Epilogue
"All right, everypony, grab a seat. Your debriefing will commence shortly."
Lyra, Derpy, Amethyst, and Doctor Hooves sat as instructed in front of the raised ring that held the Ponyville PPP control room console. They looked up at Carrot Top and Bon Bon, who wore a tired smile and an expressionless frown, respectively.
Carrot Top turned a knob, and an illustration of a black alicorn from an old story book came into view on one of the monitors behind them. "As you know," Bon Bon began, "our mission today detailed the reformation of one Nightmare Moon. Naturally, this got a bit more involved than we anticipated, but I believe we all handled it to the best of our ability."
The slide on the monitor switched to a photograph of Princess Celestia. "Nightmare Moon subdued our princess, but during the events of last night, her location was determined, and Princess Celestia was forthwith freed from the prison Moon placed her in. Both the location of this prison and the ponies involved in her release have been deemed classified."
The doctor sat up and clopped two of his hooves together, as though applauding by himself. Bon Bon glared at him and he stopped, but his innocent smile never wavered.
"Twilight Sparkle," Bon Bon continued, a picture of the purple unicorn coming into view, "was a secondary target, meant to be tailed and protected from Nightmare Moon with discretion. Sparkle, unaware of the importance of her safety, chased after Nightmare Moon into the woodlands south of Ponyville, hereafter referred to as the Everfree Forest."
The slides changed to show some menacing-looking trees. "Two parties were sent into the Everfree Forest. The first was sent to tail and ensure the safety of Twilight Sparkle, and the other to head off and counter Nightmare Moon. When Sparkle and Moon converged on the same location, so did our two parties."
The picture of trees was replaced by one showing the remains of a castle. "The location in question is one of historical significance, and a known point of great interest for Nightmare Moon. Here, a small skirmish was held between Moon and Twilight Sparkle, with intervention on the part of the conjoined PPP parties."
Here the slides ended. Bon Bon sighed and approached the ponies seated in front of her. "I'm not going to lie to you guys," she said. "A lot of what happened last night is beyond anything this agency has tackled before. You all did some incredible work, and it pains me to say that public record will tell a very different story from the one we know."
Each of the four ponies looked to one another, and then back to Bon Bon. Lyra was the first to speak.
"Bon," she began, "we're secret agents. Most of what we do is kept from the public. None of us are here because we want our names in the papers for doing our job."
"I'm glad to hear it," Bon Bon said. "So just so you're all up to speed on what's going to be in today's paper, here is the official story on what happened last night: Twilight Sparkle and company discovered thousand-year-old artifacts, and, with the power of friendship, they transformed Nightmare Moon back into the deity hereafter referred to as Princess Luna."
Once again, Lyra was the only one who spoke. "...That's stupid."
Bon Bon shrugged. "The public generally seems to agree with it. Now, if you have any further questions, please address them to either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna."
"...W-what?"
A door slid open, and through it walked two alicorns. Although the smaller blue one was able to walk through the doorway without concern, the larger of the two sisters needed to duck to get through it. Her waving, multicolor mane looked completely out of place in a drab, underground facility with no wind to speak of.
"P-princess Celestia!" Lyra stammered.
The addressed princess smiled and approached the center of the command room. Her sister shyly followed.
Lyra struggled to achieve some sort of damage control. "I-I'm sorry! You didn't hear... Did you? I mean—"
The regal white alicorn raised a hoof to quiet her subject. "You have said nothing wrong, my little pony."
Other than a small "Eep!" Lyra became quiet and slunk backwards an inch or so.
"Now then," Celestia began, "I'm sure you all have some questions, and I think Luna and I both owe you what answers we can. Before you do, however, it's important to understand that very little — if any — of what's said here may leave this room. Do you understand?" The four ponies before her nodded. She turned to the two mares beside her, and they did the same. "Good," Celestia said with a smile.
Amethyst spoke first. "Uh, Celestia? Err, I mean, Princess?" The alicorn in question turned and smiled at her. "I've only been with the company for about a year, and this was kind of my first real mission..."
"And you performed admirably," Celestia said with a nod.
"Um... Thank you!" Amethyst looked pleased, yet humbled. Lyra stared at her with wide eyes, but said nothing. Amethyst shuffled her hooves before continuing. "But, uh, I was wondering..."
"Yes?"
