A Year in Equestria

by Blade Star

Chapter 5 - May

My breaths came in sudden starting gasps. The brown paper bag wasn’t helping much, and I was acutely aware of the worried looks I was getting from, well, pretty much everypony around me. Apple Bloom, being the youngest, looked the most worried, but both Big Mac and AJ looked concerned, with the latter tenderly rubbing my shoulder and doing her best to calm me down.

“It’s okay, sugarcube,” she said soothingly. “Just breathe and you’ll be fine.” I managed to pull my head up for a few moments and get a few words out at a time.

“Fine?” I asked, before resuming the huffing and puffing. The crinkling of the paper bag was getting irritating.

“The princesses know what they’re doin’,” AJ went on. I wasn’t about to let that side.

“Celestia,” I said breathlessly.

Another drag on the paper bag.

“Has completely.”

Another.

“Lost her.”

And another.

“Mind!” I exclaimed. “Only explanation!”

That stringing of words together caused me to start feeling more than a little faint, and I was soon back to happily hyperventilating.

I’m not normally one given to panic attacks. Don’t get me wrong, I get scared plenty, to the point that I’d say, much to my discredit, I can be quite cowardly at times, but I hadn’t been like this since I was a little kid. What was causing it you ask? Well, allow me to turn the clock back about a few hours or so and I’ll tell you.

---

It all started early that morning. Applejack and I were going on a sweep around the farm, checking the fences, as well as checking in on the new saplings that we’d planted to replace those lost to that storm back in April. As we rolled on into May, the weather had really begun to warm up as summer bore down on us. Back home, this was when I’d need to start taking my hayfever medication, as I prepared for about nine weeks of moderate to massive discomfort thanks to a malfunctioning immune system. Here though, I could quite happily enjoy the smell of freshly cut grass, help with the hay cutting, and even pick flowers for my marefriend, without reducing myself to a snot nosed and all but blind mess.

Above us the birds were tweeting their songs, a soft wind flitted through the trees, complimenting the sound of the laughing brook nearby. All seemed right with the world.

At least until Twilight Sparkle teleported directly in front of us. She had that look in her eye. She was ‘Twilighting’. Pinkie came up with the term, and at this point, it’s all but in the Oxcolt Ponish Dictionary. Twilighting describes the time whenever Twilight gets herself stressed about something, usually fairly minor, be that sending a friendship report, returning a library book late, going out on the town with her friends, or being asked to help Shining and Cadence save the Crystal Empire. Whenever Twilight is Twilighting, the only thing you can do is pray to Celestia that it’s not you she’s interested in. And as luck would have it, I might as well have been invisible to her; Applejack was her target. We both stopped dead in our tracks as the manic looking alicorn appeared in our path.

“Applejack!” Twilight exclaimed, grabbing her by the foreleg. “Quick. We have to get to Canterlot! The princesses need us! Come on! There’s no time to waste!”

Applejack however, is not a mare to be rushed. Using her superior strength, she managed to extract herself from her excited friend’s grip.

“Now just hold on a minute here, Twilight,” she said, keeping her voice calm and even like she was talking to a frightened deer. “What did the princesses say they needed?” This served to only further unsettle the already unsettled Twilight.

“The letter doesn’t say,” she said in a worried tone. “It just said that we all need to come to Canterlot right away. It could be anything. What if they only had time to send that short message before whatever danger they were facing attacked? Canterlot could be burning at this very moment!”

Applejack raised an eyebrow at that. You could after all, see that Canterlot wasn’t burning, or under any kind of attack of any kind. The city was peaceful as ever. But when Twilight’s Twilighting, logic doesn’t really tend to work on her.

“Alright, I’ll be with you in ten minutes,” Applejack said after a pregnant pause. “Let me and Bones just finish up repairin’ the fences and then...”

That was as far as she got before Twilight snapped.

“There’s no time! Come on!” she bellowed in her own version of the Royal Canterlot Voice.

She then grabbed Applejack again, and the pair vanished in a teleport. I, despite having been barely two foot away, had been unaffected by the proceedings, apart from being damn near blinded by the flash of the teleport. I gave it a moment or two, but it soon became clear neither Applejack or Twilight were coming back any time soon.

“Alright,” I grumbled to myself. “I guess I’ll mend the fences on my own then. Thanks, Twilight.”

I knew that they’d be back in about twenty minutes or so. That’s usually how long these things took, for obvious reasons. Although having said that, I couldn’t help but be slightly worried. Ever since we got here, at least ever since Starlight was reformed, I’ve tried to ‘count the episodes’ as it were. I doubt I’m in the show, or even mentioned for that matter, but like it or not, I am in the world of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, and every now and then, we get a friendship problem or some incident involving Twilight and her friends. Even less frequently, we get some yahoo trying to take over the world. I’ve taken to counting these events, and when I get to twenty four, I know we’re probably in for a finale. Well, that had come and gone with Equestria’s most adorable sociopath. Now I was waiting for the start of the next season.

And this may well be it.

I decided to wait until AJ got back from wherever she was going. Typically, opening episodes weren’t too rough. The bad guys tended to come out to play at the finales. Still, depending on what my marefriend had to say when she got back, it might well be time to batten down the hatches for a while.

Applejack actually wasn’t gone too long, and got back to the farm a little after lunch. And boy did she have some news. She came and told me when I was checking some of the apple trees for any sign of disease. I looked up as I heard her hoof-beats on the ground.

“Oh, AJ, you’re back,” I said with a little relief in my voice. “How was Canterlot? You find out what the princesses want?” Applejack nodded with an amused grin.

“You ain’t gonna believe this, Bones,” she said. “But the princesses called us all up there, because they’re retiring.”

My world came to a screeching halt. Applejack then delivered the knockout.

“And they want Twilight to take over.”

With that, my world shattered.

---

I won’t bore you too much with the embarrassing details of what happened next. I cantered through the five stages. Firstly, I denied it, saying that it had to be some sort of joke or trick on Celestia’s part. She had done as much not so long ago when Pinkie put on a show to celebrate her 1,111th year of raising the sun. She wouldn’t just step down like that. Then I got angry, saying that Celestia had gone mad, demanding to know what in Equestria she was thinking, giving the throne to someone so neurotic? Then came bargaining, as I decided to head up there myself, to talk to both of them, and help them see reason. Then there was depression, and the general belief on my part that we were all doomed. Finally, acceptance. Well, acceptance that I’d lost my mind, because with that, I started hyperventilating.

Applejack had gotten me back to the farmhouse, draped over her back no less, since I could barely walk. The whole Apple family had gathered around, with Granny Smith giving me a paper bag to try and re-regulate my breathing. Ten minutes or so had passed and I was beginning to calm down.

“So when...when is this whole thing happening then?” I asked. “How long before Princess Celestia and Princess Luna abdicate?” Applejack tried to redirect me.

“Don’t worry about that right now, sugarcube,” she said soothingly. “Just relax for a bit. They didn’t say when we were up there. But these things take loads of time.”

I was seconds from calming down and coming back to Equestria. But then Apple Bloom, like all small children entrusted with an important secret, piped up.

“I thought you said they were doin’ the ceremony at the end of the week, Applejack?” she said.

There was a moment of silence while my brain processed this fascinating new titbit of information.

“I thought you were the Element of Honesty”, I said bitterly. Then I went back to inhaling a bag, only this time, much faster.

---

A few hours later, I was in bed, trying to somehow get to sleep. But the knowledge I now had was doing a brilliant job at preventing that. My stomach was in knots, I felt like I might throw up at any moment. My mind was running a mile a minute, trying to find some way to explain what was going on, or to work out what to do about it. But there was nothing.

