//------------------------------//
// Chapter 13: Reunion [remastered v2.0] 
// Story: Equestrian scrolls I : epic pony tales 
// by Sanguine Eyes 
//------------------------------//


Reunion



“43 YEARS?!?” Twilight’s eyes were wide and her jaw was slack before she whipped about and desperately questioned her friend. “ Taara!!! You said time passed considerably slower in Equestria than on Nirn!” Twilight, exhaustion kept her from moving much during her very visible distress.

“I did… You were gone for over 240 years and only 43 years passed here. That's pretty extreme time dilation, did you think that it would be mere days?” Taara scoffed. She understood the distress and even sympathized with her friend but Twilight had made a reputation for herself and over worrying even in the college. And while there was very little they could do or even could HAVE done. The vast majority of that time passed when she was sealed away. Even if Taara had gotten to Twilight when thirty years prior, they both would be facing this same situation or something similar to it.

A calming hoof plopped onto Twilight’s shoulder. “Its alright sugar cube, we just thought for so long you were gone forever. A lot of ponies were upset you vanished, but this is not your fault… it's all Princess Melody’s fault. She was the whole reason for this, for everything. But it's dangerous here, lets get everypony back to HQ. There ain’t many of us left, the princesses keep the resistance up and running, we can't risk letting them down.” Apple jack smiled warmly though her face betrayed signs of despair and pain. Taara knew the look well. In the years that Twilight had been gone, Apple Jack had seen years of war and bloodshed, she knew loss and pain, Taara easily saw at least this much. Twilight would be just as lost in her world now as she was in Tamriel.

But Twilight's attention piqued at something Applejack said. “Princesses? Oh thank Celestia at least they are ok, but why did Celestia let this happen?” Apple jack noticeably flinched and shook her head. “…what?”

“Twilight, you might want to sit down.” They peered into each other's eyes and Twilight shivered. “Princess Celestia died 28 years ago… Princess Melody killed her when the day she took command of the nation.”

Twilight’s heart sank and she felt nauseous. “How? How did this happen.. who.. what?”

Apple Jack sat down calmly looking to Twilight and those who came with her from Nirn. “After you vanished, the whole kingdom mourned for months. But time went on, But when Equestria lost one of its princesses nothing was quite the same. Shining armor blamed himself for you being lost into that mirror, for letting you go with him. They quickly had it moved and locked away where no pony could ever use it again... well, that is after he tried his best to get you back from it. Two royal guards volunteered to go in after you but they did not return either, And after Crystal empire mages and wizards working for a few years, they learned nothing and lost much trying to get you back from it. So the mirror was sealed away under the Crystal empire, everything seemed to be getting a little better when Princess Cadence had two children. Twins, They named them Bronze Armor and Melody. The kingdom was overjoyed with them, and even Shining got a little better. After we lost a princess we gained a prince and a princess. But soon… there were signs that things were not all well. At ten years old it was discovered that Bronze armor had an inborn talent for dark magic. Exceedingly powerful dark magic. Well talent is not quite the word. He was attuned to it but had no control. Princes Melody developed a talent for artifice. Even at that young age, she could easily create amazingly complex magical artifacts." Applejack sighed and lifted her sad tired eyes to look Twilight over before wetting her lips and continuing.

"Then the problems started. She had been so kind at first, but we began to notice small things, lust of power, mild cruelties. We expressed our concerns, after all we all pitched in to help, you were our friend and losing you was just as hard on us as it was on them. But when our concerns met their ears, they feared. Shining became angry and Cadence refused to listen. They did not want to believe that such darkness had any place in Melody's heart. They had sheltered their children for too long, they were afraid to push them or make them see the truths of right and wrong. And soon Melody started to show more intense signs of cruelty and spite. She was driven to anger easily and thirsted for power. We were all blinded by her youth and supposed innocence that we did not see what she was planning. When she reached her teen years, under a guise of research he forced her brother to summon forth the great darkness within him telling everypony she could trap it and seal it away leaving him safe and free of the curse. But he fell to it instantly and the darkness utterly possessed him. His kind heart was overwhelmed. As he rampaged, a victim of his own power and his sister’s deceit. Celestia came to put a stop to it. Melody forged shackles that would stop him, the very same that she had planned on using to seal the power away to begin with. Celestia went quickly and succeeded at stopping his mindless rage by affixing the magical restraints upon him. But Celestia had only done for Melody what she could not do for herself. The bindings were not purely restraints but a method of dominating Bronze Armor’s mind, body, and soul. He and all the dark magic that possessed him were instantly brought under her control." Applejack noticeably shivered and looked deep into Twilight's eyes. "The very moment Celestia declared her victory, the orders escaped Melody's lips and Bronze armor drove a spear of darkness through Celestia's heart..."

