"I accept..." a final voice echoed from her mouth as the dream ended. Princess Platinum slowly opened her eyes and saw wrapping all over her body. She wasn't tied up but bandaged as much as possible.
Her pain was strong, but she fought just as hard to raise her body. Her hand screamed with torture as she braced herself and lifted her legs over the bed. Sharp anguish ripped through her legs as they touched the ground.
The movement was forceful and shaky as she made her way to the window. She peered at the four towers, hoping everything was going according to plan. She had wanted to do the job herself, but even will power these injuries would just lead to more trauma. She lowered her sight to the rim and smiled at the faint glow, becoming greater by the second.
A doctor ran in with shock at the sight of her moving. "Princess, you shouldn't be up yet?"
"I know!" She glowed her horn at him. "But, I must see this through." Her head fell, and the magic faded. Her breathing became harsh. She was shocked, but not just because of how much pain she was in, but how much damage that monster brought forth. Shame also twisted her thoughts, knowing now that she failed the battle, she would be forced into this commoner's servitude. "Tell me, has Twilight made any demands of me?"
"Princess?"
"Answer, the creed must be kept!"
"As far as we know. She made no commands and simply left to talk to Blood Diamond." The doctor walked closer. "You should rest right now. Worry about that later--"
"WORRY!" she screamed, "Like my father did every day..." She grimaced, "First for her and then for me! Royalty should have no need nor any desire for concern, ever!" She stopped as blood filled her mouth.
The doctor grabbed a wipe, ready to clean the blood. "Please, Princess, we can't lose you."
"I don't fucking care!" She took the wipe and slapped him away. "I will complete my mission, save my citizens, and bring peace to this land."
"I... understood." He took the slap and stood ready.
Princess Platinum cleaned her mouth and slowed her breathing as to not bring forth more blood. She turned to the window and the towers. She searched for the distinct shape of a naga. She placed her hand above the sight of Dim and gave a much smaller smile. "He will complete this, even if I cannot--"
She was cut off by a bright light shining above. Her eyes raced upward and went wide at the sight of the nearest tower going up in flames. "Dim!!" She didn't hesitate to scream as she banged at the window.
Fear, shock, rage, horror, a race of multiple emotions twisted through her whole body as magic flowed from her horn. Sharp pain blazed through her heart and throat as one knee dropped. The classic blue magic she always had slowly changed color, turning a harsh red. She punched at the window so hard that it cracked to the edges and blood poured from her hand. Despite the very clear maroon magic forming over her horn, her blood was still a basic crimson red.
She dropped completely as the maroon magic faded. She coughed, still very crimson red with blood. Seeing it, she remembered back to the transformation Twilight had in the arena. Seeing the blood's color almost screaming at her, she hit it instead, over and over. "He gave me power, a way to fucking survive and yet, how?!?! How is she so different?! I want that power!! I need that power!!"
She stopped screaming as more blood poured out of her mouth. Her head swung left and right as her sight became fuzzy. "Tell me... please... you... bastard..." She fell to the ground and passed out.
******
Dim Dusk, the loyal naga guardian of Princess Platinum, took stock of his duty and threw his arms up in defense of his soldiers, hardening his flesh to its thickest point. They were quickly met by thousands of sharp crystal points shooting out in all directions.
However, it proved pointless as his blood showered over the ground. He shrieked in pain at the sight of the crystal tearing through one arm with complete ease. He dropped to one knee as the crystals continued their advance to his head.
His face of shock was only shadowed as one soldier jumped in the way, stopping the crystals' advance. The brave soul was shredded in an instance but stopped the final shard from reaching Dim's face, stopping just a few inches away from him.
Seeing the bold move, the other soldiers charged forward. Their weapons met on with the crystals that were still moving, only decreasing their growing casualties. Hearing his soldiers' roars of pain and bravo urged the naga to stand and throw a swing right at the alicorn. It landed, throwing the prince several feet.
Blood Diamond smiled at the naga's actions and let him see the blood drip from his mouth. This beast's loyalty was so strong that he refused to fall even with one arm beyond repair. "We see we were right in all cases. War is wanted, no desired, preferred over anything else." He snapped out a capsule from his sleeve, with the little effect it broke open, pouring out a cloud of colored dust over the air.
