//------------------------------//
// Crystal 6 - Lessons Learned 
// Story: Those Forty Years 
// by Spell Writer 
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The next few hours were critical. Celestia never leaves Luna's side as the doctor examines the young filly. "Please be okay." She says weakly to her little sister. Finally, the doctor looks up from his examination, sighing slightly in relief as he finds nothing dangerously wrong with the small alicorn.

"Doctor, is Luna going to be alright?" Celestia asks nervously. She watches the doctor walk over to some cabinets and grab medicine from the shelves. Even though he may be an earth pony, he knows his stuff.

"Your sister will be fine, Princess. Luna is still an alicorn, after all. Her body is simply just exhausted. It seems like a textbook case of total magical exhaustion. Do not worry, though. I'll keep checking her up and ensure nothing else is wrong. For now, though, she needs rest. Perhaps you should find your mother so she knows what happened? Before you bring an angry mob to my clinic, that is." The doctor hums as he prepares a syringe with medicine, stopping to look at Celestia. 

"Or perhaps not, stay here." He says as he motions to a nearby bench.

Walking back over to Luna and gently giving her the shot of medicine in the arm. "This shot will stimulate her body a small amount and help with her magic regeneration processes. A pony rarely ends up this drained, and as an alicorn, she's missing two types of magic entirely right now. She likely won't be able to fly or cast magic for a few days even after she wakes up." He says with a casual tone of voice. After all, no one, not even a Queen or a Princess, can debate with the expertise of a Doctor about medicine.

Celestia steps in place a few times. Sighing as she sits down on a bench and worriedly watches her sister. "So she's going to be oka- OW!" She says as she gets an injection right in her arm too! Celestia quickly stood and glared at the doctor. "What was that?!"

The doctor rolls his eyes. "Relax, Do no harm remember? Did you forget that you were in that fight too? Your body needs to be examined to ensure there's no residual dark magic in it or hidden injuries. Sit." He says as he pats the other examination bed.

Celestia has never been one to go to the doctor's office. She hates needles and syringes! (Although, in reality, she's just afraid of them.) The last time her Mom made her go to the doctor, she had to be held down with magic.

Celestia, this time around, though, had no fight left in her. Resigning herself, she walked over to the examination bed with a slow and nervous trot. "Just focus on my sister, alright? I'm fiiiin OWWWW. BUCK!" She groans as the doctor presses on her side and wing

"Mm. Language, there's a filly in the room." The doctor says as he continues to examine Celestia's body. "You have quite a few broken bones in your body. Likely due to the size transformation you went through. Not to mention a broken wing too." He says casually as he feels Celestia's wing. "It's a wonder that you're even standing."

Celestia tilts her head. "Broken bones and stuff should hurt, though! I don't feel a thing." She says with a grunt.

The doctor sighs. "Yes, being full of adrenaline will do that, but now that you know your sister will be fine, you'll probably feel the pain right about. Now."

As if on command or some dark magic, Celestia falls right onto the soft examination bed, she was sitting on, grunting and groaning. "Ow ow ow!" She can feel her broken wing now, which she further stressed by flying down to the doctor's office at such high speed, and she can feel her broken ribs and sprained leg. It seems like the Crystal Heart only healed Luna, likely because Celestia's body had far too much to fix for one burst of magic.

"Mm. You'll need some pain medicine. I'd send you to the hospital, but only the crystal objects were restored by your sister's magic, and our hospital was made of wood. Luckily, I had the forethought of having some medicines stowed away, or we wouldn't have any medicine left in the entire Empire." He says as he helps Celestia lay back on the soft bed. "You'll need a cast for the leg and the wing, along with a brace for the torso."

Celestia groans a little. "Buck, this hurts so much." She says with a grunt. "Don't worry about me. Just. Focus on Luna."

"Yes, yes, I will. I already did. Now let's make sure you aren't bleeding anywhere, please." He says as he grabs a magical tool, running the crystalline object over Celestia's body.

