CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER ONE:
KINGDOM COME
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

Canterlot was my home.

Sure, I'd come to love Ponyville. I met my five best friends there, and learned so much about friendship and the power it has. I can still smell the Saturday Morning Market in the center of town, and the distinct aroma of every food, drink, pet, and handcrafted amenities blending together seamlessly in the heat. I can feel the grass beneath my hooves, every step sinking ever so slightly into the earth, and most vividly of all, I can see the sunset swallowing the farmland in a rural scene that has to be seen to be appreciated.

I loved Ponyville, but it wasn't my home.

It wasn't the cobbled streets I'd run up and down on when I'd chase my brother in a game of tag. It wasn't the towering buildings that I always felt safer under when I was a filly or the tsunami of ponies that would swallow me whole in the city's beating heart. I was born in Canterlot, I was raised in Canterlot, and whenever the universe finally tires of me, I'll probably be buried there, too.

It was nice to be back, and it was even nicer to be back with a pony who I know felt the very same way.

Sunset Shimmer had spent a very long time in the human world, but sometime last week, she'd decided she was ready to return. There was no fanfare for her arrival: no trumpets coursing through the great hall and no velvet carpet laid out across the floor. She arrived through the mirror today, and that was that. Celestia had long forgiven her for her crimes, though that didn't stop the both of them from tearing up.

"Twilight, can you pass the salt?" came a disembodied voice. My eyes jumped upward and my neck jolted to the left to see Sunset, a warm smile gracing her face from end to end. The actual sunset was just beginning to make its downward descent behind her, the light refracting off the window for its last precious moments.

"Uhh, yeah, sure. Sorry," I said, quickly using my magic to float the salt over to her. Sunset took it with ease, but not with a chuckle escaping her as she began to gently move the shaker across her hay fries.

"Spacing out there, Twi?" she asked, turning back to me. I sighed, feeling a slight grin escape the left side of my face as I replied.

"Yeah, just thinking about everything. I'm really glad to be back, and it's kinda surreal to see you here with us, you know? I'm really happy you're here." Celestia, sitting across from the two of us at the dining table, swallowed the food she was chewing before she nodded curtly.

"I am over the moon that you two are here. I thought I'd never see my faithful student again, and now to think I have two of my pupils here in front of me... " Now it appeared to be Celestia's turn to space out, and I watched her eyes get lost in the world around her. Celestia had a lot more to think about than me or Sunset, so I quickly spoke to snap her out of her hypnosis.

"So Sunset," I began, turning to face her. "I'm glad you're back, but if I may ask, what made you think it was time?" It was an obvious question, but it was one that, surprisingly, Sunset had yet to answer. She'd only just gotten here, of course, but I was curious to know, and by the way Celestia's eyes quickly snapped from their daze and were locked on to Sunset, I could tell that she was equally interested.

"This gonna sound really weird, but... I just kinda felt it. Like I had these weird feelings in my chest, and I suddenly didn't feel comfortable in the human world. I don't know if it was like, urgent or anything, but I just really felt like I needed to be back here. Does that makes sense?" I began to nod, and I saw Celestia mimicking me in the corner of my eye. She looked like she had something to say first, so I leaned back in my chair and let her say her peace.

"I think so," she began. "Home is where the heart is. You can be used to some place, and have lived there for quite some time, but you never really outgrow where you came from. I'm sure your heart was just pulling you here because you've been homesick since you turned a new leaf." I turned to Sunset to gauge her reaction, and though I could see just a hint of confusion still lingering in her eyes, she slowly began to bob her head as she looked out one of the massive windowpanes that surrounded us.

"Yeah, I... guess that's it," she said, hurriedly changing the subject. "Regardless, it feels so good to be back. Thank you so much for the dinner, Celestia, and for letting me have my own room back. I... didn't know you never touched it."

I found the hesitance in Sunset's voice rather strange, so I made a mental note of it and reminded myself to ask about it as soon as I was able; she wasn't entirely alone in her feelings. Regardless, I didn't come back to Canterlot to worry, so I took another bite of my hay fries before glancing up to see out the window wall facing towards me.

The sun was over halfway below the vine wall that made the border of the royal gardens of Canterlot, a slivering crescent the only part revealed. The sky was still lit a brilliant orange, however, giving the dining room that pleasant warm glow I remembered from my years studying under the Princess directly. It was beautiful, and at that moment, an idea materialized in my head.

"Do you guys want to take a walk in the gardens?" I asked, looking over at Sunset specifically. "I'm sure they aren't the same since you've been gone, and they really are beautiful. Luna's going to put the moon up soon, so we should go while we have the chance!" Celestia was smiling before I'd even finished the last sentence, and though Sunset began to open her mouth, Celestia didn't let a word escape it.

"I think that's a great idea, Twilight," she said. "Hang on, let me take off all my regalia really quick and then we'll head out." Celestia rose from her chair, the screeching noise from its movement extra audible on the tile floor, and exited the room, walking slowly but unable to conceal her excitement with an ever-so-slight spring in her step.

"Man, it's great to be back, huh? I know I've said it a billion times, but still," Sunset said, turning to me after she watched Celestia's last leg disappear behind the doorframe. I smiled back at her and nodded, leaning a little further back into my chair.

"Yeah, it really is... so, uh, about what you said earlier. About wanting to come here. There's something I need to tell you." Sunset turned towards me and cocked her head to the side in confusion, her eyes eyelids drawing in ever-so-slightly.

"What is it?" she asked. I looked up at her, and while I didn't know exactly what expression I had on my face, I knew I probably looked somewhat like Sunset did only moments ago.

"I feel the same way," I began. "It's... weird, isn't it? And like you said, it wasn't urgent or anything, and I suppose I really didn't have anything particularly important going on at the time, but I don't know. When Celestia told me you were coming, I definitely wanted to come see you, of course, so I jumped at the chance. I may just be paranoid, but I felt like there was something else, and with you saying all of this, I have this uneasy feeling... do you get what I'm saying?" I realized I was looking down at the table when I started to talk, so I looked back up at Sunset, who was already nodding her head.

"I don't know, Twilight," she told me, looking back at me with a suddenly stern countenance. It didn't last very long, however, because she immediately let out a frustrated sigh and looked at the ceiling. "You know, it really is probably nothing. We've both missed this place, and it probably just so happened that we wanted to visit at the same time. I'm sure it's nothing, yeah." Sunset beamed at me before taking her hoof and giving me a light shove. Her grin was infectious, and I couldn't help but match it.

"Hey," she said. "Let's just have fun, okay? I've always loved the gardens, you know. Whenever I was pissed at Celestia, I'd always run out there and pace around for hours. I wonder how it's changed."

"I think you'll still find it familiar," came a voice from behind us. I turned with a jump, and Celestia, sans any of her regalia, stood waiting in the doorway. Her mane seemed to flow much easier without the crown, and without the rest of her royal decor, her posture wasn't nearly so tight like she usually carried herself. She must not have heard us talking, as she currently wore one of the largest smiles I'd ever seen from her.

Or maybe she did hear, and she just wanted nothing to be wrong for once.

"Are we ready? We'll get to see it right while the sun is coming down, I'll make sure of it," she said, her hoofs moving ever so slightly in excitement. Sunset and I looked at each other, and I was certain we could see the twinkle in each other's eyes; this was something I knew we both needed.

"I think so," Sunset replied.

Every time I visit the gardens, I convince myself that they're never going to be as spectacular as they were the last time I visited them.

Every time, I'm wrong.

To call the gardens a maze would be technically incorrect, but it really did seem that way. To either side of anypony going through the gardens was a wall of green, somehow looking brighter than any plant or leaf I'd ever seen in my life. I've asked numerous times whether they were enhanced with magic: once to get the answer, and many more times because I simply didn't believe it. Across the green wall were sparse instances of exotic flowers from places all across the globe, from Saddle Arabia to Griffonia. The Royal Gardens were open once a year to the public, and everypony was allowed to take them home whenever they visited. Thus, the gardens typically remained new and fresh, and brilliant yellow flower speckled with blue I was currently looking at seemed as if it'd just bloomed yesterday.

Every few feet was a sculpture crafted every twenty years by an artist hoof-chosen by Celestia (and now Luna once again). It was a huge honor, and its results were quite incredible: sculptures dating as far back as ancient times graced the gardens, and their most recent addition was from a sculpture just two years ago, commemorating Luna's return to Equestria. We'd stopped to look at one that was crafted by a sculptor named Iron Shaper whose sculpture depicted Equestria's industrial revolution at about the time it happened, the piece a towering mix of gears and parts that, when assembled, created Celestia's cutie mark.

"Wow," whispered Sunset, admiring the gleaming metal creation. "Can you imagine? The world changing before your eyes?"

"I certainly couldn't," began Celestia from behind us. She was observing the sculpture as well, but there was a reminiscing glint in her eyes that neither Sunset nor I would likely ever understand.

"Really?" I asked her. "I'd think you'd seen plenty of crazy things by then." Celestia looked down from the sculpture back to us before shaking her head.

"As you know, the industrial revolution didn't come from the court. Our scientists and engineers certainly contributed, but it really came from the root of the citizens. This world is still dominated by the use of ponies' natural magic, to be certain, but back in those times, it was all anypony had. Once ponies began to create these contraptions and machines, I really had no idea what to do." She moved between us and approached the sculpture from another area, looking directly at its side.

"I was very hesitant to the changes," she began. "What was lifetimes to the ponies of Equestria were merely blinks of an eye to me. It was happening so fast... production had changed forever, medicine was advancing and our world was bathed in coal. There were a few members of our court that warmed me to the process, though," she turned to us, probably seeing both our eyes locked upon her intently.

"Wow," I said, mimicking Sunset's exclamation moments earlier. "I've asked you about a lot of Equestrian history, but never anything about its industrialization. We should have a talk about that sometime." Celestia chuckled a little bit, and I couldn't help but smile back at her: I knew I'd said that very same phrase about a thousand different topics.

"We will, Twilight. I promise. Sunset, do you remember this part over here? One time we were walking through and--" her voice immediately became washed out in a sea of steps, and we all turned around to see four guards come to a screeching halt. Celestia had explained to her personal guard, dubbed the Sunspears, that we were going for a walk in the gardens and to only interrupt us if there was an emergency, which meant that whatever they were about to say must have been important.

"Princess, there's an intruder in the castle! She just walked into the throne room, but we have her surrounded. She is not being hostile, but we've been unable to aprehend her. She's a unicorn, and she's countered all of our binding spells." Celestia's worried expression immediately flipped to a stone cold glare as she addressed the group.

"Have you notified my sister? And what has this mare said?" The guard, clearly nervous and not expecting anything out of the sort to occur on such a quiet evening, stammered the words out immediately.

"We have, Princess, and she's coming down now, though I am certain we'll get there first. The mare has refused to speak, though the one thing she said was that you knew her." Princess Celestia has already begun walking, and Sunset and I hurridly quickened our pace to meet her. The gardens which had seemed so beautiful and serene only moments ago, now felt uncomfortably claustrophobic, as I didn't want to be in any sort of maze when something appeared to be seriously wrong.

"There's one more thing, Princess," said the guard, his armor awkwardly clanking as Celestia's steps began to hasten slightly faster. "Her voice... it was strange. A bit like Princess Luna's, but a little different." With those words, Celestia's face gently twisted in confusion, and her voice was tinged with curiosity as we rounded a corner of the garden.

"Well, Luna's accent is still Canterlotian from when she was banished a thousand years ago," she mentioned. "But that doesn't make any sense..."

Sunset tapped me on the shoulder as we rounded another corner and began to make our way to the back of the palace where we entered the gardens. She had a worried look plastered all over her face, though she was engaged in her best effort to hide it.

"What do you think this is? Sounds like it actually might be serious," she said. It was tough to concentrate on anything but walking with the pace Celestia and her guards were moving, but I managed to get a side glance at Sunset before I answered her.

"I have no idea," I began, "But a binding spell isn't easy to counter, and especially one coming from the Sunspears. The version they cast is made specifically for apprehending magical beings, so whoever this is, they aren't just a mare from the street." The words did nothing to assure Sunset, who's mouth twisted slightly in frustration as she turned her head to the side.

"I just wanted everything to be normal today," she muttered as we passed through the doorframe and the cold palace air assaulted us all at once. I couldn't help but laugh at that, as ever since I became a Princess, I began to miss those days in Golden Oaks where I could kick back and read a book more than anything in the world. Sunset let out a chuckle as well at my reaction, though I had a feeling hers was more to alleviate some stress she had built up since the guards came to meet us.

We were getting close to the throne room now. I could feel the maroon velvet carpet suddenly take its place under my hooves, and the hallways I had often wondered when I was a student were all too familiar. The royal palace was a relic in itself that first began its construction shortly before Luna had been banished, and with the passing ages had only become more modernized and beautiful. It hadn't changed all too much since I first saw it as a filly, save for some of the art pieces and updated tapestries, but it managed to dazzle me every time I visited.

"Here we go," I heard Sunset mutter beside me. I snapped out of my trace and looked ahead, and sure enough, we were here: the throne room of the palace. It was where Celestia sat and watched her kingdom and where Nightmare Moon floated gently above the ground and declared the night would last forever. It was where history, for generation upon generation, had been forged.

I sincerely hoped whoever was waiting in the throne room would not add to its pages.

When we emerged through the ornate doorframe, the scene became apparent rather quickly. The Sunspears, with the stained glass light glistening perfectly off their golden armor, had something surrounded in the dead middle of the throne room. Luna had not made it here yet, as she had to come all the way down from the top of the palace. I crept up on my hooves in an attempt to get a closer look, but it was all in vain, as I couldn't quite make out the figure they were surrounding. A quick brush on my back gave me the indication that Sunset was attempting to do the same, but Celestia made sure we wouldn't have to wait for long.

"CLEAR!" shouted Celestia, her voice booming with intensity. The Sunspears looked back at her nervously, but with a direct order from Celestia they scurried to the side.

The mystery mare in question, who had been finally revealed, had to be perhaps one of, if not the most beautiful mare I had ever seen. Her fur was dark black, but not quite dark enough to be unpleasant. Her mane and tail was a mix of purple and blue like Rarity's mane, but whereas Rarity's mane was more blue than purple, hers was far more purple than blue, and it was an electric purple that seemed to almost shine. Her manestyle was very similar to Fluttershy's, in which she wore the large majority of it on one side and wrapped the back of it around, but hers was pushed to her right instead, resting gently on her horn. Her eyes were perhaps the deepest blue I'd ever seen, perfectly muted yet shimmering in her gaze.

Her cutie mark, however, was the most important feature, as it beared a symbol I instantly recognized. Much like Starlight and myself, she had a star with a smaller white star behind it as the central theme of her mark, indicating that her talents lie in magic. Hers, as was every magic user who earned the mark, was slightly different than ours, however: her star was eight-pointed, and where I had more stars and Starlight had a ribbon, her star was accompanied by what appeared to be a bolt of magical energy piercing through its center.

"Celestia, I'd be careful," I said, turning to her. "She is clearly skilled in--"

When I saw her face, I stopped dead.

Her jaw was agape, looking as if it could fall to the floor at any moment. Her head was tilted back ever-so-slightly in a defensive position, but the biggest tell that something was wrong was in her eyes. Her pupils had constricted to resemble pinpricks, and her eyes were opened uncomfortably wide.

I had seen Celestia scared plenty of times, but this was something entirely different. She wasn't just horrified, she was downright shocked.

"Princess," said the mare. Her voice was gentle and soothing, but I could immediately understand what the guard said earlier. It was slightly reminiscent of Luna's accent, but the similarities were very small and it was unlike anything I'd ever heard before. I looked over to Celestia to see that she had taken a step back.

"You sound just like her," muttered Celestia in a half-whisper. I glanced over to Sunset, who, at the sight of a trembling Celestia, stepped out in front of her.

"Celestia, who is this? Why are you so afraid?" she asked. There was an edge to her voice, but even that couldn't mask the fact that Sunset was getting more and more frightened every time she looked at Celestia's face. Celestia appeared to be trying to form an answer, but the reply came from the mystery mare.

"I am called Violet," she said simply. "I am Celestia's apprentice... former apprentice, in truth."

CHAPTER TWO

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CHAPTER TWO:
ÆREST
VIOLET

"Again."

How I loathed the word.

Moving was a chore beyond my means. Every inch of my being throbbed with a twinge that pierced me to my bones, and the dust rising from the ground and coursing through my lungs did naught to ease my suffering. The blazing heat would be soon over, I knew, but before I could escape this insufferable field, I needed to complete the task at hand.

Another bolt of magic coursed from the Princess, with a haste just slow enough that I could track it.

With all of my might, I channeled the deepest depths of my magic. I could feel my body violently rebel, begging I lie where I stand and sleep for eternity, but I simply could not allow such a thing: I would succeed. Seconds slowed to centuries as I could envision the bolt in front of me, and while I still held it within my sight, I expelled my energy headstrong to the projectile. With a terrible, beautiful impact, our magic collided, and the sheer force of my counter strike cleaved the bolt in twain.

Yes! I thought, internally relieved with jubilation. The bolt was one of eight I had conquered in a row, and with such precision, it was likely Celestia would finally acknowledge my mastery--

"Again."

I know not what my countenance was when I gazed up from the dust, but I could imagine the shock of my visage.

Suddenly, I felt an overwhelming pain course through my side, and I wailed to the sky as I fell to the earth. I made an attempt to recover with a start, but forsooth, my body would not allow it: I fell to the ground again before I finally pulled myself from the dust. When I looked to Celestia once more, her piercing gaze had intensified tenfold.

"Thou art unprepared even still?" she questioned, motioning to the wound she'd just inflicted. I tried all I could to hide my gritted teeth, but I even I knew 'twas not of any use.

"Have I not mastered this craft?" I asked. I could feel my voice rise beyond my power as I spoke. "Eight bolts thou hath fired and eight I hath cast away. I beseech thee, Celestia--"

"Mastered? If truly thou knew the spell as thou say, thou wouldst have countered that bolt as thy did the others," she interrupted. "And here thy stand with a gash in thy side. There is still work to be done. Again." I merely shook my head in denial at those words, and I could feel the wound smarting with every movement of my body.

"I shall not partake again. I refuse," I stated, looking back up to my mentor, whose stone face had yet to change. "I have done all thou hath required of me. We must still practice transfiguration and the night draws closer." I was in hopes my words would be enough to sway her, but the Princess appeared unmoved.

"We will continue until thou hast become proficient. Thou art not yet proficient, Violet. Again." I took a step forward now, facing down my mentor with a gaze of iron, but Celestia refused to yield as always, matching my glare with a calm ease.

"By what standards is proficient? Ten times? Twentyfold? How much longer must I pay penance?" That had done it: Celestia's lips began to curl into the glimpse of a sneer, and as she replied her voice rose furiously calm like the eye of a raging storm.

"By the standards of a Princess," she spat, leaning forward ever slightly. "Until it is naught but an afterthought in thy mind."

By the standards of a Princess.

Time and time again, Celestia had often compared me to her late sister. Whenever I would fail a charm or spell, she often commented on Luna's precision in the spell, rather than mine own. If I did not succeed at a drill, I was never told to keep going or that I had even done well in my shortcomings, but instead that it did not meet the benchmark her sister had so conveniently provided. Here, as in countless days past, I could not escape her sister's ghost.

I'd rather have heard "Again" a thousandfold over than that.

"I am not a Princess," I began. I found myself walking to the Celestia now like a sort of automation, but it troubled me not. I thought I saw a hint of worry begin to wash over her face, but at the moment, my adrenaline had surely muddled my thoughts.

"I am not immortal. I am not a replacement. I am not thy sister. I am not Luna," Celestia seemed uneasy now, and her gaze turned from my body to the top of my head. She took a step back, her eyes wide with shock and horror, and she stared back into my eyes with a plea.

"Violet," she said, almost in a whisper. I did not heed her words as I continued my creeping charge.

"I am not Luna," I said again, my voice louder with every step. I know not whether it was her or myself I was attempting to convince, but I continued nonetheless. The world around me twisted and turned, with only the Princess of the Sun clear in my vision; I began to feel faint, but I staved the weakness off as I advanced.

"Violet, thou must listen to me," said Celestia, her voice instilled with the confidence of a fleeing fox. She did not move any longer, however, and planted her hoofs firmly in the dust below her. It took but a few moments for me to reach her, and I pressed my snout to hers as I stared her in the eyes.

"I. AM. NOT. LUNA!"

I cannot remember how I spoke it. Conviction, anger, desperation: it could have been one, or two, or all of them. I can recollect, however, that as soon as I completed my outburst, I felt a charge release from my horn. It was powerful, to be certain, and with my head so close to the Princess, I had immediately feared for the worst when the bolt set to fly.

Suddenly, I felt the energy course through Celestia as well, and her own magic discharged mere moments after my own. I closed my eyes shut, awaiting an impact that would surely be the last of me.

It was an impact that would not come.

The dust took quite some time to settle, and I could feel it infiltrating my senses. I attempted to open my eyes, but I quickly learned of my mistake, and I backed away from Celestia as I began a fit of coughing. When the dust fell back to the earth, I was greeted with the sight of the Princess entirely unmoved, and while I expected a visage of anger and rage, I instead found worry and fear washed upon her face.

"Careful with thine emotions, Violet, they are connected to thy magic. Art thou in good health?" she asked, a soft inflection coursing through her voice. I should have liked to laugh at that, had my lungs allowed me; after the Tartarus she had put me through, she had the gall to be concerned. Once I finished my hacking I looked back to her, panting heavily from the rapid turn of events.

"Good health," I replied, slowly gaining back the air that had been stripped from my lungs. "I am in good health, yes. Perchance thy might have asked such a thing earlier when a bolt collided with my side." I knew not how much bite my words held, but Celestia no longer seemed interested in butting heads: she merely turned her gaze to the ground in surrender as she answered my words.

"Violet, I am sorry," she began. "But thou must remember to control thine emotions. Thy magic is directly connected--" I held a hoof to my face, indicating her words merely passed through me, and upon this gesture, Celestia halted her speech and began to listen intently.

"Prithee, spare me," I began. I knew now for sure that my words carried venom. "Day after day as we train, I assure myself that it will one day be different, that anon thou would realize I have no desire to replace thy sister." I turned at those words, as I felt I had not much else to say at the moment, and I began to walk back to the city's center. 'Twas a long walk, to be certain, but my mind needed clearing and time among the bustling streets of Canterlot would surely do it well.

"I shall be here again at daybreak on the morrow," I spoke, though I found my voice to be softer this time. I knew I would not stay angered at Celestia for long, but I would not back down from my feelings now. As I began to walk back to the city, I heard Celestia speak from behind.

"Would thou like to watch the sun fall? Thou hast yet to miss it."

I stopped my pace at those words. 'Twas true: I adored watching her put to rest the sun and raise the moon to the night sky, and I stood beside her every night to watch the event, trying and failing to count the stars that hung so gently in the void. Throughout our bickering, it always seemed as if it were the one thing that, at day's end, we could unite upon and put our quarrels to rest.

Not tonight.

"Leave it hanging in the sky," I replied, continuing my steps. "Mayhap then I shall be free of thy sister's shadow."

With every visit to Canterlot's hectic core, I always found myself thinking of home.

I was born in a very small hamlet called Hourton. There was nothing inherently special about it, other than its distinction of being located just south of the Crystal Mountains and Rainbow Falls. With its towering rock formations and close proximity to the mountains, mining was the main trade for the ponies of Hourton, and it is what my mother and father tirelessly devoted their life to in order to take care of me. When I came of age, they always said, I'd take up the pickaxe and join the ranks myself.

They never saw the day.

When Celestia swept me away from Hourton and declared me her new protégé, I knew not what to expect from the outside world as, quite understandably, I had never seen it. Equestria as I knew it had been the humid air and the desolate desert of my home, and thus when I first saw Canterlot I thought myself to be within what could only be described as a storybook.

News did not reach Hourton quick, as we were located in an isolated plain right on the edge of a neighboring kingdom we hardly interacted with, but I had heard whispers of Equestria's capital as I grew older in the village. None of it, however, prepared me for the sight when I first set hoof upon its expanse.

I remember stopping to look at every marketplace stall, as merchants from lands I'd never heard of sold wares I'd never seen. I remembered the fortified walls and the soldiers that stood atop them, their armor gleaming gold and their watchful eyes gleaming brighter still. I remembered the castle, how despite only just built only years ago seemed to tower over the rest of the city, watching over it much as Celestia watched over her subjects.

I remember feeling safe in a place I had only just arrived.

As I pranced through its charming streets now, I still felt safe in Canterlot. To be certain, pickpockets and conniving thieves ran abundant in Equestria's capital, but for an odd reason, this never deterred me. When I peered at the stark white walls and the castle looming over the city, I never felt a moment of danger, and that included this one. The sun was falling in the sky--Celestia had indeed commanded it to begin its slow march to oblivion--and soon the moon would rise.

Luna was up there, somewhere.

I began to round another corner in the city's maze when I felt a hoof brush against my side. It had been some time since a cutpurse had attempted to rummage through my bag, as the last pony to try such a thing did not leave unscathed, but I always remained prepared nonetheless. Violently I turned, igniting my horn as I did so to confront the thief.

"I give thee one choice--"

I was greeted instead with a pair of striking green eyes. The stallion's fur, mane and tail were a dark, rooted brown, and as soon as he grinned from ear to ear upon meeting my gaze I knew instantly the identity of the would be "thief".

"Slate, thou musn't keep startling me!" I exclaimed, my magic fading and a beam beginning to form. "Fortnights from now I may mistake thee for a cutpurse." Slate merely stepped backward and mockingly bowed, gazing into my eyes as he did so.

"M'lady, would a cutpurse look so striking?" I was never one for excessive laughter, though Slate was a master at his craft: I found the chuckling emerge from me beyond my means. After smugly reveling in his camaraderie as my laughter died down, he retracted from his bow and trotted over to me, planting a buss upon my forehead as he always did upon our greeting.

"I trust thy lesson with Celestia went well?" he inquired, looking back to me. I could not help but look away, and I could feel his gaze shift as he peered upon my reaction.

"I am afraid not," I began. "I traveled hither to free my mind. We quarreled, and I let my temper slip from me. I... I feel guilt for what I hath said." Slate nodded as I spoke.

"Did she compare thee to her sister anew?" he asked, his brow furrowing. I gave to him a gentle smile in return, informing him 'twas not quite the case.

"Not directly, no," I replied. "We were in training for a new counterspell, and I was struck in the side unwary. She remarked she held me to the standards of a Princess, and... I know not what came over me." Slate began to walk to the edge of the pathway, leading us astray from the crowd of pedestrians passing quickly by us before he replied.

"Violet, thou hast every right to be angered at her constant comparisons," he began. "But she holds thee to a high standard due to thou being of a high standard." I merely nodded at those words, though I could feel a red flush washing over me: no matter how many times Slate showered me with praise, I never took it without embarrassment.

"I know," I replied. "I just tire of it, Slate. I know how much she misses her sister, more than anything in this world, and I know I was not chosen to merely fill a void... I cannot help but feel this way occasionally. Am I a fool to think so?" Slate chuckled a bit at my words before gently resting a hoof upon my shoulder.

"No, Violet," he assured. "I understand. I believe if thou are to calmly assert this to Celestia, mayhap thee can repair thy differences." Slate looked up to the sky, which had noticeably dimmed during our conversation, and turned back to me with a devious twinkle in his eyes.

"I fear I must be off, as the stonemasons are to meet soon, but after thou hast spoken to the Princess--really spoken to her--" he began, "perhaps we can steal away to the barns once more? There may yet still be time for fun as the witching hour approaches." He delivered the last line with a suave only Slate could ever manage, and I found myself rolling my eyes as I looked back to him.

"I fear I cannot tonight, Slate," I began, playfully shoving him. "By the time Celestia and I are finished in our words, I fear it may be morning on the morrow at such a rate." Regardless, I began to eye him with the same flirtatious nature he exhibited towards me.

"However, were thou to wait by the barns tomorrow at midday, there is quite the chance I will show." I quickly ran up to him and placed a quick peck upon his lips before steadily beginning to withdraw to the castle.

"I love thee, Slate. Please be safe." Before I turned, Slate nodded gently and looked back at me with that beaming, precious smile I had come to know all too well over the past years.

"Of course, m'lady," he replied. "I love thee also, and to thine as well."

I do not remember much of Slate fading away into the mass of the crowd, nor the long walk back to the castle itself and all of its twisting and turning. When I walked through those castle doors, climbing the seemingly endless staircases and turning corner upon corner in the castle's vast expanse, there was one place I always went to at night, and it was a place that I knew Celestia would waiting for me.

My mother gave birth to me outdoors in the dead of night, my father watching over her with his mining axe ready to defend her against any would-be bandits. My mother always liked to tell me that from the moment I arrived in Equestria, I was watching Luna's stars. It appeared to stick with me all my life, and whenever I found myself perturbed or vexed I always looked to the night to ease my nerves. Now, I was heading to the castle balcony, which would give me the greatest view of the heavens Equestria could offer.

'Twas a tinge of irony in this event, I supposed, how often I looked to the mare I despised.

When I walked out to the balcony and peered just beyond the doorframe, Celestia was indeed waiting. She had her back to the door, peering out at the stars as she knew I often did.

I said naught at first. Instead, I merely approached her from the side and sat next to her. I looked up to her, but she seemingly ignored me, opting instead to gaze at the night. I followed suit, beginning to count every star I saw hang above me, and it wasn't until the numbers slowly began to blur that I spoke to my mentor.

"I swore upon thee once I would count all the stars in the sky. Doth thou remember it?" I asked her. She nodded slowly, seemingly attempting to do the same herself as her head gently floated from dot to dot.

"Thoust told me that I could do whatever I thought of. And so there I would sit, on the grass, in the carriage, on this balcony, and I would count. I still do, to this very day, But not once have I ever counted them all. I am in doubt I ever will." I turned to her now, who I found to be looking at me as well. There was a somber air about her gaze, but as always, she kept her composure, staring steadfast as I forced the words out I had been looking to say all along.

"I apologize, Celestia," I said. "For so long I have grown to detest a mare I will never meet, and I have not been considerate of thy feelings for Luna. I am sure she was a wonderful mare, and my outbursts of violence are inconsiderate and dangerous. I swear to thee it will not happen again."

The moon looked as beautiful as ever tonight. I was not yet born when Luna was banished, as it had occurred seven years prior, so I had often wondered what ponies around Equestria thought as they looked to the moon.

"How often dost thou think of her?" I asked her. Despite being her apprentice for nigh on two years, I hadn't ever yet asked the question, likely due to my growing hatred of the mare I'd never met.

Celestia did not speak for quite some time, but after a heavy sigh, she began to formulate her somber reply. I could have sworn her gaze turned slightly to the moon as she spoke.

"Every day, Violet," she began. "Every hour, every minute, every second. 'Twas the only thing racing through me on that carriage ride to Hourton. 'Tis the only thing racing through me now." Celestia turned to me now, a grave expression flooding through her countenance.

"I had heard tales of thy magic from here, Violet. A young mare from Hourton whose bursts and bolts could shake the mountains." She chuckled only fleetingly before she continued. "But then I saw thee, studying thy mother and father work the mines. I saw how thou watched the stars, and I saw the twinkle in thine eyes as I showed thee only mere party tricks." Celestia sighed for what had to be the thousandth time that night, and I could detect only the faintest hint of tears begin to materialize in her eyes. As she gazed at the moon once more, I wondered if she was looking for a spec or a dot that would tell her her sister was safe and sound.

"There was naught thou couldst do that did not remind me of Luna. There is naught thou can do, even still. Luna was a firebrand, to be certain, but her thirst for knowledge and her care for those of lesser birth and fortune were unrivaled, just as thine exhibited. That purple in thy fur, Violet, those deep blue eyes... 'Twas if she were by my side once again.

"Luna loved everything, Violet, and then one day she only loved most things. I... I apologize as well, from the bottom of my heart. I knew not how much I had compared thee to Luna, and I swear on her name that I do not love thee because of thy similarities. I love thee, Violet, because of the mare that thine are, and I have failed thee greatly in showing this."

I moved closer to her and, as carefully as I could, wrapped my arms around her. I felt the soft and gentle touch of her wings return the embrace, and together we stayed there and thought of the stars for what seemed to be an eternity. Once we finally unraveled, Celestia looked at me with a smile I will admit I had missed since our quarrel.

"How show we train on the morrow, my little pony? Transfiguration? Illusion?" I looked to the side for a brief second, considering my options, before I turned back to her with what I knew had been a glint in my eyes.

"The counterspell," I replied. "Again."

CHAPTER THREE

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CHAPTER THREE:
FIREWORK
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

I didn't know a whole ton about Violet.

My younger self had, of course, once asked Celestia about her former apprentices. It was never something she liked to talk about, but she always gave a few names, and there was one that had truly stuck in my mind.

Violet.

Celestia was never very talkative about the matter. She always said that after Luna was banished, she decided she needed to teach other ponies the power of friendship in the hopeful event that they could fill the void that Luna had left. The only thing I knew was that I was the only apprentice to complete this task (Cadence was a pegasus and never studied magic under Celestia) and that the first apprentice Celestia ever had went by the name of Violet.

That was always about it. I didn't even know who Sunset Shimmer was before she stole my crown, because there came a point in my studies where I stopped asking the question. I never ran into any of Sunset's former belongings (or at least knowingly) and I never read any books that mentioned former apprentices. It just wasn't something she was wont to discuss, and so I really didn't push it. I didn't know what Violet looked like, who she was, where she was born, what happened during her time, or how she died.

And yet, here she was. Or so she claimed to be.

Celestia slowly drifted towards her, her steps shakey yet firm, and stopped just in front of her. She stared for a few seconds, although to Sunset and I, it seemed like an eternity. Violet didn't say anything, but she locked eyes with Celestia, and the two stared and stared until Celestia's horn began to glow.

I looked to Sunset immediately, who nodded with a stern expression. We both knew what this was: an identification spell that can tell a magic user if the pony or being she casts it on is really the person they claim to be. It isn't as useful as it seemed, however, as it was a fairly advanced spell that would only work if you had a strong bond with the person you were casting it on. Thankfully, in this case, Celestia did know Violet, and a wave of her light gold aura began to slowly wash down the unicorn.

"You know it to be I," Violet whispered, with a voice just loud enough to hear. The conviction in her words was so fierce that I already knew the reading Celestia received far before the spell had ended, and the sliver of a gasp from Celestia's lips only confirmed my suspicions.

Once the last of the magic died out, the throne room could have been a painting. Everypony stood still as a stone, waiting for the reaction from the Princess of the Sun, and after what seemed like yet another eternity, they embraced with a resounding thud.

The guards looked at each other, clearly baffled by the sudden turn of events, and, as was their protocol, they turned to the next highest authority figure in the room which, unfortunately, happened to be me. With all eyes burning into my skull, I quickly identified the captain of the guard and spoke to him directly.

"You all are, uhh, dismissed. I think we're good here, but I'll let you know if that changes?" My laughably unconvincing demeanor made them even more confused, but thankfully, Celestia stepped in for me.

"You're dismissed, yes," she said with an emotional chuckle, breaking away from her hug with tears gently flowing from her eyes. Violet looked to be the same boat, and Celestia began to speak with a bit more clarity as the guards began to slowly file out of the room.

"Violet, I never... what are you doing here? This is unbelievable, I remember... " I had a feeling I knew the words that would come next, but thankfully, Violet did as well, and the beaming grin she'd had during the embrace with her former mentor slowly melted away.

"My perishing? Yes, I too recall it well," she began. "'Tis an event I feel only occurred moments ago, it seems. But I came to my senses outside of the city, in the prime of mine own youth no less, and I journeyed here. I had no clue what had become of thee, and so I only hoped thou still held reign o'er the land." Violet leaned slightly to the side to look directly at me, and her eyes began to widen. It took a second, but I finally understood why she was so shocked, and so I awkwardly raised a hoof and waved at the new arrival.

"Oh, you must be confused by the wings! I'm Princess Twilight. I was Celestia's most recent protege." Those words seemed to fill her with an understanding, and she quickly turned to Celestia with an excited whisper.

"She hath created magic?" she asked. Celestia nodded slowly, but I had to raise an eyebrow at those words: for a pony that should be close to one thousand years old, Violet appeared to know a lot, along with numerous things Celestia had never told me until I'd actually happened upon them. I turned to Sunset, who had a similar expression of disbelief on her face.

"You died a millennium ago. You shouldn't be here," she said. Sunset had always been straight to the point in the time I had come to know her, though I admit it was certainly a detail of note. Violet's stern visage she had worn during her introduction returned, and she nodded firmly. Celestia looked back down at her at Sunset's declaration, and there was still a look of disbelief on her face. Equestria's ruler was confused but clearly jubilant, and upon recognizing this, Sunset's glare softened just a bit.

"...but we can figure that out later. I'm Sunset Shimmer. I was also an apprentice of--"

Before she could finish her sentence, we heard some steps behind us, and the faint ghost of a voice that became more and more prominent as the hoofsteps got closer.

"--already resolved? Well, I shall talk to 'Tia at any rate. This seemed like quite the scare."

Luna.

I looked back to Violet, who was now leaning her head towards the doorway to see who was about to enter. Celestia's reaction was far more telling, however, as an immediate mix or worry and horror quickly flooded across her face. With that I understood: Violet knew very well who Nightmare Moon was, and I had a very bad feeling the upcoming meeting would be a major problem.

When the Princess of the Night emerged, she quickly scanned the room, gazing first at Sunset and I before looking over to Celestia and Violet, the latter of which was clearly processing something she simply didn't understand. The color had drained from face entirely, and her bewildered expression began to slowly change to a grimace with every second she stared at Luna.

Luna turned to her sister, who had already stepped in front of Violet in what appeared to be an attempt to diffuse a situation that had yet to even occur.

"Celestia, who is this?" Luna asked, glancing towards the figure that was now obscured by her sister's body. She leaned to the side a bit, likely giving her a full view of Violet's increasingly aggressive demeanor.

"You... " whispered Violet, just loud enough to hear.

Violet appeared to be thinking at the speed of light, processing Luna's arrival with a rapid intensity. It didn't take long for a well of emotions to flood across her face at the sight of Celestia's sister, and a snarl began to slowly creep across her visage. She took a step forward, and Celestia strafed to meet her.

I looked to Sunset, who was already making her way to the scene. I followed her as quickly as I could, and while Sunset attended to Celestia and Violet, I trotted carefully over to an increasingly bewildered Luna.

"Violet, please, there is so much you don't know!" Celestia pleaded, though Sunset and I knew her words fell on empty ears. Violet advanced forward even still, and Luna turned to me as I approached her. Her confused look was gone, and a stern expression quickly asserted itself on her countenance as she addressed me.

"Twilight, what is the meaning of this? Who is this mare?" She asked me. I looked back over to Celestia and Sunset, but I could tell their hold over the returned apprentice was quickly slipping as every second gave way to a better glimpse of her.

"THAT is Celestia's first apprentice and YOU should probably leave," I asserted. I attempted to push her backward, but I merely struggled in vain: Luna stood steadfast, though the color in her face had drained entirely to match Violet's as she gazed upon the mare whose identity was no longer a mystery.

"What?" Luna whispered. She took a slight step back, the clacking of her hoof louder than her words, and her face became flooded with a mix of emotions attempting to comprehend the situation. It was at that moment, however, that Violet broke through Celestia and Sunset's barricade, marching straight to the Lunar Princess.

"Dost thou know how much pain you hath brought to her? To me?" She asked, her words becoming louder and grittier with each passing syllable.

Her horn ignited like a match across cardboard, raw energy bursting from its seems. To call it organized chaos may have been giving it too much credit, as sparks of magic flew from the core of her horn with every passing second. In the simplest of terms, it looked like a black market firework ready to explode at any second.

It was at that point I realized that, without a quick intervention, an unfortunate misunderstanding could become an unraveling. Violet had to have been a deadly cocktail of confused, lost, afraid and angry, and I had a feeling that she could put out some sizeable damage if the situation wasn't defused.

Luna had turned her head at Violet's confrontation, though as the time passed and Violet seemed far from cooling down, the Princess of the Night finally spoke.

"I do," she said simply. "And I will forever live with it. But you need to calm down." Luna's inflection had that soft and hypnotic flair she was always so good with, but her words did nothing to calm the angered Violet. There was a sudden burst from her horn that, while not extraordinarily dangerous, was enough to make Sunset and I jump back a step. Celestia and Luna didn't move a step, however, and Luna's resilience seemed to only make Violet more and more irate.

"Calm down," Violet muttered. "I will not be calm, and especially not by the likes of a nightmare such as thee. How dare thy walk in this castle after thy crimes!" Violet took a step closer, and I knew then that it was enough.

I did the only thing I could think of at the moment. I took a deep breath and, mustering absolutely all the magical energy I could gather, shouted as loud as I could across the throne room.

"VIOLET!"

The ability to amplify noise was a unique one amongst unicorns. Technically, a unicorn's voice could be amplified as loud and long as they wanted so long as they had the energy to do it: because of this, it was often used to scare others or say things in brief, as the louder and longer one wanted to amplify their voice, the more energy it drained at an exponentially quick rate.

I, however, only needed a word, and I was significantly more powerful than most unicorns.

As I hadn't really ever used the spell except for training before I became an alicorn, I entirely forgot this, and the results were nigh catastrophic.

The first thing I heard immediately after the wrathful wave of sound was a shatter of what I assumed to be the pottery and decor surrounding the throne room. It was hundreds of years old, so I could feel my heart palpitate at the very thought of destroying multiple items so valuable, but one quick glance around me reminded myself that pottery wasn't the only thing in the room.

Sunset and Violet were on their knees, clenching their ears with their free hooves. Celestia and Luna, standing proudly a moment before, had reeled back from their respective positions: Luna was clenching her head, while Celestia seemed to be in the middle of an attempt to blink away the sudden shockwave of confusion from her skull.

It seemed as if eternities were passing by before everypony came to, and the only thing I could do was watch helplessly. Sunset was the first to completely recover, slowly rising to her knees and, with a glare that'd murder us all if looks could kill, she spoke directly to me.

"Could you run that by me again, Twi?" she asked, her voice dripping with a scathing facetiousness. "I didn't quite catch that."

My blush was probably visible from space, and when Violet looked up to me with a blistering ire and anger that had come to define her in the five minutes I had known her I knew I had to speak fast.

"Sorry," I said sheepishly, addressing Sunset with an embarrassed grin. She gave a half smile that seemed to indicate she approved the method of getting Violet's attention whilst being simultaneously furious with the execution, so I turned to Celestia's seething former apprentice with my next declaration.

"Violet, I know you have to be scared, and angry, confused, and a whole bunch of other stuff," I began. "I know I would be too if I were in your situation: if it were me, it'd probably be worse. But I'm going to need you to calm down, and I promise we're going to explain everything later to you. We're going to figure out what happened."

Violet, her head still ringing from my spell, took a scan of the throne room again. She was greeted by a sea of uneasy eyes, akin to a group of hyenas surrounding a lion. Violet's longest gaze came to me, and I gave her the most reassuring smile I could muster: I'd dealt with hotheads before, but none that had been displaced from their own time.

After what seemed like a lifetime, Violet gave a deep, resounding sigh. She immediately fell to the floor where she stood, panting and sweating as the magical exhaustion she had built up hit her like a train.

"I apologize," she said meekly. "I... I must lie down."

I felt a pulse of calm shoot through my muscles as I turned to Sunset, who had taken a few steps back from the scene.

"Sunset, can she stay in your room? Until we figure things out? I think it would be good for her to have a roommate." Without hesitation, Sunset nodded, walking to over to where Violet had collapsed. Sunset began to speak to her as she helped lift her from the tile, and while I couldn't make out all of it, it seemed as if Sunset was asking Violet if she was okay after using up such a large portion of her magic pool. Satisfied, I turned to Celestia, who already had a knowing grin upon her face.

"You have a plan," she sang. I couldn't help but return her beam, as it never ceased to amaze me how well my former mentor could read me.

"I do, but Spike isn't here, so I'll need you to take a letter." Celestia's eyebrows rose to the ceiling with those words, her grin twisting slyly.

"That's a bit below my pay grade," she quipped teasingly. With a flash of her horn, a roll of parchment and a fine quill appeared in front of her, gently bobbing in the air.

"To whom?" She asked, the quill turned to the parchment and ready to write. I looked behind me to watch Sunset take Violet towards the stairs, and answered her question without turning back.

"I don't know a whole lot about time travel and time displacement," I began, now turning to face Celestia again.

"But I know a mare who does."

"So run it by me again. The whole thing, one more time."

Starlight Glimmer had studied time travel and all of its intricacies for months after my friends and I had bested her. While I cannot say my experience of her knowledge first hand was remotely pleasant, she had since become my pupil and, most importantly, one of my closest friends. Now, she sat in one of the many castle bedrooms among Violet, Sunset, and I, with her best friend Trixie Lulamoon seated in a chair beside her.

Violet was propped up against the far wall with pillows, lounging on the bed. She looked up to the ceiling as she began to give us what I assumed would be the final retelling of her story before Starlight came to a conclusion.

"I was dying," she began bluntly. "I rested on a bed not too different from this one, I surmise. Celestia was beside me, comforting me, talking to me... and there came a point where I closed my eyes and faded." She nodded her head down to Starlight, who was studying her with a fierce intensity.

"The very next thing I can recall was my awakening in a field not too far from Canterlot. I felt... young. Empowered. I figured I had reached heaven, truthfully." Violet chuckled to herself before continuing. "Until I saw Canterlot in the distance. I started for it, and the rest you witnessed for yourselves."

Starlight took a minute, staring at Violet all the while. Violet appeared a tad uncomfortable when Starlight finally spoke to her again.

"There was no in-between when it comes to your memories?" she asked. "You died, and then you woke up outside of the city?" Violet nodded in the affirmative immediately.

"There is no gap. 'Tis immediate from one recollection to the next." Starlight sighed heavily, and I could feel my eyebrows raising.

"Well?" I asked her. She turned to me with a countenance of pure confusion, the likes of which I don't think I had ever seen on Starlight.

"I'm stumped, Twi," she said. "And here's what's really tripping me up. I think this is absolutely, one hundred percent the real Violet. She's not a fragment, or an apparition, or a copy: this is the absolute real her, and Celestia's spell all but confirms that." Before I could ask where she was going with her thoughts, Sunset interjected: she appeared to be thinking right alongside my former pupil.

"That would indicate that she was ripped from her own time and brought here," Sunset began. "But that simultaneously can't be true, because--"

"--she died," Starlight finished. "Violet isn't missing from any point in the past, she's just here. But because she's dead, it's almost as if she's been revived from death in an entirely different time period. The problem with that is--" This time it was Violet herself that butted into the conversation.

"I am in the prime of my youth," she explained. "I was not when I perished." A light bulb seemed to go off above Starlight's head at those words, and she turned back to Violet.

"How old were you when you died, by the way? Sixty? Seventy?" she asked. Violet recoiled in surprise, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape as she shook her head in the negative.

"Forty-eight years of age," she replied. "Do... do ponies live until seventy years of age in these times?"

That certainly got the room silent. As the blanket of uncomfortableness slowly draped itself across the room, with most of use modern day ponies electing to stare at the bright pink wallpaper rather than Violet, it was I who decided to finally break the tension.

"We've come quite a long way, Violet," I began. Deciding that explaining how long ponies lived wasn't the best culture shock to give her right now, I looked to Starlight, who was currently engaged in a staring contest with the ground. When she felt my gaze she jumped with a start and turned to face me.

"I'm sorry, Twi," she said to me. "There's no way to really confirm my suspicions I can think of. I can't really help unless I know what type of displacement this is."

I could immediately see the dejection flow across Violet's face. I was about talk faster than I was thinking in an effort to comfort her, but to my surprise, it was Trixie Lulamoon that spoke next.

"So what we are confused about is whether Violet was ripped from her own time, or revived and placed in her youth via some crazy magic?" she asked. Everypony looked around the room before beginning to nod slowly, confirming Trixie's understandings. With a devilish grin only Trixie could ever manage, she hopped out of her seat with vigor and dramatically turned to the room.

"Come on, my little ponies! Trixie is taking the class on a field trip!" Sunset's face coiled in confusion, and with a tilt of her head, she spoke for the rest of us.

"A field trip? Where?" she asked. Trixie, clearly anticipating the question, turned to Violet.

"Do you know where you're buried?" she asked her. Although my eyes initially widened in shock at the morbid question, an understanding quickly dawned on me: one look around the room showed that everypony else (except for Violet, though that was to be expected) began to catch on as well. The room's eyes switched to Celestia's first apprentice, and she immediately turned red as a tomato as she glanced down to the bed.

"I know not for certain, of course," she began. "But I requested I be laid to rest in my hometown, a hamlet called Hourton. It may cease to exist in these times, for all I know."

Having received the answer, everypony slowly began to rise from their seats: Starlight, however, stayed put, and she spoke out before I could ask her what was bothering her.

"I'm sorry," she began, a bewildered twinkle in her eyes. "Did you say... Hourton?"

CHAPTER FOUR

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CHAPTER FOUR:
CLANG
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE / STEEL SENTINEL

One night, Starlight Glimmer dreamed of utopia.

It haunted her mind to the point of obsession. She'd go to sleep with memories of her childhood and the cutie marks that were burned in her conscious. She'd awaken having tasted a world where ponies were not defined by fate or bound by destiny.

One morning, Starlight Glimmer grew sick of dreams. She yearned for reality.

Finding a place for her bastion of equality would prove to be difficult. Because of her unorthodox plan to rid ponies of their cutie marks, the town could not be too close to any other village or city, lest the local authorities of any jurisdiction get involved--at the same time, however, it could not be too far away, as she needed to be able to sustain her village even if it meant traveling to a nearby locale.

She searched through the Macintosh Hills, the Galloping Gorge, and Neighagra Falls, but just south of the Crystal Mountains and northwest of Manehatten, she found what she was looking for.

"It was rocky and dusty, but not unbearably so," Starlight explained. She had been telling us her story during the carriage ride to her former village, the occasional bump and jolt doing nothing to break the pace of her tale. She looked out the window now, taking a peek at the Equestrian grassland slowly turning to barren dirt.

"It was everything I needed, but there was just one problem," she said. Sunset, who I knew had never gotten the specifics of Starlight's villainy, finished her thoughts.

"There was already something there," she replied. Starlight nodded her head in the affirmative, though I detected a somber air around her when she began to speak next. I had a distinct feeling that we were getting into the darker pieces of Starlight's past, but she seemed to be lifting a weight off her chest as she spoke to us.

"A little hamlet called Hourton," she began, chuckling as she recalled the name. "You know I was originally gonna call the place 'Utopia'? I knew it was dumb, but I couldn't think of anything else until I heard a local elder call the place by name." Starlight looked to the ceiling of the luxury carriage, a reminiscent smirk building faster on her face as she spoke.

"Hourton would be Our Town. A place where the stigma, pressure and role of a cutie mark would be a relic of an inferior age. It was meant to be." Before she could finish, Violet, her eyebrows raised in suspicious confusion, butted into the story with a question.

"Pardon me," she began, "How did thou convince the townspeople of Hourton to abandon it?"

With those words, Starlight's face immediately flipped to a grimace. I had never heard this story myself, but I knew well from her visage that whatever she was about to say wouldn't be pretty.

"I couldn't have anypony finding out about this town. Aside from a trusted messenger to get supplies when absolutely needed, Our Town had to be isolated. At the same time, I wasn't entirely sure my cutie mark spell was going to work, and I needed a few test subjects. So... I didn't convince them to leave at first, Violet--"

"You forced them to stay," I finished curtly. It was the first time I had spoken in a while, and so the carriage's eyes locked on to me immediately. I could feel my face soften as I said my next words.

"Starlight, you don't have to talk about this if you don't want to." She adamantly shook her head with a countenance of conviction, however.

"No, this is important. Violet deserves to know what happened to her home," she began. "And... I really should have told you all of this before, Twilight. I'm just not proud of it." With another heavy sigh, Starlight began her tale again, only this time softly gazing to Violet as she continued.

"I tested my spell, and it worked better than I could have ever imagined. I had erased their cutie marks, and with it, their destiny had been shattered. I remember trying to go to bed that night, but pure adrenaline had kept me awake." She looked up to the ceiling of the carriage now, tapping her hooves idly.

"I... I used those ponies as an advertisement, if you will," she began. Her voice broke up ever so slightly, but she quickly recomposed herself as she continued. "They turned Our Town into an urban legend of sorts. The lost ponies of Hourton would find themselves in bars, telling the tale of how they lost their life's meaning. Many told them there was no way it was possible and didn't think of it further--"

"But some ponies did," Sunset interjected. Starlight nodded grimly, turning back to me with a worn and knowing glance.

"You know the rest. I did the same damn routine every time," she began. "We welcomed our visitors, I showed them to the cutie mark vault. Believe it or not, quite a few ponies were willing: poor souls who thought they were missing something in their lives or wanted to change something. But if they didn't--like you all--I did it anyway, and I made them stay." She turned back to Violet, who had a countenance of intense thought as she listened to Starlight's tale. Starlight gently rested a hoof on her shoulder as she finished up her story.

"Violet, the weight of what I did in this place haunts me every day, even still. I had a chance to make up for it a while ago, but, uh, it didn't work out so well." Starlight looked to Trixie with a sly smile, and Trixie began a faint chuckle as the two briefly reminisced about their previous visit to Starlight's village.

"I'm sorry, Violet," she began quickly. "For what I did to your village. And I hope you can forgive me and I entirely understand if you do not, but I do have something I want to tell you." Everypony's ears perked up at that, and Starlight began to shake her head as she continued.

"I never saw a graveyard or cemetery anywhere in that village. And I was very thorough because I wanted to destroy any last semblance of Hourton." Violet had already begun shaking her head in the middle of Starlight's sentence, and she looked out the window as she spoke next.

"Our ancestors were not buried in the village," she began. "'Twas better to have them near the sky than in the dirt, closer to the world after death." Everypony glanced to violet with a confused look, but a memory of Starlight and I came flooding back to me as I finished her answer.

"It isn't a graveyard, it's a tomb," I began. "And it's in the mountain pass."

To Steel Sentinel, the silence was not golden.

He'd just finished his guard route around the outside of the Crystal Palace. There wasn't much to it: the underneath section of the palace, lavishly adorned with a snowflake at the center of the floor, looked the same as it always did, but with four entrances on each side of the castle's underbelly, it was a guard's job to ensure that no thieves, bandits or otherwise unsavory ponies don't find their way inside. There never was, of course, and if any would-be assassin did make it through this time around they'd be sorely disappointed: Shining Armor and Princess Cadance were out of town, and so the castle's guards and servants were sanctioned to protect an empty nest.

Today should have been like any other day in the down week. He'd been patrolling the grounds under the palace for close to two hours, but his shift had established itself as offputting right from the get-go: where there was almost always a guard to greet him for a change of shift when he arrived at the palace, he found the grounds unsettlingly barren upon arrival. While he chalked it up to one of the guards leaving their shift early, it still left him disturbed for the remainder of his time at the castle's base.

That was going to end, however, as it was now time to enter the castle itself in order to begin making rounds near the throne room. Steel looked around the empty underbelly one final time before he opened one of the corner doors and began his ascent.

Everything is fine, Steel thought to himself as he began to clamber the steps that led to the castle's main floor. Nothing ever happens here. I'm sure the other ponies just are doing work as usual.

Upon reaching the last step, Steel Sentinel rose to meet the ground floor of the palace, the crystalline walls and glimmering marble floor bursting across the landscape as bright as ever, the bad feeling he'd held in his gut was immediately vindicated upon a simple scan of the room.

There wasn't a soul in sight.

Steel stood there for a moment. The guards absolutely should have been there: there was always close to fifteen patrolling the first floor of the palace alone, so to hear and see nothing upon arriving up the stairs was a red flag waving fiercely in the wind. Looking around one more time in an effort of surreal verification before calling out to the void.

"Hello?" he shouted. The only response was his own words echoing across the palace, the silence in the room now deafening as it faded away.

"This some kind of prank?" he shouted again. A few seconds passed as the echo returned to him, confirming his hopeful suspicion was incorrect. Gripping his spear considerably tighter, Steel began a slow but alert walk down the hall immediately in front of him, the gentle clack of his own hooves reverberating across the palace.

In no time, Steel found himself in the throne room, the two chairs meant for Cadance and Shining Armor empty and barren: what disturbed Steel more was that the room was barren as well. Even if the guards had miraculously disappeared, the servants still tended to the castle while the Royals were gone, and many of them would exclusively touch up the throne room to have it spotless before the monarchs returned from their political business. While the servants' absence added even more to the unsettling vibe of the castle, what Steel believed more disturbing was the fact that the room was spotless: the floors were shining brighter than they ever had been and the ornate stained glass seemed to glow with an eerie perfection.

"What in Celestia's name... " muttered Steel as he looked around the room once more. Although a sense of approaching dread began to crawl down his spine, he laid the castle blueprint out in his mind and tried his hardest to think of the best place to go in a situation like this. After a moment of mulling it over, a lightbulb went off in his head as he began to move before he could fully process his thoughts.

The guard bunks, he thought as he could feel his pace quickening. There were always guards sleeping to prepare for their night shifts, and unless they all collectively disappeared with the rest of the planet they'd be resting ever still. Steel had worked the night shift himself two years ago, so the path to the bunks has been long engraved in his mind.

Turning another corner, Steel quickly exhaled when he realized he'd been holding his breath: it was right as he did this, however, that he tripped over a large object that crashed into his hoof with a clang. Coughing wildly as he stumbled, he stopped for a moment to reposition himself before advancing forward. He took two steps before he stopped dead in his tracks, the sudden realization of what had just occurred hitting him like a freight train.

Clang.

Turning around slowly, Steel laid his eyes on what he fully expected to see: a guard with black fur and a white mane and tail slumped across the ground haphazardly, his spear resting a few feet away. Steel called out loudly, but his internal radar that had been violently going off all day knew well enough that his efforts were in vain.

"Hello?" he called, his voice a mere shell of the power he'd intended. His words fell flat, the figure hunched upon the ground still as a stone. Cautiously, Steel walked towards him, and when he reached the prone body, he turned it over to his side to observe the guard's face.

The guard's fur showed an immense amount of struggle, with pieces of it mottled and frayed if it wasn't entirely gone, but it took everything in Steel's power not to scream when his gaze drifted to the guard's eyes. There was quite literally nothing there: where the sclera, pupil and iris should have been was merely a black void, not a reflection or hint of existence to be seen. It was so dark that Steel brought his hoof to the eye just to be sure there was anything there, and the cold and dead film that met his hoof was more than enough confirmation.

Staring a second longer at the horror that lie beneath him, Steel quickly stood up from his crouched position and began to rapidly pace back and forth, doing everything within his power not to hyperventilate.

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no... " he began, forcing himself to stop and take deep breaths. While he hadn't expected to step into a scenario that made any horror movie or novel pale in comparison, he was trained for it, and so he closed his eyes and quickly began to move in the direction of the guard bunks, gripping his spear tighter than he ever had before.

There is something here, he thought to himself as he rounded another corner. I need to get to the guard bunks if it has not already. Everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine. Everything is going to be fine.

Steel quickly reached a large, crystalline dining hall that signified his destination was close. The next hall, Steel knew, was the path to the guard bunks, and with an exasperated breath, he prepared himself for the worst. Sure enough, he was immediately greeted with the sight of two bodies strewn about on the floor beneath him as he approached the hallway, both within about five or six feet away from each other. The farthest one was turned away like the last guard, but the closest to him was unfortunately not: it was a mare, her fur an arctic white and her mane and tail matching, whose nightmarish voided eyes were on full display like the previous victim he saw. Unlike the previous victim, however, her mouth was wide open in what appeared to be an attempted scream, the vain effort fossilized upon her visage.

With a panic-stricken slowness, Steel looked up to the doorframe of the guard bunks, knowing well he'd have a full few of the center of the room. Only a quick glimpse revealed a prone figure lying on one of the beds, giving him all the information he needed to know. He gripped his spear tighter, quelling the shake he began to develop across his body.

I need to leave this place. Tell the townsfolk they aren't safe and write to the monarchs as fast as I can, though Steel. He whipped around and took a step forward only to screech to a grinding halt as the dining room came into view.

There was a pony a few feet away standing eerily still: Steel hadn't heard any movement behind him at all, but this was certainly no illusion. The upper half of its face was obscured by a black cloak, its mouth barely visible through the shadow. It didn't take long to identify its features, though: the pony was a unicorn, as its horn poked through the top of its hood, and it appeared to be male based on its stock and build. He had a pleasant, arctic white coat, and his mane and tail appeared to be a muted shade of amber. He wasn't using a spell at the moment, but he also wasn't moving a muscle, so Steel quickly brought his spear back to his side. After waiting for what seemed like an eternity, Steel broke his silence.

"Hello?" he asked. His echo bounced around the room as it had all day, but Steel now truly wished it was his only company. After a few moments, the pony replied.

"Hello." The voice was oddly normal, a tiny bit higher than average: the cadence could have belonged to any stallion in Equestria. "You are Steel Sentinel, yes? I was wondering where you were. I triple checked the list." Steel could feel his eyes widen at that remark, but he did all he could to keep his composure: tilting his spear forward and crouching in a battle position, he began to bark at the stallion with an added ferocity.

"Don't move. Flip your hood up and get on the ground. Now." Steel had no idea how menacing he sounded, but nonetheless, the stallion complied, if only partially. He slowly drew back his hood, revealing the face he'd been hiding.

His face was extremely well defined, and he was a clearly handsome stallion, but it wasn't his face that drew Steel's gaze. His sclera was a bright and sickly green, both simultaneously blinding and lifeless. The irises were bright red while the pupils were colored of blood, seemingly flowing and pulsing like a vein. From his eyes seeped a dark purple mist, flowing constantly with no sign of stopping.

Steel had seen the very same eyes in the mad King Sombra, and it took much more than a spear to fell him.

"It took me some time to find you," the stallion said, seemingly ignoring Steel's commands. "But you're here now. I take it you've noticed the fate of your compatriots?" The calmness and steadiness in his voice were chilling, but Steel wasn't about to back down: taking a step forward, gritted his teeth as he spoke next.

"The guards... m-my friends... you killed them," he said, the cocktail of fear and anger slowly rising in his voice. The stallion merely raised his eyebrows at his words.

"Dead? I think you're mistaken, Steel Sentinel. Your friends are more alive than they ever have been." Steel leaned back in surprise at the comment before quickly reverting to anger at his words.

"Alive? What do you mean, they--"

Upon turning around, Steel was greeted with the sight of the two guards he had just seen lifeless standing in their spots. They were as still as statues, and their heads were cocked ever so slightly to the left, both guards perfect mirrors of one another. Their eyes were still an empty, black void, and upon leaning over slightly Steel could see that a pony was now very clearly standing on the bed in the exact same pose with its eyes locked upon him. If he hadn't seen them dead only moments ago, he could have easily believed they were wax figures.

The ponies did not move. They did not breathe. They did not blink.

They stared.

When Steel turned back around, he was greeted with the sight of the stallion mere inches from his face, his dead an emotionless expression burning right through him. Silently screaming in terror, Steel lept backward only to be more horrified to feel fur behind him. Not daring move a muscle any longer, Steel watched in dread, but not before he let out a whisper barely loud enough to be heard.

"What are you?" he asked, the whisper not enough to hide the shaking in his voice. The stallion chuckled quaintly as he began a slow walk towards Steel.

"I am a vessel of the void," the stallion said simply. "A priest of the shadows." His horn lit up black, with the green and red touches of darkness dancing slightly around it. The stallion began a carefree advance towards Steel, who attempted to thrust his spear forward: the "ponies" behind him quickly wrapped their front legs around his own, disarming him and locking him tightly. He attempted a struggle, but it was of no use, as the strength in the beings holding him seemed nigh supernatural. The only thing Steel could do was look up in horror.

"I am suffragan to the darkness. I believe it my sacred duty to spread its word." The stallion leaned down slowly to meet Steel's gaze, placing his horn within an inch of his forehead. With a dripping malice, the stallion whispered to Steel as he placed his horn between his eyes.

"And I will make you believe."

To Steel Sentinel, the silence was not golden, but once the horn touched his fur and the darkness flowed through him, it was all he'd ever know.

CHAPTER FIVE

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CHAPTER FIVE:
MEMENTO MORI
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

The wind gently whispered in my ears, coursing in and out like a melancholy song. Little droplets of snow floated down upon my scarf and, as soon as they hit its plaid cotton, melted into tiny droplets.

It was cold.

I remember it as if it had just happened. Our marks soaring back to us, the identities and talents that made us who we were restored. I remember chasing Starlight Glimmer, the mare who had stripped the destiny from so many, across the mountainside.

I remember her face when we'd finally drew her from hiding. Cold, loathsome fury twitching every-which-way through her visage, sneering to me that my "sentimental nonsense" would do her no good.

I remember how biting the cold was, numbing every inch of my body with a sinister steadiness, but I remember more distinctly her words that evening biting harder.

In the very spot where we all stood now, I had given up on Starlight Glimmer. When she ran to the caverns in disgust and defeat, I had turned my back on her--literally and figuratively--and I'd walked away from that mountain pass expecting to never see her again. Starlight Glimmer had been filled with a burning fervor that I didn't entirely understand, and her vicious words made it clear to me, at the time, that I likely never would.

Now, I stood beside a best friend and a mare that I had not only taught, but who had taught so much to me. It seemed so long ago that Starlight Glimmer was the latest antagonist in my never-ending friendship crusade, and now I don't think I could imagine my life without her in it.

When I turned to Starlight, her mouth slightly creaked and her eyes a gateway to the gears in her head spinning at a thousand miles an hour, I knew she remembered it, too.

She turned to me, a wistful glint speckled in her eyes, and she stared. I stared back--for comfort maybe, or something else--but surprisingly, it was Violet who decided to break the silence.

"Twilight?" she asked. Both of us turned to her, and I quickly smiled to break the tension: the corner of my eye revealed that Starlight had done it at the exact same time.

"I'm sorry, guys. We're ready to go now, it's just... Starlight and I were remembering something that happened right here." I turned to the mare in question, who merely nodded in agreement. Violet cocked her head to the side in curiosity, her gaze floating back and forth between us.

"Bethinking oneselves of this spot? Were these memories pleasant?" I looked to Starlight again, who shook her head and drew her gaze to the ground as a reminiscent smile slowly spread across her face.

"Not really, no," she answered after a pause, a chuckle escaping her lips. She looked back to Violet, the embarrassed and recollecting smirk quickly erased by an eager warm beam.

"But we're not here for my memories, Violet... we're here for yours." She said the last part much softer, knowing all too well what Violet was about to go through.

Violet was about to take a trek through the history of Hourton, its parchment the mountain walls that made up the cave and its ink the remains of the dead. She would likely see friends, family, and many other ponies who she would come to know across her life, as well as those who sat by her bedside when she took her last breath (or so she had assumed). The trip, however, would end with a casket far more familiar than any other.

Her own.

"Are you sure you're ready for this?" Sunset interjected, leaning across the line of ponies we had formed. Sunset had taken Violet under her wing in adapting her to the new world she had found herself in: a task I had thought to be a bit ironic, seeing as how Sunset also had just come back to Equestria after a long period of absence, but she had done a great job of settling Violet into a world she couldn't possibly comprehend.

