Shouldn´t have done that...

Written, translated, edited and post corrected by me: Nova Star Sparkle

Further post-correction of the first two chapters by Phetiamwantip - Thanks!

*1*

It should have been the best day of her life, but suddenly everything went so catastrophically wrong and up until now she just didn't know where it all started to go down the drain. She had just finished the last preparations in Canterlot Castle for her ascent to the throne of Equestria and the associated sole rule over a kingdom of millions of ponies. And suddenly she found herself in what was probably the greatest crisis Equestria had ever known.

Princess Twilight Amicitia Aurora Sparkle, youngest of Equestria's four alicorn princesses, but easily the smartest and most well-read mare nonetheless, simply didn't know what had gone wrong at all.

Tearing herself from her thoughts, she looked angrily and in horror across the green meadow covered with dark, ominous clouds above the three culprits responsible for all this crazy nonsense. The big, red minotaur Lord Tirek, the black former Changeling Queen Chrysalis, and the medium brown Pegasus foal - or now rather artificial alicorn Cozy Glow.

Each of the three had a smug and triumphant expression on their visage. Especially Chrysalis, who was just about to threaten to hurt Spike's wings with her magic. Spike, her oldest friend she ever had. Her brother - almost son as close as the relationship between them was. She just didn't know where the buck went wrong.

"Ow, ow, ow! Please! Stop, it freaking hurts like hell!", whimpered Spike in pain as the changeling queen dragged further and harder on his wings, grinning as she looked over at the six shocked mares.

"STOP!", Twilight heard herself command with her mind racing in the royal Canterlot voice. "Please don't hurt him. We surrender." Which she hung her head and used both wings to indicate to her friends standing behind her to stop fighting.

The five other mares paused as they usually did upon hearing Twilight's voice. There was a reason why the lavender alicorn mare had been chosen to be the leader of their little crisis defense force over the years. Her abilities to make decisions and logic in the shortest amount of time and come up with calculations that none of them could begin to grasp were as brilliant, as the young mare herself.

"That's right. Surrender and kiss our hooves," Chrysalis snickered as she used her magic to throw Spike to Twilight who caught the young dragon with her own. She then hugged him tightly and reassured him with her furry chest. For that, she extended both her wings around him and embraced him in a warm cocoon of her appendages to shield the youngling from the world.

"Spike! Spike? Are you all right? Did she hurt you badly?" Twilight´s voice was soft and caring, but also had a tint of concern for the well being of the young drake.

"I -I'm fine," Spike shakily replied faintly with tears in his eyes as he briefly looked up to Twilight’s caring, purple, and almond-shaped eyes. He snuggled tighter into his foster mother's lavender, soft and warm fur in response. The alicorn's heartbeat, very calm and rhythmic despite the situation, ensured that his own racing heart slowly calmed down. After a minute, Twilight carefully grabbed him in her magic again and lowered him to the ground beside the other girls, whereupon the young dragon hastily squeezed himself between the larger mares. A little more assured, Spike dared to look once more at the creatures that were responsible for everything.

"WHAT do you want?", demanded Twilight in a sharp tone, the corners of her mouth pulled back in a slight snarl and her spiral horn still blazing with her tremendous magenta alicorn magic. This led Spike to conclude that Twilight had probably a solid plan and was likely casting protection charms onto the nearby area, to protect them from as much harm as possible.

"Other than your complete surrender; you abdicating as Regent and leaving Equestria to us; as well as dropping your secret games? Nothing," Cozy's voice sneered at Twilight.

"And that you will do nothing when we wipe you out of existence," Tirek's voice boomed. Shocking all present and inclining them to turn their heads to the centaur.

"Wait, what? Are we sure we wanna do that?", The alicorn pimped Pegasus foal wheeled around to Tirek with a high-pitched voice. That wasn´t something they had talked about in Grogar´s cave back this morning.

"Absolutely. What did you think? This is the perfect opportunity. Our six worst enemies gathered in one place. Powerless against us and what we can do to them. I would say that’s the jackpot'', Chrysalis´s laugh was nasty. Her horn was already lit up in joyful anticipation.

"Ehh- Hm, well, ok, if you say so. I'm in." Cozy Glow also summoned her magic and united it with that of the former changeling queen. Nodding proudly, Lord Tirek also added his centaur magic, and the three prepared to deliver a devastating blow to the assembled mares in front of them.

All of Twilight's friends as well as Spike moved closer to join their leader and even though the situation was not a pleasant one, Twilight's heart was warmed a lot. Even in this hopeless situation, the girls were ready to go through it with her and didn't budge an inch from her side. She truly had the best of friends one could wish for and she was willing to give it all to preserve their legendary bond.

The attack of the three villains was meanwhile nearly ready and Cozy, as well as Chrysalis was already lifting their horns into the air, both ready to start the attack whenever they wished. Only Tirek was still waiting, adding a constant bit more power to the ball of energy between the three. Just to be sure. Alicorns were known to be incredibly resilient and you never knew with these seven what secret powers they had.

Deciding to make a move and easing the embrace of her friends by opening both of her wings and pushing the embrace apart, Twilight took a step forward. "Wait! Take me and spare my friends. Do whatever you want to me. I don't care as long as I know they're safe." Twilight then meekly bowed her head to indicate that she wasn't kidding.

"Well, if it isn't the princess of friendship. Always ready to sacrifice herself for her friends. Noble, noble." Tirek's voice almost dripped with cynical elements, and as Twilight glanced up she saw the centaur lord grinning broadly with his hand raised. The magic ball still hovered in front of the three attackers, but as long as Tirek didn't let go of his control over it and lowered his hand, it wouldn't move or vanish into thin air. Just increasingly bigger and more threatening.

"Hm, but I'm having a good day, so I say we take you up on your offer. I even have already some cruel plans for you as we speak."

Reluctantly, Twilight began to slowly trot over to the three villains. She did not want them to win. But if that was the only way she could save her friends, she was determined to do anything, no matter how degrading it was for her status as a princess of Equestria.

About halfway across the field, she paused as she heard a comment that made her blood run cold, jerking her head back to its full height she locked forward, terrified. Unfortunately for her, however, a moment too late.

"Hmm, whereas, come to think of it. Why not kill two birds with one stone and take away the one thing that matters to the princess of friendship and still do all the nasty things with her?"

Twilight stared stock-still at Tirek as he lowered his hand, causing the massive ball of magic to shoot forward at incredible speed.

In the fraction of a second it would take the ball of magic to reach her, Twilight calculated everything three times over. The angle was too high to be aimed at her and after a second thought, she realized it was aimed at her friend’s behind. Also, the power of the magic was far too high to create a stable enough shield to repel the attack in such a short time, even for her. Only self-teleportation was truly instantaneous and any other spell took, if very little time, still a few milliseconds to form completely. And even as an alicorn and guardian of magic, that time was still insufficient to get enough mana into her horn. Nor would she be able to pull her friends out of the way with her magic, even that required too much time. There was only one way that would work and Twilight was ready.

With a war cry and tears in her eyes, she energized her horn and teleported straight into the path of the magical ball aimed at her friends. I'm so sorry, girls. I never meant for it to come to this. Maybe someday you will understand what I have done. Maybe not now, but someday. Keep the memories of me fresh and live your lives to the fullest. I know it will be hard for you, but promise me you will. You don’t deserve to mourn because of me. It's not worth it. I’m just another pony like anyone else.

Before the girls even knew what was about to happen, Twilight had vanished in front of them with a bright flash of magic, and reappeared three meters above them - to their combined shock directly in the path of the magic ball, much too close for them to do anything about it. They had still hope, Twilight was a very strong and capable mare with very good skills in Magic. Whatever she did had a reason, so the alicorn must have had a Plan in her mind to avert the crisis.

But that hope was instantly crushed as to everyone's horror they realized, the alicorn had not placed a single protective spell or rune around her body, nor did she make any effort to protect herself in the first place. Rainbow Dash, by far the fastest of the five, tried to get close to Twilight. But even she didn't make it more than ten meters before the magic struck Twilight.

With open mouths and horrified impressions on their faces, they had to watch as Twilight was directly hit slightly above the center of her muzzle causing the magic to explode in a bright red flash. That in itself would have been bad enough if the alicorn's long horn didn't begin to crack almost at its base from the impact, splintering with thousands of sparks of magic.

The likely cry of pain from their alicorn friend was fortunately drowned out completely by the force and volume of the explosion, and secretly the mares were grateful for it. They didn’t even want to begin imagining it. Even though they knew exactly what this meant for the alicorn of magic. Their skilled friend would never be able to use her spell magic again. Yes, Pegasus and Earth pony magic, but spells were a no-go for the young alicorn now. To further worsen it, they also had to watch Twilight's fur and feathers being partially burned by the intense heat of the magical explosion.

The concentrated force of the impact caused Twilight's body to bypass several laws of nature and accelerate back so fast that within half a second she was flung past her friends and slammed sideways with her back into the rock wall 50 meters behind them at near tribble the speed of sound. The impact was so strong that Twilight’s body was driven almost 2 meters into the rock before her momentum stopped.

Sadly, the sounds of this were not drowned out and Twilight's body made some sickening cracking noises on the impact. Clearly she did not escape unharmed and some of her bones got broken. Which made the mares flinch even more in terror. As a result, Twilight slid forward to the ground from the impact and remained to lie there motionless.

The crown she had been wearing all this time fell off her head and came to rest clanging next to her head, funnily enough, unscathed as it was made from an enriched alicornite frame and reinforced shade, a very expensive metal used mostly for showcases as it had a pleasant deep blue color but was not very practical for creating stuff for the common ponies, as it was just too expensive to compensate for its advantages. Both materials were incredibly sturdy and the first even known to be indestructible by any means and magic-repelling once refined. A purple-hued material naturally found in small quantities in the blood, bones, fur, skin, and cells of an alicorn, hence the given name.

Alicornite seemed like it was a metal, thanks to its characteristics, but had some things not normal for a metal. As it was not ferromagnetic or you could have something stick to it at all, could both conduct and lead current at the same time, depending if it was positive or negative charged and as said had no melting point and could only be influenced by alicorn magic in its unrefined state. Once refined it began changing its molecularity in a few minutes in physically impossible ways and became the indestructible self it was known.

Turning their gaze deeper, the mares saw that both of Twilight’s eyes were closed and half of the mare´s mane was at least burnt or singed at the ends.

Immediately disgusted all of Twilight´s friends looked away from the unfortunate sight, as they couldn´t stand the lock of how Twilight's body lay there behind them so motionless and battered. But they couldn´t help but notice that in addition to the burns all over her body, she had also suffered countless cuts and bruises caused by the merciless rock she crashed into. Also, her left wing and hoof had an unsightly twist, but thanks to the fantastic pegasus and earth pony regeneration, that every alicorn naturally got, that would prove to be unproblematic for her in a few seconds. Worst of all, however, was the fact that the mare's hip, due to hitting the wall at an inappropriate angle sideways and with her back to the wall, was abnormally torqued to the side causing her spine to certainly be at least severely injured. It was even quite possible that the alicorn was paralyzed and would never be able to walk in her entire life. Well, magic was a powerful kind of force so it was still possible that Twilight would be able to walk later, but that was overlooked by the mares in the current situation.

"TWILIGHT, NO!!!!!!", everyone cried out at almost the same time, and tears had begun to form in the eyes of Fluttershy, Rarity, and Rainbow Dash. The cyan pegamare dropped to the ground beside the two others, as she had forgotten to flap her wings in terror. Applejack and Pinkie Pie were able to bear it for a moment longer until their hooves also gave way in grief and despair as they sank to the ground beside their other three friends, crying. All hope for the mares had been extinguished in a split second. Without Twilight, they would never have even the slightest chance against these three monsters. And as their alicorn friend was currently knocked unconscious, there was so far nothing they could do.

"Oh, would you look at that? If that's not a surprising twist of fate then call me whatever you want. Too bad really, I had so many more ways of torture in store for Princess Twilight."

Tirek's voice made the mares flinch and they all at once returned their gaze to the villains standing in the distance, who had just unintentionally succeeded so well in their attack. Their gazes darkened as they saw Tirek smiling broadly and almost gloating at the sight of their distress. In no way were his emotions marked by remorse or compassion, just cynical joy.

In Chrysalis's eyes, there was a surprise but also a spark of satisfaction and contentment. While she would not have wished that on the young arch-enemy alicorn, now there was nothing she could do about it anyway, so she just had to go with it. No matter if she liked it or not. As long as the danger was out of the way, that was enough for her. Even though the means were still a bit dramatic for her taste.

Cozy Glow, on the other hoof, was horrified. It couldn't be, could it? It just wasn’t possible. Surely the lavender princess would get up in a moment, compose herself briefly, and heal her injuries. After which she would storm off angrily at her and show how not in any way their attacks had bothered her. As the seconds dragged on, however, the young pegasus hope evaporated. Twilight didn't move an inch and remained to lie in the grass as wounded as she was. No! No, no... She never wanted that. All of this was too much for the young Pegacorn. Also beginning to get tears in her eyes, she slowly sank to the ground.

"Please, no!", Cozy wailed while holding her hooves in front of her eyes, her sobs penetrating the else-so-quiet surroundings.

"Pull yourself together little brat. There's no need to cry, it's her damned fault. No harm would have come to her if she hadn't teleported into the trajectory."

Tirek had shifted his attention to Cozy and was looking down at her without sympathy. From his point of view, Cozy was too soft and young to subdue Equestria anyway, the foal would never make a name for herself with that attitude. Hmm, he would just have to put up with Cozy for now and deal with the problem permanently later.

Eyes red with tears, Cozy looked up at the centaur. Her gaze was uncomprehending, for the centaur's callousness. He couldn't be serious - could he? I mean, how could anyone have so little emotion about something like that? Yes, they were all villains, and Twilight was by far their biggest nemesis. However, Cozy would never have wanted anyone to get seriously hurt. Not even Princess Twilight, her biggest enemy. No matter how much Cozy had tried to convince herself to be cynical, that never was and probably never would be her. There had always been a bad ulterior motive gnawing at her for what she was doing, regardless of what she tried.

As such, she turned to the giant centaur next to her and glared at him as menacingly as she could, which, due to the mighty size difference and attitude between her and Tirek, however, didn't have much effect on the latter. Her voice was just a bit shaky from her reason for crying, but she still managed to nail it pretty solid.

"What do you think she would do if you betrayed your oath to her and directly targeted her friends? The same ponies she values the most would do anything to protect them from any harm and truly give even her own life if needed. I mean, she TRUSTED you to hold your promise, DAMN IT. Look what you've done, was it worth it in the end?" Cozy pointed with a trembling hoof over to the grieving mares and the broken body of Twilight lying behind them.

Suddenly, faster than her mind or body could react, her entire body was mercilessly grabbed in a red glow and brought just in front of Tirek's face. If the centaur had glowered down at her viciously before, he topped it by leaps and bounds now. His gaze was so piercing and hateful that Cozy immediately began to tremble and pulled her hooves closer to her belly as his thunderous voice boomed to her.

"At all times and a hundred times over, now listen to me very carefully little lady. Princess Twilight was just very unlucky to have trusted me in the first place, hasn´t thought she would fall for it. And that mare is supposed to be Equestria's most intelligent? - don't make me laugh, how low has this kingdom sunk? It should have been clear to her right away since our last encounter, that I never intend to spare her friends. Ha, as if I meant anything even remotely serious about my promises. I'm honestly surprised she fell for it at all. Well, I suppose it's all obsolete anyhow."

