The skyline of Manehattan was unrecognizable, all of its buildings having long since fallen after its abandonment two hundred years ago. From on high, the towers of glass and iron that once rivaled the mountains and blotted out the stars with their own perpetual night light were little more than rust and rock among the flooded streets of collapsed structures.
Queen Opaline hovered over the site and rechecked the map in her just-acquired book. The landmark buildings gone, the only way the alicorn recognized what she was looking at was the shape of the bay: it matched the ancient, weathered map of Equestria she now possessed. If she went down one street and to the right, there was a mark identical to other sparse marks on the map. The pony who had documented all of this had been someone named Argyle Starshine but it had been in Sunny Starscout’s possession when she stole it.
It was clear to her neither of them knew what they had.
Satisfied with her bearings, Opaline put the book away and flew along the coast. She couldn’t hesitate: she knew she was being followed.
Opaline found the ‘mountain chain’ of rubble she was looking for, and at its head, the great rusted antennae lay on top. This was it, this was where it was buried.
She set down along the shore where two streams met, where the streets had caved in long ago, exposing the flooded artificial, pony-made caves. She entered the crevice and started tossing and tearing through the rubble. She just had to find a way in; any way in. It was dirty work, but the treasure would be worth it.
After what felt like hours she found metal instead of brick and knew she was on the right path. She dug with blasts and ripped rock from the groundwith reckless abandon. There were pony skeletons strewn here but this was not a grave. Unceremoniously she tossed them aside as she continued tearing through the earth.
Finally, she was greeted with a smooth, round depression in a wall.
It was the door she had searched for, still sealed. That was troubling, but promising: there was potentially little weather exposure.
Opaline Arcana caught her breath from her terraforming. She knew no doubt the dust she was breathing in was dangerous and she knew the longer she stayed here the sicker she would get. Despite all the magic she had drained from countless dragons, all just to breach the barrier quarantining magic from passing to Equestria, she was, at her core, mortal.
The thought angered and disgusted her.
In a burst of rage she burned the door keeping her out and when the creaking, warped red-hot metal was loose, she wrenched it straight off its hinges. The terrifying shriek of metal echoed through the forgotten city; like the most terrifying trumpet announcing her arrival and the opening of a great seal.
Tossing the door behind her in the true alicorn strength only she possessed, she stepped over the threshold and inside the dusty, dark corridors.
As she ventured down the great stairs, the dust just unsettled floated in the dark lit only by her own horn. The air here was stale like a tomb. With that thought, she came across the first bodies. At some point, the last backup systems had probably failed.
Assuming they hadn’t all turned on each other before that.
At first, Opaline passed by the bones indifferently. Unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies had all inhabited this city and she knew to expect all three. The only thing that stirred any emotions from her was seeing how intermixed they were.
This city was different from most. All the way up until the end.
Opaline wandered the mostly intact hallways until she came across a map. Her eyes scanned over the complex until they spotted what she wanted. At the very bottom, nestled against the dormant generators: archive.
They would have them.
She then looked over her withers when she heard the hooves going down the steps behind her. They were here. Annoying, but expected. The six of them all stopped short of her to block the exit.
“Stop right there, Opaline!” young Sunny Starscout demanded. Surrounded by her friends, the little earth pony concentrated and a translucent construct of a horn and a wings formed on her.
“Great timing!” Opaline greeted the ragtag group with a twisted smile. She eyed one cowering and narrowed her eyes. “Hello, Misty.”
The others glanced at the acknowledged pony and that was the split second Opaline needed.
She cast a shield she could do in her sleep. Except this one was around everyone except her and Sunny Starscout.
Sunny readied a response and fired a standard targeted laser at her that was easily blocked. Then little Starscout tried to rush her, not realizing her friends couldn’t follow. Opaline turned and fled.
The chase wouldn’t be close.
“Sunny!” her friends called after her. Sunny would stop to try and break her friends out. That would buy Opaline time to find them.
Opaline Arcana burned through the dark, stale hallways, tore an elevator shaft open, then counted the floors as she dropped.
She forced open the correct elevator door and quelled her fire.
