Returning The Elements
As the group arrived at what seemed to be a path into the forest, they couldn’t but look back at all that had happened. After being gripped by nostalgia, Rarity spoke first, after a sigh of reflection. “To think it’s been a year since we started heading into these woods to reach the Castle of The Two Sisters and use the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon.” She sighed again before she continued, “and yet so it feels like that was only yesterday. Where has the time gone?” she asked rhetorically.
Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle as she too looked back on their first adventure together, “Yeah I was so foolish, I thought I could confront her all on my own, but now I know that with you all I can do anything.”
“But we were and still are awesome! Woo-hoo!” Rainbow Dash cheered.
“Yay us!” Pinkie emulated with grander gusto in a high school cheerleader uniform and pompoms.
After everyone had a laugh over it that, Fluttershy addressed another aspect of all the last year, “And yet with everything that has happened in our lives, are we certain that it has only been a year?” Fluttershy asked pointing out how much happened that year.
Pinkie then jumped in on that expanding on it, “Totally, with Discord breaking free, Twilight’s brother’s wedding, the Gala, the whole Nightmare Rarity thing, the return of Krystalopolies, Reforming Discord, that incident with Trixie and the Alicorn Amulet, the completion Star Swirl’s unfinished spell, the whole thing with traveling through that mirror to get our Elements back from Sunset and her cohorts,” Pinkie then paused in thought as she looked over that last one, “granted we couldn’t have done that last one without Flash,” that last statement caused Twilight to blush a deep red near purple, which was not lost on anyone. However before anyone could address it, Pinkie Pie continued but now addressing some of the things that were much less life-threatening, “and that’s not including everything non-world threatening, like Rainbow Dash taking Scootaloo on as a sister, Rainbow Dash getting into the Wonderbolts Academy, Rarity scoring that fashion deal with Sapphire Shores, my disastrous cloning attempt, Spike becoming bipedal, there was just so much.”
“We certainly accomplished so much,” Rarity commented with a sigh of joy. “Even with some assistance here and there.”
“That only makes us all the more awesome! Bo-yah!” The elementalist cheered, earning a happy laugh from everyone including herself.
After the laugh was all, Applejack had a slight frown, “While Ah ain’t inclined to repeat everything that happened a year ago, yah know the undead, the doppelgangers, the werewolves, Rep, Steve Magnus, the satyrs, The Tantabus, twice, Nightshade, Hydia, Catrina, Grogar, Nightmare Moon,” Applejack listed off earning a groan from everyone else. “But if memory serves, wah used a skyboat to get part of the way through and our plan was to fly all the way there. Also don't cha have a new one Twi, the one we used to get to Chantalot when Discord got out. Ah know ya piloted back tah Magiville after we all were… discord-ed,” Applejack was asking without actually asking about the newer sky boat that Twilight got on her birthday.
“Hold on,” Twilight said as she summoned her tome, and started turning the pages until she found the page with her skyboat on it. “Yep, I still have it. I had it christened Kokab.” Twilight then placed her right hand on the page and held her left hand out and the depiction of the Kokab vanished from the page as said skyboat appeared almost in front of the seven. “Alright everyone, next stop The Castle of The Two Sisters,” Twilight said everyone boarded the craft. “Can you imagine what would've happened if we tried to go on foot?” Twilight asked more or less rhetorically.
Pinkie Pie, however, elected to answer after she took a deep breath and going at a neck break pace, “We could have come across a river with a cragadile, said cragadile would have attacked us, we would barely escape, but after almost losing you, Mystica’s last princess, well until Cadance arrives from Krystalopolies, we would have reluctantly told you to go back as we looked for the tree. Once back in Magiville Discord would throw your new title back in your face citing that you elected to protect yourself given your new rank and risk our lives, which is totally not cool on Dissy’s part because we sent you back in the first place. Anyhow you would be compelled to come back to help us and might in up in a damsel in distress or d.i.d. situation. All the while we’d be at each other’s throats, Dashie would ask if any of us thought if this was a lost cause, but ultimately we’d realize sending you back was a big mistake, but just in the nick of time and we’d save you from whatever caught you and we’d all realize we work the bestest as a group.” Pinkie then took a break with a ‘phew’ and wiping her brow, only to continue at a normal pace, “Well, it’s a good thing Applejack remembered this skyboat or else we would have to have learned a lesson we already knew in one of the hardest ways possible. To The Tree of Harmony!” Pinkie finished ending it all as she stood on the bow of the boat and pointed deep into the Everfree, somehow dressed like a stereotypical pirate captain, the tricorner hat with big feathers and all. All the while her friends just stared at her befuddled, as the Kokab took to the air and was above the treeline before it started towards its destination.
