Stygian was startled awake. His surroundings were somewhat dark, but some ambient light allowed him to recognize the bit of tunnel he had parked in for the last few days. He saw six blurs, but as his vision slowly came to, he realized that the six were standing above him and that he was lying on his back. His head still spun but he could at least recognize who they were—and recognize them he did.
Starswirl the Bearded’s frown deepened. “Stygian, are you alright?” he asked.
Somnambula and Mage Meadowbrook wore blank expressions, Rockhoof leaned on a shovel, while Flash Magnus’ scrunched expression matched that of Mistmane’s.
Stygian groaned, rubbed his head, and then rolled over to stand up. “I think so. I got so tired all the sudden and I guess I fell asleep.”
“Do you know where Raven is?” Somnambula asked.
Stygian glanced around. Aside from the six of them, all he saw were a few remaining books, his saddlebag, and a tipped-over coffee mug that had spilled all its contents. The double doors that lead into the large, hemispherical chamber lay open; the floor within was completely level now. And the room was empty. “No. Did she… leave me here?”
“Well, we did not see her leave, either,” Somnambula said. “We were waiting for you at the other end of the tunnel. We were there for an hour, even.”
“Perhaps she went back to her home timeline,” Mistmane suggested. “She is from that Equestria once ruled by Nightmare Moon, if memory serves.”
Stygian shook his head. “I don’t think so. All the other portals are closed. And I wouldn’t have opened one down here.”
Starswirl raised an eyebrow. “Wait. You?”
At that, Stygian beamed. “Oh! I didn’t mention? The princesses made me an authorized user. They gave me a copy of the portal spell.”
Starswirl grinned in response. “Oh ho ho! Same as I! Well done, Stygian.”
Stygian chuckled. “Well, maybe Raven could have made her own portal and gone home herself…”
The others blinked. “Really? I don’t remember seeing a horn…” Somnambula said.
“Well, it turns out that Raven’s a changeling, if you would believe that. Quite the impressive one, too. So maybe she could have pulled it off.”
Mage Meadowbrook’s eyes went wide. “Wait. She’s actually a changeling?” she asked. “I wouldn’t… I would never have guessed that.”
The others hummed affirmatively.
“But I think Raven is an actual pony,” Rockhoof said. “Somewhere, I mean.”
Mage Meadowbrook nodded. “Yes. I think you’re right. So… there was a changeling disguising as Raven?”
Starswirl tugged at his beard. “Hmmmm. I do believe that their status quo changed quite a lot. I don’t know how they were before, but every changeling we saw in there was themselves. They get to roam freely.”
“There was no reason for any changeling to disguise themselves, especially as somepony who actually exists,” Stygian said.
“That… doesn’t sound completely right,” Flash Magnus said with a growing frown, “but I don’t know enough about changelings to dispute it.”
After they all shared shrugs, Mage Meadowbrook stepped forward and placed a hoof on Stygian’s withers. “I’m very concerned about you, though. How is it that you suddenly felt so tired? Are you overworked?”
Stygian sighed. “I don’t know. I was completely fine. And then I suddenly felt like I was losing it. It was strange.”
“So, you weren’t doing anything too strenuous?” Mage Meadowbrook asked.
Stygian briefly glanced at the downed coffee mug. “No. I was just… Raven was helping me clean up. We sat down for a coffee break, I drank, we talked. And then I started feeling all woozy. Next thing I know, she’s laying me down and telling me that I should rest.”
Rockhoof, Mistmane, Flash Magnus, and Mage Meadowbrook nodded solemnly.
Somnambula sighed and shook her head. “Well, we were all working pretty hard, and—”
“Stygian…” Starswirl interjected, his expression stern. He too now glanced at that coffee mug. “Tell me more about this coffee you had.”
Stygian flinched. And then he blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “Well, she brought me some, and we sat down, and…”
Starswirl lifted the mug with his magic and examined the insides. “And did Raven have any for herself?” he asked.
Stygian paused again. And then some color disappeared from his face. “N-no. Why?”
