Starstruck

by Vest

Chapter 13: Harmony Sincerest

Illustration by Vest.
Special pre-reader thanks to Dracon Pyrothayan

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Conflicts within, memories storm,
Icy kinship that once was warm.
A desperate gambit to perform,
Harmony sincerest lost to reform

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Chapter 13

Harmony Sincerest

I promise.

The charcoal unicorn grit his jaw, firmly weighing his brow tight.

To the sun...

His balance shifted without him, pulling him against the wooden door frame.

...To the moon...

He strained his eyes narrowly open, the ambient clatter of Canterlot wind weaving through the Hearth’s Warming street decor.

...And-

"The stars..." Devon heaved, thrusting himself headlong through a turbulent wave of receding white light, the vibrant blues and summer greens cast out behind his mind's reeling perceptions. He plunged forth into the cold unwelcoming night air churning belligerently through the Canterlot street. The gentle stings of frosted dew greeted his return to the real world, the memory flashing away to finally clear the way for the inevitable confrontation.

Fifteen years.

Fifteen years he had put this off.

In a rolling leap forward, Devon propelled off his haunches before the neck-high fence. Time crawled to a muffled stillness as a surge of adrenaline launched Devon forward; the shrill note of the night's breeze deadening to a low inaudible whimper as he arced over the picket gate in front of his home. A solitary clang of wood echoed through the still silence as he cleared the jump, his right rear hoof just gracing against the top rim of the gate.

You're set on doing this...aren't you?

Like a held breath sputtering out in a droning exhale, time resumed its normal pace, the quick rhythmic clatter of Devon's hooves beating a frenzied percussion that snaked into the bustling chorus of Canterlot's festival activity. The world focused back into comprehension, and with a narrowing of fixated eyes Devon charged forth down the street. The surrounding structures, signs, overhangs, banners and lights bleached into an obscure amalgam of warped streaks, his mind becoming nothing but a vehicle of pure determination.

You sincerely believe you can fix this.

The stars...

The stars continued to taunt and hound him as he made the quick escape from his home, making a straight shot to the Hearth's Warming Gala to intercept his distraught mother.

She's a Bookmark, Devon.

The stars continued to taunt and hound him.

A Bookmark. Just. Like. You.

To taunt and hound him.

If she can't change your mind about anything...

The swirling fusion of the Canterlot street froze, receding back into legible clarity.

...How can you possibly change her's?

"Why are you so evil?" Devon scoffed, slowing to a paced trot. He quickly made eye contact with a nearby pink filly standing confused in a doorway, glaring curiously with green eyes towards the dark-coated unicorn. She watched him talking to himself, watching him contemplate to the skies about the evils of an invisible being. He attempted a relieving smile to defuse her worried gaze, but was interrupted by a violet mare pulling her by the mane into the safe confines of the house. "Gyagh," he sighed continuing down the street, realizing the astral masterminds above were once again making him talk nonsense to himself.

Evil? Why, we just do what you tell us to do.

"But why then," he pleaded, looking up to the twinkling weavers of fate, "why is it that everything always comes back and...and..." he snorted, closing his eyes, "...and bites us right in the flank!?"

Well obviously, it's because you ponies don't truly know what it is you want.

Devon huffed at the cliche answer. He half expected that.

Listen, it's just the way fate works. It the way we work. If you will not abide by the terms you set, what do you expect us to do? Poor foresight leads to this.

"Then just what is..." The charcoal unicorn started asking for further elaboration, but found himself in an intersection behind two wagon-loaded mares in a conversation about a donkey and a mule. He already made himself look like a lunatic once already, he wasn't in the mood to perpetuate attention upon himself. He let the stars continue. They seemed to be on a roll anyway.

Why do you think so few ponies can even converse with us? Why do you think Celestia went through so much trouble to suppress the gift we gave to your ancestors? Because not everypony can handle it. It takes a strong will and phenomenal foresight to understand the gift of the stars, the gift of reading fate itself, and not transform it into some debauchery of selfishness! You saw how quickly Ghasen fell, and you are nothing like him. Not everypony has that kind of sentience, Bookmark.

Ducking into a back road between a bakery and a donut shop, Devon checked around to ensure he was alone to continue his conversation.

Especially you.

“Now listen, I-...”

The breath and confidence squeezed out of him with a bellowing huff. His neck contracted, the strength within his shoulders failing and dripping off of his sinking frame. With a low trot, he spun back out into the street, no words coming to mind to combat the copious diatribe lambasting him from above.

It's not our fault. Are you going to blame gravity for that tumble you're about to take?

"W-woa-hah!!" Devon wailed as he helplessly flopped headfirst over a sack of kumquats haphazardly strewn on the street. He turned, shuffling over slipping hooves as he lurched further to a sideways angle before being propelled like a stuffed doll against the ground. "Krugh!" he grunted, landing on the back of his neck, the rest of his torso and limbs collapsing around him like a crumbling house of cards.

Sure, it was gravity that took you down, but that's just what gravity does. It's not at fault if gravity was always there.

"Gyick, yeah," Devon groaned, righting himself back on the street's cobblestone surface. He brushed his haunches with his tail, flicking an erratic spray of gravel and winter frost off his cutie mark. "And like gravity, you sure are a pain sometimes."

Fate cannot lie, fate cannot extend pity. We are truth, pure and painful, Devon. We simply are.

Painful is right. As adept as ponies were at baking sugar-coated pastries and candies, one thing Devon always admired about Ponykind was their deeply rooted ability to sugar-coat just about any words that came from them. Ponies could always spin truth in ways to make it more digestable.

It was some pony that made a rhyme once. ‘When all truth does is make your heart ache...’

“Then,” Devon took over, filling in the pause, “Sometimes a lie is-”

Not us.

Ponies had a way with handling truth, yet ponies...the stars were not. They lacked empathy, they lacked context.

You thought you could handle something as simple as letting your mother love you. Something all mothers do anyway, and you made a pact with us stating that you'd let her. And all good sons love their mother too, right?

The lacked understanding.

Ponies, the stars could never be.

So the grand Bookmark lineage has become this. One thousand years have passed, the restriction on speaking and making pacts with the stars is lifted, and the great recipient of the proud Bookmark bloodline to be once again gifted with such a tremendous blessing...is this lowly...

Ponies, the stars should never be.

...Whiny...

Ponies, the stars will never be.

...Pitiful beacon of helpless dependency who has taken life for granted with such regularity that he can't even let his own mother love him!?

The stars...

And now you think you can actually fix this!? Figure it out, Bookmark! You failed in that pact, and since you have shown yourself outright incapable of maintaining that very first pact...we haven’t a choice. You cannot be trusted.

“I was...” The unicorn spat, the burden of frustration pressed onto his shoulders. What could he possibly say? I was just a colt? Trying to soothe a grieving mare? Rendered wildly incoherent by a mind distraught with the sudden departure of his own-

You were reckless.

The very vastness of the heavens above put into perspective only one thing...that perspective didn’t exist in the least bit. Remembering the analogy Ghasen had explained earlier, it didn’t matter what circumstances mandated his actions, or what maturity level he was. Understanding the situation did nothing to change it.

How can we extend our voice and trust to one who can’t accept their mother’s love?

Dust in sunlight. That’s all they saw.

Henceforth, all contracts created and modified by you are null. And the contract that manifested Luna's return to Equestria over a year ago? That's also null! By your hooves, Luna's banishment remains, as our intervention that brought her back to summon her foiled plan for eternal night is no longer rendered complete. Not even the Elements of Harmony can bring her back now!

Her words.

"All's...I'd, I'd ever want...wanted fer'my fam'ly..."

Her words haunted the back of his mind.

Everything you worked for, all you’ve achieved, is for nothing. Luna? Nothing. Your gifts? Nothing. All because you couldn’t even uphold a pact so stupidly easy to follow, something all ponies do anyway. How could you even think yourself entitled to be with royalty if you can't even accept the admiration, pride and love of your own family?

"...Was t'have somethin' I...I..."

Yeah. That. You couldn't even give her that.

A slamming of hooves cracked down the chilled alleys and streets of Canterlot, a percussive snare added to the frantic droning of melodic activity permeating through the city. "Shut! Up!" Devon cried. "Why are you so evil!?"

A snap of surprised gasps wafted from all corners around Devon, realizing he had just snapped while walking indifferently through a crowd of elderly ponies waiting on a street corner.

"I-" Devon started before being promptly interrupted by the boisterous crunch of two-dozen rear hooves stepping back in unison. "Sorry... I just..."

What? Out for an evening stroll, speaking with your ol’ pals, the stars?

"...Err, I, I kinda..."

Kind of forgot that like some Mare-do-Wells, those with great capability sometimes need to keep it a secret? Particularly, mmm-hmm-hmm, those powers that were banished for the last thousand years?

“I kinda...” Devon winced, shaking off the pestering words from above and extending a reassuring chuckle to the line of confused ponies. "...Wasn't...thinking...?"

Great job on that family tree, Bookmark clan. Love what you've done with the place.

"Pffooey!" The old mare reeled her head back, discounting him. "But at least I caught a 'Sorry' in there, and that’s just enough to keep me from deckin' ya one!"

He tried. "And I am sorry!" Gold star.

"Yeh-heh, sure ya are, young'un' pooter dooter!" She disappeared into the grouping of other elder mares and stallions, all shooting concerned and inflamed glances his way. Before their emerging chatter could drone out her voice, one last exclamation snuck through the frosty air, digging deep into Devon's ears. "Lucky 'sorry’ lets a pony get away with anything!"

Lucky sorry lets a pony get away with anything. A soft smile permeated across Devon's face, the gloomy spirit lifting from his eyes as the orange irises beamed with newfound optimism.

You think apologizing will change her mind? You think that will just undo what you did?

"No." Devon snickered, looking down into a reflected puddle ebbing softly, his dark features rippling away into the ghostly visage of a long-past stallion. "It won't change her mind. It won’t change or fix what I did tonight." The reflection seethed new meaning through his synapses, a blue summer glow enveloping around the stallion looking back in his mind's eye. Of all the pain and repressed memories he had tucked away, the reason for this one in particular to make such a strong reincarnation couldn't be any clearer. He never thought of...him...for years, but as the memories poured back, so did that ghost's mannerisms.

Perhaps Devon was blessed in one way, blessed to be in a family that would bequeath the greatest power of all of Equestria; a power so immense that Celestia herself saw to it that it was locked away lest any descendant should threaten the nation. To desecrate the royalty. To act such as his foalish ancestor who over a millenium ago formed the first pact with the stars, blunting his destiny and, ultimately Luna’s. How blessed he was to be so aware of his own limitations and failures, blessed to be reminded incessantly as a means that ultimately protects the nation from his own follies...

You're welcome.

...To an extent. Of course, it came at great psychological expense to himself. Knowing limitations is one thing, as it would prohibit Devon from ever chancing future endeavors with the stars. And by Celestia's mane, was it quite the burden to be followed and chastised by the stars.

Feh...

But if there's one thing that he would grow an acquaintance to with much greater familiarity than the stars' malignant provocations...It was knowing first-hoof what his mother went through. What that stallion put her through. And how remorseless that stallion was with every outburst, complaint, gripe, threat and word.

"All's...I'd, I'd ever want...wanted fer'my fam'ly, was t'have somethin' I...I..."

...Could get an apology from.

"I'm not going to change her mind, no." Devon breathed in deep, looking with confident assertiveness towards the cosmos. "I'm going to change her heart."

In his head, the words sounded so right.

“Because the heart is where our power truly lies!”

Eeesh, and they should’ve stayed in his head.

Pardon?

The stars could never understand the difference. To their binary contracts, there was no such thing as a gray area, no such thing as love enduring through hard times. An unforgivable mistake, such as his outburst to his mother, was exactly that. Unforgivable. From their lofty perches, the stars lacked the understanding that all ponies were born with. They only saw black and white.

Did the fall knock your brain more than usual, Bookmark? A pony would not forgive like that. They would never do it. You short-lived little things do not forgive betrayals like this. You banish your own kin over quarrels, you make legends of those who did you wrong so that even eons beyond their misdeed, they are demonized. When the crime hurts enough, love dies.

In a quick spinning dash, Devon sprinted with full force, continuing a frantic pace to get to the Hearth's Warming Gala. The architecture, signs, streamers, banners, lights, and decor of the Canterlot streets stretched into a streaked amalgam of color as Devon focused intently upon the road before him through narrowing eyes.

Watch out for the-!

In a jolting flash, Devon found himself somersaulted over himself, his neck now underneath his shoulders. The world spun into a blurry haze that relented just long enough for his weaving eyes to catch a glimpse of a sack of kumquats randomly strewn on the street. A burst of the small orange fruits encircled him on his airborne twisting waltz with gravity. A rolling cacophony of meaty thumps kept harmony with the rhythm of the world's pirouette, the horizon contorting into a sickening angle before resting to an awkward stop that turned the Canterlot streets and gathering of surprised ponies upside down.