Dim and his remaining soldiers jumped back and covered their mouths, only to be met with disappointment from Blood Diamond. He waved a single finger at them and then pointed to the crystal. Much to their shock, the crystals reseeded.
Dim's eyes narrowed. "Now I see, that was magic at all." He noted the pure randomness and seemingly endless amount of them.
"Yes, the explosion was to spread out the shards of glass from each window. The bomb itself was also laced with a certain type of chemical that caused even the making of all crystals to expand."
"Even the basic crystalline structure of glass." The naga sneered at the burns in his arm.
"Yes, we heard that glass, in particular, can be quite sharp when shattered." Blood Diamond mopped, "We rarely get to use such material in battle because of the incredible strength of other gems. Such a shame they don't last long." He knocked the rest to dust with just his wings alone.
"So you stopped them because they were useless."
"Not, useless. It took out a few of your soldiers, wounded and even maimed the rest, all while showing where you stand in this war." Blood Diamond held out his hand to them all.
"So, you want war."
"No, we don't seek war," Blood Diamond corrected him. "We seek the truth." Blood Diamond rushed forward and stopped his claws in front of Dim's face. "Which one of you created that illusion?!"
"Illusion?" Dim swung his shredded arm to knock Blood Diamond's hand away. "There was no illusion, your king wanted war."
"Are you blind, or dense?" Blood Diamond went in for another attack. Dim met it with his axe and pushed him back.
The naga was surprised that the alicorn was fighting him with his bare hands, yet his concern grew more on why the alicorn seemed to refuse to draw the legendary arm blades he was known for. Narrowing his eyes off the weapon subject and on the alicorn himself, the naga charged in. It was time for him to take the offensive.
Dim lifted his axe high and dropped it with his full strength. His eyes went wide as Blood Diamond caught it again, this time with even less effort. Dim jumped back and rushed in the swing again with as much strength as he could muster, and yet despite pushing the alicorn a good two meters, the immortal stopped it with his bare arm.
The alicorn pushed him back once more with ease. Huffing in annoyance, the naga rushed in with a fury of multiple swipes, no longer caring how much strength as much as determined to push the alicorn into a fall.
Blood Diamond had come for a fight, covered in armor from head to toe, and yet it was his bare armorless arms that were doing the blocking. No, Dim knew something was very wrong here. The axe was dripping dark indigo blood and yet the alicorn gave no care to this, continuing to fight back with bare hands alone.
Dim jumped back one final time and demanded. "You mock us and yet wonder why we want this war!!"
"Mock you? I'm testing your resolve."
"My resolve..." He lifted his axe and showed the blood to his soldiers. "Such unique blood, can your own resolve out last our's?" Dim leered at his soldiers, giving them every reason to rush in.
Blood Diamond jumped back as the blades fell and slashed. Now he was dodging instead of brushing away. It was as Dim realized. He wasn't sure how the alicorn was stopping his attacks before, but with this onslaught, it was clear it wasn't through strength. He suspected it had to be another trick, but what?
Taking a deep breath inward, the naga brought in his axe. It was time he stopped fighting fairly. He swung and chopped off his useless limb. He then lifted the remains of the limb and gritted his teeth, letting out the air in a roar of frustration as he channeled all of his muscle strength to that single stub until the blood stopped flowing.
Some of his more wounded soldiers watched on with pride as he grew a new arm. However, he was far from done. He gripped the axe with both the new hand and the old hand and pulled in both directions. The axe split in two. He brought the new weapons out to the furthest reach of his limbs and roared aloud. He took in more air and, much to the shock of his allies, his two arms split open and into four arms, each now wielding an axe.
The naga dropped to a knee but pushed through the pain into a stance. He knew to do this brought an incredible strain on his body, but he needed to push himself to defeat this enemy. He knew sincerely that his princess couldn't fight this enemy ever. Blood Diamond had to die here or else he couldn't face the princess ever again.
Kicking at the ground to move, he rushed in as the soldiers gave their commander room. The first hit landed on the armor, finally bring Blood Diamond down to a knee. Despite hitting the armor, the naga smiled and swung with his right upper arm, aiming for the head.
The alicorn gritted and brought of his wing to block. The axe tore into feathers but stopped. Dim sneered and swung with his left upper arm. The alicorn met this with the block of his wing. Taking offensive back, the alicorn punched the naga in the gut, tearing through scales.
