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1 - The End8,666 words
2 - Company9,202 words
3 - Pain5,926 words
4 - Empty Coffins10,217 words
5 - Growing5,262 words
6 - Letters of Past and Present7,558 words
7 - Separation6,642 words
8 - Responsibility5,985 words
9 - The Sun and the Sword11,536 words
10 - For Equestria14,758 words
11 - The Dragon Hunter7,778 words
12 - Predator9,691 words
13 - The Speaker in the Shadows12,751 words
14 - Scars of a Nightmare6,962 words
15 - The Hunt11,518 words
16 - Dark Powers12,034 words
17 - Wounds of a Nightmare7,717 words
18 - Bound Anew15,875 words
19 - His Spell8,582 words
20 - Change of Plans11,386 words

8 - Responsibility

Succession

Chapter 8 – Responsibility

Twilight groaned as her eyes fluttered open. She felt like she was back at the hospital, burnt all over and drained of all energy. But as her vision gradually returned to her, revealing a carved wooden ceiling above her and a large stack of books to her right, it soon became clear to her that she was lying in her own bed. She sat up with a start when her memories of the Everfree Forest came rushing back to her.

I knocked out an ursa major! Only for a few seconds, granted, but… I threw it into the air!

Her head began to swim as she remembered her impossible magical exertion brought on by the fear of losing her friend.

Rainbow! Is she okay? Did Applejack really carry us both through the Everfree Forest all by herself?

After spending a few seconds orienting herself, she swung her hindlegs over the edge of the bed and, in doing so, winced as she remembered the series of burns all over her body. Small blackened streaks of fur decorated her coat, and the area around her hooves had once again been burned clean of any hairs, the skin underneath red and swollen. Her thoughts flickered briefly to the purple arcs of electricity that had surrounded her as she unleashed a burst of pure energy at the beast, providing her with a reasonable explanation for the current state of her body. Whatever she had done back in the forest, she wouldn’t want to be doing it again anytime soon.

Her attention turned to a small note lying on her desk. As she summoned her magic, however, her horn only sputtered out a few sparks before going dark again. The unicorn frowned.

This had better be temporary, she thought, struggling to quash the panic welling up within her. It must be that spell. Something like that would probably leave me drained completely for days. Yes, just a temporary shortage of magic; nothing to be worried about.

“Ow,” she exclaimed quietly as she lowered one of her hind legs to the wooden floor. Another hoof came down on the floor, and once again the unicorn yelped. “Owowowowow!” Twilight trotted to the desk as quickly as she could, grabbed the piece of paper in her mouth and hurried back to the much appreciated softness of her bed. After some fiddling, she managed to prop the note up against her blanket so she could read its contents.

From Applejack.

I’m writing this letter to you in case I’m not there with you when you wake up. First thing you’d probably wanna know is that you‘ve been sleeping for a long time again. Five days, actually. I haven’t fed your birds, but it looked to me they took care of that themselves as long as I let them out once in a while.

Thanks to you and Rainbow, we all made it out of the Everfree Forest safely. I guess that ursa doesn’t have a clue where Ponyville is. You don’t need to worry about Rainbow either. She’s pretty blue about Fluttershy but other than that and a few bruises from the ursa, she’s perfectly fine. We still haven’t found Fluttershy though... We got guards all the way from Manehattan leading the investigation, but they’ve been telling us not to mention any of what happened to ponies outside Ponyville. I don’t really know what to think of that.

I really hope you wake up soon. We could all use your help around here.

“Five days...” Twilight sighed as she finished reading. “And Fluttershy’s still gone.”

Could she be dead? Can a Bearer of the Elements of Harmony really die? What would happen to us? No, she’s alive. Pinkie Pie would've said so. She’d know. I can ask her...

She tucked the note underneath her pillow and, not wanting to torture her hooves any further, lay back down in her bed. As she forced herself not to dwell for too long on Fluttershy’s fate, her thoughts eventually returned to the fight with the ursa major.

I have never used magic that powerful! Where did it all come from? Was this the kind of power Celestia spoke of all those years ago?

“You have a very special gift. I don't think I've ever come across a unicorn with your raw abilities,” Celestia’s words echoed in her mind. “But you need to learn to tame these abilities through focused study.”

Focused study and the princess’ enchantments, the unicorn thought, and as she did, her eyes snapped open with realization. Princess Celestia’s spells! That’s it!

