Exile. The term used to describe the expatriation of a pony or creature from their native country. Twilight was restricted from both Psera and Equestria. Sanctuary anywhere else was impossible. All the countries she's helped have denied even visitation rights. Asylum, no. It was impossible. She would be alone from here on out.
Her demeanor was calm and collected when her sentence was passed, the actions of a true professional. Her daughter wanted to raise the depths of Tartarus upon all the ponies of IHT and Psera. It was clear she would never forget their traitorous actions against the pony who gave them land and a safe world to sleep in. She glared up to the panel of judges when the gavel was banged.
Judge Berry ordered, "We will give you a twenty-minute peace period before you must leave this ice sheet. Court adjourned." The gavel was banged one last time, ending the trial and finalizing the sentence.
The Elite Guards unlocked Twilight's hooves and untied her wings, freeing her from their prison. Dawn speared into her mother for a hug once more.
"I'll come with you," she offered into her coat. "I go where you go. They don't need us here."
Twilight firmly shook her head. "No, Dawn. Nothing would make me happier than having you by my side. But it wouldn't be safe for you. You wouldn't be happy and..."
Twilight pulled back and guided her daughter away from all the eyes and attention. They walked to the edge of the sheet, where the seawater splashed upon their hooves.
"The world needs you now, Dawn." Twilight bent low and raised her hoof over the waves. "I have already gave them my warnings."
Right. The arrival of Narmeelah. She snarled behind her to the ponies and creatures watching and leaving their seats. "I don't want to say a word to them. I don't even want to look at them."
Dawn has always been a strong pony who easily holds a grudge. As her mother, she's witnessed Dawn's, what Madun called, Angry Days. A full week of fury and issues. Teen angst and frustration.
"I know you worry for me, Dawn. But don't." She wasn't listening. Twilight leaned up and nudged the back of Dawn's head. She turned around and faced Twilight's oddly confident expression. As if she knew what they were going to do. "I'll be fine."
That smirk. Those eyes suddenly full of life. She had a plan. Same ol' mom. Dawn looked back to the stand briefly. They didn't notice. She whispered, "What did you do?"
"I followed the laws of nature." She gestured for Dawn to follow her back to the edge of the ice sheet. They both bent low and stared at the water dancing with gravity and life. Twilight raised her hoof over the water, preparing for a motion. "Magic. An element of unknown caliber as strong as life itself. Thought to be obtained through various forms of relics and power. I am the only one who truly knows where it comes from."
Twilight waited until the right moment. Then suddenly lashed out at the waves and threw onto the ice sheet a fish that made Dawn jump a mile in the air. It wasn't big by any means. But its sudden arrival certainly was a fright.
"Magic is everywhere. It flows through every life form and surface in various quantities." She reached down to the flopping fish and pinned it to the ice. "Now, we can either steal it and use it for ourselves like monsters..."
Twilight slowly lifted up her hoof. The fish began floating in the air. Her horn, hooves, or wings weren't illuminated. How was she...
"Or we can control it."
"How are you doing that?" Dawn whispered.
"Magic is everywhere Dawn. But more importantly, my magic is everywhere." Twilight chuckled and whispered, "You think I didn't have a backup plan? It was my magic that created all of their lands. It is my magic that powers even the lights of Psera. Their homes, their vehicles, their buildings, their clouds. Equestria? Their earth is my magic. So is Mount Aris, Saddle Arabia, all of IHT, healed with my magic, protected with my magic, and by my magic."
Twilight threw the fish back in the water and watched it swim in little circles. "But magic is conscious. Once it realizes that its owner is in bad health or pain..." The fish turned around and swam back to where Twilight stood. It jumped out of the water and flopped at her hooves. "It will return."
Twilight looked back to Dawn. "Because of their damnation and the stealing of my magic, all of my magic I gave to them will return to me. Their technology, their security, their energy, their homes, their soil. It will be no more. And not because I'm taking it back on purpose. It will render all of them defenseless and nearly homeless, giving Narmeelah the perfect window to what she is searching for on Psera."
