Twilight had sent a letter to the princesses about how they prevented the war, and griffon messengers flew west to help spread the word as the Friendship Express looped around north and back down towards Ponyville.
Mayor Mare, having had just finished Winter Wrap Up, organized for a grand celebration to be held in honor of the princess and her friends bringing an end to what could have been a second Great Eastern War. Ponies all over town pitched in, with their first breaths of spring, to decorate Ponyville and make it as welcoming as can be for Princess Twilight’s return.
They had to wait a few hours at the Griffonstone station for the train to come, and the stops along the way made the trip take a bit longer. As the train arrived at the Ponyville station, dozens of ponies gathered, while most others continued to ready the town for the celebration. Twilight emerged with a bit of haste in her step, but stopped as the surprise of everypony rendered her shocked. Fluttershy and Shadow came off after her, while she had her wing up and over him, he was still out of it quite a bit, but he was much better than before when the vision hit him after the battle. Everypony else emerged from the train and Pinkie Pie immediately felt her enormous smile reach both sides of her head as she squealed.
“Teeeeheeeheheheee!” She then shouted out. “Woohoo! PARTY TIME!”
Twilight offered a small smile at the welcome, but it didn’t last. “Thank you so much everypony, but-” She stopped when Starlight tapped her, shaking her head. Twilight caught on, turning back to all of them. “…how could you possibly hope to plan this party without…” She lifted her hoof to her pink friend beside her. “PINKIE PIE!”
Pinkie temporarily felt her happiness come soaring back to her as her face lit up. “YESSS!” She hoof pumped and jumped forward, hugging a few ponies all at once. “Now let’s go plan a party!” She released them and began hopping down towards Town Square, everypony in the crowd following her.
“Alright…” Twilight said, looking over at everypony else. “Let’s all go to the castle, maybe Moon Frost can help tell us where Rainbow, AJ, and Rarity went.”
They all took off in full gallop to the castle, which had also been decorated for the big celebration. Twilight ran inside, looking up and around.
“Moon Frost!?” She called out. “Moon Frost, we need your help!”
Her voice then came from the throne room. “In here, Princess.”
Opening the door, Twilight was met with the sight of Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, all three of the CMCs, Zecora, and Daring Do, all sitting with Moon Frost at the center.
“Girls!” Twilight exclaimed, galloping over to the three of them as they stood and gave a group hug. She then looked over at the fillies, who stood smiling up at her. “You found them!”
“Yup, sure did!” AJ chuckled.
Rarity rubbed Sweetie Belle’s head. “Nothing could keep us apart.”
Twilight then looked to Rainbow, surprised that she didn’t speak up first, boasting about their success. “Sorry for leaving without telling you…” Rainbow instead replied. “We heard that you had to go stop a battle… I didn’t want-”
She was interrupted as the princess hugged her individually, just happy she was safe after seeing what happened to Shadow. “None of that matters now, we’re all here, and-” That was when she first really absorbed the fact that Zecora and Daring were standing there too. “Zecora…! Daring!” She released the pegasus and ran to them, giving them a hug too.
Daring chuckled as she patted Twilight’s shoulder. “Sorry about running off without saying a word, I thought I could stop Stormclaw myself… but I was wrong.”
“B-but….” Twilight said, stepping back from them. “How are you here? Zecora, why did you disappear after Hearth’s Warming?”
The zebra shook her head. “I’ve been gone for much longer than you have known, in that time I have seen just how much the shadows have grown.” She looked down at the map, far to the south and to the table’s very edge. “In my absence, a deceiver had taken my place. A name you know well behind the guise of my face.”
Twilight looked confused, but then her eyes widened as she gasped. “Chrysalis!? She was here pretending to be you!? Why? When?”
Apple Bloom then stepped up. “She’s been posin’ as Zecora ever since y’all went to the castle ruins and met Shadow for the first time.” She explained, having gotten the run down from Zecora and put two and two together. “She’s the one that stole the Alicorn Amulet, not Zecora.”
Chrysalis was here? All that time… she was right there under Twilight’s very nose? “What could she possibly have to gain from all of this? I don’t understand.”
Zecora slowly shook her head as Sweetie Belle continued for her. “We haven’t been able to figure that part out.”
