Twilight's castle...
Two fierce battles were unfolding inside the castle of Equestria's newest princess. In the throne room, the princess of Friendship herself was working together with Summershine to fight off Arcana, an intruder who wants to take the Elements of Harmony that reside inside both Star Twinkle and Summershine. And only a few rooms away, a battle between Star Twinkle and the pony in the black armor was taking place, who revealed himself as the real Star Twinkle while the Star Twinkle that lived in Ponyville was just a clone. One was a battle of strength and the other a battle of emotion and will.
The latter one was about to end with one last charge from both Star Twinkles. Both of them were in their Unicorn form and ran towards each other with magic emitting from their horns. Once they clashed, a light started to fill the whole room with both of the Star Twinkles in the center of it.
...
Memories started flowing into Star Twinkle. He found himself in the middle of what looked like an endless place where everywhere he looked at, all he could see was just the color white. "Where am I?" He asked, hoping that someone would miraculously answer.
"Your memories," someone actually replied. It was the Star Twinkle in the black armor who seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
Star Twinkle looked over to the pony. "My memories?" He asked confused. "But...there is nothing!" He pointed out.
"Exactly..." the pony in the black armor replied. "A perfect replication of your memories. Just like how you are a replication of me."
Hearing those words no longer made Star Twinkle angry or frustrated. He looked over to the pony in the black armor. He looked exactly like him, down to the last hair. It was as if he was looking at a mirror. He saw the serious expression that he looked at so many times in his past while looking at his own reflection.
Star Twinkle let out a defeated sigh. "I really am just a clone, am I?" He asked.
The pony in the black armor started to show a little sympathy for Star Twinkle. "Does that make you sad?" He asked. "Does it make you sad knowing that your whole existence was just to be a substitute or that you were meant to return to me anyway? Are you frustrated that the time you spent with your friends in Ponyville was less important because you were a clone?"
After hearing those words, Star Twinkle lowered his eyebrows. "Huh..." he said, much to the pony in the black armor's confusion.
"Huh?" He quoted confused.
"Now that you said all those things..." Star Twinkle said as he began to come to a realization. "I don't think I am sad about any of those things...which is weird because those are the exact things I was worried about. But as soon as you said it I came to realize that there is no reason to be afraid."
The pony in the black armor was confused to hear that. "So you accept to become one again? I told you before that I will be in control since I am the original, and I intend to go on with my plan to take the Elements of Harmony from Summershine to get my friends back."
But Star Twinkle was not too sure about that. "And I think you will not do something like that." He said confidentially.
"What makes you so sure about that?" The pony in the black armor replied curiously.
Star Twinkle explained. "We are gonna become one again, that means that our memories will become one as well. Even though this place is completely white I do have memories of my own too. They might not be the same as yours but they are still there," Star Twinkle assured.
"So I get your memories and then what?" The pony in the black armor asked. "I have my mind set and your memories will not make a difference. It's my memories that are important after all."
Just as the pony in the black armor said those words, Ponyville started appearing behind him followed by his friends, Summershine, Crash, Brilliance, Happytrade, Lightbeam, and Nightsky appearing next to him.
It was the first time that Star Twinkle could have a good look at the ponies who were supposed to be his closest friends. He wished that he could remember them and his past with them but there was sadly nothing. It made him sad but still, he also had the memories that he made while living in Ponyville.
"Wrong..." Star Twinkle returned. "If we become one, it's not only your memories that matter...but mine too!" He said.
Followed by his words, another version of Ponyville appeared behind him. It looked exactly the same with the only difference being the ponies appearing next to him. They were Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash.
The groups of ponies were facing each other like mirror images. Two memories right next to each other, so different but so similar at the same time. "If we become one so will our memories...and our experiences..." Star Twinkle said with a smile on his face. "You see? That's why I am no longer afraid or worried."
"No," the pony in the black armor replied. "I'm afraid I don't understand. Do you think that you will be the one in control after our merge?" He asked.
Star Twinkle shook his head and explained. "I will learn to understand how you feel and you will know how I do and the pony that will emerge with all these memories knows what to do next."
"Pretty confident thinking." The pony in the black armor returned. "So you are betting that it will go that way? I assure you that I, as the original, will still maintain control and do things my way, no matter if I happen to get your memories."
But Star Twinkle smiled back at the pony. "And I assure you that once you have my memories, you will understand why I am so confident," he said.
"Only one way to find out," the pony in the black armor said before he closed his eyes. The ponies beside him started vanishing and turned into dust of magic which then flew right into the stallion. The same happened with all of Ponyville behind him. They were his memories and they started flowing right back inside of him.
The same thing happened on Star Twinkle's side once he closed his eyes. Everyone and everything around him vanished and went into him. There was only Star Twinkle and the pony in the black armor left. They both opened their eyes and took a few steps forward and looked at each other before reaching their hooves out. As soon as their hooves connected, they too started to vanish and what was left was a completely white space.
