The Sanction of the Lost
Twilight Sparkle soared through the sky, her saddlebags firmly attached to her sides, tears in her eyes.
Just yesterday, Pinkie Pie, the last of her closest friends, had died, the funeral had been done up in magenta and pink, with angel-food cake and punch for refreshments. There was happy music, and balloons, and streamers...
It was like one last party, and it almost wasn't...
It almost wasn't sad...
But only almost wasn't.
She kept flying, now with the last of her friends gone, maybe the Spirits of Harmony would listen to her without conflict.
The struts, platforms, and scaffolding that made up the Solar Citadel came into view, where she was sealed away.
Twilight didn't like saying her name, it brought a feeling of shame to her heart.
Now, it wasn't like Celestia was encased in stone like Discord or banished to the sun like Luna with the moon, no, she could still roam around as she pleased, but only as long as it was inside of a very small dome-shaped area.
Landing on the scorched ground, the lavender alicorn shrugged off her saddlebag, opening it and pulled out the two objects inside.
The first was a crown, Twilight's enhanced princess crown, this one had a beautiful center triangle with a large magenta amethyst set in, and six other, slightly smaller triangles.
One of the smaller triangles had an indigo amethyst, that one was for Rarity, another had a rose ruby for Rainbow Dash, a pink ruby for Fluttershy, an aqua sapphire for Pinkie Pie, an orange garnet for Applejack, and a neon emerald for Spike, because he deserved recognition for his reliability, faithfulness, and the fact that he was like the son Twilight never had.
The teary-eyed princess briefly wondered if she had ever bore any children in the course of her life.
Slowly trotting into the cracked stone ruins, she recalled the addition to the history books that had been made, and recited the first minstrels' version.
"♪A magnificent mother, in a desperate attempt to stave off the end of her days." She sang, her singing voice had gotten even better over the years, and nowadays she was actually in the 'Singing Ponies Hall of Fame'.
"♪She runs herself hollow, and burns all her knights alive." Twilight was horrified when she found out, luckily Shining Armor had been spared, as he'd been in the Crystal Kingdom at the time.
But even with her brother surviving, she was still hit deep by the fact that she had simply... snapped... like that, it brought another few tears to her eye to know that something so horrible had happened so suddenly and without warning.
Why hadn't she reached out and asked for help?
"♪A shell of her former self~, they lock her away, far beneath her crumbling shriiiine." The Solar Citadel, she'd built it by precision-slagging a mountain, however without proper maintenance it had quickly been battered and worn away by the elements.
"♪A radiant suuuuun, forged by the fumbling hooves of a filly not fit for her throooooone." After the banishment, Twilight had taken over the responsibilities of the sun.
Even after it became muscle-memory, from over a thousand times of trying to raise and lower the sun, she had still struggled with it
Even after a century, the studious mare had a bit of trouble with the sun, it just didn't seem to want to fully accept its new master.
"♪A clever deceit, to make everypony believe... the divines haven't left them behind!" Now that line had arisen from rumors that she, Luna, Cadance, and Discord had died in a heroic sacrifice to stop her from burning the world.
"♪Like a moooooth, fluttering towards a flaaaame." For months, ponies hadn't heard anything from inside the castle, and only a day or two before the first minstrel's version of the 'Immolation Incident' had been released, a message came from Canterlot Castle.
We are finished with our crying, it is time to move on. the letter had said, and everypony had cheered that the royals were alive and well.
"♪Gretis majrano, larore, ramtropus, ey nooOOO-OOOO-OOOO-OOOO-OOooox." That was written in a language that was taught to both the greatest of minstrels, and the royals they played for.
The line literally translated to: Welcome magic, love, chaos, and night.
That was the order, from lowest to highest, that the four leaders of Equestria had been recognized in at the time.
However, over the course of the last hundred years, Twilight had earned respect and love from all, and now that list read: love, chaos, magic, and night.