“Anyone want to question that?” Spike asked.
“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.” The five others said in unison, it was not in an ordering tone, but more of a mantra used to calm themselves and keep their focus.
“A simple ‘no’, would have been enough. So who’s piloting this thing?” Spike asked as he pointed out that no one was at the helm.
“Oh..” all the girls realized as Twilight and Applejack went to the helm.
“Let me, Sugarcube, Ah got gloves.” Applejack said as Twilight stepped aside and Applejack started to steer the ship.
As the ship started to fly, “Say why didn’t you and our sisters use this to reach the castle while I was processed by Nightmare Moon?”
“A skyboat would’ve been spotted long before it got there,” Applejack pointed out. That seemed to answer Rarity’s concern and everyone else seemed to go along with that. Twilight, however, knew that it didn’t actually answer Rarity’s question, but one of the things Celestia, Luna, Cadance and even Sunset said to her was that sometimes it’s best to let an equivocation made in your defense go unclarified.
After about ten minutes of flight in relative silence among the group, Spike, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow were playing Old Maid and Spike just got out first, winning the game, Fluttershy was looking over the forest seeing the black thorny vines, the small contortions on her face indicated that she remembered those vines like a fleeting moment in a dream but couldn’t remember where. Twilight was reading her tome as if trying to find a spell. Applejack, however, knew that there was something that had to be said and if no one else was going to bring it up, “Hey Twi, ya got a plan tah help the Tree of Harmony? Wah tried using fire on those thorny vines back at Sweet Apple Temple, it didn’t work.” Applejack, however, never lost sight of the route she was piloting the Kokab on, but it was something that needed to be said.
Everyone else stopped what they were doing as they turned to the paladin and then to Twilight after she put the book away. “Well if dragon fire doesn’t work…” Twilight started but stopped as she took off her tiara and held it as she looked at the Element of Magic. She then heard Celestia’s voice repeat something in her mind, “Even without the Elements, the Tree has a powerful magic. As long as that magic remains, it will maintain all that grows here.” Twilight then looked up and looked at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and then to Applejack, more so at each of their Element. She took a breath before she continued, “We might have to return the Elements to the Tree.”
Everyone’s jaw dropped save Applejack’s with a ‘wha!’ of clear befuddlement. Rainbow closed her eyes and shook her head as she was the first of the rest to recover from the idea, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down!” the speed junkie wanting things to come to a stop. “How are we gonna protect Mystica if we give these bad boys up?” She asked as she tapped the Element of Loyalty on her neck, revealing her hand, unintentionally showing the Queen of Spades.
“HA! I knew Dashie has the Old Maid!” Pinkie pointed out with some glee.
“Pinkie!” Rarity scolded, “You know better than to look into someone else’s hand, even when they unwittingly expose it.” Rarity then turned from Pinkie back to Twilight, “However, Dashie is right to question this plan. How are we will rein Discord in if he gets out of line? These are the only things keeping him in check. And it was because Discord was on the loose If we give them back to the Tree, assuming that we can if we can't turn him back to stone?” Before she could feel the slightly annoyed glare from Fluttershy, “Yes, yes, yes, I know you are trying to be his friend, but he’s still so chaotic, how do we know it will hold from beyond the grave.”
“Ah’d say, ‘oh ye of little faith’, but that’s a pot and kettle situation.” Applejack informed. “Ah ain't too keen on the idea either, being a paladin and such, but wah might not have a choice, even if it means giving up one of the things that connect us.” Everyone dipped their heads with a slight tear forming in the corners of each of their eyes. Everyone silent for a while as the gravity of the return of the Elements of Harmony to the Tree suck in. It meant more than the giving up of the symbol of their unity, it meant the end of an era.
