Sacrifice is Victory

by iMan203

Some Things Cannot Be

Waking up in the morning to a mellow glowing sun and a glorious Canterlot breakfast was nice. Packing was light and easy. The train ride in a royal train car, and not a rigged decoy, was relaxing. Everything went fast with the excitement buzzing in the air. I could feel the angst of everypony around me and it made my surroundings fly by and brighten up. I've become very sensitive to emotion and energy ever since this new form of mine took shape. I've begun to enjoy it, though. I've always wondered what being reptilian would be like just as much as anyone else would ever. The wings are a nice feeling along my back and the tail is oddly.... Satisfying. Having elbows again was hard to get used to. I've been walking on all four as a pony so long that it's been hard going back to my roots. Many others have picked up on my draconian look and I can feel it in their emotions. It's a feeling of nervousness and discomfort, meaning I should probably revert to a more conspicuous form sooner or later.

One other option would be to float around invisibly so I wouldn't cause worry to anypony around me. Turning invisible was something that discord taught me easily, even though he did not possess the power to do so himself. I knew I could perform magic like that, it was only a matter of how creative I could become. My magical energy is getting used to myself, as the energy around me also adjusts to such a power in the mortal world. I've become so comfortable with this energy all I have to do is put it to use and it should obey without trouble.

"Your eyes really light up when you mediate like so..." Discord said to me, snapping myself out of my thoughts.

"It's something I haven't really noticed yet, I'm usually too focused on something else." I said humorously.

"It was such a joy to be able to come along on the trip with all of these intriguing subjects, Princess!" Discord said enthusiastically.

"I would believe so, but you still have to return to the castle when the ride is over." Cadence said flatly.

"I better get going! I see the crystals from here already." Discord said, disappearing into thin air.

"Can everypony teleport? Am I missing out on something?!" Tiki broke out.

"At least ya got wings!" Bronze retaliated.

"Lets not go stir crazy before we reach the castle." Silver spoke out softly.

"Don't worry about it, I was just breaking a joke in this cold cabin." Tiki spoke down into a mumble.

"Ah could care less for any of the magic or them wings of yours, as long as ah've got mah two hind legs. These big guns beat flyin' any day!" Bronze said, tapping his hooves on the ground from his seat.

The train came to a gradual stop and the cabin door soon broke open. Snow flew through the air in large crystalized clumps as it piled up everywhere you looked. The old wooden train station was barren and worn down from the constant blow of the wind and ice. There was a strange warming feeling coming from the look of the station, but couldn't be felt physically. Nopony was here to greet us, not even for Cadence herself. I turned my head slightly to see that she was no longer in the cabin with us. I only assumed she went back to Canterlot like Discord had done so too. None of us spoke much in the wind and the ice due to the snow blocking out all of the sound in the air.

With a short walk through a frozen hell, we soon reached the edge of the crystal city. It was a truly glorious sight to view with our own eyes. The grass was such a green that even I have never witnessed in my life. Thin, drifting clouds passed by the castle as the crystal birds sang in the air. It was a place only to be bested by the perfection of the afterworld itself. We all started walking as our heads turned around our shoulders in all directions to soak in some of the most glorious sights to see in Equestria, ironically located in one of the most unforgiving climates. As we walked down the main path to the crystal castle. We walked past many residential homes and crystal ponies who were warmly welcoming us to their city. Everyone but myself was warmly greeted. Even though my image was a bit unsettling to most ponies, I haven't received such reactions yet. They weren't expressions of disgust or fear, more of surprise and amazement. It makes me wonder if the dragon lords had done anything in the past to affect the ponies that live here. I only knew so much and could only learn more in the future.

We approached the entrance of the castle and were granted immediate access. The two crystalized guards in the middle had ludicrously large axes at their sides. As ridiculous as it looked, it was still just as threatening. As we went up the stairs and into the castle's main room our reflections whipped around the entire room and caused us to jump at the entire room coming to life. I saw my appearance in one of the crystals and enjoyed the sight more than I last did. I noticed how my neck arcs slightly when I walk on all fours, and how long my tail really was. I spread my wings and examined them closer in the reflection. I had no idea how thin and delicate they really seemed until now, but I felt and knew how powerful they really are. The fuzzy hairstyle running across my head and down my back was remaining flat and pressed to my body all the way to my tail, where it fluffs out to resemble the swirled mess along my neck. As I keep looking I try to think of anything that more closely resembles a cloud, but nothing comes to mind.