Blinking hard, the dark unicorn spat a rogue thread of blue hair out of his eyes. "After you mentioned it," Devon groaned curling his forehooves against his chest, "I'm going to blame gravity more often."

* * * * *

A line of chattering ponies wrapped down the street, multi colored outfits, hats, capes and jewelry danced in a complimentary bouquet of dazzling spectacle that flickered with equal splendor in the reflections of the damp cobblestone streets. The streaming decorations of the Hearth's Warming celebration weaved with intimidating grace overhead, the lights and floral arrangements of countless hues were stitched together with impeccable precision, the surgical placement of each bead, thread, bulb, stud, and petal even left Devon speechless as he rounded the corner to see the gathering of ponies.

A procession from the theater down the street coalesced into a single cheery mob of enchanted ponies, their cadenced march down the cobblestone walkway augmented with the sweet carols they bellowed. Clearly, the night's performance left them elevated in a dazed stupor, inebriated from the great old tales of lore, of more tumultuous years of when Equestria was nothing but a concept in the xenophobic minds of pony, unicorn and pegasus. When the world was perceived to be more hostile, more feral, more wild and yet the dawn of binding friendships was discovered to overcome all with its warmth and hospitality.

A shiver crept up Devon's spine, the night's biting grip catching up to him. "F-p-p-pbt, whew," Devon raspberried, "I could go for a hot cup of friendship right now."

Though the frosty breath of the environment was beaming an efficacious chill through him, the ponies surrounding him appeared completely unaffected. It seemed the air itself was singling him out as he stood disjointed from the rest of the herd. They all cavorted, sang and laughed in a single unified chorus of contentedness, of joy, of companionship, togetherness, and harmony.

Harmony.

Not even the Elements of Harmony will bring her back now!

He was there to win his mother's forgiveness. To change her heart.

So maybe Devon wasn't intended to become a weaver of the fates, maybe he wasn't one bit qualified to even converse with the stars themselves. But was that truly what Bookmarks were destined to become, anyway? Or was it simpler than that? Were the stars their reason for their very existence, or just an intermediary to a grander, more encompassing purpose? If his gift, his power, wasn't in changing fate itself on the whims of others, perhaps it was in simply making recompense for history's sins with simple pony intuition and grit.

Making recompense.

The upbeat vibes of seasonal whimsy couldn't even cut through to embrace Devon, as he shivered once more. Trouble was brewing, and as the newly-adorned ambassador to the stars, Devon was the only one who knew it.

"Did you hear!?" chirped the jovial vociferation of a nearby mare nudging a stallion beside her. "The bearers of the Elements of Harmony are here!"

Words trot to his ear hoof in hoof, right on queue.

"No kidding, m'dear, they're already here!?" exclaimed the stallion, adjusting his hat to level. "Well, I say now, we'll be seeing Ms. Luna coming back in no time, for I say, there's nothing those six strapping young fillies can't accomplish!"

"And on Hearth's Warming Eve!" Proclaimed a third mare, her lofty Canterlot accent carrying heavy between them. "It’s like something out of a story! So delightful how friendship does, it just cures all, I say!"

Not even the Elements of Harmony will bring her back now!

"But, it won't!" Devon interjected. The three sharply attired ponies turned quizzical glances towards him, the stallion lowering the brim of his hat so it rested at an annoyed look to him.

Like some Mare do Wells, those with great capability sometimes need to keep it a secret?

"But..." slowly inquired the stallion, his voice lowering to a haughty chortle. "What?"

Particularly, mmm-hmm-hmm, those powers that were banished for the last thousand years?

"M'boy," scoffed the accented mare, turning away from him, "I do proclaim, if you haven't something to say, you shouldn't interrupt a lady!"

He didn’t have time for this. No point in arguing the point when the moment of truth was at hoof. The Elements of Harmony gathered, and were ready to attempt some means to return Princess Luna. They didn’t have the knowledge Devon had in what caused Luna to be imprisoned on the moon once more. They barely even had the background. They weren’t the ones under the stars’ astral demands, they weren’t tasked to make recompense.

A line of royal pegasi guards cordoned off a stretch of the plaza before the ballroom, their pearled coats and glittering armor prying apart the crowd. In a radiating nova of dazzling luminance, the carriage’s opalescent door opened before seven figures. They poured regally between the blockade of royal guards towards the front entrance.

Devon quickly approached the mob of gathering ponies hoping to catch a glimpse of the splendor and frenzy surrounding these important guests. The thick crowds made it easy for him to go unnoticed, and with the guards all in the same jovial spirit at the party, attention would’ve been hard to get even if he had the whole town join him in a spontaneous song and dance routine.

"I did! I just saw them tonight!" gushed a young colt jumping excitedly in front of Devon, the calico spots on his haunches occasionally blocking his vantage point. "They were most absolutely brilliant in that play, they were!"

A burly stallion pegasus hurried the group along, his wings extended to prevent the prying eyes of tabloids as they made their entrance. Through the grooves in the wings, Devon could hardly see them, though his eyes were more focused on the door. There were already dozens of ponies also making a hurried press to the front doors, eager to get a look at the new arrivals.

A pegasus spun and twirled in acrobatic precision before the onlookers commanding greatest attention to herself. She smiled wide, her rainbow-colored mane and tail twisting expertly in a brilliant streak of motley hues, waving her forelegs to direct a loud chorus of cheers and chants.

"Rain-bow-Dash!" The crowd called in unison. "Rain-bow-Dash! Rain-bow-Dash!"

"Rain-bow-Dash!" screamed the calico colt, once more leaping into Devon's path, his wildly waving appendages causing Devon to lurch back a step...

"Rainbow-Da-HEY!"

...his haunch smacking into the face of a pink pony right behind him.

"Oh!" Devon yelped apologetically. "Didn't see you there!"

"Yee-heesh, is this some game Twilight came up with?" the pink filly seethed while rubbing her nose, then chuckled. "It's okay, I just wanted to cheer my friend on!" Her face suddenly popped in excitement. "Okay! Done! I need to get back in the fracas!"

In a pink blur she darted forward into a single bound, landing between the two lines of royal guards. Devon watched as she playfully aligned herself in front of a purple unicorn in the ensemble, and stopped suddenly in her path. The unicorn bumped nose-first into her haunch, bouncing back. The pink filly giggled with snort, nodding approvingly and shooting a wave of a hoof toward him.

Well, at least she thought it was funny. The groaning purple unicorn...not as much.

Finally, behind them all, the wispy tendrils of a cyan, teal, and pink mane signaled the approach of Princess Celestia. The crowd erupted into a refrain of impassioned cheering for the Equestrian ruler, her tall poise and sincere grace maintained absolute dominance over the populace as their riotous exaltations echoed to humbled quiet. A procession of dignified bows waved outward from the holding line of pearlescent armored pegasi, as a sweeping menagerie of strings and horns billowed with imperial majesty to her every step. Soon, all ponies were kneeled in collective deference towards Celestia, with exception to a chocolate gray earth pony cellist, a teal lyrist unicorn...and Devon, still eying for a direct shot into the door.

Taking advantage of the show of adoration around him, he took quick steps above and around the kneeling ponies, making wide gaits and fast progress towards the entrance. He spun to the edge of the entrance plaza, finding a narrow gap between the tightly packed crowd of ponies and the stage of musicians still proceeding through a grandiose anthem for Celestia's arrival to the gala.

A rickety crate lay in the gap at Devon's feet. The edge of the stage blocked one side, and the squat fat flanks of a few unusually large old ponies blocked the other. Devon attempted nudging the crate to the side, the splintered edges catching against the hind leg of the old ponies sitting before him, winning him an agitated scowl. He couldn't clear it in a single step, either. A shuffling of hooves behind him sealed his return pathway through the gap as a few more ponies arrived from the outskirts and immediately dropped into a reverent bow to the Princess.

Devon huffed, looking at the crate, and cracked his neck in anticipation. He sized it up, two haunches high, two haunches wide, six haunches in width, probably used to carry a large string instrument, about two bales in weight if empty...eh, nothing to it for most unicorns. But unlike most unicorns, Devon looked at the dastardly crate and tried not to weep in intimidation.

For the first time all evening, Devon illuminated his horn, casting a telekinetic aura around the lone crate. With all his focus, he attempted to lift it, brainpower he'd reserved for his novels and studying literature and history were reworking within his cranium to contemplate the very process of converting his natural magics into lifting. As if by reflex, his mind bent towards letting the magic happen, flowing naturally like when he still bore the gauntlet. He knew that overthinking magic made it less effective, how the infantile instincts of foals could far outshine all other magic users in the way they wielded it without even contemplating its methodology. But Devon couldn't bend his magic without hitting internal barriers...the problem was only tempered further by his astute contemplation towards its use, a quality that could only be broken if something were to trigger his seldom-used instincts.

With a creaking lurch, the crate ascended from the ground in a dark sparkling aura, lifting in a swaying uneasy flight to Devon's eye level. He grit his teeth, hoping his magic would hold true as he stepped slowly beneath the heavy crate. Just don't think about it, Devon thought to himself. Magic is your instinct, just...use your instinct is all...

Trusting his gut, Devon peeked a glance at the hovering crate, the tensions in his fetlocks eased when seeing the old cargo carrier level and hold steady in place. With such relief came even greater assurance of his magic instincts, the crate almost feeling weightless in his telekinetic grasp.

Instincts.

Huh.

Seems he's actually not half bad at it when he doesn't put his mind to it so much. With a satisfied smile, Devon crept the rest of his body underneath it, clearing the obstacle. Running on his instincts' cruise control, he relinquished a bit of the telekinetic aura's intensity.

A sudden crack rang through the still air. From the underside of the hovering crate, the rotted wooden bottom peeled away, revealing the twin brass shines of a pair of cymbals plummeting with dreadful speed towards the cobblestone ground. Devon only caught a glimpse of metallic orange dropping in his peripheral vision.

A bone-shattering explosion of terrifying noise jolted the charcoal unicorn's senses, sending an energetic lightning bolt of unadulterated surprise straight to his instincts.

With forceful might, Devon's magic reflexed vociferously, a vehement onslaught of unfiltered magic bombarded the broken crate. Like a blazing grey comet, the crate lifted with supersonic force upwards with speed as startling as the initial bang of cymbals. A shrill scream of distorted air sang a shocking falsetto that disjointed the plaza from Princess Celestia's procession. Now a jumbled projectile hardly resembling its former cubic self, the crate tugged upwards at the fabric ceiling draped over the band stage, the fabric's fibers holding firm and bending with rubbery resistance before recoiling and flinging the black sparkling torpedo back to the stage.

In a mortifying crunch, the crate landed with breakneck velocity. The whole stage floor bent inward, the momentum and breaking supports conspired in chaotic harmony to force the stage to snap. A dozen band members careened airborne like ragdolls. A wooden beam kicked outward with the force of a dozen applebucks, catching against Devon's underside. His hooves made a snappy departure from the cobblestones, the air courteously stepping aside around his flailing arc upwards.

A second snapping of wooden beams and supports folded the stage back outward in a reverberating clamor. A double bass launched straight towards the charcoal unicorn. He feebly held out his front hooves hoping to somehow cushion the impending impact.

His sternum volunteered in place of hooves.

"Pfwoo!" Devon coughed, the wind knocked clear out of him in a forceful puff. The world blurred into a pinwheel of colors. After a cacophony of wooden thuds and snapping strings summoning the equally harsh landing of the large instrument beside him, a hushed silence enveloped him.

Easing the tense grasp wrapped around his eyelids, the concussive dots bobbing lazily through his spinning pupils expanded vividly into opalescent bursts of overwhelming light as he opened his eyes slowly. He groaned loudly, clasping them shut once more to retreat from the crushing radiance bombarding him. Cracking just a sliver open to let a blurry shaving of vision through, white luminescence enveloped the ground as a lone white foreleg adorned in an elaborate ivory slipper took a single anxious step in his direction.

Princess Celestia.

All nerves fired simultaneously as a blast of life flung Devon back onto his hooves. Devon hazarded a wry smile in the Princess' direction, meandering in a disoriented lean to the side as his hooves shuffled to keep up with his wrenching frame.

His forehead smooshed solidly against a pink tail.

"Bonk!" chortled the pink pony, bouncing in a single leap to face him. "You're it!" she laughed, springing low getting ready to run. "Totally got you back!" She narrowed her eyes towards the purple unicorn standing a reserved distance between them. "Though Twilight wouldn't play, because she's all 'Elements' and 'Luna' and 'Nyuh-nuh, get yer' flank outta my face!'"