It didn’t make sense! Celestia and Luna had ruled in one way or another for over a millennia. They couldn’t just up and leave in one week; there’d be chaos! And what had caused this sudden decision. I know they’d been through something of the wringer, subjected to the Worf Effect as they were when evil reared its ugly head. Did they doubt their ability to lead Equestria? That was nonsense! Anypony would tell you the princesses were fine rulers who had led Equestria into an age of harmony. How could Twilight possibly replace them? Sure she’d saved Equestria more times than I care to remember, and yes, she is remarkably intelligent and magically gifted. But given that we’d had pretty much identical reactions to the news, how could they possibly think she was qualified?

Twilight, you see, is a bit like Churchill. Through the war, he was a great leader, who led us through our darkest hour. But the second the Nazis hauled down their colours, he was given the boot. Twilight was good at defeating the bad guys, wielding the Elements of Harmony with her friends, and teaching others the magic of friendship. But I couldn’t imagine her dealing with all the court intrigue, diplomacy, and all the social graces that came with running a nation. She lacks the experience of Celestia, Luna, or even Cadence when it comes to politics.

And then there was the effect it would have on all of us. She’d have to move away to Canterlot. What about the school and her castle here in Ponyville? What about the map and the friendship missions? There was so much that I simply couldn’t find an answer for.

Irritably, I tossed and turned in my bed, vainly trying to will myself to sleep. But my mind just wouldn’t stop whirring, my stomach wouldn’t stop twisting itself, and I couldn’t stop worrying about what the morning might bring.

Oh God. How the hay was Twilight going to raise the sun and the moon?

With that final straw, I threw off the covers and began to pace around irritably. Maybe walking I could tire myself out.

Thirty minutes later, at about half past two, I found that that didn’t work. Well, there was only one thing for it.

Crossing the room to my desk, I reached up with my magic and took down a modest size tome. Turning to the relevant section, I soon found what I was looking for. Sleep spells do exist. They’re meant to only be used by properly licensed medical practitioners. But I needed sleep now, and didn’t fancy tramping all the way down to Ponyville General. The spell didn’t look too difficult, although it was a bit unorthodox to perform it on yourself. Still, as a wise orangutan once said; ‘how hard can it be?’.

Powering up my horn, I weaved the spell around myself. It should work a bit like taking a sleeping tablet. You use the spell, then you have a minute to climb back into bed. That didn’t happen. What happened was I overcooked it like a moron, and pretty much flashed my brain’s BIOS. It was more like getting sapped on the side of the head. My vision went white for a moment, and the next thing I knew, I was a heap on the floor, out cold.

---

When I came to again, I found myself still splayed out in a heap, only I’d gone from being on my face in my own room, to being on my face in the amazingly beautiful world of the dreaming realm. Around me was a never ending, mesmerizing pattern of stars, nebulae, and a strange road of stardust underfoot. That however, wasn’t of too much interest to me, although I have always found the place to be beautiful. What was more interesting was the pair of dark blue legs in front of me, clad in glass horseshoes. Looking up, these legs led up to an obsidian metal chest piece, emblazoned with a crescent moon, and finally, above that, was the face of Princess Luna.

She had something between a smile and a look of mild concern on her face; the look somepony has when they’ve seen someone in the same state more times than they care to remember. As I regained consciousness, such as it was, considering I was sleeping, she broke out a somewhat teasing smile.

“I don’t recall you attending the Royal College of Medicine, my friend,” she said, with an ‘I told you so’ tone in her voice. “Sleeping spells are awfully easy to overpower, particularly when one only has a passing knowledge of the spell.”

“Yeah, well, I couldn’t sleep,” I replied in an informal tone. While she might be princess in the waking world, here, Luna was, to everypony, more of a confidant and friend.

With some effort, I hauled myself back onto my hooves. While I might be dreaming, my brain helpfully simulated the effects of waking up after being knocked out cold. Eventually, I got into something that mirrored the sitting position Luna had adopted.

“So tell me, Blade Star,” she went on. “What precisely caused you to desire sleep so much that you were willing to risk putting yourself in a coma from which you might never awaken to do it?”

Her tone wasn’t angry, or even disappointed. She was concerned, worried even, with a gentle undercurrent of maternal protectiveness. Like Celestia, Luna does care deeply for all her subjects, hence why she patrols their dreams every night, helping them fight off nightmares and confront the problems that face them in the waking world. If Celestia was Equestria’s mother, then Luna was the big sister everypony looked up to for advice.

“I couldn’t get to sleep,” I repeated. “My mind’s been going a mile a minute ever since Applejack told me what you and Celestia are planning. What in Equestria is going on, Luna? Why are you abdicating?”

“Why does it concern you?” she asked. Her tone wasn’t accusatory; it was a genuine question.

“It concerns me,” I replied. “Because you are the rightful rulers of Equestria, and you’re talking about handing things over to a mare that’s terrified of quesadillas! The pair of you retiring will cause massive political upheaval. For goodness sake, Luna, who’s going to protect ponies’ dreams, or raise the sun and the moon? Twilight is many things, including a good leader, but she’s not up to ruling a country.”

“Is that all?” Luna asked, again in a neutral tone. “You don’t think there might be something more basic behind your fear?”

“I’d say fear of having no leader is basic enough,” I replied.

Luna got to her hooves and turned around before gesturing for me to follow her.

“Come,” she said. “Let’s you and I take a walk together.”

Getting to my hooves, I followed her, walking alongside the taller mare. She led the two of us along the winding path of the dreamscape.

“Blade Star,” she said, after a moment. “Do you remember how you felt when Twilight announced her intention to open a school?”

“Sure,” I replied. “I thought she was nuts.”

“And when she decided to take on young Starlight Glimmer, her former nemesis, as her pupil?”

“Again, I figured it was a bad idea.”

“And you feel the same way about my and my sister’s decision to abdicate the throne, naming her our lawful successor.”

I paused for a moment. I am honoured to call Luna a friend, and I am permitted certain liberties that she does not extend to other ponies. But I wasn’t about to call her crazy.

“I feel that it’s...ill advised,” I said after a moment. “Particularly only allowing a single week for the transition of power.”

“I see,” she said calmly. “But tell me, Blade Star, do you still think that Twilight was wrong to take on Starlight as her pupil, or open the School of Friendship?”

“No, of course not,” I replied.

“Is it not possible then, that you may be just as inclined to change your opinion regarding my retirement?”

“It’s not that same, Luna!” I said, a little crossly.

“On the contrary, I think it is exactly the same. All these views are linked to a common denominator, and a perfectly common one amongst ponies; fear of the unknown. You do not know what will happen, and that unsettles you.”

I couldn’t help but agree with that statement. Humans, like ponies, naturally fear the unknown and that which they do not understand. Luna continued.

“I’ve known you for some time, my friend. I know that accepting change does not come easily to you. And I understand how such a drastic change might be alarming, even upsetting for you.”

Again, she’d read me like a book. One of my biggest faults is that I don’t cope with change well. I’m a creature of habit, of routine. I like having a set routine, knowing what I’m doing and what’s going to be happening. Disruptions to that routine annoy me, and can sometimes cause me a bit of anxiety. It’s one of the reasons that I enjoyed living the quiet life I did on Sweet Apple Acres; where everything was reasonably predictable, with just enough variety to keep things interesting. While others might find it tedious, I enjoyed the comfortable routines of the days, weeks, and months. And now, that pleasant routine was going right out the window and down the toilet.

I let out a soft sigh as we walked together. A moment later, I looked up at my friend and sometimes mentor.

“I don’t want things to change,” I said softly. Luna said nothing, so I continued “I found myself living this peaceful, idyllic life. And for the first year or so, I lulled myself into this fantasy that it would always be this way. I’d live on Sweet Apple Acres, spend time with my folks and little sister, help Apple Bloom with her schoolwork, all these silly little things.

