From the moon, there was a flash of silver-white light, and the imprint of the Mare in the Moon disappeared. A pair of comets streaked away from it, twisting around each other, though the comets flared out within moments, and the Moon began to move at breakneck speed across the sky, the stars following it, as in the far east the Sun began to rise.
Far above the world, Luna and her doppelgänger from the other world floated. The native had her horn alight as she guided the Moon down beyond the horizon, and the Sun over it, though worry was painted all over her face as she did. “My sister has not yet freed herself,” she noted.
The interloping Luna nodded, but her eyes were focused on the world that stretched beneath her. “She doesn’t have your experience with it, or another alicorn aiding her,” she said. “Even still, that was far faster than it should have been – I suspect that Antithesis has been defeated.”
“Huzzah,” Luna said, though with no enthusiasm as she started towards the Sun, intent on aiding her sister – at least, until a bright flash occurred on the world below, and a pillar of white light stretched upwards, past the two alicorns. The alicorns watched it shoot into the depths of space, then looked back, towards where it was originating – the Everfree Forest. The pillar radiated pure magic, so strongly that the two wouldn’t have even needed horns, let alone their alicorn affinity for magic, to sense it.
Each grimaced as they pointed themselves downwards, and flew towards the light’s origin.
---
Everything, everywhere, was nothing but an endless field of white light, with the sole exception of two purple unicorns, two blue unicorns, and a purple, hexagonal gemstone floating between the four of them as the last motes of Antithesis floated away into the nothingness from which she had come.
There was silence.
Then, there was silence.
And, at length, the silence continued.
Trixie finally let out a long groan, taking a step forward. “Trixie wants to know what is supposed to happen now – gah!” The exclamation came when she realized, on stepping closer to the Element of Magic, that it had shifted in appearance, its purple fading towards blue. She backed away hurriedly, uneager to damage to Element and start the whole ordeal over again. As she did, the gemstone’s hue darkened once more.
The other three unicorns had all tensed at the changing shape of the Element, and didn’t relax when it had shifted back. After a few moments of held breaths, Twilight inched forward, reaching a hoof out. The Element changed as she neared, until, when she touched it, it had taken on a purple hue that matched her cutie mark.
Sighing slightly, she put her other hoof around it, trying to draw it closer to her, but it remained stuck in the air. Frowning, she pulled harder, then resorted to telekinesis as well – but nothing.
“It’s, um…” she noted, as she continued to pull. “It’s stuck.”
“Here, let me – ” Lulamoon began stepping forward. The gem flashed blue then, its surface becoming a swirling glow of blue and lavender. The glow didn’t last, however, as Lulamoon and Twilight both backed away from the Element warily. It gradually shifted again, becoming inert once more.
“Okay,” Lulamoon grunted. “What?”
Twilight tapped a hoof to her mouth. “I’ve got a hypothesis…” she said. “Okay, on three, everypony step towards it. One…two…three – gah!”
The Element hadn’t liked that, it seemed, its form suddenly buzzing with sparks, and a wave of magic pushing out from it and forcing everypony back a step. It didn’t hurt, but it felt more than a little weird. Twilight panted a few times. “Okay,” she said, “okay, I thought that might happen – ”
“You didn’t warn us?” Trixie demanded.
Twilight grimaced. “Sorry,” she said. “But…Sparkle, could you step closer to it now? Touch it?”
Sparkle eyed the Element warily, but at length did as Twilight suggested. As she approached, its hue once again shifted, to match her cutie mark. Twilight nodded. “Okay,” she said. “Okay, I think I’ve got it. The Element still can’t tell us apart.”
“Seriously?” Lulamoon demanded. “Why not?”
“Could you?” Sparkle asked, as she stepped away from the Element.
“But I think…” Twilight continued, one eye a little narrow as she contemplated the Element of Magic. “I think that it’s giving us a chance to choose for ourselves.” She looked to Trixie, Lulamoon, and Sparkle. “Two of us…one of us from each world…we get to claim it. And the other two give up their claims.”
“What?” Sparkle demanded, eyes wide as she switched between looking at the Element, then Twilight, then Lulamoon. “I – but – the Element can’t just, just be transferred like that! Can it?”
“This one time, I think it can be,” Twilight said, sitting down on her haunches and shaking her head. “Nothing about this past day has been possible. I don’t know why I’m surprised it’s going to close with something impossible.”
Trixie’s eyes were wide as well, her mouth hanging open slightly. “The Great and Powerful Trixie…Bearer of the Element of Magic…” she said, taking a few steps forward. “It certainly has a ring to it…”
“Yeah, it does,” Lulamoon said, as her horn glowed – but only to put up a small telekinetic field between Trixie and the Element. She looked at Twilight. “But hang on. Even if you’re right, the Elements only work as a set…and only if the ponies using them are friends. And it comes with responsibilities. And – no offense, Sparkle, Trixie – you guys didn’t earn the Element by standing up to an insane ali…” Lulamoon’s voice trailed off for a moment as she realized what she was saying, thought a moment, then resumed “by standing up to an ancient, insane alicorn returning from exile.”