Dim jumped back, swung an axe into the arm, finally breaking it. He was happy to finally break something, but would have preferred to take the arm entirely. However, the hope faded as his axe shattered at the same moment. This single move brought an abrupt halt to the battle. The naga wanted to question it, but the halt was only so short as Blood Diamond did the shocking thing over shoving his exposed bone right through Dim's chest.
The soldiers all jumped back as the blood splattered. Dim himself stood still, both in fear and pain. He wasn't dead, but even more shocked that bone could somehow break through his armor-like flesh so easily.
Blood Diamond grimaced at his own pain and jumped back. "Damn, just two inches from your heart. That is a tough hide." He looked at his broken arm and, with little care, snapped the bone back into place. "We shouldn't have any concern about any disease of your kind, right? Not really details needed for us. Our brother is such a clean freak."
Dim brought a hand over and crushed the armor closed. Healing would have to wait. He sneered at Blood Diamond's carelessness toward his busted arm and held a single weapon forward. "Surrender now, and we will make your death quick." He finally saw his chance to end this. He always hated this war and never wanted it ever.
Blood Diamond looked back to his arm and, for a moment, almost considered the naga's words. "You truly are the most honorable, loyal, and strongest of the unicorn ranks." Blood Diamond couldn't lie on any of these accounts. "However, you lack foresight."
"What do you mean?"
Blood Diamond stood up and held his hands out to the surrounding soldiers. "You think simply because we are broken that this war is over."
"You are done." Dim dropped his weapon, and the others took this as a sign to move in and finish it. "We don't lack a foresight for simply fighting you, we fight you because... I fight you because I wish to save my princess."
"A truly honorable reason. However, fighting us wasn't what we meant by a lack of foresight." Blood Diamond finally chuckled. This lone sign of happiness brought chills to the naga as he brought up his own weapons and closed in.
"Then, tell me, what was my lack of foresight?" He brought his axes right to the throat of Blood Diamond.
"Assuming you had the advantage against one fighter." Blood Diamond moved his neck right against the sharp edge. "You quickly forgot as soon as you had me captured in these towers the obvious truth."
"What? Tell me?!"
"You can't have an advantage in two fighters when only one is pinned down." Blood Diamond leered his eyes up to the clouds that had been above them this whole time.
Dim's eyes slowly followed Blood Diamond's warning and finally realized the rain, or rather, where it was and where it wasn't. It was raining all over the towers... and not once touching the capital at all.
A single cloud that had appeared this morning and watched the battle between Twilight and Princess Platinum... and finally fell as Twilight entered the tower and they started moving the magic dampers into place.
The naga's eyes went wide at the truth, but it was too late as water rushed around them at high speed. The naga attempted to fight the rushing liquid as it quickly wrapped around them, pushing them far away from Blood Diamond and taking the magical dampers with them, breaking the magic blocking circle entirely in a single move.
Dim stabbed his axes into the ground to stop himself as water level lowered and showed what he realized. Now standing beside Blood Diamond was the siren, Cold Blue. The siren had been playing his ocarina dagger and before the naga had assumed its purpose was for something else, but it was always to control the water, the rain as it fell.
Blood Diamond had outsmarted them from the very beginning. With this example, the alicorn proved he knew every point of the plan and even how to outsmart the dampers, as their greatest weakness was their lack of ability to stop magic already in effect.
The naga only had one last question. "Why now?" he openly spoke aloud, demanding an answer clearly.
The remaining soldiers took stock and their surroundings to re-circle around the two enemies. Seeing Blood Diamond finally charging magic, the unicorns formed a barrier of magic with their circle. They were stopped for a moment as Blood Diamond's blast halted them in place.
"Why, now?!" The naga repeated louder.
Blood Diamond opened his mouth but again didn't answer, instead a single spell was uttered, "Forbidden Spell, no number, Crystal Bullet." In an instant, blood splattered from every single unicorn between the alicorn and the naga, a massive shockwave threw the rest to the side and shattered the barrier so easily. The naga had no time to react as endless pain tore through his body.
A bullet size crystal shot out from Blood Diamond's sleeve. That was the only purpose of the spell. And yet this spell continued to rip through everything in its path; cutting through every pony, wall, building, and even airship within three-mile. A single ever so small hole could be seen through all of them.