“But one day it’s all going to be over. Mom and Dad will pass, so will Granny Smith, Winona, Angel Bunny. Everypony will get older. Apple Bloom will grow up, maybe move out. It will all change, everything will be different, and never quite the same. The only constant, the one thing that I knew, knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, was that you and Celestia would always be around, looking after us all and guiding us. Now, even that’s gone. And I just don’t want that change.”

Luna smiled and gently laid a comforting wing over my back. Sitting down, she pulled me into a hug, my head resting softly against her chest. A comforting foreleg wrapped around me.

“We cannot stop change, my child,” she said softly. “And the world would be a far duller place without it. The world you seek to preserve is a product of a thousand changes. Your parents were once children themselves. Granny Smith was once but a young mare starting her own family. There was a time when Applejack and Fluttershy did not know of their beloved pets. If there was no change, the world you know would not exist, nothing would. The world would just be a dull, still life, hardly worth living.

“Think of it, if nothing changed again from now on, how long would it be before things grew stagnant? Children going to school year after year, the same ponies seeing the same ponies day in day out, nothing new, nothing exciting. I would call that Tartarus.

“But I understand how you feel, Blade Star. When I first returned to Equestria, everything was different. The cities, the ponies, the language; everything had changed, and I felt like a stranger in my own kingdom. For the longest time, I sought to turn back the clock. I kept on using the royal we, the Royal Canterlot Voice, and living as I had done a thousand years ago. But no matter what I did, I couldn’t turn back time, and my actions only served to isolate me from my fellow ponies. It wasn’t until I once again crossed paths with a certain young unicorn that I finally began to embrace this new world. And do you know something? I liked it. It was not the world that I once knew, true, but nor was it anything to fear. In fact, it was my own fear that brought me misery.”

She stopped walking as we came to a sort of rise in the terrain, overlooking the dreams of dozens of ponies.

“So, I should just ‘go with the flow’ you think?” I asked. Luna nodded.

“It will cause you far less distress than what you are doing now,” she replied. “You are basing all your thoughts on the assumption that change is inherently bad. Why not approach the situation from the opposite angle?”

I pondered what Luna had said. She had hit the nail square on the head. I had had a sort of knee jerk reaction. It had been the same when Twilight took on Starlight, when she got her new castle, or even, if we turn the clock back to before I came here, to when she became an alicorn. And she was right. I was coming at this by assuming that all change was bad. Still, it was difficult to set aside the feeling of the world dropping out from under me that the news of the abdication had brought.

“Why did you decide to abdicate anyway?” I asked Luna curiously. “You’ve only been back from exile for a few years. Ain’t it a bit early to throw in the towel?” Luna tittered at that.

“If you recall, Blade Star,” she said. “I did rule Equestria for a little over a century before that alongside my sister . And she has held the reins for over ten centuries now. When one is immortal, a life of duty can seem like an endless tunnel. We have been rulers for long enough. We would both like to be ponies again.”

It was good to get that straight from the horse’s mouth, if you’ll excuse the pun.

“You know, a part of me thought that it was just Celestia that wanted to step down, and was just dragging you along with her.” Luna smiled.

“Actually, I was the one who first brought the subject up a couple of months ago. I assure you, Blade Star, the both of us have carefully weighed our decision, and have been just as careful in choosing a successor. Besides, it isn’t as if we shan’t be on hoof should Twilight Sparkle ever have need of us. I can assure you we won’t be throwing her to the lions and jetting off to some tropical island. It will be a drastic change, but I know we can all come to terms with it.”

The world now shifted slightly as my dream began to destabilise.

“Ah, it looks like morning is upon us,” Luna said. “Remember what I said, Blade Star. I guarantee you, that in a month’s time, you will be perfectly content with the new state of affairs. Now please take care, waking up from a magic induced sleep can be rather uncomfortable.”

And with that, the world went black, and I found myself waking up. Little did I know how soon I was to wish that I’d gotten that guarantee in writing

---

Luna wasn’t kidding about waking up. I’d never gotten particularly drunk in my life, but I figured this was what a bad hangover felt like. Having fallen asleep on the floor, my whole body now had a dull ache to it. Stretching my hind legs a touch, I felt a sharp pain shoot up them as the cramped muscles tried to move. The same thing happened with my forelegs. I’d been drooling too, and one side of my face now had a sticky mess on it. I didn’t feel particularly rested, although looking at the clock, I’d gotten a good eight hours of sleep.

I let out a low groan as I took on the difficult task of getting up. Again, my muscles throbbed and my joints clicked and cracked. I took a look around. My bed needed making, and the room was pretty dark with the curtains still drawn. Calling on my magic, I managed to get my bed in order. I then made the fatal mistake of opening the curtains.

Whether by design or just cruel fate, the sun was perfectly positioned this early in the morning, to stream sunlight right into my eyes. There was one terrible moment as my pupils desperately contracted, before the pain kicked in again.

“Argh!” I exclaimed, clamping my eyes shut and looking away from the morning light. “Dammit!”

Blinking a few times, my eyes slowly adjusted again. I did my best to rub the sleep out with a hoof. I had no doubt that I looked like Hell right about now. So rather than startling everypony else and make them think I’d died and reanimated in the night, I headed across the hall to the bathroom for a much needed shower, shave, and to brush my teeth.

The warm water helped bring me back to life, and made me look a little more presentable. After drying myself off and bushing my coat down, I also did my best to trim back my beard. As weird as it sounds, stallions do grow beards, the hair grows through your hide around your mouth and chin the same colour as your mane and tail. So I currently had a dark blue five o’clock shadow. I did consider a while back actually letting it grow into a sort of muzzle or goatee, but Applejack didn’t much care for it and it didn’t really fit my face. Besides, the iron rule when it comes to cowboy stories is that the guys with beards are evil.

After that, I brushed my teeth and managed to get my mouth to feel like something other than sandpaper. Plus I’d hate to kill anypony at ten paces with bog breath. Taking a look at myself in the mirror, I took one last stab at getting my mane in order. I was getting due for a trim anyway. Maybe later I’d head down to the spa and see Aloe or Lotus. Satisfied that I looked equine again, I headed downstairs, running into Applejack in the hallway. She too had just gotten up. She still had her mane down, and it hung loose around her shoulders. I found myself thankful that I wasn’t a pegasus.

“Oh, mornin’, Applejack,” I said in a now more chipper voice. “How are you doin’?”

“I’ll let you know when I’ve got some coffee in me,” she replied tiredly. “How ‘bout you? You seem less...er...”

“Neurotic?” I offered. “Had a chance to talk with Princess Luna last night; helped me get some things a bit straighter in my head. Still can’t quite believe it though.”

“You and me both, sugarcube,” AJ agreed.

“Want me to get started on breakfast?” I offered. Granny Smith was still snoring, and I hadn’t seen any sign of Big Mac.

“Well, that’s awful nice of you, Bones,” Applejack said, in a tone of pleasant surprise.

“Least I can do after all that nonsense I put you folks through yesterday,” I replied, now feeling a touch embarrassed at my near mental breakdown.”

Applejack headed into the bathroom, and I heard the shower start. For the briefest moment, I considered being a bit spontaneous and following her inside. After all, nopony else was about, and last time she’d been the one to walk in on me. In the end though, I decided against it, given how tired AJ had looked, and trotted downstairs to make breakfast. And before you call me an idiot that’s either blind or dead inside, trust me, unless you have a deathwish you don’t come between Applejack and her morning coffee.

---

My morning was looking to be reasonably busy today. As we rolled around into May, it would soon be time for the apple trees to shed their blossoms and start producing the beginnings of apples for the autumn. Already the trees were a beautiful mix of greens and the soft pink of the apple blossoms.