Violet paused for a few seconds before merely nodding and taking the first steps into the mountain pass, the muffled echo of her hooves across the rock reverberating through the cavern.

"Let us go," she began, not stopping to look bad at the rest of the group. "My sepulture is likely far into the cavern."

We all turned to look at each other one more time, unsure if Violet's confidence was truly genuine or a cloak over her nervousness, but we carried on nonetheless. We made sure to stick close to Violet, as Starlight only knew the basic paths of the mountain pass and would likely get lost if she strayed too far from where she had escaped from so long ago.

Trixie Lulamoon, who had stayed quiet for most of the trip--an instance most in Violet's time would consider one of Celestia's many miracles--walked up to my left side before speaking softly as we traveled.

"Did you get that letter back from Spike?" she asked, a rushed and nervous inflection in her voice. I shook my head in the negative: I had asked Spike to gather the all the girls in Canterlot and to report back to me as soon as he could, but I didn't get any word from him yet.

"No, which is strange because he usually--" At that moment, I heard a rumbling in the leather messenger bag strapped over my shoulder. I quickly opened it with my magic and pulled out a neatly tied scroll, looking to Trixie with a shocked amusement. I could feel Sunset imitating my glance from behind me when Trixie's eyes went wide.

"Abracadabra?" the magician jokingly stated, shrugging her shoulders with a sheepish grin. That one caused a riot among the three of us, the smug look slowly I'd come to love from Trixie Lulamoon washing over her as we continued to walk. I opened the letter and read it aloud, the echo on my voice getting more and more intense as Violet led on ahead of us.

Hi, Twilight!
As it turned out, Rainbow and Rarity were already here! They're in the castle with me now and we're having lunch with Celestia and Luna. The other girls told me they were all gonna get here as quickly as they could, so hopefully they're all here by the time you guys come back!
P.S: I gave the old tower a once over before we move back in. It's gonna be real weird living there again...
P.P.S: I almost forgot! Celestia wanted me to tell you to take care of Violet in there. She's really worried about her.
Your favorite dragon,
Spike

I decided to omit the post scriptums aloud, though did take note of them all the same. Celestia and I had figured it a good idea to stay in Canterlot for a few weeks in order to discover the reasoning behind Violet's sudden appearance, and that old tower I used to live in had remained virtually untouched since I left it. It was nice to know Spike had thought to tidy it up, and I mentally reminded myself that I had to thank him whenever we got back.

We kept walking after that for a few minutes, the silence in the cave deafening, until Violet stopped at the left side wall. We watched her from a distance, and when I truly took in the surroundings I immediately noticed the defining features of the area.

There were three rows carved into the cave walls, each harboring coffins of various types. Many of them looked exactly the same--a nice, brown wood with gold latches--but a few them were oddballs, made from a different material or completely coated in flowers or cloth. Each coffin had a plaque beneath it, designating the pony who was buried there: Violet had been dusting one off, and she read the plaque aloud as we watched a few feet away.

"Golden Comet," she said softly. "This stallion was the bottler's son." She quietly read over the rest of the description, which likely displayed the date of his death and possibly how he died. We all looked to each other, unsure what to do, until Starlight carefully walked from the rest of the group and knelt down to Violet's side.

"Was... was this pony your friend, Violet?" She asked, a somber tone bleeding through her voice. Violet stayed silent for a few precious seconds, only answering when she had finished reading the plaque.

"Celestia, no. He was a nithing," she answered, a deep and wistful tone to her voice. I could feel my eyes widen in surprise, and as emotional as she sounded, it took everything in my power not to start laughing: upon looking to my right I could see both Sunset and Trixie vehemently fighting off grins that had slipped through their visage. Violet quickly got up from the cavern floor, turning to face Starlight with a glowing grin.

"I truly thank you for thy worries, Starlight Glimmer," she said warmly. She turned the Golden's coffin once more, observing it one final time as she spoke. "I do not imagine this trek will be facile... memories return even for those froward and loathly."

She continued onwards, contantly scanning to the left and right in search of somepony she knew. We walked forward to Starlight, and she fell right in line with the rest of us as we delved deeper into the cave.

"That was very nice of you, Starlight," I said, resting a hoof on her shoulder. "Even if that, uh, wasn't exactly what we were expecting." We all got out the laughs we had been burying a minute earlier, but they quickly silenced when Starlight shook her head and began to speak.

"I couldn't even imagine. It's very brave of Violet to do this for us. We should do something really nice for her after this." We all nodded in agreement, silently thinking of something cool we could all do to relieve her stress when we arrived back in Canterlot. The silence continued for quite some time with only our steps to listen to until Violet stopped again, this time on the right side.

She didn't kneel down, instead staying to look to the middle row. This coffin was adorned with daisies, tied together all across it over a single white sheet. Tears began to stream down Violet's face, faster and more plentiful by the second, and we all knew then that whoever this pony was clearly wasn't a "nithing" as Golden Comet had been.

All of us quickly walked over to Violet, who was feeling the daisies over with her hoof. I took a look at the plaque in the center of the wall, displaying clearly who had been laid to rest in the cavern.

Daisy Midnight
Loved laughter and all it brought
Succumbed to the pestilence

"I aided in weaving these," Violet stated, her voice hoarse and shaking. "I was in Canterlot when news reached me. Daisy was my lifelong friend. I returned to Hourton just to see her pass on to the next world." All three of us brought Violet in for a hug, letting her remember her long lost friend in silence for what seemed to be an eternity. Eventually, she shrugged us all off, a nervous laughter escaping her lips.

"I cannot repay ye for this kindness," she began, wiping her eyes. "I am in grief beyond words, but I am glad I have returned to this place." We all nodded, and it was Sunset who spoke this time as she trotted to Violet and held on to her shoulder.

"It's alright, Violet. If you ever want to talk for a while, we have time." We all nodded in agreement, but Violet quickly shook her head in the negative as she brushed Sunset's hoof away.

"I will be fine, I promise," she said, doing her absolute best to muster a smile beneath her red and teary face. "We should be very close to my sepulture--Hourton was no Canterlot, I assure you." Although her remark wasn't strenuously funny, we laughed along with her anyways, giving her just a little taste of the gift her friend Daisy had clearly given to others so generously.

The rest of the walk wasn't pleasant for any of us, but I had something greater on my mind.

I couldn't help but think about what Violet had been doing, viewing the plaques adorned with names and faces she used to know, and how one day I would likely do the same. I would be lying if I said I didn't think about it often--I still had nightmares occasionally of ruling over an Equestria that had long passed my greatest friends by--but the emotions, sorrows and joys of Violet seeing her friends' caskets was likely a preview of my own future one day. I shook my head quickly, bringing the world back into view as we continued onwards.

That day would not be for quite some time.

Trixie had seen the small gesture, I knew, but elected not to say anything as we trudged onwards. The torches that lined the walls of the tomb, clearly propelled by some kind of magic, almost seemed to glow just a bit brighter as we walked, engulfing the caskets in a blanket of flickering amber.

Eventually, we hit a slight curve in the path, and it was where Violet stopped dead in her tracks. We quickly followed suit, staying a few feet behind her as usual while she slowly crept towards the wall.

What Violet first turned to was the middle row once more. It held a double-wide casket, the first one I had seen during the trip, with nothing but a single, dried up rose resting gently on top of it. In relation to the casket above it, I immediately knew the ponies it held, and I found a tear of my own quickly sliding across my cheek as Violet recited the plaque to the rest of the group.

"Lilac and Shining Meadow," she said sternly, the unsteadiness returning to her voice. She shed no tears, however, instead beginning to chuckle as she looked to the rose on their coffin. "My parents were inseparable, even in expiry." She rested a hoof on their coffin for a second before bringing it down and placing the opposite hoof on her chest, moving it in a pattern and whispering something to herself. I assumed it was a prayer of some sort, but I didn't recognize it: it wasn't very long, however, and she quickly looked to the top row with a smile on her face.

"It's nice to see my wishes in death were obeyed," she said simply.

The coffin on the top row was just like all the other normal ones, but it was the plaque that stood out. This one appeared to be made of solid gold, glimmering greatly as the light touched it, and was bound around the sides with what appeared to be mother-of-pearl. The royal emblem of Equestria, Celestia and Luna circled around the sun and moon, was emblazoned fabulously in the bottom left corner below the inscription. We all trotted to where Violet was standing as she read her own epitaph aloud.

Violet
Celestia's chosen
Returned home at last

"It was the very last thing we discussed," Violet said suddenly, gazing to her place of rest. "She wanted my coffin adorned in gold and topped with the finest gems and jewelry. I wanted not to overshadow the others in this hallowed place. In the end, we compromised neatly."

"The plaque," Trixie said assuredly. Violet nodded in confirmation, her grin growing even wider.

"Yes. She wanted something to display just how much she loved me. She was fortunate I was in no strength to argue... shall we do it, then?" she asked, the heaviness of the question overshadowing her wit. I nodded grimly and turned to the other girls, backing up and forming a semi-circle at the base of the wall.

Slowly, with all our magic, we grabbed hold of the coffin and brought it outwards, dust and rock tumbling down from a thousand years of rest. As carefully as we could, we set the coffin down gently on the floor around us, holding just a bit longer than we needed to in an effort to ensure it was safely balanced. When it was done, we all turned to Violet for the thousandth time that day, with Sunset speaking the words we had all been thinking on the way here.

"Would you like to do the honors?" she asked, both a soft concern and strong conviction coming through her voice. Silently, Violet nodded, and with her magic broke the latch on the coffin and carefully removed the lid in one fell swoop.

Once the lid was completely off, we were greeted with the sight of absolutely nothing.

The coffin was as empty as it could be. There were no bones, strands of hair or anything else indicative that a body had even been placed there: the only thing it held was dust.

"Unbelievable," Starlight whispered, moving forward to take a closer look. After a few seconds of staring, she turned back to Violet, whose mouth was slightly creaked open in confusion and surprise.

"Your bones aren't in here. They're in there," she said wildly, pointing to Violet. She looked down in shock, only just understanding what Starlight was implying, but didn't say a word as Starlight turned to us with a face of giddy discovery I know I'd held many times throughout my life.

"She isn't displaced from her time period, she was revived. I don't know how or why, but there are no bones in this coffin because they're in her body: you were absolutely right, Trixie, this isn't time travel, she's back from the dead!" I nodded silently as she spoke, bewildered right along with everypony else. After a moment of thinking, I turned to my former student and began to talk faster than I was thinking.

"So she was revived this young? She just woke up in her twenties in a field outside Canterlot after being dead for a thousand years? This answers one thing, but gives us thousands of more questions." Starlight nodded, her excited expression quickly turning grim as she spoke to me with new conviction.

"I know it does. We need to get back to Celestia and figure out what in Tartarus is happening here." I was about to nod, but a chorus of rather odd-sounding footsteps echoing from further down the cave quickly caught my attention. I saw a figure step out from the shadows and instinctively ignited my horn, a stun spell pulsing and at the ready. The other mares didn't even hesitate, turning around with their own magic prepared to face whatever it was I was pointed at.

"Perhaps I could be of assistance?" the figure asked, fully emerging from the darkness. It was a unicorn stallion, his accent distinctly Canterlotian with a rough edge to it. He had a navy blue mane and tail with a light grey coat, and his eyes matched the orange in the burning torches exactly. The most notable feature about the mystery stallion, however, was that most of his right leg appeared to be made of bronze, cut off unevenly with the very little natural part of it left.

Sunset quickly stepped forward, her horn glowing more aggressively as she spoke to the intruder.

"Hold on there, buddy. Tell us who you are. Now." The stallion had a smug look on his face, seemingly unphased by Sunset's threats, and turned his gaze to Violet.

"My name is Cobalt Aegis, though you can just call me Cobalt," he replied. "I was drawn here, and I think it was because of this lass right here." Before Sunset could do anything rash, I stepped forward as well, my head cocked in confusion as I spoke with narrowed eyes.

"Drawn here? Why would you be drawn here?" I asked, making sure to bring forward my conviction. He pointed with his bronze leg to Violet's plaque on the wall, and I realized quickly he was motioning to the bottom left corner.

"Because I couldn't help but overhear your conversation," he began calmly. "And I think we have something in common."

CHAPTER SIX

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CHAPTER SIX:
REVOLUTION
COBALT AEGIS

"Cobalt! You know I can't keep up with you!"

Princess Celestia had said a variation on that phrase just about every time she tried to follow me, and I relished in it constantly. Knowing there was some kind of advantage I held over my mentor--even in something as silly as galloping speed--gave me a margin of confidence I will admit was likely far too great for what it was. Nonetheless, I slowed down immediately, allowing Celestia to catch up and walk easily by my side.

"Sorry 'bout that," I said, a sly grin unable to hide from my face. "I'm just very, very excited, Princess. I know you're going to love this." Celestia chuckled, nodding in her head in reminiscence.

"Yes, I know. You've been working on this for over a year and a half." Suddenly, her face dropped, and she looked over to the prosthetic leg that softly clanged with each passing step.

"You lost your leg for this, Cobalt. Before we see this, I want to ask you something." I stopped in the hallway, causing Celestia to take a few extra steps forward. She reeled back a bit and, with that serious, brooding expression only she could have, turned to me. She let out a small sigh before she spoke, a soft regret weaved into her fierce tone.

"I want you to tell me that it this was worth it. Worth... that. I am still beside myself every day that I couldn't help you." despite the heavy emotional undertones of the question, I merely shook my head in affirmation, pointing with my prosthetic down the hallway

"Celestia, I have three of these," I began, bumping the leg on my head to let the little ping of the alloy ring out. I pointed back down the hallway again, and I could feel my face settling into that eager grin Celestia always teased me for whenever I got excited about a project I was working on.

"But that, Princess? Waiting in that garage? There's only one. I'd do this again in a heartbeat."

She seemed taken aback at first with my conviction and motivation, but I truly doubt she was really surprised: I'd been working on the development of this project for a long, long time, and I had managed to keep a secret from the Princess of the Sun for its entirety. The only ponies who were in on it were the guards: the lads had to make sure I wasn't building some crazy doomsday device, and of course, I didn't blame them. I was just worried that one of the bastards would snitch on me, but they had either done a fantastic job or she was keeping it from me to feel better.

A warm smile crept onto Celestia's face, and she nodded much like I did only seconds ago.

"Then let us go on, Cobalt Aegis. I'm very excited to see your project come to fruition." Eagerly, I returned her smile, ever infectious from the likes of the Princess, and I started in a light jog towards our destination. Celestia followed suit and began humming a tune I didn't recognize, though it was certainly filled with beautiful, cascading harmonies.

As we turned the corner in our trek to the back of the castle, a pony in armor immediately entered my vision, coming towards us from the opposite direction. I recognized the mono-colored light blue pegasus immediately: it was Soaring Valor, one of the guards assigned to my project, as well as one of the very first ponies to experience it first hand.

The Royal Guard was taught with a very specific set of rules--my father had followed them and upheld them for close to twenty-five years--and one of its most basic tenants was its upholding of stoicism. The iron, emotionless gaze of the Royal Guard was legendary all across the world, and it was to be upheld especially in front of Princess Celestia, Equestria's monarch.

So I had to look to her face the moment Soaring stopped and spoke to me with a wide beam burning through his gaze.

"Are you showing her the invention?" He asked me. I got exactly the look I wanted from Celestia: her eyes were wide and jaw dropped ever so slightly in amusement, mildly surprised at the guard's words. I turned back to Soaring with a slyness I could feel on my countenance, nodding assuredly before I spoke.

"Indeed I am, sir. We shouldn't be gone long." Soaring nodded with a chuckle, patting me on the back before shifting his sight back up to his ultimate commander. He had a glint in his eyes as he addressed her next, his tone firm but mischievous.

"He took me on a test run last night," he told her. "My princess, it's incredible. What your lad here has done is nothing short of revolutionary." Without another word, he carried on with his shift, marching perfectly in time as he disappeared around the corner behind us. Celestia watched him leave before looking to me, a stunned and impressed look plastered on her face.

"Soaring has been among my personal guard for close to ten years now," she told me, "And I've never seen him praise anypony that highly. You must have truly outdone yourself, my little pony." I shrugged arrogantly, looking around the glass-stained hallway to an audience I didn't have.

"Well, princess, it's all to be expected from a stallion such as myself. Now come: I want to make sure the city lights are at their brightest." Celestia's face twisted in a very slight confusion at the last hint, but she nonetheless followed once I continued down the path to the garage my mentor so graciously had built for my project.

There were slices of small talk for the rest of the route, with myself mainly asking about Celestia's day and Celestia asking me how the rest of the royal guards had reacted to my creation. I didn't take long at all the reach the very simple wooden door to the garage, entirely out of place with the fabulous trimmings and stained glass of the hallways we had been walking through.

I stopped her right at the door, holding up my prosthetic leg in an effort to halt her. She complied, and with a curious expression listened intently as I launched into my preliminary tirade.

"Do you remember when we went to Liverpony for that ambassador's meeting three years ago?" I asked. Celestia nodded quickly, and so I leaned back into the wall as I continued.

"Well, I saw two things that caught my attention that day. The first came from all the steamboats that were traveling upstream in the River Maresey. I'm sure you remember that I sat by the shore and watched them for hours." Celestia giggled for the thousandth time that evening, recalling my jubilance upon my first viewing of the landmark invention.

"I do, yes," she answered. "Pulling you away from them at the end of the night was a greater trial than any." I smiled sheepishly at that remark, but didn't relive the embarrassment for long as I continued my tale.

"The second thing was the hot air balloons in the fields near the center of town. They had these brilliant patterns on them and the blokes were taking tourists up by the dozen." Celestia nodded once more, though I wasn't entirely sure she'd remember the few precious moments we'd seen the balloons during the trip. Nonetheless, I finally put my hoof on the door handle, looking up to my mentor with wild eyes.

"So for a year and a half, I thought of a way to bring out the best in both of them--" I swung the door open with extravagance and bowed mockingly, motioning my left hoof out to the large invention Celestia now had complete eyes on.

"--and it came out more spectacularly than I could have possibly imagined."

It was a sleek but simple design. The body looked very similar to the hull of a boat, and a very basic one at that: it was made almost entirely with wood, but I couldn't help adding an outline of bronze around the edges for a much cleaner look. The first thing I knew Celestia would notice was the clam-shaped wings, three on each side made and coated in various alloys for a nice rippling effect. Finally, its pitch black steam engine contrasted strikingly with the rest of the body, sitting atop it with a glimmering sheen.

That, of course, wasn't what made it special. An abundance of cables sprouted from each side of the ship, running across it for now as the main attraction--the balloon slightly bigger than the ship itself--lying gently on the floor to the side.

Celestia was speechless for a moment, but once she came to her senses, she spoke slowly while she continued to scan my creation.

"It's an... airship?" she asked, walking closer to it now. I gladly walked with her before parting ways quickly as I trotted to the other side to start it up.

"That's what I called it as well! Wonder how we both came to that conclusion." I quickly hopped up the small stairs and onto the deck, the familiar smell of the engine nothing short of blissful. I walked over to the port side and leaned over the railing to see Celestia continually admiring it, occasionally leaning left or right to get a closer look at the machine.

"Cobalt, this... this can fly?" she asked, the incredulous look she had upon first viewing it still plastered on her face. I nodded a bit more hubristic than I intended, and instead of speaking up again I merely waited for her to finish inspecting the craft. After a minute or two passed by, she looked to me again, this time with a dumbfounded smile from ear to ear.

"I have no words for this, my faithful student. How much of this is magically powered?" she asked, looking to the steam engine on my left. I had been waiting for this moment all night, and I suavely leaned up against the engine as I made a slicing motion with my hoof.

"Zero," I said, causing her to immediately turn back to me in a state of shock that far surpassed her countenance a few seconds ago. "I used lots of magic to make it, of course, but everything on this airship is entirely technological: there is no magic powering anything or replacing anything. One-hundred percent organic."

Celestia was clearly at a loss for words, and she backed up slightly from the ship's body to admire my craftsmanship one last time. She was at a total loss for words, and I could feel my sense of pride swelling higher than I knew it ever had before at the sight of my lifelong mentor mesmerized by my work. As she wouldn't speak, I leaned over the railing just a bit more and spoke for her.

"There's a whole new Equestria out there, Celestia," I said softly, gesturing behind me to the currently closed garage door. She stared back at me with pride, fear, and amazement all in shambles across her visage, letting out a very nervous chuckle. I motioned to the deck, pointing particularly to one of the many chairs I'd installed on the airship.

"Do you want to go see it?"

It took the help of Celestia and her guards to bring the airship out of the garage and into the vast open field behind Canterlot's castle, but it was labor she was more than willing to do: she looked like a filly on Hearth's Warming Day as I fired the engine up and the balloon began to float above us. It wasn't long until the ship began to slowly ascend in the air, and I quickly manned the controls as the ground--which was now barely visible in the dark--appeared farther and farther away.

"How high does this go?" she asked, turned back to me after watching her castle become smaller and smaller. I answered without turning back, keeping a steady and watchful eye on the controls and manipulating them with my magic as I spoke.

"I am not entirely sure," I admitted, steering a course for a Canterlot fly-by. "I've been very conservative with it in my testing, but I've gotten considerable altitude from it. I'm gonna try to take it higher than it's ever been here tonight, though." I could practically feel my mentor's concern from behind me, and as I expected she quickly spoke in a worried tone.

"Be careful, Cobalt! Are you sure we'll be alright?" Getting every setting exactly where I wanted it, I hopped away from the pilot's controls and walked down to where she was standing.

"Well, Princess, we're already at that height." I stood on my hind legs and waved my forelegs in the air to demonstrate before quickly falling back on all fours. "And we're cruising just fine, so I'm sure it can go even higher than this without a problem. BUT, I've saved the best part of it all for last." I gestured for her to follow me, and I briskly walked to the starboard side of the airship with her in tow. Stepping aside, I gestured for her to look over the edge, and she brought a hoof to her mouth almost immediately upon seeing the view below.

It was her city.

In times past, Canterlot would have only been lit by torches and bonfires, likely appearing as pinpricks to a pony that was flying this high in the air. Equestria had entered a new age, however, and the city was lit up bright and powerful, the streetlights and rooms creating a mini galaxy across the city below. It was what had stripped the breath from Soaring Valor and his men, and it was what I knew had captivated Celestia's heart in this moment now.

I let her look at it for what seemed like an eternity. She stared and stared and stared at the city come alive in light, the hoof never leaving her face, but there came a point when I saw something I had never expected to see from the Princess of the Sun.

Tears.

Gently trickling down her cheeks like morning dew across the leaves, it came slow but steady. I quickly ran up to her and placed my forearm around her, but I realized it had been my prosthetic: sheepishly, I switched sides and wrapped my very attached left forearm around her as I did my best to counsel her.

"Princess, is something wrong?" I asked, looking towards her face. She let out an emotionally charged fit of laughter, a nod of her head assuring me she was fine despite the rapidly increasing tears across her face.

"I am more than fine, Cobalt. I shed tears of joy," she said, still looking out to her city below her. "I'm unbelievably proud of you and all of my little ponies for what they've accomplished in such little time. A hundred years ago, my faithful student, I couldn't even to begin to imagine seeing what I'm seeing now." She sighed--possibly out of nervousness, happiness, or both--and finally turned to me, her face bright red but the widest smile I'd ever seen from her spread from ear to ear.

"I'm overwhelmed right now," she said simply. "I'm not entirely sure of what my place in all of this will be as this technology becomes greater and greater... but you've made me beyond excited to find out tonight, Cobalt. Thank you."

I could have gone for a sly remark as I typically did, but I shook my head instead.

"Thank you, Princess," I began. "None of this would have happened without your guidance for me--" I motioned to the airship we were standing on. "--and none of this would have happened without your guidance for everypony in your kingdom."

There, hundreds of feet upon the breathing machine that was Canterlot, she brought me into an embrace. I can't remember how long we stayed like that, but I do remember one thing in particular: I could see her out of the corner of my eye, longingly staring at the full moon that hung so graciously in the night sky. I didn't know if she was remembering something or merely appreciating its, beauty, but I certainly didn't question her at the moment: after some period of silent thought, we broke apart, my mentor quickly wiping the tears from her eyes as she spoke with heavy breathing.

"This has been a very emotional day for me, Cobalt," she said, laughing slightly. "I could stare at the view forever, but we really should be heading down." I nodded curtly, making a note of our current location based on the landmarks I could see before waltzing over to control panel and igniting my horn.

I made short work of it, but I'd been tirelessly studying the mechanisms of the airship for a long, long time. I had set the course to descend, and after what I imagined was close to forty-five minutes Canterlot's towering castle came back into view. The lights on the street were shut off now, with the stragglers and shady figures roaming the streets at this hour left to the darkness. Doing the best I could, I landed the ship relatively close to the garage entrance, but I mentally cursed myself when we touched down: I could have gotten it just a bit closer to make everypony's night that much easier.

Nonetheless, I helped Celestia down from the stairs--not that she really needed it--and walked out in the field to greet the guards who had waited on our arrival. Even in the darkness, Soaring Valor's familiar face couldn't hide from me, nor could his thrilled smile as he led his equally-impressed guardponies behind him.

"Isn't it incredible? I got excited just watching it from down here!" He exclaimed, doing nothing to hide the childish excitement in his voice. She nodded eagerly, turning to me with a twinkle of pride in her eyes.

"It's amazing. Historical, even," she commented, looking back to the ship. "I don't suppose you've given thought to a name?" The question was a very easy one, but it hadn't even occurred to me until the second she'd said it. I shook my head in the negative, also shifting my gaze to the airship.

"No, I haven't. Have anything for me, Soaring?" The question was asked teasingly, and Soaring held a hoof in the air in a gesture of denial.

"Me? I'm not one to ask about that, lad. How about our Princess here?" All eyes turned to Celestia, who instead of shying away from the challenge seemed to embrace the opportunity. Thinking for a few seconds, she turned back to ship and admired it from afar as she gave her answer.

"Revolution," she said, the conviction in her voice glaringly apparent. "For a ship that brings a new age." It rolled off the tongue quite nicely, I thought, and I found myself nodding in agreement along with Soaring and the rest of the guards. Wistfully observing the ship for a few more precious seconds, Celestia turned back to us with satisfaction in her smile.

"Thank you for sticking with my faithful student for so long, and for your service in staying guard until we returned. You are all dismissed." Their faces immediately reverted to the empty gaze they had long been known for, and with a perfect salute, the guards marched in unison across the field to the back side of the castle.

Celestia and I stayed for a moment and watched them go before she began walking back towards the garage. I quickly followed suit, and she began to speak to me when we were about halfway there.

"I cannot understate how proud and amazed I am at your invention. This will go down as one of Equestria's finest achievements, Cobalt." she mused idly, staring out to the grass. "I couldn't ask for a better student." I chuckled a bit, causing the Princess to look at me: with a look on my face I knew well was smug, I looked directly into her eyes as I gave my reply.

"Well, it damn better be. Cost me a hoof and a leg."

CHAPTER SEVEN

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CHAPTER SEVEN:
DEAD LETTER
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

"YOU INVENTED THE AIRSHIP!?"

Cobalt Aegis gently took a sip from the cup of water beside him as our carriage rumbled onward, entirely unable--and possibly uninterested---in hiding the growing grin on his face. I had imagined that both Violet and now Cobalt, having gotten years more experience in the worlds they lived in, would be a bit more mellow when returned from the dead: it truly seemed, however, that Cobalt Aegis always had a braggadocious pride when it came to his work.

"I did, yes," he replied to the chorus, though it didn't come out as arrogant as I thought it would. "I am assuming by that response my invention is still going strong in today's age? I didn't see any in Our Town when I awoke, but the village did seem rather small." All of us (except for Violet, who was still in disbelief at the prospect of a "flying machine") nodded our heads in the affirmative, but I was the one to explain its current state in Equestria. I found a smile of my own forming and reveled slightly in telling him how far his creation had come.

"Cobalt, we use airships all the time. It's our primary means of traveling long distances," I explained. "I was on a cruiser a little while ago that was just about as big as Our Town." Cobalt reeled back at those words, his jaw dropping slightly: Violet joined him, still trying to understand the basic concept behind what Cobalt had invented. He was lost in thought for a second, thinking over what I'd said, but Sunset didn't give him a lot of time.

"So here's what I don't understand," she said quickly. "I read countless history books when I was Celestia's student, and quite a few of them mentioned the airship as a seminal piece of Equestria's Industrial Revolution. However, I distinctly remember every book stating that nopony knew exactly who created it."

As she said it, the lightbulb went off in my head as well. Equestrian textbooks often stated that nopony had any concrete evidence of who invented the airship, only guessing that it had come out of Canterlot based on early manuscripts. I eyed Cobalt questioningly, indicating I had the same question, but it merely caused him to chuckle slightly as he leaned back in the carriage chair.

"Goodness, Celestia and I fought about this for months," he mused before beginning his tale. "I told her that I wanted to remain anonymous as the inventor of the technology." Almost immediately after he finished the sentence, Trixie, who had been listening intently with the rest of us, recoiled a bit in shock.

"What?" she asked incredulously. "If I had created something so spectacular, I'd take great pride in my invention!" Starlight snorted, rolling her eyes and putting an arm around her best friend.

"Trust me, Trix, we know." Everypony (even Violet and Cobalt) erupted into laughter at the ribbing, with Trixie perhaps laughing the hardest: whenever the laughter died down, Cobalt sighed deeply before settling into his seat to tell what I assumed would be a long story.

"I don't know how this is looked at from a contemporary view, since I kicked the ol' bucket around 200 years ago," he began, "But what you call Equestria's "Industrial Revolution" originated mostly from pegasi and earth ponies who had to find way to make work, travel and life easier without the aid of unicorn magic. Eventually, these would benefit the unicorns as well, and in my lifetime they ended up contributing greatly to the industrialization in my time. Now, before all this happened, advancement in technology didn't come from the regular citizens of Equestria." Violet, who had held her tongue for a considerable amount of time, quietly spoke up.

"In my time, much innovation and research had come from Celestia's court." Cobalt nodded in agreement.

"Precisely. Court wizards, researchers and blacksmiths were often the very best Equestria had to offer at the time, and so new technologies and knowledge originated from there." He took a sip from his water again, finishing the glass, and set it gently to his side.

"That, though, wasn't the case when I was growing up. It was everyday lads and lasses, not people like me, that came up with technology like the steam engine, the mechanical loom, and things of that nature. All of their technology--and most of their technique, I reckon--are what I used to create my airship." I began to catch on to what Cobalt was saying at this point, but I let him continue talking the carriage had hit a few bumps in the road.

"So I create this airship, yes? And it's going to be one of Equestria's most important so far. I knew it, Celestia knew it, the damn castle chef knew it, and so when she wanted to put my name on the patent, I told her no." I was about to speak up and take a guess at his intentions, but Sunset spoke up faster right next to me.

"You didn't want one of the seminal inventions of the era to come from the courts. You wanted it to come from the citizens," she said. Cobalt nodded, confirming my own suspicions.

"I had built it using the citizen's technology and methods," he explained. "I knew how proud everypony was that they alone had helped develop a new age in Equestria. I... I didn't want to ruin that. This industrial revolution gave the ordinary ponies all around Equestria a feeling in their hearts that for the first time in a long time, they were carving their own path, so I remained anonymous. Celestia had introduced it to the world by hosting an event and claimed that a builder from Baltimare had flown in to present it to her." There was a silence after that, all of us contemplating what he'd said: it was a large sacrifice, and how Cobalt had denied the legend of creating the airship to uphold the pride of common Equestria was nothing short of incredible. It was Trixie who broke the silence among us, speaking for everypony in a soft admiration.

"That... that's incredibly noble of you, Cobalt." For the first time since I'd met him, I saw a sheepish smile spread across his face in slight embarrassment. He waved a hoof at the notion, once more leaning back in his chair.

"Oh, it's really nothing," he began. "The important part is that it existed to help everypony, from the Princesses to the common pony. Besides, the builders in Canterlot created tremendous improvements to my design even while I was alive: I'm very excited to see what they look like now." The group nodded thoughtfully, though it wasn't long until Starlight Glimmer quickly broke the silence.

"There's one other thing, Cobalt," she began. His face quickly washed in stoicism, knowing from the tone of her voice the that her inquiry was no laughing matter. "You said you were drawn to Violet's casket back there. What exactly did you mean by that?"

Cobalt sighed again, even deeper than last time, and I could read him like a book before he even said a word: he had the look of stallion who simply had no answers.

"I... I just don't know, Starlight. I woke up a fair distance away from Our Town, but I could see it in the distance, so I went there. And the ponies were so kind and friendly to me, and I stayed in their inn for two nights, but I just kept looking at that mountain pass." He stopped for a second, attempting to formulate his next words verbally.

"Have any of you ever had a gut feeling? As in you saw a place and knew you had to go there or saw something you just had to have? I couldn't tell you why I wanted to go into the pass, but I just really, really did. It drove me insane until I decided to finally make the trip. And look who I found."

Sunset and I glanced at each other worriedly, remembering the conversation we'd had over dinner at the castle. We didn't get to mull on it for long, however, as moments after he finished our carriage driver opened the window behind him and leaned through it, looking to us all with a smile.

"We're approaching Canterlot, everypony. I'd start getting your things together."

Cobalt, who had insisted we not contact Celestia in regards to his appearance to keep the "surprise", breathed a long sigh of relief at what I knew was the thought of him returning to the place that so defined him.

When we entered the wide open throne room of Canterlot Castle, I could almost feel the anticipation in the room.

Celestia had been in what appeared to be a light conversation with Luna, though I couldn't make out what they had been saying before they stopped to look up at us. Rarity and Rainbow Dash--who I was unbelievably glad to have here--appeared to be locked in a rather intense game of go fish, and based on the substantial amount of cards on Rarity's side of the table it looked like she had it firmly in the bag. They, too, looked to greet us when we entered, though all of them showed slight signs of confusion when they saw I was only followed by Violet and Sunset.

"Where's everypony else?" Rainbow asked with a sly grin as she approached us. Rarity and the Princesses followed close behind, and after embracing Rainbow for a few seconds I found myself returning her smile.

"I could say the same to you guys. They're still getting some stuff out of the carraige." I turned back and held out a hoof to the two ponies behind me.

"This is Sunset, who I don't think you two have technically met yet, and this is Violet, Celestia's first apprentice." Sunset waved affectionately at the two ponies, but Violet was inclined to give a very deep bow in greeting: both Rainbow and Rarity began to laugh, causing Violet to bounce back up in confusion as Rainbow reassured her.

"We don't do that anymore, Violet! We're all pretty chill here!" This sentence only made Violet's face twist in a deeper misunderstanding, and Sunset quickly whispered in her ear what I assumed was a translation. Violet nodded slowly as a sheepish glow spread across her countance, opting now to wave just as Sunset did.

"Oh, Rainbow, don't confuse the poor mare! Why, you both look so beautiful, I simply must have you both in my shop to try some dresses!" It was enough to turn both Sunset and Violet red, but Sunset recovered quickly as she replied.

"I think I'll take you up on that offer! Rarity designs clothes, Violet: maybe you could give tell her about some of the clothes you saw back in your time?" Violet nodded eagerly, giving a warm smile in Rarity's direction.

"I still remember the dress I wore at the Grand Galloping Gala vividly as ever. I would take much delight in describing to thee what I hath seen." Rarity jumped up and down excitedly, and I could tell she was already planning her next collection. I rolled my eyes happily, glad to see her take such joy in her work.

The princesses came in to view behind them, Celestia and Luna listening to our conversation in amusement. When she noticed we had finished our introductions, she spoke up, looking particularly at Violet.

"So? What did you all find out?" I looked to Sunset, deciding to let her take this question: taking up a co-leadership role with her felt much better than I'd ever admit.

"Violet isn't displaced from her time period: she was revived magically, somehow ending up as young as she is. It really presents more questions than answers, but... we brought somepony else back." Celestia's head tilted in confusion at that remark, her eyebrows rising.

"From Our Town? Why would you do that? Who is it?"

Suddenly, we all heard a commotion coming from outside the hall. It was Starlight and Trixie, who appeared to be talking about carraiges: particularly, the one that we had just arrived in. They were talking with another voice, though, and when I looked into Celestia's eyes I saw them widen only just enough to notice.

She recognized it. She knew it. But she didn't comprehend it yet.

The three quieted once they had reached the large hallway, and Trixie and Starlight filed in first, coupled together. With them, however, was a Cobalt Aegis, a pony who I knew hadn't stepped into the throne room in a very long time.

It took a second for Celestia to understand what had just occured, but her draw dropped to the floor as she finally realized who had stepped into her throne room. The tears we had all come to expect began to well in her eyes, the rush of emotions and memories flooding to her much in the way they did when she saw Violet. It was different this time, though: where she was shocked and in disbelief when she saw her very first student appear in her castle, she knew very well now that this was no imposter, fake or illusion. There was a single emotion coursing through the Princess of the Sun that I had only seldom seen in her.

She was entirely overwhelmed with pure, unadulterated happiness.

Cobalt took a look around the room, viewing the brilliant banners and tapestries, before stepping forward and looking his former mentor in the eye.

"You didn't change it one bit since I was gone?" he asked. Without a single word, Celestia came rushing to him, wrapping him in the tightest embrace she could manage. He laughed, his voice cracking ever so slightly from the crushing weight of the hug before she finally released after what felt like a lifetime.

"Cobalt!" she exclaimed, the tears coursing down strong as ever. She looked to me now, an involuntary laugh escaping her lips.

"Why didn't you write?" she asked, playfully upset. The four of us from the trip all rolled our eyes at just about the same time, but it was Starlight who answered.

"This one wanted to surprise you. We filled him in on everything, though." Celestia said nothing, merely looking back at her former student in a gaze of disbelief.

There were very few moments I had seen Celestia in the state she was in now. She cried tears of joy the day I graduated from college, walking across the stage at CSGU. She was beside herself with a cocktail of pride and sadness when I had earned my wings (quite literally). She had almost broken down in front of my friends and I when we had returned her sister to her, though she powered through and presented herself as regal as she ever was.

I had a feeling now, though, in the presence of two ponies she had loved deeply returned in the flesh, that she was ready to simply release: as she spoke her next words with a voice shaking and hollow, I knew my intuition had been proved correct.

"I... I'm truly sorry, but I think I need a moment alone. This is far too much for me... can I join you all in the dining hall in around half an hour?" We all nodded in the affirmative, but surprisingly it was Cobalt that verbally answered for the group.

"Of course, Princess."

There weren't really any words after that. The rest of us shuffled away silently, leaving Celestia to her thoughts as she wished. The rest of the group wafted through the doorframe in silence, myself the last among them: I had only just begun to exit the room when Celestia called out to me, the returning scratchiness in her voice wildly evident.

"Twilight?"

I turned around, bracing myself for the emotions I was absolutely sure were about to break through the dam. When she opened her mouth to speak, however, it became clear to me it there would be nothing of the sort.

"Spike is here, and he's been anxiously waiting for your return. He told me he had something very important to tell you."

That was interesting, as I couldn't possibly think of something that Spike would implore the Princess to remind me about. I gave her a smile--the best one I could manage, hoping to let it stay with her as she retreated--and I warmly nodded as I gave her my response.

"Thank you. I'll be sure to look around for him."

It didn't take long to catch up with the group, who appeared to be walking to nowhere in particular. Cobalt was merely happy to be back in the castle, explaining to everypony that most of the decorations, artifacts and windows that lined the halls had been there when he was an apprentice. Quietly, I slipped close to Sunset, who had a concerned look on her face as she addressed me quietly.

"Is she okay?" She asked me. I nodded solemnly and gave a small sigh before elaborating.

"She will be, this is just... quite a shock, I would imagine. A happy one, though, if that makes sense." I turned to face her now, motioning my head in the direction of the revived students that currently led the pack of ponies.

"What's the plan for them?" Sunset returned my earlier nod, though this one told me that she'd had everything planned out for the both of them for quite some time. It was something I really admired in Sunset: not only was she incredibly smart, but she always had a plan to implement her knowledge far before anypony else did.

"I'm going to schedule them physicals from the castle doctor before we eat. If there's something inherently wrong, we might be able to catch it and get a lead on what in Tartarus is happening. And if there isn't and they appear entirely normal, at least they'll be healthy." She got a giggle out of me for that, and I could see my smile taking hold and infecting her. Before she could say anything else, I made sure to quickly tell her something I'd wanted to ever since we'd hopped back on the carriage from Hourton.

"Sunset, I want to let you know how grateful I am for your help." Her eyes widened and she made an attempt to interject, but I cut her off with a shake of my head.

"I've gone through quite a bit as the Element of Magic and now as a Princess, but... I'm just really glad I don't have to take charge of this one all by myself. So thank you." Sunset turned red at those remarks, turning away sheepishly before responding.

"It's nothing, Twilight, really. I'm here to stay and I don't think I'll ever be able to repay you for all you've helped me." I was going through my mind in an attempt to formulate a response when I heard a very familiar voice call out from behind us.

"Hey, Twi!" I whipped around to see the very dragon I'd been expecting: Spike, who had appeared to be running from further down the hall, slowed down the best he could until he reached me, panting all the while. The whole group turned to face him, causing him to sport an embarrassed smile upon his scanning of the environment. I could see Sunset's brows raised in amusement in the corner of my eye, and she addressed Spike before he had any chance to talk.

"Everyone's getting wings around here, huh?" she asked playfully, gesturing to his sides. Spike quickly looked down, forgetting that Sunset had yet to see his new limbs.

"Oh, yeah! They're pretty neat, huh?" He flapped them a little bit to show off before stopping abruptly, staring into empty space. I had remembered Celestia saying there had been something on his mind, and his frantic speech moments later was my final indicator that something was really wrong.

"Twilight, do you mind if I pull you aside for a quick sec? It won't be long." He didn't even look to the new arrival in Cobalt, though I supposed he hadn't heard that another one of Celestia's apprentices had cheated death. I looked back to the rest of the group, who shared my concerned look: save for Violet and Cobalt, who appeared to be absolutely astonished that a dragon had just run up and spoken to them. Violet, in particular, had taken a step back in nervousness, so I made sure to address them specifically with my gaze as I excused myself.

"This is my assistant, Spike: I'll explain later. I'll meet you guys in the dining hall?" The group nodded, with Violet relaxing her muscles at my clarification, and they continued onwards and Spike and I stood in the middle of the hallway.

I opened my mouth to ask what was wrong, but I was surprised to instead see him rush over to hug me. I let him stay there for a moment before gently bringing my head down to return the embrace: I had honestly forgotten how long we'd seen each other in the chaos of the last week, and I gladly held on to him for just a tiny bit longer before we broke apart.

"I'm really glad you're back! I know we're gonna have lots of fun here and figure out what's going on!" His face grimaced after the introduction, however, and he quickly stood upright. "But I have some possibly unrelated news I think you're going to want to hear." I leaned back slightly at that, and I could feel my eyes narrow ever-so-slightly in worry.

"What's wrong, Spike? Is everypony okay?" instead of answering verbally at first, he bent his head back and breathed fire, the green wave of heat dispensing a neat scroll that he quickly caught in midair. I thought it was a letter for me at first, but upon further inspection, I noticed the wax seal that brought the paper together: it was my own.

"Do you remember that letter you had me send to your brother at the Crystal Palace about Violet? It came right back to me. Dead letter."

That wasn't something I was expecting to hear, and I found that I'd taken a step back upon hearing Spike say it. Shining Armor never failed to reply to a letter of mine, and I to him: it may have taken a while, sure, but we always got around to it. It was one thing for him to fail to respond, but sending it back? I hadn't ever gotten a dead letter from him, much less sent to the very Crystal Palace itself.

"They were on a diplomatic trip to Yakyakistan for the past two weeks. Are you sure they just aren't running late?" The question was a shot in the dark, I knew, and a vigorous shaking of Spike's head confirmed it.

"I wrote to Prince Rutherford immediately after I got it back. He said they'd left for Equestria six days ago and that they should've arrived at the palace by now. But it gets worse." My eyes widened in shock at the word "worse", though I didn't get time to think about it: Spike quickly conjured up three more letters, all of which bore my seal as well.

"I wrote to the Captain of the Crystal Guard, the Crystal Palace's head maid on the service staff and Cadance. All three got rerouted right back."

I stared idly for what likely was quite a while, the gears in my head spinning as I tried to comprehend what Spike had told me. Something had to be very wrong: even if Shining and Cadance were unavailable, both the Captain of the Guard, Silver Spear, and the head maid, Emerald Dream, would absolutely be available at any time. The fact that the letters weren't just unanswered, but rerouted was very concerning.

"Ugh, I really don't wanna travel anymore," I said, the fatigue bleeding slightly in my tone. "But we have to go see what's up. Words cannot tell you how much I want this to be nothing, but I have a feeling that it's quite the opposite." Spike nodded thoughtfully, looking around at the stained glass above him.

"Do you think it has anything to do with Violet?" he asked me quizzically. I nodded almost immediately in response, laughing anxiously just a bit as I did so.

"I'd be my life on it. We brought back another one of Celestia's old students named Cobalt from Hourton." Spike's eyes widened quickly, and I saw an emotion his face that I'd been hiding for quite a while during the course of the situation at hand.

Fear.

"W-What does this all mean?" Spike asked me. I forced myself to think for a few moments, running fruitless and empty possibilities through my mind, but in the end, I merely shrugged in defeat.

"I just don't know, Spike," I told him. "We need more information to understand this, uh, phenomenon. I think going to the Crystal Empire is going to help out with that tremendously, but I wish my gut feeling wasn't telling me that it may be dangerous." Spike stood still once more, thinking over my words ten times over before he looked up to me again, an amusingly surprised look displayed in his countenance.

"I've never known you as one to take up gut feelings, Twi." I looked at the window directly in front of me--a stained glass depiction of Celestia and Luna guiding Equestria from the clouds--for a few precious seconds, going through everything that had happened in the past week before finally answering my assistant.

"Things have been a lot different lately," I said, finally looking back down to him. "Sunset said she was taking Violet in for a physical. I'm gonna go see how that's going. I'll meet you for dinner!" I gave my warmest smile, making an attempt to lighten up the situation for both Spike and myself. Thankfully, he returned it in spades before nodding curtly and heading off in the opposite direction.

From the moment I started heading to the medical ward, a single word coursed through my mind and branded itself into my skull.

Why?

Why were Sunset and I drawn to Canterlot? Why was Violet, when she woke up after being dead for a thousand years?

Why did Cobalt wake up in Our Town, as if the universe knew we would be coming? Why was he drawn to the mountain pass, as if the universe had told him something was waiting for him?

Why wasn't my brother answering my letters? Why wasn't anypony at the Crystal Palace?

Why did more questions appear with every passing day? Why did it seem like with every revelation, we knew even less?

Why?

WHY?

I loved mysteries. I loved curling up late at night and reading through the grittiest and darkest noir books, profusely turning page after page as I analyzed the evidence and tried my absolute best to unveil the killer before the hero or heroine did. I loved flipping through the text of history books and non-fiction accounts, discovering Equestria's many real life mysteries and coming up with my own theories.

I loved mysteries.

I didn't love this one.

It seemed like just a blink before I came across Sunset leaning up against the wall right next to the entrance of the castle's medical ward. The doctor, Scarlett, was one of the very few ponies in the world who had earned a doctorate in Alicorn Medicine, Anatomy and Physiology, along with the privilege of joining a long line of castle doctors. She had studied very hard to get there, however, and thus was more than qualified to take on unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies.

Sunset, upon seeing me approach, hopped down from the wall and gave me a glowing grin as I approached.

"Hey Twi! What's up?" she said in greeting. I nodded my head towards the door.

"I was just dropping in to make sure the physicals were going well. Who's in first?" I asked. Sunset chuckled a little bit before responding.

"Violet, believe it or not. I'm standing close by, but she's seemed to have adapted to the modern technology very well! It's been smooth sailing so far, at least." Her face dropped immediately after she finished, and I was about to ask why before she interjected on my behalf.

"Is something wrong, Twilight? You seem worried." I couldn't help but laugh out loud: no matter how hard I tried, I always seemed to wear my emotions on my sleeve one way or another.

"Yeah," I said simply. "I think something's going on at the Crystal Palace. Spike and I sent letters and they're just coming right back. I think I have to check it out to see if it has anything to do with Violet and Cobalt, but I just really don't wanna travel again. It's all I've been doing lately, and I know that it's wrong of me to think that when my brother and Cadance could be in danger--" I was apt to continue, but Sunset quickly held her hoof up to stop me from going any further. She rested it on my shoulder and looked me straight in the eyes before she spoke.

"It's totally okay," she began. "I know my nerves are utterly shot right now, and you have every right to be tired of going back and forth. Unfortunately, it looks like we're going to be doing a lot of it if we want to find out what in Tartarus is happening." I didn't say anything in reply, but I could feel myself smiling back at her in reassurance. Sunset nodded her head down the hall in what I knew was the direction of the dining hall.

"I know you probably want to head out as soon as you can, and by the sounds of it that's probably a good idea... why don't we go and grab something to eat first? We'll talk with the others and relax for just a bit before we figure all of this out. That sound good?"

For the first time in the past week, I could feel myself breathing a heavy sigh of relief. With an exhausted smile I couldn't hold back, I gently brushed her hoof off my shoulder before nodding enthusiastically in agreement.

"That sounds great."

CHAPTER EIGHT

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CHAPTER EIGHT:
SALVATION
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

When the carraige began its agonizing ride to the Crystal Empire, it held only Rainbow Dash and I.

I didn't need an entire crew to come with me on what may very well have been a hunch, so I had to go over my options. I needed Sunset to stay with Violet and continue to help her adjust to the modern world. Cobalt had already gotten busy reading just about the entire library in an attempt to better understand Equestria's current technology, and I certainly didn't want to break him away from that. Trixie had to leave Canterlot the morning after to begin a small little tour of Equestria, and Starlight decided she wanted to help her out with her first show in Ponyville before she came back up to Canterlot. Finally, as much as she protested, I wanted Rarity to be at the castle when the other girls showed up: if she was there, I thought, they might not get as worried with a dear friend of ours present to reassure them.

That just left me with the world's fastest mare.

Rainbow was down for any adventure, but there were two reasons I wanted her to join me on my trip. The first was that she was an excellent fighter: having survived numerous scraps in her youth and eventually earning a black belt in martial arts, Rainbow's speed and combative prowess made her a nightmare for just about every villain we'd ever fought, sometimes becoming priority one even while I was in the mix.

I didn't like to think about the other reason. If something truly was wrong like I had a distinct feeling there was and I ended up captured, incapacitated, or killed, Rainbow could get to Canterlot very, very quickly. She'd be able to notify everypony in the castle exactly what had happened with a haste nopony else could manage, which certainly made me feel a lot better.

When I looked to my left to see what Rainbow was up to, I was met with a sight I had fully expected to see: the Element of Loyalty staring blankly out the window as our carriage rumbled on.

Rainbow liked to pretend that she wasn't a smart pony. She'd make her fair share of self-depreciating jokes--remarking often that she "wasn't the brainy one"--and teasingly called me an "egghead" from time to time, but I knew much better than that: she was very much among us and was far more intelligent than anypony ever gave her credit for. I knew for a fact that at this moment (and every other time we were headed straight for danger) she was running scenarios through her head at a rapid-fire speed, plotting out possibilities and theories. She may have been worried as I was, she may have been entirely confident, but there was no way to tell with her: 'Danger' was her middle name, and her nerves remained still as the calmest waters.

I heavily admired Rainbow Dash for countless reasons, and her ability to remain tranquil in what I had a distinct feeling was the face of hazard was well near the top of the list.

"Hey, egghead," I asked her teasingly. "Whatcha thinkin about?" My voice sounded weary and dull, but my mind had been racing at a thousand miles per minute: it was quite the odd combination, what with the body tiring and the mind never more awake. Rainbow shook out of her daze, it being the first time she'd heard me speak for quite a while, and she whipped back to me with a bit of a sly grin.

"The Crystal Palace," she answered curtly. "Just trying to see if I remembered the place, you know? Just in case." She leaned back in her seat, not hesitating to relax.

"Twi, you're really worked up over this. If this ends up being a waste of our time--and trust me, really hope it is--then you need to hit the hay on the ride back, sis. You deserve a good sleep." I laughed at that one, rolling my eyes to the ceiling before inexplicitly finding myself mimicking Rainbow and staring at my own window.

"I don't get bad feelings often, Rainbow," I told her, sighing loud and long. "I hope I'm wrong, but... I've been getting these weird gut feelings ever since I got to Canterlot last week. Something just doesn't seem right about this." I couldn't see what Rainbow was doing, but she didn't say anything for a moment. She thought my words over before finally responding after a silence.

"You're a fancy-schmancy Princess now, Twi. I'd trust your gut with my life... well, as long as it isn't your birthday party." I immediately turned around at that remark, my eyebrows playfully raised in an unamused glare as the slyest grin I'd ever seen grew faster and faster on Rainbow's lips.

"Are we still talking about this?" I asked her facetiously, helpless in my attempts to hid a smile from my face. "It was one night." Rainbow had already burst out laughing before I even finished and she shook her head violently at my last suggestion.

"It was not one night, Twilight. Don't even get me started on Fluttershy's garden party last year." I threw up a hoof to stop her, laughing just as hard as Rainbow and struggling just as well when I spoke.

"I have absolutely no intention to," I told her between giggling fits. I had a feeling that Rainbow had dug up my rare--uncommon--misgivings with alcohol in an order to calm my nerves: If I could tell that I was on edge, I knew well that she could too.

I couldn't be mad. It worked.

I don't remember much of the banter that followed before we got to the Crystal Empire. We talked about typical things: work, stallions, Daring Do, the weather--and time seemed to become a blur as the carriage chugged onward. Eventually, after what seemed to be the two of us trapped in an eternity of small talk, the carriage stopped firmly in its place and one of the two ponies pulling it opened the window behind them and peaked inside.

"We've arrived at the Palace, Princess."

I looked at Rainbow. I think I gulped, but she waved a hoof in dismissal before popping the latch on the carriage door and hopping out into the sun.

"It's probably nothin', Twi," she said when her hoof touched the ground. I sighed--I'd been doing that a lot today--and hopped out of the opposite side. Quickly, I skipped over to where the two ponies who had pulled the carriage were waiting, idly discussing something I couldn't decipher before I butted in.

"We should be back soon. Be ready to go at a moments notice, but if you feel like you're in danger leave the premise as quickly as you can." The two stallions nodded aggressively: satisfied, I went back around to meet Rainbow right in front of the Crystal Palace.

We were greeted with a familiar sight. The massive crystal arches that made up the palace's base were as extravagant as ever, and it still amazed me just how far off the ground the palace was before it truly began to form. The purple marble beneath us glimmered brilliantly in the sunlight, and the snowflake directly underneath the arches somehow glowed bright white even underneath the shade.

It was unbelievable, as always.

When I turned to Rainbow, however, she seemed entirely lost in thought. I'd immediately recognized the look in her eyes, and I spoke up to break her from her trance as soon as I could.

"Is something wrong?" I asked her, my words coming out far quicker than I'd like. She turned to me with her head cocked to the side in confusion.

"So you remember that one time we all visited the Crystal Empire about a month after the Crystalling because you had some sort of summit with the Princesses?" I nodded, my eyes steadily narrowing in confusion: I wasn't entirely sure where she was getting at. She turned away from me and pointed towards the giant snowflake in the center of the arches.

"While you were at the summit, the five of us wanted to visit Flurry Heart. We tried to enter the castle here, but the guard outside stopped us from entering. Dude was new on the job and had no idea who we were."

Suddenly, Rainbow's thought process clicked. I distinctly remembered it then: the girls had been waiting outside for over an hour before I got to them, and they were lucky I had already been through most of the summit. The guard's name was Steel Sentinel, and I had to tell him specifically to let us through so we could see Flurry. I'd talked to him quite a few times since then, and we'd always exchanged banter in regards to that incident: he was here just a month ago when I'd traveled to the Crystal Empire for Cadance's birthday.

There was no guard there now. The entire base of the palace was devoid and empty, and the longer I thought back--all the way to the first time I'd ever seen the Crystal Empire after its long disappearance--the more persistent a deeply disturbing thought echoed through my skull.

"There's always a guard here," I said aloud, the words ringing quiet and feeble. Rainbow didn't say anything at first, but after a few moments of silence she quickly stepped forward and made her way to one of the doors neatly embedded in the crystalline spires.

"Well, there ain't now," she said simply as I picked up my pace to follow. "I'm thinkin' you and Spike were maybe right to have a hunch." Before I knew it, we were at the door, and Rainbow immediately pressed down on the handle latch and pushed. It took no effort at all: the door, which for certain would be locked in daylight hours to complement the guard on patrol, easily opened at the slightest touch. Rainbow recoiled a bit at that, and she turned to me with a raised eyebrow.

We said nothing to each other before we finally trudged upwards, but our stares conveyed a novel's worth of words: both of our postures tightened, the alarms in our head frantically blaring at deafening volumes. The stairs might as well have been a mountain, and when we finally conquered its steep and daunting slope we emerged into the main hallway of the palace, where everything appeared to be unnervingly normal.

Everything was how I'd remembered it. The maroon carpet spanning for what must have been an eternity, the gorgeous crystalline walls and chandeliers, the moving paintings that lined the walls. It was all perfectly normal, except for one jarring instance.

It was dead quiet.

There was nopony here.

In a castle such as the Crystal Palace, there was always somepony to be heard. There were numerous servants that lived in the castle, as well as an entire garrison of guards, so the bustling of carts and the clanging of spears was all too common within the palace. The chefs could usually be heard shouting from the kitchen in any place you stood in, and there was always a messenger or two scampering about the hallways.

Not now. The silence almost made my ears hurt.

"Stay close," I said, looking over to Rainbow. She nodded immediately, and we gingerly walked down the hall together in silence.

We passed through the throne room first. The moment we stepped in, I could smell a nice lavender scent coursing through the room, and it didn't take Rainbow Dash a long time to say what I was thinking.

"This place is spotless," she mused, glancing around the room. The floor looked to have been very recently polished, and the chandeliers hanging from the ceiling looked as if they'd been bought yesterday. The throne itself, a strikingly beautiful crystalline chair emblazoned with Cadance's cutie mark in pure diamond, almost hurt to look at if I glanced at it right. It certainly looked as if the servants had done their best work in the room.

But they hadn't. They were gone.

"Oooooh, I'm getting the creeps," said Dash nervously. She nodded her head to the next hallway, and, despite not really having a choice in the matter, followed her lead. I remembered easily what the next doorway would bring: it was the beginnings of the large system of hallways that made up the castle's first floor, and it was a place I didn't particularly want to be at the moment.

The maze was fine at first. We didn't see anything particularly notable along the way, but the sheer emptiness in the air and the nothingness in the castle was grating heavily on both of us. It was like the worst kind of horror novel, waiting in suspense for a thing that may never come. The longer we walked, the worse it became, and I could feel my body convulsing internally with every step: Rainbow, too, seemed disturbed, as the mare who talked a mile a minute hadn't so much as whispered during our eldritch trek.

It wasn't until we rounded the hallway near the guard barracks that we saw it.

In the center of the hallway was a single, prone figure, slumped gently on the ground. It was a crystal guard, it's gleaming skin extinguished long, long ago. It lay idle in its heavy armor, the plate piling up uncomfortably whilst the prone soldier lie awkwardly. I couldn't tell how long it had been there, but the stallion hadn't just been felled recently, that was for certain.

I heard Rainbow gasp. She tried to keep it under her breath, but failed miserably: we had been staring at the figure for what seemed like an eternity, and when I finally broke my gaze and turned to her she held a look I had only very scarcely seen from the Element of Loyalty.

She was utterly petrified.

"Do you think h-he, he's... dead?" she asked me. The question was obvious--I'd been thinking it, too--but it was nonetheless a very good one, and with a very audible gulp I carefully walked to the downed guard.

The very first thing I noticed when I got close was the mane and fur: it was mottled and torn beyond belief. Some kind of massive struggle had to have occurred, as some parts of it had been tied together and others ripped from the body entirely. The face had been turned over recently, I figured, as some of the hair still remained in the spot directly behind the prone figure's head, but I wasn't at all expecting what I got when I carefully turned its head back towards me.

"AAAAH!" I shrieked, violently recoiling at the sight before me. Rainbow came running over immediately, and couldn't help but look down when she saw my hoof firmly glued to my mouth in horror.

Its eyes.

Or rather, its complete lack of them. The stallion's eyes were entirely pitch black, the sockets filled with a void that I couldn't really comprehend. The eyes were still present, but the eyeballs themselves were blacker than anything I'd ever seen. It took a slight shifting of my head to see only the barest glint of light upon the film, and I took a step back and forced myself to look away from what I was now one thousand percent certain was a body.

"What in Tartarus is that?" I said, exasperated and out of breath. Rainbow was still looking at the body, but had backed away a good two or three steps to stay right next to me. We both looked at each other at just about the exact same time, and the meaning in our gazes came through loud and clear: this had progressed far beyond a mere checkup.

Both of us made multiple attempts to speak, but Rainbow got her words out first, the franticness in her tone making her just barely understandable.

"S-Should we leave? Call f-for help?" she asked hurriedly. While the suggestion was very valid--Rainbow and I had been through a lot as Elements, but we hadn't seen anything like this--I immediately shook my head, pointing further down the hall.

"Celestia knows how much I want to," I began, doing my absolute best to recompose myself. "But... ponies could be in danger. If we find m-more of these bodies, we might be able to find what did it and put a stop to it." Rainbow's face looked entirely devoid of the confidence and bravado that had calmed me only hours ago, and so I quickly rested my hoof on her shoulder before I spoke to her next.

"I'm an alicorn princess, and you're a great fighter. Whatever this thing is... it hasn't fought us." Rainbow seemed to like those words, nodding slowly as they bounced around her head. She was lost in thought for a few moments, the thousand-mile stare she'd had not entirely gone yet, but she looked towards me again and pointed to the body: I made a quick business decision not to follow her hoof.

"We need to find the guard barracks. They're close, right? Do you know where they are?" I nodded confidently, both asserting that I did, in fact, know where they were while also agreeing with the suggestion at hand: we had to see if there were any guards left in the castle or at least a semblance of where they went if they weren't here.

The walk to those barracks was filled with a paranoia that chewed away at me slowly like a vulture on carrion. With every hallway corner we turned, I fully expected to find another body laying there or another horror in the middle of the hallway. My nerves had been entirely shot, and the occasional glance at Rainbow Dash showed that she wasn't holding up well herself.

We passed through the dining hall, precisely maneuvering around the massive table and many chairs that blocked the center of the room, and I was greeted with a very familiar sight when the two of us converged again on the other side.

Steel Sentinel, the guard that had roamed the base of the Crystal Palace, lied prone just like the last body we had seen. He was lying next to two other bodies, one a mare with a black coat and turquoise mane and the other a stallion with a white coat and navy blue mane, but the orange across the entirety of Sentinel's body gave him away. Unlike the other ponies I'd seen, Sentinel's body didn't show any heavy signs of struggle, and he looked as if he'd been there only quite recently. Rainbow's mouth was agape, and she looked to me with eyes that had slightly begun to water.

"T-That's the guy! That stopped us..." I nodded solemnly before pointing down the hallway again. It was a gesture the both of us had repeated numerous times today, and it was an action our bodies violently rebelled against, but with a deep breath I walked on: after a few seconds, I could hear the uneven hoofsteps from Rainbow following suit.

As soon as we began to walk down the relatively short hall to the entrance of the barracks, it came clear my worst fear had already been realized.

I could see in view a lone mare with a snowy coat lying sprawled on one of the beds, the void in her eyes contrasting far too clear for comfort with her fur. I stopped dead in the middle of the hallway and could feel myself begin to hyperventilate, my heart pounding furiously as if it were attempting to break out of my chest. Rainbow saw it too, of course, and she immediately let out a noise that I could only determine was a mix of revulsion and frustration. I turned to her with a look I couldn't decipher myself.

"We... we have to check, Rainbow," I told her, my voice sounding as thoroughly unconvincing as it could have. She didn't reply for a few moments, looking back behind her only to be greeted by the sight of more bodies. She quickly turned away and looked at me, gesturing towards the barrack doors with feeble faux confidence.

"Lead the way," she said simply, her voice cracking at the height of her sentence. Closing my eyes, I turned and walked straight into the room, mentally preparing myself for what my eyes would see when I ripped off the band-aid and opened them.

It didn't work in the slightest.

No amount of preparation could prepare me for the harrowing scene of the room. I couldn't even count how many guards there were, but there had to be just over twenty, some lying on their beds and other strewn about carelessly in a heap: all, however, had the horrific black eyes I'd come to see in the palace. A few beds were tipped over, and the desks in the corner of the room were in shambles across the entirety of the area. As I absolutely forced myself to look at the guards, my hoof covering my mouth again in sheer terror, I saw that there was clearly combative magic used in the area, with evidence of bolts both imprinted in the walls and seared into some of the guards' fur.

Rainbow, who had hung around just outside the doorframe, didn't get sick behind me, but I could absolutely hear every bit of the effort to stem it down. I took a single look around the room for one last time before my thoughts forced themselves into the air.

"What is this?" I spoke, my eyes wide as the moon and my voice empty and dull.

"Salvation."

The voice that answered was loud, and It certainly wasn't Rainbow's.

I whipped around and saw that Rainbow had done the very same. There was a pony I could only barely make out in front of her, so I quickly scampered to her side to get a better look.

The figure that had revealed himself was a unicorn stallion, slightly taller than the average male but very slim and fit. He had an artic white coat and his mane and tail was a pleasant shade of amber, and he wore what appeared to be a dark black cloak over the majority of his body. His face was uncovered, however, and for the millionth time that day I quickly became jarred at the sight of his eyes.

The purple mist bleeding into the air surrounded his gaze. His sclera was a sickly lime green, the veins in his eyes brought out by the shade. His iris was the color of blood, and his pupils dark as a moonless night.

I'd seen those eyes in King Sombra. I'd seen them in Celestia when she taught me a very important lesson, and I'd felt them in myself when I'd opened the secret passageway in this very castle's throne room long ago.

This pony had been entirely consumed by dark magic, and it didn't take me a whole lot of time to figure out that he had almost assuredly committed the travesty Rainbow and I had seen before us.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle," the stallion said. His voice was uninspiringly normal, devoid of any accent and maybe a little higher than usual: for whatever reason, it only made me more nervous. "I got your letters."

Letters.

Cadance.

Shining.

The grisly images of my step-sister and brother left in the states I had seen flashed through my mind, but they didn't fill me with fear. Instead, I felt a blazing boil rise through me, and I could feel my countenance twist in anger as I violently stepped forward and looked to the stallion.

"Where are Cadance and Shining?" I asked through gritted teeth, my voice piercing through strong and loud for the first time in quite a while. The stallion merely chuckled at the sight of my fury, nonchalantly shaking his head before he replied.

"No time for formalities, hmm? I don't know where Shining and Cadance are. I expected this Empire's sovereigns to be present, but from the information I've gathered, they're currently on a diplomatic mission to Yakyakistan. A shame," he mused, looking around the environment around him. "I cannot bring them the salvation the ponies of this castle have received."

In hindsight, I was very thankful this pony had shown up, as his personality had erased all the fear and dread we'd had inside us moments ago. I could tell that Rainbow, too, was enraged, and she quickly leaned backward in a combat stance before she barked out to the stallion.