Narrowly avoiding running right into one of the ash-coated pillars, she looked forward again and found the same faintly-visible magenta containment field that had been in place since the banishment.
This was her prison.
Stepping inside the dome, Twilight watched the barely-moving red lump on the ground shift in response to her presence.
Standing up on wobbly legs as it stretched its tattered and torn-up wings, each feather lacked a majority of their fluffy barbs. The mane and tail had lost their cheery pastel colorings in favor of a more angry infernal color set, yellow, orange, red, and black. The once-gentle pink eyes were now black as coal, the normal-looking sun cutie mark was replaced with a sun that had a dark orange core and a bright red corona, it was set on an ash-white background.
"Ah, little pony, feast your eyes on the glory of the SUN!" The evil goddess commanded in a hoarse voice, she'd been barely able to speak for sixteen years now, and every visit found her voice fainter and fainter, now it was barely as loud as Fluttershy's had been.
"Truth Lock." Twilight's horn flashed with a spell, making Celestia speak only her true thoughts.
"Here I stand, helpless and left for dead." The red alicorn said faintly, lifting the flaming greatsword that was stuck upright in the ground and pointing it out towards her enemy, "This is the time you die, purple one," She threatened, stepping forward on unsteady hooves and swinging the sword at Twilight.
Twilight effortlessly dodged the sluggish attacks, "So, Pinkie Pie died yesterday, and now I've nopony left but Luna, since Cadance is busy with the Crystal Kingdom, and Discord has cleaned up his act and taken control of the Everfree, so he's not really all that fun anymore, and you, you're you."
"FIGHT BACK YOU LITTLE CRETIN!" The once-solar-diarch shouted her command in an even weaker voice, tears in her eyes as she feebly attempted to kill her imprisoner.
The magical/solar diarch stepped back as a piece of the ceiling broke off, crashing down and breaking the attacking alicorn's sword in half, leaving a three-foot long blade.
"...AHHH-*sob sob*-WAAAAHHHHHHHAAAAAHAHAAAAAA!" The desperate pariah cried over her broken sword, she'd killed two hundred and fifty ponies to get this thing!
And now it was gooooo-ooooo-oooooone!
"It's okay, you never really did much with it anyways, and for the last time I'm not going to fight you... so... there have been exactly eighty four laws passed in Equestria since you left, you, and exactly one hundred and twenty laws have been repealed, including the restrictions on stallions' rights and various types of marriage." the studious mare informed, avoiding a clumsy lunge by the attacking mare.
"Stop just dodging and try to hit me!" Supernova Sun commanded, stepping close to Twilight.
"Listen, you, for the last time, I'm not going to fight you," Twilight retorted, crying a bit.
The pariah's own crying doubled in intensity as she attempted a mighty roar that came out as little more than a pathetic croak.
Twilight dodged a weak fireball and continued talking, "So, Equestria's doing fine, I'm actually pretty sure that most ponies nowadays, after three generations of having me as the Princess of the Sun, believe that I was the Sun's original keeper. That makes it easier for me to do what I want to do now."
"USURPER!" the red alicorn lunged towards her former friend, wishing to knock her down and beat her to death.
No such luck, the lavender alicorn had learned quite a few skills from her friends over the years, and effortlessly danced around her former mentor and bounced out of the way of the weak follow-up.
"FIGHT BACK! *sob* COME ON!" The infernal goddess demanded impotently as she cried even harder, picking up her sword with her hooves and trying to slash Twilight again.
Once again, Twilight dodged with speed that only Rainbow Dash could reproduce, "You know, now with all of my friends dead, the Elements of Harmony are useless, not that they were any use over the past century when they were locked away, set into the Tree of Harmony, but I still have this." her horn lit up with magenta magic and lifted her princess' crown from inside her mane, placing it on her head, "And I still have a connection with the Spirits of Harmony, all six of us did, really."
The once-righteous former-princess gasped at the sight, then growled like an angry beast, further destroying her vocal chords.