Twilight stared vacantly and Apple Jack nodded, the tale was not done, even though Twilight didn't want to hear any more. "Shining armor instantly came to her aid but he was destroyed utterly, burned away to ash by the dark fire and flames. on the rapidly vanishing fumes of her immortal life, Princess Celestia barely escaped but the wound was beyond just mortal… She died in Canterlot just minutes after they had arrived.  Communtications were a mess as Melody swept across the north with Bronze as her weapon, enslaving the guard and waging war against Equestria, to our knowledge Cadence was captured and locked away in the dungeons. Almost immediately, Luna took Equestria’s armies into the Crystal Empire to stop the madness. They in turn were defeated, the Equestrian army was routed and the invasion spread over Equestria and has slowly been advancing even beyond that by the day. Bronze Armor was wielded as an ultimate weapon, his magic fueled Melody's machine of war none, not even Luna fueled by the spirit of vengeance could subdue him. Luna was wounded in the battle but she is still with us and continues to lead the resistance. Shes been our leader for years trying to divert everypony out of harms way, oginizing raids to rescue civilians and more from the new tyrannical empire… Melody has taken all of Equestria by and more conquest… She rules by an iron hoof, little if anything resists her, and of those who stand up, whether in ignorance or bravery... they all end up the same. Hanging from her walls.”

Twilight sat where she was, shivering and shaking. She felt sick. The news of Celestia alone hit her like a train. But her brother too, not to mention all of Equestria conquered by an evil mare who’s main weapon was yet another innocent bystander, her own kin.  All this happened when she was gone, perhaps even because she was gone.

Spike hopped up looking Apple Jack in the eyes. “What about the others? What about Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie, Fluttershy?”

Apple Jack looked down and Spike could tell it was bad news. “Rarity... no one has heard from for years. She was imprisoned when she went to the empire as an emissary of peace, trying to settle and talk sense into Melody. Pinkie went back with her family and actually is leading a lot of earth Ponies in rescue missions to get them out of the cities and out of labor camps. The pie family has been hard at work in that for years. Rainbow Dash joined the Wonderbolts a LONG time ago… and ever since Princess Celestia died they have been doing hit and runs on the Crystal Empire, they are basically the only real military force left over from old Equestria. No one has heard from her in over a year but that is not uncommon, and… well.. Fluttershy? You will have to see her to believe it…”

Apple Jack stood and gestured for them to follow. “You will see when we get back. But for now… who are these folks and how did you meet them? Where the hay did you go? And what in Celestia's name do you mean that you were gone for over 200 years?”

Taara happily gave a firm nod. It was about as formal as she got. “I am Arch mage of the college of Winterhold. This scruffy foul smelling wolf is Baldir, the harbinger of the companions. And the... I really don’t know how to say it in a way you would understand the…umm.. cat is Ra’shala… Twilight came into our world roughly 240 years ago. But she spent around 230 something years sealed away magically… She was thought to be just a unique type of pony, being delivered to my college as a specimen for study.” 

Twilight cleared her throat and continued where Taara left off. “And well the short version is that we all teamed up and spent seven years learning everything we could from eachother before we finally came back. We kinda had to break into the realm of a destruction God, and goodness, dealing with a God of madness, mad... Discord!!! Where is discord?”

Apple Jack sighed again as she started down the path, her small group of rag tag soldiers now added to with Twilight and her friends from Tamriel. “He was called into the fight after Luna failed to strike down Melody. He was pierced through the chest with something. It seals away his magic and as an added side effect, we cannot remove it without killing him. It attacks his body with magic every time anypony gets near it. Best we can figure, it feeds off his power eating every last drop and instantly attacks him if anything with any latent equestrian magic touches it.”

Twilight's heart sparked up just a bit of hope. The artifact reacted to Equestrian magic and almost no one alive knew Equestrian magic better than she did. In addition, Twilight had a grand master of Tamrielian magic with her.

“Though I must say Twilight… I am surprised that you would come back from the other side of that mirror with ponies.” Baldir looked back at her and scoffed, Taara smirked and Ra'shala did not appear to even notice, she simply watched carefully every corner, and every shadow.

Taara trotted along side Apple Jack with a smirk. “There isn't ponies like you over there. We are just disguising ourselves as inhabitants of your world as to not cause conflict or panic. Twilight often did something similar for us back on Nirn.  Talking ponies are not very common anywhere but here I would guess.”

They continued to talk as they walked but a mild silence fell over them and after just over two hours  they finally found their way to the mouth of a deep cave. Heavily disguised with magical wards and glamours to keep it from being discovered or invaded. Entering as a group, Twilight quickly saw that it was more than just a cave. It housed thousands of ponies. Most of which were active members of the resistance, scared and downtrodden but holding anything from old Equestrian weapons in dire need of repair to makeshift weapons like sharpened sticks or shaped rocks tied to sticks. Trotting along Twilight gasped as she spotted something that was almost painful to see. A one winged Alicorn with a notched horn. Her blue fur sported dozens of small scars, her mane had been cut shorter to keep from being caught up or hindering her in combat.

Luna gave a shocked gasp when she noticed Twilight, tears flowed and shock flooded through the old alicorn. Luna's extensive injuries made her a little harder to identify but Twilight easily spotted her and rushed over. “Twilight! We thought that you were gone forever. This is the best news we have had in years. Maybe, just maybe we can take back our world.” Others began to notice and stare. A noise of hope swept through the small cave as whispers and smiles spread like wildfire fire.

