//------------------------------//
// Chapter 27 
// Story: Crown of Winter 
// by CartoonNerd12 
//------------------------------//

Shining Armor couldn't believe what he was hearing, but these ponies knew him and Cadence. Not only that, but the kids also had cousins who were his and Cadence's daughters!

Shining was utterly speechless as Fire and Starling told him the whole story of him making a vow of everlasting love to break Cadence's curse as a Breezie.

Star said, "But since you never had a chance to do that… Without our parents finding Aunt Cadence as a Breezie, they never could have brought you together again…"

"Twilight was right… You are from another timeline… No one ever knew about my relationship to Cadence other than Twilight, but she Pinkie-Promised to never tell…" He bowed before them, "I am at your humble service… What can I do to help you find those shards?"

Fire answered, "Well, we don't really know how it works. The shards that came before us were when some of us were feeling remorseful about our parents."

Star pointed, "But the shard Snow Pea and LB found was when they managed to free Aunt Sunset when they reformed Starlight and that made Sunset forgive her."

LB pointed, "It's almost as if… by fixing the mirror, we're mending the bond of our family."

Star's eyes then gleamed, "That's it! That is it!"

Whirl questioned, "What's it?"

"Mending the bond! We're mending bonds of our family! Snow and LB mended a bond between Sunset and Starlight! I mended a bond with Mom! Gem mended with her dad! Screwy, too! All because we were sorry for how we acted to them in the first place! It all makes sense!"

The cousins started cheering around.

Gem said to Shining Armor, "I bet if we get you back together with Cadence, then maybe we'll have another shard!"

Shining's eyes were hopeful, "You really think so?!"

"You bet!" Whirl declared.

They cheered until Screwy rushed in with Moth Ball. She panted, "We… got a problem!"

They exchanged worried glances.




Celestia frowned at Moth Ball's report.

"I was so sure I had stopped her from her evil plans, but I made things worst for everypony… for my daughters… for me… I never should have tried to stop her by forcing misery onto my daughters… Can you ever forgive me, my darlings?"

The five daughters who were married gave sad smiles, went toward her, and went to a huge hug.

"Hey! Save some of that for me!" a voice declared.

The sisters and their mother gasped. They recognized that voice. They turned and sure enough, there she was… Rainbow Dash.

"Dashie! OH MY GOSH, IT IS YOU!" Pinkie - with her hair completely poofed up - zoomed to her sister and gave her a life-squeezing hug.

"It's… great… seeing you… too… Pinkie… I missed you…"

"Pinkie!" Rarity scolded, "Let go of her at once before she's gone again, only she won't be able to come back!"

"Oh, sorry!" she dropped her sister.

"Dash!" AJ wrapped her hooves around her.

"Hey, AJ, long time no see." She spit in her hoof and the latter did the same as they hoof-bumped.

"Rainbow!"

"Twilight!" the two hugged.

"No name-calling?"

"For now, I'm just glad to see you again."

Rarity exclaimed, "Rainbow Dash! You're an absolute mess!"

"Glad to see you haven't changed, Rare. Don't worry, you don't need to hug. I know I haven't had a bath in a while. Wouldn't want to get your own coat messy."

"Oh… come here!" she had tears going down her cheek as they embraced.

Fluttershy was the last sister to hug her. "Oh, Rainbow Dash, I'm so happy you're safe… I was so worried."

"I'm sure you were… but I never wanted to leave any of you…"

"We know… we know…" she hugged her again.

Celestia approached her, "My darling, you don't know how happy this makes me… and I am so sorry… I never wanted…"

"I know, I heard. At first, I didn't want to come back for fear you would just force me to get married to the Duke as planned."

Twilight asked, "What made you change your mind?"

"We did." said Apple Jewel as she, Cotton, and Dignity made their entrance."

The moment Screw Ball had waken up from using her super sight, she felt refreshed enough to send messages to her cousins outside Canterlot. When Apple Jewel read the letter, she managed to convince to Rainbow Dash to accompany them to Canterlot by reassuring her that their cousins told her it was all right and that her sisters would be there.

Applejack, Pinkie, and Rarity gasped.

Pinkie went up to Cotton, "You are my daughter!"

"Mom! You know?"