Memories of her odd dreams returned to her in clear flashes.

The magenta sparkles, they are my magic; they are what I summoned in force right before I faced the ursa! The pillars, the red stuff, the rainbow-colored trees, the lanterns, they must all, in some way or another, be a part of my body; after my magic began rebuilding those back in the hospital, I started feeling much better; my shattered bones reknitted themselves in only a few weeks. And the golden cages of glass…

“I am afraid that before we can begin your training and studying of magic, I must place a few spells upon you, Twilight Sparkle. You see, your raw power is just simply too much for a young filly such as yourself to handle, and that can be very dangerous. I will put a lid on some of your power, so to speak. Don’t be afraid; it will only take a moment and you won’t feel a thing. Is this alright with you?”

Such a long time ago… I had almost forgotten. But yes, the golden cages around the magenta sparkles must have been Celestia’s enchantments, dampening my powers so I could control them. Enchantments that have now been broken. Is it because she died? Probably. And that’s why my powers have been growing. But an ursa major!? No single unicorn should be able to do that. Only Celestia and Luna wield that kind of power. Something must have happened. Some kind of synergy or alignment of celestial bodies; it can’t all have been me.

Twilight remained in bed for several hours, doing nothing but piecing together and attempting to make sense of not only the events of the Everfree Forest, but of everything that had happened since The Great Tragedy. But while she could now explain incidents such as her knocking out four royal guards without even meaning to, the most important questions of all remained unanswered, such as why Nightmare Moon had returned and what happened to Fluttershy.

When simply lying in her bed had become almost unbearably boring, she decided to get up, despite the pains in her hooves, to go get a book and something to eat.

Twilight put her bestiary of the Everfree Forest down when she heard her door open in the main part of the library. Having returned to her bed on the second floor to read, she couldn’t immediately see who had entered.

She was pretty sure she recognized the heavy hoofsteps coming up the stairs, though, and soon enough, Applejack entered the unicorn’s study.

“Twi!” she exclaimed in surprise when she saw the unicorn was awake, breaking into a warm grin immediately. “Nice ta see y’all back among the livin’! Again...”

“Well, I guess I owe that to you, don’t I? Galloping at full speed with two ponies on your back and outrunning an ursa major! I can’t think of many others able to perform such a feat!”

“Aw, shoot.” The farmer blushed slightly and looked away. “Mah friends were’n danger; what’s a pony ta do but help?”

“Thanks for coming back for us,” Twilight said with a warm smile. “I don’t know if I could have done the same after seeing how huge that thing was.”

“You could and you would,” Applejack waved her off. “Even Fluttershy would face an ursa major if’n it meant savin’ your lives. ‘Sides, we faced worse than that, haven’t we? An’ Ah just swooped in at the last minute; you ’n Rainbow are the real heroes. Heck, you’re prolly the most heroic one of us all! You’re the one who defeated an actual ursa major!” She glanced at the unicorn’s desk. “You read mah note, right? You saved a huge chunk of Ponyville from being gobbled up bah that thing! An’ you saved Rainbow Dash too.”

“Like you said, what’s a pony to do? I couldn’t just watch her get… eaten.” Both friends shuddered at the thought.

“Ah don’t believe she’s ever come that close ta actually dyin’. An’ Ah don’t think she’s takin it much lightly either.”

“What do you mean? Is she alright?”

“Well, as Ah said, there ain’t nothin’ wrong with her physic’lly,” the farmer started, a hint of sadness creeping into her voice. “But, well, Ah can’t be sure on account o’ her sittin’ up’n her clouds all the danged time, but Ah think she’s been beatin’ herself up about the whole Fluttershy thing. It didn’t seem so bad when I first wrote your letter, but it’s just been gettin’ worse ever since then. You know she’s been that way a few times before; takin’ responsibility for somethin’ that’s just way outta her league. If’n Ah had to wager a guess, Ah’d reckon she’s blamin’ herself fer not seein’ the timberwolves comin’, and fer failin’ ya, so to speak, when it came to that ursa.” She shook her head. “Y’know, the mayor is plannin’ on rewardin’ the two of you with the title of ‘Heroines of Ponyville’ or some such, but Rainbow wouldn’t have it. Didn’t deserve it, she said.”