But with all this beauty, there also came some dangers. Caterpillars and moths were the big worries at this time of year. These insects, particularly the former, could do real damage to the trees, particularly damaging the leaves. You also had to check the trunks for signs of insects burrowing in to do damage internally. To combat this threat, we’d hang pheromone traps in a number of trees. These would be covered in pheromones designed to lure insects to the traps, usually ones that involved mating, or encouraged an aggressive response. The moths would then find themselves caught. It wouldn’t stop the problem completely; no amount of trapping can do that, but it would reduce their numbers and also stunt any potential offspring. It would do enough damage to ensure that those that did survive wouldn’t be able to do any major damage to the apple trees.

Of course, Sweet Apple Acres is a pretty large place, and that meant a whole lot of pheromone traps to hang. My magic would make things a bit faster, but a few thousand trees is still a few thousand trees.

In addition to that, we also needed to start training the limbs of young trees, that is to say, cutting them in such a way as to ensure they grew to have more fruit bearing branches and spread out enough to ensure all the trees got plenty of sunlight. And we grafted tree branches of the best fruit bearing trees onto trees that were sturdy but didn’t produce enough fruit. (It’s why there were different colours of apples on the same trees).

All it all, a lot of work to do, so it was a case of all hooves on deck. AJ and I would take one section, Big Mac another, and Granny Smith and Apple Bloom would take the last third of the farm. Well, that was the plan at least, as it turned out, barely two hours in, we would find ourselves a mare down.

Things first started to kick off when we were about a third of the way through our section of the orchards.

It was getting on for lunch, and I’d promised Apple Bloom that I’d teach her to make sloosh; an odd cornbread sort of food whose recipe I’d picked up when I dabbled in battle re-enactments, spending time in the camps of the Army of Tennessee. I’d had to modify it a little to compensate for equine tastes. The original recipe called for cornmeal, which was one of the few things readily available in a country that was compelled to stretch limited coffee supplies with chicory or peanuts, along with the fat from frying bacon or pork rations. You then mixed these into something resembling a dough, rolled it into a snake, wrapped it around the ramrod of your rifle and cooked it over a fire.

Obviously, I couldn’t get my hooves on bacon. Quite against my social obligations as a millennial male, I couldn’t stand the stuff even before I became a pony. Instead, I used a mixture of butter, water and an egg to help bind the cornmeal together. And while Equestria has yet to develop true firearms outside of muzzle loading cannons (yet paradoxically still has the concept of a tank), I was able to substitute the rifle and attendant ramrod for a solid stick. Cooking was but little different from toasting marshmallows, albeit a little more tricky.

That however, could wait until lunch time. Right now, we had traps to hang. Applejack and I were working methodically through the orchard, when I picked up the sound of a jet engine, signalling that a pegasus was in close proximity. AJ heard it too, and looking skyward, we soon spotted the source. Rainbow Dash was tearing Hell for leather across the skies, and all but screaming her friend’s name.

“Applejack! We need to go! Now!”

“Down here, Rainbow!” AJ called back, cupping her mouth with both hooves to throw the sound further.

Rainbow quickly side slipped down and landed with a near bounce. She looked more than a little rattled. Here we go again…

“What’s the trouble, kimosabe?” I asked her. Her next words actually caught me by surprise.

“King Sombra’s attacking the Crystal Empire!” she exclaimed. “Princess Cadence managed to get a letter to Twilight, but he’s taken over the castle and the whole city. He’s keeping them all prisoner.”

My mind instantly flew to Flurry Heart.

“He’s what?!” I exclaimed. “He’s dead! I watched that son of a...” I remembered a long forgotten Chekov's gun. “Of course, that damn horn fragment! AJ, go! I’ll tell you later. I’ll find the others and let them know what’s going on.”

Applejack didn’t need telling twice, and she quickly set off at a gallop, with Rainbow flying alongside her as fast as Applejack could run.

I meanwhile, as is often the case, now had little to do. Well, there wasn’t anything I could do really, was there? A part of me, quite possibly my ego, wanted to go with AJ and the others, head up to the Empire, kill Sombra, properly this time. I had a good theory about how he’d come back, but my mind, as when AJ had told me the news about the princesses was now filled with questions. How had he brought himself back? Why didn’t the Crystal Heart stop him? What did he want with the Empire? What was the condition of Shining and Cadence, to say nothing of Flurry Heart? My mind came to a dark conclusion. Could he be after Equestria’s youngest alicorn? The trouble with Sombra is that we never learnt much about why he did what he did. His motivation was, and remains to this day, a mystery to me.

This was what annoyed me; being unable to act, not knowing what was going on. I felt...well...helpless. And I don’t like feeling helpless.

Of course, on the bright side, Sombra was as good as defeated already. Right now, Twilight and the others would be rushing to the Everfree to get the Elements of Harmony. I don’t care what dark magic Sombra has access to; nopony, not even Discord, survives a rainbow to the face. His unexpected comeback, while it would undoubtedly be traumatic for all concerned, was still fated to end in his downfall. The only question was how long he’d last.

That knowledge helped to reassure me. Whatever might happen, nopony is going to die, and by the end, everything will be back to normal, or maybe even a little better. Who knows, maybe they’ll even have a go at reforming him. As vile and twisted as Sombra is, I still wouldn’t mind having a chat with him. Provided he has a bite mask on and comes wheeled in on a dolly wrapped in a straight jacket, so that as soon as he steps out of line I can tell the boys to ‘take this thing back to Baltimare’.

So I set myself the task of finding Big Mac, Granny and Apple Bloom and letting them know what was happening. I was fairly confident that this would all be wrapped up pretty quickly. I was even planning on having some sloosh ready for when Applejack got back.

Yeah, turns out things would get a little more tricky than that. I should have realised that it all seemed too easy. I should have paid more attention in the sweat.

---

I was right in that it didn’t take Twilight and the others too long to put Sombra in his place. He’d managed, by virtue of a surprise attack, to catch the crystal ponies off guard, and prevented them from uniting to fire off the Crystal Heart. His revived form also made him a lot more dangerous, and neither Shining or Cadence alone were much of a match for him. Worse still, he made use of those mind control helmets Twilight had seen during her brief exploration of various alternate timelines. He used these to turn their own guards against them. Shining and Cadence had little choice but to surrender. If nothing else, to protect Flurry Heart. That sick bastard broke into her nursery and threatened her as a final coup de grace. He then proceeded to sit himself on the throne, build a little cell for the rightful rulers, and then gloat like the generic twit he is, with a compromised Crystal Heart suspended above him.

That lasted right up until the moment Twilight and the others burst in. Just as he had nigh effortlessly overtaken the city, the girls now subjected him to a curbstomp battle. He was dumb enough to actually try and pull the same trick twice, trying to pull them all into their worst fears to stop them from using the Elements. That however, didn’t work for long. Twilight in particular easily overcame the bland deception. And while Sombra was busy gloating and cackling his head off, Spike sneaked around and freed Shining, Cadence and Flurry. With them out of the line of fire, the girls hit him with the Elements. The resultant wave of harmony annihilated Sombra, this time seeming to vaporise him, with no horn fragment flying off screen, as well as destroying all the mind control helmets, freeing the captured ponies, and destroying the odd obsidian crystals he seemed compelled to throw up everywhere.

With that, the Crystal Empire was saved. Even by normal episode standards it was a quick turn around. Real time, Sombra only held the Empire for about an hour or so, basically however long it took the girls to get up there. I knew it was all over when the Crystal Heart fired off again, sending the beautiful rainbow streamers; Aurora Amorealis, to use the proper term, as far south as Dodge Junction.

The whole affair was so damn short that I didn’t actually have a chance to find anypony else to let them know what was going on. I couldn’t help but chuckle and shake my head. Sombra, by far and away, with the exception of perhaps Cozy, was the least actually dangerous villain in MLP. Menacing, true, but he posed a very limited threat.

