"AUGHhuuuh!!"
Celestia bolted upright, a cold sweat running down her forehead. She looked even paler than before and her eyes were wide with fright. She gasped and tried to calm down as she realized she was still in bed. She felt the side shift and looked to see Sombra moaning as he rolled over, cracking his eyes open.
"...Tia? Uhh, are you okay?" Sombra sat up and pulled her close, and she stifled a shiver, finding comfort as her husband wrapped his wing around her.
"I... I'm not sure..." Celestia hesitated, unsure of herself and unsure of what to say.
Seeing his Tia was troubled, Sombra was about to say something when the doors to their bedroom were thrown open and in hurried Luna, "Sister, are you alright?!"
"I.... I just had a most terrible dream," Celestia hoped that was it.
"Dear, however bad dreams may be, they can't hurt you," Sombra assured her, only for Luna to disagree.
"Unfortunately, brother, what Celestia experienced was no dream!"
Sighing heavily, Celestia got up from bed while giving a grateful smile to her husband before declaring, "Then we haven't much time! With each passing moment, he will grow stronger, and greater will be the danger... for all of us."
Sombra got up to and joined the sisters by the window as Celestia began the break of dawn, "He who? Tia, Lu, what's going on?"
"We will explain everything... once we have united all the princes and princesses," Celestia assured her husband, "I must send a summons to Twilight and Midnight."
"Very well, and I will send for Cadance and Shining Armor," Sombra knew better to argue as the three of them got to work. He'd seen Celestia like this before, and as much as he anted to hear what new threat was looming over the horizon now...
Faust protect us...
In but a couple hours, all seven alicorn monarchs convened in Canterlot, the air heavy and tensions high, as they gathered around a table where Celestia opened book. She looked to Midnight, who she'd already briefed, and he began at her silent request.
"Long ago, in the early days of Equestria, two brothers united by a blood-oath, a centaur known as Tirek and a gargoyle Scorpan, came to Equestria from the land that was forsaken by the Pony Tribes. They sought revenge upon the ponies for leaving their homeland in desolation, and intended to do the same to the ponies' new home by stealing all magic in Equestria . At first, both relished in causing misery and suffering by attacking villages and robbing the ponies of their magic, but all too quickly did Scorpan come to be taken by the beauty and prosperity of Equestria. He was approached by a young unicorn wizard who convinced Scorpan that friendship was the true magic to seek and treasure."
Looking to Celestia, Midnight nodded for her to pick up where he'd left off, "Scorpan tried to convince his blood-brother they should abandon their plans of conquest but alas Tirek would not be swayed. Consumed with his hunger for power and revenge, the centaur all but threatened Scorpan that if he would not help him take revenge on ponykind then to stay out of his way. With sorrow but knowing it was the right thing to do, Scorpan approached Luna and I, alerting us of Tirek's transgressions."
"Luna and I faced Tirek ourselves and reclaimed the magic he had taken before we condemned him to the pits of Tartarus, where he could do no more harm," Celestia went on, "Scorpan surrendered himself to us, for having been a part of Tirek's crimes, but we chose to forgive him and offer him our friendship and even a home here in Equestria. Humbled and touched, Scorpan kindly declined our offer and returned to his homeland, intending to restore it with his own hands.
"But now..." Celestia closed the book as she looked at each of her fellow alicorns in turn, "it appears that Tirek has found a way to escape."
"We believe it happened when Cerberus left his post at the gates of Tartarus," Luna added.
"But that was quite a while back," Midnight wondered aloud, "so why has he only now begun to make his move to steal magic?"
"Rotting in Tartarus would have left Tirek extremely weak," Sombra answered, "so he must have had to bide his time and recover enough strength to regain use of his dark powers."
"But with each passing moment, he will go stronger yet," Luna added ominously.
"Luckily we have just the princess who can stop him," Cadance smiled encouragingly to Twilight.
"Yes, I'll begin to devise a strategy and-" Twilight was quick to volunteer...
"No, Twilight," only for Celestia to step in. "I'm afraid we must call upon another to deal with Tirek: Eris..."
*GASP*
The other alicorns all looked at Celestia as though she'd spoken something that would require washing out her mouth, and Midnight was the first to respond, "Celestia, with all due respect" - he cleared his throat before he made us of the Royal Canterlot Voice - "ARE YOU COMPLETELY INSANE!?!?!?"
The outburst rang in their ears briefly but then the others began to agree.
"Celestia, I have to agree with Midnight, what in the Goddess's name would possess you to even entertain that idea?!"