Starfall looked over at Twilight, seeing the massive storm of concern that was lingering, but also, a calmness through it. He couldn’t explain it, she just looked so… relieved at hearing all of this. She took a deep breath and lifted her hoof as she did her calming technique. “We can worry about that later, the important thing is that you’re all safe… for now, that’s all that matters to me.”
The party’s epicenter focused around Ponyville Square, where there were tents and stalls set up as ponies played games and sat together eating sweets provided by the bakery and other shops from around town. There were celebrations going on like this all over Equestria, the ponies reveling in the princesses’ success of putting an end to the war.
Although the festivities were fun and Twilight was relieved at finally having everypony together… she began to take more notice to the strange behaviors of her five friends.
Applejack smiled and chuckled as her big brother and little sister enjoyed the party, but she seemed withdrawn, distant even, as she engaged in none of the activities herself. She almost never kept thing hidden from them anymore, always confiding in them her problems as she found difficulty with them, but this time was different. Whatever this was that’s upsetting her, it crippled her morale and effort in what she did, especially around her friends and family.
Rarity was staying with Sweetie Belle throughout most of it, looking to her very often with a somewhat troubled gaze when the filly wasn’t looking. She was never one to withhold her opinion and offer to help, but now she was silent, stricken, almost completely detached from how she normally acted. She didn’t mention her new gala line of clothes, had nothing to say about what ponies were wearing as they trotted around, and didn’t even bother expressing her excitement for the gala itself… which was so very unlike her.
Fluttershy, although smiling and being mostly herself around Shadow, only seemed to be doing so for him. Whenever the shadow pony was gone from her side, she became very withdrawn… even more than usual. No greetings or checking up on her friends, no worried expressions about how others were feeling, it was all just gone. She was keeping to herself almost all of the time now, only ever slightly changing when around her closer friends.
Pinkie Pie, which was probably the most difficult to notice, also behaved rather strangely. Yes, she was still upbeat and happy to help, hopping and prancing around to make sure everypony was laughing and having fun… but this time was different. She seemed to be doing so out of desperation rather than pleasure. She wasn’t getting up in anypony’s face or singing or even trying to be center of attention. Operating from outside the spectrum, in a very careful way, she worked to make everypony happy, but a trained eye could tell that she was doing all of it to feel better herself.
Rainbow Dash was the most shocking of the five, at least to Twilight. No boasting, no showing off, and no saying ‘awesome’. This wouldn’t be so bad if it didn’t obviously stem from a suppressor. She wasn’t stepping up for any challenges, wasn’t pushing ponies to do better as they played the games, and wasn’t even interested in hearing about what happened at the battle between the griffons and the dragons which, for literally anypony that knew her, was a huge shock. Her drive was almost non-existent, but he did follow Scootaloo around, smiling and laughing as often as she could to make the filly happy.
Twilight watched all of this unfold, concerned about what it meant. It would be a lie if she said that during the entire celebration, her mind was on them instead of having fun. It didn’t help that she was exhausted, however. She trotted around with them, Starlight, and Spike, but couldn’t get the issue out of her mind.
Starlight went off with Trixie to play some games. Spike ended up following Rarity and Sweetie around, and the rest of her friends seemed to just spread out among the festivities. It was during this time that she realized she hadn’t seen Starfall. Looking to the castle, she trotted over in its direction, leaving the party as evening set in, the day growing old.
Starfall stood in the throne room, sorting letters to the princess from all over Equestria in thanks, as well as inquiries from the delegates of the various cities regarding the effects that their announcements of the war had on their inhabitants. It was a mountain of work, but Starfall, having learned from the master of organization herself, was able to keep it all in check, doing his best to be sure Twilight had absolutely no work to do when she returned. Moon Frost sat in one of the thrones, helping him to organize them so he wasn’t working alone.
“Moon,” he said to her, a thankful expression on his face. “I’m very grateful you want to help… but you should go enjoy the celebration, this must be the most boring vacation in history for you.”
Moon Frost chuckled just a bit. “Unfortunately for me, there aren’t mysteries waiting to be solved every day in Manehattan, so I’m used to work like this.” She peered over at him. “I’m happy to help Starfall, and… I’m not too big on attending giant parties anyway.”
Starfall managed a smile. “Well, thank you… you are making this about a thousand times easier for me.”