It was one of those days again, the lavender unicorn decided. One of those days where the word ‘heroine’ left a bad taste in her mouth. Twilight pushed the thought from her mind and joined her friend in her head shaking. “She doesn’t want to be named a hero? That doesn’t sound like her at all.”

“Ah’ve been wantin’ to talk to her, but as Ah said, she ain’t comin’ down from her cloud house. I doubt even Pinkie Pie could come up there, even if she wanted to, but with your magic…”

“What do you mean ‘even if she wanted to’?” Twilight raised a half-singed eyebrow.

The farmer only sighed. “Suffice ta say Rainbow ain’t the only one o’ us what’s depressed.”

“I was afraid of that... I mean, the very idea of losing her friends has driven her nuts before. And now Fluttershy... losing her in the worst way imaginable...”

“It’s The Great Tragedy all over again, only worse,” the earth pony revealed. “She’s spendin’ most of her time up top in Sugarcube Corner. Been meanin’ ta talk to her, but between workin’ the orchards, seein’ ta y’all, and yellin’ at Rainbow ta get down, Ah haven’t had time to do much more than bang on her door.”

“Won’t be long before I’m up and about again,” Twilight assured her friend. “When I get my magic back, I can help you with Rainbow and Pinkie. I might even be able to help out at Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Git your magic back?” Applejack’s tone became a tad more concerned. “Is it actin’ up again?”

“No, I’m just… completely drained. Unless it’s completely and absolutely necessary, I am never, ever, ever, ever pulling a stunt like that again.”

“Can’t blame ya none fer that,” the farmer chuckled nervously. “From where Ah stood, it looked like that spell o’ yours packed one heckuva recoil. An’ when you had that look in yer eyes…” Applejack shuddered. “Well, fer a moment, Ah was a little more scared o’ you than Ah was o’ that monster.”

“I hardly remember any of it,” the unicorn admitted. “I blacked out while running and everything else just happened too fast for me to register.”

“’Twas nothin’ short of amazin’, Ah’ll tell ya that much. Never knew you had that kinda stuff in ya.”

“Me neither. Still wasn’t enough to save Fluttershy, though. Still no sign of her?”

The orange pony shook her head sadly. “The guards are investigatin’ her house, and, well, doin’ some cleanin’ up while they’re at it. They, uh… they found some blood.” When Twilight gave the farmer a confused look at the painfully obvious statement, Applejack sighed. “Pegasus blood,” she clarified. “Ah think that’s what set RD off most o’ all.” Applejack’s eyes turned stern. “And don’t you go blamin’ yerself like her! Ah can tell ya a third time if’n you need it; y’all saved Ponyville from an ursa major!”

“I know...” Twilight muttered. “But it’s still another step back from where we started. Rarity leaving will make it hard to unite the Elements quickly and now... unless we find Fluttershy soon, it’ll be impossible. And I still need to complete my sun.”

“Ah know, Ah know. Made any progress with that? Oh, speakin’ o’ which, we all heard this giant bang back at the orchards four days ago. That place you practice your suns in had been burnt completely to cinders! More so than usual. I kinda hope that was you, even though you were sleepin’ at the time.”

Twilight thought for a moment, then allowed herself a small smile. “Yeah, I think so. I’d just created my first stable solite when Rainbow told me about Fluttershy. I guess it kept burning for two whole days before destabilizing. That’s a huge step forward! If I make a few more minor adjustments and scale the whole thing up, I’ll be able to provide sunlight for all of Ponyville. With the Elements of Harmony, we might even be able to recreate Celestia’s sun!”

“Oh mah, well ain’t that somethin’!” Applejack exclaimed, cheering up almost instantly. “Looks like we’re finally startin’ to see some light at the end o’ this here tunnel!”

“But we still haven’t got the Elements,” Twilight pointed out, her smile fading. “And they won’t be anywhere near powerful enough to stop Nightmare Moon without Fluttershy.”

“I just don’t understand!” Applejack despaired, stomping a hoof in frustration. “Why would any animal wanna hurt Fluttershy? D’ya reckon Nightmare Moon is behind this somehow?”

