> My Little Mages: Weight of the Crown
>  by Foxhelm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The New Year
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Prologue: Dealing with Change

A young woman between 19 and 21 of age hovered in mid-air. Her hair was a rainbow in color and did in a high ponytail with a hairpin with a stylized cloud and tri-colored rainbow of red, yellow and blue, with cerise eyes. She wore black sock-like boats that went above her knees, with a dull purple shirt and light a dull blue shirt with white and gold wing styled sleeves. On her waist was a quiver with a bow and from her ankles came ethereal wing. This young woman was Rainbow Dash and called out to what she was watching just off, “Come on, Twilight, you need to flap those wings harder!” she shouted as another young woman, the aforementioned Twilight, full name Twilight Sparkle, flew towards her. Twilight was slightly taller than the rainbow-haired girl and was slightly older than her, Twilight also had had dark sapphire hair with two streaks one was rose and the other was violet, her eyes were violet and she had metallic wings purple and gold in color from her back with two amethyst six-pointed stars like a shoulder ball. She wore a headband with a horn-like amethyst focusing gem on her forehead, with a dull blue robe with large golden cuffs, pink pants and brown boots that went up above her ankle. The young woman with the metallic wings towards her at high speed but Twilight was starting to lose altitude and then her metallic wings gave out, crying out with a ‘whoa!’. 

As Twilight plummeted she was caught in a massive inflatable structure. Said structure then deflated as Rainbow Dash landed. Next to where she landed were four other young women about the same age to each other. One had long deep-magenta hair with a small tiara on her head with three sapphires cut as kites, she had azure eyes, she was dressed in a long pinkish-purple gown with arm-length gloves and a long slightly transparent pinkish red shawl going around her back and hanging from her elbows, her name was Rarity. The next was a blonde woman, named Applejack, done in low ponytail dressed in brown pants, brown boots, a red leather jacket with some pieces of armor most notably pauldrons with stylized apples, brown gloves, a scabbard with a long sword in it. Next to her was a shorter woman with cotton pink hair, blue eyes, dressed in a bear legged leotard with blue cruelly toed shoes a pink jester coat and a dark pink jester’s hat with three balloons, one was yellow and two were blue, her name was Pinkie Pie. The last woman also had pink hair like Pinkie Pie, but her hair was light pink, she was barefoot and she was dressed in a green, yellow and light blue dress with a stylized pink butterfly as a brooch for her hood, her name was Fluttershy. As the structure deflated Twilight started to walk off. “Yeah, um, okay, maybe not as hard,” Rainbow Dash commented with a weak apologetic laugh and smile. 

Twilight lost her balance as she tried to get on the ground, but was caught by Applejack, “For most of that, yah were doin' well, Princess Twilight,” Applejack said as she helped Twilight right herself and finished with a slight bow.

“Please don't call me that,” Twilight said as she tapped on Applejack’s shoulder making the paladin stand up as the others walked up to the two. "All of you."

“Why are you exempting us from calling you by your title?” Rarity asked slightly baffled that someone would not embrace a new title and position in society, she most certainly would have her new rank broadcasted. “I know we are friends, but it hasn't been a fortnight since your coronation and you've already stopped wearing your tiara, except for formal occasions,” Rarity brought home her point. “At the very least embrace your new title.”

Twilight brushed herself off, “I know have to accept it when others address me with the title, but... when my friends call me 'princess'...," Twilight paused looking down as if ashamed, "it just doesn't feel... like it's part of me,” Twilight then sighed before she continued. “nor do these,” Twilight said as she looked at and called attention to her metallic wings, these new appendages were something she was far from accustomed to and with, even with almost fourteen days with them, “The solstices is in two days, and at this rate I won't be able to perform my part for the celebration.” Twilight looked downcast at the ground.

“Well, if you spend all the time you got to work on your flying on the ground, you won't!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she stepped forward getting everyone to focus on her. “Now get back up there and finish this!” She ordered like a drill sergeant and blew a whistle. Twilight then jumped up into the air in a near panic and started to try the run again as Applejack and Rarity re-inflated the inflatable structure. 

As Twilight was starting to have a trail that matched her hair color with stars sprinkled in but her wings gave out about three seconds in. Twilight screamed as she fell down onto the inflatable structure. However, unlike the time before the structure didn’t deflate gradually as it should have, instead there was a pop and the air burst out in a gale-like force like a giant whoopee cushion. As  Twilight struggled to get back on her feet only to fall onto her rear, everyone was unsure how to proceed with Twilight in her current state, save Pinkie Pie  “Wow! you really finished that!” That got a couple of laughs out of Rainbow Dash and Rarity as Twilight groaned in response.





A New Year 

Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all looking at a stained glass window, having been joined up with a bipedal purple scaled-dragon that stood about the same height of the average eleven or twelve-year-old boy, he was Twilight's familiar and assistant, Spike. The window they were looking at was formerly blank, but now it depicted a stylized rendering of Twilight's ascension into her new demigoddess state, with her eyes closed and her tiara with the Element of Magic on her head, as stylized renderings of Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie with their Elements of Harmony on their necks circling her like in their group photograph, with beams coming from the five other Elements to Twilight with a rendering of a spell book above them all with the words "From one to another, another to one. A mark of one's destiny singled out alone, fulfilled. From all of us together, together we're friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!” for all to read. Of the small group of seven looking at the window, only Rainbow Dash elected to hover with her ethereal wings keeping her aloft. “Your new window is just awe-inspiring, Darling,” Rarity spoke her eyes starry over the rendering depicted in the window, her voice hinting to how amazed she was by the craftsmanship. “They've done a masterful job capturing you and all your majesty.”

“I guess.” Twilight blushed in modesty as she looked away from the window, still getting used to her new position and still very much the woman she was before she completed the unfinished spell almost two weeks before.

This was not lost Rarity, and she continued to awe over the window and Twilight’s new status. “Oh, don't be so demure, Darling. It's every girl’s dream to be a princess and have her investiture depicted for all to see.” Rarity finished with a dreamy sigh, a part of her still wishing to be a princess herself.

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms as she watched Rarity twirl in a dance engrossed in her own fantasy, “I doubt that it's every girl's dream.” Rainbow rolled her eyes as she said ‘every girl’s’ addressing the fact that she and other girls like her were not into the standing around, looking pretty, waving and other things that she assumed princesses did, she was too active of a person. 

Fluttershy looked at the ground and watched one of the shadows, with some quick math she calculated the time, “We got to go or we'll miss our train.”

Applejack took out an old pocket watch she had.  She opened it and looked at the time, “Fluttershy's right.” She then pocketed the watch and turned to the others, “Yeah, we all got quite the workload back home. The main shindig is here in Chantalot, but we still got our own back in Magiville.” She then turned to Twilight as the new princess looked down, not looking forward to spending the day without her friends. Applejack placed her left hand on Twilight shoulder and lifted Twilight’s chin. “Don't be so down in the dumps, Sugarcube. Yah'll be here with your parents, your brother, Spike, Cadance, Luna, and Celestia when she raises the sun.”

Twilight took a breath before she tried to smile and accept the assurance her paladin friend and all the others were trying to offer her as best they can, “And I'm truly honored,” Twilight then sighed as she looked at her friends, “But the Summer Sun Celebration is what first brought us all together. It's our friendship's first anniversary. It's not right that we won't be spending that day together.”

Rarity gave a sorrowful albeit drama ‘ow’ before she spoke, “Yes it's not right, Darling. If our aid was not required, we would remain here, even bring our sisters; Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom, and Scootaloo. They would just love to chat with Princess Luna." Rarity said as turned to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "Also, you must tend to your new duties.” The six started out of the throne room and headed to the entrance of the castle.

Applejack and the whole group stop and hugged Twilight reassuringly, “The last Summer Sun Celebration may have gotten us together as we are now and gave us the chance to know each other as we do, but The Summer Sun Celebration is not what has or will keep us together,” as Applejack and Twilight ended the embrace, “The six of us are united by more than just the Elements of Harmony, we've had many adventures over this past year, wah fought together, celebrated our achievements and important events together, shared and lived our Lives with each other and not every Discord can change that,” Applejack then turned to the other four and asked them, “Am I right?” They all nodded in agreement.

“We'll write you and keep you so much in the loop that it'll be like you're with us!” Pinkie Pie could barely contain herself as she looked to the other four, “Right?” 

Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity performed the ritual in question, “Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” 

While Rainbow Dash opened the door out so that she and the others would leave the castle to catch their train to Magiville, Rarity turned to face Twilight as the others headed out, “And will be together after the Celebration. We are scheduled to upgrade your decor.” The enchantress finished as she and the others then hugged Twilight wishing that she fair well. They all wave goodbye and the door shut. 

Twilight exhaled about a minute in slight sorrow as Spike unscrolled a checklist, “Spike, I know it's only been a minute, and I feel like I'm missing something."

A knock was heard and Twilight and Spike turned to open and the door and there was a male messenger, “A message for Princess Twilight Sparkle,” he said as he handed Twilight a regular envelope with a small bow. Twilight accepted the envelope and the messenger then left shutting the castle door.

Twilight opened the envelope and pulled out a letter. As she read the letter Pinkie Pie’s voice was heard, “Dear Twilight, you haven't missed anything. Pinkie Pie.” Just then the distanced Pinkie Pie’s voice echoed, “That's me!” following that was the echoed laughs of the princess and jester's mutual friends.

Twilight sighed even with a sad smile as she and Spike headed off to the next thing she to accomplish to prepare for the main Summer Sun Celebration, “I know I am,” She said to herself.





As the Spike looked over the list of all the things she was assigned to do for preparing the Summer Sun Celebration, as the day was ending, “And... check!”  As he looked over the list he could not help but notice that they had accomplished almost everything they were going to do for the celebration, “We're ahead of schedule! I have credit your assistant,” Spike said as they walked into her old room as the sun was starting to set, the day nearly over.

Twilight gave a laugh as she noticed that Spike was touting his own horn, not that he didn’t merit the praise, “So do I.”

Spike looked at the calendar, namely the circling of the summer solstice and spoke out, “The Celebration isn't for two days.” Spike then looked at the checklist and saw only a few things left on the list and doing some quick math, “We can go to Magiville be back with time to spare!” Spike suggested a smile on his face almost pleading to go to and see their friends before the celebration.