"There's no way we're trusting Eris to deal with a monster that threatens all of Equestria!"
"Aunt Celestia, I... can't agree with this plan! Eris might not be the anarchist she used to be but..."
"Please let me explain," Celestia requested albeit with an edge in her tone. "Eris possesses a unique ability that makes her ideal in stopping Tirek - She can sense magical imbalances no matter where it is, and will sense the next time Tirek robs somepony of their magic. When I requested Fluttershy to reform the Spirit of Chaos, I explained that I might have need of Eris's magic one day, and that day is today."
The other alicorns looked at each other with expressions of uncertainty, disapproval, even fear.
"Princess Celestia..." all eyes turned to Twilight as she reluctantly forced herself to speak her mind, "...you're asking us to entrust what could very well be the fate of Equestria to Eris's... paw? Talon? You know what I mean!"
"...Even you, Twilight?" Celestia couldn't help but honestly feel a little disappointed, not because Twilight rarely if ever disagreed with her, but she thought Twilight of all ponies would believe that friendship would change someone for the better.
"I... I don't mean to say that Eris is not completely untrustworthy," Twilight felt like she was walking on eggshells, "but... Eris hasn't exactly done enough to earn our faith and trust in her to handle something this serious."
"I wouldn't trust that skunk to scrub my toilet!" Midnight added, and no sooner did he there was a...
*FLASH*
"Well I never!"
Everyony looked up and saw Eris sitting on an easy chair on the ceiling, wearing a fancy lady's suit while petting a cat that was a little freaked out and clawing into Eris's skirt while the lady draconequess leered down (or was it up?) at the alicorn monarchs assembled.
"You come to me on this, the day of my goddaughter's wedding-"
"What?!" Shining Armor gave Eris a look, only for his lips to zip.
"Don't interrupt me," Eris grumbled before getting back into character, "You invited me into your home, we broke bread together, I even went the extra mile to spread merry mirth and whimsy to your dismal little gulags. And what do I get in return for your insistence at my reformation? Smack behind my back... Untrustworthy, am I? A skunk, am I...?!"
"Now Eris, we were only discussing-" Celestia tried to placate Eris as the draconequss threw the cat on her lap into a nearby sports bag, where it turned into a tennis racket, and she spun `round, landing before Celestia, garbed in a military uniform and gave a salute.
"General Disorder, reporting for extremely important mission to capture Tartarusian esapee, sir!" Eris declared in a military fashion, "As per special orders 301-3 section 4 paragraph 27 revised April 1st via secret provision 38-A section 14 subsection 14 heretofore known as orders to Seek and Subdue numbers 845-6 section 8 subsection 16-"
"ALRIGHT ALREADY!!!" Midnght and Shining Armor both yelled, the latter aggravating, "Even I don't sound like that when I'm on duty!"
"That's 'General Disorder sir' to you," Eris poked Shining Armor in the chest before turning to Twilight, "now, before I take off-"
"You're not going anywhere-" Midnight tried to protest, only for Eris to snap her talons, her, Midnight, and Twilight all gone in a flash, leaving the rest of the alicorns to consider what had just happened.
"Why do I have this unshakeable feeling that something terrible is going to happen?" Sombra deadpanned.
The Harmonic 12 and Spike all found themselves standing in front of Eris, who stood in the mouth of the cave in which lay the Tree of Harmony. Before any of them could ask what was going on or mouth off to the draconequus, zippers shut their lips as she said, "Do excuse your ol' Auntie Eris for this untimely interuption, my dears. It's just she couldn't help but notice that Twilight hasn't opened this little chest here."
She stepped in and leaned casually onto the mysterious chest which had appeared from a large blooming flower that had sprouted in front of the Tree of Harmony. It looked like a six-sided pyramid with a flat top, the upper panels sporting keyholes while below them were the six new Elements of Harmony that had been discovered by the guys:
Faith - Devotion - Trust - Sincerity - Unity - Music, all resembling their cutie-marks.
The friends shared some looks, Twilight looking troubled as though she'd given an incorrect answer to a science question, as Eris lounged about, "It got me thinking, what if what's locked inside" - she casually knocked on the chest - "could help her prove her royal worthy? I only bring it up since she said she's been feeling as though her role as a princess doesn't amount to much."
Everypony gave Eris the stink eye as she pursed Twilight's lower lip to make her look like she was pouting.
"Now wait just a minute!" Cheese Sandwich gave Eris a real stink eye, "How did you know she was feeling that way?!"