And yet as the Castle was still a little way off, a smile started to form on Twilight’s face as she looked back up and faced Applejack, “You're right, Applejack, the Elements of Harmony are a symbol of our friendship and they are something that connects us.” Twilight then looked to each of the others as their heads started to raise, “But the Elements are not the only things that connect us, all the time we spent together, the sharing of our dreams and accomplishment, from what children and grandchildren Cadance and Shining may have, to the all the plants and animals that reside in Sweet Apple Temple and in all of Magiville, to Discord giving himself any moment of pause before he sows chaos, to the relationship between Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, to … well all the Lives we have touched and all their descendants and each and every accomplishment we helped them all with and every accomplishment built on those, our friendship will survive in all that, long after we are gone, much like how Mystica is the way it is, the accomplishments of each and everyone touch directed or indirectly by Princess Celestia over the last thousand years, by her and Princess Luna since they ascended to rule until Luna’s fall, and by the six main founders before them.” Twilight then stopped as she let her words sink in not only for her friends but for herself. “And all that is more powerful than any magic.”
While this did bring some comfort to what they all began to realize they had to do, but they were all clearly still hesitant, after a few seconds of silence Pinkie Pie spoke, “It looks likes are going to change, aren’t they? Our friendship with each other, all that has brought us together and connected us.” Pinkie then sighed before she continued, “I guess we never really thought about all this stuff when you become a princess.”
“Yeah… kinda sucks, we weren’t friends all that long, well all six of us…” Rainbow Dash started only to get an annoyed glare from Spike. “Um…. seven of us. And so much has changed so quickly…” Rainbow trailed off with a sigh, this was something she wished would slow down.
Twilight took in the vocalized and unspoken concerns of her friends and realized even now, in what seemed to be a low point, everything was going to work out, however, she also knew her friends needed reassurance, “My new role will mean I will take on new responsibilities, and our friendships will be tested,” Twilight started, she knew that these were inescapable facts, their friendships will be tested but she also knew that it was not the only thing that was true, that their friendship was stronger, they were able to pull together after being Discorded, they fought against Chrysalis’ invasion, they managed to exorcise Nightmare Moon out of Rarity, they managed to divide and allocate their resources to stop Sombra, they were able to help each other rediscover themselves after the uncompleted spell was cast, and all the other things they have overcome signifying the strength of their friendship, “but it will never, ever be broken,” Twilight declared resolute in her confidence. Everyone else smiled, they still had their doubts, but they were going to give it a shot, they came this far already.
About a minute later they arrived at the Castle of The Two Sisters and they saw a cluster of twenty-six men and women, half the group were dressed in black studded leather armor with full moon silver and lunar eclipse red stitched in to make designs of lunar symbols and animals affiliated with the moon and night and they were all Nightborn, the other half of the lot were wearing not the standard golden armor of the main ESM but wore solar red and solar orange armor of various degrees, a few had full plate, some had half-plate, others wore mail, some, however, had padded robes and were of all three main races. “Hail Princess Twilight!” one of the Nightborn, a woman, about fifteen years older than Twilight and an Earthborn man about the same age said in unison as they saluted Twilight. The rest genuflected to Twilight.
Twilight looked at them, “I only asked for the Order of Shadow to search here,” she commented confused at the presence of the thirteen others.
“With all due respect, your Highness, after Princess Luna’s return we have been rechristened the Order of Nox, I am the new Grandmaster, The Slumbera is my title.” The woman said as she and the man ended the salutes and the rest got back to standing up.
“As for myself and the rest of the Order of Diem, we were already here, under the order of Princess Celestia, as such we offered to help our siblings-in-arms,” the man that saluted with The Slumbera informed. “We have not found the princesses and nothing that might explain all that is happening so far beyond these strange black thorny vines that seem to be coming from a cave in the ravine down there.” he pointed to black vines and where they grew from.
At that moment Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide as she dashed over to the vines, “I remember these vines.” She turned to face her friends and the two orders gathered, “I called them to help me with the werewolves and Catrina.” Fluttershy froze in slight horror, “Did I cause this?”
“I doubt it, darling, they weren’t here when I fixed the place up.” Rarity said, “So the vines are coming from down there and there is a cave in that ravine, well how do we get down there?”
“USE THE STAIRS, SILLY!” Pinkie shouted from the bottom of the set of states that lead from close to the castle all the way down to the cave.
“How did she…” one of the Nightborn members of the Order of Nox started to ask as he looked down the ravine to see Pinkie at the bottom of the stairs, along with everyone else.