"Pinkie!" protested the purple unicorn. "This is really serious business, I don't even know if the spell matrix will even reach the lunar plane! The research I did only hints at it being possible, there’s nothing concrete behind it!"

“Well, duh!” The pink pony grinned with a sarcastic swoon. “Because you don’t use moonrock to mix concrete, silly!”

The unicorn huffed. “How does tha-...” She started. “How do you even-” Attempted. “Gyuuugh!” Surrendered.

A solid hoof gripped Devon's shoulder. Celestia looked sternly down to him with deep violet eyes. "Ah, so you're okay?" she smiled softly, waving away a line of royal pegasus guards collecting behind her.

"Princess," Devon began, rolling the words like stones in his mouth, trying to pick out the right ones. "I didn't mean to, I just...I..." He softened, breathing in deep, "I hope I didn't just ruin everything."

"Ruin!?" the princess chuckled. The guards snapped back as perplexed as Devon, even the six other ponies tilted their heads askew to see the Equestrian ruler laugh. "This is the most surprisingly entertaining anything to greet me in years!"

"Fwoo!" Devon heaved in relief, swinging his head forward. The pendant around his neck jostled loose, the silver quill shimmering a cross of light at the Princess.

"Oh," the Princess commented, raising an inquisitive hoof at the pendant. "Is that a...is that what I think?" Devon looked up with his head tilted away, a single eye watching the Princess as she reached forward to examine it more closely. Cradling the silver quill in her hoof, Celestia lifted it slightly off of his neck. "Bookmark," she exhaled slowly, her hoof clattering softly with a shudder, dropping the silver quill pendant back against his neck. "You're a Bookmark?"

His eye widened, fully rounded from top to bottom, the pupil receding in surprise. "Y-y-yes ma'am," he stuttered over the words. The words of the stars rushed back to him.

Particularly, mmm-hmm-hmm, those powers that were banished for the last thousand years?

Banished.

"My...uhh..." He thought quickly, hoping something would stick. "My m-m-mother, she...she helped put together this gala."

"Ah!" Celestia's gaze eased once more, a crack of laughter seeping through. "Great!" Whew. "That's great to hear!" The Princess beamed another smile his way, continuing her walk towards the entrance once more. The other six ponies in tow followed alongside her. "So the Bookmarks have taken up...contracting with curators, entertainers and caterers now have they?" She quickly snuck back a twinge of relief that was creeping on her face, leveling her royal countenance back into place. Politely, Devon let it go, pretending to ignore Celestia's temporary bout of sporadic unease, but the shudder in her diction spoke volumes. "Well, if she's as spontaneous and...umm..."

"Crasherific?"

"Yes Pinkie." The Princess nodded softly to the pink pony. "If she's anything like what I've seen tonight, I'm sure the gala's just going to be full of surprises." Princess Celestia waved her head forward, signaling him to walk alongside her. "Just like you."

You have no idea, Devon thought to himself.

The stars were right. They were right when they said that some powers, particularly those that had been banished for over a thousand years, should best be hidden. What would Celestia do if she found out he could wield the dark art of penning contracts with fate? How desperately would she succumb to a millennium's old panic if she did the math, realizing that if she banished her sister for a thousand years, her thousand-year banishment of the Bookmarks' gift at the same time would coincide with Luna's first return and Devon becoming the recipient of what changed her? Would Celestia cast him into exile, turn him into a statue, or exile him then turn him into a statue if she learned he was even conversing with the stars above?

Why do you think we’ve been so quiet?

"Eh-heh...yeah," Devon snickered, hiding his startled jolt from the stars’ words. "Us Bookmarks, for certain. Makin' the best...uh, deals, and...contracts-err I mean, contracting all sorts of...yes. Curators. And, musicians." He caught up to the Princess in a quick series of bounds, his legs more able to follow his weight. "And curators." His mind still a bit jostled to follow his words properly. "Lots of...you know...contractin’ and all."

The purple unicorn hesitated in her step, slowing down to walk closer alongside him. She peered into his eyes curiously. Devon felt a shiver, as if those dark violet pupils were examining his every word. He remained hushed as she narrowed closely at him, staring intently into his mind.

A panging tore against the back of his neck like the splintering bite of a timber wolf. While his ruse might have worked on Celestia, he suddenly recognized her esteemed student. Devon felt his blood turn to ice water as he remembered the tower and her intervention at the top. But did she...did she recognize him?

That look.

She was definitely starting to make the same connection...

"Ah, shoot, Twi come on," the orange pony beside her lamented. "Yer’ lookin at him with a stinkin’ winkin’ that could peel paint off a barn. What’s gotten into ya, gal?"

The unicorn unlocked her gaze, dropping her neck low to the ground. "I'm..." she flicked her ears back, a ripple of turbulent anxiety reverberating across her face. "...Honestly, Applejack, I'm just nervous is all." She turned back to him. "I'm sorry, sir...mister...Bookend was it?"

Devon cleared his throat, only a silent whimper able to sneak through the trachea. "Bookm-"

"Dearest!" nickered the orange pony, waving her over, "Ya' said it yerself once, Twi. Always expect the best from your friends, and never assume the worst.” The orange earth pony rested a reassuring hoof against her shoulder. “Ah believe in ya', gal, we all do.” She bounded in two steps, standing beside a yellow pegasus with flowing pink hair. With a nudge of a hoof, she turned her around, putting an arm over her shoulder to direct a second set of encouraging eyes her way.

“You’re, the, umm...” the yellow pegasus paused timidly, shuffling the words like she shuffled a forehoof against the dirt. “The, umm, best magic user I, I, umm-”

“-And, well shoot, if we don't geddit right the first time, I know we can try again and again." She lowered her head, nudging her hat up. “...an’ again.” She walked towards the purple unicorn. "After all. Ah didn’t get my first ribbon on the first rodeo. And I still get reds and silvers now an’ then, but there's always gonna be more rodeos, just as..." She pointed a hoof upwards, sweeping her foreleg across the speckled astral expanse above. "Just as there'll be as many stars in the sky." Nudging her shoulder against the purple unicorn, she sighed.

Devon’s eyes lifted to the blanket of stars. He kept quiet.

"I promise," Devon continued against the muffled whimpers as she clenched him with soft hooves. "You can always love me, I mean it." A sudden tide of words came forth. Words from...but not of himself. "I'll be your's. I promise..."

"Twi, ya’ just gotta do whatcha gotta do." She walked briskly to the door, following a white, blue and yellow pony in close succession. They turned back. "I’ll still be your friend no matter what happens," she smiled, holding open the door with a rear hoof, and extending a foreleg with an inviting wave. “Just as long as you try, sugar cube.”

The purple unicorn breached a constricted burst of joyous laughter. "Applejack, I mean it," she ran to join the other five. "You just always know what to say. You're right, I shouldn't be so worried." She turned back to face Devon from the doorway. "Or paranoid." She smiled brightly to him, the unexpected grin making Devon stop in his tracks...

"Byoof!" Devon spat, lurching forward as a mass smacked into his cutie mark.

"Grawwwl," groused a pink pony behind him, her eyes rotating wildly in place. "Aw, you got me. I'm it."

* * * * *

A line of brass horns ascended to the ceiling, draped in multicolored streamers and banners decorated in embroidered icons of the Hearth’s Warming celebration. The lights in the ballroom dimmed, as several beams of shimmering white burned over the entourage of ponies entering before him. The spotlights drooped downward, following Celestia and the six friends around her with a rehearsed arc.

With a swell of horns and descent of confetti, the denizens of the gala erupted into applause, rhythmically stomping their forehooves on the floor in excited cheers and adulation.

Hanging behind, Devon attempted to duck out of the entering procession, but couldn’t find any gap between the tightly stanced royal pegasi guards holding a solid barrier between himself and the rest of the gala attendees. Behind Devon, another line of guards pushed forward, a dark gray unicorn holding the middle with a box decorated in a shimmering blue chassis trimmed in gold. Multicolored gemstones of red, violet, and teal lined the box’s sides, its metallic casing shimmering against every sparkle crackling from the telekinetic aura holding it majestically in the air before him.

A single, narrow finger of light extended across the gala floor, and upon its projection onto the blue case, a torrent of multicolored brilliance flickered across the walls.

“The elements!” A young filly gawked, poking her head between the line of guards. She glared curiously with green eyes, then glimpsed at Devon, and as if triggered by a recent memory was awash in a familiar gaze of worried trepidation at the dark unicorn she saw just minutes ago talking to himself in the street.

“Shh!” Interrupted a pink-maned mare, pulling her back away from the guards. Waving towards the stage, she directed the filly’s attention to the stage where Celestia stood with the six other ponies in line behind her.

A subdued cough behind him nicked the hairs at the tip of Devon’s ear. Turning around, he saw the grizzlied faces of two construction ponies leaning against the scaffolding supporting a large rig of lights. Standing between them, a unicorn remained focused on keeping the dozens of sparkling bulbs ablaze and directed onto Celestia.

“I says, m’boy,” groaned one of the construction ponies, his words snaking deep under the swelling melody of music and applause augmenting around them. “All of this fancy presentation for introducing em, huh?”

“You’d swear,” gruffed the other stallion, leaning his head close to the other’s. “That one lady there who saw to all of this. She’s wanted this dance gala thing to be bigger than Hearth’s Warmin’ itself.” He jabbed the unicorn beside him with a firm hoof. “Can’t fault her for bein’ ambitious.”

Reflexively, the unicorn’s horn flashed brilliantly with light, the surge of magic cascaded and tumbled upward like luminescent water trickling against gravity through the ornate bars and wires of the light scaffolding. The light fixtures pulsed with rings of twirling sparks spiraling outward, causing a dozen sharp beams of intense color to converge onto the metallic blue casing now levitating towards Princess Celestia.

“You thinkin’ she overdoes it?”

A line of fireworks marched across the stage. Along with the crowd, even Celestia stepped back in amazement as several glistening tails of sparks rocketed to the ceiling in synchronized dances of shrill whines, popping into a rapid fire blur of psychedelic shapes and dazzling splendor.

“Yeah.” The burly construction stallion adjusted the orange vest around his shoulders, wiping a smudge of frosting on it. “But what’s-her-name in charge of this gala, Bookmark?” He laughed, nudging the other stallion into a smile. “She was all about this y’know? I’ve worked with ‘er before and she doesn’t know what ‘over the top’ means, but this one’s special. I think she wanted to really impress somepony. Made us cupcakes to get us all motivated.”

She really wanted him here.

“Ah yeah...heh...kinda found that out on my own already.” The other agreed, poking a hoof at his own vest, the matted coating of frosting shimmered more vibrantly than the vest’s reflective safety orange in the spectacular light show around them. “But other than this bein’ the Hearth’s Warmin’ gala and all, did she say anything about why it was so big?”

She put everything into this night.

“Hyeh, huh, yeah.” The first stallion gnawed with a smile on the stain on his vest, his eyes drifting upward with euphoric glee.

“Fillies and gentlecolts!” A dark blue stallion announced to the crowd. The stomping hooves subsided with the roars of cheers, the music receded to a calm tone and tempo as dimming lights rolled onto the stage. Devon stood in disbelief at just how much thought and effort had gone into this ordeal.

And it would be an all to pieces disaster if...

Come on, Devon.

Yes. That. He needed to work fast.

“Princess, Celestia!”

Another wave of applause and cheers erupted forth, the excitedly bouncing crowd of ponies turned the ballroom floor into an indiscernible jumble of color and abstract blur.

Looking down the tightly clustered regiment of royal guards, not a single opening presented itself. The doors behind him shut firmly, and a line of workers and organizers also caught in the aisle cleared for Celestia drifted back against the closed doors to stay low. Clear of the packed clutter of the other ponies, Devon also took advantage of his vantage point to scan the aisles.

The voluminous gathering of ponies weaved back and forth, pressing closer to the stage Celestia stood atop. While all eyes were intently fixated upon the Princess readying herself to begin her speech...

“My esteemed pupils, welcome!”

...Fixated upon the Princess now delivering her speech...

Tick, tick, tick...

...A tingling in Devon’s mane perked up his ears, diverting his attention to a dark corner atop the stage, the only pair of eyes not intently focused upon the princess...lay firmly upon him. Two deep brown irises cut through the shadows below the stage’s curtain, the stray wafts of dim light venturing from behind illuminating the mare’s orange mane.

She was here. Devon breathed out a heavy huff of calmed relief. “Oh thank Celestia-”

“-Thank you!” Celestia declared to the audience once more. “Tonight we have gathered for a glorious spectacle, to bear witness to the first ever public display of the new Elements of Harmony!”

