Camaraderie is Sorcery

by FireOfTheNorth

Chapter 3:13 - Ascension

Author's Note:

Translations

Chapter 3:13 – Ascension

Twilight Sparkle awoke, as usual, slightly before dawn, something that had changed in her habits since moving to Ponieville. Gone was the typical sorceress proclivity to sleep away the morning hours and stay up late into the night (though Twilight did still do the latter sometimes). She’d changed her habits to fit those of Ponieville and of her friends, with normal life requiring many to be up even earlier than the sorceress. There was also so much for her to do with her studies, both assigned and self-imposed, that it didn’t make sense to waste daylight hours on sleep. Expenses on candles and expenditure of magical energy on conjured lights was insignificant for the personal protégé of Celestia, but she now found them unnecessarily wasteful—another habit unconsciously picked up after moving to a small town where ponies had to keep such things in mind to survive.

Just because she didn’t spend magical energy on lights didn’t mean she didn’t expend it on other things, such as fetching, purifying, and heating water for a morning bath. Then came brushing out her mane and tail before slipping on her sorceress robes (today a simple violet set with a fringed shawl embroidered with arcane symbols over it) and partaking of the porridge that Spike had prepared during her bath. While she ate, she checked the previous day’s missives that had arrived for her from Cant’r Laht. Even though one could see the kingdom’s central city on a clear day from Ponieville, she wasn’t actively involved in any of the games sorceresses played, but she wanted to be informed so she could make her moves when the time was right.

This morning, there was nothing new in the missives to catch her attention. Pirates still raided the Duchy of Balte-Maer, clashing ever more frequently with the Ducal Fleet as they advanced up Equestria’s eastern coast, trying to establish new territories since they’d been displaced by the growing Storm Kingdom. The Kingdom of Los Pegasus was in turmoil; Queen Helianthus and her household had died suddenly after contracting the plague while on a mission to the Westerlands’ bison tribes and convince them not to join the league of tribes forming in the north. Nopony was certain who should succeed to the Throne of Los Pegasus, and the kingdom was embroiled in complete chaos. The vernal equinox was little over a week away, and though no summit would be held this year, some of the leading elements of the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht (mostly the Lodge of Sorceresses) were calling for a council to be held on that day to review (by which they meant change) the charter they’d signed a year earlier that had made Celestia and Luna monarchs of the new kingdom. Business as usual, as far as Twilight could tell.

After breaking her fast, the sorceress headed to her study to review her schedule for the day. First, she was to meet with Rarity to test a new spell she’d designed to magically enhance the tempering of steel; then, she was to meet with Zecor to exchange knowledge on Low Equestrian and Cainhiran Zebrikaanian. After that, she’d return to Golden Oak’s laboratory to study the books that Celestia had sent her several days earlier, run experiments on the Element of Sorcery to see if she could learn anything about its magical properties, and try out some enchantments she’d brainstormed. Meeting with the Brave Companions would follow, then organization of Golden Oak’s book collection (something still uncompleted after nearly three years), practice in scrying and using portals, and study of the Tawny Trade Language and the ancient alicorns. Then she’d plan out the next day. So, to Rarity’s shop first.

Twilight Sparkle asked Spike to pick up more quills and ink as she left the laboratory, grabbing a rain cloak on her way out but tucking it into her saddlebags. The sky was mostly clear, but she wanted to be prepared in case it began to rain. She could always ask Rainbow Dash to remove the clouds, but the Hunter might have other things going on. Judging by the roar that broke the air, she most certainly would in a moment. In case she was somewhere else, however, Twilight opened up a portal to the other side of the Equestry River and stepped through. Ponies were running for their lives, workers who’d been constructing Mayor Mare’s wall around Ponieville. In a gap between foundation stones stood the monster causing all this ruckus. Several times the size of a pony, its body was shaped like a hound, except that the skin was reptilian and the head like that of a snake. Twin tails thrashed out behind it, one of them knocking over a wheelbarrow filled with mortar. Twilight Sparkle wasn’t the only who had come running upon hearing the beast; a couple of the town guards cantered up beside the sorceress, but they quailed and pulled up short upon getting a good look at the monster.

“Is Rainbow Dash on her way?” Twilight asked the nearest guard while she kept an eye on the monster and prepared combat spells.

“What?” the guard said with utter confusion, “Why would she?”

“There she goes!” another guard cried with relief, and Twilight searched the sky for Rainbow Dash.

The pegasus was nowhere to be found in the air, so Twilight Sparkle brought her eyes down to face the most bizarre sight. Rarity was galloping toward the beast, and even more strangely, she was wielding a Hunter’s monster-slaying sword and wearing Hunter armor. She couldn’t believe her eyes, and thought she had to be dreaming. Why would Rarity ever try to attack a monster, and where would she even get Hunter armor made for a unicorn? It was so bizarre and foreign to Twilight’s mind that she did nothing when Rarity reached the beast. She swung her sword, but she lacked a Hunter’s supernatural speed and grace. The creature easily dodged it before swiping out a long-taloned claw and throwing Rarity across the empty field.