“No,” Twilight whispered almost inaudibly. “At least I really hope not. Nightmare Moon killed her sister and destroyed the Canterlot palace without a single thought. I can’t imagine what she would do to Fluttershy.” The unicorn looked to the earth pony and the two locked eyes. “She’s not dead, AJ. I’m sure of that now. We just… can’t find her…”

“Not that I don’t wanna believe the same thing, sugarcube, but that’s what y’all said about Celestia too. I mean, there’s Pinkie, but... not callin’ her a liar, but if Fluttershy’s gone, Ah don’t think Pinkie’d be able ta face it. We all saw the state Fluttershy’s house was in, what happened to her critters. She would never let anythin’ like that happen to ‘em. She’d defend ‘em with her dyin’ breath. They found her blood...”

“That doesn’t mean she’s dead, just hurt. And you said it was pegasus blood, so it might not even be hers. Maybe she was forced away,” the lavender unicorn suggested. She gestured at the bestiary at her side. “I’ve been trying to read up on the beasts of the Everfree, see if any of them are known to abduct their prey or something like that. Rainbow hadn’t seen her for a full day before the timberwolf incident; for all we know, she could be lying out in the Everfree somewhere, petrified by a cockatrice or captured by a creeper or a swarm of changelings!”

“Ah guess that’s… possible.” The farmer scratched the back of her head. “But if that’s so, then howd’ya plan on findin’ her? We can’t just go stormin’ into the forest again like we did last.”

“Agreed. We need some kind of plan… The Element of Kindness is a gem,” the unicorn replied, improvising a strategy as she spoke. “And Fluttershy is closely connected to it. If we get the Element, I think I can tweak a Gem Finding spell to track her down. Speaking of which, have you heard from Rarity since the incident? I could need her help with the spell.”

“She’s already been an’ gone,” Applejack said in an apologetic voice. “She came as soon as she heard what had happen’d, but she couldn’t really do anythin’ ta help, and she had ta leave again three days later.”

“I guess I’ll have to send her a letter, then. And another to the Council of Nine to ask for the Elements of Harmony. But first of all, I’ll just have to wait for my magic to return before I can do… anything, really.”

It was another full day before the unicorn’s powers started returning to her, at which point she wrote her letters and sent them off with Applejack to the post office. By the time she had read through the entire bestiary of the Everfree Forest and formulated more than fifty theories as to where Fluttershy could have gone as well as strategies to deal with any creature they might encounter while rescuing her, Twilight’s burns had almost completely healed. At least she could now walk without pain. Furthermore, her magic now seemed to have recovered fully. The powers she had forced to become manifest had, to the unicorn’s relief, gone latent again, working on repairing her body instead of electrocuting her.

All she had to do now was wait for the Council of Nine to give the Elements of Harmony to Rarity, who would then, as per Twilight’s instructions, bring them back to Ponyville. That, and make sure her friends were ready to use the Elements when they arrived.

So when the unicorn finally felt well enough to walk, she immediately went to the southern outskirts of town with Applejack.

“So, uh,” Applejack began as they drew near one of the only cloud domiciles in all of Ponyville. “How’re ya gonna git her down?”

“She’s been up there beating herself up about something that wasn’t her fault for more than a week now,” Twilight grumbled. “I think we’ll just have to yank her outta bed and set her straight.”

The lavender unicorn exerted her magic, and after a few seconds, a dazed, rainbow-maned pegasus flashed into existence before the two ponies.

“Huh? What? Hey!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed indignantly, quickly orienting herself as she picked herself up from the grass and got to her hooves. “Not everyone likes teleporting, y’know!”

“Then ya shoulda come down when I told ya to!” Applejack scolded the pegasus, who only rolled her eyes.

“Look, I told you already! I don’t wanna talk about it!” Rainbow Dash said dismissively, flaring her wings for takeoff.

“Rainbow!” Twilight grunted, grabbing hold of the pegasus’ tail with her magic. “We need to talk! What happened to Fluttershy isn’t your fault!”

“Let... go!” the pegasus shouted, the unicorn’s hold on her weakening as the Wonderbolt’s wings kicked into overdrive. “I should have been there! I’m the fastest flier in Equestria!” With an odd snap, Rainbow Dash broke free of the magic holding her in place, rocketing into the sky and somehow outrunning Twilight’s attempts at restraining her.

The lavender unicorn stomped a hoof in frustration as she watched the cyan pegasus dip below Ponyville’s modest skyline. “Stupid! What’s gotten into her!?”

“Calm down, Twi,” the farmer told her friend, putting a hoof on her shoulder. “You know how hotheaded she can be. Ah reckon she just needs a little more time ta recover.”