With another jab of a muscled arm, the construction stallion slugged the unicorn at the base of the light fixtures, a twirling amalgam of colorful electricity surged forth casting a single beam of blue, purple, orange, yellow, pink, and white light upon each of the six ponies standing behind the Princess. The music picked up intensity, blaring a triumphant cacophony of heroic resonance through the hall. One pegasus hovered above, shaking two proud hooves over her head.

“Rain-bow-Dash!” A pocket of the crowd chanted. “Rain-bow-Dash!”

The others on stage bowed reverently. Bowed with practiced grace. Bowed with timid shakes at all the attention of so many other ponies. Bowed but unable to hide a commanding smile radiating warmly. Bowed while tipping her hat upward to keep her eyes clear.

Bowed, and desperately hoping her spell would work.

Devon glanced back at the dark corner of the stage. His mind reeled in familiar shock, the world blurred momentarily with a spinning vortex of blending hues culminating around the spot he just saw her, but now replaced by the imprinted memory of an empty doorway, an alien shade of mango red casting an empty glow out.

He shook his head, the world focusing once more into discernible clarity. “No delays this time,” he grunted, eyeing for any sort of vulnerability or method of breaking past the interwoven steel-tipped wings of the pegasus royal guards holding firmly the barrier between the main aisle and a path to the stage. Through them? No. Between them? No.

Over them?

Devon slowly crept to the base of the light scaffolding, hooking his hooves into the criss-crossed bars snaking up the structure. He pulled himself up, the structure slightly tipping to the side. It could hold the weight of dozens of lights, but add one short pony to the mix, and the whole balance is thrown off. They really did engineer these things to an exactly specific burden.

“‘Ey, you there!” A gruff voice shot at Devon, the force lapping the tips of his ears. He looked down, and saw the two construction stallions giving him an irritated look. “Git!” A few royal guards looked over, their poise shifting as if ready to quickly dart towards him. Their wings arched back, and they dipped their heads low into a take off position.

He needed a quick distraction. Gina was always so good at coming up with a spontaneous show of sporadic combustion to confuse and overwhelm others...but the best Devon could do was accidentally propel a crate into a stage. Same type of spectacular explosion, but one well outside of his control, and furthermore, far outside of his intended result. Gina...she was always so good at creating bedlam as an intended result, not just an accident.

But...maybe there was another nearby unicorn who could. Thinking quickly, Devon thrust a rear hoof outward, swinging from the bars and firmly contacting against the gently glowing horn of the unicorn operating the light fixture.

“Kyugh! Hey!” The unicorn cried out in protest, rubbing his horn. The lights flickered with a bright flare of suddenly intense light, the hushed gasps of a few gala patrons followed suit. Devon reached his rear hoof back with a solid wind-up. “Why would anypony...wait what the-hey wait!” In flash of speed, Devon jettisoned his hoof with a square impact against the unicorn’s horn. “Pyack!”

The horn reacted with insane potency, a surging wave of raw unfiltered energy coursed up the scaffolding like a terrifying tsunami of unrelenting power. Each bulb in the wave’s explosive path burst forth and popping with a sharp crash of burning glass, shards, and sparks raining outward. A succession of exploding light and rings of smoke wiped across the stage.

The scaffolding lurched further to the side. Devon climbed up further, avoiding the grabs of the guard and construction ponies as they ducked to shield their eyes from the blinding display above. With a sickening tilt, the world twisted upwards, the metal interlaced between Devon’s hooves warped and buckled drooping him outward over the crowd.

A final surge of electricity shot back around, now proceeding quickly down the scaffolding straight towards Devon in a deadly wall of pure uncontrolled magic. A blaring, bursting cascade churned towards him. Without looking down, Devon propelled off the metal bars, feeling the tingling burn of stray energy reaching out to grab him from almost two haunches away. The sensation faded, now replaced by the soft twinkling clatter of exploded glass bulbs shimmering around his ears.

As an encompassing embrace of light torpedoed away from him, an encompassing embrace of darkness wrapped around him as he fell towards the crowd of gathered ponies. He couldn’t distinguish just which one would be the unfortunate soul that would involuntarily break his fall. “Please be a fat one, please be a fat one,” Devon pleaded out loud to the forces of physics before his synapses were plunged into darkness.

Whatever pony he landed on, it was fortunately very large...but unfortunately very wooden, and very floor shaped.

Sarcastically, Devon groaned into the floor. “Thanks...gyagh,” Devon rolled off the ground, stumbling to the side into the shoulder of a waiting pony. “For the-Hyagh!” The pony waited no longer and stepped away from the crazy dark unicorn, leaving him to fall face first back onto the floor.

The murmuring panic and concerned outbursts bouncing around the gala’s patrons subsided into a silence as a single lone note cut through the chaotic melody. A soft, dignified giggle, very particular in its resonance and royal candor. All eyes drifted back to Princess Celestia, her face convulsing to contain a hefty laugh within.

The Princess smiled, creating her own light in place of the precariously drooping scaffolding dangling above. “Crasherific.”

* * * * *

The dark stillness echoed away in a single metal clanging, a door leading to the prop storage room swung open gently letting in a narrow sheet of piercing white light in. The thin line of interloping lumination drifted across the piles of open cases and outfits lining the walls behind her.

“I don’t know,” a distant male voice echoed through, not directed to resonate enough to reach her ears, but still loud enough for the room’s vacuum of sound to ensnare and deliver into her perceptions with a conspiring swoop. “She’s been like this all night...”

Another quiet voice cut in. “Tell her,” he stated in a low whisper.

“No you tell her.”

“You’s tells her.”

“Fine, we’ll both-”

“-I’m not takin’ the fall for your screw up.”

“I told you it was not!” The low whisper rasped back. “I was kicked!”

“So? Everything exploded anyway”

The dark cyan mare perked her head up, waving her thick orange ponytail to the side. Devon’s mother stepped forward from the shaded recesses of the stacked props into the thick white light pouring in through the dusty atmosphere. “What...” she growled. “...Exploded...?”

The unicorn shrunk back out of the doorway, leaving the construction stallion alone as the sole recipient of her annoyed glance. “Well, y’see, Miss Bookmark, there was a bit of an incident, and...” He brushed his shoulder, dropping his head low to the side, “And then this guy went off and set off all the lights at once, blew out every last one of ‘em.”

She exhaled deeply, swinging back around to turn into the darkened shadows of the prop room.

“Miss Bookmark!” The unicorn interjected, swinging into the doorway. “At least the show’s still going on, though!” She took another slow step towards the dark corner. “And, and...and the Elements of Harmony are ready to go, and...” He stepped into the room reaching a hoof towards her. “We know how much this means to you, and we...we all think those cupcakes you made for us were just all sorts of wonderful!”

She sighed, turning to extend a comforting smile over her shoulder. “Don’tcha worry ‘bout it,” she huffed, taking another step away.

The construction stallion took stance beside the unicorn. “So, then’s uh, why are you down here instead of bein’ topside?”

The unicorn shushed him, propelling an irritated hoof into his ribs.

“Wuh-Hey, I was just curious.”

“It’s not that,” she spoke slowly towards the corner. She ran a foreleg along the laces of a pair of boots on a wall-mounted rack, the bells atop the laces jangled in tepid chimes. “It’s not that at’all.” A rustle of hurried hoofsteps clamored in ascending echoes from the door. “It’s-”

“-Somepony named Devon to see you, Miss Bookmark!” A middle-aged mare with glasses stood in the doorway, adjusting her clipbook against her with an elbow.

The white luminance peeled away from her as she took a succession of rapid, heavy steps away from them. She climbed on top of a stack of crates against the wall, and leaning against the bricks, nudged open a window placed at ground-level to the outside. A regiment of vertical pale blue descended down her face in cold streaks as she looked out, glimpsing at the last few gala guests being ushered into the ballroom entrance by the last of the royal guards, the brightly lit streets were empty except for the rhythmic cadence of decor and streamers gently swaying in the cold winter breeze. Everypony in Canterlot was there.

“Miss Bookmark?”

“Take charge,” she stated gently. “I needs a few.”

“And...As for-”

“-Send’im in.” She looked deeply out the window. “And close th’door.”

“Miss Bookmark, what’s about the lights?”

“Just go enjoy th’show,” she replied calmly, warming up her voice to them. “Sounds like Celestia’s got this’un, and...” she breathed in deeply, turning to face the unicorn and the stallion, “Well, you’re such good apprec’ative young men. Tell’ya what...” She snorted, half conflicted between a laugh and a whimper. “There’a two cupcakes in th’fridge upstairs, one wit’ blue frosting, th’other wit’ black. I puts extra special care into those fer, well, a special lil’ celer’bration I was savin’ fuh’tonight, but...”

A whimper crept out. She immediately regained her composure, choking it down with a bitter cough.

“You two have ’em.”

* * * * *

Fifteen years.

A lick of cold air buffeted against Devon as he cornered into the doorway. He wasn’t sure just where his mind was going or what bouquets of words were being orchestrated within his larynx in preparation of the encounter, but of all he knew, experience mandated that this would be neither easy nor pleasant.

Immediately apparent upon entering the room full of props were the piles of discarded trinkets and outfits strewn over crate, trunk, lid, and cabinet, like a piled culmination of various plays and events stacked atop one another like memories. Memories of performances past, shows of various whimsical acts of music, dance, comedy, tragedy, romance, adventure, drama, and fantasy. How they all swirled into one another in the doorway’s bright ghostly light creeping in from outside, Devon’s shadow cast like a draping silhouette overtaking and enveloping them in a devouring mass.

The shadows played off the lace trims of outfits and strings of countless marionettes, morphing into dark visages of old school mates projected as vicarious spirits of childhood recollections, taunting and ridiculing him. Descending tendrils of light snaking in between the ruffled skirts and capes of a wardrobe rack cast flooding blades of grass-shaped shadows swaying above him, the platinum white haze reaching above into an infinite falling plane. The disappointed scowls of familiar faces burst through the walls where illumination scattered through the jeweled trims of crowns and scepters stashed in a criss-crossing pile beside Devon, the masonry assuming the remembered countenance of his supervisor giving him a baleful stare down.

Stepping into the prop room, Devon’s own shadow walked before all of them, and they all looked back onto him, looming and glowering back in collective indifference.

With a slight creak, the door behind Devon swung closed, the ethereal projections faded away in silent trepidation. The swirling halos and ghostly images tore away, seeming to take sudden refuge into the folds and crevices lining the edges of the room, and in its place...

...She sat atop the crate, looking out the window.

Devon’s memories swelled within his mind. In the darkness, cast from the blue rimmed silhouette at the corner of the room, a wash of orange sunlight spilled down the floor between them. A cobalt shape wisped before him, looking out a window atop a bookcase.

The anesthetized silence cracked away, a very subtle, somber note. Almost undetectable, but so very definitive in this auditory limbo. A sniffle.

“R-remem...” Her voice pierced through the darkness, the cobalt figure casting away in a spiraling strand of errant thought, the dark cyan unicorn sitting in her place. “Rememb’uh w-when...” She started again. “When you’s was...so small?” With a soft rustle against the top of the crate, she emitted a subtle laugh quickly consumed by a crack in her voice. “You couldn’t, heh-hyeh, evens see over’s the grass?”

“Mom, look.” Devon attempted. “We both said things we-”

“-It’s like,” she interrupted him, tilting her head up in contemplation, “like your world, it jus’ ended right there, and everythin’ was so easy to explain t’ya.”

He decided to roll along with it. A rumble from upstairs signaled that the gala was continuing, as the muffled applause of the patrons crept into the dark room.

“Devon,” she closed her eyes, resting her head against the window beside her. “Y’know, the scariest day’a my life, was when’s we’s were goin’s to school, an’ you asked ‘bout the mountains beyond that grass.” She cracked another soft snort, and breathed out heavily. “Because then I knew...you was gettin’ taller, you could actually see them over the grass, an’ you wasn’t gonna be my little Dev’ no more.”

She looked up again, out the window to the now completely empty street outside the ballroom. She placed a hoof against the small window’s glass, the reflection of her violet eyes looked squarely upon Devon, the pupils fluttering between him and the rapid whirlwind of emotional memories flashing in the space behind them.

“You said the mountains were where the world stopped.”

“An’ then,” she continued, directing her view up to the ceiling. “Wasn’t long after, you’s start askin’ ‘bout the forest...that forest beneath them mountains, an’ I knew you weren’t gonna stop growin’. I knews it was comin’, and I was so scared that before I could teach ya’ right from wron’ you’d be all big and han’some and be jus’ anoth’uh...anoth’uh...”

Him.

“An’ before...” an uncontrollable uprisal of unfettered emotion reverberated from her lungs, the telltale gasp of whimpering despondency uttered forth into the musty environment. “Before ya’ could see the hills, before ya’ could see the valleys and basins that surrounded us, before ya’ could see the windmill, town hall, boutique, an’ apple farms that lay in the land beneath our own hill, I had to get ya’ outta that place, jus’ hoping that a change in scenery would...you would...”