Twilight opened the door to the throne room, making her guard stop as he had just picked up another scroll. “Starfall, what are you doing?” She asked him, looking around at all of the letters and scrolls. “Are you… organizing my workload for me?”
With a small, uneasy chuckle, Starfall nodded. “….yes?”
“That’s… that’s so nice of you.” The princess said, smiling at him. “But you don’t have to miss out on the party just to do my work.”
Starfall shook his head. “You and Starlight both stopped a war, so once you are done celebrating, I’m going to make sure that there is nothing standing between you and a good night’s rest. I did promise you that, and I don’t intend on going back on that promise.”
Not able to find the words at first, Twilight looked over to Moon Frost, who nodded to her. “Go enjoy your party, princess, we can handle this.”
Twilight turned back to Starfall, who smiled to her with a blazing set of confidence that made her feel… better, as if it actually lifted the burdening weight from her shoulders. “I think… I may just turn in for the night, I do have a lot of sleep to catch up on.”
Starfall nodded to her. “Good night then, princess.”
“Twilight.” She said, correcting him.
He chuckled, shaking his head. “Good night, Twilight.”
Walking out from the room, Twilight began to climb her stairs, the weariness setting in. Even with sleep approaching, her thoughts continued swirling about in her head. Why had she rejected having a royal guard before? How much better could her reign have been if Starfall had been there for her since the start? With her friends struggling with these troubles, Twilight had begun having to face these mysteries herself, only ever aided by Starlight and Spike. Now she saw that Starfall was carrying her, shouldering whatever he could to help her. He barely ever slept now, protected her every day, and was a true, genuine friend.
The very thought of him now made her smile. He was doing all of this, every bit of it for her and her friends, and never once needed to hear her thanks. All of these thoughts continued to amass and storm about in her head, blocking out most everything else.
As she opened the door to her room and walked in, her ears slowly flattened to her head, her exhaustion now taking hold. She crawled into her bed and closed her eyes, finally having a complete, unstressed moment to rest.
It had been several days now since Celestia last ascended the mountain to speak with the pony at its peak. Flying there now, in the spring weather, made the journey a more soothing one. Now that the war was over, she felt she could focus less on the turmoil in the east, and more on the shadows surrounding Twilight and her friends.
Landing down onto the grassy flattop, she glanced around, not seeing the crystal pony. Walking to the summit’s edge, she peered down across the land, the spring colors filling it with more life as opposed to the snowy expanse from before. Turning to the ruins, she stopped as she spotted the pony, standing just inside the entrance and walking in.
Following her, Celestia entered to find her sitting in front of one of the only temple walls that wasn’t completely eroded. An intricate symbol was etched into the stone and, though faded, there were runes all around that symbol, which depicted a sun and moon appearing to be shining their light down upon the area in which the mysterious pony sat.
“I am sorry I could not come visit you sooner,” Celestia said to her, walking up to and sitting in front of her. “I had rather distressing matters to attend to.”
The pony offered a small smile. “I understand, the responsibilities of a princess are great, but I am glad to see you’ve returned.”
Celestia sighed. “Unfortunately, I haven’t had much time to search for Arkane, he seems to be hiding away from us now.”
In response, the crystal pony shook her head. “Finding him is unnecessary, for I have already told, try or not, only he can choose how his path ends. All of the world could stand against him and his destiny would still hinge on one decision; the choice between the light and the shadows.”
“I don’t understand…” Celestia said, looking down and shaking her head. “How can we stop what is to come if we don’t stand in his way?”
The pony looked upon the princess with bright eyes and another small smile. “If we were to stand in the way of a pony’s or dragon’s shadowy dreams, his desire to fulfill them will only grow. But if he was shown a brighter dream, not by force, but by example, perhaps the choice he eventually faces will make him wonder if the shadows is what he truly wants.”
Celestia looked up at her, so many questions left unanswered. “I met him… I saw what devotion he has to achieving this evil… I do not know if it something we can change.”
Lifting her hoof up onto Celestia’s shoulder, the pony nodded. “Anyone can change.”
There were no words, and so she just nodded in return. To have such a powerful connection to hope and light, so much so to see the light within a blackened soul… this pony was something unbelievable.
