Twilight humed as she and Pearl walked up the walkway to her throne room.
“To think, the Everfree Forest has a guardian.” Celestia repeated for the seventh time since Twilight and Pearl came out of that forest.
“Indeed sister, I guess even after all this time it still holds secrets that we will never unravel.” Luna looked out the window. The moon slowly came into view as the sun was setting. “We knew there was a power deep inside of it. But to think it has a form we can commune with.”
“Yeah I don’t think that would be wise.” Pearl sighed as she leaned back up against a pillar. “I felt nice and cozy there. Like I was back home, safe and sound. But, Twilight here was so fidgety I thought she would just up and leave without me.”
“Well we should try sometime. Perhaps there’s a way we can improve relations with him. Show him how far we ponies have come.” Celestia looked out the nearest window toward the forest.
“That’s something I’ve thought of myself, however I think he’s happy so long as ponies stay clear of his forest.” Twilight closed her eyes and rubbed her temples with her wing tips. “At least now I have answers to questions I thought were impossible. For now we need to set stricter laws regarding the safety of that forest. I felt his power just from a look he gave me. I doubt anycreature could stop him if he lashed out at ponies. Even if all alicorns came together like we did with Tirek.”
Luna and Celestia both nodded in agreement.
“Why don’t you two get some rest. Anything important we can handle in the morning.” Twilight gestured for a guard. “I would be glad for your help in the rebuilding.”
“And we would be glad to be of assistance Princess.” Celestia smiled as Twilight giggled. “Good night Twilight.”
“I think I shall remain awake.” Luna stood straight and looked out the window over Canterlot. “Most unrest has befallen ponies these last few days. So I shall patrol the dreamworld tonight, and probably for as long as it takes till those involved are no longer plagued by dark shadows.”
Twilight nodded. “I would appreciate it, Luna. I tried a few times in the past, but I don’t have the talent for it that you do.”
Luna gave a small bow and left to head toward her old room. As Celestia left for hers.
“Well Pearl, I think you should head on home. Your family will want to know about your new friend.” Twilight rested her wing on Pearl’s shoulder. “I’ll come by tomorrow and try to smooth over the frightening details.”
“Thanks. I get why he saved me. But I'm still wondering why he went out of his way to ensure my parents would also be saved and safe in the forest.” Pearl folded her front legs on the window as she looked at the tree tops.
“Well, what we know about Eastern Dragons is that family is very important in their culture. And I'm willing to bet it might be the same to his kind as well.”
“But how can we really know that?” Pearl looked up into her teacher’s eyes.
“Because I caught the far eastern accent in his voice as he talked.” Twilight chuckled as she watched her student slap her own forehead with her hoof.
“Gahh I should have guessed that.” Pearl groaned. “Well I’m going home. Take several aspirin and get some sleep.”
Twilight sighed peacefully as she watched her student walk off. Turning on her hooves she continued onto her throne room glad that the chaos of the day was finally over. She was only steps away from the doors when she found her Night Guard breathing heavily in a paper bag.
“Shadow Weaver? What’s wrong?” Twilight came up and knelt down by the batpony. “You look like you just saw a ghost. Take a few deep breaths and tell your princess what happened.”
Breathing heavily into the bag, Shadow lowered it slowly. “You have… guests.”
“Guests? Could you elaborate?”
“I wish I could, princess. I’m still trying to process what happened.”
“Well, take it slow. Just tell me what happened.” Twilight lightly rubbed Shadow’s back helping her to calm down.
“Well I was just coming onto my shift when these six mares came up the walkway. One of them leading a whole battalion of those pony Centurions. At first I thought it was another attack, thankfully with a command from one of the two unicorns they all shut down. I thought hey, I guess the princess’s night might get a bit interesting.”
Twilight nodded slowly. Sitting there next to Shadow as she continued.
“As they came closer I thought they looked awfully familiar. Like I had seen them here every day sense I started my assignment here at Canterlot. I told them you hadn’t returned but they just told me that’s okay and barged into your throne room. Well I went to stop them when I caught sight of the stain glass windows and realized I had seen them every day.” Looking up at Twilight, Shadow gulped. “The same six mares who blatantly barged past me were all in those windows. And each one was sporting a necklace with apple sized gemstones in the shape of their cutie marks.” Shadow blinked as she saw Twilight’s eyes widen.