Twilight looked to the scared warming masses, though she was still a little unsure of what to do. For her sure, she had only experienced seven years, but so much time had passed. It felt so unfair. She was livid with rage, not just at Princess Melody, but with fate, she was angry at the world, angry at the portal, but most of all she was angry at herself. If she had not been so eager to go see the dig site. She would never have been sucked into Nirn. She could have stopped all of this if only she had tempered her desires. 

Trying hard to keep a smile for the sake of the reunion of them all. "Wait, Apple Jack, you said Princesses, as in plural didn't you? Is there another Alicorn other than Luna?" 

The scarred Luna gave a weak smile and looked back. "There is Princess Twilight. Let us reintroduce you to her. Princess Twilight, meet Princess... Fluttershy."

Twilight gave a very confused look before Fluttershy slowly rounded the corner nervously. And there protruding from her forehead was a long and graceful horn.

"Wait....what?...no...what?....but.....what?" Twilight's dumbfounded expression told more than her stumbling words.

Fluttershy's eyes widened when seeing Twilight and she quickly dashed over hugging her tightly. Unlike Apple Jack Fluttershy did not appear to have aged much more than a few years. She even had a very odd regal grace about her.

Returning the hug Twilight stepped back. "Flutteryshy... how in the name of Celestia did you become an alicorn?"

Fluttershy gave the same old shy smile. "Well.. um ...actually it was Celestia."

Apple Jack hopped up beside them. "It's true... with the last of her power she sealed all her magical essence into Fluttershy. I don't even know if she expected it to turn her into an Alicorn, I think that she just wanted to ensure that the power would still be able to be used even after she was gone."

Twilight tilted her head, questioning the judgment of choosing Fluttershy during a time of war. "Um... well really no offense to Fluttershy but... WHY?... why did Celestia choose the most shy and fearful pony in all of Equestria to be a princess to replace herself?"

Apple Jack let out a nervous chuckle and looked off to the side. "Well... to be honest, she had the one qualification that none of us other ponies had. A qualifying factor so great it placed her at the front of the line, nay it placed her as the only one in that line."

"I... um.. I was standing the closest." Twilight applied a generous amount of hoof to her face and Fluttershy smiled nervously.

"Oh.. but she has been a wonderful princess. Without her this resistance would have ended ages ago. Flutteryshy has always had a knack for animals and nature. Its her birds that bring back intel every day and her new magical powers that grow nutritious fruits even here, deep within these cave systems. Her new magic has an extreme importance." 

A spark shot up in Twilight's mind and she opened her mouth to blurt out something when an odd feeling flushed through her. It was like a calming embrace, and she quickly identified the origin in Fluttershy. As if she had guessed exactly what Twilight was going to say she mumbled before answering. " The Elements of Harmony cannot be used against Harmony, without you or Rarity, we couldn't get them working and when Melody discovered our attempt to get them functioning again, she mobilized a force and forced us out. Twilight... She cut it down, she cut down the Tree of Harmony. She cut it down and we barely got it back in time. Our research teams were all either killed or captured. Thankfully, she left it dying in the cave instead of trying to destroy it or take it with her. It's here. We are desperately trying to keep it alive, it takes up the majority of my power just to keep it from dying."

Twilight was now more than just physically or magically exhausted. It was so much to take in, so much had been lost and so much had been done. She could hardly take it. But there was a comforting hoof on her shoulder before there was a magical flash and the hoof turned to a hand. All the ponies present either stared in awe or hid behind something, some even stood in defense ready to fight. "What in the sweet name of Celestia is that!?!"

Taara ignored them all as she pulled on Twilight's chin making her look the old arch mage in the eyes. "Twilight, we have been friends for a very long time and I will guarantee you, I swear to you, your people will have us at their backs. Until a long term solution is found and so long as I am the Arch mage, the mages college and ALL of its influence is at your disposal."

"As well as this one's own services. As tedious and illusive as they might be." Lacking the magical prowess Ra'shala did not revert to her original form, not that it was very different from her current form.

Baldir grinned wide and stamped his axe into the ground, also unable to change back, but his wolfy smile put many off, despite the words coming from his mouth. "Me as well ye dumb horse... if there is a war to be had you will find no greater ally than a bunch of angry Nords and if that stuck up bitch thinks shes got an army in that one little pony, she will change her mind when all the forces of Skyrim descend upon her castle." Spike stood beside him still clad in the old armor the companions made for him. It was no doubt that she still had and likely never lost the support of the somewhat kinda legendary Zeikkinzukjoor, and by default all the dragons that Spike had made friend's with.

Twilight's tired face turned to a smile and light welled up in her soul. There was indeed hope, the resistance was struggling to keep going with just Fluttershy and Luna. But  with Twilight, three legendary dragonborn and all the forces that came with them. If she had her way, the burning righteous anger in her heart would lead this resistance into a full blown one sided war.

She turned back to her friends, the fires of war in her heart and the kindled wrath of justice in her eyes.

The three Dragon born stood feet from her, and on their fringes, so too stood Luna and Fluttershy.  Taara chuckled and narrowed her eyes. "Now then... PRINCESS... whats our first move?"