Tirek's diabolical laugh made Cozy's body tremble to the core and an icy shiver ran down her spine as she looked into his grinning face. The massive centaur meant what he had done and never would feel even a spark of remorse for doing so.

Still holding the young Pegacorn in his magic mercilessly and squeezing her nearly to the point where Cozy thought he would end her life. Tirek raised his front hand and pressed it so hard into Cozy's chest that the young mare could do nothing but whimper as he continued with his insult.

“And YOU will pull yourself together, or the same thing will happen to you. That’s no treat but a promise - got it?!”

Intimidated and utterly frightened, Cozy just nodded. So, Tirek would drop her on the ground close to his hooves mercilessly.

"Good, that settles it then."

"YOU MONSTER! I am so going to rip you apart for what you did to Twilight."

Surprised, Tirek turned to the voice, where he recognized both Applejack and Rainbow Dash, who had focused on him with a few final tears in their eyes. In the orbs of the two mares, besides grief for their fallen friend, other emotions including blind rage, determination to hurt him as hard as possible, and a burning hatred for him. While the remaining three mares of the bunch had also risen to their hoofs, in contrast to the two others, none of them showed any signs of being remotely up for battle.

Tirek could only laugh. "Phh, please, your serious you want to try? Both of you I'll crush with my bare thumbs, but come here and gamble your luck if you want."

Tirek raised his hands wide invitingly upward to his sides and a red ball of magic formed between his two long curved horns, ready to be fired at the two once they made their attack.

The Earth and Pegasus Pony were about to charge forward and deliver their blow to the abhorrent centaur, when they were distracted by the trampling of thousands, if not tens of thousands, of hooves, claws, and feet behind them.

Turning around, Applejack, Rainbow, and the other mares spotted all kinds of creatures streaming over the ridge on the horizon of the next hill to their left. Each of them was hell-bent on joining the fight for the freedom of the allied Equestrian kingdom. However, when the army caught sight of what was before them, and in particular Twilight's broken body, each of them froze in an instant. That was something nobody of them had anticipated seeing. How was something like that even possible to happen to an alicorn?

Some seconds passed with no one daring to even breathe until nearly half of the gathered group backed away a small distance in fear. Some of them even began to flee. If these three villains in the distance could do such a thing to an alicorn - especially the alicorn of magic, the strongest magic wielder there was. What would be waiting for them in that case? If not even Princess Twilight was capable of defending herself with magic against the attacks of Chrysalis, Cozy, and Tirek, then there would be certainly less of a chance for them to win.

Yet, despite the situation, most of them were ready to join the battle no matter what their individual chances of actually winning were. For them, only one thing mattered. Princess Twilight had helped all of them, or rather their nations a lot and indeed changed the lives of so many to an extreme degree. Providing most of them with something they didn’t know much about before – friendship and compassion, especially for the dragons and griffins. The least they could with due respect to the fallen alicorn was to save and defend her kingdom and subjects. Also protect the six dearest friends she ever had from these bastards terrible creatures.

For there was one thing Tirek had not accounted for in his sole plan to attack and kill Twilight. The alicorn princesses had been highly respected by the other kingdoms for thousands of years. Indeed, even if one of the kingdoms was involved in a battle with Equestria in the past, they were still held in high esteem by the other kingdoms. As these alicorn mares controlled celestial bodies and aspects of reality and that alone made them both equally respected and feared, especially when they were enemies. Most of all, as even in the past the alicorns were honorable and had tried to do as little damage as possible by any means available, even in the fiercest of wars. It was widely known that the race of alicorns was bent on fighting honorable and without tricks. Even captured enemies were treated with mercy and care, by them. Something that had widely become the norm on Equus over the past 80 years, due to an equally long-lasting truce among all nations and a truce of more than 950 years with Equestria – well not counting the changeling invasion, Tirek’s attack or any of the other things that happened the last few years. Fighting in honor and without tricks had been less so many centuries ago for most of the kingdoms but was now a well-embraced topic.

Living on the same planet as the by far largest and strongest kingdom led by a superior and immortal species of goddesses. Those who also took great care of their subjects and lived to work and fight without guile, but to rule their kingdom with devotion, kindness, and trust, brought about such a thing. And well…two of the alicorns had raised and lowered the sun and moon for more than one millennia and a third had raised the stars for nearly four years now, so that was equally a reason to not attack their kingdom and try to hurt them. A solar flare or star strike wasn’t something you easily trifled with.

Precisely the same was equally true for the youngest of the four princesses, as well as so much more. Princess Twilight, in particular, had woven many alliances, friends, bonds, and fellowships across the entire planet. And although she carried the status as one of Equestria's four strongest beings, and her abilities were virtually limitless, she remained polite, understanding, and humble in every situation. Gladly putting her interests aside for the sake of others. Consequently, the rage throughout the ranks rose almost immeasurably as the seconds ticked by. With a unified war cry coming from thousands of individuals, the army rallied and stormed down the hill in wrath and vengeance for the honor of Princess Twilight and the independent freedom of Equestria.

Equally empowered, Rainbow Dash and Applejack rushed forward as well towards Tirek, as they had been striving to do before, although the two mares heard Rarity, Pinkie, and even Fluttershy shouting after them to stop.

As expected the Centaur Lord was quick to react as well, shooting a thick red beam of magic from the orb between his horns straight at the two. Of course, the two mares knew that their attack was foolish and would not succeed in any way. But their grief over Twilight and anger at Tirek made them completely blind in their decisions, thus, they did not regret it one bit as the deep red magic drew increasingly and dangerously closer to them. If not, even Twilight could survive the impact, they certainly wouldn’t, but they didn´t care any bit. A situation worse than the death of Twilight, their dear friend and leader, they couldn’t imagine anyway.

During the last second before the impact on the two ponies, they closed their eyes, both ready for the impact and the resulting consequences. Despite the obvious outcome, a smile crossed their muzzles. In a few moments, they might be able to see their friend again and be united with her forever in a better place. A thought that made it all so much easier for them. There was the clear possibility to create grief for their families and other friends yes, but being with Twilight overweighed the consequences by far.

They had no regrets...

*End of Chapter One*

...No really...

View Online

*2*

The magic attack hit and the shock wave and volume of the explosion of Tirek’s magic were so powerful that it kicked up quite a bit of dust, hiding the meadow from the view of the approaching cavalry and three friends, as many of the creatures held their claws, hooves or hands to their ears in shock. But something was wrong, the sound of the impact sounded different than expected. It was a deafening crash of magic into a shield, followed by a disbelieving gasp from Fluttershy, Pinkie, and lastly Rarity as the dust had cleared enough.

The first of the two foolish mares to open her eyes to the environment once more, was Applejack, whose muzzle also dropped a lot as she looked around the immediate area. Less than a minute ago, it had been a beautiful late afternoon, yet now the sun, as well as the moon, were firmly in their places in the dawn at either end of the horizon. Creating a Twilight over the entire sky. On top of that, the firmament was dotted with thousands of bright twinkling stars, expected for when the moon normally had risen. What was unnatural about them, however, was the fact that they shone much more brightly than they should at this time of day and their light seemed to increase with any given second.

Turning her head further forward, toward the direction from which Tirek's attack had come just moments ago, Applejack spotted an enormous, solid nearly 15-meter-high force field that was also about 60 meter wide. Shimmering in all the colors of the Rainbow and looming a few feet away from the two mares in a semi-circle ahead of them. The force field itself was layered with runes, so deeply interwoven in various hexagonal constellations on top and between each other, that Applejack didn't even know where one of the reinforcements ended and another began. It just seemed heavenly.

No matter what was the case, Applejack herself never had much knowledge about magic and even less about enchantments in general. Such things simply weren't necessary when working on her apple farm. A farm which had been in her family for fifteen generations, guided by good old hard-fashioned earth pony hoof work. The sheer level of power emanating from the force field, despite the distance, however was incredible, that much was clear even without any previous knowledge in magic. And as Applejack turned her gaze to Rainbow Dash, her pegasus friend too shook her head slightly from left to right. She, too, seemed to be as clueless as she was, where the force field came from so suddenly, but gestured backward with her head questioningly afterwards. Presumably, Dash assumed that it was created and maintained by the combined forces of the approaching army. A pretty solid assumption all things considered.

One thing the earth pony mare knew, however, from tales and descriptions of her alicorn friend who was so well gifted and read in magical arts. Such an interwoven construct of hexagonal enchantments was at least a level 8 spell, if not level 9. The two highest levels that existed. Well, okay, there was still the legendary 10th level, but that one had never before been able to be cast by anyone other than an alicorn and therefore created very few times. Plus, Luna and Celestia had no magic to create such a field at the moment and Applejack had yet to catch sight of Cadance among the cavalry, let alone see a crystal pony. Something was not right she could feel it, but like anyone else of her friend´s she got no direct clue what.

A sudden gasp made Applejack's head spin around.

"But that's entirely impossible girls, look."

Rarity's gaze had wandered to the center of the shield, her left hoof outstretched and pointing to the center of the force field and that's when the remaining four mares saw it, too. A golden, dodecagonal Chanty rune with a silver, seven-pointed Novum star in the center, both parts at each corner connected to all the other corners of the rune by thin, purple lines. The unmistakable hallmark of a legendary level 10 spell, a spell literally only creatable by gods. It was way beyond them how none of them had noticed it until now, but they certainly hadn't time to think about it.

The tables had turned. Cadance had to be somewhere among the cavalry, so they still had a chance of winning. Filled with new hope Applejack and Rainbow hugged each other in a tight embrace and even though the situation was dire they loved every single moment of their snuggle – even Dash didn’t complain about being hugged, the last minutes had been too dire for her to even care. They were quickly joined by the rest of the bunch and the hugging got a second round, lasting almost two more minutes.

Sadly, their snuggle came to an end as Rainbow Dash spotted something behind them and made a remark for everypony else to look backwards. The cyan Pegamare pushed from their embrace and took to the air as she gave especially Rarity a scowl as the white Unicorn attempted to argue about Dash’s behavior.

“Look!”

As everyone looked up at what Dash had spotted, they saw it too and none of them could believe what they saw as their muzzles dropped once more, they were speechless. Rainbow was hovering two feet above the ground with her front hoof raised and pointing out in the opposite direction of the forcefield.

The entire army behind them was shrouded in a raspberry glow, hovering a good few inches above the ground. Applejack's gaze drifted to the rest of her friends and as their eyes met it slowly began to dawn on her. This wasn't Cadance's doing, there was no reason for the pink alicorn to stop the entire army. She probably could as an alicorn, even if none of them knew. But hindering their entire combined force in defending and reconquering Equestria would be nuts and they knew Cadance wouldn´t do such a foolish thing.

Suddenly, before anyone could spin their nascent suspicions any further, the ground beneath their hooves began to shake violently and it took some effort from the mares to not topple to the ground. As a deep rumble went through the immediate area, it was followed suddenly by the ripping off the ground into a long rift running square across the still dust-covered battlefield with many equally deep, but quite smaller branches extending through the ground from the main rift.

A deafening mighty roar, not sounding like anything they had heard ever before made all five mares jump in sudden fright, which was quickly replaced by a spark of hope that washed over them. They didn’t know why exactly, but something great was about to happen, they kind of instinctively knew it and their heads snapped to the origin of the sound.

While none of the mares had a clue what was going to happen, they weren’t frightened as they watched in amazement to their left. The roar got louder with every given second and without warning, the entire rock wall between them and the magic-trapped army detonated in a huge, blinding colorful explosion into several thousands of rocky projectiles that were shot mostly toward them with supersonic speed and microscopic spacing between each.

Although there was no possibility of not being seriously injured by at least one of the projectiles, by instinct the mares ducked as low as possible in the vain hope that they might somehow escape unscathed in the least survived the deadly threat. Rainbow and Applejack used their wings and body to shield Fluttershy from the incoming stones, while Rarity hastily gathered some magic into her horn to create a small protection shield. Even if she knew she would never succeed in raising it fast and strong enough to protect the others or even herself in the time she had. While Pinkie began to dance left and right to try using her Pinkie sense to dodge the projectiles, Fluttershy flopped to the ground terrified. The poor butter-yellow pegamare was not able to do anything else as her legs wouldn’t support her anymore.

Their concerns, however, were without merit, as every last one of the peaked stones was disintegrated by an incredible force wave into the subatomic level before the stones had progressed any further than ten meters. It was a sight none of them had ever anticipated, but it was a welcomed one by any means.

As they scrambled up from the ground and checked each other and their own for any injuries, their wits were scared once more by a very loud, powerful, kinda familiar, rage-filled voice, that made the eardrums of the five ring but gave them a spark of confidence no less. Luckily the voice didn´t seem to be raised against them. Yet, whoever was the target had their pity, as it didn´t seem like the being the voice belonged to had just talking in mind. And while they just couldn´t quite grasp whose voice it was, it was very familiar but still so entirely different at the same time. With no more opportunities left, they pricked up their ears as they were eager to find out why it sounded so familiar.

"You dirty, little motherbucker...how dare you have so little f*** honor. You shouldn't have dared to shoot me."

The surrounding clouds were easily pushed back several lengths just from the force of the voice alone and half of them got disintegrated. Several seconds later the gathered mares' eyes went wide to the extreme, for something had clicked in their minds. They suddenly recognized the familiar voice that reignited to burning fire in their chest that the fall of their leader had extinguished. Up until a few seconds ago, they had thought they would never be able to hear HER voice again.

Focusing their gazes upon the cliffside, they were presented with a sight they had not anticipated. For starters, there was no longer a cliff, just a slight slope across the entire side of the field with a few small boulders rolling downwards. Which, about halfway through their descent, were pushed to the side by a tremendous force or simply vaporized in thin air.

The very force itself emanated from a large four-legged creature, whose powers were the subject of many legends and myths and with whom one did not want to engage in combat, especially in the case one of them was in a terribly bad mood like it was the case right now - at least if one was not completely suicidal that was.

In front of them Princess Twilight Amicitia Aurora Sparkle, their lost dear friend and trusted leader was lying on the ground, just as injured as she had been when struck by Tirek’s magic. Her eyes were still closed, the corners of her muzzle pulled back as far as they could go and her teeth bared in a sharp snarl. But that all didn’t matter for the six as Twilight was alive – alive for freaking sake. Well for reasons currently unknown to them, but back under the living no less and that was what counted.

Even if the sudden resurrection of a pony believe to be dead was something not experienced often, it was the slightest of perplexities the mares noticed. This was only the smallest change to the situation since Twilight’s unfortunate impact with the rocky wall.

For one thing, there were a lot of different kinds of magic, runes, symbols, and wards whirring around the alicorn mare in eye-bleeding speed, making it unachievable to even get a remote idea of how many symbols there truly were. Even the immediate area around Twilight seemed to be convulsing, near the point of collapsing onto itself, a both fascinating and shocking sight. As a result, it was somewhat difficult for the stunned friends to see the rest of their alicorn friend's alterations.

Both the mane and tail of the lavender alicorn had drastically changed. Its length had nearly tripled and was now slowly blowing past her face in a constant breeze. Or at least the appendage would if the mare wasn't still lying sideways on the ground. Her tail also showed about twice the length in contrast to before, yet it was still easy to see that the fundamental appearance of both was massively altered.