Twilight gave a sigh before she responded to her familiar’s request, “That would be nice, Spike, but...” Twilight then started to pace back and forth and her wings started to flap slowly lift off of the floor. As soon as Spike heard 'but' he toned Twilight's voice out as continued to go on and on about what could happen and panicked throughout it all. Unbeknownst to Twilight, she continued to rise from the floor, something Spike would have commented on if Twilight wasn't lost to the demons of 'What' and 'If'. Twilight's eyes widen in horror in her panic until she crashed into the ceiling with a thud.

Twilight then descended to the floor and landed in pain. She then started to rub her head to soothe and relief from the pain as Spike rolled his eyes before he commented, "So 'no'."

Twilight sat down at on her bed as if she wanted to lie down on it, “This is the first princess-related task Princess Celestia give me. I can't risk letting her down!” Twilight declared as she got to her feet a looked out the window as if making a vow, calling upon an unseen force to bear witness to this.

“I'm certain that you can't,” came a familiar motherlike voice from the doorway into the room. Twilight and Spike turned to see Celestia in the doorway, but she was not with her tiara or her tradition white gown. She was still dressed in white, but it was a set of flannel pajamas, like the set Applejack wore during that sleepover, which caught Twilight and Spike off-guard. 

Spike, however, did remember to bow to Celestia, “Your grace!” the dragon declared as he bowed with a dramatic swirl of his hand as if to offer it.  

Celestia couldn’t help but giggle a little at that action performed by the dragon before she turned to Twilight, who was also bowing as well, “There is no need for that, Princess Twilight, we are equals now remember?” Celestia then tapped on Twilight’s shoulder and have the younger princess rise back-up.

Twilight gave a nervous laugh with gave a weak apology, “forgive me,” Twilight blushed at that, still very much still mentally in the role of an apprentice with Celestia as her master and far from fully accepting her new position as a princess and her relationship with Celestia as peers, as equals.

Celestia giggled a little and shook her head with a smile on her face, “You did nothing that needs forgiving.” She embraced her former student. After ending the hug, Celestia walked past Twilight and looked out the window as the twilight started, “You know, it's wonderful to actually be looking forward to the day after tomorrow for once.” Celestia gave a sad smile as she watched the stars to come view and the moon slowly start its ascent into the night sky. “See the moon is rising…” Celestia sang softly.

Twilight and Spike shared glances of confusion with each other, “I am sorry, I don't follow, could you explain?” Twilight asked as the two turned back to Celestia.  

Celestia turned to the two, “For my subjects, it celebrated Nightmare Moon's defeat. But for me…” Celestia sighed as she turned back to face the night sky, hiding the few tears that rolled down her face and watched Luna on a balcony guiding the moon, “It marked the hardest decisions I ever made…” another sorrowful sigh escaped from Celestia’s lips.

Both Twilight and Spike dipped their heads as Twilight spoke up as she connected the dots finally, “I guess I never considered that.” 

Celestia turned to face Twilight and Spike with a bright closed-eye smile, “But now it will mark my sister’s return and our happy reunion.” Celestia then walked from the window and placed her hands on Twilight’s shoulders as she opened her eyes and embrace her former pupil, “I am so pleased that you will be part of the event. I know it's hard with your friends back inMagiville without you on just an important day.”

Twilight returned the hug, “Maybe," she was still not at ease with not being able to be with her friends. 

Celestia then ended the hug, “We are not student and teacher as we were before, Peer Twilight, but I hope you understand that I will be here for you.” She lifted Twilight’s chin in an attempt to reassure the younger demigoddess. “As I hope that you will be there for me.” The two smiled at each other.

The two then heard a throat being cleared, and turned to see Spike pointing to a messenger with his right thumb going over his right shoulder, “He got something for at least of one of you.”  

The two gave a weak smile as the messenger walked into the room, and gave a bow before he held out a cotton candy pink colored envelope to Twilight, “your graces, I have a message for Princess Twilight Sparkle.” Twilight accepted the envelope and the messenger then left the room and was on his way out of the castle. Twilight then opened the envelope, doing so caused the sound of party poppers to be heard as some confetti leaped out of the envelope causing Twilight laugh a little and a smile on her face.

“A Pinkie Letter?” Celestia asked with a smile looking over Twilight’s shoulder as if to see the letter Twilight. 

Twilight, however, just placed the envelope on her desk before turning back to Celestia, “It's not major.” she didn’t  actually see the letter and didn’t want to see it yet, in particular with Celestia there. She turned to her familiar, not noticing that the dragon was preparing a small bed and was getting ready to sleep, “Spike, what's next on our list?”

Spike lifted the top sheet of his bed, lowered a sleeping mask over his eyes and grabbed a plushie that resembled Rarity as he got into the bed, “Calling it a day and wishing each other 'good night'?” he asked hoping that the answer would be ‘yes’.

Twilight shook her head as she picked up the scroll with everything she planned to do for her parts for the Summer Sun Celebration the day after the next, “We better check the checklist once more.” 

Spike gave an exhausted sigh as he removed his sleeping mask and got up, “knew it…” Spike rolled his eyes as he got out of the bed annoyed that he had to go through another checklist for the third time… again.... today.

Celestia started out of the room with a soft laugh as how much her new peer was still very much herself, “Well good night, to you both.” Celestia left Twilight and Spike and shut the door to their room. She yawned as she walked towards her own bed chambers. As she passed the last corner to her room a small crack formed in the floor and a small black thorny vine came from the crack. The then shot in the direction of the corner Celestia turned. Celestia’s voice is heard giving a gasp followed by a yelp as everything went black.
> Summoning The Erisadies
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Twilight fell asleep the night before at the desk in her room and woke up not noticing the blanket placed over her shoulders. She yawned and rubbed her eyes and as she looked out of the window, she gave a “Wha?!” in confusion. The sun and the moon were both out each occupying half of the sky but the half that the moon occupied was like the night sky. Twilight turned from her desk and called out, “Spike?” in an attempt to get her familiar’s attention.

Spike was still cuddled up in his bed and very much still asleep as he snores, sounding like the word ‘check’, in response or rather a nonresponse to Twilight’s call, the dragon continued lost in a dream involving checklist.

Twilight got up from her desk and walked over to the small bed Spike slept in and shook him awake, calling out his name to get his attention, “Spike!”

Spike reluctantly and grudgingly woke, “Ungh…” he growled as he rubbed his eyes and looked around the room before he yawned, “What time is it?”

That question caught Twilight off guard, she had no idea what time it was, as she generally pointed Spike to face the window, “It's the middle of the night! But it could be morning. That's just it! I can't tell!” there was panic in her voice as everything seemed so far out of order.

Spike was a lot calmer as he looked out the window before opening in, “Whoa. That is weird.” unbeknownst to him, Twilight was at the door to the room and was about to leave.

“Come on, Spike,” she ordered as she donned her tiara. “We have to find out what's going on” Spike sighed as he left the window and ran after Twilight as she headed to one of the exits of the main castle. Within about fifteen minutes she and Spike arrived at one of the doors and opened it. 

Outside a fair size of the Chantalot’s population were chattering as they looked at the sky in horror, a woman spoke out, “What does it mean?!” she asked in her scream. Another woman spotted Twilight as the door opened, “Princess Twilight likely knows!” People continued to chatter as they all but rushed Twilight in a near panic, all scared and all seeking answers to what is going on. 

Twilight was initially overwhelmed at this near onslaught, “I'm-I'm sure it's just…” before she could continue. 

“Everything will be under control. Events like these have periodically over a much longer time than Mystica has existed. And even in our history, there were times that Princess Celestia left the night in the sky. All of this will be straightened out. But please, permit me to speak with the princesses,” came a familiar voice as a man with a with blue hair, a handlebar mustache, a monocle for his left eye. He wore a black tailcoat suit with a white shirt, blue vest, and a purple bow tie, his suit’s cuffs were linked with cufflinks depicting a set of three crowns. “Thank you all,” He said as he for or less forced Twilight and Spike back into the castle and shut the door behind him. “That was close,” He said wiping his brow.  

“Why did you say that to them, Prime Administrator Baron Fancypants?” Twilight asked the older man.

“Please, you can just call me Roy when not in public, your grace. But back to your question, the answer is simple, to prevent a riot.” Seeing the questioning looks from the two. “You see if the population find out that Princess Luna and Princess Celestia are gone there would be mass panic in Chantalot, a riot would likely erupt here and in turn would spread across the nation opening a possible civil war… I could go on, but I think I will leave it there.” Fancypants answered. As he wiped his brow with a handkerchief, getting small beads of sweat off, not seeing but hearing Twilight and Spike gasp in response. “Now we do have some producers in place, most of the royal guard station in the castle and the castle staff will be searching for the two within the castle, but with Princess Mi Amore Cadenza still on her way here from the Krystalopolies with her consort, Marshall Armor, you are the now the ruling princess.” 

Twilight was still processing that Luna and Celestia were not in the capital and so close to the Summer Sun Celebration, “I don't understand! Where are Celestia and Luna?” she closed her eyes and shook her head.

Fancypants gave a sigh, “I don’t know. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have vanished. The rule of the land falls to you. What are your orders, we haven’t much time.” Fancypants explained the situation to the best of his ability,  as the three walked deeper into the castle. “So what are your commands?” Just then a handful of guard arrived with a few of the castle staff at the hallway the three were walking. 

Twilight hesitated for just a second as she recalled all the things she and her friend have done, all the time she took the lead. “Guards, get back to the search and only report to your superior officer when you have finished searching a part of the castle, no other reports to myself are to made until the whole castle has been searched down to the last speck of dust. Have a the Order of Shadows search the Castle of the Two Sister in the Everfree Forest. Also send out a band of guards incognito to search Chantalot itself and be a subtle as possible,” the guards bowed and went to carry out the orders, After turning to the castle staff, “While the guards are searching for Celestia and Luna, we need to better allocate our resources, you all and the rest of the castle staff will not be looking for the princesses.” The staff was about to protest but Twilight raised her hand and they fell silent. “There must be some hint of what happened, you and the rest of the castle staff are to look for anything that points to a reason for what happened and you are to report all findings to the majordomo.” The staff bowed and left to follow the orders. Twilight then turned to Fancypants, “Roy, do what you can to keep the civilians calm, get as many members of the ministry as you need. But be tactful about everything.” Fancypants nodded and left to carry out the command.

Spike could not help but smirk seeing how well Twilight had managed all the things thus far, “Well Sparkle, you actually got a knack for being a princess after all. Looks like Sunset was right when she said you were a better choice than her.” This complement caused Twilight to blush a little.

