"So.... if this Observer is really that mysterious..." Applejack broke the silence as the mane six returned to where Princess Luna and the others were. "How come y'know a bunch 'bout her?"
"I don't know anything about her..." Twilight answered. "It's all from myths, legends and pony tales from books in the school's library... I don't know if it's him or her, or even if him or her exists at all."
"Wait, wait wait. Are you saying that you're betting the fate of Equestria and everypony on a mere gossip? And the chance to find her is close to nothing?" Pinkie Pie lifted an eyebrow.
"Yes..." Twilight just sighed and nodded unconvincingly at her.
"Ooookaaaay... That's.... good to know, I guess..." Pinkie Pie said, and everypony followed silently, looking pretty down.
When they came back to Princess Luna, she was skeptical about the Observer's matter.
"Twilight. The tale of The Observer is just a rumor." Said Princess Luna walking here and there around the ponies of harmony, "Do you realize that this whole adventure you're planning may be all in vain?"
"I understand, princess." Twilight was explaining to her. "But it's our only clue. And Moondancer, left the Rainbow of Light to me, I think it deserves a shot. Besides, we're useless if we can't use the Elements of Harmony."
"King Sombra will catch you as soon as you step on the surface." Chrysalys added. "You won't even last five seconds. He can see everything through the Dark Ponies eyes."
"Ummm... well, I think there is a way..." Fluttershy suggested with a very low voice, her mane was partly hiding her face, as everypony else turned their attention to her, she timidly shared her idea.
"Very well, Twilight." After thinking for a few seconds, Princess Luna agreed with Twilight's plan. "You and your friends prepare for your journey, and make it as quickly as you can.General Shining Armor, we shall now execute Plan B, direct confrontation, that should gain your sister some time."
"Roger, your highness! Hold on, Cadence... I'm coming for you." Shining Armor saluted Princess Luna, and performed a teleporting spell, and the changelings around began to move, also preparing for battle. "Guardian Sword, my sister is in your hooves."
"Yes, sir!" Guardian Sword prepared himself to go with Twilight and her friends once again.
"Oh that's wonderful news!" Rarity, very excited, tried her luck again. "It is rather certain that we will become good friends, isn't that right, sir Guardian Sword?"
"Sorry miss Rarity. Friendship is not necessary, only the mission" Guardian Sword once again rejected Rarity and turned his attention to Twilight "The mission is always more important, even if I have to die to complete it."
Twilight and Spike both sighed in annoyance. "Not again."
As they prepared for their journey, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle were both wishing a safe return to their sisters. However, Scootaloo was hesitating to talk to Rainbow Dash, she was somehow dissapointed, and after a brief moment, she made up her mind and got closer to Rainbow Dash.
"Rainbow... Can we talk before you leave?" Scootaloo kicked a small pebble as she got closer to Rainbow Dash.
"Make it short, squirt. I'm almost done." Rainbow Dash said as she was preparing her armor.
"Did you leave the Wonderbolts for this?"
"Huh?" Rainbow Dash interrupted herself and turned to Scootaloo.
"I thought you being a soldier was cool. But is it as Fluttershy said? Always fighting? Did you stopped being an athlete to become a fighter?"
"Being a soldier it's not about fighting, it's about what you're fighting for. When I left the Wonderbolts, I was really excited to join the Royal Elite. Spitffire, Soaring and I aspired to join them. It was brutal, Spitfire and Soarin couldn't make it, and I barely made it with the lowest score. It was just another flying game to us, back then. But once with the Royal Elite, being the best flyer wasn't that important to me anymore. I learned what is really important to me."
"But if being the best is not important to you, now... Then, what is it?"
"My country, my family, my friends. I use my skills not to show off, but to protect Equestria and everypony in it. And that includes you, shorty."
"I thought you're special talent was all about speed, and racing, wasn't that what you were born for?"
"Let me tell you something you already know, everypony has a special talent, and lives to master it. But it's not your special talent what decides what you will do with your life. It's you who decide what to do in life with your special talent."
Scootaloo, stood silent, and then smiled. "I thought I learned everything from you, but I still have much to learn."
"Hey, I'll be always happy to teach you, sis." Rainbow hugged Scootaloo with her wing, turned around and started walking toward her friends. She stopped to say one last thing, before leaving. "Sometimes fighting is the only way, so make sure you fight for what it's important to you, no matter what or who you're fighting."
After some time, Shining Armor crashed through Canterlot's main door, with strength in his magic and rage in his eyes. Behind him, there were thousands of ponies and dragons, charging at Canterlot Palace, and fighting all the dark ponies who tried to stop them. Princess Luna and Queen Chrysalys, broke into the throne room, but King Sombra wasn't there, only Dark Princess Celestia.