"Salvation? You... you killed these ponies! We're gonna make you pay for this!" The stallion laughed again, but it wasn't harmless this time: it was deeply sinister, and every cackle was filled with malice.

"How that mare has misled the both of you," he began. "These ponies have found a greater purpose. A purpose you two shall find in yourselves."

The stallion gestured behind us with his hoof, pointing directly between Rainbow and I. When we turned around, we immediately stumbled backward: I didn't believe it was possible after what I had seen, but the sight before me had left me petrified.

The guards in the room, moments ago lifeless and limp, stood where they had fallen. Rainbow and I hadn't heard them rise from their positions at all: it was almost as if they'd been that way the entire time. Their armor hung loosely from their body, some of it strewn across incorrectly, but they didn't particularly seem to care. They stood disturbingly still, to the point where I could have mistaken them for mannequins had I not only just seem them in the state they'd been in moments ago. They didn't make a sound, they didn't move an inch, and they didn't say a word.

They merely stared emptily with the void in their gaze.

"These ponies have found the darkness," the stallion explained calmly. "Join them."

I didn't know who this pony was. I didn't know how he was doing what he was doing, or what his motive was for doing so. I did know one thing, though: I was surrounded by dark magic corruptions that I figured weren't looking to exchange pleasantries and that whoever it was that had been speaking to us very much wanted Rainbow and I to become one of them.

So naturally, I did the first thing I could think of: I shot a bolt of magic at his face.

I was well aware at this point how powerful this pony was, and I had been gravely afraid that he'd dodge out of the way with reflexes I couldn't see with the naked eye or stare it down and laughed as it harmlessly bounced off him. Thankfully, neither of those things happened, and the bolt sent him careening backward as it collided with his skull. The blast was concussive, but I had a feeling it wouldn't keep the stallion down for long, so I quickly whipped around to see a massive sea of ponies slowly advancing towards us.

"We can't fight all of these things!" Rainbow shouted. Her words bounced around the room, as the ponies still made absolutely no noise as they walked. I scanned the room quickly before an idea popped into my head: I grabbed Rainbow by the hoof and dragged her through the doorframe, using my magic to shut the door to the barracks tight.

"No, but we don't have to," I replied frantically. Using every seal and bind spell I knew, I ran my magic around the edges of the doorframe to firmly anchor the edges of the door itself. The ponies inside made noise now, banging loudly from the other side, but there was simply no use. My magic prevented them from even budging the door, so I turned back around as quickly as I could before I spoke to Rainbow again.

"We should be good for a while, but I don't know exactly how long that will hold. Stay sharp." She nodded firmly, and we both looked down the hall to see the stallion I'd just blasted seconds ago had vanished.

"Oh, come on!" Rainbow exclaimed, the tired frustration in her voice glaringly apparent. We both wanted to leave, but we had to fight our way out first, and I wasn't going to bank on this mystery stallion letting us waltz out the door. Regardless, I wasn't too thrilled with the prospect of letting whoever this was continue to do... this, and so if we had an opportunity to incapacitate him we absolutely had to take it.

We took a few steps forward, but my trained ears perked up immediately at a rapidly rising sound behind us. I'd come to know what magic sounded like on the charge from my youth around my entirely unicorn family and my many, many days spent under the tutelage of Celestia. As such, when I heard it behind the two of us, I immediately shoved Rainbow into the wall and used the momentum to push myself to the opposite one.

The stallion's draw was much faster than I anticipated, and while I managed to take Rainbow completely out of harm's way I felt a very painful beam of energy scrape across my face. It was only a graze, but I recognized the spell merely from the feeling: it was a laceration spell, though the dark magic behind it made it far more powerful than any I'd ever encountered. If I hadn't moved when I did, it was very likely the bolt would have pierced straight through me.

I hit the wall with a thud, though I was able to catch myself and prevent any chance I had of hitting the ground. When I looked up, I saw Rainbow had flown as fast as she could towards the stallion and was currently engaging him in combat, standing on her back legs and assaulting the stallion with her front hooves.

Rainbow knew how to fight unicorns--really, anything with a horn--in the sense that distraction is a magic user's greatest disadvantage. We needed to concentrate to use magic, and I don't think there's another mare in the world who can disrupt that as well as Rainbow Dash could. Her speed was blinding and she hit hard as Tartarus, so I was genuinely surprised to see that while our new stallion friend wasn't entirely unphased by her style, he was still holding up fairly well.

"My my, aren't you a fast one?" he quipped, sending off bolts of magic as hastily as he could. Rainbow was dodging just about every one of them, but she herself was only getting in a precious few punches, and it didn't take long before one of the stallion's bolts finally connected. The spell was blunt, and the impact to Rainbow's side was enough to send her flying through the air.

Ever quick to react, her wings opened immediately, and the Wonderbolt gracefully floated to the ground as soon as she righted herself in the air. I ran to where she'd landed, and as soon as she saw me her eyes grew wide in shock.

"Twilight! Your face!" she said, almost in a scream. I ran a hoof over it and quickly remembered that I'd been hit with a laceration spell: there was a LOT of blood, but I waved my hoof in dismissal before turning to our opponent, who this time had opted to stay where he was.

"Looks much worse than it is. I'll be fine," I told her, facing our opponent. "What do you want?" The pony stayed silent at first, opting to listen to the chorus of pounding hoofs at the door behind him before finally responding.

"To show you the light that is the darkness," he answered. "To show everypony."

Suddenly, he activated his magic, the sickly green aura engrossing his horn. Rainbow and I stood fast, awaiting whatever magic it was he was preparing, but it never came: despite his aura pulsating continuously, there appeared to be nothing actually happening.

That is until I looked behind him.

The magic barrier I had created was slowly slipping away, the stallion erasing my binding spells with his dark magic. I debated for a split second firing at him, but it would be no use, as he'd already done more than enough damage: the pounding of the guard ponies violently rocked the door more and more, and it would be a matter of seconds until it burst down entirely. Rainbow caught on as well, and she looked to me with a frantic expression as the pounding got louder and louder. I didn't look back at her.

There was only one option left.

"RUN!" I shouted, whipping around and galloping the fastest I could, but I immediately stopped to a grinding halt.

Some of the ponies I had seen lying on the floor earlier, including Steel Sentinel, had silently blocked the hallway while we were fighting the stallion. That wasn't all, though: they were joined by a multitude of other ponies, some of which I'd recognized as donning servant uniforms. The mass of black eyes' piercing gazes were enough to jolt my body into action, but Rainbow verbalized it before it actually occurred.

"FLY!" She yelled, taking to the air with a strong push. Once I joined her, I had a feeling that the silent terrors below us would follow if they had wings, and my suspicions were confirmed when a handful of the ponies rose up to meet us. I wasn't too worried about that, though, as Rainbow and I charged through the crowd with my magic blasting anything I could see take to the air.

Unfortunately, this didn't last long either, as the unicorns who this stallion had corrupted quickly fired their magic in a volley. Although they weren't strenuously accurate, they didn't need to be, and one bolt clipped the upper part of my wing and sent me sprawling to the ground. My yelp alerted Rainbow Dash, and she quickly flew to the side in an attempt to catch me, but she was too late: I hit the ground hard, which in itself caused a rather large problem.

My freefall would have merely been a bit painful if not for the way I had landed on my front right hoof. It touched the ground first and my momentum put my entire body weight on top of it, causing it to fold in on itself. I knew right away it was bad, but when I hopped up fast to start running I was met with a blindingly painful jolt up to my knee. I cried out again, but didn't stop running, using my three good hooves and holding my bad one up to my chest.

Rainbow noticed, but didn't say anything, instead opting to run ahead of me. I had only taken a few steps before a horrible realization had hit me.

They're going to be faster than me.

Though I couldn't hear them, I knew at least one would catch up. Rainbow was already outpacing me, and because their hoofsteps were silent I had no way to know if one was close or not. I looked down quickly at my hoof as I ran, and a primal thought came to my head.

I couldn't heal the hoof. There was absolutely ligament damage, and as powerful as I was I didn't know any spells that could mend it without seriously altering its structure. I did, however, know a spell that could stop the pain, and I quickly jolted the injured hoof area before letting it down again and running with all my might.

It would cause much more damage to the ligament, but this was a matter of life and a fate worse than death.

We rounded a corner, though we had to keep looking back to make sure they weren't getting any ground. I had a magical shield up behind us to block any magic that would come our way, and it wasn't much of a strain to continue as we aimlessly ran through the halls: although it was large in volume, the magic from the unicorns appeared severely neutered, which I chalked up to the effort of sustaining their reanimation (though it was still enough to shoot me down, it seemed).

Eventually, the things became distant, and Rainbow and I found ourselves alone. I looked around the hallways we'd been running in and found what I was looking for: one of the palace's many small utility closets. I ran over to it and opened it, silently gesturing for Rainbow to hop in. She looked around before following me, and we closed the door shut and flipped the light switch on before sitting down.

The both of us were entirely exhausted, and though it seemed I had taken the brunt of our injuries, it looked as if Rainbow was beginning to develop some severe bruising on her sides. I quickly grabbed a rag from the vast array of cleaning supplies and wiped my face with it, revealing that I still had a considerable amount of blood originating from my earlier cut. When we caught our breath, she looked down at my hoof and began to whisper.

"I'm surprised you can still walk on that," she told me, nodding to it. I shook my head and responded as quietly as I could.

"I can't. I numbed it so I could run. Listen, I'm going to teleport us out of here, but I need to make sure that--"

I stopped dead in the middle of my sentence, holding a hoof up and pressing my ear to the door. There were footsteps coming from the hallway, and I suspected it was the stallion. A few moments later, he spoke loudly through the corridor, confirming my suspicion: I knew he had to ability to mask his hoofsteps, but he didn't even bother as he called out.

"Come on out, Twilight!" He called, a creeping arrogance carrying through his tone. He was playing games with us now, clearly inspired by his overwhelming advantage, and it pleased me that he was that type of pony. I began to develop an idea, and I made sure to reiterate with my good hoof that Rainbow needed to stay absolutely silent.

Performing two spells at the same time was never easy. Depending on the spell, doing so for even a short amount of time could physically drain a unicorn for a few good minutes, but this opportunity was simply too good to pass up. I prepared two spells: the first was a bolt of magic, and the second was a quieting spell to prevent the continuous charging of said bolt to give away where we were or what we were up to. Blissfully unaware, the stallion continued walking forward.

"You know you can't hide from me," he mused, my heartbeats timed to the steps in his gait. I couldn't help but smirk as he waltzed right where I wanted him, and with all my might I removed the quieting spell and blasted off the bolt I'd been charging straight through the door in front of us.

I knew I would obliterate the door, but what was most important was the pony standing on the other side of it. The stallion promptly got thrust into the wall, and I knew very well he wouldn't easily be getting up from that one: he was a very powerful stallion, but I was an alicorn princess, and that may have been one of the biggest damn bolts of magic I'd ever unleashed.

Rainbow rushed forward, but I needed a few seconds to recuperate after the power I'd put forth. Thankfully, due to my experience and general level of power, it didn't take long, and I quickly ran to the scene to find the stallion pinned to the ground with Rainbow standing on top of him.

"I wouldn't move, pal!" she shouted. Thankfully, there didn't seem to be any of the corrupted ponies around us, so I advanced forward and stood by Rainbow's side to take a look at the stallion.

He was clearly dazed, the hit bringing him a healthy dosage of pain, but he didn't look too affected otherwise. He was tough to crack, that much was certain, and so I made sure to take advantage of the opportunity as I leaned down to face him.

"Who are you? And why are you here?" I asked assertively, making sure to step down on him hard for emphasis. I realized a moment later that it was with my bad hoof, but I didn't particularly care at the time: it didn't hurt yet.

The stallion looked up to me, and I saw something that almost made me step back.

He was amused.

He had been hit by a locomotive of a magic bolt, and careened hard into the wall. None of us were doing so hot in regards to injuries, but this pony that I knew had to have still been in an agonizing amount of pain had a nonchalant look on his face, as if he wasn't in any sort of danger. He looked up to me, though his visage wasn't worried: instead, it his glare was serious, and he raised his eyebrows as he spoke with conviction.

"Ask your master."

I opened my mouth to respond, but the sudden ignition of his horn caused both Rainbow and I to jump back. We stood prepared for anything, our weary bodies revolting at the thought of engaging in yet another extend brawl, but it soon became clear that we wouldn't have to. In a flash, he disappeared, leaving only the marble floor and the pieces of the door at our hooves.

Rainbow and I stood there for what seemed like forever. We were both thinking about what had just happened, and the entirety of the day played through my head on loop. Never had I seen anything as terrifying and surreal as I had seen in the last hour or so, but I quickly snapped out of my trance: we didn't have time to think.

I was certain he'd teleported away from the castle, but I didn't know whether that action would revert the ponies he had enthralled to their previous states or whether they would still be... activated, per say. Whatever it was, I wasn't going to stick around and find out, and so I ran over to Rainbow and quickly wrapped my wing around her.

"Hold on!" I said loudly, making sure to grip her as tight as I could.

I could feel the familiar magical wave wash over the both us, and it didn't take long before we had left the horrors of the Crystal Palace behind.

CHAPTER NINE

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CHAPTER NINE:
CHRYSANTHEMUM
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE

We did four things when we ended up outside the castle.

The first--and by far the most important--was to notify the next-in-command that close to thirty thralls currently resided inside the castle. The only problem was that we didn't know exactly who that was supposed to be, as the first three ponies to talk to were still (thankfully) on their way back from Yakyakistan and the fourth in command, the Captain of the Guard, wasn't particularly feeling like himself at the moment.

After talking it over for quite some time, we decided that the hospital would be the best place to go. The Crystal Heart Hospital had connections all over Equestria, and they could not only easily spread the news to the citizens of the town but also notify the guards from other nearby cities to help take care of the situation now that the mysterious stallion was gone.

The second thing was at Rainbow and the hospital's behest. I had subconsciously begun walking on my very hurt hoof again, and I was limping when we pulled into the hospital. On top of the dried blood that had almost entirely covered my face, the nurses took note of my hoof and demanded I come in to get it looked at. I told them I would have excellent care back in Canterlot and that we needed to leave quickly, but Rainbow insisted that I at least get it wrapped up. The nurses stabilized it by placing it firmly on my chest with bandages for the ride back, leaving me thoroughly wrapped in gauze on my upper body.

Next, I wrote two letters that I had the hospital send out. The first was to Celestia explaining the basis of the situation, that I was injured and likely needed to be attended to when we got back, and that we were on our way and would be there in the by nightfall.

The second was to Shining, Cadance, and Sunburst, which I told the hospital to send only if they could get a messenger to their exact location as it seemed like they had been somehow delayed on their way back from Yakyakistan. I told them--much more in-depth--what had occurred, and to most importantly be careful on their way back.

Finally, when Rainbow and I hopped back in our carriage, I lied down on the long cushioned bench and fell asleep almost immediately.

My sleep was a dreamless bliss: I hardly ever got to nap, but whenever I was afforded the luxury there wasn't anything in Equestria that could wake me. The last time I'd passed out entirely was before the Grand Equestria Pony Summit, and after that debacle I made a promise to myself that I wouldn't go too long without sleeping again.

After what had happened, however, I was more tired than I'd ever been in my life. My face hurt, my sides hurt, and the painkilling spell on my hoof and knee area was slowly wearing off, so it didn't take long before I was out like a light.

I didn't wake up naturally: Rainbow shook me awake once the carriage had arrived at Canterlot's castle. I had expected her to mock me in her general fashion, but she was instead very ginger once my eyes slowly opened.

"Good morning, egghead. Be careful getting up, you don't wanna roll on your hoof." Nodding wearily, I slowly twisted my way to my good three legs, stretching a bit as we stepped outside. Thankfully, it was getting dark out, so my eyes didn't have to adjust to any brightness. I nodded thankfully to the guards with a smile before we began the short walk to the castle doors.

"How are you holding up?" I asked Rainbow when we got to the steps. Her gestures gave away the answer before she could say anything, as she very visibly winced when she opened the large double doors: she had very bad bruising on her right side where she'd been hit by the stallion's spell, and a bit of bruising on the other side from smaller hits.

"Not great," she began, "Though much better than you. I was supposed to perform at the Wonderbolts Canterlot show next week, but I'm thinking that may be a stretch. I'm gonna see what the doctor says." I nodded in encouragement, internally sighing in relief that I wasn't going to have to convince Rainbow to see the doctor.

When we entered the castle, the both of us were surprised to see that everypony was already waiting for us. Sunset, Violet, Cobalt, and Rarity were sitting on the benches to both sides of the main entry hall, having a conversation we came in late for. Starlight still wasn't back from Ponyville quite yet, but she was quickly replaced in the mix two-fold, as Applejack and Pinkie Pie were now present among the group. When they saw us, their eyes lit up one by one like a string of lights on Hearth's Warming Day and the group simultaneously arose to greet us.

"Girls!" said Applejack loudly, running up to me first. I couldn't hold up a hoof to make her slow down, so I quickly spoke just as she was reaching me.

"Not too rough!" I exclaimed, though I couldn't help but let a chuckle escape my lips as she suddenly slowed the best she could and gingerly wrapped her arm around me. I felt bad that I couldn't return it, but AJ didn't seem to mind, and she held on for what seemed like forever before she finally relented.

"Ahm so glad yer back in one piece, sugar," she told me as she withdrew from the embrace. I nodded with a weak smile and figured I would need to get some more sleep sooner than later.

"Yeah, I am too," I said curtly. The other ponies had been busy hugging Rainbow Dash, but they eventually came over to embrace me the best they could as well. I'd be lying if I said that some overly excited ponies--namely Pinkie and Rarity--didn't accidentally hurt me a bit with their hugs, but I didn't say anything. I couldn't hug them back, but after the entire ordeal I'd gone through I was more than happy to be embraced by my friends.

Once the pleasantries were over, I started walking towards the medical wing, though I stopped and turned around before I got too far.

"I have to go see Doctor Scarlet," I told the group loudly so everypony could hear. "But once I'm done... we have to talk."

I never liked the going to the doctor's office.

There was always so many tests and paperwork, and the boring and bland white on the walls made me want to be anywhere else. It was why I had been elated when I walked into Doctor Scarlet's room in the medical wing the first time, as she made sure it was painted colorfully for a nice change of pace. She was an incredibly nice pony, and as the personal doctor of the Royal Sisters and one of the very few ponies licensed to see alicorns, she was very good at her job.

She'd done most of the bulk work already--hitting my hoof with her best mending spell and looking over my face--and she had been in the back room for quite a bit looking over the results. I'd been observing one of the colorful patterns on the ceiling when she walked back in, a clipboard hanging gently by her side in the air as her horn lit up with a hot pink aura. She also had a large bag slung over her shoulder that I assumed contained an assortment of things I needed to get better.

"Alright, Twilight," she began, walking over to where I had been sitting on the exam table. "I have good news and some goodish bad news." I laughed, finding Scarlet's choice of words rather strange, but I was still certainly happy that there was at least some good in the bad.

"I'll take the fully good news first," I told her with a sly smile. She returned with a short chuckle before she looked over the clipboard.

"The good news is that the scar running across your face is hypertrophic. It isn't ever going to completely go away, but I accelerated the healing process and after a few months or so I seriously doubt it will be noticeable to the everyday pony." I nodded in acknowledgment: I'd rather have a scar that lasted forever as opposed to having been killed on the spot by that laceration spell, so I was perfectly happy with that outcome.

"Now, for the bad news." She nodded towards the hoof I'd let gingerly hang by side while she inspected it. It was swollen very badly and I suffered extreme pain from even barely moving it: a mend spell from the doctor alleviated the swelling and pain a little bit, but it was only a minute improvement.

"I don't know how bad the injury initially was, but what you came to me with was one of the worst grade three sprains I think I've ever seen on anypony. The ligament was entirely torn, and it's really a miracle that the numbing spell actually allowed you to stand on it, let alone walk and run." She pulled out from her bag what I knew to be a sling of some sort and what looked to be a walking boot.

"I was able to mend some of it back together with my magic, but I could only do so much. It's officially a grade two sprain now, but it's a very bad one. I'm still not entirely sure you can walk on it yet, but I wouldn't want you to even if you could, so I'm gonna have you in this sling for a week or two. Once that's done, I'll put you in this boot and you'll be completely recovered in about ten weeks or so. And before you say anything--" I had already opened my mouth to object, but the doctor held up a hoof to stay my words.

"--I know what's happening is very strange, and I know that ponies are in danger," she began. "But I--we--can't have you getting seriously hurt. You need to stay out of any combative situation for until that hoof is fully healed. Do you understand?"

I thought about it for a minute. In a time like this, I desperately wanted to be able to fight, because I knew very well that this mystery wasn't going to be solved without any confrontation.

At the same time, though, I knew I had numerous ponies around me that could do just fine. Rainbow was a very proficient combatant, Starlight had nearly beat me at the height of my power when we were enemies, and Sunset Shimmer had trained under Celestia for almost as long as I had. Violet and Cobalt were no slouches, either, not to mention that I'd be joined by my five best friends to boot.

We were gonna be just fine.

"I understand," I told her firmly nodding my head as I did so. Scarlet nodded before setting the clipboard down and grabbing the sling with her magic before walking over to my side. She undid the sling and put the strap over my shoulder before she looked me in the eyes.

"This might hurt a bit, but I'm going to be as ginger as I can," she told me. I gulped far more audibly than I wanted to, closing my eyes in preparation for the pain of adjusting the hoof.

It hurt.

A lot.

After that, though, I was free to go. I was instructed to hit it with my numbing spell whenever it got too painful, but not to over-do it to keep some feeling in it while the injury healed. I thanked her profusely, but like always, Scarlet merely laughed and brushed the compliment aside, only wishing me well on a fast recovery. With a smile, I nodded and headed out of the room and I was immediately greeted by the sight of Rainbow Dash.

She quickly looked to my arm in the sling before looking back at me, a sense of worry and fear in her eyes.

"How long?" she asked simply. I sighed, still greatly unsatisfied with the answer I gave her.

"Doctor says around ten weeks. I wanna get out there," I told her, a hint of frustration in carrying through my voice. Rainbow shook her head in the negative before gently walking over and giving me the best hug she could manage. She tactfully avoided the sling, but the embrace was still tight.

"I know how it feels, Twi," she replied, still holding on. "But you'll be better soon. And don't get lazy now that you're hurt, you hear me? We'll need you to coach us from the sidelines, you know." I couldn't help but laugh as we broke apart, rolling my eyes as I looked back to Rainbow.

"I think Celestia's the coach around here," I replied. I looked down the hall, going through the twists and turns in my head that I knew led to the throne room.

"You go on ahead, Rainbow," I said absently, still locked in my stare. "And when you're finished, we're gonna go over our gameplan."

I waited until Rainbow Dash had finished her exam before we got together as a group.

She was bruised fairly badly on both sides, but that was about the worst of it. She had two large packs of ice strapped to both sides of her body with a long line of gauze, which she was instructed to frequently replace, and much to my chagrin Rainbow had already asserted me of her intention to defy the doctor's orders and fly with the Wonderbolts next week if everything here was taken care of. Although I was upset with her on the outside, I couldn't help but be glad that she was in such good spirits after what we had seen.

I'd gotten a letter back from the hospital. Help had arrived to the Crystal Palace, and they saw what we'd seen, the ponies lying motionless with pitch black eyes. The guards called in from neighboring shifts didn't want to mess with anything until Shining, Cadance, and Sunburst got back, and they were considering trying to use the magic in the Crystal Heart to revive the fallen guards and servants. Until then, though, the hospital informed me the staff would assume the worst.

In the meantime, however, we needed answers, and so I gathered everypony in the throne room to get them.

When we all walked into the throne room, I didn't need any confirmation that Celestia had received my letter.

Her eyes looked empty and weary. She had been so elated to see Cobalt and Violet return to her these past few weeks, but with the news of what Rainbow and I had experienced, it seemed as if the life had been entirely sucked out of her. She sat on her throne with a serious posture--she never slouched or sulked in all the years I'd known her--but there was a somber air about her that suffocated the room. Luna had a gaze of worry and anxiousness, and it was her that spoke first when everypony was properly gathered.

"Sister, if this is hard for you, do not fret and take your time." Celestia shook her head immediately, sighing deeply as she looked to the small crowd before her.

"No, I am fine. And I wanted to start out by giving an apology," she began. "The possibility that my less-than-savory students could appear crossed my mind, but I was so happy to see Violet and Cobalt that I didn't want to let myself think of the possibility. That included not talking about it, and I put Twilight and Rainbow Dash in grave danger because of my foolishness, and got one of my faithful students seriously injured." I wanted to hold up a hoof to wave away her worries, but I couldn't: instead, I spoke up as quickly as I could.

"I'll be okay, Princess." I began. "We just want to know what we're dealing with, because I have a feeling that this stallion will be back again." The Princess of the Sun nodded somberly before beginning her long awaited explanation.

"I've only had three other students," she replied. "The student I had before Sunset was a mare named Silver Jubilee, and when--if--she comes back to us, she'll be a wonderful addition to our group. She had a bit of a rough edge to her, but she was a mare who was incredibly gifted and compassionate. She died untimely, and I didn't have another apprentice for years because of it until I met Sunset." Her face brightened with the mention of Silver, but it dropped just as fast, and I had a growing feeling the next name didn't evoke any pleasant memories.

"The second, an apprentice sometime after Violet died, was a stallion named Zephyr. That was the stallion you fought at the Crystal Palace." She leaned back in her chair, waiting for a question she knew would come. Sure enough, Rainbow called out with an inquiry we had all been thinking.

"This pony had the Sombra eyes goin'," she said. "Dark magic, right? What happened?"

Celestia looked down at the floor for a moment, attempting to find the right words to begin her tale. She opened her mouth, but nothing came out, and it took a few seconds for her to start her story."

"Zephyr was very bright. Staggeringly, in fact," she began hesitantly. "He was always full of joy and he was very inquisitive. He had a strong set of values and beliefs, and we fought very often about a lot of things despite our love for each other. Zephyr was unsatisfied with the way life around him was perceived, and he constantly yearned for something more. No matter how much I tried to explain to him what I knew of our world, he believed that there was something else going on in the universe that we did not understand yet.

"He had a mare he loved very much, a girl named Chrysanthemum, whom we often called Chrys. She was a beautiful mare with a beautiful soul, and the two had connected the very moment they'd met. Chrys and Zephyr were inseparable, and when he had reached his very late twenties they wed. Zephyr lived happily with her as he continued his studies with me, but there came a day that changed his life." Pinkie Pie quickly rose her hoof, and Celestia had a quick laugh as she nodded and gave her permission to speak.

"Did something happen to Chrys?" she asked. Her tone wasn't hyper and frenetic as it often was, but respectful, and Celestia grimly nodded once more as she continued her story.

"Yes. She had gone to the doctors for a routine checkup when they discovered she had developed a respiratory disease that, at the time, was incurable. She was dying, and she had come to accept her fate and cherish the time she had left with her friends and family. Zephyr, however, was crushed beyond repair and refused to do so, and he obsessively stayed awake for days on end looking for a cure.

"It was in the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the archives, about a month or so until the doctors had assumed she would succumb to her illness, that he had found his perceived answer. It was a book dated back a hundred years or so before I had banished Luna, and in it was a spell that claimed it could cure any affliction or illness." I was beginning to catch on to it now, and I was about to make a guess when, in what seemed to be an increasingly common occurrence during our time together, Sunset beat me to it.

"It was a dark magic tome," She interjected firmly. Celestia nodded again, though this time I saw the faintest hint of a tear drop from her eye. When she spoke next, there were the beginnings of a crack in her inflection as she got more and more emotional with each word.

"I told him that I refused to allow him to use the spell on Chrys. I knew she wouldn't want him to use the darkness to save her, and I didn't want my student to succumb to it, but my words fell on deaf ears. He became enraged and accused me of letting Chrys die, and no matter how much I pleaded with him he would only yell louder. For a few days, he disappeared, and I assumed he was dealing with the grief of losing his beloved and was preparing for her death in his own way, wherever he was. I sent out a search party to find him, but it was no use." She paused for a moment, sniffling and looking around the room's decor, and she once again leaned backward in her chair: I knew then that she had much more of the story to tell.

"One day, as her illness grew worse, I arrived back at the castle from a delegate meeting..."

CHAPTER TEN

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CHAPTER TEN:
WIDOWER
PRINCESS CELESTIA

I remember the day my sister blotted out the sun.

I had walked into the castle and felt my stomach drop immediately. Nothing bad had occurred that day in particular--I had attended a meeting with the farmers in Canterlot as they discussed the current agricultural climate and what to expect for the coming season, if I recall correctly--but the mundane (yet important) cloud in my mind cleared immediately as my spine began to tingle.

I knew something was very, very wrong, and the moment I walked into that throne room and saw my sister slowly turn to me with a burning hatred in her eyes the likes of which I had never seen before, my fight-or-flight response shook me to my very core.

I remember what it felt like very vividly, and I could not even replicate it when it crossed my mind. I often wondered if there was some sort of innate magic I had that warned me of the coming danger that day, but I did not think about it much longer: after I had banished Luna to the moon, I never felt it again.

Not until I had taken my first step into the castle after returning from a delegate meeting.

I remember how deafening the silence was. Silence was a strange thing, as one traditionally blocks out all the noise and banter they hear in a place they have been so many times, but it immediately becomes noticeable when it has gone. The castle just felt barren and empty, and I got that exact same pit in my stomach I remembered from the very worst day of my long, long life.

My first instinct was to call out. I knew I would not get an answer, but desperation prevailed, taking a hold of me before I could make any effort to combat it.

"Hello?" I asked. My words echoed off the walls, bouncing back to my ears with reverberation. I took a few steps forward before I called out to the two ponies I knew were in the castle when I had left it.

"Zephyr? Chrysanthemum?" I heard nothing still, and the feeling in my stomach only grew worse.

When I walked into the palace on the day my sister left me, I somehow knew that the pit in my stomach had something to do with her. I could not explain it--there were many things I could not explain with the powers I had been given so long ago--but I knew.

And so the moment I felt it again, I knew precisely who had triggered it and I knew exactly where to go.

Zephyr and Chrysanthemum lived at the very far end of Canterlot Castle, in a single-bed room with plenty of space and decor. It was going to be a long walk, and so I braved it with a sigh as I took my first steps down the long and winding hallways. The artifacts and paintings that hung on the wall blurred to unrecognizable objects as I passed, and I could see my vision tunnel forward as I got closer and closer to what I just knew was a disaster.

As the sound of my own heartbeat pounded through my skull, I had a singular thought dancing furiously through my mind.

Has it finally happened?

Nopony knew how she got it. Chrysanthemum had been coughing for quite some time, but she insisted it was likely just a simple cold that would go away with time. It was not until she began to cough up blood one morning, however, that we knew something was seriously wrong, and when she passed out in the middle of a hallway while attempting to go to the doctor we picked her up and carried her there as fast as we could.

They did not know what it was at first, but after leaving her in the infirmary overnight led to her struggling with night sweats and she began to lose weight alarmingly fast, they gave us the grim diagnosis: Chrys had been stricken with consumption, and her days were certainly numbered.

Chrysanthemum handled it well. The girl was perhaps one of the most compassionate and kind mares I had ever met in my very long life, but she had a heart of steel. She had been married to Zephyr for close to seven or eight years at this point, and she made sure to remind him how fortunate she was to have spent her happiest moments with her best friend. Chrysanthemum was going to die, but amidst the turmoil running through her body, she had made peace with her mortality.

Zephyr had not.

Chrys was his everything. I had done my best to teach him the lessons of friendship, but it became clear to me that Chrys was the only friend he ever truly cared about. She was the reason he woke up in the morning, the very catalyst of his soul. They had been married and nigh unseperable, and he had suddenly been faced with the jarring reality that the love of his life and his very best friend would leave him sooner than later.

It destroyed him.

He begged me to do something and help her. I told him that although I was powerful, there is only so much magic can do: even so, I was not a doctor, so I would not know how to save her even if my magic could heal her fully.

I think he never forgave me for that answer, but he at least made an effort to tolerate me as we searched through the many libraries of the Royal Palace for a cure. Every day our search was fruitless, and Chrys and I attempted many times to get him to end his aimless crusade. It was to no avail, unfortunately, and he would go numerous nights on end without sleeping in desperate hopes of finding anything that could save his purpose.

Until one day, he found a book.

It was a book filled to the brim with dark magic. Spells, tomes, rituals, cantrips: it held everything that lay claim to the vile and perverse, but to Zephyr it held a single spell he needed. It was a spell the book claimed could cure any illness that ravaged the body. He was overjoyed when he found it, but I quickly informed him that he would not be using any dark magic while he was my student and that the book was in the library (and heavily guarded) solely for historical reasons.

He may have merely tolerated me for some time, but once I had denied him the right to use the spell, the toleration became hatred. I sat and listened while he unloaded his worst words upon me that night, screaming that I was murdering his love by banning him from the tome. I let him--he was always an emotional one--but I was in hopes that he, so bright as he was, would calm down in the coming days.

He did not. He stood by Chrys' side for hours of the day, refusing to speak to me as he scribbled away in his journal. I told him to return the book, and I made sure to check frequently to make sure it was still in the library. I tried to get him to talk on numerous occasions, but Chrys had become too weak for words and Zephyr would have none of my attempts to reconcile. He just sat at her bedside.

Scribbling. And scribbling. And scribbling.

Perhaps my feeling was a signal that Chrys had finally succumbed to the consumption. Perhaps her death would drive Zephyr further into the bubble he had constricted himself with, or perhaps her passing would allow him to be free of her chains upon his psyche.

Regardless, I had already made a decision at that delegate meeting.

There were some things within Zephyr that reminded me of the stallion I had raised and loved. He still had that inquisitive mind, constantly researching and feverishly studying, but it was what he had been applying his will to that frightened me. He had truly thrown everything else in his life away for Chrys, a mare on the brink of death that, as far as I knew, could not be saved without corruption. I loved Zephyr--I still loved Zephyr, after all we had been through in the past months--but it became clear to me that he needed serious help.

Help I could not offer him.

And so I had decided at that delegate meeting that I was going to kindly inform Zephyr I wished to relieve him of his duties. His animosity towards me had grown to new heights in the past few days, and he had quite literally reached the point where he had refused to even speak to me. It had been my goal with Violet to teach her the gift of friendship and to better her as a pony and a magician, and I had hoped to do the very same with a pony as bright as Zephyr.

Maybe I had failed him. Maybe he had failed me.

Before I knew it, I had reached their door. It was inconspicuous, but it was theirs, and they had lived there for almost ten years. I raised my hoof to knock, knowing well that I would get no answer, but my motions were automatic regardless. The three knocks on the door were hollow, and I let them hang in the air for what seemed like an eternity before I called out once more.

"Zephyr? Chrysanthemum?"

Nothing, still. I waited a few moments, staring at the wood grain and following its pattern along with my eyes before gently grasping the door handle and slowly pushing it forward.

The room was how I had always known it. It was impeccably clean, the light yellow wallpaper and dark purple curtains spotless as usual. There was not much in the room, save for a small desk, a large dresser, and queen-sized bed, the bedding matching the color of the walls perfectly. Lying on her side was Chrysanthemum with her back to me, her light purple coat and deep red mane and tail recognizable from miles away. She was eerily still, and the pit in my stomach dropped ever so slightly when I saw her: I knew then and there that she was gone.

Zephyr had pulled the desk chair up to the bed and was sitting just as steady with his back to the doorway. He appeared to be staring at her, and it was not until I saw the back of his head that I noticed the aura, dark purple and flowing stronger by the second.

It was a telltale sign of the darkness. It looked powerful, too, so he clearly had not dabbled in it sparingly. My eyes turned to the desk almost immediately, and sure enough, the book I had forbidden him to continue research was wide open next to his journal. I slowly turned back to him and took a loud step forward. It was muffled over the carpeted floor, but it was loud enough for Zephyr to absolutely know I had arrived. When I got no response once again, my stomach took a freefall, and I spoke softly in his direction as a straightened my posture.

"Zephyr," I said cautiously. "What have you done?"

For what felt like eons, he merely ignored me, staring steadily at Chrys as my words hung in the air. I let the silence persist, making sure all my wits were about me, as I had no idea just how much dark magic he had used or if it had corrupted him in some way. Finally, he slowly turned from his chair to face me, and I had to stifle a gasp when I saw his face.

His pupils were reduced to the size of pinpricks, tiny black dots on a field of sickly green. The purple aura coming from his eyes burned bright and full, rippling violently in a strong wind that was not there. I could feel my eyes widen in horror, and he looked to me with a cold hatred in his own gaze before he spoke.

"What you would not," he said simply. "I have saved her." I looked back to Chrys, unmoving on her side lying prone on the bed.

"Chrys?" I called out to her. There was no response or movement, and I took a step back before addressing my former-faithful student once more.

"Zephyr," I began slowly. "I do not know what you read, or what you did to Chrysanthemum, but I need you to get out of that chair and step away from her. Now." I made sure to put plenty of emphasis on that last word, but Zephyr merely snarled back at me as he rolled his eyes.

"Or what?" he spat, turning to me directly now. I narrowed my eyes, letting only the slightest bit of anger push my words as I replied.

"Or I am about to make a mistake," I said calmly, feeling my horn glow gold involuntarily. Zephyr merely laughed in response and stood from his chair to face me fully on all fours.

"You have already done your share of that," he began, cynicism dripping from his inflection. "Not using this magic is your greatest mistake of all. I have read that book front to back, Celestia, and it holds the keys that unlock so many of life's mysteries. And you... you have hidden it from me all this time." I immediately shook my head before using it to motion to the open book lying open on the desk.

"That book has the power to corrupt, and it has clearly done its work on you," I began in retaliation. "I am not going to repeat myself, Zephyr. I do not know what you have done to Chrysanthemum, but I am commanding you to step away from her."

He laughed once again--each chuckle more unhinged than the last--and he pointed with his hoof to the book at his side, wearing a ferocious countenance as he spoke.

"That book allowed me to bring her salvation, Celestia, just like it has brought me. After reading that book, it has become clear to me why you have locked it away, and why you banished your own sister to the moon--"

"Do not speak of Luna," I muttered angrily through gritted teeth. Zephyr ignored me, opting to continue his tirade at an even louder volume.

"You were afraid of her power!" He shouted. "And Tirek before her, and Sombra before him. That is why you cast them out, and that is why you were planning on casting me out as well." It was his turn to ignite his horn, but his aura was not the traditional amber that almost matched mine: it was dark purple and green, the two colors endlessly vying for control under the power of darkness.

I could feel his anger rising by the second, and I knew then and there just how this was going to end. Nonetheless, I sighed--and felt only the slightest well of tears--and looked him straight in the eyes one last time.

"Zephyr," I said simply, unable to mask the helpless plea with my voice. "I have already lost my sister. Please do not make me lose you."

It all happened in an instant. Zephyr's anger had reached its height, and with a yell, he unleashed the bolt of magic he had been holding back.

I had trained Zephyr very well. He was adept at almost every form of magic, and that included combat magic. The spell he had fired off was a considerably more powerful variation of a laceration spell, which acted essentially like a flying sword with a blade on sides it did not have. I had taught it to him some time ago, with the caveat that it mainly to be used as a tool and only in extreme emergencies, as it would run clean through virtually anything, much less another pony.

The dark magic flowing through him had certainly enhanced his abilities, and he was already very fast on the draw.

I was faster.

I had already begun moving to my right when he had fired, and I could feel the heat of the spell pass by me in a flash. I let fly my own charge, and once my own laceration spell had connected with my former student, it was all over in an instant.

My Zephyr--my faithful student who I had so loved and cherished since he was a colt--made no noise when he hit the ground. I watched him there for a moment, the aura around his eyes snuffed out deftly, and it took but a few moments for me to hang my head low, fall to the floor, and let loose the tears I been withholding for months.

I do not know how long I wept there. I do not know how long I thought of our best moments and replayed each moment Zephyr mastered a lesson or his lovely wedding with his best friend. I do not remember how long I hated myself for what I had done, replaying the moment in my head searching for a way it could have ended differently. I do not know how many tears had soaked the carpet when the guards barged into the room after hearing two bolts fly, only to see me prone and weeping across from the body of my former student. The head guard said nothing for a moment, but he eventually stammered together a sentence.

"Princess, we... we heard bolts of magic, and we came as fast as we could. Is... is..." I rose from the floor before he had a chance to finish and turned to face him. I knew my complexion was read from the crying, but I was not embarrassed: the guards had seen me in this state before, and they would see me in this state again plenty of times within the next few days.

"Zephyr is dead, yes," I said, sniffling louder than I would have liked to. "He tried to kill me, and I fired back. There was probably more I could have done to help him, but... it is over now." The guard nodded silently, struggling to find the words once again, but his face went grim when his eyes shifted past me to the bed across from him.

"And what of Chrysanthemum, Princess?"

I could not see myself, but I imagined a dawning washed over my face as my mouth hung open ever slightly. I turned to the bed as well to see the same sight that greeted me when I walked in: Chrysanthemum lying motionless, not a sound coming out of her. I squinted my eyes, but I could not see any evidence of breathing on her part, and I suddenly remembered Zephyr's words only moments ago.

This book allowed me to bring her salvation.

Salvation?

"Chrysanthemum?" I called out. I waited for an answer--any form of acknowledgment, truly--that never came. The silence that hung in the air was sickening, and with an audible gulp, I slowly moved over to her.

I reached the edge of the bed and laid a hoof on her, checking for any sign of breathing. When there was not one, I turned her over.

"Chrys?" I called again.

For a blissful half a second, everything seemed normal.

And then I saw her eyes.

CHAPTER ELEVEN

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CHAPTER ELEVEN:
COLOSSUS
SUNSET SHIMMER

The room had gone silent.

I'd known a little bit about what Celestia had been forced to do in the past, but as the general rule about her former apprentices applied, I hadn't heard about this one. I couldn't even imagine having to kill a pony she loved so much, and I hadn't even seen what those... things in the Crystal Palace had looked like and I still got chills when she told us that Chrysanthemum had become one of them: Twilight and Rainbow, who'd just come back from that horror show, currently had their mouths and eyes wide open in shock.

It was horrible. It was heartbreaking. But it left me wanting an answer, along with another thing she had yet to address.

"I'm sorry, Princess," I began, breaking the silence. Everypony turned to me at once, curious as to where I was going. "I couldn't imagine what you were going through after that, and I know it has to be worse with what's happened to those ponies in the Crystal Empire." Celestia nodded solemnly at first, but then, with a wit she rarely brought out from behind her ever-wise glance, she spoke to me with a soft grin.

"You have questions, Sunset Shimmer," she stated slyly. Naturally, this caused the room to break out in laughter, but it wasn't all relieving: I could feel the nervousness from where I stood, and I knew well that my cross-examination would do nothing to quell it.

"You mentioned earlier about something to do with Zephyr not be satisfied with your answers of how the world worked. It seems like this is a revenge plot for killing him, but you seem to be implying there's more to it than that." Celestia nodded grimly almost immediately before looking down to me with a piercing fierceness.

"Do you remember that journal I spoke of? The one he constantly scribbled in?" The room nodded in the affirmative, and it took a heavy sigh before she continued.

"I don't know exactly what happened, but I assume that he went mad after his attempt to revive Chrysanthemum went so awry. But before this all happened, he was never happy with my explanations of how our world itself worked. He always thought there was something more, and when he discovered the "power" that eventually turned his wife into an empty thrall--"

"--he thought he found it." That was Applejack, of all ponies, and Celestia nodded yet again to confirm her suspicions.

"He wrote much of Sombra, Tirek, the Pony of Shadows, and Nightmare Moon. He referred to them in his notes consistently as "The Dark Quartet": a group of individuals who had truly unlocked the secrets of the universe. In shorter terms, he didn't... doesn't only use the darkness, he worships it and believes it his duty to spread it to others. You may have heard him refer to it as his 'salvation'." Once again there was a contemplative silence, and I looked to the ceiling in thought.

Awesome. So he isn't just revenge-hungry, he's a revenge-hungry zealot who worships dark magic. Welcome back to Equestria, Sunny!

That wasn't the worst of it, though. See, there was something Celestia said earlier that hadn't really left my mind since she began talking about Zephyr, and I had a distinct feeling that it wasn't going to make me feel any better once I got my answer.

"Celestia, there's something else," I said quickly. I looked to Twilight only to see her nodding towards me knowingly: it seemed as if she and I had been on the same page. Celestia looked to me with her eyebrows raised, and I found myself sighing deeply before I began.

"Before you started talking about Zephyr, you said you only had three other apprentices," I explained. "So we have me, Twilight, Violet, Cobalt, Zephyr, and Silver Jubilee, who we haven't seen pop up yet. That's six... but that doesn't add up. You had one more, didn't you?"

Celestia's eye had twitched ever so slightly when I mentioned Silver--I had forgotten Celestia's vague and hurried explanation that she'd "died untimely"--but her eyes dropped to the floor in a defeated manner when I mentioned the student she hadn't accounted for. She closed her eyes for a second, thoughts almost visibly dancing around in her head before she finally looked up, looking to the entire crowd of ponies before her.

"I was going to address that next," she began. "I did have one more apprentice, sometime before Silver. She told me her name was Melody Waltz, but that was not her real one, I'd come to find. Melody was not who I thought she was, and she was devoted to a very different Chrys."

I could feel my jaw drop at those words, and a quick look around the room saw much of the same. Luna had remained silent and contemplative during Celestia's entire explanation, but she was looking to Celestia now with her eyes wide in horror. It appeared that there were even some things that Celestia wasn't wont to discuss with her sister, and it was the Princess of the Night who spoke next.

"And you never knew?" She asked quizzically. Celestia shook her head violently before answering.

"Twilight, why do changelings get caught when they attempt to impersonate ponies?" It was a question that certainly had no black and white answer, but I knew well that the mare I admired so often would prove deftly why she earned her former status as Celestia's pupil.

"Because they aren't ponies," she answered simply. "They can mimic personality very well, but at the end of the day, they're pretending to be an entirely different species." It made sense: there were aspects of a changeling that was simply in their nature that was bound to bleed over, and there were aspects of a pony that a changeling simply could not emulate. Celestia didn't nod or commend Twilight, merely continue her lecture with the knowledge that the answer was correct.

"Melody was very, very gifted in many respects. She was extremely intelligent and remarkably cunning, both of which allowed her to mimic a unicorn almost perfectly, and I do not use that word lightly. I had fought Chrysalis and her changelings thousands upon thousands of times whenever they caused trouble, and I never even thought that Melody could have been one of them. She did not feel emotions very well, but she understood them like no other." Rarity spoke up next, raising her hoof much in the same way Pinkie Pie had done earlier. Celestia smiled for what had to have been the first time in quite a while before waving the gesture away.

"You all aren't quite my little ponies anymore, you don't have to raise your hooves. What is your question, Rarity?" Rarity had been glowing red from the slight embarrassment, but she got over it quickly enough as she posed her inquiry.

"You mentioned that she was almost perfect. What happened?" That was a very good question, and the room turned to the Princess of the Sun for an answer.

"She was perfect when she played the character of Melody Waltz, since she created her. She could mimic the subtle things a pony does flawlessly, unlike other changelings, but when it came to mimicking real ponies, there were simply quirks she could not replicate and information she couldn't know. I eventually caught her when she attempted to impersonate somepony who I'd known far too long to be fooled by an imposter." Before anypony could speak this time, however, Celestia raised her hoof to the crowd. She looked down for a few seconds, mulling over her next words before speaking.

"I know you all still have lots of questions," she began. "I don't know where Silver is, and yes, Melody could be here among us for all I know. Cobalt, Violet: I've been over the moon to see you return to me, and it fills me with a joy that I cannot possibly describe to you all. But with Zephyr doing such horrible things in the Crystal Empire and the possibility that Melody and Silver are roaming around somewhere... I'm very tired, and I have much to think about. I say we all get some rest before we proceed any further." I nodded in agreement, along with the rest of the ponies, but there was plenty of concern that I wasn't willing to voice out loud.

Yeah guys, just rest up. There might be a shapeshifting sociopath in this very room, but we'll be all good.

I certainly wasn't planning on letting myself get too comfortable, but I could see the logic in Celestia's words. There were ponies long dead who were returning to Equestria at the prime of their youth, and we still didn't know why. It was a tense time, and though everypony was set on edge, thinking about how to approach a problem with a clear mind was much better than attempting to solve it in a panic. Once we settled down and thought about our next move, I was certain we could get the ball rolling.

Everypony in the throne room seemed to be breaking up, and I quickly scanned the area for Violet before I found her on the other side of the room. I trotted over to her and saw that she was in the midst of a conversation with Cobalt, though I couldn't quite make out what it entailed when I got to the pair and spoke up.

"Hey, Violet. You wanna go back up to the room and put on some more records?" One of the bigger things that enthralled Violet from the modern world was the music, and for the past few nights, we'd been listening to tons of records from all sorts of periods in Equestria's history.

She smiled in response, but nodded her head over to the right where Cobalt was standing.

"In sooth, Cobalt has invited me on a perambulate through the castle garden. I trust you accede to such leisure?" I couldn't help but chuckle almost immediately, waving my hoof in dismissal. I may have been overseeing her, but I certainly didn't have any say in what she did or who she did it with.

"You don't have to ask me for permission to go for a walk, Violet. Have fun!" The two nodded eagerly before heading off to the gardens, chatting away as they'd been moments before. I watched them go off, eying Violet's gait in relation to Cobalt's.

Well that's an interesting development, I thought, feeling a sly smile curl across my lips. I watched them walk until they disappeared behind the wall before truly taking a moment to take in my surroundings: it seemed now as if I were the only one here.

"Sunset."

I instinctively turned around. I remembered that voice summoning me countless times in years past, and I almost hated that even after all that happened I jumped at the chance to heed my former teacher's call.

Almost.

Celestia's smile was warm as her sun, even through the hurricane of emotions she'd been going through in the past few days. Luna, on the other hand, seemed to be deep in thought, her eyes drifting to the other side of the throne room as her lips barely mumbled her inner dialogue.

"I'm immeasurably grateful that you're looking after Violet," she began. "Luna's been talking to her at nights to clear the air between the two of them, and she tells me that Violet is doing alright. I wanted to ask you if that was the case, though, because you've been so close to her these past few weeks." Luna had snapped out of her trance sometime during the middle of her sister's request, nodding along silently before following up.

"She's a wonderful mare, and I'm glad I've eased her mind," she began. "But she seems scared." It was my turn to nod, and I made it curt before replying.

"Violet is a crazy smart pony, Celestia. But she's been thrown into a world beyond what she could possibly imagine where almost nothing makes sense to her. She feels dumb, especially since every conversation is filled with slang and topics that she doesn't have a chance to keep up with, but... she's a trooper. We've been listening to records lately, and she loves all the new music she's been listening to. I've been trying to teach her some modern Equestrian, but I think she's too afraid to use it so far." That garnered a few laughs, as expected, and during a time where my nerves were almost entirely shot I couldn't help but laugh along with them.

Once we were done, Celestia looked towards me with that curious glare I'd seen on her face many times throughout my tenure as her student, her single-raised eyebrow always a giveaway that she had a question that she wanted answersing.

"And what of you, Sunset?" she asked me. I had a short-term plan mapped out every since Twilight left for the Crystal Empire, so I didn't skip a beat when I responded.

"I'm going to make a trip back to the human world tomorrow. Cobalt told me he wanted some blueprints and parts for their technology once I told him about my experiences there." That drew a sly smile and a playful roll of her eyes from the Princess of the Sun, but I wasn't quite finished yet.

"But first," I began, drawing that curious single-eyebrow raise from Celestia and Luna. "I'm gonna go see a friend of mine who might need somepony to talk to."

Her presence wasn't something that was put simply, but put simply, Twilight Sparkle was extraordinary.

Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Tirek, Sombra, the Pony of Shadows, Starlight Glimmer, the Storm King, Cozy Glow, and, of course, myself: I've lost count of how many times Twilight Sparkle has either saved the world herself or led Equestria's premier friendship-powered strike team in the process. She'd created her magic and ascended to princesshood, and she'd made it her absolute life's goal to spread her message of peace across the entirety of Equestria.

Some days, Twilight Sparkle didn't seem like the mare prone to a nervous breakdown or the mare that drank too much at pretty much every party or gathering she'd ever been to. She didn't seem like the dorky girl who liked trashy romance novels and classic rock music, who liked board games and watching hoofball.

Some days, Princess Twilight Sparkle seemed like a goddess. She was a pony that history couldn't forget if it tried, an individual so remarkable and influential that she'd become a household name in a matter of years. She was the pony everypony strove to be, and in a world of ancient magic, immeasurably powerful artifacts and beings as old as time itself, Twilight was a colossus amongst its denizens.

And right now, she was scared.

When I walked into her room, Twilight Sparkle did not exactly shimmer royal radiance as she sat calmly on her bed in the midst of brushing her mane. Her hoof, which she'd badly injured during her encounter with Zephyr in the Crystal Empire, was wrapped intently at her side atop a white cast, ensuring it wouldn't move for quite some time. Her face was marred by a large scar running all the way across it, another memento from the horrors she'd seen, but she ensured me during our short walk to the throne room that the now-pronounced scar would fade to obscurity in due time.

The magic danced through the strands of her hair, brushing out the knots and straightening it deftly. She brought a handheld mirror up to her face that had been resting on her wooden dresser, and she turned her head at every angle before setting it back down again with a satisfied nod. I sat down right next to her at the bedside, and she turned to me immediately with a sly smile.

"What's my favorite color?" she asked jokingly. I couldn't help but roll my eyes as I returned the grin, though if that was all I needed to do to prove I wasn't a changeling, I wasn't going to complain.

"Blue," I answered immediately. "And nachos are your favorite food." Twilight raised her eyebrows in feigning impressiveness before letting a light chuckle escape her lips.

"The ones Spike makes, if I'm being pedantic," she started. "Something on your mind?" I shook my head in the negative before playfully bumping her on the shoulder.

"I came here to see what was on yours," I told her. "You've had a rough couple of hours. I just wanted to make sure you were doing okay." In response, a warm smile washed over Twilight's face, the kind of glowing beam that made you feel like everything was gonna be just alright.

"The girls came by just now, actually. Guess I'm not so good at hiding anything, huh." She picked up the mirror with her magic again, and I could tell that this time she wasn't looking at her mane: she focused it on her scar, bobbing her head ever-so-slightly in every direction to fully take the protruding cicatrix in.

"Everything always works in the end," she started. "That's what I've been telling myself. That's what I told AJ and Rainbow and Rares and Pinkie. But I don't think I believe it." She turned her face back to me, and I saw something wash over her countenance that I'd seldom ever witnessed: genuine fear.

"All of Celestia's students are rising from their graves, and young, no less," she explained. "Supposedly, three of them are on our side, though Celestia doesn't seem too thrilled at the prospect of reuniting with Silver despite claiming she's a good pony. And then you have Zephyr, who almost killed me, and now there's apparently a changeling who can mimic ponies far better than the rest of her species. On top of that, we were both weirdly drawn to Canterlot, and I'm sure that has something to do with all of this." She let out a large sigh that I could almost hear the defeat in, and she gently put the mirror back down on her dresser before she continued.

"Every time we have a problem, I get on a trail to fix it. Whether it's a book, or a pony, or an artifact, whatever. But right now... I feel like I'm even more damn clueless than I was when this whole mess started, and I'm certainly worse for wear." She hung her head down low, watching her back hooves swing from side to side. I wrapped a hoof around her, making sure to mind her injury.

"Everything always works in the end," I mimicked, drawing a short laugh from the Princess. "Sure, things are really weird right now. But Fluttershy is going to be here soon, and Starlight is coming back once she's done helping Trixie, right?" Twilight nodded knowingly, and the slight relaxing of her face let me know that the thought of her two friends arriving made her feel a little bit better, at least.

"So there you go. We're gonna figure out why this is all happening, and we're going to go do it together. You hear me?" She nodded yes, and I could tell by her expression that my little pep talk--simple as it may have been--did at least a little to calm her down after the hell she'd been through.

"Yeah. We will," she replied, though she didn't sound like she was trying to convince herself this time. "Are you still heading to the human world tomorrow? What are you going to get for Cobalt?" That wasn't an easy question, but thankfully, I had this all planned out quite swimmingly. I wasn't anything if not a mare of mystery, though, so I could almost feel the glint in my eyes and my lips curl into a devilish smirk as I responded.

"Oh, don't you worry," I began. "He tells me he can build anything, and I have a few ideas."

CHAPTER TWELVE

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CHAPTER TWELVE:
WANT
SUNSET SHIMMER

What do you want, Sunset Shimmer?

In my life, I've wanted a lot of things.

When Celestia took me under her wing, I wanted to be the best student I could be. I wanted to do Equestria proud in my studies, and I wanted to learn the true power of magic and its place in the world. When I was relieved of my duties, to put it kindly, I wanted revenge, to show Celestia that I wasn't the failure she--and I as well, of course--knew myself to be. When I got to the human world, I wanted nothing more than to bring down the wrath I thought Celestia had brought down on me to everyone around me, and I wanted to rise to the top from scratch like I did in Equestria: just to prove to myself that I could.

When I got knocked down a peg and I truly got to know my six best friends, I wanted to leave the past behind. I wanted to start all over again, and I wanted to feel that warmth forever and ever that I never felt when I was in Equestria. For the longest time, in the human world, I had everything I could ever want.

And then I woke up one morning, rubbed my eyes, and wanted something else.

When I sat the girls down and explained my feelings, the first thing I did was assure them that my decision had nothing to do with them, the student body, Anon-a-Miss: any of that. It was so hard to explain partly because I didn't really know why my heart started hurting like it did.

Suddenly, the scenery around me felt wrong. Empty. I'd walk to school in the mornings and think about Equestria's rolling hills and snowcapped mountains, and every car that passed me was a carriage loudly rumbling by. I'd lay awake at night with the thought that the moon I was looking at wasn't the one I was used to. It was this creeping feeling everywhere I went, and I decided one morning that I couldn't stay in this world anymore.

I told the girls, and naturally, they were devastated. But it was Fluttershy who asked me the question that had been bouncing around my head since I returned to Equestria.

What do you want, Sunset Shimmer?

When I stepped through the portal to come home for the first time, I had that question burning through my mind like wildfire. I wanted to go home, but I didn't know how long that feeling would last or how much I would miss the human world that I had spent so much time in. I was nervous, but I found that those nerves subsided not long after I had sat down at that table to have dinner with Twilight and Celestia the night Violet showed up in the throne room.

It was strange, really. Even through the crazy revival of the dead and petrification of the Crystal Empire's denizens, I'd found my answer far quicker than I imagined I would.

Canterlot was my home. And I was so glad to be back.

As my boots clicked with every step and the wind coursed gently through my hair, I felt the memories of the human world fly back and forth through my mind. Playing with the Rainbooms, hanging out with my best friends after school, unlocking our magical potential: although I felt entirely at peace in Equestria, a day didn't go by where I wondered what they were doing.

I loved my friends. I wanted to visit them so, so bad.

But I couldn't. Not right now.

I would visit them when Equestria wasn't on the cusp of a silent disaster as it was at the moment (a silent disaster that, with the horror show Twilight and Rainbow went through in the Crystal Empire, was becoming worryingly louder amongst Equestria's citizens). If I saw them now, my paranoia would eat me alive and I wouldn't be able to enjoy our time together like I really wanted to.

I'd been walking on autopilot down the sidewalk towards the nearest tech store for quite some time, aware of the scenery but not invested in it. It was a ways away from Canterlot High, but that didn't really matter to me: I was gonna try and make this as quick as possible, and by the time I was done, Cobalt would have a few blueprints to play with that could hopefully give us the edge in our little battle. As a bonus, I needed to buy a laptop from the store to find and download the blueprints for them to print, so I planned to give him that as well for reverse-engineering purposes. He couldn't connect online, obviously, but I had a feeling the advanced tech would still make him very, very happy, and who knows: maybe he'd make something cool out of it or even become Equestria's very first web developer.

Suddenly, I felt myself trip on the sidewalk, and before I knew it I was stumbling forward haphazardly. I hadn't walked in a human body for quite some time now, and so the muscle memory that would normally have saved me failed to activate as I careened to the ground. I looked back immediately to see a rather large stick sitting in the middle of the sidewalk, and I chastised myself silently before hopping to my feet once more. As I got up and looked around, dusting my leather jacket off and craning my neck side to side, a very familiar sight caught the corner of my vision.

It was my little red house I'd worked so hard to own. I could have questioned how cheesy and perfect it was that I quite literally stumbled into it, but at that moment, I didn't really care: I had entirely forgotten the route to the tech store passed by it, and I was just glad to see it again. It was two stories, but that was deceiving: the bedroom was the entire top floor, and the living room, kitchen, and bathroom were all downstairs. I'd sold it not long before I left for good (I'd brought the money back with me for spending funds during my inevitable future trips) so I couldn't exactly walk in, but I certainly could stare at it longingly as for however long I wanted to.

So I did.

I sold everything, really. The hardest was my guitars, my amps, and my pedalboard. I could get all of those back in Equestria, of course (I'd been meaning to do it first thing until Violet showed up), but there was one guitar I didn't sell: I gave my Flying V, my very favorite guitar, to Rainbow Dash before I left. I knew she was taking good care of it, but seeing my old house made me think of it nonetheless.

She better not have smashed the damn thing.

I took a few steps forward, looking more stringently at the tiny house. The person I'd sold it to--a single man just moving into town in his mid-thirties--appeared to be taking good care of the place, though it didn't seem like he was home at the moment. It had been repainted recently, and though I had no control over what the guy did to it, it made me happy that he elected to keep it the same color.

I couldn't help but feel a smile form on my lips as I scanned the place one last time. After my final inspection, I quickly turned my heels to continue on my way towards the tech store, but I don't think I even took a step and a half before I heard a voice call out behind me.

"Sunset?"

Oh, I'd know that voice anywhere.

If any of my friends had happened upon me, I was secretly happy it had been Fluttershy. Her Equestrian counterpart was the only Element of Harmony that hadn't made it to Canterlot yet (though I suspected she'd be there or very close whenever I returned) and so it'd been a little while since I heard that soft tamber.

I missed it.

"Hey, Flutters," I said, turning around slowly. I still had that grin on my face, and when I got a full sight of hers I knew it'd only be seconds before I'd be crushed by an embrace. Sure enough, she ran as fast as she could and collided with me with a strength that would probably surprise anyone who met her.

I let her hold on to me for what seemed like a lifetime before she let go, and she still had that glow on her visage when she finally spoke.

"I didn't know you were coming! And so soon!" She began, pulling out her phone. "Should I text the girls?" I gently put a hand on it, causing her countenance to twist up in confusion.

"I... I can't stay long," I told her. "A lot of stuff happened over in Equestria, and it's kind of an emergency. I'm here to get some plans and blueprints to make some technology that could help us." I could immediately see her face drop, and it was a sight I always hated: years of tormenting Fluttershy only made her sorrowful gazes that much worse whenever I saw it happen.

"I understand," she said after a while. "You will come visit though, right?" I couldn't help but laugh a little at that one, and before I knew it I had nodded my head down the direction I was about to walk in to get to the tech store.

"Of course I will," I told her. "You got anywhere you're supposed to be at the moment? Let me fill you in."

"You really think he can build that?"

I'd told her exactly the blueprints I planned on bringing Cobalt on that flash drive. It was something I knew he'd likely take liberties with, especially since the machine was going to be designed for ponies and not humans--not to mention the fact that I couldn't give him anything too advanced, since all of the crazy stuff was beyond Equestria's current technological means--but I found a confident smirk build slowly across my face as I nodded in confirmation.

"I know he can," I began. "He already built an airship, and I looked over some of his equations for a few new ideas he had. He's the real deal." Fluttershy had seemed enamored with the whole situation since I outlined it to her, but the thought of Cobalt building what I'd described had entirely fascinated her.

"That's incredible," she began. "And Violet seems to get along with him well? It'd be a shame if some of her apprentices had to work together if they didn't like each other." I chuckled a little bit at that question, and I raised my eyebrows as we stopped to wait for the light to change at a crosswalk.

"That definitely isn't a problem. I think Violet's getting along with Cobalt very well," I replied. I could instantly see a sparkle in Fluttershy's eye as her facial expression matched mine exactly.

"Oooooh," she hummed teasingly, laughing a bit as we began to cross. She stayed silent for a moment, seemingly reflecting on what I'd told her as our shoes hit the road in a steady rhythm, but she spoke up softly after a few seconds of stillness.

"Will they all still be there?" she asked. Once we reached the end of the crosswalk, I let myself process her words again before looking over to her with confusion.

"Hmm?" I asked, looking to her for clarification. She had a bit of gloomy look on her face, and she seemed to think about her own words before responding.

"I was thinking about Violet and Cobalt, but really everyone," she began. "Let's say you defeat Zenith--"

"Zephyr," I corrected, unable to hold a teasing grin from my face.

"Zephyr, like my brother. I'm sorry," she said apologetically. I was going to let her know she didn't need to apologize for such a simple mistake, but she never gave me the chance.

"Let's say you defeat Zephyr, or whoever else is causing these ponies to come back," she began. "What if... what if the students go away, too, once whatever went wrong becomes right? What if they don't go? Will all of them want to live their lives over again?"

I hadn't admitted it to anyone else back home, but I had thought about that. There was a chance that the new relationships all of us had built would come tumbling down once we solved this mystery, and it seemed so far that every returning apprentice regained consciousness right after they died. I didn't know how they would react if they died yet again, but there was also the matter of them not dying, and if they would want to live life all over again if they still remained after whatever magic brought them back was taken care of.

I'd thought about it for a long time, and I was certain another purple mare had, too. But after all the thinking I'd done, I didn't really have any answers.

"We'll have to cross that bridge when we get there," I said simply. "I just don't know. Violet and I have become really close lately... I don't wanna think about it right now if that makes sense. I just wanna figure out what happened, and I think what I'm doing now can help get that done faster." Fluttershy nodded knowingly, deep in thought with the analysis of my answer, It was like that for some time, the people behind us slowly brushing past as I slowed down in a subconscious effort to make my time with Fluttershy last only just a bit longer, but she eventually spoke up again with a very simple question.

"Is it still what you wanted?" she asked.

I'd been expecting an inquiry like that one for the entire walk, and it had honestly taken a bit longer than I expect it to. I knew she was likely secretly hoping for a different answer, but Fluttershy was one of my best friends, and I was always gonna be honest with her when it counted.

"Yeah," I said simply. "Yeah, it is. I'm very happy."

It wasn't a very complicated answer, but I was glad about that, for once. I had a very complicated relationship with Equestria for the longest time, but I also had a very complicated relationship with the world I was currently in: I'd hit my absolute lowest of lows here right after I'd turned into that demon, but the friends I'd come to have brought me out of that and into some of the best moments of my life. But Equestria was a blank slate to me now, and for the first time in a very long time, I felt like I truly belonged somewhere and wasn't someone who didn't belong constantly trying to do so.

I expected a sad reaction of some sort from Fluttershy, but I got quite the opposite: she had that warm glow on her face she held when she first saw me earlier.

"I'm glad," she said softly. "That's what we all want for you, you know. And if you ever change your mind or just want to visit for a few days, we're always here." I nodded slowly, doing my absolute best not to break out into tears in the middle of a crowded sidewalk.

"I know you are," I said simply.

