Chapter 6
“How are you feeling, darling?” Rarity asked.
“I do not know,” Twilight Sparkle replied honestly. “I still think that winning the election is doable … but it is going to be close.”
According to the latest poll in the Canterlot Clarion[1], Twilight’s support was getting steadily closer to Sunset Shimmer’s numbers, but she was still eight points short. The election was in four days; she had until then to close that gap and earn enough votes to clinch her victory. With Marcel still holding on to the 18 percent of the vote the Artillery Department gave him, Twilight Sparkle had two strategies going forward: look to Sunset Shimmer’s supporters to gather up more votes and rely on the other Combined Command students to convince the last few holdouts among their followers that they should vote for Twilight instead.
Her friends had all been incredibly helpful, and their continued support for Twilight and dedication to helping her win the Acclamation Crown made her feel almost invincible. However, they still didn’t know what was truly at stake. For them, this election was only a school competition, and they were fighting to dethrone and replace Sunset Shimmer with someone who actually cared about all the military departments. They didn’t know the Crown was the Element of Sorcery or that Twilight’s portal back home would close during the lunar conjunction on the night of the election.
If Twilight didn’t get her Element of Harmony back, there was no telling what Sunset Shimmer might do with it. In all her studies of this world, Twilight hadn’t found any indication that actual magic naturally existed here, but it wasn’t out of the question that Sunset Shimmer had found some way to bring some over from Equus. Her rival’s assertion that Twilight had no idea what the Element of Sorcery truly was continued to bother her. For this world’s version of the Brave Companions (the Gang of Five as they were called; or Gang of Six, now that they’d adopted Twilight into their group), losing a school election to Sunset Shimmer didn’t seem like the end of the world—but Twilight feared that it could be.
“Let’s get back out there, then,” Applejack said, rousing the others as she stood up from the table where they were sitting. “We’ve still got a few days. Sunset Shimmer hasn’t won this yet!”
Twilight had to agree with Applejack; it wasn’t over until the votes had been cast and counted. They still had some time left, and she’d keep working to win enough support to get her Element back. And, if it looked like she wouldn’t win, then she might have to resort to … other methods to retrieve it. Once Dean Luna brought it back from Fort Krahn before the end of term ceremony, a backup plan of stealing it from her office would be more achievable.
As they left the cafeteria, it felt like almost everyone was watching them, though most eyes seemed to be fixed solely on Twilight. That wasn’t entirely unusual since she’d become the rising candidate for student leader and the other Combined Command students had thrown their support behind her … but these looks were different than normal. They weren’t curious or admiring; rather, they were accusatory or suspicious. Twilight was searching for a reason behind this sudden animosity, and it soon dawned on her that wherever there were students glaring at her, there was a newspaper among the group.
“Special edition!” a student carrying a satchel stuffed with newspapers was crying outside of the cafeteria as they exited. “Is there a spy among us?” =
“What’s going on?” Pinkie Pie demanded as she ran up to the student distributing papers.
“Special edition of the Clarion,” he said as he stared past Pinkie at Twilight. “You should give it a read.”
Pinkie snatched the offered paper and quickly returned to her friends waiting over on the path.
“Oh my,” she said as she perused the front page.
“What? What is it?” Twilight asked nervously, and Pinkie passed her the paper to read it herself. The others all gathered around as Twilight unfolded it to read the cover article. The headline was already troubling as it boldly proclaimed “Sigillandic Spy on Campus?”
Twilight Sparkle Haltrotsun. How much do we really know about her? She arrived quite suddenly this term and has since skyrocketed to become a contender for the Acclamation Crown at the end of the term. During her brief stint as a Combined Command student, she’s managed to gain allies in every military department as well as her own Combined Command program. However, should we call them allies—or marks? Twilight Sparkle may not be what she seems. How has she so quickly integrated herself into our academy to where she now has access to every detail about every part of our military? How was she able to progress so rapidly from being completely clueless about the simplest concepts at the start of the term to becoming a serious choice for student leader? Unless, of course, her incompetence at the start of the term was merely an act to draw suspicion away from her. What if she played the part of “Clueless Twilight” so that we would not perceive her true sinister intent?