Meanwhile, throught the alleys of Canterlot, six cloaked ponies were troating toward the exit of Canterlot, but just before they could leave the city, King Sombra appeared from the shadows in front of them.
"Ha ha ha! That was a nice try, ponies of harmony." He laughed. "But six disguised pony, sneaking through the confussion of battle, you should have known better than trying to fool me like that. It is quite obvious."
"Oh, you're right, you're smarter than us." Twilight said and uncovered her face, then, a green flame around the mane six turned them into changelings. "But you're not smarter than the original Twilight Sparkle." And on the north side of the city, the Sky Wanderer took off.
"Nooooo!" King Sombra raged, and turned the changelings into Dark Changelings. "Get them. Don't let them complete the Rainbow of Light."
The Ponies of Harmony left Canterlot and were on their way to the Frozen North at a high speed, out of King Sombra's reach. But still, there was no warranty that they would find the pony they were looking for.
Meanwhile, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, were on the loose exploring the crystal caves. Sweetie Belle and Applebloom, following their restless friend, Scootaloo was up to something.
"C'mon, girls!" Scootaloo exclaimed. "We need to hurry! Everypony is doing their best we must do the same!"
"I'm totally with you, Scoot." Applebloom said. "But what are we up to?"
"We're going to find the Crystal Heart. And steal it back from King Sombra's dirty hooves."
"That is, if we don't get ourselves swallowed by darkness." Sweetie Belle wasn't too confident on the matter.
"Come on! Sweetie Belle, stop being so pessimistical!" Scootaloo frowned at the unicorn.
"I'm just being realistic what are our chances of stealing the Crystal Heart from King Sombra if we don't even know where is it? And I think you mean pessimistic, not pessimistical." Sweetie Belle corrected Scootaloo with a proud look in her face.
"Wow... dictionary strikes again." Scootaloo was annoyed. Suddenly, somepony crashed right in front of Scootaloo, who gasped in terror, and rushed behind Applebloom. Ditzy Doo got up and rubbed her head.
"Wow... chicken strikes again." Sweetie Belle laughed at Scootaloo. "Are you ok, Derpy?"
"Girls! You're safe!" Ditzy perked up her ears and smiled. "I thouhgt Diamond Tiara and me were the only ones who survived from Ponyville."
"Diamond Tiara? Is she alright?" Applebloom asked, very concerned.
"I'm fine!" Diamond Tiara appeared behind Ditzy, she smiled back at Applebloom, but she was still depressed. "Ditzy fainted when the changelings found us on the surface. And when she woke up, she was scared by them and tried to fly away."
"That's when she scared Scootaloo." Applebloom giggled.
"I wasn't scared, I was just... surprised." Scootaloo tried to act tough, but none of her friends believed it.
"Can you believe the changelings want to help us?" Ditzy made a suspoicious look. "I don't buy it. They must be up to something."
"I told you, we have no choice but to trust them." Diamond Tiara tried to reason with her, but the pegasus wouldn't calm down. "Anyway, what happened with the dragons? where are all the pony soldiers? And the princesses?"
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, told to Diamond Tiara and Ditzy Doo about the end of the war with the dragons and about their short battle against King Sombra, and Diamond Tiara told them of how Canterlot and everypony were taken over by King Sombra, and how Princess Cadence sacrificed herself to save her.
"I couldn't do anything." Diamond Tiara frowned, dissapointed. "She saved me, and I could only run for my life. Not even the princesses could defeat King Sombra. What's going to happen to us?"
"We'll find the Crystal Heart!" Scootaloo stated, very excited. "And we'll show King Sombra who's boss."
"W-What? Are you crazy?" Diamond Tiara gasped. "How do you think we can do that?"
"I really don't know. But Moondancer sacrificed for us, just like Princess Cadance did for you." Scootaloo answered. "It's our turn to pay them back! When Twilight and her friends defeated Nightmare Moon for the first time, they had our age, well... except for Derpy".
"No way!" Ditzy Doo interrupted. "It's too dancgerous! I've seen it happen, I can't let you go and get yourselves turned into those... those monsters! And did you just call me old mare?"
"We can't depend on Twilight and her friends forever! It's time we started pulling our own weight!" Scootaloo defied Ditzy's authority, and her friends supported her. "And besides, it's just like Guardian Sword said, the mission is always more important, even if we have to die to complete it."
"Yeah!" All of her friends nodded. "Wait, what?" Then, looked at each others face with concern upon hearing Scootaloo's intentions.