"We don't want any black." The doctor says to Celestia as the crystal flashes red over her wing. It flashes yellow and even orange in other places, but not black. "Good, no internal bleeding or grave injuries. We'll get you all set up with casts, and you'll have to stay here until your mother comes, and then we can transfer you home or to your local hospital. For now, though, just rest like your sister." He sighs. Treating someone who just caused so much destruction is exhausting.

Celestia grunts a little and lays back, keeping as still as possible. Looking at the wall, she finally gets the doctor's name from one of his many diplomas. "Thanks, Doctor Beaker." She says with a tired smile.

"Mm. Just doing my job, Your Majesty."

"Just. Call me Celestia," she says before falling into a dreamless sleep.







Twilight grunts a little as she levitates over thirty ponies and ten other creatures behind her. She didn't want to drag them through the cold snow but couldn't trust them to walk behind her. The guards from the Empire never showed up, so she and Uni foraged some food and made the trek back to the Radiant Empire themselves.

"I hope the guards are alright. Something feels wrong." Twilight says with a worried glare as she trudges forwards, the snow providing some resistance to her steps as her pegasus magic helps her resist the cold air.

Uni, though, has been eerily silent this entire trek. At the beginning of it, she was talking and chatting as usual, but moments ago, she froze up. And then she destroyed a tree with a single punch.

Uni grumbles, "Grn." She says with a grumble. Uni is utterly frustrated by something that happened, but Twilight doesn't know what.

Twilight blinks and tilts her head. "Uni, are you sure you're alright? You don't seem. Well, you don't seem like yourself right now."

Uni lets out a snort. "I'm fine, Your Majesty. Just. Frustrated with the results of something that happened elsewhere. There's too much disharmony in the world, even right now, and this delay is just a pain." She says with a glare at the poachers. The pair finally reached the hill that overlooks the Radiant Empire.

And what a sight it is. Twilight's eyes glimmer gently from the reflection of light off the crystals. "The Crystal Empire. That's what it looks like in my time." She says with wide, happy eyes. She finally, FINALLY has a place that she recognizes. But wait… How could the city have gone through such a drastic change?

Uni rolls her eyes. "Didn't you say that the Crystal Empire would eventually get taken over by somepony named Sombra? Perhaps it would have been better if the Empire had never realized itself. Too late now, though." She grumbles and continues. "We'll have to roll with the punches when that comes along." She says with a shake of her head. She is still frustrated by something.

Twilight shakes her head. "With the Crystal Empire realized, the crystal heart's magic will fill Equestria with joy and love. Ponies will get along even better than before!" She says with a smile as she opens her wings. "Uni, you can handle taking the poachers the rest of the way, right? Thanks!" She says before she quickly flies off!

Uni blinks. "HEY! Don't just! I'm the spirit of harmony! Not some sort of guard pony!" She yells out after Twilight. But she's gotten too far away. Uni glaring down at the poachers and huffing.

"Oh well. The game's just started patience Unity. Patience~. Eyes on the prize, after all." She says with a smile as her transparent horn begins to glow with magic.

A bright flash of light shines out from the top of the mountain. Too far for anyone to see. But when the poacher ponies deliver themselves to the guard, they all seem zealously repentant for their actions. How badly they wish to be punished for their crimes is almost creepy.





Celestia would wake up safely in a bed in the Crystal Castle. She grunts as she tries to sit up, but something stops her. After wiping away the grogginess in her eyes, the adolescent looks down at herself. She is lying in a reasonably comfortable bed, all wrapped up in casts around her wings, her barrel, and one around her leg. Luckily, there isn't much pain, but she's well-stuck. Looking around a little more, she sees Luna sleeping beside her and Twiligh-. No. Mom is sleeping with her head at the end of the bed. Judging by her internal clock, it's about 3 PM, just going off what she feels from the sun. There were no guards around like she expected, likely because her mother was here now and could easily defeat her if she went crazy again.