But if Twilight Sparkle Haltrotsun is here to spy on us, then for whom is she spying? The answer is obvious; she was sent by the Sigillanders to learn everything about our military in order to give them an advantage in a future war. Before you protest our conclusion, please realize this is not a baseless accusation. We at the Canterlot Clarion do our research. Twilight Sparkle bears many signs that identify her as a Sigillander. Her violet eyes, for example, are found only among Sigillanders. Her surname—Haltrotsun—is likewise Sigillandic in origin. Then there is the matter of her dog, which you have undoubtedly seen her walking on the parade grounds or in the forest behind the academy. Has nobody realized that her beloved pet is a Sigillandic Shepherd? This is the same breed of dog used by Sigillandic troops on their patrols of the border, known to rip out the throats of any nearby Haustran. The evidence against Twilight Sparkle Haltrotsun is damning, and doubly so is the judgement on the headmistress and dean of this academy. They allowed her into our ranks, to spy on us right under their noses. This paper will not be silent on such a crime, and we fervently hope that you, the readers, will not be as well. Reject Twilight Sparkle and see that she faces the appropriate punishment for her crimes. We must do this, for the sake of Haustra.
Twilight was speechless. This was far, far worse than the earlier character assassination the paper has published on her. They weren’t just calling for her removal from Canterlot Academy; they were advocating for her imprisonment on charges of espionage. What could she do? Attempting to run would only confirm her alleged guilt, but she couldn’t stay here and be imprisoned, not when the lunar conjunction and the closing of the portal were so near at hand. Perhaps the least of her worries now was that this would severely hamper, if not downright destroy, all her hard work toward winning the Acclamation Crown. Maybe if she hurried, she could break into Luna’s office, try to find her Element, and flee to Equestria.… Twilight realized that her friends were all looking to her as these panicked thoughts ran through her head.
“I-it is not true,” Twilight said feebly. The worst thing one could be in Haustra, she’d learned, was a Sigillander. If her friends believed this article, there was no way they’d continue to stand by her.
“Of course it isn’t, darling,” Rarity tried to comfort her.
“I’m going to see Marcel about this!” Pinkamena announced angrily and stormed off.
As she headed down the path, she met a pair of school guards striding purposefully toward the rest of the Gang of Six. Unlike the facsimile outfits the students wore, their attire were genuine Haustran Army uniforms. Their sidearms were all too real as well, but these were stowed securely in their holsters for the time being.
“Twilight Sparkle Haltrotsun,” one of the guards said as they approached, and the rest of the group clustered around Twilight. “You are to come with us to Dean Astrus’ office immediately.”
“Am I in some sort of trouble?” Twilight asked worriedly.
“Please, just come with us,” the guard repeated as he spotted the newspaper Fluttershy was holding and gestured for Twilight to come with them. His partner placed a hand hesitantly on her sidearm’s holster.
Twilight Sparkle nodded and followed the guards as they led her toward the main lecture hall, one ahead and one behind. There was no getting out of this situation now unless she overpowered the guards, which she knew was not an option. (Just another stinging reminder that she had no magical abilities here, and not even the slightest hint of psionic power as a substitute.) They brought her across the lecture hall’s courtyard, where students pointed and whispered to each other, probably celebrating that a traitor had been caught.
Luna’s office was dark when the trio arrived; the curtains were drawn, and the only sources of light in the room were a lamp on Luna’s desk and whatever shone in from the hallway. Surprisingly, the dean was not the only one in the room. Marcel was also seated before Luna’s desk, and he turned around in his chair as the door opened to admit Twilight.
“What is she doing here?” he demanded as the guards shut the door and Twilight took a seat in the chair next to Marcel.
“What’s the matter, Marcel?” Luna asked annoyedly. “Not willing to say to someone’s face what you print in your paper?”
“Not at all,” Marcel replied heatedly. “She is a Sigillander. A spy!”
“I assure you that Twilight Sparkle Haltrotsun is nothing of the sort,” Luna said as she shuffled the files on her desk. “Are you?”
“Of course not,” Twilight replied, and Marcel looked incredulously back and forth between the dean and Twilight, amazed that she would accept something so simple as sufficient proof.
“Where are you from, Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked.
“Sottsland,” Twilgiht lied.
“And where in Sottsland?” Luna asked, remaining calm and composed while Marcel looked baffled.
