The Architects of Fear
The full and silver disc of the moon shone down, illuminating the lonely rise of the geographical point known to those in the surrounding villages only as Sentinel Hill. Surrounded on all sides by dense, nigh impenetrable forest, the hill rose in such a way that some might be led to believe that its shape and placement might not be entirely natural. Perhaps this was why, some centuries past, somepony had chosen this place to build the Five Arches.
The artisan who shaped these structures might've been long since gone to dust, but his sculptures had withstood time and the elements fairly well thus far. Each arch stood roughly ten feet tall, was just as wide, was placed evenly in a wide circle, and constructed in the shape of open portals that led to nowhere. Each had, at some point, bore a symbol etched into the arch’s zenith, but these had not weathered the storm as well as the arches themselves. Perhaps, in the right light, and if they squinted hard enough, one might still have been able to determine the vague shapes' true natures. But to the naked eye? No chance.
In the center of the arches on this clear and cloudless night, the moon and stars her only companions, lay a young earth pony mare. Aided by a flickering lantern by her side, she read a book as she waited, glancing from time to time at the placement of the moon in the sky. And just what was she waiting for?
Well... she really didn't know.
The dream had come once she'd finally fallen asleep in her home, magically reconstructed in no time by her new unicorn friends. The past few days of her grand adventure had crashed down on her all at once, and she'd lost consciousness almost immediately. She'd been so exhausted that she couldn't even remember the dream, but somehow was still aware that she had heard... something. A voice had echoed in her waking mind, telling her to come to this place three days hence when the full moon was at its highest.
Her new friends had come along, though they'd respected her wishes and allowed her to climb the hill alone. They were probably all asleep in their camp below. She sighed, wanting nothing more than to join them. But the pull of the unknown was strong, and the time was hopefully soon at hoof.
Her eyelids began to droop as they scanned the familiar words of her favorite mystery novel. She started to consider the idea of closing her eyes for a quick nap. A soft wind blew across the hill top, ruffling the pages of her book and making the flame in the lantern dance. She felt herself beginning to drift away...
"Shadow Spade?" A voice she didn't recognize spoke right beside her ear. "Rarity would be thrilled to know that her favorite character is still around."
Sunny Starscout started at the sound of the voice, but found it so soothing and calm that she couldn't muster any fear of the sudden arrival of the stranger. She turned and felt her jaw drop at the sight of the purple face and ethereal mane that had covered so much of her wall-space in her youth. "It's... it's..."
Twilight Sparkle giggled, an unusually youthful sound for an alicorn that towered over the pony before her, and nodded. "Yes. I am." She bowed her head slightly. "And I'm so pleased to finally meet you, Sunny Starscout."
Sunny could have died right then and been satisfied. Princess Twilight Sparkle knew her name! She jumped to her hooves and bowed until her muzzle touched the grass. "Your Majesty, your Highness, your Grace..." She babbled.
Twilight giggled again and touched a hoof to Sunny's chin. She raised her face up and peered into her eyes. "Did you know that you're the spitting image of your ancestor?" She smiled. "Of course, she was a pegasus."
This time Sunny's legs nearly buckled. "My... my ancestor was a pegasus?!" Her mind reeled at so many of her father's theories being proven true. "So the tribes can interbreed, then? We aren’t too biologically different?" When Twilight's smile faded and she actually winced, Sunny quickly backtracked. "I'm sorry. Did I say something wrong?"
Twilight now looked pensive and sad. "You did, but it's not your fault." She seemed to recover quickly and stepped back. "So your wings and horn aren't permanent. How interesting..."
Sunny blushed under her idol's scrutiny and looked away. "Interesting?"
"As far as I know, you're the first earth pony to ascend. Maybe this is just how it works in that tribe? Or maybe it had more to do with the nature of your ascension... Oh, I wish I had my notebook..."
Sunny looked back quickly. "Ascension?"
"Of course. Your ascension to alicorn." The sad look returned to Twilight's eyes. "Don't tell me you've all forgotten about that too?"
Sunny felt crushingly guilty under those eyes. "I'm sorry. I'm just trying to understand. This is all so..."
"No. It's my fault. I should've prepared better." Twilight took a deep breath and brought her foreleg across her chest, outward, and then back to the ground as she exhaled in what was clearly some kind of calming action. "It's just... time works differently on the other side. I could see vague shapes and colors, but nothing specific. Not until you ascended. Then you became crystal clear."
