“Who are we facing again?” Twilight asked.
Celestia answered, “Ms. Ravenshire.”
“Oh, that girl,” Twinkle commented. “Yeah, let’s go charge to her house and then stab her? Is that the plan? How will you guys even do what you are planning?”
Everypony looked at Twinkle. Twinkle glared back as Twilight decided to walk off towards Mt. Verley alone. While this happened, everything fell to chaos as they tried to formulate a better plan. Pinkie, frustrated, leaves the group and catches up with Twilight who decided to rest underneath an oak tree. Rarity, feeling useless, followed Pinkie. The three found themselves underneath the shades of a tree which reminded Twilight of books. The reminder gave Twilight determination to continue a ridiculous quest which started as a rather unusually easy adventure of destroying four spirits to a resistance which they never signed up in the first place. The thoughts alone of killing caused all of them shiver, nonetheless follow such a plan Meteor and Celestia had made. Now that the group has divided into two again, Twilight’s mood freshed up.
“So… girls,” she called. “What are we going to do?”
“I don’t know,” Rarity replied in frustration. “At first, we thought it was to be a wonderful experience, but it looks like we got caught in a storm.”
Pinkie smiled. “Glad you can say that, this place is different from Equestria after all,” Pinkie said, taking Rarity’s cloak. “May I?”
“Oh, sure.” Rarity looked at Twilight. “Whatever shall we do now?” Rarity watched Pinkie mess with the cloak. “And what in the blazes are you doing to such fashionable item!?”
“Nothing,” Pinkie replied as she finally wore the cloak. She emitted few small blue stars from the cloak. “Just feels good to have this cloak back. Ever since that eye… well, I think Twilight has something to say.”
“Let’s go home,” she stated.
Pinkie and Rarity gave looks. “How?” they both inquired.
“Easy.” Twilight extended her left hoof, causing the burn mark, which was a runic symbolizing Harmony, to glow in eight colors. “We use the runic marks.”
“But I don’t have a runic mark on my left hoof,” Rarity protested before feeling a burn. “Ow! Nevermind.” She glanced at her burn and saw a cross with a circle. “What does this mean?”
Pinkie grabbed Rarity’s hoof and investigated it. “It’s a runic for unicorn. Easy peasy,” Pinkie said, smiling. “It looks rather simple compared to the Agent, Magician, Namer, and Harmonist runes.” She extended her left hoof towards Twilight’s. “Come on, try it. It probably also means teleport too. Who knows?”
Rarity, hesitant, touched her two friend’s hooves, causing sparks to the three runes. The sparks, flew towards them before their vision turned black. The other ponies, who had just finished rebuilding the plan, caught up at the three and to their horror, saw three columns of smoke and a small pole pointed to the original points from where Rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie had sat.
Horseshoe Bay, Equestria
Three ponies woke from three tents, causing activity to spike up within the tents as well as waking up Shining Armor. As the captain of Equestria’s royal security, he felt a tingling sensation and found himself being teleported into another camp where a certain purple mare was in a mess of stuttering words.
“Co-cold...H-h-hi, Shining,” Twilight greeted. “D-di-did you guys pl-placed c-c-cooling spells!?”
Before Shining could answer back, two ponies entered her tent and much to Shining’s surprise, it was both Rarity and Pinkie Pie. “How are you… awake?” he muttered. He immediately noticed something within their left hooves. “Uh… what’s with your hooves?”
The two looked at their left hooves and shrugged.
“Huh.” Twilight stood up. “How long have we been out?”
“Uh… just a day, Twily,” Shining informed. “Why?”
“Nothing, Shining,” Rarity answered. “We were there in a whole month, and I think Twilight had left once. Right?” Rarity saw Twilight nod. “How many days since we headed to the ocean, darling?”
“Roughly a month and two weeks, why?” Shining asked.
The three looked at each other before answering as one. “Nothing, we wanted a break because things have been way beyond our control, darling/brother/Mr. Armor.”
“Like what?” Shining Armor demanded.
Twilight flashed a smile as she began to hum a tune followed by Pinkie whistling with it.
“Probably would even make sense if you were there, however.” Rarity looked at the two who were now singing and dancing in tandem. “What…?”
Shining Armor chuckled. “Let’s leave them be,” he told Rarity. “I have her book anyway, let’s see if we can finish it. You saw whatever that book has anyway.”