A slight blink and grunt are all needed to make Twilight perk up instantly, her very shallow sleep interrupted by the tiniest noises. "Celestia!" She says as she quickly looks over her daughter. Tearing up a little bit. "You're okay! You're really okay." She says with a tight hug, which causes Celestia to groan.

"AGH!" Celestia yells out. Groaning a bit. "Mom, stop, ow ow!" She says with a wince. Twilight quickly stopped her hug upon hearing the noises of pain.

"Oh no! Sorry! I didn't hurt you more, did I?!" Twilight says as she looks Celestia over, who giggles a bit.

"Nah, I think I'm pretty much already about as hurt as I can get. Sides getting my horn blasted off or something." Celestia giggles weakly before looking down at Luna. The smaller alicorn gently sleeping on the giant bed. "How's Luna?"

Twilight tilts her head, a little surprised that Celestia asked about Luna so quickly. "She's fine. The doctor cleared her yesterday when I got back from catching the poachers. She's not supposed to fly, use her horn, or do any farming for three days and then ease herself into doing that stuff again over three weeks."

Celestia blinks in confusion. One of those three just didn't fit! "Farming?"

Twilight taps her chin with her hoof. "According to the doctor, she almost fully exhausted her earth pony magic fighting Daybreaker. According to Luna, it was the only thing keeping her conscious at one point." She says as she sits on the large bed with the pair. Gently picking up Luna and holding onto her as she rests with Celestia, adjusting the white alicorn so she can reset her head on Twilight's shoulder.

Celestia winces from the movement and looks down. "I really messed up this time." She says with tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm so sorry, Mom."

Twilight tilts her head and lays back. "Messing up happens to everypony Celestia. I've had my fair share of mistakes, especially at your age and even a little older." She says as she thinks back to when her actions nearly destroyed Ponyville with her smartypants doll or when she cast a spell that swapped all her friends' cutiemarks. Then she also thinks further about how poorly she treated her Canterlot friends. She even sees some of them sometimes in Ponyville but never says a word to them.

"Even now, I make mistakes, but learning from them is very important. For what it's worth. I'm sorry for not making time for you as I should have. I just... I've never actually been a parent before. Sure, I had Spike, but he was more of a little brother to me and errrr." She face-hoofs, knowing she's saying too much. "Let's just say someone else was the one that raised him in my stead."

Celestia blinks. "It was me, wasn't it?"

Twilight ignores the question for the sake of the timeline. "Either way. Uni was right. I can't balance being Queen and your Mom at the same time. So from now on, I'll take every Thursday off to be with you two."

Celestia and Luna both perk up. "REALLY?" they say excitedly. Luna hopped up on her hooves and happily jumped on the bed. She then stops and looks at Celestia and Twilight, confused as to why they're staring at her. She then remembers that she was faking being asleep.

Twilight looks at Luna as the filly quickly acts like she's asleep again, diving down and hiding her head underneath a pillow. "You were faking being asleep for how long?"

Luna blushes a bit. "T-ten minutes. You two were having an important conversation thingy." She mumbles. "But is it true? Are you gonna be with us every Thursday?"

Twilight giggles a little at her filly's antics, saying, "Mhm. Uni will be in charge of making sure my schedule is as free as possible. Of course, I won't be able to do it perfectly, so you two may have to accompany me on my other days while I attend to my duties. We'll run Equestria as a family."

Celestia smiles softly and tears up a bit. "I. I was scared you were gonna banish me or something. I mean, how could you forgive me after everything I did?"

Twilight hums a bit. "Oh, I don't know about that, after all. All I can see is that my daughter is hurt and that the Crystal Empire has been improved with both of my daughters' magic. History doesn't really go back this far after all." She says with a wink. "We will have to have a conversation later about your use of dark magic, and when you get better, we'll have to do something for the ponies of the Empire for you to apologize, BUT for now. Well, I'm just happy you two are okay." The trio then hugs gently, mainly to ensure not to hurt Celestia.