"Wait. Are you talking about the wings and horn? That was supposed to be permanent?" Sunny gasped. "Did I do something wrong? Was I not worthy?"
"Oh, enough of this." A new voice cut through the night like a honed saber. "If we don't intervene these two will give each other panic attacks until the sun rises. And who knows if we'll ever be able to do this again?"
Sunny turned toward the voice and saw an ethereal light emanating from each of the arches around her. As she watched, four more figures emerged from the impossible nothingness beyond each portal. Each new arrival was a mare by their shape, and each varied in height... though even the shortest still stood a good foot over Sunny's own head. Each wore a set of feathered wings folded against their back, and each sported a gracefully spiraling horn from her forehead.
One, her coat a midnight blue and constellations dancing in her mane, peered down at the earth pony. "Untold centuries we have waited, and for what?" Her voice identified her as the first speaker, and her tone hid none of her disappointment. "A part-time alicorn?"
"Luna." The tallest of the new arrivals chastised the night mare. She offered Sunny an apologetic look. "Please forgive my sister. She never was a morning pony."
"Luna might have a point, Celestia." The smallest of the four looked distrustfully at the earth pony, her lithe form encased in beautifully crafted crystal armor. "If this is the best this new Equestria can muster, then..."
"I raised you better than that, Flurry." The pink one with a heart on her flank gestured at Twilight. "And your aunt definitely taught you better."
Sunny swallowed hard as she looked around at the five mares towering over her. "You... I know some of you." She looked to the midnight mare and the one in shining white. "You're the sisters from the bedtime story my Dad used to tell me."
"All our works, and what are we remembered as? Fairy tales." Luna snorted.
"At least you got remembered," Heart-flank muttered.
"This is the first time you've had a mouth in forever, Cadance." Luna snapped. "Perhaps you shouldn't waste this gift on whispering like the eternal school-filly you always pretended to be in life."
"Enough!" Twilight smashed her hoof to the ground and it sent a shockwave that raised all in attendance up several inches.
Luna glared, but did as she was bid.
"She knows who I am, but perhaps it would behoove you all if you told her who you were."
Luna sniffed haughtily and sat on her haunches. "I am Princess Luna." She directed at the still stunned Sunny. "Former sovereign of the night and warden of the dreamscape."
"Princess Celestia." The pale mare dipped her head as she, too, sat. "Wielder of the Sun, Defender of Equestria, and..." She tilted her head at Luna. "This one's older sister."
"By a mere two minutes." Luna nearly whispered.
"Now who's muttering?" Cadance giggled as she sat. "I'm Cadance, former foal-sitter, loving wife, beloved mother, and Princess of the Crystal Empire." She glanced at the youngest alicorn. "At least... once beloved."
Flurry's hardened facade faltered and she very nearly collapsed into her mother's waiting embrace. "I've wanted to hug you for so long, Mommy." She looked at Sunny and her eyes were like steel once more. "Flurry Heart; the Armored Pulse, the Storm Borne..." She looked at Twilight with some embarrassment. "...and the first, and last, Empress of Equestria."
Sunny took in the introductions in silent wonder. "How... how is this possible? Aren't you all... y'know?" She made a vague gesture with her hooves.
"Dead?" Celestia laughed airily. "Indeed. As doornails, I believe the expression goes."
"Then how are you all here?"
"The magic of this particular night goes back much further than either my sister or myself. It falls but once each year." Luna pointed at the moon she once wielded. "It is only every other century that this particular moon rises on this most holy of nights. It is on this night, and no other, that the barriers between the worlds of the living and the dead become paper thin. The dead can talk. And, with the proper passages prepared," She indicated the arches. "The dead can walk as well."
"We used to call it Nightmare Night. Made it a night of costumes and candy." Flurry tried to laugh, but she seemed uncomfortable with the effort. Cadance held her daughter tighter.
"We were very lucky that you ascended when you did." Twilight said. "If you hadn't, who knows how long it would have been before we were able to call you here?"
"But what if I'm not really ascended?" Sunny looked backwards at her lack of wings. "My wings and horn vanished not long after they appeared."