With more desperate swings of her broken flaming sword and weak attempts at shooting fireballs, both of which still neither hit, nor garnered a counter-attack, the fire-maned mare cried deeply, demanding that her opponent fight back.
"I'm not a violent pony, you, I've lived too long to not know that violence only breeds more violence. So... I brought you this," the visitor informed, levitating out a small, cracked, amethyst octahedron.
The original gem from the prisoner's crown, she'd lost it during her immolation of the knights.
"*gasp* That's mine," the red alicorn mumbled, getting close to the tiny gemstone.
"Well, technically yes it is, but it's actually not, you lost this gem when you lost your title, as well as the sun, but this little old gem, it has an amazing market value, but I know better than anypony that in a fight between market value and sentimental value, sentiments always win... if only I could defy that advice for a few moments, then this pain inside would stop." Twilight levitated the white-cracked purple gem into her greedy hooves.
The magical/solar diarch watched as she put the gem on her forehead, lacking a crown set it in.
"This is perfect," The pariah croaked in a gracious tone.
"Well, it wasn't even a bother to me, but..." Twilight looked at the ashy ground, then at the small firepit that illuminated the crumbling citadel.
It was still burning brightly after all this time, a sign that she would stay as she is.
"WITH MY GLORIOUS GEM RECOVERED, I SHALL KILL THEE, FIEND!" If she had said words, then they barely sounding like a forced breath.
"No, you won't." Twilight used a magical barrier to block the sword, letting a few more tears escape when the *clang* sound was made, this was the first time, over the course of the whole century, she'd done anything besides dodge Celestia's attacks.
Twilight was still crying
She still hadn't moved on.
Because deep down, she believed that she could be saved.
"Well, I'm going to do it... Celestia," it was the first time she'd said Celestia's name in a century, "I'm going to do it."
Celestia croaked, her vocal chords were gone, she couldn't even speak anymore. Overcome with distraught, she tearfully started her weak assault up again.
Twilight effortlessly dodged the haphazardly-aimed swings of hoof and blade. With a swift lashing motion, she took the gem from the red alicorn's forehead, taking care not to touch her heavily-cracked and dried-blood covered horn.
"I'm sorry, *sob* I'm so sorry that *sob* I wasn't there for you back then, but *sob* we both need to move on," The lavender princess apologized through her nearly choking sobs, "Maybe, if I, or anypony, had *sob* been there, then maybe *sob* things would have *sob* been different, and maybe *sob* I wouldn't have to do this... but I'm giving you a second chance, Celestia, I'm giving *sniffle* you a second chance, now that the dust has finally settled." Twilight raised the gem up with her hoof....
... And she cast it into the firepit.
*POP-SIZZZZZZZ* The gem practically exploded when it hit the base of the blazing firepit.
Celestia looked in horror as her gem was destroyed.
Twilight watched as the fire flickered, then immediately and completely vanished, showing that now, Celestia could be redeemed.
And change she did, Celestia croaked a gravelly sort of shriek as her red coat faded away into a demure white. Her yellow, orange, red, and purple mane and tail faded away into a harmless soft pink with a gentle red stripe. Her burnt-off feathers fell off, along with the whole of her wings, leaving her a unicorn. Her body shrank down to the size of a normal pony. Her cracked and broken red horn crumbled away, revealing a new, clean, undamaged, normal-sized white one. In an explosion of fire, her transformation was complete.
Twilight's tears finally stopped. With puffy red eyes, she lowered her glowing lavender horn to Celestia's white one.
*FWOWSH* An advanced healing spell surrounded the white unicorn, giving her relief from the pain she'd driven herself to and hydration for her dry, cracked, probably-bleeding throat.
However, there was a lot more than a healing spell in that simple horn tap.
"Come, my little pony, you have much to do." Twilight gently instructed, lowering her body to the ground and gesturing for the former alicorn to climb onto her back.
