//------------------------------//
// VI. Dawn Overflowing 
// Story: Falls the Shadow 
// by Kolwynia 
//------------------------------//


Episode Six:
Dawn Overflowing

Legends can be now and forever
Teaching us to love for goodness sake
Legends can be now and forever
Loved by the Sun
-Tangerine Dream
Loved by the Sun


Once upon a time, there was a beautiful young princess who lived in a lonely castle in the middle of a cursed kingdom.  Then, one day, a hero from beyond the farthest star came and took the princess away on an adventure.  Her heart, which had been asleep for years, awakened.  She traveled the universe, danced and fought across time and space with her hero.  Saved worlds.  Fell in…love.  But after every adventure, the princess would always return home to her sisters in her own time.  She would wait, forever if she had to, but usually only days, or minutes once, for her hero to return to take her away again.  She loved every moment of it.
Then, one night, she had her last adventure…

Princess Astra stood on her balcony, looking out at the stars as they vanished.  By the time this night was over, the sky would be empty.  What was taking the Doctor so long?  The waiting never got easier.  He was still out following Stella, trying to find out what happened to make her turn against them.
It was one of the first things she learned to hate about time travel.  You find out things you wish you didn’t know.  Things you wish you could change.  And sometimes you tried to change them.  And when you couldn’t it…hurt.  A lot.  She had tried to reach out to her sister, to help her defend Canterlot, but Stella had been pulling away from her for years now.  She could not tell what her sister was thinking anymore.  Soon…very soon, she was going to betray them.
Sometimes Astra hated knowing the future.
But then…there were always good surprises too.  She had seen what her younger sisters would one day become, all that they would accomplish together.  And they would do it without Stella or her.  That last bit was a sore spot with her.  Where was she while those two were growing up?  She just…disappeared from history.  Like a vanished star.
Astra sighed and went back inside.  Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy were there, waiting for Applejack the way she was waiting for the Doctor.
“They’ll be back soon,” said Fluttershy, trying to comfort her.
“I know,” said Astra, forcing a smile.
It still felt strange to have them just sitting around in her chambers.  Two of the six legendary Guardians of Harmony, Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy.  And they were still so…young.  They had no idea what the future had in store for them.  Oh, but they would be magnificent.  One day.
Astra had met Twilight before.  She couldn’t tell her, and unless they found a way to stop the Star Seal from breaking that future would never even happen.  But Astra would carry that memory with her for as long as she lived.  It was one of the first times the Doctor had taken her into the future…
“Where do you want to go?”
“How about the future?”
“Anything special you want to see?”
“Oh, I don’t know.  I can’t even imagine what it’s going to be like.  But I guess…there would have to be amazing ponies there.  I’d like to meet somepony special, somepony great from the future.”
He had beamed at her.  “Oh, I think I know just the one.”
And they were off.
Later, they were looking in a window at a unicorn sitting alone at a writing desk, scribbling notes on page after page of parchment.
“Who is that?”
“That, Princess, is Twilight Sparkle.”
“What is she?  An adventurer?  A princess?  A great wizard?”
“She is a librarian.”
“A…librarian?”
“She’s also writing a book.”
“Oh.  Is it an important one?”
“The one she’s writing now?  No.  It’s a load of astronomical rubbish.  Most of the ‘important observations’ she thinks she’s making get disproven in a century or so.”
“Oh.”
	“But one day she will write another book.  This one will be a collection of thoughts she has about friendship.  Thousands of years after her time, that book will still be read.  It will be translated into languages she doesn’t even know exist, it will be scattered across worlds.”
“And it’s just her thoughts about friendship?”
“Nothing more.”
“The book is that good, huh?”
“Oh yes.  Entire civilizations have been founded on the truths contained in Friendship is Magic.  I know of at least two wars that were averted solely because somepony got hold of a copy.”
“She must be some writer.”
“I can’t say that her writing style is better than anypony else’s…but…her words have a way of feeling like they were written just for you, like she’s reaching across time, wanting to be your friend.  I have two letters that I carry with me all the time.  One was written by a girl who cared for me very much and never got the chance to tell me goodbye.  The other was written by Twilight Sparkle.”
“What makes her so special?”
The Doctor’s eyes had sparkled with excitement.  “Why don’t we go in and find out?”
They knocked on her door.  She magicked it open without getting up from her writing.  “Come in,” she said.
“Twilight Sparkle,” said the Doctor.
She looked up.
“Oh, hi, Doctor.  And hello, Princess Astra.”
She knows me, thought Astra.  The princess never forgot that, or how welcome she felt there.  She remembered being nuzzled by an overjoyed Twilight, how warm and gentle it was.  Then they started talking.  They talked for hours, until the sun came up.  About…Astra could barely remember.  They were simple things.  Trivial.  Yet…somehow as important as anything could be.
That was when a new dream had been born in the princess’s heart.  Not a dream of adventure, but peace.  That was what she wanted more than anything.  Just to live in someplace gentle like Ponyville, a simple life borrowing books from Twilight’s library, watching animals for Fluttershy, eating Apple treats and cupcakes, discussing the newest fashions at Carousel Boutique, chasing clouds with Rainbow Dash…
It was the first dream of hers that she didn’t share with the Doctor, but kept it to herself.  A secret wish.
The doors to Astra’s chambers flew open, breaking the princess out of her reverie.  Little Princess Luna stood in the doorway, pale and panting.  She looked frightened.
“She took her!” Luna cried, panicking.  “She just flew off with her!”
“Shh,” said Fluttershy in a soothing voice.  “Just slow down and tell us what happened…”
“S-Stella came and took Celestia away.  She didn’t want to go.  Stella just…took her!  And flew away!  I think she’s going outside the Barrier!”
Astra’s eyes narrowed.  It was happening.  But, why take Celestia?  What could she want with her?  “I will go after her.  The rest of you, wait for the Doctor.  Tell him what happened.”
Fluttershy raised a hoof.  “I could go with you…if you wanted…”
Astra shook her head.  “No.  This is between my sister and I.  Just…” she hesitated, “…tell the Doctor goodbye for me.”
With that, the princess galloped out onto her balcony, leaped the railing, and flew off into the night.  She had a dark suspicion where her sister was headed.  And why.  She did not dwell on it, but set her course for Everfree Garden.
Goodbye.  The word was so…small.  And not what she really wanted to say at all.  He deserved more from her.  Why hadn’t she said what she really meant?  The words she wanted to say with every atom of her being?  She smiled bitterly as she flew, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes, cold in the rushing wind.  She was the Princess of Space…and if Space has one quality above all others, it is silence.