First of all, both hairy appendages no longer displayed any fire damage at all and were once more completely intact, as well as sparkling in an almost otherworldly splendor. Further, the coloring of Twilight's mane and tail had darkened by several accents and now bordered on a very deep blue, nearly black. In both, hundreds of small, sparkling, white objects could be made out by the watching mares. In their opinion most likely stars, arranged in a perfect replica of the real stars in the sky.

Once the friends were finally able to tear their gaze away from Twilight's flowing hair, their eyes were immediately fixed on another visible change that had occurred on their friend's body.

Neither of them had ever seen anything like that, although many things had never been known about alicorns anyway, except that they possessed extraordinary abilities and powers. Some even said they were godlike. So, the chance that what they saw might just be an ability known only to alicorns or was not officially documented was existent. Even if it didn’t make much sense for any of them.

Shortly after Twilight’s ascension, the other princesses had invited the freshly minted alicorn and the rest of her friends to Canterlot Castle, where they had a private conversation with the newest princess that lasted several hours in the throne room of the castle. Afterward, they all, too, were made privy to their friend’s latest changes and Twilight was presented with a host of books – much to the delight of the academic pony. Since then, it had become almost the norm that around every two weeks, that the girls were informed about the latest findings and discoveries about Twilight’s abilities and alicorns in general. So, they kept a close eye on what happened next to maybe gather further Information, about what had happened to Twilight’s appearance.

As they looked back to Twilight, they could discern a new and to them unknown magical flow from the alicorn's wings, while her hooves gave off the same spectacle. However, what they realized was that the magic not just flowed from them, but poured into the ground and the air, giving new life to the battered ground, letting grass and flowers grow in seconds until the soil was healthier than it probably ever had been. While constantly more and more stars appeared in the sky the Wendigos writhed in pain under the spell of the unknown magic, trying in vain to escape from it. In the end, however, they lost and were cast into thin air. Almost immediately, the chilly temperature began to return to normal, adapting to the late summer season it had been previously.

Rainbow Dash, even if she never would admit it, was speechless and also a little afraid of what had just occurred. In her entire life, she never witnessed a display of such graze power as well as skill happening so easily. According to every tale, she had received from her teachers at the Pegasus Flight School, the Wendigos were spirits with limitless abilities and fury for the ponies, rendering them the most dangerous beings in existence for the pony’s living on Equus below. Drilled only to plunge the planet into eternal ice that not even the princesses were able to do anything about - at least that was what was said and believed until this morning by Dash. Only the cohesion and bond of all three pony species could have a chance of withstanding the rage of the Wendigos and keeping them in check but never defeat them.

Yet Twilight - alicorn princess Twilight, master and guardian of magic, her dear friend and youngest alicorn, had just managed without batting an eye, what no one would ever have thought possible. And that simple unhindered power scared the wits out of Dash, but she would held onto the unbreakable faith she had in Twilight, that the mare would stay peaceful and kind to her subjects. With such might came great responsibility, but also one was a serious danger towards others if one couldn´t stand it and Dash wasn´t sure if she ever could begin fighting Twilight if she ever had to. Ignoring the fact that despite her agility, swiftness, and above-average physical fitness, she still didn’t have a shred of a chance against an alicorn anyway.

As a unicorn, Twilight had spent most of her time in a library and never really done much sport. Still, she was mighty good at magic and that alone had compensated almost all of her lack of sport, nearly granting her the second place in physical fitness, shortly after Applejack - at least in fitness, not raw strength, earth ponies were still a good deal thougher. And while the last few years had done good for all their cardio, with all the constant world-saving, Twilight remained a pony training her brain rather than her body. But that fact alone gave her the advantage of being able to make decisions and weigh the chances of attack and defense much faster than Dash was able to. In addition, after her transformation into an alicorn, her already impressive unicorn magic was probably enhanced by a factor of hundreds by the alicorn magic she now possessed – Rainbow didn’t know exactly, as she had never asked Twilight directly.

Additionally, the alicorn mare had received attributes from each of the three races through her ascension, which of course had not only amplified her magic alone. Her flying skills had also improved greatly over the last few years and even in the beginning, it had not been as easy for Dash to outfly Twilight as the cyan pegasus had expected it to be. Due to the mare’s much more densely feathered and larger alicorn wings, Twilight possessed much more wing area to get and keep her in the air, which allowed Twilight to keep up very well with Dash’s longer practice and experience.

And even if she was faster, Twilight was flawlessly able to track and teleport exactly where Dash was with her magic and that was longer than Dash’s stamina held. It had something to do with a pony´s unique magic signature or so Twilight had said, that she could track and teleport to, but Dash hadn’t understood half of it – or listened in the first place. So, there had never been a way of knowing if she really outpaced Twilight or if the alicorn was still on her tail.

All that coupled with the fact that the general amount of muscles an alicorn possessed, not only in the wings, wasn´t a fact to be neglected either. Even the rest of the young alicorn’s musculature had gotten a decent upgrade from her old unicorn self and Rainbow had lost quite a few bits when she had bet on the orange earth pony in a hoof wrestling match between Applejack and Twilight.

Twilight was even able to defeat Big Mac and AJ at the same time without any visible effort at all and after it had been agreed not to use magic or other tricks, an alicorn was stronger than even the fittest of earth ponies.

Clearing her mind, Dash energetically shook her head, such a thing she would nor could she think about, it in fact would never come to that, she assured herself. Twilight had been always pure and loyal towards everyone she ever encountered and as the element of loyalty, she knew what it meant to rely without a doubt on others. Alicorns were something like a benevolent might in Equestria and that was enough for Dash to hold her faith. So, without any further thought, she moved her gaze back to the meadow or more precisely Twilight.

The alicorn mare seemed to be partially transparent, or rather some parts of her body no longer looked like they were made from flesh or fur, but pure magic, the same color as her coat. The mare's cuts and burns blazed brightly in a golden glow that moved down the whole alicorn´s body, as they slowly closed and healed, then took on the same appearance of see-through magic as well. The shattered stump of Twilight´s horn was still present, but now rising from it was a brilliant blazing ethereal horn about twice the length of her old one.

The raw passive output of power, alone from Twilight being there was stunning, and the environment, which was already heavily influenced and twisted around the alicorn, was almost completely non-existent directly around the alicorn's ethereal horn.

Despite all things happening and Twilight´s body regenerating in a matter of seconds, seemingly out of nowhere, the remaining injuries such as the fracture of her left wing, leg, and twisted lower body remained completely untouched by the unusual healing.

Fluttershy was already turning her body to Rarity and Applejack to ask the burning question of whether one of them knew what the hell was happening or not. But was interrupted by a grunt from Twilight before she could even begin asking her question and get an answer from the girls. Her head snapped back to the action and Twilight, as the lavender alicorn had begun to straighten herself up – and so far everything looked fine. But when Twilight tried to shift her weight to her front hooves, she for reasons well known, of course, nipped off to the left, due to her leg in not a very good condition to hold her weight or Balance. Her snout implanted in the soil and grassy plain, Twilight seemed to be mildly frustrated.

"Buck!"

With a furious comment, the alicorn mare once more tried to raise herself, but as the first time failed rather miserably. So, she pressed up as far as she could with her one good hoof before stretching both her wing and hoof apart in one swift, hard movement, batting no eye doing so.

With a mighty, dreadful pop, both limbs snapped back into their rightful place, which the rest of the girls watched, wincing.

A golden glow passed over both extremities subsequently, most likely indicating that the alicorn had healed herself - at least that's what the mares suspected, they wouldn´t know what else it could be other than that.

As crazy as it all seemed, by all appearances and the lack of painful responses from Twilight while “fixing” her limbs, the alicorn mare didn´t seem to feel pain in any way. The alicorn's stature was tense, as was to be expected in the situation of an upcoming fight - yet not the slightest bit in pain.

The very fact alone, that Twilight didn’t seem to experience agony, gave her friends the confidence they needed to remain watching. And they flinched less this time, seeing the alicorn do the same with the lower half of her body. However, at that time Twilight used her magic and one single, swift movement as she brought her hind hooves to where they anatomically belonged. Her task accomplished, Twilight this time successfully straightened up and moved her entire extremities as a test, while her body glowed golden one more time. Her gaze slowly wandered over her own body.

Due to the foreign magic that was still permanently buzzing around the alicorn in rapid circles, it was hard for the outside standing mares to tell every little detail, of what was happening in the last minutes. What they could see, however, was that Twilight's magic aura had radically changed its basic color. Which was now a pleasant pure white and surrounded by all the colors of the rainbow as its outermost corona. Also swirling in many layers around her horn and the rest of the alicorn's body were several runes, enhancements, and other symbols that none of the girls had even the slightest idea what they were doing.

What was clear, however, was that they were some very powerful charms created by someone who knew exactly what he was doing. Most of them probably to either strengthen, protect or otherwise enhance the lavender alicorn mare some meters behind them. In some rare cases, the runes also overlapped in more than 20 or 30 different layers and were so gracefully and skillfully drawn into the surroundings that one could become envious just by looking at them.

"Ha, yeah, that's way better! Finally feels like it should."

Simply hearing Twilight’s voice was enough for the six close friends to relax their bodies and melt their tension and they all sat beside each other on the ground, smiling at each other companion in happiness.

Their serenity lasted but a few seconds. As Twilight raised her head and directed her gaze forward in the direction of them, a cold icy shiver immediately ran down the spines of all five of them, instinctively causing them to flinch their body’s slightly away from Twilight. The auras surrounding the alicorn had intensified many times over in an instant and even if no direct fear was triggered, the power was still enormous and to be respected.

Instead of their friend's usually deep violet, gentle, intelligent, and sharp eyes, all they could see now was an almost eye-aching pure white, and every kind of emotion was completely gone. From both eyes and the remaining features of the alicorn's face.

The girls also recognized that white vapors were constantly gliding out of the corners of their friend's eyes. Just as they had seen with King Sombra, only Twilight's seemed less threatening and not evil due to their color. Yet the mare's piercing white eyes took care of that worry well enough on its own.

The tension quickly left them, however, when they saw the corners of Twilight's mouth began to curve upward as her gaze fully fell onto them. The alicorn also slightly lowered her head into a dip.

The big smile they received from their friend was somehow extremely reassuring letting them suspect there was something special about the magic that now circled less prominently and frightening but still visibly around the alicorn. It took a moment for the mares to realize, but once they did that Twilight's eye color might have changed drastically and unknown powers and magic were continuing to circle her. She nevertheless remained the cunning and benevolent friend they knew and not a dangerous mindless entity bend on inflicting hurt and pain.

"Girls! Please! Don't worry, I would never be able to hurt any of you, even if I tried", they heard the lavender alicorn say in a gentle, reassuring voice.

Before any of Twilight´s friends could say anything in response, they were enveloped in the characteristic glow of their friend's powerful, warm magic and slowly lifted off the ground, towards the alicorn mare itself.

While they got closer to Twilight, the overall sensations of magic and power intensified more and more. Still, the feeling was not intimidating, but reassuring to the mares. Furthermore, the longer they floated in Twilight’s magic and the closer they came to the alicorn in general, the more they all felt filled with new strength and energy.

Soon they were all floating past Twilight and it felt like someone was lovingly running its hoof through their fur, calming the five mares even more.

Carefully they were lowered to the ground behind the lavender alicorn and as the magic vanished from their bodies, Twilight's strange magical construct of a horn continued to glow steadily in brilliant colors. Immediately, many different runes, wards, and magic lines formed on the ground below and around the mares, glowing with the same signature of color and power they had grown accustomed to over the years of their Friendship with Twilight. A soft hiss could be heard as the magic was inscribed into the ground.

Rarity and Rainbow Dash in particular were fascinated by the runes forming around them and Twilight’s ethereal horn as it glowed and worked its magic. Rainbow was still impressed and a little frightened at how easy it seemed for Twilight to cast such complicated protective spells, the mare didn’t even bat an eyelid as she created increasingly complex and multi-level spells without end. Rarity on the other hoof had learned from Twilight a little over two years ago how to gain better knowledge of spells being used by observing others casting them. Of course, she was not a professional in magic like Twilight and required more than one observation to have learned and be able to cast a specific spell. But she wasn’t bad now either. Still, the longer she watched the alicorn’s actions, the less she understood what Twilight was doing. Both were jolted back to reality when they heard Twilight’s voice anew.

"Please, would you all stay, here?! The wards will protect you more than well. I'll handle this myself; you won’t need to worry, I got it." The alicorn mare didn´t await an answer and began to turn around while she extended her wings to their full span.

Her friends nodded in confirmation that they understood what was being asked of them. There wasn´t really much anything else they could do in contrast to the young alicorns abilities. Even if there seemed to be some new, they didn’t know anything about. So that was even better. Twilight had the best chances of actually doing something against the villains and it seemed like the smartest idea so far letting the lavender alicorn do what she had in mind.

With the runes the alicorn had erected around them, a stable rainbow-colored hemisphere of force was now in front of them. 7 meters high, and about 20 meters wide, fully encircling them and even extending a small distance into the ground.

Taking all this into consideration, it would be an ill-conceived idea to leave this clearly potent protection. More so since it definitely didn't look like Twilight would need any help at present in kicking the bad guys’ asses in earnest.

The alicorn's gaze fell on the three villains as she turned around, as did all her features, which changed back to an infuriated one.

“YOU!”, the force behind the royal Canterlot voice caused the dust to be blown once more all over the battlefield. But was redirected by a lazy wave of Tirek’s hand and magic before the cloud of dust could hit the three.

"Be grateful, that I'm in a very good mood right now. I'll give you one last chance to justify your actions." To further demonstrate, Twilight stomped violently with her right front hoof on the ground covered with short, green grass, causing the ground in the near vicinity to shake, and a few small cracks to appear several meters around her.

Tirek and Chrysalis seemed not very impressed. After all, they had already defeated the alicorn once with relative ease - what should be different now? Merely because she now gleamed did not inevitably make her a tough opponent.As a result, both of them, led by Tirek, charged forward beside each other with their magics raised.

Cozy Glow, on the other hoof, stepped back and hid behind a small nearby rock, observing the situation for the time being. She had not liked it before, and though Cozy would never admit it to others, she was quite intimidated by the alicorn princess and her impressive display of magic.

No, she wouldn't try to mess with her. Somehow that seemed like an extremely stupid idea to the young pegacorn. Even though she had a good hunch that even if she attacked Twilight as well, the alicorn wouldn't harm her, at least not intentionally. Despite the powerful and crushing magic around the alicorn, Twilight seemed as composed as Cozy knew her to be. A great perk of incredible intelligence, not to be underestimated. Why fuzzing about a problem, if you were able to consider the most likely outcome and risks in record times with precise certainty?

The official “School of Friendship”, sometimes also named “Royal Academy of Harmony”, seemed to have been the perfect chance for Twilight to become more confident in her role as a leader. Over the two years that Cozy had assisted Twilight as the right-hoof of the school head mare, the young princess had grown more and more familiar with the idea of taking on leading responsibility. Not that she wasn’t a great leader before, but that probably never could have been said about the lavender alicorn mare. So, although both were enemies, Cozy had to admit that she was glad that the alicorn became the leader Cozy knew she was. Twilight had earned it.

Some months before she had infiltrated Twilight's School of Friendship, Cozy had first read up as much as possible on everything that had to do remotely with magic and gathered as much information as she could about Twilight and her council. Which, given the level of popularity of the six mares, had been quite easy on the one hoof, but also quite a lot to go through.