“Princess?” Shadow barely got another word out as Twilight got up and dashed through the double doors.
“Yo Twilight, was wondering when you would finally show up!” Rainbow Dash smiled. “You know It’s not nice to keep your old friends waiting.”
“Cut her some slack Rainbow, She didn’t know we’d be here.” Applejack lightly cuffed Rainbow behind the head with her hat. “ Hey Twi, long time no see.”
“In deed darling, I have to say I love decore you have going on. It could use a bit of a touch up here and there though.” Rarity chuckled as she hoofed a banner.
“G.. Girls. How.. what?” Twilight closed her eyes and shook her head rapidly. Opening them again she found six of her closest friends looking at her like the last five hundred years hadn’t happened.
“Was this a good time to come by?” Fluttershy meekly stepped forward. “Sunset said it would be okay but I thought with all you had going on and all.”
Twilight stood there, mouth agape as she turned her head toward the throne and saw Sunset Shimmer standing there. A few scratches here and there but otherwise just as she remembered her. Looking back all of her friends were sporting similar scratches over their bodies. Except for Fluttershy and Rarity who seemed mark free.
“I don’t… I don’t understand. How is this possible. You all are supposed to be dead. I buried you all myself. I spoke at each of your funerals. I cried for weeks over each of you.” Twilight slumped down as Pinkie Pie and Rainbow moved up and helped Twilight back up.
“That was really sweet of you Twilight. You’ll have to tell me what you said, I never heard what went on at my funeral.” Pinkie Pie cheerfully grinned. “Not that I could have that is.”
Twilight felt as if her head was about to explode when a familiar laughter emanate from her throne. Looking up she gulped and felt her blood boil. Sitting there all smug and munching on popcorn was Discord.
“You should see your face right now Princess. Not the look I was expecting but this is so much more entertaining.” Discord laughed as he shoved another fistfull of popcorn into his mouth.
"Discord. If this is your idea of a joke. I am not laughing,” Twilight growled out and started to slowly stop her way to the throne. “This time you have gone TOO FAR! And you can forget about being a statue. I'll just go for unexisting you!"
"Oh come now, Twilight. We’ve known each other for hundreds of years now." Discord floated up and laid out on his belly looking down. “Would I really do that to you?”
"Yes. You've told me, more than once, that bringing the dead back to life is one of the few things you can't do. And according to my research it’s impossible, so you can just send these illusions away.”
“Oh Twilight, dear dear Princess Twilight. You are right, I can’t bring the dead back to life. But you're wrong to think that this is my handiwork. This is what most would consider a gift.”
“A gift? Who would be so cruel as to conjure up illusions of my lost best friends.” Twilight huffed and puffed heavily as her friends gathered behind her. She watched as Discord landed by Sunset and ran his finger over a red scratch making her wince loudly.
“Hey!” Sunset pushed the draconequus away.
Discord just laughed and flicked his finger at Twilight, several drops of blood landing on her snout. “Use your head Twilight, I know it’s been a while since you were a science nerd but Illusions don’t feel pain, or bleed.”
Twilight looked at her snout and saw the red drop that was there. Already she could smell the iron and looked at all six of her friends. Rainbow and Applejack both shared marks on their bodies that were smeared with dried blood. She could even smell the sweat on their bodies. “This still makes no sense. The dead can’t come back to life, it’s impossible. Even for you!”
“Well, you're right, and you're wrong.” Discord walked forward slowly. “Yes it’s true I can’t raise the dead, at least. Not by myself.” He slowly bowed himself. “I did have help. Or rather somefox needed my help to do this.”
“Well if this wasn’t you. Who…” Twilight stopped as her brain finally caught what he had said. “Fox?” Twilight looked at her friends who all shared a knowing look. They all nodded together before returning their look back to Twilight. “Then this is…”
“Forestsong’s work. Well not his alone, not even he can raise the dead. It was a collaboration of sorts. Between him, myself and another. Order, Chaos and Balance.”
“When the three work as one, miracles can be achieved or something like that.” Twilight looked at her friends. All six were Miracles to say the least. She wanted this deeply. Tears welled behind her eyes as she remembered all the joy and happiness they shared together. And the pain of losing them as they aged.
“Look Twilight.” Discord sighed and rested his lion’s paw on her shoulder. “Why don’t you go talk to him. I can send you there if you like.”