"Well, Twilight Sparkle..." Amethyst struggled to make eye contact with the deity she was addressing. "As soon as I was done with training, I was told that I would be watching her and making sure that nothing bad happened to her, but all anypony would tell me when I asked why was because you told us to."
Celestia tilted her head.
"And, well..." Amethyst swallowed. "I was hoping... you could tell me... well... why Twilight Sparkle?"
"Oh!" Hooves chimed, "I told you! It's because she's a princess!"
"Knock it off, Hooves," Lyra said to him; her frustrations with the stallion broke her silent spell. "I don't know what got your brain so addled, but—"
"Actually, he is correct," Celestia said.
Doctor Hooves was the only pony smiling.
"...What?"
"Well, technically, not yet she's not," Celestia admitted. "But she first showed the signs of becoming one at a very early age. I knew that she would need protection and guidance, so I took her under my wing and approached my secret agency with specific instructions to keep her out of harm's way. However, for safety reasons, only a select few ponies were ever made aware of this."
"Wait," Amethyst said, confused, "you mean regular ponies can become princesses?"
Celestia merely smiled.
The lone pegasus spoke next. "And no pony is supposed to know about this?" asked Derpy. She turned towards Hooves. "But, Doctor, then how did you—?"
"I read things I'm not supposed to," he said simply.
"Okay, crazy pony breaching security aside," Lyra began, taking an incredibly deep breath, "I have a few questions as well."
Celestia shifted her gaze to the green unicorn. "I'm listening," she said with an inviting tone.
Lyra fiddled with her hooves before blurting, "You told Sparkle — and all of Ponyville — that Nightmare Moon was stopped with the magic of friendship?!" Luna shifted further behind her big sister. "The hay is that all about?" finished Lyra.
Princess Celestia closed her eyes before answering. "Twilight Sparkle will be a princess someday."
"We've established this," Lyra said with a roll of her eyes. Then her hoof shot to her mouth. "Sorry," she said as she pulled the hoof away, "I have snark."
"It's quite alright," chuckled Celestia. "You see, as a princess, it's very important that we listen to and understand the ponies who look up to us for guidance and wisdom, and that we don't get caught up in all the authority that comes with it." Celestia smiled and leaned closer to her subjects. "We need to be able to relate to one another. As friends." She stood herself back up. "Twilight Sparkle never made any friends in Canterlot. It was my hope that while here in Ponyville — a town rich with diversity and kind souls — she could meet some new faces to truly touch her heart. She now has five close friends, each unique in personality and walks of life, and I could not be happier for it. By showing her the importance of those friendships, she will grow into a kind and wonderful leader."
"Yeah, but—" Lyra hesitated before continuing. "You don't think that making her believe magic amulets saved the day will backfire at some point?"
Celestia laughed. "I'll be taking them with me," she said. "It's my hope that Twilight will find a different way to solve her problems, and in the moments she can't, you six will still be watching over her."
"Wait, you can't just take them!" cried Amethyst. "Hooves needs them for his machine! What if we need to use them again?"
Luna shifted further out of sight. Celestia looked back to her, and then to Amethyst. "We do not feel that will happen," Celestia said with conviction. "With the moon force bound to my sister destroyed, we—"
"Oh, it's not destroyed," Doctor Hooves said simply. Celestia gave him a sharp gaze.
"I'm sorry?" the princess asked.
"That's what the last-minute adjustments were for!" Hooves wore a huge smile. "The gems you initially provided were too pure, and would have killed the being inside of Princess Luna. And the number one rule here is 'don't kill stuff'!"
Every pony in the room stared at the tan stallion. Nothing moved other than Celestia's ethereal mane until Luna took a few tentative steps forward.
"You..." the blue alicorn swallowed. Her voice was almost too soft to be heard. "You didn't kill it?"
"Nope!" said Hooves happily.
Luna swallowed again and looked at the ground. "You should have," she murmured.
"No, Luna, he was right to not do so," Celestia said. She placed a gentle hoof onto her sister's back. "Kindness and compassion are the only way. I have spent eons proving this to myself." She turned back to the stallion. "Thank you, Doctor, for your sound judgment."
Lyra coughed.
The doctor raised a hoof into the air. "Is it my turn to ask something?" he said. Celestia stared at him for a moment before nodding. Hooves stretched his neck forward to peer behind the deity. "Are you feeling well, Princess Luna?"
Luna shuffled her hooves in alarm; this was the first she'd been addressed in such a fashion for over a thousand years. "I am... well. Yes. Thank you."
