Melody paused as she looked at the mirror in her bedroom. She cleared her throat as she practiced her breakup speech that she was going to give to Fancy. "So Fancy, I just wanted to say I'm sorry because I still have feelings for Aether…" She shook her head and mentally scolded herself. She looked up at the doorway to see Apple Bloom laughing. She raised an eyebrow. "What?"
"I just think it's funny that you're talking to yourself in the mirror practicing a breakup speech. You're acting like you're going to ask him out and not breaking up with him," Apple Bloom said.
Melody sighed, "I know it's just I want to let him down as easily as possible. I know he might take it pretty hard though…"
Apple Bloom sat down on the bed and sighed, "Yeah I know stallions like Fancy tend to be pretty sensitive sometimes. But even if you let him down gently he might refuse to take it to heart."
Melody paused. "Meaning?"
"Meaning, if he doesn't take the break up to heart then he'll still think you guys are together when you aren't anymore. I've had stallions try to do that to me in the past. And if he tries to do that to you then be firm with him," Apple Bloom explained.
Melody nodded. "Right."
The doorbell rang and Melody went downstairs to answer it. She made sure to give a polite smile to Fancy after he hugged her and kissed her on the cheek.
"So how's it going?" Fancy asked as he took his seat at the kitchen table. He smiled when he saw an apple pie with three plates on the table sitting next to it.
"Oh, uh hi Fancy!" Apple Bloom said, "I just came down here to grab my slice of pie and I'll be in the guest room if you need me."
Fancy looked confused when Apple Bloom grabbed her slice of pie and left. Melody tilted her head. "What?"
"Well I thought Apple Bloom would join us. But then again we're both adults so there's no need for a chaperone," Fancy said.
Melody nodded. "Yeah the main reason Apple Bloom went into the other room is because I have something to tell you."
"Oh? And what might that be?" Fancy asked.
"Well remember how I told you that I wanted to either date you or Aether and Aether told me that he didn't like me so I chose to date you?" Melody said.
Fancy nodded slowly. "Uh-huh."
"It turns out that Aether realized he made a mistake in rejecting me and he wants to be with me. And I still want to be with him. So…." Melody said.
Fancy sighed, "You're breaking up with me aren't you?"
"Yes. But we can still be friends right?" Melody asked.
Fancy shook his head. "No we can't. Because I already know it's going to be hard for me to see you with Aether. So from now on, our relationship is strictly business since we work the same jobs as Gate Guardians."
Melody felt hurt by what Fancy just said but she understood his viewpoint about things. She knew it would be hard for him just for her to break up with him in general. She honestly thought that he was taking this a lot better than she thought he would.
Melody nodded slowly. "Alright then… I totally understand. So see you at training?"
Fancy nodded. "Sure see you at training."
Little did Melody know that this would be the last time that she would see Fancy at training or anywhere else in Equestria.
***
Fancy Dark stomped angrily into his bathroom when he got home. He stood in front of the mirror to see Fancy Mark smirking at him. "Well it was fun while it lasted huh Dark?"
Fancy Dark snarled, "I don't know what you're talking about! The fun is still going!"
"Do you still plan to serve Phantasia?" Fancy Mark asked.
"Yes I do," Fancy Dark said.
"You do realize that once you leave you'll have no access to the West Gate anymore and you won't remember being a Guardian right?" Fancy Mark asked.
Fancy Dark scoffed. "Tsk, tsk do you think I believe that crap? Well I don't! I think it's something that Head Guardian Sapphire uses as a threat to keep us from quitting."
Fancy Mark shook his head. "Nope! That's not it because I think it is that serious. If you want to quit you can you just won't have any memories of being a Gate Guardian. It's for the safety of Equestria."
Fancy Dark scoffed again. "Safety of Equestria my flank! Don't worry my plans will fall into place perfectly and you'll be the fool here, not me!"
"Fine then since you insist on being a fool then I won't ever appear to you ever again," Fancy Mark said. "Even when you lose your memories I won't be there. So goodbye!"
With that, Fancy Mark faded into nothingness and the mirror returned to its normal self. Fancy Dark shook his head in dismay. He went back into the bedroom and started packing. He was going to join Phantasia's army if it was the last thing he did.
***
Sapphire was woken up abruptly in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. She had that nightmare again, the one where she was walking over the skeletons of her family members, ponies she called friends and even ponies that she considered her enemies all from the Nintis Empire.
She remembered when she went back to see what was left of the Nintis Empire and it was a heartbreaking sight to see. Skeletons of the citizens were all over the place and just about everywhere you looked there were small fires that had been set to blaze for all eternity.
When she got towards what was left of her castle she almost emptied the contents of her stomach. In front of the castle on a line of flagpoles were the heads of her dad, her mom, her grandfather and her grandmother perfectly reserved with magic. She walked past them and went to check to see if her old room was intact. It was and she grabbed her photo albums and anything that she thought was of value and left. But before she left the Nintis Empire behind she took the heads of her family members off the flagpoles and buried them.