"Fine... But I'll come with you." Ditzy Doo finally agreed, and whispered to herself "Somepony has to make sure that you don't break the Crystal Heart." As they all ventured to find their way to Canterlot Palce.
Somewhere, Moondancer was falling in a black void. She could barely open her eyes, but there was absolutely nothing, it was pitch black as far as she could see. She could only talk to herself.
"Where am I? Is this all there is when you die?"
"Moondancer...."
"Black... it's no diference if I open or close my eyes... everything is black.... "
"Moondancer...."
"I can't even tell if this words are coming out of my mouth, or they are just in my mind."
"Listen to me... Moondancer..."
"Is something... calling me? Am I hallucinating?"
"You are not dead Moondancer." A strong, yet calm voice talked to her. "Do not surrender. We still have one more chance."
"That voice... I've heard it before. Are you... Are you Lednik, the blue dragon? Where are you? What do I do?"
"Calm down, Moondancer. Close your eyes and focus. Listen to my voice. Use your senses."
Moondancer closed her eyes and took deep breaths. She perked up her ears, and after a few seconds, she could feel something was moving behind her. She turned around, and a small blue aura appeared from the darkness, then, it slowly began to grow up, it was right in front of her. Something really big was causing that huge aura.
"What is that?" Moondancer asked, a bit scared, as hundreds and hundreds of auras started appearing all over the dark place. "What's going on?"
"This blue aura is me, Moondancer. Blue due to the cold of my whole self."
"Then, that means... that all of these auras..."
"They are, of course, ponies that were swallowed by King Sombra's darkness, just like us."
"How can this be? Are we all in the afterlife?"
"We never died. We were just sealed under a dark spell. It works similar to my Ice Curse. We are imprisoned, left alone to die by our own thoughts, where there is nothing. But we can break the curse, with your help, that is."
"What do I have to do?"
"Foskiá was the master of light and darkness. He once shared his knowledge to us. Light and darkness can be scary, but they are not harmful by themselves, it is the creatures the ones that make them harmful. Darkness is not a monster that devours victims, it's the universe where everything subsists. And light is not a purifying hope, it's an illuminating wave created by nature."
"What do you mean by that?"
"You can only see, because of the sun, your lamps and torches. Because there is light."
"But if you turn them off, there is only darkness. There's always darkness, we only turn on all the lights. I understand now!"
Moondancer used a spell and created a light orb from her horn, iluminating a wide area, and all the ponies around noticed the light, amazed to see it. All of them looking tired and hopeless, resigned to their imminent end.
"Listen, everypony!" Moondancer exclaimed, calling the attention of all the ponies that were illuminated by her orb's light. "There is nothing to fear! We are all still alive, all unicorns use your magic to create light! We need to find a way to release ourselves from this curse!"
"Are we under a curse?"
"Didn't King Sombra killed us all?"
"Are we still alive?"
Some ponies began to question themselves, as some unicorns created light by their own, little by little, the light began to reach everypony, until it finally reached Princess Cadence.
"Light? It's light!" Princess Cadance was dazzled by the light, she got on her hooves, and saw everypony around her, happily contemplating the lights, then, she also created her own light. A huge orb of light, and everypony else cheered and celebrated for a moment, but the Princess Cadence's light illuminated the two dragons, Skyclaw and Quetzalcóatl, then, everypony was now screaming in terrror.
"Oops..." Moondancer made a pretty bad poker face, and proceeded to calm everypony, explaining that the dragons were now on their side.
Far in the northern part of Equestria. After some hours, on the Sky Wanderer, the seven ponies and the young dragon were already crossing frontier on the Frozen North. Twilight's magic barrier was protecting them from a strong snowstorm, but there was still turbulance which made harder to fly for the ship.
"Ummm girls, I think we may have a little problem." Pinkie Pie came out from the cabin's door, and she brought young earth pony wearing a brown cloak.
"Pinkie! Who is that?" Applejack asked.
"My name is Scr... Scrapped Cloak." The young pony answered herself quite annoyed.
"You shouldn't be here." Twilight scolded the young pony. "We don't know what kind of dangers we may find. What were you thinking?"
"I couldn't help it." Scrapped Cloak frowned, keeping her anger at bay. "I wanted to take revenge on the ones who separated me from my father."
"You're talking about those awfull Dark Ponies, right?" Fluttershy crouched to talk to her.
"Ummm.... Yes! That's right! And you... you are the Elements of Harmony, right? You can help me. Please, help me!" The young pony was very anxious.