Just as Spike finished a slightly panicked and strained tenor voice echoed in the castle, “Out of my way, I must relay my message to Princess Twilight!” Less than a second later a set of doors were thrown open by a blue-haired Skyborn guard with a blue heater shield with a yellow lightning bolt depicted on his breastplate over his heart. He then flew towards Twilight and Spike, calling out “Your Highness!” before he landed on the floor, genuflecting to Twilight, with his right knee on the ground, “I come from Magiville with ill tidings!” He took a deep breath before looking up to Twilight, his eyes narrowed in fear. “Strange black plants seemed to have infested the Everfree Forest and now those plants are spreading into Magiville. Not only that these plants appear sentient and sapient. For lack of a better, they are invading!” Twilight gasped at that news.





In Magiville about that time, well to be more accurate at Fluttershy’s cottage just near the Everfree, thick black thorny vines started to reach out and grow towards it. Inside the cottage, all the animals were panicking and chattering in fright as they ran, flew, hopped and slithered around the interior. Fluttershy walked out of her bedroom still in her bed robes. As blue jay narrowly missed her, “Excuse me... “ she called, and while more and more animals seemed to be losing their minds as they pass around her, “Oh, pardon me…”. Seeing no more point in trying to walk, Fluttershy used her ethereal wings to hover as she tried to comfort the animals in her home, “Are you alright?” she asked, after seeing hearing little more than various call of panic, “My goodness, what is caused you to panic so?” As to answer the question, Harry the brown grunted as he pointed to the door. Fluttershy was not frightened by the bear’s scared tone. “Whatever it is, I'm sure it's nothing you need to worry about.” She then hovered to the door with her eyes closed and opened them and the door to see the infestation of the black vines. Screaming, she slammed the door shut, “I was wrong. You should be worried! Very, very worried! I got to get the girls! Angel is in charge while I am gone, Harry, please keep account of everything! I’ll be back as soon as I can!” Flutters rushed back to her room and changed into her usual yellow and green dress and flew out the door heading to town as fast as she could. “Hopefully the Elements of Harmony can help solve this.”





At the same time in Sweet Apple Temple, the same black vines were investing the temple ground. Everyone, from Granny Smith, Apple Bloom, Big Mac, Applejack of the Apple family to the Golden Harvest, Romo, Caramel and the others that worked on the farms within the temple grounds were fighting off the black vines, with axes, fire, picks, anything and everything they had to fight off the black vines. However, for every inch of headway they made, it was as if they were forced back a mile. Desperate to keep everyone going, “Come on, Y'all! Put your backs into it!” Applejack ordered basically taking command of everything. Yet, as it was clear that the fight against the vines was going away and starting to take it’s toll on the others as they all grunted and strained, some even painting. As she saw all this, “Dagnabbit,” the paladin cursed as she threw down her stetson. “Where the heck are these things comin' from?” Applejack then looked up to see strange clouds floating into Magivillie and the split of the sky between Night and Day. “And what in tarnation is goin' on with the sky?!” Applejack was about to curse but saw Fluttershy in the distance heading towards Magiville proper. The paladin Applejack turned back to her family et al, “Ah’m going to gather the girls, maybe the Elements can help!” And with that, she was off to gather the rest of her friends en route to the Golden Oak.





In the airspace of Magivillie proper, Rainbow Dash and a fair number of the town’s residential Skyborn as they seemed to line up to battle the clouds. The clouds looked like exaggerated stylized storm clouds. Rainbow Dash flew up in front of the others as she pointed at them with her right hand before she drew her bow from her quiver with her left hand, “Oh, no, you don't! This is Magiville territory, and we aren't due for rain until after the celebration.” She brought her bow to the level and prepared to fire an arrow she manifested. “You Everfree clouds need to just head on back to where you belong!” The cloud closest started to fire lightning at her. “Whoa!” she cried before yelping as she was zapped. She swiftly recovered and readied another arrow, “Gonna make me do this the hard way, huh?”. However, her challenge was only met by even more bolts striking her causing her to yelp and fall back. While rubbing the areas the lighting stroke her she saw Fluttershy and Applejack heading into Magivillie from the cottage and Sweet Apple Temple respectfully. “Hey Thunderlane, key an eye on things, I am gonna meet up with AJ and the others, it looks like we need the Elements of Harmony, hold them off as best you can!” Rainbow ordered as she flew towards the Golden Oak.





At that moment inside Carousel Boutique, Rarity was humming to herself as she was placing her post-Summer Sun Celebration line with a tea set and other things for breakfast between her and Sweetie Belle. She seemed oblivious to what was happening outside until she looked out one of the windows, “Hmm. Something strange about the sky.” At that moment the tea started to trickle out of the pot upwards and went at her with a splash. “What for my calming chamomile is going on?!” Rarity exclaimed as a black thorny vine broke through one of the windows almost hitting her. To avoid the vine, Rarity stepped backward until she noticed her focus gem was glowing and she heard Opalescence yowl. Turning to the sound Rarity saw that Opalescence was in a small field of sapphire colored magic. “Opalescence, darling, I'm so sorry! I promise I am not doing this on purpose!” Opal only hissed as the bubble of magic burst and landed on her feet. “It wasn't me, I swear!” Rarity pleaded, only getting growls from Opalescence in response. Just then Rarity noticed that the teapot, teacups, and saucers were chattering and moving surround by a lime-green aura that matched Sweetie Belle’s eyes. Getting annoyed with all this, “Ooh, Sweetie Belle! If this is some sort of prank you and your friends are pulling, I find very little humor in it!” Rarity shouted as she headed towards the stairs to her and Sweetie Belle’s rooms. 

Rarity, however, didn’t get very far as Sweetie Belle was screaming in squeaks “Rarity, help me!” as she came down the stairs while being levitated upside down in a magic bubble the same shade as green as Sweetie Belle’s eyes. “I think something's wrong with my focus gem!” There was a thud as Sweetie Belle fell to the floor as she tried to regain control all the while she grunted, yelled, and screamed very much in fright. 

Seeing her sister’s plight, Rarity gasped as she pushed her fainting couch to where she thought Sweetie would land. However, Sweetie still hovered for a short while. Rarity paused for a second and had an idea, “I am going to get my friends, maybe with the Elements of Harmony we can solve this!”

“HURRY!” Sweetie Belle screamed as she landed on Rarity’s fainting couch as Rarity left the shop heading to the Golden Oak, meeting up with Applejack, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy en route.





Back in Chantalot, Spike and Twilight were running to the emergency teleportation circle in the castle. “Where are we going?!” the dragon asked confused a little that they were heading deeper to the castle as opposed to trying to leaving the castle and the city.

Twilight answered without missing a beat, surprised that she was actually faring a lot better than she ever expected, as if she had a constitution greater than any Earthborn, “Back to Magivillie, the fastest way I know.”

“Huh?”

“With these black vines invading from the Everfree or whatever is going on, I know I need our friends and the Elements of Harmony to stop it!” Once there, “And with the train taking hours to get there and my lack of familiarity with these,” she said as she flapped her wings, “this is the most logical way there.” As Twilight started up the teleportation circle it petered out before it was fully activated. “Oh come on!” Twilight then kicked the stone floor the circle was engraved into. The teleportation circle then booted up and the two were gone in a flash.





Pinkie Pie was already in the Golden Oak, she looking for a book, “Here it is, oh Pound and Pumpkin are going to love these stories.” Pinkie said as she got off the ladder next to one of the bookcases. The door then flung open with Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Fluttershy entering.

“Something very strange is going on, and-” Rarity spoke first and then gasped as a vine shot past the four into the library. “an explanation would be nice!”

“Hey, the only things I know are that the sky's split  between day and night, and those clouds aren’t natural even though they are coming from the Everfree!” Rainbow informed.

“And the true is same for t’em vine! Nothin’ we at Sweet Apple Temple can do has any effect on them. We can’t get rid of 'em! Don't suppose you know any magic that might stop 'em from spreadin'?” 

Rarity shook her head, “Alas, this whole raging forest break in the sky situation seems to have left my magic on the fritz!” Rarity said as she tried to cast a simple enchantment only to see it fail.

“We have to figure out something!” Fluttershy spoke out with an almost uncharacteristic degree of fortitude. “I don't know how much more of this Magiville can take!” Just then another vine shot into the Golden Oak causing Fluttershy to yelp in fright, “I don't know how much more I can take!”

Just then Twilight and Spike teleported right in front of the library. The others then turned and embraced their recently arrived friends. Rarity was the first to speak as the group broke their hug, “Oh, thank goodness you both arrived!”

“Yeah, but I dunno if you've noticed, the Everfree Forest is just a teeny-tiny bit out of control.” Pinkie Pie said as she pointed out all the black thorny vines, the strange clouds and the split in the sky. This caused everyone but Twilight and Spike to groan, not so much out of thinking Pinkie was being stupid, more so out of annoyance of the whole situation.

Applejack was the first to bounce back from the group groan, “Guess we were wrong. You were missin' something. Ya got any thoughts on what’s causin’ all this? Maybe Princess Celestia thought ya somethin’?” 

Twilight shook her head and gave a sigh, “You see, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are both missing.” Twilight answered. Everyone else sans Spike gasped in terror over what they were just told. Twilight, however, held her head up, she had come a long way from being the reclusive person she was. She had a plan. “I don't know who has taken them, but I've got a hunch we're going to need the Elements of Harmony to get them back.” Twilight then opened the case with the other Elements of Harmony and levitated them to their respected bearers.

As the Elements of Generosity and Honesty clasped around Rarity’s and Applejack’s necks, “Well as the old adage goes, “Great minds think alike. “ Rarity commented as she and Applejack also smiled.

As the Elements of Loyalty and Kindness clasped around Rainbow’s and Fluttershy’s necks, “Oh, yeah!” Rainbow cheered as she thrust her right arm her hand in a fist into the air and bent it back. Fluttershy was much more tame with a kind smile. And as the Element of Laughter clasped around Pinkie’s neck she gave ‘A-boo-yah!’ in cheer. “So who do we blast this time around?” Rainbow asked as they all turned to face Twilight.

Twilight started muttering to herself as they all step outside of the Golden Oak and looked at the situation, “hmm. Half day, half night... strange weather patterns... out of control plants.” As she came to a conclusion she turned to her friends. “I got a pretty good idea of who we're up against.” She then closed her eyes followed by the others. They all then opened their eyes, each was nothing but a field of white as a rainbow formed around them and they all spoke as one in their seventh voice. “DISCORD, YOU ARE SUMMONED HERE!” 