Another large door is opened for us to pass through as I took my eyes from the reflection of myself. Through it was a long narrow hallway leading to the main room where the princesses and mane 6 would most likely be located. As we walked through the doors and down the hall the room approached us and gradually exposed more from the opening. We saw the princesses and mane 6 as expected but there was more to it. Something had happened over the last two years.

"Welcome, my loyal warriors!" Princess Celestia addressed the three stallions, but only bowed her head to me.

"It feels good to be back." I said awkwardly as I looked around at everypony in the room bowing to me.

"You're going to have to get used to being higher than royalty!" Luna chuckled at my expression.

"Please, allow us to introduce you all to some new faces you may not know!" Twilight said with a grin as a familiar stallion wrapped his hoof around her winged back.

"Please do." I said, slightly agitated by the actions of this stallion next to Twilight.

"Well, the first person I should introduce would be..." Twilight quickly glanced at the stallion for approval.

"Flash Sentry." I said, finally recognizing the cutie mark on Flash's orange flank.

"Oh boy! Ironclad is going to be a psychic again! Guess my name next!" Pinkie shouted out, breaking the slight tension in the air.

"Well I guess you know everypony in this room if you could guess Flash's name." Twilight said, trying to avoid eye contact with me.

"I do, but I don't think I know enough to understand what's going on here..." I glared at Twilight, nervously avoiding eye contact with me.

"Lord B... Ironclad, please understand. I was only waiting for the best time to tell you." Twilight said as tears rolled down her cheeks.

"Well I understand now, the two years interfered with your plans. Am I right?" I asked.

"You are right, and you must accept my apology! I never wanted to hurt you like this..." Twilight started into a whimper.

"If anything, you should accept my own apology. I only had slight clue to this and never wanted to put a burden on your heart or your life." I said sympathetically, raising Twilight's head with magic and drying her tears with only a warm-hearted gaze.

"I wish things could still be the same, but time passed and things happened." Twilight tried to explain.

"Nothing could ever be the same. Time passes and things change, sometimes little and sometimes big. It's like looking up at the sky every day and seeing all of the clouds float through the sky, big and small. You'll never see a cloud exactly the same." I said, mesmerizing Twilight in the idea.

"I'm not sure how, but you just explained everything in half a minute when you think about it long enough..." Tiki said, scratching his head with his sword at the analogy I had said.

"I guess so, depending on how you think of it, but we should move onto something else." I said with a deep sigh.

With the release of one large warm breath, all the tension with it. The mane 6 moved from the sidelines to embrace the group that they've all come to love. It's been 2 years since our last group hug and it felt good, physically and emotionally, to wrap my arms, and now tail, around the group of mares that accepted me in this world so long ago. I was so happy here, and it only got better when some of my closest friends joined me in my adventures... Only some.

"I have a glorious idea." I mumbled in the group.

"Please! Share your thoughts with us." Rarity answered back.

"I'm going to go back and retrieve more of our friends. The ones that didn't make it into this world all of those years ago." I said enthusiastically.

"You certainly wield the power to do so, it's now only a matter of mindset." Celestia said encouragingly.

"I'll let everypony get settled in. For now we can relax." I said with a motioning to the other three, letting them go find their rooms with the mane 6 as their guide.

"Before you leave... I still need to talk to you..." Twilight spoke up at the last moment.

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Twilight took me to a more separate room, a room where there wouldn't be any other disturbances. Of course, Flash Sentry wasn't very far down the hallway, outside the doors of this secluded library room of the castle. There were only a few windows and most of the light that came through the door was reflected throughout the room by the crystal walls and decorations. I was alone with Twilight once more, just like other times from long ago, except this times was much different from all of the past events, and I feared it was our last time alone together...