"You heard my message telling you to come here." Twilight extended a wing in the direction of the portal from which she'd come. "And these would only have activated if a living alicorn was near." She smiled gently at the little pony. "While they might not be visible all the time, they are there. Because you more than earned them."
"Being an alicorn is... earned?"
"Sometimes." Cadance chimed in. "For Twilight and myself it was, anyway."
"I still don't understand." Sunny said. "All I did was make a few friends and get some crystals together. How does that make me worthy to be like any of you?"
"Believe it or not, Sunny Starscout, what you did was the first step in undoing years and years’ worth of misery." Celestia was smiling, but there was something uncertain in her eyes. "The first step of many, unfortunately."
Sunny brightened suddenly, as though it had only just now clicked with her who it was she was talking to. "Wait a minute." She looked at the alicorns in desperate wonder. "You know."
"We know many things." For the first time, a ghost of what might have been a smile crossed Luna's lips. "You'll have to be more specific."
"I mean... you know how we got here, to this point." She looked to Twilight. "You all being here, talking to me? It means the stories are all true. The Golden Age of Harmony isn't just a fairy tale. It really happened."
"Technically my time was the Third Golden Age." Twilight gently corrected her.
Sunny pressed on. "How did it end? How did peace and prosperity for all creatures, pony and non-pony alike, come to..." She gestured at the land beyond Sentinel Hill. "All of this?"
Twilight looked at her contemporaries, a new look in her eyes. "We have to tell her everything. Agreed?"
Flurry finally pulled away from her mother's embrace and stared at the grass. "She's going to have to know it all if she's going to make an informed decision." She looked at her aunt, steely determination etched into her young face. "You start."
Sunny looked back and forth between the mares. "What decision?"
"You'll understand shortly." Celestia nodded to Twilight. "Begin, my most faithful student."
Twilight took another of those deep calming breaths before she sat and began speaking. "We could never have imagined at the time that the beginning of the Third Golden Age would mark the end of everything we worked for. Of course, we never could've believed how deeply the seeds of distrust the villains Lord Tirek, Queen Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow had been planted." She looked to the stars. "Small, tinny voices preaching messages of hate and disloyalty grew louder every year. My Council of Friendship did what it could, but there's only so much five mares can do... especially when they're aging." She quickly wiped a stray tear as soon as it appeared. "My friends passed, one by one, and I filled their places on the Council as best as I was able. But within a generation? It just wasn't the same. And as the bonds between us weakened, so too did our influence."
"And those small voices began to grow louder." Celestia said.
"And, from time to time, they'd become so loud they'd call out to those who were always waiting for another chance to feed." Luna finished.
Sunny's ears flicked toward the word 'feed.' "What do you mean?"
"The Windigoes." Twilight's horn lit and a magical manifestation of a creature formed of icy wind appeared in the air above them. "Creatures that plagued the tribes long before the founding of Equestria. We'd thought them banished for generations, but they had never gone far. They were always lurking just beyond our borders, waiting to hear the siren call of disharmony and hate."
Sunny shrinked away from the image, shivering despite there being no chill in the air. "What did you do?"
"The only thing we could. Anytime a Windigo was sighted, we would seek out the source of disharmony and do our best to undo it. At first it was only every century or so. Then every other decade. Then multiple times a year. Something drastic had to be done." Twilight looked sadly past the summoned image and into the starry night. "I was losing control of the nation because the Windigoes took all of my attention. I needed something to remove them from the board completely."
Cadance smiled gently down at the young mare in her embrace. "And that something turned out to be right in front of us the whole time."
Sunny gaped at the youngest alicorn. "You destroyed them?"
"Of course I didn't!" Flurry snapped, a stray bolt of magic lancing from her horn and blasting apart the summoned image. She wilted under her mother's and aunt's gaze. "Sorry. It's just... I wanted to. But those things... they're forces of nature. Ancient magic. It would be like killing the air, or gravity itself. I couldn't destroy them." She cast down her eyes. "But I could lock them away."
"It was the greatest expenditure of magic in the history of our world." Celestia's sage words broke in. "Nopony but Flurry could have done it."
"It really wasn't all that complicated." Flurry was blushing now. "Just a slight modification of the same spell the two of you used on King Sombra back in the day. It just required a little more oomph without the Elements at my disposal."
"You leveled a mountain range." Luna raised an eyebrow. "That's quite a bit of oomph."