In a flash of white light, a bathtub a showerhead and drawn curtain appeared right in front of the six as their eyes returned to normal. The curtain exposed the silhouette of being’s who’s torso was human with a human neck and head, a lion leg’s for one arm, an eagle's talon for another, it had a goat leg and a lizard leg, a horn like a goat and one like an oxen, with a bird-like wing and a batwing, the figure was singing in the shower, “Winter Wrap Up, Winter Wrap Up
Let’s finish our holiday cheer
Winter wrap up, winter wrap up
‘Cause tomorrow spring is he..ooh!” it realized as that it was not alone cutting the song short and wrapping his lower body with a towel. “Now, Twilight, you know Princess Celestia said that you ladies were to give me a heads up before you summon me with those,” he said as it touched the Element of Magic with its lion’s paw. “In case you haven't noticed, I was in the middle of a particularly invigorating shower,” the being continued as he rubbed himself dry almost mockingly.

Twilight rolled her eyes in annoyance at the antics of the summoned being, “Discord we don’t have time for this. Return Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, make the sky normal, set the weather patterns right and stop these black vines from the Everfree from their invasion!” Twilight order the embodiment of chaos, having had enough of not only the nonsense of what was going on but refusing to suffer the antics of the Erisadies.

The recently identified Discord snapped his talon and vanished in a white flash. He then returned to reality he was in his more human form; his skin was a dullish brown-gray, his horns white hair shaped as the horns, his talon was a normal human hand with longer nails than most men, giving a talon-like appearance, compounded by the fact that his shirt’s sleeve ended above the elbow. His paw was replaced by a hand and arm in a yellow gauntlet that went all the way to his shoulder. His blue bird-like wing became a pauldron over his left shoulder, as did the bat-like wing for his right shoulder. His goat-leg became human and looked normal as his reptile-leg matched but was armored like the gauntlet on his right arm but was green in color. He wore light brown pants, a waistcoat that’s exterior was a more reddish brown than his pants with a long tail which seemed to be redder to replace his dragon tail and a high collar with gold lining it and where the coat connected in the front. As he vanished he asked “Why,” and chuckled as he reappeared  before he finished, “whatever are you talking about?”

All but Fluttershy groaned and rolled their eyes, Applejack then spoke up, “Please, don't you play dumb with us, yah hear Discord!” Applejack then stepped forward as she drew her blade. “Wah know you're the one behind all of this! Now, are you gonna tah help or am Ah gonna have to smite some chaos.” As the paladin continued to speak her sword glowed a bright red delicious red and the light seemed to be pulsating.

Discord gave a small almost missable ‘mep’ as he raised his hands and took a couple steps back almost tripping on a root of the Golden Oak. Once out of the paladin’s range, “Don't get me wrong. I absolutely love what you've done with the place, but I couldn't possibly take responsibility. “ Discord remarked as he raised his left hand and placed his right hand over his heart while closing his eyes, “I'm reformed, don't you remember?”

Applejack sheathed her sword walked to Rainbow Dash and the two tagged teamed with the elementalist brew to her bow, “Yeah, right!” She threw open her arms more or less pointing to everything that was going on in Magiville and Mystica at large, “All this has your cloven hoofprints all over it!”

Discord almost scowled as he snapped conjuring an image of himself in his previous form with a red circle around his left leg. “I'll have you know that in my previous form I had only one cloven hoof.” He then vanished the image and conjured a fainting couch as he leaned back into it as if he was physically injured by the doubt the young women and the dragon showed him, “Such accusations. And here I thought we were friends.” All but Fluttershy glared and showed no signs of believing Chaos’ avatar. Fluttershy, however, just dipped her head unsure what to do and where to stand. Discord looked to see that they were clearly not believing his profession of innocence. He got back to his feet and vanished the summoned fainting couch, “Ladies, ladies, I'm innocent. Would I lie to you?” 

Everyone looked at each other, all of them had narrow eyes and small frowns as none believed him before Applejack spoke, “Do ya really want to know what wah think?” asking this time trying to be a little more diplomatic this time around.

Discord looked at the lot and saw that he was getting nowhere with each of his attempts, “Well then, it seems we've reached an impasse. I'm telling the truth, but you think I'm lying.” He then started to smile as he took a good long at Twilight, finally noticing the metallic wings, the slight increase in height, he knew what to do, “So what do we do in this a situation, especially since we are friends, after all, Princess Twilight?” he asked as he leaned on Twilight like she was a wall, seeming to throw her title into her face. “Oh and congrats. You totally deserved the promotion.” He continued to mock Twilight. As he stroked her head like she was a cat, causing her focus gem to spring back after each stroke.

At Rainbow’s fingertips started to glow as she manifested an arrow and aimed her bow right at Discord’s chest and her Element starting to glow a pulsating crimson red, “Let’s blast him back to stone!” Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie Pie agreed with various ‘yeah’, ‘ahah’, etc. as Applejack drew her sword and started to glow red as her Element started to grow a deep orange and pulsated, Rarity levitated a wide a wary of small gems as they glowed blue as her Element matched Rainbow Dash’s and Applejack’s. Pinkie pulled one off her mallets out of her hairs and it glowed yellow and her Element behaved much like the other three. The four were ready to fight Discord. This was not lost on Discord as he started to back away from Twilight.

Fluttershy too noticed this and stepped to be in front of her friends as if to shield Discord, her staff’s head glowing pink and Element behaving much like the other’s, “Hey! We can't do that! What if he really is telling the truth?”

Discord actually gave a sigh of relieve as he hugged Fluttershy, “Well, finally! somebody is willing to give me the benefit of the doubt.” He then turned his attention to the four ready to fight him and Twilight, “The rest of you could learn a lot about friendship from my dear friend Shutterfly here.” He finished as he held Fluttershy aloft like she was a trophy or a sign.

“Um, it's Fluttershy.”

Discord rather apathetically and dismissively let go Fluttershy, “Oh, right, whatever.” Fluttershy floated away on her wings not sure what or how to process all that, ‘was Discord messing around or did he forget her name?’

Everyone else gave an exhausted groan at all that had to happen as each put their weapons away as Twilight spoke up after pinching the bridge of her nose, “If you're not responsible, then help us identify who?”

Discord took out a set of knitting needles and started to knit with the black vines, “I could, but with the finger pointing and besmirching of my good name, I just don't know if I should.” He commented as he knitted always absentmindedly. Everyone else gave a groan before they all noticed that he had knitted the vines into forming a big arrow pointing to his left, their right. “Why not ask your forest dwelling friend? She might know something?” 

They followed the arrow to see a darker skinned woman running into town. The darker skinned woman had white stripes tattooed on her arms and legs, on her face were white finger-like tattoos on her checks. Her hair was in a mohawk. She wore large golden earrings, golden rings around her neck and left leg, she also had a necklace made of red ribbon made with four golden disks with spiral suns engraved on them. She also wore a loose simple blue dress that covered her chest and hip and lower, leaving her back and waist exposed. Also around her waist was a belt of zebra hide, in addition, she had three fairly large of her masks, one red, one green and one blue, circling her with what seemed to be yellow lights. “Zecora!” the six cried as they walked up to her and greeted her with an embrace.

Following the warm welcome, “From my home, I have had to flee! The forest has grown too wild, even for me!” the recently identified Zecora answered.

“Any idea what is and why all this is happenin', Sugarcube?” the paladin asked as she was the last to greet her friend. 

“Not a single clue, how about asking the walking zoo,”  Zecora said as she pointed to Discord.

“But he just said we should ask you.” Rarity commented as they all looked from the shaman to the Erisadies and back.

“The Avatar of Chaos most certainly knows, even when he puts up only shows,” Zecora replied not buying that Discord knew nothing about what was going on a scowl on her face.

Being the most diplomatic of the lot concerning Discord, “Alright Discord, will you please, tell us what is going on.” Fluttershy asked as she took hold of Discord’s exposed hand. 

Discord gave a tired sigh, “Honestly I don’t know, but maybe the Elements might and I know just how to get them to show.” He then placed his right index finger on the Element of Magic and Twilight’s eyes flashed white.

In an instant Twilight regained some sense of composure but she had no idea what Discord did. She did, however, noticed that she wasn’t in Magiville anymore. “Where… am I?” Twilight asked as she looked around she was in a throne room and she saw Princess Celestia looking out an opened window as the sun was rising as well as the moon as if the latter was en route to intersect with the former, “Princess Celestia I don't understand. Where are we? Why did you and Luna disappear?”

“What's the meaning of this, Luna? A solar eclipse was not scheduled for today!” Celestia said as she and Twilight turned to see not Luna, but Nightmare Moon. “Who are you? What have you done to my sister!”Celestia asked as Nightmare Moon prepared to attack.

“Princess Luna how? Why?” Twilight asked in utter confusion over what she witnessed and confused that Celestia didn’t know who Nightmare Moon was.

“We are your sister. Her true form. Free of your shackles.” Nightmare Moon replied as she lowered her blade.

“Luna, what is going on?” Celestia and Twilight questioned Nightmare Moon. “Think about what you are doing!” Twilight tried to plea but was ignored.

“We are taking Sombra’s and Discord’s advice. There can be only one. We are here to take our due. We offer you this one chance to submit to us and keep your life.” Nightmare Moon answered looking past Twilight to Celestia. “Kneel!” She ordered.

"Luna, what are you...” Celestia started but was blasted by Nightmare Moon, Celestia barely dodged it as Twilight ducked to the floor.

“We will take our dues by force then,” Nightmare Moon then charged at Twilight and Celestia and everything went black.
> The Tree of Harmony
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

At the last possible second, Celestia teleported to the other side of the room evading Nightmare Moon’s attack. Nightmare Moon groaned in annoyance over her dodged strike. She, however, recomposed herself as she turned to face Celestia. Celestia and Nightmare Moon were now facing each other and neither seemed to notice Twilight in the center of them and the throne room. Twilight spoke out turning to Nightmare Moon as she too got back on her feet. “Luna! Think! Stop!” She called out as focus gem started to glow, ready to cast a powerful spell. “You were banished to the moon for a thousand years! Please, don’t force our hand and send you back!” she continued to plead hoping to reach Luna. “I know you’re in there Luna, you can’t let your shadow take over!”

And yet neither Celestia nor Nightmare Moon seemed to give a care for what Twilight said, as if they were in their own world, “I will not fight you, Luna. Sister, please listen to reason. Our subjects don’t shun you on purpose. They lack the means to take on a nocturnal lifestyle.” Celestia pleaded not wanting to fight.