"Which is what exactly?"
The million bit question. "I don't know. Her power, her magic, her control. Her sanctum maybe. A sacred location where she can grow to who she truly is and tap into her true power. If she reaches that sanctum . . . I fear for what will become of the world." Twilight looked back and saw a few ponies approaching. The last ponies she ever wanted to speak to.
She lowered her voice. "Dawn, you must find a way to defeat Narmeelah by the time my magic returns. You and I both know that she is going to reach her sanctum. She's going to show herself, and she is going to begin her process. I am no longer an option. It's up to them now."
"I got your map and I got your secret weapon."
The one she buried years ago. "Good. Now you will need to get to the Diary of Narmeelah. With it, you can figure out her plan. Psera's security will be dropping in a few days. There will be no one to stop you."
Arcadia pulled Dawn into a tight hug. "You're Equus' last hope, Dawn. We're counting on you."
Their conversation was interrupted by Celestia and a few of Equestria and Psera's Royalty. "Twilight? A moment?"
Dawn raised her hoof and stood between them and Twilight. She made the sound of a buzzer with her mouth. "Whoa! Stop! No! You've already had your moment and words with my mother and they were to kick her off her own homeland. So go stuff 'em. It's my turn."
First Light was in agreement. "Yeah, go buck yourselves!!"
"Dawn," Twilight lightly scolded. "Light. Please."
Dawn harrumphed and stepped to the side. Just enough so she could watch and hear them. The sentiment was not lost. The bond between this family was no more. What used to be a sweet berry was now an acidic lemon.
Cadance said, "Your daughter truly loves you."
"What do you want?" Twilight asked. "Do not think for a second I'm willing to spend the last twenty minutes on a floating ice block talking with the ponies who want me to swim instead of float."
Shining stepped forward and said, "I'm going to miss you, Twilight."
He tried going in for a hug but Dawn's wing denied him. "Nope. Not happening. Forget it. You could've hugged her all you wanted to in her prison, warden. But you wait until now? You don't care."
Shining was about to say something but Twilight beat him. "She's right." Her eyes narrowed. "You don't care. You didn't even give me a boat. You may miss me, but I will never miss you. Turn around and walk away. All of you. I'm going to spend the last few minutes of my life amongst civilization with the last true family I have."
Twilight placed her wing upon Dawn's back and turned her around while they backed away. "Dawn, I want you to grow up into a strong pony. Whoever you decide to love, that is up to you."
Whoa, what? How did they go from that to this? Dawn blushed and looked away. "Mom, come on."
"No, no, listen to me. Be safe and keep it healthy."
"Mom, I don't get sick. And can I even have kids?"
"I . . . don't know." Twilight offered her a supportive smile. "But when you see me again, I'll have an answer for you."
"Or I could just find out."
"No."
Dawn giggled at her mother's face. How she quickly switched. "I was joking mom. I'm not interested in anyone."
Hopefully it would stay that way. "Our time is almost up. Do not worry for where I'll be, for it'll be in paradise, where I'll be the only pony with a front row seat."
She removed her wing from Dawn's back And walked to the water. She dipped her hoof and tapped into place an invisible rune. Stepping into the magic that was already there. Once drawn, it flashed briefly and disappeared just as fast.
Now came the moment. Twilight's departure. All of them gathered behind Dawn, watching her stand before them. "You may think this is the last time you'll see me. You may think that this is the last time I'll ever be seen. The last time I'll ever be the strongest pony to ever live. That you'll never need me again. Fine. Think what you want.
"But remember this." A sudden burst of water blew from the sea and sprayed onto the crowd. A whale. A massive one that towered over then all.
"...What...how..." Celestia focused on Twilight. Did she still have her magic?! They carried off gallons of that stuff daily and she had more?! Twilight turned around and jumped up to the top of the whale, riding it like a vehicle.
