//------------------------------// // 3 - Pain // Story: Succession // by Helrael //------------------------------// Succession Chapter 3 – Pain Twilight tried to see, but found it difficult to move her eyelids. With some effort, her eyes opened to the expected sight of her body wrapped from head to hoof in white bandages with only her eyes and muzzle exposed. She could move the limbs that were not broken, but the bandages were wrapped so tight around her that any movement was made difficult. She had been lying quietly in bed for five minutes or so, trying to decide whether her treatment had started to take effect, when she heard the door open. “Good evening, Twilight. It’s nice to see your treatment went well.”   “Hi, Rarity,” Twilight muttered sleepily. “How long was I gone this time?”   “A day or so,” the white unicorn replied. Twilight tried moving her head to face the unicorn on her right, but her neck exploded in agony and she screamed. “Twilight! Are you alright, dear?”   Twilight didn’t answer at first, breathing heavily for a few seconds as the edges of her vision momentarily darkened. What’s wrong with my neck!? “I… I’m alright. I think…” the injured unicorn sighed as the pain began to fade. “There’s something in my neck that keeps hurting. More than anything else!”   “Oh… You should have told somepony before you were wrapped up like that,” Rarity pointed out. “I guess the doctor can take a look at it after your bandages are removed.”   “When’s that?” Twilight groaned. The pain in her neck had lessened, but was no longer fading. It kept throbbing mercilessly.   “You’ll get cleaned up before the funeral,” the white unicorn assured her friend.   “Uh, when’s that again?” Twilight asked. She was quickly getting tired of not having any sense of time.   “A little more than two days,” Rarity answered. “Rainbow Dash is out rehearsing with the Wonderbolts; recently it seems to be the only thing that’ll put a smile on her face. I’ve heard rumors that this might be their last performance, though, so it won’t last for long, I wager. And last time I checked, Pinkie Pie was making sure the, uh, party, if you could call it that, met her standards. Oh, and Fluttershy came back a few hours ago. She’s helping with the songbirds’ performance for Sweetie Belle’s song.”   “What about you and AJ? Am I supposed to do anything?”   “Applejack and I have been keeping an eye on you, trying to make sure somepony was there to greet you whenever you woke up. I apologize for being late; I had some business that I had to take care of. As for you, you’re not supposed to do anything other than stay in bed, Twilight. You really need to act more like a mare with two broken legs and less like, oh, I don’t know! Daring Do or whomever!”   “But I have to do something to help with the ceremony!” Twilight complained.   “Explain that to your doctor, then,” the white unicorn countered. “You will not be leaving this hospital on my watch again, I guarantee you that. Besides, I mean, no offense, dear, but you are hardly in any fit state to help us out. The best you can do in your condition would just be to attend, which means you shouldn’t strain yourself in any of the days to come.”   “You want me to stay in this stupid bed for another two days without doing anything?” The injured unicorn moaned.   “You’re sounding like Rainbow Dash! Yes, that is exactly what I expect you to do, Twilight. And you better get used to it; you are after all staying here for half a year, aren’t you?” Rarity pointed out. “You’ve been here for eleven days already, are another two days really that horrible?”   “Yes…” Twilight grumbled. “The more time I spend in this hospital, the more it feels like a cage. I mean, I may very well be the only pony who knows what happened to Celestia and Luna; I might be the only pony who can find the murderer, but here I am: stuck in the hospital while the world outside seems to be ending.”   “Well, it’s not that bad,” Rarity said without much conviction.   The unicorn gave her friend a reproachful look. “The sun has been extinguished, Rarity.”   “Oh, alright,” the alabaster unicorn conceded. “It is pretty bad out there, but the world isn’t ending, Twilight.”   “Yet,” the unicorn countered grimly. “It’s only been eleven days. You can’t expect the full impact of something like The Great Tragedy to take effect instantly. I don’t think things are getting better anytime soon. Not by a long shot.”   “You’re sounding rather grim, Twilight,” Rarity said worriedly. “Perhaps I should go get Pinkie Pie. I’m sure she will be happy to cheer you up,” she suggested.   “That’s not what I want,” Twilight grumbled. “I’m not sad, or well, yes I am, but I have a reason to be. I’m just making observations, Rarity. Unlike Pinkie, I’m seeing the world for what it is. I know it’s good she’s happy and all that, but it’s not right. It’s kind of unsettling to see her live her life in a bubble like that. But I’m not gonna do that; I want to know what’s going on. I want to help.”   “Twilight, Pinkie Pie isn’t living in a bubble!” Rarity defended her friend. “She’s taking The Great Tragedy a lot worse than you think! She’s trying to deal with it the best she can.”   “Well, I’m taking it the worst of all!” the bandaged unicorn snapped, her temper flaring suddenly. “Pinkie hardly knew Celestia! She was like a mother to me! I saw it happen! I heard her scream! I lived through what killed a god! I felt my skin melt away, I felt my flesh become incandescent! You have no idea what that even feels like! Pinkie doesn’t have the faintest idea of what pain is! None of you do! So don’t tell me I can’t be sad!” As Twilight ended her tirade, the pain in her neck suddenly exploded in excruciating agony, much worse than it had ever done before. The unicorn spasmed violently and screamed louder than she thought she had ever been able to.   Amber Vane woke with a start, and while Rarity panicked, nurses burst through the door. Twilight, however, registered nothing as the pain became too much to bear and her mind simply shut down.     “Step aside.”   The white one wavers. The sun whimpers and cries. In the end, light gives way to darkness.   The strange presence approaches, standing over her. Evil and terror fills the air as the intruder draws close. She cannot breathe. Everything becomes colder than ice.   “And thus the seeds of the only future are planted, taking life to preserve it in its purest. I hereby release you, Twilight Sparkle, and place the heavy burden of our world upon you.”   “Wait, what are you..?” The princess’ words are drowned out. They mean nothing. Darkness fills the world.   A sword slides through the skin of Twilight’s neck. Sharpened ice descends into her flesh. Vivid agony in its most consummate form rips through her spine. The princess cries as she screams, but the unicorn hears nothing except her own agony. Sweet soft darkness begins to envelop her mind, dampening the immeasurable pain. The sword explodes, shards of ice take root and grow, cold blackness fights back sweet darkness.   Burning cold moves through her body like hungry snakes, tearing at and swallowing all they come upon within her. Her lungs fill with chilled air, and her throat is full of sharpened ice. Her skin freezes over in less than a second, and needles dig into every square inch of her body. Icy clutches grab onto her heart, and it stops beating. She gasps for air, but her lungs have frozen and she tastes blood instead.   The frost spreads to her psyche, coating and saturating it with dark coldness. All of her memories, her thoughts and her feelings darken and fade. She sees two terrible eyes; two globes of cold brilliant whiteness that chase her away from her own mind.   The blade slides out of her neck. She can breathe, but as her heart starts beating again, she feels the coldness travelling with her blood throughout her body. She collapses. She gasps with the pain that still pulses through her body. Nauseating and excruciating agony all originating from one point in her neck. She breathes raggedly. Light draws near, but the shadows envelop her.     Twilight woke with a loud gasp as she sat up in the bed. She winced as her broken foreleg was once again twisted in a weird angle. Although she had already forgotten most of her dream, the sensation of burning agony somehow remained fresh in her mind.   With a deep sigh, she lay back again. Her neck was no longer hurting, and for the moment, that was all she could think of. She took a deep, shaky breath and sighed again, enjoying the lack of pain. She tried turning her neck, and still the hurt remained absent. Amber Vane was awake, staring anxiously at her, but other than the guard, nopony else was in the room. Outside, the sky was still dark, but Twilight noticed that the window had been shattered by something. Even more worryingly, there were several black marks all over the white walls and ceiling around her.   “What happened?” Twilight whispered in an extremely quiet and hoarse whisper. It seemed her screaming before fainting had once again had its consequences for her voice.   “You freaked out,” Amber Vane replied in a serious voice. “You screamed so loud my ears were ringing for an hour. Lightning bolts flew from your horn. They almost hit your friend Rarity.”   “There was this pain in my neck,” the bandage-wrapped unicorn explained, wincing at the memory. “You can’t imagine how much it hurt. It was unbelievable.”   “What happened to it?”   “I… don’t know…” Twilight murmured, and the royal guard had to strain his ears to hear her words. “It happened just before the explosion, I think. Maybe it was the explosion.”   “How are you feeling now?” he asked.   “Better,” the unicorn replied hoarsely. “My neck isn’t hurting and my skin doesn’t burn as much as before.”   “Good,” the guard nodded. “I guess that means the ointment is working.” Before Twilight could ask, Amber Vane told her. “The funeral will be held about a day from now.”   The door to the hospital room opened, and a doctor, though not Twilight’s, stepped in, addressing Amber Vane. “Ah good, you’re awake. I’d like to see how your leg is doing, Mr. Vane. Would it be possible for you to take a stroll through the hospital with me?”   “Sure,” the guard replied. Wincing a bit, he rose from the bed and stepped onto the marble floor.   “How are you feeling?” the doctor asked, studying Amber Vane’s movements closely.   “I won’t be running around after you, that’s for sure,” the guard half laughed. “Thigh’s not feeling that great.”   “Understandable,” the doctor muttered, stepping back toward the door. “Please come with me, Mr. Vane.”   The guard nodded at her with an encouraging smile before the two ponies exited the room, leaving Twilight with nopony but herself. Nothing but the white and slightly charred walls surrounded her. Although she was feeling better, she still felt uncomfortable stabs of pain every time she moved, and after only five minutes of lying in the bed, the unicorn was breathing heavily with pent up frustration.   She was about to pick up one of the books her friends had brought her when somepony knocked at the door.   “Come in,” she said, hoping for a friendly face.   The unicorn who entered, however, was not anypony Twilight recognized. The mare was one of the larger unicorns that typically lived in Canterlot or Manehattan, and she had a sparkling silver coat. Eyes as bright pink as her mane seemed to light up when she saw the bedridden unicorn.   “Twilight Sparkle! Good evening!” her soft voice greeted the unicorn. “My name is Civil Tenet.”   “You’re the pony from the council who wanted to speak with me?” Twilight inquired, and the silver unicorn nodded.   “As you might know, I was a very close friend of Princess Celestia, though indubitably not as close as you and she were.” She looked sadly out the dark window for a moment before continuing. “I came to ask you to take part in the ceremony, Miss Sparkle. Perform a task to show your last respect to our great princesses.”   “I… I’d like to, but I really rather not make a speech,” Twilight admitted. “I doubt I can talk about any of the princesses without tearing up, and my voice is still sore…”   “A speech was not what I had in mind,” Civil Tenet smiled. There was something about that smile that filled the injured unicorn with warmth. Something that reminded her of Celestia. “…although it would have been lovely if you shared with us your feelings toward the regal sisters.”   “Sorry,” Twilight replied, but the silver unicorn waved a hoof in dismissal.   “No need to apologize. There will be plenty of ponies speaking at the ceremony. I might, in fact, have accepted a few too many speakers…” Civil Tenet shook her head as she veered off subject. “Actually, Twilight Sparkle, what I had imagined you to do would be erecting Celestia and Luna’s memorial. Here.” From out of nowhere, a scroll unfurled next to the silver unicorn’s head. On the paper were several detailed drawings of some sort of spire or tower.   “It will be nearly thirty feet tall, and the graves themselves will be inside the structure,” Civil Tenet explained with some excitement in her voice. “Made from pure silver.”   “Did you draw this yourself?” Twilight asked, studying the intricate arches and spires that made up the miniature tower.   “Oh no, Penning Draft whipped this up for me.” Seeing the smaller unicorn’s confused expression, Civil Tenet quickly added, “he’s one of the council ponies. A very skilled architect who will now be handling renovation and construction all over Equestria. Truth be told, it won’t be much different from what he did under Celestia’s rule.”   “Sounds like a big job,” Twilight commented, not taking her eyes off the draft in front of her.   “These first few months will be a true nightmare for the council,” the silver unicorn admitted. “After this funeral, I’ll have to have a look at how much of our history and cultural heritage has been lost to the Canterlot explosion. I’m afraid there won’t be much left to salvage…” She sighed unhappily. “I really liked that library…”   “I practically grew up in it,” Twilight agreed.   “It won’t be any easier for the other members either,” Civil Tenet said. “Scarlet Bolt, our head of military and security, will have her hooves full dealing with the rising unrest all over Equestria. The same goes for Quiescent Atonement; he’s the head of all the government’s judiciary duties…”   “Are they all unicorns?” Twilight asked, and Civil Tenet shook her head.   “No, Scarlet Bolt and Quiescent are both pegasi, actually. Penning Draft is an earth pony,” she explained. “The unicorns in the council are Artemis, whose expertise lies within both magic and science and Lucre, who will be handling the government’s funds. The third pegasus in the council is Rain Dancer, whose duty it will be to organize the Equestrian weather. Amity Macoun is an earth pony. She is in charge of our foreign relations. And then there’s Bramley.” Civil Tenet gave an exasperated laugh. “He will be in charge of our country’s agriculture…” she shook her head at the thought. “What he plans to do without a sun I cannot say.”   “Actually, Princess Luna once told me that the moon is also able to help grow crops,” Twilight said. “It was a spell she cast during her… well, suffice to say it was a little more than a thousand years ago.”   “Ah,” the silver unicorn nodded her understanding. “Well that is most excellent news. I can’t believe I didn’t know!”   “I don’t think it’s nearly as effective as the sun, though,” Twilight warned her. “But it shouldn’t be impossible to grow our food.”   “It is still much better than nothing,” Civil Tenet smiled. “Thank you for the insight, Miss Sparkle. I will have to see whether or not Bramley already knows this. Might also help abate the unrest we’re facing.”   “Well, thank you,” Twilight replied. “I was getting very curious as to who this council was. It’s nice to know which ponies will be in charge. But sorry, we were talking about the funeral and this memorial, right? How am I supposed to build it?”   “Oh yes, that’s right,” the silver unicorn smiled again. “I’m imagining that it will be erected during the ceremony actually. Initially, I planned on having a team of ten or twenty unicorns do it. They would lower the coffins…”   “The coffins? But I thought…”   “Yes, I know,” Civil Tenet sighed. “They’ll be empty, of course. The whole funeral will be more or less symbolic.”   “I see...”   “The coffins would be lowered into their graves, and the unicorns would begin heating up one or more large blocks of silver. When the metal has softened, they would be able to ‘weave’ the silver into any shape they desired, thus building the memorial.” Civil Tenet gave Twilight that Celestia-like smile. “But from what I’ve heard of your impressive feats, I suppose you could do this singlehoofedly.”   “Uh,” Twilight replied, not quite as confident. “How much silver are we talking about?”   “Well…” The silver unicorn scrunched up her nose and looked toward the ceiling, running the numbers through her head. “A little more than… a hundred tons? Hmm, that is a lot of silver isn’t it?”   “Well, normally I would be able to do it…” Twilight muttered. “I mean, you’re right; I should do something for the princesses… But in my current state I might need a little help from somepony else.”   “Of course,” the unicorn nodded. “I’ll pitch in my own magic as well if you want.” Civil Tenet repositioned herself so that both unicorns could look at the scroll with the drawing upon it. “Now, I really should inform you about the details of this structure, or Penning will have my hide. I hope for your sake that you do this thing exactly as he envisioned it,” she said jokingly.   The two unicorns spent the next hour going through every single detail of Penning Draft’s drawing. After going through the sketch more than ten times, Twilight had finally memorized almost every detail of the structure.   “Now, the final thing I want you to do is take this message…” Civil Tenet made another scroll appear out of thin air and offered it to Twilight. “…and engrave it into the blank part of the memorial’s façade.”   The injured unicorn took the scroll and unfurled it with her magic. “Did you write this?” she asked while scanning the text.   “I did,” the silver unicorn said. “Let me know if you believe anything should be added or edited.”   “No, I like it the way it is,” Twilight assured the council pony. “You really knew the princesses well. I don’t think anypony could have done them as much justice as you do.” The unicorn finished the parts about Celestia and Luna, but was surprised to find that she had only read half the scroll.   She continued scanning the text, but soon caught on one sentence. “Our beloved princesses Celestia and Luna will remain with us forever, but may we never forget the names of any of the multitude of ponies we lost to The Great Tragedy,” the unicorn read out loud in a voice that quickly began quivering. “Every one of these untimely deaths is as great a tragedy as the loss of our immortal rulers. May we never forget the noble Blueblood, Prince of Equestria. May we remember always the name of the beautiful and benevolent Princess Cadance... and her husband… the brave and valiant... Prince Shining Armor…” Tears prevented Twilight from reading any further and she began sobbing.   “You… you didn’t know?” Civil Tenet whispered in shock. “I-I’m so sorry, Twilight Sparkle! I... I assumed Amber Vane had told you…”   “I don’t know what I expected, really,” Twilight cried. “Of course he’s dead. Of course he was in the palace! And Cadance too! I should have realized... I saw them in the palace... Why were they visiting!?” She began shaking violently as her grief for Celestia and Luna returned, accompanied now by the fresh pain of having lost her brother and sister-in-law. As her skin started burning and her neck once again sent jolts of pain throughout her body, Twilight’s crying turned to screaming.   “Twilight!?” the silver unicorn began panicking. “Doctor! Somepony, please, I need help!” she called out toward the hall, but her pleas went unanswered. Meanwhile, Twilight’s screams only grew louder. “Oh dear…” Civil Tenet muttered, and her horn glowed purple. Small tendrils of the silver unicorn’s magic extended toward the screaming pony, enveloping her mind and body. Within seconds, Twilight’s screams were cut off as she fell into blissful sleep.     Darkness was below; a bottomless abyss of black. Above was a night sky devoid of stars. Where the two met was impossible to say.   Connecting the two expanses were massive pillars in black, white and shades of gray. Branches and roots spread from all over the pillars, connecting with each other to form a chaotic tangle of ebony and ivory.   Attached to the pillars was what could best be described as the color red. Some of it seemed solid, forming almost muscle- or flesh-like clumps that hung suspended between two or more monochromatic limbs. What looked like blood flowed freely from both the fleshy masses and the colorless pillars, falling in cascades not only downwards, but upwards, to the sides or diagonally, filling the strange world with warmth. The redness, both solid and liquid, pulsed as if alive.   Multihued trees and strange tendrils grew everywhere, emerging from both grayness and redness and nearly drowning out all other features of the world. From the rainbow colored limbs hung odd lanterns that shone in every thinkable nuance and shade. Some even shone black.   Spread out all over the infinite world and hovering in empty space were several thousand or million orbs of brilliant magenta light. From them exploded cascades of sparkles the same color. Like the streaming redness, the flow of magenta did not obey gravity, instead constantly changing course erratically, weaving in and out among the gray pillars and redness or flowing straight through them. Everywhere the cascades went, a loud humming noise remained, and anything near the brilliant sparkles began shining with power.   A wave of magenta passed through a shining pillar of black and white which soon thereafter shattered into countless pieces that fell both up and down. Somewhere else, a huge expanse of red caught fire and a rainbow tree withered and turned to dust as an onslaught of bright sparkles rushed by.   Far away from the scenes of chaos and destruction was another orb of magenta. This one, however, was inside a golden crystal shell that seemed to radiate the power of the very sun. The magenta lights flowed through the glass-like material, but the cascade was slowed down by the cage, and the sparkles harmlessly caressed the other elements in the world instead of barreling through them.   Black branches covered in thorns grew out of the dark ether itself right next to the crystal cage. The creeping blackness reached out to the golden cage and soon enveloped it. The thorns pressed into the glass while the branches suddenly jerked away, shattering the gleaming shell. The fragments of crystal were blasted away as the orb of magenta exploded forcefully, venting a cascade of sparkles equal in power to the ones that were already tearing the world apart.   The whole world was aglow and humming with barely contained power. Another monochromatic pillar crumbled into nothingness.     