//------------------------------//
// Chapter 48: Coming to a Close 
// Story: Return of the Ancient Mage 
// by Zoshe 
//------------------------------//

Clover ran forward, tripping several times in his haste. He slid to a stop right next to the body laying there. He seemed almost afraid as he reached forward and nudged the young pony with his hoof, like he was afraid to get his hopes up.

When a soft groan was heard followed by the young unicorn's eyes fluttering open, Clover threw himself forward and scooped him up into a hug. The colt wriggled a bit at first like most his age would at a sudden show of affection, but he relaxed a bit when he finally saw who was holding him. "Master Clover?" he said weakly.

Tears streamed down Clover's face. "Onyx. I thought... I thought I would never see you again. That was you who restrained Sombra at the end, wasn't it? Are you all right? How much do you remember?"

The youth lowered his emerald eyes and slowly nodded his head. "I remember everything," he said. "I was forced to watch as Sombra destroyed the lives of so many." He looked back up at Clover, "and I saw how much you suffered to keep him at bay. He was too distracted at the end and I was able to finally get through."

"Princess Celestia?" Asked Twilight as everyone else gathered up. "Who is that?"

"He looks like a younger King Sombra," Cadence noticed. "Should we be worried?"

"His name is Onyx," said a relaxed sounding Luna. "He was Clover's student from before the fall of the Crystal Empire. We must admit, we did not expect to see him survive this ordeal."

"Is he dangerous, though," asked Applejack.

"Not any more dangerous than anypony else is, dearest Applejack," Celestia said in return.

Clover and Onyx carefully walked up to the group, both of them looking a little worse for wear. Onyx bowed deeply to all of them once they were standing close enough. "I am sorry for the trouble I have caused you. I only hope you can find it in your hearts to forgive me some day."

"There is nothing to forgive, my little pony," Celestia smiled. "We know you would've stopped if you could."

"Indeed," said Luna. "We have some familiarity with what it is like to lose oneself to otherworldly powers."

Onyx raised his head and smiled at Luna. "I am pleased to see you are well, Mistress Luna. Clover always spoke so fondly of you in our travels."

"Mistress?" Luna raised an eyebrow at the title. Several ponies bit their lip as they fought back laughter including... "Not a word, Tia," Luna said crossly.

"But I didn't say anything," said Celestia, her mirth betraying her words as she just barely failed at holding back a smirk.

Onyx tilted his head, looking confused at the lot of them. "I don't see what's so funny," he said as he kept looking at Luna. "You are Master Clover's Mistress, are you not?"

That got another collection of snorts from the collected masses. Except for Pinkie, who skipped all the way to the rolling on the floor and laughing hysterically step.

"No... Well... Yes," she said, both Luna and Clover started to turn a bit flush. "However, you'll find that in the last thousand years, some words have taken on different meanings than they used to. Especially in certain context.

Still looking confused, Clover leaned down and whispered into Onyx's ear. Onyx for his part, listened attentively and calmly up until he Clover finished talking. Then the grey coated colt quickly turned a shade of pink from his neck all the way to the tips of his ears. "I see," he said finally, clearly embarrassed. "My most sincere apologies," he bowed again, deeper than before. "What would be the proper way to address you then?"

"You will address me as Princess Luna in proper company," she said, glad the embarrassing moment had passed. "Fear not though, we had our own fair share of cultural mishaps after our thousand year sojourn to the moon. You will adjust in time."

"Loofa," said Celestia, once again breaking out into a wide grin.

"I'm still plotting my revenge for that one, Tia," said Luna. "Just you wait."

"While I enjoy good natured banter as much as the next pony," said Rarity as she looked around. "Does anypony know how we are going to get out of here?"

The jokes dried up as everyone realized that they had no idea how to get home. They all stared at the empty landscape that ended abruptly after a couple dozen meters before opening out into a void that didn't even make room for starlight. The only thing that still stood out was... In unison, they all looked up at the large red eye that still sat where the moon should be sitting at this time of night.

The eye looked back at them, flickering back and forth before it started descending towards the plane they were standing on. They were worried at first that it was going to place itself down right on top of their heads, but when the pupil of the eye came level with the ground and they could see something inside, and they all started walking towards it.

Once they were close enough, they stepped out onto a balcony that looked like it should be attached to the Crystal Palace. They weren't alone on it though. In front of them was a grey unicorn mare with a blazing red mane and a long black dress. She didn't pay any attention to them as red arcs of magic flowed from her horn to the four glass panels surrounding her with strange runes etched upon their surfaces.

"Just give me a minute," said Ret. "I'm still cleaning up the mess I made."

"What is all this?" Twilight looked inquisitively at the magic that Ret was utilizing. "What language is that? I don't recognize the script."

A chuckle escaped Ret as she continued her work, "I don't recommend trying to translate that, Twilight Sparkle. Unless you fancy the idea of a taking up residence in a padded cell."

That quickly sobered up Twilight's insatiable thirst for knowledge as she took a few quick steps back from the panel.

"So this space we're in," Celestia glanced worriedly at the magic Ret was weaving. "This is your doing?"

"In a sense," she said. "In the strictest sense this can't technically be classified as magic since it breaks every rule in the book."

"I'm sorry I didn't believe you, Ret," said Clover. "What you hinted at being able to do pales in comparison to the real thing."

"To be fair, you had no real reason to believe me since I haven't had a chance to show you before now," Ret said sadly. "Shame I won't be able to do it again though, not to this degree at least."

"Why not?" Asked Luna. "And if not, would you be able to teach it to somepony instead?"

Ret shook her head. "I drew too much attention to myself. I've been noticed and not in a good way. As for why I can't teach it, if you don't have the right mindset, you can lose your mind when you try to bend the rules like this," she said as a random muffin appeared on the tip of her nose.