"…I put them back." Flurry muttered sheepishly.
"In any case, the threat of the Windigoes was thus removed from the board. Without the need to quash every petty squabble between the tribes, I was able to devote my attentions to more pressing matters." Twilight's face fell. "Of course, I didn't realize at the time how quickly petty squabbles can grow out of control."
"But... you must've been busy with really important stuff, right?"
Twilight's mood seemed to lift for the moment. "I thought so. I never stopped experimenting, you know. I developed the beginnings of a lot of the technology that you all use these days. That mass communication system your friend the pegasus princess uses?"
"The Internet?"
"Well, I called it the Aethernet. It made sense to me since it allowed various medias to be transmitted via the magical aether that fills the world and..."
"Twilight." Cadance's tone was stern.
Twilight's ears flattened. "Sorry. I just... I really don't like this next part."
"I don't either. But you said we'd tell her everything." Cadance took her own deep breath and looked to Sunny. "For a while, everything was okay. But then an Abyssinian sorcereress named Caterina led a rebellion and seized control of the underground kingdoms. Her next move was to establish a base on the surface to continue her conquest there. The Crystal Empire seemed perfect; far enough beyond Equestria's borders, surrounded by natural terrain on all sides, and down to a single alicorn to protect it."
Flurry Heart caught Sunny's question before it left her lips. "Sealing away the Windigoes took a lot out of me. I..." She coughed. "I had to take a little nap."
"How little?"
"Um... three years?" She shrugged. "Give or take a day."
"I knew that Caterina wouldn't hesitate to get Flurry out of the way while she was out of commission. I fought her myself, my messages for aid to Twilight not getting through because Caterina's magic kept blocking them. In the end, she struck a mortal blow, and I did the only thing I could." She wrapped her daughter in her arms and held her tight. "I did what any mother would do."
"Cadance poured every last drop of magic she had into one final, desperate attack." Twilight whispered in reverence of the mare who had been a mentor, friend, and sister. "And it worked. Caterina was finished."
"But I had no hope of healing myself." The Princess of Love wiped a tear from her eye. "So I used the last of my strength to get to Flurry, and I held her. One last time."
Flurry was crying now. "And that's what I woke up to." She sniffled. "It isn't fair. Think of how different things would have turned out if I had just woken up a few hours earlier..."
"We can't trouble ourselves with what might have been." Celestia offered. "Especially given what we are now."
Sunny was staring at the weeping mother and daughter. She forced herself to meet Twilight’s eyes once more. "What... what happened next?"
"Losing Cadance was a heavier blow than I expected." Twilight sighed. "For the first time, I realized that while we alicorns had near-immortality, under the right conditions we could still die." She chuckled darkly. "So, being me, I designed a fail-safe should the unthinkable came to pass."
Sunny's eyes lit up. "The crystals!"
Twilight smiled at the filly-like enthusiasm, trying not to be sad at how much it reminded her of her own youth. "Yes. Each imbued with the living magic of an alicorn and entrusted to each of the tribes. I'd hoped that this honor, this responsibility, would help bring the tribes together again." Her gaze fell upon Celestia and Luna. "But, to activate the crystals, I had to ask..."
"Of the many worries that still trouble you, Twilight, do not let this be among them." Celestia bowed her head. "I would've said yes no matter what."
"As would I." Luna chimed in.
Sunny looked at the two sisters in awe. "You... you gave your lives to empower the crystals?"
"Retirement was getting boring." Celestia smirked. "I imagined that death would be the next great adventure."
"And of course I couldn't let her go anywhere without me. Imagine the trouble she could get herself into."
Celestia giggled. "Look who's talking, Lulu."
Sunny looked back to her idol. "But that's only two. What about the third?"
"I had poured much of my magic into the Crystal Heart, the relic that protected the Empire." Cadance again joined the conversation. "Twilight was able to withdraw what she needed to empower the final crystal."
"With the crystals complete, I gifted each to a representative of each tribe. I assured them of the tremendous importance of the items, and for a time..." She stopped to catch her breath. "For a time, it seemed to work."
Sunny swallowed hard. "And then?"