"I just have things to get off of my conscience..." Twilight said to me, gazing into my eyes.

"I understand, and I'm only here to listen." I said apologetically.

"I... I don't even know where to start, I don't even know what to say! It's all feeling and I cannot express it in words." Twilight spoke sorrowfully as a single tear ran down her cheek.

"I only know of one single expression to express all of this, but it will mean not much else incase Flash or yourself takes this the wrong way." I gave a slight smile before kissing Twilight deeply, one last time, exploring her emotions through magic, and giving her my own at the same time.

"That helped, I feel much better now, but we speak nothing of this." Twilight said regretfully as she pulled away.

"My lips are sealed, you've sealed them for me." I said with a cheeky smile.

"I can return to my royal duties now that that's off my chest! This took much shorter than I thought it would." Twilight said happily.

"Who ever said we had to leave now if nopony is expecting you for a while?" I asked playfully.

This was a good chance to catch up. Nopony really was expecting Twilight for hours now and we had the room all to ourselves, save any interruption from Flash Sentry if he decided to peek in every once in a while. There was a certain spot from the hallway that the reflection of the library room could be viewed from the hallway. Only I noticed this at first and knew that Flash later found out about this as he peeked in the second time and I gave him a knowing stare. The glare would never be enough and I just decided to let him peek as he pleases. He only worries about Twilight and that is something I could understand.

We talked for a very good while about the lot of things that happened over the two years. Twilight did most of the talking because I really didn't have much to say, I was only gone for 3 days as it felt up until this point. She explained all of the various events that took place in throughout the 3rd season of the show back in our old world. She told me about when she got her new wings and the feelings that ran though her when she had them. I recognized most of these feelings when I first had my wings, although they were only relapses. I didn't have the full feeling of initially having wings on my back because I was much too focused on killing the dark presence overtaking Equestria. Finally, Twilight got onto the story of Twilight's crown being stolen. I remember the Equestria Girls movie from a few months before entering Equestria. I don't remember all of the details but I do know that it was a human setting and it would be easier to return to human form shortly rather that me putting all of my energy into a portal going back to the original human world. I told Twilight about the world she went into to retrieve her crown and how it was actually my own home world, except it was only a parallel dimension and that everything was based off of Equestria.

The thought came to me about going through the portal myself, instead of waiting for the moon to become full once again or however the ritual was. I could just use my own magic to cause the portal to open so I could go through with the other 3 of my group and be human once again, at least for a short while. The thought also occurred to me, now that my mind thinks things over to such an extent... Sunset Shimmer threatened to smash the portal with a hammer, but would the hammer not have gone through the portal like everything else did? I'm pretty sure many other humans came to that conclusion. I soon explained this to Twilight and she face hoofed hard. It would've made everything easier if she had known that the portal wouldn't have been smashed if the hammer would fly through the portal. I also started chuckling uncontrollably to the thought of Rainbow Dash being struck with a hammer whilst she was pacing in front of the portal. The look on everypony's face would've been priceless.

All throughout our talking I could still sense something from Twilight, something she was hiding from me. There was even something in that kiss that I missed. There was a larger reason to this to why I could no longer be with Twilight any more. Something that I could help to solve.

"I can feel it in you, there's something missing from this story." I said anxiously.

"Well we've been talking for such a long time I don't know... Oh my Celestia, I've forgotten to inform you about it..." Twilight said, looking down in defeat.

"Out with it, I can feel the problem as if it were crawling up my back but I cannot name it!" I started pacing through the room, which only made Twilight more nervous.

"There's a code of law that you may know of from the other dragon lords." Twilight started.

"Well I haven't exactly read over it but I think I can... Feel the knowledge in my head." I squinted, trying to focus some magic on the subject, searching my mind for memories I never truly acquired.

"Well, one night, while you were gone for such a time, I received a letter..." Twilight mumbled.

"I can feel it, I know the laws that the creators came forth and wrote down. There aren't any paper markings of it because it's all marked into my mind and carving its way through my behavioral patterns gradually over time. Please explain this letter to me." I said.