* * *


“We can’t just sit here,” said Princess Luna.  “We have to go after them!”
Twilight knelt down beside her.  “I know it’s hard.  We just have to trust our friends.”
“But Celestia!”
“You love her very much, don’t you?”
Princess Luna looked down at her hooves.  “She…”
“I’m going to tell you something, Princess.  It’s very important so you have to listen to me.  Do you know what you have here?”  She touched the circlet on Luna’s head with her nose.
“Celestia says it’s magic,” Luna sniffled.
“She’s right.  They are called the Elements of Harmony, and they are the most powerful magical artifacts in the world.”
“I’ve heard of them.  Stella talked about them once.”
“With the power of Harmony, you can rescue your sister.  You can save your world.  But do you remember what I told you about the spark that ignites magic?”
“Friendship.”
“Yes.  Because the real power of the Elements of Harmony does not live in magical jewels and necklaces and crowns.  It needs a vessel, somepony who embodies the qualities of a friend, a Guardian of Harmony.”
“Oh…why don’t you use them then, Miss Twilight?  You seem like you know all about friendship.”
Twilight smiled sadly.  She was aware of her own Element of Magic resting on her head, cold and powerless in this era.  She wondered if this is what Princess Celestia felt like when she was cut off from the power of Harmony and had to put her trust in a little filly who didn’t know the first thing about friendship.  Twilight’s job was going to be easier.  Luna didn’t know it, but she already knew the most important thing about friendship.  “This is not my…” (time) “…I mean, this is not about me, Princess, it’s about you.  This is your moment in the sun.”
“The Sun…” said Luna, and a gleam of determination filled her dark eyes.  Twilight noticed the jewels in her grey circlet were starting to regain their colors.
There was a clopping sound in the hall outside.  Applejack and Starswirl arrived, covered with sweat and breathing heavily.  Before they could catch their breath, Twilight told them what had happened.
“This ain’t good,” said Applejack.  “Princess Stella’s gone crazy.”
“A noble soul,” said Starswirl.  “She said she was going to slay a noble soul.
“Slay?” asked Fluttershy.  “You mean…she wants to actually kill somepony?”
“Not just anypony…”
Twilight looked at Princess Luna.  The dark princess was trembling with fright and fury.  “We have to go after her right now,” Luna said.
Starswirl’s horn glowed green.  “Okay, I found her.  She’s heading…oh, back to Everfree Garden.”
“Where we just came from!” Applejack moaned.
“We have to go back, and fast,” said Starswirl.
“I think I can help with that,” said Twilight.  “Hold on to me, everypony…”
They did.
Bamf!  There was a flash of violet light, and they were outside of the castle, on the road to Everfree Garden.
“Run,” said Twilight.  “I’ll teleport us as much of the way as I can.”
They galloped in the same direction as Princess Stella flew.  After a ways, Twilight cast her spell and they were suddenly much further.  Almost to the Barrier.
“Starswirl, can you cast a shield over us?”
He answered with a glowing green bubble that surrounded all of them.
They passed through the Barrier, into Discord’s realm.  The shield held.  Twilight’s spell jumped them forward again.  They raced onward…