“It would be wise if I finished it,” Twilight interrupted. The pair looked at the dancing duo to find that they have finished dancing and signing. “There’s this thing about the book that turns it into a magic tome. Celestia and Luna had one, and if I’m right, Celestia must be worried as Tartarus. I wonder if Luna’s around.”
“What happened to respect, dear Twilight?” Luna asked, walking towards the group. “I also sense ancient magic in you and Pinkie Pie. What hath happened?”
Twilight’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks and fell to the ground after the question. Pinkie Pie went fast enough to get a grip of her to slow her down. She looked at Princess Luna before whispering something in an old language Luna understood, causing her to recoil in horror in the complication she had said. The captain of the Royal Guard asked what she said, his curiosity taking the best of him against his well-trained mind specifically trained not to ask anything unless it was too suspicious.
“She… Oh, dear Maker.” Luna looked around and went closer to Twilight. “I guess I went too far.” Looking at Shining Armor before to Twilight, Luna sighed. “Do you know what’s the most embarrassing moment I had because of what I subconsciously got when I came to the place?”
“What?” Shining wondered what it was.
Luna answered by licking her hoof and poking the hoof towards Twilight, who twitched in response. Shining’s eyes widened before everything went black on his view. Pinkie Pie chortled as she caught Shining and placed him gently on his tent with the help of the other Royal Guard members before heading back to Princess Luna. She then glanced into Luna’s left forehoof to find a familiar vine. Pinkie poked it, causing Luna to recoil in surprise. Before the lunar princess could ask why she did it, the party-loving pink fluffball raised her own left hoof, where a certain runic burn was bleeding. Luna looked at Pinkie before pointing at Rarity.
“I’m just here for a while, although I am rather disgusted about the licking,” Rarity protested.
Luna smiled. “I suppose I should tell you that I once licked my sister from her hooves to her horn,” she mentioned. “It was rather embarrassing, since somepony saw what I did. Heh. Should I?”
Rarity recoiled a little before nodding and looking away.
After the quite peculiar and embarrassing and unrecorded accident, Twilight woke up. She was drenched in saliva, something she didn’t expect because she saw Luna like a filly trying to calm herself. Twilight wondered if she licked her whole body, since she was wet. Probably her sweat too. Pinkie and Rarity immediately flushed her with buckets of saltwater, coincidentally around the same time where Twilight was thinking about a bath. It also caused Princess Luna to slightly calm down and stand up, albeit slightly shivering. Twilight noticed this and went to help the lunar princess.
“Are you alright, Princess?” Twilight asked.
Luna nodded. “You should call me Luna for the moment,” she instructed. “What a cold you caught, travelling within realms. Hahaha.”
“Uh… why?” Twilight looked at Luna. “Did I say something wrong, Pr— Luna?”
“Well, before you faint, you were a little disrespectful,” Luna trailed off. “But then, Celly did sometimes tell you to call her without the title, right?”
“Oh, right, although I couldn’t think of a reason why before,” Twilight commented, eliciting a giggle. “I guess she wanted to think of us as friends. Hmm. I get a feeling you licked me to remove something.”
“It’s nothing,” Luna lied.
Her friends’ expressions spoke different words and meanings, however.
“You didn’t lick me, did you, Luna?” Twilight deadpanned before her expression softened even more than usual. “Let’s just try to keep our tongues to ourselves next time, please.”
“Duly noted,” Luna answered before exiting the tent.
A few seconds later while ignoring Rarity’s glare that was usually reserved for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie that meant ‘are you serious;’ Twilight summoned her book which transformed again into a small notebook with a completely different title and pseudonym. Pinkie snatched the notebook and read the title and author name, before giving it back with a frown and a bloodied left forehoof. Excusing herself, she went to clean her hoof.
“Aren’t you supposed to clean the stain on your fur, too?” Rarity asked.
Twilight looked at herself. “Uh… I don’t know. We’re basically supposed to be back in DRD, although I guess a little time in the beach could clean me up. How about you?”
“Illusion spell, will only clean up in the proper places, my boutique one of them,” Rarity explained.
As the maroon rays of the sun touched the surface of both sea, land, and sky, Twilight Sparkle and her friends went off to visit Ponyville for a moment only to see a rather disturbing change and a distressed Stargazer.
“If you girls are here, that means the Dream Cycles are broken for good,” Mrs. Cake told them. “How?”
Before Twilight could answer, Pinkie spoke first. “It was already destined to be broken because of me being spiritually transported to the future and back, then followed by a rather secret meeting of somepony in the future.”