That mindset lasted right up until Twilight and the others returned, and placed the Elements back in the branches of the Tree of Harmony. It turned out Sombra wasn’t as stupid as he looked, and somehow, managed to dodge the Elements’ fire. What appeared to be disintegration, was actually cleverly disguised teleportation. Even Celestia couldn’t pull that off.

How did I know he was still kicking? Simple, I felt the effects of his actions. When Twilight replaced the Elements in the Tree, Sombra made his move, stabbing the tree with one of his own crystals, destroying it, and the Elements outright.

As a unicorn, I have the ability to sense magic, just as I can smell, hear, and taste things that are otherwise invisible. My own studies in magic have heightened this sensitivity. So the death of the Tree of Harmony...well, it was like a hammer blow. I felt as though the wind was knocked out of me and I staggered where I was, eventually having to lean on a nearby tree just to stay upright. In other words, I felt a great disturbance in the Force. I hadn’t seen what happened, but I still knew. That was when I started to worry. Without the Elements, we were in deep trouble.

And as before, my mind began to fill with questions. It should be impossible to destroy the Tree. It was omniscient. How else could it provide information on friendship problems or have provided that clever little lockbox? It surely must have known what was going to happen. But what I felt wasn’t some feint or trick. I felt that ancient magical being in its death throes.

Things quickly got worse. Sombra announced his new, equally mental plan to invade Equestria proper, starting with Ponyville. Above me, the sky turned an acrid brown as the dark magic began to take root. I needed to find the others, warn them. With luck, I might just have a fighting chance to protect them. I’d studied changeling mind control spells in the past, and developed workable counters to them. That meant I ought to be able to resist Sombra’s mind control spells. I just had to avoid showing him fear; fear gave him power. I had to push my panic and alarm down, turn grief into anger.

Of course, that was easier said than done, and like it or not, I was panicking. Sombra had gone from an annoyance to a serious threat in one fell swoop. But as I galloped along in search of my friends, I still held onto the hope that he would be beaten. This was going to be a rough ride, sure, but Sombra still wouldn’t last.

Of course, I had little concern with Sombra. His downfall was in the hooves of Twilight, her friends, and the princesses. I was looking more to just ride out the storm. However, as I came out of the orchards and into one of the open fields, I found myself curiously thrust into centre stage.

With little warning, the acrid clouds above me began to spew out a thin column of dark, smoke like shadow. It touched down on the ground in front of me, about ten feet or so from me. The column quickly coalesced into a sphere, and a moment later, receded entirely, leaving me face to face with Sombra. He was around Luna’s height, maybe a little taller, mainly due to having longer than average legs, which gave him a sort of lanky appearance. He looked much the same as I remembered from the show; grey coat, black mane, iron chest piece, and a dark red robe. The only thing that was a little different, was that his eyes currently didn’t have the odd purple vapour pouring from them, nor were the whites of his eyes a light green. Instead, he looked a little more equine, with deep red irises. He smiled at me in a cruel way, showing off fangs that would be considered odd even on a thestral. It was then that he first spoke to me.

“Well, if it isn’t Roger’s little colt,” he said. “I think it’s time you joined the ranks of your new king’s army.”

His voice surprised me a little. I remembered with no small amount of dread the deep, malevolent voice that he had previously. And though he was a stallion of few words, that had not left my mind. Now though, he sounded different. I’d almost say...petulant, cocky, arrogant. He sounded younger, reminding me, believe it or not, of Blueblood. In a way it made him almost comical. His mention of my dad though unsettled me plenty. How could he know him, never mind me?

I later learned that he and Dad had cultivated a Hannibal/Will Graham style relationship. Sombra didn’t die when he was defeated the first time. Instead, he wound up in Tartarus, where my Dad met him. He escaped when Cozy drained Equestria’s magic.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that I'm not brave. I’m no coward either though, and by this time, I was remembering just how Sombra had screwed himself. He was a dead stallion walking really. At best, he had another twenty minutes left to live. So you’ll forgive me if I too, got a bit cocky.

“And if I say no?” I asked bluntly, standing my ground and taking a fighting stance, something which only made Sombra smile.

“Oh, come now, don’t you want to join the rest of your friends?” he asked.

The same shadows as before now appeared behind him, and from them did indeed come my friends. He had Granny, Big Mac, and even little Apple Bloom. But worse, I saw my mother and little sister. Their eyes were all the same; an unearthly green, with blank expressions. It was clear that they weren’t in control of their actions. Sombra was just using them as puppets. I felt anger flare up inside me, overwhelming the fear I was feeling. I snorted and narrowed my eyes at Sombra.

“Or do I have to force you?” he went on with a cruel smile.

When you threaten my mother, my little sister, and a filly who is like a daughter to me, to say nothing of the ponies I call family, my mind tends to flip a switch somewhere. My fear suddenly began to evaporate, replaced instead by a quiet fury. Sod show canon, TV-Y, Twilight’s destiny, and anything else. I was going to kill him. Slowly, I began to close the distance between us. If I knew one thing about Sombra, it was that he had an ego, and I could goad him into a mistake.

“You come in strength,” I said coldly. “Do you need all these to overcome me?”

Sombra let out a snarl. I’d touched a nerve and thrown down the gauntlet. Now we’d see if he’d pick it up. A moment later though, he recovered himself, and let out a dark chuckle.

“You really think a little colt like you can stand against the likes of me?” he asked incredulously.

“Seems that way,” I replied, flashing a grin back at him.

“Very well.”

With that Sombra made his move.

He first tried to entrap me, summoning several dagger-like crystals from the ground. I half jumped and half rolled out of the way. This seemed to be his primary method of attack. He relied on his magic. Skidding on the soft grass, I let fly with my own magic; a simple stun spell. It hit him square, but he easily shielded himself. This wasn’t a fair fight. I was definitely at a disadvantage. The only thing in my favour was that he hadn’t employed his new minions against me. My friends and family simply stood by, watching us without emotion.

The two of us closed with each other and began to circle, like two lions looking for an opening. He had every advantage over me, in both power and skill. But while I might be out-manned, outgunned and out-equipped, I still had guile. I had to fight smart, not hard.

Activating my magic, I performed a quick teleport. I can just about do them, but it’s a rare spell for unicorns to know. And Sombra wasn’t expecting it. Appearing behind him and to the side, I went to grab him around the neck with one hoof, and pulled on his horn with another, disrupting his magic. Sombra however, quickly rolled and threw me off. I barely had time to get out of the way of his own magic blast.

“Good try, boy,” he snarled. “But not good enough.” He was trying to rattle me.

“I’m just getting started,” I snarked back.

I hurled another bolt of magic at him, which he again easily deflected. His magic, as much as pains me to say it, was far stronger than mine, and I had no hope of breaking his defence. However, I’ve always been a great believer in that old phrase ‘if it bleeds, you can kill it’. His shield might stop magic, but I knew such things couldn’t always stop physical attacks. Why not turn his favourite weapon against him.

I’d studied crystal magic myself. The variant he was using was based around dark magic, hence the black obsidian colour and the effect they had on the world around them. But Cadence had also used something similar, summoning crystals to shut off a water main in Canterlot during the Royal Summit. That was entirely within my ability. And crystals do make for a fine dagger.

We countered and parried each other, and I was beginning to tire. If I was going to make a move, I needed to do it soon. Charging at Sombra, I dodged two blasts from his horn, and then dropped onto my knees and slid under those gangly legs of his. He pivoted on the spot as I did so, but the act caught him off guard, so I made my move. Summoning up a shard of crystal, I had it pierce the earth and go straight into his underbelly. It rooted him to the spot as I lost momentum.

Getting to my hooves, I let out a few ragged breaths and took a look at my handiwork. The crystal had gone straight up through his stomach and now protruded out of his back. The damage to his internal organs would be catastrophic.