"I don't know who or what sent it or where it came from, but it wasn't even marked down on paper. It was a tablet of black glass that had appeared to me in the dark of night, glowing from heat of wherever it came from! It said that under one of the laws of the lands of Equestria, we could no longer be together. Number 83." Twilight explained.

"Number 83... The law of which no creature may be controlled by the likes of another while the presence of magical enchantment or enhancement is present. I see that this law is to prevent an act of forced enslavement. But how can Spike serve you?" I was puzzled by this...

Princess Celestia gave Spike to Twilight, as other magical dragons are granted to any of her other subjects. Each dragon is enchanted to stay young forever, until greed takes over and causes the hatchling to become rogue again. Nothing is evident to explain how Celestia is avoiding punishment from the dragon lords from breaking such a rule of the land. This had to be discussed immediately, so Twilight and I left the room and walked down to the main hall very hastily. There was no time to explain anything to Flash, so he followed us down the hall with a helplessly confused look on his face.

"I only have one thing to say to you, law 83! Explain yourself and how you do this." I blurted out in the main room as I opened the doors and saw Celestia sitting in her original place, giving orders to a guard.

"I guess I have some explaining to do to you ponies. I had a feeling this would come soon." Celestia said playfully.

"I'm listening." I mumbled.

"Well, as you know a pony who enchants another being cannot take the enchanted subject and use him or her for serving purposes. What I'm doing is perfectly fine. I enchant the dragon eggs and wait for the right pony to appear to hatch the egg. If they can hatch the egg then they are ready to take on my studies. I am not placing any of the hatchlings under my service, but they partner with the ponies who hatch them because of their behavioral code. They can leave whenever they want, nopony forces them to stay." The Princess explained.

"Alright, that's a perfectly good reason, and it explains why Twilight and I cannot be together..." I said in defeat.

"But I didn't make him serve me! I didn't do anything of the sort! Why couldn't we just be together?" Twilight asked.

"It's the interpretation of the dragon lords and even more powerful forces around us. What they say is law and you best not defy them." Princess Celestia said sternly.

"But... Ironclad is a dragon lord now, isn't he? He can do something about this, right?" Twilight asked with hope.

"I can try, I know it would be a bit late to try and maintain our relationship, but I can at least try to get approval to still have relation with you, maybe even do some 'favors' for your royal duties if you need me to." I said with a wink.

"As I've said before, the only limit is your mindset." Celestia said with a smile.

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Dusk rolled around after everypony had found their rooms and began to settle in with the mane 6. Even I got the chance to roam around and do some exploring through the castle. I got some exploring done around the town as well. I didn't want to worry anypony in the streets so I just made myself invisible. The thought came to mind on the spell and I made it happen. This was good practice for when the time came to jump through a wormhole created by myself and to pull out two friends into this world. It was something that kept going through my mind at a constant, reminding me of all of the people I could take into this world. I'm not going to do that, I can't do that. Removing more than a select few from one world into another can change the balance of, well, everything. I don't even know how this would work if I took out someone important from another time and place, what would happen to the future. The only thing scaring me more than upsetting time and space would be someone or something following me through the wormhole, but against all odds I cannot wait to go retrieve our old friends.

I was in the main room of the crystal kingdom now, floating around the ceiling aimlessly, tapping into the human world bit by bit before I actually went into the world itself. The first thing that came to me was the music. I had an interesting taste in music as I recalled. Metal was just about the only thing I listened to before I got a good pair of headphones for dubstep or drum n' bass. Even after the headphones I still listened to more metal and my collection only grew. Dragonforce, Blind Guardian, Sonata Arctica, Storm Warrior... The list goes on for such a long time, and with my perfected core of memory in this world, with the help of magic, I could hear every single song clearly through my head when the thought came up to me. Bits and pieces of our home world came into my head, the good and the bad. I felt the corrupt power that came from the dimension. It stung with hollowed satisfaction that could only last for so long until the problems caught up with us all and stabbed us in the back. This wasn't where I was going, this wasn't the feeling of where I lived originally. This was a different time and place in the same world. It took some more power, but I went back further to find the spot, the time period where I needed to go and retrieve the missing bunch of the group. The only thing I feared was the technology present that would detect my entering. If the original organization that warped us into here tracked my re-entering They would most likely follow me back at some point.