Therefore, Cozy also knew that Twilight might be by far the youngest of all four alicorns. In terms of raw knowledge, skill in magic and the mutual understanding of ponies between each other, she was by far the one with the highest, unsurpassed knowledge and skill. Researchers estimated an incredible knowledge of more than 11,000 different spells, without counting the different variations of them that the alicorn remembered and could cast without any other help. Along with an already nearly as high mana level as the two oldest alicorn sisters possessed, despite being so young herself. Wherever Twilight had stored this power and knowledge Cozy didn´t know, but alicorn physiology still was a great mystery to everyone. So, it was likely, to be all true.

Through further research, she also found an article in which Celestia was supposed to have confirmed that due to Twilight's deep connection with magic, she was something special and unheard of, likely having more mana at her disposal than she or her younger sister had, even with barely an age of 23. Which would confirm the first theory - but whether it was true in the end she was sadly unable to find out.

What Cozy did know, however, was that in her research she discovered that Twilight had taken her academy/school through Equestria's complex teaching control system in just under two weeks. Something that in normal cases would take a private person months, if not years of forms, papers, and other bureaucratic stuff. That is if you could even get through the numerous tests, assessments, and other hurdles to approving a teaching institution in the first place.

But as one of Equestria's princesses; especially with the title of princess of friendship, a position known for expertise in interspecies bonds and with further proof that she had three PhD's in quantum mechanics, biology and physiology alone. And not even counting the probably many more certificates the mare got. Twilight had managed to avoid taking almost every single test necessary and almost instantly get her school accepted. The alicorn had been 19 at the time damn it. How the hell smart did you have to be to accomplish such a thing? She struggled to even pass the entry to junior high and barely passed the needed tests.

Still, no matter what the facts were, what was right or wrong about alicorns and Twilight. She definitely wouldn't want to mess with Luna, Celestia, Cadance, or Twilight today or anytime in the future directly. Each of the four princesses was far too strong on their own for that. Tirek´s attack on a single alicorn was foolish enough and she was surprised he even got so far in actually hurting and killing one of them. Or not? - As Twilight was clearly alive.

Nevertheless, lastly with the close, even to be described as familial ties that existed between the four highest representatives of the royal house, it would be necessary to mess with all four in the short term. The single way out of that would be to eliminate all four of them. A simple thought really. Yet one that was unlikely - kind of impossible, such luck, not even Tirek, Chrysalis, or she had. Also as it seemed from what had happened with Twilight a quarter of an hour ago, not even killing an alicorn hindered them for long. However, they could survive something like that.

Through reports of the battle between Lord Tirek and Princess Twilight, it had been also confirmed that the combined magic of four alicorns could rival that of the entire rest of the planet. Had the young princess been more familiar with such powers, the fight would have been much shorter and more definite. So lucky for Tirek, Cozy would say.

Still lost in her mind, sorting her thoughts Cozy almost missed what happened next. But she compost herself early enough to peek once more over the edge of the stone she was hiding behind and saw Twilight raising one of her front hooves with an unimpressed snort. While her ethereal horn, as well as her eyes, lit up in a white light, she swung the hoof in the direction of the two attackers. As a result, both of them were thrown back to the ground several meters by a strong, invisible force. Even Tirek, with his by far greater mass than Chrysalis, though it caught the latter far worse, knocking her through the nearest rock with a yelp. At first glance not physically hurt, the queen proceeded to lay there unmoving.

"Really? You'll have to do a little better than that. This - this is ridiculous, even for you," Twilight retorted as she lowered her hoof back down and shook her head in mock amusement. Her inner rage seemed to slowly dissipate, even if she still showed no empathy for the villains. However, mustering such a simple attack from the alicorn's side with such a high effect on her opponents' side, it was clear that she was massively holding back and didn't really want to hurt Tirek and Chrysalis.

What would Twilight be able to do, if the mare gave her full potential without care? Cozy had faith it wouldn´t come to that, but it was better to hope and be safe than sorry as well.

Tirek slowly recovered from Twilight's defense. He took a cursory glance at the changeling queen to make sure she was reasonably well. There he saw that she had fainted from the impact and had also received some scratches, but otherwise appeared unharmed. That was obviously enough for him as Tirek turned to the lavender alicorn, angry but also massively surprised.

"That's impossible, you no longer possess a horn to cast magic, I shattered it." At which he gestured to the aborted horn of Twilight still lying on the edge of the battlefield, where it had been lying the entire time.

Turning her head to the direction Tirek was pointing to, Twilight gave a hearty laugh after a few second. Her eyes widening, for it seemed that the alicorn hadn’t even noticed until now that most of her horn was missing from her forehead.

"Oh…that. Yeah, who says I even need a horn to use my magic, but if you ask for it..."

Once again illuminating her etheric horn, the princess closed her brilliant white eyes. The etheric construct began to blaze with a bright light, that despite its brightness strangely didn’t hurt the eyes. Breathless all present watched as the broken horn at the edge of the meadow began to dissolve into thousands of golden sparks, as a completely new one began to form on the very front of Twilight´s head out of the broken stump of her old horn. The new horn was the same size, diameter, and length as the etheric one had been just seconds ago and the power it blazed with was still as great, if not even greater.

Yet, Twilight’s brand new horn no longer looked the way her old one had. It was still slightly arched forwards, as was typical for an alicorn and very rarely for unicorns. But all along its entire length and around its diameter there were now low pulsating runic markings that looked to be engraved directly into the bony substance – or whatever Twilight’s new horn was composed of. With the unknown new abilities of Twilight, it was certainly possible for the alicorn’s horn to be made of something entirely different and far more powerful than what it had been before.

Tirek could only watch speechlessly as the impossible happened right in front of his eyes. The entire process only took no more than a few seconds, but then his greatest arch-enemy and incredibly powerful princess stood before him looking more impressive than ever, now completely refreshed and unharmed once more. It was like the mare herself reset time itself and brought her previous self from a few hours back to battle – just mightier. The young princess also did not indicate that the creation of her completely new horn in but a few short seconds had been any effort for her alicorn self.

“I- impossible! You cannot create or restore a destroyed horn with magic. That goes against the third fundamental law of magic itself!"

The red centaur lord would have expected many things as a response, but that the little alicorn - well for him at least, started and proceeded to heartily laugh and held her hoofs in front of her breast and muzzle, he had not expected.

"Oh, please. If you had even remotely my new understanding of magic, you wouldn't be uttering something like that right now dear Tirek. Besides, do you honestly want to know how much I give a damn about your opinion? - That's right, aaaaaabsolutely nothing!", Twilight extended the last part of her sentence extra-long, to give Tirek a good understanding of how false his statement actually was. A smug grin crossed Twilight´s muzzle and her posture relaxed even more, as she craned her neck and wings lazily - a simple gesture that mocked the nerves of Tirek to the very edges. Something Twilight knew exactly as her stretch implied she was bored so much she didn´t even need to watch Tirek to stay safe from his attacks.

"But if you seem to know the three fundamental laws of magic so well, you do have my attention. I'm all ears." It was clearly obvious that Twilight was not taking Tirek fully honest in any way at this point anymore. But why should she even? After all, his attitude towards her wasn't particularly friendly either.

Tirek briefly considered whether to play the alicorn's game or not, but she dared him and he certainly wouldn´t withdraw from the business of answering and therefore utterly crushing the confidence Twilight had in her mind. That would be weakness towards Twilight and he didn´t grant the alicorn that joy, it would be fun seeing Twilight dumb folded. His mind made he responded to the young princess.

"All right little princess. Listen here. The first two are a combined one, 'magic can´t be destroyed or created, only transformed and reused.' The third is many times newer and was added just some years ago, after hard considerations. Any bio-magical construct, such as a horn, is irrevocably destroyed should it be severed or otherwise damaged. The only exception is regeneration using healing spells applied to organic tissue to heal injuries, cuts. or breaks for example - either light or hard. However, your horn is certainly not one of those, so you better tell me right now what tricks you used, or I'm going to get nasty."

Nodding, Twilight acknowledged Tirek’s efforts in clarification and trying to intimidate her. The wide smile never left her muzzle.

"Very good, good boy”, Twilight teased. “Though, as you can see, I can change and break said laws, there’s no other explanation than that. Not even you will find one, trust me. Rather nice isn't it?" Twilight chuckled, adding a moment later." However, we need to add one more law to the list as it seemed."

That was as far as the alicorn got in speaking, as Tirek interrupted her, more than mad.

"WATCH WHAT YOU´R VOICE YOU LITTLE ALICORN, I'M NOT HAVING YOU MAKE A FOOL OUT OF ME! But I’m curious, so let me be sloppy before I wipe you out. What’s your so mighty fourth fundamental law of magic? Let's hear it!", Tirek's tone was bored and annoyed. He had no desire to be made to look like an idiot. Even less so from the young alicorn he despised so much.

Twilight´s face dropped as her gaze focused onto Tirek with a last mischievous grin. Her eyes became even more white than white, something that should technically not be possible and she scrunched up her muzzle as she bared her teeth in the process.

"Never, ever bucking mess with someone whose true powers you don't remotely know and are unable to hurt and defeat. Furthermore don´t you dare ever mess again with my friends. You probably have made the greatest mistake of your life today by attacking me, the supreme master and literal physical embodiment of magic – one of the true fundamental aspects of reality itself."

"You? Invincible? One of the fundamental aspects of reality? Don't make me laugh, I'll take you down a second time with my hands bound to my back," Tirek grumbled, at which the centaur pointed at Twilight, a red ball of magic forming between his horns.

Whatever exactly he had in mind never happened and Tirek’s attack never came, as Twilight merely raised her right hoof and blew across it in Tirek's direction. Resulting in his attack simply vanishing into thin air without a trace of ever being there. Much to the centaur's utter shock.

"What! How could something like that be possible? No one can be that strong to just blow magic away. Stop your tricks and play fair."

Twilight chuckled heartily, she still couldn´t be truly angry at Tirek, despite his behavior towards her and her friends, it was quite cute that he thought he still had anything to demand from her.

"You still don't quite get it, do you? I’m not any pony or alicorn, I’m THE ONE alicorn and mistress of magic. You can’t beat something that is magic with working magic, you should remember that. And wow, that's just the right thing to say coming from you, isn't it? Stopping tricks and pretending stuff. Or do I have to remind your little centaur brain, what you have done - tricks, lies, harm you name it? Not the best place to demand, I might suggest."

Tirek angrily shook his head, despite his rage and disgust towards the alicorn, she didn´t have to say more for him to know exactly what Twilight was implying. As unlikely as he wanted to admit it, the lavender alicorn was right. He had a vast known record for lying, tricking, and betraying others, and even against the comment of his little brain, there was little to say from his side. He was over 1,700 years old, but Twilight with her 22 Years of age had outsmarted him in every category in their last encounter and precisely always knew what his next move had been. So, he stayed silent and proceeded to angry glare at the young mare standing about 50 Meters in front of him, to hold the last dignity he still had left.

Whilst the two had been exchanging stares, Cozy Glow had crawled out from behind her rock and scurried over to Chrysalis. Hiding some minutes carefully behind the larger changeling, before she was confident enough to do anything else.

At first she had tried with a soft voice and careful nudging to wake the changeling queen. Seeing that this had no success, she moved on to more drastic measures. With a violent, but precise slap of her hoof across the face of the changeling, she managed to wake the big bug back up to the world of the wake.

Chrysalis´s vision began to clear and once it had done so enough for her to realize where exactly she was and who had slapped her, she jumped up onto all fours and hissed at the young pegacorn. Cozy jumping back in mild fear, but more out of surprise of Chrysalis´s rather fast recovery. The former queen was about to attack Cozy, but the sight of Tirek's magic being blown away just like that by Twilight silenced her. The magic attack she had for Cozy dropped and she fumbled for words but found none. Shortly after, she composed, jumped up into the air and swiftly teleported to Tirek's side, grimly looking up at him.

"Tirek, we don´t need our magic. There are three of us and only one of her.” Chrysalis extended her hoof and indicated up and down the centaur´s body. “Plus, look at you, you've got a good hundred fifty times the mass of that puny princess. If that's not enough, I don´t know what else would."

Nodding, Tirek steeled his body and with no further words needed, together they both charged forward in Twilight's direction. Even Cozy Glow followed close behind. Though in the process she was first half dragged behind by Tirek's magic before she accepted her defeat, beat her wings down hard, and catapulted her body to the same height as the centaur and the changeling queen, her horn however, she didn’t ignite. After all, there was no point to resist Tirek´s magic. The centaur was way too strong and cruel for that and probably would seriously hurt her the moment she further resisted his will.

She'd rather battle Twilight a hundred times over than get in Tirek's way. The alicorn mare at least still had honest morals at heart and she trusted that the good nature for which the lavender alicorn was known also applied to her. Despite their rather hostile encounter so far and the fact that she had tried to sabotage and betray Twilight as well as her circle of friends several times in the last two and a half years.

Well – yeah, she tried stealing all of Equestria´s magic once, wronged and abused Twilight´s trust down to the core for nearly two semesters, and locked them all in Tartarus, to get what she wanted. Once they got out and she was defeated, she told Princess Twilight, that´s what Friendship was, a simple yet powerful and efficient way to get power and command over creatures.

But everyone made mistakes, so she could be forgiven - right? At least that was what Cozy hopped. She just had to find a way to get out of this battle alive and flee. Her heart and especially her mind was a terrible mess and she wasn’t able to think clearly, but her heart was locked onto one thing for sure. It wouldn´t let her attack Twilight anymore no matter what she thought. If she even still stood a chance in the first place, with the powers the lavender alicorn now seemed to possess. The young princess had simply shown too much kindness, cooperation, and endless care, even to her enemies, to which she did not need too for Cozy to be able to do so. All that her enemies she fought in her life ever wanted was nothing else than her dead and gone. Twilight in all rights was a truly honorable mare alone for that single fact and there was so much more she could list.

Then, once this madness came to an end and Twilight was officially crowned permanent sole ruler of Equestria and supreme princess of the kingdom she could step in front of Twilight and surrender to her judgment. She knew she deserved punishment for her actions, but only high Princess Twilight was supposed to decide her fate in her opinion. Although the young pegacorn had like no idea how the legal system of Equestria worked, as long as the two pony sisters were still on the throne by law, she would keep a low profile no matter her personal costs.

Chances, as little and nonexistent they were, still existed that she would simply be thrown back into Tartarus by the two alicorns, as she had been once before. Celestia, in particular, had not been overjoyed when informed of what she had done. Even Luna returned to her former, cold self, for which she had been known so often a thousand years before, but left behind since her return for her subjects. She knew she did much wrong but was eternally throwing a child into Tartarus really the right thing to do?

Should Twilight also decide to exile her to Tartarus, at least Cozy knew that she genuinely deserved to end up there. As the princess of friendship and harmony, the young lavender alicorn paid considerably greater attention to the mental impact and consequences of her actions, than even the other three princesses combined. The three still paid a lot of heed to it, but simply not as much as Twilight herself did. If her decision was to send her to Tartarus then that was what Cozy would embrace, for she trusted Twilight to do the right thing.

"Cocky as ever," Twilight rolled her eyes and spread both wings to their full span. If Tirek and Chrysalis were determined to stand against her then it had to be that way. Cozy, on the other hoof, didn't look particularly convinced, a fact she intended to keep in mind and consider for later.