“That doesn’t mean that they can’t take up those responsibilities,” Twilight said. “And…and besides. The Element is giving them a choice. Giving us a choice, too – a chance to become just regular ponies if we want.” She tapped her front hooves together in thought. “I…I know what I would choose. But it’s not just my choice right now.”
Lulamoon grimaced, looking at Sparkle. “And…it’s sort of a get-out-of-jail-free card, isn’t it?” she noted. “Only the Elements can stand up to Corona…and it wouldn’t really do to have one of the Elements locked up.”
Sparkle’s eyes, somehow, managed to grow even wider at that, though she didn’t seem like she was looking at anything, instead seeing the possibilities before her. “I could…” she said softly. “I could make things right. I could make things how they’re supposed to be…be how the Element of Magic is supposed to be…”
Lulamoon frowned. “I’ve been trying,” she insisted.
Sparkle took a step towards the Element, one hoof out. After a moment, however, she lowered her hoof, and shook her head, closing her eyes. “But it would just be running away again, wouldn’t it?” she asked. “I enslave a bear, just like Antithesis did, and then I run away from the consequences. I try and make my own Elements, but then run away from that. I ran away from my entire world…and then when I was here and I was found out, I ran away again. Taking the Element from you, Lulamoon…Trixie…just to not have to go to jail, it’d just be running away again. Running away from what I’ve done.” She opened her eyes, took another glance at the Element, but then looked to Lulamoon. “No,” she said firmly, though as much to herself as to Lulamoon. “No, I’m through running. I’m going to home, and face what I’ve done. I’m not the Element of Magic. I accept that. And you, Trixie, you are the Element. You deserve it. I accept that too.”
Lulamoon began to offer a smile, then thought better of it, and instead stepped forward, touching forehead and horn to Sparkle’s own. Sparkle flinched, at first, but then leaned in to the friendly nuzzle, reaching up and putting a hoof on Lulamoon’s withers. Lulamoon returned the embrace. “I’m sorry I wasn’t the mare you wanted me to be,” she said. “It’s taken me awhile…but I think I’ve finally started to figure everything out.”
Twilight smiled at the sight of the two interlopers embracing. They’d had much further to go then she and Trixie had needed…not that there wasn’t still unresolved issues between the two. She turned to Trixie, who was still eying the Element with an odd mixture of confusion and hunger. Twilight forced a smile. “S…so how about it, Trixie?” she asked. “You could get to know everypony in Ponyville better. Pinkie always loves it when new ponies come to town. Oh, and Applejack – she likes it too, any excuse to bake up some apple fritters. And once you’ve gotten to know them, I think you’d get along great with Rainbow Dash and Rarity, you’re a lot like those two in some ways. And Fluttershy! Can’t forget her! She’s shy, of course but once you get to know her – ”
Trixie eyed Twilight. “But…those are your friends,” she interrupted.
“No reason why they can’t be yours as well,” Twilight insisted, and she laughed a little as she rolled her eyes. “And it’s not like they’d stop being my friends just because I wasn’t a bearer anymore.”
Trixie looked back to the Element, taking another step towards it. It glowed in response, and that seemed to embolden Trixie even more. She stopped just short of touching it, however, before looking back to Twilight. “But…what do you want?” she asked.
Twilight put on another smile. “That’s not really important right now,” she insisted.
Trixie considered, then stepped away from the Element, shaking her head. “No…no, it is,” she insisted. “My show, my cart, my career, my everything. Trixie is always so, so focused on what Trixie needs. Even though Trixie is perfectly justified as of late, what with her having to rebuild her career again…and it being her cart that was destroyed…and Trixie could go on for some time. Really, she could.”
Twilight laughed lightly, though only because Trixie was as well, her litany of complaints as much a jest as a legitimate list. Trixie then looked Twilight square in the eye. “But…but if we’re really supposed to be friends now, then Trixie knows that she has to start focusing not just on herself. Which is a shame, but Trixie can manage. So…what do you want, Twilight?”
Twilight’s smile faded slightly. “I want to keep on being the bearer of the Element,” she said without hesitation, looking away. “I’m part of something bigger than just me when I am…it’s almost like the Element is a part of me now. I don’t want to give that up, but I will, if you want.”
Twilight heard a long groan, and glanced back to Trixie. The unicorn was looking up and waving one hoof as though making demands of the heavens, not that the heavens could be seen in the endless field of white that the four of them had found themselves in. At length, Trixie stepped away from the Element, crossing her forehooves before her as she sat down purposefully away from it. “Take,” she insisted.
Twilight raised one eyebrow. “Are you sure?” she asked.
“Well Trixie can’t very well take it now, after a little speech like that about how it’s part of you.”