But then slowly, Ponyville started appearing again. All the ponies that lived there started to form in this little town who went to do their usual things like working, playing, napping, eating, and many other things. Among those ponies were also Star Twinkle's friends. Summershine could be seen delivering some packages to the ponies in town, Brilliance could be seen walking through town while reading a book that she levitated in front of her face. She accidentally walked into Crash who just laughed it off. Happytrade was setting up a market stand at her usual spot. Lightbeam was flying through the air where she was looking for her brother Nightsky who she found napping on a cloud. Moments later, Rainbow Dash could be seen flying through the air practicing some air maneuvers. Fluttershy could be seen buying some carrots with Angel on top of her head pressuring her to buy them. Meanwhile, Applejack was walking past her pulling a wagon filled with apples behind her. Unbeknownst to her, Pinkie Pie was sitting inside the wagon munching some apples. Then there was Rarity who seemed to have bought some accessories for her dresses which Spike carried for her. Twilight then walked up to Summershine and he gave her a package that he had to deliver to her. It was then that Twilight turned towards someone.
Star Twinkle walked up to the two of them and slowly all of his friends started appearing next to the two, all of them looking at him with smiles on their faces. As Star Twinkle walked up to them, his blank flank turned into one having six stars on it, in the colors of orange, purple, light blue, dark blue, yellow, and red. It then turned into one big white star which moments later was filled with the colors of a rainbow. The colors inside of it from up to down were: red, orange, yellow, green, light blue, dark blue, and purple. The stallion smiled and joined the twelve ponies in front of him before everything went white again.
Moments later, in the throne room of Twilight's castle...
Star Twinkle stood in the middle of the room face to face with Arcana who was backed up with his three clones. Summershine and Twilight were standing behind Star Twinkle who, with newfound confidence, and equipped with a horn and wings, claimed to fight Arcana on his own. Twilight could still not believe what she was seeing, Star Twinkle had a horn and wings at the same time, making him into an Alicorn now.
And while Arcana was still a little confused about Star Twinkle's actions and appearance, he still did not feel threatened. In fact, he felt as if Star Twinkle was joking right now.
"So...in case I just misheard you...you just said you wanted to fight me on your own?" He asked mockingly.
"Yes. I will defeat you on my own," Star Twinkle claimed once more.
It was as if those words echoed through the room for a moment. But again, Arcana was not threatened, in fact, he started to laugh until tears started coming out of his eyes. "I don't know how you became an Alicorn but it clearly made you turn into a better comedian!" He said before he wiped away his tears. He then looked at the stallion with a mocking expression on his face. "The princess of friendship, the Element of Magic herself, and Summershine couldn't beat me! And you, Star Twinkle, think you can even hold a candle to me?" He asked before he started laughing at Star Twinkle again loudly.
Having to listen to the sound of Arcana's laughter was something that Twilight and Summershine were not too happy about. Despite that though, Star Twinkle's expression did not change and he kept looking at Arcana with determination.
Eventually, Arcana noticed the unchanged expression on Star Twinkle's face and how he was not joking. He actually believed that he could beat Arcana which caused the unicorn to stop laughing. Star Twinkle was standing there in full belief that he could beat Arcana and knowing that made him really angry. He started to clench his teeth in anger and narrowed his eyebrows. "DON'T MOCK ME!" He shouted before he shot a magic blast at Star Twinkle out of nowhere to rub that determined expression off of his face.
Star Twinkle narrowed his eyes and was ready to counter. He shot a white magic beam towards Arcana's and both beams collided. Star Twinkle managed to not only stop it but after a few seconds, the beam managed to easily overpower Arcana's. As soon as Arcana noticed what was happening, he teleported away before he got hit by Star Twinkle's beam. Unfortunately, for him though, one of his clones was not too fast to get out of the way and got hit directly, sending him on the floor and knocking him out. A few moments later, Arcana appeared again and looked over to his knocked-out clone before looking back at Star Twinkle once more. "Excuse me?" He said in disbelieve.
Twilight's jaw dropped as soon as she saw what happened in front of her eyes. Star Twinkle managed to overpower Arcana's shot just like that. Summershine was also at a loss for words and didn't know what to say at this moment. Both of them decided to wait for how things would continue to play out.
By now even Arcana was taking things seriously. He didn't know how Star Twinkle got so much stronger all of a sudden but he decided to no longer take this situation lightly. Arcana and his two remaining clone's horns started glowing and all three of them started shooting at Star Twinkle. He could not block all of these shots at the same time after all. Star Twinkle was forced to dodge the shots and while he was busy focusing on the shots, one of the clones started shooting the ceiling, causing some rubble to fall towards Star Twinkle. The shots were only meant to distract him so that Arcana could blindside him like this.
Star Twinkle quickly took notice of what was happening and looked upwards. Of course, the other two Arcana's were not stopping with their magic beam assault so he had to focus on that as well. In response, Star Twinkle breathed out for a moment before he raised his head and a white magic barrier started appearing around him, protecting him from the shots and the rubble that fell on him.
Arcana couldn't believe that Star Twinkle managed to avoid this. His focus shifted on the barrier around him and he started to think but seeing Star Twinkle's serious expression again as soon as the barrier was gone made him angry again. A little stare-off happened with Star Twinkle looking focused and serious and Arcana being angry.