"Good." Hooves leaned back and smiled with content.
"And what of you?" asked Celestia, turning to the mostly quiet pegasus. "Is there anything more you wish to ask us?"
After a startled jump, Derpy averted her gaze and shook her head. "I'm just... I'm glad everyone is okay."
Celestia nodded. "As am I. How is your daughter?" she asked.
"She's... She's fine," Derpy said shyly.
The white alicorn nodded again. "I am glad for it."
"If that's really all," Bon Bon said, reintroducing her voice, "these two have a kingdom to run." She turned towards the two princesses and bowed. "Thank you for agreeing to this, your highness."
Celestia returned the bow, and Luna hesitated before doing the same. "We are in your debt," Celestia said to Bon Bon. "Speaking with the ponies who saved both my sister and myself is the least that could be done." With that, the great alicorn spread her wings, and her sister mimicked the action. They took flight and quickly, yet majestically flew straight up through the underground headquarter's entrance.
"Okay, you lot," Bon Bon said, reaffirming her command, "on to the next item on the agenda. Living arrangements need to be made for our two new agents, and I need at least one of you to get an eye on Sparkle. All six of us are down here, for hoof's sake!"
The four seated ponies got to their hooves and stretched.
"Hey, Star," Lyra said to Amethyst, getting up last, "I just want to let you know... that I'm proud of you."
"'Proud of me'?" Amethyst laughed. "You inducted me into this company, trained me personally, acted as my first handler, and yet through it all I think this is the first compliment you've ever actually given me."
"Yeah, well, don't get used to it," Lyra said with a forceful tilt of her neck. Several cracking sounds echoed from the motion. "If it makes things feel more normal: I saw your gem-cutting today. It was garbage. You sold better stuff on the street."
Amethyst could have protested, but instead she shook her head and smiled. "I'll take first watch on Sparkle," she called to Bon Bon's back. A short wave was her only response before the pink unicorn took a lift back to the surface. Carrot Top watched Derpy and Doctor Hooves enter the R&D lab before approaching Lyra herself.
"Is working here always going to be like this?" Lyra asked her, eyes closed while sorting out her back.
"We live in a pretty quiet town," Carrot Top chuckled. "There's really not a lot that happens here."
"Well, I've only been here one day, and all Tartarus broke loose." Lyra leaned back to get her front hooves stretched out as well. "I really hope you guys are better at second impressions."
THE END
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I love Lyra's snark
Very good story. Well done, well done indeed!
MORE!
How does the doctor still have his job?
Well, this is an interesting re-imaging of the show. It does make me wonder, though, what exactly happened when Discord returned?
And why did Celestia send Twilight to ddeal with a certain sleeping dragon?
If Sparkler was voiced, what would she sound like?
5254351 That's really well explained. The writing here is completely enjoyable, it's just that one, major, sticking plot choice that I think really undermines the whole thing.
According to this fic, Twilight's friends have no importance beyond how they will help groom Twilight for the crown. Also, it makes Twilight completely wrong in everything she believes about how Nightmare Moon was defeated - that's not exactly something you want in a future leader: completely wrong things they'll base logical choices off of.
It just doesn't work.
I love how the characters are portrayed and their personalities though. They're interesting, engaging, and I cared what happened to them despite how little time we spend getting to know each of them. There's lots of good here, it's just that the one bit of bad is a giant crack in the keystone.
5254351
5254826
I came down to the comments section to explain my own dissatisfaction with the ending and, lo and behold, the two of you have already voiced it reasonably and clearly.
I loved this story most of the way through, but the ending was incredibly disappointing for me. For all the reasons you've elegantly stated and, perhaps most egregiously, for the unfortunate implications for Twilight and Celestia's relationship.
While it's absolutely true that in the show Celestia can be a touch enigmatic and will often intentionally omit information that she wishes Twilight to learn on her own, their relationship is still one built upon mutual and well-earned love and trust. Twilight trusts Celestia to guide and teach her with wisdom and foresight, while Celestia trusts Twilight to do her best in overcoming the challenges placed in front of her.
This Celestia, on the other hand, is more than willing to lie outright to Twilight in a "the end justifies the means" approach to teaching. That may work for a while, but ultimately results in a huge and extremely fragile web of dishonesty that could easily result in a complete implosion of their relationship later on- something that could have serious consequences for Equestria if it happens after Twilight has assumed a measure of authority as a princess. Quite frankly, this version of Celestia is equal parts shameless egotist and outright idiot for thinking that she can keep the wool pulled over the eyes of a mare as intelligent as Twilight Sparkle indefinitely.