“Mom, what are-”

“-But’chu didn’t!” She cried out, flopping her head into her forelegs, her body heaving forward with desperate cries into her hooves. “Not a bit! I couldn’t save you! How thoughtless to think, I could’a done you any good!?”

His mind was now fully certain where it was going...full certainty that this wasn’t going to be easy. Consulting his thoughts and inner voice, all bouquets of words conjured forth wilted and limped in gray defeat. For fifteen years, she’s faced this reality, and fought to keep Devon away from it so he’d not be prone to repeat it. And yet...in a grandiose slip of judgment, he realized that his own flagrant stupidity would still trigger those old traumas that culminated within her.

Despite all the resilient facades and disguises she wore, whether it was the proud mother or the lording planner of Canterlot’s biggest festivities, she was still a pony on the inside. A pony with history, with memories...

"If she's anything like what I've seen tonight, I'm sure the gala's just going to be full of surprises." Princess Celestia waved her head forward, signaling him to walk alongside her. "Just like you."

* * * * *

With a metallic whine, a second scaffold hoisted up against the ballroom wall. A dozen aura-coated bulbs ascended into place, and in a graceful motion, dropped with delicate unison into their fixtures.

“Alright, easy now, EASY!” the construction stallion jabbed the unicorn in the shoulder. “No exploding the lighting, alright?”

“Hey, I told you, somepony kicked my horn!”

“Uh huh, it was parasprites bumping you.” The stallion pressed a testing hoof against the base of the structure, confident that it was holding in place. “Can you ask them to help prop up the other end of this?”

Princess Celestia continued on the stage, and with a swing of her horn, elevated a blue and gold-trimmed case above the stage. The gemstones flickered and beamed multi-colored trails of errant light across the ballroom’s walls. The box unclasped within the Princess’ telekinetic field, shimmering within were the grand ornaments of the Elements of Harmony.

“Wow,” the unicorn exhaled, impressed with the ornate jewelry being hoisted out of the case. “Even from across the room, they’re amazing!”

“What’re you mmrpmh?” The stallion gripped a screwdriver in his tooth, tightening the base of the new scaffold to the floor. “Oh, the jewelry?”

“Those,” the unicorn scoffed, “are the keys to defeating any threat of evil to Equestria!”

“Yeah, yeah,” the stallion waved his hoof. “Unicorn things.” He unicorn grimaced unapprovingly at him, and ignoring his condescending words, silently illuminated his horn and sent a plume of gentle energy cascading up the metal bars of the scaffolding. Each bulb pulsed gingerly, a full spectrum of colorful light resonated down the length of the scaffolding.

The stallion nudged him again. “Well, I think we’re ‘bout finished here, wanna grab those cupcakes Miss Bookmah’k said we’s could ‘ave?”

“I can’t right now, you go get them.” The unicorn lifted his head, fully extending his forehooves while craning his neck to see over the crowd towards the stage. “I think my cue is coming up.”

* * * * *

“I present to you!” Celestia proclaimed, dimming the light around her horn. “The six greatest beacons of friendship Equestria has to offer, the bearers of the Elements of Harmony!” With a nod to the back of the great hall, she smiled to a unicorn standing at the base of the newly raised lighting rig. After a quick jab from a construction stallion standing beside him, the unicorn nodded back, casting a lone orb of orange light ricocheting up the metal rebar towards a single bulb. With a vibrant plume of peach intensity, a thick cone of marigold shot around a proudly-standing mare poised beside Celestia.

The mare lowered her head, gently peeking a timid green iris beyond the crest of her hat laying in front of her face. She then stepped forward, presenting herself before the ballroom, nudging her hat up with a hoof, and with a soft tilt to the side posed with one foreleg crossed in front of the other, a mellow smile reaching across her lips.

“Applejack,” Celestia announced. “The bearer of the Element of Honesty!”

* * * * *

“I am being honest!” Devon tried to reason.

“Don’ lie t’ me!”

“Mother!” He suddenly caught the volume of his words, and with a quick shake of his head nickered the intensity away from his voice. “Mother. It’s the truth. I got pulled down into this whole thing with Princess Luna and we...” Devon hesitated. “I honestly learned a lot when I was with Luna down in the archives, about myself, about us, about what we both need.” He took a step towards the mare, but reeled when she flinched back towards the blue-tinted window.

“An’ why should I believe you!?” She turned furiously, and started perching herself back upon the prop crate to gaze upon the empty street beyond. “All you were sayin’ to’ me was just a lie after lie!”

“Because...” Devon held onto his words, carefully turning them them within his mind.

She paused, halfway on her reach up the crate. “B’cause what?”

“Because you’re my mom, and...” Should’ve turned those words for a bit longer. “And-”

“-Pfft!” She rolled her head up, and pulled her legs onto the crate. She curled inward, pointing a muzzle into the vertical blue stripes of the night’s light creeping in. “That nev’uh stopped ya’ before.”

“Well...” Devon coughed. “Okay, so maybe I’ve held some of my...personal opinions from you.”

“Personals opinion!?” She scoffed. “Goin’ fuh’ fifteen years, an’ nev’uh askin once about-”

“-Because I never!-”

“-Nev’uh WHAT!?-”

“-Never wanted to see you cry again!” Devon choked, and through grit teeth, exhaled hard onto the floor, a hoofprint of precipitation lapped against the concrete before his muzzle, like a platinum haze spreading across an imagined horizon. He breathed hard, expecting another defensive retort sent his way; a retort he knew he’d have no proper follow-up to.

It was selfish. The proper avenue of being proper family, of being a proper node of the bloodline would be to openly comfort and address such. But the resilience to such transparency had gone for so long, so untouched, he had grown beyond cozy with the notion of silence is best.

“I didn’t...” Devon whispered to the floor, another layer of platinum haze enveloping before him. “Didn’t want to...remind you.”

A long silence stretched into the room, not even the dull thumping rhythm of the festivities above could intervene as two minds simultaneously converged within themselves, simultaneously sharing a single solemn memory of long ago.

* * * * *

With another nod to the back of the hall, Princess Celestia extended a wing to a blue pegasus mare with a wildly flowing rainbow mane sitting beside her. From the scaffolding a single orb of pulsing cyan bounced up the metal fixtures, landing on a large bulb to summon a cerulean cone that illuminated the blue pegasus.

“Yes!” The pegasus whooped, and pressed off her rear hooves with lightning force, “Hyachh!” Only to find the tip of Celestia’s wing holding her firmly in place, reminding her to wait to be announced. She twisted her eyes up in agitation, hardly able to wait.

Celestia beamed with a light chuckle to the colorfully maned pegasus. “Rainbow D-”

“Rain-bow-Dash!” A chorus of young fillies and colts interrupted, shaking makeshift wigs of similarly multi-colored hair streaming over their heads. “Rain-bow-Dash! Rain-bow-Dash!”

Celestia snorted gently, and with a soft tilt of her head smiled with a conceding glare to her. “Introducing a mare that apparently needs no introduction,” she started again, “Rainbow Dash!” The collective cheers and chants of a pocket of gala attendees waved excitedly to the blue pegasus. “The Element of-”

“-Loy-al-ty!” The chant switched, more young ponies joining in on the chorus. “Loy-al-ty! Loy-al-ty!”

“Awww, yeah!” With a quick dart upwards, she shot above the stage with a spectrumed blur tailing behind her, casting a swath of color jetting in tow. The blue spotlight strained to keep up with her as she spun and dodged across the stage, showing off dives and flips to the delighted chants of youth who had followed the acrobatic legend across all locales of Equestria.

“Loy-al-ty! Loy-al-ty! Loy-al-ty!!”

* * * * *

“Stick-to’it-ive’ness?”

“Yeah,” Devon’s eyes beamed softly. “Sticking to it,” he repeated. “I thought...well, I just thought that if I were to just stay, you know. Why does it matter if we talk about it, I said I’d always be there.”

In his head, the words sounded so right.

“I’d always be there for you.”

They fell flat on the mare’s unchanging face.

“Yuh’ weren’t, though.” She sighed. “I know, just like t’night, you was jus’ makin’ ‘scuses t’not come with me.”

“But those weren’t excu-” Devon suddenly chomped down onto the words. Were they really not excuses? Even if he wanted a night to collect his thoughts, to send his wishes and feelings to the re-imprisoned mare on the moon, would he have made any progress at all? He felt determined that within his own faculties he’d find the strength and knowledge to find a way to summon her back, but from the sound of the events of the gala she organized, it seems that a solution was already in order.

A solution...he undone.

Undone...By attempting to find his own solution. By not trusting others. By being wrapped up in his own world that he excluded those who...

I promise...

...Loved and needed him most.

So were those excuses? Was he just trying to prove something to himself, prove to everypony, that he had the mind and ability to bring about Luna’s return? Was he trying to prove...to Luna that he would always be able to rescue her? So many contemplations and what-if’s danced around his thoughts, taunting him. Silently moving behind his mother, he joined in peering solemnly out the blue window to the empty street, directing his attention above the looming Canterlot skyline.

He awaited the bold cackling of the stars above to come beating through his skull, though in their reserved silence found himself troubled. Together, in a silence that knotted through their own hushed nerves, they stared outward.

...And from the sky, they stared back.

* * * * *

A cone of white light reached across the hall, landing upon a gracefully poised unicorn mare. She shook her intricately styled mane with a light bob that flowed with her step, and greeted every particle of light with a glamorous expression.

From backstage, the construction stallion turned his head to the unicorn. With a stealthy raise of a forehoof, he flicked his horn lightly, summoning an errant flurry of sparks around it.

“There, it’s going now please don’t blow anything up here alright?” the stallion briskly turned to make his way along the hall’s decorated walls towards the stage. “Hey! Are you even listening?”

“Sure in a minute...” the unicorn murmured, eyes elsewhere.

“Will ya stop ogling that mare?!”

“Excuse me!?” The unicorn objected, holding his head still to focus on the lighting, but shifting his body with agitated weaves between forehooves stomping in protest. “That’s not just some usual eye-sugar filly!” He softened his voice, exhaling deeply. “That’s Rarity!”

“Uh huh, whatever helps ya out, bud. Just focus on the show.” The stallion teased, disappearing behind a wall of draped ribbons lining the ballroom wall.

“Hey!” The unicorn called out, quickly regaining his poise at the base of the light scaffolding. “Hrrrgh,” he stomped, scowling to himself. “Some nerve, talking like that about the Element of Generosity. I’m sure she’d be generous with a hoof to his jaw if she overheard that, she’d give him more than he asked for...”

* * * * *

“I know,” Devon sighed, “I could’ve given more. More attention, more time, more everything.”

Pacing through his collected memories of past, it seemed like such a simple request. She needed somepony to help her, to help carry her weight. And though she made some effort to try and shield him from perceived negative influences that may have been previously assumed, Devon never really went further beyond his own humble promise to her.

Yes, he did let her love him. He stayed by her side, and attempted to remain a part of her life so she’d be able to reach out and mean something.

But how much did he ever, truly, honestly give back to her?

“He was,” she slowly breathed in timid whispers, each word caught in a clenching gasp as she delivered them. “H’was your age,” she closed her eyes. “An’ I was promised, too.”

Devon churned the words in his head. Wait. Did he miss something? Promised? Promised what?

“Promised what?”

Her breath locked in a snare pulled within herself, not the slightest wisp of sound came from her. She fidgeted, slightly turning her head away, a vertical bar of blue light streamed down her face, catching with a narrow crescent through the refracted bead of a tear resting at the bottom of her eye.

“That I...” her head dropped into her forelegs, a dull wooden thump echoed fastidiously through the rows of props encircling them. “...That he wou’d give me...” a silken stirring crept into the rims of Devon’s ears as she shook her forehead into her hooves. Her voice cracked with dampened syllables through the side of her lips. “He promised me...Ev’rythin’ I’d ever need.”

Devon waited, expecting her to follow up, but realized that with the emergence of a few throaty cracks seeping out from her, discovered she was waiting on him. After all the arguments, squabbles and conflicts he shared with his mother, Devon had many instances of losing the fight, losing his stance, losing all content to his words as he would just shy away stupidly while her infinite repertoire of verbal counters and counters-to-his-counters would hold unwavering to whatever he could muster.

But in the corner, with nowhere to go but in the solitary gaze into the blue night sky creeping through the prop room window, Devon recognized a peculiar helplessness that he certainly didn’t know the sight of...but had intimate familiarity with the feeling.

She ran out of ammunition. She wasn’t fighting back anymore. She wasn’t trying to win the argument.

Promised what?

“So, did he...” Devon felt a wave of comfort come over him. He no longer felt the need to choose his words, find the right balance of diction that would weave between her defenses, or contemplate just what she could say in response. No contingency plans or premeditated strategy to his questions. He could finally, sans verbal feudalism, just have a conversation with a Bookmark. “Did he...keep his promise?”