“But there’s only two of us left know!” Twilight insisted, raising her voice as frustration gave way to panic. “If Rainbow and Pinkie won’t talk to us, Rarity’s in Manehattan, and Fluttershy has disappeared, how are we supposed to use the Elements when the time comes?” She gestured at the general direction in which Rainbow Dash had flown. “When she’s acting like that, she’s letting Nightmare Moon win!”

“Now listen here, missy!” Applejack interjected, giving the unicorn a reproachful stare. “Rainbow and Flutershy’ve been pals since flight camp; longer than any o’ the rest of us’ve been friends. Fer a long time, RD was Fluttershy’s only friend, y’know. They grew real close. She ain’t letting any villain win; she’s actin’ like any other pony would under the circumstances. If you hold that against her... well then you’re letting Nightmare Moon win.” The farmer sighed. “So take a deep breath and just calm down, Twi. Ah’d hoped we could convince her once ya got her down, but Ah guess it’s still too soon.”

The lavender unicorn was silent for a long moment, lost in thought at the apple farmer’s stern but true words. “You’re right...” she finally admitted, averting her gaze from Applejack. “I’ll go work on my solites.”

Before the orange pony could say a thing, Twilight had disappeared in a subdued flash. “Time’ll heal any wound,” the farmer reassured herself as she cast a final gaze at the cloud house above her before heading back to Sweet Apple Acres. Already she could see the bright flashes that signalled Twilight’s failures with her solar magic. “Ah sure as heck hope so, at least.”

While Applejack’s words made sense and had probably prevented Twilight from doing something she might later regret, Rainbow Dash’s behavior still bothered her. In fact, it seemed most of her friends had completely forgotten how they had pulled through hardships in the past. Chrysalis, Pan, The Blazebringers of Tartarus, Discord, and Nightmare Moon herself, as long as the Elements of Harmony had stood together and worked as a team, nothing had been able to stop them. But if that was true, how come it was so easy to split them apart? Their adversary hadn’t even shown herself and already Rarity had left them and Twilight had considered physically restraining one of her closest friends. As the lavender unicorn kept at her practice in solite construction, however, her temper gradually seemed to cool and her worries abate as her suns grew hotter and larger. And so it was that a few days after the failed confrontation with Rainbow Dash, Twilight found herself wandering through the darker reaches of the Apple family’s vast orchard, struggling to contain her excitement.

“Oh! Howdy there, partner!” the farmer greeted Twilight as the unicorn finally found her and Big Mac in the southern reaches of the apple orchard. “Ya really shouldn’t be sneakin’ about here like that, y’know; me ‘n Big Mac almost mistook you for some sort o’ varmint.”

“Sorry. Apple Bloom said you were out here patrolling the orchards, and I really wanted to ask you something,” the unicorn replied, barely containing her smile.

Both Apple siblings raised an eyebrow almost simultaneously. “An’ what might that be?” the orange pony inquired.

Twilight grinned. “Where... do you want your first solite?”

Again, brother and sister moved as one as their jaws dropped.

“Uh, well, Ah guess anyplace will do,” Applejack answered in a rather dumbfounded tone after she had recovered. “Ya really finished yer solites?”

“Not finished, per se,” Twilight admitted. “There’s always room for improvement. They’re still not quite as big as I would have hoped, but on the bright side, I believe I should be able to create more than one. According to my calculations, they should hold out for at least four days before collapsing.” At the farmer’s sudden look of worry, the unicorn merely raised a hoof to silence her. “No need to worry; I improved my spell so that the solite will automatically form a force field around itself before exploding. You do not want to know how difficult that was.”

“Fair enough.” The orange earth pony copied the unicorn’s smile. “Well then, let’s see y’all work yer magic.”

The Apples took a few a steps back as Twilight’s horn was enveloped in its magenta glow. Before long, large wisps of fire began appearing out of thin air above the apple trees, dancing about each other as Twilight’s magic began compressing them. After a few minutes, the flames seemed to liquefy completely, melting together into a large sphere. Both farmers looked with worry at the unicorn as gouts of flame began erupting from the surface of the solite under construction, but Twilight showed no signs of panic or loss of control. Several minutes later, the eruptions finally ceased, and the miniature sun began decreasing in size until it was roughly seven feet across.