“Rarity!” Twilight yelled, jarred from her frozen state by seeing her friend wounded, “Cavan’r Essoc, torca!^[1]”

A massive blade of shining light appeared in the sky and swiftly fell. The monster saw it coming at the last moment and tried to escape, but failed at doing so, and the sword sliced through its midsection instead of decapitating it. Gruesomely, this allowed it to live in agony for a few extra seconds as its wounds were cauterized, and its blood boiled a few moments later. Astonished cries came from the guards as the beast died, and Twilight rushed over to Rarity’s wounded body. What was she thinking? Why didn’t anypony try to stop her? Why didn’t I try to stop her? What was she doing dressed as a Hunter?

***

“She’ll recover just fine,” Stitchwit assured Twilight later, after examining Rarity’s wounds.

The unicorn was laid up in the back room of Stitchwit’s shop, brought there by Twilight. The sorceress and her friend had arrived unannounced, souring the barber-surgeon's already foul mood, but she had no idea where else to go. Rarity had been badly injured and knocked unconscious by the monster’s attack. Twilight sat nearby, staring at her friend with amazement.

“Don’t know what all the fuss is about,” Stitchwit grunted as he collected blood-soaked rags. “She’ll be on her hooves in no time. She’s a Hunter, after all.”

“No, she is not,” Twilight said softly to herself before turning in her chair to address Stitchwit. “What happened to her cutie mark?”

“You have eyes, don’t you?” Stitchwit asked. “Whatever beast it was she was fighting cut right through it, but I’d think a Cant’r Laht sorceress would know that once a cutie mark appears, no amount of damage can alter the underlying talent that accompanies it.”

“Not what I meant,” Twilight said with a concerned shake of her head. “Why is it a cloud and lightning bolt? That is Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark. Rainbow Dash is the Hunter.”

That was the second shock that Twilight had received that day. When Stitchwit had removed Rarity’s armor in order to operate on her, Twilight had gotten a good look of the symbol on her friend’s flank. It wasn’t the diamonds that Rarity had received as a filly, but the mark that Rainbow Dash bore. She was growing more confused all the time.

“That druidess? I don’t think so,” Stitchwit scoffed. “Rarity has always had this cutie mark. I ought to know. I’ve stitched her up enough times.”

“What druidess?” Twilight asked.

“What druidess?” Stitchwit repeated incredulously, “Rainbow Dash, of course. Either you’ve taken complete leave of your senses or you’re playing with me, and I won’t have either. I don’t care if you’re Celestia’s protégé, get out of my shop!”

“Rainbow Dash is a Hunter. Fluttershy is the druidess,” Twilight Sparkle insisted.

“I said I won’t have it!” Stitchwit cried angrily, blood rushing to his face. “Go see for yourself! She lives in a hovel under a tree to the east, in case you’ve forgotten that as well!”

“Rainbow Dash, not Fluttershy?” Twilight asked skeptically.

“Out!” Stitchwit demanded.

***

Thunder rumbled overhead, and Twilight regretted leaving her rain cloak behind at Stitchwit’s shop. She might have remembered that the cloak was soaked in Rarity’s blood and she probably wouldn’t want it after all, but she had too much else on her mind for that. Spike bobbed up and down on her back as she briskly cantered through the empty fields around Ponieville. She’d gone back to Golden Oak’s laboratory immediately after being thrown out by Stitchwit, to confirm that it was the world that was broken, not just her mind.

“What’s happening, Twilight?” Spike asked, trying to get more out of her than the rushed explanation she’d given him earlier.

“Something is very wrong, Spike,” the sorceress replied. “Rarity—Rarity—thinks she is a Hunter, and nopony finds it strange.”

“Are you sure it’s not just a prank she and Rainbow Dash are playing on you?” Spike asked.

“I know what I saw, Spike. Rarity had Rainbow Dash’s cutie mark.”

“Okay, so say something happened between Rarity and Rainbow Dash,” Spike said. “Why are we going to see Fluttershy?”

“We are not, at least not if what Stitchwit said is true,” Twilight said. “He claimed that this is Rainbow Dash’s home, not Fluttershy’s.”

They approached the tree under which Fluttershy lived, and Twilight belatedly wondered why she hadn’t just created a portal to the location. All this confusion is ruining my senses. I have to get to the bottom of this. There was a riot of noise around the home, animals running about chaotically and yelling in their pseudo-languages. Twilight and Spike managed to make their way through the crowd, and the sorceress pushed the ajar door open. Inside was a similar situation as outside, only peppered with more confined. Animals ran around wildly, furious, and in the center of it was a panicked Rainbow Dash wearing a druidess’s robes.

“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing?” Twilight demanded. The shock at seeing another friend in a role wholly unsuited for her was lessened this time, but it still left an impact.