And that was that. We talked about a few basic things in the remaining short time there, stuff about school and how excited the girls were for college. It was small talk, but it still felt good, and it wasn't long before the tech store loomed high above us and we turned to each other.

"So, uh... this is goodbye, then," Fluttershy said. I sighed heavily and nodded, gesturing towards the door with my hands.

"Yeah. I think I'll be back pretty late, but I don't know if Cobalt sleeps anyways." The joke went without any laughter, and there was a moment of silence between us as a few people shuffled past where we were standing with grumbles. The day's pattern seemingly continued, however, as Fluttershy broke the long streak of silence.

"When are we gonna see you again?" she asked. I shrugged my shoulders in defeat, and I knew well my face had to look downright clueless when I responded.

"When this is all over. And I don't know when that's gonna be," I replied. "But I'll do it as soon as I can. I promise." I held out my arms for another hug, and she gladly accepted it: I was willing to let her stay there as long as she wanted, but she thankfully didn't stay too long as she unlocked herself from my arms with a wide smile.

"Say hello to the girls for me," I told her, and she nodded vigorously before slowly drifting backward.

"Of course," she said. "Have fun back home! We'll be waiting for you!"

I watched her walk back until she disappeared around the corner of the parking lot. I had no idea what time it was, but I knew Fluttershy's diversion had cost me a bit: it didn't really matter, though, as Cobalt and Celestia could hash out the logistics and economics of the upcoming build tomorrow when they got into his hooves. For now, though, I had to get everything, and so I turned myself around and walked into the store.

The store was very large, but its laptops were among the very first thing that one could see when their shoes hit the stark white tile. I walked over to the row of computers and began combing through the labels and aesthetics of the units, trying to see what would be best for Cobalt to mess around on. Slowly walking down the aisle, I found myself thinking out loud as I began to move the trackpad on one of the more expensive models.

"Now, what do I want... "

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

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CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
JUBILEE
SUNSET SHIMMER

Going through that portal was never fun.

It kinda felt like being swallowed by a really large wave at the beach. You get jostled around for what feels like an eternity, and you can't really do anything about it: you just have to desperately hold your breath as it beats you into submission before you finally have a chance to move your limbs and break to the surface.

That's what it felt like, and every time I surfaced from the portal with shortness of breath I always wondered why I go back and forth through it as casually as I often did. There was time enough for me to lie awake at night and ponder of every bad decision I've ever made, though: I had to get to Cobalt.

Unlike Violet, Cobalt had requested his own room for what I assumed served as a basis for his nefarious purposes. I knew where it was, though, having checked in on some of his early projects with Equestria's current technology, and so handing off the tech was the very first thing I planned to do when I got to Canterlot. I knew it would be late, of course--I had to take the train from Ponyville back to Canterlot, and so it was around 8ish when I got there--but as I'd mentioned to Fluttershy before I left the human world, I wasn't entirely sure if Cobalt ever really slept.

Even pushing open the double doors took strength I'd rather not have used, and I could hear my hoofsteps echo through the now mostly-empty palace. I wasn't expecting anyone to be in the throne room, so I was surprised to see Celestia and one of her guards chatting by her throne in the palace.

I hadn't seen the guard before, but I immediately knew her rank based on the color of her armor. While traditional guards were donned in gold, this pony wore a very muted orange, which denoted her as the Equestrian Guard's very highest rank: the Commanding Officer of the Sunspears. There were a few different ponies who held the title during my tenure as Celestia's student, but Twilight had informed me a while back that her brother took up the position for a considerable tenure not long after I'd escaped through the portal. She had a dark red coat and a golden mane and tail, from the looks of it, and there was a sword sheathed by her side that looked a bit different than the ones I'd seen most guards wear.

She bowed very deeply to Celestia before accepting what appeared to be a wrapped present from the monarch and turning away. As soon as she walked by me, and I got a good look at her face, I immediately knew what made that sword look different, and I waited until she was certainly out of the room before I turned to my former mentor to question her.

"The head of the guard is from Nippony?" I asked her, able to hear the interested shock carrying through my voice. I knew there were a few Equestrian guards from different places, but I had never heard of a foreigner making their way up to the top. Celestia nodded with a warm smile before looking back to the hallway the pony had exited from.

"Yes. Her name is Sakura, and she's been head of the Sunspears for about a year and a half now. They don't really do birthdays in Nippony, but it's hers today and I thought I would give her a gift for her service. Unless there is an emergency, she shouldn't bother you." She said the last part slyly, and I couldn't help but imagine the fierce persona the head of the Sunspears put on as I laughed along with her. When it died down, however, I quickly motioned to my saddlebag.

"Is Cobalt here? I have some goodies for him I know he's gonna love." If Celestia's smile was sly before, the new grin she wore upon her face was downright sadistic: I didn't think I'd ever seen such an evil genius look from Celestia, but the words that came out of her mouth shortly afterward gave it all the justification it needed.

"Cobalt has decided to go with Violet to a cafe downtown," she said simply. My jaw immediately dropped, and I rolled my eyes in annoyance as the laughter Celestia had been withholding began to break out in spades.

"I've been gone for a day!" I complained, throwing a hoof up in the air. That caused the Princess to laugh even harder, and we carried on in the fit for what seemed like forever before it finally died down. Eventually, Celestia waved her hoof in dismissal before speaking once more.

"I don't know if it's like that yet, exactly," she began. "Cobalt's always been a bit oblivious and I'd find it hard to believe that Violet is over her love from so long ago." My ears perked up at that last bit, and I found my mouth open ever-so-slightly, for real this time, at the revelation.

"Violet had a husband?" I asked, astonished. She hadn't mentioned anything about the subject during our time rooming together, and that was certainly an important detail about her life. Celestia shook her head in the negative, however, leaving me more confused before she cleared it all up.

"They never wed, or had children. They wanted to--and believe me, Sunset, they wanted to--but Violet was unable. His name was Slate, and he was a stone mason in Canterlot. He was a wonderful stallion, and they were inseparable." I looked to the ceiling in thought, trying to remember a time when Violet may have mentioned the name, but I simply could not.

"Did she outlive him?" I asked her simply. Again, she shook her head, and I nodded silently in acknowledgment.

"Slate was beside me at her bedside as she died. He passed on ten or so years later, but he made sure to visit her resting place in Hourton every year until he died. She... she does not know any of that, though. She hasn't said a word about him since she's been here, so I haven't had the opportunity to tell her." I could feel my face scrunch up in confusion, but before I could reply, Celestia spoke again in a softer voice.

"Of course, you're free to ask her about all of this yourself, as aside from me, you've gotten to know her best. I would recommend, though, that you approach it tactfully. She adored Slate, and she may not be speaking of him in an effort to be rid of him from her mind."

I nodded slowly at her words, taking in everything I'd heard. I certainly would ask her about it, but I'd make sure the time was right: Violet's love life was far from a pressing issue. Once again, though, Celestia interrupted my reflections, having done a bit of her own in the brief period of silence.

"You know, they're the only two people in this building that have the shared experience of what's happening to them," she began. "This could all just be a friendship out of common circumstance. I don't know." For the first time in a bit, I found myself giving off a short chuckle before raising my eyebrows to address the Princess.

"I'll be on the lookout and report back with any developments," I stated jokingly. We had another laugh--I dwelled a bit on how much I missed our banter, but not for too long--and before I knew it, the tiredness from dimensional traveling and city traveling began to weigh down on me all at once.

"Well, I'm gonna head up to my room," I began. Celestia nodded in agreement and slid off her throne, indicating that she planned on doing the very same thing. As we walked out of the throne room together, I decided very spontaneously that I had one last point of inquiry for the princess.

"Do you remember what cafe they went to?" I began. "I haven't gone out to eat yet downtown yet."

When I awoke, Violet wasn't there. I didn't know where she was, but when I looked to the counter to see my saddlebag empty, I gave a sigh of relief: it appeared the Violet didn't have too much fun last night, as she at least returned to the room and saw my note about giving the contents of the satchel to Cobalt.

I went through my traditional morning routine: I showered, brushed my teeth, straightened my mane to the best of my ability. I was already hungry, and so I grabbed my saddlebag and made sure the adequate amount of bits were in it before I headed downstairs.

The place was apparently called "The Bannermare", and it was a traditional Equestrian cafe. I was actually pretty excited: I hadn't eaten Equestrian food as a pony in quite some time, and Celestia had told me that the food was delicious and that she'd heard the decor was very charming (she'd never been able to eat out at a restaurant for years and she wasn't a fan of preventing other ponies by eating through renting a place out). As I headed downstairs, though, I saw a crowd began to gather by the door, and I assumed that either Fluttershy or Starlight Glimmer had arrived.

As it turns out, it was the both of them. They had only just begun to walk towards the rest of the crowd as I joined in, but everyone managed to go in for a hug with the two of them.

"Alright, alright!" I heard Starlight chirp from below the pile. It eventually cleared, and I was able to get a good look at the Equestrian counterpart to the person I'd just been talking to in another dimension yesterday.

She looked towards me almost immediately and gave me a sheepish smile. I walked up to her and held out my hoof, trying my best to match it.

"Hey there, Fluttershy," I greeted. "I'm Sunset Shimmer. I don't think we've technically met yet." Fluttershy took the hoofshake, but she leaned backward and began to mumble as she did so.

"I've heard a lot about you," she said, very softly. I heard her, but I'd already gone through this whole bit with a Fluttershy from a different dimension, and so I narrowed my eyes in an exaggerated manner and cupped a hoof to my ear as I leaned in.

"I'm sorry?" I replied, unable to hide my devilsh grin. At this point, I was teasing her, and a voice that called out behind me decided to give away the joke early.

"She knows what you said. Knock it off, Sunny." I turned around to find none other than the Princess of Friendship approaching, the grin on her visage very much matching mine. I rolled my eyes in fake annoyance as she passed me by, leaning her neck out for her friend to hug. Fluttershy obliged, and the two began to discuss Twilight's injury as Starlight turned to the rest of the group.

"Well howdy, everyone!" she said, waving her hoof frantically. "I assume nothing's changed while I've been gone?" I, always very much excited to give Starlight Glimmer a hard time, raised my eyebrows as I approached her.

"Funny you mention it, I woke up this morning and found that my cutie mark was missing. You have anything to do with that?" That drew a quick laugh from the group, and Starlight playfully shoved me on the shoulder as I walked on past her. I turned around quickly and gave her hug, of course, and she returned it gladly with a bit of chuckle. I waited for a retort, but in vein: in a bit of an unusual circumstance for Starlight in the brief time I'd known her, she opted to take the higher road and say nothing. I was dissapointed, but that made me no less happy to see Starlight come back to the castle, and I began to head for the door as the others grouped up to chat.

"Glad to see you again," she said softly after we broke up our embrace. Before I left for good, I turned to the rest of the group and, while waving, spoke a final request.

"I'm gonna go get some food. If anypony sees Cobalt, tell him he needs to come talk to me when I'm back." They all nodded affirmatively before going back to their respective conversations, and I adjusted my saddlebag one last time before spltting the castle's double doors and heading into the beast of downtown Canterlot.

Celestia was right. The place was really nice.

It wasn't fancy or anything, but the atmosphere was very comfortable. Various pieces of scrap art hung on the walls and ceiling, and the tables were made to look like metal bolted together. There were some pieces of regular art dotted here and there, too, and the menus had that fancy script writing that all those hipster restaurants have. It looked like the standard artsy cafe, but I missed those in the human world, and so I welcomed the opprotunity to eat here with open... uh, hooves? Forelegs?

I guess one thing doesn't change across dimensions.

It wasn't long before the waitress, a tall pegasus mare with a light blue coat and a yellow mane and tail, came over to my table and set a menu down in front of me.

"Hello, welcome to the Bannermare! I'm Lily, and I'll be your server this afternoon. Have you been here before?" I shook my head in the negative, and her fake smile got a little more genuine as she continued.

"Well, it's always nice to see some new faces. We have our menu here and the sides are on the back. Can I start you off with something to drink?" After glancing over the menu for a second, I leaned back in my chair and turned to face her.

"Do you have any GPAs?" The waitress immediately nodded her head in the affirmative, and she flipped the menu over to show me a drink list that I had missed on my first overview of the sheet.

"We have quite a few GPAs, actually. I'm not really a fan of pale ale myself, but I know Griffonian Coastal is the favorite amongst all the employees here, and most of our customers." I immediately nodded in response--Griffonian Coastal had always been my favorite, and I'd really asked the question in an effort to not embarrass myself if the brand longer existed for whatever reason.

"It's earned its reputation. I'll do that." Lily nodded in understanding as she jotted it down very quickly with a pen in her wing.

"Alright, then! I'll be back with that soon and give you some time to look over the menu." I nodded absentmindedly as she walked away, leaving myself alone with the decor once more.

I leaned back in my chair and began to think. It was very nice to have this time to myself, but it wouldn't be long before I walked out of here and back to the palace to discuss Cobalt and I's little project (well, mostly his). I also wanted to catch up with Starlight now that she was back, and I made it a goal that I was going to at least try and become the best friends I could be with the other girls. I didn't know if it would be the same as it was back in the human world, but it was worth a shot, as I never really felt better than when I was with my six best friends.

I decided on my meal fairly quickly, and it was in the middle of my thoughts whilst waiting for Lily to return when I suddenly saw her.

Two tables down from me, through a veil of ponies chatting away with their food, was a very peculiar unicorn mare. She had a silver coat that seemingly glinted in the light and a long light black mane that was styled in a similar controlled-chaos like Rainbow Dash's, but there were two features that immediately stuck out about her.

The first was her tattoos, which were likely magically administered. Tattoos were relatively uncommon in Equestria, but this mare had sleeves running up all four of her legs, it seemed, though from what I could see her legs were the only place she had them. The tattoos were black like her mane, and they were very cool and unique ornate patterns that sometimes changed shape and thickness until they curled off faintly right where her torso met her legs. She probably attracted odd stares wherever she went, I'm sure, but it seemed like the ponies around her had already done so.

The second thing was her eyes. She truly was gorgeous, but her eyes were particularly striking: they were bright red, and like her coat, they seemed to glint and gleam with the light. It was almost hypnotic, really, and I was only getting a bit of a look due to the fact that they were currently buried in a book that she levitated not far from her face with a golden aura. The only thing beside her was a single cup of what appeared to be coffee, and it looked as if she hadn't even touched it.

I had never seen this mare in my entire life, and yet I somehow knew exactly who she was.

"Did you decide on what you wanted?" came a voice from my side. I jumped from my seat almost immediately, and I could feel my face begin to wash with red as I quickly spoke to the waitress before she could apologize.

"I'm sorry, you just scared me a little. I'd like the double hayburger with everything on it, extra pickles, and a side of sunflowers." Lily nodded attentively before gesturing beside me, and I turned to find the pale ale I'd requested resting neatly on a coaster.

"I, uh, put your drink right there for you. Will that be all?" I nodded quickly before leaning in and lowering my voice to almost a whisper, gesturing over to the mare at the middle of the room.

"Yeah, it will, but I think I'm gonna move over to where that mare is sitting. She's a friend of mine from CSGU, and I haven't seen her in a while, so I'm gonna surprise her." Lying was perhaps one of my greater talents, and so the waitress's smile widened to reach her ears as she immediately bought my story.

"Aww, that's so cool! I'll bring it over to that table when it's ready for you." She closed her notepad and walked away swiftly, and I watched her blend into the crowd before quickly grabbing the pale ale with magic and shuffling over to where she was.

When I quickly pulled out the chair in front of her and sat down recklessly, making sure to set my drink down a bit more carefully, she immediately pulled her book down to reveal an angrily confused look spread across her countenance.

"Uh, excuse me--"

"Silver Jubilee?" I asked, staring her directly in the eyes. The anger slowly seeped out from her gaze once I spoke her name, but the confusion lasted just a bit longer before her visage turned grave as she pulled a bookmark from a place I couldn't see and slipped it in between the pages.

"You must be with Celestia," she said simply as she set the book down. Her voice was in about the same pitch as mine was, but it sounded far more mature. When she turned to me, I saw a sternness in her eyes that immediately told me loads about her personality: she didn't seem to be the outgoing and abrasive type like I first imagined she'd be when Celestia called her "rough around the edges", but rather calm and collected, a serene air surrounding her every motion. In this case, though, she made one thing apparent just from her facial expressions, and that was the fact she wanted nothing to do with me.

"I doubt she wants to talk to me, so you're wasting your time. Go away." She went to reach for her book again, but I was faster, grabbing it with my aura and putting it in my saddlebag that I'd hung on the chair behind me. Her mouth fell open slightly as I closed the latch, staring her down all the while.

I was Sunset Shimmer, and this mare was coming back to the palace whether she liked it or not.

"She does want to see you, very much so. She told us specifically you were 'incredibly gifted and compassionate'," In truth, I wasn't so sure about that first part--Celestia was very dodgy about what happened to Silver and she visibly winced at almost every drop of her name--but she did say the second verbatim, and those words were enough to cause Silver to drop her head to the side and slowly begin to flush red with embarrassment.

"So she hasn't told you," she began cryptically. I narrowed my eyebrows at those words, but she didn't give me a chance to react as she turned back to me with the same resolve as before.

"Look, I don't know why you know who I am, or how Celestia knows I'm alive again, but I suggest you leave. There'd be nothing but trouble if I walked back into that palace. Leave me alone." I had started to shake my head in the negative before she ended her sentence, and I could see her eyebrows slowly but surely slant into anger.

"We know who you are and that you're alive because you aren't the only apprentice it's happening to." That was enough to get her into shock, and all the anger and stoicism she'd held in her gaze moments prior evaporated pretty quickly into dumbstruck disbelief.

"All of Celestia's dead apprentices have returned from the grave, yourself included. And the current ones alive, myself and the Princess of Friendship, Twilight Sparkle, were drawn here to Canterlot by means we can't explain. We need your help, Silver. We need to figure out what's happening." For a second, I thought I had her, but my little persuasion check failed: she mimicked my headshake from moments ago, and that embarrassed flush and her inability to look me in the eye returned as she replied.

"No, you don't understand. I... I did something, a while ago. And I regretted it from the moment I did it, and Celestia probably thinks it's her fault and she probably won't forgive me for it, and so I can't see her. I can't go back." Celestia's words echoed in my brain at that moment, that Silver had "died untimely", but I raised my eyebrows and rose my hoof in a bewildered gesture before shot back.

"Are we talking about the same Celestia here? I stole the Element of Magic, turned into a she-demon and almost enslaved an entire dimension. I sat down for dinner with her and a stroll in the garden the other week. Whatever you did, I'm know she's forgiven you by now." Silver smiled for the first time in her conversation, though it was a small grin indicating that I'd piqued her interest with the tale.

"I'm impressed. 'Almost', though?" I leaned back in my chair and shrugged.

"Everypony has a plan until they get punched in the mouth, and I got punched in the mouth pretty damn hard." Being hit directly in the everywhere by the Elements of Harmony was still by far the most painful thing I had ever experienced in my lifetime (enough to prevent me from merely thinking about something mildly immoral) , but I wasn't about to tell her that: I had to act tough at the moment. Regardless, her amused glance dropped as she sighed deeply and looked down to the floor in a defeated manner.

"This is different," she began. "I, uh..." She trailed off, and before had a chance to defend herself, I let fly one last pitch.

"Celestia is perhaps the most forgiving and compassionate mare I know," I began. "Again, I don't know what you did, exactly, but you seem far from a bad mare, Silver. I've done some really bad things. A mare named Starlight Glimmer did some really bad things, and she just graduated from being the protege of the Princess of Friendship, who she used to despise. Both of us don't deserve any good in our lives for what we've done, but Celestia and her sister Luna have accepted us wholeheartedly for who we are and turned us into better mares as a result. We really need you, Silver, to figure out what in Tartarus is going on, and I know for a fact that Celestia needs you, too."

I began to hear a faint tapping noise from under the table, and I realized quickly that it was Silver's nervousness manifesting itself. It was the start of a long silence, and I could see her mind racing as she decided what to do with herself. I, on the other hand, was doing some thinking of my own, as I was being tripped up by the fact that Silver was keeping her past so close to the hip. She seemed very reserved, sure, but I didn't get the vibe that she was some evil mastermind in her past, and I am absolutely sure Celestia would have warned us if Silver was a danger to us and the people around her, just as she did with Melody Waltz and, eventually, Zephyr.

It begged a very simple question.

What did you do, Silver Jubilee? Something that... Celestia might think is her fault?

It took her what felt like forever. I could see her living in her own little world, staring downward at nothing in particular. Eventually, after I'd taken a few sips of my ale, she looked up to me with that fierce determination that had so defined her in the five minutes I'd known her.

"Something is happening, and it looks like, want it or not, I'm a part of it. So... I guess I'll--"

"Aaaaaannnnddd here's your hayburger!" Came a voice that was far too excited for the action it was performing. Lily swept down with my plate, placing the food directly in front of me. Silver's mouth was still open from when she had been talking, and the waitress looked between us with the smile she'd held the entire time I'd seen her.

"Do you want ketchup?" she asked me. I shook my head in the negative, and she nodded in acknowledgment before telling me to holler if I needed anything else. I watched her once more as she disappeared before turning back to Silver.

"I'm, uh, sorry about that. You were saying?" Silver chuckled--I could tell just by the sound that she didn't do it that often--and nodded in the affirmative as she spoke.

"Yeah, I guess I am." She said it in a way that still seemed conflicted, and although I was in the midst of biting my hayburger (it was fantastic, by the way), I made sure to grab one of her hoofs and speak from my heart once I was done.

"I didn't see Celestia for about two years after I had some sense knocked into me. I know it's hard, but she can help. Nopony knows us better." Silver said nothing in response, instead opting to lean back in her chair. She was right: whatever it was, it was different than what had happened to Zephyr and I (from what I understood, Melody Waltz never really had a grace to fall from). I planned to fill her in on that whole situation on the walk back.

Eventually, she did speak up, nodding her head idly as she began.

"...maybe you're right. I don't know, but it's at least worth a shot." She looked forward to me, her face entirely stoic and unreadable. "There is one more thing, though."

I finished the swig of my drink I'd been taking before leaning back in my chair, cocking my head to the side in confusion.

"What's up?" I asked her. I saw the corner of her mouth curl into a slight grin as she used a hoof to gesture to my saddlebag hanging on the chair.

"Can I, uh, have my book back?"

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

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CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
MOAT
SUNSET SHIMMER

Canterlot Castle's moat was the stuff of legend.

It had driven back the Griffonian Empire. It had swallowed the warriors of Zebrica. It had drowned the slave army of King Sombra and stopped the almuharibun of Saddle Arabia dead in their tracks.

The long wooden bridge that marked a fleeting time of peace was now rested sturdily over the moat at Canterlot castle, and yet a unicorn mare stood at its base still unable to cross.

Silver Jubilee had stopped walking when we came to the castle gate. It would only be about forty steps until she returned to the castle she'd grown up in and lived in. Maybe she died here--I didn't want to push the subject of her timidness until she was willing to do so--or maybe the mere thought of seeing Celestia again paralyzed her entirely. She had barely spoken on the way up to the castle, commenting on the beauty of the flowers and trees and giving subtle commentary on the looming Mount Canter, but her lips had turned to a prison and her words had been given a life sentence.

I stood next to her, watching her as if admiring a sculpture in a museum. Silver was a sculpture, in many ways: her eyes were still uncannily prepossessing, the bright red almost appearing to swirl when the light hit it a certain way, and her leg tattoos completed a look that could only be described as gorgeously rugged. She stared straight forward at the large double door, and the guards posted up there stared right back unwaveringly. They knew who I was, of course, but they kept a highly trained eye on the stranger to my left as she peered into her own personal oblivion.

I'd been in her exact headspace more times than I could count, and so I simply watched the door with her until she finally spoke up, her iron gaze unwavering.

"How recently has the bridge gone up?" She asked me softly. The wind was blowing harder now, and her question was almost swept away by the gale. I stood silent for just a few more precious seconds before I turned to her and answered.

"I wasn't here for it," I began. "But there was a changeling invasion of Canterlot a few years ago, led by a hive monarch named Queen Chrysalis. They managed to get passed this moat, actually, but it swallowed up hundreds of her soldiers." Twilight Sparkle had told me the tale of the Changeling Invasion of Canterlot so vividly that I might as well have been there. She'd told me once in our friendship journal that she'd had recurring night terrors for weeks on end (that still occasionally surface to this day) after helping remove the dead bodies of pony and changeling alike the day after the invasion, and she had cited it more than once as one of the very worst days of her life.

Silver, once again, elected to remain quiet. Even with her determination to hide the nature of her past, I could tell she was never a mare of many words, but I knew very well that she was talking to herself in her own mind a mile a minute. After what appeared to be a lifetime of silence, I decided to speak up first, making sure to be gentle with her while still raising the volume over the blowing wind.

"Are you okay, Silver?"

I'm not entirely sure why I asked. I knew the answer, she knew the answer, and the guards across the moat staring us down probably knew it, too. The reply from Silver came much quicker this time, and even though her words were whispered I could hear them crystal clear.

"I can't do this, Sunset," she croaked, a shakiness clearly evident in her tone. "I can't do this. I can't do this... "

I sat down on the grass below us, and I motioned for her to sit across from me. She looked confused more a moment, but seeing as how there wasn't really anything else to do, she accepted my invitation. The grass was impeccably maintained by the castle groundskeeper, and it was so perfectly cut that the ground was almost exceedingly comfortable to sit on.

I let some of the tiny blades fall down my hooves before I looked her straight in the eyes. I talked to her without breaking my gaze, but with Silver, that was far from a difficult task.

"I cannot stress enough that I was in this exact situation even a few weeks ago," I began. "And I'd already made up with Celestia before then. She, uh... you just want to impress her, you know? You want her to look at you and give you that warm smile, and I just sat awake at night for hours thinking about coming back because, as much as I love her, I was so afraid of her. Not really that she'd be angry, but that she'd be disappointed, I guess." Silver had been staring at the grass the entire time, and but she looked up to me as I launched into the next part of my pep talk.

"I don't know what you did or didn't do, Silver, and you don't have to tell me unless you wanna," I started. "But if there's one thing we both know about Celestia, it's that she remembers, but she always forgives. Always." The word hung in the air and carried through the wind, and I could tell it sparked a little bit of hope in Silver as she let it ring through her ears.

With a simple question, however, it seemed as if it melted away in front of me.

"What if I don't want her to forgive me?"

Suddenly, the part of my life I had so tried to bury flared up violently in my mind. I'd spent countless nights wonder why Twilight Sparkle had extended her hand to me after a direct blast from the Elements of Harmony instead of putting me down like I should have been, and her generosity had tormented me endlessly. When Celestia wrapped me in a hug upon my first visit, I found myself grateful but confused.

Silver Jubilee was feeling a flurry of all these emotions at once, and for the first time in a while, I was glad I'd felt them, too.

"You don't have to," I told her. "But she's going to anyway, you know. Forgive yourself, Silver, and it'll get a little easier. I can promise you that." Thankfully, my words seemed to have an impact. After a moment of reflection, Silver nodded slowly with a sigh, but I had one final thing to say in an effort to get her going. I pointed to the moat at our right, and her head turned to look.

"That moat has stopped some of the most powerful forces in history," I stated. When I turned to her, I could almost feel the passion in my voice as I looked her in the eyes.

"Don't let it stop you."

When Silver stayed silent for a few precious moments, I thought I might have failed: it didn't take long, though, for her spring up with fervor and hold a hoof out to me. Her face still had that worn and stressed look I'd come to know since I'd met her, but there was a fire in her scarlet eyes now that burned far greater than ever before.

"I'm gonna regret this," she said. I couldn't help but give a goofy grin as I accepted it, and she pulled me up to all fours before she turned back to the door.

"Yeah, you will," I replied, maybe a little more chipper than I intended. We crossed over the moat confidently, and every step we took seemed to surrender a soft knock. It didn't take long at all before we got to the door, and the two guards quickly shifted their spears upright as they addressed me.

"This is the last one. Voluntarily, at least." The guard on the left grimly nodded, and with one motion the two of them pulled the doors outward to reveal the front of the palace. Even through her worries, I could still feel that sense of wonder the palace was always guaranteed to give off whenever one viewed it. I couldn't help but chuckle as I watched her face soften.

"You ready?" I asked her, motioning forward with my hoof. For the first time in a while, I saw the corners of her mouth bend upward.

"No," she answered simply, but she trudged along down the hallway nonetheless. I tailed close behind her, keeping a subtle eye on her body language as she set foot into a place that was still fresh in her mind yet likely changed considerably.

I didn't get to revel in the moment, though, because an unmistakable voice from around the hallways quickly shot through the air.

"Hey, guys, Sunny's back!" Rainbow Dash, as usual, had to speak as loud as possible in every situation, and the decibels were almost enough to make Silver jump. She was already talking as she rounded the corner to meet us, though she quickly stopped herself when she saw the mare beside me.

"Yo, you aren't gonna believe this. I was talking to Starlight just now and she told me she doesn't even remember when--" Rainbow quickly skidded to a halt, but it didn't take long for her to deduce who was beside me as she studied the newcomer. The ice had been taken off her ribs, but the pitch-black massive bruises from her battle with Zephyr were still very clearly visible. "Is this--"

"Silver Jubilee," the mare in question replied. "It's a pleasure to meet you." Rainbow raised her eyebrows with an impressive smirk.

"Diggin' the tats. Don't see those much." Silver acknowledged the compliment, though she didn't reply: instead, she sighed deeply and asked Rainbow a question.

"Is... is Celestia here?" She tried her best to sound confident, but it didn't come out that way at all. Rainbow didn't seem phased in the slightest, though, and she vemently shook her head in the negative.

"Nah, she's been meeting with a diplomat from Nippony pretty much the entire day with Luna. Twi's been here, though. They just put her in a boot and got rid of that sling, and I think it's put her in a pretty good mood. You probably wanna go see her, I'd imagine." I nodded firmly in agreement, ignoring Silver's confused looks at the moment and responding with my own inquiry.

"Are Violet and Cobalt here?" I wanted to make sure Violet had given those plans to Cobalt, and I quickly got my answer upon Rainbow's reply.

"Yep. Cobalt's been working on something for hours in the back area and Violet's just been up in your room. I think she's getting a little overstimulated, you know." I nodded once again in understanding: Violet was an enthusiastic pony, but she was just as reserved. I would have to go talk to her, but we had a bit more important task at hoof.

"Thanks, Rainbow. Down to do something fun with the girls tonight?" Rainbow nodded enthusiastically as we began to walk away towards Twilight.

"For sure! 'Bout time we've kicked back and relaxed. I'll talk to you soon!" I waved my hoof goodbye as we rounded the corner, and when we got a fair distance away, Silver spoke up once more.

"Is she okay?" she asked, pointing to her ribs with a hoof. I could feel my face turn grim as I answered with a slight shake of my head.

"She got in a big fight with Zephyr, that pony I told you about. He got her pretty good and she's been in a lot of pain, though she probably won't admit it exists." Silver merely continued along in silence, absorbing the information.

It was quite a walk through the castle to get to the tower Twilight had been calling home for a few weeks now, and Silver seemed to silently enjoy the walk. Celestia had always picked the finest art pieces and decor for the entire palace, and I found her marveling at the works of art that clearly hadn't been there the last time she was in the castle.

We rounded a corner to the final hallway, and not too far away from us was another pony I wanted Silver to meet, silently observing a painting hanging gently on the wall. I couldn't help but give off a Cheshire grin as I introduced her from afar, making sure to be loud and clear so she heard every word.

"Speaking of things we won't admit exists, this is Starlight Glimmer." I could practically feel her eyes roll with a grin before she even turned around.

"Truly, you flatter me," she said sarcastically. Her eyes quickly widened when she saw Silver, however, and she studied her curiously as she introduced herself.

"Oh, hello! I'm Starlight Glimmer, though you'd think I was Lord Tirek the way this one talks about me." I gave her an aggressively sarcastic who, me? smile before switching to a more serious countenance as I gave my second introduction of the day.

"This is Silver Jubilee. Silver, this is Starlight, one of my best friends, if you couldn't tell." Starlight's eyes widened even further when I said her name, but Silver spoke up just as she was about to respond.

"What's that painting you're looking at?" She asked, pointing a hoof towards it. I'd never seen the painting before until now, and it almost took my breath away when I first looked over it. The painting was virtually photorealistic, and it depicted a beautiful mare with a light purple coat and deep red mane and tail smiling towards the observer amongst autumn leaves. If I didn't know any better, I'd think it was a photograph. Starlight drew her attention back to the work of art, and she studied it over for what was probably the thousandth time before answering.

"It just kinda startled me. I was on my way to the kitchen area and it caught the corner of my eye. It looks so real, yet fantastical kinda all at once, you know?" Silver and I both nodded in agreement, staring it down for just a bit longer. The mare in the painting felt... familiar, somehow, but I decided to keep my thoughts to myself. It wasn't long before Starlight spoke up again, breaking the both of us out of our trance.

"Twilight's still up in her tower if that's who you're looking for. Oh, and by the way, Cobalt wants to see you: he ordered a ton of parts from the local factory and just retreated to the back of the castle." I couldn't help but let a smile slip across my face as I heard that, and I made a mental note to have a chat with him later tonight.

"Yeah, we're on our way. Oh yeah, do you know if Trix is coming back here once she's done with her tour?" Starlight nodded in the affirmative almost immediately.

"She's gonna hit Manehatten and then come back in the next few days or so." Silver and I were on the way out the door, but I stopped for a second in confusion and whipped my head back around.

"Manehatten? I thought she was only doing a short trip to the towns around Ponyville. Wouldn't that be, like, crazy out of the way?" Starlight's eyes seemed to widen for a nanosecond before she shook her head apologetically and cleared up her error.

"Oh, uh, that's my bad. I was thinking of a different tour." Before any of us could respond, she quickly smiled and pointed to the throne room behind us. "Rainbow was just telling me about hanging out tonight, that'll be fun! It was nice meeting you, Silver, say hi to Twi for me!" She quickly retreated and waved her goodbye that I returned, and before we knew it we were just outside the castle on the way to Twilight's Tower. After adjusting our eyes to the sunlight, Silver turned to me with her eyebrows raised.

"I hope your friend Twilight knows her geography."

The world didn't stop for Twilight Sparkle.

She may have badly injured her hoof and the world may have been faced with two silent threats, but none of that could save her from her mortal nemesis: being a Princess. There were permits that needed approving and legislation that needed passing, and so when Silver and I finally made the trek up to her library, she appeared hard at work writing something I was one thousand percent sure she would rather not be writing.

While I traditonally said the first word so ponies could be suprised when they turned around, Silver decided to intiate the process early.

"You didn't tell me your friend was a Princess," she said calmly as we approached.

On a dime, Twilight's horn ignited and she whipped around furiously with a tranquil glare on her face. Once she saw me, however, it died almost just as fast, and I saw the understanding slowly dawn on her when she looked to the pony right next to me.

"Silver Jubilee," she stated as her face flushed red with embaressment. "I'm, uh, sorry about that. Can never be too careful these days." She rose up to meet us, and both Silver and I's eyes were immediately drawn to the boot she wore on her front right forleg. It was a welcome chamge to see her walking somewhat normally again (the scar on her face had already healed up to where it was virtually unnoticable), but I would certainly be counting down the days until we had our greatest ally fully back in the fold. As Twilight went to hug me, Silver spoke once again.

"I'm assuming this Zephyr did this to you?" she asked. Twilight nodded grimly upon letting me go, turning to Silver with a far more serious countanance.

"Yes. I'm very glad you're here, Silver, because we have a lot to talk about. Celestia and Luna will be back shortly, and I know she'll be so happy to see you, but I have a few questions to ask you first." Silver's head had drooped low at the mention of her former mentor, but she quickly narrowed her eyes in confusion and whipped her head upward.

"Luna's back? I don't even think I was gone for that long... " Before I knew it, Twilight had pulled up three chairs for all of us, and Silver and I sat down out of habit before we even knew what had happened.

"That's my big question," Twilight told her. Silver audibly sighed, and I knew she was well aware that she would have to answer the incoming question sooner or later. "Celestia told us that you were her apprentice right before the both of us. She mentioned you "died untimely". What happened to you?" Silver's eyes widened at that revelation, but she quickly buried her face in her hooves. Twilight and I merely waiting, allowing her to collect her thoughts, and when she looked up to answer us with a timid expression, I could see the faintest hint of tears glinting in the light.

"Have you guys ever been to the Everfree Forest?"

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
SEVENTY-TWO HOURS
SILVER JUBILEE

Every drop was torture.

With each labored step, my blood hit the ground below me with a soft plop. There was no point in a bandage, as the wound in my side was far too large to cover. I supposed that I could have at least wrapped something around my side to stop it, but that would take time: I was fortunate enough to even be able to walk at the moment, but I knew that I'd eventually collapse and be absorbed into the earth.

Celestia had likely already sent Equestria's very best after me. I was always taught that the first seventy-two hours were crucial in finding a missing pony. All those little breadcrumbs you leave will start to disappear after that, and it was assumed that the missing individual is likely in grave danger. After a few weeks, the investigation likely stops being centered around finding a pony and starts to be centered around finding a body.

They wouldn't even find that.

I was going to die very, very soon. When I expired, one of the trillion deadly animals in this forsaken place would probably deem me a wonderful meal, and just like that, Silver Jubilee would disappear. Assuming whoever Celestia hired to find me knew where to look -- and they wouldn't -- they'd still come back to her with empty hooves.

Thankfully, the Everfree was not pitch black at night. On top of bright moonlight, the fireflies of the forest did well to light it up, and so I generally knew where I was going as I traversed it. If it weren't for the forest's everything that was attempting to end my life, I'd almost call it beautiful: the ancient trees that hung above me gave me deceptively protective feeling amongst the hostility of the forest.

Despite its beauty, I shouldn't have come here. Any fool knew that: the Everfree Forest had a reputation as a death trap for a very good reason. I justified it by telling myself that I wanted to go to a place where nopony would ever find me and the bald-faced lie that I could handle myself in this place.

All of me knew that I may well meet my end in the Everfree Forest. A part of me didn't care.

I'd fended off parasprites, I'd bested countless Timberwolves and I'd dealt with two cockatrices, but by the time I turned the corner and butted heads with a fully grown manticore, my prowess and luck had run dry. My exhausted body had managed to kill it out of sheer necessity, but a massive swipe to my side that connected all too well ensured that it would get the last laugh.

I could feel my breath growing shallower by the second as I rounded yet another corner to nowhere. It was dark out, that was for sure, but I could still make my way around, and anything that wanted to finally finish me off probably would make that intention rather clear with me. At least the Everfree had that going for it: nothing here was going to lie to you.

I'd just been attacked, so my adrenaline rush had only just begun. My forelegs were all shaking involuntarily, making it a bit harder to walk, and that shallowness in my breath was getting worse and worse by the second. There would be a point where it would fade and the pain from my gash would begin to set in, but I knew I had at least a few moments until that happened.

I came to a long, wooden rope bridge after a short while. It looked relatively unstable and I knew I'd have trouble walking over it, so onward I went: if I tumbled down into the ravine it was crossing, I'd only ensure the inevitable was delivered just a bit quicker than expected.

It reminded me of home.

There was a wooden bridge that stood across the moat at Canterlot Castle. I used to run up and down it as a kid, letting Celestia watch me zoom back and forth with glee. I'd pretend I was a tyrannical foreign invader, and she'd let me conquer the castle and eventually slay her to claim it as my own. She was a horrible actress -- Celestia was far too genuine to be anypony else -- but she was certainly good enough for me.

I missed those days.

Those were the days of summer, and summer was always my favorite time of the year. It was when the school fillies and colts were only focused on fun and when the ice cold drinks tasted that much better, but most importantly, it was when the sun burned the hottest. I used to stand outside and lie on the grass for hours, letting the blades tickle me gently and the sun beat down upon me, basking in its warmth. And when my long days were over and I'd completed another lesson or learned another spell, Celestia would wrap me in a loving embrace, and it felt just the same.

Until one day came when it didn't.

The bridge was shaky as I took my first steps, but that didn't matter: I'd overcome tougher trials while I was here, and there was even a trial that I couldn't. My legs were already unstable, but with the rope to my right as support, I slowly began to crawl my way across.

When I blinked, I saw her.

A few yards ahead of me stood Princess Celestia, a stoic look on her face. She stared me directly in the eyes, piercing through to my very soul as she gazed. The bridge was wobbling back and forth ever so slightly, but she stood steadfast, moving not an inch as my already-lacking walking speed slowed to a crawl. It looked as if she had been waiting for me all this time, longing for me to stop and confront her, but I simply couldn't afford that. I couldn't stop moving -- the moment I did, I'd never move again -- but she'd reduced me to a weakened stagger as I clumsily advanced towards her.

"I'm dying," I shouted weakly, hearing my hollow voice carry ever slightly across the canyon below. "You're not real."

What I knew to be a hallucination said nothing, staring me down all the same. Celestia looked as vivid as she ever had, and I could even see her coat blowing softly in the midnight wind, but I wasn't fooled: I was bleeding out, and as a cruel, sadistic joke, my mind began to play tricks on me. As I passed by her at the middle of the bridge, she turned her head to face me, and our eyes met ever briefly as I stumbled along towards the homestretch.

I'd left her behind as I trudged along, but when I was just about to put my front hooves across the other side, the ghost spoke.

"You shouldn't be here."

I whipped around (still walking backward) only to find that Celestia was gone. I didn't have to look too far for her, however, as her voice quickly spoke up from behind me once more.

"You came here to die."

She was actually there when I turned back around again. This time, however, her visage was stern, and she had a knowing fire in her eyes. I found myself shaking my head as I walked towards her and when I answered, I could hear just how shallow my voice had become.

"No. No," I began, using slightly more effort to pick my hooves up. "No, that's not true." Even I knew how unconvincing I sounded, and Celestia sneered, clearly not impressed by my answer.

"Then what is it you tell yourself?" she asked me. I blinked, and she had moved from a spot on the side of the path close to where I was to the middle of it some feet away, right at the top of an uphill climb. "What are you running from?" I don't know why I was answering to something that clearly wasn't there (and likely only inviting another animal to finish me off), but I answered her nonetheless, the pleading in my tone evident even to me.

"Everything," I started. "The castle, my studies, my feelings, you. All of it." The guardian of the pathway shook her head again, and she walked backward to disappear over the hill. I quickly gritted my teeth and grunted as I slowly trudged my way up the incline, knowing well that the effort was only speeding up the bleeding out process. When I emerged over the hill, panting and coughing as I forced my legs to keep moving, I could feel my own eyes widen as I saw what greeted me.

It was once a beautiful castle, I knew. I could almost see it in its heyday, with gleaming pearl spires and steadfast fence to guard them, but that was nothing more than a dream now. The structure was dilapidated and crumbled, and only the brilliant double doors appeared to remain in one piece. Even they, though, were worse for wear, and I knew that it wouldn't take long before the Everfree claimed it as yet another prize in its vast collection of forgotten memories.

I'd never seen it before, but I knew what it was.

"This was yours," I muttered as I limped, watching the castle's structure grow bigger and bigger. Celestia began to walk alongside me with perfect pace, though her hooves made no noise as they hit the dirt path.

"The Castle of the Two Sisters, as they called it," she said. I tried to nod knowingly, but the action was interrupted by an involuntary wince: the pain in my side was slowly building, and I knew that it would only be a few minutes before it became unbearable.

The path to the front of the castle might as well have been a lifetime. Every step began to shoot pain through my body, and the bountiful air around me put out by the millions of trees began to feel not enough. It took absolutely everything in my power to keep my eyes open, and when I looked down at the ground as I reeled forward, I could see I'd made a path of my own in my still-dripping blood.

I was worried I wouldn't have the force to enter the castle, but when I reached its front steps, I was relieved to find that wouldn't be the case. The massive doors were already open a crack, and thankfully, it was large enough that I could slip through them with very little effort.

The castle must have been rotting for a thousand years or more, but for it looked surprisingly steady for its condition (and unfortunate location). The outer walls were pretty much crumbled, but the base of the castle and some of the stairs and arches that made up its decor was were very much there, and I was certain that I could envision the servants and guards moving to and fro if I closed my eyes.

I didn't dare to.

Celestia, who had been standing beside me when I walked in, once again disappeared. She wouldn't have traveled far, and the next time I blinked, I saw her leaning by an archway that presumably led to a bigger room from where we were.

"I could die in worse places," I croaked, advancing towards her the best that I could. She didn't seem to want to hear it, though, and for the thousandth time in the last few minutes, she stared me down with a scathing sternness.

"No, you couldn't," she began. "Nopony will find you. You know I'm probably crying myself to sleep right now like I have been every night. Like your parents and your sister and your friends. And even when the crying stops and they move on with their lives, they'll spend the rest of it wondering in vain what happened to Silver Jubilee." I found myself shaking my head again, but it was no use: even when I replied to her, my words came out hollow.

"No," I began. "T-That's not what I--"

"That's not what you meant?" spat Celestia, watching me as I passed under the arch she'd been sitting by. "Not what you intended? Not what you wanted?" The arch had led to the castle's throne room, and once again, she disappeared. In another flash, I saw her sitting upon what I knew had been the seat of her power in days long past: the sun emblem above her chair was decaying and fading, but it was just brilliant enough to make out.

I stumbled towards her, and I could see my vision beginning to tunnel. I simply didn't have the steps left in me, and so I headed towards the throne to the right of her that formerly belonged to her sister, Princess Luna. The pain in my side began to sear, but it hardly compared to the pain in my heart as Celestia continued to talk to me from her throne.

"You knew just what would happen by coming here," Celestia said. "The souls you'd crush. The torment you'd cause. And you ran away anyways. You didn't even leave a note." I could feel her gaze burning into me as I sharply inhaled with every step of the stairs, taking liberal pauses with every level. "Why?"

"Because I'm a coward," I spoke. My own voice was unrecognizable, and I could physically feel myself deteriorating as I limped to Luna's throne. I was about to sit down, but I quickly noticed a slew of strange objects that had apparently been placed upon the seat.

There were candles burning brightly on the throne's handles. A pattern had been inscribed on the seat -- I couldn't quite tell what it was and I didn't want to give the effort to try -- and it appeared to glow faintly red with a magical influence. There appeared to be hair on the seat, an array of amber and stark white locks, and a half-full vial of what looked to be slightly discolored water tucked away in the corner.

While I would normally be very adverse to be sitting on what appeared to be strange magic and hair, I didn't particularly have a choice, and the jar of what looked to be either tears or sweat wouldn't have impeded on my ability to take a seat. It certainly was extremely disturbing that something or someone could have been here moments before I arrived, but I was far more than half-dead at this point and didn't care about the means to which that end would be reached. I plopped down on the chair, and though my body instantly thanked me, I knew the gesture was fatally deceiving.

"Because I couldn't bring myself to face them. Because I thought it would be better for them to never know what happened to me than to find out why I left." The blood from my side had slowed a bit, but it was still dripping steadily onto the chair, and so I pressed the right side of my body against the armrest in an unsuccessful attempt to stop it.

"You've been lying to yourself," Celestia said. "Why did you leave?"

Maybe this apparition had appeared to force me to make peace with myself before I expired. Maybe it was nothing more than delirium from blood loss. Maybe I had created it for some other weird purpose.

But as much as I thought I was ready to, I did not want to die alone, and so I gave my reply with all the strength I could muster.

"Because I was unhappy," I said softly. I could feel tears running down my eyes as I spoke, and I was almost surprised that I even had the strength to cry at the moment. "Because I was being taught friendship and I just couldn't feel it anymore. Because I no longer wanted to be your apprentice, but because I still wanted to just as much. Because... because... "

The show was over, and I was being ushered off the stage. I was beginning to lose feeling in my limbs, and that tunneling in my vision was twisting narrower and narrower by the second. I turned my head to Celestia, who had entirely disappeared from her throne: I knew she wouldn't come back. There were a thousand more things I could have said as to why I'd snuck out in the middle of the night and abandoned all that I had built and lived my entire life, but as the very last of my lifeline was fading and my tears and blood dropped to the seat below me, I managed to croak out a final string of words before my eyes forced themselves to close.

"Because I loved you," I whispered, letting them shut for the final time. "And I couldn't bring myself to disappoint you."

In my final moments, I dreamt of Canterlot summers.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

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CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
BLOOD
SUNSET SHIMMER

"Oh, my god."

There was nothing else to say. I had vastly underestimated the severity of Silver's problem, and I knew she hadn't even disclosed the majority of her struggles. A silence hung in the air for what felt like lifetimes, and if I had my way, the room would stay suspended forever.

Silver looked to both of us with tears now flooding in her eyes. I knew the look well, as I'd given it many times myself: she was looking for anything, and in the spur of the moment, I gave it to her.

I wrapped her in the tightest embrace I could manage. She didn't return the hug at first, letting her forelegs hang limply by her side, but after a few seconds, she slowly wrapped them around me. I didn't know how long we stayed there -- it could have been seconds, it could have been minutes -- but however long it was, I made sure it was enough. I could hear a long sigh of what I hoped was relief come from the former apprentice, and carefully, I unlatched myself from the embrace.

"Thank you," she said through sniffles. I was about to reply, but it suddenly occurred to me that Twilight had been strangely quiet: when I turned to her, I was greeted with a face I'd become all too familiar with in the time that I'd become her friend.

She was staring off into space, presumably at one of the trillion books that lined the shelves around us. She was muttering something to herself, and I knew well that the gears in her head were soon to fly off from the speed they were turning. I could see Silver tilt her head to the side in confusion out of the corner of my eye, and it took only a moment before Twilight whipped her head towards Silver and began a rapid-fire cross-examination.

"You saw hair," Twilight spat quickly. "You mentioned the colors. White and amber?" she questioned. Still attempting to fully process what she said, Silver nodded, and it was only then that I began to realize where Twilight was going with her line of reasoning. I could feel my eyes widen as I replied.

"Wait, you don't think it was--"

"A ritual," Twilight finished, springing out of her seat. "With hair and either sweat or tears as the catalyst along with some sort of rune. I'm willing to guarantee the location had something to do with it, too. He may have needed a high concentration of dark magic."

Silver's face grew more and more confused as Twilight bolted from her seat and shifted rapidly from bookshelf to bookshelf. She'd pull out books, flip through them at the speed of light and then casually toss them aside, likely leaving Spike with some chores he would rather not have as she chanted with every turn of the page.

"No, no, no, no, no..." Silver's began a slow change from befuddlement to amusement, and I could feel a matching smile of relief flood across my face: after the tale Silver had told us, seeing her grin made me feel much, much better.

"Is she always like this?" she asked with a twinkle in her eye. I was about to answer her, but a voice from behind us did it for me.

"I'm told she occasionally sleeps."

I had never met Prince Shining Armor in any form. I'd certainly heard a lot about him, though.

I knew who I was looking at when I turned to face him. He had been Commander of the Sunspears for a considerable tenure and headed the entire royal guard for just as long, and the presence he carried when he stood in the doorway was almost enough to earn my respect then and there. It's very hard to match up to the posture and guise of Twilight Sparkle, but the Prince of the Crystal Empire certainly competed.

Twilight immediately dropped the book she was reading to the floor, her eyes wider than the moon outside, and she ran as fast as she could to where her brother was standing.

"Shining!" she called out, a mixture of excitement and desperation lingering through her tone. She slammed into her brother in an immediate embrace (I winced at the potential impact to the hoof in her boot, but it didn't seem to bother her), but he held his ground rather easily, laughing all the while as he returned it. When he looked to where the boot was, however, his smile quickly faded, and he looked to his sister with grave concern.

"How is that healing? Are you okay?" he asked her. I assumed she'd likely written to him about the injury, and Twilight nodded her head carefully at the question.

"Yeah, it's fine," she answered quickly. "But I know you didn't come here just to check on me." I couldn't see her face, but I could feel her eyes widen in realization as she turned to the two of us sitting down behind her.

"But before that, let me introduce you to some friends of mine! The mare on the right is Sunset Shimmer. She lived in the human world for a while, but now she's here to stay!" I waved at him cheerfully, but his eyes narrowed in suspicion as he addressed me.

"Didn't you steal the Element of Magic from Twilight a while back?" Twilight bared her teeth at the question, and I could feel myself grow even more sheepish as I replied.

"That is certainly a thing I did, yes," I said awkwardly. "But I gave it back!"

"No, you didn't," Twilight said quickly, her eyebrows raised in amusement and a Cheshire grin plastered across her face.

"I sure didn't!" I exclaimed, leaning back in my chair. "But she did get it back and now we're best friends. And that's the real magic, don't you think?" I held my hooves out towards him in a gesture I assumed was my attempt at an Equestrian equivalent to finger guns, and the piercing gaze Shining had entrapped me with fell to pieces with a chuckle as revealed his facade.

"Eh, I don't think so," he began. "But Twilight has told me lots about you, and I'm glad to have you back home. Especially in a crazy time like this." I felt a wave of relief wash over me, and the only thing I could think to do was nod in silent thanks as he turned his gaze to the mare next to me.

"And who might this be?" Shining asked, nodding his head to Silver. It was impossible to hide the redness in her face from the crying she'd done recently, but Silver managed a to put on a very weak smile as she introduced herself.

"I'm Silver Jubilee," she said. "I'm, uh, new here." Shining nodded grimly, and he followed up with a question that was growing all too familiar lately.

"Are there any others?" All of us nodded our heads, but Twilight was the one to verbalize it.

"Just one," she replied. I had a feeling Shining knew the answer to his next question from the nervous tone of Twilight's voice, but he asked it anyway.

"They aren't like Zephyr, are they?" Twilight and I let the silence hang in the air for what seemed like eternity, and I knew that neither of us wanted to answer him (Silver, of course, didn't know). It was I who spoke up eventually, though, and I, too, failed almost entirely to hide the nervousness in my voice.

"She might be worse."

Shining stared at me blankly for quite a while, eventually changing his target to the ceiling above him. I knew he'd seen the work Zephyr had done at the Crystal Empire first hoof, and so hearing that sentence probably put a bit of a damper on his mood. Eventually, he sighed loudly, and he looked back to all of us with a sternness in his eyes as he spoke.

"Well, there's your answer," he began. "The Crystal Palace incident is about to break and, uh... we still haven't fixed them. We don't know if we can. We've tried the Crystal Heart, we've got the best doctors. Nothing's working."

"About to break? What do you mean?" Silver asked suddenly. I'd told her about what happened to Twilight and Rainbow in the Crystal Empire during the walk back to castle, so she was at least somewhat informed on the chaos surrounding us when she got here. That being said, I knew then and there that the severity of the situation was lost on her, but she started to understand real quick once Shining gave his reply.

"We've kept it a secret so far, but I don't know how long that's going to last," he began. "There were a lot of ponies Zephyr turned, and by some miracle, their next of kin we notified have been actually obeying their nondisclosure edicts. I haven't heard any word around the city that something crazy might have happened." Shining gave another sigh, leaning against the doorframe as he continued.

"And we're gonna announce it to the public before that happens. I was hoping we could get these ponies fixed before that, but it, uh, isn't looking good. That all ties back to the main reason I'm here: Zephyr is still out there somewhere, and Cady and I agreed that Flurry Heart isn't safe in the Crystal Empire. I couldn't imagine what would have happened if we'd come back from that trip early like we'd planned... " It seemed as if Shining was about to take a trip inside his own mind in regards to that possibility, but a wide-eyed Twilight quickly interrupted any hopes of it happening.

"Flurry's here?" she asked quickly. I leaned back in my chair in surprise, but Silver, who had no idea who Flurry Heart was, cocked her head to the side in confusion.

"She is. We aren't going to stay here for more than a night in the event he comes knocking on this door, but I thought we would drop by and say hello. By the way, the girls sent me up here to get you all. They wanna hang out in the common room and they brought out some games." Twilight immediately looked back to the book she was reading lying gently on the floor before turning to me just as fast. It was massively important -- the first breakthrough we'd had since the apprentices started appearing, really -- but we had also made a promise.

"It can wait," I told her, a hint of a soft smile across my face. "Let's go have some fun for once." Twilight made a faux pouty-face at the suggestion, but her even brighter glow in return that followed seconds later let me know she was in agreement.

"Yeah, you're right," she began. "Come on, Shining! I'll introduce you to Violet and Cobalt." The two began to walk out of the room and down the absurdly long flight of stairs, but when Silver went to follow, I rested a hoof on her shoulder and brought her down to her seat again. Twilight looked back to me moments before she disappeared, and when she realized what I was doing, she nodded her head sagely before she vanished down the steps. I turned to Silver immediately, keeping my hoof on her shoulder as I spoke: for the thousandth time that night, her face scrunched in confusion, but it was quickly alleviated once my first words came out.

"Hey, um, that was, uh... pretty intense," I began. "I don't know what it's like to feel the way you did, but know that all of us are here for you, Silver. I know this whole thing is still fresh in your mind, and you don't have to answer this if you don't want to, but... are you feeling okay? Like, now?"

It took Silver a while to answer. She sat back in her chair and stared at the doorframe in front of us, letting words race through her head at a million miles per hour for what felt like decades. When I was just about to speak again to break the silence, she answered, not bothering to turn and look at me as she did so.

"...I was brought back for a reason," she started. "I'm here for a reason. I don't know why and I don't know how, but I am. Second chances like this just don't happen, but since this one did, I'm gonna try to make the most of it." She paused for a moment before turning to me with a reluctance swirling in her gaze.

"I... I might need your help, though. And Celestia's." I found a warm smile creeping on my face involuntarily, and I wrapped my hooves around her for another hug. I could tell she didn't like to be touched, though, and I knew the first one was a luxury: I made sure to make it short, and when I detached from her, I nodded my head in the direction of the door frame and slowly rose from my seat.

"You'll always have it," I said. "Now let's go drink."

I was, of course, coming down to the common room to have fun. I know we all needed it after the whirlwind of the past few weeks, and I was very much looking forward to truly getting to know the equine counterparts to my friends across the portal and get some real down time with my roommate of the past few months.

But there was somepony I needed to talk to first.

It didn't take long to find him, because I knew that if I found Violet, he wouldn't be far behind. Sure enough, when Silver and I entered the maroon washed common room of Canterlot Castle, Cobalt and Violet were seated together on a long red couch, seemingly locked in conversation and discussing something I couldn't quite make out. When the two of us approached, the both of them quickly waved in greeting but reeled their heads back upon spotting the pony tailing me. I sat down next to them and motioned for Silver to do the same, and after a moment of hesitation, she slid across the couch to join me.

"Hey, guys! This is Silver Jubilee, the one Celestia told us about earlier. Silver, this is Cobalt, Celestia's third apprentice, and Violet, Celestia's first." Silver merely waved awkwardly with a meek smile, but Violet and Cobalt were far more overjoyed.

"Huzzah!" Violet exclaimed, eagerly clapping her hooves together with a warm beam across her face. "We hath had much appetency for thine arrival. If thou would have questions for any of us, do not hesitate to ask!" Silver nodded before turning to Cobalt, who looked back to her with curiosity.

"What happened there?" She asked, nodding to his prosthetic. I immediately remembered back to one of the plans I'd given him, and I was delighted to see he had, in fact, replaced the stiff alloy leg he had made in the past. I'd given him the plans to a human prosthetic leg in hopes that he could design something around it, as I certainly wasn't about to attempt and design something myself. It looked as if he'd come up with something crazy, as he was now wearing a sleek black prosthetic in the shape of a leg with a joint in the middle that looked like a sphere of some sort. It was resting on the couch in a natural pose, and I began to suspect that there was more to the new prosthetic than just physical parts.

"Fought off a sleuth of Ursa Majors. You should have seen the bloody lot of them." That drew chuckles from the three rest of us, but Cobalt waved his hoof in dismissal shortly afterward.

"I'll tell you later tonight if you're keen. Do you like it?" He turned to me with that sly grin I'd come to know Cobalt for, and I figured he must have seen me looking at it when Silver mentioned it. I was about to answer with a warm grin, but that smile quickly dropped wide open as I saw the prosthetic move: he appeared to be bending it back and forth of his own volition, and I could see the faintest glow of magic emanating from the joint as he did so.

"How did you do that?" I asked, entirely unable to hide the amazement in my inflection. Silver, too, seemed bewildered, and I could only watch Cobalt's face grow even more confident as he explained it.

"Right after I blew the bugger off, I experimented with infusing prosthetics with magic to make it so I was able to control it like my real legs. There was a failure on two ends back then, though, because Celestia and I were having trouble devising a true enchantment to make it freeform and the gears and joints I was trying to use to make it happen couldn't quite move the way I wanted them to. Back then, I settled on a limp. I don't actually need a prosthetic, of course, but I didn't want to walk around with a missing leg." Cobalt stood up from the couch, moving the prosthetic in multiple directions: if it were colored like his coat, I would have never guessed it was fake.

"That plan you gave me was very helpful. It got me thinking of how I could make a joint that could move in any direction like a real leg with considerably less effort. Once I made the leg from plastic and used alloys for the socket, we had to figure out how to put a spell on it that could link my thoughts to the movement. It took Sparkle all but a day to figure out how to enchant it. That mare is something, I tell you." I was certainly impressed, and I could see Silver's eyebrows raised as well as she nodded and examined the new prosthetic a little bit closer.

"She really is," I began, turning back to look Cobalt in the eyes. "And have you started on the other plan I gave you?" I could practically see the excited twinkle in his eye as he nodded enthusiastically, giving off a long whistled before he answered.

"It's absolutely brilliant, Shimmer," he started. "But it's a quite the task. Celestia and I secured the materials through a contractor and I've been working as hard as I can. I'll let you know how I progress." I once again sensed confusion from Silver, but I decided it would be best to tell her as much as I could tomorrow once everything got settled in.

For now, though, I wanted her to feel more comfortable with the gang, so I looked over the room. Pinkie and Fluttershy were engaged in a game of Dragon Pit (by the looks of it, Fluttershy was losing), while Rarity and Rainbow were locked in a conversation with Shining and Twilight. Finally, Applejack and Luna appeared to be playing some sort of card game, but I couldn't explicitly tell who was winning or what game they were even playing based on their reactions.

"I'm gonna go get some wine for the table from the kitchen," I began, turning back to the three of them now. "Do any of you want anything?" Silver waved the request off with her hoof, but Violet seemed much more inclined.

"I would savor some mead, if 'twas available," she said. I raised my eyebrows and looked to the ceiling at that request: it was a bit odd for the times, but it made plenty of sense that Violet would have enjoyed it a thousand years ago. I simply shrugged before beginning to walk back to the doorway, nodding my head quickly as I replied.

"Hang tight. I'll see what I can do." The group nodded, and I was happy to see that Silver began to talk with the two a bit as I was walking away. With a bit of a dumb smile on my face, I whipped around and headed out of the common room to make the relatively short walk to the kitchen.

It was natural, of course, that the kitchen would be close to the common rooms: there were often guests that needed to be fed, after all, and the nobility of Equestria (everywhere, really) didn't like to be kept waiting. It wasn't long before I slipped into the kitchen, the stark white walls, the row of refrigerators and the large table in the center all too familiar from when I'd sneak into it during my days living in the castle as a filly. I was surprised to find that I had some company, though: Starlight Glimmer entered my line of sight beneath the kitchen sink, seemingly looking for something in the cabinet below.

"Whatcha looking for?" I asked her, appearing behind her. I'd hoped to make her jump, but she remained still as a statue as she continued to rummage through the cabinet.

"A bottle opener. I'm picking Trixie up from the station tomorrow and I want to make sure I know where one is... aha!" Triumphantly, she ducked out of the cabinet and held up what appeared to be a kitchen multi-tool of some sort, but it certainly had the bottle opener she was looking for.

"I'm gonna rinse it off real quick. What brings you here?" She turned to the sink and hit the lever to start running the water, and I quickly stepped towards one of the many refrigerators in the kitchen and popped one open.

"Violet wants mead. You wouldn't happen to know if we have any, would you?" To my surprise, Starlight answered almost, immediately, speaking up over the sound of the sink.

"Yeah, the third fridge from the wall you're facing. Violet wanted some earlier when you went out to go--"

Suddenly, Starlight inhaled sharply, and I heard the water turn off abruptly and the bottle opener clank into the sink. I whipped around to find her holding her right hoof over the sink, the multi-tool now neatly placed to the side. There were plenty of sharp objects that went along with the bottle opener, and it didn't take long for me to deduce what had happened.

"Did you cut yourself?" I asked her worriedly. Starlight immediately nodded, taking her left hoof off her right for a very brief moment to wave off my concern.

"Uh, yeah. No big deal." She turned the faucet back on with her magic and levitated a roll of paper towels towards her, letting me know that there had to have been some bleeding to go along with the nick.

"Is there blood? Here, let me--"

"No, no, no!" Starlight muttered loudly, furiously beginning to wrap some paper towels around the hoof in question. I'd reeled back a little bit at the urgency of her tone, and it wasn't long before she'd created a makeshift bandage that had covered almost the entirety of her foreleg, much less the hoof in question. She held it up very briefly, but she put it down to the ground just as quick, lieaving it out of my sight behind the large table in the center of the room.

"All taken care of for now. I'll go to the nurse and get a proper bandage on it right after I'm done here. No biggie!" I eyed her with a single eyebrow raised before looking back down to the hoof I could no longer see.

"Are you sure?" I asked her, an unconvincing inflection carrying through my tone. Starlight used her non-injured hoof to wave me off once again.

"Positive, Shimmy," she said, looking back to me with a grin. "Go get Violet her mead. Celestia knows the mare deserves it." I eyed her for a few seconds longer, but it didn't take too long for me to sigh in defeat. As timid as Starlight often was, she was more than capable of asserting herself when she wanted to: I thought this was a bit of a strange reason to do so, sure, but I wasn't going to question it.

Not tonight, at least.

"As you wish, Princess," I mocked, bowing slightly to sell it. I turned around to the fridge Starlight mentioned, and sure enough, there were quite a few brands of mead waiting for me inside. I wasn't entirely sure why Celestia had stocked so much -- perhaps Luna still had a taste for the finer days -- so I picked the two bottles that looked the most intriguing before slamming it shut. I began to speak to Starlight as I did so, turning around to meet her.

"I'm not sure if you saw, but Shining--"

I stopped dead. Starlight was gone: in fact, if I hadn't just spoken to her and watched her patch up her cut, the kitchen almost looked liked she'd never even been there. The bottle opener was gone, the paper towels had been returned to their previous location, and I couldn't even see any drops of water in the sink.

I looked around one more time as if I would maybe somehow find her before shaking my head violently and beginning to walk out of the room.

"I haven't even started drinking yet," I muttered, rounding the corner of the doorway.

Thankfully, the hallway didn't leave me contemplating in silence for too long, and I quickly passed through the doorframe of the common room I'd left a few minutes earlier.

It looked like everypony was still engrossed in their prior activities, and sure enough, Cobalt and Violet were still talking on the couch in the corner of the room. I trotted over to where they were sitting and levitated the bottles onto the small round table next to them. Another look around the immediate area gave away that a certain pony was missing, and I looked to the pair with confused eyes as I put the bottles down.

"I brought two just to make sure you weren't left out, Cobalt. Where's Silver?" Violet had already begun pouring the mead into a glass that had seemingly materialized out of nowhere, but Cobalt pointed his hoof at the doorway I'd just come in through.