A moment later though, to my horror, I heard the dark king laugh and turn around where he stood. There was no blood coming from his mouth, and he showed no signs of pain. The answer lay in his wound. There wasn’t one. At both the entrance and exit points, his body had turned back to intangible shadow. Doing the same to the rest of his form, he simply stepped out of my trap, quite unhurt.

“Well,” he said as he strode towards me. “You want to play rough? Then I think it’s time we take the gloves off.”

With a snarl, he forced more energy into his horn. It was clear what he was going to do; summon his own crystal and do the same to me. I was too tired to leap clear, and there wasn’t time anyway.

But there was time to fight fire with fire. I knew the spell he’d used. Yes, it was dark magic, but desperate times call for desperate measures. Summoning up the spell, I did just as Sombra had done, and rendered most of my body non-corporeal for a moment, allowing the dark crystal to pass harmlessly through my chest. Seeing him surprised, I tried the same trick one more time, as did he.

“Well, this could get tedious,” I quipped. We were both now in something of a stalemate.

We continued to exchange fire for a couple more minutes. While we were by no means equally matched, I was managing to hold my own. I wasn’t doing much to him, but nor was he doing anything to me. Stalemate, in order words. I knew Twilight and the others would be working too to save the day. He’d been unable to get into their heads before, and I hoped he hadn’t done the same now. If nothing else, we had Celestia and Luna still. They put Sombra in his place before, without the Elements I might add. Maybe if I could just keep him busy like this, I’d be able to help in the long run.

I had, however, neglected to consider one thing. Sombra didn’t hypnotise ponies like changelings did, for which I had a counter spell. He rather forcibly took control of their bodies. Changeling hypnosis was built on suggestion and misdirecting the mind. With Sombra’s variant, the victim had no choice. It was this that allowed him to so easily attack the Crystal Empire. He just had to look at a pony and he could control them. And he and I had been staring each other down since we first met.

He could have used that twisted magic on me at any time. So why had he allowed this little contest? It served no purpose, in fact it was impeding his plans. So why, and more to the point, why was he fighting fair? I’d lasted against this fruitcake far longer than I had any right to. I had some training in combat and defensive magic was my special talent. But this made no sense. I’d done something equally stupid when Tirek had gotten loose. I’d lasted all of fifteen seconds before he ripped my magic from me.

So how had I been fighting Sombra for getting on for seven minutes?

Well, since we had been trading barbs as we fought, I figured the simplest explanation was to ask him. Dodging another crystal shard, I barrelled at him and tackled him hard. I might be smaller, but I was able to throw him off balance and get him on the ground. And stranger still, I managed to briefly pin him.

“I have a question,” I said as my breaths came short and ragged. “Why am I still alive?” Sombra looked surprised.

“What do you mean?” he asked.

“I mean I know you. You overtook an empire in minutes, and it took two alicorns to remove you once, and the Crystal Heart a second time. I find it hard to believe that one measly unicorn is giving you this much trouble.”

And this was where Sombra showed his cards. He let out a low chuckle. A moment later, he turned to shadow, sliding out of my grip, and reappearing a moment later in front of me. Our positions were now reversed; him standing over me.

“It doesn’t make sense, does it?” he replied with a smile. “Tell me, ‘Bones’, how do I control the minds of ponies?” I thought for a moment.

“You show them their worst fear,” I replied. “The despair overwhelms them, leaving them vulnerable.” He chuckled again and shook his head.

“Not quite,” he replied. “Evidently your studies in dark magic still have a long way to go. No, my magic simply occupies the conscious mind. It traps a pony within their own mind, allowing my magic to take over their subconscious actions; movement, speech, magic, and so on. In essence, the pony has no idea they are being controlled. I may show them anything; terrifying nightmares, fond memories, or just give them a good little distraction. Fighting their hated foe, for instance.”

And with a sickening clang, the penny dropped.

“I’m not really here, am I?” I asked, a note of fear in my voice.

“No,” Sombra shook his head sagely. “Right now you are fighting your dear friends as they try to retake Canterlot from me. They will fail, of course.”

“I think you’ll find it’s the other way round, Your Majesty,” I snarled. “I don’t know how, but they will defeat you.”

Defeat me?” Sombra asked. He burst out into dark laughter. “How? I have destroyed the source of their power. Their precious princesses have fled. And I now sit atop Celestia’s throne, while your home is overrun by a rampant forest. How can they possibly defeat me?”

“I don’t know,” I repeated defiantly. “But they will. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’ll be on my way. As fun as it’s been, I’m a Briton; I shall never be a slave.”

That little retort was entirely lost on Sombra.

“You cannot escape,” he said plainly.

“If this is my mind,” I replied. “Then I can break the illusion you’re weaving, just as I can break a dream and become lucid. I just have to jolt my brain; shock it enough to break this reality you’ve created.”

I began to look around the fields we stood in, now somewhat marred by jagged obsidian crystals, and burnt by stray blasts of magic. I needed to do something so outlandish, so illogical, that it would force my mind, conscious and unconscious to reject the reality; cognitive dissonance. That would give me an opening to break his hold over me. Of course, that meant I had to do something truly horrible. Horrible even by human standards. My eyes fell upon Apple Bloom.

Luckily, before I could consider doing something that would, dream or not, leave me with lasting mental scars, the real world began to have an effect on our little battle of wills. It began with Sombra laughing like a loon.

“Even if you do escape,” he said. “There is nothing you can do. I just felled Discord himself. Something even your precious princesses couldn’t do.” He burst into mad laughter again. Seriously, it was hammy as all Hell.

His words did ring alarm bells though. Discord was the single most powerful magical creature known to exist, dwarfing even the combined might of all five alicorns. If Sombra had been able to knock him down, then we were really in trouble, and running out of options. I’d figured that Discord would be a last ditch fallback option, but that he’d still step in and win the day if needed.

Sombra’s gloating was short lived though. I saw him start and freeze where he stood. Twilight and her friends were about to deal a coup de grace of their own.

“That’s...that’s impossible!” he said, his voice now subdued. “No! I destroyed their precious tree! How can they still… No! No! No!”

With that, the world shattered, as for the second time, Sombra bit the dust. And from what I hear, it was very painful. As in Applejack swears she saw his hide burn off and his skin melt before the rainbow finally annihilated him.

---

The next thing I knew, I was standing in the middle of a road in Canterlot, just down the road from the castle. My side hurt like hell, and it was clear that at some point I’d taken a good kick in the ribs. Sombra not only used everypony to attack Canterlot, but also as a way of defending it from Twilight and the others when they launched their counter attack.

Around me, everypony else was also coming out of a daze. None of us remembered anything after Sombra locked eyes with us, which I think is undoubtedly for the best. I have no desire to remember being unable to control my body as it was used to attack my country’s capital. I think Star Trek TNG, when Picard revealed what he remembered of being assimilated by the Borg, showed us the effects of such memories well enough.

I was soon approached by a medic from the Royal Guard. While they too had been subjected to the same effects of Sombra’s attack, once free of his spell, they’d been able to organise pretty quickly. In all fairness to those boys, faced with an opponent who can screw with your mind just by looking at you, they’d put up a decent fight. The medic checked me over, ensuring that there were no lingering effects from the spell, before moving on to his next patient. Remember, they had pretty much the entire population of Ponyville and Canterlot to triage.

Knowing that Applejack would probably still be up in the castle, I headed up that way. Ponies were milling about hither and thither, but amongst the crowd, I soon picked out friends. I first spotted Mum, who was sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the crowd of ponies. She quickly scooped me up in a hug, while I explained to her just what had gone on. After all, she didn’t have any memory of events any more than I did.

The two of us soon found Lizzie as well, who was with Dewdrop. They’d both been in the air when things kicked off, and were surprised to find themselves not only in Canterlot all of a sudden, but now sporting a few minor injuries, including a sprained wing in Dewdrop’s case.