"Magic is everywhere. My magic is everywhere. I am forever connected to it. You may have taken the magic from my body, but in a few days, no one will have any when darkness plagues your lands. An ancient evil shall rise. And now, with me gone, she will finally take action. You now have to defend yourselves. Good luck."
She looked directly at Celestia. Electricity crackled between them. "Thirty cycles," she said.
Her words were spoken. The final sentences. She looked down to Dawn. "I love you, Fresh Dawn, my little First Light."
Dawn waved and wiped away a tear. "We love you too, mommy."
That's all she needed to hear. Twilight looked back to the whale and patted it's back. "Ho'sha!"
The whale lifted its body and dived under the waves. Twilight held her breath and fell under with it. They turned and came back up for air, with Twilight on his back glowing a neon violet as bright as the sun. Magic. The water. She had a plan! This whole time! If they weren't sure before, Twilight looking back over her shoulder was an indication.
Cadance pointed at her and looked to Dawn. "Did you know about this?"
Ugh, really? Dawn rolled her eyes and turned to face them. "It's Twilight Sparkle. The same pony who fought Maheera Dark, Tirek, and Psera's military. You thought she didn't have a backup plan? Mom's magic is everywhere. If you want to get rid of it, you'll have to drain the oceans and all of your water supply. Because that's hers too."
Dawn walked through the crowd with security by her side. "Take me back to the castle, please. I have a lot of work to do."
Wow. They actually did it. Narmeelah has never seen such a foolish act. So many warnings, so many chances. But there it was before Mimi on a news channel. Twilight "Arcadia Nova" Sparkle Exiled. There was no place safe for her. All of them kicked Twilight out. A shot of her riding on the back of a whale was all they had left of her face. They even took her magic. At least from her body.
Mimi pulled herself away from the storefront's display screen and continued through the streets of Cop. She remembered a time when the Pserateps would think. But now, they depended upon her power. All of them did. No more will that be the case. Where in Psera was her sanctum?
It wasn't in the castle, that was the first Well. And it certainly wasn't in the north. It had to be here in Cop. Directly in the center of the Mountain Ring as was her image. And directly in the center of that was some centre with moving images on its glass that shone bright over the Castle of Cop. Entertainment that even the royalty could watch over during the nights.
It was in the way.
Mimi walked up its steps for the entrance with a pep. She regarded the security at the entrance with a curt nod before entering inside into an atrium, busy with activity. Directly in front of her was a security desk she walked up to. A mare in casual clothing looked up from her computer.
"Hello," she greeted. "How can I help you today?"
Mimi smiled back. Her eyes changed from their icy blue to the makings of the world. Filling this mare with wonder, information, and power she's never known.
"Take me to your basement."
"...yes, your majesty." She stood up from her seat, grabbed a pair of keys from a drawer and walked out from behind the station. "This way please."
She lead Mimi over to a side door reading "Service." With a turn of a key, she guided her into the building's innards away from the public eye. Where the pipes serving all of the energy through the building came through. Where the ceilings were low, where colors were absent, and the growl of an engine and the hissing of steam drowned out the commotion beyond the walls that separated them from the rest. They travelled these halls and treaded further into the darkness.
Mimi's escort looked back with the smile of a foal. "It is an honor to have you amongst us once more, Goddess!"
Mimi hummed in thought. Her eyes tracked the pipes overhead. "Hmm, I'm afraid I can't return your emotion. I am frustrated with what Psera has done. Has all of what I taught you been a waste of breath?"
The escort's smile dropped and she dropped her head. "I apologize for the rest of us, Allcreator. We will do better."
"No, you will not. Take me to my Sanctum."
The journey lead them downstairs deeper into the darkness beneath Psera's Press Center. Where no one else could see, to a storage locker as big as the Atrium above. The door was opened and the escort genuflected before Narmeelah, allowing her access first before herself.
Here it was, her sanctum, infested with what the Pserateps didn't need. Statues, old wood, chairs, benches, tools. Look at the knowledge of her ponies. Look at what they have created and overcome. But thanks to foolish curiosities and worry, they now have created too much, interacted with too many.