Starswirl kept his magic on that coffee mug for a few moments. The insides of the mug eventually gained a greenish tint to it. And then he turned to face him with fiercely narrowed eyes. “Drugged.”
The other six, especially Stygian, gasped and jumped in surprise.
And Stygian’s face remained wide-eyed for many long moments. Eventually, he turned toward his saddlebag and began rummaging through it. He even dragged some of his papers and books out and placed them in a pile. He even stuck his head into the saddlebag.
The others gathered around him, stealing glances at his objects.
Stygian finally emerged and turned to face them. His face was as white as a sheet. “I’m missing some things. And my copy of the portal spell is gone.”
The others gasped again. Starswirl’s features darkened.
“Raven…?” Rockhoof tried.
“She stole?” Mage Meadowbrook wheezed.
Starswirl glanced at the others and then advanced on Stygian. “Stygian… this changeling… you saw her, right?”
“Y-yes,” Stygian stammered, “I did.”
Mistmane also stepped forward. “What did she look like? Did you see?”
“You described her as impressive, right?” Somnambula asked.
“Yes. I caught a glimpse of her changeling form before I passed out,” Stygian said. “She was… large. I want to say she was larger than King Thorax.”
Starswirl shuddered. “What else?”
Stygian paused for a moment and rubbed his chin. “She was very unlike the other changelings we’ve seen. I remember seeing… holes. And she had some reptilian eyes.”
The colors slowly drained from their faces during that time and they exchanged worried glances.
Somnambula stepped forward. “Were we not told of some changeling who fit that description?” she tremulously asked.
Starswirl nodded solemnly. “I believe so. If that was really her… we may have just been greatly compromised.”
Evening light filtered in through the castle library’s windows. A few candles sat on adjacent tables to add a little more light to the room.
Eight bodies sat around a table in the center. Spike, meanwhile, sat on the table itself, and Tempest Shadow stood behind Twilight Sparkle and occasionally paced. The mirror portal stood idly over them; the niche near the top where a book typically rested lay empty at the moment. Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Starlight Glimmer sat around the table.
And Adamantine, who sat opposite Twilight, folded her hooves together. “I vaguely know what Consensus is. I cannot completely describe it to you, but I can do my best.”
Twilight nodded. “Okay.”
“Could I possibly trouble you to give me those transcriptions again?” Adamantine asked.
Twilight shifted some of the papers in front of her about and then floated said papers over to Adamantine.
Adamantine straightened up and took the papers with her magic. She flipped through them and then settled on one. “Listen very closely,” she said. “This is the D seal for the Nameless. As the world is one of probability, the divergence of worlds is certain. As time marches on, the eight horizontal and the infinite vertical are not probabilistically to remain the same. Inside the seal exists a mechanism by which these realities may be kept on track. It shall, from time to time, if the disparity is not to such great magnitude at which point it shall be thus too difficult, the seal shall apply minute corrections to the realities, in one or both directions. This mechanism is the key to the preservation of the worlds. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.”
She then looked up and placed the paper down. “This is something that I can somewhat speak of,” Adamantine said. “I could feel these… two separate things happening simultaneously. I would imagine that it happened every few months or so. But the first quit happening a few years ago. And the second quit happening a couple of weeks before the Great Benefactor disappeared.”
“That first one would be when the timelines diverged at the Rainboom,” Twilight said.
Starlight nodded.
“And the second would be when we found the crystal ball and Sunset started doing stuff with the infinite,” Twilight finished. “That was when those diverged… somewhat.”
“Yes,” Adamantine said. “Now that I know about the existence of these things, I can contextualize what I know about this phenomenon. This keeping the realities on track has indeed happened many many times in the past. I realize that now.
“Consensus, as far as I am aware, is based on the same principle. But it is on a much larger scale. And it is much more definitive.” She narrowed her eyes and scanned their faces. “And I can tell you that it has not yet come to pass, but also that it is nigh.”
“Eh, that sounds kinda weird,” Rainbow Dash said. “I mean, sure, okay, I never noticed any of these changes or anything that it’s apparently been doing…”
Applejack scratched her head. “You’re sayin’ it’s happened several times in our lives already. But this one’s different, right?”