This floor was more utilitarian than the commercial and residential ones above it. There was significantly less decor and more open space and support beams. She wandered for a moment until she noticed the overhead network of wires and followed them back to the source. Then there, she found the door she wanted: archive.
After one locked door was removed from her path she found it. She stood in dark, hollowed rows of shelves. She took the first item off a nearby shelf, it didn’t matter what it was, and immediately removed it from its case. She checked the title, then unceremoniously tore it open to examine the smooth surface inside.
She saw her beautiful image reflect off the seemingly whole, polished disc. That was promising. In her reflection she saw an orange glow from down the hall.
“Just in time, Sunny,” Opaline told herself. She tossed her improvised mirror aside to let it smash to the floor.
She leisurely traced the shelves until she found what she was looking for. In the grasp of her magic, she slid it out with significant more care and even put a shield around it as she brought it with utmost reverence towards the lifeless monitor at the end of the room; like an offering to the altar.
Sunny Starscout tore into the room and hesitated only when she saw Queen Opaline’s care. The earth pony looked around and at what Opaline was doing to try and piece together what this all was. The Queen indifferently let her watch.
“Opaline! I don’t know what you’re doing here but I know it can’t be good. Give me back my dad’s book!”
“Oh. Right,” Opaline realized nonchalantly. She sat the artifact of her attention down for a second then removed the book from under her robe. She floated it all the way towards Sunny Starscout who was still standing in the doorway. “I don’t need this anymore,” she explained casually. “Stick around for a second, Sunny.”
Sunny, slightly confused, took her dad’s book and checked the cover and insides quickly to be sure it was real and complete before sliding it into her bag. With hesitation she continued standing there.
Opaline unplugged what looked like an old computer from the wall outlet and plugged it into something she pulled from her own bag. The monitor’s glow slowly filled the room.
The queen wasn’t angry or monologuing or laughing maniacally. She was just watching as the computer loaded.
“...what are you doing?” Sunny asked, her curiosity now getting to her.
Opaline loaded the tome she had carried over to the computer into the designated slot and then turned and gave Sunny a familiar, wicked smile.
Now, it was time to monologue.
“Sunny, do you know why the sun rises every morning?” Opaline started.
“...what?”
“Who raises the sun?” She rephrased her question to lead her better. “Or, who wakes the moon every night and brings out the stars?
“...my dad said Princess Celestia and Princess Luna used to raise the sun and moon, respectively.”
“Mmhm. He would say that,” Opaline acknowledged before pressing a button on the keyboard. The monitor began to play something. It looked like a storybook. A voice from the computer began speaking over it.
“Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night…”
Sunny’s curiosity got to her and she approached the computer. Opaline stepped aside so that she could see clearly what was playing out. There were depictions of Celestia and Luna on the monitor.
“It still works. I think I got to it just in time,” Opaline stated proudly.
“I don’t understand. You came all of this way for a documentary?”
“Keep watching,” Opaline instructed her. “You’re a smart girl.”
Sunny watched as the storybook images stopped playing and were replaced by a real pony reading a book by a river.
“Princess Twilight!” Sunny pointed in shock. Except she wasn’t an alicorn, she was a unicorn.
“My Little Pony, My Little Pony. ~Ahh, ahh, ahh, ahhh… (My Little Pony). I used to wonder what friendship could be. (My Little Pony.) Until you all shared its magic with me!”
Images of ponies that Sunny knew by heart played across the screen. It was like the stories her father taught her and that she reenacted with her toys had come alive. They looked exactly like them. This was something her father would have treasured. This was it! This was a master source of all of the ponies who saved Equestria countless times!
They were singing… a theme song?
“Do you understand yet? Or do I need to spell it for you?” Opaline asked the little pony beside her.
Credits came up and then the theme stopped and a scene began playing of Twilight Sparkle walking. Sunny was transfixed, she wanted to keep watching but she was in front of a very dangerous alicorn.
“It’s… a reenactment? As a television show?”
“It is a television show!” She corrected her. What she was trying to tell Sunny was finally starting to dawn on her.
Sunny took a step back from this crazy idea and shook her head. “That’s ridiculous,” She shook her head more confidently. “I’m not a foal, Opaline. That’s… no.” It wasn’t just ridiculous to her, it was borderline blasphemous.
