As the airship departs, the illusion of all of Sunny's friends being unconscious fades away and they appear inside the castle with Queen Haven and Cloudpuff who are both unconscious. Celestia looks after the airship as it leaves and glares, very unhappy that Midnight has returned once again and that she had managed to get so powerful so fast. She was even more displeased that she had turned the newest alicorn into a force for evil. Then she grew a worried look and looked into the city, realizing that Sunset was still down there when the city was destroyed. “Sunset..” she says but suddenly Sunset appears in front of her, injured and unconscious.
“Not to worry Celestia, she’s fine.. well for the most part anyway.” Discord says as Celestia goes to check on her original student. She hears her sister speak after a few minutes.
“What are we to do? Midnight is stronger than ever and she just destroyed an entire city.. without Twilight Sparkle and her friends we cannot stop her..” Luna says, the hopeless expression on her face revealing how she feels. Sunset Shimmer, who was awake long enough to hear Luna say that, sits up slowly and looks at everyone.
“Well.. maybe in this case.. it may take villains to stop a villain.” she says, getting confused looks from the Mane 5, Artemis, Thunderbird, and Brightburn. Celestia, Luna, and Discord all pick up on what she means though and nod. Celestia and Luna heal her and help her up. “Discord, you said that the crystal empire is back now right?” she asks and he nods before she continues. “Then that’s where they should go, Celestia and Luna too just in case Cadence and Flurry Heart need help with Sombra still.” she says, gesturing to Brightburn and the Mane 5.
“What about you? Where will you two go?” Hitch asks Sunset.
“We both have some old friends that we need to meet up with, then after that.. let’s just say we’ll need to have a little 'swim' to find what or who we’re looking for.” Discord says and Zipp gets a bit excited and so does Brightburn.
“Is it a hippogriff that’s evil that you’re looking for?” Brightburn asks, to which they both shake their heads while Sunset has a nervous look.
“Nooot exactly.” she says, confusing everypony further but what really confuses them is when Celestia smirks like she figured it out and Sunset blushes and scratches the back of her head. Thunderbird and Artemis soon figure it out too. “ANYWAY, come on Discord, we shouldn’t keep those three waiting.” she says as she turns to leave.
Discord follows her after asking “You mean six right?” and everyone else discusses what’s going to happen. Zipp and Pipp have decided to stay in Zephyr Heights and try to help return to its original state as much as they could.. which they knew wouldn’t be a lot, considering all the loss that was suffered. Thunderbird decides to stay too and help, saying he’ll call every creature and droid back at base that they could spare to help fix the city. After they discuss the plan, the Mane 5 all say goodbye.
“We’ll be honest.. you probably won’t see us for a while.. but in the meantime, promise us you’ll get Sunny back and make this right.” Zipp said and Hitch and Izzy both pinkie swore and then they all hugged before heading in opposite directions. Pipp suddenly stops, her voice having a sudden enthusiastic pitch to it as she speaks.
“Oh wait wait, everypony get together. I wanna take a selfie of all of us just in case.. ya know..” she hesitates to say, “just in case this is the last time we all get a chance..” she says and after they all agree and take the selfie, they all each give her reassuring words of encouragement that restore her hope. After that.. they all split up. Next stop for Izzy, Hitch, Artemis, Brightburn, Celestia, and Luna: The Crystal Empire.
An hour later, along the shore of Maretime Bay
As Discord and Sunset arrive at the shore, they see just the creatures they were looking for: 4 unicorns, a dragon, and a changeling. “Starlight, Trixie, Tempest! You three made it! And you brought Sunburst, Ember, and Thorax!” Sunset said excitedly as she hugged the three aforementioned unicorns who she had come to be very close friends with. “It’s so good to see you guys again.” She continues to which Discord agrees as he greets everyone.
“You too, still can’t believe we were frozen and trapped in a different dimension for a thousand years. Feels like just yesterday we were all supporting Twilight and the others..” Starlight says and everyone agrees with slightly sorrowful looks at the sound of Twilight’s name and the mention of her and her friends. Sunset shakes her head and looks at them all with a determined look.
“Now's no time to be sad, she may not be here and neither are the others but that doesn’t mean they’re gone forever. If Midnight came back then they can too. Now, back to the mission.. who are we waiting on?” Sunset asks, looking at each of them and waiting for an answer.
“A cat named Capper, I met him a few times actually and even used him to find the Mane 6 while I was evil. He’s part of the pirate crew they partnered with now.. Well kinda so he’ll be using their ship to take us to.. wherever we’re going.” Tempest says and Sunset nods in acknowledgment and takes out a map, placing it down and pointing to a location that’s very far from land and Mount Aris. Everyone looks confused when she points there.
“Wait, Mount Aris is way over here so why are we going out to the middle of nowhere?” Ember asks and Sunset smirks, unsettling the rest of them slightly.
“You’ll see.” Sunset says with that same smirk still on her face.
Somewhere near the Crystal Empire
As the two members of the Mane 5 and the four alicorns travel up a hill, they feel the exhaustion they originally felt getting worse. They had been traveling for quite a while, in search of the crystal empire. They were nervous about what they would find but they knew that whatever it was, they’d all face it together. So of course it was shocking that once they finally got over the hill, they saw there was really nothing to deal with.. the Crystal Empire was absolutely beautiful, especially since the sun was setting right behind it, the light adding to the beauty of the kingdom. Celestia teleported them the rest of the way and they looked around and Celestia, Luna, and Brightburn all get excited when they see Cadence and Flurry Heart.
“Cadence! Flurry Heart!” Celestia says as they walk to them and both princesses grow smiles on their faces at the sight of their old friends. Flurry Heart runs to them and hugs Celestia and Luna tightly. To their surprise, Twilight’s students, Luster Dawn, Sandbar, Gallus, Smolder, Ocellus, Silverstream, and Yona catch up with them along with..
“COZY GLOW?” Celestia, Luna, and Brightburn all say, Brightburn obviously only knowing her from legends. Celestia and Luna were kind of happy to see her but SHE was not. Cozy glow nervously waves to everyone and soon afterwards, a female changeling and a male centaur walk up beside her and everyone recognizes them as Chrysalis and Tirek. It was then and there that Hitch and Izzy realized.. that they were standing right before the Legion of Doom.