Shortly after, Arcana, as well as his two clones teleported away, much to Star Twinkle's confusion. He looked all around the room to find them but then he suddenly noticed that he could not move. One of the Arcanas was behind him and used his magic holding him in place with his magic. The other two Arcana's appeared from Star Twinkle's left and right, both of them charging towards him with magic in their horns. They attempted to attack from both sides at close range so that he could not block his attacks all while being frozen by Arcana's magic.
In response, Star Twinkle clenched his teeth and white light started to come from his body which then transformed into a shockwave that pushed back all three of his attackers at once. But while being pushed back, Arcana showed some of his determination and went in right away again. He shot at the ground and transformed it into a swamp which slowly managed to drag Star Twinkle down a little. This is when he decided to make use of his wings and flew up to avoid them. Another Arcana used his magic to summon some vines from inside the swamp to catch Star Twinkle with it but the Alicorn managed to dodge all of the vines that tried to grab him.
The third Arcana then shot towards the ceiling some more to make more rubble rain down on Star Twinkle. It became harder to dodge all of these things so he figured that he had to do one thing and that was to take care of one of the Arcana's and reduce their numbers. Star Twinkle started flying towards the one that shot at the ceiling and focused his magic. That Arcana stood ready to teleport himself away but he was caught off guard as soon as Star Twinkle disappeared.
"What?!" Arcana said before he was blasted by a magic beam coming from behind which managed to knock him out.
The other two Arcana's appeared next to each other and saw how one more clone was knocked out, reducing their numbers to two now. Both of them started to look really mad now and continued to put more pressure on Star Twinkle.
One of them used his magic to make the walls of the castle come closer towards Star Twinkle in order to crush him. Star Twinkle decided to fly forwards to escape these walls but one of the Arcanas was teleporting himself right in front of the stallion and held him with his body. All while the other Arcana was standing back watching it in the back with a smile on his face.
Then, the walls closed with both of the stallions between them. Rightfully, Summershine and Twilight gasped in shock. Not only did Star Twinkle get crushed but Arcana just sacrificed one of his clones to take care of Star Twinkle. A pretty despicable act. But then Summershine's and Twilight's reaction turned into a more relieved one, much to Arcana's confusion. But he already knew why they reacted like that and turned around. He saw Star Twinkle flying in the air behind him. Arcana looked back at the walls which started to go back to their original positions again. In between was his clone, who managed to put a magic shield around him but still got hurt by the pressure of the walls and collapsed to the ground. But Arcana was not showing a single sign of regret or any emotion towards that clone and looked back to Star Twinkle again.
"You are just willing to treat your clones like that?" Star Twinkle asked, feeling pretty disgusted by this.
Arcana smiled in response. "Of course, they are clones after all. They are created to serve a purpose and then vanish again. You were split into a clone before too, you should know that," he explained. But Star Twinkle just kept looking at Arcana with an angry expression on his face. The red-coated stallion felt almost relieved to actually get a reaction out of the stallion. "I'm beginning to understand why you got so much stronger. It's obvious that you can thank the Elements of Harmony inside your body for that...but also your reunion with your clone."
The unicorn then focused some magic in his horn and all of his knocked-out clones started glowing. "Splitting into a clone will half your whole being...that includes your strength, and your magic too," he said before the three clones started disappearing and all that was left was Arcana, the original one.
Summershine took notice of what the unicorn said and he concluded that by Arcana splitting into four, his strength and magic must have been split into four as well. And now with his clones gone, he most likely returned to his true strength. With his original strength returning him, Arcana was all the more serious to continue this fight now.
It was one against one and Arcana planned to not take any chances anymore. He stood ready to finish things and so did Star Twinkle. They were facing each other focusing on their opponent's movements like two cowboys at high noon. Arcana knew that Star Twinkle is gonna wait until he made a move first so that he could respond to it. The unicorn focused his magic and Star Twinkle stood ready for whatever would come next. But Arcana tried to be subtle so that Star Twinkle would not know how to react.
Then Star Twinkle choose a change of tactic and flew right at Arcana. However, the Unicorn began to smile and prepared himself for a counterattack. "I know what you are trying," he said with a smile on his face. Star Twinkle then disappeared and Arcana immediately turned around. "There you are!" He then shouted before he turned around and fired a magic blast at Star Twinkle who was now right behind Arcana. The Unicorn saw through Star Twinkle's attempt to teleport right behind him and reacted before he could attack. But something caught Arcana off guard. Star Twinkle was gone in an instant. It was almost as if it was an afterimage that he hit just now. Soon, Star Twinkle appeared a few meters away from Arcana causing the Unicorn to fire at him once more. And again, Star Twinkle disappeared.
"What!?" Arcana said in shock before he fired at Star Twinkle some more, each time with the same result. Soon, he figured out what exactly was happening and he didn't like it one bit. "He is not teleporting..." he figured as he watched Star Twinkle closely each time he managed to dodge away in time. His horn was not glowing. He was not using magic. "He...is moving this fast?" Arcana realized.