Tilting her head, the pony looked upon Celestia, still smiling. A brief flutter in the air made the pony blink a few times, and then look up at the symbol etched on the wall, turning back to the princess. “I’m afraid my time is coming to its end…” Celestia looked up at her, confused. “I have something beyond this door for you, princess of Equestria. Something you will need for the dark days ahead.”
A strange light glowed from the floor where the crystal pony sat, blazing a trail to the wall and making the illustrations of the sun and moon begin to glow their respective colors. Celestia watched as the crystal pony’s mane and tail began to rise, hover as if there was airflow beneath them.
“It has been well over a thousand years since the last time this door has opened,” She said, her voice becoming stronger, not louder, just more commanding and elegant. “A great unicorn, a friend of yours, cast a powerful spell upon it to keep it sealed until this moment came.”
Celestia watched as the light from underneath her grew brighter. “W-what unicorn? I have known so many…”
The pony offered a small laugh. “You shall see soon enough.” She stopped then, looking down to Celestia with an almost motherly gaze, her body slowly rising into the air, the light increasing in intensity. “I wished to tell you so much more… for you to know the secrets of our time… the moments we enjoyed that shall always remain forgotten…”
Squinting in confusion, Celestia tried to understand. “What do you mean…?”
“When you first came to me, you were troubled… goodness how long has it been, over a thousand years?” She asked, the silhouette of her body flickering, as if a mirage. “Seeing you and Luna… it reminded me so much of him… my brother…” Celestia found it difficult to see the pony now, but between the blinking and blinding lights, she saw a different pony… a much larger, more beautiful mare… with two great wings and a horn. “Your friendship gave me hope… and therefore, granted you the power of my memories…”
Celestia was so lost, not knowing what to say, until… It all came together in that one moment. Luna? Her brother? Hope? Power of her memories…? Celestia looked up upon her, the bright light folding away to reveal her. “The Elements of Harmony are your memories…” Celestia said quietly. “You are the Tree of Harmony… you are…”
She was a white alicorn, taller even than Celestia. Her mane, a bright galaxy of stars flowing in radiant silver, flowed in the air along with her tail. Her fur was flawless, with small tufts on the crests of her massive wings. Her horn glowed with an aura unlike anything Celestia had ever seen, along with her eyes, which brought forth a comforting power in her heart.
“I am Etherus, the first alicorn alongside my brother, Erebus.” She finally revealed, her voice heavenly and powerful, though the light around her continued to dim. “Although I wanted to tell you so much more… you already have everything you need. My brother stands ready to return, but this time… I will no longer be in his way. For the world to be saved, his decision must be for the light… it is the only way.” As the light faded, Etherus’ form waned.
“N-no, wait!” Celestia called out to her.
Etherus bowed her head to Celestia, the light from her body beginning to shatter upwards, starting down at her hooves. “Always remember… my child,” She said, closing her eyes. “Friendship is magic…” Her entire body became shattered into pieces of light, floating up into the expanse of space, now the darkened, night sky. Once the light faded, the door that was behind Etherus glowed with the light of the sun and moon, parting open, a veil of impenetrable light disappearing from within it.
Celestia watched as the light rose away from her, leaving the ruins in a state of silence and shadows. Slowly, she looked down at the opening made from the door, her heart racing from watching what could well have been the last time Etherus would ever been seen or heard again. Stepping into the tunnel behind the opened door, she descended a spiral staircase.
There was a light growing at the bottom of the stairwell, and once she reached the door at the bottom, she was met with the sight of an ancient study. A long corridor leading to a circular chamber, lit from torches on the walls in between bookcases with scrolls on a center table. As Celestia slowly walked down the corridor, she looked around at it, not knowing what it was or what it meant. When she reached the circular chamber, she spotted a pedestal at its center, upon which a black crystal hovered, dull and lacking any luster.
Celestia approached the crystal, stopping when she stood before it. She knew what it was, the moment of recognizing it just made her speechless and stand there, gazing upon it. “The Etherus Diamond…”
“The sixth crystal… greatest of all evils.” A voice spoke from behind her. Celestia turned, her heart nearly stopping when she saw who it was that was speaking. “A long time ago, a pony came to me with it, begging me to hide it away from the world…” He said, drawing closer. Celestia felt tears fill her eyes, unable to believe who she was looking upon. “I knew you would one day find your way to me… it’s been so long, my friend.”