The snowy-white light diminished into oblivion. Everything regular, usual and commonplace filled Twilight and Cadance's vision.
"What did you see?" Trixie asked.
"Did it work?" said Fluttershy.
"Yes...yes, it worked perfectly." Twilight Sparkle was still in a state of sheer shock.
"We...saw them!" Everypony gave the one standing next to them a glance. "We saw the two princesses!" Cadance added. Starlight Glimmer shot Starswirl The Bearded a glance from across the room; however, unlike everypony else's, it was not one of total disbelief, but of pleasant surprise—somehow, she and the famous conjurer had done it!
"Whatever did the pair say to you both?" Discord asked. There were so many questions! Cadance and Twilight told Trixie, Tirek, Starlight, Starswirl, Fluttershy, Shining Armour, Discord and Sunburst all Luna and Celestia had told them; when they had finished, Shining Armour was the most affected of all of them!
"Flurry Heart?! Honey, you can't seriously..."
"Celestia would not have said what she did for nothing. If our daughter was not born an allicorn for this reason, then why?" The rhetorical nature of the question was startlingly evident: Shining Armour could not fathom a response.
"We have to go with her."
"Fine, but we have to stay out of sight, and not interfere under any circumstances!"
"Easier said than done."
"I know," Cadance replied, half-sombre, half-understanding. She embraced Shining Armour as she never had before (not even on their eventful wedding day), and then turned to Twilight. "When do we start?"
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The baby pony's parents waited until the next morning, and then flew to the Crystal Empire. Spatium's slaves were still tearing every structure in sight down like wrappers off of ice-lollies!
"This can be handled with such ease," Discord assured everypony. "Just leave it to me." Using his magic, he morphed his tall, insane-looking body into a structure identical to others in the ponies' path; that would buy the group an hour or so.
"Let's go, everypony," Shining Armour said sadly. Stellas Spatium was perched on a nearby balcony.
"KEEP GOING!" He roared to his many associates. "DON'T STOP...EVEN FOR ONE INSTANT! I NEED THIS EMPIRE COMPLETELY TORN APART AS SOON AS IS PONILY POSSIBLE!"
Twilight Sparkle, Shining Armour and Cadance were hiding behind a rather sizable piece of debris. The former clutched her niece in her hoofs tightly.
"You'll do great," she said, and kissed her lightly on the forehead. Her mother and father did the same before releasing her, after which they wept violently. Twilight was the only pony who could bear to witness what was about to happen!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Why can't we go and wreck havoc on the Crystal Empire?!" Pinkie Pie wailed.
"Well, we need to remain here, don't we, and ensure nopony raids the oh-great-one's new throne room. Besides, the Empire is miles away from Canterlot," said Rarity.
"I don't think any of the trains are running anymore," Pinkie acknowledged.
"Even if they were, I wouldn't be giving them any of my precious money! NOPONY gets money from me!" Rarity shouted.
"I definitely wouldn't beat the train driver up and then take me self there," Applejack lied.
"So...we going?" Rainbow Dash questioned.
"Let's give it another hour or so," said Rarity.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flurry Heart approached Stellas Spatium. Oddly enough, she was moving more slowly and serenely than she had ever done before in the whole of her existence. Fate! Twilight thought. Just like Princess Celestia was telling me and Cadance: it's a classic case of fate and destiny! Spatium turned and saw her. Twilight's mouth was as wide-open as one belonging to a shark about to devour their pray. A very appropriate allegory! Twilight thought to herself. Stellas Spatium's the shark, and Flurry the prey.
"Hmm..." Stellas Spatium growled, slowly inching towards the helpless child. "Twilight and your parents finally given up on you? Don't give a flying dudder about you, do you, my sweet?!" Twilight struggled to fight back the urge to come out from her hiding spot and attempt to beat Spatium half-to-death. "No matter! I'm not going to kill you. I have my own uses for you." He then resorted to one of his manic laughter sessions. Meanwhile, Flurry Heart, still appearing to be totally placid in her situation, began to sporadically shoot spouts of defensive magic from her horn (and flying more swiftly!!). "SO!" Spatium boomed. "They've assigned to be their personal assassin, have they?" He chuckled. "Then I suppose a change of plan is called for..." Twilight rose up slightly, and then down again as quick as a flash.
"No," she said to herself very, very quietly. "I can't! Celestia and Luna wouldn't want me to."
Flurry swept—now somewhat fiercely—towards the dark allicorn composed entirely of hatred and evil; her wings flapping in the drizzly midday wind, her eyes glowing with what can only be described as an unbeatable kind of determination, her tiny heart pounding as if she were being chased by a blood-thirsty lion or tiger; Stellas Spatium was taken aback by what he saw, and his face now grew more and more helpless—he tried in vain to fight back by releasing jets of his own powerful magic, he tried in vain to dodge Flurry, but she was simply too speedy; he tried in vain—Flurry's eyes now narrowed and she strained: a solitary bolt of defensive magic spurted from her horn and showered Stellas Spatium along with so many others; he shrieked and screamed in agony, but it was no good whatsoever: he gradually began to literally melt; first his wings, then his horn, and then the despicable rest—the last thing that was disintegrated onto the bloody ground he had now claimed as his own was his heart: his shrivelled, festering, rotten heart. And then there was nothing. Not even ashes or bones. There was nothing left in Equestria or anywhere in the multi-verse of Stellas Spatium. His doings? That was another story altogether!