"She left after talking for a bit. Said parties make her nervous." I could feel a disappointed sigh escape my lips, but I was very glad that Silver had it in her to talk with some ponies before retreating. I would figure out where she was later, I reasoned, but I would let her have her alone time for the moment so she could ease into everything.

I scanned the room for any sign of Starlight, but it appears she intended to do as she said. She wasn't here, so I assumed that she had, in fact, gone to see Doctor Scarlet to get that cut checked out. I sat down on the couch next to Violet in defeat, and she could easily hear the sigh I gave off the moment I hit the seat.

"Art thou perturbed?" she asked, looking to me with concern. I quickly shook my head to dismiss her.

"No, I'm fine," I told her. "I just had this strange encounter with Starlight. Has she been acting... strange at all lately?" I knew Violet didn't really know Starlight, but I was at least curious to see if even she had noticed any odd behavior. She shook her head in the negative before answering, though.

"Starlight does not appear bewitched in my eyes, no," Violet began. "Peradventure she is merely overtaxed from the chaos? Gods know that I am." I looked to the ceiling unconvincingly, but in my head, I agreed that it was a definite possibility: she was known for being very frantic with her emotions, and this may have just been her own strange way of releasing the tension that all of us have held for so long now.

Or there's something wrong with her.

"Yeah, maybe you're right." With another sigh, I grabbed the bottle of mead and a glass in front of me (it appeared somepony had laid out a few them for us) and began to pour, letting it fill just below the brim before I started sipping. I wasn't exactly a huge mead drinker, but even I could tell that it was very good. I expected no less from the sisters' personal collection, but it was still nice to enjoy it.

I was about to say something to Violet and Cobalt, but I could barely open my mouth before an unmistakable cadence called out from behind us.

"Hello, everypony! Sorry I'm late!" My eyes widened at the voice, and I whipped around to see Princess Celestia only just waltzing through the doorway. She had stripped herself of her regalia, and it looked like she was looking forward to relaxation after being exhausted from the meeting she had been in the entire day.

Unfortunately, I had to rob her of it.

As I put my drink down and began a power walk over to her, it became apparent that I wasn't going to be the only one to do so. Twilight had rushed Shining over to greet her as well, and we met with the Princess at the same time. She appeared shocked that Shining was in the castle, but I managed to speak up before any of them could explain.

"Princess, there's been quite the development," I said. Twilight and Shining nodded sternly -- Twilight must have informed Shining of her intent to speak with the Princess -- and she looked to the three of us with narrowed eyes.

"What development? Is everypony okay?" We all quickly nodded our heads, but it was Twilight who answered her.

"Yes, we are. There's, uh... a new friend of ours that you probably want to talk to."

Celestia couldn't be fooled. There was no way to soften to blow, no way to try and put it gently when she asked us who our "new friend" was. She knew, and I could see the color drain from her face and her eyes widened as large as her sister's moon at the mere insinuation of her former apprentice. We let her take her time, watching her stare at the wall behind us as the gears raced through her head until she finally posed a question without breaking her gaze.

"Where is she?" She asked softly. Twilight looked to me with a questioning glance, but I quickly shook my head to indicate I didn't have an answer for her before I replied.

"She was here, but she apparently left a few minutes ago. I have no idea where she could have run off to." Celestia stared for a bit longer, letting my words register again and again before, to the surprise of us all, she turned her gaze to Shining.

"Did you bring Flurry?" she asked simply.

I don't know how Silver had found Flurry Heart. Shining had certainly not told her where she was, and there was an approximately infinite number of rooms on the second floor of the castle, but Celestia had seemed confident that she'd achieved the task nonetheless. She must have been quite the savant with children, I reasoned, but Celestia didn't explain how she knew where her former student would be.

She just did.

I could hear Silver talking before we'd even entered the room. She was asking Flurry questions she knew would go without an answer, praising her for something that none of us could see. Celestia was silent the entire walk upstairs, and Twilight, Shining and I didn't dare say a word where she wouldn't. It was always going to be hard for Celestia to go back to her apprentices, but after hearing Silver's story, I tried to brace myself for any number of scenarios that could occur.

When we walked in, the first thing we saw was Silver's back to us. She was sitting down with Flurry watching her play with some blocks that Shining must have stored in the room. Where she had been talking and playing with Flurry before we came in, she was now entirely unmoving her muscles tensed and her limbs locked to her side.

We said nothing, Silver hadn't turned around and she didn't hear anypony's voice as we approached her: there was no way she could have known that her former mentor was standing behind her.

She just did.

Flurry's questioning noises when she picked up the blocks were the only sound that coursed through the room for a lifetime before anypony spoke: it was Twilight who broke the silence as she took a step forward.

"Do you want us to go?" she asked softly. I supposed that the silence grew tiresome after a while, because she answered almost immediately.

"No," she said simply. She turned around to look Celestia in the eye, and the tears started as soon as she made the contact. They flowed softly at first, but with each passing second, it grew worse and worse. Flurry seemed to notice before it got too bad, though, and she began to call out in distress at the sight of her new friend beginning to cry. That forced a sob-filled laugh from Silver, and she turned her head around slightly to levitate Flurry right into her lap.

"Come here," she said. She rocked her slowly, and the worried visage Flurry displayed a few seconds ago quickly faded to an obliviously upbeat grin before too long.

Silver didn't speak for a little bit, attempting to gather herself, but it was no use. The tears kept on flowing, and there came a point when she abandoned any hope of talking to Celestia with a dry face.

"I... I messed up," she started slowly, still rocking Flurry back and forth. "Really, really badly. I know I must have tortured you every night, and my parents, and my friends but I... I needed help. I needed help, and I was too scared and too prideful and too angry to ask for it." She paused for a second, opting to simply lose herself in Celestia's gaze, but she picked herself up sooner than later.

"I went to the Everfree Forest that night, Celestia, because I knew deep down that I wouldn't come back out. I don't have an apology that would be enough, and you have every right to be furious and you have every right to not forgive me--"

Suddenly, Celestia stepped forward from where she was, taking two or three steps before she kneeled down in front of Silver. Slowly, she wrapped herself around her, including Flurry Heart in the deep embrace. Flurry was merely happy for the affection, giggling wildly as her aunt embraced her, but Silver had an empty look on her face as she let her front legs hang limp to the side for the second time that night. Celestia whispered to her, but it was just loud enough for the rest of us to hear.

"I'm here now," she stated, wrapping around her just tight enough to accommodate the both of them. "I'm here now."

When I had hugged her earlier in Twilight's tower, it'd taken her about a minute to finally return it.

She was quicker this time around.

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

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CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
HEY THERE, EVERYPONY!
SUNSET SHIMMER

When I woke up, Violet was gone.

It wasn't exactly an uncommon occurrence. Violet came from a time where waking up very early was the cultural norm (as was going to bed just so), and so there were quite a few days over the past few weeks where she would instinctively beat me to breakfast by a considerable margin. I had told, her, however, that it was okay to sleep in a bit nowadays, and there were a few times where she took that advice to heart. I had expected this morning to be one of those times, what with the wine and mead involved in last night's festivities (I had fallen asleep the night before excited to see how Twilight would suffer the next morning), but it appears I had been wrong.

I made sure to quickly make my bed after I hopped out of it, the process only taking a few precious seconds with magic. Once I was satisfied, I quickly waltzed over to the bathroom and hit the lever to start the shower, letting it warm up as I looked in the mirror.

I moved my head back and forth, scanning over every little bit of my face as I did so. I had expected to relax for a bit when I came back home, to feel out the place I'd been away from for so long and to get ready to live the rest of my life here, but I'd gotten something entirely different instead. I could see only the faintest hints of stress seeping into my complexion, but they were certainly there, and I gave a loud sigh as I inched closer to the mirror.

"We're gonna win," I told my reflection. "We always do."

I didn't want to shower for too long -- I could feel my stomach rumbling as I got in -- so I hopped out after a short while and quickly dried myself off before beginning to head down the stairs towards the dining hall.

We'd been having community breakfast for a few weeks now, and I was elated that we were able to talk about nothing and eat some delicious food (courtesy of Spike) before going off to discover some ancient rituals or battle enemies returned from the dead. This would be the first one that Silver got to experience, and I was really hoping she would actually show up.

As I hopped off the stairs and began my walk down the long hallway, remembered that we would be missing Starlight. She had made arrangements to pick up Trixie Lulamoon from the train station and bring her back here, and she would likely be gone for a bit. I was glad to have Trixie back to help (she had already contributed to greatly to the search for Celestia's apprentices before she left), and I was also hoping that she could ease Starlight's mind and help her relax with all the chaos going on.

Starlight has always been a bit timid and neurotic in high-pressure situations. From darting out of Our Town almost immediately to apparently "bottling up" all of her anger (Twilight had sent me that letter a long time ago and I still wasn't entirely sure what that entailed), she had a bit of a reputation for losing the levelheadedness that made her such a natural leader of ponies when she was faced with a lot of stress. As such, it made sense that she would be acting a bit strange, but I was never able to ask her how she was doing whenever these things would happen: she'd just disappear for practically the entire night.

I'm gonna talk to her right when she gets back, I reasoned as I walked into the dining hall. I'm sure she'll be just fine.

The dining hall was certainly populated, and it looked as if I'd gotten there just as breakfast was being served. Spike had placed all the food he'd made at the center of the table, and everypony was grabbing all the food their plates could hold.

There were a few notable absences, however. Strangely, Violet and Cobalt were nowhere to be seen, and it was very unlike them to skip out on breakfast here. Silver Jubilee was absent, as was Twilight Sparkle (Twilight had gone a little... excessive on the wine and mead the night prior, so I wasn't too surprised about that one). Finally, Shining had left early in the morning to visit his parents before leaving the city and had taken Flurry with him, of course. With the missing ponies came an extra addition, however, as Rainbow Dash was sitting at the end of the table with another Wonderbolt with a fiery mane and tail and a yellow coat that I didn't recognize. They were both wearing their flight jackets, and I quickly recalled that Rainbow was supposed to fly with the Wonderbolts tonight. She'd given all of us tickets well in advance, and I could feel my eyes light up at the thought of going to the show soon.

I plopped down towards the edge of the table next to Pinkie Pie and grabbed a plate as fast as I could, taking a combination of hay bacon and sunflowers with a glass of orange juice as Pinkie turned to me.

"Hiya, Sunset!" she sang, taking a bite of hay bacon and gulping it down almost comically quick before she spoke again. "Where's Violet and Cobalt? We figured they'd definitely be awake by now!" I swallowed the piece of hay bacon I'd been eating before I turned to the group at the table with a puzzled look.

"You all haven't seen them? I thought she'd just woken up before me like always." The rest of the elements shook their heads, but it was Rainbow Dash who spoke.

"Nope. Wonder where they ran off to?" I shrugged, but I quickly nodded my head to unbelievably cool flight jacket she was wearing.

"You flying tonight?" I asked her. Rainbow raised her eyebrows with an unknowing smile before she answered, and I saw her sneak a tiny glance towards her heavily bruised sides as she did so.

"I'm gonna try," she started. "I met with a team doctor last night as she said I was good to go if I was up to it. I'm technically still on indefinite leave, but we're gonna do some flying in the gardens after breakfast and see how it feels. I miss the lights." She smirked as she said the last line, and she pointed to the mare next to her with a hoof as she continued.

"This is Spitfire, the Captain of the Wonderbolts. She's just stopping by for breakfast and to see how I'm feeling." Spitfire gave me a wave before glancing down to my coat.

"How many red, yellow, and orange friends you got, Crash?" she asked loudly. That drew a laugh from Rainbow, and I was momentarily confused about the name until I spied "Rainbow Crash" written across her flight jacket. I chalked it off as a Wonderbolt thing before turning to the captain.

"It's nice to meet you, Spitfire," I told her, taking a sip of the orange juice. "I'm very excited to see you guys perform. How many shows have you done on your tour so far?" Spitfire leaned back in her chair and looked to the ceiling, presumably counting in her head until she answered.

"Six," she finally replied. "Ponyville, Manehatten, Los Pegasus, San Palomino, Baltimare and Fillydelphia. We hit Canterlot tonight and finish in Cloudsdale." I nodded thoughtfully, opting to take another bite of hay bacon before responding. I knew that Cloudsdale was gonna be the big show, and it was disappointing that Rainbow was likely going to miss it. It was nice that she was able to kick the tour off in Ponyville, though, and I was certainly hoping I would get to see her in action tonight.

Just as I was about to reply, however, I heard some footsteps coming from the doorway, and I looked up to see Violet and Cobalt waltz in. They were just finishing up a conversation, and the two of them took some empty seats to the left of me. Violet sat closest to where I was, and while she gathered her plates and utensils, I made sure to be the first pony to greet her.

"Hey, you," I said, giving her a warm smile. "I didn't see you when I woke up this morning. Where did you two go?" Strangely, I saw a flood of red slowly overtake her, and she refused to look at me with a flush in her face as she answered.

"Ah, yes. Regarding that," she said, entirely unable to hide a sheepish smile. "Cobalt and I have not traveled anywhere. We have just awoken." Cobalt was uncharacteristically silent, but before I could piece together what she was saying, I heard a stern voice call out from where the two had just come in.

"Sunset Shimmer," it called sternly. I looked up to see a member of the Royal Guard standing by the table: I hadn't even heard him approach. Once he had my attention, he continued to speak before I could reply.

"Princess Twilight is up in her tower," he said. "She's sent me to fetch you."

When Twilight Sparkle was on a roll, Tartarus itself could not stop her. We made her pause last night, but she would not be contained for long.

When I trotted up the stairs and pushed the door open, I found yet another missing pony: Silver Jubilee was seated across the table from Twilight, her eyes scanning what appeared to be a very hefty book. Twilight herself was engaged in the same activity, but she looked much worse for wear, and my suspicion that she would suffer the consequences of last night's indulgence was proven to be true. She held her booted hoof up to her head as she scanned the book she was reading, and she read it on the table in front of her with a slight squint of her eyes.

On any other day, she might have shirked her duties to stay in bed just a little bit longer, but not today. Twilight Sparkle was on to something, and she would not be denied.

I admired her resilience and passion for the truth immensely, but that didn't mean I was going to pass up the opportunity to mess with her. She hadn't noticed me walking up, and so I took the deepest breath I could before sitting down next to Silver.

"HEY, TWILIGHT!" I yelled, making sure to even plop down on the seat below me as hard as I possibly could. Silver jumped in surprise, but I wasn't looking at her: Twilight merely stopped reading her book and looked to the ceiling with closed eyes, scrunching her face up as she did so. She took a series of deep breaths, inhaling and exhaling as she let the pain reverberate through her head until it finally subsided to a tolerable level. I was entirely unable to hide an excited Cheshire grin from my face, and after a long, long pause, she finally spoke to me in a rasped voice.

"We should have hit you with the elements one more time," she scathed, her eyes still not ready to open. That drew a fit of laughter from both Silver and I, and after a few seconds, Twilight let the faintest hint of a smile creep on to her face as it finally died down.

"Yeah, but then you couldn't have called me up here," I teased. She raised her eyebrows for a split second, indicating that was precisely the point, and when she finally opened her eyes again I motioned to the books they were reading. There was yet another massive stack of tomes at the very edge of the table, and it appeared as if they had already gone through quite a few of them before I even got here.

"Why did you call me up here?" I asked. I knew the answer, but I let Twilight say it herself while she continued to read whatever page she was opened to.

"Because you're smarter than me," she started. "These are the most forbidden dark magic tomes I could pull from the Starswirl the Bearded wing of the Canterlot Archives, a lot of which Zephyr took quite the inspiration from. I think it's clear that he's the reason all the apprentices are here, but I want to know what that ritual was that Silver stumbled across. We haven't found anything that she recognizes." While I could certainly argue against her first point, I sat back and nodded thoughtfully at the description of her process. It made sense to go where Zephyr started to find out just what he had done, but from the looks of it, they weren't having too much success.

Twilight flipped to a page in the book and held it up to Silver. There was a giant rune sprawled across the pages, and the pattern looked to be made up of colliding circles.

"Did it look like this?" she asked. Silver shook her head in the negative, and with a quick sigh, Twilight put the book down and began searching through the pages once more.

"No, it didn't have any other circles," she began. "It was all inside of one, but the pattern was made up entirely of lines." Twilight nodded in understanding as she continued, fervently flipping pages and scanning over their words.

I didn't pick up a book or read along with the two of them. I just started thinking.

Zephyr had descended into madness during his plunge into dark magic, but his instability didn't take away from his intelligence. From what I understood, everything he did was particular: he held a diary and recorded all of his dabblings in dark magic, as well as his thoughts on the religion he had created from it and devoted himself to. Even still, Twilight had harrowingly told me when she got back from the Crystal Empire that he had a list of every pony employed there just to be sure he had turned each and every one to a thrall.

He had to have gone to the Crystal Empire for some reason, but that was speculation for later. The rune Silver Jubilee saw was definitely his work, and I was certainly willing to bet that it had something to do with why everypony had been rising from the dead lately.

But whatever it was, it was going to be very, very particular.

I tapped my hoof on the table we were sitting at and opened my eyes, looking towards Twilight. She looked up to me with her eyes narrowed and her head tilted slightly to the side, and I knew then that she figured I was on to something.

"Twilight, what exactly is a magic ritual?" I asked. She reeled her head back a bit, as she knew I knew the answer, but she gave it to me regardless as Silver listened intently.

"It's an algorithm of sorts," she started slowly. "A ritual is crafted to do something specific, whether it's to summon something or to trigger an event. You give it instructions in the form of charms and items to fuel it, and it gives you what you want in return." I nodded in the affirmative, but before I could follow up, Silver did it for me.

"So then we have a question to answer," she replied for me. "What did Zephyr want?" Fortunately, it was a very easy one to answer, and Twilight chimed in immediately.

"Chrysanthemum," she stated. "He wanted to cure her. Perhaps he wants to revive her again?" I nodded sagely, but I shook my head almost immediately afterward. I felt like I had some sort of spotlight on me with the way the two of them were looking at me.

"That isn't the whole story. He likely wants Chrysanthemum back now, but not at the cost of his own life. He wants to be there with her, not to sacrifice himself so that she can live. We also can't forget that this is his religion, too, and he wants as many converts as he can get. He believes that dark magic and those who used it are the keys to some sort of higher understanding." Twilight's eyes widened the farthest they could go in her state, and she quickly closed the book in front of her with her magic and placed it neatly on top of the pile.

"So the ritual that Silver saw had something to do with one of those things," she said. "It was either Chrysanthemum or to spread his dark magic. Whatever it was, I'm absolutely certain it's the reason we're all here. It can't be a coincidence." She narrowed her eyes and gritted her teeth, the frustration clearly evident as the gears in her head fired further.

"If only we had something definitive that could tell us. We can't afford to keep guessing." That was the trigger: as soon as she finished her sentence, I could feel my own eyes light up as I pointed my hoof towards her frantically once more.

"Didn't Celestia say he kept a journal?"

There was a renewed spring in Twilight's step as we walked down the stairs and back into the castle.

Thankfully, Celestia was still in the castle at the moment. Celestia wasn't scheduled to be out and about today, but she was still running the country, so we wanted to make sure we could talk to her early in the morning in hopes that her workflow wouldn't have picked up yet. Luna was away, however, as she had already committed to a week-long diplomatic trip to Saddle Arabia and had left at the end of the night last night. Thankfully, we only needed our former mentor, and so we were currently making our way up to her study as we traversed once again through the halls of the castle.

"Where do you think she keeps it?" Silver asked, though she quickly tacked on to the question. "Assuming she still has it."

"She said she's read it," Twilight answered, shrugging her shoulders as we turned a corner. "I honestly have no idea whether she's kept it or not, but it's worth a shot to ask. That information would be game-changing." I nodded in agreement, and the three of us continued down the hall in silence for quite some time.

We were interrupted, however, when we passed by the large double doors that marked the entrance to the castle. They slowly began to creak open as we passed, and it only took a second to remember the group of ponies we had been expecting this morning.

Sure enough, Starlight and Trixie ducked through the doors, and we stopped dead in our tracks and they entered the castle. Trixie's face lit up upon seeing us, and she broke into a brisk trot with Starlight as she ran to meet us.

"Hey there, everypony!" she called, running to Twilight first. She wrapped her in an embrace, but she made sure to do it carefully with regard to the boot on her right hoof. Strangely enough, Trixie had a small brown satchel hanging at her side, and she had to adjust her hug to make sure it didn't press into Twilight uncomfortably. When she looked up to meet her, though, her face dropped, and she held a hoof up to her mouth before addressing her.

"Are you okay, Twilight? You look very sick!" Starlight's gaze seemed to echo the concern, but both of their faces quickly twisted in befuddlement as the three of us broke out into laughter. Twilight answered her when the laughter eventually died down, and the quiet raspiness in her tone gave her away almost immediately.

"You could say that, I suppose," she replied. Trixie and Starlight's eyes widened as an understanding quickly came to them, and they shared their own quick chuckle amidst all of our grins. Suddenly, however, Trixie pointed her hoof in the air, and she used her magic to open the satchel at her side whilst rummaging through it.

"Oh, I almost forgot! Sunset, do you remember that mailbox you bought down at the post office when you first got here?" I tilted my head forward, but before I could even react with confusion -- I certainly had not done anything of the sort -- Trixie looked up to me with a glare that sent a chill through my veins.

She was smiling ear to ear, but it acted as a thin veil. There was an extremely unsettling pleading from her eyes, and I could almost feel the nervous twitches of her skin and the fear from inside her as she pulled out a letter and hung it in the air. She didn't dare say a word, but her message was very clear. I tried my absolute hardest to make a neutral expression, and thankfully, Silver and Twilight didn't seem to notice that anything was wrong.

"Yes, of course!" I answered, perhaps a little too jubilantly. Again, nopony seemed to notice I was lying, and Starlight stood behind Trixie with an unassuming grin as she looked toward the letter.

"I went ahead and picked up a letter for you! It's from some sort of moving company." She passed it over to me, and when I grabbed it, I looked carefully at the address my "letter" had come from. It was from "Canterlot Moving Co.", and aside from the incredibly generic name, every bit of it seemed legit: it was even stamped properly.

"Aww, thanks, Trix! Let me go see if there's a letter opener somewhere. If it's a bill, I don't want to rip it."

I walked away as casually as I could, and although I saw a weird face from Twilight and Silver, I paid it no mind. Of course, I didn't need a letter opener, and so I ducked around the corner of the hallway I'd escaped down with haste and shuffled into a guest room as far down the hall as I could find one. Very gently closing the door, I quickly ripped the top off the envelope and let it drop to the floor as I opened up the piece of paper inside.

When I did, I had to stifle a gasp.

Inside was a note that was scribbed down frantically, the tremors from fear entirely evident in the stroke. It was three simple words written in large capital letters, but they were enough to put a sickness in my stomach and a chill down my spine.

THATS NOT STARLIGHT

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

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CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
AJ
SUNSET SHIMMER

I tore the letter to shreds immediately.

I don't know how I didn't connect the dots. I guess I was just so tired of everything going wrong that I just wanted this one thing to go right, but of course, that wasn't the case. Starlight Glimmer had been acting strangely lately because she wasn't Starlight Glimmer: she was Melody Waltz, Celestia's changeling apprentice that we had kept in the back of our minds for the last few weeks.

She thought Trixie was going to Manehatten because she didn't actually know where Trixie was going. She shooed me away from her when she'd cut herself in the kitchen because the blood didn't come out red.

It took everything in my power not to start panicking. The Starlight that came back from Ponyville a few weeks ago was a changeling wearing her skin, and I had no idea where one of my best friends actually was. My mind came up with a slew of theories that went just short of fearing the very worst, but that wasn't healthy at the moment: as long as Melody Waltz was among us, I had to figure out what I was going to do about it.

Every step she took was the subtle tick of a timebomb, and sooner or later, it was gonna explode. I was gonna make sure that didn't happen.

I stepped out of the room and headed back to where the rest of the group was. As I walked, doing my best to knock the trepidation out of each step, I could practically feel my own mind racing as I repeated a question I'd asked many different times about many different individuals since I returned to Canterlot.

What does Melody Waltz want?

Again, I chastised myself. That was definitely a question that we should have been asking, but we were all so focused on what Zephyr's next move was that only held Waltz in the back of our minds. Regardless, it was still a pressing topic, and I attempted to wrap my mind around why Melody would be here in the first place.

Did she mean to kill Celestia? If that was the case, then there were far better ways of doing that. Celestia specifically mentioned that she'd found Melody out when she had attempted to impersonate somepony she knew: why would she do that again if it had failed her last time?

I had no idea, and I didn't have a lot of time to figure it out.

When I came back to the group, they were still making small talk. As I got closer, I could make out the conversation: Trixie was discussing her recent tour, and Twilight and Silver nodded along impressively as she recounted some of the stories from her time out in Appleoosa. The mare who was not Starlight did the same, nodding occasionally and laughing at wisecracks that weren't funny.

"Sorry about that, guys," I said, slipping back into the group. "Unfortunately, it was a bill." I was far from an actress, but I think pure necessity had improved my performance ten-fold. Trixie looked to me with a quick knowing glance, and I returned it the best I could: she had an ally now, and I wanted to make her feel as safe as she could next to the imposter that stood behind her.

"Have you found a place yet?" asked the mare who was not Starlight. I hadn't, of course, but I didn't need to completely lie about that one.

"No," I replied. "But I'm getting a few quotes from some moving companies. I was actually hoping to move to Ponyville, but while I was here, I figured I'd take a look around and see what the prices were like. Even the estimates are getting kind of ridiculous." The group nodded, and thankfully, nopony asked me how much my "estimate" was. Before they could get a chance, I quickly nodded further down the hall and spoke up.

"I'd like to talk more, but Cobalt wanted to see me about a project he's working on. We'll catch up soon!" With a mask of warmth over a glare of malice, I quickly waved to the mare who was not Starlight and shuffled away, watching their faces twist with slight confusion as I did so.

You better be around this time, Cobalt.

I'd been searching for him all day. I'd checked his and Violet's room thousands of times over, but I'd gotten nowhere, and I could only sit idle for a few minutes at a time before slipping back out of my room to try and find them again. I'd begun to re-memorize the entire layout of the castle in my search, and the day of wandering inside had begun to make my bones weary.

Cobalt and Violet had been rather... elusive as of late, and it didn't take too long while thinking back to their entrance at breakfast in the morning to figure out exactly why that was. I couldn't help but feel a dumb grin spread across my face as I jaunted down the hall, but I made sure to shake it off just as quickly: every second we had a changeling in our midst was a second far too long.

As I whipped around the corner, however, I felt an immediate collision, and after a blink, I found myself staring at the ceiling with a dull ache in my side. I was prepared to hop up for a fight, but the voice that called out afterward was enough to quell me.

"Sugarcube, you alright there?" with a sigh of relief, I hopped up and dusted myself off before looking up to a concerned pair of wide green eyes.

I didn't even knock her down, I mused, waving off her concern with a hoof and a smile.

"I'm okay, AJ," I told her. "I should be watching where I'm walking. I'm sorry about that." I expected a quick dismissal, but instead, Applejack rose her eyebrows and fired off a wry smile.

"'AJ', huh? Yer the sixth pony to call me that." It took me a second, but I could feel my eyes expand as I attempted to formulate an apology. She cut me off quickly with a short chuckle, though, and she laid a hoof on my shoulder with just a bit more force than I would have liked her to.

"I'm only teasin' ya, Sunset," she began. "Yer free to call me whatcha like. Now, where are you gettin' off to bowlin' down the hall like that?" It was my turn to chuckle this time, and I leaned to the side to get a better look down the corridor.

"I'm trying to find Cobalt," I said. "You wouldn't happen to know where he ran off to, would you?" She shook her head in the negative almost immediately.

"Can't say I do, but if ya see Violet, he probably ain't far behind. I tell ya, those two can't seem to get enough of each other." I could feel my eyes roll over, but before I could respond, Applejack cut me off once again.

"Tell ya what, how about we go find em'?" she asked. "I was just taken a stroll to nowhere in particular, and I'd love to seem some of Cobalt's fancy machines."

That was your strolling speed? I thought, masking my surprise with an eager grin. I gestured forward down the hall as I started off, and Applejack quickly kept pace.

"Sure! I was gonna check upstairs first." Applejack's hooves were heavy as they hit the floor, and after a short period of silence, I thought I would take the time to get to know the Equestrian counterpart to one of my best friends.

"Do you like Canterlot?" I asked her. "I know you've come here before, I'm sure, but I figured I'd ask. It's a bit different from the farmland." Applejack quickly nodded her head, and she gazed off into the distance as she gave her reply.

"I love Canterlot," she started. "I lived in Manehatten with my aunt and uncle for a few years when I was a little one, and I'd come 'round these parts quite a bit when they were on business trips. It really is a beauty. I should get up here more often when I have the time." If the Applejack across the mirror had gone to the Big Apple when she was little, she'd never told me, so the revelation came as quite a shock.

"Did you like it up there? Why did you come back?" Applejack seemed to be expecting the question, so she shrugged with a small grin before replying.

"I adored Manehatten, too, darling," Applejack said, putting on an absolutely flawless proper Manehatten accent. I could feel my jaw drop, and Applejack threw her head back in laughter before quickly recovering. "My aunt and uncle were mighty kind to me, if not a bit misguided. But I knew I belonged on the farm the whole time up I was up there, and one day, I got a sign that I was supposed to go back. I gotta say, though, I went to Manehatten with Rare a bit ago, and I felt a bit overwhelmed: must have been a little sprier when I was a youngin'."

"Could you imagine what Cobalt and Violet would think of it now?" I thought aloud. "I don't think they'd ever want to leave the place." I expected a laugh from Applejack, but instead, she shrugged her shoulders as we headed up the stairs to the second floor.

"Why don't you take 'em?" she said. "When this business is all done with, I mean. They'll love it."

I stopped walking about halfway up the steps. Applejack pressed on for a second, but once she realized I wasn't walking with her, she reeled back and looked to me with a tilted head.

"You alright, sugarcube?" she asked. I leaned back against the guardrail and drew a long sigh, prompting Applejack to shuffle a bit closer.

"I've gotten to know Violet so well over the past month," I told her. "I've been her roommate, I've taught her about modern music, sayings, customs, all of that. She's the sweetest mare I've ever met. She wants nothing more than to please everyone around her, and yet she has this sort of conviction about her that won me over the moment I met her. Cobalt is so brilliant, and I know that with the technology of this age, he can do incredible things. And Silver... I met Silver at a restaurant here, and in the short time I've known her, I've been so proud of what she's trying to do to make any sense of this situation."

"Well that's great, Sunset!" Applejack exclaimed. "They really are a nice bunch. Uh... some of 'em, anyhow." I forced myself to smile at the joke, but before I knew it, I was back to spilling my worries.

"But... we don't know how they got here. And if they randomly appeared... " I was going to finish, but the grim wave that washed over Applejack's face let me know she caught on quick enough.

"They could disappear, too."

I hated long silences. They hung in the air like a cloud of smoke, and I could only take so much of the suffocation before I had to break the tension on the stairs.

"I don't want that," I said softly. "I want them to see Manehatten. I want to invite them over to my place when I get it, and we can talk about nothing over wine. I want to see what Cobalt can build, what Violet can learn, what Silver can do." Applejack stayed silent, listening intently all the while: her human counterpart was very good at that, and I felt an encroaching feeling of warm familiarity wash over me.

Applejack removed her hat and held it to her chest, seemingly searching for the empty space for words. After a little bit, she spoke, fidgeting around with it as she began.

"I can't say I know why these folk started turnin' up," she said. "And I can't tell ya how long they're gonna be here. But I do know this. Violet has loved learnin' all 'bout the modern world, and I think it's safe to say she's been lovin' somethin' else, too." She took a break to let me laugh, and it worked -- I let a quick chuckle escape my lips, but she didn't allow it to go on for too long.

"And aside from that, Cobalt has been over the moon about all the fancy new machinery he gets to play with. I don't know much 'bout Silver, but from what I do know, you've been a big help in her trying to make a lick o' sense with all of these shenanigans. What I'm sayin, Shimmy -- " she walked over to me and rested a hoof around me, snuggling up tight to my side. I was never too excited about Applejack's southern affection, but I was willing to let it slide in this instance.

" -- is that maybe they'll be gone before we know it, or maybe we'll get to take 'em to Manehatten. But they're here now. And as long as they are, we'll be damn sure they're safe and happy."

Applejack was absolutely right, of course, but I found myself bringing a hoof to my mouth with a laugh. It was just a bit more than a dismissive chuckle, and so Applejack's warm beam quickly flipped with befuddlement.

"What? What'd I say?" she asked, only serving to increase the fit of giggles. After a while, I found a breath to speak, and I couldn't hide a devilish grin as I explained myself.

"'Shimmy'? You're the seventh friend to call me that," I told her.

Suddenly, her worried face melted into laughing hysteria, and she broke into a bellow that far surpassed my own. I was already afflicted with the giggles, so it took me all but half a second to join in, and we threw our heads back and hollered together. I don't know how long we stood there laughing in the middle of the stairs, but eventually, the riot died down just enough for Applejack to put an end to it.

"Feels good to laugh about somethin'," she said, catching her breath. "I like you, Sunset Shimmer. I'd love to have ya over at Sweet Apple Acres once this is all over."

"Yeah," I told her, beginning to finish walking up the stairs to completion. "When this is all over."

Without a word, I started my way up the stairs again, and Applejack followed unconditionally. I figured I could never escape the constant magic threats that plagued both the human world and Equestria, but after getting to experience one the very first day I moved back to my home dimension, "all over" couldn't come soon enough. Before I could get too lost in my thoughts, however, Applejack quickly spoke up again as we headed down yet another long stretch of hallway.

"I hear Cadance and Shinin' are gonna announce what Zephyr did to the public today," she said. I furrowed my brow, recalling back to the conversation we'd had just a few nights ago.

"Yeah, he said something about that," I muttered. "I'm surprised they've managed to keep it under wraps for this long. I've been looking at the papers and-- "

With a loud boom, I felt myself suddenly lurching backward, quickly bringing a hoof to my face in an effort to brace the shockwave. About a half a second afterward, something decently big hit me in the back of the neck, which was enough to send a dull pain flooding through the area. I looked up to see what it was, but I could feel my jaw drop as I did so.

I couldn't see.

Everything was absolutely pitch black, save for the speckles of moonlight flooding through the windows. I held a hoof to my face again, but I could only barely make out the outline of it as I waved it in front of me. It didn't take too long to realize that the thing that hit me was probably a piece from one of the castle's many chandeliers that fell from the shockwave, and it took even quicker to piece together what had happened and who was responsible for it.

He cut the lights.

"Uhhh, what was that?" asked Applejack, a hissing sense of urgency shooting through her cadence. Before I could answer, a lone scream rang out in the distance far too close for comfort, and a clang of metal pierced down the hallway like a rocket.

"We've spoken of the devil," I began, turning around carefully to avoid colliding with anything. "And he has appeared."

I couldn't see Applejack's face, but I could certainly hear the gasp that I drew from it with my words. I could hear her cautious footsteps as she, too, began to reorient herself, but I quickly gave her a shush as my voice quieted to a whisper.

"Don't make too much noise," I started. My horn lit up for just a brief second, and with a quick flash, a spell fired off at the two of us before fizzling out.

"That's a quieting spell," I began. "It'll mask our footsteps, but not our voice, so keep it down. We need to find Princess Twilight and meet up with the rest of the elements." Doing my best to keep it as quiet as possible, I hit a light spell on my horn, illuminating the area in front of us. We had only just reached the stairs we had walked up, and if either of us had taken one more step, we could have very well tumbled off of it. I hurriedly began to run down it, and as always, Applejack kept perfect pace as she managed to scream at me in a hushed tone.

"This don't make a lick of sense. Zephyr wouldn't attack the castle with Celestia here! And what about Violet and Cobalt? Didn't you need to talk to them about somethin'?" As I mentally thanked Applejack for reminding me that we also had a sociopathic changeling in the very same building, I shook my head for a millisecond before realizing it was also shaking the flashlight we had in front of us.

"I haven't been able to find those two all day, and I pray they aren't here," I told her, slowing my pace as we faced the long hallway we'd entered from. With a creep that could rival a master spy, I started to hug the wall to our right before darting my eyes towards Applejack.

"We need to find Twilight," I told her, quickly looking behind us to make sure the disturbance from earlier hadn't followed us. "Because she doesn't lose twice."

CHAPTER NINETEEN

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CHAPTER NINETEEN:
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SUNSET SHIMMER / ROYAL GUARD

I only took a few steps before I realized I had no idea what I was doing.

I had no idea where Twilight was. She had planned to go ask Celestia about Zephyr's journal with the rest of the girls (including the imposter), but she could have grown tired of waiting for me and done that hours ago. I didn't really know where I was going, and on top of that, I didn't properly think through exactly what Zephyr was bringing to the table.

I'd given Applejack and I a quieting spell, but I realized quickly that it would be of no use. Zephyr's thralls moved entirely silent, and so it was likely a stretch to think that they hunted based on noise. Of course, it would make it tougher for Zephyr to find us -- assuming he was even looking for us in here -- but I could hazard a guess that he had anticipated such tactics from a castle filled with some of Equestria's greatest mages.

The thralls would be the main enemy. Zephyr's power outage was nothing short of ingenious, as I had another consecutive feeling of dread drift down my spine as I realized that my little flashlight wouldn't do us any good. The creatures didn't make any noise when they moved, and by the time I could see them in the pitch black with my flashlight, they would almost certainly already be upon us.

"Sunset. Sunset."

Right. Applejack.

Applejack usually could handle herself just fine, but the horror show she was about to witness was probably nothing like she had ever fought before. I needed to come up with a plan to get us to Twilight, but after hearing that noise behind us as we retreated I was well aware that I needed to throw something together real fast.

"Sunset--"

"Let me think, AJ! I'm getting there!" I didn't mean to snap at her that harshly, and it seemed as if she'd taken the tone to heart when she snapped right back with aggression I never thought could be put into a whisper.

"Well move on with it, then!" she seethed, inching a bit closer to me. "Whatever went bump in the night back there is gonna come up on us right quick. I can sense it." I could feel a small irritation develop, and I felt entirely free to roll my eyes on the basis that she couldn't see me do it.

"Well, yeah, I'm sure you did," I fired back. "I think I sensed it too when I heard a Celestia forsaken--"

I stopped. I could almost feel the heat from Applejack breathing over me. I could feel that something was wrong. I could feel Zephyr's thralls closing in on us, and I didn't have to see to know they were here.

We gotta sense it.

"Applejack, I'm going to hit you with an enchantment," I told her, whipping around. "It's going to dull your senses quite a bit, but it's going to give us an upper hand -- err, hoof." I could barely make out her form, but I knew it reeled back as I powered up my horn.

"What?" She seethed, whispering just about as loud as she talked. "What are you gettin' at now?" I still need a bit more time to prepare the enchantment, so I gladly explained the situation to her as I went through the motions.

"Twilight told me Zephyr's thralls don't make any noise, which is probably why he just cut the lights. If we try to use a flashlight, we'll get eaten alive by those things. Maybe literally." Her form stood perfectly still, and when it seemed she'd gotten the information, I continued.

"This is a clairvoyance enchantment. It's going to make your eyesight, hearing, smell, touch and taste significantly worse, but you'll be able to sense anything coming at you with plenty of time. It kind of sends, uh, pulses, too, so you'll be able to feel the layout of the area around you as well. It's very similar to how vampire bats have sonar, I'm told." That last metaphor seemed to sell Applejack on the idea, and I could barely see her nod enthusiastically as she braced herself for the spell.

"You're quick as a whip, Shimmer, you know that?" she asked me, bracing for the spell.

"A little too well," I told her, and once I could feel it bursting through me, but I made sure to catch myself in order to give Applejack one final warning.

"Oh, and one more thing," I said, holding back the spell the absolute best I could. "I haven't ever used this, but I'm told the effect it has is a little bit creepy."

"Creepy?" she asked, cocking her head to the side. "What do you mean by tha--"

I'd prepared the enchantment to the best of my ability, and I could no longer keep it contained as I fired it off and let the effects wash over us. It didn't seem possible at the time, but the black that embraced us got even blacker. While I could make out a few outlines a few seconds ago, everything now faded and washed in the void. It felt as if someone had thrown a blanket over everything, and the sound of my breathing no longer hit my ears as the spell completed its work.

That was fine, though. I didn't need them. I could feel everything.

The first thing I did was turn back to where I knew Applejack was. What I was greeted with was a disturbing array of flickering lines that made up a vague shape of her body, the outline looking as if a spider had attempted to create a web mosaic during a seizure. It wasn't pretty to look at, but it was there with every pulse, and I could feel the shape of the palace draw itself around me: the hallway, the stairs behind us, and even the chandeliers above appeared in the spell's sickly line art picture. Thankfully, she herself didn't set off the spell, as I'd made sure to tag her as friendly (and vice versa) when I was preparing the enchantment.

"Alright," I said, hearing a soft, garbled version of the words come out. "Come at us."

Applejack couldn't hear me start walking, but I knew she could see me, and I checked to see if she would file in behind me when I started walking. Sure enough, her broken form drifted like a wraith as I took a few steps forward, and I breathed a sigh of relief that the spell had actually worked on her. As I started to meander through the still, feverish shell of Celestia's palace, I let a string of goals ring through my mind to keep myself sane as I made my way to the common area.

Find Twilight Sparkle. Get her to fix you. Gather the elements. Don't get killed.

The first and last of those goals were the most pressing. I had neglected to tell Applejack that the Clairvoyance spell kinda lasted forever, and it would require Twilight to fix it (I could have done it myself, but it would take far too much time to risk). The last one was of grave importance, too: this was a fantastic method to deal with Zephyr's thralls, but if the stallion himself came upon us, he'd almost certainly figure out what was happening with deadly efficiency.

We headed up a different set of stairs to the second floor, watching yet another similar looking hallway appear before us. Thankfully, I'd memorized the entire make-up of the castle when I was a filly, because there certainly wasn't enough landmarks to allow anypony to discern one hallway from the next otherwise.

We'd gotten halfway down before I felt it.

A horrible, creeping dread shooting up my back like an electrocution. Alarms in my body I didn't know I had were convulsing and screaming, firing off a warning that shook through my skull.

B̵E̶H̵I̷N̴D̵ ̸Y̶O̸U̵

I whipped around with a spell I knew was at the ready, but I was greeted with a tangle of outlines overlapping through muffled noise. It only took me a moment to realize what had happened: Applejack had likely sensed the thrall's presence first, and once she looked to me and held a hoof to her head in what I assumed was a salute, I knew she'd taken care of the problem. She said something to me, but I couldn't make it out, and I responded with a smile I wasn't entirely sure she'd be able to see.

I feel a lot better with her on my six, I mused, continuing to walk forward. I was surprised we had made it this far only encountering a single thrall, and I wondered what Twilight and the others had done when they realized what had happened.

Maybe they've been helping us out with--

R̶I̵G̴H̸T̵

I immediately whipped to the threat and fired off a quick spell, and I knew it had hit its target. The pile of lines that must have been a thrall immediately slumped to the ground, and I saw Applejack give it a kick for good measure as continued to trudge on.

If Twilight could be found anywhere, it would be in Celestia's chambers. That's the first place she would go, and I don't blame her: not only were we planning to go there anyway (assuming she hadn't already done so), but Zephyr taking on a budding princess was a far different ballgame than Zephyr taking on a demigod who had already killed him once already.

I knew where it was: I just had to get there. We weren't super far from it, but with Zephyr's thralls prowling around the castle, any walk was a walk just a bit too far.

As Applejack made our way through our own little horrorscape, my last goal ran through my mind like a broken record as I dealt with every guard-turned-thrall in our path.

Don't get killed.

L̶E̷F̴T̶

Don't get killed.

B̵E̶H̵I̷N̴D̵ ̸Y̶O̸U̵

Don't get killed.

L̶E̷F̴T̶

Don't get killed.

A̵B̷O̷V̸E̷ ̶Y̵O̶U̷

The outlines that approached and fell one by one had long been gone the moment Zephyr cursed them with his magic, but every one that Applejack and I fell would never have a chance to come back. I tried not to think about it too much -- and with our desperate need for survival, that wasn't too difficult of a task -- but it couldn't help but linger in the back of my mind with a shuddering sense to pair with the clairvoyance spell.

Eventually, we found ourselves staring at the long hallway I knew to lead to Celestia's chambers. It was just a few more paces, and I prayed to whatever deity might have held domain over this universe that Twilight was around here somewhere.

The walk there was suspiciously uneventful, and I kept looking over my shoulder to make sure Applejack was still ok. She had lost her signature Stetson somewhere along the journey (at least that's what it looked like) but that was the least of my concerns: so long as she kept her head, everything would turn out for the best.

I could see the door only paces away, but right as I was about to make a sprint for it, the spell flared up again with a force.

I̵N̶ ̵F̵R̵O̴N̷T̷ ̷O̸F̷ ̴Y̸O̷U̶

I was foolish to think that I could have made a run for it. There were guards stationed directly in front of Celestia's chambers at all times, and so it was only natural that Zephyr could have gotten to them during what I presumed to be siege on the castle. I readied a spell as always, but before I could cast it, the feverish lines that formed the shape of the thrall splintered into a billion pieces on the floor.

What was that--

L̶E̷F̴T̶

I still had my spell at the ready, but as I was about to fire it off, I heard mumbling from the direction the spell had indicated me to attack in.

"Sunset? Applejack? Can you hear me?"

S̸T̴O̸P̸!̴

It was a mare's voice, and one I knew all too well.

I powered down my spell in a millisecond, and sure enough, the vagueness of Twilight's form flickered in front of my eyes, among other ponies whose features I was unable to recognize. Though I could just barely hear my own words, I made sure to get the message through.

"Twilight, I put a clairvoyance enchantment on Applejack and I," I told her quickly. "Take it off."

Twilight reeled back for just a moment, but thankfully, she understood what had happened fairly quickly. She charged up her horn for what had to be about half a second, and in a flash, every sense I had violently flooded back to me as the real palace formed around me.

Twilight had been using a light spell on her horn, and so I was able to see her far clearer than I anticipated. Her, Trixie and Silver had been standing in front of the wooden door, which I was unable to tell was open when I was approaching it. I quickly realized there was another pony beside them: Sakura, the head of the Sunspears, remained stone-faced behind the trio. I looked back to Applejack, who was stretching out her forelegs upon being freed from the enchantment.

"That... was genius, actually. I don't know if I would have thought to cast that." I couldn't help but let a wry smirk fly upon my face at the compliment, but Applejack was far less amused.

"Yeah, and don't you ever start thinkin' 'bout it, either," she began, not even attempting to lower her voice. "'Creepy' was sellin' it a bit short." She instinctively reached up to her head, and when it made contact with nothing, she looked up with a horror that I was certain far surpassed the fear she'd just experienced.

"And where's my damn hat?" she cried, glaring at me with a look that would kill. I opened my mouth to explain, but to my surprise, Silver spoke up before I could.

"The enchantment dulls all of your senses, including touch. You probably never felt it fall off on the way here." Applejack looked towards the ceiling, fervently whispering to herself in what I assumed was an attempt to formulate how seething she was.

"Ya put me through one 'a Mac's campfire stories," she started, glaring at me once again. "And then ya made me lose my hat."

"You're also alive," I retorted. "And you can probably get it once we deal with this. Has anypony seen Zephyr, by the way? And where's Celestia?"

Twilight looked down to the ground with a rare grit in her teeth, but it was Sakura who answered for her.

"Celestia is not here," she began. "She attended to an emergency letter she received from a village near Canterlot proper. I was tasked with standing guard at her chambers, but... I noticed my guards were not circulating their shifts, and I knew something had occurred. I sought out Princess Twilight immediately when the lights were extinguished." While Twilight stared at the floor, I found myself looking to the ceiling in despair.

He caused a distraction to get Celestia out of here. Luna is in Saddle Arabia. We're all alone, and Starlight... Starlight!

My head whipped back downward, and I took a step forward towards Twilight as she reeled back in shock.

"Where is Starlight?" I asked frantically. Twilight seemed even more confused, and she turned back towards the three ponies behind her.

"What do you mean? She's right--" she stopped, and soon after, the trio behind her mimicked her confusion as they twisted and turned around them in a fruitless search.

"She was right here. No, no, no, no, no..." Trixie glanced up to me with that look of petrification she gave me when she told me who Starlight was, and I suddenly felt a wave of nausea wash across my body. The cover of darkness would have been a perfect time to slip away, but we couldn't afford to let Melody escape, especially when we had a chance to end both threats at the same time.

"Twilight, that wasn't Starlight, it was Melody Waltz, and we have to find her. I don't know where she slipped off to, but it can't be good. I'm going back out." It took Twilight a few moments of shock to comprehend what I'd just said, but after looking back at Trixie and receiving a fearful nod, she turned back to me with an ire that could have sent me to Tartarus then and there.

"Starlight was a changeling this whole time," she started, her voice quieting to a seething still. "And you knew? And you didn't tell me?" Twilight winced a bit from the raise in her voice -- I'd entirely forgotten our most valuable asset was still hungover from the night before -- but I shook my head as fast as I could before stepping back.

"I was going to, but I didn't wanna play the hand -- er, a, hoof -- too soon. I gotta go find her."

"Then let me go with you." It was Sakura who had said it, and her aura wrapped itself around the sword at her side as she stepped forward. "I've slain many thralls today, and I will do it again if I must. There are not a lot left, but a greater threat roams the halls as well. We will find this imposter." I turned back to Twilight, and although I could tell she was a bit perturbed at the revelation -- and perhaps angry at herself for not realizing a mare she cared for dearly was a fake -- she nodded sagely as she backed up towards the rest of the group.

"I'm going to find the elements. If you run into Zephyr, let us know somehow. We're gonna win this." Despite the brevity of the situation, I could feel a sly smile draw across my lips as Sakura and I jogged into the darkness.

"We always do," I told her, and with that, the three ponies disappeared into the void.

I'd thrown up a light spell for us to see, and when we'd gotten a fair distance away, I turned to her as we ran, attempting not to blind her with my horn.

"Arigatoo, Sakura," I told her, decently confident I didn't butcher the pronunciation. I'd never seen Sakura smile, and my attempt to communicate in her native language was still unable to accomplish the task. She nodded curtly, though, before focusing back ahead of her.

"It is my duty to protect the Princess and her allies," she said. "My job is not done until this Zephyr is destroyed." I was certainly glad to have such a skilled pony like Sakura at my side, but there was still a point of inquiry I had in regards to just how useful she would be.

"So if we don't use a spell like I did to get around," I told her as we rounded the corner in a light sprint. "How are we going to know when--"

"Duck," she said calmly, and instinctively, I obeyed her command without question. Her blade only barely swooped over me, and I could feel some of my mane clip off as the katana connected with what I assumed to be a thrall. I whipped up as quickly as I could, but when I turned to right where she had swung, I saw the body of the thrall laying sprawled upon the ground, almost completely obscured by the darkness.

"How... how did you... " When I turned, Sakura had already begun advancing forward through the darkness. It didn't take me long to catch up to her, but when I did, she had another point of inquiry.

"How many thralls did you slay?" she asked me. I didn't know exactly, but I had a feeling I knew where she was getting at, so I gave her the best estimate I could.

"Uh, little more or less than ten, I think? How many guards are stationed at the castle?"

"Eighty-seven," she replied. "Our group defeated twenty-six of them, and I suspect the rest of the Elements are battling more. He could very well have reached servants, so we must stay on guard." Despite the fact that her knowledge was a large part of her job description, I was still impressed with her ability to keep track.

As we rounded another corner, we were immediately greeted with the site of a pony in guard armor with his back turned to us. He was obscured by the shadows even through my light, so it was hard to make out the colors of his mane and tail.

Slowly, his head turned in complete silence, but the rest of his body did not follow suit. Like an owl, the guard's head twisted 180 degrees, and I was finally able to see what Twilight and Rainbow had so often discussed: eyes that lacked any sort of physical form, instead being filled with a pitch-black emptiness darker than the void around them.

Those eyes stared at me for a second, the thrall seemingly contemplating its next action, but it quickly ran towards me at a far greater speed than a normal pony could manage. It didn't turn back around, though, and so it charged at me running "backward" with a sickly perfect efficiency as his soulless eyes continued to stare at me all the while. Thankfully, I had charged up a spell the moment I saw the thrall standing there, and I fired it off just as it was only mere inches from my face.

The resulting explosion knocked me to the floor, but it sent the thrall careening down the hallway where an eldritch nightmare like itself belonged. I'd never actually seen any of Zephyr's thralls (the outlines I'd received under the effect of the clairvoyance spell were plenty enough), so to know that was what I had been fighting all this time sent the thousandth chill that night careening down my spine.

"Tartarus!" I exclaimed, getting up and dusting myself off. "How could anypony create that... thing!" Sakura seemed to understand that I was okay, because she didn't enquire once about the fall I took as she continued on.

"Where would this changeling go?" she asked me. "She left after we entered Celestia's chambers, and she was not in the main boudoirs we passed--"

Suddenly, Sakura violently flew to the forward, careening into and through the wall of the hallway I'd been facing. The impact saw the wall debris hit me with enough speed to cut, and when I put down the foreleg I'd used as a shield and whipped around, I saw a stallion whose identity I knew immediately.

I was told that Zephyr had arctic white fur and an amber main and tail, but I couldn't quite make out the colors in the darkness. I was also told he had sickly green eyes reminiscent of dark magic and King Sombra, though, and that didn't appear to be the case: He still had a purple glow seething of dark magic, but his sclera burned red bright enough to be its own light source. His pupils had dilated to pinpricks, but as horrifying as his visage was, there was something else that caught my attention: He wore a necklace that looked to bear a large, broken horn and some sort of red-jeweled amulet.

"You," he said, his calm and sterile voice echoing across the hallway. "You're different." I could feel my teeth grit as I fired up my horn, charging a powerful bolt of magic atop my light spell.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked him, taking a few steps forward. Zephyr didn't move an inch, and it took me a second to realize that he wasn't blinking.

"The Princess and her students use the inferior magic," he began. "They refuse to embrace the darkness for the power it holds. But you... I sense a darkness dwelling deep in your soul, mare. You've tasted its power, but you've given it up. Why?" I doubt Zephyr could see it, but I knew I'd gone white as a corpse at that declaration. I picked up my jaw in a second, though, and I gave my teeth an extra grit as I continued to charge up my spell.

He's deceiving you. You haven't gone down that road in years. He knows who you are. Don't let him get to you.

"Because it's webs and webs of pain," I replied, taking another step forward, closing the distance to about fifteen feet. "And you fight and you fight and you fight, and when you break out of one web, you get trapped in another. I'm done with that. And you're about to be, too." My magic was ready to burst, but if Zephyr was willing to talk, I'd gladly let him until he ate the end of my spell.

"You should never have left the way of darkness," he told me. "Let me show you what it can do."

I couldn't hold on any longer, and the spell fired from my horn directly at the stallion. It was nothing more than a raw collection of magic, and it illuminated the castle with blinding speed before colliding right where I'd aimed it. The area of effect was massive, and the floor tiles and pieces of the wall flew into the air like fireworks. The act itself had exhausted me, and despite a heavy panting, I could feel a Cheshire grin creep across my face.

"How about that, buddy?" I taunted, calling into the rubble. "That's what real magic can--"

Once I got a look at the crater I'd created with the light spell, however, my eyes widened to meet Luna's moon. There was nothing there: the spot where Zephyr had been was now a ruin, and he was nowhere to be found amongst the carnage I'd created.

What!? No, he couldn't have possibly--

"Embrace it," he whispered, his mouth almost directly touching my right ear. Before I could react, I felt myself launching forward, and I careened into the wall that was left from my blast with a force that stripped the breath from my lungs and shot a jolt of pain through the right side of my body.

With a desperate gasp for air, I somehow brought myself to a standing position only moments after colliding with the wall. It was extremely difficult to breathe, but I wasn't going to let Zephyr know that, and he merely stood curiously from where he'd thrown me as I reoriented myself.

"That strength is still within you," he said. "What is your name? At least allow me that."

I had to think fast. Zephyr was obviously considerably more powerful than I was -- I had a feeling the glowing amulet and mysterious horn on his neck had something to do with that -- but if I could delay him, I could give time to the elements to intervene in a battle they (hopefully) have heard by now.

Back against the wall now... well, what remains of it...

"Sunset Shimmer," I told him, feeling my horn light aglow with magic. "Don't forget it."

With all the force I could muster, I threw a piece of the debris I'd created earlier right at his face. His eyes widened greatly as he saw the piece of the wall fly towards him, but he couldn't react this time: it shattered upon impact with his face, and I made sure to keep the pressure up as I advanced towards him with every consecutive piece I launched at him.

"Stay. Down," I growled, throwing them more frantically with the satisfaction of each collision. After at least eleven pieces or so, I found myself standing just a few feet away from Zephyr, but when I went to reach for the last one with magic, I felt a harsh resistance fight me back.

Zephyr looked to me with perhaps the most sinister smile I'd ever seen on a pony, and it took me a second of squinting in the dark to realize that his horn was bursting with dark magic. I was even more distraught to look at my progress: the amount of debris I'd thrown at his skull was enough to kill a pony twice over, but the only thing to show for my efforts were a few deep gashes across his face.

"If you haven't noticed, I'm still standing," he replied, and suddenly, I felt a massive impact on the back on my head.

Thankfully, he didn't knock me out, but the force was enough to knock me straight into him. I didn't get far, though, because he quickly grabbed a hold of me and levitated me in the air, holding me just above eye level. I did my best to counteract the spell, but it was no use: the hits I'd taken had drained a considerable amount of power, and on top of that, Zephyr using my own plan against me hit my head hard enough that it was disrupting my ability to concentrate on my magic.

"If you will not answer to the darkness, so be it," Zephyr started, taking a step closer. "But you will answer to me. I'm looking for Princess Luna. Where is she?" Despite my continued struggles, that was enough to make me reel, and I raised an eyebrow at the stallion who'd bested me as I gave up my attempt to escape.

"Luna? You aren't here for Celestia? The other students?" Zephyr seemed to expect the first point of inquiry, but the second drew his eyes wide open, and with both eyebrows, raised, he pulled me towards him with his magic until there couldn't have been more than two inches between our faces.

"Other students? What do you mean other students?" At that, I felt my jaw drop open, and my eyes shot open to match Zephyr's.

"What? You didn't bring them back? This wasn't you?" It appeared that I had confirmed Zephyr's suspicions, and an empty shock washed over his face as he continued to hold me in the air.

"Celestia's other students have arrived too, then," he began, snapping out of his daze and returning his gaze to me. "That is of no importance. You still haven't answered my question, Sunset Shimmer, and for the good of your health, I would advise you to do so." Zephyr didn't follow that up with an imminent threat, but he didn't need to: I was perfectly content with dashing his dreams with a snark plastered across my face.

"Luna just left for Saddle Arabia. I don't know what you want from her, but you ain't gettin' it." To my surprise, Zephyr didn't look defeated as I'd envisioned: instead, he raised his eyebrows curiously, followed closely by that smirk I'd grown to detest.

"That is disappointing. I was hoping to speak with her, but it is no matter: I have what I need from this castle. But what will I do with you, Sunset Shimmer? You were certainly a worthy opponent." I had a snarky response primed and at the ready, but before I could speak, another voice replied for me.

"Let's try this, shall we?"

I could only barely see the hot pink beam slam into Zephyr's side. For the very first time, I heard him grunt in pain, and he dropped me to the floor in an instant. Thankfully, the moment I'd heard the voice, I prepared for the occurrence, and I landed square on my feet before whipping to the right to follow the noise.

Sure enough, Cobalt stood triumphant with Violet at his side, entirely unable to hide a gleaming beam of joy. It wasn't hard to see why: a medium-sized machine floated in the air beside him, hovering gently with a set of propellers. He appeared to be missing his horn, but I quickly picked up on why that was: he was wearing some sort of black apparatus over it, which blended in perfectly with the utter lack of light.

"What is that thing?" Zephyr spat, recovering from the blast. I'd already known what it was -- I gave Cobalt the plans to build it, after all -- but he decided to explain it for him with an underlying snide.

"This is what is called a drone," he said. "And it's quite versatile, I must say. I cannot take credit for the invention, but I certainly take credit for its improvements. Example A."

Suddenly, I felt myself being yanked back from my standing position, and after a blink, I realized the drone had dragged me right next to Violet with some sort of magical force. Zephyr's growl from earlier was still very much present on his face, and he quickly shot off a beam of dark magic directly at us.

It never hit. A light blue shield surrounded the three of us, and the bolt bounced harmlessly off. I didn't quite know where any of the drone's combat equipment was coming from, but it took a look at Cobalt to get a feel for what he'd done to it: just like he'd done with his new prosthetic leg, Cobalt had mapped the drone's actions to the apparatus on his horn, and it appeared he could merely think of an action for the drone to take. It ran on magic, for sure, but there were clearly a couple of bells and whistles on the drone that made every action easier than simply casting a spell.

"You'll have to hit harder than that, my friend. I've designed this fellow here to be the end-all, be-all of combat magic. Would you two care to help me out?" Violet and I looked towards each other, and with a knowing nod, we both turned to the enemy now at the middle of the hallway.

"Gladly," Violet answered, and together, we rushed towards Zephyr with our horns blazing bright.

The drone led the charge, and just as it did a moment ago, it threw up a magical shield in front of us. I knew we couldn't shoot through it, but we didn't need to: the shield was just there for the approach, and once we got in close enough, he dropped it just before we launched our double attack.

Zephyr, unfortunately, was expecting it.

I had hoped to see Celestia's second apprentice flying down the hallway when I opened my eyes, but instead, I saw both Violet and I's magic bolt suspended in the air in front of him. Violet took a step back, and I could feel my jaw start to fall for the thousandth time that night: the reaction time and magical ability to hold one essence of another pony's magic required a staggering amount of power, and to hold two was absolutely unheard of. With a smirk, he angled them slightly upward, and he fired a dark magic bolt of his own that sent all three magical shots flying towards the drone.

Cobalt didn't have enough time to react, and the drone had only just started to deploy his shield when it caught the full force of the massive collective of magic. The drone exploded into a thousand pieces, and the light from the rupture was enough to brighten the room for only a second. I was glad I closed my eyes in time, because a few pieces of the shrapnel managed to cut my face and body.

When I opened them, Zephyr had dropped his wry smile, and he twisted his neck to a crack as he advanced toward us.

"Note to self: re-write the next field test to improve durability," Cobalt muttered, backing up as Zephyr walked forward. Violet shook her head, and she and I began to back up right along with him.

"I do not believe the fiercest levins could match such force," she replied, and Zephyr merely stared unwaveringly at our small retreat.

"This was fun at the start, I'll admit," he said, stopping in his tracks. "But I've grown weary of these nuisances." I knew Cobalt and Violet weren't going to like my next suggestion, but I said it anyway, digging my hooves into the tile as I faced the stallion lost to the darkness.

"Sakura is in the room to the right. Grab her and get out of here."

"Sunset--"

"Go." I wasn't going to tell them the real reason I wanted them gone, but thankfully, they didn't ask. I gave a stern look to Cobalt, and with a disgruntled sigh and a nod of his head, he fled the scene with Violet, disappearing somewhere in the darkness to retrieve the Captain of the Sunspears.

Zephyr had thrown me around like a ragdoll. He'd obliterated a machine Cobalt had finely crafted over the course of months. He turned a wave of over eighty highly-trained guards into lifeless thralls, and he'd completely cut the lights in the mass of Canterlot Castle in a matter of seconds.

He was more than powerful. He was a monster.

With a primal yell, I shot as many magic bolts at him as I could muster in rapid succession, but it was simply no use. His form seemed to melt as he avoided each and every one, changing positions with each blink of my eyes. I tried to grab a hold of his physical form with my magic, but he stifled that, too, and it wasn't before long before I found myself in the air right above him again. I thought he might have tired himself out as I attempted to break free, but it was still a fruitless attempt: Zephyr seemed even more powerful, and I could only watch helplessly as he stared at my suspended form.

"Sacrificing yourself to save your friends," he mused, floating me around in a circle as he spoke. "A cliche in my time, even. And yet, here you are. I suppose I'll make it--"

I was blinded momentarily by Cobalt's drone exploding, but it didn't compare to the eye-melting light I experienced at that moment. The lights in the castle flooded back on, and it took a series of rapid blinks to allow my eyes to adjust. It was certainly painful, but knowing exactly who had done the act made it more than worth it.

"You're going to release her." Celestia had stood at the exact place where Cobalt and Violet had made their introduction earlier, and when I looked to her, I saw a glare that could have ended Zephyr far more gruesomely than before on its own. "And perhaps I won't put you down again. I don't know where you got your hooves on the Alicorn Amulet and Sombra's horn, but you know they won't help you. Not over me."

I had expected Zephyr to quiver at the sight of the mare who killed him all those years ago, but he seemed to instead relish in her arrival: he turned to her with a grin touching his ears, and he gestured to me with a single hoof.

"Release her? As you wish, my loving mentor." Zephyr was one to talk of cliches, because I knew where exactly where I was going next, and it wasn't safe on the ground. Sure enough, I was quickly flung behind him further down the hallway, but I didn't travel long before I hit the tile and skid across it for a good few seconds. The impact was far harder than when I'd hit the wall the first time Zephyr threw me, and to my own dismay, I felt my limbs losing feeling and saw a ring of darkness slowly overtake my vision.

"No..." I muttered, desperately fighting my eyes as the closed on me. "Not... now..."

Celestia and Zephyr were talking. I couldn't make out what they were saying, but their words were the lullaby that put me to sleep.

The first thing I noticed when I awoke was the stark white walls of the room. The second thing I noticed was the pain.

Every breath I took shot a sharp jolt of it through my chest and into my left shoulder and back area. It was excruciating, and any attempt to lessen it resulted in shortness of breath. Upon looking down, I saw a white bandage wrapped around my chest, and it only served as a reminder of my very last memory.

Zephyr! Celestia!

I had no idea what happened, but I quickly reminded myself that I likely wouldn't be laying down in what appeared to be a hospital bed if Zephyr had won. No, I was recovered and placed here, but with the pain in my body and a blank space where a memory should have been, I preferred answers sooner than later.

Thankfully, I didn't have to wait. The door at the front of the room opened after just a few minutes, and a pony with (interestingly) a dark red coat with a mane and tail of the exact same color walked into the door. She had a white uniform on, and a clipboard hung at her side engulfed in a hot pink aura. She was preoccupied with it when she walked in, and she had turned around to close the door again, so when she turned to look at me for the first time, she stopped in her tracks.

"Ah, you're finally awake," she said, absolutely no hint of shock or surprise present in her tone. "I'm Doctor Scarlet. How do you feel? Are you coughing, by any chance?" I didn't know how talking was going to be, but I managed it through the sharp pain as I replied.

"Really bad. The entire left side of my body is on fire. No cough, though." Doctor Scarlett gave me a warm smile, and she trotted over to my bedside and pulled up a chair from the corner of the room via magic.

"That's good. You broke a rib and punctured a lung at some point during your fight, and we had to surgically remove the air and a bit of blood from your chest. You woke up in between the time you were knocked unconscious and when we operated on you, but I doubt you remember that." I shook my head to confirm her suspicion, but I made sure to immediately fire off the million-dollar question.

"When am I going to be okay again?" I asked her. I felt a sigh of relief when that warm smile returned to me, and the doctor glanced over at her clipboard before replying.