Finally, we met up with the Apple family, minus Applejack. Like pretty much everypony else, none were the worse for wear, apart from Big Mac, who’d busted his shoulder. Sombra had apparently used him to bust down the drawbridge and gain access to the castle. Beyond that though, everypony had had a brief shock seeing Sombra, but little else. It was like waking up from an unsettling dream, temporal displacement aside, which was honestly more disconcerting.

“Have any of you seen AJ or the others?” I asked our little group as we headed down towards the train station.

Everypony was being shuttled back down to Ponyville by train, and everypony from Ponyville had been asked to congregate at the station to keep the streets clear, while Canterlot residents had been advised to either return to their homes, or go to the city hospital if they’d been hurt in the brief skirmishes.

“I think I heard one of the guards say that they were all still up in the castle with the princesses, looking after Discord,” Lizzie said as she and Dewdrop fluttered alongside us.

“I’ll catch up with you folks on the next train,” I said, turning around. “I’m just gonna drop in and check they’re all okay.”

“Oh I’m sure they’re fine,” Mum replied. “I’m more worried what your dad must be thinking. He was in Manehattan when all this started.”

“Okay, just give me five minutes,” I pleaded.

Mum was about to reply when we saw all six of them trotting down the road towards us.

“There they are now,” she said.

There was a rush of hooves as everypony ran to meet each other. I quickly found myself pulled into one of Applejack’s infamous bone crushing hugs. When she’s excited or worried, she really forgets about her earth pony strength. Luckily, my choking served to remind her.

Twilight gave us their version of what happened, from the relief of the Crystal Empire, the destruction of the Tree and the Elements, Discord’s apparent defeat, and most crucially, the girls’ apparent ability to manifest the power of the Elements, the magic of friendship, without the actual Elements themselves. The princesses, with the help of Starswirl, had also been able to get the Everfree back under control. After all, he was the one who had kept it in check in the past. Still, it hurt to think that that fascinating, and more importantly, living, magical being, was gone.

There was one moment of comic relief. Discord, at the height of their fight with Sombra, was seemingly struck down. This emboldened the crystal loving moron, but also motivated the girls to action. Previously, they’d been running on a wing and a prayer. Seeing their friend hurt, and comforting him had allowed them to unlock the power within them, and manifest the Elements to defeat Sombra once and for all. What was funny about that? Simple; he was faking.

Sombra could no more harm Discord than I could harm Celestia. So really, his attempted conquest of Equestria only kept going for as long as Discord found it entertaining. It made me laugh, knowing that, in the end, I’d gotten one over on the crystal loving tyrant. I wonder if he remembered what I’d told him in those final moments.

So, with everything back to normal, or as normal as it ever gets here in Equestria, we all boarded the train together and headed home.

We still had those pheromone traps to hang after all.

---

The next week was rather difficult for me. True, Sombra had been soundly defeated, and for good this time, and Twilight had more than proved herself still capable of banging villains’ heads together. It also had the happy side effect of convincing the princesses to delay their retirement for a few months, so as to give Twilight more time to prepare. The young alicorn now made frequent trips up to Canterlot, once again taking lessons from the princesses.

However, as good as that all might seem, there was one dark shadow hanging over everything; the destruction of the Tree of Harmony. This was the second time a tree I admired dearly had been destroyed by an idiot. But unlike the library, the Tree of Harmony was not just some place to keep some books or your Elements. While unknown to most, this ancient magic construct had developed sentience over its long life. Growing far beyond what Starswirl intended. It could think, feel, and plan. It had deliberately acted, or refrained from acting when it was needed, thinking with a rational mind, instead of simply responding with animal-like instinct. So the idea of this creature being so callously cut down hurt me.

I still to this day remember the feeling I picked up when Sombra stuck. It was, to paraphrase Obi-wan, as if a voice cried out in terror, and was suddenly silenced. But nopony else knew that. Twilight was worried about the loss of the Elements, but this was overridden by the fact that they had been able to manifest their power anyway. I seemed to be the only one mourning for what is perhaps Equestria’s oldest protector.

So I set myself a little project. It is a well known fact that magic cannot be created or destroyed. Like any other form of energy, it merely undergoes a change. As such, there had to be some way of restoring or resurrecting the Tree of Harmony. And I intended to do just that. It would mean skirting close to things like necromancy, but I knew that no form of dark magic would be able to restore something created from pure harmony.

With some free time following the incident, I took several trips into the Everfree to visit the remains of the Tree. It was a sorry sight. The dark crystal that had killed it was long gone, destroyed itself by the wave of harmony, but the sight of all that shattered sapphire crystal, and the small shards that were once the Elements of Harmony all but broke my heart. There had to be a way to undo this damage; I was sure of it.

Unfortunately, for me, results weren’t exactly forthcoming. Even Starswirl, who I briefly corresponded with, only had a vague understanding of how his creation had worked. He had only ever known it when it was in its infancy, little more than a simple construct that could respond to basic commands. I began pouring through books, first in Twilight’s library, then the archives in Canterlot, and then anywhere else I could think of. I spent day after day all but barricaded in my room, researching some new theory.

Naturally, before too long, this began to have negative consequences. I was spending less and less time with the Apples, hardly leaving my room. I neglected both AJ and Apple Bloom, even snapping at them once or twice when they tried to talk me round. I hardly went out, stopped taking care of myself, and by the end of the second week, I looked a right mess, and I was still no closer to finding a way of restoring the Tree.

Luckily, on both counts, help was at hand. Firstly, the Tree, which while destroyed, was not dead, as I had hypothesised, had sent out a signal in the form of a dream to Twilight’s six top students, summoning them to its remains. These children would be the agents of its recovery. And second, for me, Applejack finally ran out of patience with my own version of Twilighting, and enlisted my dad to try and snap me out of my funk.

He arrived the next day. Coincidentally, that was the same day the students all turned up. Like me, they knew what the Tree was, but had been sworn the secrecy by it. While I sought to undo the damage though, they simply sought to honour it, accepting the loss, as painful as it was. The only trouble was that they all had various ideas on how to go about doing that, from the interesting, to outright grotesque.

I, of course, had no knowledge of this. I was still cooped up in my room, going over an old monograph from some Baltimare scientist from around two hundred years ago. I had hoped that it, along with some information I’d gathered from when Sunburst helped restore the Crystal Heart, would be able to kick start a sort of regeneration process. Based on what I’d found at the actual site, only the Tree’s above ground component had been destroyed. It’s roots were still intact and potentially viable.

However, I was interrupted from further postulating this new theory when there came a sharp knock on the door. Startled for a moment, I scowled as I got up. I’d told AJ to stop bothering me while I was working. I was so close now, I could feel it. This was no time for interruptions! Opening the front door, I was already halfway through telling her off.

“Dammit, AJ. I told you not to...”

It wasn’t Applejack. Standing there, his head not too far from the top of the door frame, was my dad.

“Oh, sorry, Dad,” I said, checking my tone. “Didn’t realise it was you.”

He looked at me for a moment, and he didn’t look best pleased by what he saw. Understandable I suppose. I hadn’t shaved for days, my eyes were bloodshot, and I looked like death warmed up, and not so damned warm, at that.

“Your mother’s worried about you, son,” he said sternly. “She heard from Applejack that you were holed up in your room, but I didn’t realise you were this far gone.”

Oh please. I rolled my eyes.

“Dad, I’m fine,” I insisted, although a sudden yawn didn’t help my case much. “I think I’m onto something now anyhow. Just give me another day or so, and I should be ready to try and undo what the crystal obsessed snake did to the Tree.”

“Bones. I know the Tree was important,” he said in a fatherly tone of condolence. “But Celestia, Twilight, even Starswirl, who knows more about that thing than anypony, says it’s gone. You can’t bring it back.”