Meanwhile, a few rooms over, Uni is buried in papers. Her head bursts up from them. "I. Am not. A SECRETARY!" She yells out as a paper floats onto her face. With a tug, she pulls it off, reading it. "Oho. Now that. That's an idea."





A few days later, the three Royals are standing behind a lovely little stand at a festival hosted by the newly formed Crystal Empire! Twilight, Celestia, and Luna happily make fruit pancakes for all the civilians. While Celestia hasn't fully healed yet, she's recovered enough to wander around with assistance, either from crutches or somepony else.

The festival is for the renaming of the Radiant Empire. Now and forever to be known as the Crystal Empire! New traditions and ideas constantly flow Amore's way, but that isn't important to the three royals right now. The three instead choose to be sales ponies for the day! Their booth sells crepes and pancakes to the civilians of the Crystal Empire with a smile on their faces.

Luna happily squeaks out. "Mom! Two crepes and one pancake platter! Banana and strawberry for the crepes and Pineapple for the pancakes!" She says as she writes down the pony's order with a pencil in her mouth. While Luna misses using magic, she knows she should give it a break to become fully healthy again! After all, she's never used that much magic in such a short period before!

Twilight nods and gets to work on the pancakes and crepes, Celstia happily plating and adding the fruit and sauces to them afterward. "Order up!" She says happily as she slides the food over with her magic. Their line only gets longer as the day drones on. Celestia happily serves and sheepishly apologizes to the ponies she recognizes, mainly for hurting them and their friends. Luckily, her Mom's food is magical because it always puts someone in a good mood.

Finally, around 8 PM, the booth closes for the night. Mainly so the trio of alicorns can explore and enjoy the last bit of the festival. All the bits they made were going to the town's rebuilding efforts. Luckily the crystals were undamaged, but much furniture, crops, and even parks were entirely destroyed. Twilight said she'd provide whatever the Empire needed to get back on their hooves straight from Equestria's coffers.

So, for now, the trio are sitting on a bench, eating some of the crepes that Twilight saved just for each of them. Luna has a chocolate banana crepe, Celestia enjoys a strawberry cream stack of pancakes, and Twilight happily chows down on an apple and cinnamon crepe. If it weren't for Twilight's size or their status as alicorns, the three would look like any average family.

Luna breaks the silence as she munches on her food. "Unity's idea for holding a festival was brilliant." She says idly, happily munching down, getting whipped cream and chocolate sauce all over her face. Twilight giggled and levitated a napkin over, wiping her face.

"It was a smart idea. Unity apparently found my plans to host a friendship festival in Canterlot and decided to change it for this. She's almost as good at me when planning things on the fly." Twilight says as she looks over to Uni in the distance. The transparent blue unicorn trotting around and chatting with ponies all over, likely spreading the good word of harmony or something like that.

In reality, Uni was having a fun night. After all, even spirits need a break, especially when something doesn't go their way.
After a moment, the fireworks begin. Celestia smiles a little as she watches the colors and explosions happen in the air, saying, "It's so pretty." She says idly as she leans on Twilight's side. Twilight nuzzled her head and pulled Luna close with a wing.

"It sure is my little sunshine. It sure is." Twilight says. If only she knew that this was only the beginning.





The book slams shut with a violent crushing noise. Flipping through the pages with a fast intensity. With a smile, the pony watches as it arrives at the next chapter. Easily answering the question, locking it away. The holograms of the alicorns appear once again.

Twilight smiles at the camera and says. "See? Even Celestia had her ups and downs at times. Sometimes we all forget the lessons our teachers and parents taught us and think that we know better than them. It's especially hard when you don't feel heard by the people you love and care about. Luckily, as I'm sure you know, Celestia is quite the pony now, and I couldn't be more proud of her." Twilight then sighs. "This next chapter isn't my brightest moment, honestly. Included at the end of the book is a set of spells that only should be used when Equestria is in mortal peril. You'll see why after you read this next chapter."

The next chapter's title reveals itself.

-Equality 1 - A New Spell and Harmony for all-