“I am from Sarsburgh,” Twilight answered, thinking back to what she’d seen on her transfer paperwork months earlier. She also considered what she’d learned since, which suggested the direction Luna was going with this line of questioning. “It is located in the heart of the Sars, a region in Sottsland where many Sigillanders live. My family may be ethnically Sigillandic, but I owe no allegiance to Sigilland. I am a citizen of Sottsland and a soldier of Haustra.”
“Marcel?” Luna asked, shifting her focus to him.
“I … um,” he replied, taken aback.
“Twilight Sparkle is no Sigillandic spy. She is a student from Sottsland, our ally, who has made incredible progress this term. Such accusations are very dangerous, Marcel. Be careful how you cast them,” Luna said sternly. “Now, I expect you to make things right. I am expected at Fort Krahn, so you have leave to use my office to settle things.”
Luna checked her wristwatch as she rose and grabbed her cap before departing the office, leaving Marcel and Twilight alone in the near darkness.
“I’m … I'm sorry, Twilight Sparkle, for besmirching your name. I should have known it wasn’t true when Sunset Shimmer was the one who gave me that tip,” Marcel said remorsefully. “I was determined to ruin you, to give myself a chance to take the lead against Sunset Shimmer. But that’s no excuse; I see now that went much too far. I hope you can forgive me.”
“Well, that is a good start,” Twilight accepted. “But now all the academy thinks I am a Sigillandic spy.”
“I’ll fix that!” Marcel said passionately, “I’ll print a retraction, and I’ll tell all my followers to vote for you instead of me. It’s the least I can do after accusing you of something that could have seen you severely punished; and it’s what I should have done all along. I’d convinced myself you’d somehow deceived the Gang of Five into following you to gain a backdoor into every department … but that’s not true at all, is it? They follow you, and the other Combined Command students follow you, for a reason. You could be the one to finally bring unity to our fractured academy. Do it, Twilight Sparkle, and defeat Sunset Shimmer for all of us. You’ll find no more suspicion cast your way from me.”
***
With Marcel’s newly gained support, victory again felt within reach; and Twilight Sparkle could finally focus all her attention on preparing for end-of-term exams and ceremonies. If she won the position of student leader, she’d be expected to lead the students on parade through the streets of Wyvern, and while most of the details were decided by the headmistress and dean, some of the decisions were left to the student leader. There would also be a party and dance the last night of the term after the parade, so Twilight had to make preparations for that. She’d read all she could on the upcoming lunar conjunction that would cut off her way home, and it wasn’t set to occur until the late hours of the night. The safest choice would be to return to Equestria as soon as she had the Element of Sorcery back in her possession (before the parade), but if she didn’t want to disrupt this world and arouse suspicion, she’d need to stay for what followed. Besides, she had grown quite fond of this universe’s version of her friends and didn’t want to abandon them so quickly.
The Gang of Five had helped her so much during her time in this strange new world, and they had become just as dear to her as her friends in Equestria. Even so, she knew she would have to leave them eventually, even if she didn’t want to. She had responsibilities back in Equestria that couldn’t be ignored. As dire as the threat of war appeared to the people of this world, her own home faced even greater dangers without the Elements of Harmony and all six of their bearers to protect it.
These thoughts weighed on her mind on the day of the election as the six of them were together in a dressmaker’s shop in Wyvern. It wasn’t the first time that Twilight Sparkle had visited this place. Earlier in the term, when Rarity had learned how lacking Twilight’s wardrobe was outside of her school uniforms, she had been brought here to have more casual attire made for her. However, there was nothing casual about what they were being fitted for today. The end-of-term dance was a strictly formal occasion, and Rarity had insisted on having new dresses made for all of them. Her father was a prominent Haustran textile and arms magnate, and her family owned this dressmaker’s shop, so she was able to provide them all with elaborate gowns free of charge.
“You look worried, Twilight,” Pinkie Pie observed. “What’s the matter? You’ve got this election in the bag!”
“Are you thinking about the summer break? Do you have plans, Twilight?” Applejack asked.
The group had been discussing, among other things, their plans for the week between the end of this term and the beginning of the next. Twilight knew that she wouldn’t be here for it, and Pinkie Pie must have noticed her disappointment.
“Are you going back to Sottsland?” Fluttershy asked.
“I … I … excuse me,” Twilight Sparkle said, and she fled to a changing room.
Spike followed after her, ducking beneath the changing room curtain.