"Of course! How can I not know my own daughter from an alternate timeline! Sheesh!"

"It's true! You taught me everything! Even the 'Smile' song!"

"Give Mama a big hug!"

The two ponies hugged each other tightly.

Rarity and Dignity slowly approached each other.

"Good gracious…" she uttered.

"Hello to you too, Mother," he smiled, though tears were threatening to escape him, and made a bow.

"Such a well-mannered colt! You must be my son!"

"He certainly is." Gemstone nudged him.

He got his sister in a hug, "Good to see you, too, little sis."

Rarity beamed at the sight.

Applejack and Apple Jewel stood there facing each other. AJ was bewildered by the sight. The mare looked so much like her!

"Are you really my kin?"

"I am…" Jewel gave a small smile as a tear spilled.

AJ held her arms out, "Come here."

Jewel did so happily.

"All this time… I had a daughter…"

"Once I give my cousins my shard, we should be able to fix the mirror faster."

"You said it. The sooner, the better. Because I think we can all agree we want to get out of this crazy timeline."

"No duh!" Rainbow declared when suddenly, she spotted a colt and slowly went toward him.

Whirl Wind smiled, "Hey, Mom."

"You… you're my son?"

He winced, "Do… do I disappoint you?"

"No… you're awesome!" She bawled and wrapped her hooves around him. "All this time… I didn't have to run… I could have stayed with my family and have a cool son!"

"And have a Wonderbolt for a husband…" Whirl mentioned.

"No way! Really?!"

"Soarin'."

"Soarin'…? Soarin'… Wait… I think I remember him. He was the water boy for the Wonderbolts. I remember 'cause Dad and I went to the derby when I was little."

Star gestured, "But wait…Destroying the tornado was supposed to prevent all of the husbands from meeting their future wives!"

"So… why didn't you fall in love with Dad if you actually knew him?" Whirl asked.

"I saw him, sure, when I was younger, but without Dad, I couldn't go to the derby. I had to stop going until I was older, but I never saw Soarin' there. I guess he left and so I never got to fall in love with him."

"So… the tornado did something to make him stay…" Whirl reasoned.

"But what?" Fire said.

The cousins could only shrug, feeling at a loss.

After a while, the sisters rekindled. Rainbow met Sunset and the two managed to hit it off. Once she learned Scootaloo was supposed to be her adopted sister along with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom, she was thrilled. Finally, she patched things up with her mother by proclaiming her loyalty to her once again. Afterwards, their mother showed her daughters the letter their father wrote, which caused many tears to shed.

Suddenly, with all of them except Twilight and Sunset, shards appeared before them. Even a shard appeared in Sombra's note! The cousins rejoiced as they took the shards and placed them together. Then, the shards started fitting and events played before them.

The weather machine going out of whack…The tornado being created and growing out of control…Spike's egg flying away…Celestia and Luna getting the tornado under control and making it into strong winds…Discord's shed falling…Fancy's torn page landing on his face…the winds dying down…

There were still plenty of pieces left. Gaps in the story that had yet to unfold before their very eyes.

"We are so close…" Dignity commented.

"We still need a few more pieces," said Star.

"And there isn't much time…" Moth Ball sighed.

"You did the right thing coming to us." Twilight put her hoof on his shoulder. That touch alone made him feel warm.

"The queen believes you're spying for her," said Rainbow. "So we'll give her what she wants to hear…"

"Huh?!" they all said.

Rainbow got them in a huddle as she explained the plan.




Apple Butter and the twins were excited upon receiving their first shard, which they got the moment Pip accepted their story and realized he was missing something in his life. They also got a message from Screw Ball telling them to come to the Canterlot castle. They said their goodbyes to Pip and went to Canterlot.

Moth Ball was currently out when the trio reunited with their mothers and gave their cousins their shard. When the cousins went into another room, they fit piece in what they had of the mirror. An image of a rocky mountain range then played before their eyes and strong winds were blowing on a ginormous dragon.

Apple Butter said, "Wait, that's not my dad."

Apple Jewel gasped, "That's Dragon Lord Torch!"

Dignity asked, "But why on earth would the tornado affect him?"