Star Twinkle then came from the side and charged at Arcana but the Unicorn turned towards him and teleported away in time, causing Star Twinkle to hit the breaks in his charge, making him stop. Arcana appeared a few meters away from the stallion and smiled. "That's what's going on..." he said in his realization. "Now your appearance makes a lot more sense...combine that with the Elements of Harmony inside you..." he mumbled under his breath as he rubbed his chin. "I guess that is as far as I can go then..." he realized before he grinned at the stallion, much to Star Twinkle's confusion. "But don't think that will not go out with a bang!"
Arcana then charged what seems to be all of his magic in his horn. He was ready to unleash a magic beam unlike any other. Twilight could feel the amount of magic flowing through the air and it got her worried immensely. "He had that much magic at his disposal?!" She said in shock. And rightfully so. The ground began to shake and Arcana was practically radiating magic at this point. There was a huge blast coming towards them.
Despite all that though, Star Twinkle did not seem as worried as he should be in this situation. He stood ready and focused his magic as well. The stallion's body started to glow in a white aura. It looked a lot more calmer on Star Twinkle's side but for some reason, Twilight and Summershine could feel a great amount of magic as well, just a different kind of it.
It was unclear if Arcana could feel the amount of magic coming from Star Twinkle, given that he was focusing a lot of magic at the same time, which is why he was not worried at all. Then, with all of his might Arcana aimed and fired. "TAKE THIS!" He shouted before he fired a huge blast at the stallion.
The blast completely ruined the ground it traveled through and made the whole room shake violently. It didn't take long until Star Twinkle shot as well and a slightly smaller beam was heading towards Arcana. The two beams collided just like back before their battle began, this time there was more of a struggle. The collision between the two beams created shock waves that made it hard for Twilight and Summershine to keep their balance. It must have been even worse for Star Twinkle.
Arcana began to grin after realizing that Star Twinkle kept struggling to keep the magic beam at bay and finally saw his victory approaching. But Star Twinkle was not giving up yet and focused more on his magic. It was surprising how this smaller beam managed to hold back the huge beam from Arcana already. Star Twinkle clenched his teeth and narrowed his eyes until he let out a shout. What followed was his beam getting bigger and stronger, strong enough to fight off Arcana's magic. The unicorn was shocked to see how he got overpowered and before he could react properly, he was blasted away by the white beam and got knocked into the wall behind him. The stallion let out a pain-filled scream before he then dropped to the ground, defeated.
Twilight and Summershine couldn't believe it. Arcana was laying on the ground motionless after getting hit by Star Twinkle's magic directly. "He did it," Summershine commented in surprise and shock.
When the battle finished, Star Twinkle stood there taking a deep breath. Twilight slowly walked up to him, not sure how to act towards him considering that not only was an Alicorn now but this Star Twinkle could also be different because of his merge with the pony in the black armor. Just when she was about to say something, Star Twinkle took another breath, and both his wings and his horn vanished again, making him turn back into an Earth Pony again. For a moment there, Twilight was a little disappointed because she thought Star Twinkle was a permanent Alicorn just like her but then she realized that it was just a transformation like many times before.
When Summershine saw him turning back into an Earth Pony, he figured that it was his Terra Unisus transformation. But unlike before, where he could transform either into a Unicorn or a Pegasus, for some reason he was able to transform into an Alicorn. He put one and one together and thought that his separation into two Star Twinkles was the cause of not being able to transform into an Alicorn like it was supposed to be. Judging from what Arcana said, when someone is divided like in Star Twinkle's case, then their strength and magic was cut in half, making it impossible to access the full power of the transformation, which then resulted in Star Twinkle only growing a horn or wings separately.
Star Twinkle noticed how Twilight walked over to him and looked at her. Twilight immediately wanted to find out one thing. "So...are you...our Star Twinkle or...?" She asked, not being too sure how to put the question. She was worried nonetheless.
A smile then formed on the stallion's face, removing some of Twilight's worries. "It's kinda weird to explain but deep inside I feel as if...I'm still the same pony since the day we met. Just with more memories," he explained with a grin on his face.
Hearing that made Twilight grin in response. It was a little short-lived though because she noticed how Arcana was slowly trying to get up. Weirdly, he had a smile on his face. "Not much of a surprise that I lost..." he mumbled as he slowly got up with his legs shaking heavily. He looked over to the three ponies in front of him. Then, magic started to leave his body, something that he did not seem to be bothered about. "I guess I got too impatient, which ended up ruining my plan. That's what you get for putting just a little bit of trust in others. Guess I am the only one to blame for my failure," he admitted. Surprisingly, he did not seem too mad or even disappointed. This worried Star Twinkle and the others and they felt as if this battle was not over yet. Arcana then smiled at the three ponies almost victoriously. "This is not over though. I will become the most powerful unicorn in Equestria... it's only a matter of time..."
And with those words, and a confident smile on his face, the stallion vanished into thin air and all that remained was magic particles in the room, which eventually vanished as well, leaving only Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Summershine in the room.