“Quite so,” Rarity said. “My concern is what would make this Consensus so definitive?”
Twilight rested her head on her hooves and hummed. “And in what way is it on a larger scale?”
“There is one idea that I have,” Adamantine said. She then shuffled through a few more papers before looking back up. “Do you mind if I read another?”
Twilight nodded. “Sure.”
Adamantine held the paper in question up. “This is the N seal for the Nameless. Within this seal lies the framework by which realities may be reconciled. The exact nature is that the realities have been stretched from a single reality into the way in which they exist now; they are, thus, intimately connected. This process is reversible; that which was stretched may be unstretched. The energy to reconcile a layer, those things which are stable, is of order hundreds of gigathaums, and the energy to reconcile the eight, which are all unstable, is of order terathaums; less if the divergence is minimized. For the good of Consensus, you would do well to observe this, Sunset Shimmer.”
Twilight’s muzzle twitched. “And I’m sure that instability it talks about is related to this disassociation from any one reality. That was what the Nameless had going for it. And it was what Sunset was in danger of.”
Starlight sucked in a breath. “That’s what you were trying to figure out, right? How to stop the disassociation?”
“Yes, although I didn’t know if it was something that could even be done. But… with these, now we know that it is theoretically possible.”
Spike, on seeing the long frown still on Twilight’s face, turned to face her. “What’s wrong with that?”
“The thing…” Twilight tentatively said, “what it calls for is a large amount of magic. A few hundreds of gigathaums… would probably require almost the total sum of magic that even exists on our world. And… a few terathaums is ever larger than that.” She shook her head.
Starlight deadpanned. “So… basically… no.”
Twilight nodded.
“Nonetheless,” Adamantine interrupted, “perhaps it may play into this somehow, if the seal went through the trouble to mention it.” She sat still for a few moments and then she eventually nodded. “Sunset Shimmer wants to point out that the seal makes no mention of the world she lives in… or other realities of similar type.”
“Oh, so that means that those realities are safe. They won’t get reconciled with ours,” Twilight replied.
Pinkie Pie glanced between Twilight and Adamantine and then shot up in her seat. “Hey! I wanna know something. How is it that you know what Sunset Shimmer is saying? She’s sealed away.”
Starlight looked over. “Uh, she can look inside the seal,” she explained. She then turned back toward Adamantine and leaned across the table. “And you’re doing it so… easily. I remember you saying you had to concentrate to do it before.”
“Yes. We even saw you do it,” Twilight added.
Several of the others shrugged.
Adamantine smiled demurely. “Well…” she said, her tone somber, “there is so little for me to worry about these days… that clearing my mind is easy.”
At once, all of those sitting around the table wilted. They either hung their heads, folded their hooves together, or looked away. Tempest, who still stood at the outlier, observed them and allowed her frown to deepen. And Spike folded his claws together and looked at Twilight. Twilight eventually straightened up and even moved her mouth to speak.
Adamantine held up a hoof. “Do not speak, Twilight. Everything that needed to be said has already been said.” She frowned. “Besides, Sunset’s voice is quite… clear. I’ve been able to establish a lock on her. It did take some trying, and some trial and error.”
Twilight sighed. “Yes… of course.”
Adamantine sent silent for a moment. Her ears twitched and, eventually, her jaw did too.
Meanwhile, Spike suddenly let out a loud belch as green fire escaped his mouth. Said flame coalesced into a scroll which landed into his waiting claws. The table leaned forward as he opened the scroll and began dictating its contents.
“My dearest Twilight,
“We understand. Luna and I will be there tomorrow morning.
“Yours,
“Princess Celestia”
Twilight swelled. “Great.”
Spike smiled and rolled up the scroll. He then looked back at Adamantine and saw the growing frown on her face. He then stood up. “Adamantine?” he asked.
Adamantine looked up and then sat up straight. “Sunset has just brought up a very good point,” she said. “It is my understanding that the passage of time inside the crystal ball is accelerating, yes?”
All eyes turned to Twilight.