She crossed her eyes as she looked at it. She scrunched her nose as she turned to find a giggling Pinkie Pie who was tapping a hoof against one of the panels. Every time she did so, another muffin would appear either on the ground or some pony's head.

"Pinkie?!" Shouted Twilight. "Don't touch that!"

"But Twiliiight," Pinkie whined. "Look." She tapped it again and another muffin appeared. "Muffin button," she said before breaking out into a fit of laughter.

"C'mon Pinkie," said Applejack as she grabbed a mouthful of pink tail and began dragging her away. "Let's leave well enough alone."

Ret held out a hoof and all the panels began to glow. Slowly they folded in on themselves before flying through the air and collecting in Ret's hoof. The light collected there grew brighter and brighter until it flew away like a dozen tiny fireflies and left an open book in its place.

"Princess Cadence," said Ret. "Would you come here please?"

Cadence cautiously approached the pony that apparently had power beyond what any of them understood.. "Yes?..." She asked warily.

Ret turned a soft smile on her without any pretense of hostility behind it, "when the world returns to normal, I've arranged it so the crystal ponies won't remember anything that's happened after Clover came to town. In particularly when Sombra possessed all of them."

"Thank you," said Cadence, releasing a breath she didn't know she was holding. That's one less thing to worry about. Now if only...

"And about Shining Armor," Ret said, interrupting her thoughts. "You make sure to take good care of this stallion," she held a hoof against her chest. "A soul as noble as his is rare indeed and I wouldn't have been able to do what I did without his help."

Before anyone had a chance to ask what she meant, Ret reached back down and closed the book. The void that made up the world began to glow as patches of it started to burn away, making way for the stars. When the ground burned away, streets and homes reappeared as the light dimmed. Several ponies started to appear as the rest of the city finished filling themselves in.

The castle was the last to reappear as the balcony reattached itself to the ceterpoint of the city. They could see down into the depths of the castle for a moment and see the pedestal for the Crystal Heart reappear with its ward fully in tact.

As the last of the castle came back into view, the royal sisters breathed a sigh of relief as the sky finished clearing. The moon was back in its proper place and a cursory check from Celestia could confirm that the sun had been put to bed as it should without anything else out of place.

Lastly was Ret herself. A red glow washed across her grey fur, patches of it flaking away and making way for the white underneath. When it got to her red mane and blue started to find its way through, everyone realized what they were seeing. As the last of Ret's body fell away, Cadence rushed forward to catch the unconscious form of her husband before he fell to the ground. When she grabbed him, a light tinkling was heard as a broken red crystal fell to the ground. The light inside it pulsed for a few moments before the gemstone collapsed in on itself. As it crumbled, the light it contained rose from the shards and shot towards Clover. It hit him square in the forehead, his eyes glowing red for a moment before rolling into the back into his skull. His legs gave out and he collapsed into Luna's waiting embrace.





Princess Celestia sat by herself as she enjoyed some quiet time out on the balcony. She reflected over the day's events and thought about a great many things while she played with a glass containing some crystal wine made from the berry that grew up here. Her stargazing was interrupted when she heard hoofsteps fall across the floor, drawing her attention to Twilight Sparkle as she walked out to join her.

"Good evening, Twilight," she said as she smiled at her precious student. "Come to join me in some stargazing? I hope your brother is doing well."

"He's fine," said Twilight. "He woke back up for a little bit before Cadence put him back to bed." She smiled softly, "he was more worried about everypony else despite barely being able to stand."

"Clover's companion spoke true about him being a noble soul," Celestia said resolutely. "It was a quality I saw in him a long time ago. I don't make just anyone a captain of the guard."

"Speaking of Clover," Twilight looked concerned. "Has he?..."

"He's sleeping peacefully, Luna assures me," she said quietly. "I have no idea when he'll wake up though. He was practically tearing himself apart today. I knew we alicorns could take a lot of punishment but it seems he has taken that to the absolute limit."

"Why is that?" Asked Twilight. "I know we're supposed to have magic from all three pony tribes and earth ponies are supposed to be a bit sturdier than the other two, but I can't even imagine any earth pony surviving what he has and definitely not healing so quickly."

"I only have guesses to work with," Celestia said as she took a few sips from her cup. "I'm far from an expert on what makes an alicorn an alicorn. I have, however, learned a few other things you might find interesting though," she smiled as she levitated her glass over to Twilight.

Twilight giggled as she pushed the glass away, "sorry Princess Celestia. I don't drink. I learned the hard way when Applejack broke out a cask of hard cider that it barely takes a sip before I'm out. Turns out I'm a bit of a lightweight."

"This is a lesson, Twilight," she said as she refused to take the glass back. "I insist."

Seeing that the princess wasn't going to let her back out of it, she cautiously took the glass in her magic and stared at the wine while taking in its fragrant aroma. She steeled herself as she brought the glass to her lips and took a small sip from Celestia's cup. Her eyes watered as the drink tickled the back of her throat. Twilight started to feel lightheaded for a moment, the same as what had happened before and then... Nothing.

Twilight stared at the glass in confusion as her head instantly cleared up. She looked back up at her teacher who gave an approving nod as Twilight took a second drink, only for it to have less of an effect the second time. "Princess..." She said with astonishment. "What is this?"

"Something you'll want to keep secret if you ever have to participate in any international diplomacy," she said as she floated the glass back to herself. "Turns out we can't actually get drunk. However, it goes over really well if the diplomat sitting across the table thinks you're either really good at holding your liquor or if they think you're just as toasted as they are. Something to think about," she said smugly as she stood up and made her way towards the door. "We still need to sleep though and I'm no exception. Good night, Princess Twilight."