"The healing process was rather easy to speed up with magic since you didn't tear anything. We fixed the broken rib and made big strides on the lung, so I'd say three or four weeks. You're free to walk around, of course, but unless it's a life or death situation, I wouldn't be looking for combat until then, obviously. Is there anything I can get for you?" I nodded curtly, and I stared at the wall above me to distract myself from pain.

"Yeah," I told her. "Get me Princess Twilight."

Twilight looked good as new when she walked in. Her boot was gone -- I suspected she'd shed it when the lights went out -- and the general glow of her figure was probably quite the comparison to what I assumed was a ghastly form on my part. That worried look she seemed to always have on her face persisted, however, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the expense of my comfort when she sat down beside me.

"I'm fine, Twi," I told her immediately. "I'll be fine in no time. but I need to know what happened. I didn't quite catch the end of it, as I'm sure you know." She nodded, and it was her turn to flicker a wry smile as she started.

"Well, I already told you, but you were a bit out of it," she joked. "Zephyr's confrontation with Celestia didn't last long: he assured her he had what he needed, and he teleported out of the castle like he did in the Crystal Empire. I found all the elements safe and sound, and we were making our way to you guys when the lights came on. Sakura is okay, but she's in the next room over nursing her wounds. We checked Celestia's chambers, though, and the Zephyr's diary Celestia had was gone. That must have been what he was after."

That made sense: Celestia had indeed mentioned what he was wearing on his neck during our battle, and it seemed as the relics had boosted his dark magic tenfold. His diary contained his work, too, and if he wanted to replicate any rituals, that would be the place to find them. The talk of Zephyr brought something else to my mind, though, and my eyes widened as I looked to Twilight frantically.

"There's something I need to tell you," I told her. "I mentioned that the other students were here as well to him, and... he had no idea, Twilight. I think he was just as surprised at his resurrection as we all were." That was enough to send Twilight reeling back, and she shook her head vigorously at the news.

"No, no, no. That's impossible. It makes too much sense," she began. "The ritual, his motives for Chrysanthemum, our connection as students. It's... it's not him?"

I could feel a hint of frustration in her voice, and I didn't blame her. We had seemingly started on the right track towards discovering why this was all happening, and to be stripped of that progress at the apex of the problem was more than discouraging. I shrugged -- a mistake, as it sent another shot of pain up my body -- and once I was done wincing, I looked to her again with what I knew to be somber eyes.

"And what about Melody? Please, please, please tell me you found her." I could feel a nausea building in my stomach when Twilight immediately shook her head, and she looked to the floor as she replied.

"We... we couldn't find Melody. She just left. We don't think she took anything, as far as we know, so her motives in pretending to be Starlight are still up in the air. Which leads me to the last thing... " A few tears started to roll down her eyes, and the gesture let me know her next news would be far from good news.

"We sent out a search party for Starlight," she began, her voice breaking up with each passing word. "And we don't know where she is. And I've been sending letters to ponies in Ponyville and Spike and ponies in Canterlot and... and nopony knows. And I just hope, Celestia, I hope, that somewhere, she's, oh--"

"She's alive," I told her curtly. "I know she is. We'll find her, Twilight." I had partly assured her to calm her down, as her tears had evolved into a full-on fit of crying, but I also believed my own words. Starlight Glimmer was a force to be reckoned with in all stages of her life, and I knew well that Melody Waltz would regret the day she ever laid a hoof on that mare.

I rested a hoof on Twilight's as she cried, and upon feeling the contact, she looked up from her bout of sobbing.

"We're gonna find Starlight," I told her. "We're going to stop Melody. We're going to stop Zephyr, too, and we're going to solve this mystery. You know how I know?" With a look of defeat in her eyes, she stared at me with a face pleading and begging for anything through a well of tears.

"How?" she whispered. I chuckled and removed my hoof from hers, placing both of them behind my head as I looked to the ceiling once more.

"Because I've fought you," I told her. "And Zephyr didn't tornado me eight feet through the ground."

Along the edge of the castle, two guards had walked silently across the hallway. Rubble from the fight had littered this section of the castle, and although the castle servants had cleaned up most of it, very small pieces could still be seen here and there.

"So all the thralls just... collapsed?" One guard asked, his eyes darting from wall to wall to asses the damage. The paintings and vases seemed unharmed for the most part, and he took time to admire them as his partner spoke.

"Yeah. They've got some doctors looking at them now, but... they're gone. They couldn't fix them at the Crystal Palace, and we've tried just about everything we could here. Celestia's making a public speech about the incident today."

The guard nodded as he scanned the walls emptily. He had quite a few friends stationed with the castle garrison under the Sunspears, and the city guards always used to tease them about "getting it easy". No one could have known the horrors of what would end up occurring in the Princess' own domain, however, and the thought that some of Equestria's finest had been turned to husks so easily left a numbness in him that could not be quelled.

They walked in silence until they reached the very end of the long hallway, but as they were just about to turn left to head down the backside of the castle, the guard stopped in his tracks.

"There's a painting missing here," the guard said, pointing to a spot on the wall. A barren, dark square graced the wall next to another work, and upon further inspection, it appeared to be the only space on the long wall that wasn't occupied by an art piece. His partner waved it off almost immediately, however, already beginning to round the corner.

"Eh, it was probably ruined in the fighting and the servants removed it. I'm sure they'll replace it soon with something else." The guard continually stared at the empty space, letting his partner's words run through his mind as he comprehended them.

"This isn't anywhere near the debris, though. It's... you know, you're probably right. I'm just paranoid, I guess." Taking one last look, the guard followed his partner around the corner, and the two of them trotted in silence as they continued their round of the castle.

Probably just nerves, he thought to himself. What would somepony this powerful want to do with a painting?

CHAPTER TWENTY

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CHAPTER TWENTY:
LOVE
ZEPHYR

On a hill outside of Canterlot in the dead of night, Zephyr dug.

He had hoped to find his diary from the days of old, but the fact that he couldn't find it was of no importance: he'd expected Celestia to be rid of it after she'd disposed of him, anyway, and he'd been preparing for this moment for eons. He still vividly remembered the time he'd first attempted the ritual at the Castle of the Two Sisters, crudely carving the rune into Luna's old throne.

I was a fool then, he thought to himself, making sure the lines he was drilling into the dirt were perfect. That Zephyr is dead.

A large circle made up the base of the rune, and three smaller ones of disproportionate sizes made up the inside. When he was content with the pattern, he flung the remaining dirt aside with his magic, and he knelt down before the rune with a brown bag at his side.

One by one, he pulled out what he needed. The Alicorn Amulet, a pendant created from the hatred of an ancient dark mage, was placed carefully in the smallest circle. King Sombra's horn, a relic he'd acquired in the barren wastes of the Crystal Empire, was placed in the second largest. Finally, with deft precision, he removed the last piece from the bag, taking care to also take it out of its protective cloth.

It was a single hair from Princess Luna, who was once a fearsome entity of dark magic known as Nightmare Moon. He'd found it on her throne in Canterlot Castle, but unfortunately, he'd retrieved it without talking to the mare herself. He would have liked to have persuaded her to join his cause, but that, too, was of no importance: once this was done, he could focus on his true goal, and it would be completed with or without her.

"When I awoke outside of the Crystal Empire, I thought it to be my destiny. To return you to me, and to share my gift with the world." As he spoke, Zephyr used magic to open a cut down his foreleg, causing little droplets of blood to spread across the rune as he extended it over the relics

"But then that Sunset, the one who I sensed so much darkness in, told me otherwise. That it was all of Celestia's apprentices. I knew that mare, Violet, from the way Celestia used to babble on about her far too often. The rat with the machine was probably one, too." Once he was satisfied that the three relics had been bathed in his blood, he retracted it back to his side, and with a deep breath, he closed his eyes and felt his horn begin to glow.

"But now, darling, with you at my side," he said, feeling the magic course within him like a current. "I'll take that throne, and I'll give everypony the gift I'm about to give you."

Zephyr began to chant under his breath, his eyes firmly shut as he concentrated. He knew the words by heart, but he also knew what he had to change from the last time, and with the three relics before him, he would certainly channel enough dark magic to truly bring back his love.

He knew not how long he stood there, but after repeated incantations, he heard the noise he'd been looking for. A short pop of magic rang through his ears right where the rune in front of him had been, and slowly, he opened his eyes.

Laying prone on the rune was the mare he had so longed to see. Her light purple coat glistened in the moonlight, and her dark red mane and tail matched the glimmering jewel of the Alicorn Amulet. She stirred ever slightly, and then after a few moments, she opened her eyes. They were blue like the clearest of oceans, and they brought Zephyr back to every moment he spent with the mare that had completed him so.

"Chrysanthemum," he whispered, crawling over to her. When she saw him, her eyes widened softly, and she gave him that warm smile he'd always so cherished and thought of in his worst moments. He rose from his seated position and grabbed on to her, slowly helping her up.

"Zephyr," she whispered quietly, staring into his eyes. He held a hoof to her face, taking in the sight he worked so hard to see before him.

"The darkness has brought you back to me, Chrys," he told her. "And together, we'll show the world what we can do with its power." He drew her into a kiss, and he wrapped a hoof around her as she gladly returned it.

They stayed there for just long enough, and after what seemed like a lifetime back in his wife's embrace, their lips broke apart. They stayed in the hug, however, and Zephyr made no protest as Chrysanthemum continued to hold him.

While they were embraced, however, he heard the subtle shimmer of her horn igniting, and in the moment he had just loosened the wrap around her to investigate why, he felt a brutal pain course through his chest as something pierced deep into his flesh.

He reeled back from her a few steps, looking down to see a knife plunged into his heart with almost surgical precision. It had certainly been nearby for it to have arrived that quick, and he looked to his lover with a shake in his jaw and a visage of pure shock in his eyes as wide as Luna's moon.

"W-Wha... C-Chrys... " He could feel blood pouring from his mouth, and his horror only amplified when he peered upon the mare.

The mare who was not Chrysanthemum slowly deteriorated. Her light purple coat slowly melted away to a holey mass of black carapace, and her mane and tail faded to a green, webbed substance Zephyr couldn't identify. Those blue eyes he'd known so well vanished to reveal a sickly, reflectionless blue.

"I expected so much more, Zephyr." He fell to the ground, and the changeling towered over his body as he gasped for air. "After what you did in Canterlot, I thought you might actually have been a challenge. Your painting was perfect, though, I must say. Almost better than a photograph." Slowly, Zephyr turned his head to the imposter, grit in his teeth as he eyed her with a feverish snarl.

"Who... a-are... y-y-you?" he asked, every word coming out slower. The changeling knelt down, examining the knife still in his chest.

"I'm Melody," she answered simply. "I brought you here, and my goodness, Zephyr, did you play your part well. Your notes helped me prepare the resurrection spell to bring everypony back, too, so I must thank you for that." Zephyr's look of rage devolved into further shock, but it didn't last long: he felt the pain overtaking him, and he found it increasingly difficult to keep his eyes open as he fought the flutter.

Melody rose to all fours again, and she quickly grabbed his bag with magic and began storing the contents of the rune back inside of it. As she did so, she spoke to Zephyr, whose twitches began to slow down considerably.

"An admirable attempt, but there was one thing you just couldn't have known." slinging it across her back, she turned to him, and her changeling features disappeared as Zephyr's very own reflection stared back at him. With his own eyes, Melody looked down upon him one last time.

"You were a fine deuteragonist, but this was my story. Not yours." Her voice had mimicked his perfectly, and with the moonlight in front of her, Melody Waltz turned around and descended down the hill, leaving the stallion to expire.

"Ask Chrysanthemum how I did," she requested, disappearing down the hill slope.

Zephyr laid upon the grass, feeling his own breathing slow to a halt as he contemplated his failure. The end would approach in seconds, and as the reaper came to claim his soul for the second time, Zephyr used the last of his power to croak a name into the night.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

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CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:
LAMB
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

I didn't know how long I'd been here.

A changeling cocoon was a funny thing. Somehow -- probably through magic, though no pony or changeling has ever revealed exactly how -- it kept the entrapped individual alive, completely forgoing the need for food or water, and it quite literally suspended the captured victim in an awakened stasis of sorts. It was designed, of course, to allow a changeling to take the love from their victim, but the changeling that had put me in this cocoon did not intend to do anything of the sort.

She'd jumped me in Ponyville. She'd captured me. When I woke up somewhere, she had beat me savagely, to the point where I was certain I was going to perish if she kept it up. And right when I had reached my breaking point, she'd put me in a cocoon on a ceiling, told me her name was Melody, and assured me that I was going to be here for the rest of my life.

I had no idea where I was. I could not call for help. I could not move, and my body was far too weak to attempt any sort of escape (and would continue to be as the cocoon preserved my broken body exactly as she left it). It would be nigh impossible for anypony to find me, I assumed, and so I would be trapped in this cocoon until I finally died of old age.

Every day -- what I assumed had been a day, at least -- I chipped away at the cocoon with magic. There came a point during my imprisonment where I no longer even held a desire to escape, and the small beams of magic to break through the cocoon became more of a monotonous task to keep myself sane than an action with the goal of escaping in mind.

Until a part of the cocoon broke.

I don't even know if I realized it when it happened. I didn't think it ever would, as I couldn't exactly see what I was doing suspended upside down, but at one point I had noticed that my magical beam was hitting the ground and not the cocoon itself.

For the longest time, I didn't do anything, merely resigning myself to hang as I had been. After what I'd known to be at the least a month or two of capture, I'd convinced myself that I was destined to be trapped here for eternity in what was perhaps the weight of my past sins paying back my crimes a thousandfold.

But there it was. I couldn't see it, but it was there: a hole in the impenetrable changeling cocoon, a cell door cracked open ever so slightly as to invite an escape. Thankfully, the next part wouldn't be so hard, as the rest of the cocoon would go fairly easily now that I had an open area to work from.

My vision was still awash with green, but that would soon fade. With all the remaining might I had left, I cast a levitation spell across the entirety of the cocoon. It took a bit, but eventually, I could feel the grip I had over the whole of it, feeling the prison that had held me for so long.

I pulled.

It was as if you were having trouble opening a plastic bag. It's tough to remove when you first get it, but once you poke a hole in it, all you have to do is peel away the rest. It was considerably less effort with the same results, and after a few seconds, I peeled away the last remnants of my cell away and finally set my beaten body free.

Then, of course, came the next few seconds.

I'd spent many an idle day thinking about it. This changeling had put me up in this cocoon, but due to the slimy green that dominated my vision while I was held in it, I didn't know how high up it was: it could have been from a fatal height atop a five-story warehouse or it could have been a drop of mere inches. Since this all seemed prepared for me, my mind couldn't help but wonder about the possibility of spikes or some other forsaken trap to account for what I was doing, and so once the cocoon completely fell apart from around me, I shut my eyes and waited to see if I would still be alive.

There was good news and bad news. The good news was that the drop was not, in fact, fatal, and there were no spikes or traps of any sort to greet me when I hit the floor.

The bad news was that the drop was, in fact, of a decent height, and given that my body was essentially freshly cut and bruised, I was greeted with a violent jolt of pain throughout my entire body once I hit the ground with a thud. I could hear myself garble out noise as the air escaped my lungs on impact, and I found myself entirely unable to move upon hitting the floor.

Wood, I thought, waiting for the pain to take its course. The floor was made of wood -- at least the section I had fallen on was -- so I immediately thought of somewhere rural. After what was probably several minutes, I found the strength to get up, and the first thing I did was ignite a light spell so I could see my surroundings.

My guess wasn't far off. It was a cabin, and although it was what could be considered "complete", it was extraordinarily run down. There were various household utilities strewn about the one-story unit, and the kitchen I could see had a sink that had almost completed rusted over and draws that had fallen off if they weren't hanging open. I looked up to see that the changeling had put me at the very apex of the roof, which would have accounted for the pain I took during the fall. Looking quickly, I spotted the door at the far side, and I started to run before I realized that the action wouldn't be possible: with an audible wince, I opted to hobble instead, making my way to the door before grabbing the handle and throwing it open.

It was day time, to my shock, so when my eyes finished adjusting after the numerous days in darkness, I took in surroundings that I knew all too well.

This is the Everfree.

The trees that spanned forever and the wild grass were enough to let me know, but I had certainly never been to this area of the forest before. I'd only been in this place twice: once to go camping (Twilight was a brilliant mare, but I don't think I'll ever let her live that one down) and once in an attempt to find Silverstream when she had gone missing. This appeared to be deep in the forest, and once I turned around out front to see the cabin I'd been held in, I reasoned that anypony insane enough to try and live here probably left long ago.

I'd escaped, but an obstacle far greater than any spikes or spells had sprawled out before me.

I was damaged and lost in one of the most dangerous places in the world, and as I couldn't teleport out (I didn't know where I was, so the possible massive distance was too much to risk), I would have to somehow find my way out of Equestria's infamous maze.

You've gotten this far, Starlight, I told myself, once again beginning to hobble forward. Get farther.

Of course, there was no path in the Everfree Forest, so I set on my way through a clearing of trees. I reasoned that if there was a cabin here, it had to be somewhat close to Ponyville: the matter at hand was figuring out where I was, and what direction I needed to go to get out of here.

Can't get to high ground. No landmarks of note, but Ponyville is most likely downhill. Finding a river or a stream is the other option.

I started walking.

It was cold. I hadn't realized it when I'd first stepped out, but as I got moving, it hit me in full force. Hearths Warming Day had been two months away when I'd last been captured, and there wasn't any snow coming down at the moment, so I wagered we must have been around a month away and the weather pegasi were rolling in the cold weather ever-so-slowly before they'd start bringing the flurry of snow.

One month.

What had the changeling done in a month? Had she gone to Canterlot in my skin? Had she gone as someone else? Did she hurt my friends? Did they defeat her? Did she even care about them at all? I had no way to know, but I could only hope that everypony was okay as I trampled twigs under my hooves.

The Everfree had earned its frightening reputation, of course, but I had ever only gone at nighttime. In the daytime like this, it was hauntingly beautiful, the sunlight from outside only barely bleeding into the forest to illuminate the various exotic flora it had to offer. I was in a better position to appreciate it, too, because most of the creatures that had a penchant for killing only preyed during the evening.

Most of them.

It didn't take long before I found a stream. It wasn't so picturesque as the Whitetail Woods could often be, but the water was still crystal clear, and it was deep enough to where I would probably not be able to swim out of it if I were to somehow fall in it. Cautiously, I limped along the left side of the stream, desperately hoping it led to somewhere I could find help.

The first pony I thought of was Trixie.

It's funny. My mind didn't start with the worry that she could have been attacked, or if she was safe and sound somewhere. The first thing that came to mind was the fact that I had come here to help her kick off the first leg of her Equestrian tour, and that she was probably wondering where I was when she was preparing for her first trick. I smiled for what I knew was the first time in a while, because Trixie and I both knew the truth: she never really needed my help with her tricks, but despite all of our ups and downs, I was happy to see her off on her tour simply to hang out with her. and support her.

If it's really been a month, she'll be back in Canterlot, I mused, wincing as a stick brushed up against one of my many cuts as I hobbled along. I hope.

The scenery blurred into a composite. The rows and rows of trees looked like they'd been copied and pasted like those computers in Sunset's dimension could do (I guess this was her dimension now, really), and I almost felt as if I'd been walking over and over again through the same clearing of the forest. For all I knew, I could have been going deeper into it, and this was some sort of forest magic that messed with ponies' minds or something.

That was until I saw the cabin.

Not my cabin. A different one, one that was much bigger and in far better shape. The grass around it somewhat nicely kept, and there was a rocking chair out front that looked as if it had only been placed there recently. Unlike the one I'd been held in, this one hadn't been abandoned: no, this cabin was very much inhabited, and it seemed as if the stream had led me right to it.

I'd only taken a step towards it with glee when I heard it.

It started with one howl, piercing through the air like a shot. And then a second, and a third, and a fourth and a fifth and far too many more echoing it, all of which had to have been mere feet from the source of the original call. My stomach turned as I heard the sickening sound, and by the time the creatures that had come crawling out to face me, I'd long known what they were.

It seemed like everypony in Twilight's circle of friends had at least one encounter with timberwolves, as they stalked the Ponyville area from here to the Whitetail Woods. I hadn't lived in Ponyville for too long, of course, but I had always been fortunate that I had never encountered them during my time here.

That was about to change.

"No, no, no, no, no... " I chanted, backing up slightly. I saw the green eyes first, piercing my soul from within the brush with enough brightness in the daytime to make me wince, and they all filed out one by one with a furious growl. I counted seven, which wasn't the largest pack of timberwolves on record, but it was more than enough to put me down in the weakened state I was in.

They pranced forward a bit before stopping dead, staring at me quiver as I looked around. I made sure to be wary of the stream behind me, and I stopped right before my back hooves were about to spill in. It was far too wide to jump across, but thankfully, I had magic for that: teleporting across it would be quite a bit more difficult than peeling off the cocoon even at this short of a distance, but this was a matter of life and death, and if possible, I would have much preferred to continue with the former.

One of the timberwolves reared themselves back, and the rest quickly followed suit. I didn't need a hint to figure out what that meant, and just as the pack had launched themselves in the air to pounce on me, I closed my eyes and fired off the teleportation spell.

Thankfully, the timberwolves were not, in fact, able to kill me just yet. I had ended up on the other side of the stream, and when I opened my eyes again, I was greeted to the sight of the pack warily looking at the water as they continued to growl. The teleportation spell had exhausted my magic even a bit more than I had expected, and I knew I'd extinguished every method of self-defense I had as one of the timberwolves looked up to me with a snarl. Timberwolves weren't massive fans of water, but unfortunately, I knew the stream wouldn't cause them too much of a problem.

They can make that jump, I thought to myself, scrambling to get up and head towards the cabin. And it won't take them long to realize it.

I limped over to the front of the cabin, practically crawling up the stairs as I collapsed onto the porch. Without hesitation, I began to furiously knock on the front door, screaming as loud as I could all the while.

"HELP ME! I'M BEING HUNTED BY TIMBERWOLVES! I'M INJURED, I NEED HELP! PLEASE BE IN THERE!" I briefly stopped the knocking to look back at the group, and I was horrified to see that one of the timberwolves was once again rearing back on its hindlegs, having figured out that they could easily cover the length of the stream with their horizontal distance.

"THEY'RE COMING, PLEASE HELP ME! COME ON, COME ON, COME ON -- "

I could feel my stomach drop as I heard a brush of grass behind me. I didn't see it, but I knew that one of them had successfully completed the jump, and it would only be mere seconds before it pounced upon me and devoured me.

I rolled over to my left and hugged the wall, tucking my face in and shielding it with my forehooves. I could feel a few tears drop from my eyes as the loud pats of the timberwolves running towards me burned into my brain. There was simply nothing left to do, and with a body already broken down, I simply waited for what I knew would be a painful, painful demise.

Couldn't have written it better, Starlight. You get jumped, captured and beaten by a changeling, escape her cocoon, make your way to the only civilization in this damn forest and then get offed by timberwolves before you can knock on the door.

Death never came.

The door to my left swung open wildly. The first timberwolf had been about a foot away and ready to pounce on me before I felt a magical blast sear my fur and collide with it, shattering it into a billion pieces. Some of those pieces launched themselves in my skin to splinter me, but that fate was far nicer than what had been about to occur.

My eyes grew wide with shock, and I pulled down my hooves to watch the bolts take out every consecutive timberwolf. It was far too quick for them to react: the lime green levins collided with every timberwolf as they advanced towards me, one bolt for each of them enough to turn them into piles of shavings. Whoever was firing them was lightning fast, and I could only watch in awe as the last one exploded into shivers.

I felt a rush of emotions. There was the shock and terror from the near-death experience, of course, but a flood of elation and relief hit me like a tsunami at the fact that somepony was not only here, but had saved me from a situation that was only moments away from ending my life. I felt a wide beam shoot across my face as I looked up to my savior.

"Celestia, I can't even begin to thank-- "

The figure stood gauntly tall, even from the floor. Holes littered her black body, and set of tattered wings rested at her sides. Her eyes were massive and bulging as they stared, and the horn on her head that almost seemed as tall as she was looked as if it had been chipped away at with a sculptor's pick. The wide smile I'd held for only a second dropped to a trembling horror as she stared, the "crown" atop her head swaying gently in a breeze that had just flown in.

Upon studying me, though, Queen Chrysalis looked almost just as shocked as I was. She continued to stare at me with widened eyes, scanning me for what felt like an eternity before she finally spoke.

"Of course the first good deed I do in ages saves you," she said, looking back into her cabin. "Do you drink tea? I have quite a few questions."

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

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CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:
THE MARE CALLED MELODY WALTZ
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

Twilight knew more than anypony that I was a coffee mare.

I hated tea, and Twilight loved it. She would always make me try new types -- white, black, dark, green, yellow, puer, and the thousand varieties within them all -- and would be devastated to know that I found no appeal in any of them. My drink was coffee, and so long as it was served black with a dollop of honey, any and all tea that Twilight desperately attempted to win me over with would fail miserably in the process.

But when I had sat down at the small wooden table in the middle of Chrysalis' cabin to a cup of tea in front of me, I was thirstier than I'd ever been in my life. I lifted it and titled it back as fast as I possibly could and let it wash down my throat so fast that couldn't even tell what it was when I slammed it back down to the tabletop. It had been hot, but the scorching it had given my throat was far worth it to drink something after not having done so for an entire month.

When I looked up, I saw Chrysalis bearing perhaps the most stunned and bewildered glance I'd ever seen, her jaw dropped to the floor and her already-large eyes widened further in pure shock.

"We're sworn enemies," she began, watching me wipe my mouth as I looked to the ceiling. "What if I told you I'd poisoned that?"

"You'd be lying," I replied, turning my head to her as I leaned back in my chair. She went silent in thought, and to my absolute delight, I saw the very corners of her mouth twist into a slight snarl. I was immeasurably grateful for the queen-in-exile's aid, but that certainly didn't mean I was going to go easy on her.

"What are you doing in the Everfree, Chrysalis? The last time I saw you, you were... well, you were, uh, here, actually." It was her turn to be smug, and she raised a single eyebrow and shot me a sly grin as she replied.

"Funny how that works, isn't it?" I made sure to pronounce my subsequent eye-roll the best I could, and to my surprise, she took the time to use her magic and refill the cup and place it back down in front of me.

"And you know why, Glimmer. I have nowhere to go." I would normally interject, but I was too busy taking sips of tea (slower, this time) as she spoke. "The Changeling Captial has been moved, and my throne was destroyed, thanks to a certain someone. It's over. I found this cabin here abandoned, so I refurbished it. There aren't any ponies foolish enough to venture this far out in the forest to bother me, and I can feed on love when I go into town. I thought that there wasn't a changeling left that hadn't joined Thorax's hive, and that it was all over for me. Until you showed up at my door."

I narrowed my eyes at her last sentence, taking one last sip from the cup before setting it down and interjecting.

"What do you mean by that? I haven't even told you how I got here yet."

Her horn lit up once more, and her lime green aura surrounded a mirror up against the wall I hadn't noticed when I first walked in. She pulled it from its mount and floated it on over to me, and the second I saw my own reflection, it was easy to see how she'd guessed my plight.

The first thing I noticed was that my mane and tail were a mess. The cocoon had latched on to them, it seemed, and I didn't even feel it take parts of my mane and tail with it when I'd removed it from my body. The parts that were still there were horrifically tangled and mottled, and pieces of the green cocoon were still stuck inside them. It seemed that they were still attached to various other places across my body as well, and in my tunnel vision to find a way out the forest and the distraction of my aching body, I'd entirely failed to notice the obvious.

"That's from a changeling cocoon, and not the type that a metamorphosized changeling could create. In other words, it's one of mine, and I'd like to know why there's a changeling from my hive running around that I no longer have a connection with. Do you want more of that?" She asked the last question whilst pointing towards the cup, and reluctantly, I merely nodded my head.

Green tea, I thought as she rose from her seat and trotted over to the kitchen. It appeared as if she had started to make a new batch, and I was enthralled with the process, seeing as how changelings didn't actually eat or drink anything. She was clearly knowledgable, though, and the tea she'd given me was far better than anything Twilight had ever served me.

"I don't know, Chrysalis. I was supposed to help my friend Trixie with a magic show and I was jumped on the way back from a market I had gotten supplies at. She took me somewhere deep in this place and beat me until I was just about dead before she hung me from the ceiling in a cocoon. It was... it was planned, I think. She had a location and everything." I tried to hide the innate fear that came with recalling it, but thankfully, it appeared that Chrysalis wasn't interested in logistics and failed to notice.

"'She'? Did she tell you her name?" She had begun pouring the new batch into the pitcher, and I managed to reply once I'd gotten over my astonishment at how fast she'd made more of it.

"It was the only thing she told me. She called herself Melody Waltz."

I immediately heard a loud thud from the kitchen table. Chrysalis had slammed down the pitcher, and she was entirely unmoving as the silence in the air began to deafen. She stood dead still, and whilst I was attempting to figure out what I did to make her freeze, she whispered from the kitchen just loud enough for me to hear.

"No, she didn't."

I could feel my eyes narrow slightly as I looked at her. I'd never expected Chrysalis to have any sort of connection to this changeling besides the one that a Queen would normally have with her drones, and I at least thought she'd know of every member of her hive. It almost seemed like the name had invoked some sort of fear in her, but before I could question her, she hit me with a barrage of her own inquiries.

"Did she have wings?"

"No, just a horn."

"What did her voice sound like?"

"High pitched, not at all bubbly."

"How tall was she?"

"You think I had time to measure her while she was beating me to a pulp?"

In a flash, Chrysalis grabbed a hold of the pitcher she'd filled and flung it to the left of her as hard as she could. It collided with the wall next to the front door and violently exploded, sending shards across the floor and tea flying in every direction. Quite a few drops spilled on to me, but I was far too concerned with Chrysalis, who had turned around to face me with a look of sheer horror I didn't think I'd ever seen from anypony. The terrified snarl across her visage was enough to send a tingle down my spine, and I found myself leaning back a bit in my chair as she advanced towards me.

"Do not toy with me, vermin," she spat, stopping her advance right as she towered over me. She was certainly fearsome, but there was a slight shake in her entire body that was just a bit more than obvious. "I killed Melody Waltz years ago. Put her six feet into the ground. I will not have you stand here and tell me that monster is walking on my plane of existence again."

I didn't know what I was expecting Chrysalis to say. It wasn't that.

Another time, I would have been fuming that she'd called me a "vermin". This time, it felt as if I'd been blindsided by a baseball bat, as the flurry of words Chrysalis had thrown at me translated themselves time and time again as I processed them.

Melody isn't supposed to be here. She died a long time ago. Chrysalis killed her, so she should be dead.

She should be dead.

But she's not.

"She was Celestia's student," I muttered just loud enough to hear. That locked Chrysalis in place, her eyes growing even wider than they had been, and her jaw unhinged slightly as I turned to her with a mirrored expression. "Why was she Celestia's student?" Chrysalis stood still for a second longer before closing her eyes as she murmured to herself.

"You said she just told you her name," Chrysalis said. "That's a bit more than a name, Glimmer."

That, of course, is when I knew it had hit her: I'd just given her confirmation that the Melody Waltz who had brutalized me was the very same one she had believed her to be.

"She didn't tell me," I explained. "Because she didn't have to."

So I told her.

I told her about Twilight frantically writing for me to come to Canterlot. I told her about Violet, the mare who was so sweet and yet entirely blindsided by the new world she found herself in. I told her that we found Cobalt in a tomb far into the mountains, and that when we opened Violet's casket, it was empty as the day it was made. I told her that Twilight Sparkle had traveled to the Crystal Empire to make sure everypony there was safe, and that once I had come back here with Trixie, I wasn't aware I would be starting the worst month of my life.

And once all of that was over, and the silence hung in the air like a breeze, I leaned back in my chair and waited.

Chrysalis had been alive for quite a long time. I knew she'd believe me, but I didn't know if I would get a snarky remark from the queen-in-exile or a barrage of follow-up questions as she did earlier: as it turned out, I got neither. Instead, with empty eyes and a stare to the wall, she simply started speaking.

"Her name is Cyrilla," she started. "She was born as all changeling drones were, but it became abundantly clear in her youth that something was... wrong. What do you know about love, Starlight Glimmer?" That was an easy question, but I figured her explanation would go far deeper than my answer.

"You need it to survive," I told her. For the first time that day, I saw a flash of a smile from Chrysalis as she shook her head.

"That's what they tell you in the textbooks. Yes, that is true, of course, but it goes deeper than that. We consume love, but we also feel it. We can sniff it out like hounds, and we can even detect love between two creatures that don't know they have it yet. When we take it, there's nothing on this planet that can compare to the bliss it gives us. It isn't just a need, Starlight: it's an addiction." I found myself looking for words -- I had never heard anything of that sort, even from Thorax -- but thankfully, Chrysalis only let my mouth hang open for a mere few seconds before she continued.

"Cyrilla didn't feel it like that," she said. "She had trouble with her emotions. Calling her a sociopath might be a tinge too strong, but she certainly toed that line. Her emotions were... muted, I suppose. She could not feel love nearly as well as other changelings could, but she could understand it better than any of them. It left her wanting. Love was what allowed her to survive and gave her life, and she struggled with the concept of needing something she could not feel."

I'd been trying not to think of what she'd done to me. I failed.

When Melody had tortured me, she didn't smile or laugh. She didn't belittle me, threaten me, or even talk at all, aside from giving me her name. I asked her why she took me. I asked her what she wanted. I asked if I could give it to her. She didn't listen.

Melody Waltz just did it. Throughout all my screams, resistance, and whimpers, she simply labored away with a blank and empty expression. It was almost mechanical, as if it were a boring nine-to-five job she'd been wasting away at all her life, and now I seemed to know why.

But I still didn't know the whole story.

"When did you realize that?" I asked her. "Did she do something?" Grimly, Chrysalis nodded.

"She'd killed three changelings in schoolyard scraps when she was a filly," she started. I could feel my jaw unhinge right then and there, but she didn't stop to observe it. "She would disguise herself as other changelings and ponies out in town when she had matured to a teenager, and she made a habit of ruining romantic and platonic relationships because she found their emotional responses fascinating. Other changelings were fantastic actors, of course, but none more so than Cyrilla: All the world's a stage, Starlight, and she was its finest player."

Once everything she'd said registered, I could quickly feel my open mouth turn to a subtle seethe with a clench of my teeth.

"You're telling me," I started, "That one of your drones was murdering others, stealing their identities and ruining lives for the fun of it, and you didn't toss her out of the hive?"

That, it seemed, was the golden question. Chrysalis buried her head in her hoofs, seemingly struggling to give me an answer I already knew. I could hear her draw long sigh, and when she looked back up to me, I saw a pain in her eyes I had never seen from the changeling I had deemed my arch-nemesis.

"It's my greatest regret," she told me, her voice ringing hollow. "Because I didn't. I was a fool, and I believed that I could reign her in and use her extraordinary talents without facing its repercussions. Cyrilla was an artist, and if I told her to paint a line, she'd hand me a masterpiece."

I simply couldn't speak, lest I burst into flames. Chrysalis seemed to pick up on it, and with a shameful glance to the floor, she quickly continued.

"Anything I asked of Cyrilla, she succeeded in. So one day, on a whim, I asked her to do something impossible. I asked her to fool a mare I knew couldn't possibly be fooled. If she did it, it would be an incredible victory, and if she failed, she took all of her disturbances with her."

"Become Celestia's apprentice," I whispered, staring her in the eyes. Chrysalis looked to the floor again -- I'd been bringing up memories she'd thought she vanquished, I knew -- but she turned right back to me with a sheepish glare.

"...Something like that," she replied. I narrowed my eyes ever slightly at the suspicious remark, but she didn't seem phased. "It took her a week. I'd been chasing Celestia for years, and in a single week, the mare she'd created called Melody Waltz had put me one length away from the most powerful individual in the world. I was shellshocked.

"See, the mare called Melody Waltz was Cyrilla's magnum opus, if you will. She was a mare from Vanhoover who had a tenacity for the magical arts and the will to see the good in anypony, no matter who they were. She never broke character: even when she'd return to the hive, she would never change back to her original form and she'd demand to be called Melody. She considered the assignment I had given her to be her true purpose in life, and she strove for absolute perfection under Celestia's tutelage. It was her obsession, and the only way to achieve that perfection in her mind was to follow through with both my orders and hers."

Although diving deep into Melody's psyche was interesting enough, there was still one more part of the tale that Chrysalis was withholding. The day had been drawing down, too, and so before I asked her for directions out of this place, I still needed the final piece of the puzzle.

"You said you killed her," I told her. "Why did you do that?"

She nodded. And by the way she did, I knew she hadn't thought about the memory for a very long time.

"Cyrilla was... planning something," she said. "She would go into the Everfree Forest at random intervals, and whenever I'd reach out to her, she'd ignore me for days at a time. Whenever she would return and I would ask her what she was doing, she'd refuse to tell me. 'You'll see, my Queen'. It infuriated me. I feared she was conspiring against me, or perhaps had been swayed by Celestia."

Chrysalis rose from her seat, making sure to push it back into the table neatly. Carefully, she walked over to the window to the right of the entrance, the light shining through it dialing down as the sun began to drop. She wasn't looking out for anypony, I knew: It appeared as if she merely wished for a change of scenery to begin the climax of her tale, and with a deep breath, she started her epic with her eyes to the forest.

"One day, I sent a trio of spies after her to see what she was doing," she said wistfully. "And that was when it all went to Tartarus."

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

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CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:
BREATH
QUEEN CHRYSALIS

The throne was never comfortable.

It was more important than any of these drones could ever know -- even while they knew what it did -- but it was never comfortable, in a physical or metaphorical sense. The long hours I sat upon it were often marred with pain, and that was especially so when I was desperately waiting for something.

Some nights it was news from further realms, and others it was letters from spies deeply imbedded in any alcove of society. Tonight, though, I was waiting for news outside my own front door.

What are you up to, Melody Waltz?

I mentally kicked myself as I repositioned in the most comforting way possible. Even I had begun calling my most prized operative by her false name, and the name she'd been given -- Cyrilla -- seemed to be fading from my memory with each passing day.

Cyrilla may have been the hive's greatest spy, but she certainly wasn't its only one, and a day ago, I'd sent three of them out to tail her for as long as they could. She'd grown increasingly distant lately, seemingly refusing to answer my coded messages, and what was more, her strange trips deep into the Everfree Forest became more plentiful by the week. I'd let her walk over me for months now with the fruit of her efforts dangling above my head, but I'd grown tired of her games.

They should have been back by now. It was getting late.

The minutes ticked by. If there had been something important to do tonight, it would have helped keep me sane, but that simply wasn't the case, and so the throne bruised my body as my crown held me down as it were. The guards at my side stood staunchly, and I often admired them for their posture and often wondered how they could stay so still for so long while I constantly wriggled in my seat.

You'd have them beaten if they so much as moved an inch, I reminded myself. I couldn't help but smile as I looked upon them, knowing well that the fear coursing through their veins would keep them in perfect form.

"One of them has arrived, my Queen."

I jolted up from my seat to see a lone changeling in the center of the room. I'd been so preoccupied in thought that I hadn't even noticed her walk in, and it took a few seconds for my thoughts to fully catch up with her words. I'd been excited to finally hear back from the spies, and I almost made a gesture for the messenger to bring them in before I realized exactly what she'd said.

"One? Where are the other two?" To my surprise, the messenger simply shrugged before looking back to me.

"There was only one. Perhaps the others are not here yet, but he hasn't said a word. Shall I bring him in?" With an irritated glance I knew I couldn't hide, I quickly waved my hoof in the affirmative. Bowing carefully, the messenger retreated back into the shadows, and it only took about a minute before the spy trotted into the throne room. He, too, bowed with grace, waiting for me to dismiss him from the action.

"Rise, Hesperus," I told him. Slowly, he rose from his position, and with a visible shake he failed desperately to hide, he waited to be addressed as he stood below me.

"I sent three spies to see what Cyrllia was doing, and only you return. Are they late?" I asked. Hesperus' face immediately soured, and he broke the eye contact he'd worked so hard to keep as he stared to the floor.

"...No, your highness," he began. "We followed Cyrilla into the forest, but I believe she knew we were coming. She managed to lose us in the thick of the trees and pathways, and once we hit the fog, we had lost ourselves as well. When we attempted to make our way out of the forest, we encountered a Manticore, and we tried to escape it."

Hesperus turned his body slightly to reveal a large gash than ran all the way up his side, wincing as he did so. The wound clearly didn't hurt as much as he thought his next sentence would, because he continued to avoid my gaze as he finished his tale.

"I was the only one who survived, my Queen," he said shakily. "And we could not find Cyrilla. I assume she has yet to return as well, based on your inquiry."

I stared.

He could feel it, too. The shaking in his posture had grown tenfold, and when the seconds turned to a minute and the silence pierced through the air like a shot, the changeling finally looked up to see me glaring at him still. He opened his mouth to presumably justify the failure he had just reported, but I made sure to get to it quicker and watch it shut just as fast.

"That truly sounds horrible, Hesperus," I told him. "And I am saddened to hear that two of my changelings died in combat. I am sure they fought honorably. Perhaps we can go after Cyrilla another day, but I am immeasurably glad you have returned safely." Hesperus twisted his face a bit, taking a step back before responding with an unsteady voice.

"R-Really?" He asked, a doubt bleeding through his tone. I nodded heartily, looking up to the ceiling perhaps a bit too dramatically.

"Of course," I told him. "I couldn't imagine what your sister would be going through had you not returned safely. That you are still here to take care of one of my changelings is a blessing in itself."

Those words drew narrow eyes from the spy. Shrinking back towards the shadows, he looked up to me with an apologetic glance, and when he finally managed to speak after a few moments of deliberation, his words came out just louder than a murmur.

"Umm... I'm sorry, my Queen, but you must have mistaken me for one of the others," he told me. "I do not have a sister."

She's slipping.

I sighed, leaning back into the throne -- I hadn't realized I'd been on the literal edge of my seat. "Hesperus" dropped his face, revealing a stoic, cold gaze I'd come to know far well than I would have liked to.

"Yes, you do," I began, even able to hear the own biting disappointment in my voice. "Not everything is a trick question, Cyrilla, and it's very rare that anyone will try to fool you. Read my body, not my mind."

It was always a quick flash of green light, and once the fleeting moment was gone, a pony stood calmly where a changeling had been only moments before. Her pink mane flowed over her shoulder even in a ponytail, and her tail looked almost too long to walk with. Her light blue coat seemed to glisten at the right angle, and she had dark green eyes that seemed to match the room around her. The mare called Melody Waltz had a countenance still as a mouse, and yet she still managed give off an endearing air about her with Cyrilla's ice-cold glare.

"I am sorry, my Queen," she said simply, but I quickly shook my head.

"No you're not," I fired back, "But you're about to be. Where are my spies?" I already knew the answer, but I found myself still getting infuriated when she told me the obvious.

"Dead," she replied. "You had them tailing me. If they found out what I was doing, they would have told you, and you would have ruined everything." In a blink, I found myself standing up in front of my throne, and I could almost see my snarl in the reflection of her eyes. It took absolutely everything in my power not to step forward, but I made sure to let Cyrilla know exactly how I was feeling.

"'Everything'," I spat. "You've been doing 'everything' for weeks now. And I ask about it, and you refuse to tell me. You keep telling me that I'll see, Melody Waltz, but those weeks have gone by and all I'm seeing is yet another case of you murdering your fellow kin. Where is it you go off to, Cyrilla? Or did you mean to try and make a fool of me in my own throne room just to try?" I took a step further, but she didn't move an inch.

There was something different about her, though.

I didn't think I'd ever seen shame from Cyrilla. It made sense, of course -- she never really failed -- but I had only seen a selective draw of emotions appear across her face in her lifetime. Shame wasn't one of them, so I knew something had to be drastically wrong to watch her look to the floor with genuine indignity. I could feel my own face soften at the look, but before I could say anything, she did it for me.

"...Celestia discovered me," she said bitterly. "I changed into one of her trusted guards, and she saw through me immediately. I've been banished from the castle."

The throne room slowly began to turn, and my stomach turned with it.

I was fully prepared for Cyrilla to tell me she'd killed my spies. I'd braced myself for the knowledge that she had betrayed me, or that she would be leaving the hive to continue her little project on her own time. I had not prepared for the knowledge that Cyrilla was not only no longer in Celestia's service, but that the princess now knew that I had placed a changeling directly under her nose.

I took more than one step forward this time.

"You WHAT!?"

Everything I had worked for had come crumbling down. Everything I let Cyrilla do, allowed her to get away with, had just lost the very position that made her acts all the worthwhile. I had Princess Celestia at my whim for years, and with one stroke of her brush, Cyrilla had ruined it. Every crime and slight she had ever committed against my hive played through my mind like a movie reel as I looked upon the changeling in the middle of my throne room.

Just like earlier, I found myself in another place with a blink: this time, I was hovering over Melody Waltz, looking down upon her as she stared into my eyes from below. The shame she'd displayed left as quickly as it had come, however, and when it became clear she didn't intend to explain any further, I leaned into as I unloaded on her.

"And here I thought our operation would crumble with your betrayal, not your incompetance. Where did you allow her to discover you like this? And why would you be anypony but Melody Waltz?" Cyrilla stood confident for her first answer, but she once again evaded my glare with her second.

"Her personal quarters," she said. "And... I cannot tell you why, my Queen. Your will is almost complete."

That was what did it.

I could feel rage flowing through me, and to see Cyrilla there standing calmly with that empty expression only served to amplify it a thousand fold.

"I'm sick of it," I growled, feeling my eye twitch. "Of your emptiness. Of your disregard for your own kind. Of your disregard for me, and the shell of a changeling you really are. Do you even know just what it is you reap, Cyrilla? Do you even feel love? DO YOU?"

She stood there, like she always did. She stared up at me as if to study me, listening to my heavy breathing and watching my subtle shakes.

And then she spoke.

"Never from you.”

I raised a hoof.

Winters in Canterlot were cold.

I didn't come here a lot. It was far away from the Changeling Kingdom, and so I usually sent another changeling to do any task that needed to be done this far away from the hive. I'd been enough times, though, to know that winter in Canterlot was much colder than it was when it hit the hive.

I couldn't send an envoy for this, however. I had to do this myself.

I'd only ever seen Canterlot Castle from a distance, but from just outside its moat, it was a magnificent structure. It had to be influenced by magic in some capacity -- there was no way it could stay hanging off the edge of the mountainside otherwise -- but even in the nighttime, I could tell that the architecture itself was all the magic it needed to dazzle.

I gazed at it for ages. There were a million other things I would rather do before I did what I was about to, but she had to know what had happened, and perhaps I had to ease my mind, too.

I rose a hoof to my face, twisting and turning it for my eyes to few. It was the instrument that had ended the life of my first and only protege, a changeling I'd let run rampant time after time. Never again would Cyrilla take the life of another changeling, shatter any bonds, or scheme and plot from under my nose, but as I gazed upon the tool that had silenced her for good as it glinted in the moonlight, I could not help but let a thought bounce through my head.

Why did you kill her?

Because she was a mistake. Because she should have been tossed out of the hive when I uncovered the monster she really was. Instead, I used her as a pawn who I knew could never take the queen I sent her after.

You berated her for killing her own kind, and then you did the same. You're a monster, too.

I could have battled with my thoughts for the entire night, but it was at that moment I'd seen what I was looking for. A guard had walked up the hill and crossed the drawbridge, trotting over to where two of his colleagues had been standing in front of the gate for hours. With a nod, they opened the castle doors for him, and he easily slipped inside to begin his shift patrolling the castle.

That was my cue.

In an instant, I'd transformed into one of Celestia's royal guards. She wasn't a pony that actually existed -- she had a stark white coat and a forest green mane and tail under all her armor -- but it was probably better that way. I knew that there were likely quite a few guards that the ponies watching the door had never seen, and my plan to get in was through a simple miscommunication.

Once a few minutes had passed, I stepped out of the shadows and began to trot over the draw bridge just as the guard before me had done. They already looked confused when I was a distance away, but that was the point, and I made sure to slightly echo it as I walked up to them.

"Hi! I'm here for my patrol shift." One of the guards turned back to the door, but it was the other one who spoke.

"We just had a guard come in for this shift only a few moments ago. Are you sure this is your night?" I immediately twisted my face, and I made sure to throw in just the right amount of sheepish glances to anywhere but their eyes as I responded.

"Oh, I thought it was! I'm sorry, maybe I put down the wrong day! Um... should I head home?" The two guards stared at each other for a few seconds, trying to gauge each other's thoughts, and it didn't take long for the one on the right to tell me exactly what I wanted to hear.

"Eh, the patrol could always use more hooves. Go on in, but make sure you let your E.U.P Commander know you're picking up another shift for the file." They both grabbed the handle on their respective sides and pulled, slowly revealing the main hall of the castle. Once it had fully opened, I nodded curtly and waltzed inside, trying my best not to snicker as I heard the gate close behind me.

That was almost frighteningly easily, I thought to myself. Although I didn't think I'd ever be so bold as to try and directly invade Canterlot Castle, it was at least good to know that I had a way into the place if I ever needed one. Once I hit the first fork in what I knew would be many through the maze of the castle, though, I remembered that I still had one more job to do.

I needed to find out where Celestia was.

I knew she wasn't sleeping -- it wasn't quite late enough for that -- but if she did happen to be in her personal quarters, I would be hard-pressed to get in without hurting the guards, which I absolutely could not afford to do. I didn't know her schedule, but I was desperately hoping that, for whatever reason, she wasn't in her chambers during this time of night.

So I walked the halls, and I listened in on the guards trotting down the castle pathways without care.

And it took me just a few minutes of eavesdropping to get my answer.

"Is the princess in her chambers? She hasn't been out and about much for the last few days," said a guard to another on the third floor. I was just about to round the hallway they were standing in the middle of, but I made sure to stop in my tracks as I leaned up against the wall to listen.

"No, she's out on the balcony. She's always liked to look at the moon for a while around this time of night. Couldn't tell you why."

They continued talking, but I didn't particularly care what else they had to say. Thankfully, I didn't have to go guessing where the balcony was, because I passed by the door that led out to it on the way to where I was. Silently, I crept the other direction, making sure to look somewhat natural in the event I had to give a quick hello to one of the other guards on shift. Thankfully, I didn't have to, because before I knew it, I'd arrived in front of the stained glass door that led to the balcony.

She was out there.

The individual I considered one of my greatest rivals was beyond that door, and I wasn't here to fight her. I wasn't here to capture her, or belittle her, or end her in one swift stroke (as if I could).

I was here to apologize. To tell her something that, even as much as I despised her so, I believed she had the right to know.

I stood in front of the door, observing every little pattern in the glass. It wasn't depicting any sort of mural or event, but the pattern it was arranged in gave me an odd sort of tranquil feeling as I traced the lines over and over .Like the guard, I couldn't have said why Celestia liked to watch the stars at night, but I had to be thankful for it at the moment.

I felt my disguise wash off as my true self was revealed. Perhaps one of the guards would round the corner to see me, but I didn't care in the slightest.

I walked up to the door and knocked.

The seconds it took for her to get to it were agonizing. I immediately told myself that this was a bad idea and I wanted nothing more than to hightail it in the opposite direction, but I knew that Celestia at least deserved this solace. I took a step back and readied myself, reciting line after line and deliberating my choice of words, but when the planet's most powerful being finally opened the door, every word I had planned immediately melted away.

She looked horrible.

Her mane still flowed deftly in a wind that wasn't there, but it didn't shine as I knew it could. Her face was red and weary, and it only took a glance to know she'd been weeping for quite some time. Her eyes were black around the rims, and it appeared that she was glancing at the stars at night far longer than she should have been. She wasn't taking care of her coat, either, and it was mottled in more areas than one.

She stared at me with her jaw dropped, and I stared back with a mirrored expression. We were both at a loss for words for a few precious seconds, but in the dead of the night, her shocked gaze slowly turned to a snarl as a single tear ran down her eye.

"You... the audacity... " she muttered. "Have you come to gloat? Do you mean to laugh and point while I weep over the fact that a mare I dearly loved was nothing more than a lie?"

I stood there shocked, but as she stared into my eyes, I found myself able to shake my head. Trying not to stammer over my words, I gave her the news I'd come all this way to deliver.

"She's gone," I told her. "I wanted you to know."

There were many ways one could have interpreted the phrase, but when her eyes widened to match the full moon behind her and she stared emptily at the wall behind me, I knew she read it correctly. I could have said a thousand more things about the mare called Melody Waltz, but those two sentences had conveyed everything I wished to tell her in a span of mere moments. She began to shed more tears, the little droplets flowing gracefully across her face as her breathing grew heavier, and she held a hoof to her mouth and looked away as she processed the news I had given her. After what seemed like a thousand lifetimes, she finally looked back up to me with that fierce gaze upon her countenance she given me when she first saw me.

"Leave, Chrysalis," she told me curtly, bitterness dripping from her tone. "Before I do something I regret."

I certainly did not want to stick around for whatever that could be, and with a nod, I quickly turned around to leave. The guard that I'd been masquerading as flooded back over me, and I took a right to begin walking back to the castle gate the way that I came.

"Wait."

The words echoed through the hall to shatter the silence. I stopped on a dime, turning my head slightly to meet her gaze. She had the look of someone who had something plaguing their mind for quite some time, and sure enough, she fired off one last question before she was rid of me.

"What did you tell her to do to me?" she asked me, her voice cracked and frail. "Did you tell her to kill me? To capture me?"

I could have told her a comforting lie. I could have simply nodded my head and left, or assured her that it was something along those lines, but I came here to tell Celestia the truth. I shook my head slowly, and with one last look into her eyes, I told her what I told Cyrilla on a night just like this one moons and moons ago.

"No," I replied. "I told her to break you."

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

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CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR:
PONYVILLE STATION
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

I've done a lot of bad things.

I would never run from them -- if anypony asked, I was always happy to answer, despite the pain it brought me -- but I still didn't like to think about them, and I only hope that I was able to atone for even a fraction of the things I did at Our Town through my visits. I would still wake up at nights in cold sweats remembering the recordings I would play for the village, the cutie marks I had stolen, the futures I had taken away.

I've done a lot of bad things, but when Chrysalis had told me what she'd done to Melody Waltz, and what she had told her to do, I was at a complete loss for words. She had continued staring out the window, having watched Celestia draw down the sun and her sister hang the moon in the sky.

She didn't say anything, and for a millennium, I didn't either. I was trying to think of a thousand different things, from calling her a slew of the worst names I could think of to asking a million more questions, but try as I might, I simply couldn't formulate anything. After the silence was deafening to both of our ears, she finally spoke up, not bothering to turn to where I was sitting.

"If you follow this river, you'll make it out of the forest," she started. "You're free to bathe in it if you need to. It'll take you about forty-five minutes to get to town, but you should be safe as long as you stick to the edge of the water. I would leave now, lest more creatures of the night grow curious."

After all this time, she's still helping me. Even after Melody. Even after Thorax.

I tried to offer her friendship when we had battled at the Changeling Kingdom, and she had rebuked me. I knew she didn't like me, and I certainly had no love for her -- especially after what she had just told me she'd done -- and so I put my confusion into words and spoke for the first time in minutes.

"You're despicable," I told her. "And yet you saved my life. I have to repay you somehow, but after what you've told me, I'm struggling to decide if you deserve it. Why did you do this?" I'd risen from my seat to prepare for my departure, but it seemed as if Chrysalis wouldn't give me the satisfaction of a quick exit. She stayed silent for a moment, but just before the length of it got awkward, she replied.

"I know," she said. "Perhaps my good deeds will never outweigh my sins, but I suppose one is better than none, even if a temporary grace. As for repayment, I only require one thing." She turned to me and stared me in the eyes, piercing through me with a fire as she rose her voice.

"Stop Cyrilla," she told me. "Don't let her hurt anyone else. Because if you don't stop her, the next knock at my door will be the last one I ever hear."

I let her words bounce around my head, and I refused to let myself think about a possibility where her reign of terror went uncontested. Slowly, I nodded, and once she did the same and not a word was spoken, I headed towards the front door and turned its handle.

When I'd opened it, however, a thought came to me, and so I called her name through the silence.

"Chrysalis."

She turned to me again, narrowing her eyes ever slightly. I closed my eyes and sighed, knowing I was about to throw out a question I didn't think she was going to be able to answer.

"Did you ever find out where she was going in the Everfree?" To my shock, she nodded almost immediately, and her reply came just as quickly.

"The Castle of the Two Sisters."

I needed a manecut.

As much as I wanted to get back to Canterlot, I couldn't go anywhere with the state my mane and tail were in. I took up Chrysalis' offer and took a bath in the stream, but that was entirely ineffective, and so my last remaining option was the removal of all afflicted areas. As such, when I finally emerged from the forest and set my sights on the wonderful town I called my home (before everypony's temporary residency in Canterlot, that is), the first thing I did was go to Lotus and Aloe's spa.

The spa -- which doubled as a salon -- should have only been just closing if my mental calculations were correct, and sure enough, as I trotted over to the door, I could see the two ponies gathering up their things to head home for the night beyond the glass door. Desperately, I knocked, and both of them looked up in confusion before the realized who I was.

Thankfully, I'd come to know the two of them well in my visits with Rarity, and so it was Aloe who rushed to the door and cracked it open.

"Starlight! I am very sorry, we've just -- oh, my goodness!" Her gaze drifted upward to the remnants of the cocoon in my mane and tail, and her eyes grew even wider when she saw the numerous bruises and cuts all across my body. On another night, I would have smiled sheepishly, but I simply looked to her with pleading eyes as I clutched my chest with a hoof.

"I'm sorry I'm late, but I have a train to Canterlot I need to catch and I can't go out looking like this. Could you help me?" Aloe looked back to Lotus, and once she got a glimpse of me, it only took a second for her to wave her hoof and gesture me to enter.

"I can't have one of my clients walking around like that," she said slyly. "Up for a change of pace while we're at it?"

I settled on a somewhat-similar version of my mane that was cut that was shorter than it had ever been in my entire life. It didn't fall past my jawline, and it was strange to not feel my mane as I always had. It looked fantastic, nonetheless, and I was astonished that the two could create such a look with how much my hair had been completely destroyed by the cocoon, so I made sure to give them the biggest hug I could muster before I walked out of the building and let them final close their shop.

My new look felt fresh, but my body certainly did not, and so I continued to hobble as I made my way to the second place on my hitlist: the Castle of Friendship.

Lotus and Aloe were kind enough to cut my mane and tail free of charge. The train station wouldn't be so kind, I knew, and so I was forced to break into the castle in order to grab some bits for the ride back to Canterlot Castle.

Fortunately, since I knew it inside and out, all I had to do was get close enough to where I could teleport without expending too much magical energy. The problem with that, though, was that I had to save it for the teleporting in question, so I didn't want to teleport there from where I had been. Thus, my aching body was forced to make the mildly unfortunate long-ish walk to the castle, and it protested with every step I took.

Ponyville was always a peaceful place, but when it was lit up at night, it looked truly beautiful. I usually didn't go out much as my day winded down, but being beneath the street lights as only one or two ponies passed me by was an experience I didn't get to go through all too often, so I savored the pleasant scenery as long as I could.

I can't wait to get back here, I thought to myself.

It was as I was walking, though, that a newspaper on the side of the street caught my eye. It appeared that somepony had been reading it and had cast it aside, and so I walked over near it and grabbed it with my magic. It would be nice to catch up on the news as I walked to the castle, but as I put my eyes on the front page of the latest issue of the Ponyville Citizen, I had to stifle a gasp.

CELESTIA CONFIRMS CANTERLOT LINKED TO GUARD ATTACKS
103 GUARDS CURRENTLY IN STASIS: CRYSTAL EMPIRE AND EQUESTRIAN DIARCHS WILL NOT NAME ASSAILANT

What? Stasis? I looked to the article for more information, but it seemed as if the paper didn't really have anything else: A lone pony had gone to both the Crystal Palace and Canterlot Castle and put numerous guards and servants in some sort of coma, but Cadance and Celestia had only told the press that they are "handling the situation" and that the pony has yet to be apprehended. It was shocking news, and likely a contributor to the lack of ponies out at night, but it was the mention of the Crystal Empire that had resurfaced a memory.

Twilight!

When I had been assaulted, she was supposedly on her way to investigate what she believed to be a strange lack of response from the Palace. Her name wasn't mentioned anywhere in the article, and I found myself picking up the pace as much as I could in a marginal effort to get to Canterlot and make sure the mare that meant so much to me was okay.

I'd tried to take my mind off the article, and before I knew it, I was outside the giant double doors of the Castle of Friendship. Sighing in relief, I readied my magic and teleported to the first place I knew would have a store of bits: Twilight's room.

I felt intrusive the moment I ended up in it, but I quickly put the thought behind me as I turned on the lights. As usual, everything was perfectly folded and in its place, and although I wanted nothing more than to jump on to her comfortable-looking bed and fall asleep forever, I immediately ran towards her closet to find what I was looking for: her stash of bits.

"Sorry, Twi," I muttered, reaching towards the back of the massive closet space and grabbing a bag. Having come from nobility and being ascended to a monarch, Twilight was one of the richest mares in the world (though she would never admit it), but I still felt guilty taking from her even though I knew she wouldn't care.

There was time to apologize to Twilight later. For now, I had to get to her.

A quick teleport out saw me on my way to the last place on my list.

The trains were always running, but there were certain places they would stop running very late at night. Canterlot happened to be one of them (which was awfully strange, since it was the nation's capital), and so I desperately hoped with every fiber of my being that I could make a train before they stopped running them.

Thankfully, the station wasn't all that far away from the castle, and it only took a few minutes before I approached it. There were quite a few ponies waiting for a train to wherever they were going, reading the same paper I had been earlier or just staring out at the stars. I looked towards the tracks to see if I could hear a car coming in, and although I did, there was something else that immediately drew my attention.

In the grass field beyond the tracks was a stallion that nopony else seemed to notice. He had some sort of pendant and another object hanging from his neck, and what appeared to be either a stark white or grey coat -- the night made it hard to tell -- and an amber mane and tail, but that wasn't at all the most notable feature about him.

It was his eyes.

His sclera burned bright red, to the point where it was almost illuminated. His irises were a bit darker of a red, and his pupils were so dilated that I almost didn't notice them. Finally, a purple aura emanated slowly from the corners, but the most frightening thing about them was where their cold stare was focused on.

Me.

I took a step back, but I didn't get a lot of time to stare back as the car came rolling in. It was thunderous as it rolled into the station, and when it slowed down to a screeching halt, the last car in the chain passed the point where he had been and unblocked the view of it from my sight.

The pony was gone.

I shook my head and blinked, half expecting him to be there, but he was still missing when I opened my eyes. I was thoroughly creeped out by the short encounter, but I also understood that I didn't have a whole lot of time to be disturbed by it. Quickly, I hobbled over to the attendant taking tickets, panting as I threw out words.

"Does this train leave for Canterlot?" I asked him hurriedly. He shook his head, pointing to a chart behind him that revealed no such further trips were planned.

"Nope. Last train to Canterlot left a few minutes ago."

I'll write a friendship report on this one later.

I looked down to the bag of bits I'd held and opened it up, trying to eye just how much was in it. Thankfully, the answer appeared to be a lot, and so I pulled out three hundred bits and threw them on the counter in from of the attendant. He stared at it wide-eyed before looking up at me in bewilderment, and I made a gesture to the train that had only just arrived to the station with a nod of my head.

"Where is it going now?" I asked him.

Raising his eyebrows, he reached over to the microphone at the side of his desk and pulled it up to his face, leaning out of his booth to address the ponies waiting at the station.

"Fillies and gentlecolts, we've had a slight change in our scheduling this evening..."

When the lonely train to Canterlot left Ponyville Station, it held only myself.

It made sense. There was no scheduled train to Canterlot, so the "agreement" I'd made with the station didn't draw any new ponies. I doubted that anypony would be willing to strike up a conversation with me even if they were on the train, but even so, perhaps somepony else sitting across the aisle would make me feel less alone.

I'd been alone for a month, and the only real conversation I'd had since I broke free was with a changeling who considered herself my nemesis. I missed Twilight, I missed Trixie, I missed Sunset, and I missed all the ponies I've been friends with and the apprentices I've gotten to know.

It was an hour from Ponyville to Canterlot, and it gave me plenty of time to think of plenty of things, but there was one incidence in particular I just couldn't shake.

That stallion.

His eyes were locked to me. Nopony else seemed to notice him, but that harrowing stare was meant for one pony only. He seemed so focused on me, and yet when the train car had passed him, he was gone as quickly as he'd appeared. I shook my head as I held on to the pole grip next to me, looking out the window as I thought of the encounter.

Maybe I was hallucinating. It's been a long, long day for you, Starlight.

I wanted to convince myself, but I wasn't doing a very good job of it.

I fell asleep for the rest of the ride. It was entirely dreamless, which I was thankful for: I feared that if it hadn't been, it would be more likely to be a nightmare.

It was the screeching halt of the train that woke me. I quickly peered out the window to peer at the Canterlot lights, still shining so brightly this late at night. It was a bit deceiving: Manehatten may have never slept, but Canterlot certainly did, and so pretty much every store and locale was likely to be closed at this hour.

Everypony was sleeping, but I knew of at least one that would be awake.

Gratefully, I grabbed my bag of bits and hurried off the train. The conductor hopped off with me, which I found a bit strange, but when I saw him run up to the station attendant, who had a confused look on his face, I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I hopped off the platform and made the long walk to Canterlot Castle.

Ponyville was just a town, and when Canterlot hit you, it reminded you that it was a city. The old spires and architecture of the city were a commanding presence, and although it was one of Equestria's oldest cities, it still found a way to feel fresh and invigorating. It was definitely a wonderful place, but after living in rural areas for my entire life -- from Sire's Hollow to Ponyville -- I didn't know if I could live permanently in such a metropolitan area.

The path up to Canterlot Castle, however, was not so metropolitan, and if I wasn't hurting all over my body, I would probably have stopped to appreciate the numerous fountains and gardens that made up the path to the gate. It was a very steep one, though, and it took everything in my power to keep momentum as I trudged up what was essentially a mountainside.

Eventually, though, I appeared just over the hill to where the bridge was. The moat was still as the moonlight hit it, but there was something else that drew my attention: there were two guards standing attentively at the front gate.

And that's when a thought hit me.

If Melody took my shape, she could still be in there.

If I showed up to the door as a second Starlight Glimmer, and they were aware of Melody Waltz (they would have had to have heard from Celestia), they would probably be immediately suspicious of me. I made the quick decision that I did not, in fact, want to go through some sort of protocol so late at night, and I gambled on myself to find the pony I was looking for after teleporting into the castle.

That was okay. I knew where she was.

I didn't know the floor plan for Canterlot Castle nearly as much as Celestia's students did, but I could envision the exact place I wanted to go, and so I closed my eyes and let my magic take me there.

And then I appeared there, and I realized exactly where I was.

This was the spot.

That glass door Chrysalis had described so eloquently in her story was right in front of me, and it was almost exactly as she'd described it. The stained glass was simply a collection of brilliant colors, but I could see them cast upon the floor from the moonlight outside. I couldn't help but put myself where she was all those years ago, but I knew that this upcoming meeting would be far happier than the one between Celestia and Chrysalis.

I also wasn't knocking.