“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.” Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Spike more or less chanted in unison as they all started down the stairs, save Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who flew down. After they all regrouped they followed the vines into the cave and gasped at what they saw. The Tree of Harmony was wrapped up by the black vines and they were squeezing it, choking it, like bittersweet that had run rampant. Spike ran up to some of the vines and started to breathe fire on it, to little effect.
“Looks like you were right.” Spike comment as he jumped back from the vines as one of them tried to swap him.”You’re going to have to give the Elements back.”
Twilight then took a breath and look to her friends, “There's no time to lose. everybody ready?” she asked. They all nodded in response as they all walked around Twilight arranging themselves in front of Twilight and to her side like their group photo. They all shut their eyes, at that moment each of their aurae started to manifest itself around them her in a bubble. From the Element of Magic came five streams of magic that reached to the other Elements.
They all opened their eyes, but unlike each previous use, they weren’t fields of white, but their irises changed to look like a rainbow. “TREE OF HARMONY, WE, THE BEARERS OF HARMONY, RETURN THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, YOUR FRUIT, TO YOU!” they said in their seventh voice. Their individual auras merged as one as The Elements of Harmony started to leave from the necklaces and tiara that housed them.
The vines seemed to sense the Element’s return and started to seen vines to stop them. “Hey, Sugarcube what was that spell you tried on Nightmare Moon?” Applejack asked as they all witnessed the plants trying to prevent the Element’s return.
“Azarath Metrion Zinthos,” Twilight answered but she shook her head a little not sure about using that spell, “but it didn’t work then.”
“You want us to trust you, darling, well it requires you trusting us.” Rarity said to Twilight. Twilight nodded in acceptance as they all turned to face the vines.
“On the count of three.” Pinkie started off as everyone drew or conjured their weapons.
“One,” Fluttershy started the actual count as her and Twilight's staffs and Pinkie Pie's mallet started to glow the colors of their respective Elements.
“Two” came Rainbow Dash continued the count as her bow, Applejack's sword and Rarity's gloves also started to glow the colors of their respective Elements.
“Three,” the six said together and then shouted “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” and from their hearts came six beams of light, the one from Twilight was violet, from Applejack was a light orange, from Rainbow Dash the light was light blue, from Pinkie Pie was pink, from Rarity was white and from Fluttershy was light yellow These beams merged to form a more powerful beam that blasted the vines away from the Elements and far enough from the Tree to prevent another attempt. The Elements then returned to the branches they came from with The Element of Magic going to the truck right where Twilight’s aura mark was. Once there all the black vines started to dissolve into little more than specks of light, the moon and set and the sky was a proper sky just before midday.
“WE DID! WOH OH! BOO-YAH! Who’s the bestest and the coolest and the awesomest! We are! Yeah Yeah, We are! Woo-hoo!” Rainbow Dash cheered as she did her own little victory dance.
“It’s a good thing Discord isn’t here to record that,” came a familiar maiden like voice. Rainbow Dash stopped and everyone turned to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Celestia was still in her flannel pajamas while Luna was in her night sky black gothic dress, a choker with a crescent moon on her neck, her black and silver knee boots and blueish gray gloves with her black tiara on her head. “Although you might want to work on your posture, Miss Dash. You could throw out your hip if you're not careful.”
Back in Magiville as the vines continued to run rampant Discord just sat back on some of the vines like a hammock and soaked in the chaos, just the vines dissolved into little more than light causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. As he got back to his feet he saw everyone cheering as the vines vanished and the sky was a normal near noon sky in addition to the restoration of the order therein, “Oh, poo.” Discord pouted while sensing that someone was giving him a smug grin. Discord turned to see that it was Zecora, “Oh so I am supposed to take on the mantle of Twilight’s ‘advanced studies’,” Zecora nodded. “Fine,” Discord then snapped his fingers free from the gauntlet and was dress in a gray suit with a white long sleeve shirt, a black tie, and black short brim fedora, “But I’ll do it my way!” he sang.
Back at the Tree of Harmony Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight et al looked at the tree, with the Elements of Harmony in their respective places. Celestia placed her left hand on Twilight’s right shoulder comfortingly, “It must have been difficult for you to return the Elements to the Tree. To be honest, I am not sure if I would have done it.” Twilight turned to see Celestia give her a smile that was equally sad and reassuring. “I am proud of you nonetheless.” Celestia then looked to the other former bearers, “All of you. You gave up something so close to you all on the off chance that it would save Mystica and the world at large.”