“Hi, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said as she chased away a cluster of beavers gnawing on a structural root. “I’m trying to manage all these animals, but it’s not easy. It’s like they’re trying to tell me something, but I can’t understand them. Oh, how was I able to do this the last fifteen years without going crazy?”

“Fifteen years?” Spike asked, looking around at the chaos. “Where’s Fluttershy?”

“At Sugar Cube Corner, I imagine,” Rainbow Dash replied as she tried and failed to capture a very noisy goose running around the room.

“Oh, no,” Twilight Sparkle said. “This is worse than I feared.”

***

It wasn’t just Rarity and Rainbow Dash that had gotten mixed up, and not even just them and Fluttershy. All of the Brave Companions sans Twilight were caught up in whatever strange happenings were going on. Like Rarity, Rainbow Dash confirmed that her cutie mark was different than the one Twilight Sparkle knew her to have. She claimed it was three butterflies, the cutie mark of Fluttershy. The cutie marks had been rearranged somehow, in a way that Twilight couldn’t figure out, and the ponies they belonged to had had their entire lives stolen by whoever now had their mark. Rainbow Dash distinctly remembered falling from Cloudsdale, hiding in the Everfree Forest, and becoming a druidess. Were Rarity awake, she would probably confirm that she’d lived the story Twilight and Spike knew to be that of Rainbow Dash’s life.

After leaving Rainbow Dash’s home, such as it apparently was now, Twilight and Spike went to Sugar Cube Corner. From there, they hunted down Fluttershy, who, dressed like Pinkamena, was attempting to fulfill her role as aspiring bard—without much success, since she didn’t have any skills with the lute, despite having memories of learning how to play it. She also claimed to have Pinkamena’s cutie mark.

They went to the Apple homestead next, where Pinkamena was helping prepare for the spring planting … badly. None of the other Apples found it odd that she lived on the farm with them, and they remembered the pink pony as their sister. Spike tried to convince them that Applejack was the more logical choice, given her name alone, but Granny Smith, Big McIntosh, and Apple Bloom wouldn’t hear it. In all their memories, Applejack had been replaced by Pinkamena.

Following the trail to its natural conclusion brought them to Rarity’s smithy, where Applejack was now trying to cope with Rarity’s job, even though she had little knowledge of how to do so. Her metal projects were abysmal, and her attempts at clothes making even more so. Yet, she claimed that it was the right profession from her, given her cutie mark, and stubbornly kept at it.

Twilight and Spike swept the town looking for somepony, anypony who remembered the Brave Companions as they did, but there were none to be found. Their families didn’t remember, their other friends and acquaintances didn’t remember, and when Twilight began to think that it might require somepony from outside of Ponieville and asked Ream and Baldavin, they didn’t remember, either. As far as they were concerned, the Brave Companions had always been just as they were right now. Even written records of them were unreliable, validating the roles in which they now acted and not as Twilight remembered them. It was driving her mad, to the point where she almost didn’t trust her own memory. It was a mercy that Spike could confirm that she wasn’t crazy—unless his memories were wrong, too.

Twilight did what she should have done from the start and sent a letter to Celestia seeking her wisdom on the situation. However, the message refused to be delivered; it hit some sort of barrier several leagues from Ponieville. She tried to open a portal to Cant’r Laht and struck the barrier again. Panicked, she rapidly opened portals around Ponieville, draining her magical energy as she sought to determine what was going on. Eventually, she established a perimeter past which she couldn’t escape, even on hoof. She could see the land beyond, but trying to get there proved impossible.

Fearing trickery, Twilight Sparkle tried to locate Discord or his influence. She came up short on both accounts. If he was responsible for this, he had hidden himself and his signature very well indeed. Now that she knew what to look for, she could sense the magic that surrounded Ponieville and the surrounding countryside. They were living in a bubble that they could not escape, a bubble in which memory of the past fifteen years was altered for everyone, apart from Twilight and Spike. It had to be a pocket dimension, but the sorceress had no idea how it had come to be, who had created it, or—most importantly—how to escape it.

She pored through the resources at her disposal in Golden Oak’s laboratory, Spike frantically helping, just as concerned as her about what was going on. There was nothing she could find that would help. Some obscure tome that Celestia had sent allowed her to probe the pocket dimension, confirm her suspicions, and learn more about it; but without more knowledge about such constructs, the things she learned meant nothing. There was some information on pocket dimensions in the material on Yliiena the First and the creation of Tartarus, but any suggestions on how to escape a pocket dimension were unsuccessful in this case.

Groaning in frustration and desperation after spending the whole day trying to discern what had gone wrong and attempting to find a way out, Twilight Sparkle collapsed on her overloaded writing desk. Opened tomes slipped off the precarious pile, loudly falling to the floor. Twilight Sparkle cracked open an eye to peek at the disarray, and the nearest book caught her attention. It was a very old volume, though new to the sorceress, and was more of a journal than a codex. Shortly after the Brave Companions had returned from Embariz, Celestia had sent Twilight Sparkle a collection of tomes to study, and this one had been among them. The great Star Swirl the Bearded had once owned this journal, and he had written down many of the incantations he’d invented in it as he developed them. A silk bookmark held open the page that Twilight had been studying the night before.