Meanwhile...
Unbeknownst to what was going on inside the castle, Applejack was still fighting off that visitor who was messing up things on her farm. The pony who was messing up things for her was Happytrade, or, if what the real Star Twinkle said before, a clone made out of his memories of her. She kept making a mess of the place by knocking off barrels filled with apples or just straight out smashing apples. All while Applejack chased her across the whole orchard.
"Listen, I don't know what your beef is with me or my farm but I won't let anyone get away after messing up my-"
But in the middle of the sentence, Happytrade stopped and looked in surprise. Magic particles started flying away from her body and with a confused look on her face, the mare slowly vanished into thin air.
"What in the hay? Now she just vanishes on me?" Applejack said almost bothered by how she was not able to get payback for her ruined farm.
But just when the mare tried to start thinking about fixing everything on the farm again, Rainbow Dash came flying by at high speed. "Applejack!" She said before she landed in front of the mare. It was just then when the Pegasus pony noticed in what state the farm was. "Whoa! What happened here?" She asked.
Applejack explained. "Well, there was this mare that popped out of nowhere and started to mess everything up before then vanishing into thin air!" She said annoyed.
This sounded awfully familiar to Rainbow Dash. "Wait...did that pony literally vanish into thin air? As in disappearing on the spot?" She asked.
"...Yes? Why?" Applejack asked.
Rainbow Dash then explained that something similar happened to her as well. This stallion appeared out of nowhere and attacked her before then vanishing into literal thin air. The two mares concluded that those were not normal incidents that happened to them so they decided to go and visit Twilight. Rarity, Spike, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie had the same idea and went to the castle as well, causing all five of them to arrive there at the same time.
"What are you all doing here?" Fluttershy asked confused.
"Let me guess..." Rainbow Dash started. "Somepony appeared and either attacked or messed up things for you, and then vanished again?" She said.
"Messing things up things is quite an understatement!" Rarity said annoyed. "My whole boutique got ruined!" She exclaimed.
"I know, right!" Pinkie Pie added. "Although chasing that pony all over town was kind of fun!" She said with a grin on her face.
"So I assume we all came here for the same reason?" Applejack asked. "To see if Twilight knows anything about all of this?"
Everyone nodded in response. The fact that those ponies just disappeared into thin air definitely was not a normal thing so they figured that it may have something to do with magic. Their best bet was to ask Twilight if she knew what was going on. In the worst-case scenario, she was dealing with somepony inside the castle as well. As soon as everyone noticed that this could be the case, they quickly rushed inside the castle and headed to the throne room.
While basically kicking down the door, the six stood ready to help out with whatever problem Twilight was dealing with. "Don't worry Twilight! We'll help you!" Rainbow Dash said, ready to kick some butt.
But once Twilight noticed them marching into the room, she promptly asked them to be quiet, much to their confusion. Everyone looked towards the middle of the room. They saw Star Twinkle and Summershine facing each other. Of course, they had some questions regarding Star Twinkle's new Cutie Mark and Summershine being here but they decided to keep quiet because of Twilight's demand.
The two stallions looked at each other. There was no telling what was going on inside both of their heads right now and Twilight would lie if she said that she wasn't interested to find out how this meeting would unfold.
"You said you remembered?" Summershine finally said in order to break the silence between them.
"Yes," Star Twinkle replied.
"Everything?" Summershine asked.
"Everything," Star Twinkle replied. "Which is why we need to have a little talk now," he said as he walked up closer to Summershine who was visibly feeling a little uncomfortable by that point. "But before that..."
SMACK!
Star Twinkle used his right front hoof and punched Summershine right in the face, making him fall to the ground. Everyone was shocked and confused to see that and stood there with dropped jaws. Summershine also got surprised by this sudden punch and got up on his hooves again while rubbing his cheek.
"Hey! What was that for?!" He rightfully asked before glaring at the stallion in front of him.
"That was for thinking that you could do everything on your own!" Star Twinkle explained.
"I had to!" Summershine threw back. "Looking back at it, it was probably not the best way to do things but all I wanted was you to be safe. That's why I had to erase everyone's memories!" The stallion explained.
"And you thought that I would just be okay with all of that? That I would be happy to forget all my friends and live in Ponyville as if nothing happened?" Star Twinkle asked.
Summershine started to look a little bit more troubled. "I knew Arcana was still out there, trying to go after the Elements of Harmony and so was Ashgray. I wanted to deal with them and protect you."
"But all on your own? I could have helped you all along!" Star Twinkle responded.
"That's what I wanted to prevent!" Summershine replied. "You think I wanted to lose my last friend too?!"
"They were my friends too!" Star Twinkle exclaimed.
Hearing that seemed to have opened Summershine's eyes. He didn't know how to respond. As the others watched this argument, they almost wanted to step in to stop them from yelling at each other. But fortunately, after this last outburst, Star Twinkle seemed to be in a calmer state of mind again.