Twilight met Sunny's eyes, and now her gaze was hard. "The plague. A sickness of unknown origin swept the whole of Equestria. Hundreds of thousands died. I drained the royal coffers, worked myself nearly to death, and still we could never find the origin of the sickness nor the cure. The plague only infected Equestrians, so the dragons, the griffons, all the other creatures who had learned our ways of friendship? They saw the way they were now being looked at; with suspicion and rage. They withdrew from us, far from our borders. They still dwell in the lands beyond, most in the peace and harmony that has long abandoned our world." Twilight choked on a sob, the tears flowing freely now. "In this chaos and confusion, the voices grew louder and stronger than ever before. Some claimed that it was only the other tribes who were suffering. Some claimed that it was divine punishment from some force beyond. And some..." She looked at Sunny with such heartbreak that she too began to cry. "Some said that it was our doing. That the royals were to blame." She broke the gaze and stared at the ground. "Even now... even now, I don't blame them for what they..."
"No! You cannot excuse them for what they did!" Flurry broke from her mother's embrace and glared at her aunt. "They snuck into your home in the dead of night. They didn't even have the courage to look into your eyes when they did it. They had to wait until you were asleep to... to..." She roared and stomped the ground, and lightning lanced across the sky with a rumble of thunder. "YOU WERE ALL I HAD LEFT, AND THEY TOOK YOU FROM ME! And then they had the audacity, the unmitigated gall, to send me a message bragging about what they'd done, about how free they were now, and warning me that the same might happen to me one day." She bared her teeth, and Sunny withdrew on instinct. "Could anypony blame me for what came next?"
"What... what did you do?"
"I did what needed to be done." Flurry tossed back her head and stared into the night sky, as though daring a watching star to fall and strike her down. "I amassed my forces, I marched on Canterlot, and I conquered the whole of Equestria. I showed them why they called me the Armored Pulse, and what a real warrior princess could do. And then..." She deflated. "And then I got sick." Her haughty stance faltered, the defiance fading from her eyes. "That's how the Third Golden Age of Harmony ended; with the last living alicorn, the Empress of Equestria, choking on her own vomit, alone in a ruined and deserted castle." She fell, and Cadance was there to catch her and hold her as she wept.
"It's not your fault, Flurry." Twilight assured her niece. "We failed you. You were like a newly forged sword, untempered and flawed. If we'd had more foresight, more time..." She shook her head and looked at Sunny once more.
Sunny grappled with the revelations she'd just been handed. Her idols, her mentors... the very period of time she held herself to the standard to? It was nothing like how she'd imagined it. "So, that's it then?"
"Oh, Sunny." Twilight whispered, lowering her head and nuzzling the young unicorn. "I'm sorry, but you needed to know how it ended. We weren't perfect. We were just ponies, like you and your friends. We made mistakes. Now you can learn from them." Something in her eyes hardened. "And maybe fix some of them."
"What do you mean?"
"You, Sunny Starscout, can undo the greatest mistake we ever made." Twilight stood to her full height, looking every inch the princess she'd always been in Sunny's mind. "You alone now can aid in restoring this land to its former glory. Are you up to the task?"
Something in Twilight's voice filled Sunny with a warmth and love she hadn't known since her father left. Determination flooded her heart, and she stood straight and tall. "I'll do whatever it takes."
"Then you have a choice to make." Twilight nodded to Luna. The princess of the night nodded in return, and her horn lit with a gentle glow of moonlight. Two matching spheres of magic appeared in the midst of the gathering. "Two paths lie ahead of you." Twilight continued. "Both lead to the reconciliation of the tribes and the restoration of Equestria, but both have their share of strife."
"Pretty sure I said 'whatever it takes.'" Sunny offered cockily.
Twilight gestured to the first sphere. "This is the longer path." She gently pushed the magic sphere through the air until it reached Sunny's forehead.
At the moment of contact, raw power flooded the little pony's body. Her mind was cast into the void, and she saw flashes of images rushing past;
...a bloody battle, trapped in a stalemate... a gathering of pegasi storming away from a protesting Sunny... a trial, with an earth pony judge sentencing Izzy to death... a massive celebration, where she and her friends were the guests of honor... but now they were old, withered, and gray... and of Pipp, there was no sign...
Sunny gasped as the sphere withdrew contact. She blinked rapidly and looked around at the assembled princesses. "Was that...?"
"The future? Yes. A possible one." Twilight eyed the sphere carefully.
"What did it all mean?"