* * *


“Why, Sister?” Celestia whimpered.
She lay on the Stone Circle, held fast by glowing silver chains.  Princess Stella walked the edge of the circle.  A hush filled the dark forest around them.  Above, the last few stars winked out.  The only light in the sky was a tiny sliver of moon.  Celestia gazed up at that lonely sickle.  Its light filled her over-bright eyes.
“Do you know what this place is?” asked Stella.
Celestia tried to shake her head.
“The Star Seal that keeps Equestria safe from the darkness of the Outside is like a giant lock.  This place is like a keyhole where each side can look in on the other.”  She laughed musically.  It sounded like the tinkling of frozen wind chimes.  “Of course, that is not completely accurate.  There is no actual keyhole.  The Seal cannot be opened, it can only be broken.  It is very weak now.  Not a single star lights the sky.  Only one thing remains to be done…”
She bowed her head, horn glowing.  A jagged piece of stone, as big as a full grown pony, was levitated into the air.  She suspended it over Celestia’s defenseless body, sharp end pointed down.
Celestia looked at it with disbelieving horror.
Then her sister let it fall.
A bolt of golden light struck the stone, sending it crashing into the darkness of the forest.  Little pieces of it rained down on the Stone Circle, pelting Celestia.
“Enough, Stella.”
It was Princess Astra.  She flew down and alighted on the Stone Circle, standing between Celestia and Stella.  The flame of battle was in her eyes.
Stella smiled.  “Sister…you are just in time.”
“For what?  To see you destroy the world?”
“Destroy?  Whatever gave you that idea.  Not destroy.  Only change.  What makes light any better than shadow?  Tell me you haven’t dreamed of it, that place where your precious Doctor comes from, those glittering, infinite worlds that think your world is only a story.  Tell me you have no desire to escape from this bright, colorful prison of yours.”
Astra smiled.  Where her sister’s smile was cold, hers was warm.  Kind.  “We’re all just stories in the end,” she said.  It was something the Doctor told her once.  Astra had no desire to travel the shadowlands of the Outside.  Not anymore.  Her secret wish glowed in her heart, giving her the strength she needed.
“You cannot beat me,” Stella warned.
“Please, Stella, stop this,” Astra begged.  A plea that would be echoed by another princess who had to face her sister years later.  “It’s not too late.”
The Princess of the Stars answered with a bolt of silver magic.  Astra met her with a beam of gold.  The two spells locked together, shining white.  Threads of colored light swam up and down the beam, which crackled with dangerous magical energy.
The princesses dueled.