As the solite briefly flashed magenta, the unicorn finally sat back on her haunches, panting with exhaustion and regarding the two earth ponies that were now looking up at the sky in awe. With Twilight’s final spell, the fiery orb above them had almost doubled in brilliance, bathing the entire area in something very similar to the light of Celestia’s sun.

“Mah stars…” the orange pony murmured, her eyes watering as she broke into a smile. “Ah’d almost forgotten what daylight looked like!” She closed her eyes and sighed happily as the warmth of the sun finally reached her.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac concurred.

Even Twilight, who had seen her sunlight hundreds of times before, found herself almost as amazed as the farmers, having gained a new perspective of its beauty as the brilliant orb hung above her friends and herself.

“It’ll be a while before I can create another one,” the unicorn explained, breaking the two siblings out of their reverie. “But maybe we can coax Pinkie out of hiding with a small celebration?”

“Okay girls,” Twilight said, interrupting Pinkie Pie in her game of Pin the Tail on the Pony. To the Cakes’ delight, Ponyville’s party pony had made a surprisingly quick recovery as soon as she had seen the solite hovering above Sweet Apple Acres, arranging a celebration in a matter of minutes; a party the three ponies had now been holding for five hours. “I think I’m ready to make another solite now!”

“Finally!” The pink pony exclaimed, giving a mock frown of impatience although a wide grin quickly replaced it. “This is gonna be sooooo exciting! If you make a second sun, we can hold a Twilight-made-a-second-sun celebration!”

“And we can make sure the harvest goes alright,” Applejack stressed. “Won’t be long till autumn. If’n that even exists anymore…”

“You got it, AJ! We can have a make-sure-the-harvest-goes-alright party too!” Pinkie cheered, rushing to the door. “Buuuut, to be honest, a Twilight-made-a-second-sun celebration sounds a lot funner!” The two other ponies followed after her, albeit at a slower pace, resulting in the pink pony bouncing in circles around her friends as they exited Sugarcube Corner and walked down the empty streets of Ponyville. Twilight couldn’t help but shake her head at her friend’s quick recovery.

“Where is everypony?” Applejack wondered out loud, gesturing at the completely vacant town square. “Big Mac’s s’pposed to be out here sellin’ our corn cobs now!”

“So Big Mac is making bits for the farm while you’re off partying with the girls?” Twilight teased her friend.

“Says the pony who slept fer six days straight!” the farmer retorted with a playful smile.

“Yeah, yeah, yeah,” the lavender unicorn murmured, her brow creasing as she glanced at the big clock that had recently been mounted on the town hall. “But you’re right; it’s pretty late in the afternoon. You’d think somepony would be out.” The unicorn glanced toward Sweet Apple Acres, where her small sun was blazing brilliantly. “You know what? Never mind. I think I know where they went.”

Sure enough, the lavender unicorn’s suspicions were confirmed as soon as they drew near her solite and the Apple family’s orchards. Although nopony was yet within sight, the excited chatter of what sounded like the entire population of Ponyville could be heard from among the many apple trees.

“What in tarnation are all those folks doin’ in mah orchards?” Applejack grumbled as she began to catch sight of a few pastel hues amid the brown and green of the trees.

“They must all have seen my solite,” the unicorn explained as she clambered over a wooden fence to take a more direct route toward the source of commotion.

Like moths to a flame, everypony had gathered below the small sun, drawn in by its warming rays and memories of better times. A huge throng of Ponyvillians had amassed in the middle of Sweet Apple Acres, and in the crowd’s center, directly below the solite, stood Big Mac, sweating visibly, though Twilight suspected that was caused by being the center of attention rather than standing underneath the sun that hovered little more than fifty feet above him.

As soon as he caught sight of the three approaching mares, he pointed a hoof almost accusatively at the lavender unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle, there ye have ‘er! She’s the one what made this ‘ere sun. Now leave me alone!”

As the large red stallion slunk off, more than a hundred heads turned simultaneously to gaze at the newcomers in an eerie display of synchronicity and for an awkward moment, all was silent.

“Hi, everypony,” the solite constructor greeted the crowd nervously.

The silence lasted for a few more seconds until a particularly large white pegasus raised a hoof in the air victoriously, roaring his approval and triggering an almost riotous cheer from the ponies around him.

“Ah’ll just go check on Big Mac; poor feller ain’t used to utterin’ much more than five syllables in a row, much less handlin’ a crowd like that!” Applejack excused herself, zipping away from the unicorn as the crowd rushed forward and enveloped her.