With a wave of Mimi's wing, all of it was gone, leaving an empty concrete space. Her eyes filled with the galaxy they lived in locked in on the center of the floor. That's where it was.
She walked closer and jammed her hoof down into the space. In the shape of a circle surrounding her, the floor shattered. Shards of concrete were brushed aside to reveal what lied beneath her. A rune as big as the room. Cut into the dirt it created an eight pointed star with lines. With a tap, it illuminated. Material that wasn't there before transmogrified into reality. A throne made of gold reaching for the skies above them sat directly in the rune. That was all she would need.
She walked to what was hers and sat down, facing the door and the mare bowing inside of it. "Begone, my child," she told them. "Grab your offspring and flee. For the coming weeks will not be pretty."
"Y-Yes, Goddess!" She turned around and bolted, leaving the door to shut Narmeelah into the darkness. Her green coat changed into a translucent body, more ethereal than any could have expected to see. Her eyes stayed the same, her mane made of stars and celestial gasses that twisted and turned at the simplest change of wind.
The massive rune beneath her activated, absorbing her magic and bringing light to the room. It wouldn't activate fully just yet, Arcadia's magic had to leave first. Curse the brain of her relative. Even through exile she still managed to slow her plans. But it was still too late. These ponies didn't believe her. They barely even cared that she was gone. All would go as planned, no matter what she did.
Narmeelah spread out her wings and stared ahead with a smirk on her face. This would happen, one way or the other. Then, they could try again.
She was gone now. No more Twilight. They watched her ride off into the sea upon the back of a whale, glowing with magic. She somehow had more. But how? Did she store magic in the ocean? How was that even possible? Secrets by Twilight Sparkle were now in their hooves, at the port of Las Pegasus being unloaded to Equestria. All of Twilight's texts . . . They were theirs now. They could find the answers.
But at a clear loss. Fresh Dawn. The hate she felt for them excelled all boundaries. A potential relationship with a powerful country, a dream torn to shreds by a filly, the daughter of the pony they just banished, heir to Psera's next seat of power. It took Twilight to calm her down. Anyone else, they knew it would be fruitless.
During the flight back over the seas of Psera in their helicopters, Cadance thought about all of this.
"Were we too harsh?" She asked.
Luna looked to her from the seas outside. "Too harsh?"
"Dawn was right that Twilight gave us all we have today. If it wasn't for her, there would be no Equestria. There would barely be an Equus."
Celestia sighed through her nose and responded as reasonably as possible. "Twilight Sparkle misused her magic for evil."
"Was that worth not seeing her ever again?"
"She also killed for magic. She took lives before our very eyes, and we would have been next. I worry for what would happen shall her magic be misused again. Would she strike in vengeance? Would she take matters into her own hooves? Would Queen Arcadia emerge again and take over? There is no way to tell."
Cadance looked to Shining Armor for backup. But he simply shook his head. There was no point; the decision was passed. But Cadance wasn't going to just let it go without knowing their reasons.
"Maybe she just needed to be audited," she suggested. "She's spent so much time as a soldier, fighting dark magic in a tomb rather than actually living her life."
Luna closed her eyes and solemnly shook her head. "It doesn't matter now. She's gone."
"We can find her."
"How, Cadance?" They were approaching the beaches of Las Pegasus where an Aquata waited for them. The boatload of Twilight "Arcadia Nova" Sparkle's tomes. From light magic to dark magic. "Twilight Sparkle is gone. You saw her ride off into the sea. There's no telling where she is at this point."
Cadance looked out the window to the beach. "If I had to hazard a guess, she's already found a place years prior to this event. Twilight's extremely proactive. She plans for every outcome. I'm sure she's reached it by now, watching the waves span out before her. As a matter of fact, I'm sure she has plan in the event that her previous one went south."