“What is it, Twilight?” Spike whispered. “What’s the matter?”
“I know what must be done, Spike, but I fear that going through with it will cost me dearly. I know that I will need to return to Equestria, but leaving them all behind will be hard,” Twilight said. “I feel that I cannot continue to lie to them anymore. They are my friends; they are not the same individuals as my pony friends in Equestria, but I’ve become connected to them all the same.”
“Then … tell them the truth,” Spike said thoughtfully.
“How can I do that?” Twilight protested. “Either they will think I am crazy, or they will believe me and turn me in to the authorities.”
“Like you said, Twilight, they are your friends. It may be hard for them to understand, but I’m sure they’ll trust it because it’s coming from you,” Spike said. “And if they don’t, then we’ll just have to hurry to Luna’s office, steal back you Element, and book it to the portal.”
“Thank you, Spike,” Twilight said with a smile. “I am glad you’re here with me.”
“Me, too. Well, unless we get trapped here and I have to remain a dog until the next lunar conjunction. I really miss walking on two legs instead of four.”
“Me too, Spike,” Twilight laughed. “Except the other way around.”
When Twilight stepped out of the changing room, Spike sticking close to her ankles, the others were all gathered and looking at her worriedly. Twilight was pleased to see that nobody else was in the room, so she could safely disclose her secret only to those who might understand.
“What’s going on, darling?” Rarity asked concernedly.
“I have something to tell you all,” Twilight said hesitantly. “I am not from Sottsland. Actually, I am …”
“From an alternate world which has yet to progress past the Late Middle Ages and where magic is a real power which you yourself possess and the Acclamation Crown is actually a magical artifact from your world that Sunset Shimmer has stolen and your world is in grave danger unless it’s returned and your way back home will be blocked off after tomorrow night so if you don’t get the crown and return to your world terrible things could happen?” Pinkie Pie rattled off.
“Ignore her,” Rainbow Dash said as Twilight stood stunned. “What were you going to say, Twilight?”
“Actually, she has summarized it rather concisely,” Twilight said, still in shock. “Was that all just a guess?”
“Of course not,” Pinkie Pie said merrily as everyone else’s jaws dropped. “I’m a reporter; I know how to piece things together to get the story. Are you also a royal of some kind?”
“I am crown princess of the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht, yes,” Twilight replied, stupefied. “I am also a … winged … unicorn in my home world.”
“This is a lot to take in,” Applejack said as she looked for a seat.
“Did Spike come from your world as well?” Fluttershy asked as she looked at the puppy seated by Twilight’s feet.
“That’s right,” Spike answered himself, and Rarity shrieked at hearing a dog talk. “And in our world, I’m a fire-breathing dragon!”
“This … is … incredible,” Rainbow Dash said, “You have to tell us all about your world.”
“And you’ve been keeping this to yourself all this time?” Rarity said shakily. “That must have been so difficult for you, darling.”
“Well, no need for it anymore,” Applejack said with a deep breath as she stood back up and the others expressed similar sentiments. Spike gave Twilight a wink.
***
The Gang of Six spent much of their remaining time together questioning Twilight Sparkle on her world, and she felt she could trust them to keep the information secret and her world safe. That wasn’t all they talked about, though, to Twilight’s relief. There was plenty about this world to hold one’s interest, not least of which was the end of the term. The election went as Twilight had hoped, with all her plans paying off. She won the position of student leader, and by a majority[2] at that—something that hadn’t happened at Canterlot Academy in years. On the final day of the term, Headmistress Celestia placed the Acclamation Crown on Twilight’s head, and she could sense that it was the Element of Sorcery once again. Now that she had retrieved it, all that really remained of her mission here was to return home, but she had other duties to fulfill first. After the crowning ceremony, she led the entirety of the student body on parade through the streets of Wyvern. The citizenry had gathered in droves to watch, and they passionately cheered the students while waving red, blue, and white banners.
After the parade came the end-of-term dance, and Twilight exchanged her field uniform for her formal dress. She’d have to leave most of the things in her dormitory behind, but she packed her satchel with everything she’d brought from Equestria, along with as many of her own notes as she could stuff inside. Hopefully she would have time to return to her quarters before heading home, but she decided to store the satchel beneath the statue over the portal in case she had to leave directly from the dance. Twilight had managed to get some lessons in popular Haustran dance styles from Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, so she was able to do fairly well (or at least well enough not make a fool of herself).
