the portal got stronger and stronger.
"Wonder where it will take us?" Flare shouted over the noise, trying to hang on.
"That's what we're going to find out!" Shimmer replied. Then they jumped in.

They teleported along with Princess Luna but as soon as they arrived Shimmer grabbed Flare and they teleported barely in time as Princess Luna looked around curiously. Flare and Shimmer looked around. They were on a cloud platform with pillars aligned left and right. Flare turned around and saw the clear sky, calm and beautiful this up high.
"Flare, please take a look." Shimmer said.
Flare looked where Shimmer was pointing and saw a huge castle up ahead.
"Wow..." muttered Flare.
The castle was nearly the same size and looked exactly like Canterlot Castle, except it wasn't decorared with the usual banner of the Two Royal Sisters. It was decorated with a sun which had clouds under it. It had an Alicorn circling overhead but Flare couldn't quite see it. The castle was also painted clear white, all the towers were the same as well. But the highest tower contained a star at it's peak, which was covered around by protuding pink ribbons. A set of yellow ribbons were intertwined and yellow gems formed in a shape of a heart were placed in the middle of the star, and it shone brightly giving the appearance ofthe star as if it was glowing brightly.
"An amazing view indeed. But alas it seems this place can only be entered through special means." Shimmer said.
"What do you mean?" Flare asked.
"Let's move forward, shall we? Shimmer said. "Perhaps your question can be answered ahead. The princess sure was intent and determined to arrive here without any attention. I studied that portal, no spell is ever recorded on that. Even on the banned books and those books the two Royal Sisters keep hidden, for they contain spells that should be put outside. Too dangerous. Pffffft, I digress. She must have had somepony else to summon her."
They moved forward without saying another word. Flare headed straight for the entrance but noticed that Shimmer wasn't following. He gave him a curious glance.
"I have used magic to detect if anypony is in the front entrance. There are many. We can't sneak inside, there's too many ponies. Let's go around the back." Shimmer answered.
The two went around, always on the lookout for anypony. They used magic to detect anypony, and stopped at corners just in case if there was any. The castle was huge, so it took them quite a while to reach the back. They were about to round a corner when Shimmer raised his hoof in response to stop. He was using magic to see if anypony was there and had detected one.
"It's a guard." he whispered.
Shimmer casted a spell and heard the satisfying thud of a pony hitting the ground. They turned around the corner to see the pony, fast asleep.
"Sleeping on the job? Shame." Shimmer said smirking. The back of the castle revealed a huge window, reflected in a rainbow color. They levitated themselves with magic having no trouble at all and took a peek. Flare's jaw dropped. At the pillars were three familiar faces, Om, Victory Star, and Rainbow Dash.