"Oh my! I really must break this untoward habit of eavesdropping on what your besties are up to!" Eris spoke in a faux of woe, "Oh the shame... will this ol' draconeqeuss ever figure out the intricate nuances of being a good friend?"
She peeked out the corner of her eye to see her reception was expressed in disapproval and rolling eyes. Standing straight and clearing her throat, "Well, I suppose that's my cue to get going, no rest for the wicked!"
She stepped over to some weird little vehicle thing that hadn't been there a moment ago, putting on a helmet and starting the ignition as she said to the friends, "Don't wait up, and... TTFN!"
And then she was gone in a flash.
"AN' GOOD RIDDANCE-" Applejack tried to yell-
*FLASH*
"Oopsies!" Eris leaned over behind them so she was looking at them upside down from her long body curving over, "It so very nearly slipped my mind that I almost took this with me!"
She held up... the Friendship Journal!
"This is quite the page-turner, my dears, you really oughta have it published! No way that can't go wrong..." Eris chuckled while giving the reader a knowing wink. "Everything y'all've learned all written up here? Be calm my chaotic heart, lest it swell out of my chest with pride."
She leaned over to Twilight, showing the journal had some sticky notes and bookmarks, "I just had to bookmark some of my more favorite entries, I knew you wouldn't mind. Perhaps give it another read?"
Carelessly balancing the journal on the tip of Twilight's horn, Eris leaned over to Fluttershy, "We're still on for our girl-time, are we, honey?"
"I wouldn't miss it," Fluttershy smiled, perking Eris up.
"Oo-hoo, I'll bring the hors d'oeuvres," Eris giggled as she walked up to a doorknob hanging in the air and opened a door, vanishing as she closed it behind her.
"What the hay was that all about?!" Thunderlane asked as they all looked to Midnight and Twilight.
"`Cuz some times Ah think th' "reformed" Eris is even more obnoxious than th' "unreformed" Discord," Applejack added.
"And I most certainly agree," Blueblood furrowed his brows.
"But what if she's right?" Fluttershy inquired, directing their attention to the question that had been nagging them from the back of their minds for some time. "What if there is something important in the chest...?"
Twilight and Midnight shared a look and both smiled, "Well, there's only one way to find out."
"C'mon, Twi and I will explain what's going on once we're all in the castle library up top."
After explaining the situation on their way up to the library within the Castle of the Two Sisters, Twilight and Midnight opened the doors to the ancient collection as the latter declared, “Alright, we got us a chest that needs researching, so look up anything you can find on the Tree of Harmony. Let's hit the books!"
“Yes sir!" they scrambled about to start browsing, although for some reason Pinkie and Cheese both grabbed whole armloads of books, set them up in stacks... and they both pulled out large sledgehammers.
Noticing, Twilight quickly levitated the hammers away from them while giving them the stink eye, "You know it's a figure of speech!"
"Sorry, Twi," Cheese chuckled.
"Just keeping things lively," Pinkie giggled.
It was a long and tedious process. Pulling down book after book and pouring over each of its pages wasn't very exciting. And considering the library had close to around 500,000 books, that would be a very tedious job indeed.
“Where's an army of ponies when you need one?” Dash whined.
“Possibly busy preparing for the incoming threat,” Blueblood pointed out.
“But who know's where that Tirek guy could be!” Soarin added in.
“You can never predict what the enemy's going to do,” Rarity sighed.
The others groaned. They were hoping for an easy task, but then again, nothing can ever be easy or straight forward.
“Come on, everypony, don't let up! Time's a'wasting and Eris is going to either botch this or something we haven't considered will come to bite us hard in the flank,” Midnight encouraged.
They continued to research, trying to find any information on the box in any book they could find that spoke of the Tree or the Elements. But nothing doing, every time they did find some reference to the Tree or the Elements there was no mention of any sort to a chest or box. Leafing through some pages in a tome, Twilight asked aloud, "Anything?"
Her response was a chorus of negative murmurs, causing her to sigh, "There must be something in this library that can help me figure out how to open the chest."
"...Twi?" Midnight spoke up hesitantly, "There might not be!"
Twilight looked to Midnight who had just set down a book, "The Tree of Harmony was grown from the remains of a fallen star, and Star Swirl spent years researching it. But even he could never fully understand the Tree, what it was, its power, or all that much else! I don't think even he knew about the Chest."
"Maybe, maybe not," Twilight would not be deterred, "but if there's a clue of any kind in one of these books, I'm not giving up!"