Twilight shook her head. “But it doesn’t have to be, Trixie. If you want it, you can have it – ”
“I do want it,” Trixie said, raising her hooves. “Trixie wants it because it will make Trixie famous and rich and powerful and bring her fortune and glory and she will earn the respect and admiration and love she deserves and…and I want it for all the wrong reasons.” She shook her head. “Trixie doesn’t want it to be part of something bigger than her. She…I want it for myself.” She shook her head. “And Trixie has to stop putting herself first all the time. Sometimes…preferably a lot of the time…but not all the time. And not now.”
Twilight paused a moment, before nodding to Trixie. She wasn’t the same mare that had, nearly a year ago now, trotted into Ponyville claiming to be the most magical unicorn in Equestria, and both of them knew that. “Thank-you,” she said.
Trixie rolled her eyes and looked away at first, but after a moment, glanced back to Twilight, smiling. “But you owe Trixie,” she insisted.
Twilight nodded, looking back to the Element, and on the other side of it, Lulamoon. The juxtaposition of looking from Trixie to Lulamoon was more than a little strange. Lulamoon was looking at her as well, seeming to be unsure. “This will work, right?” she asked.
Twilight began to respond, then considered for a few moments. At length, she sighed, shaking her head. “I have no idea,” she admitted.
To her surprise, that just made Lulamoon smile, as she stood up a little straight and trotted right up to the Element, putting her hoof on it without hesitation. “Only kind of plan that ever works, near as I can tell,” she said.
Twilight trotted up to the Element as well, sighing and rolling her eyes. “It’s our best shot,” she said, reaching out a hoof. “Here goes nothing…” Her hoof touched the Element, and it flashed bright white. The four ponies all shut their eyes against the glare, Lulamoon and Twilight instinctively recoiling from the Element.
They all felt it in their horns a moment before it happened – the Element had steams of gold-silver threads of magic reach out from it, wrapping themselves around the four of them as they were lifted from the ground, their eyes opening of their own accord and glowing bright white with power.
The gold-silver thread gradually unwound itself from around Trixie and Sparkle, nearly all the threads from them wrapping around Twilight and Lulamoon, encasing both in cocoons of pure magical power. They felt the Element then, deep within themselves and even within each other as the Element became re-accustomed to them, recognizing the two of them, and only the two of them, as its proper bearers. Even still, however, a few bare threads of magic remained, linking them with their counterparts and each other, and to the ambient magic of the world around them, becoming two core points of a web that stretched across the face of this world and all others.
It was almost a pleasant experience. What followed next was less so – a draining sensation felt by all four unicorns, as the Element, now re-assured as to its rightful bearers, almost seemed to become a sinkhole for magic, pulling all the magic it could towards fully reconstituting itself and the tourmaline diadem it was supposed to be set in.
Then it was done, and the world went very swiftly from white to black.
---
Hearing was the first thing to return, slowly but steadily. Lulamoon’s ears twitched at the sound of a beep, beep, beep that was threatening to drive her insane, especially seeing as she felt far, far too tired to actually do anything about it. Opening her eyes weakly, she found herself looking at white-and-blue walls, lying in a small, white-sheeted bed. The beeping was coming from some kind of machine lying next to her, and there was also a tube that traced its way from a bag suspended on a pole down to Lulamoon’s foreleg and even into it –
“Gah!” Lulamoon exclaimed, trying to stand, but failing miserably. She stared in no small amount of horror at the tube, filled with some kind of liquid, and immediately and instinctively set her horn glowing, pulling the thing from her. The tube came free easily enough with surprisingly little blood, while the machine nearby suddenly stopped beeping and instead let out a high-pitched, continuous squealing sound. Lulamoon cried out again, selected the nearest convenient object – a chair next to her bed – and telekinetically picked it up, then began slamming the chair into the machine. She only got a few hits in, however, before a pair of mares wearing white medical coats appeared. One, a unicorn, took the chair from Lulamoon’s grasp, while the other maneuvered in front of her.
“Calm down, miss, calm down!” the nurse said.
“Calm down?” Lulamoon demanded, leaning away from the nurse, who backed away a few feet, giving Lulamoon some distance, while the machine was switched off by the other. “Calm down? What was that? Why was in me? What were you injecting me with – ”
“It’s not anything – ”
“Then why were you taking my blood or whatever? You can’t draw blood from me without permission, I’m the Great and Powerful Dame – ”
“Trixie.”
Lulamoon froze at the sound of the voice. She knew that voice. Glancing, she saw Princess Luna trotting into the room. “Trixie,” Luna repeated, raising a hoof, “calm down.”
Lulamoon eyed the alicorn. “How do I know you’re Princess Luna?” she asked. “I’ve been here, I don’t know how long, I’ve had a tube sticking into me…”
Luna sighed, glancing at the two nurses, then leaned down next to Lulamoon and started whispering something concerning the Elkheim Embassy, an elk fawn she had met there some years ago named Edel Hjerte, and a few certain incidences that had involved a tree, which probably hadn’t been an ice worm in disguise, and a disturbing amount of fire – admittedly, Edel’s fault as much as Trixie’s. By the time Luna was done, Lulamoon had turned from blue to red. “O-o-okay,” she stuttered. “Okay. S-sorry.”