Twilight nodded. “Yes. That’s right,” she tentatively said. After glancing around the table, she continued, “Sunset was the one that found it, actually. The last time we checked, the separation was by about six days into the past, or something of that order. It used to be nine days into the past.”
“And that gap is closing, yes?”
After a moment, Twilight nodded. “Yes.”
“And the source of the speedup is from the layers above ours time dilating, yes?”
“Yes.”
A worried smile appeared on Adamantine’s face. “Sunset says that there are probably layers above us that haven’t time dilated yet. So the ball could speed up further still. Nonetheless, if the pattern continues… our layer will eventually be current with the one below ours.”
A few silent gasps passed around the table.
“And that could happen quite soon. It could be mere days.” She then leaned forward. “And Twilight… I am of the mind… to think that that point… when our layer is present with the lower layer… that is when Consensus will occur.”
And, for the longest time, the room held its breath as they all considered those words.
* * *
Twilight scribbled some more lines onto the sheet in front of her. The text itself was a mixture of magical symbols and some numbers that translated into a magic spell.
After a few more lines of writing, Twilight stood up. “Well, this should do it for now. What’s say we give it a test run?”
Adamantine, who had been watching from over Twilight’s withers, nodded. “Certainly. Let’s do it,” she said as Twilight gave the papers to her via magic.
The two of them walked over to an adjacent table where Starlight and Tempest sat. Starlight rested her head against the table, her eyes shut at the moment, while Tempest ate a bagel in silence. As Twilight and Adamantine walked up, Tempest rose to her hooves. And Twilight joined Tempest on one side of the table and turned to watch Adamantine.
Adamantine looked at the papers some more and then funneled more energy into her horn. After a moment, she turned her attention to the crystal ball on the center of the table. She shot a beam of energy at it, causing a magical aura to wrap around it. Once that was done, she exchanged nods with Twilight.
Twilight floated the ball over to herself and placed a hoof on it. She paused for a moment to look at the view inside. Celestia’s chamber lay in almost complete darkness; only the moonlight streaming through the room’s glass window gave it any light. The clock on the wall ticked by at a frequency faster than once per second. Princess Celestia herself lay in silence on the bed in the center of the room.
Twilight nodded. “Sunset? Can you hear me?”
And then, suddenly, the crystal ball emitted several crackling sounds that sounded like static (that prompted Starlight to startle awake). Some undertones of a feminine voice made it through but nothing discernable came out. And, after a few seconds, the crackling stopped.
Adamantine frowned. “Ah…”
“The hay?” Starlight slurred. She looked into the ball and spotted Celestia still sleeping. “What was that?”
Twilight removed her hoof from the ball, looked over at Adamantine, and frowned. “Uh, I did hear a little bit of Sunset in that.”
“It probably needs a few more adjustments,” Adamantine said as she laid the stack of papers onto the table. She then beamed. “It was close!”
“Yes, it was,” Twilight replied with a chuckle.
Tempest stared at the crystal ball for a few moments more. “Sorry. What is this for?” she asked with an unamused tone.
Twilight glanced over. “Uh, we’re trying to make it so that Sunset has a way to interact with us. That way she doesn’t have to speak through Adamantine all the time.” She flung a foreleg at the crystal ball. “We almost have a good baseline for what we want to do.”
Starlight rubbed her eyes and then stood up. “That sounds like a good idea,” she slurred. “We’ll… probably need Sunset for all of this.”
“That we will,” Adamantine said.
At that moment, the library’s double doors creaked open, prompting them all to turn. Spike entered first, leading the two behind him toward the table. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, each of whom wore saddlebags, approached as well. It was only when they spotted Adamantine that they paused in their steps.
Adamantine blushed but said nothing in response. She simply stared.
After a few moments, Luna smiled and stepped forward. “Adamantine,” she said. “It is so wonderful to see you on your hooves again.”
Adamantine shrugged. “Ah… well…”
“Yes, it is good,” Celestia seconded as she too stepped forward. “However… I do wonder… how exactly did you get out of Tartarus?”
Adamantine grinned. “Well… truthfully… I could have gotten out at any time. My teleportation is quite good.” She paused. “I just didn’t have a reason to leave until now.”