Seeing his mare's determination made Midnight smile proudly that he nodded and got back to work, not noticing Twilight glance at the Friendship Journal and start going through it.
A unicorn struggled to scream, only for a wheeze to escape his lips as he felt his magic drain away, causing him to drop to the ground, his eyes paled... and his assaulter, Tirek growl as he got just a little bigger, his strength slowly returning to him. Even so, he was irritated, for as good as it felt to steal magic from these inferior creatures this was taking too long!
His absence wouldn't go unnoticed forever and once he was missed it would only be a matter of time before someone, likely on the Royal Sisters' orders, would come looking for him. In that case, Tirek would be ready, but first...!
He saw another unicorn, apparently busy levitating a bouquet of flowers at the end of an alley. Stepping as lightly as he could, he slowly approached the unicorn, eyeing her like a total creep... his boney figures raised to grab her into his greedy clutches-
"Tirek, I presume?"
He froze as the unicorn turned to look at him and her face morphed into a strange visage, a visage he had not seen in over millennia!
"...Discord? You're... free?"
The unicorn with Eris's face Flashed into the form of a Eris-like bird with all limbs matching the colors of her limbs in her regular form, aside from her big and purple toucan-like beak, "As a bird! And the name is Eris, now honey..."
Wary, knowing he stood no chance against the Master of Chaos in his present condition, Tirek gave a respectful bow, "I commend you on your escape..."
Flashing back to her normal form, Eris gave a rare frown, "I'm afraid the feeling is not mutual."
*SNAP*
Tirek flinched to see his hands manacled, and for a moment allowed his anger to overcome his better judgement as he strained to project and burning beam of energy at Eris. But she literally split her head in half, avoiding the pitiful defiance, her head coming back together, and Tirek growled, "Rgghh, I should've known that you would want Equestria all to yourself..."
"Oh I'm not doing this for me, I'm doing this for my friends," Eris bragged in police uniform before whisper-shouting to Tirek, "But mostly for my gal-pal, Fluttershy?"
"Fluttershy?!" The very name felt like some kind of sentimental mush in his mouth as Tirek growled, "You're not saying that you're friends with ... ponies!"
A cake appeared in front of the wizened wretch and out popped Eris, "SURPRISE!!"
Flicking cake and frosting off of his cloak, Tirek spoke in his soft and oily voice, "I am surprised... that someone of your intellect would not see this new "friendship" as merely a new form of imprisonment. Clearly, you've had to forsake your true nature just to stay in their good graces..."
As Tirek had been talking, Eris was playing a harp with a halo over her head before throwing them both away and shrugging, "Eh, compromise, dear. You can't have it all!"
"But you can, you did!" Tirek reminded her, "You are Di- I mean.... You are Eris! You are Legend! Master of Chaos and the Unpredictable! You cannot be taken by the same trap that took my weak-minded brother. Why lower yourself to the standards of inferior beings, my dear? Join me, Eris, help me to grow strong and you shall have something far greater than friendship... Freedom!"
Eris narrowed her eyes but kept listening.
"Once I have stripped these ponies of their magic, nothing would give me greater pleasure than to see their world turned upside down! And none could do better than a Goddess of Chaos herself!"
Seeing that Eris was becoming intrigued, Tirek decided to rein her in, "Join me, Eris, and be again the Magnificent Malevolence that is your rightful and glorious destiny! Unless, of course... you are content to being Celestia's little yes-mare!"
The words struck a nerve as well as a chord within Eris, when she noticed a bedside drawer floating next to her, with a framed picture of herself and Fluttershy doing each othe'rs hair, along with the lamp she'd broken and remade in her image. Pressing her paw to her chin, Eris narrowed her eyes...
"I think I found something!"
All eyes turned to Twilight, "I've been reading our journal, and there's something interesting about the sections and entries Eris bookmarked."
As they all gathered around Twilight, she asked, "Applejack, do you remember when you had to tell everypony that the tonic Granny Smith bought from the Flim-Flam brothers didn't really work?"
"How could Ah ferget? It was one o' th' hardest things Ah ever had t' do," Applejack recalled that moment back then, "But in tha' moment Ah knew Ah had t' be honest."
"Heh, I still have an arrest warrant out for those two," chuckled Midnight, "And as I recall... Thunderlane, didn't you place your trust in Lightning Dust to help in saving Cloudsdale from the Thunderbird?"