"I miss them too, Summershine. And I'm sure there is a way to get them back. But there is only so much one pony can do." The stallion looked at his own hooves with a frown on his face. "I wanted to take things in my own hooves as well and ended up joining up with Arcana. That was wrong, I got lost and thought I could fix things on my own..." the stallion walked past Summershine and towards the rest of his friends with a smile on his face. "Friends are there to help you when times are difficult, to take some of the load off from your back. They are there to support you the best they can and help you solve every problem. Friends...help and trust each other." The stallion then turned back to Summershine with a warm smile on his face. "And we are friends too...are we not?"
Summershine's face looked lost, sad, and filled with regret. He looked at Star Twinkle who was smiling at him. And even though, everyone else in the room didn't quite know what was happening, they still supported wholeheartedly what Star Twinkle said and smiled at the stallion as well.
It didn't take long until Summershine smiled too. "Some Element of Friendship I am..." he said as he looked at the ground with shame on his face. He could only hide his shame by smiling. "You're right...I should have not tried to take this all upon myself. It clearly did not work out."
"It still can," Star Twinkle said. "But this time we work together!"
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash added, finally breaking the silence of the group.
She was followed by Rarity. "I'm still unsure what exactly transpired here but I do know that a friend of Star Twinkle is a friend of ours," she explained.
"Yup!" Pinkie Pie said. "The more friends the better!"
Fluttershy also joined in. "You seem to have patched up things between you two so there is no reason why we shouldn't help out," she said.
Twilight walked up to Summershine. She fully agreed with everything that her friends said. Still, there was one thing that needed to be taken care of first. "Before that though, do you two mind filling the rest of us in as well? I'm sure there are some things that happened between you two and Arcana that we all should know first."
"Yes!" Applejack agreed on. "Like, who even is this Arcana you keep talking about?" She asked. Given how nopony besides Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Summershine saw Arcana, they had all the rights to know what was even going on in the castle.
Star Twinkle scratched his head. "Yeah, that sounds fair. There are quite some things that need to be explained."
Just after saying that, someone else started entering the room with some luggage behind her. It was Starlight Glimmer, who was ready to move into the castle. "Twilight, I brought my stuff! Where do you want me to put-" But she stopped mid-sentence as soon as she saw how filled this room was. "Did something happen?" She asked awkwardly.
"We don't know yet," Spike said.
A little later...
Now with everyone in one place, it was the perfect time to explain some things. Still, the battle with Arcana did leave the castle in quite some state so everyone worked together to fix up some things before Star Twinkle and Summershine would explain everything as best as they could.
"Where to even start..." Summershine said while rubbing his chin in confusion.
Just then, Pinkie Pie offered the stallion a cupcake. "Looks like somepony needs some brain food," she said happily. "I figured that this would be a long story so I prepared some snacks for everypony." It was then when Summershine started noticing how filled the table was with snacks and desserts. Spike even started munching some already.
"When did you prepare all that?" Summershine asked confused.
Pinkie Pie explained. "I always prepare some snack just in case someone is ready to drop a long story."
Summershine looked over to Star Twinkle confused but all he got in response was Star Twinkle shaking his head as if he wanted to say "Don't question it."
Everypony then sat down in their respective thrones, except the ones who didn't have any, which would be Star Twinkle, Summershine, and Starlight Glimmer. While everypony was fixing things, Star Twinkle, Twilight, and Summershine already filled everyone in about what happened in the castle.
"So let me get this straight," Applejack started. "This pony named Arcana showed up in this castle and attacked you? And he was also the one who sent those pony after each of us?"
"And did you just say that Star Twinkle turned into an Alicorn?" Rainbow Dash added.
"And the pony in the black armor was here as well?" Fluttershy asked.
"Girls easy!" Twilight interrupted. "I know you all got questions, I have too but let Star Twinkle and Summershine explain everything to us," she said as she started getting comfortable in her throne.
Star Twinkle scratched his head after he realized that most eyes in the room were now focused on him. It made him feel a little bit awkward but it couldn't be helped. Everyone deserved to know the full details about some things in the past.
"Well, first of all...I guess you can pretty much forget most of the things that I told you about my past. You all know me as somepony who never experienced friendship before meeting you all. But that is not true...I did have friends in the past...really good friends in fact..."
Rainbow Dash had to interrupt. "And why did you never mention them before?"
Again Twilight asked of her to keep it down. "Let's all ask questions later, Rainbow Dash. We should listen to everything they have to say before that."
Star Twinkle was glad that Twilight was taking care of everyone like that. It certainly made it easier for him. And after everyone was quiet again, he continued. "As I said, I had really good friends in the past. I've met them all after my parents took me to Ponyville for the very first time when I was still a little colt. I've happened to meet them all on the same day, we all didn't really get along at first but after we all saw Rainbow Dash's Sonic Rainboom in the sky, we all became inseparable."
Rainbow Dash grinned proudly after realizing how awesome she and her Sonic Rainboom was.