Dim fell to the ground, a gash now covering his left jaw where the air current alone had cut through his flesh. Horror traced over his mind as he knew full well that if the prince had aimed directly at him, his head would have been gone at that moment.
Blood Diamond opened his mouth and finally answered. "We told you from the beginning, we wish to see your resolve... and now it has been broken. For nothing breaks hope more than holding it for a single second before defeat." As he said, the unicorns around the naga dropped their weapons.
Dim felt his fingers shaking to hold his weapons, not in pain but absolute fear. His whole body was now creaking, not from a loss of strength from the tough battle but simply because, despite how much he wanted to deny it, this would never be a victory.
The naga dropped to a knee as shame finally out-powered his fear. The alicorn clapped to this and turned away. "You want your war, then you shall have it, but know this very important thing; mortals hold no gamble toward the immortals that stand above them and the proof is in their resolve. The only one on your side with resolve still standing strong is the alicorn your princess lost to. Look to her now, for only she can save you from our wrath." With that, the alicorn and the siren took their leave.
Dim's eyes went wide as he spoke a single name. "Twilight Sparkle."
******
The inside of the invisible orb in the center of the towers quickly filled with sprays of water as the whirlpool got bigger and bigger. Starswirl moved his magic as fast as he could. Even with the advantage of being a splendid swimmer, the filly couldn't out paste the power of the wizard.
And yet Starswirl was wondering a very important question, "Just why didn't you claim it before I got here?" The siren filly didn't answer and swam closer to the lather. Starswirl moved his hands and pulled the filly away. "That won't work."
"Oh, you doubt me!" The controller spoke with confidence. Without warning, the siren's limbs moved faster, the body twisted and kicked harder through the air.
Starswirl's frustration was evident. He knew exactly what the alicorn was doing, pushing the filly's body beyond her limits. "Stop this." He moved his fingers to alter the spell and used the spinning water to grab the filly.
However, the filly thrashed her body around with harsher moves. The rushing water against her fight tore at the pelt and her clothes. Starswirl's annoyance pushed him to end this faster, but the alicorn was using this anger against the wizard, pushing the filly reckless until she broke free completely.
Starswirl's eyes went wide as he dropped the spell completely. The filly had gotten free but by breaking her arms. Bones laid exposed as the controller forced her to stand.
"Stop this, she is in so much pain." Starswirl pointed to her tears. Despite the alicorn's absolute control, the wizard could see the agony plastered over her face.
The controller refused to listen and forced the filly to rush toward the alathar directly. Rushing over the pool, it turned a harsh red with each step. Kicking with just her feet, the filly reached out with her teeth to grab the alathar.
However, the alathar, as if reacting to the horror, blasted the filly away with little effort, perfectly landing her body in front of Starswirl. The controller attempted to force the filly to stand, but it was pointless. The body was now beyond moving.
Shame clouded the wizard as he reached down to the filly. He checked her pulse and despite the agony; she was still alive. The wizard snapped his fingers and clouds surrounded her body. "I'm sorry little one, this is the best I can do."
"No..." The voice of the controller was still so strong. Fighting back with pulses of magic, shooting out from the filly's body.
Starswirl's shame turned to anger, the first genuine anger he had shown in a long time. "Now I see." Chaos magic sparked from the wizard and he sent a dark glare to the filly's eyes and the controller watching through them.
The chaos magic stabilized and formed the shape of a serpent with a single deer's horn and a single goat's horn. The controller saw this and brought out his own avatar through the filly's tweaking magic. The shape of a mighty alicorn with a crooked horn.
The two images clashed with mighty forces that shook the entire orb to the point of cracking. The two were at a stalemate and yet neither halted. The image of the serpent pulled back and Starswirl spoke. "I don't know your name, nor do I know your power. However, I know this," he raised his voice, "You bring shame to all alicorns. Even the lower fakes like Twilight are far better than you could ever be." The serpent glowed brighter and grew bigger.
The alicorn's avatar spoke this time instead of the filly, "I was one of the first alicorns to ever exist and yet this claim is perfect as the alicorn after I bring me shame." He attempted to grow the avatar to a similar size and charged forward.
"One of the oldest, huh? Fine, face the oldest unicorn to ever live." Starswirl sent the serpent forward.
"And what is your name?" The two clashed with the greatest force yet, sending out shockwave after shockwave. "This power you use is not of a unicorn."