I opened the door slowly and slipped out before closing it, and when I looked towards the lone table on the edge of the balcony, I couldn't help but smile as my intuition was proven correct. Princess Twilight Sparkle was, in fact, sitting out on the balcony, with a bottle of wine resting in the center of the table. I didn't guess that she would have a guest, though: Sunset Shimmer was with her, and it seemed as if the two somehow hadn't heard me enter. They were in the middle of a conversation, and from a glance, it seemed as if Twilight was giving Sunset some of the sage advice she was often known for.

"--We can only make them happy now," she said. "And I know you've taken such good care of Violet. She considers you her best friend, you know."

"Mind if I join you all this fine evening?" I asked slyly, circling around the two and taking the last seat at the table facing the door. They both looked to me and nodded, with Twilight waving a hoof towards the seat I'd just occupied.

"Always, Starlight," she said. "But yeah, I've been worried about this whole thing too, but thaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa--"

I couldn't help but let a dumb smile dominate my expression as the two of them slowly realized what had just occurred. That let me know one thing: I wasn't supposed to be here, and the two of them stared at me with absolutely shellshocked expressions before staring at each other in disbelief. I opted to let them come to terms with it, but it was Sunset that spoke first, firing off a rapid inquiry.

"Okay, Glimmy," she started, trying (and failing miserably) to calm herself. "Across the portal, we fought against a Canterlot Mall usher. What was her name, and why were we fighting her?"

"Juniper Montage," I told her immediately. "And she was a bit too obsessed with an Equestrian-enchanted hand mirror. Call me 'Glimmy' one more time, SunShim, and I'm throwing you off this balcony."

I knew it was a test, and that I'd passed with flying colors. The two of them jumped up with blinding speed and entrapped me in a massive group hug, crushing just about every bone in my body. I was about to protest, but I felt tears hit my coat on both sides, and so I permitted myself to endure the pain. Twilight spoke first after a long time in the embrace, holding on even after Sunset had released herself from the hug.

"Celestia, Starlight, we thought you might... you might have... " I didn't know if Melody had decided not to become me or if she only had done so for a short amount of time, but if both of them thought I could have died, I was glad to be here for the both of them.

"I'm here now, Twi," I told her, returning it the best I could. "But I've also been in a lot of pain, so if you could take it easy, I'd appreciate it."

I couldn't help but laugh as Twilight immediately unlatched herself, an apologetic countenance already spreading across her face like wildfire. When she looked over me, though, her eyes grew wide and she put a hoof over her mouth in shock: a glance at Sunset showed the same thing.

"What... what did she do to you?" Twilight asked, her voice growing a snarl with each syllable. That was the final piece: Melody likely did, in fact, impersonate me, and they knew exactly who she was.

"I went to go help Trixie with her show, and on the way back from a supply run at the market, she jumped me. She beat me within an inch of life and then hung me from the ceiling in a changeling cocoon. I don't think she did any permanent damage, but just enough to hurt the entire time I was in there." The next glares from the two were initially of fury, but Twilight quickly softened up and put a hoof on my shoulder, looking straight through me with sympathetic eyes.

"Are you okay?" she asked me.

I knew she wasn't talking about my body -- I was obviously not okay in that regard -- but I had to think about the answer. Twilight had been in a changeling cocoon before, but only over the course of a day, not a month. There were plenty of times where I'd given up hope in my personal little stasis, but after making it out and hearing of the things that Melody had done, I found myself staring right back at her with a curt nod.

"Yeah," I replied. "Yeah, I'm okay. But you also have some explaining to do." I reached down to my bag of bits, but Sunset interjected with a quip before I could even grab what I wanted to show them.

"Us? You're the one who just showed up with a giant bag of bits and a new mane cut." Sunset was always freakishly attentive, so it didn't surprise me in the slightest that she'd noticed me sit down with it. For the trillionth time in the past five minutes, Twilight's eyes again widened at the sight of her own bag of bits, and I could feel myself blushing in embarrassment as I beat her to words.

"Yeah, I'll get you back, Twi. Sorry about that." She was already waving it off when I used my magic to drop the newspaper I'd grabbed on to the table next to the wine bottle, and the two of them leaned forward in curiosity.

"I need to know everything that happened while I was M.I.A," I told them, "Especially this."

Once they saw the headline, their faces soured. They looked at each other, and then they told me everything.

They told me of the pony named Zephyr, and what he had done at the Crystal Empire. Twilight showed me her permanent scar that now ran down the length of her face (though it wasn't extremely visible, especially at night), and Sunset had informed me that she was dealing with a punctured lung after he had entered this very castle. I was in shock that he would be so bold and brazen, but more so that he was powerful enough to have survived both attempts. I could feel a wave of anger slowly boiling at what he had done to my friends, and I almost wanted to hop out of my chair and go find him after hearing the things that he had done.

And then I asked what he looked like.

Amber hair. Red eyes. A pendant and a horn.

The stallion at Ponyville Station.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

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CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE:
BIRTHDAY
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

We'd talked for a little bit after I dropped my bombshell. Twilight and Sunset likely debated what the next move was late into the night, but I wasn't around to hear it.

I was exhausted.

My nap on the train was the first time I had slept in over month, and waking it from it was almost more torture than the actual torture I'd endured. I had hit that point where I was so tired I couldn't feel it anymore, and so I made sure to go to sleep as soon as I had a general understanding of the situation and the girls knew I was okay.

When I awoke the next morning, the first thing I did was look at the clock that rested by my bedside.

12:30.

That wasn't too bad, all things considered. I'd managed to sleep in later during my college days, and when I slowly rose from my bed and blinked a few times, I felt much more refreshed than I had been limping around both Ponyville and Canterlot the night prior. I made sure to write a quick note with some of the paper and a quill I had in my room to let everypony know that, while I was excited to see them, I didn't want to be disturbed and wished to wake up this morning on my own accord.

Hopping out of bed, I fell into my traditional morning (or afternoon, in this case) routine for the first time in a very long time. The luxury of a shower and a toothbrush could not have possibly been understated, and after drying myself off, I took a good long look in the mirror to really take a look at myself.

The weight I'd endured had shown. Despite my good night's sleep, there was still a minor trace of black around my eyes. The cuts and bruises had begun to heal after I'd escaped from the cocoon, but the process was still just starting, and so the nicks and dark spots were still rather visible all across my body. The mane was almost shocking to look at: I'd seen it last night when the cut was done, of course, but it was still really weird to see my mane that short, and I found myself moving my head around to view it from every angle.

"You made it," I said aloud. "Welcome back, Starlight."

The otherwise touching moment was ruined by a furious growl of my stomach, so loud that it almost made me jump. Despite the fact that nopony was here, I still found myself blushing, and I immediately headed for the door.

Go get some food, I thought to myself, grinning as I said so. Like everything else, I hadn't eaten in ages, and I felt more ravenous then I ever had in my entire life.

Once I slipped into the hallway and began to make my way to the dining area, I immediately felt a creeping feeling up my spine as my hoofsteps echoed across the walls.

The castle felt empty.

I thought I would at least see a guard somewhere, but there wasn't one in sight. It was almost as if the castle was frozen in time, and I was merely traversing its halls in a still moment. Twilight and Sunset had told me last night what they felt whenever they walked into a place where Zephyr had turned his thralls, and the sickening calm in the air they describe was all around me.

You just don't get a break, do you? I thought to myself. I could feel my horn ignite with a passive charge as I made a left turn, constantly on the lookout for anything -- or pony -- out of the ordinary. My paranoia grew with each step, and I quickly decided that I was still going to go to my original destination of the dining hall: there were always servants staffed there, and if that place was empty, something was really up.

Is he here? This soon?

I'd been told enough about what Zephyr's thralls looked like and what they could do, but I had a dreadful feeling that I was about to learn more than that. Every bone in my body simply felt wrong, and the echoing of my own steps down the hallway did nothing to ease my mind.

I didn't know where my friends were. I didn't know what had happened to them, and I felt a massive pang of guilt at the notion that I might have slept through an attack.

Creeping as quietly as I could, I came upon the ornate double doors that marked the entrance to the dining hall. I stood in front of them, mentally preparing myself for whatever could be on the other side. I could feel myself come alive with magic, feeling it pulse through me as I grabbed the handle slowly.

Watch all sides. Be vigilant. Be ready for anything.

With a grimace on my face and an aura on the charge, I quickly opened the doors and marched into the large room.

And as it turned out, it nopony was missing. In fact, there wasn't a pony in the room who wasn't there.

Sitting at the massive dining table at the center of the room was, well, everypony. Twilight, Sunset, Trixie, Violet, Cobalt, Spike, Celestia, Luna, and the remaining Elements of Harmony were sitting at the table, the noise of constant chatter filling the room. An attractive mare with a charcoal mane and tail, bright red eyes, a silver coat and tattoos running up her legs was also present. None of them were sitting with their back to the door -- they'd either taken the sides of the table or the seats facing towards it -- so everything on the table and around the room was clear for me to see.

Streamers. Balloons. Confetti all across the floor. Presents wrapped neatly and stacked at the far left side of the table. There was an enormous chocolate cake in the very center, and an assortment of food and drinks from deserts to typical lunch food were sprawled across a light-blue colored cloth.

Sunset was the first pony to see me (as was typical), and she excitedly nudged Twilight and the silvery mare she was talking to. I felt the magic I'd been storing fade away instantly, and when they both looked up, the rest of the group quickly followed suit once they knew I had arrived. I had my jaw agape slightly in confusion and shock, and I looked out to see of wide smiles as Trixie Lulamoon spoke to me from the edge of the table.

"Happy Birthday, Starlight," she said.

I didn't have a reaction at first: I was simply trying to process her words over and over again. Reeling back, I looked around the room, and sure enough, they had put an almost comically oversized calendar on the right wall with the current date circled. I wanted to kick myself for not thinking about it: Trixie had already been asking me what my plans were a month ago, but I hadn't even checked the date on my train ticket when I'd come up from Ponyville.

If I hadn't gotten out, I might not have been here for my birthday. Everypony would probably be wondering where I was, and the date would have only served as a painful reminder that I was gone. The fact that everypony here had gathered and waited for me to awaken just so they could welcome me back on such an occasion was more than enough to send a flood of tears down my face. I was absolutely overwhelmed with emotion, and my voice was cracked when I finally spoke.

"When did you all plan this?" I asked, a dumb grin seeping on to my face through the waterfall as I walked over to the table. They all couldn't have known that I was back until this morning, and the elaborate set-up led me to believe that it wasn't simply a pop-up party. Twilight answered the inquiry, nodding her head to a certain bubblegum pink mare to the right of her.

"This morning!" Pinkie Pie replied, standing on her back legs and throwing her hooves in the air enthusiastically. "Well, that isn't entirely true because Trixie and I were planning this for a long time and the party was on! But then when we found out that the Starlight we thought was Starlight wasn't actually Starlight but was a fake Starlight after she kidnapped the real Starlight, you were gone and the party was off and I was sad. But then this morning I found out you were here! So the party was back on and now we're all ready to celebrate with you. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!"

She ran up to me and embraced me, but somepony must have told her about my injuries: Pinkie didn't strangle me like she usually did, and I gratefully returned the hug.

"Thank you so much, Pinkie," I said. I looked over my shoulder to the gathered mass at the table, and when we broke apart, I gestured to all of them. "Thank you so much to all of you."

Waving a hoof to an open seat in the middle, Celestia looked up to me with a raised brow.

"You have to be hungry," she mused. "I'm told chocolate cake is your favorite."

"It's a town in the middle of nowhere called Dodge Junction. My family owned a ranch out there."

I had just asked Silver Jubilee where she was from, but had in that very moment taken a bite into the delicious chocolate cake at the center of the table. Pinkie Pie's baking skills were absolutely unrivaled, and I had almost missed her response while savoring the flavor. I'd already eaten the main course meal, but the cake was far too enticing not to dabble in, especially with how hungry I was.

"How did you discover her?" I asked leaning back and looking to Celestia. The Princess of the Sun had been sitting on the opposite side of me, and she looked to Silver with a glint in her eye.

"I was there to oust the mayor, believe it or not," she started. "But I saw her juggling with magic in a carriage alongside her parents, who were bringing a shipment of cherries into town from their farm. She just had that spark in her eye, and on her horn, that I always look for and find in so few. I took two ponies from Dodge Junction that day."

We all shared a laugh at that, and once it had died down, Celestia slowly rose from her seat.

"I'm going over to get more tea and have a talk with Luna. There is much to discuss with your return, Starlight Glimmer." She leaned over to give me a sort of pseudo-hug, and I gratefully leaned into her to return it.

"I'm glad you're back," she replied with a beam. I heard a noise from my left, and I turned to see that Silver had gotten up from her seat as well.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked. Celestia tilted her head towards her sister, beginning her walk to the area with Silver in tow.

"Of course," she replied. The two of them walked over to the tea table and greeted Luna, who was already in the middle of some sort of banter with Trixie. I sat and watched, trying to read their lips, but I particularly noticed the eternal gaze that Silver held looking up towards her former mentor as she carried herself. She looked like a mesmerized filly, and the only time she ever broke the stare was when she was being addressed by somepony else.

"What do you think?" came a voice from behind me. Sunset Shimmer could have been talking about a number of things, but I knew precisely who she had been referencing when I turned around to answer her.

"She's a bit quiet, but once you break through to her, she's quick as a whip. I swear, it seems like every damn mare Celestia's taken under her wing is a total knockout, too." Sunset broke out laughing with a roll of her eyes, and she made a mockingly surprised gesture as she put both her front hooves to her heart.

"Starlight Glimmer, are you calling me a knockout?" I was the only pony among our group of friends who was into mares, and when I'd told her one night that I found most of my best friends exceedingly attractive, she'd dangled it over me ever since. I returned her eyeroll before looking back over to the group, watching them converse once more.

"Well, Violet's taken, I guess. I was gone for a month." Violet and Cobalt becoming somewhat of an item was probably one of the most shocking revelations I'd experienced, but I was very happy that the two could find each other in all of this chaos. Violet was probably the most beautiful mare I had ever seen in my life, and now that she was taken, I was at least glad that Sunset's incessant teasing when I first arrived in Canterlot would finally come to an end.

"Um, have you noticed anything... weird about Silver, though?" I asked her, shifting the conversation. Sunset was always freakishly attentive -- I'd taken to calling her "Detective Shimmer" in my own form of teasing her -- so I knew she had to have seen what I was seeing. She was behind me, but my suspicions were confirmed when I could almost feel her nodding as she spoke to me while I watched the mare of the discussion.

"That she's always weirdly close to Celestia? Yeah, it's been that way since she got here. It's a bit strange, though, because she tries not to look her directly in the eyes and she never shadows her in a large group. She's only doing it now because those four have isolated themselves from the rest of the party." Sure enough, that appeared to be exactly the case, and I couldn't help but think about how well she must have played her part as Canterlot High's kingpin.

"Wonder why," she mused, watching them with me. I channeled my inner Sunset and watched the way Silver laughed at Celestia's jokes, the way she'd stiffen ever so slightly when the Princess of the Sun addressed her. She was tapping her right hoof almost constantly, something I felt like I would have at least heard when she was with me at the table.

It hit me like a ton of bricks.

"...I think I might know exactly why," I said, hearing my voice trail off. I turned to Sunset, who had both her eyebrows raised at me. "I'll tell you later."

You need to talk to her.

"Gossiping, are we?" came a familiar voice from behind me. "How is your party?" Twilight sat down in between us, and I gave her a warm smile as I looked around the festivities.

"It's... fantastic. Really guys, this has been so wonderful after everything that's happened to me. Where have you been off to?" Twilight gave me an annoyed scowl, and so I automatically assumed it was some government business: sure enough, she confirmed my suspicions.

"I've been writing to S.M.I.L.E, which is just a joy. They think Zephyr is within their jurisdiction because he's technically undead, and I've been trying to tell them not to get involved. Every time I have to talk with them, I wish I was still blissfully unaware that they ever existed." That drew a laugh from me, but, Sunset twisted her face in confusion: Twilight and I merely waved our hooves in dismissal, letting her know that it wasn't important enough to explain. Sunset shrugged, but her face quickly drew grim at the mention of the elephant in the room.

"Hate to take the life out of your big day, Star, but... are we going back to Ponyville? Well, you all would be going back, I guess. I've never actually been." Sure, Sunset had technically been inside the Castle of Friendship for a few precious minutes, but seeing as how Ponyville hadn't ever gotten the Summer Sun Celebration, she had never actually been inside the city during her tenure as Celestia's apprentice.

"Yeah, we are. We're already packing," Twilight said. "The Castle of Friendship can hold all of us, and I gotta say, I'm so much more comfortable now that I know you're here for real, Starlight. Zephyr's fought us, but he hasn't fought you."

I winced.

Twilight maintains to this day that I am the toughest opponent she's ever had to face, and despite her prowess in magic, she would always laud my combative skills as the very best of our little group. When she had just spoken, though, I couldn't help but look down at the bruises and cuts that swarmed my body and feel the aches that reared their heads with every movement.

Look what good that did you.

"We're gonna go to Ponyville, we're gonna find Zephyr, and we're gonna end his little hit and run," I told them. I could feel the grit in my teeth as I spoke, and Sunset and Twilight shot a quick look at each other as they witnessed the intensity. At the moment, I didn't care: I found myself standing up, and I looked right into Twilight's eyes as I continued.

"And after I've had my warm-up, I'm gonna make Melody Waltz wish she'd picked a different pony."

The rest of the party went by in a flash. We'd played games, sang some songs -- Sunset pulled out a guitar, and I had absolutely no idea how incredible she was on a six-string -- and when it was getting late, we had all agreed to "end" the festivities. A few of us were still hanging out in the common area, but there were quite a number of mares who were more used to going to bed early.

I wasn't one of those ponies, and neither was Trixie Lulamoon.

I'd been sitting with Trixie out in the gardens, admiring the flora under the lights as we talked of recent happenings. I would always go for walks out here whenever Twilight and I visited Canterlot, and it still managed to steal my breath every time I looked upon its sculptures and landscapes. This was my first time seeing it at night, and it had the aura of a paradise lost in time whenever Luna's light touched it just so.

We'd started a fire between the two of us, and the feeling of warmth dancing across my skin was a massively welcome atmosphere after enduring the cold of the cocoon for so long. I was so glad to be able to see her again, and I was also relieved (and greatly disturbed) to know that Melody had somehow done a fantastic job as her assistant when she had done her first show in Ponyville, down to the exact cues I had been taught.

"I'm just glad you're okay, Starlight," she told me, waving away my concerns. "Trixie could not bear it if her number one assistant went down for the count." She grinned at me, and I found her infectious swagger rubbing off on me as I found myself returning it. I'd missed Trixie's abrasive style of confidence, and I leaned back into my chair and let the flames bathe me.

We remained silent for some time. I don't know what Trixie was thinking about -- I could never tell with that mare -- but I knew what I was thinking about, and so I spoke into the silence with the cackle of the flames as my backing.

"This is it, Trix."

She looked to me with an eyebrow raised, and when I didn't elaborate, she quickly fired back.

"What do you mean by that?" I turned away from her again, staring into the fire. The orange and red speckles were hypnotizing, and I observed how they moved and swayed like a ballet as I answered.

"This whole thing," I told her. "The apprentices. Finding out what happened, Zephyr, Melody, all of it. We're in the final stretch. I can feel it. We... we gotta be ready, Lulu." I felt like an eternity had gone by that I'd been stripped of in my captivity, and when I'd finally returned to throw my hat in the ring, I immediately got this creeping sense that it was all about to come to a head.

"I hope you're right," Trixie replied, much to my surprise. I turned to face her, and she held a conviction in her eyes I had rarely ever seen from her. "No more slow burns. No more running. Let's go to Ponyville and put a stop to this before anypony else gets hurt."

She reached out her hoof and smirked, waiting on me. With a roll of my eyes, I brought mine to hers, making sure that the first hoofbump between us in a long time was a worthy beginning for many more to come.

"Damn right," I told her. "I need a vacation." I rose up from my chair, stretching the legs that had been idle for some time. Trixie looked up to me with amusement, nodding her head back towards the castle entrance.

"You're calling it a night this early, Star? It's hardly the witching hour." I nodded my head, backing away towards the castle.

"I'm twenty-seven today, not eighty-seven," I told her. "Nah. I'm off to have a chat with a new friend of mine."

Twilight had assured me that Silver Jubilee was a reader. She said she saw a lot of herself in the mare, going back to the days she'd spent here huddled up in her tower (which she coincidentally had found herself inhabiting again) absorbing any and all knowledge and fiction that she could. She also liked to have some time to herself, I'd learned, and so there was no better place to search for her than a room full of books where she could be all alone.

Twilight wasn't currently in her tower -- she was having another one of her balcony talks with Sunset -- and she had told me during the party that she would often allow Silver to use the library in her tower at any time she liked. As such, I knew precisely where to go to find her.

The walk up the frankly comical amount of stairs to the main part of her quarters wasn't exactly friendly to my ailing body, but it was far from the worst pain I'd felt within the last few weeks. It didn't take long until I was at the unassuming wooden door that led to her quarters, and after a quick knock, I opened it to reveal the library within.

I'd only seen this place once, but it was easy to understand how Twilight would have never wanted to leave it when she was a young apprentice. It was absolutely filled to the brim with pretty much every book imaginable, and I couldn't help but crack a quick smile at the thought of my mentor and trusted friend getting lost in print for hours and hours on any given night.

I didn't have to look far to find Silver. She was sitting comfortably on one of the many small couches that littered the area, flipping through the pages of what appeared to be a book on ancient runes. She had a notebook on a little accent table next to her seat, which appeared to showcase numerous illustrations with large Xs across them. Her face looked puzzled, but when I walked in, she looked up from the large volume and flashed me a smile before putting the book down the table.

"Hey, Starlight," she greeted. "How has your birthday been?" I scanned the room quickly and found a plain wooden chair tucked against one of the larger tables, and I slid it across from her before sitting down.

"It's been wonderful," I replied. "I had such a great day. How old are you, if you don't mind me asking? Uh... if you know, that is." Silver hadn't quite told me exactly what happened to her, and by the way her face dropped, I immediately felt a pang of sadness at what I knew was a confirmation it wasn't pleasant.

"I was twenty-nine when I died," she told me softly. "So biologically, I guess that's what I am now. Well, actually... I'd be thirty, as of today."

She looked up to me with a sheepish smile, a faint blush running across her cheeks. I could feel my eyes shoot open, and I put a hoof on my chest when I put together exactly what she had meant.

"Oh my goodness, Silver, I had no idea. Why didn't you tell anypony?" I knew we had a few things in common, but I certainly didn't expect the day we were born to be one of them. Silver shrugged and shook her head.

"I've never really made a big deal about it," she told me. "Celestia asked me if I wanted to make it a dual party this morning, but I told her that I wanted this day to be about you. You've gone through Tartarus, Starlight, and all I needed for my special day was to finally meet the real you and know that you enjoyed yours. Besides, it was all of the party and none of the attention. It was perfect."

It was my turn to smile sheepishly, but I did manage to fight back some tears as I leaned over and rested a hoof on her shoulder.

"Thank you so much," I told her. "I'm glad you were able to enjoy the party." Silver nodded, but she quickly raised her eyebrows, and she gestured in the air to nothing in particular as she leaned back into her recliner.

"What brings you here? Something on your mind?" I could feel the wide beam I had on my lips disappear in a wisp, and I found myself looking at the floor and twiddling my hooves. I didn't really know how I was going to discuss this with her, and so naturally, I made sure to start off the conversation as awkward as I possibly could.

"I like mares," I blurted out.

Silver reeled back, and she narrowed her eyes in great confusion. I had already begun kicking myself for the rough start, but before I could rectify it, she replied with bewilderment.

"That's... uh... good?" she said slowly. "If you need relationship advice, I'm probably not the pony to ask -- "

"No, no, no," I butted in quickly, putting my front hooves in an x formation. "That's not what I need to talk about. Uh, let me try this again." I took a deep breath, knowing that the words that came next would be tough ones and that I would need to steel myself for the incoming awkward silence.

"I like mares," I began, much less awkward this time around. "And I feel like I personally do a pretty decent job of picking up when somepony else does, too. The subtle things, you know. Body language, eye contact, that sort of thing. And at the party, um, I noticed you were hanging out with Celestia quite a bit."

There it was.

I didn't have to spell out my suspicion, and she didn't have to tell me I was right. She immediately shifted her gaze to the floor, and she started to tap her hoof rapidly upon it as the little echoes rang about the room. The red in her cheeks came flooding out, and once the silence had almost pierced our ears, she let out a single word.

"...Oh."

I asked her a question I was certain I already knew the answer to.

"Does she know?"

Slowly, she shook her head. When she finally looked up to me, she wore a shellshocked visage, and I knew then and there that I was the very first pony to figure out this particular piece of information.

"No," she said quickly. "You can't tell her. Please."

Celestia was a mare who was wise beyond the millennia she'd lived, but I also knew that had a lot on her plate for every one of those years. I wanted to think Silver was being a bit too hopeful in her assessment, but with the absolute pleading in her eyes, I knew the Princess of the Sun truly had no idea how Silver had really thought of her. I also figured out that this was weighing down on Silver far more than I initially perceived it to be, and so without saying a word, I got up and scooted my chair right next to hers.

Silver seemed very nervous at what I was going to say next, so I made sure to gift her the warmest smile I could manage before I spoke.

"I know what it's like to have burdens," I started. "I carry them with me wherever I go. The terrible things I've done in the past have been forgiven by the wonderful ponies around me, but they certainly haven't been forgotten. It hurts. One day, you'll be perfectly fine, and then a memory creeps up on you and it takes you back to a place you thought you'd left behind. I still dream about it. I wake up every morning, and the pony I used to be stares at me in the mirror every now and then." Silver was watching my eyes and listening intently -- she was certainly a student of Celestia's -- and I made sure to gently rest a hoof on her shoulder to drive my next point home.

"You aren't a bad pony, Silver, and I know you never have been. But I don't know what you've done because of this or if it's just weighing down on you, but you need to let Celestia know how you feel about her. Lift the burden. Living what will probably be my only life with this weight on my back is painful enough. Please, Silver... don't live two with yours."

This wasn't a conversation Silver Jubilee was expecting to have ever, much less tonight, and so she found herself trying to focus on anything else but me as she thought over my words. A few tears trickled down her cheeks, but she wasn't going to let them break out any further than that as she took a deep breath in. After what seemed like an eternity, she finally looked to me with those same pleading eyes and spoke.

"She won't feel the same way," she told me. I closed my eyes and shook my head.

"No, she probably won't," I told her honestly. "But she'll finally know one thing, and you'll finally know another thing, and maybe then you can leave it behind you."

Twilight also told me that Silver wasn't much of a hugger, so I was surprised when she leaned into me and embraced me from across the chair. I let her stay there for as long as she needed, listening to the crickets and katydids sing out across the night to give some color to the silence. She stayed there for a minute or two, and though the contact wasn't the most pleasant at the moment with my wounds still healing, I certainly had no problem with giving her as long as she needed.

Eventually, she broke away from me, and she looked back to me with the same kind smile she'd given me when I walked in.

"Thank you," she told me. "For everything you've said tonight, but for your observance at the party, too. I think I've been needing to hear this." I couldn't help but let a wisp of smugness pass me by at that -- Sunset would be proud -- and I rose from my seat as I looked around the tower one more time.

"I better go before Twilight gets back. I think she's seen my face enough today." That drew a chuckle from Silver, and I turned to the door to head back to my quarters for some well-earned sleep. I stopped right as I was about to open it, though, because I remembered that, in all the sentimental reminiscence, there was one thing I'd entirely forgotten to tell her.

"Hey," I said. She had already reimmersed herself in her book, and so she looked up wildly at the call of her name.

"Happy birthday, Silver," I told her softly.

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

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CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:
THE MACHINE
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

Just like Twilight's, It was exactly how I'd left it.

Of course, there wasn't really a reason anypony would have disturbed my room. I'd neatly made the bed and put everything in its proper place, expecting to be back within a few weeks at the most. I couldn't help but chuckle to myself as I thought of the events that transpired after, and I thought back to the eager mare that took the train to Canterlot months ago ready to embark on another fun adventure.

We'd only just arrived from Canterlot, and the ponies that lived here in the castle -- Twilight, Spike, Trixie, and I -- were getting settled back into our rooms. There were three new additions, though, as Violet, Cobalt, and Silver Jubilee had already picked their respective rooms (Violet and Cobalt had opted to share one). It was nice to finally get back to the castle in the town I'd come to love, but now that we were back in Ponyville, the world had begun to turn again.

Applejack was back at the farm. Rainbow had rejoined the weather team. Rarity was hard at work at the boutique. Fluttershy returned to her beloved animals. Pinkie Pie sat eagerly behind the counter of Sugarcube Corner.

The School of Friendship had been closed for some time now (the Crusaders had offered to hold tutoring sessions while classes were canceled), but the time for that was over, too: Twilight and I were to return to the school tomorrow, and we had let everypony know that classes were going to be back in session for the next week or so. Hearth's Warming Eve was drawing near, and so the students would get another break almost comically soon, but it was good to at least get back into the swing of things.

The world had resumed, and our case with the apprentices was still wide open.

Zephyr was still out there, somewhere. Melody Waltz had run off to who-knows-where, and there was a good chance she'd checked on my cabin to see that I was missing. Ponyville was a danger zone, and I felt so much better now that I was actually here to prevent anything that could happen in the town I loved so much.

That being said, I needed to be able to prevent those things from happening. And right now, I was rusty.

I'd already filled a water bottle and a snack that I'd placed in small satchel at my side, and once I was satisfied that I didn't need anything else, I walked out of my room and began the long waltz to the door.

It was so nice to see the Castle of Friendship again. I loved Canterlot, to be sure, but I'd grown homesick just from being there for a few weeks, and after the whole debacle in the Everfree, it was a wonderful feeling to be among the crystalline hallways for what I desperately hoped was the foreseeable future.

I didn't assume I was going to meet anypony on the way out, but to my surprise, I turned a corner to see a trio of Twilight, Violet and Silver walking towards me. They seemed equally pleasantly surprised, and the first thing Twilight noticed was the satchel slung across my shoulder.

"Going shopping?" she asked me, stopping to talk. I chuckled a bit and shook my head.

"No, I'm going to Sweet Apple Acres for a workout and some training. What are you three up to?" Twilight gestured with her head over to Silver.

"Silver wanted to know where the library was, so I was going to show her. We ran into Violet along the way and she wanted to come with us." Violet was sporting the adorable grin that seemed permanently attached to her face, and she gave me a friendly wave at the mention of her name.

"I enjoy the camaraderie!" she said enthusiastically. I chuckled again -- it seemed like every consecutive thing Violet did made her more and more precious -- and continued on my way with a wave back toward them.

"Let me know if you find a page-turner!" I called out.

It was another day in Ponyville when I stepped outside. Ponies were bustling on their morning commutes to work, and quite a few of them were headed towards the marketplace. I probably would have joined them if I kept going towards the center of town, but instead, I veered off once I was about to hit the main square. Sweet Apple Acres was a bit out of the way, but I could have certainly used the walk.

Zephyr was out here, somewhere. Perhaps one of the biggest threats Equestria has faced in years was looming around the town, and it had no idea. The birds still chirped, the stores were still open, and the weather ponies still moved their clouds while blissfully unaware that a far bigger one loomed ahead.

Those ponies didn't know.

But unfortunately for Zephyr, I knew far too well.

The air was clearer in Sweet Apple Acres.

I was never entirely sure what it was, but it was something. It seemed like the weather was always perfect among the wide, sprawling fields, and it was a place that never lost its charm. Its rolling hills and vast, sprawling green always gave me this sense of freedom that I could run for miles and miles, and with the sun hanging high in the air, it seemed like all of nature's colors were burning brighter around me than they ever had before. The sun could be brutal in the summer, but during the cold winter as it was now, I was getting all of the scenery and none of the heat.

It really was the pride of Ponyville, and I made sure to remember how fond of it I was as I was doing the last of my pull-ups on one of the field's many branches.

Eight... nine...

With an audible effort, I rose over the branch for the tenth time, and I dropped down to the ground in a feeble attempt to catch my breath. I wasn't at all out of shape, since the cocoon had put my body in stasis, but it still felt good to get exercise after feeling so claustrophobic for what felt like a lifetime stuck inside that cocoon.

I had completed the workout portion of my little personal training session, and I had taken a step to set up some makeshift targets to fire on when I heard a familiar voice speak up from behind me.

"You're never going to climb the tree like that, mate."

I could feel a grin touch my ears as I turned to see Cobalt and (to nopony's surprise) Violet come up over the hill. It was nice to have them join me, but the first thing I noticed was over Cobalt's eyes: he was wearing some sort of strange eyeshield that connected to his horn. It looked like something out of a science fiction novel, and I made sure to tease him about it when the two got closer.

"You know, if you ask Applejack for an apple, you don't have to climb the trees," I joked. "What brings you here, space invader?" Violet narrowed her eyes a bit, and she looked to the sky as if trying to find the reference or cultural context she was missing. Cobalt didn't let her linger at it for too long, though.

"Vy told me you were coming here to train, and as it turns out, a friend of mine was hoping to get their fighting up to standard. Care for a sparring partner?" It was my turn to narrow my eyes in confusion, looking behind the pair to see if they'd brought anypony with them.

"What? Who is your friend?"

Suddenly, I heard a faint humming from behind the hill they'd entered from. It sounded like it could have been a number of things, but I have never seen anything like what rose into view and slowly took its place at Cobalt's side.

It was some sort of floating machine, about the size of Cobalt himself and a stark gray color all across it, but that was the most of it I could identify. It seemed to have numerous places with things jolting out of it, but there was a particularly big one in the middle of the object that seemed to be a center for something. It was being propelled through the air through what appeared to be magical energy emanating from a quartet of boosters at the bottom of it. Even more interesting, though, was Cobalt's eyeshield: It was now glowing blue, and his horn was alight with a steady stream of magical energy.

"Cobalt," I said softly, marveling at the... thing. "What is that?"

"This is what Sunset calls a drone, and it's your brand new sparring partner if you'll have it," he explained. "This is my second attempt, since Zephyr blew my first one to pieces. Blighter." Violet shot him a look for what I assumed was some sort of profanity (I hadn't met a lot of ponies from Cobalt's region of Canterlot), but I didn't notice any subtle repercussions: I was focused on the drone.

"So you want me to fight this thing?" I asked him, examining the way it hung in the air. Cobalt shook his head, however, before tapping a hoof to his skull he spoke.

"Well, you're fighting me," he replied. "Essentially, this serves as a highly mobile conduit of combat magic. It allows me to cast certain combat spells at virtually no tax, and I can also shoot from my horn as well. Everypony seems to speak so highly of your combative prowess, so I would love to see how this one fares."

I stared at it for a while longer, listening carefully to the hum as its faceless frame stared back. After a few seconds, I turned to Cobalt, and I could feel the raise in my eyebrows as I spoke to him with a devilish inflection.

"Yeah, I'm game. Let's see what the new age has to offer."

Pain. The new age offered pain.

It was everywhere. Twilight had taught me how to teleport some time ago -- a skill I'd heavily redesigned my entire fighting style around -- but, as it turned out, Cobalt's drone could track me. It could fire magical bolts at lightning speeds, too, and Cobalt was a good enough tactician to punish me aptly for underestimating its movement.

Cobalt felt no shame in firing at me as well, and I quickly ducked under one of his bolts before whipping upwards. To my horror, I realized that I'd lost track of the machine: It had been right in front of me, but it had disappeared entirely. I immediately looked left, but I'd guessed wrong, and I felt a surge of magic collide with my right side as I spun around wildly and fell to the grass for the millionth time in our sparring session.

I heard the drone power down in the distance, and I let out an involuntary groan as I rolled over on my side. I still wasn't fulled healed from my previous cuts and bruises yet, and I mentally chastised myself for my overconfidence as I felt the pain from the injuries Cobalt's drone had added on. I stared at the sky in a daze for a few seconds before a pair of heads entered my sight at the corners of my vision.

"Well?" Cobalt asked, unable to hide an evil smirk across his face. Violet looked genuinely concerned for me, at least, and I couldn't help but let out a chuckle before answering him.

"I think it works," I told him, slowly getting up and dusting myself off. "How many times have I hit it so far?"

Cobalt looked over it, twisting it around through what I assumed to be some sort of telepathic connection like the one he had over his artificial leg.

"Uh, four," he replied. "Oh, wait, I think that one is just dirt. Three. You hit it three times."

With a grit in my teeth, I punched the dirt as hard as I could. It was an extremely poor performance, that was to be sure, and although I heavily admired Cobalt's drone, I had a feeling that Melody Waltz and Zephyr -- the latter of which eviscerated the first one -- would likely be a bigger challenge. To my surprise, though, I felt a hoof on my shoulder, and I looked up to see Violet staring at me with that tenderhearted beam that seemed to be permanently plastered to her face.

"Thou are quite impressive in battle, Starlight," she told me. "But there is a spell I would like to teach thee, if thou would allow me to be thy preceptor." I was never averse to learning something new, but I couldn't see Violet as having the slightest inclination to battle anypony, so I found myself cocking my head to the side as I answered.

"Uh... yeah, of course. Show me whatcha got." Violet turned to Cobalt and pointed at the drone steadily humming in the air.

"Cobalt, please shoot me," she instructed.

I reeled back, and of course, I expected Cobalt to immediately discourage the notion. He could have told the pony he had just entered a relationship with that he would never do such a thing, especially with how unprepared she was at the moment, and that his weapon was certainly not a tool for fun and games and that it was dangerous if used recklessly.

He could have done any of those things, but instead, he immediately turned to her, fired up his drone, and shot her.

I winced, but I had no need to, because the bolt didn't connect. With an absolute stone resolve, Violet merely let her horn ignite in perfect time, and the projectile Cobalt had fired at her glanced harmlessly off of her with a cackle. It shot directly into the air where I knew it would eventually fizzle out and die, but I was astonished that Violet had been able to do something like that without so much as moving a muscle.

There were a million questions I wanted to ask her -- I had never seen the spell before in my life -- but I settled for the one question I had for Cobalt as I pointed towards him and raised an eyebrow.

"Did... did you know she was going to do that?" I asked him. Cobalt shrugged and looked over to Violet, who had the slyest glance I'd ever seen from her plastered all across her face.

"Not in the slightest," he replied with a Cheshire grin. "Sure glad she did, though. Don't tell her, but I actually kind of fancy her." That elicited an eye roll from the both of us, but Violet quickly turned back to me to discuss the task at hand.

"Celestia taught me this counterspell one day in Canterlot," she explained. "I must admit at first that I found her behavior quite contumelious in our instruction, but that is a tale for morrows away. I hath used this spell even upon my awakening when the guards attempted to restrain me, and I believe thou would use it well in thy battles."

Twilight hadn't bothered to teach me any combat magic she knew -- she claimed there was nothing she could teach me after the beating I'd given her -- but I hadn't exactly asked Celestia for anything she'd had in her arsenal. I'd never seen a pony use a counterspell like that, though, and if I couldn't learn it from Celestia, I had no problem learning it from the very first pony to ever truly catch her eye.

"Show it to me," I told her, feeling my back straighten up with conviction. "And maybe that machine can get a taste of its own medicine."

With those words, Cobalt adjusted his eyeshield, and the machine rattled and hummed as it came to life once more. He began to pace back away from me, setting up what almost looked to be some sort of duel you would see in a western movie. I began to do the same, and as we took our places across from each other on the field, Cobalt couldn't help but call out to me as he trotted merrily to take his position.

"Since you can't seem to hit the thing with your own magic, please try to hit it with mine."

The bolt came fast, but I knew I was faster. The moment my eyes could detect its release from the drone's barrel, I fired up my horn and braced for the impact. It came, but with an audible grunt, I managed to deflect it away from me at a diagonal angle, and I couldn't help but take a step back from the force. I looked to Violet standing at the side of us, and she merely nodded before gesturing with her head back to the drone.

"Again," she said sternly. "Let the magic be a sweven in thy mind."

"A what now?" I asked her, leaning forward in bewilderment. Before she could explain, however, my ear picked up the charge of the drone again, and I whipped my head around immediately just in time to see the bolt it had fired. It was much faster than I had anticipated, obviously, but I was able to just barely deflect the bolt with a wild bounce as I stopped to catch my breath. I both admired and hated Cobalt for using the opportunity to increase my speed with the spell, and Violet seemed impressed by my quick thinking.

"Thou art learning this at a far greater speed than I," Violet told me. "But thou can improve still. Attempt to counter the spell, and redirect the bolt to Cobalt's machine. Envision its reflection in thy mind." I knew what "envision" meant, at least, and with a nod, I dug my hoof into the dirt and grit my teeth as I silently motioned for Cobalt to fire again.

He returned it, and when his eyeshield lit up and I saw that brief flash of light, I felt the world slow down as it approached me. I could almost see the direct path the bolt of magic was taking, and I felt my own horn ignite in response. I saw it in my head bounce right off me and careen into the drone, a movie played a thousand times over like a broken reel. When I felt the contact, I closed my eyes and willed that vision to reality.

Perhaps my will was a little too strong.

It did exactly as I had commanded it. The bolt seamlessly ricocheted off of me and flew back to the drone at a blinding speed, far faster than it had arrived. Once it made contact, a thunderous roar shook across the orchard as the machine was sent flying towards a hill in the distance in a brilliant explosion. The biggest piece of it landed atop the hill, and the tiny remnants that were left gently rained down around us as if winter had come just a bit early.

The three of us stood in silence, and I felt a pit in my stomach as I saw what I had done. I realized that I'd held a hoof to my mouth in shock, and a glance to Violet and Cobalt showed that their jaws had dropped to the ground as they gazed at the destruction. I could have lived a thousand lifetimes in the silence, and it was Cobalt who broke it first.

"...I'm thinking I should recalibrate that shielding spell," he said. I opened my mouth to apologize profusely, but he quickly waved me off with his hoof as he started to walk forward.

"Starlight, this is why I came here," he told me as I fell into pace with him. "The more somepony destroys my design, the stronger it gets, though I don't think anything could have withstood that excellent counterspell. What say thee, Vy?" Cobalt made sure to exaggerate his accent on that last sentence, and I couldn't help but chuckle at the teasing between the new couple.

"It was truly magnificent!" she told me, catching up to the two of us. "Thou will achieve mastery in a fortnight with thine efforts." I couldn't help but blush slightly at the compliment, but I managed to recover as we trudged on toward the reckage I'd created.

It didn't take us long to get to where the bulk of the machine was. We had to make sure not to step on any of the little pieces along the way, and despite what Cobalt said, I still felt a pang of guilt with every piece of rubble we had passed. Cobalt had been muttering to himself under his breath, seemingly making mental notes to himself on what he should improve for next time. Violet stayed silent, merely gazing at the scenery around her as we walked.

It was a bit of a tough walk up the hill, but once we finally made it, Cobalt and I rushed towards where the largest chunk of the drone had landed. It was a little less than half of it remaining, with wires and various contraptions I didn't recognize jutting out of it from the inside, and it was still sparking here and there when we leaned down to take a closer look at it.

"Eh, not horrible," Cobalt mused. "I believe I can still use this in the rebuild. You left me more of it than Zephyr did." I nodded thoughtfully, and I had only just leaned down even further to closely examine the wires when Violet spoke up from behind us.

"Cobalt, Starlight," she said, an uneasy hint to her voice. "Ye may wish to view what I hath discovered." We both looked to each other in confusion before standing up completely and trotting over to where Violet was, crouching over something obscured.

"Whatcha got, Violet? Another piece of the -- "

On the ground below her was a rune, perfectly dug into the ground and about the size of a pony lying prone. It was a pattern of circles intricately woven into each other, but there were three large ones that made up the bulk of them, and I struggled to think of a tool that could carve something into the earth so precisely. It appeared as if there were supposed to be objects placed inside of them, but they were devoid of anything but grass at the moment. I was no expert on magic runes, but with everything that had been going on over the past few months, I didn't have to be.

I backed away from it in trepidation, and I looked behind me to see the main barn of Sweet Apple Acres glinting in the sunlight a distance away from where we were.

"I'm going to have Applejack send a letter to Twilight. Do not move an inch." I began a quick backpedal, and their eyes were wild and worried as they nodded curtly.

I didn't look at them too long, though, and after I had fully turned myself around, I found myself in a sprint as the farmhouse grew closer and closer.

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

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CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN:
DID YOU MISS ME?
STARLIGHT GLIMMER / PRINCESS CELESTIA

Applejack had been working inside the farm when I'd arrived in a panic. She had no idea I was even on her property, but I told her I would explain later, and I quickly instructed her to get me some parchment. Thankfully, she had some paper around, and so I grabbed the nearest quill I saw and scribbled fervently a short message before igniting it with my horn and putting it in the claws of one Spike the Dragon.

Spike/Twilight/Anypony
We found a rune at Sweet Apple Acres. Must be Zephyr. Please come quick.
- Star

Once I sent the letter, I looked back at Applejack and gestured towards the large farm doors before starting to jog back where I came.

"Follow me. I have to show you something." I didn't stop to see her reaction, but I did hear the rapid patter of her footsteps. It didn't take her long to catch up to me -- Applejack was far quicker on her hooves than an earth pony had any right to be -- but I could see the scathing narrow of her eyes as she started to keep pace beside me.

"Sugercube, what in Tartarus are you on about?" she questioned. "And when did ya get here, anyhow?"

"Few hours ago," I told her. "Went here for a workout pretty far into the field as to not bother you, and Cobalt and Violet found me. He wanted to test out his new machine, so I sparred with it, and I accidentally destroyed it. When we went to go pick it up, we found a rune."

"A what?" she asked. "And y'all didn't damage any trees, did ya?" I shook my head violently as I continued, getting irate at the farmer.

"Your trees are okay, Applejack," I seethed, probably a bit harsher than I intended to. "But this rune is probably Zephyr's. He was here, and he could still be around. Twi is on her way, but we have to figure out what this thing is and we have to do it quick."

Applejack gasped, and I could tell she was running the words she'd just been told through her head as we trotted. She didn't say anything for the rest of the way there, and I knew why: Applejack wanted to see this rune for herself, so when the two of us finally reached the hill and began to climb it, I gladly ran up to where Violet and Cobalt were standing with her in tow.

That is, until I tripped and fell flat on my face in my haste to get to them. It didn't hurt too bad, but the embarrassment was painful enough, and I quickly sprung to my feet with a sheepish smile. Cobalt probably wouldn't have let me live it down if the circumstances were lighter, so he opted to point where I had fallen instead.

"Be careful, that section of the hill is raised slightly. I noticed it earlier, but I couldn't tell you why." Applejack, too, seemed to find that strange, and she narrowed her eyes and stared at the raised patch of grass before I spoke up.

"We have much more important grass over here, Applejack," I called to her. I immediately regretted the tone I'd use, and when she whipped up to me with a glare that could have killed us all, I immediately looked away in shame.

"I'm sorry," I told her meekly. "I'm... I'm kinda freaking out." Applejack's face softened, and she walked over to me and gently rested a hoof on me.

"You've been through a lot in the past month, Star," she told me. "I know I get a mighty bit stubborn when somethin's on my mind, but just know that we're all here for ya. Ain't that right, fellas?" I turned to see Cobalt grinning with a hoof held up in solidarity, and Violet with a wide beam and an idle bounce.

"Do not fret, Starlight! With our bond, we shall destroy Zephyr and Melody!" I couldn't help but chuckle at her enthusiasm, and the two of us walked over to the rune they had been observing.

"Thanks, guys," I told them. "I know we'll be fine. Did you all notice anything else about this thingamajig?" Applejack and I walked up to where it was etched in the ground, and her eyes widened as she viewed it for the first time. Her lip slowly coiled into anger at what I knew was the thought of Zephyr infringing on Sweet Apple Acres, and she simply observed its intricate patterns as Cobalt answered my inquiry.

"I don't know anything about runes, but I think it's clear this hasn't been active. The circles have got to be spaces for offerings, I would I imagine. What say you, Vy?" Violet shook her head as she gazed upon it once more.

"I do not have much experience with these thingamajigs," she said, helplessly stumbling over the last word. "I was not learned in runes. I do not believe my time had much science of them, in truth."

I nodded idly as I continued to stare at it. I knew a bit about runes and how they generally worked, but I couldn't even begin to guess what it meant. I was prepared for it to be a long waiting game for Twilight, but as if the universe were answering my prayers, I heard a voice call out from behind me.

"Sorry we're late! We came as quickly as we could. What were you all doing out here?" My eyebrows rose at the mention of "we", and I was surprised to see that Silver was with her, levitating two books at each side. She ran up to the rune with Twilight in tow and unceremoniously pushed me out of the way, studying the pattern with an intensity I'd never seen from her.

"...This is it," she said. "This is the rune I saw in the Everfree." The original four of us all glanced at each other -- we hadn't heard Silver ever mention going to the Everfree -- but she placed both books on either side of the rune and began to flip through them at the same time with her magic, somehow scanning the contents of both books as the pages flew back and forth. The confused eyes only grew more lost, and it seemed as if Silver could somehow sense it as her eyes darted between the books, which I saw now had numerous run illustrations on every page.

"A rune is like an empty math formula," she began. "It has the base problem, but it doesn't have the variables. It's designed to do something, and the offerings you put inside of it are the thing -- or pony -- it does the task to." She stopped the left book on a dime, looking at one of the illustrations. She seemed to be satisfied with it, because she turned to the right one and continued to comb through its pages.

"Zephyr is a master of dark magic, but he was Celestia's apprentice, too. He isn't a slouch when it comes regular magic, and so the possibility hit me the other day... " In a second, she'd found what she was looking for on the other page, and the two rune books settled on a page at either side of the pattern below us. Once I took a look at the two illustrations, it dawned on me what the rune in front of us actually was, and a look at the group saw them coming to the same realization.

"It's a combination rune," Silver explained. "A stroke of brilliance, actually. It's the light magic rune to summon things of like kind interpolated with the dark magic rune to animate a dead body. It changes the formula, because the dark magic rune is supposed to animate the body -- "

"But the light magic rune summons and restores it if it isn't alive," Twilight finished, almost whispering. "Unbelievable. This is why you're all here, and that's also why Sunset and I were inexplicably drawn to Canterlot. We're all Celestia's apprentice."

Zephyr, for all his mad ramblings and demented causes, had truly found a way to cheat death. It was ingenious, and it was almost shocking to think that nopony else had thought of such a thing before he did. We may have finally known why the apprentices had come back with the revelation, but it also put another question into my head that I made sure to put forward immediately.

"This looks recent, though," I told her. "You all came back a while ago." Silver grimly nodded, and she stared at the rune and back to the book rapidly.

"That's because it is recent," she said. "In fact, this can't be more than a week old. Zephyr clearly used this to bring somepony else back, and I have a feeling I might know who it is."

That one was fairly easy to pick up on. Chrysanthemum was always what he was truly after, and it was very possible that he had come here to revive her. A part of me hoped that her return would lessen his motivation for conquest and conversion, thought the rational other part of me knew that such things were wishful thinking.

There was one other thing that was confusing me, however, so I spoke up again.

"That doesn't add up," I told her. "You said yourself that this is for like objects. Chrysanthemum is a single pony, and she isn't like anything else, is she? How would we know for sure that bringing her back is what he was trying to do with this rune?" That got everypony thinking, but to my surprise, Silver answered very quickly.

"This could be his loophole. See, you would need organic parts of the individual to bring them back: simply putting down magical artifacts or something similar would result in failure. They were both married to each other, which is their similarity, so he could have easily put down strands of his own mane to effectively summon himself, if that makes sense."

"How is it that thou know of runes so well?" Violet asked her. Silver nodded down to the books at her feet.

"A lot of reading. I, uh... I've been kind of obsessed with them recently. I saw this exact same rune where I died, and I've wanted to track it down the moment I woke up. But to answer your question, Starlight, there is a way we can know for sure." That got us all curiously eyeing her, and she gestured to the wide orchard around us spun around in an exaggerated manner.

"As I am sure you are aware, it doesn't just plop you back where the rune was. Runes almost have a sense of their own, and so this one is like to, and I quote, "bring the objects close to their shared likeness", which in this case was Celestia, then Hourton, then all of you in Canterlot. For a large number of ponies, like six, it would probably take longer, but if it is one pony, it wouldn't be nearly so. Zephyr had to have had some physical things from Chrysanthemum's body to offer this rune, and even though the rune absorbed most of it, there's a chance it could have dispelled some of that evidence around here somewhere."

"So... we're lookin for a lock of a mane in the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres," Silver glanced over to Twilight, though, who already had a knowing beam I'd come to see many times in my friendship with her.

"Nope! I have a spell that detects any organic matter from a pony, living or dead! It's usually used by guards on patrol shifts, but I figured it out from my brother and used it when we would play hide and seek. It may be a lock of hair, but it could really be anything, including something much bigger. It doesn't take much effort to cast, either: all I have to do is let the spell know I don't need to find you all."

Slowly, her horn ignited, and she closed her eyes and concentrated. We all stayed as quiet as we could for her, and after about fifteen or so seconds had passed, a surge of magical energy pulsed from her horn as she opened her eyes. She looked around the hill, but quickly furrowed her brow as she turned in every direction.

"That's really strange. I don't see anything, which is weird because I know at least Mac and Apple Bloom probably come around here -- "

She looked down, and the words immediately died in her throat. She jumped back in terror, putting a hoof to her mouth and widening her eyes. The group of us looked to her with worried and puzzled glances, but it didn't take long for me to realize just where she had been standing.

It was that lump of raised grass I had tripped over earlier, but I knew Twilight wasn't looking at the strange patch of land.

She was looking underneath it.

My sister gave me sweet dreams.

It was a luxury I hadn't experienced for a thousand years, where the nightmares would arrive in abundance and the restless nights were innumerable. The guilt of what I had done had cast a shadow over me as I slept, but once I was reunited with my sister, she saw to it that the terrors I'd experience would disappear with her power over dreams.

Sometimes, she would visit me. We'd talk for hours and hours in a little pocket of time, the world around us grinding to a halt. The diplomatic and political intrigue would disappear in her realm, and for a night, we could just be sisters again as we babbled on about nothing important.

So when I went to sleep the previous evening, I didn't expect to have a nightmare.

I remember it vividly. I was back in our old castle, shortly after my battle with my sister. It was ruined in dilapidated as it stood today, however, and not a single star hung in the sky. It was darker than usual, too, as the dark blue that usually washed Equestria at night was entirely black.

I heard voices, initially in a whisper but growing louder by the second. I couldn't tell what they were saying, but it was frantic and hurried, and their sharpness like daggers swelled to a deafening pulse. I tried to run away from the castle, but they followed, and soon enough, the chorus of invisible voices grew all around me.

I kneeled down in the grass, covering my ears, but it was no use, as they simply grew louder. The words entangled me like limbs, slowly wrapping around me and pulling me as the whispers grew to words and the words grew to shouts, and the last thing I remember was my own blood-curdling scream far more clamorous than the noises around me as the things that were not there finally pounced.

My eyes shot open with a jolt, and I found myself breathing heavily on my bed. Something was wrong: Luna would not allow me to have a nightmare if she still had control over dreams, and if she didn't, it meant that she was incapacitated and was unable to perform her duties.

I had just experienced my first nightmare in years, but when I glanced up after blinking the sleep from my eyes, I was greeted by a sight far more sinister than any dream could muster.

There was a pony standing over my bed. Her eyes were wide and her gaze was unblinking, and she stared at me as if to watch my every movement. Her mane and coat colors were entirely obscured by the darkness, but I quit trying to figure them out when I saw something near her face.

She was holding a clump of my mane, it seemed, and she had it pressed up against her nose to breathe it in while she was watching me sleep. I didn't imagine she had only just arrived, either, and she could have been in here for hours. I could feel myself shake and my eyes shoot open with terror, but before I could do anything, the pony spoke.

"I missed you," she cooed.

The realization of who my invader was hit me like a train, but just as I moved the first of my joints to react, her horn lit up and I felt a sharp pain shoot into my side. With a yelp, I lept from my bed and attempted to balance myself, and I looked to see that she had launched something into me that was too dark to see. I whipped back around to see her advancing toward me, and so I prepared a laceration spell to end this confrontation once and for all.

But I couldn't.

My magic simply would not work. No matter how much I tried, nothing would come to my horn, and I felt myself begin to hyperventilate as I reached a hoof over to feel what she had stabbed me with. The texture was all too familiar.

It was a piece of Chrysalis' throne, which Starlight Glimmer had shattered months ago. A piece of it that size was more than enough to disable all magic that did not belong to a changeling, and she had sharpened it and launched it into me. She was still advancing towards me, and even through the darkness, I caught a glimpse of a face emotionless as stone.

Quickly, I darted around and ran to the door, grasping a hoof on the handle and shaking it as fast as I possibly could.

Locked.

There was no way out. I could not kick down the door in time, as she was right upon me, and with my magic gone and her magic still very much active, a surprise attack, even if successful, would likely result in harsh reproductions. There was one thing left to do, and it was a tactic that I knew well would not phase the pony who had broken into my castle in the slightest.

Slowly, I turned around, and when I did, I was greeted with the sight of her just mere inches from my face, close enough to feel her breathing.

"Melody," I whispered, able to hear the pleading in my own inflection. "I don't know what you've done to Luna, or anypony else in this castle, but I beg you to stop this. For me." The only thing I could think of was to appeal to her love of me, but to my horror, I felt something slimy begin to envelop both of my back legs as her horn ignited with a sickly grin.

"I am sorry, my mentor," she said stoically. "But I have a task to complete."

I lost my balance as it took the backside of me completely, and I took a hard fall to the floor. The cocoon was spreading around me like a virus, wrapping around my front hooves and spreading over my horn to truly silence it. Just when it had paved over my mouth, however, it stopped at the very outside of my eyes, leaving my vision perfect but every other sense smothered by the cocoon. Helplessly, I felt myself lift from the ground with her magic, and she trotted over to stare me in the eyes. She gazed into them for what must have been an eternity, watching the way my irises glinted in the light of her aura as she tilted her head to get every angle.

"I missed you," she repeated. "Did you miss me?"

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

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CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:
LATCH
STARLIGHT GLIMMER / COBALT AEGIS

On a hill in the back orchards of Sweet Apple Acres, the world stopped turning.

It wasn't just because Princess Twilight Sparkle discovered a dead body on the farm. It wasn't just because she and Applejack dug it up, because we just had to know. It wasn't just because, as the light had died down completely and the only illumination came from the horns of the many unicorns here, that he could all stare at the corpse's shocked face as it harrowingly stared back at us.

It was because of who it was.

Zephyr seemed invincible. Twice had he audaciously invaded two of the continent's most fortified castles, and twice had he turned their garrisons to husks. Twice had he bested two very powerful mages -- Twilight and Sunset -- and twice had he simply vanished on his own accord, seemingly growing stronger and stronger with every second. He was the stallion back from the grave, the dark occultist washed with a vision of power, and force of pure energy longing for a mare that he'd ruined years and years ago.

Now, Zephyr was lying on the ground in Sweet Apple Acres, his mouth still open and his eyes still wide, his joints long stiffened from expiry.

Dead.

Our eyes were wider than his, our jaws far more unhinged. Twilight held a hoof to her mouth in pure and utter shock, and Applejack stared right into his eyes in a sort of haze. We simply didn't know what to think, as this was the last thing we could have possibly imagined to develop along the course of this mystery over the past few months.

Zephyr was dead, and someone else had killed him.

Perhaps we may have wondered how this could have happened, how such a powerful pony had succumbed to death, but we were spared the endless theories. In the center of Zephyr's chest was a wickedly large knife plunged deep inside of him, even visible in the dimly lit darkness, simply left there by his killer as they buried him beneath the earth. I wasn't a medical expert, but I knew it had been perfectly placed to hit his heart with an almost sickening efficiency.

This wasn't even magic. No, someone had plunged a dagger into Zephyr's heart and disposed of him, as if he were some common pony or foot soldier. A slew of thoughts had come to my head -- especially considering that I'd seen who I believed was Zephyr only days ago at Ponyville Station -- but there was one that was louder than all the rest of them, making its presence known as I stared at the wicked knife in our fearsome adversary.

So when Silver Jubilee was the first to speak among us, her voice ringing hollow as it posed a question through the still of the night, it didn't take me long to give me her answer.

"Who... who could have done this?" she asked, a creeping sense of dread in her inflection. I looked up to her, and though I don't remember the face I gave her, I certainly remember knowing firmness in my voice when I replied.

"Who else?"

I don't remember the walk home, but I didn't need to. I knew how it was, the silence hanging over like a shroud, each of us lost within our own minds trying to make sense of what we'd seen. We'd given Applejack a goodbye, but I think all of us simply wanted to leave the place as soon as we could. I don't know what it was that Applejack planned to do with the dead body on her property, but I didn't plan on staying to find out.

I wasn't a very good student in school. My little town of Sire's Hollow didn't have a lot of students, but even so, I was the only one that ever ended up in the principal's office during those days. I may have tried to act tough -- Tartarus, I still do -- but I hated those visits. Sitting in a chair and waiting for the principal to inevitably chew me out was the worst feeling in the world, and the silence that swarmed me as I fiddled with anything I could to stave off the awkwardness and shame still makes me shudder at random times during the day.

When we walked through the double doors of the Castle of Friendship, it felt just like that.

There wasn't any aloof joy from Violet or swagger from Cobalt. There wasn't any sense of curiosity from Twilight. There were no boisterous proclamations from Trixie.

That silence swarmed me again. We should have been relieved that Zephyr was no longer a threat to us, but instead, it had petrified everypony here. We had been prepared to face him in some sort of ultimate battle, but the other ponies here were shellshocked to discover that the real enemy was somepony -- some changeling, rather -- that they'd only been generally aware of for so little time.

They were shellshocked. I wasn't.

And so I didn't try to make small talk. I didn't try and pretend that everything was okay when it wasn't, and I certainly wasn't going to let myself relax. Melody Waltz was going to be here within the next few days -- probably sooner -- and I had to be ready, because she wasn't going to catch me off guard a second time.

So as the night had only just begun and the ponies that lived here had just arrived home, I'd gone up to the library to grab a book on changeling anatomy. I wanted to know the very ins and outs of Melody Waltz, and I'd retreated to my room to sit down and absorb everything I could before I tried and failed to fall asleep that night.

Instead, I found myself in my bathroom doing what I'd been doing ever since I got out of that cocoon: Staring in the mirror.

The scars, cuts, and bruises that still littered my body would disappear in time. Weeks from now, I would look in this mirror and look as if none of this had ever happened, perhaps until the next supervillain tried their hoof or hand at world domination a few months from now.

Once this was all said and done, Twilight Sparkle would not look the same. The scar that ran down her face may be barely noticeable, but she would have to wake up in the morning and look at it in her mirror for the rest of what I knew would be a very long life. I'd endured some horrible, horrible things during my time in captivity, but one this apprentice debacle was all said and done, it would be Twilight who would bare a visible reminder of it for the rest of her days.

That was simply one of the things I would think of when I'd stare in the mirror. Sometimes I'd think of the weariness in my eyes, and sometimes I'd simply replay the day's events in my head as I turned it from side to side. Sometimes, I saw another pony in the mirror staring back at me, and I'd dream of the moment we would meet again.

I couldn't remember what it was I was thinking about, though, when I heard a voice call out from behind me.

"Sprucing yourself up for a nice mare, are we, darling?"

There were very few ponies who I would let walk into my room without permission, but Rarity was certainly one of them. I wasn't sure why she was here or when she'd arrived, but I couldn't help but smile as she entered the (thankfully rather large) bathroom and made her way beside me.

"I'm not into nice mares," I told her, keeping my gaze on the mirror.

"Is that why you're always hitting on me?" she asked slyly. I could spot her sly grin in the reflection, so I returned it in spades.

"It's why I never hit on you," I teased back. "What brings you here, Rares? I figured you'd be taking some time to relax after your first shift at the boutique in a while." Rarity nodded, but she was done talking through the mirror. She turned to me with a warm smile and she gestured towards my room beyond the doorway.

"I'll be fine, dear, but I... heard what happened today, and I thought I would stop by, especially since Twilight told me that Rainbow, Fluttershy and Pinkie weren't home. I wanted a short heart-to-heart, but would you mind if we went to your room? This is no place for such conversations, I would think." That drew a short chuckle from me, and I quickly exited the bathroom and sat down at the bedside that was only a few steps away as Rarity plopped down next to me.

"What's on your mind, Rarity?" I asked her. She kept her smile, but it seemed far more solemn as she looked me in the eyes.

"I was just thinking about you today. I'd heard of the dreadful discovery that you'd all found Zephyr at Sweet Apple Acres, but it had occurred to me that, well... you've been tortured, captured, and seen a dead body all within a very short amount of time. Twilight tells me you're doing well, though?"

I found myself nodding my head. I was touched that Rarity had come to see me, but I figured that there was a bit more to her visit than she was letting on.

"There's something else eating at you, Rares. I've known you for far too long." Rarity knew when she was defeated, but she didn't seem to feel too bad about it: Instead, she smiled weekly and rolled her eyes before glancing away from me as she spoke.

"I've been talking to Sunset lately. She's a dear, but she's told me that her incident at Canterlot High still affects her. She tells me she still gets nightmares about it, and that fighting Zephyr only reminded her of the mare she once was." I figured I knew where this one was going, but I let her continue to talk as she finally turned to me.

"I have a question, darling, if you wouldn't mind. I'm hesitant to bring up everything that's happened to you recently, but--"

"--you want to know why I seem fine." Slowly, Rarity nodded, and I found my smile quickly fading as a sigh escaped my lips.

"You know, I got a pretty stern talking to by Twilight after that bottled anger incident, especially after Trixie and I may or may not have wiped the spa twins' memories." I'd told very few ponies about that, and so I couldn't help but flash a smile as Rarity's visage turned to horror.

"I'm, uh, quick to anger. I'm getting better and better about it, but it's still something I'm trying to work on. And when Melody jumped me that day, and she tortured me, and she put me in her cocoon, there was a while where I'd just given up. I almost stopped trying to escape. But among a slew of emotions I was feeling in that lost month, Rarity, there was one that kept eating away me. It still is, even now."

"Anger," she said simply. "You're angry." I didn't acknowledge her confirmation. Instead, I opted stared at the ceiling, trying to find my next words.

"...It's an obsession. Maybe it's a way to cope, or to keep my mind off of what happened, but I'm angry. I'm angry that she hurt me, and I'm angry that she wore my skin and got my closest friends to trust her. I'm angry that she ever tried to ruin Celestia, and that she killed Zephyr. She's the last thing I think of at night, and she's the first thing I think of in the morning." Rarity sat in silence for a few seconds, seemingly thinking over what I'd told her, but she quickly fired back with a question.

"Do you want revenge, Starlight?" she asked me. It was a natural conclusion, but I found myself shaking my head after a short pause.

"...No," I began. "It's something more than that. I want everypony here to be safe, and I just know she's coming, Rares. She's coming soon. I can feel it." I didn't mean to scare her, of course, but her eyes widened if only for a second before she composed herself. Rarity was often overdramatic for the silly things, but when it came to business like this, she was as resolved as they came.

Slowly, she rose from the bed and looked around the room, trying to find her words before they finally came out.

"You're likely right, darling," she told me. "And when she does, we'll hit her with the Elements and put a stop to it. Like we always do. There isn't a ruffian in Equestria who has gotten past us, dear."