"It was also at this moment where I got my Cutie Mark," the stallion added, which prompted some ponies in the room to ask questions again. After all, they all saw how Star Twinkle got his Cutie Mark on his birthday not too long ago. They decided to stay quiet though. "It was then when my parents decided to stay a little while in Ponyville after they realized how I finally managed to find friends here. So much for my past, which brings us to the next thing," the stallion said as he looked over to Summershine.
"Right," Summershine replied, knowing what Star Twinkle was referring to. "I guess I'll start with the Elements of Harmony." He figured. "You see, when I was younger, I was in Princess Celestia's school for gifted Unicorns because of my gifted talent for magic. I must have left quite some impression on Princess Celestia because she was asking a pretty difficult task of me. She knew that the seal that would hold Nightmare Moon imprisoned in the moon would soon break so she decided to prepare for that. She wanted me to find the Elements of Harmony in the Castle of the Two Sisters and figure out how to use them in the unfortunate event when Nightmare Moon would return. With that task given to me, I decided to go to the castle along with my friends, the ponies that Star Twinkle mentioned. But once we found them, somepony appeared...somepony who wanted to steal them from us."
"Arcana," Twilight guessed.
Summershine nodded in response. "We managed to fight him off back then by activating the Elements of Harmony and returning them to their original form again. As it just so happened, I and my friends were chosen by them.
Happytrade represented the Element of Honesty,
Nightsky represented the Element of Loyalty,
Brilliance represented the Element of Generosity,
Crash represented the Element of Laughter,
Lightbeam represented the Element of Kindness,
and I represented the Element of Friendship."
And again, more questions popped up. Another group of ponies who were chosen by the Elements of Harmony before Twilight and her friends? It was almost exhausting how many questions were circling around the heads of some of the girls.
"I wasn't there when all of this happened," Star Twinkle added. "I must have been visiting my parents at that time," he figured.
"Yes," Summershine replied. "It was shortly before you visited and...everything else happened." He said before taking a brief moment to get to the next event in his past. "We had a friend...or at least we thought he was one."
Star Twinkle then took over. "His name was Ashgray. He was a unicorn pony who claimed to be an archaeologist and wanted to visit Ponyville to take a closer look at the Castle of the Two Sisters."
Summershine continued. "One day he told us that Princess Celestia was trapped inside the castle so my friends and I came to her rescue. She was trapped inside a spell and I was not able to free her by any normal means. That's when Ashgray suggested using the Elements of Harmony. And I was foolish enough to get the Elements of Harmony and played right into his hooves..." the stallion explained with regret in his voice.
"It was all part of his plan," Star Twinkle said. "He was most likely the one who trapped Princess Celestia in the first place and just wanted us to get the elements for him. When we returned to the castle, the rest of our friends were knocked out and Summershine got attacked as soon as we stepped into the castle with the elements."
Twilight was a little worried. "This Ashgray pony sounds strong if he managed to take you all on, not to mention Princess Celestia herself..." she said as she rubbed her chin.
"We managed to defeat him though," Summershine added. "Or at least we thought we did..."
Star Twinkle explained. "Summershine and the others managed to use the Elements of Harmony against Ashgray and turned him into stone, just like what we did with Discord. However, Ashgray did something to me at the last second. I'm not too sure myself but I think he managed to put his mind into my body so that he could control me. I didn't notice it right away but when I did, things started to get out of control and he took over my body completely..." Star Twinkle visibly looked uncomfortable as soon as he started saying those things.
Summershine seemed relieved to hear that. "I figured as much. When I saw you in Ponyville starting that fire, I knew that something was wrong. Not to mention that you had a horn and wings just like Ashgray in his Terra Unisus form."
This all sounded strangely familiar to Twilight. She remembered how, when she took a sip from Zecora's potion back then, she saw pictures of Star Twinkle as an Alicorn starting a fire in Ponyville. She was happy to hear that nothing of that seemed to have been Star Twinkle's fault and smiled.
Meanwhile, Summershine continued his explanation. "With Star Twinkle's body, Ashgray went after the rest of our friends and took away their Cutie Marks, and with it, their connection to the Elements of Harmony. He took them all for himself in the hope to be able to control the Elements of Harmony."
Hearing about someone removing Cutie Marks, made everyone quickly remember what Starlight Glimmer did to them. Needless to say, the mare felt very uncomfortable as soon as everyone looked at her. "Sorry..." she just said with an awkward smile on her face. Of course, no one was pointing hooves at her, they just couldn't help but be reminded of the things that happened in Starlight Glimmer's hometown.
Again, Summershine continued the story. "I was worried about Star Twinkle so the only thing I could think of to take care of this situation was to offer my body for Ashgray to take over. He was after the Elements of Harmony so there was no reason for him to take Star Twinkle's body after all. After he took my body, I managed to keep control over again but only after he already took care of the rest of my friends..." He said with a heavy tone in his voice. "Which pretty much brings us to right now. I had the Elements of Harmony inside me and Ashgray was slumbering inside me as well so I decided to split the element's power in half and entrusted one half with Star Twinkle. If Ashgray would have awakened with the full power of the elements inside me, then there is no telling what he would do with it. Then there was also Arcana who needed to be taken care of. So I used a memory-erase spell to remove the memories of me and my friends from everyone, left Ponyville in the hope to control Ashgray's power, deal with Arcana, and find a way to somehow get our friends into this world..."
