A week later, Rarity and her husband walked out of the Canterlot Orphanage with a unicorn filly nearly choking Lonely Heart from behind as she rode on his back. The feeling of pride the two adult unicorns had could only have been matched if Rarity had delivered the foal herself.
"Ms. Rarity, Mr. Lonely?" asked Happy Hooves timidly. "Can I call you Mama and Papa?"
Rarity spoke up first, "Of course, darling. You're family now."
Happy Hooves, with tears of happiness beginning to flow, let go of Lonely's neck, jumped down off his back, trotted over to Rarity, stood on her hind legs and wrapped both her forelegs around her neck.
"Thank you. I love you so much, Ms., I mean, Mama," Happy let go of Rarity and then trotted back over to Lonely Heart and hugged him. "And you too Papa!"
Lonely Heart returned the hug as Rarity joined them. "We love you too, darling."
Upon breaking the hug, Lonely Heart flagged down a carriage for them.
"Where to?" asked the driver.
"Canterlot Castle, dearie," replied the ivory unicorn.
"Really?!" exclaimed Happy Hooves. "We're really going to the castle?"
"We sure are dear," replied Lonely Heart as the carriage began its journey from the orphanage to the castle. "Mama has an appointment to meet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna today."
"Will I get to go with you, mama?" the young filly asked.
"Of course, darling," replied Rarity. "It's not really an appointment. I just stop in to say hello to the princesses everytime I'm in Canterlot."
"Are you friends with the princesses, mama?" Happy Hooves asked curiously.
"Yes, I am, darling," Rarity softly replied.
As the three unicorns walked through the hallways on the way the princesses' chambers, Happy Hooves asked questions about the various paintings and stained glass windows as they passed them. Rarity and Lonely Heart answered her questions to the best of their ability, until they came upon a forty foot tall door.
"Mama, what's in there?" asked Happy Hooves.
Rarity and Lonely Heart just stared at the door, dumbfounded. In the numerous times they had been to the castle, walked these halls, how did they miss this? An iron gray door divided into five sections with what looked like a golden combination dial with Twilight Sparkle's cutie mark in the center, Rainbow Dash's cutie mark in the top section and the other four sections blank.
"Sweetie," Lonely began, "we don't know. We have never seen this before. It will be something you can ask Princess Celestia when we see her."
Happy Hooves was speechless momentarily while it sunk in that her new parents were clueless about something so obvious.
"You never, ever seen this before and I get to ask the princess about it? Wowzers!" she replied with excitement.
The three ponies turned around and headed toward the doors at the opposite end of the hallway, passing by the stained glass windows honoring the achievements of Rarity and her friends.
"Mama?" said Happy Hooves curiously. "Is this supposed to be you on the windows?"
"Yes, Happy. It is me," Rarity replied.
She named each pony in the window as pointed to them, leaving Rainbow Dash for last. Happy Hooves noticed the hesitation in Rarity's voice and the lone tear roll down her cheek as she pointed to Rainbow Dash.
"What's wrong?" Happy Hooves asked Rarity.
Lonely Heart also picked up on the change in his wife's demeanor and answered Happy Hooves question for her. "Something happened to Rainbow Dash last year. We'll talk about it at home. Okay?"
"Okay, Papa," Happy Hooves replied as the doors to the royal chambers were opened for them.
"Rarity and Lonely Heart. What a wonderful surprise," said Celestia as she noticed the pink and lavender coated filly hiding behind Rarity's left foreleg. "And who might this little one be?"
"Go ahead and introduce yourself, darling," Rarity softly whispered to her new daughter. "Don't be afraid."
"My... my name is..." the gold maned unicorn said, just barely above a whisper, "Hap-happy Hooves, princess. It-it's nice to-to meet you."
"It's wonderful to meet you, my dear," Celestia said gently. "What do you think about the castle?"
"It-it's really pretty," squeaked Happy Hooves. "Ca-can I, um, ask you a-a question, please?"
"Certainly. You can ask me anything, my little pony," the Sun Princess reassured the young filly.
"Wh-what's that, uh, really big d-door that we, um, saw?" said Happy Hooves as she finally moved out from behind Rarity's foreleg.
"That is a special room that is being built for Princess Twilight Sparkle," said Princess Luna as she entered the chamber. "Only a few ponies besides Princess Twilight know what it's for. My sister and I are not in that group of ponies."
"We asked her what the room was going to be for and she told us that we would find out when it was finished," Celestia added.
"Have you seen the inside of the room?" Rarity asked inquisitively.
"Sadly, no. She has an enchanted seal on it that only she can disable," Luna responded.
Rarity, Lonely Heart and the princesses speculated what could be behind the door for about another fifteen minutes before making plans for Happy Hooves' presentation and then leaving the castle.
"So where in Canterlot do we live at, Mama?" Happy Hooves asked as the family of unicorns waited for a carriage.
"We don't, darling. We live in Ponyville," Rarity told her. "It's small town about a half hour away by train. There's plenty of other fillies and colts for you to play and make friends with."
Happy Hooves smiled as her and her new family hopped into the carriage that arrived to take them to the train station.
Five days later, Rarity and Lonely Heart stood in front of the rest of Ponyville with their newly adopted four year old filly for her presentation. As per tradition, Celestia rose from behind the stage like the sun to start the ceremony. While normally the foal would held by the mare during the presentation, Happy Hooves was a little big to be held so she had stood by Rarity's side.