I'd been thinking about that lately. It was something that Twilight and Sunset had always told me: That whenever the next villain up came to down, they always found a way to deal with it. They were right, of course -- they both had a very convincing track record -- but when I started to the floor and gave her an answer, I found more and more doubt seeping in with every second.

"Yeah," I told her, a part of my voice ringing hollow. "Like we always do."

Soundproof spells were a miracle.

I never knew just how long I was working on a project, but I always knew that it would go well into the night. I'd entered the workroom Celestia had set aside for me quite a few hours ago, but once I set to fixing the drone that Starlight had accidentally-on-purpose destroyed, the time flew by me. Thankfully, with a simple soundproofing spell on the room, I could make all the tool (and magic) induced noise I could muster without waking a soul in Ponyville.

So it was not until I had put the last bolt where it needed to go and fired up the drone to make sure all was well that I turned to the little clock hanging in the corner of the room. It was one of those stupid ones that only had the two hands and no other markers, but after squinting a bit and running some estimations, I was able to get the gist.

3 a.m.

I couldn't help but crack a smile at that. Violet would likely be cross with me once I climbed into our bed so late, but I really couldn't retire before giving the new drone a whirl. The glasses were already on, so all I had to do was will the drone to come close to me, and it did so with a gentle hum as it began to float by my side.

I'd been deterred from enchanting it with a shield spell after Zephyr blew right through the bastard, so I'd opted to go for a grabbing spell instead for the second version in an attempt to lock down any powerful mage I -- or whoever was piloting the drone -- was fighting. I never used it too much against Starlight when we sparred, though, and whenever I did, she quickly broke the grasp. After she blew the bugger to oblivion, I decided it could probably use the shielding spell after all, and so I switched the two out once more.

The rest of the modifications were quite simple. I tried to get the alloy as sturdy as I could, and I made some internal modifications and rewired a few things to protect it from magical blasts to the best of my ability. It might have been a pain in the arse, but in the end, I was certain it would be worth the trouble.

Now that I knew it could move, I left it right where it was. As I walked over to the edge of the room, I looked down at my prosthetic leg to admire the way it moved so naturally: Twilight was already beginning a research paper on the charm she'd come up within the span of just a few days, and after applying it to the drone to let my thoughts command its movement, I'd lay awake in bed for hours thinking of what else it could be used for.

That mare is a cut above the rest, I mused to myself as I planted my feet. I looked back toward the drone, which was hovering neatly in the air with the addicting hum I'd come to love, and without hesitation, I mustered up a raw bolt of magic and launched it straight at the drone.

Being that I was also in control of it, I made sure to pop a shield up in time for it to guard itself, and thankfully, the bolt dissipated once it collided with the shield the drone had created. I hadn't let anypony else pilot it yet (Violet was still a bit too afraid of technology to do so), but the magic from the drone matched the bright-orange aura that shimmered from my horn, and I had hypothesized that it would change for whatever unicorn had the glasses on at the moment.

I spun it around a few times for my own sake, watching it twirl and spin with ease before I was finally satisfied. Slowly, I led it to the corner of the room and set it down before powering it off. With a sly grin I could feel on my own face, I rested the glasses on the workbench next to where I'd placed the drone, and I made mental notes for a few tests I intended to run once I finally woke up sometime during afternoon hours.

Just as I was about to head to the door, though, I heard a knock at it.

Rap rap rap.

Stunned, I waited for a voice to reveal the pony's identity, but none came. Nopony knew I was in here, as they definitely could not hear me, and they would have had to have noticed I was gone from the room Violet was currently sleeping in to think I was anywhere else. Something was certainly awry, and so I lit my horn up to quickly remove the soundproofing as I called out to the mystery pony.

"Hello?" I asked, a slow feeling of trepidation crawling up my spine.

Rap rap rap.

Not a word from the other side. I furrowed my brow, and I found a growl make its way to my tone as I called out once again.

"I'm not opening that door until you tell me who you are!" I shouted. Once more, there was nothing but silence, and I couldn't hear so much as a scuffle from beyond the door. This was absolutely not anypony I knew, and I felt a grit in my teeth as a slew of thoughts collided in my head.

The moment I turned to get the drone glasses from the workbench, I heard the latch click.

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

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CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:
CAPITOL
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

I felt myself cough as I lay on the ground, and I could just barely see the blood as it hit the floor. My ears were ringing from impact, but even so, I could make out the calm hoofsteps that grew louder and louder as they closed in on me.

"And here I thought you would challenge me, now that you've had a fair shot," came a high-pitched, feminine voice. "You're nothing, Starlight Glimmer. You've failed at everything you've ever done." Slowly, I looked to meet her, and I spit in the stoic face that loomed below me. It didn't flinch.

"You're wrong, Melody," I told her feebly. "You're wrong. You're wrong." I found myself believing it less and less the more I repeated it, and for the first time, Melody Waltz looked down upon me with the slightest hint of a grin.

"No, I'm not," she started. "But that's not to worry, Starlight. Because I'm going to make sure you never fail again."

She charged up a bolt of magic, and I opened my mouth in terror as she stared into my eyes with a glare black as coal.

I woke up screaming.

It wasn't the first time I had done so in my life, and I was certain it would not be the last. Panting heavily, I rolled over sluggishly to look at the time on the wall. It was dark, but I could make it out.

4:30.

I reached for the glass of water at my bedside with my magic, but when I brought it to my lips, not a single drop touched them. Sighing, I slammed it back down onto the table and reached out for the light switch, finding it and flicking it on. The ensuing flash of light was more than blinding, and it took a thousand blinks before I could finally adjust to the light as I sat up in bed.

I don't know why I expected anything to be different, but the room was as I had left it, of course: The pleasantly purple walls were still pleasantly purple, the lamps and trinkets that adorned my drawer on the far side of the room hadn't moved an inch, and the mirror with a dozen of my favorite pictures scattered about it -- a gift Twilight had declared my "friendship wall" -- hung neatly above it undisturbed.

With a yawn, I clambered out of my bed and quietly opened the door, making sure to turn the light off as I did so. The trip to the kitchen from my bedroom wasn't that bad, thankfully, and my weary body knew it could look forward to getting back to sleep sooner than later.

I made sure to be as quiet as I could, and before I knew it, I had lightly stepped into the kitchen with my water glass in tow. Slowly, I reached into the fridge and grabbed the pitcher, pouring its contents into my cup and letting the water flow until I could tell it was only just above the halfway mark. I examined it once more and, when I was satisfied, I placed the pitcher back in the refrigerator and made my way back toward my bedroom, making sure to mind the water in my glass and carefully levitate it beside me.

I was halfway back down the hallway when I looked to my left.

Trixie's door was open.

It was only just ajar, but for the Great and Powerful Beatrice Lulamoon, it was a mile too much. Trixie was a very heavy sleeper, and she happened to sleep-talk a considerable amount while she was in slumber. It embarrassed her significantly, and she had always demanded that she sleep behind a firmly closed door "for the safety of herself and others". So to see it even a tinge open was highly unusual, and I found myself opening the door the rest of the way and peeking my head into her room.

"Trix?" I called out. There wasn't an answer from the darkness, and so I felt my hoof around the right side of the door and flipped a switch to turn the lights on.

Trixie Lulamoon was not in her bed, but everything in the room was spic and span. Her bed had been made neatly, and everything on the dressers and drawers in her room was arranged tidily as could be. Once I took a closer look at the bed, though, I saw a single piece of paper resting symmetrically on the top of it, and I rushed over to read what it said.

I had thought perhaps that Trixie had gone out and left a note, but once I read the very few words in pristine, perfect handwriting, I could feel my stomach drop to the floor.

Canterlot Castle. Tick tock.
- MW

I looked wildly around the room as my eyes shot wide open, and when I looked towards the floor, I could see it almost immediately. There were little drops of green littered by her bedside, made from a material I had come to know far too well over the past month.

No. This isn't possible.

A second ago, my body was begging me to go back to bed. In an instant, I felt a tsunami of adrenaline crash into me and swallow me, and a thousand electric volts up my spine sent me into overdrive.

I don't remember what happened to the glass I'd been carrying, but I was sure it probably exploded into a thousand pieces as I sprinted out the door. The first place I wanted to go wasn't far away, and before I knew it, I'd nearly kicked down the door that led to Cobalt and Violet's room and scrambled for the light switch.

And I was greeted with the same thing.

A cleaned-up room and the very same note, resting gently on the bed. Melody Waltz had broken into this castle and kidnapped all of my friends, all while I slept not-so-soundly in my room. She knew I was here, avoided me, and left a note in every room she had entered like some sort of sick calling card.

I was being toyed with.

I couldn't wait an hour on the train to Canterlot. No, the anger within me would erupt long before then, and when it did, I wanted a certain changeling to bear witness to it.

In other words, I had to teleport to Canterlot. This would normally have been an impossible task: Teleporting someplace an hour away was more than fatal for even mages of the highest pedigree, and even zapping somewhere that took fifteen minutes to get to came with an extraordinary risk of magical fatigue. Somehow, I had to figure out a way to do it in about five or so minutes.

I found myself on auto-pilot as I started running down the hall. If there was any place that could have something to help, it would probably be Cobalt's lab, and I could only hope that he had been in bed with Violet and not working on something when Melody had taken him. It was a ways away from my room, but my hurried pace saw me bursting through the door in no time.

It was subtle enough, but there was disarray. Things that I knew had been on his workbench were on the floor, and my eye caught a single blast mark from a magical discharge across the left wall that disappeared behind a cabinet. Cobalt had been in here, it seemed, but fortunately for me (and unfortunately for him), it looked as if Melody had captured him with very little resistance.

It only took a few seconds for me to realize what was wrong with my line of reasoning.

For the most part, I had zero idea what most of the things in this room did. There were a ton of gears and bolts and gizmos I could not identify, and most of them didn't look like they had an ounce of magic capacity within them. The only thing I did recognize was the drone Cobalt had rebuilt, the goggles that were paired with it sitting nicely next to it on the table and seemingly untouched from the scuffle that had occurred. I almost wanted to destroy it -- I was still mad at it from our sparring earlier in the day -- but just as I was about to walk out of the lab to try and find something else, I stopped dead in my tracks.

The drone!

I whipped around and stared at it, burning its image into my mind. The drone was charmed, just like Cobalt's prosthetic leg was. It had a loop of magical energy inside of it that could form themselves into a certain allotment of combat spells to make the use of combat magic effortless. I didn't need it for combat magic, though: I only needed the energy that was currently inside of it. Rushing over, I grabbed the glasses with my magic and placed them snuggly on my eyes.

Now to figure out how to turn this thing on...

Suddenly, the drone roared to life, and I probably would have jumped a thousand feet in the air if the ceiling would have let me. I didn't have time to be embarrassed, though, and my shock quickly turned to wonder as the drone floated seamlessly at my command. Cobalt had never told me what he saw through the glasses, and I was surprised to see that the innards of the drone were entirely visible through the lens. I didn't know what anything inside of it was, but I could see the magical energy loop in the color of my aura flow freely around the machine, and I felt a smile spread slowly as I moved the drone around me.

"So this is what that charm feels like..." I muttered aloud. I turned to the wall to cast a simple magical bolt, and it came firing from the drone at lightning speed, colliding and leaving a black scorch mark across the wall at my mere thought of the action. I didn't expect to feel the energy, but it was as if I were lifting a paperweight with a levitation spell.

Under better circumstances, I could have played around with it for hours, but I quickly closed my eyes and reached out to the drone with my magic. I could feel the magical pool inside of it (thankfully, we were already linked with the goggles), and I envisioned the drawbridge in front of Canterlot Castle as vividly as I could picture it in my mind.

"All or nothing," I said to myself, and with a grit in my teeth, I let the spell fly.

I wished the stars I was seeing the moment I arrived were the ones in the night sky, but I wasn't so fortunate.

I felt as if I'd taken a massive blow to the head where there was none, and my legs gave out beneath me the moment I touched the bridge. For all I knew, I could have been anywhere, because my vision was a slew of lights for what seemed like an age. I wasn't sure how long I'd laid there, simple resigning myself to the overwhelming sickness of the magical fatigue.

But, like all things, it slowly passed. One by one, I regained the feeling in my limbs, and the stars that fluttered about my eyes began to fade to little nothings. The beautiful green and the water below that surrounded the entrance to Canterlot Castle slowly seeped into my vision, and I could feel my own breathing start to slow to a reasonable rate.

With a groan, I carefully staggered to my feet. This certainly was just where I'd envisioned it, and there was a single thought running wild in my mind.

I'm alive.

I had teleported an hour away to Canterlot -- the very edge of Canterlot and up a mountainside, at that -- and I was no worse for wear (permanently).

The first thing I noticed was the snow. The weather pegasi here must have officially begun Hearth's Warming's snow season tonight, but the snow wasn't falling gently. There was a biting wind that howled around me as well, and it swept my mane and tail as the snow flurried around me. The cold was far from pleasant, but the pounding headache I currently had from teleporting here was doing a bang-up job of distracting me from it.

The second thing I noticed was a medium-sized wooden cart near the front door. The back of it was open, but I knew there was nothing in it because I knew what it had been used for. I had absolutely no idea how Melody managed to round up so many ponies and bring them to Canterlot in such a ridiculously short amount of time, because there was no way in Tartarus she could have teleported here unless Cobalt had made a second copy of his drone last night for kicks.

My eyes widened at the thought of the drone as I whipped around to look for it, and I quickly found it just a few paces behind me on the bridge.

To my shock, the goggles showed that the drone was working exactly how it was before. The magic I'd siphoned from it hadn't done a thing to it, and when I thought to summon it to my side, it rose from the bridge and floated toward me with a gentle hum. I found myself smiling at the drone for the second time in the last few minutes, but this time, it was of sheer disbelief.

I had expected Cobalt's drone to be destroyed. And now I was at the gates of Canterlot Castle with a highly advanced weapon.

I spotted a bush off to the side of the gate next to where the cart had been parked and trotted over to it, resting the drone gently within the shrub. I placed the goggles with them, and I made sure to take in the area I had put them in and burn it into my mind the best I could.

"Stay sharp," I told it, and with a sigh, I strolled over to the castle gates.

There were no guards, but I wasn't expecting any. I grabbed the handles of the massive double doors and pulled, and they opened slowly to reveal the castle's glamourous insides I'd seen just three days ago. The castle was dark, strangely enough, but the light of the moon did a more than adequate job of lighting the way.

When I walked in, the gates closing behind me echoed through the main hall. Once it died down, the only thing I could hear were my own hoofsteps across the tile and the muffled whistling of the wind outside. If I were anypony else, I would have immediately assumed the castle was empty, but I knew far better than that.

Somehow, I knew where she was. I'd been dreaming about this encounter for days, and I knew the changeling I so desired to see again was only a few twists and turns away. Celestia and Luna's seats were not far from the entrance -- Celestia wouldn't want the nobles walking too far to Day Court -- and so before I knew it, I turned a corner into the vast and brilliant throne room of Canterlot Castle.

And it had certainly changed since I last saw it.

Stuck to the pillars on the left and right walls were cocoons exactly like the one I had been held in. They were somewhat transparent, but I could see through each and every one perfectly clear. Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were attached to the pillars on the left side, while Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Trixie were attached to the ones on the right. Sunset, Twilight, Violet, Cobalt, and Silver were entrapped as well, but they were all arranged on the pedestal that held the two thrones. Luna was here, too, but she was being suspended from the ceiling above the thrones much like I had been suspended on the ceiling of the cabin in the Everfree Forest.

On Celestia's throne was herself, but she wasn't wrapped in her cocoon like the others were. Melody had left her eyes unshielded, so I could perfectly see the horror in them as they turned to me. There was a hint of relief in there somewhere, too, but the Princess of the Sun seemed more scared for my well-being than relieved for hers.

On Luna's throne sat Melody Waltz.

She had donned Celestia's crown, and she wore it snuggly as she sat ruggedly. She was just as I had remembered her, her long and flowing pink mane and tail and her light blue coat muted by the darkness. Her eyes were a different story, as they glowed a sickly dim green and pierced through the gloom as she stared through me on my arrival.

"You're very early. I wasn't expecting you for another two or three hours."

That high pitched voice that was smooth as a stone wormed its way into my ears, and I continued to walk toward her as she eyed me down.

"Hello, Cyrilla," I told her as I walked over to her. I was expecting a reaction, and I got it: Her eyes widened greatly for only a second, but the expression faded as quickly as it came.

"You've spoken to Chrysalis," she noted. "I've been reading as many documents and newspapers as I can. She's a disgrace. A once-great ruler reduced to exile at the hands of reformers." Once I got right to the start of the stairs, I stopped, and I felt a single eyebrow raise as I replied.

"And here you are, doing her bidding," I told her. "I know you love Celestia, Melody, and I know you hate Chrysalis. She strangled you in her own throne room. How could you serve someone like that?" I had expected a reaction from her, but the only thing I got was a shrug as she sat stoically.

"I was going to do it myself in my quarters the next night. She actually did me a favor, you know. I needed to die for the rune to take effect."

I wanted nothing more than to throw Melody off of the throne she was sitting on, but unfortunately, the mention of the rune stopped me right in my tracks. She knew, it too, and I saw the vaguest hint of smile flutter across her visage as she looked down upon me.

"Questions," she cooed. "You have more than one, I presume." I wasn't going to humor her, but I did need answers, and I found that grit in my teeth baring down harder than it could stand as I began.

"You did this," I said, motioning to the apprentices at her hooves. "All of this. How did you do this? How did you figure out the combination rune?" She raised an eyebrow at me.

"So you've discovered that, too. Zephyr was gifted in many respects, of course, but he was blinded by his own hubris. He believed that the key to summoning somepony from the dead involved the collection of extremely powerful artifacts, which is why he collected Sombra's horn at the Crystal Empire and the Alicorn Amulet. He made the same mistake back then, too, and that's why his attempts to revive his beloved Chrysanthemum resulted in an empty, voided husk.

"I'd found his writings in Celestia's study one day while I was snooping around. She always keeps it in the same place, which is why I was able to find it yet again when I disguised myself as you. I must admit, I was rather sloppy for my own pedigree, and that cut I suffered was nothing short of sheer bad luck, but that's beyond the point: I figured it out all those years ago, Starlight. You didn't need dark magic artifacts. You needed... a being. Flesh. Blood. Hair and bone. The key to getting the rune to revive somepony was to give it pieces of them, and it would assemble the rest."

"And how did you get everypony here so fast?" I asked her, motioning with my hoof to the pillars. "It's been just hours, and I know you pulled them here with a wagon." To my surprise, Melody simply shrugged.

"I had Celestia and Luna captured for a while, all thanks to you. In quite the twist of fate, the one day you broke out of your captivity in the Everfree was the day I went to check up on you, so I teleported to the edge of town to appear as Zephyr. You did exactly what I wanted you to do by warning everypony, so you all graciously moved out of Canterlot Castle and back to Ponyville, leaving the princesses free. I actually took Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rainbow Dash the very day you all arrived back. As it turns out, if you have a wagon and look exactly like the local mailpony, nopony gives a damn what you're carrying. I took the rest of my audience tonight while you were sleeping, and I only just got here about a half an hour or so. I must say, you made excellent time. Did you teleport somehow?"

"But why?" I interjected, ignoring her own questions. "What is this all for, Melody? Chrysalis told me... she told me that you were instructed to 'break' Celestia. How does this do that?" Melody simply nodded at the sicking declaration, and I felt a fire burn deep as she continued.

"I was given an order, but the manner and time of which it was completed was never specified. Zephyr wrote in his journal that he wished to be magically preserved in death, and Celestia granted his wish, which allowed this whole plan to kick into motion. He was buried in the Canterlot Gardens in an unmarked grave, and I took locks of his hair after I dug him up and put him back.

"Afterward, I filled a vial with my own blood and put the rune at a place I knew was brimming with dark magic: The Castle of the Two Sisters, right on Luna's ruined throne. Of course, for the rune to bring back the dead with something in common, I had to die, and so I had planned to kill myself once I had everything in order. As it turned out, I didn't need to."

"You still have answered my question," I growled. "What's your game, Melody? Why did you do this?"

"Because Celestia cared more about me than any other pony a thousand worlds over," she started, looking over the Celestia. Her eyes were wide and empty, and she darted back and forth between us in a panic. "And I knew how much she had cared about Violet, and about Zephyr, and about Cobalt. And so, no matter how long it took for the rune to work, I was going to bring every apprentice she had ever loved back from the dead. I was going to let joy flood her heart at their return... "

Suddenly, her horn ignited, and the cocoons that held Celestia's apprentices floated gently into the air. Slowly, they rose to where Luna was, and they suddenly attached to the ceiling around her in single file order. They were all squirming in a hopeless attempt to free themselves -- I could practically hear Sunset and Silver's profane shouting -- but it was no use, and they simply hung suspended around the Princess of the Night. Melody stood up from her throne and, with a single motion, tossed the crown upon her head behind her into the wall. The clang echoed piercingly throughout the throne room, and she let it ring until it perished before she finished.

"...And I was going to strip them away from her, right before her very eyes. One by one. And once the last of her beloved students and the new memories she had made with them faded with the old ones, she would lose all she's ever had."

That was when it broke. That was when the calm, collected, and unimpassioned resolve of Melody Waltz flickered if only for a moment, and the shake in her voice and the twitch in her eyes showed me who she really was. She was desperately torn between the duty of Cyrilla and the love Melody Waltz had for Celestia, and now that she was inches away from carrying out a plan that had taken over one hundred years to complete, the conflict within her was a raging storm of locusts behind a curtain hanging by a thread.

Melody Waltz was dangerous, but there was one more thing my mind just couldn't let go.

"Why did you not capture me?" Melody looked to where the Elements were being held on the pillars of the throne room, glancing at them as if to make sure their cocoons were withstanding their everlasting escape attempts.

"The reason for the Elements was simple. I couldn't have even the slightest risk of them banding together. But you? The mare who once believed so much in equality bent to the will of one who towers over others? You interest me, Starlight Glimmer, and once I kill you in a few minutes, your mentor will get to feel just a taste of what Celestia will feel by sunrise."

I was done talking. Melody had made a grievous mistake of letting me live to be her warm-up and to be a twisted example for what was to come, and I had absolutely every intention of proving it. She began to climb down the stairs, and I took the steps back to accommodate her. Once we were done, we both stood in the center of the throne room only mere paces apart.

"You've been doing your reading, Melody," I spat, no longer pretending to be civil. "But there's one thing you still don't know about me."

"Oh?" she asked, her horn firing alight with a sickly green glow. "And what would that be, Starlight?" I felt a sly grin draw itself on my face.

"For somepony who used to believe so much in equality..."

I closed my eyes and envisioned that shrub beside the gate. I remembered exactly where the drone and goggles were, and as my horn ignited as well, I felt their presence as I fired off a teleportation spell.

The goggles popped into existence firmly on my face. The drone landed beside me in the air with a wobble, but I had already thought to power it up as it appeared out of thin air. It came alive with a hum, and I could feel our shared energy coursing through me as I looked to the drone and saw the gears and wires do its work.

"...I don't like fighting fair."

CHAPTER THIRTY

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CHAPTER THIRTY:
THE LAST WALTZ
STARLIGHT GLIMMER

Everything else faded to nothing.

The regality around us dissipated. There were no more Elements of Harmony, no more apprentices, no more princesses.

There was me, a machine, and Melody Waltz, our horns both alight and our eyes gazing into each other. She was impossible to read, but somehow, the moment she launched off the magical bolt that would start our duel, I was ready for her.

Of course, she went for me first. She had no idea what it would take to bring down the drone, but she had plenty of experience bringing down ponies, and so her first bolt soared toward me viciously. I was already in the process of moving my drone to counteract, it, however, and once it was in place, I brought up its shield to easily deflect the projectile.

Now, though, I needed to go on the offensive. Cobalt had clearly become a master at using his own magic in conjunction with the drone's, but seeing as how I was using it for essentially the very first time, I didn't quite have the coordination to use it optimally.

So I decided to alternate shots instead of trying to commandeer the drone and my own horn at the same time. I did my best to fire off shots in random patterns, launching two bolts at her from my horn and then one from the drone, and so forth. I made sure to keep my horn charged all the while, and with how fast I could switch, there was no way Melody could keep up with the variance.

Or so I thought.

I figured Melody certainly had some sort of combat experience based on the way she had tortured me a month ago, but right now, she was flawless. She evaded every bolt I sent at her, and her eyes flickered back and forth between me and the machine in perfect rhythm. I knew she would be trying to read my body language, but it was as if she was taking a test with the answer key right in front of her.

Our dance continued, and neither us were gaining any ground. Melody was pushing harder and harder, though, and it didn't take long until she was able to land the first hit.

It was a simple concentration of raw energy, and it grazed my side well enough to cause me to yelp. My horn and the machine both powered down for a second before I immediately reignited them, and when I looked up to Melody, she was gazing at the drone as it hovered in the air beside me.

"This is Cobalt's, I presume," she said. "It's impressive, but it's better suited in his hooves. It's foolish of you to wield this without--"

Unfortunately for her, I'd caught my breath, and I immediately fired on her from my own horn. Her eyes widened at the sudden noise, but she started to move just a bit too late, and the bolt collided with her front right hoof. She inhaled sharply and jumped back, and when she looked up to me, she gave me the most expressive face I'd ever seen from her: A feverish glare, baring her teeth and breathing heavily.

"No, no, continue," I told her with a smirk. "I was rude to interrupt." She dug her heal into the tile and she took a step forward as she stared me down.

"I'm beginning to regret leaving you--"

Of course, I fired again, this time from the drone. She was expecting a shot from me this time, however, so she wasn't even looking towards the machine when it sent a bolt that only just grazed her neck. She grunted loudly before charging up her horn and launching a wild spell at me, but I quickly pulled the drone in front of me and brought up a shield to block it.

"You aren't yet. But you will."

The dance began anew. This time, though, Melody Waltz was approaching me differently: The calculated bobs and weaves were getting a bit sloppier, and the precise bolts of magic she had been firing were coming out a bit wilder. It wasn't anything drastic, but in such a short time, I'd already thrown Melody off her game. That didn't mean she wasn't still formidable, of course, but thankfully, I found myself settling into a bit of a groove with the drone.

It took a few minutes, but I finally found the courage to teleport. It was something I hinged my fighting style around, but I was waiting until I really got a feel for the drone before I started to do it. Melody was right in that I was hindering myself a bit by using the drone, but I'd decided in that little moment before I teleported here that the unexpectedness of it and my capacity to learn it as I went along would make it worth it in the end.

And at the moment I began to teleport around, I saw my gamble paying off in front of me. I brought myself behind her and fired a bolt, making sure to do the same from the drone. She was already turning to face me, and while she harmlessly deflected my projectile, the spell from the drone launched into her side and brought her toward me.

Seeing the time to strike, I grabbed her with my magic, making sure I had a full grip on her before bringing her up into the air. She started to resist, but it was in vain, and with one swift motion, I flung her toward the wall behind me.

She did her best to slow herself down, but the little I saw of the impact when I turned around still looked like it hurt quite a bit. I was able to take in the glory of her sliding to the floor after making a very slight dent in the wall, but I found myself letting out a short gasp as I watched her rise to her hooves.

Her changeling magic was faltering. The visage of Melody Waltz rapidly flickered to the changeling features of Cyrilla, and the resulting image was a grotesque visage of disassociation as she staggered upright. Her face stuttered between bright green eyes and fanged teeth as Melody and Cyrilla fought for control.

"You," she seethed, another voice that wasn't Melody's creeping into her tone, "Are going to pay for that."

Quickly, she got her changeling magic under control, and the mare called Melody Waltz began to flood back. The scene had not only been terrifying, but it also made me realize that Melody was using a small stipend of her power to keep up her Equestrian appearance. I could feel my eyes widen for just a second, but I quickly narrowed them and put on a wry grin in a show of bravado.

"Don't expect a tip," I told her. She rose an eyebrow and, after a few moments of reflection, I violently shook my head.

"Yeah, that was stupid. 'I don't see a bill'. No, that's a little... wait, wait, I got it! 'Put it on my--'"

Melody had clearly caught on, and she interrupted me just as I'd done to her a few moments ago. I was ready this time, though, and I easily deflected it with the drone's shield. I tried to grab her again with my magic, but my hold was broken almost immediately as she advanced toward me.

The next thing she went for was my goggles.

I'd been expecting she would try something like that, too -- why wouldn't she? -- so when I felt her magic try to pull them off of me, I did my absolute best with my own magic to make sure they stuck to my face. During the struggle, I pointed the drone toward her and fired off as many shots as I could, and though she managed to get around all of them by deftly weaving around the bolts, the pressure forced her to let go after a few moments.

The wild shots got wilder, and the fluid movements grew clumsier. Melody seemed to think that this would be over quickly for all her intelligence, and the more our battle grated on, the more aggressive she became. While she was getting more reckless, it seemed like every bolt of magic was getting to me faster with each consecutive one.

And then she slipped. Literally.

She was making a move to avoid me, and she seemed to have caught her foot on some of the debris from the wall I had thrown her into. With a grunt, she fell to the floor, and the moment I saw her tumble, I rushed her. Quickly moving around the throne pedestal towards the giant glass window she'd tripped near, I allowed both myself and the drone to gather as much energy as I possibly could to channel the most powerful beam I could muster in an effort to end this at once.

But right as I approached her, I saw a glow from her horn as she was scrambling to get up. And much to my horror, she was able to turn toward me with a massive burst of her own right as I let go of mine.

I'd been taught from a very early age a simple mantra: "In a magical deadlock, nopony wins". Of course, somepony did, but the volatile state of magic colliding with itself meant that whoever ended up on the "winning" side was still likely to suffer. When Melody glared up to me as the sparks from her horn trickled down onto her icy countenance, I knew this wasn't going to end well for either of us.

But it was going to end better for one of us. And that "one of us" was going to be me.

We'd both fired extremely powerful blasts at each other, but I had an advantage she just couldn't match. I knew I was using all of the drone's power, but I pressed on, and I combined our raw energy until I felt I could step forward. The beams were still colliding in a spectacular, horrific blaze, but the two of mine were beginning to overwhelm hers. It was very, very impressive for her to be able to keep a direct blast from two magical entities locked for so long, but she knew she was beaten, and as I came down upon her with a final push, she wailed into the air.

I don't remember flying. I remember the bright flash of light that enveloped my sight, and I remember the first taste of inertia that would send me careening across the throne room. I blacked out for the rough landing and the slide across the tile, so when I came to, I was lying on my side and gasping desperately for a hint of air.

The glasses were gone, but that didn't matter, because I knew the drone was, too. I made an effort to get up, but I staggered with a scream as I felt a horrific pain shoot through my side. I brought a hoof over to the affected area and immediately felt a medium-sized piece of metal jutting out from it. It seemed as if the drone would stay with me after all, but having it stick as a decently-sized piece of shrapnel was what I would call less than ideal. I couldn't take it out, so I felt it to make sure it would stay firmly in place before I continued in my efforts to get up.

My entire body had been bruised from the fall and I knew I had quite a few cuts from smaller shrapnel all over me, but on a third try, I was able to stagger to my feet. I had to blink a few times to put the world back in focus, but the first place I looked to was the pillar nearest the window we'd had our stalemate at to make sure the ponies attached to it were fine.

The first thing I noticed was that the cocoons were somehow unharmed, which was a huge relief. The second thing I noticed was that it was snowing.

The clash and ensuing explosion had shattered the entirety of the massive stained glass window at the left edge of the room, and the blizzard outside had come pouring into the throne room. The temperature was plummeting, too, I knew, but I didn't feel it in the slightest as I tried to get my bearings. It was getting much harder to see, but after a few squinted glances, I was able to make out Melody as I staggered toward her.

I could hear her breathing from a mile away. She'd reverted entirely to her changeling form -- I'd imagine the excessive use of magic to hold the deadlock and the ensuing blast would prevent her disguise from coming back up again -- and she was resting on a very large piece of the drone that had fallen at her feet. It was glowing very brightly orange, though, striking clearly in my vision through all the snow, and I could hear her seething quietly as her body shook every slightly. I could feel my head tilt to the side as I tried to get a better look, but when she finally rose to her hooves, I felt my stomach churn as I looked upon her.

She was missing her front left leg.

That piece of the drone was glowing bright orange because she had heated it up with magic. She'd been writhing in pain and resting on it because, amidst what I knew was a stunned and stupefied recovery, she had cauterized what was left of it.

That wasn't the only damage she had suffered. The tip of her horn was gone, too, and she was bleeding from her chest and sides.

"This... this has been fun, Starlight Glimmer," she cooed through short breaths. Her voice was no longer that of the mare called Melody Waltz, but a deep, feminine boom that spoke for Cyrilla. I wanted to vomit, but I managed to stave it off with the fight-or-flight instinct that was overwhelming my body as she readied herself.

"You almost killed me," she continued, letting out a spurt of coughs. "But you didn't. And I promise you that when I'm done with you tonight, you're going to wish you were back in that cabin."

My body was revolting at the thought of entering another extended battle, but at those words, my heart started burning with a want of nothing else. I stepped forward, and I felt my own horn spark alight as I took in her new form.

"And you're gonna wish this was that easy."

The first mistake I told myself I wasn't going to make was to underestimate Melody now that she was missing a leg. She was already freakishly fast before, but now that she didn't have a second party to worry about and she had me one on one, there were a number of ways she could open up her magic. As such, the last thing I wanted was for her to set the pace, and so I fired off a quick laceration spell toward her to kick off the next act of our duel.

I knew it wasn't going to hit her, but I wanted to see how it wasn't going to hit her. And when I blinked, she had moved just a bit to the left out of harm's way and sported a pitch-black aura around her horn.

Ever since Melody had told me she read Zephyr's journal, I prepared myself to see some dark magic. She was a pragmatist, and I knew well that she would have come to the understanding that there are some things dark magic can simply do better. I also knew that she would be able to handle dark magic far better than Zephyr could, and so it only served to open up her combative prowess to dangerous levels. Sunset and Twilight had told me that Zephyr was almost impossibly fast, but I had a feeling she was apt to use far more dark magic than a simple dodging spell.

I had to be careful, but I didn't have to be timid.

I teleported behind her, and the moment I felt myself appear at my new destination, I fired a shot. She's caught on to that when I started doing it with the drone, though, and she once again phased out of harm's way. She whipped toward me and stomped her hoof on the ground, and I only just managed to teleport out to where I originally was before a massive crystal shot up from the floor.

It was how Sombra had physically materialized dark magic, since there were crystals all around him in his youth, and anypony who studied his particularly usage of it did the same thing as a result. Melody had learned it from Zephyr, and Twilight had learned to materialize dark magic in a crystalline form because Celestia had seen Sombra do it all those years ago. The concept of that had fascinated me as I read about it, but that was all I wanted those crystals to do to me at the moment.

Shooting bolts wasn't working, so I had to resort to something else. Melody could still move around, I knew, but she was currently controlling the flow of the battle around her being stationary, and I wasn't too keen on giving her that advantage.

I looked behind her to see that large glowing piece of the drone she'd just used a few feet away. Despite the raging snowstorm in the building, it was still very hot and was apt to do some damage, so I grabbed it with my magic and, as hard as I could, yanked it toward her.

She could hear it coming, but it was too late to fully evade. She did manage to lunge toward the side, but the burning piece of metal caught her back leg and spun her around. She let out a shriek as it collided with her, and I immediately went to seize the opportunity I'd opened.

But, to my horror, it closed just as quickly.

I was expecting her to be knocked off her hooves, especially now that she only had three of them. Instead, she'd somehow kept her balance amidst her missing foreleg and now badly-scorched back leg, and so when I came charging at her, she was entirely too ready to meet me.

I tried to stop, but my momentum was already carrying me. She stopped me herself, launching a dark crystal up from the floor to halt me in my tracks. I hit it almost immediately, and through the stunning impact, I was only just able to brace myself as a second crystal came in from the left of me. I managed to bring up a shield to my side to prevent it from skewering me, but the impact itself was more than enough to send me soaring across the room.

I knew I couldn't land on my right side with the shrapnel sticking out, so I used an inkling of magic to rotate myself to ensure I took the hard landing on my left side. It was still hard, and I found my breath entirely flooding from my body when I collided with the ground. I started a coughing fit, too, and I was dismayed to find red specks on the floor where I had done so after my eyes readjusted themselves.

I slowly turned to see Melody limping toward me. The impact with the burning metal plate had clearly done a number on her and she was still getting used to walking without a fourth leg, but it didn't really matter: Melody Waltz had me beat, and in a few moments, she would surely seal her victory. I couldn't spring up to a standing position and the blow to my other side had very likely bruised my lung, and so all I could do was watch it happen

Until I saw what she was about to walk under.

High, high above us, a glass chandelier hung from the ceiling right across from where Melody had pinned the apprentices and Luna. You wouldn't ever see it if you never looked to the apex of where the ceiling met, and although it was fairly large, it was dwarfed by the massiveness of the throne room around it. I'd never paid too much mind to it ever since Rainbow Dash had pointed it out to me last year when we visited the castle, but Melody was about to walk right under it.

I made sure to time it right because I didn't want to miss her, and I had to make sure I was still able to judge the distance with the heavy snow and wind howling around us. Once I saw her step right where I wanted her, I let off a quick spell with a grunt towards the mount on the chandelier. I wasn't worried about my accuracy -- I was Starlight Glimmer, after all -- and once the small bolt broke the mount, it came crashing down toward her. I'd timed it perfectly, I knew, and I watched with a grin as it prepared to come down upon her.

She wiped it off my face with ease.

She didn't even bother to look up. Instead, she charged a magic bolt for a half a second, and when it was about five or so feet above her, she shot it upward. The glass chandelier exploded in pieces all around her, and she trampled over the little shards with no heed and with a gaze cold as a corpse as she advanced toward me. It was a sickeningly amazing reaction, and I could only lie dumbstruck on the floor as she towered over me.

She didn't say anything at first, opting to merely watch me. I looked up at her with what I knew was a scowl and spit in her direction, and to make everything even worse, she used magic to phase out of the way of that, too. The wind was howling now, and I was beginning to feel what I hoped was the biting chill of the snow flurry and not my body temperature dropping.

"I was going to torture you again," speaking up over the wind. "I was going to make you wish you were in Tartarus. But you're quite the combatant, Starlight Glimmer, so I think I will show you mercy. I hope your friends are watching closely." Her horn began to glow, and though I couldn't see or hear them, I knew my friends on the throne podium were instead probably averting their eyes.

I was just about ready to give in when I had thought of it. I saw the images of my best friends flashing through my mind and the things we had done together, and I let myself remember the brief moments I'd had with the new apprentices. It was when I thought of Violet's sweet, bubbly smile that I remembered what she had told me on the farm just yesterday and the spell we had been practicing that completely left my mind in a flurry of instinctual combat.

Let the magic be a sweven in thy mind.

I still didn't know exactly what a "sweven" was, but I certainly knew what she meant by the phrase. This was going to be extremely difficult, but if performing a spell I hadn't really mastered with an almost nonexistent window to do it could be an alternative to instant death, I was damn sure going to try it.

I closed my eyes. I let the hum of Melody's horn ring through my ears, passing back and forth like my favorite song. It would be soon, I knew, and this entire process hinged on the chance that she would try to get the last word in to indicate when she would fire it. She was Melody Waltz, though, so sure enough, she spoke what she believed would be the last words I would ever hear.

"Don't fret," she told me. "You'll see your them all very, very soon."

I felt my horn light up.

She fired.

Her spell coursed through me, and with all my might, I pushed it right back towards her.

I heard a loud, thundering noise, and when I opened my eyes and discovered I was not, in fact, dead, I only just caught the end of Melody careening across the room. She had attempted to hit me with a spell of pure force that would absolutely have ended my life, but since I'd hit her with Violet's counterspell, it instead had sent her soaring into the air. She looked initially as if she were about to fly out of the open window, but she drifted only just to the left of it and hit a spot on the wall with a sickening thud. She'd used a tremendous amount of force, and as I had doubled it back on to her, she made an impact with the wall and was sent quite a few inches into it before she took the high fall from where she was to the floor below her.

Somehow, I knew that was it. Grunting heavily, I forced myself up to all fours, and I began to make my way over to that left-side window she was now lying prone in front of. The flurry of snow was pounding into my eyes and the wind was pushing against me hard, so walking was almost a chore beyond my means. I was beginning to feel dizzy, but I staved it off for as long as I could as I staggered over to where she was.

She was still alive and breathing, and I could hear her labored growls as she heard me approach. I expected her to roll over to face me, but I quickly realized as I stood over her that she was physically unable to. The impact to her back had made it so that she could not move her body, and so I grabbed her with my magic, lifted her up to eye level, and brought her to the broken window.

The air was thin already up here, and the wind certainly wasn't helping. Now that the window was broken, we were standing at a massive drop from the side of the mountain, and as Melody looked back with the only body part she could move, I heard her chuckle at the fate she knew she was about to meet.

"How fast... things can... change," she muttered slowly. I was sick of hearing her talk, and I edged her closer to the drop-off as I began to speak.

"I was a mare who believed in equality," I told her. "I believed that we were all the same beneath our special talents, and I tried to make that world a reality in Our Town. But I was so, so wrong, and today, you've shown me why." I could see her eyes narrow through the blizzard.

"And why is that?" she spat. There was still some distance between us, and so I walked toward her until my hooves had just met the ledge and our faces were mere inches apart.

"We are not equal, Melody Waltz," I said. "Because I'm better than you. And if you have a rune somewhere that's going to bring you back, and you wake up and forget that, you know where to find me."

She took one last glance at Celestia's throne before I dropped her.

I didn't look down. I stared at the space she'd been a moment before, and I felt a pit in my stomach as I replayed the moment over and over. Melody Waltz would not have been saved by the Elements or purified by the Crystal Heart, I knew -- she was too far gone for that -- but to finally end her reign of terror in such a manner had still left me shellshocked. Once I thought of the Elements, though, I remembered where they all were at the moment, and I blinked a few times before turning around and rushing to the pillars at my side.

Thankfully, I remembered where Twilight was, because I needed to get to her first. Melody had placed her hanging right next to Luna on the ceiling, and so I used my magic to fetch her down. Carefully retrieving her cocoon, I placed her at my hooves, and she held a wide and horrified gaze beneath the veil.

The moment I used my magic to cut it open and free her, I knew I wasn't going to be standing for much longer. The dizziness and nausea were flooding me like a bursting dam, and when I had finally given her leeway and she crawled out of the cocoon, I felt my legs begin to wobble and my breath begin to labor.

She'd gotten to her hooves, but I didn't see her do it. My eyelids were getting heavy, and she rushed over to me and wrapped me in a hug as she called my name.

"Starlight!? Starlight!" The hug was a shot of warmth in the barren cold of the blizzard that was just beginning to die down, and I felt a curl at the end of my lips as everything faded and I passed out into her embrace.

When my eyes fluttered back open, I felt like I'd just woken up from a really good nap. The fact that I was in a hospital told me otherwise.

Once my eyes adjusted to the light, though, I found them narrowing, because this wasn't the castle. It was a hospital I did not recognize, so I figured it had to have been Canterlot General. The white on the walls stared back at me stoically, and I looked down to see a myriad of bandages and an IV into my right hoof. As my eyes continued to adjust, I saw a pink blur amidst the stark white in the corner of my eye, and I felt myself smile weakly as I realized who it was. She seemed to be very deep in thought and staring at the far wall, so I called out to her to grab her attention.

"Hey, Pinkie."

I had expected my voice to be raspy and weak, but I found it coming out decently normally. With a jump, she turned to me, and her eyes went wide and that massive beam I'd come to know her for flooded across her face. Thankfully, she didn't yell, and she instead spoke with a soft (but somehow still extremely uppity) voice.

"Starlight, you're alive! Well we knew you would be alive but you were really hurting there after Melody but we couldn't find the doctor at the castle so we rushed you over here and then they did the surgery and you were gonna be okay but you were still really sleepy so the doctor told us that you might be sleepy for a while but now you're awake which is good because--"

"Pinkie," I interrupted, unable to contain a chuckle. "Thank you for waiting for me. How long have I been out? Where is everypony else?" Pinkie scooted her chair closer to my bedside as she responded.

"You've been out for a day! The doctor said that you were never in any danger of anything crazy happening, but that you would need some rest to recover. We all wanted to make sure we were here so we could thank you for really taking it to Melody! You were awesome! She came and got me at the bakery and I thought I was a goner, but you really gave it to her!" Pinkie moved her hooves around in what I assumed was a mime of my battle against Melody. That got me laughing again -- she was pretty good at that -- and once she was done, she pointed toward the closed door.

"Some of us had to go do a few things here and there, but Twilight is talking to one of the doctors out there and the others are in the waiting room. They'll be so glad to know you're up!"

I was about to smile at the mention of "others", but when I realized just who I was thinking of, I felt my stomach drop. Sunset had very valid concerns about the apprentices once the source of their resurrection had been discovered, and I found myself staring at the bed awkwardly as I began to speak.

"Uh, Pinkie," I started. "Did Vy, Cobalt and Silver--"

"Be right back!" she bubbled, and she had already shot out the door before I finished my sentence. I decided to let Pinkie do what Pinkie does, and I propped myself up on the bed using the pillows I'd been allocated. When I moved to get up, I felt a familiar pain missing, and I reached over to my side to feel the absence of the metal drone piece that had lodged itself into my side. It seemed like they'd taken the liberty of removing the smaller pieces that I didn't notice, too, and I looked toward the ceiling and breathed a long sigh of relief as I settled into the bed.

Like we always do.

I gazed emptily above me for a little while longer before the door creaked open. Pinkie came in first, and she was followed by an orange and red unicorn and a rather regal-looking lavender princess I'd been expecting to see.

And then Violet.

And Cobalt.

And Silver.

That was when my eyes started watering, but with a wipe from my free hoof, I managed to combat it. It was a bit of a crowded room, but they all gathered in a half-circle around my bedside.

"What is it with us and hospitals?" Sunset mused. "How ya feeling, gladiator?" I rolled my eyes at her, but I was very glad to know that nothing had changed in the short time I'd been gone.

"I got stabbed with sharp metal and just got done being thrown around Canterlot Castle like a ragdoll, so pretty damn good," I told her. "What did the doctor say about me?" It was a question directed towards any one of them, but it was Twilight that answered me.

"You bruised your lung, lost quite a bit of blood, and had a bit of shrapnel in you, obviously," she said with a wry smile. "But I thought... I feared the worst when you fell out on me. I was so relieved to hear the doctor tell us you were gonna be fine. He'll be in to check on you soon." Nodding, I turned to the three apprentices that had gathered on my left. Silver was eyeing me curiously, while Violet and Cobalt had locked their forelegs together as they smiled warmly upon me.

"You're incredible, Starlight," Silver said, taking a step forward. "I don't think any one of us could have done what you did. She just came and took us in the middle of the night, and... I thought that was it. We all did. And I think Equestria can thank you, too." I was all for the compliments, but ever since I came to my senses, I had a question gnawing at the back of my head that I didn't want to know the answer to.

"I threw her off the mountain," I told them. "Did you all send a search party at the base of it?"

"Yes," Twilight said quickly.

"Did you find her?" I asked.

The delay was all I needed to know, and the look that everypony gave the floor was conformation in spades. Twilight gave a short sigh before she finally answered.

"No."

I nodded. I'd expected it, really, but the truth of the matter was that regardless of her current status, I had a feeling I wouldn't have to think about Melody Waltz for a long, long time. There was another matter of inquiry I wanted to address, though, and I turned back to the revived students as I felt my eyebrows raise.

"So... you're here," I said eventually. "You're still alive. You're all starting over." Carefully, they nodded in unison as they studied each other over.

"...Yes," Violet answered. "We are. 'Tis will be strange, for certain, but I could not ponder a better collective to begin our lives anew with than ye." Cobalt hugged her a bit tighter at that, and I felt my heart melt a little at the sight. I was waiting for him to say something about what he'd seen, and sure enough, his face molded to that of foal in a candy store as he addressed me.

"I was nervous to see you'd brought the drone, but you were bloody brilliant!" he exclaimed, causing Violet to roll her eyes and chuckle. "Wonderful bit of business, that. I think she's finally perfect. If we could get ponies to stop blowing it to smithereens, we'd be getting somewhere." That got us all in a short fit of laughter, but I still wasn't done with my cross-examination of the whole group.

"What's next? Everypony getting back into the swing of things?"

Twilight pointed toward the far wall. There was a calendar hanging there, and my eyes widened as I caught the date.

"Hearth's Warming is in two weeks," she began. "We always do a thing at my parents' house, and since we're all already here, I thought I'd invite everypony. You're welcome to come." I loved Hearth's Warming, and I had entirely forgotten we were in the season for it these past few days.

"I'll be there," I told her, "But I have an excuse for not bringing any presents."

EPILOGUE

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EPILOGUE:
DEAR FAITHFUL STUDENT
PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE / SUNSET SHIMMER / STARLIGHT GLIMMER / PRINCESS CELESTIA

There was one day of the year where I wasn't a princess.

One day of the year where I could forget the world and spend time with the ponies I love the most. One day a year where I can quit making schedules and jotting down notes and running across Equestria to stop some would-be threat. Hearth's Warming Day was my favorite day of the year, and after all the madness that had occurred in the past few months, this one was shaping up to be the best one yet.

Hot chocolate was my drink of choice on such days, and the warmth of it as it coursed down my throat matched the warmth of the fire I was sitting right next to almost perfectly. I was currently engrossed in the latest issue of the Canterlot Sun -- which still ran on Hearth's Warming Day -- mostly to see how their coverage of this whole incident had gone down.

Celestia had declared that the day exactly two weeks before Hearth's Warming would be dedicated to the guards in service all around Equestria. We'd kept it a bit on the down-low exactly what had occurred, but the public knew that an intruder had broken into both the Crystal Palace and Canterlot Castle and had slain a number of the guards working at both places. The semantics (and the fact that it was two intruders after Melody had entered Canterlot Castle the second time) were kept a secret for now, but Celestia informed me she would probably release the details of the incident somewhere down the line. The public wasn't worried, partly because guards had been the sole ponies affected to their knowledge, but mostly because they were used to this sort of thing happening after the first changeling invasion and the return of King Sombra. Regardless, they would be curious at one point or another.

I heard some hoofsteps behind me, and although it could have been a number of ponies, I knew who it was. My mother always walked with heavy steps, and I could hear her from rooms away growing up.

"Anything new?" she asked. Sighing, I levitated the paper, folded it, and neatly placed it onto the table next to me.

"Nope," I replied. Same old stuff. Hopefully, it stays that way."

When I looked up, my mom was gazing at me with a warm smile. Slowly, she trotted over and put a hoof up to my cheek, inspecting my face as I looked back to her.

"I can't believe that monster did this to you," she said, placing her hoof at the base of my scar. "And for that changeling to take you in the night like that... " I shrugged my shoulders and waved a hoof in dismissal as she put her own back down.

"If not Zephyr, it would have been someone else," I told her. "You can barely see it, anyways. And if anything, it's a good reminder." My mom tilted her head to the side and narrowed her eyes.

"What do you mean by that, sweetie?" she asked me. I felt over it one time, feeling it as my hoof ran across it before I answered.

"I have a great group of friends," I told her. "And I'm the princess of the group and everypony is used to me playing hero, but this time... I wasn't. And this scar can always let me know that while I'm trying my best to do what's right, I have great friends around me who can do it just as well when I'm down for the count." To my surprise, she raised an eyebrow and gave me a wry smile.

"You already knew that," she teased. I leaned back into my chair as I rolled my eyes at her.

"Yeah, I did," I admitted. "...But it's always nice to be reminded."

I didn't get to be too comfortable, though, because I heard a knock at the door, and I hopped up from the chair with a jolt and strolled over to greet the first of my Hearth's Warming guests. When I opened the door, I was greeted with the sight of Trixie Lulamoon with an aloof grin plastered on her face.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has arrived!" she stated, rolling her tongue unnecessarily on the last word. "Where shall she put her great and powerful presents?" Suddenly, a myriad of wrapped gifts appeared behind her when she ignited her horn, and I couldn't help but chuckle as I stepped aside and pointed towards their destination.

"By the great and powerful Hearth's Warming tree," I told her. She trotted in with a springing gallop, and once she saw the tree in the living room, she dropped them one by one in an orderly fashion under it. Satisfied, she turned to me with a smile that had faded from arrogant to soft.

"...Thank you for inviting me, Twilight," she said. "Trixie is excited to celebrate with you all. Where is your brother? Is he late to his family's own festivities?"

"No!" came a muffled voice from upstairs. That got us both laughing, and just as it was dying down, my mother and another quartet of steps came in from the hallway.

"Ooh! Hello, Trixie, I'm glad you could make it!" Fluttershy's soft voice managed to carry over the fire, and she floated into a quick embrace with the showmare. My mother headed straight for the kitchen to check if the batch of cookies she was baking were ready, so it was just the three of us standing together by the living room fire.

"Any word on Starlight?" I asked Trixie. She nodded quickly.

"She's doing whatever it was she had planned before she takes the train here. Should be a few hours. Trixie has been her best friend for quite some time now and she still gets left in the dark." I shrugged my shoulders: Starlight could do whatever in Tartarus she wanted to after saving Equestria. Before we had too much time to ponder on it, Fluttershy interjected with more info.

"Sunset and AJ won't be here, of course, but Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow are coming soon. Shining said something about Sakura coming, too, but he wanted to make sure she was feeling good enough to come. Is Silver going to be here? I thought you said something about that." I tried to hold it off, but I felt my lips curl into a slight smile.

"Silver will be here very soon," I told them. "But she's at the castle right now. She's had something she's needed to do for a long time."

I'd been to Manehatten once. I'd taken a train.

When Cobalt was your friend, though, you didn't need a train. Celestia had a few airships in the guard fleet around Canterlot, and she had graciously allowed Cobalt to pilot one of them and take us to the Empire City for our Hearth's Warming vacation. He still had his piloting skills in him, of course, and when we came upon the city, Cobalt stopped the ship in air and motioned for us to come to the side railing.

It was incredible.

Manehatten was a living, breathing machine. The titans of skyscrapers that littered it amazed me when I had visited the first time, but seeing it up in the air was something else. I could see the lights and trees that adorned the city for Hearth's Warming Day, flashing and swaying among the winter breeze in a perfect counterplay to the city's sprawling metropolis. I didn't come for my own reaction, though: I came for Cobalt and Violet's.

Violet looked as if she'd seen a ghost. She held a hoof to her mouth in complete and utter shock, and I knew a mix of terror and awe was coursing through her like a raging river. Cobalt, too, was in disbelief, his jaw unhinged to the floor and his eyes darting along each and every skyscraper.

"Sunset," Cobalt whispered. "This... this is... " He simply couldn't finish, so his marefriend finished the sentence for him.

"'Tis wondrous beyond anything I hath seen," Violet said, turning to me. "I cannot thank thee enough for bringing us to this place. Thou truly are my greatest of friends."

I felt a single tear coming on at that last remark, but I mangaed to wipe it away as quickly as it came. I was about to reply, but the two of them were already looking back out to the city and paying me no heed. I took in the view, too, darting between the city's steel mammoths and their curtain walls for a few seconds before trotting back to the other side of the ship.

Applejack was looking over the opposite railing, taking in the sights by herself. I went to go to her, but she must have heard my hoofsteps, and she turned around and met me halfway at the middle of the ship. She pointed behind me with a raise of her eyebrows, and when I turned back, I was greeted with the sight of Violet burying her head into Cobalt's left shoulder as they gazed upon the city together.

I don't know how long I watched them with a swell in my heart, and I don't know how long Applejack let me. Eventually, though, I spoke through a dumb grin.

"You told me that the only thing we could do while they were here was to make sure they were safe. Make sure they were happy." Applejack seemed to want to let me talk, so I did.

"And here they are," I continued, "And they look like they're the happiest they've ever been. Applejack, I... I can't tell you how happy it makes me to know that they're all here to stay. It's wonderful, isn't it?" Applejack chuckled, and she stepped forward to observe them as she replied.

"Yeah, it sure is. Thank you kindly for invitin' me, Sunny. I actually think I kinda missed this place." I wrapped my own hoof around her in a hug, and she gladly returned it before we broke apart. Her eyes narrowed, though, and I knew she had something on her mind before she opened her mouth.

"Hey, uh, you chat with Star before we headed off at all?" she asked me. "I just wanna make sure that mare is right. She's been through Tartarus an' high water these past few moons." I nodded slowly, and I kept my eye on Violet and Cobalt as I spoke.

"She's been recovering from the fight, but she's had a lot of mental healing to do, too," she answered. "I haven't spoken or written to her. She went back to Ponyville to chill out at the castle while Twilight was getting her Hearth's Warming party in Canterlot set up. She'll be there, but... Trixie told me she had something to do. She hasn't told anyone what it was, apparently." Applejack stayed silent, but after a moment or two, she spoke up.

"It's funny," she said. "We're all used to Twi savin' the day or cookin' somethin' up to beat the bad guys. And I'm sure it was mightly similar for you on your side of the mirror." I nodded quickly in acknowledgment, not wanting to take any more credit than I needed to. Applejack turned to look at me with a grin of disbelief.

"And we had both of y'all here, and it was Starlight saved our flanks. A year or two ago, that mare wanted to kill us." I chuckled at that, thinking back to all times I'd ever teased her.

"I think she still does," I quipped, and that drew the laughter out of Applejack. And just like the day Zephyr had come to the castle, we sat there laughing for what could have been a lifetime, but this time, the ponies I'd been so worried about losing were right in front of us, safe and sound.

...And they were also locked in a kiss that appeared to have been going on for quite some time.

"Hey, lovebirds," I called. That broke them apart rather quickly, and although Cobalt looked plenty smug, Violet held a hoof to her face as she flooded red. "Save it for tonight. We're gonna miss our landing time if we don't bring this thing down, and Violet really wants to see the Statue of Friendship." Violet's eyes shot open at the mention of it, and she immediately turned to Cobalt and began to shake him rapidly.

"We shall gaze upon the large metal pony!" she shouted. "I must learn its secrets!" Cobalt rolled his eyes with a laugh, and he began to trot over the airship's controls at the front of the vessel.

"They were planning to build that thing when I kicked the bucket. I'd like to see it, too. Brace for descent!"

With a press of a few buttons, the airship began to sink towards Manehatten's port. They called it the city that never slept, but surrounded by the ponies I'd gotten to know so well over these past few hectic months and the Hearth's Warming cold gently caressing my coat, I finally felt like I could.

I remembered the way, of course. I knew from the moment I left I wanted to go back, and so it was really just a matter of retracing my steps after I locked the way there into my mind.

The brook I'd had to maneuver around during my technically-unsuccessful attempt to escape a pack of Timberwolves was swimmable, but I didn't plan on getting my coat wet. Just as I did last time, I teleported to the other side in a second, and just like that, I was in front of the quaint wooden cabin I'd ventured into the Everfree Forest to find.

I probably shouldn't have -- not yet, anyway. I should have been reclining in a chair and letting my wounds heal on this Hearth's Warming Day, but since it wasn't snowing (though it was still very cold), I decided today was going to be the day. The fact that it was Hearth's Warming didn't matter: I was ready to do this.

Or at least I thought I was.

I walked up to the door, I stopped. It shouldn't have been daunting -- nothing about this should have been daunting -- but here I was, inspecting every grain in the wood to buy myself time. I let out a long sigh and adjusted the red scarf around my neck, and with a nervous clearing of my throat, I knocked on the door.

And I waited. The seconds could have been years.

Maybe she isn't home.

I was going to force myself to wait for her, though, and sure enough, the door creaked open after a millennium had passed. Chrysalis obviously wasn't expecting visitors, but when she saw my face again for the second time in the past few weeks, her eyes grew wide and her brows raised to match. She stared at me for a bit, and I stared back, waiting to see if she would say anything with a mare who she considered one of her greatest rivals coming to her doorstep voluntarily. She didn't, though, but I had a feeling she knew what I was going to say before I said it.

"She's gone," I told her. "I wanted you to know."

At first, she didn't say anything. A wave washed over her when she looked to my wounds and realized what I meant, but I didn't quite know if it was relief, fear, or a mixture of both. She just stared at me even still, so I turned around and began to walk back down the steps.

But Chrysalis always had to have the last word, so I knew she'd say something.

"I must thank you for taking care of her," she started, "But this does not mean we're friends. I'm going to get you, Starlight Glimmer, whether it takes a day or a lifetime."

I stopped at the base of the stairs. I never thought Chrysalis was going to wrap me up in a hug and spin me around, but I at least hoped for some sort of gratitude that extended beyond a throwaway phrase. I sighed loud enough for her to hear, and without turning around, I replied.

"You're the second changeling to tell me that," I told her. "Happy Hearth's Warming, Chrysalis."

Chrysalis had to have the last word, but when I continued walking away from the cabin, I heard nothing but silence.

I poured through them like a fine wine.

In a way, they were. I hadn't read them in ages, but time had only made them better. Circumstance, too, of course, but it had been years since I last pulled out my old friendship letters. Violet's were a chore to read in this day and age, but I still treasured her bubbly optimism and wise resolve as it coursed through the paper. Sighing with memories, I moved the one I'd just finished to the edge of the table in my study and reached into the envelope sitting neatly in front of me to pull out another one.

This one was the first one I'd seen from Cobalt amidst a sea of Violet and Zephyr's.

Dear Princess Celestia,
Today was a whirlwind, I'm sure you know. I'd entered Liverpony's New Inventor's Competition with all the swagger in the world, but I found myself quite lacking in that confidence as the time came to present. I thought of downing a few pints to ease my nerves, but my friend from Ponyville who went to your school with me, Courtland, came to visit me! It was rather unexpected, and we got to talking of old times and memories. By the time the curtain came up and it was my time to walk out, I'd almost forgotten I was even nervous.
I guess the lesson here is that friends will always be with you, and they'll come to support you even when you least expect it. Courtland talking about his life on the farm and asking about all my inventions was almost as brilliant as the golden, gleaming trophy I was handed by the judges.
Almost. Friendship doesn't look nearly as good in a trophy case.
~ Cobalt Aegis

I found myself laughing. Cobalt was always so good at that, and no matter how many times I would berate him for ruining his friendship letters with a snide mark to the contrary, I knew he always valued his lessons dearly. I put it back carefully, and in the spur of the moment, I picked up a quill.

I didn't know who I was going to write this to. It was a force of habit, really, and maybe one of them would see it eventually, but I was getting that overwhelming urge to put words to parchment I'd seldom felt in a long time. I wrote the first line carefully, watching as the ink spill on to the page, but right as I was finished with it, I heard my door open and a quartet of footsteps echo behind it.

There was only one pony who was allowed to do that.

"You used to knock at one point, Lulu. What happened to those days?" When Luna met my side, she did so with a sly grin as she looked around my desk. When she saw what I had written, she rose an eyebrow and turned back to me.

"Who is that for?" she asked, motioned to the letter with her head. I paused for a second, trying to come up with a convincing answer, but I found my mind drifting elsewhere. Looking up to the ceiling in thought, I shot a question to Luna that had been eating away at me for weeks.

"Luna, why do you think Melody didn't capture Starlight?"

She reeled back, but after a few seconds, it seemed like the question had got to her, too. While I was looking to the ceiling, she drew her gaze to the floor, and when I didn't get response when I looked her way, I continued talking.

"Melody knew a lot about Starlight. She probably read my journal entries, or Twilight's," I started. "She had to have known how good Starlight was, and how much she loved to fight. So why would you leave her alone, especially when she was already weak? It's... it's been on my mind quite often. I don't understand it." Luna nodded along slowly as I spoke, and she began her answer the very same way.

"...Melody was very troubled," she said. "Starlight has told me that she battled with her love of you and her hatred of Chrysalis, and that fact that you made her feel something she did not understand. And so she cooks up a plan that essentially involves traveling through time that requires her death, but it works. And then she tries to break into the most fortified castles in the world, and it works. So she reads about a mare who stood up to a princess, captures her, beats her, and it works. But then she leaves her alone when everything seems to fall into place." I found my eyes narrowing with every word, and at her final one, I leaned into her in disbelief.

"Luna, you're not implying that Melody... that she--"

"Wanted to lose? No, I am not. I'm merely saying it is one of many possibilities. Perhaps instead she truly did think herself vastly superior to Starlight Glimmer, and she meant to use her as an example for what would happen if anypony resisted her. Perhaps she grew tired of using underhooved tactics to capture all of us and felt like she needed to earn some part of her victory. I don't know, Celestia." Luna looked out toward the window, eyeing it down for a second before she concluded.

"Stars pray we never find out," she concluded.

We stayed silent for a moment, ignoring the elephant in the room. I was unhealthy to dwell too much on the past -- especially after what we had been through -- but Luna's words were biting far more than mere conjecture. I knew my sister hated silence, though, so it came as no surprise to me when she broke the stillness.

"I came to update you on Starlight, funnily enough," she told me. "She still requests we talk in her dreams every night. I know it is therapeutic for the mare, but... I cannot help but think she is using me to stave off nightmares. She has some ways to go before her world goes back to the way it was."

I leaned back in my chair and nodded once again, and I felt a small sigh escape my lips. What Starlight Glimmer did to save us all was far more than remarkable, but she'd been through Tartarus and back a thousand times over in the last month and a half compared to the two days of terror I'd experienced at the hooves of Melody. I initially requested that Luna check up on her for the first few nights, but it was looking as if Starlight was relying on my sister to get herself through them.

"...Thank you, Luna," I told her. "I may have to have a discussion with her sometime soon." To my surprise, I felt her wrap herself around me, and once the slight shock wore off, I gladly returned the hug I'd been given. She didn't dally long, though, and she broke off the embrace after a few seconds before looking to me with a warm smile.

"I'll leave you to your letters. I cannot imagine they speak fair of me, anyway." We both shared a quick laugh, and Luna glided out of the room just as gracefully as she'd entered.

I watched the door close, and after staring at it for a few seconds, I turned back to my letter. As I picked up the quill with my magic and was inches away from putting it in ink, though, I heard a series of knocks at the door.

I felt my eyes narrow as I whipped back around. It couldn't have been Luna -- this pony was far too polite and she had just been here -- and it was almost unheard of for a guard or a servant to request entrance to my personal chambers unless it was an emergency, in which case they would simply open the door.

"Come in!" I called. Slowly, the door opened, and I was greeted with a very familiar pair of bright red eyes and a quartet of tattoo sleeves that spiraled up the mare's legs. Silver Jubilee always carried a tranquil air about her, but right now, there was a very subtle shake in her as she called out to me.

"Hello, Celestia," she said with a very awkward formalness. "Um, there's something I want to talk to you about. It's, uh, something very important to me. It might take a while, if you aren't busy or anything."

I found myself reeling back a bit. This seemed to be weighing heavily on Silver's mind, and I felt my stomach drop as I thought back to the day when I woke up in this castle and my faithful student disappeared. It was a conversation that would probably be a bit heavier than most on Hearth's Warming Day, but I made sure to give her the widest beam I could as I pulled up a chair next to mine with my magic.

"I'm never busy when you want to talk, Silver," I told her. "Come take a seat."

As she walked toward me, I glanced back to the letter on the desk and let its first few words run through me one more time before I moved it aside.

Dear faithful student...

Dear Faithful Student

by Muramasa

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY NINE

CHAPTER THIRTY

EPILOGUE