* * *


Twilight and her friends came upon the clearing as the sisters battled.  She was tired from casting her teleportation spell so many times in a row.  Then she saw Princess Celestia, bound to the Stone Circle, and all her weariness vanished in a flash.
She went to her.  “Princess!”
“T-Twilight?” said Celestia.  The Princess looked at her as if she were looking at a stranger.  She was almost out of her mind with terror.
Around them, the duel between the sisters raged on.  Streams and flashes of magic blasted their surroundings, scorching tree trunks and even melting part of the edge of the Stone Circle itself.  Starswirl watched, naked emotion on his face, as two princesses he loved fought one another with all their might.
Twilight’s horn glowed.  Stella’s silver chains were powerful, but not invincible.  With a surge of energy, Twilight broke the spell, freeing the princess.
“Celestia!” Luna cried.
Princess Celestia glared at her.  “What are you doing here?” she demanded.
It was not the welcome Luna had hoped for.
“Oh, Sister, you don’t understand.  Those crowns we found are actually the Elements of Harmony, and you and I have to be friends so that their magic will work and we can save everypony!”
“I told you before, I don’t need friends!” Celestia spat.
Luna was crestfallen.  Applejack and Fluttershy just stared, mouths hanging open.  They had not met the Celestia of this era before now, and so were caught completely off guard.  Only Twilight saw inside the princess enough to realize that she was terrified.  And not terrified because her elder sister had just tried to kill her.  It was seeing Luna and Twilight come for her that had terrified her.  She was lashing out at Luna because she was terrified for her sake.
Twilight looked Celestia in the eye.  “But you have them,” she said.  “And your friends need you.”
Celestia looked at her with a hatred so fierce it could only have been born in the deepest of loves.
A pulse of cold silver power ran down the beam that connected Stella and Astra.  Astra felt it coming.  All her love and fury weren’t enough.  She glanced to her side at the Doctor.  There was something important I wanted to tell him, she thought.  What was it again?  Some silly dream.  A hope that could never be.  Then the frozen light reached her.
Stella’s magic tore through Astra’s spell, and she was struck with the full force of its terrible power.  Astra’s horn glowed white hot for an instant under that magic.  Then it shattered.
Twilight had never heard a wail of pain like the one that came from Princess Astra’s lips.  She screamed as if her soul were on fire, fell backward, convulsed on the Stone Circle in a seizure, then went still.
“No!” cried Starswirl.  He tried to leap to Astra’s aid, but Stella cut him down with a spear of silver light.  The bolt of magic went right through his chest, flinging him backward through the air.  He landed on the edge of the Stone Circle, then rolled off, onto the ground.
Twilight ran to Astra.  Fluttershy and Applejack went to the Doctor.
“She’s alive,” said Twilight.  “Barely.”
“So is the Doctor,” shouted Fluttershy.  “But…”
“He will not survive that,” said Stella.  “Watch, my little ponies, as Death steals your friend away forever.  Watch the light of your world go out.”
“Doctor?” said Applejack.
“Ouch,” groaned the Doctor.  “That one…really hurt.”
Twilight wasn’t watching.  She heard, but couldn’t bring herself to look at her hero lying there.  She just focused on the broken Princess Astra.  Starswirl the Bearded cannot die, she told herself.  It is simply not possible.
“You asked me…Applejack, you asked me what the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen was…”
“I did.”
He took a labored breath.  “The answer is…magic.  It’s the thing I never expected, in all my travels…an impossible miracle.  The very substance of friendship…”
Fluttershy was weeping.
“Don’t they have magic where yer from?”
“You mean the Outside…where worlds go on forever…and I traveled them.  I tracked the dust from a thousand worlds in on my shoes…saw the greatness in all of them.  Then…there was this one…full of ponies of all things…ha…it seemed so small…but it shone so, so bright…and now that I’m here I see…your world…is so much bigger on the inside…”
Applejack felt something flutter beside her, invisible.
Then the Doctor began to glow.  Light poured out of him.  Gushed.  It was gold, the same color as Princess Astra’s magic.  Applejack and Fluttershy had to look away.  Then the light faded, and lying there was the Doctor.  He no longer looked like Starswirl.  He looked like he did when he met them in the Canterlot Archive, a young brown earth pony.  He blinked.
Missed him again, a voice seemed to whisper in Applejack’s ear.  Then, with a rustle of dark wings, it was gone.
“Y-You’re alive,” said Fluttershy.
The Doctor climbed to his hooves.  “Seems so.  Let me check.”  He examined himself.  “Hmm, still a pony…and still not ginger…oh, and no horn…or wings.  Oh well, one out of four ain’t so bad.”
“How is this possible?” Applejack whispered, awestruck.
“I regenerated.  Didn’t I tell you I can do that?”
“No.  You didn’t.”
“Oh well, silly me.”  Then he looked up at Princess Stella, who was watching from the center of the Stone Circle, cold hatred etched in every line of her.  “Looks like Death is not getting into Equestria today.”
The princess sneered.  “And what’s going to stop me from killing somepony else?”
The Doctor pointed with one hoof at something behind her.  “Her, for one.”
Stella turned around.
A small blue alicorn stood on the edge of the Stone Circle and faced her, trembling.  It was Princess Luna.  She stood alone before the Princess of the Stars.  Twilight looked up from Astra, marveled at the bravery of the little princess.
“What are you doing?” Celestia shrieked at her sister.
“I won’t let you hurt anypony else!” Luna said defiantly.  There was no grey in the circlet she wore.  It was a shiny ebony.  The Elements of Harmony glowed brightly in it.
“My brave little sister…” said Stella, “…die.”
A bolt of magic lanced toward her.  Luna’s eyes widened and she stepped awkwardly to one side, so the spell missed her by a few precious inches.  A few blue hairs of her mane were singed.
Celestia saw this.
And it was like watching her own heart nearly pierced.
The Princess of the Sun woke up.  A secret unfolded itself within her, something she had never allowed herself to feel before.  The enormity of it staggered her.  Her breath caught.  Long ago she had hidden her heart, locked it away so she wouldn’t have to feel anything when her kingdom finally fell.  Now, seeing her little sister almost struck down before her brought every buried passion surging violently to the surface.  She was completely unprepared for it.  White light filled her, washing away the whole world except for a tiny, trembling spot of dark blue that stood at the center of everything to her.
“Not my Luna!” she cried, leaping in front of her sister.
The power of Harmony heard her cry, summoned by a love so great it would have broken the universe to get to her.
Twilight and her friends looked on as the Sun rose over the Stone Circle.
The Elements of Harmony blazed with colored light that bled into white fire.  The Princesses of Dawn and Evening were lifted up into the air by its power.  They looked down on Stella, who raged and cast her cold magic at them.  Her spells melted before they could so much as touch the edge of that power.
A wave of light, every color imaginable, poured from the princesses.  It soared up into the sky like a phoenix, arced back down, and crashed down on the Princess of the Stars.  She cringed beneath its power.
From the edge of the Stone Circle, Fluttershy noticed something then that nopony else did.  As the light took the princess, a shadow slipped away from her and vanished into the woods.
When the wave had passed, Princess Stella had been turned to stone, like a wicked troll caught by the dawn in a fairy tale.  Luna and Celestia descended back to the surface of the Stone Circle.  The Princess of the Moon rested, the power leaving her.
The Princess of the Sun did not.
White fire blazed inside her.  Pure magic crackled around her, streamed out into the woods.  The Stone Circle cracked under her hooves.  It would not stop.  Pure magic, born of even purer love swelled within Celestia.  It was untamable.  A dam had been broken inside her.  She loved.  She loved EVERYTHING.  A storm of emotion raged inside her and she was swallowed by it.
Twilight knew what was happening.  Once she had felt something similar.  She hadn’t known it then, but it was the first touch of a connection with five ponies that she hadn’t even met, the gentlest whisper of a love eternal, kindling the magic of friendship inside her for the first time.
It had almost consumed her.
She approached the princess.  She did so without fear.  Princess Celestia cried out, exultant.  Dawn overflowed.  Twilight put a gentle hoof on her Princess’s shoulder.  Celestia looked up into her eyes.  She was crying tears of white fire.
Love.  Love.  Love.  Forever.
“It’s okay, Princess,” cooed Twilight.  “You can come back now…”  And her horn glowed as she let her own magic, the same that had run so uncontrollably when she was a filly, flow into Princess Celestia’s.  Purple magic mingled with the princess’s.  There was a flash, an explosion of colors.  Energy stopped spilling out of her.  The white magic quieted its raging.  As the sea of her love calmed, light shimmered in Princess Celestia’s mane and tail.  One color split into many, all the hues of the sky by day.  Dawn mixed with noon and sunset.
And even a streak of twilight.