Celestia grinned. After munching on her next words for a few moments, she said, “Well, nonetheless, it’s good to see you doing much better for yourself.”
Adamantine smiled and sheepishly kicked the ground.
Luna lifted her saddlebag off her back and floated it onto the table. “Twilight, here are those documents that you asked us to find.”
Twilight cooed and then did so again when Celestia turned and presented her saddlebag as well. “Great!” Twilight exclaimed. She turned to Adamantine. “We’ll need those to eventually finish this.”
Adamantine hummed. “I see. What are they?”
“All of this is research data,” Twilight replied as she undid the saddlebags and began yanking several sheets of paper out. “These are all the little bits and pieces that all the layers figured out about… your people… before we lost them.”
Adamantine nodded solemnly.
Straightening up, Twilight continued, “We’ll actually sit down and go through this once we’ve finished the baseline.”
Meanwhile, Celestia lit her horn, floated the crystal ball up to her, and looked inside. Inside the ball, Celestia still lay fast asleep and the clock on the wall continued ticking on in silence. Celestia watched for a few moments, her mouth occasionally twitching.
“So then,” Adamantine began, “I take it that you have come to assist?”
“As far as we are able to, yes,” Luna said. “We may have to leave to attend to some other matters; this whole business has left our alliances… fractured, to say the least.” Luna smiled. “But that is for us to worry about.”
“I see.”
“So…” Luna paused as she looked over at Celestia. “Sister?”
Celestia hummed and looked up. “This seems to be running faster than the last time I saw it.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Really? You think so?”
“Huh?” Starlight said. “What makes you say that?”
Celestia smiled. “I know that my clock is not this fast,” she said.
Twilight shrugged. “Well, I guess we can take another measurement. Spike?” she said as she turned to him. “Can you go find me a clock again?”
Spike saluted and said, “You got it!” before racing out of the room.
“In the meantime,” Luna began, “you wouldn’t mind if we grabbed Tempest for a few minutes, do you?”
Tempest, who still stood next to Twilight, actually narrowed her eyes. After exchanging glances with Twilight, she nodded. And then Twilight, Adamantine, and Starlight watched in silence as Celestia and Luna led Tempest out of the room.
* * *
As the two princesses in front of Tempest finished speaking, she couldn’t help but shudder. She ran what they had just said through her mind over and over. She even spent a few moments pacing the width of the castle hallway; the carpet gave her hooves something to drag through and the crystalline walls allowed her to check her own expression in their reflections.
She sucked in a breath, turned to them, and asked, “Is it possible that the two are related?”
“We don’t know,” Luna replied.
“Is it possible that Chrysalis and… the other timelines’ Storm Kings are working together?” Tempest hissed.
“We don’t know.”
“We don’t know if the other Storm Kings are even working with each other,” Celestia added. “We don’t know if it was our Chrysalis or a Chrysalis from one of the other timelines.” Her frown deepened. “Not all of them are accounted for.”
“By and large,” Luna said, “the ones unaccounted for are believed to be dead. The ones that are living haven’t moved like the Storm Kings have been moving in those timelines.”
Tempest took a moment to swallow and otherwise catch her breath. “Fine. So we can say it’s the Chrysalis from our timeline.”
Luna snorted. “Yes. If you really want to. It is not confirmed.”
Celestia glanced between the two and then shook her head. “Tempest, the reason why we’re telling you this is because, if something happens and this progresses further, we might need your help.”
Luna considered Celestia and then nodded. “Yes. This business has left relations… strained. You can imagine that we are not quite in a state where we could counter whatever they may have planned.”
“Especially if they are working together,” Celestia said.
“We imagine Twilight will be very busy dealing with Consensus. And you know the Storm King better than anypony. That’s why we’re turning to you.”
Tempest slowly nodded. “Fine. I’ll be here.”
“We will, of course, keep you updated,” Luna said. “With any luck, we won’t actually have to worry about any of this, but we’d best be prepared for if we do.”
* * *
Tempest stuffed the last bits of a muffin into her mouth as she entered the library again. She immediately swerved toward the table where Spike watched Starlight writing something onto a sheet of paper. The crystal ball sat in the middle of that table. Several bodies, namely the princesses and five of the Elements, were gone at the moment; Tempest knew they were doing business at the school.