Luna offered Lulamoon a slight smile. “No need,” she said, glancing first at the nurses, then to the machine, and the pole-with-a-bag next to it. Her smile dropped into a frown. “I do not believe I like the intravenous drip either, or at least not its execution…”
One of the nurses stood up a little straighter at that, eyeing Luna. “It’s a perfectly functional and safe piece of medical equipment – that is, as long as somepony isn’t destroying it.” With a huff, she trotted from the room, her fellow nurse following her. Luna and Lulamoon watched them leave, before Luna turned back to look at Lulamoon – and found the mare had all but leaped from her bed, using what little real physical energy she had to grasp Luna about the neck and hug her tightly. Luna returned the hug without hesitation, using her own leg to support Lulamoon.
“How are you feeling?” she asked.
“Like I donated all my blood and then tried to run a rally,” Lulamoon responded. After a moment, she fell away from the hug, lying back down on the bed, though she kept her eyes on the lunar princess. “How’s…how’s everypony else? The other me, and the two Twilights?”
“They woke up yesterday,” Luna responded. “You were still, to an extent, recovering from your trip here, and – ”
“Wait, yesterday?” Lulamoon asked, eyes widening. “How long was I out for?”
“Four days,” Luna responded, wings twitching slightly. Lulamoon could guess why – if Luna had spent the four days here, waiting for Trixie to recover, then that meant that she had spent four days, or five really counting everything that had happened before they had encountered Antithesis, away from her Equestria, her world – where Corona was yet at large.
Lulamoon looked away. “I’m – I’m sorry. I’m sorry I caused this whole mess to begin with, that I’m keeping you here instead of back in our world where you’re needed – ”
“Don’t be,” Luna said, settling down onto her haunches. “You hardly chose to be unconscious for so long…and I have full faith that Equestria can make it a few days without me.”
Lulamoon nodded, looking back to Luna. “And…and I’m sorry that I broke the Element of Magic.”
Luna smiled a little. “It was…well. Not an accident, but certainly unforeseen. I don’t think I need to tell you how unprecedented this whole situation is. Who could have possibly known that a few mares getting into a fight would shatter one of the world’s foundations?”
“I still shouldn’t have been fighting with any of them. It was…stupid.”
“Ponies fight, Trixie, frequently for stupid reasons. Sometimes it turns out to be for the best, sometimes not. The important thing in either case is to move forward from those fights, learn our lessons, and be a little wiser afterwards. Did that happen?”
Lulamoon thought a moment, which seemed to please Luna, though she seemed even gladder when Lulamoon nodded. “Yeah,” she said. “I think so.”
“Lesson learned, then,” Luna said. Her ears twitched then, and she looked to the door to the hospital room for a moment, head tilting slightly to the side. “Incoming – ” she began, though she got no further before a quintet of ponies – Lyra, Raindrops, Ditzy Doo, Carrot Top, and Cheerilee – appeared there.
They paused for only a moment, giving Luna time enough to get out of there way before they all galloped forward. Ditzy, having the advantage of wings over most of the remainder and being faster than Raindrops, reached the unicorn first, throwing her hooves around Trixie and embracing her tightly. “You’re okay!” the grey pegasus exclaimed.
“Not – for – long – !” Lulamoon gasped out as she felt the life being squeezed from her.
Ditzy broke away, though only to make room for Cheerilee, who leaned in and nuzzled Lulamoon warmly. “You’re in a crazy-advanced hospital, they can probably fix you,” she said.
Raindrops was next, leaning in close to Lulamoon and jabbing a hoof at her face. “But don’t ever worry us like that again,” she insisted, though she was smiling. “Stars, it’s not enough you get Luna thinking you’re dead, you have to overchannel, too?”
“A second time, too, from what we heard,” Carrot Top asked as she moved in, hugging Lulamoon tightly, though not as tight as Ditzy had. “We’d only just gotten you back, too…”
“I didn’t mean to!” Lulamoon insisted.
Lyra was last, tapping a hoof to Lulamoon’s own outstretched one. “So…how was everything?” she asked. “I heard crazy, insane alicorn from somepony at some point…”
“Long story,” Lulamoon said, waving a hoof. “I’ll tell you later. What about you guys?”
Lyra rolled her eyes. “You would not believe the last few days…if you think you had it rough, just wait ‘til you hear what we’ve been up to…”
---
It was several more hours before Lulamoon was given the all-clear to leave her bed by the hospital staff. In the meantime, her friends filled her in on everything that had happened while she was unconscious – Ponyville had been a busy place, it seemed, though she personally didn’t think that it quite measured up to what she, Trixie, Sparkle, and Twilight had gone through. After spending so much of the past week either unconscious from magical drain, or else galloping around thinking that the world was going to end in any number of myriad ways, spending time simply talking to her friends was a welcome change of pace.