* * *


They had won.  The Traitor Princess was defeated.  Death had been thwarted.  The Elements of Harmony had been awakened.  The stars glittered on the face of the night sky once more.  Their victory was complete.
Almost.
“Is she…all right?” asked Applejack.
“She will live,” said Fluttershy, wrapping the bandage around Princess Astra’s head.  She was still unconscious.  “But…I don’t know much about unicorn magic…”  She looked to Twilight.
“I can’t fix her horn,” said Twilight.  “She will…probably never be the same.”
“She’s waking up,” said Applejack.
The Doctor leaned in close.  He was the first pony she saw when she opened her eyes.
“Oh…hi,” she said.
“Hello, you,” said the Doctor, smiling down at his companion.
“Um…who are you?”
Twilight felt her stomach clench.  Magical damage…no way to know how bad.
The Doctor’s smile fell.  “You…don’t know who I am?”
Astra shook her head.  “No.  Is that bad?  Am I doing something wrong?”
“No, Princess…no, you’re not…”
She giggled.  “You called me Princess!  Isn’t that funny?  I don’t know why it’s funny, though.  Um…what’s wrong, Mister?”
“Nothing…” the Doctor’s voice cracked.
“Your eyes are…leaking…”
The Doctor nuzzled the bandaged princess.  “I’m sorry.  I’m so sorry,” he said.
“It’s okay,” she said.  “I feel fine.”