***
One Day Earlier

Twilight Sparkle set down her quill and turned to the next entry in Star Swirl the Bearded’s journal. A great sheaf of notes lay next to the ancient book, the pages covered in Twilight’s commentary on the great sorcerer’s works. Ever since Celestia had sent her this journal, she’d been fascinated by its contents. Not only did it contain hundreds of Star Swirl’s incantations, some of which weren’t widely known, but personal notes and assorted memos as well that provided a window into the sorcerer’s mind. In the back of her mind, she knew she was spending an inordinate number of hours reading it into the night by candlelight, and she promised herself that she would retire after reading just one more page.

On it, several lines were crossed out (not an uncommon occurrence in Star Swirl’s journal), leaving only two lines of text surrounded by various magical symbols with unknown purposes. They seemed somehow familiar to Twilight, but she couldn’t place them. There was nothing else on the page, and the opposite one was empty apart from minor ink stains. Perhaps it was some kind of note that the legendary sorcerer had written to himself.

“Tur sigil oro feye, feye oro sigil; sigil’r fet’r kuturimk plenti nolost mahlis^[2],” Twilight Sparkle read aloud, “What could that mean?”

Was Star Swirl trying to come up with a spell? It was unlike any kind of spell Twilight had ever seen. But if it was just a notation, what was Star Swirl trying to say? Furthermore, why had he never come back and finished a thought that was clearly unfinished? Had he run out of ink when crossing everything else out and decided to leave the lines? Twilight didn’t know, and she decided that she wouldn’t figure it out tonight. Stifling a yawn, she placed a bookmark in the journal, shut it, and went to bed.

***
One Day Later

Twilight Sparkle gazed in horror upon the book now. What have I done? One thing drilled into the mind of every sorceress was the danger in speaking the Language of the Horns aloud without intent. It was why they were forbidden from joining the priesthood, why most modern grimoires and treatises were written in High Equestrian instead of the archaic tongue. It had been the end of a long day and if she’d been fully awake, she would never have pronounced what was on the page, even if she was fairly certain it wasn’t an incantation she was reading. She’d thought it safe, especially since she wasn’t channeling any magical energy at the time; now, she realized her mistake.

The symbols upon the page were as familiar to her now as they were last night, but she finally remembered where she’d seen them before. At the Three Palaces of the Two Queens, before Nightmare Moon had shattered them, the Elements of Harmony had held these shapes. She looked at them now with wide eyes, all six gathered here so that she could run experiments on them. At first glance, they appeared as they always had, but further inspection revealed that something was amiss. The gemstones of each Element other than Twilight’s Element of Sorcery had been swapped. Rainbow Dash’s Element of Allegiance now rested in Rarity’s amulet, Rarity’s Element of Charity in Applejack’s amulet, and so on. Twilight hadn’t provided any magical energy for the spell, but the Elements of Harmony had plenty to spare. This pocket dimension that she was trapped in, this cursed world where her friends’ lives and destinies had been switched around, was of Twilight’s own creation.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Spike asked tentatively as the sorceress seemed to collapse in on herself.

“This is all my fault,” she sobbed quietly.

***

Twilight sought a way to reverse her terrible mistake, but every failure only added to the guilt. She’d doomed her friends, the ponies she most cared about in the world, to miserable existences that they didn’t even realize were wrong. Nothing she did or said could convince them of this, for they had memories of entirely different lives; they even expressed concern for her when she persisted in what she knew was true and they could not believe. She tried everything she could imagine, including the memory spell she had used to save them during Discord’s first return. Either they were enmeshed more firmly within the current sorcery or the memories that Twilight fed them were changed, but it was no use. It wasn’t just their memories that were different; the entire world within the pocket dimension had changed, and their lives and destinies along with it.

Every day, she searched for an answer. Every day, she tried to undo her unintentional harm. She saved Rarity from dying to the monsters she thought she knew how to slay, saw the druids of Ponieville become more overwhelmed as Rainbow Dash failed at her duties, watched ponies grow more irate as Fluttershy failed to lift their spirits, observed the Apples struggle as Pinkmena couldn’t keep up with the work, and witnessed Applejack produce terrible clothing designs and subpar metalwork. Every day, she struggled not to give in to despair.

“Twilight?” Spike asked hesitantly as he entered her bedchamber, a place where she’d been spending increasingly more time.

Tomes and crumpled sheets of parchment lay strewn around the room, piled up so high in some places that Spike had to walk around them. Twilight had drawn farther into herself each time she reached a dead end and isolated herself to do research, though all the failures were crushing her so that less research was done with each passing day. Spike pushed aside the magical aids lying deserted on the floor as he approached the sorceress who’d raised him, full of concern. Twilight Sparkle was lying on her bed, head on the windowsill, looking out on a dark and rainy Ponieville. The weather had been dreary ever since the split had occurred, matching Twilight’s mood. Her tears had stopped for the moment, but streaks remained in her coat, and her eyes were crusty and dry from their near-constant leaking.