Twilight opened her eyes groggily, the details of her dream quickly fading from her mind. She was still lying in bed, though she had a feeling that quite a few hours had passed since she was last conscious. She looked to her left, but for some reason, Amber Vane’s bed was still empty. Returning her attention to herself, she was surprised to find that all of her bandages had been removed while she was sleeping. To her relief, much of the unicorn’s skin had been healed by the zebra-doctor’s ointment. Her fur had even started growing back most places, covering Twilight’s body in light lavender fuzz. Most of her pains had also disappeared. Even the pain in her neck was momentarily gone. As she thought of the incident that had caused her to faint in the first place, the memory of Shining Armor came rushing back to her, opening the floodgates for the multitude of painful memories Twilight had collected over the course of less than two weeks. Trying in vain to fight back the overwhelming grief that soon washed over her, it didn’t take the unicorn long before she once again broke down sobbing. Everyone I love are being taken away from me! How could it happen? I’ll never see Celestia again... Luna only returned to us for a few years before being brutally murdered... Or worse... And Shining Armor... My BBBFF, Captain of the Royal Guard, and my oldest friend, just... just gone! I won’t ever see him again! There won’t even be anything left of him! Nothing to bury just like the princesses! She groaned with frustration and started banging her head against bed’s headboard, unable to think of any other way of physically venting her frustration. “Why... did... they... have to... visit!?” she grunted in her sore voice. “That day of all days! Why didn’t Celestia and Luna go to them? Why did the murderer attack just then? Killing every ruler we had and plunging our entire world into chaos? Who would do that!?” The lavender unicorn stopped for a moment, considering what she had just said. Could it be him? He has the power to... not many others do... No, Discord isn’t entirely evil like that; he wouldn’t do something like The Great Tragedy. Even if he did, he’d make sure we all knew who did it, right?   “Oh Twilight! You’re awake! Marv-” Rarity greeted her as she entered the room, but upon seeing the state her friend was in, the alabaster unicorn trailed off. “Are you alright, dear?” “No...” Without another word being spoken between the two, the white unicorn went to the lavender one’s side, and the two pulled each other into a tight embrace. Twilight grunted as she strained her right foreleg, but eventually relaxed as she felt her remorse seeping out of her, banished by the potent friendship of magic. “I heard what happened with you and Civil Tenet. You gave us quite a scare.” Rarity gave her friend a comforting squeeze. “I can’t put into words how sorry I am, Twilight. I really should have told you about Shining Armor and Cadance. You had been through so much already, though, and I couldn’t bear upsetting you any further...” “Don’t be sorry, Rarity. None of this is your fault,” Twilight replied, whispering so as not to strain herself. “It’s... It’s probably for the best it happened as it did. If Civil Tenet hadn’t been there to put me to sleep, who knows what would have happened to this place?” she pointed out, gesturing at the increased number of black marks on the walls around her. “But still... I lost my sister-in-law and I lost my big brother...” “It must be absolutely horrible,” Rarity sighed. “I can’t imagine ever losing Sweetie Belle.” The two ponies were silent for a while, drawing comfort from their embrace. Finally, the lavender unicorn spoke. “I’m sorry I yelled at you. About Pinkie Pie.”   “Think nothing of it, dear,” the white unicorn said, breaking the hug and waving her hoof dismissively. “You have been under quite a lot of stress, and you were right; none of us can imagine your pain.”   “It’s still no excuse…” Twilight murmured, looking at her blanket shamefully.   “Oh, come now, Twilight!” Rarity argued. “It’s a perfectly valid excuse! You needed to vent your feelings. That’s only natural.”   “But yelling at a friend? There are better ways…”   Rarity sighed, slightly frustrated at the other unicorn’s self-critique. “Granted, there are more elegant ways of expressing one’s feelings, but, really, all you did was raise your voice. I am not at all offended. In fact, I have been quite worried. What exactly happened to you? Was it your neck again? Have the doctors looked at it?”   “I don’t know if they looked at it. It just… started hurting… a lot. Right after I finished yelling at you. And later, after I realized he was dead. It was at its worst when you were there, though, so maybe anger has something to do with it. I haven’t felt such pain since… since The Great Tragedy.”   “May I see your neck?”   Twilight nodded and turned her head so that Rarity could see the base of her neck. The white unicorn was silent for a moment, and Twilight felt somepony breathe against the painful spot.   “Hmm, it doesn’t look very good,” Rarity concluded. “You have a completely black… stain just below where the bottom of your mane would usually be. It’s almost completely circular and a little wider than a horn’s breadth.” A blue light began shining behind Twilight. “It’s really hard to make out the texture, though. It looks burnt around the edges, as if somepony has held a fire against that exact spot until it blackened, but in the center of the wound, everything is just featureless blackness, no matter how much light I shine on it.” The unicorn hesitated. “Can I… touch it? I can’t see much of it, but perhaps I’ll be able to feel something.”   Twilight bit her lip for a moment. “No. If it starts hurting again like it did before, I’ll probably miss the funeral. When is it?”   “Good point,” Rarity admitted, and drew back from the injured neck. “It’s being held in just a few hours, actually, so we should probably start getting you ready. Speaking of which, I finished your dress.”   The two ponies looked toward the doorway as the fashionista summoned her latest creation. A large black gown floated into the room, carried by Rarity’s magic. Twilight had never really been that interested in fashion and thus did not know many terms applying to that trade, but she had learned a little from her friendship with the dressmaker. The dress had a simply cut inner layer of what looked like chiffon, dyed completely black. Near the bottom of the dress, the fabric neatly curled upwards, a feature Twilight suspected only an expert dressmaking unicorn would be able to invoke. Most of the inner layer, however, was obscured by wide ribbons of a very light, semi-transparent material. This material was made of various shades of purple that complimented what little color Twilight’s coat currently had. Most ribbons were only fastened in one end and were loose near the back of the dress, although every single piece of fabric seemed to be kept in place by some enchantment Rarity might have placed on the garment. There were ribbons near the shoulder area that arched beautifully in a way that defied gravity. These ribbons almost made it look like the dress had wings. Near the back part, the dress exploded in a magnificent plumage of purple ribbons, no doubt making up for and concealing Twilight’s hairless tail. The face of the gown and its short collar were decorated with glinting amethysts the color of the injured unicorn’s eyes.   A floating hat soon accompanied the gown. It was black like the garment it matched, and had a very wide brim, extending almost a full foot from the crown. A large dark purple feather had been attached to the hat, and on the front of the crown was a medium-sized violet gem. From the back of the hat hung a veil made of the same material as the ribbons in the dress, no doubt made to conceal Twilight’s lack of a mane.   “You like them?” Rarity asked with a smile. “I know you like your dresses simple and practical, but I just had to add these ribbons, and the amethysts were a must…”   “I love it,” Twilight assured her friend, returning the smile. “Can you help me into it?”   “Naturally,” the Rarity replied. As the lavender unicorn got out of bed, the fashionista swung the gown over Twilight’s head. “I have been calling around the entire city for a few days lately,” the white unicorn revealed while outfitting her friend. “I simply can’t believe you never told me where in Canterlot your parents lived, but I eventually found it.” “Lived!?” the lavender unicorn exclaimed, taking a step back as panic began to set in. “Wh-why the past tense!?” No, no, no, no, no! Not mom and dad too! “They’re fine! They’re fine!” Rarity interjected quickly. “Almost, at least. Ugh, hold still, will you? I’m afraid their house is in a rather grim condition, though; it was struck by some of the debris from the palace explosion. Half of it has been demolished completely.” “And my parents?” the lavender unicorn asked anxiously, half of the question coming out as a gasp as the fashionista tightened as series of laces around her chest. “Well, according to the neighbors, nothing happened to your mother. Your father might have received a concussion and was hospitalized, though I don’t know where. Not here, at least.” “But you’re looking?” “Of course, darling. Knowing her, Applejack is probably out asking around right now instead of getting some sleep. After the funeral, I’ll have Rainbow searching too. There,” Rarity said, stepping back as she finished adjusting the ribbons on Twilight’s new garments. The dress was even lighter than she had expected and did nothing to impair her movements. “Black suits you rather well, dear,” Rarity mused. “But then again, light colors compliment you as well; I can never decide. Perhaps I’ll try a gainsboro gray next time, or something even lighter…”   As the two ponies left the room, the white unicorn continued voicing her considerations, most of which Twilight was unable to fully comprehend. The injured unicorn breathed deeply with trepidation. In only a few hours, the end of a millennial era would be marked.