Starlight looked over at the table where Adamantine and Twilight were hunched over their own set of papers and she said, “The ball gives me 8:30 a.m., Twilight.”
Twilight shifted in her seat, exchanged glances with Adamantine, and then said, “Okay, Starlight. Then tell me what the time intervals are.”
Starlight wrote some things down on her paper, only pausing to look up as Tempest approached and took a seat at the table with them. Her quill wrote down a few numbers as she wrote down times and then calculated the differences between those times.
She finally sat up straight. “I got 195 minutes inside the ball for every 127 minutes out here,” she announced.
“Oh my,” Twilight wheezed. Her own quill paused within her magic.
“The ball is running faster, hmm?” Adamantine said.
“Yes. It’s at a hundred and fifty-three percent speed now. It was a hundred and twenty-seven.”
“Hmmm. So Sunset was right. And it could get faster still.”
“Yes.”
Taking a brief glance at the crystal ball again and shifting in her seat, Tempest then asked, “How’s your spell coming along?”
“It’s going well. We’re probably going to be able to give it another try in a few minutes or so,” Twilight replied with a happier tone.
Tempest smirked. “That’s good to hear.”
“In the meantime,” Adamantine began, looking over at Tempest, “Sunset Shimmer wants to ask a favor of you.”
At that, Tempest perked up. Sunset Shimmer wanted her for something? What could that possibly be? “Really? What kind of favor?”
* * *
Tempest hobbled along, badgering some of her thoughts into putting one foot in front of the other. The human body was still a mystery, but having been in it twice before made it a little bit easier. The hallways of this strange place, Canterlot High School, were easy enough to navigate, thankfully. The stairs leading into the school had been the biggest challenge, and that was behind her.
She clutched the crystal ball in her arms. The hands at the end of her arms, while dexterous, still felt so wonky and strange. As such, she held it like her pony self would have held it.
She passed a few students as she went. Some of them regarded her as she went by, but their reactions never reached anything beyond raised eyebrows or contemplative frowns. Tempest thought nothing of them; they were nothing as far as she was concerned.
As far as she knew, speaking when touching the ball transmitted a speaker’s voice to the crystal ball in the layer below. Tempest reminded herself of what she had been assured: whoever could have possibly listened to what was likely about to come would have been in class. And, thus, they would be safe.
She rounded another corner and found a set of open double doors on one side of the hall. That had to be the destination. Let’s see if you’re right, Sunset, she thought.
As she approached, she picked up voices coming from the inside. Familiar voices. She stopped just before the entrance and took a quick peek inside. Inside the room stood many of the same figures she had seen the other day. There stood Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna; the both of them faced the six girls. While Applejack and Rarity remained on their feet, Fluttershy, Pinkamena, and Twilight Sparkle sat on the steps with Rainbow Dash sitting on the floor itself.
“I honestly don’t know,” Twilight said. “We can still use our geode powers, but I don’t know if we can pony up without Sunset.”
Celestia crossed her arms. “Unfortunately… it is what it is. We have to make some plans now. Because something may happen again.”
Tempest nodded to herself and then stepped into the doorway where they could see her. She cleared her throat. “Excuse me,” she said.
At once, both of the adults turned around—they only looked over their shoulders at first and then, once they had taken stock of her, their expressions darkened and they turned to face her fully. The four girls sitting rose to their feet and stared at Tempest with dumbfounded expressions. And Applejack’s eyes widened while her frown deepened.
“Oh,” Rarity said with some sharpness in her voice as she hobbled in Tempest’s direction, “no no no no no.”
“Pardon me,” Applejack said, “but can we help you?” Her voice was full of venom.
Tempest frowned and tried to stand as tall as she could. “Yes,” she said, drawing from the authoritative tone she had once used to command the Storm Legions, “you can. I’ve just come here from Equestria.”
“We know,” Rainbow Dash growled. “We can tell.”
“Ah recognize ya a little bit from the other day,” Applejack said as she too stepped forward and crossed her arms. “And from a few days before that.”