Eventually, however, she found herself stepping from the hospital and out into the afternoon sun’s glow, Luna and her friends trotting with her from the hospital of Ponyville to the town’s library, where Lulamoon found herself looking at another Princess Luna, just slightly shorter and rougher looking, standing outside already, having used a hoof to draw an intricate pattern in the ground before the library. There were numerous Ponyvillian onlookers, including all the local bearers of the Elements of Harmony, this universe’s Trixie, and Lulamoon’s own Sparkle, though they were all being kept back a respectable distance by gold-clad, white-coated pony guards.
Luna smiled down at Lulamoon when she shot her mentor a questioning look. “This world’s Celestia isn’t quite as experienced with being trapped in a celestial body as this world’s Luna,” she said. “And of course, she is trapped by herself, unlike my counterpart and I, who were locked away together. Though Celestia is quite alright, when we contacted her she claimed hasn’t been able to escape the Sun under her own power.”
“Claimed?” Lulamoon asked.
Luna glanced at her counterpart, then leaned in close. “I think that she is deliberately remaining within the Sun,” she whispered. “Recall that in this world, this Luna was trapped for a thousand years, and when she returned, she threatened to bring eternal night. The events of a few days ago rocked the faith of the common pony in her. By remaining within the Sun, Celestia has allowed her sister to make it clear that she was not responsible for the Sun not rising a few days ago, did not trap Celestia, and can also make Celestia’s return very public and showcase herself returning Celestia of her own free will.”
“Oh…” Lulamoon responded. “Clever. A little underhooved, but clever…”
“Luna – that is, my counterpart – has figured all this out as well. She is somewhat less than pleased with her sister, but is going through the motions anyway.” Luna smiled, though it seemed like a forced thing. “I expect Luna will get her sister back somehow.”
Lulamoon noticed the slight pain behind her mentor’s smile. The unicorn knew she had no ability to comprehend how difficult this was for Luna – to see a pony so much like her sister, whole and sane and filled with love for her sister. Her inability to ever fully understand, however, didn’t prevent Trixie from reaching over and touching a hoof to Luna’s shoulder. The alicorn’s smile became a little more genuine, though she didn’t say anything and broke away after a moment, trotting past the gold-clad guards and up to her native counterpart.
Lulamoon, meanwhile, trotted over to the herd of Element bearers from across the multiverse that had formed, plus Trixie and Sparkle. Both were watching the magic circle that Luna was creating closely, Trixie’s eyes glowing pink as she used the magic sight spell that Lulamoon had taught her.
Lulamoon winced at the sight. “Um,” she said to Trixie, “I wouldn’t have that on when Luna starts spell-casting. I watched my Luna raise the Moon once…went blind for three days afterwards. Too much magic.”
Trixie huffed, though her horn flashed and the spell faded. “That’s no fun at all,” she said. “How is Trixie supposed to learn great and powerful spells with her new magic sight if she can’t even look at the most interesting spellcasters with it?”
“You could try books,” Sparkle suggested.
“Pfeh. Writing down a spell is like writing down the steps to a dance. The entire dance is lost in the translation.”
Lulamoon smiled brightly at that, extending a hoof, which was bumped wholeheartedly by her counterpart. Twilight and Sparkle, meanwhile, looked scandalized. “That’s not true!” Twilight objected. “If it were, what would be the point of a spellbook?”
“And it lets you know so many more spells!” Sparkle echoed. “Instead of having to keep practicing the same ones over and over so you never forget, you can just learn it and then move on to the next, and then the next…”
“And there’s the fact that they’re books as well,” Twilight continued. “The smell of paper, the fun of reading something new, and this new thing is a magic spell…who knows what’s on the next page…”
Trixie and Lulamoon both rolled their eyes, each of them mentally tuning out the two lavender unicorns as they went on for some time. Eventually, however, they stopped, when Lulamoon’s Princess stepped back from the magic circle as the native one spread her wings wide and set her horn glowing brightly. A hush fell over the crowd as the ground she had etched the circle into began to glow with white light, the lines of the magic circle lighting up almost too bright to be looked at directly.
There was a flash from the circle, a similar flash from the Sun – and then, a moment later, there stood a white-coated alicorn with a cutie mark of an eight-armed Sun, wings spread wide, eyes closed and head slightly bowed. She opened her eyes and began to smile beatifically – though the smile dropped when she noticed that her mane and tail, rather than being animate, pastel rainbows of pure magic, were instead long locks of thick, luxurious, but perfectly ordinary pink hair.
“Luna!” She exclaimed, looking to her sister, who was pointedly staring at a rather interesting cloud. The other Luna, meanwhile, covered her mouth with one hoof, expertly hiding whatever expression was contained there. The crowd, who had begun to cheer at the return of the Solar Diarch, instead found their hoof-stomps and cries of joy checked just slightly. Lulamoon heard the words “magic dye” at least once from nearby ponies, and managed to hide her snickering about as well as her teacher had.
“Princess Celestia?” Twilight asked. She had started to dash forward, but stopped at the sight of the hair. “Um…what’s wrong with your…?”