With both attackers firmly focused on her, they charged at Twilight at full speed, horns and hands raised. She could have simply created a force field and the matter would have been settled, but that would be neither effective nor remotely as interesting. Checking that all the protection spells and runes around her friends were still intact and charged, she turned her focus fully to the front and watched the charging three.

Tirek, Chrysalis, and lastly a terrified Cozy had their target perfectly in sight till all of a sudden they didn't. The only thing that warned them of Twilight was a deafening thunder with a five-meter crater where the young princess had just been standing seconds ago. Before, with a loud command, a powerful raspberry-colored beam of magic struck ten meters in front of them, tearing up the ground three meters in depth and almost across the entire surface of the grassy field.

"Enough!", thundered the alicorn's voice, so loud it was almost unbearable. Not only startled by the beam of magic in front of them, which almost scorched their fur with its heat but also out of a sudden primal fear caused by the voice, all three villains stopped abruptly. Cozy dropped to the ground, her wings folded back to her sides and no longer under her control, as she looked up at the sky fearfully.

Seeing the image before them sent a shiver down everyone's spine and froze the blood in their veins. Cozy Glow tried fluttering back several feet in fright, clearly unsettled. Even if she knew Twilight wouldn’t hurt her, she couldn’t overpower her basic instincts. Some tries later, she successfully managed to get some ground. She might have been a villain once who once planned to let Equestria kiss her hooves. But still, she knew she was wrong now and only an 11 year-old pegasus child. Drawing her limbs closer to her she stayed behind Tirek and Chrysalis, her fear paralyzing her almost completely. Somehow even fleeing a battle she didn’t want to fight anymore was harder than she had thought.

Princess Twilight Sparkle hovered a few feet above them. Her new horn lit up in the brightest glow they had ever seen, tenth if not hundreds of symbols circling around it, ready to rain down another spell on them at any time.

Around her entire body still swarmed the known runes, but now at least two dozen new wards and another circle of many complex runes in any color and shape imaginable. The entire alicorn still glowed with the unknown magic and reality-bending effects still made it somewhat difficult to see the mare clearly.

The numerous circles of runes, in every color and shape surrounded Twilight´s body in perfect slow arcs. The most significant of these were two large circles, consisting of many lines of force leading to each other, ending in a particular kind of rune each.

The first contained an Uruz-rune, a sign of inner strength, courage, tenacity or vitality. The second was even more special and consisted of an Ansuz-rune, the most powerful of all runes there was not to be counted among the 10th level. Standing for the divine and otherworldly, it was virtually impossible for a non-alicorn to create it. Only Starswirl the Bearded had succeeded so far besides the princesses and it had been his greatest accomplishment and the most noteworthy event created by a non-alicorn.

Finally, just a couple of meters directly behind the alicorn was once more the golden, dodecagonal Chanty rune with its silver, seven-pointed Novum star in the center. Only this time it seemed to pulsate with even more power than before.

Chrysalis was intimidated, a lot actually, but emotions were a vital thing to a changeling, so she managed to bear it. About to take a step forward, Twilight lazily lifted her right hoof in the air and pushed it slightly forward off of her center. Pushing the changeling queen back a foot with unseen force.

"Did I give you permission to step forward? I think not!" Twilight's voice was still friendly but also determined, leaving no room for rejoinder.

Nodding, Chrysalis kept quiet and even Tirek choose to say nothing. By now, they both were not so sure anymore that the alicorn would not attack them, no matter how friendly Twilight was, at one time even her patience would have to have an end.

With magic seemingly no longer having any harmful impact at all upon Twilight and the alicorn repelling any attempt of it against her without any effort or hardship, there was very little left for them to oppose her with. Twilight had not been lying when she claimed to be the supreme mistress of magical arts, the mare really did seem to hold ultimate control.

Whatever magic was circling around the alicorn, it strengthened her beyond measure and possibly made her even invulnerable. Even from this great distance, the power was overwhelming and sought to push them to the ground.

Looking up, as there was nothing else to do for them, all three watched and pricked their ears as the princess began to speak anew.

"I tried, no really I did with every fiber of my being. I would describe myself as kind, more forgiving than most, and very patient, after all, that's what my job as Princess of Friendship requires of me. I have to be precise, diligent, and caring to really understand the problems my ponies have. No matter if on the physical, mental, and metaphysical plane. But you – you just won't understand or listen to me and my patience begins wearing thin.”

That was what they all feared, Twilight´s patience was depleted and now she would put a quick end to them all. Cozy closed her eyes, tears beginning to well at the corners of her eyes. She had still hope in Twilight, no matter what the mare was a highly caring one. The alicorn wouldn’t actually hurt her, but the young pegacorn was still to terrified for the realization to be burned into her mind.

The feared attack however never came, as quite the opposite happened. The power previously trying to push them to the ground demised, even though the magic show Twilight delivered remained unchanged. The background presence of an incredibly powerful being also didn´t change in the slightest. An effect known to surround every alicorn and amaze everyone they encountered, but here...it was on a new level entirely.

"I'm sorry to say that, but even I don't seem to be able to help you. I have tried several times to show you that there are other ways than violence and oppression. We talked much and long in Tartarus Tirek and Cozy, at least for three hours straight every time I visited and brought the news of the kingdom to you, don´t forget that. And Chrysalis! I would have also very much liked to talk to you, but not even with my alicorn senses I was able to locate you. But I´m keen to remember that we had one or two nice small talk in the past, so I at least tried with the chances I had. And Sombra — well that ˋthingˋ is not more than that. You can believe me when I say how surprised I was as I found out that Sombra isnˋt even anymore a Pony, but a collection of dark semi-sentient energies. Thrilled to submit every being on Equus. So me and my friends might have ˋkilledˋ him, but did we really? It is like cutting down a tree, itˋs alive and once you do the tree dies, but it doesnˋt have a mind on its own to think about said concept — Letˋs say we maybe did and move along. Yes?"

Twilight didnˋt await the answer of the other creatures gathered before her.

"Unfortunately, I have to tell you that if you are not willing, I have no other choice left. I cannot put the welfare of three individuals above the overall welfare of my subjects and the safety of other kingdoms.” Twilight raised her hoof in the air to stall any comment, the three could argue. ”However, I´m willing to offer you one last chance for better treatment. Surrender now, and we will find a solution to your punishment that is appropriate but not heartless."

Tirek laughed. "Ha, yeah right. Guess that's what you're thinking we would do. As soon as we surrender, you break and disregard your promise, we'll be arrested and then Luna and Celestia will throw away the key to our cells for good. The three of us will never surrender to you or anyone else, we'd rather die."

I have a flawless record of keeping my promises, no matter how big or small, and a good reputation for being honest, faithful, and trustworthy”, Twilight voiced smirking.

Out of the corner of her eye Twilight saw Cozy re-emerging from her cover behind Chrysalis and stand beside the Queen, her hoof was raised. She didn't seem to like Tirek's statement very much. A new shiver went down her spine, as Twilight looked in her direction.

Ah little Cozy, now things are gonna get interesting. How will you decide? You know what’s at stake and what I could do to and for you. You know my reputation, have faith in it.

Twilight’s impression was unreadable as she gazed above the scene in front of her.

"Eh, do I have an own say in that too? I for one would like to stay alive."

"YOU! Shut your stupid mouth, or I'll see to it myself."

"Tirek!!" The centaur's mouth, was forcefully slammed shut in the gleam of rainbow-colored magic and held close without mercy before he could say anything else.

"I will NOT, under any given circumstances, allow a foal to be threatened and oppressed in my kingdom by word or force. Cease immediately or I will have no choice but to ensure it myself."

Twilight's voice was sharp and had a slight note of threatening to it. She knew now that it was simply not possible to talk sensibly with this specific centaur. Nor would he surrender to her, she knew that as well. Yet Tirek was far from being stupid. She was a serious threat to him and by now it must have been clear to him as well, that his earlier plan of subduing the kingdom would no longer have success.

“Cozy Glow!“

At the mere sound of her name, the young mare jumped as she looked up fearfully at the alicorn. Her fear faded somewhat as she looked into the princess' kind and empathetic face and it vanished in full as she almost lost herself in her caring eyes. Her hopes were still there, Twilight hadn´t lost her faith in Cozy and knew that she wasn´t fully willing. As it seemed the alicorn mare had something in mind for her – something good.

"Cozy, I can tell you never really wanted to have something like today happening. I can help you if that's what you want. The only thing you have to do is surrender to the guards and step up here. I promise by what my name is worth, nothing bad will happen to you. My promise as a princess of Equestria is, I will protect you from harm as long as you are honest and remain peaceable."

Resting her right front hoof on her chest, in the place where her heart was, Twilight nodded her head slightly in Cozy's direction. With a brief flash of her horn, a purple magic circle began to form two feet in front of Cozy, about the same diameter as her own height. The circle glowed with a calm and steady force, that vanished every worry the young mare still had in her being. Steadying her hoof, Twilight pointed at the circle, and Cozy understood what Twilight was offering her. She was interrupted before she could make up her mind.

"You-" "QUIET!", Twilight's very voice was enough to interrupt Chrysalis’s comment ever before she could voice it. "I was asking her, not you. You Chrysalis, aren't one bit better than Tirek. We'll deal with that in a minute." Focusing her gaze back on the young pegacorn, she awaited her response.

Cozy still had worries. "W-what will happen if I decide to surrender?" Cozy's voice was so low and meek that Twilight's friends, who had been silently observing the whole situation from behind the alicorn on the ground, had to perk up their ears to even vaguely hear her. Twilight, on the other hoof, seemed to have no trouble hearing the young child.

In a calm voice, Twilight replied Cozy. "Of course, you will be arrested for the time being, after all, you are one of the three who directly attacked Luna, Celestia, and myself, and caused severe damage to Canterlot and its castle. Besides, the first one is even high treason towards the royal house - three times, to be precise, and although there is no final punishment on it for minors. So, it remains still the gravest of all crimes with punishment most wouldn’t even dare to sentence onto others."

Twilight initiated a brief pause for Cozy to let the knowledge sink in. "Fortunately, however, I am in a suitable position to save you from that fate. I´m kind of already the leader of this kingdom, even without documents saying so, and even then I remain one of the four royal princesses governing Equestria. That said, I promise you no more than I can deliver." Twilight tilted her head slightly to the side. "So, what will your answer be?"

Just for a tiny moment, a faint insecurity could be seen in Cozy's gesture, moments before she looked back up at the alicorn overhead in the air, directly into Twilight's violet eyes. The kindness and reassurance radiating from the mare's eyes made her decision that much easier.

Lowering her head and her whole body reverently, she spoke. "Princess Twilight Amicitia Aurora Sparkle I Cozy Glow surrender myself to you and Equestria. I never intended for anyone to be seriously hurt by my actions. There were reasons, but in hindsight, they are beyond ridiculous." Cozy stayed where she was and proceeded to bow where she was.

Hearing the alicorn's calm and friendly voice above her, Cozy glanced up and raised to stand.

"Rise! I'm sure we'll find a solution to your problem little one. I will help you and together we can overcome every hardship there might be. I for my part will not stop until we are both happy and you can walk through Equestria with confidence and pride, that you are now a better mare than before. As I believe, I know you well enough to be able to tell that you Cozy, believe as well you could overcome any problem if you had the right help. As the princess of friendship, it's my prime obligation to make sure that everyone has a happy and enjoyable life and well, me and my friends have a generally pretty decent reputation for fixing bad guys", Twilight chuckled as she held one of her front hoofs right in front of her muzzle to cover up the laugh. After all, such a thing was not proper for a princess to do in public, even if no one would probably dare to blame her today.

"If you are still willing, stand here on this rune circle, please. You will be enclosed in a forcefield, brought back to your original self, and teleported to safety as well. I think you can understand why I have to do this."

Nodding, Cozy Glow trotted the short distance to the magical sigil on the ground in front of her. She knew she would be arrested at first, that was only logical and she had also nothing to argue against it. Reaching the center of the rune, she dropped to her haunches and winced slightly as the magic around her sprang into action with a gentle, low-toned hum. Nothing will happen, nothing will happen, that was the thing going through her mind. She didn’t feel any fear, but couldn’t strip the thought out of her mind.

As the magic circle became steadily more filled with Twilight’s power, she felt the evil Goat's magic, all-encompassing her body and always trying to corrupt her thoughts, begin to be driven out of her system. Back when the other two villains and she yesterday morning had used Grogar's bell to empower themselves, the power given to them was overwhelming, but also cruel, unforgiving, and corruptive. Now feeling Twilight's alicorn magic beginning to flow and spread in her body, driving the dark power outward, she got a new sense of what was truly powerful and pure magic.

Cozy felt free and stronger than she had ever felt in her life, despite knowing that none of the alicorn's magic was permanently staying in her body she welcomed it nonetheless with free hooves and mind.

As Twilight's magic proceeded to stream up through her body like an impassable barrier from below, driving Grogar's magic ahead, Cozy´s tense posture relaxed. The magic coursed relentlessly from the sigil through her hooves and into her body, steadily increasing the pressure on her horn.

Soon a small dark magic sphere with red veins running across the surface and fizzling angrily started to form at the tip of her horn, growing by the second. Before long, Twilight’s magic slid over her wings, returning them from the pumped-up status of large alicorn wings to her normal pegasus, the way she was born with them. And to be honest, she was incredibly glad it did. Grogar's magic might have given her increased wingspan and feather density like it was common for any alicorn. The extra needed strength, endurance, and skill such huge appendages required however the magic didn´t accompany and the difficulty she had flying with them truly had been agonizing. Of course, she hadn´t shown it in front of Chrysalis and Tirek, that would have been showing weakness and not helpful in her case of assuring the two others that she was as strong as them.

Twilight's inscribed magical power, rising from the runic circle, increasing at least twice in force, and the pressure on Grogar's magic many times over, jolted Cozy out of her thoughts. Despite the higher pressure, the feeling was not crushing but liberating. Cozy waited breathlessly for a few more seconds until the dark magic began to sputter from her proto-horn, adding to the ball of ominously black, billowing magic that had accumulated to about half the size of a hoofball. The outline of her magic-granted horn began to grow vaguer and vaguer, finally fading from existence in golden sparks beginning from the tip. Erasing the last detail of Grogar´s magic from her body and finally freeing the young pegamare in the process out of the embrace.

The instant the last shred of corrupt magic left her body, a fuzzy warm feeling began to swell in Cozy’s chest and proceeded to linger through her whole body. The alicorn magic continued to flood her body while seemingly eliminating every minor problem she had been experiencing until now. Whether it had been her fatigue, her slight headache, or her aching muscles, after only a few short moments, she no longer felt any of it. It was no travesty that many said alicorn magic was sacred, supernatural, or divine. For Cozy, all of it was correct, she had never felt more at ease and refreshed than she was right at that moment.

Cozy´s muzzle crossed a wide smile, but hence she could think about it more, she already felt the characteristic sensation of magic wrapping around her whole body and a teleportation spell beginning to charge up beneath her hooves. A second later, her vision blurred briefly and she saw only white, as she was teleported, sparks appearing in her vision and a slight nausea settling in her stomach, due to having never been warped much in her life. The alicorn’s magic in her system, however, made a short process of Cozy’s discomfort, and her nausea was faster gone, than she could blink the sparks out of her vision. As her eyes finally focused, Cozy directed her gaze forward.

She was now no longer seated on the rune circle in the meadow near Chrysalis and Tirek, but rather behind and below Twilight on the ground. Surrounded by a separate force field, right on the edge of the larger force field that still protected the remaining six friends of the alicorn. Her field as well sprouted some of the characteristic strengthening enchantments, she had seen on the much larger one. The bigger one still would hold like 50 Times plus more than hers, but even the smaller one she was seated in seemed to be quite unbreakable.