* * *


“Can’t you do anything for her?” Twilight asked.  She looked out the window of the Royal Library, watched as Fluttershy played with Astra in the courtyard.
The Doctor shook his head.  “Even if I still had my magic…I wouldn’t know where to begin.”
It had been two days since their victory at the Stone Circle.  Astra showed no signs of improvement.  When her horn was destroyed, the magical trauma to her mind was severe.  She didn’t know who any of her friends were.  She didn’t even remember her own name.  Worse, no matter how many times they told it to her, her mind couldn’t seem to hang on to it..  Her mind was like a filly’s.
Her days of adventuring were over.
“What is going to happen to her?” asked Twilight.
“Well…I was thinking,” said the Doctor, “that she deserves a rest after all she’s done.  Somewhere peaceful and quiet, where she will make lots of friends…”
“Not much chance of that in this time.  There’s still Discord…and later Nightmare Moon…”
“No…not in this time…”
What was the Doctor trying to say?
“You mean…Ponyville?  Like, our Ponyville?”
“It’s the safest, kindest place I know,” said the Doctor.  “And…isn’t it kind of obvious by this point?”
“What?”
“Doesn’t she remind you of one of your friends?”
Realization dawned on Twilight.  “You can’t mean…not Ditzy Doo.”
“Not the most appropriate name for a hero princess, I admit.  But maybe for a sweet, joyful little pegasus living out her retirement…she could do worse.  I’ll just take her back to a few years before you arrived there.”
Twilight’s brain was hurting again.  She remembered scolding Ditzy for bringing a rain cloud into the library and soaking all the books in the science-fiction and fantasy section.  She couldn’t really have been talking to a royal princess that time…could she have?
“It seems I will be spending a lot more time in Ponyville in the future,” said the Doctor.
“Maybe the Princess is not the only one who gets to rest a bit.”


* * *


That night, Twilight and her friends prepared to leave Old Canterlot and return to their own time.  Twilight told the others about the Doctor’s plan for Princess Astra.  Fluttershy and Applejack were as shocked as she had been.  Princess Luna wept, but she knew that she and Celestia could not take care of their sister and keep her safe the way she deserved.  Astra didn’t belong here anymore.  This era belonged to the Princesses of the Sun and the Moon alone.
They gathered in Starswirl’s old office, what would one day become the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Royal Canterlot Archives.  That amazing blue box, the TARDIS, stood in almost the same place it had been when Twilight and her friends first encountered it in their own time.
Princess Luna had come to say goodbye.
Princess Celestia had not.
“Sorry,” said Luna.  “She wanted to…but I think she’s a bit shy when it comes to you, Miss Twilight.
Twilight felt a pang of bittersweet emotion.  “That’s okay.  I’m the same way, sometimes.  At least you and her are getting along well now, right?”
Luna beamed.  “Oh, yes!  And…she did give me this to give to you.”  Luna spelled a roll of parchment into the air in front of Twilight.
“What’s this?”
“It’s a letter she wrote to you.”
“A letter?”  Twilight couldn’t help giggling.
Princess Luna cocked her head to one side.  “What’s so funny?”
“Nothing, Princess.”
The Doctor, Applejack, and Fluttershy stood next to the giant Hourglass.  All its sand was still in the top, not falling at all.  Astra lay on top of it, hooves dangling over the edge.
Fluttershy was describing the thing she saw in Everfree Garden.  “It looked like…a shadow.  It escaped when Princess Stella was turned to stone.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just a trick of the light?” asked Applejack.
“No, it wasn’t a normal shadow at all.  It was…scarier.”
Applejack looked to the Doctor.  “What d’you make of that?”
“I’ve met my share scary shadows,” he said.  “And you and I both know that something else was influencing the Princess.”
“You mean that thing she was talkin’ ta when we followed her,” said Applejack.
“I don’t know what this thing is,” said the Doctor.  “But I can guess where it comes from.”
“The Outside.”  Fluttershy shivered.
“And whatever it is,” said Applejack grimly, “it’s in our time too, tryin’ ta break the Seal…tryin’ ta kill somepony.  That’s our real enemy.”
“It seems our victory in this era was not as complete as we should have hoped.  This…shadow…needs to be stopped in your time.  The six of you will have to face it and find a way to defeat it for good.”
Twilight walked over to them.  “That won’t be a problem.  When the six of us stand together, nothing can stop us!”
She seemed so…sure of herself.  Of all of them.  Their adventure in the past seemed to have made Twilight more certain than ever of their ability to win the day.  Applejack wished she could be as confident.  But part of her, the part that dreamed, that turned over grim prophecies in her mind, that heard a dark voice speak to her as the Doctor regenerated, that part of her could not shake the feeling that no matter what they did, something terrible was going to happen.
The circle will be broken.  All will be lost.
“Hope so, Twilight,” was the best she could say.
Princess Luna watched as the five of them walked into the light of the TARDIS.  She smiled a watery smile at Astra as she waved goodbye.  Then the blue doors closed.  There was a noise, a kind of whiney whirring.  And the box faded out of the office, leaving only an empty square where it once stood.
Luna was alone.
But not really, she thought, her smile blooming into something far more joyful.  She ran off to find her big sister and tell her everything.


