//------------------------------// // Chapter 9 - The Perfect Pair Return! // Story: Starswirl's Return // by Harratot33 //------------------------------// "We must hurry!" Twilight urged the group. "Spatium's slaves will reach us soon!" Discord was not among the ponies: he had exited onto the balcony overlooking the city and was addressing all the ponies still acting as they did when Spatium ruled Equestria. "I mean it! Let this be a last warning for each and every one of you! If you don't take up the magic of friendship this very instant, a very scary-looking centaur will come down and give you all the ability of communicating with your dead relatives who all dwell in the spirit realm. Now, that is something the pony mind is will not be able to deal with! Surrender now, or I'm afraid your mentalities won't be the same again." Of course, this did virtually nothing, and the ponies went back to their despicable rioting. Starlight and Trixie trotted out onto the balcony. "Well, I did try to warn them!" Discord protested. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "I cannot say whether or not this will actually work," Tirek confessed. "Like I said, the last time I attempted such a feat was hundreds of years ago. To steal magic from a pony is a snap, but to transfer another's magical abilities into them?" He sighed. "We believe in you!" Twilight encouraged. "If my future self had informed me I'd actually been agreeing with Twilight in this instance, I would have admitted him to a psychologist," Discord laughed. "But despite what you did to me, Lord Tirek, I too believe you are the one who will bring lightness and joy back to Equestria." "If not you, then who else?" Fluttershy mused aloud. Tirek brought his head down slightly at each member of the benevolent trio, and then gazed down upon the rioting, rampaging ponies. Oh, how ever had Stellas Spatium managed to alter their personalities so drastically? Even the most powerful allicorn pony to have ever lived should not logically have possessed that capability! Tirek sighed, strode an immense step forward to the very edge of the balcony, and took several deep breaths, until he was finally ready. With many, many more heavy breaths, he was eventually to pass one monumental jet of ocean-blue magic into the surrounding ponies—into the unicorns' horns, into the pegasus' wings, into the earth ponies' strength-heavy bodies. After that, he collapsed loudly onto the ground, continually coughing and continually wheezing. His face was as pale as a corpse. "Twilight, is he...?" "I don't know, but we don't have time to worry about that right now. We must restore everypony's goodness as quickly as possible!" Starlight Glimmer and Trixie looked out into the landscape. "The ponies have calmed down quite a bit," said Trixie. "What do we need to do?" "Tirek was transferring Starswirl The Bearded's ability to communicate with the dead into everypony, wasn't he?" Starlight asked. "Yes," Twilight replied. "Do you think they're seeing all their long-gone relatives at the moment?" "That would explain their looks of sheer bewilderment," said Trixie. Just then, something simply remarkable transpired! The group had, of course, witnessed dozens of astounding occurrences since the arrival of Celestia and Luna's brother, but none quite as phenomenal as this one was! Everypony in the Empire who Tirek had affected now wore a face of both terror and serenity. But that wasn't the end of it... "Wanna see something really cool?" Tirek managed to splutter, and he leaned towards the group. "TIREK, NO!" Fluttershy bawled. "You're not strong en--" The bloody-red centaur would not hear a syllable of it! He transferred the last remaining bits of Starswirl's magic and breathed them like a dragon would fire into Twilight Sparkle, Flurry Heart, Cadance, Fluttershy, Discord, Shining Armour, Trixie and Starlight Glimmer. What they saw was indescribable! Millions and millions of ghost ponies who looked just like Celestia and Luna. The strange thing was they were deadly silent; there was no sound at all. There did not need to be. The looks on the slaves' faces were sound enough. Starswirl The Bearded could now be proclaimed not the "greatest conjurer of the pre-classical era" but the greatest one of all time! Somehow, someway, he had cracked the secret to defeating the most disgustingly vile, wicked and evil pony to have ever existed wide open! --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- "What...happened?" Lyra Heartstrings was one of the first to awake following everypony's encounter with the undead. Shining Armour consoled her. "It's alright," he said. "I can't explain it now. The best thing for everypony is to just rest." "You know, I hear that term thrown around more times than I dare count," Lyra responded. "But this time, I agree with you." And she fell asleep upon the instant. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy felt it only fitting that they be the ones to confront the remaining members of the Mane Six (also still under Spatium's influence!). "Oh, what are these ponies doing here?!" Pinkie roared. "Go to Tartarus!" Rarity hollered aggressively. "Go to sleep, just like all the mighty leader's slaves are doing," Rainbow Dash bellowed angrily. "But don't wake up. Go to sleep forever." "IN OTHER WORDS!" Applejack shrieked, edging closer to the pair. "GO AND D--" The cowpony was not able to finish her detestable remark. The magic Tirek unleashed on the slave ponies was swiftly unleashed on her and the others also, and they were suddenly all as stationary as pony figurine. What Applejack saw was very much reminiscent of what Twilight and Princess Cadance witnessed during their meeting with Luna and Celestia: the farm pony's surroundings turned bright white as if she were within the interior of a lamp that had just been switched on. It was as if she had, at long last, reached the end of a very, very lengthy tunnel that was illuminated by thousands of lights. In a way, she had. Only, the tunnel she had reached the end of had been as dark as a winter night; now at last, it was—quite literally—brightening up! For who should step out of the sheer illumination but her long-dead parents, Pear Butter and Bright McIntosh! Now, unlike as was the case with most ponies meeting those sadly gone but certainly never forgotten, Applejack's wickedness faded the split second she lay eyes on the pair: the first time she had seen either of them for over a whole decade! "Mum? D-D..." The star-crossed lovers merely nodded in confirmation. "I don't understand, aren't you...?" "Dead?" Applejack's father asked his daughter. "Well, y...what I mean...is...y--" "My darling," Pear Butter trotted over to Applejack, attempting to place her hoof graciously on her chin, but ultimately failing as a result of no longer owning a physical form. "Do not endeavour to analyze or explain the situation. Most ponies would die themselves for a chance to speak to ponies they deeply cared about who have passed on." Applejack thought it through. "But...is...isn't that what's happening now, all 'cross Equestria? Everypony's bein' freed of Spatium's cruelness, right?" "Everypony? Are you sure?" Bright McIntosh pondered. Applejack began to cry. So many ponies that she cared about had perished while under the rule of that demon; Mayor Mare, Zecora and her childhood friend Coloratura had all died just because they were not scared to stand up for what they believed in. And they selflessly believed in goodness for everypony. "I'm sorry," Applejack sobbed loudly. "I'm sorry I became a part of this horrible, horrible plot!" "It could not be helped," Pear Butter spoke in a mellow tone. "So few were unable to resist Spatium. We would have become wrong-doers, too if we were still here," she smiled a gorgeous, warmth-inducing smile. "You know that, A.J." Applejack tried to embrace her parents, but went fell to the floor in trying to do so. "You...will..." She was barely able to speak. "You will...finally get to meet Apple Bloom?" "Of course," Pear Butter smiled. "We may not have been with you physically in Equestria, Applejack, but we have been watching over your little sister's doings." "We couldn't be more proud of her," Bright McIntosh said kindly. The perfect pair began to make their way back into the light. "I LOVE YOU!" Applejack cried, tears running down her cheeks. "I love both of you more than anypony could ever, ever know."