“Such a feat took no small amount of courage. And while We can see it still pains you to have relinquished them. We also see you knew it was the right thing to do.” Luna added trying to further assure the six. They all turned and started to the stairs when they felt a small rumbling of the earth. They turned back to the tree to see a box with eight sides come from the trunk of the tree from an area that had no markings. A crystal pedestal then formed from the bottom of the box as it stopped about two meters from the tree.
Twilight, Celestia, and Luna walked up to the newly appeared box, the three were confused as was everyone else. The box was crystal, like the Tree, but as bizarre as its sudden appearance a, six of which had a keyhole, and on the top of the box was a rendering of Twilight’s aura mark. As the three princesses looked the box over, they were joined by the five other bearers and Spike. All of them were silently observing this box and the six keyholes. Twilight was the first to speak, electing to get to the heart of the matter, “What's inside it?” she asked, more as she turned to Celestia and Luna, being that had been the only other people she knew that interacted with the Tree, she concluded that they might have some clue.
“This is rather baffling, We have never seen anything like that ever before,” Luna commented her left hand holding her chin inquisitively. Celestia only shrugged her shoulders.
Seeing that she was no closer to solving the riddle of this box, “Well then how do I open it?” Twilight asked. It was admittedly presumptuous on her part that the box was indeed intended for her, but it did have her aura mark on it. She then tried to lift it, but it was not going anywhere.
Luna looked at the box once more before she turned to Twilight, “Given that there are six locks that don’t seem to match, We would guess with six separate keys.” she surmised.
“I do not know where any of them where they are,” Celestia added after a few seconds of thought. She then turned to, and in her turn directed Twilight’s gaze to, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie as a small smile formed on her face, “But I do know you will not solving this alone, Twilight.”
A couple of minutes later as the nine reached the top of the stairs, having left the box there, only to be greeted by a set of banners depicting the six former bearers as conquering heroes, then Discord appeared with a sport jersey with a logo that looked like Twilight’s aura mark with her friends’ aura mark in lieu of the five smaller stars with the number six on the back. He started to cheer mockingly, “Bravo, ladies, bravo! Excellent job!” Discord continued this mock cheering has he changed his attire to match something like what Fancypants would wear and conjured an army of himself in the same attire to perform a standing ovation and applauded the six. The main Discord then vanished and appeared among the six and pulled them into a group hug,“how did you save the day this time?” He asked clearly mocking. “Blasted with the Elements of Harmony, I presume?” He then noticed that Twilight’s tiara was missing the Element of Magic and the other’s necklace were also missing their respective Elements, “Where are those little trinkets anyway?” he asked in legitimate confusion as he banished his army of doppelgangers and started popping into the empty spaces of the necklaces and tiara.
The six looked down at the ground with a slight frown on their faces, none of them wanted to say it and yet, they knew they had to. Applejack gave a grieving sigh and simply said, “Gone.”
Discord returned to his normal size and was utterly bewildered and befuddled, “Gone?” he asked, the six young women then nodded in silence. “Gone?” He asked as he looked at the sky, a huge evil smile starting to form on his face.
As he was about to burst into joy and celebrate the removal of the one thing he feared, Fluttershy floated up and looked him straight in the eye as her face started to look like a parent about to scold a child. “But our friendship remains, Discord,” she reminded him, causing him to gulp, “And if you want us to remain friends,” she continued to speak Discord shrank to half his size and then half that size, then half that size, and continued to shrink as Fluttershy spoke. “you'll not think what you’re thinking and you will help clean this up.” Fluttershy finished with Discord as small as a speck of dust in front of her. Her face then changed into a big wide-eyed smile, “Please…” she requested.
Discord, still in the tiny size groaned, “Fine.” He then flashed and appeared in his proper size in a black and white maid’s dress with a feather duster, “But I don't do windows.” he finished as he held his nose up and closed his eyes as he walked towards town ahead of the others.
As they all rolled their eyes at the Erisadies’ antics, save one. Applejack was holding her chin in her right hand in though and seemed to have a hard time trying to figure out something, “What is is Applejack?” Rarity asked.
“Why did all this happen now?” Applejack asked, “None of this makes a lick of sense.”