“What can I do, Spike?” Twilight asked despairingly, not expecting an answer. “I’ve doomed them all.”

“You’ll find a way, Twilight. I know you will,” Spike reassured her.

“How could you possibly know that?” Twilight asked forlornly as she continued to stare out the window.

“Because you’re Twilight Sparkle, and you’re the pony that you are because of your friends,” Spike said as he hopped up on the bed next to her. “They’ve changed you, and you them. None of you could abandon the others in even a minor issue, so I know you won’t give up on them now.”

“You are right, Spike,” Twilight admitted, and her mood began to lift slightly, though hesitantly, not wanting to give in to hope just to have it shattered. “And you may have a point. None of us could abandon each other. Their destinies have been scattered, but the bond between us remains, even if none of them understand it. Perhaps … perhaps it is not me who is able to save them with my efforts; perhaps they must save each other.”

“Save each other?” Spike said quizzically as Twilight rose from the bed. “Um … how?”

“I do not know, Spike,” Twilight replied, looking more optimistic than he’d seen her in days. “But I must trust that they will be able to do it, and I cannot abandon them. Grab the Elements of Harmony, and let’s go.”

***

“I still don’t understand why you want me to help,” Fluttershy protested as she followed Twilight and Spike along the muddy path to what had formerly been her home. “If I can’t even do my own job, why should I be able to help Rainbow Dash with hers?”

“Trust me, you will,” Spike said, as weary as Twilight at trying to convince the Brave Companions of the truth.

“But, how am I supposed to do a druidess’s job?” Fluttershy asked. “I don’t know anything about dealing with animals. Oh, maybe I should go back to the bakery.”

“Even if you do not know anything about animals,” Twilight said, forcing the words out, “You do know about Rainbow Dash, do you not?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy admitted. “She is a good friend, loyal and true and … I’ll do everything I can to help her.”

“Good,” Twilight said as they arrived at Rainbow Dash’s home.

A great wave of noise was emananting from within the house under a tree—animal noises that didn’t sound happy. Rainbow’s muffled voice shouted from within, and the ponies and dragon rushed to open the door. It was complete chaos inside, the entire hovel packed with crawling, flying, and burrowing creatures all in an uproar. Across the room, Rainbow Dash was under assault by a bear and a cete of badgers; for the moment, she was safe behind a makeshift barricade of furniture, though it didn’t look like it would hold for long.

“Twilight! Fluttershy! Help me!” Rainbow called as she spotted them and ducked to avoid a raven’s dive at her head.

“Oh dear! Twilight, teleport her out or something!” Fluttershy cried.

“No, you must be the one to save her,” Twilight demanded while keeping her eyes on Rainbow Dash.

“But, I—” Flutterhsy protested.

“Rainbow Dash needs you, Fluttershy!” Twilight said firmly.

Hesitantly, Fluttershy stepped forward into the cloud of fighting animals, which miraculously parted before her. As she glanced at the animals around her and they responded to her gaze, she was overcome with a strange sense of déjà vu. She began to call out to the animals one by one, calming them down and surprising them as they could understand her words, a trait they could only remember being possessed by Rainbow Dash. Twilight trembled with anticipation as she heard the odd vibration in Fluttershy’s voice that meant she was communicating with the animals, something she never thought she was able to do. Spike held the Element of Compassion at the ready as Fluttershy neared Rainbow Dash.

“Now, is this any way to behave?” she asked, and the bear and badgers turned toward her quizzically. “Do you think that attacking ponies will get you what you want? How can I help you if you act like enemies?”

The badgers chattered, the bear growled, and Fluttershy nodded her head. “Yes, I understand. I’ll do what I can to help you, but first you must let Rainbow Dash go.”

Reluctantly, the creatures stalked away, allowing Rainbow Dash to poke her head up from behind her barricade.

“H-how?” she asked, looking around in wonder. “Fluttershy, how did you manage that?”

“I … don’t know,” Fluttershy said, struck by those strange almost-memories again. “I just … knew exactly what to do. I could understand them, and they could understand me. It’s almost like … everything is wrong, that my whole life I’ve been doing the wrong things, like this is my destiny!”

As Fluttershy had her epiphany, the Element of Compassion nearly leapt out of Spike’s claws to close around Fluttershy’s neck. Magic emanated from both Fluttershy and the amulet, bathing Twilight in the same power she’d felt when the Brave Companions had first discovered the Elements of Harmony and defeated Nightmare Moon. Fluttershy’s face lit up as years of memories were corrected, and everything that was wrong was made right.

“Fluttershy?” Twilight asked hopefully.

“I … it’s all so strange,” Fluttershy said confusedly, hoof to her forehead. “I have the strangest memories, as if I were Pinkamena and … what am I wearing?”

