Sometime after the end of the fight, all eight of the Knights gathered together just outside of the cave's entrance. All of them carried signs of having been through ferocious battles, but on some they were more subtle than others (Trixie, since she had completely reformed her body, only showed her tiredness in her eyes, for example).
"Right. So what have you found out, Applejack?" Sunset asked the other Knight.
"Putting it simple... Sombra's method works a little like the Crusader's Bond Magic, or like a corrupted version of it, at least." Applejack started "He bound his soul to this world by creating special magic... artifacts, Ah suppose ya could say, but from what Ah understand, they have ta be really massive ta be able ta take effect from anywhere in Equestria. Ah mean tower-sized." She explained.
"There should be seven of them, based on what Ah could see of the magic signature." Applejack finished.
"Hmm... If we know the type of magic he is using, we could track it down to find those artifacts and destroy them." Twilight said.
"Not just that." Rarity spoke "Since he must always have a connection between those places and his soul, we could also use it to locate Sombra, no matter where he may be hiding now."
Trixie agreed with that being a strong possibility, and the Knights talked about a few more ideas, but those were only preliminary discussions, since they were all far too tired to truly plan out anything serious. It was decided that Applejack would give the magic researchers the information so that they could start working on the problem, and then the group teleported back home.
-0-
The next day, after the group did their final debriefing of the mission with the princesses, Trixie followed Applejack back to the farm.
The farm pony was bucking trees when her teacher finally got into the reason why she was there:
"When do you think your Eyes of Truth will recover?" Trixie asked.
"So, ya noticed." Applejack said conversationally "Ah'm not really surprised."
"Rarity did as well." Trixie said "She just decided to not say anything, since she knew I would see it."
"Did she?" Applejack smiled "Ah guess she would."
"Okay, no more delaying." Trixie said, finally using her "teacher" voice.
"Ah think mah Eyes of Truth will only stay closed for one week, at most." She sighed "And it's official now. Ah'm really not suited for the Path of Perfection."
"That's just one step closer to figuring out your true path." Trixie said, conciliatory "Take care of yourself, 'Jack."
Trixie then left the farm. Thankfully the situation wasn't as bad as it could have been. Forcing magic like that was always dangerous.
Trixie sighed as she fell in deep thought. Everypony was doing their best to get stronger and be able to better protect Equestria and each other, and she accepted this, but still felt the desire to be able to take on some of that burden, to allow them some relief, and she knew that Sunset and Twilight felt the same way.
Thankfully, the fight in the constructed shadow world had given her some inspiration. With just a little bit more work, and Trixie would be able to reach an entire new realm.
-0-
A little bit later, on a training area well away from any ponies...
A meteor of fire and hyper-hot gas crashed into the ground, adding yet another huge crater to the much abused area. The center of the meteor then released an explosion that shot fragments all around at incredible speeds, and also revealed that Sunset had been in the center of it.
The unicorn looked like she had seen better days. Patches of her coat had been burned off, there were dozens of small cuts all over her body, and worst of all, the wounds from the earlier fight against the chaotic creature had reopened.
And yet, the Knight remained defiant, her eyes sharp.
"Are you sure you want to keep going?" Her opponent asked "You won't be able to last much longer at this rate."
"I don't need to last for long." She declared "I can feel it... I'm almost there. Just a little bit more and I'll reach it." She then shouted "Make your move!"
Nodding, Princess Celestia shot a spell capable of destroying mountains at her.
-0-
A bit later, at yet another isolated battlefield/training ground...
"What do you need me to do?" Pinkie asked.
"Just do the biggest variety of spells you can muster." Twilight said "If I want to be able to hijack the magical concept of reaction, I need to be able to react instinctively to any kind of magical concept."
"Right. That makes sense." Pinkie nodded "Guess it's time for a special Pinkie Magic Surprise!"
Having said that, Pinkie put both her forehooves together and started charging multiple balls of elemental surprise and fusing them together into a chaotic agglomeration that was only kept barely in control as it got bigger and bigger.
"Surprise!" Pinkie yelled suddenly.
Her spell disappeared, and hundreds of copies of it appeared all around the training ground, and then they exploded.
Spike, who was watching all this, decided to go back home.
The news he had for Twilight could wait for later.
-0-
Later...
"Hey, Twilight. Your brother asked for Venus' hoof in marriage."
"He did what?!"
"She said yes, by the way."
Sombra's Return Arc End
Next: Wedding Arc