As much as I love the rest of the characters in this story, it's nearly outweighed by how much I absolutely detest this Celestia. It's a shame Hooves' device actually worked, because a simple malfunction followed by the real Elements appearing could have preserved her character and made this one of my favourite stories on the site. As it is, I'm extremely tempted to downvote and am conflicted enough that I literally need to sleep on it before making a decision.
5255356
5254826
5254351
I've been reading and mulling over the conversation that the three of you had here over the last few days, and I feel like the points you bring up are prominent enough that I should address them.
Just as a heads up to anyone who may see this comment before reading the story, this and the posts it replies to do contain some spoilers.
When I started writing this story, I asked myself two questions: what if ponies we regularly see in the background where part of a secret service, and what if the Elements of Harmony were fake? The latter is why I opted to include an Alternate Universe tag. Despite the notion of an "alternate" universe, I still wanted to follow the canon as closely as possible, taking each appearance of these characters and integrating them into my story as cleanly as I could, so that when readers re-watch episodes from the show, they might see these moments and wonder if something like this story could actually be true.
Naturally this sort of notion raised a few problems. As far as why I opted to go with the idea of fake Elements, I believe that stems from me wanting these characters to have a genuine impact on the outcome of the story. I do really like how everything involving Celestia's rescue turned out, but ultimately it wouldn't really mean much if the Elements operated exactly as they do in the show. Originally the idea was that Amethyst did get the device to work on her own, but I realized that would mean that she was essentially who Twilight is on the show, which more or less defeated the whole purpose of not singling out any pony as being more special than others, if that makes any sense. In other words, I didn't want to just make Twilight 2.0. However, from your comments, it does appear that there are a few things I still neglected to take into complete consideration.
Even before this story was published, one pre-reader I had brought up his concern about what the ending would mean for Twilight and Celestia's relationship, just as you all have. He was concerned with the level of trust in the relationship, both in Twilight expecting Celestia to be honest with her, and with Celestia believing in her student. The more I reflect on it, the more I recognize it.
That being said, my integrity as a writer and respect for those who do enjoy the story cover-to-cover (for lack of better terms) means that I won't be altering this story in any way, with the exception of any spelling/grammar things yet to be found (Thanks, TheGreatEater, by the way). I think it's something I need to stick with. I will have you know, however, that if you haven't read either of the blogs concerned with this story, I do intend to continue working with these characters and this universe in future stories. I already have pages of notes and where I'd like things to go, issues to bring up, seeds sown here that I can grow into something much bigger. And I think your comments will enhance those stories. I'm not going to write anything to "fix" what happened here, but I think I can integrate some of these issues and explore their implications. For that, I want to thank you (perhaps prematurely) for ultimately making these yet-to-be-written future stories stronger.
If you're still with me so far, I also want to say how happy I am that, although you found the ending less-than-satisfying, you all enjoyed the characters, the writing, and/or initial concept of the story. For that reason, I do hope you give future installments an honest chance. I'm currently fleshing out a story that's less action and more slice-of-life, where I won't be screwing with canon so much as exploring who these characters are; their histories, relationships with one another, what drives them, etc. Those who read for the action and are hoping to see more canon skewing may be somewhat disappointed by it, but I'm really excited to continue working with the characters I made here and tell more stories with them in it.
Again, thank you for your input. I do believe it will both help me to become a stronger writer, and to really flesh out what I have planned for this setting. I hope you give any future entries a chance.
5268734 I can respect pretty much everything you've said here. While I may not agree with it, it's definitely completely reasonable to do what you've done and to keep things as they are. There's integrity there, and that's a trait I've always found commendable.
The "pretty much everything" is a minor thing. I think that their contribution to the story would still have been significant even if the Elements had worked. With them freeing Celestia, something the show didn't touch on in the slightest, they're the ones who found her and rescued her. The Elements may have stopped Nightmare Moon and returned Luna, but even with real Elements, it's the PPP who find and free Celestia making her arrival at the aftermath of the rainbow cannon a lot better presented than it was in the show.
And it's your writing that really made that stick so firmly for me. Even though they'd be far outclassed in terms of raw power and have little ability to directly effect any of the big battles without the Elements being fake, the way you wrote their teamwork and personalities made their ability to keep those things that were much more powerful than them safe completely believable. It also makes them an organization that works well as Celestia's shadowy hand, arranging ponies and events in the ways that cause Celestia's plans to fall neatly (and seamlessly) into place.