“Oh, Fluttershy, you are back!” Twilight exclaimed as she embraced her friend, tears flowing freely. “I thought I had lost you forever!”

“Goodness, Twilight,” Fluttershy said, surprised by this side of the sorceress that was seldom seen. “What happened?”

“I will explain everything,” Twilight promised as she reluctantly released her embrace. “On the way to find Rarity, before she gets into a fight with a monster that only Rainbow Dash can defeat.”

The cyan pegasus in her rumpled druidess robes frowned at the pair in utter confusion.

***

Everything seemed infinitely better to Twilight now that Fluttershy had returned to her true self and she wasn’t the only Brave Companion who understood the situation. Yet, there was still much to do. Four other ponies were ignorant of their true selves, and they needed each other to become who they were meant to be. Though Rainbow Dash had no idea why they were trying to get her to Rarity, she went along just as Fluttershy had; she couldn’t abandon a friend in need, even if she was convinced that there was no way she’d be able to make a difference. They reached Rarity as she was attempting to fight a drake. With Fluttershy’s prompting, Rainbow Dash rushed in to save her, realizing as she slew the beast what her true destiny was.

Hunter and druidess on Twilight’s side, they brought Rarity to her smithy next, where the unicorn who believed she was a Hunter learned that she was a far better smith and clothier, thanks to Rainbow Dash’s encouragement. Applejack had been forced to close the shop down, but with Rarity’s skill, ponies returned and clamored to buy the goods available. Rarity regained her memories and true self then, as Applejack watched in amazement.

From there, they went to the Apples’ lands, where the spring planting was a disaster. Rarity instructed Applejack to help, and help she did. Applejack learned the truth about herself and reunited with her family. Twilight’s spirits soared higher as she saw each of her friends return to who they truly were. The mistake she’d made was slowly being undone.

All together now, Applejack led Pinkamena into Ponieville to regale the sullen citizens with her songs and antics. Though confused, the spirits of the citizens rose as the town’s resident bard returned to them. At last, all the Brave Companions were restored to their true selves, but Ponieville remained cut off from the rest of the world. They finally reached a step that Twilight thought she could complete herself, but she didn’t want to do it alone.

All the Brave Companions, restored and eager to erase the oddness of the past week, went with Twilight to Golden Oak’s laboratory. Pushing piles of books aside until she found the proper volumes, Twilight frantically scratched down her plan to collapse the pocket dimension and return them to reality. The Elements of Harmony had provided the power that had constructed this cursed world, and they would provide the power to undo it. At her instruction, the Brave Companions formed a circle around Twilight, who was wearing the Element of Sorcery on her head. The sorceress reached out with her magic, easily harnessing the power of her own Element and all the Elements worn by her friends. She pressed outward to the edges of the pocket dimension and then beyond. It would take great effort to merge with reality, but she was confident she could do it. The Elements blazed with incredible light, and the magic threads that Twilight was weaving became visible even to those with no magical ability. The magic surrounded Twilight Sparkle as she allowed herself to become a conduit for the spell, directing and then releasing it as it shattered the boundaries between the pocket dimension and the real world.

The Brave Companions blinked away the afterimage of the spell to find that Twilight was no longer with them. Instead, all that remained was a burnt mark on the floor of Golden Oak’s laboratory where the sorceress had been standing. To all appearances, she’d sacrificed herself to free them, allowing the spell to consume her in the process. Each pony stood stunned for a moment before the shock and repercussions of what had just happened set in. Twilight had saved them, but she was now lost.

***

Twilight Sparkle also blinked away the afterimage of the spell, though she’d shut her eyes during the end as it had become too intense for her to look at from within. She stood upon the surface of an ocean filled with stars, a vast but bright nothingness above her. Having no idea where she was or how she’d gotten here, she reached out with her magic and recoiled in horror. She was still within the pocket dimension, only there was nothing within it anymore. She’d destroyed it and all her friends, instead of returning them to reality—leaving her all alone in a world of her creation and destruction.

“Twilight,” the echoing voice of Celestia came from behind the sorceress just as she was about to break down with grief.

“Celestia?” she asked in surprise, turning to face her mentor.

Celestia was there in the flesh, somehow, trotting upon the starscape. Ripples traveled out from where her hooves touched the ocean, and Twilight realized that her own movement had stirred up ripples in her wake. Celestia’s hair flowed as it always did, though here it seemed to actually match the light breeze that tousled Twilight’s own mane.

“How are you here? Where are we? What happened to my friends?” Twilight demanded to know.

“They are all safe, Twilight,” Celestia assured her. “You managed to do the impossible today. All of Cant’r Laht’s sorceress could not figure out how to mend the tear in reality around Ponieville, myself and Luna included, but you managed it. Twilight, I am so proud of you.”

“What is this place?” Twilight asked, looking around.

“This is my own personal pocket dimension. I haven’t been here in … oh, ages,” Celestia said wistfully. “You were in danger of burning yourself up with that spell, so I pulled you into here as soon as the tear was mended.”