“Wait, that’s not true, there are plenty…” Twilight started only to stop when she heard Nightmare Moon roar in anger.

“The Nightborn thrive in the night, dancing in Our moonlight.” Nightmare pointed out. Twilight was taken aback by that, the Nightborns are technically a sub-race of Skyborn and were never many so why would Nightmare Moon bring them up. “So what is stopping the Magicborn from using their magic?” A fair question and point Twilight had to concede if there weren’t Magicborn, Skyborn, and Earthborn that were active during the day. “What is preventing the Skyborn from dancing with our stars? What gives the Earthborn pause when so many creatures are also active at night and during the twilight and before the dawn?” Nightmare Moon asked as she lowered her blade ready to start the fight anew. “One shall stand, one shall fall, Sister!” Nightmare Moon hissed and renewed her attack forcing Celestia’s hand. Twilight was beyond confused as if she was was in a completely different universe from the one both Celestia and Nightmare Moon were in. However, she had no time to think as Nightmare Moon charged as if to steamroll her over to get to Celestia. 

Twilight narrowly dodged in time, but she could still feel the power that Nightmare Moon gave off, the power of a demigod that didn’t care about the world around it, and it horrified her. But she could not look away as Nightmare Moon and Celestia clashed. Nightmare Moon was clearly powerful, more powerful than Twilight expected, perhaps more than she remembered, but Twilight was comforted that Celestia was still the more powerful of the two. Yet each time it looked like Celestia was about to deliver the winning blow she froze as if she was haunted by something. Shortly Nightmare Moon caught on and capitalized on Celestia’s hesitation blasting her deeper into the castle, to where Celestia’s private study was. “Celestia!” Twilight screamed as she flew in after her mentor. She landed and looked down as she kneeled to the solar princess. “No…” tears continued to flow from her eyes as she started to weep and Nightmare Moon laughed in the background. “Why would Luna this again? Why now?” she asked as if to some unseen divine force as she continued to cry. Just then Celestia started to get up. Seeing this Twilight gasped in joy, “You’re all right!” She got to her feet and tried to hug Celestia only to pass right through her as Celestia look beyond Twilight, “Princess Celestia?” she asked utterly confused at all that was going on. Then she saw them, The Elements of Harmony in their previous form. 

Tears formed in Celestia’s eyes as she looked to the Elements Celestia couldn't take one more blow and then reached for the six elements, and then out to her sister, “forgive me, Woona…” as in front of Celestia the Element of Magic hovered as the other five spun around her. She shut her eyes as two large tears start to form. “For being so blind…”. At the moment Nightmare Moon was charging at full speed ready to run her bladed staff into Celestia’s heart. At the last femtosecond, the Elements activated forming a shield that stroke Nightmare Moon. The blast sent Nightmare Moon straight into the moon, screaming a defiance ‘NOOOO!’ all the way. The Element of Magic that hovered in front of Celestia shattered as the other five fall to the ground as stone orbs. Celestia could only stare forward into the moon, into the face that appeared, her sister. Soon the realization that not only was she alone but that she had not seen or had flat out ignored her sister's torment and sorrow, that this was all her fault hit her like an asteroid. “WOONA!!!” Celestia cried as the tears didn't stop.

In that second it finally dawned on Twilight, “This… was…” she started.

“The night Celestia banished Luna. It sure took ya long enough, Sugarcube.” came Applejack’s voice from behind Twilight. The new arcane master then turned around to see her fellow bearers and Discord.

In a flash, they were all back in the present, “What happened? Why did you show us that night a thousand years ago, Discord?”

“A thousand and one years ago, Nightmare Moon’s sentence was a millennium and it has been a year since she was reformed back into Luna.” Discord started as he walked among the six and took a seat on Spike. “But don’t look at me, time travel is not like window shopping princess, you actually have to try the dresses on. Besides these are the rules the Elements of Harmony impose on their use. Their power supersedes my own. Remember they can be used to turn me into stone and back. But when you thought Luna killed Celestia, Oh I for one found it delightful. Sort of a one-man theater piece, if only I could have been there … oh, wait I was.” Discord said as he pulled down a screen with him recording all of Twilight’ facial reactions as she bore witness to the event. “it was quite the one-man theater piece if you will. You should really consider taking it on the road. Or I could sell the recording, while I did actually shot the footage and enable you to see the event, your reactions are what people will want… so 80-20 split your way?”

Not even Fluttershy was remotely amused with Discord’s antics as they all gave a deadpan expression, save Twilight and Rainbow Dash, the former scowled with a groan while the latter was looking to smash something. After giving a growl and pulling on her hair in exasperation, “But we didn’t find out whose rump we need to kick and where we can find them.” Rainbow then took a breath and looked at the Erisadies and placed her hand near her bow, “Although I might settle for Dipcord here.”

Twilight grabbed Rainbow Dash’s shoulder and shook her head with her eyes closed. Reluctantly the elementalist removed her hand from near her quiver and crossed her arms in a pout. Twilight then turned to the everyone there, “What we saw was something from a long time ago. But it didn't explain what's happening now.”

Discord popped to be standing on Twilight’s focus gem the size of a pixie, “Again I don’t make the rules concerning looking into the past uses of the Elements of Harmony, you should cast some sapient and sentient granting spell on them and ask them to explain their rules.” He then flashed in white and appeared next to Zecora with a nice looking table and a large platter of spaghetti and meatballs with marinara sauce for two with a nice accompanying red wine in two glasses and a bottle. “So Zecora, I understand you caused quite the chaos when you first moved into town.”

The shaman only rolled her eyes before turning her focus to Twilight and company, “Perhaps farther back still are the answers you seek.” She then looked to Discord and back to Twilight, as she raised her right thumb to point at Discord, “Another trip with him will give you a peek.”

Every one of the six bearers and Spike looked to each other, to Zecora to Discord and back. After a couple of seconds of awkward silence, Spike spoke up asking Zecora what was their mind, “You sure about that? Discord is not known to play by the rules.”

Before anyone else could say anything else, “Do it Discord,” Twilight commanded, “Use your magic again, take us back farther!”

Discord  conjured a sofa, a set of 3D glasses, popcorn and a soda, “Oh I hope this one leads to a song and dance routine!” He then used his right hand on the Element of Magic and Twilight’s et al’s vision went white.





Twilight and company looked around and found themselves in a place best described as unadulterated chaos, very much how Magiville was before they blasted Discord with the Elements of Harmony, however, there were significantly fewer buildings and much more open spaces. They soon saw Celestia and Luna both looking slightly ragged and battered as they each carried a satchel. The two demigoddesses walked until they all saw a skyboat, however it was impossibly large, dwarfing both the Night Song and the Phoenix put together and the entire thing was in a state of flux and change, logically the thing shouldn’t be in the air but there it was, the boat’s name, written in ever-changing font styles was Non Sequitur. The scene changed as the two flew up and landed on the deck, there on an earlier model of the thrown he made for himself in Magiville where the main mast should be was Discord in the form he held before Applejack suggested that he might want a different form, with all the mismatch madness therein. The past Discord was drinking a glass of chocolate milk, while also munching on some black seed like candy from a movie theater popcorn box. He stopped as he noticed the two, “So you’re back for more fun I see.” he mocked. “This time how about a game of 'Pin the Tail on the Donkey'?” he asked in a cruel joke has he took the flowing hair of the two with a snap of his talon and with a snap of his paw returned them but on the other sister. 

Neither Celestia nor Luna were amused nor were they surprised. They were resolute in what they were there to do. “It’s over,” Celestia said as she and Luna looked at each other and nodded before they levitated the Elements of Harmony out of the satchels they brought.

Discord mindlessly reached into the popcorn bag and was about to put some more of the candy into his mouth, all the while spilling the candy all over the deck, “Oh, I doubt that.” After munching on the candy  for a bit and with it still in his mouth, “Hungry?” getting no answers beyond a set of scowls from the sisters, “Suit yourselves.” Discord was about to go back to munching on his snack when he finally noticed the gems floating around Celestia and Luna. “Oh! What have you got there?” He asked as he threw his popcorn box over the deck of the boat.

Celestia and Luna closed their eyes for a second and opened them, they were fields of white light and they spoke together as one in a third voice as the Element of Magic hovered in front of Celestia as the other five started to spin around the two, “THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, AND WITH THEM, YOU ARE NOW BEATEN!”

“This must be when they turned you into stone,” Twilight commented as she and the others were in awe. All the while, a bubble similar to the shield the Elements made around Celestia formed around Celestia and Luna.  

The Discord sitting on the throne turned to where Twilight and company were and groaned, “Don’t remind me.” He then started laughing as he turned back and pointed at Celestia and Luna. The two started to hover and confident smiles on their faces as if they knew nothing Discord could do would beat them. “You two should see the looks on your faces right now. So confident. So certain. So intense.” Discord continued to laugh at the two as he stood up and started taking the stance he was in when he was trapped in his effigial prison. “Hilarious!” At that moment the Elements of Harmony fired the rainbow that turned him into stone.





“Not one of my smartest moves.” Discord’s voice was heard commenting and as everyone returned to the present. “Underestimating Celestia and Luna like that and the Elements of Harmony.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that you're not omniscient.” Twilight couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, because you’d think you’d learn to dodge, Dissy.” Pinkie joked and all the others started to laugh as well.

Discord rolled his eyes, “very funny, ladies. But once more into the breach.” Discord then repeated his previous action and the six’ eyes became a field of white as they looked once more back into the past.





Twilight and company, this time Discord in tow, saw that they were in a ravine and right in front of them were Celestia and Luna, this time they were not as battered and ragged as they were when they faced Discord. In the ravine was a cave and in the cave was a strange tree that seemed to be a crystal, on the tree were six gems, each looked like one of the Elements of Harmony in the form they were in when Celestia and Luna were attuned to them. Also on the tree were a series of marks, on the trunk were Celestia’s, Luna’s and Twilight’s aura mark and on the five main boughs were two marks a piece, one had Applejack’s with another similar looking apple aura mark, one had Rainbow Dash’s with as series of similar lighting bolts, one had Pinkie Pie’s with another set of  balloons, one  had Rarity’s with another that was made of four kites arranged into another kite and the last had Fluttershy’s with a large stylized flower aura mark on it. Everyone watching gasped as long side, Princess Luna. The nocturnal diarch continued after the gasp, “Sister is that the Tree of Harmony?” she asked in disbelief, “Master Star Swirl said it was just a folk tale.”