That's a pretty cool thing with or without the Elements of Harmony.
5269629 To put it in terms of another fictional agency, the PPP would be akin to UNIT (from Doctor Who) or S.H.I.E.L.D.
You still need the heroes to do the big stuff, but the agency is very important at times to saving the day, either backing up the heroes in crucial support roles or stopping lesser villains since the heroes can't be everywhere at once.
5255356 Another thing that doesn't make sense: If the Elements were fake... wouldn't NMM already know that? She would know what magic Celestia really used against her the a thousand years ago AND she would never have heard the phony legend of them either.
Even if she overheard Twilight talking about it in the Treebrary, it would mean nothing to her. She'd probably have laughed and let them go off looking for the non-existent Elements while she took over.
NMM returning to the castle ONLY makes sense if she's legitimately concerned about real Elements with real powers. Otherwise, why else would she have left Celestia, the sole threat she's aware of, alone in the Treebrary where she could be potentially found and rescued? You know, since she would have figured out pretty quickly that the Treebrary was planted deliberately over this super-magical spot which was the only place NMM could capture her... and it just miiiiiight be that Celestia had somepony in waiting to get her out.
So there's no way NMM would have left Celestia there and gone off into the forest to bother 6 useless mares going after a foal's tale.
5276176
I'm still trying to work out my own thoughts on this story as a whole in order to give Venates a proper response to his very candid and thoughtful reply, but you raise some interesting points I had not thought about previously.
The behaviour of NMM is a bit odd in the context of a world where the Elements do not actually exist and were not used to banish her to the moon. Her motivations for following Twilight & Co. are definitely a bit murkey. Still, I would not say that it's necessarily an actual plot hole as much as it is an underdeveloped plot point. There are certainly motivations one could ascribe to her for pursuing the course of action she did.
For instance: Despite the girls going after a known red herring, the fact remains that these six ponies were willing to openly oppose her rule and were the only non-guard ponies to do so. NMM could, quite believably, have wished to stamp out what she perceived to be the seeds of a potential resistance movement before it had a chance to take root. She may well have considered it worth the risk of leaving Celestia unattended for a brief period to do so. Considering it took the mobilization of an entire secret service (of which NMM had no knowledge) to free Celestia from the wards she put in place, I'm not surprised her ego would allow her to believe there was no way for Celestia to escape.
That may or may not be the motivation Venates intends, and he can certainly speak for himself, but it's at least one possible method of viewing the events that (at least to me) makes sense.
I'm a bit confused as to your problem with the mechanics of the "alternate solution". Are you saying that Celestia should have used a purification spell a thousand years earlier or that she should have had Hooves' machine waiting to blast her the moment NMM returned? I was under the impression that it was the combination of both Celestia's alicorn-level magic and Hooves's machine that made the purification possible and, since the machine wasn't completed until after Celestia's capture, I'm not sure how she could have possibly done either. Perhaps I'm not understanding you properly?
As for the content of the sewers- I was thinking the exact same thing. Seriously, get a grip, Star. It's probably mud washed in from the soil up top. After a thousand years, there's probably more recycled feces in the cells of your own body than there is non-decomposed fecal matter in that sewer system!
5278600 Celestia could have been waiting for NMM and blasted her the instant she got back.
Since Celestia's in charge of this secret group, it would have been a rather sensible move to prioritize the machine's completion above all else, would it not?
Basically, it boils down to the same problems the opening of the series left me with (since nothing was properly fleshed out): Celestia has had all this time to prepare and seemingly left everything to sheer chance, making her appear woefully incompetent. At least with Discord, she believed the spell upon him was permanent and was legitimately caught off guard.
I guess that about sums this story up.
Pity I wasn't here for that conversation above me. This has been on my Read Later list for a lot longer than a week, and I can respect wanting to get a plot bunny down. Just don't expect me to follow it further down the hole.
5268734 The main issue I have here is the following: both of those ideas of yours are excellent story seeds, but I don't necessarily feel that they needed to be combined. Having PPP doing things in the background needn't invalidate what the Mane Six do any more than UNIT or Torchwood invalidate the Doctor, and by springing this upon the reader at the last turn, you opened up a can of worms that wasn't even on the same shelf as this story (how's that for mixed metaphors?), and likely made a few people pretty angry because you retconned the entire foundation of the TV series in a way that - all four seasons considered - just doesn't begin to make sense. (And calling the canon plot "stupid" in the epilogue felt like a really unnecessary jibe at the show. That was a little too mean-spirited for me to be funny.)