"Look, kid." Guardian Sword got closer to her. "Revenge is not the answer to anything, but we'll turn everything back to normal, I don't know if that will bring your father back, but you need to be strong, and move on, you will find somepony who will love you as much as your father did." Scrapped Cloak stared down, and covered her face with the cloak's hood.
After some hours, the snowstorm had ended, and the ponies were quite asleep, except for Applejack, Twilight and her bodyguard, who were looking for the minimal signal of life among the white fields below them, until Applejack found some kind of structure, a tall building that seemed with a huge telescope aiming at the sky.
"Wake up y'all! It's an observatory!" Applejack shouted, and pointed at the buildings direction with her right hoof. "There it is! We're on the right track!"
"I can't believe it..." Twilight stated as everypony cheered up. "It really exists!"
Rainbow Dash used the helm of the ship and steered the Sky Wanderer towards the observatory, as Twilight increased her magic on the engine to boost up. Once they landed in front of the observatory, the main door opened, and a pink earth pony came out of it.
"What is all that ruckus?" The pink pony said as she came out.
"Hi! We're here looking for The Observer." Twilight approached at the pink pony and offered her hoof to greet her. "Is that you?"
"S-sorry, you got the wrong address, missy." The pink pony's voice began to tremble and slammed the door on Twilight's face.
"What? Oh no, you didn't..." Rarity knocked on the door with great strength. "Listen, you... We came all the way here from Canterlot, and we're not leaving until we have a word with this so called Observer with a cup of hot chocolate. Is that clear?"
"Rarity!" Twilight frowned at Rarity, but the door opened again, this time, it was a tall white unicorn, with a long emerald colored mane. She was as tall as Celestia, and was wearing a scientist coat and light violet eyes.
"You are pretty loud." The tall pony said. "Come in, so you can shut up at once. I really hope you're not wasting my time."
It was warm inside of the observatory. There were bookshelves all over the place, each and everyone completely filled with books that Twilight had never seen before. The tall pony let them in the living room, then, she sat down, took a drink of what it seemed a cup of coffee, and stood silent for a brief moment.
"I am the one you call The Observer." She stated. "I see you had already met Lickety Split, my assistant."
"Hi! Sorry for being so rude before..." Lickety Split tried to apologize.
"Lickety Split..." The Observer interrupted her.
"Yes, miss?" She answered.
"Shut up." The Observer commanded.
"Yes, miss..." Lickety Split stepped back, silently.
"Ummm... She's a little bossy." Spike whispered to Twilight.
"I'll make questions first. Who are you?" The observer asked, and once her guests introduced themselves, The Observer let go a slight laughter.
"Twilight Sparkle?" She smiled down at the unicorn. "THE Twilight Sparkle? And THE Elements of Harmony?"
"Hey, watch it!" Rainbow Dash stepped forward, very angry. "She is the former Princess of Friendship of Equestria! You should bow down to her!"
"Please excuse my rudeness." The Observer took another sip from her cup. "But as you said, she relinquished her title, isn't that right? Besides, I bow down to only one princess. But anyway, I can't believe the Elements of Harmony have honored us with their visit. Stories tell of six regal ponies, capable of unleashing the Elements of Harmony, saved Equestria and released Princess Luna from her evil self. Yet, you look like ordinary ponies."
"Well stories tell of a noble, kind pony, who left the land of Equestria to the edge of the world to find the meaning of life, and nopony knows her whereabouts. Yet, it only took a few hours to find you." Twilight calmly replied.
"Touché." The Observer smiled once again. "The rumor was created with the sole purpose of preventing anypony to come this far. Even my existence is doubted. Thus, nopony would try come all the way here, and probably, find nothing. Nopony would think that the rumor is actually true."
"And what 'bout her?" Applejack asked about Lickety Split.
"Oh, me? I volunteered as her assistant, I met her since she left Equestria." Lickety Split answered right before she was interrupted by The Observer again.
"Lickety Split..."
"Yes, miss?"
"Shut up."
"Yes, miss..."
"So... What brings you here, Elements of Harmony?" The Observer finally asked, and took another sip from her cup.
"The rumor says that you know everything. So we're here to ask you about the Rainbow of Light, and the Rainbow of Darkness." Twilight replied, and as soon as she ended her question, The Observer spitted her coffee on her assistant's face.
"Ahhhh! It's hot!" The Observer's assistant began to run around, screaming in pain. "Why is it still hot? It's been like two hours since I served it?"
"Lickety Split..." The Observer called her assistant again.
"Y-y-yes, m-m-miss?"
"Shut up."
"Y-yes, m-m-miss."