“Tell me Sunny: if Celestia raised the sun, who raises it now?”
Sunny struggled for an answer but found one. “Dad… Dad said that the sun and moon drift now and that’s why the days get longer in the summer!”
“...Legend has it that on the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars will aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal! Spike…”
“Oh Sunny~” the elder cooed and then laughed. “They always did that. Okay, here’s another: why do you think pegasi can’t walk on clouds anymore?”
Sunny had asked Zipp to try to do so when their magic was restored. Zipp had fallen through the cloud as easily as anything else. Sunny didn’t have to say anything for the queen to read the look on her face.
“I… don’t know why you’re trying to trick me but this won’t work,” Sunny said as she stepped back from Opaline towards the door.
“...For you see, the mythical Mare in the Moon is in fact Nightmare Moon, and she's about to return to Equestria, and bring with her eternal night! Something must be done to make sure this terrible prophecy does not come true…”
“I’m not trying to trick you, Sunny. You’ve read what your father’s written in that journal of his, I’m sure,” Opaline said, gesturing. “Did you ever stop to wonder why your father's beliefs were criticized so much? Why the history books don't record Twilight Sparkle's exploits? It wasn't a cover up. It was a show; historical fiction. Inspired by the myths of alicorns. Princess Twilight Sparkle was never real.”
“No!” Sunny shook her head. She wasn’t going to hear this madness out. “Don’t you dare say that!” She felt the pins on her own bag as she continued stepping back until she was practically out the door. “The… the artifacts my dad collected!”
“Props from the show, sold to collectors I imagine. All save the crystals. I made those,” Opaline explained.
“Stop it! I’m not listening to this!” Sunny shot a beam of energy from her translucent horn directly at Opaline.
The queen did not counter or create a shield. Instead she took the blast straight on. Her coat and flesh sizzled and burning. In a sweep of anger and retaliation Opaline cleared the distance between them immediately and pinned Sunny to the ground with a magic lash and a hoof on her horn. Sunny started thrashing.
“Don’t you dare fire that thing in here!”
Panicked, she continued to struggle and fired another beam directly into the hoof on her horn.
Opaline yelled in pain and threw Sunny in her magic out the door and across the hallway. The scrappy little Earth pony managed to break free before she hit the ground and rolled. She immediately scrambled to her hooves, aimed and fired a laser again.
The fire alicorn took the second blast to the chest. For all the power she had, she was still scorched and wounded now. Taking the hint, she pushed a shield straight at Sunny, as hard and rough as she could.
She fired again. This time the shield absorbed the spell.
“Why would I lie to you about something so fundamental, Sunny,” Opaline asked. “How could a princess raise the sun? The planet goes around the sun. Or has geocentrism caught on?”
The little orange pony panicked and ran. She was tripped up by magical tentacles summoned from nowhere.
The queen followed after her leisurely.
Before the little pony could get up she started blasting this time. The alicorn’s blast met the other’s in the air between them. Opaline stepped closer and over Sunny as she struggled backwards and tried to stand up. Despite her injuries, the one true alicorn could still overpower the physically and emotionally shaken imposter.
The little earth pony-turned-alicorn had to stop and took the force for a second as she switched to shielding herself from the stronger beam; she could not outlast her. Opaline continued to draw closer, letting her laser burn and melt over the shield Sunny was desperately trying to keep between the two of them. She could feel the heat from the searing light.
“Please! No!” She begged for her life. To her surprise, she stopped. Sunny held the shield for a little bit longer but covered her face with her hooves just in case.
“She was made up, Sunny. It was just a story. An important story. The three tribes have fought since ancient times. Why wouldn’t they? Can you imagine egalitarianism in a society where unicorns can cast spells, pegasi can fly and earth ponies toil in the dirt? Twilight Sparkle was a promise that if ponies worked together and had good hearts, we could rise above our common differences. We could be equals and prosper together. We could be nurturers of this world, not destroyers, just like the alicorns from myth like we put on our flags to represent the unity of our nations.”
The naive little pony uncovered her eyes but did not drop the shield. She was crying.
“She made the crystals… ” Sunny tried to argue. She was too distraught.
“I made the crystals!” Opaline boomed. “They. Are. Mine!”