Torch said in the shard, "Curse this wind! It'll make flying far too difficult for smaller dragons. Luckily, I am the biggest and strongest dragon on the face of the planet! I can take any obstacle thrown at me, be it high wind, boiling lava, sea serpents…"

Before he could continue, a giant boulder began to loosen because of the strong wind.

When it started rolling downhill, Torch looked up and gulped, "But probably not giant boulders."

The image then flashed to Ember, who was struggling to fly in the difficult weather. Just then, she heard a rumbling yell. She asked in concern, "Dad? Dad!"

She momentarily spun in the wind before regaining her flight. She gasped when she saw her wounded father. His left wing was stuck underneath the boulder and Torch was trying to pull it free.

Ember cried when she found a secure place to land, "Dad, don't pull it! You'll only make it worse!"

Torch argued, "But no dragon should see their leader like this! I'm the biggest and strongest dragon there is!"

Ember said, "Even leaders need help sometimes, Dad. You don't want to be the Dragon Lord with the crippled wing, do you?"

Torch said sheepishly, "No, not really."

"We're going to have to wait until the winds die down before we get other dragons to help lift the boulder."

Torch grumbled, "Oh, very well."

The image flashed to Ember writing a letter. She said as she put down every word on paper, "Hey, Mina. I just wrote to tell you that Dad was in an accident. A boulder crushed his left wing, so he needs to recuperate for a while. Dad's not too happy with being less than 100%, but I learned something from all this. The incident has taught me that there are some people who need you, even when they don't exactly say it themselves. If I had fought with him about your banishment, he would've banished me, too, leaving him all alone and worse off than now. 

"If I'm going to be a good leader someday, I need to look out for beings like Dad along with those who ask for help. I hope you can understand this, Mina. I want to see you again, but the welfare of those here in the Dragon Lands comes first. I hope you do the same for everyone in Fillydelphia, both in and out of Dragon Town. Sincerely, Ember."

As soon as the image faded, Whirl Wind said in confusion, "Oh-kay, so what was that all about?"

At that moment, everything made sense for Apple Jewel. She explained, "When Dignity, Cotton, and I visited both groups of dragons in the Dragon Lands and Dragon Town, they were in a middle of a feud. Ember's leading the rebellion in Dragon Town because she was banished there. If I'm right, the boulder stopped her from arguing with her dad and made her realize that she was needed as a wise leader."

Rock Salt said, "So I guess the tornado/strong winds kept her from making a huge mistake."

Snow Pea hung her head, "But it didn't keep me from making one of my own."

Starling comforted her, "It wasn't your fault."

The white unicorn shot off, "Yes, it was! I destroyed the mirror in the first place!"

Fire Spark said, "But you had no idea that it was a blessing in disguise!"

Snowy scoffed, "Well, look at me. I'm certainly no blessing in disguise." She then left the room.

Moth Ball soon entered and asked, "What's with Snow Pea?"

LB sighed, "She blames herself for altering the timeline again, though we've repeatedly told her it was an accident."

Rock Salt added, "And the prophecy doesn't seem to help lift her mood, either."

Gemstone asked, "So what did you tell your mother?"

Moth Ball answered, "I told her everything you wanted me to tell her. Queen Celestia's daughters have returned and reconciled with each other. As a result, ponies in Canterlot are feeling happy again."

Screwy asked, "Then what did she say?"

"She said, 'Well done, son' and ordered me to keep spying."

"No 'Good boy'? Or 'Atta boy'? Or 'Great work, my darling son'?"

"Nope. Mother was never one for sentimental stuff."

Cotton commented, "No belly rubs, either? Well, that's just cruel!"

Screwy scolded at her, "Cotton, he's not a dog!" She then said to Mothy, "Well, I'm one for sentimental stuff. You're risking so much to help us…I can't thank you enough for keeping her at bay until we find more shards. But all the same, please be careful or how else are we supposed to go out tonight if you get caught playing double agent?"

Moth Ball was absolutely stunned to hear that. "Wait. You want to go out tonight? As in tonight, tonight?"

"Of course, tonight, tonight! Cause count them, Mothy, there are not that many shards left! With your mother's pending attack my cousins will want to fix the mirror as soon as possible! We need to spend as much time as we can!"

Knowing she was right, he said, "Okay… so, pick you up at eight?"

She smiled.