“Who is that, I suppose?” Rarity asked.
Pinkie looked at Rarity before gesturing a Pinkie Promise for Twilight. “The Last Stargazer, Twinkle Starlight of the house Sparkle, Ambassador of Equus, et cetera,” she answered. “I think she’s here listening to us right now.”
“How could you… tell…” Mrs. Cake’s eyes drifted off to a dark blue unicorn mare whose purple mane tied up like hers, and tail tied on its end. She had a cutie mark of a compass rose, and she looked suspicious. “That’s her.”
The present bearers looked at Mrs. Cake’s direction. Shocked, Pinkie hopped out of her chair and casually walked towards the mare before ‘accidentally’ spilling a glass of milk. The mare glared at Pinkie and froze before her expressions quickly softened into a smile.
“Oh, Pinks,” she called. “What’s up?”
Pinkie thought of an idea and invited her. “How about a private party between me, you, and my friends? Meetup at six on Twi’s library?” were her words.
The mare smiled. “Time to party.”
As they part ways, Twilight was flabbergasted about what she had said. “How did you do that?” she asked.
Pinkie scoffed. “Nothing your egghead brains would remember after we end this journey.”
“Pinkie being Pinkie times twenty,” Mrs. Cake whispered.
“I don’t know if I should react to that,” Rarity whispered back.
“So… obligatory party for what?” Pinkie wondered. “I have a feeling I missed a few birthdays, but since we have been on this thing, I guess I wouldn’t miss anything after this.”
Twilight raised her eyebrow. “Are you sure about that?”
“What?” Pinkie looked at Twilight. “What did I say?”
“My birthday was the day we set out to explore,” Twilight began. “So if these events were to be removed from our heads but not to those who look well, I’d say it’s still my birthday. Happy 23rd to me.”
“Well, looks like the private party will have two guests of honor then,” Mrs. Cake declared. “Better whip up a birthday cake for you then.” as the Baker Stargazer went off, she remembered something. “There was this gray pegasus, Blaze I think. She said to give you this, anyway.”
Twilight’s eyes shrunk to pinpricks as Mrs. Cake gave her a package which she recognized as a box. A very dangerous box. A box covered by her rune in a hexagonal pattern. A rune-covered box with a
“Where could I meet this mare?” she immediately asked.
Mrs. Cake seemed to be taken back by the sudden shift in behavior. “Uh… library, I think.”
She immediately galloped out, leaving three confused mares. Rarity, who seemed bored, decided to experiment with her newfound magic on the house by sending a letter to her sister. Pinkie merely smiled as she knew that the magic they found back on Destroia, which will be named “Equalitrin,” had such ability to send letters by mind. What they didn’t know was that Equalitrin had a side effect, which caused Rarity to jump as her left forehoof grew a small white rose. She plucked the rose and immediately ate it, causing her own left hoof to have a vine encircling her mark.
“How did you do that?” Mrs. Cake asked. “That looks like it could hurt.”
The vine promptly turned into an emerald bracelet, causing Pinkie to sport a grin smaller than her usual smiles. “how can a bunch of shapeshifting vines hurt me when they’re made to help me?” The bracelet grew a vine and booped both Rarity and Mrs. Cake’s noses before retracting to the bracelet. “Besides, I think I see Sweetie Belle and… Oh, sweet goddess no. Not you.”
Sassy Saddles glowered at Pinkie as she and Sweetie Belle walked to the group.
“Hello, Agent,” Sassy hissed. “How’s your expedition going?”
Pinkie blinked. “I don’t remember you being this sassy. Nor cranky. Nor being Rarity’s temporary replacement while we’re gone.” She paused. “Wait, how do you remember me when you’re supposed to be Canterlot Boutique’s future CEO when Rarity decides to buy that former lot?”
“I have no idea,” Sassy declared. “Weird. Was I supposed to remember such?”
“Nice magic!” Sweetie interrupted. “How did you do that? Sending a letter like the way Spike sends letters?”
“Spoilers.”
Luna blinked. Then sneezed. Then blinked again to see a police box in front of her. Then sneezed again to find that the police box had vanished. She looked around before settling into a rather odd conclusion.
“What?”
“Oh come on! That doesn’t make any sense!” Sweetie exclaimed as Rarity and Pinkie Pie tried to explained what had happened. “Lightsabers? Starswirl the Bearded being an evil alien? Time travel? runic markings on your left forehooves? What does runic markings even mean!?”