* * *


In the TARDIS, flying through Time and Space, Twilight found a corner to herself and unrolled the scroll Luna had given to her.  A letter from the Princess.  It began with these words:
Dear Twilight, I didn’t know what friendship could be, until you shared its magic with me…
Her friends glanced over at her as she read.  There was an expression in her eyes they had only ever seen glimpses of before, usually when she was looking at the Princess.  Her eyes filled with the same light that had dawned in a young unicorn’s eyes one Summer Sun Celebration.  It was childlike awe.  It was love and worship mingled.  It was joyous wonder in witnessing the rising of the sun.


* * *


“You should have said goodbye,” said Luna.
Celestia shook her head.  “She knows how I feel.  You gave her my letter.”
“What about the rest of them?”
The Princess of the Sun had the grace to blush.
The sisters stood at the edge of the Barrier.  Without Stella, Astra, or Starswirl to renew it, its magic was almost spent.  The citizens of Canterlot were terrified.  An ocean of madness lapped against the weary spell, waiting to flood the city.  Above, the stars were fading as the night came to an end.  Princess Luna had already lowered the moon.  Soon Celestia would raise the sun.  But for a few precious in-between moments they stood together, not as princesses of the heavens, but as sisters.  As friends.
“Where did they go?” Celestia asked.
“I’m not sure,” said Luna.  “Somewhere in Time.  Mister Starswirl…I mean, the Doctor, said he can travel anywhere.”
“Do you…do you think we will ever see them again?”
“I think so.”
They stood in silence for a minute.
“The Barrier is going to fall,” said Luna.
Celestia grinned.  “I don’t think it’s going to matter after today.”
Her sister’s confidence was infectious.  “What about the Star Seal?  Stella always took care of the really big things.”
“I think I can handle it.  The sun is a star too, you know.  And I think I’ve found a way to make the Seal even stronger.  Instead of just the stars themselves, every pony with a cutie mark that has a star will be a part of the Seal, lights set to keep the darkness away for all time.”
“Wow.”
Celestia’s horn glowed a soft yellow.  She closed her eyes and flapped her wings, rising into the air.  The sun came up over the horizon.  Light fell on the kingdom of chaos.  Then she landed next to her sister and cast a shield over both of them.  The Elements of Harmony sparkled in their crowns.
It was dawn.
Across the Barrier, they felt the anguish of the miserable ponies who suffered under Discord’s reign.  Resolve filled their hearts.
Together, they stepped across the threshold of magic that preserved the city.  As they did so, it flickered, then melted.
On his dark throne, the lord of chaos felt the Barrier fall.  His horrible laughter echoed across the land, as chilling as the breath of a windigo.  It was the sound of darkness triumphant.  He came upon Canterlot like a storm.
He was expecting an army, a terrified remnant of royal guards.
The only thing that stood in his way were two filly princesses.
“Oh, my little ponies,” he laughed.  “This isn’t even going to be a contest.”
As it turned out, he was right about that.