I shot him a scowl at that. Can’t lives in a house on Won’t street.

“We need that thing,” I replied, being careful not to let too much slip. “And we need the Elements of Harmony. Sombra might have been the first round, but I’ll bet you anythin’ we’re in for somethin’ far worse soon.”

From there, we fell into something of an argument. Dad pointed out how the girls had manifested the Elements on their own, and how we consequently still had access to the ultimate magic. Eventually we both wound up sitting on my bed, and revealed to each other our knowledge of the Tree’s true nature. Still though, he tried to sway me.

“Bones,” he said, laying a hand on my shoulder. “You’re many things. A gifted unicorn is one of them. But not even Celestia can bring the Tree back. We barely understood how it worked in the first place.”

“And that’s why I’m studyin’ it,” I shot back, gesturing to the admittedly messy desk, that was surrounded by old tomes and texts on magical anomalies. Still though, Dad wouldn’t listen.

“Look, I know you don’t deal with death well, son,” he tried in a little more gentle tone. “And I understand your grief. But you have to let go, like you did with your Uncle George.”

That was below the belt and he damn well knew it. My great uncle had Alzheimer's disease towards the end of his life. It’s not a fate I would wish on anyone.

With that, I began to relent. He’d almost talked me round and gotten me to accept the Tree’s death, except for one small detail he gave me, right at the end. As he was explaining his understanding of the Tree and his encounter with it, I realised that it had happened after its supposed destruction. That changed everything! I wasn’t now trying to bring something back from the dead, I was trying to help it claw its way back from the brink.

This new information completely changed my approach. One constant in my research had been that any kind of restoration would require a vast amount of magic. The sort of levels the Elements themselves fired off; ancient magic far beyond our understanding. What I did understand though, was that the magic of friendship operates on the same energy band. In theory, a strong enough pulse would be enough to help the Tree recover its own reserves and just maybe restore itself.

I explained as much to an utterly bewildered Dad as I grabbed my stuff and bolted downstairs to make for the Tree.

---

In moments, my previous ennui had been forgotten. I had a plan; it was possible to save the Tree! Rocketing out of the house past a startled Granny Smith, I went tearing across the farmyard heading straight through the orchards, bound for the Everfree and the ancient castle. In my excited haste, I forgot I was with a man just reaching sixty who avoided exercise like the plague. Getting up to a full gallop with my head down, I leapt at the farmyard fence, clearing it without too much trouble. It was only then I heard him cry out.

“Bones! Wait for me!” he implored desperately. I checked my mad flight and skidded sideways on my hooves.

I watched with a mixture of pity and annoyance as my father lumbered his way across the farmyard and slowly clambered over the fence.

“Come on, Dad!” I called encouragingly, waving a foreleg as I did so. “We’ve gotta get to the Tree!”

“I’m not a young buck any more, Bones,” he grumbled as he rejoined me, doubling up as he tried to get his breath back. “Give me a minute.”

A minute turned out to be a lot longer, and in order to avoid running the poor man to death, I was compelled to check my headlong gallop. The two of us ended up walking, well, trotting in my case, to our destination. The Tree could wait a little longer.

As we walked, Dad struck up a conversation. Curiously, he asked me about Grogar of all things. I was a little surprised he knew the name. Apparently some nutjob in court had threatened to somehow revive him or other such nonsense. I told him what I knew, about G1 and his apparent position here as a foal’s tale. It completely slipped my mind how Discord had been just as curious back when I returned those books to Twilight’s library. He too had mentioned the evil goat.

After that, we lapsed back into silence. I wasn’t a hundred percent sure how I was going to do this, but I had a start. And that was all I needed.

Well, actually, it turned out I wouldn’t need anything as events overtook me. As we neared the castle, we were hit by two separate phenomena. Firstly, the ground shook in a noticeable earthquake. We both felt that. The second thing though, was only perceivable to me, due to it’s magical nature. Just as I felt the supposed death of the Tree as a tremor in the Force, it’s return was also tangible. Although whereas it’s destruction prompted feelings of anguish and pain, it’s return was just the opposite. I felt joy, elation, relief, all hit me at once. I knew it could only mean one thing.

“What the Hell was that?” Dad exclaimed, referring to the earthquake. To be honest, I wasn’t entirely sure myself.

“No idea,” I replied, putting on a burst of speed. “But whatever it was, it was charged with mighty powerful magic. I’ll bet you anythin’ it has somethin’ to do with the Tree. Come on!”

I broke into a gallop again, briefly leaving Dad behind. Luckily, we weren’t too far from the castle, so he didn’t have too far to run to catch up.

---

I ducked and dived through the undergrowth, heading straight as the crow flies for the castle and the tree. Breaking out of the forest, it soon became clear what caused the earthquake.

The old castle had no roof, as it had fallen in long ago. Now though, the once magnificent structure was utterly dwarfed by a new arrival protruding from its foundations. An absolutely massive crystalline tree, with sapphire boughs and light pink foliage. The Tree was back, and apparently better than ever. I was right in my theory. The six kids had tried to honour the Tree in various ways before eventually using its remains to build a simple treehouse for themselves. The ancient entity then underwent a strange transformation and turned into what was essentially a giant version of the Golden Oaks library; a clubhouse for the next generation as it were, to meet up in.

I wasn’t the only one who felt what happened either. Twilight and Spike quickly arrived on the scene via teleport. Like me, she was overjoyed to see the Tree return, alive in some form. She, Spike and the students headed inside to explore, while I waited for Dad to catch up, which he did a moment later. I just took a moment to revel in the relief. As he rejoined me and Twilight and the others exited stage left, there was a brief flash of light and what seemed to be Twilight appeared before us. I quickly deduced though, judging by the serene expression and glowing appearance, that this wasn’t Twilight, but the Tree.

“And he cried in a loud voice; ‘Lazarus, come forth!’” I exclaimed joyfully. I’m not normally one for waxing biblical, but it seemed appropriate. In any case, she who was dead, did indeed, come forth, smiling at both of us.

“You kept your word,” Dad said to her, referring to the prior meeting that had inspired me to come out here again. “What will you do now?” The Tree just smiled.

“I shall do what is needed. No more, no less,” it replied. It seemed The Tree spoke fluent Enigmatic Sage. I was too happy to even be very annoyed.

With that, the construct vanished again. The Tree was alive, that was all I cared about.

Dad I headed inside to join Twilight for a while. The little alicorn was a little repulsed by my unkempt state, but was glad to see the positive effect events had had. The both of us were fascinated by the Tree’s new form. There was still so much we didn’t understand about harmony magic.

Study though could wait, as according to Twilight, I needed a wash and a shave. She was even kind enough to teleport me directly to the spa. Dad couldn’t help but laugh.

Author's Note:

Proofread by Sweetolebob18.

One of the things I wanted to do with this story is try and make Bones a little bit more believable as a character and less of a Stu. I'm quite pleased with this fight that never was on that front. What do you guys think?

Comments

[Vaalintine]

Hmmm. Well personally I don't know really why you thought that or how you intended to qccomplish it, because he never really seemed like a Gary Stu to me. Ironically that's an aspect of the character/story that doesn't feel lacking.

The first half of the chapter I honesrly think Blade Star was right at the beginning, mostly because Twilighr having abother one of her breakdowns because Celestia sent her an ordinary letter with nothing urgent about it demonstrates that Twilight isn't ready. A transition of power is an eventuality but such a total one is insane, there needs to be a more gradual one as Twilight is tutored on the actual intricacies of being the eternal head of state for the kingdom.

The second half... I dunno, feels hollow or lacking? Bones doing it for his family feels like it only words instead of holding meaning. Besides, Sombra isn't even his enemy to fight, and the fight against Sombra had already met its final end in a previous story.