"What you and your friends have begun today is only the genesis of what must be done, Sunny." Luna said. "You've reconnected the tribes in this one locale, yes, but there are dozens of others all across the land. To properly fulfill your purpose, you will have to spend your entire life undoing the damage that has been wrought. It will take you until nearly your dying day."
"I... I didn't see Pipp at the end there."
Luna gave only a slow nod.
"So I lose friends along the way?"
"You saw what you saw. These are but dreams, and the future is ever-shifting. It is a chance you must be willing to take."
Sunny eyed the second sphere. "Okay, so that was the longer path. Looked pretty rough. So this must the easier of the two, right?"
"Don't call it that." Twilight advised as the sphere floated closer. "I many ways, this is the harder path. Though, to be fair, it is much shorter."
Now knowing what to expect, Sunny leaned forward and initiated contact this time. There was the same moment of disorientation, of discombobulation, but this time she was cold.
So very, very cold…
...a wasteland of white... Maretime Bay frozen solid... ponies of all three tribes huddling close by struggling fires... she and her friends walking together from settlement to settlement, gathering followers along the way... the brilliant burn of a violet flame, sending hordes of shrieking ghosts into the sky... a land of peace, restored, and happy...
Sunny fell backwards, clutching herself to guard from the intense cold that was no longer there. "W-what...?"
"The harder path." Twilight repeated. "But shorter, in the long run."
"Sunny Starscout, you have the opportunity to undo our greatest mistake." Cadance stood tall.
"You can free the Windigoes." Flurry Heart stood beside her mother.
Sunny stared at them in horror and confusion. "Free the... but... are you insane?!" She gestured at the land beyond the hill's rise. "Do you have any idea what it's like out there?! Those things feed on fear and division, right? It'll be a smorgasbord for them, and a massacre for us!"
"Yes." Celestia nodded knowingly. "Many will die. Many more will suffer terribly."
"Then why would I ever...?"
"Because while the road is harder, it is also much shorter." Luna eyed the sphere with a strange mixture of hatred and hope. "With the tribes threatened by a foe they can see, they can feel, they will be more amenable to your ideas of unification. Those who hold true to the ideals of hate and separation will be dealt with more easily. Think of it as a... bonus. Albeit a grim one."
"A bonus?!" Sunny's voice cracked. "You're talking about potentially thousands of ponies freezing or starving to death."
“Perhaps tens of thousands.” Luna agreed. "Just as it happened in the years before the First Golden Age."
Sunny rounded on her idol. "You of all ponies couldn't possibly expect me to..." but the look on Twilight Sparkle's face was all the answer she needed. "You do, don't you?"
Twilight breathed heavily. "Helping Flurry to seal away the Windigoes was the greatest mistake I made in a long history of mistakes. I didn't realize it until long after, but by then it was too late. Otherwise? I would have freed them myself."
"But why?!" Sunny demanded. "You're Twilight Sparkle! You could've found another way! You just needed..."
"Time?" Twilight nodded. "Do you know what I've realized about time, Sunny Starscout? Time is a flat circle. Time repeats. The ages that came before our recorded history? I have little doubt that they mirrored our own. Ages of harmony borne from untold ages of suffering. Because you cannot have peace forever. Strife must have her time at the table."
Sunny shook her head. "But... there has to be another way. We've made a start, found the roots of friendship. And didn't you always say that friendship is magic?"
"Friendship is magic." Twilight's eyes briefly glimmered with tears, but they were gone just as quickly. "But friendship must be founded on something else for it to mean anything."
"I told you; the Windigoes are a force of nature." Flurry Heart said. "Part of this world's nature, and part of pony nature as well. They are the force that drew us together, that forced us to cement bonds that echoed down through the ages. When I removed them from the equation, look at how bad things got. And how quickly."
"Our ancestors gathered around the fires long before friendship's flame first burst into life, Sunny." Cadance said solemnly. "Earth pony, pegasi, and unicorn all huddled together in the warmth and the light to ward off the predators that hid in the shadows. That was the beginning of everything."
"Friendship is magic, Sunny." Twilight leaned down and looked hard into Sunny's eyes. "But the foundation of friendship? It's fear."
"Fear brings us together." Luna said.
"Fear unites us." Celestia joined in.
"Fear makes us realize that we can't make it through this world alone." Cadance rang out.