"I'm going to have to cloak myself, or they will all burn..." I mumbled to myself.

"Talking to yourself again, I see." Luna called down from the floors of the empty room.

"Yes, I guess I've developed my own characteristics within the group of all of the immortals of this world." I flew down to meet Luna at ground level.

"You haven't changed a bit, your eyes still give off that feeling... Somewhat comforting." Luna said, looking me in the eyes.

"I could say the same with you. You haven't changed much since our last face to face encounter."

"Oh, the encounter we had that one night... In my bed. I remember it just like it was yesterday." Luna said, her cheeks turning a slight pinkish color.

"Indeed, it does feel like it was only yesterday. Time passes right under my nose sometimes."

"Maybe we should do it again some time, I liked having a roommate to be so close to in the dawn hours." Luna said playfully.

"I'll keep that in mind. One of these days when you roll over in your bed, I might just be there for you." I smiled mischievously at the thought.

"I'll leave you to your thinking, but I'm going to be waiting for you from now on, don't disappoint me!" Luna said, walking from the room and down the hall.

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"It felt like forever, ah thought you weren't comin' back to me." Applejack said worriedly in Bronze Hammer's arms.

"Don't go doubtin' me now, ah'm not leavin' anypony so soon. Besides, we still haven't even gotten to be together for more than a month yet, ah've been so busy with so much stuff." Bronze said disappointedly.

"Its all over now, right? You aren't leavin' us again, are ya?" Applejack asked sternly.

"'Course not! Unless somethin' urgent comes up, then ah'm obligated to leave and serve the princess."

"Ah think you should stop, just retire it and stay with me, stay safe. The princess has that dragon to do all the big problems now, you don't need to go out there and risk yourself anymore."

"Ah... You're right... They don't need us anymore, Ironclad can keep the balance now over just about anything. What're we worth anymore?" Bronze asked himself with a heartbroken tone.

"Oh sugar... Ah didn't mean it like that. You've still got that forge burnin' down near the river! Nopony knows how to work metal like you could." Applejack said, trying to comfort Bronze.

"Who's kept that forge burning all these years? Ah surely don't remember leavin' anypony in charge of mah forge."

"It doesn't need any care takin' it just burns by itself. Ironclad lit that fire a couple years ago and it's still goin' strong."

"Ah guess I'll give it a break for a while then, stay with you and take it easy." Bronze got up and headed for the door leisurely.

"Yeah, stay with me, but ah didn't say anythin' about takin' it easy..." Applejack jumped up and shut the door before Bronze could leave.

"Ah know that look. Ah wouldn't forget it, ever." Bronze returned a playful dirty look to the mare standing in front of him.

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"Now, would you be a dear and help me pack? I simply can't wait to return to Ponyville with the lot of you!" Rarity said excitedly, shutting the door behind her as Tiki entered the room before her.

"Please, tell me you didn't pack your entire wardrobe for this trip..." Tiki asked with his eyes shut in fear.

"Of course not! That's one little thing you've managed to teach me over the little time we've been able to spend together..."

"It's all over, I'm here now, we're all here. We're all here to stay, I hope."

"That's so exciting to hear from you! I have so much planned for us when we get home! Pinkie Pie will obviously be throwing a celebration so you should all have a newly fit outfit for special occasions." Rarity said, flaunting designs around the room with her magic.

"That won't be needed, we managed to pick up some dressy outfits on our travels." Tiki said with a nervous smile.

"What?! You've been all over Equestria and I demand you show me at once where you acquired your outfits! Who is the craftsman? What city did you get them from?!" Rarity asked with an anxious look on her face.

"Oh, you probably wouldn't even recognize the design, I don't know if you would ever be able to guess the origin or the craftsman in a million years." Tiki said playfully, taunting Rarity with such a secret.

"I demand you show me at once! Tell me the city and designer! Is it really such a fabulous design?" Rarity went on anxiously.

"Alright, turn around and close your eyes. I'll go get the uniform."