Celestia looked around at the scary architecture of the Solar Citadel.
She knew neither what this place was, or how she'd gotten here.
She tentatively climbed on, feeling calmed by the feeling of Twilight's (literally) divinely soft coat. She snuggled into the larger mare as they took off into the sky.
"Hold on tight." the lavender alicorn instructed, smiling a bit at the ridiculousness of how demure the red and purple maned unicorn had suddenly become.
"W-w-w....w-where are you taking me princess?" Celestia asked after a few minutes, trying to see some familiar landmark, but nothing she knew appeared.
"Well, my little pony, I believe that you need to learn something, it's a very special lesson that my teacher once thought that I'd never take to. I not only took to it, I ran with it and mastered it, do you know what this lesson is?" The magical/solar diarch had cast something of a memory-altering spell as part of her healing spell.
"Um... no? What's the lesson, Princess Twilight?" the white unicorn asked, her voice had gone from the voice of a wise mother to the voice of a curious daughter.
"This lesson, the one you're going to learn, is about the magic of friendship." There was a twinkle in the princess's eyes as she said the words.
"But, I don't have any friends, I don't need any friends, I have you, and Luna, and uncle Discord," Well, he wasn't really her uncle, but he acted like it, and he said that it was okay for her to call him that, "I mean, not to demean your age-old wisdom, princess, but... I mean, can't I just learn something like a fireball spell?" Celestia couldn't believe that her practically all-knowing mentor was doing something like this.
Hadn't Celestia proved how faithful of a faithful student she was?
"No, my faithful student, you've been locked away in your lessons for too long, but don't worry, you'll be fine on this mission." Twilight smiled as happy memories from Ponyville rose up in her mind.
Ponyville itself was getting closer, and she slowed down as she approached the Golden Oaks Library, taking care as she landed outside the front door.
"What is this place?" Celestia looked around at all of the ponies walking the streets, most occasionally stopped to wave at Twilight, it wasn't every day that a princess was in Ponyville.
'How silly,' Twilight thought, If only they knew what their parents had experienced, when I still lived here.'
"This, is Ponyville! The friendliest town in Equestria, this is where I learned the magic of friendship, and this is where you will too, I believe in you." The lavender alicorn informed, reciting the town's name with robust joy.
"But how am I supposed to learn the magic of friendship?" the white unicorn asked, feeling awkward with all of this friendliness around her.
"Well, luckily your totally awesome teacher thinks of everything. You see, actually, what I mainly want you to do, is oversee the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, and make some friends while your at it." A single, happy tear escaped Twilight's eye, which she quickly wiped away while Celestia wasn't looking.
It was happening, she was giving Celestia the saving chance that Celestia had given her so long ago.
"But, what about the Lich King story? What about the attack I predicted?" Celestia complained, she had spent a lot of time on those calculations!
"Lich King attacks? Well that sounds teeeeeeerrible! Now if only I had some remarkable protégé with amazing magical power and a great intuition... OH WAIT!" The magical/solar diarch pretended to remember, letting out a hearty laugh.
"*giggle* Yeah! You've got ME, I'll handle it for you, princess." Celestia assured, playfully giving her mentor a bop on the foreleg.
"I trust that you will, I have another present for you." Twilight gathered her nigh-infinite magical power into a mighty teleportation spell.
Callus, Spike's son, appeared in a flash of magenta light.
Both the little red dragon and the big purple one had been informed of Twilight's plan to fix Celestia's life, so Callus didn't worry that he'd suddenly been teleported to Ponyville.
"Hey Shine-bright, Princess Twilight says that you'll need an assistant to watch out for you, so I came back early from my trip to help out." The little red dragon explained, making a few claw motions to help his explanation.
Shine-bright remembered that, she'd hatched him from an egg when she was just a little filly.
They were as close as family, he was the one who had come up with the nickname 'Celestia', when pointing out that her cutie mark, a bright ball of fire with shine-lines around it, looked a lot like the sun.