Things were going perfectly as Twilight enjoyed the last few hours with her friends, until she heard barking coming from outside. Fearing for Spike’s safety, she hurried outside, followed closely by her friends. It was dark and difficult to see anything, but by the light of the electric lamps along the paths, Twilight could just barely make out the form of someone running to the north while carrying Spike.
“Twilight!” he called as he recognized her.
“Spike!” she yelled and took off after him.
The Gang of Six moved as fast as they could in their gowns along the paths and across the parade grounds, pursuing the figure who was almost certainly Sunset Shimmer. Just what was she trying to accomplish by kidnapping Spike? Was she trying to lead them into a trap? Twilight kept her eyes sharp for ambushes as they ran across the grounds of Canterlot Academy, but it looked like Sunset Shimmer was all alone. It became more difficult to be sure of that when the group reached the academy’s forest and the trees obscured visibility.
The gap had been growing from the start of the chase, since Sunset Shimmer was wearing her field uniform and her legs were unrestricted, but suddenly they were on top of her. She had stopped and turned to face them, and they all pulled up short in front of her. Under the light of this world’s twin moons, which were growing closer in the sky by the minute, they could finally get a good look at Spike’s kidnapper. The puppy was trying to squirm free, but Sunset Shimmer had him tightly clamped under one arm. In her other hand was a knife, and she held it to Spike’s throat as Twilight took a step forward.
“Uh-uh-uh, not so fast,” Sunset Shimmer warned. “If you want your pooch back alive, you’ll have to toss your crown down at my feet first.”
“What do you hope to accomplish by threatening Spike?” Twilight said as she held her ground. “I am the one you have a quarrel with.”
“It’s obvious you care about him, and even if you didn’t, how do you think Ingrirtireth would respond to learning that his son and heir had been murdered? Cant’r Laht would burn. So unless you want that to happen, you’ll give me your crown now!” Sunset Shimmer demanded.
“I do not know what you are planning, but I cannot give you my Element of Harmony,” Twilight said as she watched Spike. “I will not give you the power you seek.”
“Shame for your little friend, then,” Sunset said.
Before she could follow through on her threat, Spike twisted his head and bit down on Sunset Shimmer’s hand. She yelped in pain and Spike was able to break free, falling ungracefully to the ground before running over to Twilight. Now that Sunset had no leverage, the others started to advance toward her, but she pointed her knife out toward them. There was nothing she could do to stop the inevitable, though, and she seemed to realize it. The knife dropped from her limp fingers and she collapsed to her knees, sniffling and panting.
“It’s not fair … not fair,” she mumbled tearily. “It should have been mine all along. Everything you have was meant for me. I was Celestia’s pupil. I should have been crown princess. It should have been me!”
Sunset Shimmer waved her wounded hand, and a blast of light temporarily blinded everyone. When Twilight’s vision returned, Sunset was leaping toward her. She put up her arms to block, but her assailant easily tackled her to the ground. They struggled in the underbrush as Sunset Shimmer tried to grab at Twilight’s head and Twilight tried to hold her off. As the others recovered, they rushed in to pull Sunset off of her, but they weren’t quick enough.
Sunset Shimmer managed to get her fingers around the laurel crown on Twilight’s head, the leaves cutting into her palm, and the world exploded in light for a second time. This blast threw everyone back, and Twilight could sense magic radiating from it in a dark, twisted form. Come to think of it, she’d sensed something similar on a smaller scale when Sunset had first blinded them. She had found some way to use magic here after all, as Twilight had feared.
As the ringing in her ears faded, Twilight Sparkle forced herself to her feet. Her friends all seemed fine as well and unaffected by the blast … unlike the forest. The explosion of magical energy had knocked the nearby trees off-kilter and turned the nearest ones into torches. In the midst of the destruction stood Sunset Shimmer, transformed. Magical energy emanated from her new form; standing twice as tall as a regular person, her yellow skin had been changed to crimson, and her gold and scarlet hair whipped about her head furiously. Leathery wings had sprouted from her back and she flexed them tentatively, growing accustomed to their presence. Long, pointed nails grew from the ends of her fingers, and her snarling mouth revealed pointed teeth. Upon the demoness’s head was the Acclamation Crown, but it was struggling to maintain its appearance, sometimes shifting from golden leaves to a circlet with a star-shaped gem, the Element of Sorcery.