"We welcome you here today to present the newest foal in Ponyville," Princess Celestia proudly stated as she began the ceremony. "But this presentation is special in a way. The young filly being presented has endured heartache throughout the last four years after being given up for adoption at birth. But today we celebrate her new life with Lonely Heart and Rarity as proud, loving parents."
The crowd of ponies present softly stomped their hooves in applause for the new parents and young foal being presented.
"I ask that we all join in singing our first song, 'A True Friend'," Celestia then stated.
A true, true friend helps a friend in need,
A friend will be there to help you see,
A true, true friend helps a friend in need,
To see the light,
That shines from a true, true friend.
Rarity turned her head to face away from the crowd as they sang the song. It hit her hard because the first time she sang it, Rainbow Dash was the pony that helped her during the cutie mark mix-up. Lonely saw her eyes begin to water and discreetly nuzzled her cheek to try to keep her calm.
The ceremony continued with the importance of friendship and a few foalhood songs sung by Happy Hooves adopted aunt. Celestia gave the closing statements and then asked everypony to join her in singing the closing song.
Once, upon a time,
You came into my world and made the stars align.
Now, I can see the signs,
You pick me when I get down so I can shine.
Shine like rainbows,
Shine like rainbows,
Shine like rainbows,
Shine like rainbows.
Friends, you are in my life,
And you can count on me to be there by your side.
And when the music comes alive,
We sing our songs to lift us up so we can shine.
And the sound, that we hear,
in our hearts, makes a Crescendo.
And the light, that ignites,
in the dark, it makes us all glow.
And shine like rainbows,
We shine like rainbows,
Shine like rainbows,
We shine like rainbows.
Together we stand,
As the rain begins to fall.
And holding our heads up high,
As the sun shines through it all
And the sound, that we hear,
in our hearts, makes a Crescendo.
And the light, that ignites,
in the dark, it makes us all glow.
And shine like rainbows,
We shine like rainbows,
Shine like rainbows,
We shine like rainbows.
Twilight Sparkle called a meeting of her friends and the other four princesses to discuss the mysterious room that she had requested to build three years ago at Rainbow Dash's funeral. It had just been completed to her specifications and as promised, she let everyone know what it was.
"Ah don't git it, Twilight," Applejack said in her southern drawl. "How in tarnation is anypony s'posed to see any of this if yer th' only one that can git in?"
"Well, it's an enchanted shrine that links the five of us plus Rainbow Dash together forever," Twilight answered.
"How exactly does it work, Twilight?" Candence asked her.
"Inside the room there are five statues, each with a hoof-cut gem in the shape of the harmony pendant that you all wore during our early battles together. Rainbow Dash has a ruby lightning bolt, Applejack has a topaz apple, Pinkie Pie's is an aquamarine balloon, Fluttershy's is a pink tourmaline butterfly and Rarity has an amethyst diamond," Twilight said. "Those gems have been linked to the tree of harmony which are linked to us. So when we die, part of our spirit will be linked to the statues and therefore we'll be able to help each other prepare for the afterlife when we get close to that time."
"But your lifetime has been extended from becoming an alicorn," Fluttershy replied softly. "How does it affect you?"
"It will allow me to communicate with you in the afterlife from here. I'll be able to relay messages from your family to you and vice versa, among other things that can't be discussed at this point," Twilight replied.
"Why do it at Canterlot Castle and not here in Ponyville?" asked Rarity, somewhat puzzled.
"Two reasons. First, there isn't enough room here in Ponyville. Second, Canterlot has a greater amount of magic that can be channelled into the shrine," Twilight responded.
The nine ponies then began debating what to name the shrine while getting some of the smaller details. They finally settled on a fitting name for the room:
THE HALL OF ELEMENTS
Rarity fought against the wind gusts that were fueling the thunderstorm she was walking through to visit Applejack's grave. It had been almost a year since Applejack asked her to "brush her mane and tail real pretty" and Rarity was making her regularly scheduled trip to see her friend in the inclement weather because it was her last available day for almost two moons.
"It's me, Applejack," Rarity said as she approached the grave marker of her late friend. "Sorry I'm late, as usual, but Happy Hooves' showcase ran longer than expected. She's become quite the artist. Your brother-in-law asked her to paint some of his backdrops for his upcoming tour."
Rarity paused for a few minutes as if she was listening for a response. During that pause, her eyes began to well up as she remembered their last few minutes together in the hospital. A light blue aura appeared from under the black poncho as Rarity brought a monogrammed handkerchief out of her saddlebag to wipe the tears.
"Happy Hooves al-also painted a picture... for you, darling," she said as she began weeping. "I-I promised her that I would... deliver it to the farmhouse for... your brother to place in your bed-bedroom."
Rarity paused a second time to wipe more tears from her eyes as her crying intensified. It could have been her imagination but she could've sworn that she heard Applejack tell her everything was ok while she was crying.
"Is-is that you... App-Applejack?" Rarity called out as she looked around, still with tears in her eyes. Upon seeing and hearing nothing, Rarity put her handkerchief back in her bag and pulled out a wreath made of roses in the shape of an apple and placed it against the tombstone then turned to walk away.
"Goodbye, Applejack," Rarity sniffed. "I will talk to you in a couple weeks, darling."
After the tombstone was out of eyesight, Rarity was blinded by a bright light and heard a voice say, "Me an' Rainbow will be waitin' with th' cider, Rares"