"And while you did all of this..." Star Twinkle said before he gave an explanation of what happened to him in the meantime. "I joined up with Arcana because I thought you could no longer be trusted..." he said with regret in his voice.
"I was wondering about that..." Summershine said. "Shouldn't your memories be erased about me? How did you know about me in the first place?" He asked.
Star Twinkle scratched his head. "I think it was because of the Elements of Harmony inside me. They seemed to have protected me. However, later, when Arcana made a clone of myself and placed him in Ponyville, my memories seemed to have mostly gone to the real Star Twinkle, the one who was with Arcana wearing that black armor."
Summershine rubbed his chin. "Makes sense, the memory erase spell also didn't work on Ashgray. Probably because he was inside me the whole time, along with the elements," he figured. Without realizing it, the two were at the end of their story. "I guess that covers most of it...any questions?"
Rainbow Dash was the first to ask questions. "Yeah! How about...who is going to remember all of this?! You know how much stuff you just dropped on us?!" She complained.
But Pinkie Pie seemed to disagree. "I thought it was pretty easy to understand. Do you want me to repeat it for you?" She offered. But clearly, Rainbow Dash had enough storytime for today and refused.
"I guess you don't need to sweat all the details..." Star Twinkle said after realizing that this was all a lot to take in. "I think the most important part is to tell you that you spent all this time with a clone of mine and...well, I don't know...I hope that doesn't change anything between us all," the stallion said, hoping that things would still be the same from now on.
Applejack was quick to reply to this. "Of course nothing changed between us. As far as I'm concerned, you are still the same old Star Twinkle," she said.
"Exactly," Rarity added. "Even if some crazy things happened in your past, that doesn't change a thing between the time we spent so far," she explained. Star Twinkle could not be happier to have friends like these. He started smiling after seeing how lucky he was.
"Well," Twilight started. "I think this was enough story for today. If anyone is interested in something else, then we should ask questions another day. Today was a pretty stressful day for everyone after all," she concluded before she attended Starlight Glimmer. "We also still need you to get settled in Starlight."
"Yes!" The mare responded nervously before she followed Twilight.
It didn't take long until everyone else started leaving as well. They also had to go back and fix the messes that Arcana's clones caused. It was a good point to end. This left Star Twinkle and Summershine both leaving walking outside the castle. Summershine told Star Twinkle that he was about to go back to his home here in Ponyville to stay. This time he was not about to leave. As the two were walking outside though, Star Twinkle couldn't help trying to figure out what their long-term plan was from now on.
"I guess we just have to find the other half of the Elements of Harmony and then figure out a way to get our friends back," Summershine said.
"Find?" Star Twinkle asked. "But we have both halves now, don't we?"
"Yes...that is something I meant to say earlier..." Summershine said with a bothered expression on his face. "You see...when Arcana tried to get the elements out of my body he asked me where they were..."
"What do you mean?" Star Twinkle asked confused.
Summershine looked at the stallion with a serious expression on his face. "Do you remember when I attacked you, back when Lord Tirek tried to take over Equestria? Before that, I tried to take care of him myself but Tirek and Discord managed to defeat me and rob me of my magic. After that...things are very blurry..."
For Star Twinkle, something did not make sense in that story. "He took away your magic? But you attacked us, while clearly using magic at that time," he pointed.
Summershine nodded in response. "I assume that Tirek only took my magic away and Ashgray's. That is why he was in control of my body at that time. That is where things start to get weird...because after I woke up in the hospital in Ponyville...I could feel that he was...gone...and not only him but my half of the elements went with him as well," he explained.
"What does that mean?" Star Twinkle asked. "What does gone mean in this case? Can he just vanish along with the elements?"
"That is exactly what's worrying me..." Summershine replied. "Again, my memories from that time are really blurry but here is a guess. When Tirek took away my magic, Ashgray took control over my body and before he came to Ponyville, he must have done something to the elements before, to ensure that they would still be with him somewhere..."
This is when Star Twinkle realized why Summershine was so worried. "So you mean...the elements, your half of the Elements of Harmony...are somewhere out there?" He guessed.
Summershine nodded in response. "Either somewhere...or...with someone..."
Meanwhile...
Far away from Ponyville somepony was making his way through an empty forest road. The steps, along with the wind that blew through the trees were the only noises that could be heard as the pony made its way towards a certain place inside the forest.
It didn't take long until the pony stopped on a little cliff looking down at the destination that he was headed to. The pony looking down the cliff had a dark purple coat and a dark blue w-shaped mane with yellow stripes in it. It was Mystic, former leader of the Storm Wings and former member of the Outcasts. Star Twinkle and his friends happened to cross paths with him not too long ago. All the pony did was grin deviously while his purple eyes turned red for just a moment before then returning to purple again. The Unicorn suddenly grew wings on his back and jumped off the cliff while heading to the place in front of him.
The Forgotten Castle...