He'd recently left on a small vacation a week ago, and had been so kind as to come back early to help her with this new task.
"Well, I must return to Canterlot, princess duties rarely stop, I'll leave you to your task..." Twilight fired up another spell, "...And make sure to make some friends." she disappeared in a flash of magenta light.
Celestia, AKA Shine-bright, smiled at her assistant, "Come on, Callus, we have a lot of work to do, what's the first thing on the list?" She asked as she led the way, her assistant pulling out a list.
Twilight watched from above, she hadn't teleported away, rather she'd made herself invisible so that she was able to watch for a bit longer without being seen.
"Well Shine-bright, I hear the ponies in Ponyville have interesting things to talk about," the assistant informed, following the unicorn.
Twilight watched as a familiar young mare, one she'd last seen the previous day at the funeral, approached the group, quietly humming to herself, a sign that all of her crying and healing had been finished at the 'Celebrating Pinkie Pie's Long and Prosperous Life' party.
Cotton Candy was a distinctive sight, with her curly rose-pink mane bouncing as she trotted along, her hot-pink coat, blue eyes filled with life and joy. If it wasn't obvious before, her cutie mark, a trio of lollipops, was remarkably similar to her 'Granny Pie's' cutie mark.
Cotton stopped in front of the two, staring at them for a few seconds.
"Um... hi, my name is Shine-bright, I'm here to look over the preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration, um... what's you name?"
Cotton Candy stared at the white unicorn for a few more seconds, before letting out a loud, drawn-out gasp, "HITHEREMYNAME'SCOTTONCANDYWHAT'SYOURS? OHWAITYOUALREADYSAIDIT'SSHINE-BRIGHT, ORISITSHINEBRIGHT? DOYOUSPELLITWITHAHYPHENORNOT? LETMESLOWDOWN FOR A SECOND HERE OKAY, I just noticed that you're new in town, I mean you MUST be because I've never seen you before, and I know EEEEEEEEVERYPONY in ALL of Ponyville! So you're overlooking the Summer Sun Celebration preparations? THAT'S NEATO! Well I'd better not distract you from your big task, but I'll make sure to throw you a welcome party next time I see you! OKAY BYYYYYYE!" The pink mare bounced away, smiling wide the whole time.
"Well... that was interesting." Shine-bright snarkily dismissed.
Twilight chuckled as she flew away, she really did have to get back to Canterlot.
"Well you seem to be in a good mood on Sunday, for once." Discord said as he floated next to his favorite princess.
"Let's just say... I think I finally got over it." Twilight replied.
"Did you give her a second chance?" The fancily-clad draconequus asked in a warning tone.
"I did... and I think she might do good." The lavender alicorn answered with a small, hopeful smile.
"Why's that? You didn't think that I'd do good when I took control of the Everfree Forest." Discord said with a small amount of indignity.
"Because, Shine-bright will have the magic of friendship on her side." Twilight clarified, "Unlike back then... which could have prevented this whole catastrophe."
"So you really did do the mind-wipe thing?" Discord knew that that was a dangerous play on her part, but he secretly liked that she'd decided to play dangerously.
"It's a fresh start for her, Discord, just like I was willing to give you. If she could give me a chance to turn my life around all those years ago, why should I not return the favor?"
"Alright... alright... friendship is magic, after all."
"The most powerful magic of all. A magic that will fix up little Shine-bright's life."
"Yeah... wanna sing the song?" Discord offered with a shrug, summoning his special 'Cocoa Chorus' microphone to his lion paw.
"Of course." Twilight said, teleporting both of them to the Castle Ballroom and summoning her own special 'Lavender Lyrics' microphone.
The karaoke machine was activated, and the two cleared their throats and sang.
"♪My little ponyyyyy, my little ponyyyyyyy, ahhh AHHH AHHH AHHH!" They began.
And the rest... was history.