Me, personally? I really don't like this ending at all, but the story that went before it was charming enough that I'll refrain from a downvote. Perhaps I'll check in again to see where this goes, because hoo boy, are they going to be in for a rough time with Discord or Tirek without the Elements...
5377675
Sounds like something I'd do.
Late to the prty but holy shit that ending. Uh. It would have been way more interesting to have a group of ponies desperately scrambling to keep Twilight safe as she goes on her adventures(and the strength spell was an excellent example of how they could do that), but having them steal the climax entirely? Having Twilight be completely wrong in every single one of her conclusions? Why was NMM talking about the elements? Why didbshe consider a group of ponies seeking said elements enough of a threat to leave Celestia unprotected and her conquest incomplete?
People have previously talked at length about the character assassination committed against Celestia in this story, but more prominent is the destruction of Nightmare Moon as a threat and Twilight as a smart character. Every conclusion Twilight reaches in this story is wrong. Period. This continues throughout the series as a direct result of this one change, because most of Twilight's future exploits are built on things she learned here.
Next, Nightmare moon, the easily distracted villain who is apparently incapable of rememberin her own past and just assumes Twilight is right whenever she overhears Twilight say something.
Look, i get it, you wanted to do an alternate universe story. Thats fine. But an alternate universe story should never pretend it could be happening in the background of the original show, or its not alternate universe- its just inconsistent with the facts of the show.
This is like 2 years late criticism, but i wanted to complain, so i am. So there.
You can has review!
5268734
Hookay, I realize I'm ridiculously late to the party on this one, I see no reasion to rehash the criticisms made at the time, much as I agree with them, and I doubt anyone, including you, is or should be interested in what I do have to say. However, there is one thing that hasn't been said that I think should be and is a major factor as to why the ending doesn't work for me. And it's to do with something you said about your intent:
Now that's an interesting question that's well worth exploring and I don't want to diminish that. However, even ignoring the problems everyone else has raised of character, canon and cohesiveness, there's one reason that the execution of that question doesn't work in my opinion. And it can be summed up by my honest reaction to one line in this chapter (and please forgive the sarcasm, but I feel it's warranted):
"Oh, well obviously, ancient, lost magical artefacts acheiving such an effect is utterly preposterous, as is the idea that feelings of friendship and camaraderie could have any effect on a mare corrupted by hatred and loneliness. No, obviously the sensible solution is "Some guy made a doodad that did it!" That makes way more sense!"
The problem is that the alternative to the Elements that you present is absolutely no improvement on them and, in terms of plot, not really that different from them. The answer given to "What if the elements were fake?" is "Well, then there'd be some other magical or mechanical gizmo that did exactly the same job". Hooves' machine is just as much a plot device as the Elements and the only real difference I can see is that it's less believable - even before we knew the Elements' origin story, it could be inferred that they were made using incredibly powerful and knowledgable creatures or forces as opposed to this device, which, unless I'm missing something, was cobbled together by one guy in a basement.
Admittedly, one could also say it being scientific rather than magical is a distinction, but let's face it: the main difference between Fantasy's magical artefacts and Sci-Fi's devices and technobabble is that at least Fantasy is honest that about what they are.
The difficult thing about "What If...?" stories (a story type, I should point out, that I have a lot of fondness for) is that the alternative story to canon events that you come up with has to be truly different, rather than just the same thing with the names, places and roles switched around. And that's... kinda what this felt like: the Mane Six didn't use the Elements to defeat Nightmare Moon and save Luna, some other group used another device... to defeat Nightmare Moon and save Luna.
So, not only were Twilight and her friends reduced to patsies, but they were so reduced... all for nothing, from a story perspective - it doesn't make anything better for its rewriting of things.
I will say that, looking at the sequels, I will be reading the more Slice of Life one, as character dynamics were the greatest strength of this story and the main reason I enjoyed most of its run, but as for more stuff dealing with Twilight and major events? Yeah, I'm afraid you count me out.
Dr. Hooves: Oh, you know the parasite that took over Luna's body and forced her to become incredibly evil? Yeah, we chose not to kill it so it's still out there :D