"Whatever problems we'd had with Lightning Dust at that time didn't matter," Thunderlane nodded, "Cloudsdale was in danger and I had to count on everypony there, Lightning included, to do their part, and and I knew I had to trust Lightning Dust to do hers, but... what's this have to do with opening the chest, Twilight?"
"I found that each of you had to face a situation," Twilgiht explained, "a situation where you, girls, found living up to the Element of Harmony you represent wasn't easy. While guys, you each found a part of yourselves was tested in some kind of situation that allowed you to bring your Elements of Harmony to life with a power all their own, and now those Elements are joined with the Chest!
"Fluttershy, for you, it was when you realized that the way you showed kindness to the Breezies was by forcing them to leave your home."
"Oh the looks on their poor little faces... but I knew that as difficult as it was pushing them away was the kindest thing I could do."
Midnight got the idea of what Twilight was saying, "Big Mac! You unlocked your Element of Harmony when you realized what was truly important in what and whom you devoted yourself to!"
"Tha' day was mighty hectic, everypony wantin' mah help when Ah was tryin' t' get home an' fix tha' gazebo for me an' muh `Shy's weddin', but even after Ah acted like a real horse's ass to `em they came through fer me when Ah needed help."
"Rarity, even after Suri took advantage of your generosity at Fashion Week in Manehatten," Twilight opened to that particular entry, "you didn't let it cause you to abandon your generous spirit."
"I simply couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't do something special for the friends who have always been so generous to me."
"Blueblood, when you were locked out of your company by your board of directors, in the end, you showed yourself to be the true and sincere pony you are and not the pony others judged you to be, and you taught Fancy Pants a lesson after he'd threatened a smear campaign against New Heights," reminded Midnight.
"That wasn't one of my finer moments... but I remembered then and there to be the pony I know I am and that I would never again justify another pony's shallow judgement of my character."
"Rainbow Dash, you had a chance to fly with the Wonderbolts at the Equestria Games," Twilight turned to that page while giving Rainbow Dash a smile, "but instead you chose to compete with your friends."
"Sure, but being loyal to my friends was way more important-" "Ooh! My turn, my turn!"
"Pinkie! Wait your turn!" Midnight pushed her out of view before clearing his throat and looking to Soarin, "Soarin, even after your old squadmates in the Wonderbolts shunned you, you were able to rally them together to save Canterlot from a magical disaster!"
"I knew how to stop the magic storm brewing but I couldn't have done it on my own. So I reminded Spitfire, Fleetfoot, Rapid fire, and all of them there what being a Wonderbolt is about and led them as well as I could!"
Noticing how bouncy Pinkie was getting, Twilight got to her entry, "Pinkie Pie, you realized that seeing your friend laugh was more important than proving you were a better party planner than Cheese Sandwich."
"Best party I ever had," Rainbow Dash playfully bumped Pinkie's shoulder while Cheese bumped his rump to Pinkie's making her giggle.
"And Cheese? Remember how you used a song to help Cranky and Matilda when they were having problems in their relationship?" brought up Midnight.
"One of my best performances ever! Sometimes there's something really magical about Music that can bring us together no matter what kind of problems we're having!"
"Clearly each of us has had a moment to truly shine, my friends, but rally, Twilight," Blueblood spoke up, "what does this have to do with opening the chest?"
"All of you had difficult choices to make but when you all made the right one and embraced your element, it helped somepony else make the right choice too!" Twilight explained.
"Boys, you all unlocked the powers of your Elements, and girls, each of you received something from the ponies whose lives you helped change!"
"I think I see where you're going with this, Twi," Midnight smiled proudly at her, "perhaps there's something about those objects that could help us to find the keys to the chest. The chest is connected to the Tree of Harmony..."
"The Tree of Harmony is connected to the Elements..." Twilight added, and they both spoke:
"And the Elements are connected to all of us!"
"There must be a connection! I hate to admit," Twilight smiled as she levitated the journal, "but maybe Eris was trying to be a good friend after all."
"C'mon everypony!" Rainbow Dash zipped up, "Let's get those objects and bring `em to the chest!"
As they all hurried out, Midnight brought up the rear, as what Twilight had said about Eris struck a chord, and he realized, What kind of friend am I for not having faith in Eris...?
A while later, everypony had met back in the cave and the girls had brought the objects in question, the Bit Applejack received from Silver Shill after he'd learned the importance of Honesty from Applejack's example.
The rainbow-colored spool of thread Coco had given to Rarity after being touched by Rarity's generosity.
Boneless the Rubber Chicken who Cheese had given to Pinkie after he'd revealed to her their true connection as party ponies.