A simple but significant fact that made her hopes soar to new heights. Nothing the other two villains had to offer would be coming close to hurting her inside here or beginning to damage the force field. Besides the obvious fact, the alicorn princess above her in the air would see to it, that their attacks wouldn´t even come as far as to impact the force field in the first place.

Relaxed, she let both her wings, drawn close to her sides with tension until now, fall to the ground next to her and let go of a breath she didn´t know was holding. Finally able to relax.

Looking over at the six friends, she was greeted by five friendly and sympathetic grinning mares, as well as a young drake giving her a thumbs up.

"Hey Cozy!”

Cozy turned to the kind voice of Fluttershy, the butter-yellow pegasus grinning above both ears and her posture was relatively firm. More than Cozy had thought the shy mare would be capable of, she was – well known for being nervous and litteraly named after a synonym.

Her friendship with the others and especially Twilight in the last years had improved her self-confidence. Even just interacting with the others had aided the yellow pegasus to become more assertive. Plus, Twilight was such a skilled leader that even her very presence and friendship with the others strengthened them and empowered them to become greater. The lavender alicorn was able to contribute and help her friends, even without having to actively talk to them, they believed in their friend and leader well enough to uphold confidentiality at all times, Cozy had come to realize over the past few years.

“Cozy, there is no need to worry, Twilight got this.”

“Yeah, don't worry Twi is super-duper mega awesome at healing bad guys. She'll have you back on all four hooves in zero coma nothing." For Cozy's taste, the pink earth pony mare Pinkie Pie, bouncing up and down on the spot as she said all this in the space of a breath, was a bit too hyperactive. Nonetheless, she smiled back as well and proceeded to look back at the rest of the Events unfolding.

Twilight had briefly glanced over her shoulder down at Cozy, but seeing that the young pegasus was safe, she turned back to the other two aggressors, whom she had so far kept quiet with a sound-absorbing spell.

With a calm rainbow-colored glow of her horn, she dropped the spell but subsequently raised her hoof into the air. With the force that proceeded to emanate from it each second, she prevented either of them from making a sound.

As she began to speak, her entire body slowly glowed brighter and brighter in a white glow, the sheer power of which could be felt even through the force fields. Her space-warping effects likewise became increasingly apparent near the alicorn.

"No, you two will listen to me VERY carefully for once. Because of you, I had almost lost my faith in myself and you almost succeeded in convincing me that Equestria is inevitably broken. But now I have truly understood ONE thing. Equestria is stronger than that, MUCH stronger. The community and solidarity of our kingdom can't be crushed just like that by a hoof full of bad guys like you."

Twilight turned back and roamed her hoof over the army gathered behind her. Now seated once more on the ground and watching with astonishment the young alicorn, that had batted no eye or sweat putting the three attackers in their place.

"We've made many alliances with other kingdoms on Equus over the past few Years. There is no need for them to be all here now, but nevertheless they are. So, as you can see, even you couldn't break that cohesion in the slightest. Neither was the willingness of the ponies to fight for their kingdom muted, even after they saw your deeds towards me. No, this only welded them together even more tightly and against a rebellion of millions of battle-ready ponies, even you wouldn't stand a chance."

By now, a white glow also had settled around the bodies of Twilight's friends on the ground, which shortly thereafter began lifting them upwards into the air, just barely five feet below their alicorn friend. The force field disintegrated into familiar golden sparks as the last mare passed through it.

"The elements of harmony were never the gems. They were only physical representatives of each aspect, objects with which one could identify. What the elements truly are, however, is what they stand for. Honesty, loyalty, joy, generosity, kindness, and lastly myself – friendship, as magic is friendship and the other five aspects are also things one defines as the key elements of a trustworthy friendly bond.”

“They are not simply defined by gemstones. No, it is the faith and strength that each of us finds within, doing our best for the land every single day. Except some do that more than others and are thus known as the current bearers of the elements." The lavender alicorn's gaze solidified and her voice was a good deal lower when she spoke next.

"I will see to it that this knowledge is passed on to the next generations when the time comes. I will carry my duty as the everlasting element of magic with both pride and honor, leading; protecting; and raising every generation with the same unbound burning will as the last. That's my solemn oath to my ponies in Equestria and the rest of Equus. For I do not just represent magic, I AM MAGIC."

In saying that last sentence, Twilight spread both her front hooves and wings wide to her sides. Triggering a tremendous shockwave of magic in all possible colors in the process. That spread out from the sides of her body more than 200 meters wide and shock the very foundation of reality itself. Creating some small, pure white dimensional cracks in the sky in the process, that were hastily closed by Twilight with a beam of rainbow magic. Her cheeks were slightly red and the mare was mildly embarrassed by her little slip. “Oops,” one might have heard the lavender alicorn say softly if they had listened closely. However, every individual was far too enchanted by the countless colorful lights that now streaked across the sky further and further or were otherwise distracted, to notice. The colors stretched out for several kilometers already as they watched breathlessly.

So powerful was the wave that both Tirek and Chrysalis, as well as most of the entire army, were pushed back several meters, even though the gathered allies, protected by Twilight's magic, suffered no direct harm. The two attackers however were thrown to the ground and it took some seconds for them to get back to their hooves.

While some of the smaller species of Equus were hit harder than the bigger ones and most of them stumbled to the ground, they fared still way better than the two attackers did. Especially those who hadn´t had much knowledge and experience with an alicorn and its powers directly were highly surprised and still proceeded to watch the lights as the others helped their allies.

Most knew that an alicorn was powerful, but never expected that they would be due for something like today in any regard.

Upon picking themselves up and gathering back together, the assembled population of Equus turned their eyes back to Twilight. There they observed that by now, in addition to the alicorn's closest friends, the former Pillars of Equestria and the latest peacekeeping force of various creatures had also been enveloped in the same white glow and lifted off the ground into the air to Twilight. One left and the other right from the six close friends of Twilight.

Their surprise at what would happen next was short-lived as a good few seconds later, there was a strong flickering of magic to see in the air and all three groups suspended in the air simultaneously looked up at the young princess.

All their bodies shone ever more brightly. Flashes of magic passed through the sky and lightning cracked in the air without striking something specific, but at the same time seemed to emanate from the alicorn of magic without hurting her in the slightest. By all means, however, the event was not terrifying, but astounding and impressive as the gathered creatures could do nothing except watch with their breaths held.

Three brightly rainbow-colored beams burst upward moments later from the assembled position of each of the three groups, gathering directly inside Twilight's back.

The princess herself seemed to practically absorb the magic, while the reality around the alicorn continued to shake and sway more violently. Whatever new powers the alicorn now possessed, reality didn’t seem to like them very much. Or the alicorn mare was just too powerful for reality to handle so her special powers had a visible effect on the concept itself as she used them. The dim white aura that surrounded the alicorn since she had woken up, slowly began to turn the same colors as the energy that was flowing into her.

For a short moment, it looked like the alicorn was about to attack, as Twilight's horn lit up in an incredibly bright arc with many flashes, sparks, and runs circles its entire length. About half of the gathered allies had to briefly look away as the light was just too bright for them to look at. Two seconds passed and most of the magic subsided - at least for now.

Twilight's voice was loud and thunderous as she spoke next. The alicorn used once more her royal Canterlot voice, a special voice that any alicorn could call upon to make itself heard or to simply override the volume of large groups of ponies and other creatures.

With each word she emphasized, a new wave of rainbow-colored magic, however, this time smaller but still very powerful, broke from either of her sides in response. Whether and if so, which affect this magic of Twilight had, probably no one except the alicorn itself knew, but looking impressive it did in any case.

"I will ask one LAST time. Are you both seriously ABSOLUTE sure that you DON’T want to surrender? NO ONE but ME would have given you another chance for such long. YOU! HAVE! LOST! Accept it.”

Twilight took a deep breath, something she hadn't done in half an hour she realized. Fixing her gaze, eyes narrowed even more now, back upon the two of them, but especially Tirek and what he would do. The centaur was by far the harder case of both villains.

“Surrender now, there is nothing left for you to gain. Give up and we will find a peaceful solution. As I did with Cozy I also voice to you my promise that I will do my best to ensure that you get an appropriate, but still as mild as possible punishment possible. I´m no monster after all and neither are my fellow princesses. To be hateful or vindictive is not inherent to an alicornˋs nature, we are most likely the complete contrary. Something our species has been honored for by others for generations and while you may see it that way, it is not a sign of subservience or failing. Being kind and forgiving is not weakness, but rather a fortitude and great leadership.”

“However, with your aggressive attitude towards Equestria, me, or the other princesses, the sentence had to be a lot harsher than Cozy’s - even I can't do anything about that.”

Twilight subsequently scratched her chin with a lavender hoof and her gaze darted skywards in thought.

“Technically I could. I´m an equestrian princess and soon sole ruler of this kingdom, but that would be heavy abuse of my powers and certainly meet with ill will from my dear ponies in your particular case."

Twilight hadn´t had to wait long for a response, as almost immediately she received her answer from Tirek. Chrysalis herself stayed silent and agreed with Tirek without words, her gaze only a little uncertain, but still, her statement was pretty clear.

"We will never submit to you or anyone else for that matter, I would rather die before I do. By no means you are capable of becoming anyone's leader, you are a disappointment to Equestria, and your weak behavior and inability to fight only show how low the ponies have sunk.” Tirek raised both his hands high into the sky.

“Not until this kingdom is under my merciless rule will I be happy bringing Equestria back to a kingdom that is feared and respected above all means. You should join us, with our combined might, anyone who opposes the realm will be utterly eliminated." Clenching his fists as he said that, Tirek looked up aggressively at the alicorn princess. His eyes bore no mercy for what he had in mind and Twilight knew he meant what he said with every fiber of his being. Nevertheless, she could nothing other than give a sly smile to the centaur. Sweet, he thinks he has something to demand or oppose me with. I feel almost bad for him – almost!

"Hmm, I guess that's your independent opinion then. I'm sure plenty of the inhabitants of Equestria and the allied kingdoms beyond would see my leadership qualities in a different light than you. After all, if I hadn't at least good capabilities, I'd have had a hard time becoming the crown princess and soon-to-be ruler of Equestria, wouldn´t you agree?"

Shrugging her shoulders and grinning mischievously, Twilight´s statement was echoed by hundreds of individual cheers of consent through the ranks. It was clear to them Twilight had the situation fully under her control and today above all means the young alicorn had shown she not only cared about her subjects but also her allies. A very noble gesture in such a dire situation, where her kingdom had been at the edge of doom just less than an hour ago. Still, they remained battle-ready to spring into action immediately if the young lavender alicorn needed help. Even if the raw unfocused power the lavender princess emitted alone was likely greater than their combined forces anyway.

"If that´s your finale answer then I'm sorry to say, there is nothing more I can do for you. You have made up your minds."

Twilight crossed both forelocks in front of her chest while she glared down at the changeling queen and the centaur with a hard scowl.

"I Princess Twilight Amicitia Aurora Sparkle the First; Goddess of Magic, Stars, Harmony/Peace and Friendship; Crown Princess and next ruler of the divine kingdom of Equestria hereby convict you guilty of the following charges.”

"Inflicting several millions of bits’ worth of damage through Equestria, destroying about a third of the capitol Canterlot and half of the royal castle Canterlot. Breaking Law §257 - threatening the lives of innocent people and/or residents of Equestria. Disregarding the law §365, serious assault and endangering allies of the Crown in more than a dozen cases. Further violation of Law §456 - threatening the safety of other allied kingdoms with Equestria. Breach of Law §555, the threat of violence against minors and/or mentally impaired creatures followed by the final breach of Law §777 by far the worst of all - attempted regicide.”

Twilight facepalmed and groaned, shaking her head in disappointment. "Seriously! Did anyone of you even remotely think about what they were doing and the resulting consequences, before acting? Doesn´t seem like it to me. The last law is the only one of all 65.536 laws or paragraphs in Equestria still punishable by death. By law §1,337 and paragraph 42,069, I would have to sentence you to immediate death without consultation, but I neither will do that nor do I agree with it to be an efficient punishment for any crimes and it shouldn’t even be there in the first place. I will see to that later, personally.”

Twilight stopped for a brief pause. “Do you have anything else to say in your defense? You see, this is your last chance to improve your chances and explain your motives to me, so I might have something to work with." Oh, boy, I said I won’t decide to unleash the punishment I technically could and some would, but Tirek will see that just as another weakness. Urrrgh, maybe Chrysalis will choose otherwise.

"We got no regrets, especially to you" Tirek immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, both for himself and Chrysalis. The latter, in turn, did not outright contradict the centaur, but still uttered a shocked comment.

"Whaaaaat? But I don't want to die! Please, your highness, there has to be a different and better way!" Chrysalis flailed her front hooves wildly in the air and looked up at the literally brilliant gleaming alicorn in the air.

Tirek, as expected, furiously turned to the female changeling, his eyes almost flaming. "Hey, don't you dare beg that puny pony princess up there for mercy. You and I are better than that."

However, what the centaur didn't seem to have thought was for Chrysalis to fly up to his chest and thrust one of her hooves vigorously into his chest while looking him in the eye with a fierce look. She too had enough of his angry shouts.

"Oh, shut up, Tirek, whenever it comes to my life, I still like to make my decisions buddy. I don't give a damn what happens to you for that matter - it's your decision."

A sharp clearing of a throat from behind the two of them made them look back to the sky. Twilight was still floating in the air without even bothering to use her wings, surrounded by her friends, allies, and the bizarre magic.

"Do I still have your attention, or what? It's rude to ignore me, you know after I made you such a friendly offer that you so plainly refused. Chrysalis, while it’s nice to hear you’re not just repeating Tirek’s words, but have still your mind. Your life or rather a punishment however, is in my hooves entirely. Either way, be glad that an alicorn is generally so pliable. As said, I will not use the laws I had every right to, yet I must inflict an otherwise harsh punishment as a substitute. A princess of Equestria may be above the laws we rule and is rendered generally not liable to imprisonment for any crime, but even we cannot disobey every rule. A few basic ones, even we must follow to ensure the safety of our subjects and allies. That is why, unfortunately, I will have to do this."

Twilight's expression had drastically shifted in the last few seconds, first to a thoughtful, then a partially pitying one and lastly, her features relaxed completely almost immediately afterward as her body began to glow with renewed vigor.

The three magical rainbows that had bound each of the friends' groups to the alicorn over the entire time of the conversation had lingered in a kind of dormant state, but now began flowing in slow waves to the alicorn. Glowing ever more vibrantly in the seven characteristic colors of the rainbow. Even nearly to the point of colorfulness that it seemed unrealistic. The raw power that saturated the very air, despite its sheer strength, was reassuring to all who witnessed.

Alicorn magic truly was a particular and pure might, not just held in high esteems and everyone present knew why the legend of the ancient alicorns was so widespread and known as it was.

No matter how great the legends about alicorns are. Yet by far, the most incredible sight emanated from the lavender alicorn hovering in the center of it all. Forceful and seemingly unbothered by all that was happening around her. Princess Twilight Amicitia Aurora Sparkle herself was a brilliant star of light and color, that absorb all the magic emitting from the three groups of friends into her body. Her horn, wings, eyes, coat, and hair sparkled just as bright and colorful as they had been just a few minutes before.