“Twilight. Go. Forestsong will have the answers you’re looking for. We’ll hold down the fort just like old times.” Sunset smiled.
Standing up she walked over and hugged the amber unicorn tight. “One thing? How did you get here and not Starlight? I would have expected her.”
“Well long and short of it is, she was offered to come back but opted to stay where she was. So I took her place. I hope you're not too disappointed.”
Twilight shook her head. “Of course not. Celestia will be glad to see you as well. For however long you all have. I’ll be back.” Turning to discord she smiled. “Alright, if he’ll see me, I’ll go and to think I just came back from the Everfree Forest.”
With a grin, Discord snapped his fingers and Twilight vanished.
Forestsong growled as he moved closer to his pray. His slow and careful steps betraying nothing of his approach. Kneeling down his rear slowly shook back and forth before he pushed off with his hind legs and pounced on his target. Pinning her to the ground as he stood on all fours over her.
The kitsune looked deeply into those aqua green eyes that shimmer like gemstones as he felt her caws trace up his chest. Her growling echoing his own as she wrapped a hind leg around his waist. Leaning in Forestsong kissed his beloved mate passionately on the lips as he felt her pull him down.
Breaking the kiss he started to bite playfully along her neck before a familiar pop and a swift squeak came from behind the couple. Sniffing the air he found the scent of a familiar pony.
Tsunami Rose lifted her head and sighed before dropping looking her mate in the eyes. “Haku, remind me the next time we see Discord to pull his head off and shove it down a pit.”
Forestsong let out a similar sigh to his mate and sat up, smirking at the dragoness he loved. “Not exactly where I was going to shove it. But I guess it’ll work.” Leaning in he kissed her lips softer this time and jumped down off their marriage bed and looked at the half frozen alicorn. “Hello Twilight, nice of you to pop in. Please follow me,” he stated in passing, walking out a large set of double doors.
Twilight just stood there with her mouth agape. A bedroom twice the size of her throne room was the last place she ever thought to find herself. And she certainly didn’t expect to see what she just saw. Her eyes shifted left and right at the mixed decor. Looking at the dragoness on the bed she slowly started to come back to her senses.
“I would follow him Princess, it can be easy to lose yourself in this place.” Tsunami waved her claw at Twilight before picking up an old copy of Daring Do.
Quickly turning about she ran out the door and quickly caught up to Forestsong who seemed to have shifted in size. Before he was nearly twelve hooves in height but now she was certain he was her height.
“I am so sorry. I…” a tail swiftly slapped itself against her mouth.
“It’s not you who should apologize. It’s not your fault that Discord popped you into my bedchamber. In fact I was expecting your visit. Just not this soon.” Moving into a massive library Forestsong sat himself up next to a huge desk. Twilight watched as he ran his paw over one small section that had a set of initials carved in it. Leaning in, she saw that they were SW.
“I would have thought you would be spending time with your friends. How often do ponies come back from the dead?” With a smile he looked at Twilight.
“Well. It’s just.. Why? I thought at first Discord was playing the cruelest joke he has ever played. Then he tells me you're responsible for this. What kind of joke are you trying to play on me by doing this?”
Forestsong sighed and looked back at his big brother’s old desk. His paw lightly caressing the old wood. “No joke Twilight. Yes I would have played a joke or prank on you, it's in my nature to do so. And I might in the future. But this, no. I’m being sincere.”
“Okay. if this is not a joke. Are they really my friends? Or is this some kind of trick that will fade?”
“Do you know the story behind this desk?” Forestsong smiled as Twilight shook her head.
Twilight looked at the desk, it was certainly no different then anything she hadn’t seen before. Walking up to it she saw the wood had seen better days. It was old. Probably a few hundred years old if not more. She ran her hoof over it for a moment before feeling a jolt of magic shoot through her. Pulling back her hoof, Twilight looked at Forestsong.
“Yes, it's imbued with magic. This desk was once a tree that grew in my family garden. Every year we would gather under it and watch the cherry blossom’s bloom.” A soft tear came to his eye as he related the story. “Well one day, father took on an apprentice. A unicorn of all creatures. Like my friendship with a pegasus, most of our family thought he was wasting his time. But father saw something in him. A talent of sorcery. Unmatched by any other of his kind.”
Twilight smirked as she looked at the desk.
