Sorry for the long delay in my postings of my ongoing Equestria dreamscape, but my day job is really taking it out of me. Unfortunately the next three weeks will be more of the same.

When we last left off Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Petina and myself along the palace staff had been poring over our options on how to defeat the Lord of Shadows http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6397186/ and release the ponies he had made "permanent guests" http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6505853/ However our research had not brought us any immediate solutions.

Using me as a medium Paynes Gray http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6385105/ continued voice his opinion that the only way to defeat the Lord of Shadows was for me to write a new ending the Paynes original novel "The Kingdom of Shadows" and illustrate the demise of him. Then use my inherited talent to bring the scene to live forcing the Lord of Shadows to act out his on death.

That sounded just too convenient and Celestia and Luna both pointed out that odds were very high that it would backfire in our faces. However most other means of magic were of only limited help against a being who can escape through tiny crack and shadow. In the end we kept coming back to the two facts we knew. If we could get the Lord of Shadows to a place where no shadows existed and no cracks or crevices were present to escape through then you could defeat him. Even the Elements of Harmony would be of limited use.

Celestia made the observation that she knew of a place with no shadows. The surface of the sun, but she was very certain that the Lord of Shadows would not take up Celestia's offer of a picnic on the surface of the sun since she can walk on it with no ill effect due to an energy field/ spell that surrounds her when she is there.

Luna knew of a place in Equestria that had no cracks or crevices and that was the planetarium located under the palace in Everfree where she and Celestia learned how to manage the sun and the moon. It is a magical constructed smooth hemisphere and when its door is closed it has not single crack or seam is to be found. Luna had been back there since her return and found it to still be functional.

After a couple days we had an unexpected visit from Applejack who came up to Canterlot to visit us and see what progress we had made and say hi to Twilight. She said that she some time on her hand since applebucking season was over, but had our own reports that said she was having really trouble being anywhere around the farm http://www.furaffinity.net/view/6564263/ at the moment which was tearing her up mentally.

Now this whole time I was trying to think of something I could to do to help with the skills I had. I knew I was staring at the solution but couldn't put my hoof on it. Then one day I was following behind Celestia with our group in tow when I looked up at the princess's flanks and realized that was the answer. Of course. It was so obvious.

I was so excited at my revelation that without even thinking I reared back on my hind legs and planted my front hooves on her cutie marks. Now I have it on very good authority, Luna, that Celestia's cutie mark does not usually make a sound like a clown car horn but in this case it did. For several seconds nothing happened. Everyone just froze at the realization of what had occurred. Then Celestia looked over her shoulder and just glared at me. I just stared at her as the full impact of what I had done sunk in. Petina just smiled. Applejack scowled at me and part of Twilight's brain blew out her nose.

After a series of hasty apologies I quickly began to outline sudden idea for defeating our adversary. Of course Petina had jumped to her own hedonistic conclusion what my intentions were. This resulted Applejack wondering even more about the moral character of Petina. The girl has a rather one track mind at times.

My clever little plan was to arrange our formal meeting with the Lord of Shadows in the planetarium; however before he arrived I would paint a giant symbol of the sun on the floor. If we were unable to come diplomatic solution then I would use my talent to summon a representation of the sun inside the room. Celestia would be there of course for the negotiations and she could use her powers to make certain that my little version of the sun didn't get out of hand. With the door closed the entire room would be engulfed in the fiery light of the sun and our enemy would me no more.

Everyone thought the plan was ingenious but almost everyone saw some potential problem with the idea. Luna pointed out that it would take time to paint the symbol and the longer it took the great the chance that the Lord of Shadow might intervene. Twilight reminded me that more accurate and precise I rendered an image the more stable it appeared. Would I be able to create that large of an picture and still control it?

Finally Celestia noted the most dangerous flaw in my grand scheme. For me to create my own little version of the sun I would have to be inside the planetarium since tests conducted by the princess's had determined that I could not remotely bring one of my drawings to life. Celestia was pretty certain that I be one very incinerated little pony before succeeded in finishing my greatest creation.

I hate when my subconscious decides to shoot holes in my great ideas. However I had some possible answers to their questions. One we could run some tests in palace to see just how much time I need and possibly come up with a solution that would address the time and accuracy constraints. As for me being turned into a flash blind, crispy pony I asked Celestia how big was the field/ spell that protected her from the fiery violence of the sun? "Not that big." was her answer. Undaunted I asked whether she could extend just a bit. Maybe enough that I could huddle under her and would that be enough? She thought said maybe but we would need to test that to. It looked like we have a bit of homework in front of us.