“Yes,” she replied without pause, much to Devon’s surprise. His eyes darted to her, and saw her staring towards the stone walls of the room, as if peering beyond them into her own memory playing out upon them. Anticipating another long story to follow suit, Devon leaned against the prop crate, checking towards the room’s door to ensure it was still shut. It wasn’t often that his mother would suddenly become so open and quick to respond, and he feared at any moment somepony would burst in with a pressing issue with the gala plummeting into a lake of spiders or whatnot, thus removing her from this fragile mindset and lobbing her careening back into officious overlord mode.

In her usual state, she always had some way around his prying questions, but Devon wondered...did he never ask because she would act defensively?

Or did she become so defensive...because he never asked?

“He did.” Her voice trembled behind tightly clenched eyes. “He did give me ev’rythin’.”

Was it possible that in the similar manner he was looking after her, fearing she’d not want to address the reality of what had become of their familial situation to avoid bringing her any pain, did she take it upon herself to suffer in silence as to not drag him into her own troubles?

Devon’s racing questions crashed to a cluttered halt when the placid contact of a foreleg rested upon his shoulder. He turned to see her deep brown eyes fixated upon him, looking deep and solemnly into his own.

He promised me...Ev’rythin’ I’d ever need.

“He gave me you.”

* * * * *

A splash of lemon yellow spread across the stage, focusing intently upon a slightly shaking pegasus mare hiding a cyan eye behind a protective curtain of long flowing pink coursing from her mane. She timidly stepped back, concealing her vanilla yellow form behind the wings of another boisterous blue pegasus still pumping her forelegs and twirling to her own delight.

“Fluttershy!” Celestia announced to the crowd. A line of fashionably dressed ponies near the front erupted in jovial exclamations of support toward her...support that seemed to push the shy mare back.

“Eep!” She chirped. “There’s...there’s so...so many...”

“Oh come on!” The blue pegasus whipped her rainbow tail, thwacking her in the thigh.

“Hyiip!” she squeaked, jumping forward. “Pyee-hee-et!” She scampered backward, only to be caught in place by the blue pegasus, holding her in front.

The blue pegasus looked out into the crowd, making concentrated eye contact with the denizens of young fillies and colts still shaking rainbow-colored wigs atop their manes.

“Rain-bow-Dash! Rain-bow-Dash!”

“Flut-ter-Shy!” The blue pegasus countered, encouraging the others to follow suit. “Flut-ter-Shy! Flut-ter-Shy! Flut-ter-Shy!”

An errant stumbling of words resonated through the chants in a confused garble of mixed syllables. Then, gradually, a sporadic congregation of unified voices took hold, and in an augmented rise of clearer harmony between them, the chanting shifted.

“Flut-ter-Shy! Flut-ter-Shy!”

The blue pegasus laughed. “Oh, yeah!” She excitedly pumped a foreleg inward, then gave an enthusiastic wave to the crowd while pointing another hoof at the yellow pegasus mare beside her. She sauntered gingerly to the front of the stage, then as if intoxicated by the crowing of her own name en masse, opened up with her arms extended to them, lifting into the air beside the blue pegasus. Spinning around in a coiled wisp of multi-colored trails behind her, the blue pegasus put a forearm around her shoulders, still cheering the crowd on. The timid pegasus’ face warmed up before them.

Her smile was infectious.

“And...” Princess Celestia resumed, fully conscious that whatever routine they rehearsed earlier was pretty much moot at this point, “Fluttershy.” She raised her voice to still be audible over the new cavalcade of chants reverberating through the ballroom. “The Element of Kindness!”

* * * * *

“Take kindly?” Devon wondered. “Well, I thought it was a nice-”

“-Y’uh didn’t take kindly to the Buffalo Ballet School neith’uh?”

“Well,” He pulled haphazardly from his collected feelings. “No, mom, it was kind of...” Devon’s mind reached further into the unfamiliar realm of thought it had contemplated many times before, but never actually delivered through his own tongue. “I felt...”

I felt.

Did he ever get to start a sentence with these words when speaking to her? Ever?

She inquired airily. “Like what?” She raised her eyelids with sincere curiosity, a soft giggle on the cusp of bubbling over.

“I felt kind of humiliated!”

“Oh per’fooey!” She laughed. “A good ol’ humil-er-atin’ nev’uh hurt nopony. It builds character.”

A stinging resonation of truth seeped in. Looking back on the events of the last few days, particularly in the winding archives with Luna, he pondered just how much humiliation he was subjected to, and how much humiliation his character repelled because of how much it was conditioned over the years to do so. He couldn’t sincerely measure an exact figure, as many instances of teasing and running him through the critical gauntlet seemed to slip off of him like the moonlight reflecting off the window’s panes. A stallion with less fortitude would have surrendered and stormed off, fed up with the trials.

A rogue thought snuck into Devon’s mind. It seemed he was losing focus on his bid to free Luna from her imprisonment on the moon, and redirecting its energy on his mother. Yet it was in this temporary solace from the greater task at hand that Devon could grasp a sense of progress. Accomplishment. Years had progressed since the last time he was able to be so candid with her, especially when the topic of their own standing with one another was at the forefront.

“An’ some days,” she murmured, grinding the tip of a forehoof against the crate she was perched on. “Som’uh them days, y’just ignore me completely, like you’ were ashamed ‘a me.”

Devon chuckled with his newfound bout of honesty, envisioning all the bells she made him wear on his boots in his youth. “Heh-heh, yeah, well sometimes I wa-”

But really...was he?

Leaning on the wodden crate, Devon put a foreleg around her shoulder, tugging her in close against him. “You...did know how to embarass me from time to time.” She slunk her head down lower, slightly dejected, but Devon tempered his voice, swinging his head around to achieve some eye contact with her. “But you also knew...” Her eyes turned towards him, her brow rising slightly. “...How to build character.”

* * * * *

A vibrant oval of pink descended down the stage, falling upon a curly-maned earth pony pacing giddily, eagerly awaiting the rose light to be cast upon her. Her eyes glistened with joyous anticipation, watching every stray beam cast off every streamer, banner, decoration, and ornament bordering around their stage, just waiting for her moment to be announced and become the gala’s center of attention.

It neared, it crept, oh how it seemed to take forever. Her toothy grin widened with each passing millisecond as her moment approached. The muscles within her neck and shoulders tensed, retracted, and tensed again in rhythmic oscillations with her excited breathing. Just seeing the volumetric aura of the spotlight’s magenta tendril conjured a sugary supernova of combustible unfiltered glee to churn ominously within the pink pony’s humble frame as the first photons touched upon the tip of her nose. She beamed, she shook, she was precariously tiptoeing the edge of exploding twice as she was basking in the spotlight’s revealing luminance.

She immediately snapped into complete nonchalance.

“Myeh,” she sighed quietly, buffing a forehoof against her torso. “Another party, another job, another big important magic spell..”

“Pinkie Pie!” Celestia announced. The pink pony leaped into the air, and bounced with uncanny weightlessness before the Princess in long arcing hops around her. “The Element...of...” The Princess turned her head, tracking the pink pony still bouncing in circles. “...Laughter.”

* * * * *

Crying.

He didn’t quite realize how it came to this. A quick scuffle of hooves, the creaking lurch of a stack of wooden crates rustling as a dark cyan form squeezed against him in a single fluid motion. A face pressed against his shoulders, and the warm telltale feeling of wet eyelids gracing against him.

The laced and jagged silhouettes of wardrobes, theater equipment, fake weapons, and dolls encircled them with the rim of blue light cast upon them from the window emanating behind two tightly embraced figures. Pointing inwards around them, they seemed to peel back as reality seeped away from their cogniscience.

How many years had it really been?

Fifteen, Devon knew, the obligation he felt to his mother was for certain. But of course the time for him to be there for her, even in his youth, must have extended longer beyond that, must have been easier to ignore too since he wasn’t the only stallion...colt....in her life. It had to have lasted longer than this, because a vestigial nuance radiated forth within his mind at the feeling of her quivering shoulders beside him.

A feeling he reached for in the past. A feeling...complemented with memories of warm summer mornings, endless seas of tall grass and the unending curtain of platinum haze converging with brightening intensity to conceal a horizon that separated them. Every word he meant, every intention as sincere as his soul could craft make it...yet how misguided and improperly placed it was when he fatefully embraced his destiny, assumed the heir to a gift cast off for a millenium...to squander command over the stars to wish her happiness.

All he had to do was be there, be a good son, and instead of assuming the celestial overlords above would handle it, he just needed to realize what it meant to be the stallion she really needed.

The stallion she was promised.

A subtle crack would emanate through her tightly pressed lips, but she dared not disturb the silence they had formed for themselves. It was what she needed. Not just an outlet to unleash a raw, unfettered squall of unfiltered emotion running rampant from her system, but something greater. An affirmation. A sign. Faith that there could be somepony there to help with her burden.

Not necessarily to carry it for her, or even assist in sustaining the load, but to truly understand it, to truly empathize.

Devon breathed in deep, a tingling in his nostrils signaling the onset of sniffles trying to break out. He immediately halted. No. He must remain strong, right here and now above any other times. He tried being strong before, tried being strong the last time she was at her most vulnerable, most scared, most needing of another’s comfort. All that attempt yielded was him throwing their bond to the stars, for them to look over and protect instead of taking the initiative to protect it himself. No, not this time. He had become better than that, better than the stars. He had become a tried and proven stallion capable of handling himself in the company of Luna down in the archives.

Luna.

She was still imprisoned. She still...

The run-on stream of bewildering contemplation broke free of his mind as his lungs betrayed him, making a sudden gasp of breath that gave him away. His nostrils snorted, his throat fluttered, and in the reflexive choke to hold back the pained whimper reverberating back up his larynx he buckled forward with a heavy exhalation of tearful shudders.

Not since his foalhood had he ever felt so weak.

A neck extended outward, wrapping around his, and with two forelegs over his shoulders he drooped lifelessly forward in his mother’s arms. Devoid of judgment, criticism, and sarcasm, the enveloping darkness and gentle blue light from the window transformed the whole room into an collison of broken souls, their consciousness intertwined around the mutual need for a sort of closure they conspired against for a decade and a half of miserable existence. Devon had run from it, his mother shielded them from it to take the brunt of it, and together they had acquired the ability to finally face it.

In breaking down their walls and uniting...they let the fifteen years of hurt and turmoil spill out in tightly clenched tears. Tears not designated for that moment in time, but backlogged for far too long, neglected.

They found the honesty to lay it all out, the loyalty to endure the long years, the kindness to find forgiveness, the generosity to offer it, and as their tears streamed from their eyes they finally pulled back...

...Laughter.

With relieved giggles and nudges to each other’s shoulders, they had found that without the need of some gift, some proverbial mandate set forth by their own bloodline’s fantastic powers over the very fabric of one’s intended destination in life, they were able to hold together and overcome the conflict that permeated between them for years. Caught in the glistening aura of light distorting through descending tears, there emerged the prickly burst of refracted luminance.

There emerged...a spark.

* * * * *

“Twilight Sparkle,” Celestia beamed, levitating a large crown before her. She lowered her head, leveling eye to eye with the purple unicorn. “My most esteemed and treasured student,” she descended the crown atop her, noticing the familiar look of anticipation on her face. “It’s okay,” Celestia reassured the nervous unicorn.

She lifted her hoof to the crown to adjust it. “But we don’t even know if-”

“-Twilight,” Celestia interrupted. “I know you’re a bit fluttery in the stomach. But remember, it’s okay if it doesn’t work the first time, we can always try again.”

“R-right,” stammered the purple unicorn, lowering a solemn glance upon the orange earth pony standing beside her. She breathed in heavily through her nostrils, remembering the encouraging words from the orange earth pony outside, “as many times as there are stars in the sky.”

Stepping forward as violet spotlight engulfed her, Twilight blinked a few times for her eyes to adjust, the searing daggers of direct opalescent light pulling away from her peripheral vision. Spread before her was a throng of ponies, all beaming and cheering in support, but around her were her closest friends, each of them smiling expectantly. Twilight felt her cheeks burn slightly while she walked forward, the crown imbued with her element nestled firmly upon her head. While her heart nestled comfortably in the warm companionship, her mind raced and panicked behind her fluttering purple eyes.

Everything in theory made sense. But it was only theory, and it rankled Twilight’s analytic mind and style. There were too many unknowns, too many variables, this spell was a complete shot in the dark, far from the collected and intricate study she had so expertly disciplined herself in over the years. But Celestia believed in her. Her friends believed in her. And most importantly, she believed in them.

It should work.

It must work.