Celestia walked up to the tree, “Mother never doubted that it existed.” Celestia then reached her hand out to the tree and three of the gems, the Elements of Magic, Generosity, and Kindness detached from the tree and floated towards her.  “And with this, we can stop Discord.”

Luna was more reluctant as she looked around and saw black thorny vines like the ones that have infested  Magiville. “Are you sure about this, Tia?”

Celestia stepped from the tree and walked to be behind Luna, “All other ways have failed to defeat Discord. This is our last chance to free the people his chaos reigns over and stop it from taking over the world. Even without the Elements, the Tree has a powerful magic. As long as that magic remains, it will maintain all that grows here.” Reluctantly Luna followed her sister’s example and the Elements of Loyalty, Laughter, and Honesty came to her. “Now let’s deal with Discord.” Luna nodded.

“Interesting…” Discord whispered to himself as he rubbed his small beard before everything flashed white again and they all returned to the present.





Spike and Zecora were at the table that Discord conjured and after getting a couple of smaller plates, were eating the spaghetti and meatballs. After he swallowed his current mouthful, “So what did you all find out?” the dragon asked as he went over to the others. 

The six Element bearers looked at each other while Discord floated on cotton candy cloud. Twilight then spoke up, “We don't know what's happened to the princesses, but I think I know why this is happening.”

“Why?” Spike asked.

“Remember in the book The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide, The Elements were recovered from a crystalline tree called The Tree of Harmony?” Twilight asked her familiar.

“It’s been a year since we read that book and we never really talked about it.” the dragon deadpanned.

“Well, that’s where Celestia and Luna found the Elements and something happened to the Tree. It's in danger. We have to find it and save it.” Twilight ordered as she held her head up. 

“All right then! Let's go save the tree.” After a moment of thought, “So where is it? All wah saw was that it was in a cave and the cave was in a ravine.”

“A crystal tree you say, I have seen something like that the other day,” Zecora informed.

“Where?” the six asked in unison. 

“Near the castle of the two sisters there is a moat, you can find it easily with a skyboat,” Zecora informed. The six bearers looked to the Everfree and nodded to each other, “This time bring Spike, he really could do for a hike.” Zecora added as she poked at Spike’s belly.

“Hey!” Spike exclaimed as everyone chuckled a little at his discomfort. After the laugh, Twilight and company then headed in the direction of the Everfree.

Discord snapped the fingers of his left hand as he made a chair with the black vines, conjured a set of 3D glasses and a box of popcorn as he witnessed their departure, all the while more black vines and rogue clouds, “Ooh-hoo!” he cheered before he looked at the amount of popcorn he had, “I'm going to need more popcorn!” he snapped his fingers and conjured a huge tube of popcorn, “And movie theater butter, I spoil myself so.” he laughed before he started to eat. While chewing on the popcorn, “Best of ladies, Luck.” he called out to Twilight et al as they vanished from his sight as he turned to watch the chaos unfold in Magiville.

“You are terrible and you know it. Must you really go out of your way to show it.”
> Returning The Elements
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

As the group arrived at what seemed to be a path into the forest, they couldn’t but look back at all that had happened. After being gripped by nostalgia, Rarity spoke first, after a sigh of reflection. “To think it’s been a year since we started heading into these woods to reach the Castle of The Two Sisters and use the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon.” She sighed again before she continued, “and yet so it feels like that was only yesterday. Where has the time gone?” she asked rhetorically.

Twilight couldn’t help but chuckle as she too looked back on their first adventure together, “Yeah I was so foolish, I thought I could confront her all on my own, but now I know that with you all I can do anything.”

“But we were and still are awesome! Woo-hoo!” Rainbow Dash cheered.

“Yay us!” Pinkie emulated with grander gusto in a high school cheerleader uniform and pompoms.

After everyone had a laugh over it that, Fluttershy addressed another aspect of all the last year, “And yet with everything that has happened in our lives, are we certain that it has only been a year?” Fluttershy asked pointing out how much happened that year.

Pinkie then jumped in on that expanding on it, “Totally, with Discord breaking free, Twilight’s brother’s wedding, the Gala, the whole Nightmare Rarity thing, the return of Krystalopolies, Reforming Discord, that incident with Trixie and the Alicorn Amulet, the completion Star Swirl’s unfinished spell, the whole thing with traveling through that mirror to get our Elements back from Sunset and her cohorts,” Pinkie then paused in thought as she looked over that last one, “granted we couldn’t have done that last one without Flash,” that last statement caused Twilight to blush a deep red near purple, which was not lost on anyone. However before anyone could address it, Pinkie Pie continued but now addressing some of the things that were much less life-threatening, “and that’s not including everything non-world threatening, like Rainbow Dash taking Scootaloo on as a sister, Rainbow Dash getting into the Wonderbolts Academy, Rarity scoring that fashion deal with Sapphire Shores, my  disastrous cloning attempt, Spike becoming bipedal, there was just so much.” 

“We certainly accomplished so much,” Rarity commented with a sigh of joy. “Even with some assistance here and there.”

“That only makes us all the more awesome! Bo-yah!” The elementalist cheered, earning a happy laugh from everyone including herself.

After the laugh was all, Applejack had a slight frown, “While Ah ain’t inclined to repeat everything that happened a year ago, yah know the undead, the doppelgangers, the werewolves, Rep, Steve Magnus, the satyrs, The Tantabus, twice, Nightshade, Hydia, Catrina, Grogar, Nightmare Moon,” Applejack listed off earning a groan from everyone else. “But if memory serves, wah used a skyboat to get part of the way through and our plan was to fly all the way there. Also don't cha have a new one Twi, the one we used to get to Chantalot when Discord got out. Ah know ya piloted back tah Magiville after we all were… discord-ed,” Applejack was asking without actually asking about the newer sky boat that Twilight got on her birthday.

“Hold on,” Twilight said as she summoned her tome, and started turning the pages until she found the page with her skyboat on it. “Yep, I still have it. I had it christened Kokab.” Twilight then placed her right hand on the page and held her left hand out and the depiction of the Kokab vanished from the page as said skyboat appeared almost in front of the seven. “Alright everyone, next stop The Castle of The Two Sisters,” Twilight said everyone boarded the craft. “Can you imagine what would've happened if we tried to go on foot?” Twilight asked more or less rhetorically.

Pinkie Pie, however, elected to answer after she took a deep breath and going at a neck break pace, “We could have come across a river with a cragadile, said cragadile would have attacked us, we would barely escape, but after almost losing you, Mystica’s last princess, well until Cadance arrives from Krystalopolies, we would have reluctantly told you to go back as we looked for the tree. Once back in Magiville Discord would throw your new title back in your face citing that you elected to protect yourself given your new rank and risk our lives, which is totally not cool on Dissy’s part because we sent you back in the first place. Anyhow you would be compelled to come back to help us and might in up in a damsel in distress or d.i.d. situation. All the while we’d be at each other’s throats, Dashie would ask if any of us thought if this was a lost cause, but ultimately we’d realize sending you back was a big mistake, but just in the nick of time and we’d save you from whatever caught you and we’d all realize we work the bestest as a group.” Pinkie then took a break with a ‘phew’ and wiping her brow, only to continue at a normal pace, “Well, it’s a good thing Applejack remembered this skyboat or else we would have to have learned a lesson we already knew in one of the hardest ways possible. To The Tree of Harmony!” Pinkie finished ending it all as she stood on the bow of the boat and pointed deep into the Everfree, somehow dressed like a stereotypical pirate captain, the tricorner hat with big feathers and all. All the while her friends just stared at her befuddled, as the Kokab took to the air and was above the treeline before it started towards its destination.

“Anyone want to question that?” Spike asked.

“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.” The five others said in unison, it was not in an ordering tone, but more of a mantra used to calm themselves and keep their focus.

“A simple ‘no’, would have been enough. So who’s piloting this thing?” Spike asked as he pointed out that no one was at the helm. 

“Oh..” all the girls realized as Twilight and Applejack went to the helm.

“Let me, Sugarcube, Ah got gloves.” Applejack said as Twilight stepped aside and Applejack started to steer the ship.

As the ship started to fly, “Say why didn’t you and our sisters use this to reach the castle while I was processed by Nightmare Moon?” 

“A skyboat would’ve been spotted long before it got there,” Applejack pointed out. That seemed to answer Rarity’s concern and everyone else seemed to go along with that. Twilight, however, knew that it didn’t actually answer Rarity’s question, but one of the things Celestia, Luna, Cadance and even Sunset said to her was that sometimes it’s best to let an equivocation made in your defense go unclarified. 





After about ten minutes of flight in relative silence among the group, Spike, Pinkie, Rarity, and Rainbow were playing Old Maid and Spike just got out first, winning the game, Fluttershy was looking over the forest seeing the black thorny vines, the small contortions on her face indicated that she remembered those vines like a fleeting moment in a dream but couldn’t remember where. Twilight was reading her tome as if trying to find a spell. Applejack, however, knew that there was something that had to be said and if no one else was going to bring it up, “Hey Twi, ya got a plan tah help the Tree of Harmony? Wah tried using fire on those thorny vines back at Sweet Apple Temple, it didn’t work.” Applejack, however, never lost sight of the route she was piloting the Kokab on, but it was something that needed to be said.

Everyone else stopped what they were doing as they turned to the paladin and then to Twilight after she put the book away. “Well if dragon fire doesn’t work…” Twilight started but stopped as she took off her tiara and held it as she looked at the Element of Magic. She then heard Celestia’s voice repeat something in her mind, “Even without the Elements, the Tree has a powerful magic. As long as that magic remains, it will maintain all that grows here.” Twilight then looked up and looked at Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and then to Applejack, more so at each of their Element. She took a breath before she continued, “We might have to return the Elements to the Tree.” 

Everyone’s jaw dropped save Applejack’s with a ‘wha!’ of clear befuddlement. Rainbow closed her eyes and shook her head as she was the first of the rest to recover from the idea, “Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down!” the speed junkie wanting things to come to a stop. “How are we gonna protect Mystica if we give these bad boys up?” She asked as she tapped the Element of Loyalty on her neck, revealing her hand, unintentionally showing the Queen of Spades.

“HA! I knew Dashie has the Old Maid!” Pinkie pointed out with some glee.