“They’re runes, more or less a better or worser version darling,” Rarity explained. She felt a slight pang in her head, probably due to the new information. “I wish we could remember this adventure. Unfortunately, all the days after we went off will be just memories removed, a story only those who spent their time will notice…”
As they all looked at Rarity, Twilight came back with a couple in tow. Pinkie was about to ask why she brought the couple until she recognized the box and decided to shut up for the moment. Twilight nudged the two to introduce themselves.
“My name’s Infernal Blaze, and this is my coltfriend, Emerald Slicer,” the gray pegasus who mane and tail resemble fire and cutie mark a burning tree introduced.
The sky blue unicorn stallion who wore a stetson and a watch smiled and introduced himself. “You already know my name, but I repeat, my name is Emerald Slicer, and this is my marefriend. We knew the rune of Harmony would somehow react on somepony, but we didn’t think it would be Twilight who would come and get us. Another thing, I have Enochlophobia. Can’t stand crowds without freezing in place.”
“Blazy and Slicy,” Pinkie called. “I know you two. You guys were certainly noisy some nights.”
Both of them had their cheeks reddened by the discovery, but they decided to stay silent for the moment.
“Give this old Pinkie a hug!” Pinkie offered, causing Emerald to jump to Blaze. Blaze chuckled and the three share a hug afterwards. She smiled as the two adjusted themselves to the seats. “Now, let’s see… You knew the rune of Harmony. Which means you’re a runic reader. What’s in the box?”
“I wonder about it too,” Blaze added. “What was in that box?”
Emerald answered by taking the box from Twilight, who had already knew what was in the box since it was slightly obvious, faced Blaze and winked. Before he could’ve opened the box, Twilight separated the two using her magic.
“Okay, please not yet, we do need a little bit of help here,” Twilight complained. “Look, I know you lovebirds are that close, but there is consequences for leaving Destroia early.”
“Such as?” Emerald wondered.
Twilight pointed to the sky which had a small crack. They all saw the crack, but the others, who were Sweetie Belle and Infernal Blaze, didn’t. Emerald let out an “oh,” because he had been in Destroia once, but in another life. He swore never to return, but if he thought they were about to do what he was thinking…
“Can she come too?” Emerald asked. ”I don’t want my little fireball missing out the fun.” Blaze slightly blushed at the comment.
“That depends,” Twilight answered with a stern expression. “On if she doesn’t get the rune of Firea.”
She looked at Emerald with slight confusion. “I want to come.”
“Oh, then I must be off!” Mrs. Cake walked back to the kitchen. “This mare still needs to do her part.”
A few seconds later, Sweetie Belle also left. They apparently have decided to move to the library.
“But…” Emerald muttered. “We just came from there…”
“How do we bring ourselves back to that place?” Rarity asked.
It has been an hour, twenty-three minutes, and fifty seconds since they tried to research how to mass-teleport themselves to DRD. They find themselves on a dead end, even after they had all of the technology they could have and the research they had, including the books of Universes of the Dream Realm. They couldn’t find a single thing about returning with somepony who haven’t been in the realm… until Infernal Blaze stumbled into a stone pad which was steaming hot. She yelped as her hoof received a rather nasty burn.
“What did you do?” Twilight asked as she ran to Blaze who was constantly blowing her hoof.
“I don’t know, I just touched this stone pad,” Blaze explained as she pointed to the stone pad. “Then, I felt like I was touching the sun!”
“Really?” Twilight landed her left hoof on the pad. “I feel nothing.” She looked at the stone pad which now glowed violet. “It looks like an isomorphic pad. Hmm…”
“Iso-what?” Emerald Slicer asked. “Single-pony stone pads? Is that what you mean?” He looked at the stone pad closer. “It is! I’ve seen this thing before, at our house, on my room!”
Emerald ran off, leaving a rather surprised Blaze with the three. Pinkie, who blinked as she processed the information, and ran away towards the direction of Sugarcube Corner. Twilight looked at Rarity who was looking at Blaze with an eerie intent.
“Rarity, maybe you should check the boutique for any suspicious-looking stone pads,” Twilight instructed her.
“Mhm.” Rarity looked towards the door. “And I also just realized I haven’t finished doing her dress and Emerald’s suit. Huh.”
“You’re… unusually calm,” Blaze noticed.
Rarity raised her left hoof in response.