"Why would I turn around now if... Uniform?! You replaced your old uniforms with this foreign designer's work?!" Rarity asked, feeling insulted.

"It's a long story, but it will all be explained as soon as you turn around!" Tiki flaunted.

"Alright, I'm doing it! Just stop the wait and show me!" Rarity squealed impatiently as she turned around and closed her eyes.

"Go ahead, turn around!" Tiki said immediately after Rarity had spun around, trying to resist making any inappropriate remarks.

"Oh, stop it! Don't tease my like this and-" Rarity gasped at the blazing white robes and cape flowing from Tiki's shoulders.

"Oh my Celestia! Where did you get this robe?! The designs are magnificently crafter and the collar gives it such a professional look to it! Who is responsible for this?!" Rarity squealed, jumping around the model wearing the uniform.

"It was from... Something out of our reach. Something from Ironclad's level of being I think."

"Oh, I could've told you that by now, this fabric isn't anything worldly and the engravings aren't even fabric. Whatever it is though, it's probably resistant to anything you could throw at it." Rarity said with closer inspection of the stitching.

"That's something that we've all been able to test out with our first hand experiences. It's actually the reason we had to ditch our old uniforms, after they had taken a beating from the first part of our travels..." Tiki said guiltily.

"Well, I suppose it couldn't be helped... But enough of this! Back to packing!"

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"It's... Been awhile." Rainbow Dash muttered as she floated around the room that Silver Dust was staying in.

"Well then, maybe you could refresh my memory... Remind me where we left off or something like that."

"Alright, you can stop with the awkward act."

"Hey-" Rainbow exclaimed as she fell to the floor. "I'm not being awkward, just a little..."

"Shy?" Silver said playfully, completing the sentence.

"Yeah, if you want to look at it like that..." Rainbow muttered, blushing slightly.

"Two years was a long time, and with the way you're acting, I don't know if you're even still interested in me anymore..." Silver turned around to hide the smug look on his face.

"No! I mean... I'm bad in these situations, could you help me out here?" Rainbow asked pathetically.

"Alright then, we'll start off slow, because I know that you aren't the best in these situations." Silver said with a smirk on his face.

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I was on the roof of the crystal castle in the center of the city, the highest platform to stand outside from to be precise. The full moon in the sky was beaming down over the small houses and making the castle gleam with energy. I could feel all of the residents sleeping in their houses as the magic of the city came to this point and collected at the crystal heart somewhere near me. Everything was perfect and I could feel my highest potential energy levels reaching me, flowing through my entire body like electricity. If I was going to use so much magic to warp into the human world one last time, it would have to be tonight. I'll say one last goodbye before heading out.

"I wasn't expecting to meet like this. I thought it would've been in bed early in the morning." I whispered into Luna's ear as she was flying over the Crystal Empire.

"I thought so too, something must've come up, or am I wrong?" Luna replied over her shoulder.

"You're right. I feel strong tonight, strong enough to open a portal flawlessly and come back within moments."

"Well, if you feel that way, then I encourage you to go on this mission."

"I only came to say goodbye... But do you also feel the energy? It is truly stupendous here."

"I can feel it, we can all feel it in a way... But you are the only one who can use it. The magic of happy energy in the form produced by the crystal heart is something that could only be spread across Equestria for everypony to have a bit of. I guess you, being the lord of all the happiness in this land, can control it at your free will. Use it wisely..." Luna turned around only to kiss my cheek and disappear into the night.

I returned to the deck where I originally was and focused. I tried hard to channel all of the energy through my body and out of my arms and head. Creating a swirling pool of magic, I thought of the exact time and location of the area I wanted to go to. The portal opened and I was sucked through.

A sonic explosion of magic rang through the air.

Author's Note:

Writing this chapter took longer than it should... The truth is that I have lost interest in this storyline, and will most likely end it abruptly, within 3 chapters maybe. I won't stop writing, but I think its time to bring this storyline to an end.

Comments

[Dark_Night]

AWE YEAH! i KNEW this story would get a threequel.
now if you'll excuse me... i have a chapter to read