“I … burning myself up?” Twilight asked.

“Yes. By all rights, that spell should have killed you,” Celestia said as she trotted up to stand directly before Twilight. “Only the Elements of Harmony or perhaps your friends acting as conduits saved you. If I were in your place, I would certainly have been turned to ash by such a spell. Twilight, I am so proud of you.”

“You keep saying you are proud of me, but why?” Twilight asked. “I was the one who caused this in the first place by unwittingly casting one of Star Swirl the Bearded’s unfinished spells.”

“Twilight, it is not what you did. Well, I suppose it is, in a way, but I am prouder of who you have become,” Celestia said, and she motioned for Twilight to walk alongside her.

Befuddled, the sorceress followed her mentor as they trotted across the starry ocean. Celestia reached out with her magic, and some of the stars rose up and breached the surface, becoming orbs within which Twilight could see images. They were memories—Celestia’s memories of her. She watched herself grow from that bright-eyed young filly out of her depth in the exam. She saw herself gain skills and knowledge on how to be a sorceress, and then when Celestia sent her off to Ponieville. She watched her and her friends as they got into scrapes, helped each other out; adventured to distant lands; learned of each other; and taught each other, Twilight especially.

“You are what I’d hoped to find when I began searching for an apprentice,” Celestia explained. “You are a sorceress of great skill and power, who has neither abandoned her ambition nor sacrificed others for that ambition. You are a good pony, far better than I.”

“That is not true, Celestia,” Twilight protested.

“Twilight, you have read the lost histories; you know that it is,” Celestia replied wearily. “I have done terrible things that now seem to have been needlessly committed. I have been a tyrant—perhaps a tyrant that Equestria needed, but a tyrant nonetheless. I am beginning to understand that. I once thought I should be the one to reunite Equestria, but I know now that it must be somepony else’s task. The pony that replaces me must be better than me.”

“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked warily, and she stopped suddenly. “Nopony could replace you.”

“You can … and you must,” Celestia said as she paused and turned to look back at Twilight. “I do not have long.”

“Do not say that,” Twilight pleaded.

“It’s the truth,” Celestia said firmly. “I am dying, Twilight. My power has been in decline since Nightmare Moon’s Rebellion, and the False Winter and has been rapidly accelerating the last century or so. My inability to stave off Nightmare Moon, or Discord, or even Queen Chrysalis, who should have been trivial to deal with, are merely the latest signs of my waning power. My body is breaking down as my power declines; I require fortifying herbs and potions just to get through the day. A few years, a decade perhaps, and then I will die.”

“I … I cannot possibly take your place,” Twilight said worriedly. “I am not even an …”

“An alicorn, yes,” Celestia said as the realization dawned on her apprentice’s face. “It is time for you to undertake the ritual and become an alicorn.”

“I am not ready,” Twilight protested. “I have not even extended my age!”

“Neither did Luna before her alicornification, nor did Cadence, and you are already more powerful than she is today,” Celestia said.

“That is not possible,” Twilight said in surprise.

“That you, a mere unicorn, should have more magical potential than an alicorn?” Celestia said. “No, it should not be possible, yet it is. The effects of the sonic rainboom or something else completely, I do not know—but trust me, Twilight, it is true. You are ready to become an alicorn, and you will be the most powerful alicorn the world has ever known.”

“This is all so sudden,” Twilight said as she tried to find something to lean against, forgetting that there was no elevation in this world.

“Do you have a plan?” Celestia asked with a wry smile.

“Well, yes, I do,” Twilight said, thinking back to what she’d sketched out from the tome on alicornification. “Of course, I think some modifications might be in order.”

“No doubt,” Celestia said happily as she watched her apprentice’s mind work. “Do you need any materials?”

“No,” Twilight said, surprising herself. “I do not believe I do.”

“I will leave you to proceed,” Celestia said with a nod. “When you are finished, simply open a portal to where you wish to go. There will be celebrations in Cant’r Laht, but I understand if you wish to reunite with your friends first.”

Celestia departed, vanishing through a portal to Cant’r Laht Castle. In Twilight’s mind, her new plan for the alicornification ritual crystalized. She had realized that she could draw everything she needed from Celestia’s pocket universe, and she set to work. The memories in the ocean beneath her hooves swirled around, serving the function a magical circle normally would. This world was inundated with magic, and Twilight reached out and drew upon it. Bands wove around her, twisting and twirling with mathematical precision to form the spell that would transform her. After what she had just done to save her friends, this would be simple.

Her friends. They awaited her, back in the real world. Had Celestia informed them of what had happened? What would they think when they realized that Twilight suddenly had vanished? Twilight Sparkle did not wish to worry them unnecessarily, so she needed to complete this ritual and return to them as swiftly as possible. Memory of them gave her strength as she wove the spell together and lifted off the ocean.