“At last!” Sunset Shimmer crowed triumphantly as she raised her arms and flames ignited on her palms. “Sorcery! Oh, how I’ve missed it! My birthright stripped away by my banishment now returned! No more hiding in a pitiful school. This world will be mine!”
“No!” Twilight cried out defiantly.
“You’ve lost, ‘princess!’” Sunset replied angrily and she thrust her arms outward, igniting a few more trees as she released her magic. “You have nothing that can stop me, now that I’ve regained my sorcery. I am the only one with magic, with true power, in this world, and I intend to bend it to my will! Let Celestia have her ‘Kingdom of Cant’r Laht’ and pass it on to a mediocre copy of myself; I’ll take an entire universe! But, before we get to all that, I have some business to take care.”
Sunset curled a hand into a claw and a purple flame ignited within it, growing and roiling as fire licked around her fingers. Twilight felt entirely helpless and exposed until her friends ran to surround her. They wouldn’t be able to do anything to protect her, but maybe, together, they could reclaim the Element of Sorcery from Sunset Shimmer’s head before this went any further.
“The gang’s all back together, I see. Such a shame you won’t be around for me to split apart again, but if you want to die with Twilight Sparkle, then that’s your choice!”
Sunset Shimmer ignited an identical flame in her other hand and combined the two fires together with a clap.
“Run, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash whispered to her, but she wouldn’t abandon her friends, no matter what length of time she'd known them.
Sunset Shimmer thrust her arms forward, and a blast of fire and magical energy rushed over the Gang of Six. Remarkably, Twilight Sparkle didn’t feel herself being consumed—or feel any pain at all, for that matter. Slowly, she opened her eyes. The sorcerous attack surrounded her and her friends, but they all stood unaffected by it, and a slight glow was emanating from each one of them. Twilight realized that not only was the coloration of the glow different based on the individual, but they also matched the gem colors of the Elements of Harmony wielded by their counterparts back in Equestria. She could sense, among the tainted magic that Sunset Shimmer was wielding, another thread of purer magic reaching back to the portal. The Elements of Harmony were protecting her and her friends, even in a completely alien universe.
“What?” Sunset Shimmer asked incredulously as she ceased her attack and saw that the Gang of Six was still standing strong (and still slightly glowing). “Why aren’t you dead? What makes you so special? It’s not fair!”
Sunset attacked again with even more vehemence, tearing away the ground around the Gang of Six and uprooting countless trees, but they remained untouched by the dark sorcery.
“You may have an Element of Harmony, but you cannot wield it!” Twilight Sparkle accused once the assault let up, leaving Sunset Shimmer staring at her hands in disbelief. “At least not against their true wielders. These girls may not be the same individuals with whom I originally discovered the Elements, but they represent the same powers. Trustworthiness, Compassion, Mirth, Charity, Allegiance, and Sorcery: the Elements of Harmony. Brave Companions or Gang of Six, the Elements are ours to wield, to stop those like you!”
Twilight Sparkle reached out to take Fluttershy’s and Pinkie Pie’s hands, and the others got the hint and followed suit, forming a chain that linked all six of them. The glow around them began to merge and grew brighter. Sunset tried to renew her assault on last time, but it was no use. A multicolored light shot out from the Gang of Six, forcing Sunset Shimmer’s magic back and consuming her in a brilliant maelstrom. A thunderclap sounded that threw everyone off their feet, and the light faded.
When they were all standing again, they were shocked to discover a crater where Sunset Shimmer had been. Near its edge was the Element of Sorcery, returned to its mundane form of a laurel crown, and Twilight picked it up as she approached. The blast had extinguished the fire burning the nearby trees, so it was only by the light of the moons that the Gang of Six could see down into the crater where Sunset Shimmer was on her knees, quietly sobbing to herself.
“It’s not fair,” she mumbled as Twilight descended the slope to her. “I should have been Celestia’s heir. I was a powerful sorceress once … and now look at me. I have nothing.”
“You were alone,” Twilight Sparkle said, and Sunset Shimmer looked up in surprise. “Celestia told me that she isolated you during your studies, afraid you would become distracted like Cadence. She regrets that now. But you do not have to be alone, Sunset Shimmer. Getting ahead on your own is not a road that leads to any sense of fulfillment.”