"I am Starswirl the Bearded. and while I'm no normal unicorn, I stand here as the strongest chaos unicorn of them all." With that, Starswirl's eyes narrowed and turned yellow and red. In that same moment, the power of the serpent reached its highest, pushing the avatar away and right into the alathar's pedestal.
The crash sent out a final shockwave, which smashed the walls of the invisible orb, destroying the structure in an instant. This action also tumbled the remaining towers as well.
******
Twilight woke up with a harsh headache. The rush of the fall was still swimming through her head, making movement sluggish. She dropped to one knee and fought her dizziness to stand. She wasn't sure what fully happened after the fall, but she was glad to be alive. However, this joy was short-lived at the sight of all the towers destroyed. She was now inside a pile of rubble, surrounded by so much more rubble.
She crawled to the edge of a window and the sight of crystal spikes pointing outward in the distance. She assumed this had to of been where Blood Diamond landed. She couldn't get a good sight of what was happening, only that the battle appeared to have ended. Which was the victor was unclear, but what was clear was many unicorns were injured and some were even dead.
She fought through the pain and attempted to stand. She stopped at the feeling of liquid below her. Fearing the worse she searched her body, but no wounds could be felt. She looked down to the liquid and its color didn't match her slowly dark maroon blood and instead was a bright crimson.
She turned away to search for the source. Her eyes went wide at the sight of Starlight, stabbed through the hip by a piece of rebar. "No, no, no!" she rushed over. Fighting through her own aching pain, she reached the body and shook an arm, hoping for some life. "No, you can't die here!!"
"Shut up, Teach..." Starlight coughed hard. The unicorn attempted to stand, but despite the rebar not being locked in place, it was far too heavy to lift without causing damage to the body.
"Stop moving," Twilight pushed her back down. "You could rip your insides open."
Starlight looked to where the rebar was impaled, "Ha, just a full foot to the left, and Silver Pear could finally say he's penetrated me."
"He threw you?"
"Oh stop, there was no way of knowing where I would land. Besides, I couldn't let you die, Teacher." Starlight smiled through her grimace.
"I'm supposed to be protecting you and you pull this." Twilight pulled away, shame clouding her eyes.
"Don't be like that. You have been doubting me ever since you heard that prophecy." Starlight slapped Twilight in the face. "Someone still needs to teach me, right?"
"... Yeah." Twilight cupped her face.
Before they could catch their breath, soldiers arrived and surrounded them. Dim, the loyal naga even in his weakened form walked over to Twilight. She attempted to question why they were here, only for him to pull his axe up to her throat.
"You will not speak... alicorn." The naga's rage was clear. "You are placed under arrest for deception and alliance with Blood Diamond."
"What?" Starlight struggled, but blades rose to stop her, blocking her movement. "You can't do this. She's not an alicorn?"
Twilight drapped out her wings for all to see. "No, there is no reason to lie anymore." She held out her hands. "I will leave if you get a healer for my friend."
"What? Teacher, you can't do this?!" Starlight shouted.
"I must. Blood Diamond saw through my disguise from the moment he saw me. It's obvious he told them." She turned away from Starlight, looked to the naga. "Please, save her."
Dim gritted his teeth but gave in at the sight of her wounds. "We will save her. And then you will face my princess's judgment."
With that, two soldiers and Dim took Twilight away while the rest stayed behind and attempted to break the rebar apart without hurting Starlight for lighter transport.
As Twilight was taken away, Starlight reached out with as might as she could muster, but the pain from her wound was too great. She had to save Twilight from death, but she couldn't save her from this. And yet she knew her teacher's lies would eventually catch up with her. She stopped struggling and gritted her teeth in shame.
She dropped her hand to one side, only to jump back at a sharp pain that felt different from the rebar stabbed through her. She turned as best she could and saw a large piece of glass sitting beside her.
"No, this is..." She stopped as she could feel the magic emanating off it. She placed her hand over it and pulled on what magic she could from herself.
******
Miles away within a crystal airship, Blood Diamond frowned as one of the many images he had been watching went to static. He waved his hand over it and the image moved to the center and grew to twice its size. "That is odd. We thought none of them noticed our crystals among the explosion." He twisted his hand, and the image moved backward and showed a unicorn hand covering it before static took over. "Strange to encounter magic that can match our own." He rewound further until he came across the image of Twilight.