Just then Discord, appearing back in his new clothes and the size of a small frog on Applejack’s head, stroking his goatee legitimately perplexed about something, “I have no idea.” He answered and step back to the ground and grew back to his normal size, “Oh don’t get me wrong, I love chaos, but those plundervine seeds should have sprouted ages ago.” Discord commented as he continued to walk ahead as everyone stopped.
Twilight froze and then started to breathe as if to contain her anger, “What did you say?!”
Discord saw this and with a smirk on his face, “Oh, why should I try to explain it when you can see for yourself?” he asked and he placed his finger on Twilight's tiara.
“Not again…” Twilight groaned as everything around her and her friends, Celestia, Luna, and Discord vanished in a flash.
At the end of the flash Twilight and the others were back on the Non-Sequitur and saw that neither Celestia nor Luna was amused nor were they surprised by the switching of their hair by Discord. They were resolute in what they were there to do. “It’s over,” Celestia said as she and Luna looked at each other and nodded before they levitated the Elements of Harmony out of the satchels they brought.
Discord mindlessly reached into the popcorn bag and was about to put some more of the candy into his mouth, all the while spilling the candy all over the deck, “Oh, I doubt that.” After munching on the candy for a bit and with it still in his mouth, “Hungry?” getting no answers beyond a set of scowls from the sisters, “Suit yourselves.” Discord was about to go back to munching on his snack when he finally noticed the gems floating around Celestia and Luna. “Oh! What have you got there?” He asked as he threw his popcorn box over the deck of the boat.
Twilight et al the followed the discarded popcorn box of candy to the ground and say the black candy seem to take root like seeds, Discord then started to comment, “Well, obviously my original plan…”
“Fell like a rock.” Pinkie joked cutting it, getting a couple of laughs from the others and a groan from Discord.
“Begrudgingly, that is true.” Discord then pointed to the seeds as they starting to grow, “However, I did have a backup plan. You see, I heard of the Tree of Harmony and I thought it might somehow stop me. So I created these plundervines to attack the tree. It turns out it also captured Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Yet they should have strangled the Tree thousands of moons ago, but not quite two thousand years ago.” All the while the group traveled along the growing vines to the Tree of Harmony, “Alas, the Tree had enough magic to keep the seeds from growing. Until recently, that is.” Discord then snapped his fingers and they all returned to the present.
Everyone turned to Discord with slight scowls on their faces, however Twilight’s skin turned a bleached white, her eyes become field of bright red and her hair became flames, as she flew up to Discord and pointed at Discord, gritting her teeth, “You realize that was information we could have used hours ago?!”
Discord snapped his fingers and conjuring a bucket of water and dumping it on Twilight, dousing her and having her return to normal. With a smirk on his face, he leaned in with his face almost touching Twilight, “But what kind of friend would I be if I robbed you of a valuable lesson about being a princess?” He then snapped his fingers and was gone with the mess he was ultimately responsible for was cleaned up.
Twilight gave a tired sigh, she clearly did not like looking forward to Discord out and about without the Elements of Harmony to keep some sort of check, but was done was done, and she had to place her trust in Fluttershy’s friendship with him. With the entire mess cleared up thanks to Discord, Twilight turned to Celestia because there was something that bothered her, a minor thing but still, “Excuse me, Princess Celestia, may I know, why did you order the Order of Diem to come here.”
“Well, it’s time to let this spot go. Let the Everfree Forest take it back.” Celestia said as she turned to the castle, “I ordered them to conduct an inventory of all the content and the material because I am going to have it torn down, it will take a while before it comes down, there is so much to do, this year is the year of the Mystica Games, the first with not only Luna, but with Cadance as more than just a spare and with you, in addition to the first in which both Magiville and Gryphonstone will both field teams and the first ever with Krystalopolies...” Celestia presented in a list, it was clear that while she might not have liked the end of one age, she was letting it pass so that the next age could prosper.
“Ages just seem to end and start left and right, don’t they Sister,” Luna commented as they all started to leave the grounds, leaving the Order of Nox and Diem to complete the inventory, “We are going to miss this place. But our time here has waned and is waxing elsewhere.”