“Pinkie!” Rarity scolded, “You know better than to look into someone else’s hand, even when they unwittingly expose it.” Rarity then turned from Pinkie back to Twilight, “However, Dashie is right to question this plan. How are we will rein Discord in if he gets out of line? These are the only things keeping him in check. And it was because Discord was on the loose If we give them back to the Tree, assuming that we can if we can't turn him back to stone?” Before she could feel the slightly annoyed glare from Fluttershy, “Yes, yes, yes, I know you are trying to be his friend, but he’s still so chaotic, how do we know it will hold from beyond the grave.”

“Ah’d say, ‘oh ye of little faith’, but that’s a pot and kettle situation.” Applejack informed. “Ah ain't too keen on the idea either, being a paladin and such, but wah might not have a choice, even if it means giving up one of the things that connect us.” Everyone dipped their heads with a slight tear forming in the corners of each of their eyes. Everyone silent for a while as the gravity of the return of the Elements of Harmony to the Tree suck in. It meant more than the giving up of the symbol of their unity, it meant the end of an era.

And yet as the Castle was still a little way off, a smile started to form on Twilight’s face as she looked back up and faced Applejack, “You're right, Applejack, the Elements of Harmony are a symbol of our friendship and they are something that connects us.” Twilight then looked to each of the others as their heads started to raise, “But the Elements are not the only things that connect us, all the time we spent together, the sharing of our dreams and accomplishment, from what children and grandchildren Cadance and Shining may have, to the all the plants and animals that reside in Sweet Apple Temple and in all of Magiville, to Discord giving himself any moment of pause before he sows chaos, to the relationship between Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo, to … well all the Lives we have touched and all their descendants and each and every accomplishment we helped them all with and every accomplishment built on those, our friendship will survive in all that, long after we are gone, much like how Mystica is the way it is, the accomplishments of each and everyone touch directed or indirectly by Princess Celestia over the last thousand years, by her and Princess Luna since they ascended to rule until Luna’s fall, and by the six main founders before them.” Twilight then stopped as she let her words sink in not only for her friends but for herself. “And all that is more powerful than any magic.” 

While this did bring some comfort to what they all began to realize they had to do, but they were all clearly still hesitant, after a few seconds of silence Pinkie Pie spoke, “It looks likes are going to change, aren’t they? Our friendship with each other, all that has brought us together and connected us.” Pinkie then sighed before she continued,  “I guess we never really thought about all this stuff when you become a princess.”

“Yeah… kinda sucks, we weren’t friends all that long, well all six of us…” Rainbow Dash started only to get an annoyed glare from Spike. “Um…. seven of us. And so much has changed so quickly…” Rainbow trailed off with a sigh, this was something she wished would slow down.

Twilight took in the vocalized and unspoken concerns of her friends and realized even now, in what seemed to be a low point, everything was going to work out, however, she also knew her friends needed reassurance, “My new role will mean I  will take on new responsibilities, and our friendships will be tested,” Twilight started, she knew that these were inescapable facts, their friendships will be tested but she also knew that it was not the only thing that was true, that their friendship was stronger, they were able to pull together after being Discorded, they fought against Chrysalis’ invasion, they managed to exorcise Nightmare Moon out of Rarity, they managed to divide and allocate their resources to stop Sombra, they were able to help each other rediscover themselves after the uncompleted spell was cast, and all the other things they have overcome signifying the strength of their friendship, “but it will never, ever be broken,” Twilight declared resolute in her confidence. Everyone else smiled, they still had their doubts, but they were going to give it a shot, they came this far already.  

About a minute later they arrived at the Castle of The Two Sisters and they saw a cluster of twenty-six men and women, half the group were dressed in black studded leather armor with full moon silver and lunar eclipse red stitched in to make designs of lunar symbols and animals affiliated with the moon and night and they were all Nightborn, the other half of the lot were wearing not the standard golden armor of the main ESM but wore solar red and solar orange armor of various degrees, a few had full plate, some had half-plate, others wore mail, some, however, had padded robes and were of all three main races. “Hail Princess Twilight!” one of the Nightborn, a woman, about fifteen years older than Twilight and an Earthborn man about the same age said in unison as they saluted Twilight. The rest genuflected to Twilight.

Twilight looked at them, “I only asked for the Order of Shadow to search here,” she commented confused at the presence of the thirteen others.

“With all due respect, your Highness, after Princess Luna’s return we have been rechristened the Order of Nox, I am the new Grandmaster, The Slumbera is my title.” The woman said as she and the man ended the salutes and the rest got back to standing up.

“As for myself and the rest of the Order of Diem, we were already here, under the order of Princess Celestia, as such we offered to help our siblings-in-arms,” the man that saluted with The Slumbera informed. “We have not found the princesses and nothing that might explain all that is happening so far beyond these strange black thorny vines that seem to be coming from a cave in the ravine down there.” he pointed to black vines and where they grew from. 

At that moment Fluttershy’s eyes shot wide as she dashed over to the vines, “I remember these vines.” She turned to face her friends and the two orders gathered, “I called them to help me with the werewolves and Catrina.” Fluttershy froze in slight horror, “Did I cause this?”

“I doubt it, darling, they weren’t here when I fixed the place up.” Rarity said, “So the vines are coming from down there and there is a cave in that ravine, well how do we get down there?”

“USE THE STAIRS, SILLY!” Pinkie shouted from the bottom of the set of states that lead from close to the castle all the way down to the cave.

“How did she…” one of the Nightborn members of the Order of Nox started to ask as he looked down the ravine to see Pinkie at the bottom of the stairs, along with everyone else.

“It’s Pinkie Pie, don’t question it.” Twilight, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Spike more or less chanted in unison as they all started down the stairs, save Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy who flew down. After they all regrouped they followed the vines into the cave and gasped at what they saw. The Tree of Harmony was wrapped up by the black vines and they were squeezing it, choking it, like bittersweet that had run rampant. Spike ran up to some of the vines and started to breathe fire on it, to little effect.

“Looks like you were right.” Spike comment as he jumped back from the vines as one of them tried to swap him.”You’re going to have to give the Elements back.”  

Twilight then took a breath and look to her friends, “There's no time to lose. everybody ready?” she asked. They all nodded in response as they all walked around Twilight arranging themselves in front of Twilight and to her side like their group photo. They all shut their eyes, at that moment each of their aurae started to manifest itself around them her in a bubble. From the Element of Magic came five streams of magic that reached to the other Elements. 

They all opened their eyes, but unlike each previous use, they weren’t fields of white, but their irises changed to look like a rainbow. “TREE OF HARMONY, WE, THE BEARERS OF HARMONY, RETURN THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, YOUR FRUIT, TO YOU!” they said in their seventh voice. Their individual auras merged as one as The Elements of Harmony started to leave from the necklaces and tiara that housed them. 

The vines seemed to sense the Element’s return and started to seen vines to stop them. “Hey, Sugarcube what was that spell you tried on Nightmare Moon?” Applejack asked as they all witnessed the plants trying to prevent the Element’s return.

“Azarath Metrion Zinthos,” Twilight answered but she shook her head a little not sure about using that spell, “but it didn’t work then.”

“You want us to trust you, darling, well it requires you trusting us.” Rarity said to Twilight. Twilight nodded in acceptance as they all turned to face the vines. 

“On the count of three.” Pinkie started off as everyone drew or conjured their weapons.

“One,” Fluttershy started the actual count as her and Twilight's staffs and Pinkie Pie's mallet started to glow the colors of their respective Elements.

“Two” came Rainbow Dash continued the count as her bow, Applejack's sword and Rarity's gloves also started to glow the colors of their respective Elements.

“Three,” the six said together and then shouted “Azarath Metrion Zinthos!” and from their hearts came six beams of light, the one from Twilight was violet, from Applejack was a light orange, from Rainbow Dash the light was light blue, from Pinkie Pie was pink, from Rarity was white and from Fluttershy was light yellow These beams merged to form a more powerful beam that blasted the vines away from the Elements and far enough from the Tree to prevent another attempt. The Elements then returned to the branches they came from with The Element of Magic going to the truck right where Twilight’s aura mark was. Once there all the black vines started to dissolve into little more than specks of light, the moon and set and the sky was a proper sky just before midday. 

“WE DID! WOH OH! BOO-YAH! Who’s the bestest and the coolest and the awesomest! We are! Yeah Yeah, We are! Woo-hoo!” Rainbow Dash cheered as she did her own little victory dance.

“It’s a good thing Discord isn’t here to record that,” came a familiar maiden like voice. Rainbow Dash stopped and everyone turned to see Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Celestia was still in her flannel pajamas while Luna was in her night sky black gothic dress, a choker with a crescent moon on her neck, her black and silver knee boots and blueish gray gloves with her black tiara on her head. “Although you might want to work on your posture, Miss Dash. You could throw out your hip if you're not careful.”





Back in Magiville as the vines continued to run rampant Discord just sat back on some of the vines like a hammock and soaked in the chaos, just the vines dissolved into little more than light causing him to fall to the ground with a thud. As he got back to his feet he saw everyone cheering as the vines vanished and the sky was a normal near noon sky in addition to the restoration of the order therein, “Oh, poo.” Discord pouted while sensing that someone was giving him a smug grin. Discord turned to see that it was Zecora, “Oh so I am supposed to take on the mantle of Twilight’s ‘advanced studies’,” Zecora nodded. “Fine,” Discord then snapped his fingers free from the gauntlet and was dress in a gray suit with a white long sleeve shirt, a black tie, and black short brim fedora, “But I’ll do it my way!” he sang.





Back at the Tree of Harmony Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Twilight et al looked at the tree, with the Elements of Harmony in their respective places. Celestia placed her left hand on Twilight’s right shoulder comfortingly, “It must have been difficult for you to return the Elements to the Tree. To be honest, I am not sure if I would have done it.” Twilight turned to see Celestia give her a smile that was equally sad and reassuring. “I am proud of you nonetheless.” Celestia then looked to the other former bearers, “All of you. You gave up something so close to you all on the off chance that it would save Mystica and the world at large.”

“Such a feat took no small amount of courage. And while We can see it still pains you to have relinquished them. We also see you knew it was the right thing to do.” Luna added trying to further assure the six. They all turned and started to the stairs when they felt a small rumbling of the earth. They turned back to the tree to see a box with eight sides come from the trunk of the tree from an area that had no markings. A crystal pedestal then formed from the bottom of the box as it stopped about two meters from the tree. 