She shook as she looked up at the alicorn.
“I created them. They don’t give magic. They seal it away. Do you know what would happen if you broke one?” Opaline asked her. She didn’t wait for a response this time. “It would set the magic it contains free!” Opaline laughed. “Imagine my surprise when after all this time, I wake up and they turn up still intact!”
Sunny, having finally gathered her strength, stood back up. She struggled to hold the shield as her spirit flickered.
“But… why? If you did that… why would you do such a thing?”
“The tribes fought, Sunny. We were one country, but divided. Prejudice, racism, segregation, civil unrest. Nearly a thousand years couldn’t change that. Equestria was built on desperation with ideals that it never could fully embrace… but there was a common mythos.”
Queen Opaline Arcana raised her head high and spread her wings over the little earth pony. “From the very same cities where the races fought, there were those that believed it didn’t have to be that way. They created that show set in simpler times, golden years. Ponies always look back at the past as better. It was never better, Sunny. It was always awful.”
Opaline paused but Sunny just looked away, struggling with this information.
“To many ponies, myself included, Twilight Sparkle was more important than real! She represented the values we needed: harmony, unity, friendship. When I was a unicorn I captured the magic of the three tribes in order to ascend, to become the very thing Twilight had promised! I was the first true alicorn in history,” Opaline said as she met eyes with Sunny. Opaline smiled at her and at the false alicorn’s little horn and wings. “That is why my crystals tried to make you an alicorn: that is what they are designed to do when brought together. Separately, the magic only flows if the tribes will live in harmony.”
“But everypony knows Twilight Sparkle made the crystals…” Sunny spoke up, almost too quietly. She was questioning everything she knew.
“It seems fate has a sense of humor: making me purple like my hero. I imagine that’s why the origin of the crystals has been muddied so much over time… do you know what the tribes did when I gave them their magic back as crystals?”
“...what?” Sunny asked simply. Everything was lining up, as horrifying as it was.
“Each tribe tried to take the others’!” Opaline said bitterly. “Even with an immortal queen, you fought! I failed you, you… stupid, selfish ponies! You nearly destroyed yourself. But Zephyr Heights couldn’t be toppled, Bridlewood couldn’t be breached and you Earth ponies scraped by, like you always do.”
The young little pony stood in silence for a moment, attempting to take it all in. “My dad’s work is…” She could still hear the episode of the television show playing in the distance. She looked up at the alicorn. “...and you’re…”
“A fan of Twilight Sparkle, just like you,” Opaline humbled herself. “The ponies weren’t ready when I last tried to unite them. Maybe they didn’t believe like you and me. You and I believe in the lies! Maybe, thanks to you, they’re ready to believe in them too.”
“...what are you saying?”
"Join me, Sunny!” Opaline offered her hoof. “You are a face they all trust. We will spread the lies we believe until they are the truth.”
Sunny dropped the shield around her body: distraught, the horn and wings winked out with them. She looked at that hoof. She earnestly considered it then looked back up at the pony offering it. Opaline was a unicorn who made herself into an alicorn and controlled the magic of the world in order to force them to be peaceful or else.
That wasn’t the way.
“No. Even if what you’re saying is true… none of this is right. I’ll never join you!” Sunny declared. Then, she ran away from the truth. The only thing she could do.
The self-appointed queen of Equestria would not have this. She flew after her.
Sunny ran through the dark, until by the light of her pursuer, she found the stairs. She collided into the door but it wouldn’t open, blocked by the rubble of the stairs.
“If you won’t join me, then I can’t leave you alive,” the queen said. Sunny panicked as the Queen’s magic flared into an eye-scratching white light again.
As she ran away again, she desperately tried to will her horn and wings back into existence. She was too scared and lost. Sunny found vault-like doors open and ran through them, into the generator room. There was a cold breeze here in the dark.
She ran all the way across the balcony until she hit the rail at the end. Trapped and in a panic, she climbed over the railing and jumped onto the giant turbine in front of her in the dim light chasing her. She could smell water and hear it flowing in the distance. Water flowing away, out of this ancient tomb. She wondered how far down it was. She considered how far she would have to jump out in the pitch dark to hit water.