A few seconds passed in silence, with no one daring to say a word to break the silence. Nothing else to be heard but an ever-increasing hum of accumulating magic. As the horn of the alicorn of magic flashed much brighter once more, in all imaginary colors. A golden/rainbow glow traveling up Twilight’s body from the tips of her hooves to the very top of her long, curved horn. Seemingly Twilight had collected all of her absorbed magic into her horn as a beam of harmonious energies about five inches wide erupted upward from Twilight's horn. The alicorn mare herself, meanwhile, had placed her right front hoof over her chest the location of her heart. Her snout was lifted to the sky and a broad smile crossed her entire muzzle.

Twilight´s friends could feel an unbelievably strong and calm force coursing through her veins, probably the unique magic of their magical skilled alicorn friend herself. So tranquil and yet so powerful at the same time, that it left them speechless. While none of them exactly knew where this energy was coming from, each of them suspected that it had something to do with Twilight and her seemingly recently acquired capabilities.

The beam of rainbow magic proceeded to rise higher and higher into the sky and soon passed through the gray clouds still hanging in the sky. As the beam passed through them, the clouds were swept from the sky as if by a gigantic invisible hoof and vanished into thin air as if they had never been there in the first place. Though, everyone watching the event knew that it was the merit of the alicorn above them in the sky.

Two breathless seconds later, the rise of magic slowed and the world was bathed in a blanket of calm and confidence. Putting even the previous spectacle of light show Twilight created earlier to shame. As the tendrils of magic, like horizon lights, extended beyond even the curvature of Equus and likely wrapped around the entire planet.

Eventually, the beam of magic began to fall back to the ground - directly upon the centaur and the changeling queen. At first slowly but increasingly faster. Whether the two stayed in place due to fear of Twilight or because of some force of the alicorn´s magic binding them to the ground no one knew - but likely a combination of both.

As the magic struck both villains simultaneously, in the semitransparent glow of the multicolored beam one could see, magic freely being pulled from the centaur and Tirek's size rapidly diminishing as did Chrysalis. The physical appearance of the changeling also reverted back to its original state. Even though she did not shrink nearly as much as the centaur did.

The magic beam continued for a few more seconds before it slowly became thinner and finally disappeared completely from the sky.

Meanwhile, each of the three pony/creature groups had descended back to the ground and Twilight's hooves also made contact with the ground some seconds thereafter as the magical flow that had surrounded her until now diminished noticeably. It didn’t fade completely however and an aura of great magic proceed to surround the lavender alicorn no matter if she actively used her magic or not. Upon touching the ground with her hooves, the entire area shock with a light rumble, but there were no cracks in the ground or anything close to that this time. Twilight seemed to slowly get flawless control over her magic if she turned it up to eleven. Despite all craziness of the situation, a slight, almost invisible glow remained on Twilight’s entire lavender coat, even if the ambient bending effects vanished as the world bends one last time around Twilight.

Tirek almost immediately grabbed his shoulders with both his hands and began to shiver, whether from cold or fear for the things the alicorn might do to him was not apparent. At the same time, Chrysalis was shaking her head in bewilderment, trying to sort out her thoughts. As her vision had cleared enough for her to finally see, she took two fearful steps back from the gathered creatures, but mostly the young alicorn princess herself. Without any problems, Twilight had with her rainbow blast just taken away any strength they had received from Grogar's magic and that easiness was a terrifying thing to know.

The extracted magic of Grogar itself, was hovering in the air three meters in front of the two of them, now an around six inches sized yellow/black ball of aggressively swirling magic, that sparked every second with tiny red lightning bolts. It however rapidly moved away from them and towards the lavender alicorn before either of them could even begin to reach for it.

Without batting an eye, Twilight kept watching in the direction of the two former villains. And also remained motionless as Grogar's magic rose to her horn and began to flow into it with a series of waves that ran down her long accessory. Once the magic was done flowing into the horn of the alicorn, Twilight’s appendage flashed shortly with her now familiar white/rainbow magic. The alicorn mare looked up to her horn briefly and she looked down to set up a bright and cheeky smile.

"Ah, perfect! No one will ever be able to do harm with that magic again!", Twilight cheered delightedly as she looked over at both of them. Her gaze got rigid and cold as ice, as soon as her gaze focused on the two. Just taking their magic away and showing how powerful she truly was, would sadly never succeed in getting sense into them. As hard as she wished it would.

“You-“ Was all she said, but fell silent and closed her muzzle. She would wait until either Chrysalis or Tirek worded something in their defense - or at least anything other than a curse. At this point, she didn’t care, just not another insult.

Chrysalis maw hung agape. While she had Grogar's magic at her disposal until recently, she had been able to feel to her core, how corrupt and warped Grogar’s magic had truly been. Never had she met the goat herself, she wasn't that old, but it was known from tales and stories that he was arguably the cruelest and heartless creature that had ever set foot on Equus. Slaying thousands and tainting the land for many years even after his death. At least until the alicorns had risen and pushed back the dark forces, slowly purifying Equestria as it had been before. His magic signature had exemplified that same fact very well as well – corruptive and cruel with every ounce of force it had.

It had consumed a lot of her concentration to keep the magic under control after receiving it and not be overwhelmed by his corruption. Every single second of magical reinforcement had been plagued by a dark and ominous-sounding voice that had been whispering in the back of her mind all along to surrender and stop fighting it. Every single sentence accompanied by the promise of endless power and dominance over others.

Twilight, however, showed not a single indication that absorbing the magic had impressed her in any way. It was as if the magic could have no impact on the alicorn - apart from the fact that she probably had gained new abilities from unifying Grogar´s bell magic with her own. At least that was how the basic concept of magic worked that Chrysalis knew and believed to be true. She was sure it was the case, it felt like it, even if she had no idea what kind of powers that could be. Twilight´s magic remained intimidating, but also had now an underlay of new strength and power, Chrysalis had felt just until some minutes ago herself.

By all means visible, the young lavender alicorn princess was resistant to the corrupting effects, though Chrysalis couldn't recall ever having heard of an alicorn being immune to such a thing. Yet her entire image of an alicorn had been shattered several times today anyway, so she didn't question it. Nope, such an opponent was impossible to combat, Chrysalis knew she had bucked up hard. Staying silent seemed to be the best idea, so she did.

While the changeling queen had been lost in her thoughts, Tirek had used his hands to right himself once again back to his feet. However, his previously upfront tongue was speechless as well. He likewise just stared over at the alicorn and studied the princess' movements. Twilight returned his gaze without blinking, this silent conversation continued for about a minute, until the alicorn energized her horn in a bright white glow, still surrounded by a rainbow-colored corona, which seemed to be her new magic color.

Chrysalis was rudely jolted out of her thoughts when she felt a cold sensation creeping along her leg. As the former queen looked down, she witnessed her right hind hoof slowly changing at its base, no longer it’s characteristic hard, black chitin, but a lighter shade of white - pale as granite.

Moments later, she lost all feeling in the end of her limb as the discoloration slowly crept up her hind hoof and also had begun at the other one. Chrysalis suddenly realized that she had seen something like that before, it really was stone - Twilight was working a petrification spell on her body. Panicked, Chrysalis attempted to use several counter-spells and every other magic she could think of, but her horn only sparked and fizzled out every time she tried.

Her magic was unable to overcome Twilight’s even in the slightest and as she thought about it, the only time she had been able to counter alicorn magic had been with Celestia at the Canterlot wedding of princess Cadance and the lavender alicorn’s brother Shining Armor. And even that had been nothing more than a simple trick as the white alicorn had had a serve alicorn cold just some days before. The only illness an alicorn could get once in their life and that almost completely rendered their magic useless. More than a simple telekinetic spell or light teleportation was out of the frame for about one week.

So, Chrysalis had been incredibly lucky Celestia was so weakened, Luna too occupied with taking over Celestia’s duties, Cadance incredibly stressed and therefore careless, and unicorn Twilight too insecure to try fighting her directly in combat. Even if her massive love boost would have made the battle an intense one, she wasn’t sure she would have won. After all, even before her ascension, Twilight had been the unicorn with the strongest magic and most incredible abilities in the past thousand years.

As the transformation progressed up her legs, it squeezed her flesh from all sides and it felt like a stocking being pulled up her leg that was far too tight as soft flesh was turned to hard stone.

A glance at Tirek revealed that he was not faring any better than her. Even worse, the stone had already moved over his hips and was now heading up his lower body. She quickly turned her head back to the alicorn and her friends, one of the last movements she could make, a hiss on her face. For what Twilight did, she intended to throw as many insults as she could at the small assembled group of ponies in her LAST moments of being able to voice anything. But the look that was given her way by the troop, especially by the young alicorn made her fall silent. There was true undeniable pity in Twilight's eyes, her head lowered a third. Chrysalis instantly understood that it was very hard for the alicorn mare to carry out her petrification punishment, but she saw no other option left for them to contain Tirek and her.

With the last three seconds she had left, Chrysalis lowered her head in reverence to Twilight and flashed a small smile to raise her spirit at least somewhat. She had understood what the alicorn was doing and in a way, she could comprehend it. Even if her inner anger towards the mares still prevented her from truly forgiving them just now. But as she would suggest right, both Tirek and she would have more than enough time to overthink and see their wrongs.

Tirek himself spoke surprisingly nothing, taken far too aback by what happened. The last voice he heard, however, right before his body completely turned to solid stone, was Twilight's. The alicorn mare had laid her hoof over her chest and slightly turned her gaze down.

"With the power, I possess as a princess of Equestria, I condemn you. I am truly sorry, just so you know. You will not be permitted to leave your prison for the next 1,000 years. After that, we will meet again when I make another attempt to converse with the two of you. By then, I hope you will have realized the error of your ways."

There was a dull thud as the statue hit the ground and once the dust had settled, it was clear that Tirek and Chrysalis had been turned into white, markless granite. In the eyes of many, even that was a punishment too severe, but they wouldn’t contradict the lavender alicorn princess's decision. After all, it was her choice to make alone and not theirs.

The deed done, Twilight seated on the ground and looked at the statue of the two villains in front of her. The two same villains she had just sentenced to a one thousand year imprisonment in stone. Her mind reeled at incomparable speeds and a lone tear rolled down her chin.

No matter how much they deserved punishment, she couldn't help but feel a pang of pity for them. It was not an easy decision to make for her to convict someone, less so for an alicorn with it´s inherit peaceful nature. But sadly, that was the job she had to do as a princess and would have to continue doing as a ruler for probably many instances. Some things were hard, but she knew she had many allies to help her through these mentally difficult times – her six close friends for starters. The same that after the danger had been averted slowly trotted over to her. Probably to console their alicorn leader. That fact alone lifted Twilight’s spirit a great deal and she proceeded to sit there in thought.

Over the years, she had learned, that panic or fried were normal things everyone had to cope with, even a born leader and alicorn princess like her, but as long as you didn´t let them get the better of you it was totally fine. Panic and fried were both feelings time would cure, a thing she had more than enough as an alicorn.

Twilight proceeded seated onto the ground for several minutes, lost in her thoughts. Nothing occupying her mind except the thought if what she had done was right…

*End of Chapter Two*

...You shouldn't!

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*3*

A bump on her left shoulder made her look over at the yellow pegasus it belonged to. Fluttershy was the first of her friends to reach her and was now resting her hoof on Twilight's shoulder. The look she gave her alicorn friend as she did so was compassionate and understanding, one of her wings slightly outstretched and waiting.

Twilight was only too happy to oblige, spreading both of her sparkling wings to their full span and hugging her shy pegasus friend tightly with more tears forming in her eyes, something that Fluttershy returned caringly. Her wings were by far not enough to completely enclose the alicorn, the size difference was too vast for that. Nevertheless, she gave her best. The rest of her friends followed suit not long after, and Spike squeezed in between the mares towards Twilight's left front leg, hugging it with everything he had to offer as well.

"You did the right thing. I know it was a hard thing to do, but don't let it drag you down. It was the best choice and I'm sure both of them can understand. Well, Chrysalis more than Tirek, but even that stubborn centaur secretly knows it had to be done."

Twilight raised her gaze and looked deeply into Fluttershy´s caring orbs, her eyes slowly darting over the rest of the pile of cuddling ponies, the corners of her mouth curved upwards into a broad smile.

"Thanks, girls. That's exactly what I needed to hear right now. Thank you for understanding."

“You have nothing to thank for darling, that’s what great friends are for after all”, Rarity whispered.

Twilight proceeded to nuzzle her friends until finally, she twisted her head around and with a simple flick of her long horn, dispelled the unneeded runic circle, watching until the last glittering remnants of the runes had vanished. Folding her wings back to both her sides, she released her friends from their hug and they in reverse took a few steps back in complete astonishment.

It was the first time since her unexpected awakening that they could properly examine the alicorn before them, without some reality-warping magic hindering their sight. And as their worry for Twilight’s mental well-being had substituted, they acknowledged something that should have been fairly obvious for a long time. It was, after all, a detail very hard to miss when being such close friends for years and seeing one another daily.

The expression and astonishment Twilight could see in the eyes of the four surprised her for a moment. But when she looked further behind her friends and saw Luna, Discord and Celestia standing there with equally astonished looks, she knew that something about her didn't correspond to the norm. Her suspicions proved true when she felt a constant motion along the side of her face and there still remained the unusual feeling of a new, powerful and yet familiar force deep within her. Looking down her body and to her rear, she realized what her friends and fellow princesses had already discovered.

The entire range of changes she had previously felt in and around her body had retained and even more so. In fact, the only thing about her that still looked the same was the color of her fur, and not even that had been completely spared. Her coat color had turned at least one shade brighter and was now a light lavender. The fur on her throat, all the way down her chest to her underbelly, showed an almost entirely white tone. As she would later discover, the white accents of her fur even went to about the lower half of her face, and the fur above that turned to darker lavender upward, with the tips of her ears a deep shade of purple.

Her new, by far longer and slightly curved horn had a white color at its base, which turned to a darker purple as one looked further up Twilight's horn and then a bright pink at its tip. There were also a great number of runes running across her horn, apparently worked directly into the bone, which only added to the alicorn's already powerful aura. And as Twilight activated her magic to examine herself more, she was momentarily shocked. The simple raw power exceeding from her horn just by lighting it, was far greater than earlier that day. Her gaze drifted slowly over her surroundings as she tried to sort her founding’s.

Twilight stopped when she became aware that she could see magic flowing all around her and over every single pony or creature, as well as a round ball of concentrated magic in the chest of each individual – the magic core of a being. Something she wasn’t supposed to see so easily and without casting a spell. Well, yes, when she became an alicorn, the other princesses taught her several new spells that required alicorn magic to be cast. Including a spell that allowed her to see the magic, the effects it had, and the amount of it a being had. The advanced form of visualizing one’s own magic reserves, a thing she had internalized checking each time she blinked.

As she had mastered said spell she was also able to see the magic core, the storage of a beings unique magic. Not more than a small ball in the chest of a creature, but easily their greatest treasury. Once damaged one couldn’t use his magic partly or in full, depending on the damage it suffered. It was very unlikely to damage ones magic core, the thing just looked fragile, but was so sturdy most magic’s and users were unable to even locate it, less so affect. Still, it could happen. The magic core could also be repaired, at least by a certain degree as she had heard, but one needed a lot of alicorn magic to do so. If even cracking the magic core was hard, it was incredible harder to repair it.