“Nothing, Twilight,” Celestia said, horn glowing gold for a moment. Her mane and tail lit up then, returning to normal. She stepped forward, leaning down to nuzzle Twilight, a move that her student returned eagerly. She then glanced to her sister. “Though there will be little peace in Canterlot for the next few days…”
Luna eyed her sister for a moment. “I accept your challenge,” she said as she trotted forward, nuzzling Celestia herself.
After a moment, they broke away from each other, and Celestia turned to look to the other Luna. She offered her best smile. “Although…I imagine that, though I am returned, there are nevertheless goodbyes that need to be said.”
Luna nodded, looking to the Elements from her own world. “Unfortunately,” she said, closing her eyes and letting her horn glow brightly. “Our worlds remain close enough to travel between for about another week, perhaps longer…but I cannot leave my throne vacant for that long.” She opened her eyes, and looked to her own Elements. “We must be going,” she said, then glanced to Sparkle. “And I understand that you wish to come, of your own free will.”
Sparkle jumped slightly, but then steeled herself. “Yes,” she said. “I’m…I’m ready to turn myself in.”
Luna nodded, her face neutral as she trotted up to Sparkle. “There is something you should know,” Luna said, waving a hoof around. “You will notice you had no guards on you. I did not ask this world’s Luna to place any, and this is why: the planeswalking spell, once cast, will transport you back to the exact point in space you were in when you left. As I understand it, that was in the middle of Poniszawa’s town square.” At a nod from Sparkle, she continued. “Because you are traveling under my power, and not your own, you will be more can capable of acting when you return. You could flee. Or, you can turn yourself in. The choice will be entirely yours.”
Sparkle blinked at that. “But…well, you could just send somepony on ahead, couldn’t you? Let them know I’m coming?”
“I could, yes,” Luna admitted. “But I do not think that will be necessary. Will it?”
Sparkle didn’t answer immediately, though at length she shook her head. “No. It won’t. I’ve decided already – I’m not running away anymore.”
Luna smiled, then looked to her Elements. “Say your goodbyes. We will be leaving shortly.”
---
Twilight’s friends, and Lulamoon’s own, had their own goodbyes to give to each other. Twilight found herself oddly jealous of Applejack, Pinkie Pie, and everypony else from her world – they had gotten much more opportunity, these past few days, to get to know the Element-bearers from the other Equestria. She’d been stuck pretty much just with Lulamoon and Sparkle, or else unconscious. Though she had spent some time yesterday with them, it wasn’t as much as she wanted. There were so many questions…
She forced those questions from her mind, though, when Lulamoon trotted over to her. “Well, it was nice meeting you,” Lulamoon said, rubbing the back of her neck with one hoof. “Kind of…strange. But nice.”
Twilight smiled, nodding. “I wish we could get to know each other better,” she said, reaching out a hoof. Lulamoon touched her own hoof to it.
“Well, you’ve got her for a little bit,” Lulamoon said, nodding to Trixie, who was nearby, talking with Sparkle. “That’s kind of the same thing, I guess.”
Twilight shook her head. “It isn’t, really,” she said. “Don’t get me wrong, I can’t wait to spend time with her, get to know her better…but she’s still different from you. And I’m not going to have any chance to get to know you at all.”
Lulamoon blinked a few times at that, before looking down, heaving a long sigh. “That’s right…” she noted. “It’s gonna be a thousand years before we’d even have the chance. I don’t think I’ll be around. We just became friends, but we’ll never see each other again…”
Twilight pressed her lips tightly together, then stepped closer to Lulamoon, hugging her. Lulamoon returned it tightly. “But we’ll still be friends,” Twilight insisted. “Doesn’t matter how far apart we are.” She leaned back, and poked Trixie in the chest. “That’s what friendship is, right? Connections. We’ll always be connected, no matter what.”
Trixie nodded, the ghost of a smile appearing on her face. “Right,” she said, glancing up to Twilight. “You know…I hate to admit it…but I think you’re better at this friendship stuff than I am. A lot better.”
Twilight laughed a little. “it’s not a contest,” she noted. “Just…keep trying. That’s all.”
Lulamoon nodded, and the two hugged again, before trotting over to Trixie and Sparkle, who had just finished a hug of their own. Lulamoon’s head titled to the side as she looked to Trixie. “So what are you gonna do?” she asked.
Trixie smiled brightly. “The same as Trixie has always done,” she said. “Trixie intends to get a new wagon, bigger and better than her last. She will travel the land bringing magic wherever she goes, helped along by the adulation of her thousands of loyal fans!”
Lulamoon gave Trixie’s lifestyle a thought. Travelling across Equestria, getting to meet new ponies, putting on magic shows and bringing wonderment and awe wherever she went… “That sounds like a great life,” she admitted after a moment, rubbing one hoof against the opposite leg. “If Luna hadn’t apprenticed me, I’d probably be trying to do that myself…it’s basically what Grandpapa did.”
Trixie smiled at Lulamoon. “Backup plan, maybe?” she asked.