Before she knew what was happening, Sunny’s body started to glow. She thought she was powering up again but when she felt her body lift off the ground, no horns or wings appeared.
The Queen’s glowing horn came into view through the vault doors. Sunny struggled, held aloft in the air as Opaline casually walked towards the edge of the balcony.
“It doesn’t take an alicorn to do this,” she warned her. The floating Earth pony saw the turbine disappear beneath her as she was moved over the yawning blackness below. “Any unicorn with sufficient strength could pick you up or choke the life out of you. Maybe even ‘fry your brains’ if she decided to learn how to do it. It’s only a matter of time until some unicorn comes around and does so. You can’t just rule with peace and harmony. You need a little authority.”
The caught pony began crying. “Please don’t,” she begged again. “I won’t tell anypony.”
“I don’t want to kill you,” Opaline promised. “Join me! Together we will rule a united Equestria! We will spread the tales of Twilight Sparkle as truth. Fiction is so much more powerful than the truth: art can be whatever we want! And that art will inspire life.”
The earth pony stopped struggling as she thought that through.
“Sunny Starscout, will you be the Celestia to my Luna?"
The young orange earth pony on her way to alicornhood looked at the older mare. The white of her mane, the discoloration of her coat, the makeup covering the fine lines around her eyes: Opaline in all of her immortality, was still old and she had seen the full brunt of ponykind’s worst.
The Queen offered her hoof.
“One, two, push!” Hitch called. The five ponies trapped in the anti-magic shield had formed a line and pushed out with forehooves and rear legs against one another. Stretched across the diameter of the circle, they pushed against two opposite points together… until Pipp’s strength let out and they all collapsed to the floor.
“My legs are tingly,” Izzy commented.
“Sorry everypony,” Pipp apologized.
“I’m sorry too,” Misty added.
“It’s not your fault,” Zipp assured them.
As they lay on the ground exhausted and out of ideas, two sets of hoofsteps came into their hearing.
They all stopped and looked up. They saw Sunny’s familiar horn and wings glowing in the dark.
“Sunny!” they cheered. Their joy died as they started making out a foreboding figure walking next to her in the dark.
“Sunny, look out!” Pipp called out.
She looked up at Opaline who looked back at her. They didn’t react to each other. Not how any of them thought they should anyway.
“Oh no…” Misty said, fearing mind control. She hid behind Zipp. The rest stood quiet, unable to figure out what was going
They could make out Sunny’s smile as they drew closer.
“You guys, we talked. Opaline is sorry for what she did,” The little hero explained to them.
They all turned to Opaline who hung her head and nodded.
“I just wanted to unite Equestria… but I went about it the wrong way,” Opaline said in despair. “Sunny reminded me of Princess Twilight. With her and the rest of the princesses gone, Equestria just… fell astray. They forgot the importance of friendship… but so did I.”
The defeated Queen bowed her head and popped the anti-magic bubble around Sunny’s friends.
“Misty,” Opaline called her. Misty peeked out from behind a defensive Zipp. “I used you. I’m sorry. You were a lost filly near the edge of Equestria and I drained your magic from you so that you could pass through the barrier for me. What I did was wrong. I see despite that, you still managed to get your cutie mark.”
Misty frowned at Queen Opaline but responded. “It was… thanks to Sunny and her friends. They shared the magic of friendship with me.”
Opaline did something she did rarely and genuinely smiled at her former minion. “It’s wonderful to see despite my horrible parenting you still turned into a wonderful young mare.” Opaline considered the rest of Sunny’s friends. “Maybe you all can do more with these than I can.”
Opaline floated out a single cartridge from many.
“What are those?” Zipp asked.
“These contain… a television show. A very important one: it’s a historical recreation of Twilight Sparkle’s early years. It documents how the magic of friendship can bring ponies together.”
“Turns out, we’re both huge admirers of Princess Twilight!”
Opaline nodded. “I’m done being a villain; I want to do things that will make her proud of me. I hope in my coming years to make up for everything. Someday, I hope you can all forgive me and I can use my power and knowledge for the good of Equestria.”
Sunny’s friends were speechless so she decided to break the ice. She gently took the cartridge from Queen Opaline’s magic and showed them the label.
“You guys wanna all head home together and watch My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic?”