“Yes,” Vice Principal Luna said. “I… I really hope that you can understand that we’re not happy with you or your kind right now.”
Tempest snorted. Hah. They’re so much like the ones that I know. This is so… interesting. Outwardly, she nodded in response and said, “I know.”
“So why did you come here?” Rarity asked. “Explain.”
Twilight stepped forward at that point. “What’s your name?”
“Tempest. Tempest Shadow. I conquered Equestria once. You might have heard about it,” Tempest said.
At once, the eight of them exchanged glances. For their parts, Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna looked at the rest of the girls, and they received a mixture of affirmative nods and unsure shrugs in return.
“And I know who all of you are,” Tempest continued. “You’re Sunset Shimmer’s friends.”
After a pause, Twilight nodded. “That’s right.”
“Let me talk to them,” said a voice from the crystal ball.
And now the whole room fell silent. While Tempest remained stone-faced, everyone else froze up. Slowly, they all turned to look at the crystal ball that remained in Tempest’s arms.
Tempest even looked down at the crystal ball and then let a smirk spread across her face.
Applejack sucked in a breath. “…Sunset?”
“Tempest, I can’t hear anything they’re saying unless they’re holding the ball,” Sunset Shimmer’s voice said out of the crystal ball. “Give me to them!”
A floomp signaled Pinkamena’s hair suddenly blowing up back into its normal shape as she (and the rest of them, for that matter), sharply gasped. “Oh my gosh!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.
The moment they all surged forward was the moment Tempest offered the crystal ball. They practically snatched it from her and then gathered around it. Some placed their hands on the ball itself; others lay their hands on those touching the ball—it all counted. They let out all sorts of cries and shrieks.
“Sunset!” Twilight exclaimed. “Sunset!”
“Twilight!?” Sunset’s voice cried.
Tears streamed down Rarity’s face. “Oh my gosh!” she squealed. “Oh my gosh!”
“Hey!”
Tempest snorted and started circling them, content to watch from the outside.
“Are you okay!?” Twilight cried.
A moment passed. “No,” Sunset’s voice replied with a downtrodden tone. “I’m still in the seal. And I can’t imagine that I’m getting out anytime soon.”
At that, they all lost their jumpiness and even wilted in response. Now Fluttershy was also sniffling.
“But…” Sunset’s voice continued, now containing some warmth, “it’s so good to hear all of your voices again!”
At that, many of them shared relieved giggles and warm smiles.
Celestia leaned forward and placed a hand on the ball. “Sunset Shimmer, how…? How are you even here with us right now?”
“It’s a little bit of a long story,” Sunset’s voice replied. “The short version is that there have been a lot of developments in these past few days. We’ve found out a lot more new things. …And it turns out that we’re not out of the woods just yet.”
Celestia frowned. “What does that mean?”
Sunset’s voice paused again. “It means…” her voice tentatively said, “that this me being sealed away isn’t the end of all of this. There’s something about to happen.”
Rainbow Dash placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder. “What kind of thing?”
“We don’t know. But whatever it is… it’s big.” Sunset’s voice paused. “Do you all remember me talking about somepony named Adamantine? She was the unpony queen.”
“Yes,” Luna replied. “That name is familiar.”
“…She came back. She’s trying to help us figure this thing out.”
The eight of them threw around several gasps of varying intensity and exaggeration.
“Ah don’t believe it,” Applejack said. “Ah just don’t believe it.”
“I thought she died,” Rainbow Dash commented.
Rarity frowned and took a moment to wipe some tears from her eyes. “N-no. She was sent to some prison or whatnot.”
“…I thought she died in prison,” Rainbow Dash said.
“I’m glad to hear she’s okay, Sunset,” Fluttershy said.
“Me too. Anyway, actually… We might have a lot to deal with. And I don’t know where this is going to go. But I also know that this is a lot to ask of you…” Sunset’s voice trailed off. “I was wondering… if you would at all be willing to help me and everypony else out.”