The medal Spitfire had given to Rainbow Dash after she'd reminded the captain the meaning of being loyal to your team and to your friends.
And the flower Seabreeze had given to Fluttershy after she did the right thing in getting the Breezies home.
Laying the objects on the ground before the Chest, Twilight said aloud, "I don't see anything about them that would give us a clue as to where we might find the keys. They're just... ordinary everyday objects."
Then Cheese grabbed Boneless and started throttling him, "Out with it, Boneless! Cough up that key, mister!"
"Uh Cheese, I don't think that- Whoa!" Midnight dodged as Cheese accidentally threw Boneless... who smacked against the chest and then spun around in mid air, engulfed by a light of magic coming from the chest, as everypony marveled to see Boneless transform into a golden key!
It was shaped like Pinkie Pie's cutie-mark and ever so slowly floated to the chest and inserted into one of the keyholes!
"BONELESS!! WHAT HAVE I DUH-HUH-HONE?!!?!" Cheese sobbed, Pinkie popping up to give him hugs and tissues.
"Alas poor Boneless, we knew you well," Pinkie lamented as Cheese blew his nose, making a loud TOOT noise.
After the party ponies finished their sob story, the rest of the objects were placed upon the chest, and everypony stepped back as the magic happened!
Each object rose up, engulfed in the magical aura of the chest, each one transforming into another key resembling the cutie-mark of the pony it belonged to, one by one inserting itself into the chest... until the keys ran out and there was only one keyhole left. The one above the Element of Faith.
"There's still one key missing... the key that represents the Element of Magic! My Element..." Twilight sighed.
"But I'm sure if we've got our keys you have too, Twilight," assured Fluttershy.
"Think, dear, when have you completed a difficult magical task and in doing so encouraged somepony else to do the same?" asked Rarity.
"I haven't. If I had I'd have written about it in the journal," Twilight answered, feeling down yet again.
"No need to worry, Twi, I just know that you'll get your key-" Midnight encouraged, only for Spike to interrupt with his usual retching ... before he burped up a dragonfyre message.
He undid the seal and levitated it over for him and Twilight to read, Spike asking, "What's it say?"
The two alicorns put it down, the both of them looking worried as Twilight said, "That we're needed back in Canterlot right away!"
"We'll get there faster my way. Everypony, go home, we'll see you as soon as we can!" Midnight wrapped a wing around her and teleported away.
Usually Midnight didn't like teleporting via the Ley-Lines but this was important. Shaking it off as they arrived in the castle courtyard, they hurried inside, and before long they'd made it to the throne room, where the rest of the alicorns were waiting. The looks on their faces implied things were grim.
"Midnight, Twilight! You arrived so quickly," Sombra was surprised.
"We rode the ley-lines," Midnight explained.
"Is something wrong?" asked Twilight. "Is it Tirek?"
"i am afraid that you were all right about Eris..." Celestia was woeful, "Friendship, it seems, was not enough to change the nature of the Spirit of Discord. She has betrayed Equestria and allied with Tirek and even as we speak she is helping him to steal magic all over the land."
"How could she do this?!" Twilight was appalled, "I thought our friendship meant something to her! I thought he had changed."
"...It's my fault."
All eyes turned to Midnight, who looked ashamed and turned away, "I didn't have faith in Eris, I doubted her, and that must have made it all the easier for her to turn over to Tirek's side...Now everypony's n danger because I wouldn't give her the benefit of the doubt."
"Everypony indeed," Sombra wanted to assure Midnight he alone was not to blame but there was no time in the present moment, "Already, thanks to Eris's aid, Tirek has regained enough strength to steal the magic of not only unicorns, but pegasi, and earth ponies as well!"
"Without pegasi to control the weather, there will be no rain in Equestria," Luna noted.
"And without their strength, earth ponies will not be able to tend to the land," Cadance added.
"All the magic ponies need to control their world will soon be in the grasp of a monster," Shining Armor sighed.
"In the end, Tirek will set his sights on the magic of alicorns," Celestia's voice was heavy with apprehension and worry. "With Eris by his side, There is no way we can stop him from taking ours."
"And once he has it, there will be no stopping him," Sombra extended a wing to hug Celestia close, "He will be all-powerful...!"
"There is one solution," Celestia brought up, and stepped forward, the others joining her as they gathered before Twilight and Midnight. "It is only by making this sacrifice can Equestria and the rest of the world at large might be saved.... we must give up our magic before Tirek has a chance to steal it from us!"