Before she knew what was happening, Pinkie Pie and three other ponies were tossing Twilight into the air, still cheering loudly while the pink pony broke into one of her impromptu songs.

“Twilight is our bestest friend, whoopee, whoopee!
The cutest, smartest all around best pony, pony!
She made us all another sun as you can see, can see!
And now she’s gonna create a number two, maybe threeeeeeee!”

“Put me down!” Twilight half-screamed, half-laughed as she was carried to the spot Big Mac had occupied only moments earlier.

“What’s it made of?” Orchid Dew asked excitedly.

“How’d ya make it?” Daisy chimed in.

“Did you really make it all alone?” Pinkie Pie asked, amazement clear in her voice, to which Twilight lifted an eyebrow.

“Pinkie, I already told you about that several hours ago. We looked at it from your balcony, remember?”

“Tell us how you did it!” the pink pony exclaimed, ignoring Twilight’s observation. “Tell us, tell us, tell us!”

Twilight sighed softly in mock defeat as the chant was taken up by everypony around her. “Well, if you insist…”

Nearly an hour later, the lavender unicorn finally gave up, cancelling her Spell System Visualization spell as even Pinkie Pie began nodding off.

“Who wants to see me make another solite?” she deadpanned, immediately eliciting an excited cheer from the Ponyvillians who had been nearly comatose only seconds before. Twilight sighed and began making her way toward one of the gloomier areas of the apple orchards, the crowd parting neatly before her as she walked.

The ponies behind her were relatively quiet as Twilight walked, only a few mutterings and hushed whispers of anticipation escaping the group. It wasn’t long before they had put the light of the solite fairly far behind them, entering into a darkness that reminded all too much of the Everfree Forest. Somewhere off in the distance ahead of them, a lone timberwolf howled, and the ponies began murmuring a little louder.

They all fell silent once more, however, when Twilight halted and her horn began to glow. Just as it had before, a bright flame flared into existence far above her, liquefying and slowly forming into a small sphere over the course of fifteen minutes or so. The Ponyvillians gasped in amazement and then once again cheered as Twilight finished her spell and the solite increased in brilliance to match its older twin.

“That was so fanexcterrifficulent!” Pinkie Pie proclaimed triumphantly, rushing to the lavender unicorn’s side. “At this rate, we’ll be back to good ol’ sunny Equestria in no time!”

“Sure,” Twilight said in a detached tone of voice, completely out of breath. “I think I’ll have to wait… quite a while longer… before I make a third one…”

“Why? You okay?” the earth pony asked, eyeing her friend with a mix of concern and disappointment.

“I’m… fine…” the unicorn half-slurred in an unconvincing reply, beginning to sway slightly. She sat down heavily to prevent herself from toppling over. “I just need a few moments…”

“Miss Sparkle!” a voice exclaimed happily from behind the unicorn, who almost groaned out loud at the thought of interacting with any more ponies than absolutely necessary. At this point there was nothing she wanted more than a soft bed to lie in. Twilight glanced to her left to see the mayor trotting up beside her. “I cannot put into words how amazed I am by this magnificent display of magical skill! I can definitely see now why you were Celestia’s most prized student!”

“Thanks,” the unicorn replied with a small smile, although a hint of sadness tinged her voice. There was something about other ponies than her friends speaking about Celestia that always struck some chord within her. Perhaps that was why she had been so fond of taking refuge within her library since she had come home.

The mayor failed to notice the unicorn’s sadness, however, and carried on briskly. “I just had this sudden impulse to ask you, well, would it be possible for you, seeing as how you are doing such an excellent job here in Sweet Apple Acres, to perhaps make another sun? Only bigger? For Ponyville?”

“I…” Twilight started, thinking of a polite way to decline, before she noticed the hint of desperation hidden behind the mayor’s smile. She noted the ponies gathered around her, just waiting for her to accept the proposal. And she realized that she could not say no. No matter how much of a strain it would put on her, she was now the pony that could create suns. She had never considered how huge a responsibility she was taking upon herself when she decided to study solar magic; everypony in Ponyville now depended upon her and her alone to banish the darkness that had plagued them for so long. She could no longer solely use her magic as a means to draw out and defeat Nightmare Moon. She would have to provide for her fellow ponies. Twilight bit her lip, desperately thinking of something to get her out of her predicament, but finally sighed. “Of course.”

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