“But …” Sunset said desperately. “Everything I’ve ever done has been to divide. Everything I’ve done has been on my own. How am I supposed to find … redemption?”
“I was much like you once. I could easily have gone down the same path,” Twilight said, thinking back to her last days in Cant’r Laht. “Then I met some very special individuals that showed me another way.”
Sunset Shimmer looked over Twilight’s shoulder at the Gang of Five descending into the crater, and Twilight nodded.
“Twilight!” Spike called from the lip of the crater. “The moons!”
Twilight Sparkle craned her neck upwards. Through a gap in the trees, she saw that the moons were beginning to overlap; the lunar conjunction was starting. The others all looked at her expectantly.
“Take good care of her,” Twilight said, referring to Sunset Shimmer.
“If that's what you want, then we will,” Applejack said as she clapped Twilight on the shoulder with a brawny hand. “Now go home!”
Twilight wished she could say more thorough goodbyes, but since that ran the risk of trapping her in Illea, she merely shared quick grateful glances with all her new friends before scrambling up the edge of the crater. Spike was waiting impatiently at the top and took off to the south the moment Twilight made it over the edge. She hoped she had made the right decision with Sunset Shimmer, offering her redemption instead of punishment, but it was out of her hands now. She trusted the hands she’d put her in, though. The Gang of Five would be good for Sunset, and although Twilight would miss them, she needed to return to her own Brave Companions.
The lunar conjunction continued to progress at what seemed to be an alarming rate as Twilight struggled through the forest, Spike running ahead to scout out the clearest path. Soon she was out on the parade grounds north of the school, lifting her dress to run slightly faster across the grass. She sped past the dormitories, with no time to return to her room to grab her things. She’d had the foresight to leave the key to her quarters with Applejack, in anticipation of this very scenario, and she’d also left a note for her new friends. She was glad she’d taken the time to do so, now that she hadn’t had the chance to make lengthy farewells. The academy grounds were filled with students who’d left the dance to observe the lunar conjunction, and few of them noticed Twilight sprinting past as they kept their eyes on the sky.
“Come on, Twilight!” Spike called from in front of the portal, her satchel on the ground in front of him.
Her grabbed it in his mouth as she reached him and jumped into the stone. Twilight followed a second later, diving through the statue’s base and passing through with little resistance. A moment later, the moons completely overlapped each other in the night sky, whoops went up from the students of Canterlot Academy, and the portal closed until the next conjunction.
Spike and Twilight were pulled forward rapidly through Star-Swirl the Bearded’s magical corridor between worlds. All sense of self was lost as they tumbled along and crashed through the Divide, but it gradually began to return as they neared the other side. Spike scrambled forward on all fours for a moment before standing upright and spitting Twilight’s saddlebags out of his mouth. Twilight completed her dive and nearly failed to catch herself on her forehooves before it came back to her (with a bit of involuntary windmilling from her wings).
“Twilight! You’re back!” Pinkamena exclaimed as she ran up to embrace Twilight.
“I am glad to be back, Pinkie,” Twilight replied as she adjusted to being back in her own world.
She took in her surroundings while Pinkamena puzzled over the nickname Twilight had bestowed upon her. She was in Golden Oak’s laboratory, surrounded by all her friends. Celestia must have had Star-Swirl’s mirror moved here so that she could reunite with them more easily whenever she returned. It didn’t look like they had aged significantly in her absence, so she held out hope that she hadn’t been away for too long.
“How long was I gone?” Twilight asked. “What is the date?”
“It’s the Thirteenth Day of the Twelfth Month. Year One Thousand Two. Of the Fourth Age,” Rainbow Dash replied.
She had been gone for a little more than a month. It seemed that the shifting rates of time had actually worked out in her favor, unlike the journeys of Star-Swirl or Sunset Shimmer. She’d spent much more time in the World Across the Divide than what had passed here. It was something she’d have to note and study, but not yet. Right now, she needed to reunite with her friends, even if she had been spending the past few months with individuals that shared their names and personalities.
“That’s a stunning gown you have on, darling,” Rarity noted. “Whoever designed it?”
“You did,” Twilight replied with a mischievous grin.