“The Element of Magic!” Celestia’s voice sang proudly out behind her, setting the crowd into a new wave of applause. Shrill whistles from the direction of the blue pegasus only intensified Twilight’s blush. She paused, mind struggling to organize itself as her eyes moved from one friend to the next. Meeting their gaze, Twilight’s courage soared when they all fearlessly met her eyes with confident, prepared smiles.

“Alright girls,” Twilight whispered, her voice lost to the swirling cheers. “We can do this, we can bring Luna back.”

The six ponies stood in a line as the spotlights dotting the stage faded away, a dull teal shadow of ambient glow reverberated through the darkened ballroom. The patrons hushed, all leaning forward in expectant anticipation, all preparing to bear witness to the great spectacle of legend that had protected their nation, their lives, for over a millenium.

A lone triangle of purple glow dimly shimmered into life, exhaling with softened tones of twinkling auras pulling together into a magical essence that danced in conscientious steps atop the unicorn’s horn. Like the rustle of wind gracing a hooftip through windchimes, the aura grew, and after a few seconds, pulsed suddenly with a sharp pop of blazing light that reached the furthest corners of the ballroom, even reaching between the cracks at her feet, darting wildly through the floorboards to cast a phalanx of luminescent purple lines on the prop room floor.

* * * * *

Her voice sliced away the silence. “Sounds like they’s gettin’ on with th’show.” She unclasped her forearms from around Devon’s shoulders, letting him go. Without a thought of trepidation resting within his mind, Devon leaned forward into her, lowering his head against her neck. He then huffed a quick snicker, inhaling through his teeth as he also stepped back.

Breathing out subtly, there was one last thing on Devon’s mind that he couldn’t let go of. The final step. The stage had been set, the conditions were right, and hypothetically everything should be right.

It should work.

It must work.

“You don’t really think...I’ll become like...” He dipped his face, glancing at her feet. “...I act like, you know...”

She righted her head suddenly, hoping to glance solidly into his eyes but finding they had wandered well below the angle to do so. “Sometimes...” She stepped forward, and also sinking her muzzle low, tapped her forehead against his. “Well, som’times, Devon...I...” She cracked softly, suppressing it behind curled lips. “...Nothin’ could scare me more t’see you-”

“-Because it’s impossible.” He mumbled lightly to the floor. “Because there was one thing he could, and never will do.”

"I'm not going to change her mind, no." Devon breathed in deep, looking with confident assertiveness towards the cosmos. "I'm going to change her heart."

“Mom...” Devon pulled his head up, placing his lips gently on her forehead.

Making recompense.

She inhaled heavily, flinching in response to the soft kiss, looking up to peer into his eyes as he stepped back. “I’m sorry.” He turned halfway in thought, gazing toward her with a partial turn of his head. Another pulse of sharp light seeped into the room from above, as five different colored strobes projected crackled veins against the floor.

In his head, the words sounded so right.

“I’m sorry...for...for everything.”

They came out perfect.

* * * * *

Circles, designs, lines, and archaic symbols orbited and ebbed around the purple unicorn as five arcs of swirling paisley designs spread towards the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony. As each contacted the bearer’s hoof, the necklace resting against their neck shook, and elevated slightly off their coat, the encompassing magic twirling around it ensnaring and firmly hoisting the bearer into the air.

The crowd stared upon them in awe. Rustles of chatter coursed between them, but were immediately stopped as a loud blast of blinding magic blared across them, the light blazing around each of the jeweled elements casting a ray of solid enchanted energy into a ring framing them in rainbow splendor.

They lifted, higher and higher into the air, hovering with grace and strength as even more archaic symbols jetted out from the crown of the purple unicorn. She extended her forelegs outward, a web of mystical energy wrapped around each hoof, a growing sphere decorated in ancient languages and orbiting symbols stretched between them.

In words rehearsed of texts well beyond her own collection, texts concealed within the deepest echelons of the Canterlot’s spell collections, the purple unicorn called out into the room, the Elements uniting their magic together to project her voice beyond the chaotic whirlwind spinning rapidly around the six glowing ponies.

“Majestic light through the night's darkness strewn,
Restore freedom to souls on thine moon!
Spirits astern of thine astral disguise
Giveth back to us thine imprisoned prize!”

Another circle of designs and shapes pulled together in the center of the ballroom, and spinning sideways, it righted itself to a vertical position. From within, another circle formed, angling perpendicular to it.

“Invoked and imbued with harmony’s stone
We call to thee, bring our beloved home!”

The room rocked and lurched as another pulse of errant energy exploded from the two discs in the middle. Constellations formed within them, spatters of stars that formed clearly between the interconnected weaving patterns of archaic words and astrological etchings. The purple unicorn eased, her voice elevated to a new level of confidence, seeing the intended effects of the spell starting to take form.

The ponies stepped away from the rapidly churning magic overhead. The stars focused steeled glances toward the purple unicorn, who in turn peered fiercely with glowing white eyes...

“Come forth and shed thine black starry veil!”

* * * * *

You haven’t sway on us, your spell will fail!

“Huh?” Devon asked, his words suddenly cutting through the silence.

Irrelevant magics, our word is thus.
Your petulance has no holding with us!

He lowered his brow. “Wait, are you-”

His mother turned toward him. “What’s that, Devon?” she asked curiously.

He face seized, seemingly forgetting where he was upon hearing the familiar echoing voice booming within his mind. “Oh, that was...I...” Devon looked up through the floorboards, the rippling motions of sparkling light intruding between them grew in intensity and speed as the whine of whipping air started to seep into the auditory stasis around them. “Nothing,” he coughed, shaking his mane. “Thought you said something.”

“I did, hon,” she replied, turning from the door. “I told ya’ t’stay here. There’s somethin’ I got’sa go get real quick. Upstairs.”

* * * * *

The choir of voices repeated the verse again, the chant growing in intensity as the magic swirled and crackled through the ballroom. Quivering pulses of force rattled the floorboards and drove the onlookers back in startled leaps. Below the stage, the thumping shockwaves were not dispersed at all from the thick boards. Devon rose, peering out the window. Even though the stars held their usual position in the night sky, Devon could feel agitation, as if their indignation at being challenged was stirring the entire sky.

You will not have her!
She is OURS!

Devon felt a tug at the pit of his stomach. Was it from the magic in the air? Was it a sign from the stars? Was it the insistence of responsibility in the face of monumental duty? Through that straining pit, Devon saw something that had eluded him in the past days and nights, something made clear only after his penance was earned.

Hope.

Devon rose to his feet and his entire body quivered. This was his moment! This was his opportunity! But how? What is this moment needing? Devon’s mind raced, scrambled over disjointed memories for some clue, for some trail that the stars’ own mocking voice may have left for him.

You thought you could handle something as simple as letting your mother love you. Something all mothers do anyway, and you made a pact with us stating that you'd let her.

Devon raced from the prop room. His body and mind burning with newfound purpose and drive.

* * * * *

“It’s working! It’s WORKING!” a voice called from the crowd. “I see the Princess!”

Engulfed in swirling magic and ethereal scrollwork, a shadowy figure materialized in the ball, head raised in profound curiosity and trepidation. But the shape was unmistakable; the billowing mane and regal countenance could only belong to the Princess of the Night. From her perch behind the spell, Celestia felt her breath leap out of her throat and her body tense in fearful anticipation. It was so close, a recurring nightmare about to end.

The ball of magic swirled faster and faster, and for a moment the shadowy figure seemed to shimmer further into shape. Celestia would swear she saw the familiar teal of her sister’s eyes in the maelstrom of lights and words.

But just as suddenly as that jolt of hope hit her, the shadowy figure melted away and the spell tore itself apart. Like scraps of burning paper, the spectral text fluttered in the sky as residual magic consumed it.

Confused murmurs rippled through the crowd as the six ponies drifted back to the ground. As her hooves met the floor, Twilight doubled over onto her fetlocks, heaving for breath as if coming down from a brutal sprint. Immediately, the orange pony was at her side.

“Twi! Twi! Ya’ll right?” she asked, hooking her head down to support her friend.

“I am...I am Applejack...” she panted after an agonizing silence. With a few more breaths, she unsteadily rose to her feet. “We were so close,” she sighed, disappointment gripping her heart and showing on her face. It was unmistakable; as the first member of the audience saw the purple unicorn’s crestfallen expression, it quickly spread in a reverberating somber note of despair. The evidence was plain; the spell...no...the Elements of Harmony, had failed.

Dejected murmurs rumbled across the crowd. There was no anger or irritation, but profound sadness.

“I...” Twilight whimpered as another hoof pressed onto her shoulder from behind. “I’m s-so sorry, everypony!” Before she could turn or flee, the hoof pulled her into an embrace.

“You have nothing to apologize for,” Celestia whispered down to her. Battling her own sorrow back, she pulled away from Twilight just as the other Element bearers circled her in support. “You nearly brought her back for us, it is possible.”

“No way we’re giving up yet!” the blue pegasus bellowed. “We all saw how close we were!”

“Dern’ tootin’!” the orange pony echoed. Looking between the ring of friends, and the courageous encouragement of Celestia, Twilight swallowed hard.

“I can...” She thought for a second, hoping for some plan of attack to pull together at the moment. “Maybe make a few adjustments...” she murmured, straining for hope and a plan. Nothing was coming to mind, everything should’ve worked as it was, she studied it harder than any other spell before. “If you give me some time, I think I can try it again.” The purple unicorn swallowed again, pausing only to readjust her tiara. “I’ll need a few minutes, so just be ready when I call for you, okay?”

“Phe-EW!” the pink pony gasped in abject relief. “Be right back! Totally need to use the little filly’s room while you do your adjustment thingy dingy!”

* * * * *

Devon burst out from the prop room, nearly knocking another unicorn aside.

“Woa-ho there! Where’s the fire?” he called as Devon turned to race past him.

“Mom...er...Miss Bookmark...where’d she go?” Devon asked, trying his best to maintain a calm tone, but his pace and the intense huff of his breath told otherwise.

“She went up to the balconies, I think she was lookin’ fo-hey!” By the time the unicorn had finished, Devon was headed towards the stairs up to the ring of terraces that circled the ballroom.

All around him, Devon heard the mumbles of ponies who had been denied a miracle. All around him, he heard the concern, saw the hopelessness as guests tried to fathom something that could not be, yet happened right in front of him. The Elements failed, something was terribly wrong.

How different he felt from mere hours ago. Where before, he drowned in a sea of joy outside of the gala, unable to feel even the residual pleasure of anticipating the power of the Elements of Harmony, now he held the one spark of hope that Luna had. Alone, he couldn’t bring her back, he knew that.

You’ll never be able to bring her back.

“Maybe I can’t,” he proclaimed out loud, shutting his eyes tight. “But I can give those who can their chance.”

As Devon circled the balconies, he saw the complete reach of the gala. The mood was reserved, the air was heavy with an unspoken burden.

“Come on, where ARE you?” he hissed, poking his head into each alcove in a desperate search. The Elements didn’t matter now. They couldn’t matter now.

“Aw come aw’n Miss Bookmark!” a protest brought Devon up short. “You said we could have both cupcakes!”

“I knows, I knows! But...well, things took a change fer me! Promise t’make it up t’ya! Don’cha pout now! Trust me, it’ll be ev’n bett’r!”

Devon skidded to a halt as the worker pony strode from the booth that the argument came from. Devon nearly ran into his mother as he stumbled around the corner.

“YEE-HEE-HEEK!” they squeaked in unison, both nearly tumbling over.

“Devon! Yeesh, y’scared the cutie mark right offa m’flank!” his mother chided with a broad smile. “I was plannin’ on surprisin’ ya’s with this,” she added, floating a plate with a solitary cupcake on it, coated in a navy blue frosting that matched his mane. She looked at him from beyond the telekentic haze. “I made two...but...” she offered a little nervous shrug as she set the plate down on a small table before a comfy sofa.

“Don’t worry about it, mom,” Devon replied instantly as she settled into one of the posh seats to look over the party, still heavy with disappointment and forced happiness.

“N’ver been in this dead of a party...think they took that magic fizzle hard.”

Joining her, Devon turned his eye to the plate. As his mother spoke, he narrowed his focus and drove a small wedge of magic into the cupcake.

“Can’t blame ‘em, that show got ev’rypony ready to see a miracle,” she laughed. “N’ver had to plan a party for miracles.”

He didn’t answer.

“Devon?” she asked, turning her head away from the gala to the silent figure beside her.

“Ick...sorry mom, I was never really precise,” he finally spoke. On the plate, the cupcake was roughly split in two, cut with the same precision as a hammer used to cut pie. Remnants of frosting and cake rested conspicuously on the velvet seat. Smiling sheepishly, Devon lifted one half of the cupcake to his mother. “Well, miracles happen,” he mused, taking his own piece.