“Well he kinda grew on the family, oneesama most of all. Well one day, during a spell flinging session with father. Oneesama walked past him in her best kimono, she moved so seductively that he couldn’t help but look at just as he released a blast of magic. A blast that destroyed our cherry tree.”
“That couldn’t have gone over well.” Twilight sighed wondering what this had to do with her friends.
“Not at first, but after a week he came to us with a gift. This very desk here. Crafted by his own hooves, from the tree that was destroyed.” Forestsong smiled as he remembered the day. His claw lightly tracing the initials on the desk just like on the day he first carved them. “He wanted to make sure that it’s sacrifice wasn’t in vain, that something good came out of that destruction. I still remember sitting next to him as he read me stories while he worked.”
“That’s a sweet story, but what does this have to do with my friends?” Twilight felt her heart tug in her chest. She could picture a young fox sitting up against a stallion behind that desk.
“Your Treehouse of Harmony is dead. It was lost when an invading army marched through my forest.”
Twilight’s head turned toward Forestsong so swiftly she actually heard and felt the pop. “What!”
“They were going to invade from the other side of Canterlot. The pony, and I use that term loosely, in charge was going to kill every escaping pony and capture your apprentice. What he was going to do to her made me sick to my stomach.”
“Was that why you guided her into your forest? To keep her out of his reach?” Twilight watched as he nodded. His paws reached for a picture and looked at it tenderly. “Then your gesture means more to me than I ever thought. What happened to him?”
“He suffered the same fate of those who harm my forest. Albeit a bit slower and don’t ask, because you do not want the answer.” A look in those deep amber eyes kept Twilight from even thinking of asking. “Anyway he also ordered the destruction of the crystal treehouse. I didn’t care for it. I hated the day oniichan planted the original tree. But she was a tree in my forest and I nurtured her out of my respect for him.”
Blinking Twilight looked at other pictures around the library. Many of them held photos of various kitsunes of different hues of fur color, but only one showed a small green fox sitting in front of a familiar gray pony with a blue cloak.
“I wasn’t about to let Harmony’s death be in vain. And I knew I had to pay you back for your efforts in protecting my forest from the Life Eater. So I thought to kill two birds with one stone.” Twisting his paw upward he showed a green sphere with a swirling amber mist. “This stone.” Dropping it in her hooves, Forestsong leaned back against the desk.
“Between myself, my mate and Discord we opened the spirit world. Called on my mother to allow passage for six souls with the message. ‘Twilight Needs Help’. Those six were eager to answer the call. I used the memories of the Elements of Harmony to fashion bodies for them. My mate poured their memories from birth to death into those bodies. And Discord made Illusion into reality. They are living ponies, just not permanent ones. Not yet.”
“What’s missing?” Twilight looked at the sphere in her hooves.
“That.” his paw pointing at the gemstone. “That stone contains my gift to you and them. A gift of Immortality. They will share the same lifespan you do. They won’t be invulnerable, but they will endure forever. Just like us.”
Twilight cradled the gemstone like it was a newborn foal. Or something more precious. “Why? Why would you do this?”
“Because I owe you, the world owes you a debt that can never be repaid. And we know what it is to endure for centuries while watching those we love die.” Forestsong tossed his photo along the floor and slid in front of Twilight.
Twilight looked down and gasped. It showed Forestsong as what she could only guess was a teenager. And next to him was Pearl, the two sharing an embrace one would only think was beyond friendship, laughing at something only they knew about. How well she knew her student and that girl in the picture was Pearl and not just someone who looked like her.
“I watched her die, Twilight. I held her elderly form in my arms. I offered her immortality so many times. And each time she refused me. You know that pain more than anypony else. You held them in your arms. And more than once I wished someone would give her back to me.” Forestsong took a long deep breath. “Every few centuries I meet someone like her, but it’s never really her. Something is always different. And again I have that chance once more with Pearl. I might never share the same friendship with her that I did with my old friend. No creature can give me her back. But I can give you them.”
Standing up, Forestsong walked to the window as the moon shone over his forest. “Take that gemstone. Shatter it in their presence and they will live again. And never fade to age. Or don’t and they will fade by the time the sun sets leaving only their elements behind. The choice is yours Princess. But either way my debt has been paid and Harmony’s death was redeemed by their defense of my forest.”
Twilight tried to talk, but her words failed her. She turned around to see Discord standing there silently. Walking up to him the pair shared a look and vanished from the library.