Just before dawn the next day, as a fair number of the residents of Chantalot were looking up to a stage located just outside of the castle. On said stage were two temporary thrones, one was on the western side and was in line with where the moon was going to set. Itself was designed to look like a crescent moon on the top and actually ‘catch’ it. On the other side to the eastern side of the platform was the other temporary throne, it, however, was more solar-themed and it looked like it would ‘hold’ the sun after it rose. Seated on the lunar throne was Luna with Celestia in the solar-themed throne. In front of Celestia was a microphone for her to speak. In the crowd were Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. They and the rest of the attendees were reverently quiet.
There was a trumpet and other fanfare just as the last seconds of night past until Celestia raised her right hand to speak, all else were quite as she got up and walked up to the microphone, “Citizens of Mystica, this Summer Sun Celebration marks something new. For a thousand years it was used to,” Celestia paused before her voice could break, she had to keep herself together, she still needed to show the assuring face she longed project on this day,… mark the banishment of Nightmare Moon. But this year no longer. For the first time in over a millennium, it is no longer with a heavy heart but with great joy that I usher in the day.” Celestia floated up and as she did the sun started to rise as. For this celebration now represents not the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but the return of my sister, Princess Luna.” Celestia then turned to have her back to the east and slowly rose from the ground as did the sun while Luna also got up and lowered the moon.
As Princess Celestia and Princess Luna took their seat on the throne Princess Twilight flew above at high speeds, causing a sonic boom that projected her aura mark with her friends' aura marks in between the points of the main star in the sky above the space between the two thrones. Everyone in attendance cheered at the sight. “I thought her that.” Rainbow Dash gloated as she looked at her left hand after bending the fingers in towards the palm and a massive and well-earned smug smirk on her face.
Epilogue
Elsewhere, a massive dog, larger than any of the houses in Magiville walked in a place full of cracks, and mist. The dog looked like it was an ancient mastiff-like breed known as molossus, but in addition to its sheer size, it had several noticeable differences from the breed in question. It had three heads, it’s tail was actually a snake with its own head and over its body, a century of snakes took residents within its fur. This dog was Kerberos, better known as Cerberus and had many titles, namely ‘the guard dog of Tartarus’, ‘warden of the damned’, and ‘jailor of the irredeemable’. Cerberus was on one of his patrols, checking the inmates of the prison. The count had been consistent with each of his last patrols, there were only a few beings down there. However, when he reached an empty cage, he realized he was one inmate short. Cerebus growled this was not good… not good at all. Next to the cage was a plaque, on which was written the inmate’s crime, sentence, titles is any, and name in that order. ‘Crimes: Theft of Mystic's subjects’ inherent magic, forced transmutation of sentient and sapient beings, enslavement, patricide, matricide, attempted genocide, attempted regicide. Sentence: Eternity in Tartarus caged with power drain at a rate of 50% of power every femtosecond. Inmate’s Title: The Lord Midnight Castle. Inmate’s Name: Tirek.’
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Nice deconstruction of the first part, as enlightened by Pinkie.
And sure you will have a lot of work for the future!
8205962 Well I considered doing the scenes Pinkie tells about, but I thought... wait didn't I already establish that they could fly there and that they know where the Tree is, and the only reason they sent Twilight back was that they didn't know where the Tree was... so why make things harder than they need to be physically when what needed to be focus on was the actual sacrifice of the Elements back to the Tree and the emotional toll therein.
Noticed a few typos
Hey there. Thanks very much for getting this chapter up. Excellent job, of course, on the action, emotional content, characterizations, logical changes, main story wrap-up and future story set-up. Tirek's rap sheet was VERY appropriately unnerving (particularly because he is going to be the main villain in a near-future story). I also really liked the recap of so many of the heroes' past adventures during the journey. All in all, superb work.
That part where Pinkie recaps what actually happened in canon was great. Also, I'm guessing the theme of the next few stories involve embracing change. Nice to see the two sisters get into the spirit of that theme.
8406335
next story to actually go up will be my take on the Season 4 finale, then the other Seasons openers and finale with this AU's answer to Rainbow Rocks and maybe more of EQG
Wait, hold on. Tirek is from Midnight Castle, as in the place Cinch currently rules. Is this connection going to be important later? It's got "Chekhov's Gun" written all over it.
8406693
Wait and see
9039779
yes
Oh! Thx
9039785
I don't understand the question.
I mean thank you for fixing it
9039802
Fixing what dare I ask?