Lulamoon shook her head. “Can’t think like that,” she said, stamping a hoof slightly. “Onwards and upwards, that’s it. Maybe I would have been happy as a traveling magician. But I’m happy where I am, too. Besides, it’s not like I never get to put on any kind of show at all.”
Trixie nodded. Twilight, meanwhile, had gone up to Sparkle, who was rubbing her front hooves together somewhat nervously. “Are you okay?” Twilight asked.
“Fine,” Sparkle said. “Just…just fine. Everything’s fine.” At a look from Twilight, Sparkle shook her head. “I’ve just spent something like four or five months on the run. I brought a space bear into a town because I thought I could show off how powerful my magic was…but then I lost control of it. I ran away from that. Then I tried to make my own group of Element-bearers. That…that didn’t work out at all. I was going to use a living being as a bargaining chip after that – my world’s version of Spike, that is, and even though he’s the closest thing to a friend I’ve ever had. And then…then I ran away from everything, here. But now I’m going home. I’m going to see my father, and my mother, and my brother…and they’re going to see me…as I’m being marched off to jail.”
Twilight eyed Sparkle, who shook her head. “I’m not running,” she said. “I’m not. But it’s…it’s kind of a lot. You have your friends, Trixie, Trixie has her magic act, and my Trixie, she has her friend and her future…me? I’ve cracked all four of my hooves down to the frog.” She sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “But…but hey. I’ve hit rock-bottom, right? Nowhere left to go but up…”
Twilight shook her head, leaning in and hugging Sparkle. “You haven’t hit rock bottom,” she insisted. “And you’re not going to. Everypony makes mistakes – ”
“Not like me.”
“What about what I did? With the want it need it spell? What happened to you calling me, calling all of us, broken?”
“You’re not. I can see that now…that’s why Trixie deserves the Element, that’s why you do, too. It’s just me that’s broken. But I can fix – ”
“No you can’t,” Twilight insisted, “because you’re not broken. You made mistakes. That’s not being broken, that’s just being a pony. There’s nothing to fix…but there’s always room for improvement.”
Sparkle looked at Twilight, smiling herself after a moment and closing her eyes. “Thank-you,” she said.
Twilight patted Sparkle on the withers. “What are friends for?”
---
Luna was aware of Celestia’s presence, despite her eyes being closed as she focused on the world-hopping spell. This was partially due to her powerful alicorn senses, though it had as much to do with the fact that when an alicorn twice the size of an average pony sidled up next to oneself, one tended to just notice it. Luna opened her eyes to look at Celestia.
“Am I interrupting?” the elder alicorn asked.
Luna shook her head. “No,” she said, glancing up at her glowing horn. “I am nearly done at this point…the spell is about power more than anything, I simply have to gather it right now.”
Celestia nodded as she sat down next to Luna. She glanced away, at her sister, who was giving her counterpart a wide berth at the moment – giving her ample space to say her own goodbyes to Celestia, Luna knew. The white alicorn ruffled her wings as her gaze next fell to the ponies who were saying goodbye. “This is different for us, of course,” she noted, looking back to Luna. “For them, this is goodbye, forever. For us…in a thousand years, we could see one another again, if we wished.”
Luna smiled. “I’d like that,” she said.
“Perhaps then, I could meet my own counterpart. Your sister Celestia.”
Luna pressed her lips together tightly at that, looking down. “Perhaps,” she said weakly.
Celestia shifted. “If our worlds will remain connected for another week, that would give me ample opportunity to follow you, if you wished,” she said. “I could aid you in finding your Celestia. I don’t quite know how…maybe I would simply be able to make some good guesses. And once she was found…I could aid you in helping her, if there was time.”
Luna shook her head. “You could be trapped in my world if we weren’t careful.”
“We could be careful, then.”
Luna only shook her head again, however. “I…I think that having you there would only exacerbate problems between myself and my sister. She would likely see you as a usurper. And I am not sure how the ponies of my world would react. Celestia – Corona – is feared there, feared as Nightmare Moon never was in this world. And – ”
“And it hurts, just to be around me.”
Luna paused a moment, looking to Celestia, to a being that was outwardly, in every way, identical to the Celestia that she had once known. “You cannot imagine,” Luna whispered. “A thousand years, and your sister returned, deposed you, made good on a millennium of threats…and a day later, she was beside you again. And to come here and see that…”
Celestia shifted uncomfortably. “I understand,” she said, looking down. “But there is something I must do – and that is thank you.”
“For what?”
Celestia closed her eyes. “A thousand years ago, you appeared in this world…then disappeared. I did not even consider the possibility of another world – I thought that perhaps you were Nightmare Moon, escaped from her prison somehow. When I investigated, I found that was not the case…but in examining Nightmare Moon’s prison, I did discover something, something imperceptible excepting if I was examining every detail of the magic that held Nightmare Moon in place, convinced not only that she could escape, but that she had. I found the smallest, most inconsequential of flaws in the prison, a flaw that would, in time, grow larger.