He sensed a chill from Cold Blue who had been watching with him since they arrived in the airship. He turned to Cold Blue, whose sight was intently centered on Twilight. "Just what is your connection with this mare?"
"I..." Cold Blue didn't know how to answer this as he turned to face Blood Diamond.
"Answer us this time. You pushed it away before, but we must know now."
"The power... of the ascension that she obtained."
Blood Diamond raised an eyebrow at this. "Hmm, that power of malice and hatred. Such darkness shouldn't be praised."
"But... her darkness is..."
"Like your own, indeed. Which is why she must be ignored." Blood Diamond turned back to the images and snapped his fingers. The static shattered as the crystal turned to dust. He turned his attention to other images and gave his last word "We need to keep our mind on the true target."
"Fine..." Cold Blue looked away before exiting the room.
Once the siren was gone, Blood Diamond let go of his breath in a show of annoyance. He didn't mind Cold Blue sight toward Twilight. There were other reasons he felt the siren was distracted. For two years now the siren had been taking breaks after breaks and sure he had been doing these breaks for over five thousand years now, it had been as frequently as recently. "We don't why we took Cold Blue over Rex."
"Because my former student is rather determined to do things his own way." A shadow answered. "By the way, I see you didn't hesitate to take my airship."
Blood Diamond smiled at the shadow. "Of course, we knew you would bring me good news, Stygian."
"Yes," The shadowy unicorn surfaced out of the shadow and present a large picture to Blood Diamond. "But I'm not sure if this would be good news."
"An image of Lady Mass Hysteria. What could this provide?" Blood Diamond waved it away. While he had never met the mare in person, he had heard plenty of the former warrior before arriving in the capital.
"This isn't just any image of her. This is the last image." Stygian moved his hands over the shadows and they brought the picture closer.
Blood Diamond humored the unicorn and looked at the picture. For a moment, all he saw was the same as before, a legendary warrior who brought kingdoms to their knees turned into a loyal soldier of the unicorn crown before finally marrying into that very family. Nothing of this picture brought anything new to his thoughts until his eyes fell on the arms.
The sight of blackening veins traced over both limbs. He looked back to his own arms, still torn from the wounds of battle, only being kept closed through magic to ensure his survival until they returned to the alicorn citadel. His eyes traced over the dark indigo blue staining his fur. His sight went wide, and he turned back to the image.
Her vein was dark, too dark to see the color. "She was a user of what magic?' he waved his hand over the picture and crystals flew over it, intensifying the image over and over until the correct color was clear. “...Maroon red... Dark magic!"
"Yes, I thought so," Stygian confirmed. "This changes everything."
Blood Diamond smiled, "It certainly does."
******
Back in the rubble of the towers, Starswirl lifted several chunks of rocks with ease and smiled at the sight of the siren filly. Content filled his heart when he sensed the alicorn's present was gone. He snapped his fingers and reformed the cloud he had cushioned her with, and lifted her into the air.
He turned and shouted to Lady Cat and Fredricson, who had come all this way to search with him. "Bring Adagio, quickly."
The orange siren filly heard those words and rushed over. She cheered for joy at the sight of her sister. Fredricson broke down into tears at the sight of his son's pelt. Despite the horrible things that had been done to it, he was glad the defilement had ended.
Starswirl backed away and let them enjoy their happiness. He turned in the alathar's direction and saw Clover and Rex staring at the pedestal. He walked closer and asked, "So why couldn't he claim the gift of Chrystal Laylis?"
Rex frowned. "Because this isn't the alathar that she left here." he placed his hand over the pedestal and the alathar rose from the waters with ease. "See, the Tear of The Sky is aqua chrysoprase. However, this crystal is a red beryl."
"Which means a mind controlled could never take a grasp of this," Clover confirmed. "This is the legendary Eye of the King."
"It's power, Absolute Command, bends followers of the holder to its will and nullifies any opposing commands toward the holder."
Starswirl wrapped the alathar in a tight magic grip. "So as soon as the filly took hold of it, the controller grip broke. If only for a moment, it was enough to make him panic and either wait for me to appear or rush in with little thought."
"Exactly." Rex grimaced. "But at least we now have another alathar of our."
With that, they attempted to take their leave. However, Silver Pear ran up to them to deliver the bad news about Twilight and Starlight. Hearing his words changed everything. Plans would have to change, some for the best, others for the worse.
******