“Right…” Blaze commented. “How does it work?”
“I guess it’s psychic,” Rarity answered before trotting off.
Twilight and Blaze blinked, still looking at Rarity who went towards her boutique, leaving the pair staring at an open door. This caused the two to awkwardly look into each other before looking back at the door.
“I’m Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight introduced herself. “Princess Celestia’s student, et cetera.”
“Nice to meet you, I’m Infernal Blaze,” Blaze told in return. “Is this what you usually do?”
“Not really. I was sent here to study the magic of friendship,” Twilight answered. “What about you?”
“Just your normal pegasus from Cloudsdale moving to Ponyville, taking a job at the weather,” Infernal Blaze explained. “Then met him in the library.”
“I know,” Twilight said. “I was there when you two first met, and I was also there when we were at Sugarcube Corner for a snack.”
“Right.” Blaze looked at Twilight. “What’s with the latest events, however?”
Twilight looked back and booped Blaze in response, wanting her to learn all by herself. Before anything could happen else, there was a huge flash of light which temporarily blinded the whole town.
Oak Tree, Mt. Verley Path, Dream Realm Destroia
Five ponies appeared where there was supposed to be only three, surprising the solar princess for she recognized the two ponies that came with the Magic, Generosity, and Laughter bearers. On the five, Infernal Blaze and Emerald Slicer were happy to be together again and kissed, causing the others who were looking to stare away. Twilight and Pinkie merely laughed at the reaction before they stepped toward the road and touched it. The began to glow in four colors and eerily shifted into four-colored stone/cement/dirt/carpet road. Somehow, a certain stallion was giggling.
“Road of Verley!” Emerald pointed out. “I remember where we are!” He looked at the oak tree. “My tree!” He hugged the tree before climbing up. “Sweet apples! It’s still here!”
A two bags fell to the ground. Emerald soon followed after, with Blaze helping him land. After touching the ground, he both opened the bags and began to gear up. He wore a stetson, a chestplate which seemed to have seen battle, boots which had small wings placed on it (Blaze immediately recognized why it was colored like her wings, apparently out of love), and a heart locket. Infernal Blaze recognized the heart locket and opened it, only to cry toward him in return.
“Love life. Here,” Twinkle deadpanned. “Wow. Just what we need to overtake Ravenface out.”
“Ravenshire?” Emerald asked. “That woman?”
Celestia nodded. “Do you know her?”
Emerald looked around. “That girl has problems,” he began. “It looks like she remade the world in her likeness… too much gloomy here.” He tapped his hoof on the floor twice and everything looked a bit lively. “There.”
“Emerald, when did you learn all of this?” Blaze asked.
Emerald looked at Blaze and sighed. “Remember that time when I… uh… ran away just because you were a little… cranky?” She nodded. “I actually had died when Twilight slid that healing bracelet to me. My death, led me here. Somehow. Or did I actually die? If I came here after that… episode…” Emerald sat down for a few seconds before looking at Mt. Verley. “Hold on. What happened to the Mountain of Harmony?”
“That’s the Dream Realm name of Mt. Verley?” Twinkle wondered. “You sound like you came before Ms. Ravenshire.”
“Autumn Gauntress Ravenshire,” Blaze recited from memory. “You told me stories, Emerald. Stories about an island! This is THAT island!? Oh my gosh! Wait. You also told me about another pony… The Old Master.”
The world seemed to flinch and stutter from the harmonic presence to the presence before he appeared. Emerald tried to stay calm.
“I am The Harmony’s Guide and stop this madness at once, you old island!” Emerald shouted. His voice changed as the island seemingly returned to the semi-gloomy state. “Hmm. Cycles. That bad.”
Emerald promptly stepped away from where he was, clutching his head in horror. Twilight looked at him before staring at his runic burn. She now saw something others, except for Pinkie who had enough evidence that she knew the future, didn’t see. The world doesn’t rest upon harmony as she had initially thought. It rested on balance. The balance of chaos and order. And she realized that to break the cycle that had been plaguing this world… The cycle of repeating torment. She closed her eyes and tapped into the balance.
Everypony, including Emerald and Infernal, stared Twilight who undergone a transformation. From her normal unicorn body, her mane and tail became longer in length and she grew taller. She sported wings, which she extended. Around her, black and white specks of energy swirled around and entered her slowly. Once everything had calmed down, Princess Celestia could only recognize what had happened.
And the Mare of Magic opened her eyes and cracked the world.