"Fear drives us to protect those we care about, and to do what must be done." Flurry stood at attention, like a soldier.
"Fear is the very foundation of friendship, and now? When things are at their worst?" Twilight stood to her full height and spread her wings wide. "Fear is our greatest hope."
Sunny wanted to wilt beneath alicorn's gaze... but she held her ground and stood tall. "Let’s say that I agreed with you all; how would I even do it?"
"The Windigoes are sealed away in a tomb." Flurry told her. "I called it the Casket of Forever Winter. It's hidden deep in the mountains, to the very north of Equestria. The Casket has only a single lock, but the lock can only be broken by an alicorn."
"We can't tell you which path to take, Sunny." Celestia told her. "The choice is yours. Either leads to the beginning of a new Golden Age of Harmony."
Sunny considered her words carefully. "I... I don't think I can make this choice."
"That's why it's you that has to make it." Luna smiled, really smiled, for the first time all night. "The very fact that you're grappling with what to do means that you're the right pony to do it." The sun was now beginning to peak over the horizon, and the midnight blue mare eyed her sister. "Just enough time for a short flight. Would you join me?"
"You know I always treasured our early morning glides, dear sister." Celestia gave Sunny a small bow as she spread her wings. "Good fortune to you, Sunny Starscout. Whatever choice you make, follow through to the best of your ability." With parting nods to her fellow alicorns, the former princess spread her great wings wide and soared into the air with nary a gust of wind to show for it, Luna not far behind. The sisters of sun and moon vanished into the dying night together, lost in the stars.
"Flurry?"
The youngest alicorn stopped staring at her hoof, now becoming more and more translucent as the sun continued to rise, and looked to her mother's voice.
"Will you come with me this time?" Cadance offered a hoof. "Haven't you walked alone long enough? You’ve long paid penance for what happened."
"Is... is Daddy there?" She sniffled.
"Of course he is." Cadance beamed at her. "And he misses you terribly."
The former Empress of Equestria gave one last look to Sunny, gave the slightest of nods in farewell, and then trotted eagerly into her mother's waiting arms. They vanished together like so much smoke...
...and then there were two.
Twilight Sparkle's wings lowered, and she looked at the rising sun, then back to Sunny. "I know this was a lot to take in."
Sunny laughed quietly. "Yeah. Kinda."
Twilight chuckled. "Any other questions before I go? We likely won't see each other again. At least not for a very long time."
Sunny thought long and hard about it. The line of dawn stretched further and further. Finally, she asked the only question she could. "Why me? Why not Hitch, or Pipp? Or Zip? Or Izzy?"
Twilight's smile was radiant, even as her body became translucent and hazy. "Some questions don't have answers, my little pony. And others we can only answer for ourselves. I have a feeling that, one day, you'll find the answer you seek." She spread her wings once more and stood tall. "Your adventure has only just begun, Sunny. Cherish it. Cherish your friends. And no matter what comes next, whatever path you choose, always remember." Her eyes flashed white. "Friendship will always be magic."
The sun crested, the full light fell on the hill... and she was gone.
The lantern's light finally gave one last flicker, and then gave up the ghost.
Sunny slumped next to her book and absently wiped the morning dew from the cover. She sat and she waited and she thought as the sun continued to rise. She didn't know if it was minutes or hours later, but eventually the sound of hoof steps signaled the arrival of her friends.
"So... how did it go?" Zipp asked, eying the now cold and dead lantern. "Did you sleep at all?"
"Did you see the princesses?" Pipp practically squealed. "Oh, what were they like?"
Izzy lowered herself beside her friend and nuzzled her. "Hey. Are you okay?"
Sunny met her unicorn friend's eyes and wondered what it would be like to lose her. "I'm... I'm fine." She looked at Pipp, remembering the pegasi's absence in her first vision, the one of a longer road to harmony. "I did see them, and I know what we have to do next."
"What? Another road trip?" Hitch chuckled. "Where to?"
"The North. The distant north." Sunny stood and looked in the indicated direction, determination filling her heart.
"Why North?" Izzy rose and followed her sightline. "What are we going to do there?"
Sunny couldn't see them, but she could feel them; the wings and horn that had marked her, transformed her. She took a deep breath, hardening herself for the days to come. The choice was hers... but, in the end, was there really a choice?
"We're going to save the world."