“Tha’s right, Dev. Got’a see the litt’l miracles.”

You thought you could handle something as simple as letting your mother love you. Something all mothers do anyway, and you made a pact with us stating that you'd let her. And all good sons love their mother too, right?

Devon looked out into the ballroom, a procession of dejected faces looked away towards the stage, seemingly in an entranced state still awaiting some miracle to spontaneously erupt forth from the placid air above them.

“Mom?”

The enchanting vigil of bright vibrant expressions had faded, but above the crowd, a dissenting pocket of Hearth’s Warming cheer remained perched on an overlooking balcony.

She turned to face away from the ambling bodies below. “What is it, Devon?” Backdropped by the somber tones ebbing behind her, a warm smile complemented a light quiver in her eye.

Devon extended a forehoof, hooking it around her neck, pulling her close to him. “Happy Hearth’s Warming Eve, mom.”

She exhaled deeply, letting the dreadful turmoil of the blown display of Elements waft away. “H’ppy Hearth’s Warm’er’s Eve, Devon.” She kissed him gently on the forehead. Unbeknownst to either of them, an eerie point of light graced atop each of their horns, a stray flicker of cross-shaped light glided gently along the metal trim of the pendant around Devon’s neck. “I don’s says its enough’s but, y’uh do so well...” She pulled him in again close, the pendant pressed squarely against her. “An’ I really do love ya’.”

“Oh, pfft mom,” Devon nickered, feeling a wash of warmth creep across his cheeks. He tilted his head to the side, unable to pull back the bashful grin tugging upon him. “Heh, heh, really now, I...” He paused, feeling her let go, the pendant rattling with a magic hum clinging against his collar. He sucked in a quick sharp wisp of breath, leveling his speech to fitting sincerity, seeing her brown eyes locked onto him with that familiar motherly tenderness. “I love you, too.”

Devon bit into the cupcake, but only had the time to chew once before the world twisted.

* * * * *

With a roar, the ballroom flooded with erratic crackling light. An unbidden hurricane of magic burst through. Simultaneously, small storms of magic erupted from across the gala, all of them turning on the Elements of Harmony.

You didn’t...

“WOOOAH!” the blue pegasus yelped, caught in the middle of a slow-motion demonstration of the Buckaneer Blaze when a ball of crackling force snagged her by her necklace. She flopped sideways and careened neck-first with the grace of a Benny Hitch chase,

I did.

The legs of an orange mare flailed wildly beneath an overturned tablecloth, apple fritters and candies dangling and dripping off its side as it lifted upwards. “The, hay!? Twilight, gimme a warnin’ next time ya-woaah-oh-oooh!” The cloth dropped. “Twi!” She twisted and kicked at her unexpectedly airborne disposition.

How did...what did you? You couldn’t have...

“Applejack!” a white unicorn groused as fritters and half-bitten apples sloshed down in a dismaying downpour. “How could you be so insens-WAAH-HAHAAA!”

You had no way of knowing.

The doors to the outdoor balconies burst open. “Oh my goodness, oh my goodness!” Seized in the same force as the others, a yellow pegasus clawed at the floor.

Then that...it means...

Twilight had a moment to feel something terribly amiss before her tiara rocketed towards the whirl of magic in time with the others. “Ow! Ow! Ow!” she yelped as the tiara dragged her across the whole length of the table, scattering books and pastries from shocked guests as she went. Frosting, cake and sprinkles, and a sporadically torn wall tapestry draped from her mane and tail.

But she would never forgive you...

She never had to, you don’t understand ponies. We’re more than just one act, we’re better than that.

Where the storm of magic had seized all five ponies in the ballroom instantly, there was a curious absence of the sixth. Absent, that is, until the insistent thumps of a door being pounded managed to find hearing in the chaotic gala.

Your contract with your mother is fulfilled. Her love is without question.

“I...said...OCCUPADO!” a voice wailed despondently as the door to the restrooms finally gave way in spectacular fashion. “Hey, I was next!”

All contracts made...and modified by the patriarch of the Bookmarks...

The sphere of magic returned in a glorious surge. Wrapped in the heavy tapestry, Twilight’s voice muffled out an incantation, destiny forcing them it of her throat.

“Majestic light through the night's darkness strewn,
Restoreth freedom to souls on thine moon!
Spirits astern of thine astral disguise
Giveth back to us thine imprisoned prize!”

Are henceforth...

“Invoked and imbued with harmony’s stone
We call to thee, bring our loved one home!”

Valid and binding.

“Come forth and shed thine black starry veil!”
“So that fate’s decree shall hence prevail!”

...Now.

The shadowy figure appeared again in the sphere. In a brilliant explosion of light and force, the ball heaved outward. Contrails of dazzling starlight twirled in its wake, leaving a dark miasma of blues coalescing into a tightening form. Turquoise eyes opened momentarily from within, and it weakly staggered before all four legs pulled into a tightened solidity. A wave of cobalt light permeated forth. Her legs descended, making contact with the ground before the last embers of the spell dissipated.

Firmly planted in the center of the gala, Luna’s legs gave out in unison and she flopped to the ground.

Every pony in the gala held still, breathless. No one dared speak or even move as the enormity of the situation loomed all around them. The bearers of the Elements of Harmony staggered to their hooves, trying to free themselves from tapestries, or wipe birdseed from their noses, disheveled and scattered compared to the princess who lay serenely at the center of their circle. Finally, after a moment stretched into an unknowable eternity, a voice quaked out of the silence. An accented voice belonging to a calico colt.

“Th-the Princess! Princess Luna is back!”

The room exploded in joy in a multitude of clopping hooves, tearful cheers and simple, dumbfounded silence. No pony had the foggiest idea what had happened, but it didn’t matter to a single one.

“Oooooh YEAH!” the blue pegasus whooped as hushed silence gave way to jubilation. Wrapping a blue foreleg around the trembling yellow pegasus, she squeezed tight. “No idea what we did, but I knew we could do it!” The earth ponies, pink and orange, pounded hooves together before the pink one helped the other to remove the bucket.

Up above the mess, Devon and his mother were as fixed as the rest of the guests.

“Oh m’stars!” his mother squealed. “I n-never imagined somethin’ like this! Oh!” she was fluttering in her joy. Looping her foreleg around Devon, she let out a keening yell of her own to join the others. “Looks like m’racles are still on the plan fer’ this party,” she smirked, but then her face twisted into a mask of sudden panic. “Ah shoot! Th’PARTY!” Devon’s mother flew into a small flurry, “just ‘njoy yerself, hun, I’ll finish up in a jiff!”

“Glad to be here with you,” Devon gently replied, unable to hold back the smile to see the Princess of the Night descend into the ballroom floor. “I wouldn’t miss this moment...for anything.”

“Aww, Dev’n!” She playfully nudged him across the ear. “But first...” she followed. “I need s’me cider. A big one!” As she stepped out into the hallway, Devon leaned forward, eyes fixed on Luna. Residual magic had kept the area around her clear, and with glee, he turned from the balcony to rush to her.

Along with...just about everything else with four-hooves and a mane within a quarter mile radius.

The night’s still young.

From his vantage point, Devon watched powerlessly as every echelon of Canterlot above him...well, basically the entirety of Canterlot, swarmed around the dimly glowing cobalt figure disappearing behind an interwoven series of silhouettes clenching more tightly around her. He quickly spun on his hooves, and darted back down the stairs, but found himself stuck behind a meaty wall of similarly excited ponies clamoring furiously to work their way through the narrow corridor back out to the ballroom.

Don’t get too excited, yet. You can’t see all we see from up here.

The stars...

They always had some clever way to just rain on the mood didn’t they. Looking around him, Devon ducked down out of everypony’s view. “Really now?” Devon protested upwards. “What now!? What could you possibly see from up there to end this perfect little moment we have here!?”

Devon waited, sneaking another glance to the crowd gathering before the Princess. A ring of armored pegasi descended downwards, taking immediate steps to keep the gathering orderly.

“Well? What could you possibly see!?”

Hard to miss, really. You’d think he hates falling into the background the way he dresses and jangles...

Comments

[TheyCallMeBeanz]

Man, those stars are a bunch of dicks. Here we are finally having a happy moment and they have to go and ruin it by reminding us of Stormblade's existence. What a bunch of jerks.

[kagemao]

So, if you need a bookmark to make contracts, what can Stormblade really do to screw this up?

[Vash_ts]

but dear stars, you just need to leave Mr. Jangles on sight of Luna for 5 minutes.
then there is no more mr jangles

[Shachza]

Ok. His mom is pissing me off. I love the way the contracts are intertwined with his relationship with his mom and how that helps out in the end. But I absolutely loathe how the resolution depends so much on him bending over backwards and catering to her whims again. I'm feeling a distinct lack of reciprocation - he apologizes for blowing up at her but she says nothing about constantly interfering with his life in ways that he doesn't appreciate, nor about holding on to him well past the age when he should be capable of making his own decisions. She's part of the reason that he lashed out in the first place, and if she can't realize this then the whole scenario will just repeat.

She has to loosen her grip on him and him apologizing unconditionally won't get her to do that.

But I know the stars don't care about that. Devon should though.

[Alondro]

>>>Fate cannot lie, fate cannot extend pity. We are truth, pure and painful, Devon. We simply are.>>

*Alondro's great Mistress has had enough of the falsehood from these dark stars* You see all and are yet blind. You know all and are still utter fools. All your watching and you comprehend nothing. Incapable of realizing the thoughtless applications of your own power lead to the chaos that results. Incapable of granting even a child's simple wish without destroying his life. When all one's actions lead to evil, what does that tell of the intent behind said actions?

You stars grant every wish as flippantly as possible, using the worst path out of many possible avenues. Would you care to explain to me why ALL the outcomes are tragic? Come now, I know far more about probability than that. Tell me, oh exalted stars, what is fate when you act upon mere mortal wishes to CHANGE what would have happened? If you are indeed fate, then why is you act upon desires? Why do you have desires of your own? If you you are so pure and high, why do you mock in so low a tone? How then can you have plans if fate is set? If all is fate, why do you seize control over those who wish upon you and direct their actions?

Truth? I know Truth, so you cannot lie to me. Nay, you are the very foundations of lies: self-delusion. You are evil, as wicked as the one who claimed he would become like the Most High, and none of your black words can change it. I see through your fey light and pretenses into the uncaring pits of callous self-righteousness at the core of your being. You sit surrounded by an expanse of hubris so dense that I am amazed you can even be seen through it.

I have seen beings of Fate, the caretakers of the Weave; calm, composed, impassive they are. Incapable of passions, incapable of malice, placid almost beyond comprehension. Watching and weaving, they care only that Fate continues to move smoothly, and never will they directly interfere other than to place Fate back in track should something from Outside interfere, or to answer those who request to know.

What you have done is utterly contrary to fate; offering yourselves as Djinn, daring to grant wishes. And so to, like the Arabian devils who misdirect, your 'gifts' are certain to cause naught but harm, each unleashing a veritable monkey's paw of disaster.

FATE CANNOT GRANT WISHES!!! IT IS FORBIDDEN FOR FATE TO INTERFERE IN SUCH A REGARD!! You violate justice, you harm Ma'at! And for this you shall perish!

Speak no more lies to me. I know you for what you are, denizens of hell! Of the one-third of the stars the Great Dragon drew with his tail and cast upon the earth thou art!

*The stars shrink back in terror as She Who is Mighty, She Before Whom All Evil Trembles, glares at them with the seething, roiling center of her wrath unbound, blazing like the core of the Sun itself.*

So awesome. This is gonna be an epic smackdown! *Alondro munches popcorn*

[Alondro]

>>>You will not have her!

She is OURS!>>>

Can fate and truth and purity be so selfish? With every word they speak, they prove themselves liars. Tell me, little stars, is it Luna's fate to be imprisoned by your schemes... or is that YOUR decision? You are not acting as arbiters of fate, instead you behave as selfish, immature tyrants throwing a tantrum.

[RoboRed]

Fickle little bastards, those stars...This really is a fantastic story. I can't emphasize that enough.

Goddamnit, Jetstream, why can't you ever just go away?

[djthomp]

That long awaited reunion (emotional reunion, that is) between mother and son was really quite touching in my opinion.

And Luna's back!

And so is Stormblade...

[Twisted but true]

"HEEEEERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAAAAAAAY!"
Jangle-jangle.
"AND I LOOOK FABULOUUUUUUUUUS!"
Jangle-jangle.

Okay this guy has got to show up in more fics. Or else I will put him there. With the approval of your author-ness of course.

[Otsdarva]

2829436 - His Fabulousity is without question! It does not matter who you are, for to him you are but a mere pony! A silhouette caught awash in the magnitude of his spendiferous radiance! To see a character like him get cameo appearances in other fics would outright be hysterical.