She said her final goodbye to her home and never went back.
What most ponies don't know about Sapphire is that the home that she has at the outskirts of the Crystal Empire isn't her real home. True she'll stay there from time to time but that isn't where she prefers to live. She actually lives in the library that was the basement underneath the castle in Canterlot. That's also where she works because it has a secret passageway for her to monitor the magic of the Gates to help her protect Equestria better.
She had been Head Guardian for over a thousand years now and every time war breaks out or a war is threatening to break out she has that dream over and over again. Most ponies and that includes the Elder's would assume that she constantly looked tired when there was a high alert situation because she was overworked. True, she did work long hours and sometimes 24/7 when situations like what was currently going on with Phantasia. But most of the reason why she looked tired was because of barely getting any sleep. At most she averaged at least four hours of sleep a night lately. That is, if it were possible to get any sleep at all during the week.
Ever since Phantasia popped up she had been working 24/7 whether it be getting paperwork done during the hours she worked at her office or going to meetings that the Elder's had marked VERY IMPORTANT. Lately, those meetings seemed to be happening a lot. Sapphire being a workaholic was one of the reasons why she had a little bit of a mental break on her birthday this year.
Anyway, she had that nightmare again but this time when she woke up she had a bad feeling. After rubbing the sleepiness out of her eyes she noticed her cutie mark was glowing. Then she felt it… It had been over a century since the last time this had happened. The feeling meant that one of the Gate Guardian's lost their connection with their Gate and that Gate had sealed itself off in order to keep anypony else from using it.
"Crap!" Sapphire said. She immediately teleported to where the Gate Crystals were to figure out which Gate had sealed itself off.
She entered the room and floating above a gold altar were five Gate Crystals. The Gate Crystal that was floating at the top represented the North Gate and it had the Element of Honesty's Crystal floating next to it. The Gate Crystal floating to the right of the North Gate Crystal represented the East Gate and the Element of Kindness's Crystal floating next to it. The Gate Crystal floating below the East Gate Crystal represented the South Gate and the Element of Generosity's Crystal was floating next to it. The Gate Crystal floating to the left of the South Gate represented the West Gate and the Element of Laughter's Crystal was floating next to it. In the center of the crystal was the fifth Gate Crystal and it represented the Center Gate and the Element of Loyalty's Crystal was floating next to it.
Princess Twilight's Element of Harmony Crystal wasn't there because her Element of Harmony wasn't paired with a Gate but it was paired with Sapphire's magic. It was because of the fact that Sapphire was the Head Guardian and her job was to make sure that the Gate Guardian's did their job to protect Equestria.
"Alright then," Sapphire said to herself, "Let's see which Gate is having problems. I hope it's nothing too serious because right now I've been having one headache after another lately. From anywhere to having Prince Purple get fired to having Elder Facade act a cranky old fart even more than usual lately and let's not forget about that horrible nightmare." She paused and then chuckled, "Wow, I must be tired because I'm talking to myself again!"
She stood in front of the altar and took a deep breath. It took her a moment but she cleared her head of negative thoughts as she concentrated on the magic coming from the Gate Crystals. She checked the North Gate and everything was fine there, she checked the East Gate, nothing was wrong there, nothing was wrong with the Center Gate and the South Gate. However, when she got to the West Gate she stopped.
She looked over when she saw her cutie mark was glowing and she felt like she was being electrocuted as she focused her magic on the West Gate Crystal. After a moment or two she stopped her magic from going into the West Gate Crystal and that's how she found out that it was the West Gate that had sealed itself off. She gasped when she saw West Gate's Crystal lying on the altar with no power coming from it. The Element of Laughter's Crystal lying next to it.
She gathered up the West Gate Crystal and the Element of Laughter's Crystal in a box and started to head out to her office.
***
Once Sapphire got to her office in Canterlot, no sooner had she entered her office, her assistant Tumble came running in. Sapphire checked the time on the clock hanging on the nearby wall. It was 7:30 am! She blinked. What the heck is Tumble doing here so early in the morning?
She didn't have to ask that question out loud because Tumble answered it by saying, "There's an urgent message from the Elder's and Princess Twilight! You're being summoned to the throne room!"
Sapphire's eyes went wide because she knew that every time she was summoned to the throne room it was because of an emergency. "Did they say why?"
Tumble shook her head. "Nope. They also said something about needing you to bring the document 6.6.6 with you? I have no idea what that means. They said you would know what they were talking about."
Sapphire tried her best to keep herself composed. If the Elder's were asking her to bring the document 6.6.6 with her then the situation is bad! Not just bad, it's REALLY BAD! That's because there were only five times that Sapphire had to invoke that document and it was during times of war. She hoped that she wouldn't have to invoke it.
She didn't waste any time asking any more questions. She went to her safe underneath her desk in her office and took out the document 6.6.6. She grabbed her bag that held the box that had the West Gate Crystal and the Element of Laughter's Crystal in it and after making sure the safe was locked she headed to the throne room.