Flurry listened to the conversation. From Celestia's words directly next to her, to her mother's from across. Watching and waiting for somepony to say it. But no, they dodged over it. it looks like she had to be the one to speak up.
"We should investigate what Aunt Twilight said."
All eyes turned to her. "About what?" Shining asked.
"Thirty days." She looked to Celestia, the pony Twilight spoke to directly. "What was she talking about? She said we wouldn't have magic."
"Apparently, your aunt has been researching societies and civilizations as old as Psera. She came across different ruins and texts along walls she translated upon reaching Psera to decipher messages written within Narmeelah's Diary, which the Pserateps have. All of what she said were translated words from Narmeelah's diary."
"Then shouldn't we take them seriously?"
The helicopters began lowering upon the Psera-Equestria Trade Facility, dropping onto a courtyard now active with the transfer of numerous tomes still being unloaded from the Aquata. They were stashed in boxes and lowered onto a conveyor belt feeding onto a chariot. Those would be taken all the way from here to the Friendship Express to be shipped to The Crystal Empire. Away from the castle and deep into the security of Equestria's most forbidden zone. The only way in and out would be by train, lest you wanted to freeze to death.
The knowledge within those texts must've been magnificently fruitful. It felt wrong to take these from Psera. But the less texts that Twilight Sparkle had access to, the better.
"We'll always take what Twilight says seriously," Celestia answered. Her hoof felt along the top of a box before it was lifted and placed on a conveyor belt leading into the warehouse. "But we also have little to go on except her word. That is never enough. We will regard her warnings, but until we have more to go on, we can only be cautious of any changes and oddities. We cannot send mages out searching for something that even we have yet to identify."
That made sense. They needed strong evidence to act. Flurry watched them lift another box of Aunt Twilight's books onto the belt. "And what about Dawn?"
"I believe our relationship with Dawn is no longer. Whatever we had before, it's gone."
"Maybe she'll talk to me."
Cadance, Celestia, and Luna looked to each other before turning back to Flurry. Cadance asked, "What would you talk to her about?"
"About Twilight. Maybe she can tell me what she was talking about."
The words of Twilight Sparkle would always remain a mystery. Softer than a butterflies wings, her foreboding words would always be met with silence and confusion. Madun, her late husband and previous King of Psera, was a lot more forward to the real world whereas his widowed wife was more intricate with the stories of the future and present.
Now they had Dawn, a mix of the two. As far as they could tell, easily prone to her anger, a fire that could only be extinguished by her parents' touch. A pony hiding a dark secret alongside her mother and other members of The Crown: after nearly being murdered in the womb, Dawn was resurrected and overwritten by dark magic. Two ponies in one body made of ethereal mass, Princess Fresh Veola Dawn was a walking, breathing, and conscious form of magic. The very first to ever truly walk Equus.
As a consequence, Dawn and Twilight shared an unexplainable bond that clearly went beyond mother and daughter. It was more intimate, more heartfelt. Dawn could feel Twilight's emotions, the strength of her magic, her life force. Dawn was the result of her mother's love for both Madun and magic.
Dawn hated being separated from her mother. She hated it when she was a filly, small enough to fall asleep in one of Madun's hooves. Now, she was big enough to take care of and defend herself. She could speak up, and faust, could she talk. It was plain and clear that Dawn wanted nothing to do with them or Equestria in general.
But between her and Flurry . . . Dawn may actually let her in. She wasn't at all involved in any of the fighting. If anything, she was forced to the background while the adults took the foreground.
Luna, Cadance, and Shining Armor looked to Celestia for guidance. She would be the one to allow that decision. Her face implied she was troubled with the decisions. As if she smelled a very bad scent, she was unsure of what it could entail. But as of this moment, after hearing Twilight's warning of another threat that had the possibility of topping even Psera's defenses, they could take no risks.
"Very well," she decided. "I will allow Flurry Heart to investigate her cousin. I feel Dawn could use some of your spark. Psera is no doubt uncomfortable with her presence, based off the amount of security she herself has away from the Fire Family."