Her spell came to a crescendo, a dazzling storm of power and light, and she allowed it to penetrate her body. Organs shifted, bones lengthened, and flesh stretched to the breaking point as she transformed. The horn upon her head lengthened and sharpened, and glorious wings covered in lavender feathers burst from her back with bittersweet pain. Power rushed into her as her magical potential expanded rapidly. As she had gradually grown as a sorceress, she had never noticed her magical potential exceeding what was considered to be the upper limit of a mage … right before she spontaneously combusted. However, she knew that Celestia hadn’t been exaggerating; Twilight Sparkle was incredibly power. Now she was becoming even more powerful, her magical potential expanding to more than twice what she had possessed before undertaking the ritual.

Twilight Sparkle had achieved the ultimate, practically unreachable goal of every sorceress; she had become an alicorn. As a sorceress, she was as awestruck and pleased as she could possibly be, but it was not the most pressing though occupying her mind. The Brave Companions—her friends—were still awaiting her. As soon as her hooves settled back onto the glassy sea, she opened a portal to Golden Oak’s laboratory.

“Twilight!” Fluttershy exclaimed, the first to spot her as she trotted through, and the others quickly followed.

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Where did you go?” Rarity said.

“Are y’ alright?” Applejack asked with concern.

“You’ve got wings!” Pinkamena exclaimed.

They all looked a terrible wreck, and Twilight could see why. By all evidence in the room, she appeared to have been consumed in her attempt to free them, as Celestia had said she would have been. They’d thought her dead, and to see her alive in the flesh again, and as an alicorn, was a lot to absorb. She didn’t know exactly how long she’d been gone, but however much time had passed, none of them had changed out of their mismatched outfits. They had been too consumed with mourning Twilight’s loss to consider it.

“I am sorry. I did not plan to leave you, but—” Twilight said, but her apology was cut short as all five ponies and a very tearful dragon rushed to embrace her.

***

A short couple of days later, Twilight Sparkle stood before a crowd of sorceress and nobles in Cant’r Laht Castle’s great hall. The announcement of a new alicorn was something that would shake the sorcerous community of Equestria and beyond to its foundations. There were not only Cant’r Laht sorceresses in the crowd, but also representatives from the College of Eyes, the Candlebright Scholarate and the Conjurors of Embariz. Even with the Los Pegasan succession war still raging, Applewood Tower had also managed to send a delegation to witness the sixth alicorn to ever exist. Yliiena the First, Nostracom the Wise, Celestia, Luna, Cadence, and now Twilight Sparkle.

The celebrations held in the great mountainside city were to honor Twilight’s spectacular feat, but the ceremony she was now attending had other political intentions. Ever since Cadence had signed the North’s Grand Ducal Charter the previous autumn and revoking her right to inherit the Crown of Cant’r Laht, Twilight Sparkle had been Celestia and Luna’s heir. Now, when Twilight had achieved alicornhood, was the perfect time to officially proclaim her as Crown Princess of Cant’r Laht, and there was nothing Celestia’s vassals could do about it. However, that wasn’t the only thing about this that annoyed the members of the Lodge of Sorceresses in the crowd. The date of Twilight’s appointment as crown princess and celebration of ascending to alicornhood was the vernal equinox, when they had hoped to force Celestia and Luna to give them more favorable terms than the charter they’d signed the previous year.

Twilight would not let the scheming of the Cant’r Laht nobles ruin this day for her, though she would need to pay closer attention from now on. Before, her position as Celestia and Luna’s heir had seemed a faraway matter, but after Celestia’s revelations about her own declining health and power, the time when Twilight would have to take over the Kingdom of Cant’r Laht might be sooner than she’d imagined. Was Luna in a similar state? Twilight was beginning to notice things about her mentor that she never had before, signs that all was not well; she thought she also could see some of those in Luna, now that she was aware. She was worried about the two ancient alicorns, but those concerns would have to wait for another time. Today, she had to press on and to take her place as Crown Princess Twilight Sparkle of Cant’r Laht. At least she would not be alone; her friends—gathered directly before her in the crowd—would remain at her side, and none of them would ever abandon each other.

Comments

[TasermonsPartner]

This was an excellent chapter, especially for a chapter that mirrors an episode from the show! The changes were enough to make it more interesting, but it still fit the characters and their personalities, and the heavy emphasis on Twilight's bonds with her friends and their bond with each other.

It is interesting how the barrier around Ponieville didn't even allow physical movement in and out of the dome. Many towns set in these time periods were mostly self-sustaining, so they may not have necessarily noticed the lack of visitors, but did that mean that Ponieville's residents minds were altered to not notice, or did anypony else able to pass through the barrier just have their memories altered not to notice the barrier?

Twilight's ceremony was kinda skimmed over; there could've easily been another chapter just for that event and the intrigue and political ramifications that it involved, maybe even the Companions foiling another plot to try and stop or alter it. Also, it could've been a great opportunity to involve Twilight's family, which are mostly ignored in all her major moments in the show, but which you've placed some more emphasis on here.

Still, great chapter that really captures the feel of the show, while staying true to the story's setting.