Fluttershy straightened up and wiped her face. “Of course, we would love to help you out—”
Applejack sharply cleared her throat, prompting everyone (including Tempest who still patrolled the perimeter) to look up. “But why should we help them, Sunset?”
“W-well…” Sunset’s voice tried.
“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie said with a sharp tone, “why should we?”
“Just f.y.i., we’re mad as hell at them,” Applejack said. When that earned her a very hard stare from Celestia, Applejack wilted and then sheepishly added, “Uh, heck. Mad as heck.”
“We lost you because of them, Sunset!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
The other girls gave affirmative hums. Celestia and Luna, meanwhile, shared disapproving frowns.
And then Celestia shook her head. “Girls, I’m sure they’re just as angry and confused about this as we are.”
Rainbow Dash looked up. “But—”
“She is right,” Luna agreed. “I don’t think anyone wanted all of this to happen.”
Tempest stepped forward. “Twilight felt really bad about it.” As the eight of them looked up at her, she continued, “You should have seen her. She was pretty broken.”
The girls exchanged uncertain glances. The adults nodded solemnly.
“I guess I’m not surprised that you’d say that,” Sunset’s voice said. “I’ve been caught up on what’s happened since. Because of everything that’s happened… there are a lot of creatures right now that won’t even talk to us.”
Tempest solemnly nodded in agreement. Several others caught her gesture and that prompted their frowns to deepen.
“Heck,” Sunset’s voice continued, “from what I know, Starlight Glimmer—you remember her, right? She came over that one time and helped us out against Juniper Montage and that mirror of hers. Starlight… she was ready to leave.”
Twilight swallowed. “The whole school’s been hurting, Sunset. We’ve had to have counselors from other schools to come in and help people.”
“…I can imagine. I didn’t want this. No one did.” Sunset’s voice paused. “But Adamantine… she lost her entire people because of us. She had more right to be angry at us than anyone. She had every right to be the angriest pony in the world…”
After a thoughtful pause, Sunset’s voice said, tremulously and with a lacking strength, “The only reason I can even speak to you right now is because of her. She—and Twilight too, really—she wrote the enchantment on this ball that lets me talk to you.”
No one reacted at first. But there was a collective loosening of expressions. Applejack and Rainbow Dash glumly nodded. Pinkie Pie sniffled. Fluttershy and Twilight exchanged sad frowns. Rarity’s sad expression quivered.
“They’re not bad ponies. I promise you that. Please…” Sunset’s voice said.
Twilight frowned. “I know, Sunset. I know they’re not bad.”
Several eyes turned to face her. For their parts, Fluttershy, Celestia, and Luna smiled.
“I just…” Twilight tried, “I can’t help but feel… mad. I’m angry, Sunset!”
“That’s okay,” Sunset’s voice replied. “It’s okay to be angry about all of this. I’m angry too!”
“Everyone’s angry, Sunset,” Applejack said.
“But I know first hand that if you seek out friendship… amazing things can happen. And I know that we might not be able to do everything. But we don’t have to give up on everything. I…” Sunset’s voice bitterly laughed. “I have nothing left to lose. It can’t get any worse for me. And maybe it’ll never get any better. I might really be stuck here for the rest of time.”
A few sniffles and sobs rose up in response.
“But right now… I’ve been given the opportunity to do something. I could help save lives. So I will,” Sunset’s voice said, firming up, “I will do everything that I can. And there will be many others… Twilight, Adamantine, Spike, the girls, the princesses, Tempest… they’re going to do everything that they can too. And we could all sure use your help. So… please?”
Another moment of silence passed between them. They all exchanged glances as some unspoken conversation passed between them; said conversation mainly stayed with the six teenagers in the middle. As they gauged each other’s expressions, no one save Celestia and Luna moved.
And then Fluttershy donned a smile, followed by Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash saw them and smirked. Applejack chuckled.
Rarity let a small smile appear on her face and then she looked up. “Tempest Shadow? That’s your name, right?”
“That’s right,” Tempest replied.
Rarity nodded. “Thank you… for bringing her to us.”
Tempest grinned in response.
Twilight adjusted her glasses and then nodded. “Sunset? We’ll be happy to help. You can count on us.”