“I poured myself into examining that flaw, researching it, trying to discover what it meant. And eventually I had an answer: on the longest day of the thousandth year of her imprisonment, the stars would aid Nightmare Moon in her escape. That the imprisonment that I had believed would last for all eternity, would not be so eternal after all.”
Luna sucked in a deep breath at that, nearly losing focus on the spell she was casting. Celestia opened her eyes, looking to Luna. “I do not know what would have happened had I not known about the thousand-year deadline,” she said. “But I do know that you…you helped me free my sister from Nightmare Moon. Thank-you.”
Luna looked away, closing her eyes tightly. An immense part of her wished that Celestia had not just told her that – because if there had been such a flaw in Nightmare Moon’s imprisonment on the Moon, then there had likely been a similar one in Corona’s prison within the Sun. There had been a chance that Luna could have been forewarned of her sister’s return, been given a thousand years to prepare for it, to arrange matters, to act to save her sister when she was freed.
Celestia had every right to want to thank Luna for her part in freeing her own sister from the madness that had been Nightmare Moon, however. She nevertheless cringed and closed her eyes yet tighter against the tears she felt in them. That was when a strong wing placed itself over her back, and pulled her close and tight to its owner. Luna leaned into the embrace.
“I can’t pretend to know all of your sister’s thoughts,” Celestia said softly. “But…if she was ever, in any way, like me, then no matter what – no matter what insanity has gripped her, no matter what she says, or what she does…she still loves you, Luna. And one day, that love will lead her back to you. Never, ever doubt that.”
Luna nodded. For just a moment, she had again been able to pretend that it was her sister hugging her, her sister saying reassuring things, helping her see that the world was not so bad and so lonely a place. That fantasy had ended as soon as it had begun…but it helped. It buoyed her, in a way that this Celestia had to know it would. For even as the fantasy ended, it left behind a firm, iron thought in her mind: Corona would not last, and one day, Celestia would return to her.
Luna felt a slight pulse along her horn, then, and broke away from Celestia’s embrace, blinking a few times and willing her tears to stop. “It’s time,” she said, turning and pointing her horn forward. Midnight blue magic reached out into a point in space, that then seemed to fall inwards and backwards upon itself, expanding outwards until it created a slowly-swirling vortex that distorted the world around it, looking like a smudge in the fabric of reality.
Luna looked to her subjects, who had come forward at the creation of the gateway. Her own Twilight, after a final embrace with this world’s counterpart and this world’s Trixie, came forward first, her face full of a strange mixture of determination and doubt. She looked at Luna, nodded, then trotted forward without another word. She hadn’t been gone more than a moment, however, before the other Twilight approached. “Princess Luna?” she asked.
Luna put on a smile. After thousands of years, she was more than adept at hiding her true emotions when the need arose “Yes?”
“About Sparkle…sorry, Twilight, or your Twilight. What do you plan on doing with her?”
Luna sighed, shaking her head. “I feel she has suffered enough,” she answered, “though she has committed crimes, and must be held accountable. The courts will no doubt assign her a prison term, though I had planned to intervene and instead offer her the option of house arrest instead, at her family’s abode in Canterlot.”
Twilight thought. “I was talking to her,” she said. “And…if you don’t mind, Princess, can I suggest something else?”
Luna considered a moment. “I’m listening…” she decided.
---
Princess Luna had liked Twilight’s idea, which made Twilight more than a little happy, and helped her feel a little more positive about things when she was done, and it instead came time to say goodbye to Lulamoon – Trixie, really – for the final time. The two stood before the portal that Luna had made, even as Trixie’s friends shuffled through one by one after saying their own goodbyes. “Well,” Trixie said at length, “this is it.”
“Yeah,” Twilight agreed. She sighed. “Maybe…maybe we’ll find some way to connect our worlds sooner. I mean, Antithesis, the Element breaking…that shouldn’t have been possible, but it happened. So maybe that can happen, too.”
“Maybe,” Trixie agreed. She didn’t sound convinced. Twilight wasn’t, either…but hope sprang eternal. At length, she reached forward and hugged Twilight again. “Au revoir,” she said.
“See you later,” Twilight returned. The hug broke, Trixie took one last glance at her, then she stepped into the portal. Her form swiftly grew indistinct, then disappeared entirely. The only interloper left was Princess Luna, and she left after one more moment – a final hug of her own with her counterpart in this world, a much tighter one with Celestia, and a nod of acknowledgement to Twilight…then she stepped through the portal herself, and was gone as quickly as Trixie had been. The gateway shimmered once, then disappeared without flare, simply fading away into nothingness.
Twilight shivered a little, as Princess Celestia came up alongside of her, and looked down at her. “Are you alright, Twilight?” she asked.
Twilight nodded. “I will be,” she said. “Though…I think I’m going to have a huge friendship report to send you.” Celestia smiled gently at that, and Twilight did as well. “So…what now?” she asked.
Celestia thought. “We never did get to examine the Elements as we intended…”