Twilight, Celestia, and Luna walked up to the newly appeared box, the three were confused as was everyone else. The box was crystal, like the Tree, but as bizarre as its sudden appearance a, six of which had a keyhole, and on the top of the box was a rendering of Twilight’s aura mark. As the three princesses looked the box over, they were joined by the five other bearers and Spike. All of them were silently observing this box and the six keyholes. Twilight was the first to speak, electing to get to the heart of the matter, “What's inside it?” she asked, more as she turned to Celestia and Luna, being that had been the only other people she knew that interacted with the Tree, she concluded that they might have some clue.

“This is rather baffling, We have never seen anything like that ever before,” Luna commented her left hand holding her chin inquisitively. Celestia only shrugged her shoulders.

Seeing that she was no closer to solving the riddle of this box, “Well then how do I open it?” Twilight asked. It was admittedly presumptuous on her part that the box was indeed intended for her, but it did have her aura mark on it. She then tried to lift it, but it was not going anywhere.

Luna looked at the box once more before she turned to Twilight, “Given that there are six locks that don’t seem to match, We would guess with six separate keys.” she surmised.

“I do not know where any of them where they are,” Celestia added after a few seconds of thought. She then turned to, and in her turn directed Twilight’s gaze to, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie as a small smile formed on her face, “But I do know you will not solving this alone, Twilight.” 

A couple of minutes later as the nine reached the top of the stairs, having left the box there, only to be greeted by a set of banners depicting the six former bearers as conquering heroes, then Discord appeared with a sport jersey with a logo that looked like Twilight’s aura mark with her friends’ aura mark in lieu of the five smaller stars with the number six on the back. He started to cheer mockingly, “Bravo, ladies, bravo! Excellent job!” Discord continued this mock cheering has he changed his attire to match something like what Fancypants would wear and conjured an army of himself in the same attire to perform a standing ovation and applauded the six. The main Discord then vanished and appeared among the six and pulled them into a group hug,“how did you save the day this time?” He asked clearly mocking. “Blasted with the Elements of Harmony, I presume?” He then noticed that Twilight’s tiara was missing the Element of Magic and the other’s necklace were also missing their respective Elements, “Where are those little trinkets anyway?” he asked in legitimate confusion as he banished his army of doppelgangers and started popping into the empty spaces of the necklaces and tiara.

The six looked down at the ground with a slight frown on their faces, none of them wanted to say it and yet, they knew they had to. Applejack gave a grieving sigh and simply said, “Gone.”

Discord returned to his normal size and was utterly bewildered and befuddled, “Gone?” he asked, the six young women then nodded in silence. “Gone?” He asked as he looked at the sky, a huge evil smile starting to form on his face.

As he was about to burst into joy and celebrate the removal of the one thing he feared, Fluttershy floated up and looked him straight in the eye as her face started to look like a parent about to scold a child. “But our friendship remains, Discord,” she reminded him, causing him to gulp, “And if you want us to remain friends,” she continued to speak Discord shrank to half his size  and then half that size, then half that size, and continued to shrink as Fluttershy spoke. “you'll not think what you’re thinking and you will help clean this up.” Fluttershy finished with Discord as small as a speck of dust in front of her. Her face then changed into a big wide-eyed smile, “Please…” she requested.

Discord, still in the tiny size groaned, “Fine.” He then flashed and appeared in his proper size in a black and white maid’s dress with a feather duster, “But I don't do windows.” he finished as he held his nose up and closed his eyes as he walked towards town ahead of the others.

As they all rolled their eyes at the Erisadies’ antics, save one. Applejack was holding her chin in her right hand in though and seemed to have a hard time trying to figure out something, “What is is  Applejack?” Rarity asked.

“Why did all this happen now?” Applejack asked, “None of this makes a lick of sense.”

Just then Discord, appearing back in his new clothes and the size of a small frog on  Applejack’s head, stroking his goatee legitimately perplexed about something, “I have no idea.” He answered and step back to the ground and grew back to his normal size, “Oh don’t get me wrong, I love chaos, but those plundervine seeds should have sprouted ages ago.” Discord commented as he continued to walk ahead as everyone stopped.

Twilight froze and then started to breathe as if to contain her anger,  “What did you say?!”

Discord saw this and with a smirk on his face, “Oh, why should I try to explain it when you can see for yourself?” he asked and he placed his finger on Twilight's tiara.

“Not again…” Twilight groaned as everything around her and her friends, Celestia, Luna, and Discord vanished in a flash.

At the end of the flash Twilight and the others were back on the Non-Sequitur and saw that neither Celestia nor Luna was amused nor were they surprised by the switching of their hair by Discord. They were resolute in what they were there to do. “It’s over,” Celestia said as she and Luna looked at each other and nodded before they levitated the Elements of Harmony out of the satchels they brought.

Discord mindlessly reached into the popcorn bag and was about to put some more of the candy into his mouth, all the while spilling the candy all over the deck, “Oh, I doubt that.” After munching on the candy  for a bit and with it still in his mouth, “Hungry?” getting no answers beyond a set of scowls from the sisters, “Suit yourselves.” Discord was about to go back to munching on his snack when he finally noticed the gems floating around Celestia and Luna. “Oh! What have you got there?” He asked as he threw his popcorn box over the deck of the boat.

Twilight et al the followed the discarded popcorn box of candy to the ground and say the black candy seem to take root like seeds, Discord then started to comment, “Well, obviously my original plan…”

“Fell like a rock.” Pinkie joked cutting it, getting a couple of laughs from the others and a groan from Discord.

“Begrudgingly, that is true.”  Discord then pointed to the seeds as they starting to grow, “However, I did have a backup plan. You see, I heard of the Tree of Harmony and I thought it might somehow stop me. So I created these plundervines to attack the tree. It turns out it also captured Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. Yet they should have strangled the Tree thousands of moons ago, but not quite two thousand years ago.” All the while the group traveled along the growing vines to the Tree of Harmony, “Alas, the Tree had enough magic to keep the seeds from growing. Until recently, that is.” Discord then snapped his fingers and they all returned to the present.

Everyone turned to Discord with slight scowls on their faces, however Twilight’s skin turned a bleached white, her eyes become field of bright red and her hair became flames, as she flew up to Discord and pointed at Discord, gritting her teeth, “You realize that was information we could have used hours ago?!”

Discord snapped his fingers and conjuring a bucket of water and dumping it on Twilight, dousing her and having her return to normal. With a smirk on his face, he leaned in with his face almost touching Twilight, “But what kind of friend would I be if I robbed you of a valuable lesson about being a princess?” He then snapped his fingers and was gone with the mess he was ultimately responsible for was cleaned up.

Twilight gave a tired sigh, she clearly did not like looking forward to Discord out and about without the Elements of Harmony to keep some sort of check, but was done was done, and she had to place her trust in Fluttershy’s friendship with him. With the entire mess cleared up thanks to Discord, Twilight turned to Celestia because there was something that bothered her, a minor thing but still, “Excuse me, Princess Celestia, may I know, why did you order the Order of Diem to come here.”

“Well, it’s time to let this spot go. Let the Everfree Forest take it back.” Celestia said as she turned to the castle, “I ordered them to conduct an inventory of all the content and the material because I am going to have it torn down, it will take a while before it comes down, there is so much to do, this year is the year of the Mystica Games, the first with not only Luna, but with Cadance as more than just a spare and with you, in addition to the first in which both Magiville and Gryphonstone will both field teams and the first ever with Krystalopolies...” Celestia presented in a list, it was clear that while she might not have liked the end of one age, she was letting it pass so that the next age could prosper.

“Ages just seem to end and start left and right, don’t they Sister,” Luna commented as they all started to leave the grounds, leaving the Order of Nox and Diem to complete the inventory, “We are going to miss this place. But our time here has waned and is waxing elsewhere.” 





Just before dawn the next day, as a fair number of the residents of Chantalot were looking up to a stage located just outside of the castle. On said stage were two temporary thrones, one was on the western side and was in line with where the moon was going to set. Itself was designed to look like a crescent moon on the top and actually ‘catch’ it. On the other side to the eastern side of the platform was the other temporary throne, it, however, was more solar-themed and it looked like it would ‘hold’ the sun after it rose. Seated on the lunar throne was Luna with Celestia in the solar-themed throne. In front of Celestia was a microphone for her to speak. In the crowd were Fluttershy, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. They and the rest of the attendees were reverently quiet.

There was a trumpet and other fanfare just as the last seconds of night past until Celestia raised her right hand to speak, all else were quite as she got up and walked up to the microphone, “Citizens of Mystica, this Summer Sun Celebration marks something new. For a thousand years it was used to,” Celestia paused before her voice could break, she had to keep herself together, she still needed to show the assuring face she longed project on this day,… mark the banishment of Nightmare Moon. But this year no longer. For the first time in over a millennium, it is no longer with a heavy heart but with great joy that I usher in the day.” Celestia floated up and as she did the sun started to rise as. For this celebration now represents not the defeat of Nightmare Moon, but the return of my sister, Princess Luna.” Celestia then turned to have her back to the east and slowly rose from the ground as did the sun while Luna also got up and lowered the moon.

As Princess Celestia and Princess Luna took their seat on the throne Princess Twilight flew above at high speeds, causing a sonic boom that projected her aura mark with her friends' aura marks in between the points of the main star in the sky above the space between the two thrones. Everyone in attendance cheered at the sight. “I thought her that.” Rainbow Dash gloated as she looked at her left hand after bending the fingers in towards the palm and a massive and well-earned smug smirk on her face.





Epilogue

Elsewhere, a massive dog, larger than any of the houses in Magiville walked in a place full of cracks, and mist. The dog looked like it was an ancient mastiff-like breed known as molossus, but in addition to its sheer size, it had several noticeable differences from the breed in question. It had three heads, it’s tail was actually a snake with its own head and over its body, a century of snakes took residents within its fur. This dog was Kerberos, better known as Cerberus and had many titles, namely ‘the guard dog of Tartarus’, ‘warden of the damned’, and ‘jailor of the irredeemable’. Cerberus was on one of his patrols, checking the inmates of the prison. The count had been consistent with each of his last patrols, there were only a few beings down there. However, when he reached an empty cage, he realized he was one inmate short. Cerebus growled this was not good… not good at all. Next to the cage was a plaque, on which was written the inmate’s crime, sentence, titles is any, and name in that order. ‘Crimes: Theft of Mystic's subjects’ inherent magic, forced transmutation of sentient and sapient beings, enslavement, patricide, matricide, attempted genocide, attempted regicide. Sentence: Eternity in Tartarus caged with power drain at a rate of 50% of power every femtosecond. Inmate’s Title: The Lord Midnight Castle. Inmate’s Name: Tirek.’