Still, she should address Rainbow’s little problem, the constant crashing in the midst of her stunts over the years seemed to have left slight injuries to her core. But we’ll get to that in a moment. Twilight’s horn glowed and her warm magic briefly settled around the cyan pegasus. The mare involved gave the alicorn a quick and confused look, but didn’t ask what she had just done. It was something positive anyway.

But one thing bugged Twilight nonetheless, she had never heard of such a thing occurring as a passive ability. As it seemed, however, it was different so with her. On a second thought, it suddenly made also sense to the alicorn. I AM magic, so I probably am able to naturally see any magic, even that others can’t witness, with my regular eyes without having to use a spell.

With ease, she was now able to look Celestia in the eyes, she was even slightly taller than her and just like the two oldest princesses, she now possessed a long flowing mane, as well as a long lion's tail. A perk so far every alicorn had possessed. The tail had hair only at its end, which sparkled with stars just like her mane. The color scheme of her mane was similar to what she had noticed before when she woke up, but it hadn’t been as sparkly and with less powerful colors. Now the colors were so prominent that they seemed almost otherworldly, though with her new appearance that wasn't even that far-fetched.

As she squinted her eyes a bit and ran her gaze over her hair and tail once more, searching for something she knew she missed. A few seconds later her eyes widened almost to the max as she immediately peered up at the night sky. Yes, she had not been mistaken, both appendages showed a perfect replica of the starry sky above her and even twinkled to match each constellation. While she had always been a bit envious of Luna and her wonderful mane, she was now sporting such fantastic hair herself. Twilight couldn't help but trot on the spot for a few seconds in delight and on the brink of her awareness she believed she could hear Celestia giggling delightedly.

As interesting as her mane and tail were, it was the next new feature she discovered on her body changed that made her snout drop to the ground. She had never seen anything like this before on any of the other princesses or another being. Her whole body, but especially her hooves, entire legs and midsection, were covered with countless runes and lines of magic that pulsed slightly to a steady beat. A quick examination of herself with magic, revealed that the magical lines and inscriptions match her inner beat. The magic as it streamed so vigorously and intimidating over her body - powerful but yet so incredibly calm and familiar, just like it had been always a Part of her locked away until recently, was simply mind-blowing.

When she had ascended to an alicorn, she had been astounded at the new amount of inner mana her magic core could store and harness and how much stronger, easier and faster she could cast spells without tiring. A short examination of her visual mana well afterwards had proved her magic core to hold more than two thousand times it previous value as a unicorn. More so, her atomized coffee mug and the copies of "Constructive Criticism and the ways you shouldn't apply it - a reference guide by N. Otgood" and “You have created a being to unrealistic and strong, how to deal with it – by B. Uckit”, punching through Rainbow's cloud house with Mach 5 and jerking the poor pegamare out of her third nap of the day, had been a good indication of her new, improved magical abilities as an alicorn. Not to mention the occasion for hours of testing her powers and new level so as not to pulverize something every time she tried to participate in daily life.

But the power alone that she could feel flowing over her entire coat and stream into the surrounding area around easily dwarfed that experience by a factor of a hundred.

That, however, was only a microscopic spark of the accumulated power Twilight felt in her inner being. The young lavender alicorn princess felt as if she could contain the entire universe in her hooves and change it to her will without even coming to the edge of straining or exhaustion. Her thoughts whirled with a velocity and denseness that would leave any other being dumbstruck and bewildered, but to the alicorn mare, everything made clear and orderly sense - magic, harmony, peace, knowledge, stars, amity... hundreds of thousands of thoughts at once, yet it was all as clear and familiar to Twilight as her own hoof.

No, it was simply said one of the most wonderful feelings Twilight had ever felt. The young alicorn mare, would have liked to tear out an entire mountain or leap all the way to the stratosphere in a single bound. But rather held back from it, as it was not exactly helpful in the current situation, even if the possibility of such a thing did not sound so far-fetched anymore for her.

The further overall appearance of her legs and hooves hadn't changed much, except for a slightly lighter coat color as well. She also had now, the unique characteristics, each alicorn possessed of the three residual pony tribes they represented. The long, unshorn furlongs on the hooves, as was common for earth ponies. The slightly forward curved horn, as most unicorns possessed - only unicorns with very little talent for magic, had a straight horn. Finally, the characteristics of a pegasus, the fluffy/feathered ears and additional feathers just above the base of the tail - which in her case were both her usual lavender.

Gazing over her new appearance and pondering about the energy that flowed through her body by the second, Twilight recognized another surprising detail that had changed about her as her vision swept over her back. And she wondered how she had missed something like that and not notice it until now. It was also probably the main reason her friend’s and Luna plus Celestia were so astounded.

With her muzzle slightly agape and an amused smirk on her face, she spread her four new appendages out on her back and surveyed their texture and span for a moment. Fully spread out, each one of her six wings extended as far as her entire body height to either side. They also exhibited a wonderful gradient of color. The top primary feathers, were still the same color as her fur - a light, bright lavender. The next layer underneath, was once again the same shade of white as the fur on her belly. The further the feathers moved away from her middle, the darker they became. The gradient ranged from a light purple, to a darker purple, to an almost black hue, which ended in a red, orange to yellow gradient at the tips of her wings. As Twilight surveyed each of her wings for a few more seconds, enjoying the new color scheme and appearance, pondering the interesting change in her head. She noticed tiny energetic bolts of lightning traveling from the bases to the outermost feather tips of her wings.

While normally, the logical and scientific part of Twilight´s mind would tell her that electricity couldn´t flow over a pony's body without harm, on the one hoof, Pegasi were known for their high resistance to lightning, as they needed to be for their daily tasks with the weather. It always was a possibility for a cloud to faze a Pegasus, once they intended to move it. Fortunately, pain resistance to shock was also very high in a Pegasus.

On the other hoof, the alicorn mare had given up on questioning anything about her physiology and possibility minutes ago. There were apparently many things she did not yet know about herself as an alicorn - like the new, massive and beautiful wiggling things on her back. As apparently without her realizing it, she had grown four additional wings and her entire appearance had received a massive upgrade in just about any part. Given that, lightning bolts traveling across her wings without creating damage or pain, were a rather minor issue to think about.

"Eh Twilight-?", Applejack's voice brought Twilight back to reality and the alicorn turned her head to her close orange earth pony friend, who stood perplexed and still with her mouth open next to the rest of her friend’s, that looked not much less surprised. Luna and Celestia seemed to have caught on by now and were more interested than surprised as they looked over at the fellow alicorn.

"- I would have lots of questions for you at the moment, though I suspect from the look on your face that most of them you can't even answer yours elf so far. That's why I'll keep it simple and short.” With a flat look Applejack continued. “Can you make the sun and moon rise or what?" Applejack then tilted her head, looking briefly up at the sun and moon, still both present in the sky, awaiting the alicorn's answer.

"Ehhh-," was all Twilight managed before she turned her attention hopefully to her former mentor and longtime friend Celestia.

To her confusion, however, the tall white alicorn just shook her head and bowed it in something like embarrassment.

"I'm sorry Twilight. I honestly have no idea what or why any of this has happened to you in the last hour. I may know many things, alone due to my long life, but magic has never been my strong suit. As I'm sure you know, I was a pegasus before I ascended, so - if you need help getting your six wings under better control, I'm your pony to ask. Though that shouldn't be that hard as one might guess, controlling four more wings once you've internalized the basics of wing anatomy and what muscle is for what and creates what outcome, will be quiet easy." At this, Celestia had to grin and after a few seconds she began to heartily laugh also.

Twilight just shook her head, while Celestia continued. "Wow, it sounds a lot crazier actually saying it. Forgive my unusual behavior, but a being with six wings, was known to me until now only through legends. A Seraphicorn, if my memories don't deceive me. I was aware that there are stories about an alicorn supposedly transcending to a higher level of existence by awakening its deepest powers. Yet I never thought it possible to be true."

Celestia turned her head to the left as she said that last sentence nodding to her younger sister.

"I would ask Luna for more details if you desire additional answers about magic. Unlike me, she was a unicorn prior to her ascension and has become extremely well-read in the magic of the last thousand years to make up for what she lost and missed. I´m sure there’s much you both could learn from each other. You always were my top student with perfect grades in all subjects and your skills with magic are well beyond everything I ever witnessed from another pony."

Twilight, before she could get around to addressing Luna on the matter, was interrupted by the older dark-blue princess.

“For sure I would be honored to learn with you Twilight, about the mysteries we still have with magic. I always was a bit envious for your talent in magical arts and most of my research on this subject was boosted by the thirst to be anything near as capable as you were and still are. And even, if I can't tell you everything you want to know, since I have a good hunch that you're still a mighty step ahead of me in magic and probably always will be. Hm, you even might someday know everything that there is about magic. But so far, some things I do know, nonetheless you for sure don´t seem to know at the moment. Your particular new appearance should be one of those things."

Clearing her throat, Luna smirked over to Twilight and her friends.

"Yep. You could obviously use brute force and simply push the two celestial bodies to another part of the sky. After all, neither the sun nor the moon of Equestria are stationary objects - they're just incredibly heavy, which is why no one but an alicorn has the power or necessary amount of mana to move them in the first place.”

“However, I don't suppose you're planning on ditching us from that task just yet?", Luna joked with a twinkle in her eyes. "Or is it not enough for you that soon you will reign the mighty kingdom of Equestria under your iron hoof? In order so that every creature on Equus may tremble to the very core with fear at the mere mention of the name Equestria and it’s unbeatable, merciless empress", the dark blue alicorn mare continued to wiggle her eyebrows at her younger fellow seraphicorn.

Twilight took a surprised step back and held one of her hooves in front of her chest in mock defiance.

"Hey! I want it noted that I have no intention of subjugating Equestria and we all know that. How dare you accuse me of something like that? I feel genuinely insulted."

The dark blue alicorn and lavender seraphicorn gave each other a quick smirk and fell to high laughter just mere seconds later, their wings trembling as their bodies shook. About a minute later, both mare´s gathered their composure almost fully back, nevertheless both remained smiling wide above their muzzles.

“Although, if we’re being honest, none of us even needs violence or oppression to get what we want from our ponies. They trust us and our decisions too much not to carry them out with a clear conscience and pride. The honesty and loyalty of an alicorn to his subjects has to have its advantages after all.”

Both Celestia and Luna nodded while Twilight shook her head, already with the next topic in mind. "And no, you are more than welcome to keep dragging the sun and the moon over the horizon each day. For the time being it is more than enough work for me to carry out all your former tasks as regents. Although I wouldn't be surprised if suddenly the moon moves in the wrong direction, or strangely enough the sun rises a few minutes too early or late over the edge of the horizon. Such things can happen Luna, ya know."

Twilight cheekily stuck her tongue out at Luna, to which the dark mare just laughed and rolled her eyes.

"Hm, fair enough. In that case it's my own fault anyway, it was I that started the whole", Luna shrugged her shoulders. "BUT, I'd still like to return briefly to the legends my sister mentioned. Because as you might have suspected by now, they are very much true and you don’t want to miss hearing about them.

Luna pointed with her hoof towards Twilight's new characteristics and especially to the seraphicorn´s back at her six sparkling wings, that still gleamed on their own in the twilight of the day and gave of more of their strange unique magic.

"First of all, there is a special book on alicorn´s and seraphicorn´s that I found only a few months ago and have been studying ever since. So far, not even my own sister has had any knowledge of its existence as it was really hard to find in the first place - pretty much coincidence to be precise. The book itself, was written by an old unicorn scientist about two millennia’s ago, who himself claims he encountered a seraphim in his dreams out of purest, divine magic, that revealed to him all that he wrote down in his book."

Twilight and all her assembled friends pricked up their ears, thinking about it that sounded more than intriguing. A whole book about alicorn´s, the transcended form of one and their powers? Written by a unicorn scientist with dreams about a mystic creature consisting out of a godly magic, that had bestowed the knowledge upon him? If that wasn't worth paying attention to, they didn't know what was. Well, yes, there were some other books about alicorn´s and most of their powers, like a definition how they managed to raise the sun and moon each day. Or how an alicorn magic created shield remained indestructible and after casting, energy-independent. But nothing nearly as specific than that book sounded.

Luna’s voice brought them back to the situation. "The stallion described the creature as the most gorgeous, magnificent and equally fearsome as confidence-inspiring being he had ever laid eyes upon in his life. With a coat the color of purest lavender radiating light and colors he hadn´t thought possible, a long flowing mane and tail, mirroring the night sky he saw every single night and the most noticeable, expressionless but infinitely caring white eyes.”

“In the brief moment that he was in the shadow of one of the seraphicorn's huge wings, staring into its faceless eyes, his horn touched the seraphicorn's. In that brief moment, his horn touch the seraph's. In that momentary touch, a tremendous magical power beyond imaginable and knowledge so great his head almost exploded seemed to flow between him and the seraphim. The sheer size of which frightened him and made him fear that he would be swept away under its immense weight."

"Yet as he looked into the seraphicorn's eyes, time seemed to slow down and all but stand still. He felt that she radiated confidence, comfort and kindness, as if he were looking into the eyes of his own mother. And by the statement, that she seemed to be made entirely from godly magic and ponies were magical beings, that could very likely also be the case. In that moment he knew that the figure would not harm him and any fear and doubt, were replaced by an infinite feeling of peace and friendship."

"And then the contact was suddenly broken, it left him speechless and he could only watch as the creature moved away from him with several powerful beats of its six wings and faded into the horizon. When he woke up shortly after, he almost immediately sat down at his desk and wrote this book we have here. That is all I can tell you about your new appearance as a Seraphicorn however, I´m sorry. Albeit, we will certainly find out some more. The origin and history of the alicorn´s is still one of Equestria's greatest mysteries to this day and I have a hunch that you're just the first to discover their true nature - after all, the three of us have more than enough time as you know", the dark blue mare smirked.

As Luna spoke, she lit her horn and conjured up a large, brown leather bound book adorned with golden accents, levitating it over to Twilight. On the cover of the book, the image of a black seraphim with bright colorful wings and golden lines around the creature was depicted. Holding one of its massive wings protectively over a unicorn stallion about half its size. Several more lines straight emanating from the larger creature seemed to suggest the radiant presence Luna had just spoken of.

As Twilight took the book into her own magic from Luna´s, the dark blue alicorn mare continued to smirk into the direction of the younger seraphicorn.

"I suppose I don't have to bring up how surprisingly accurately that description fits a certain close pony of mine. Do I?"

Twilight just wordlessly held the book in her own magic, as she shook her head in a quick-witted manner. No, Luna clearly didn't need to mention on whom that description fit so extremely well. The facts were far too clear for that. Regardless of how she got into the stallion's dreams, a stallion that had lived so long ago, way longer than she walked on Equus and on top where she got all this intruding knowledge, she couldn't explain. But it was unmistakably herself in the old unicorns dreams.

"Luna?"

"Hmmm?

"The fact about my new appearance and how I seem to have entered the dreams of a pony from over two thousand years ago in order to reveal to him a knowledge of magic and other things that is currently unknown to me, aside. Maybe you can explain to me and my friends what had happened to me earlier? I can only vaguely remember it, but I know the magical explosion killed me with a hundred percent certainty. Say what you want but I definitely didn´t escape my demise. So, the question remains, why am I able to stand here with you all?"

Luna waited patiently as Twilight shrugged, not yet through with her voicing. "While I have no desire to complain about my surprise revival, it just plain doesn't make any sense. Neither of you three other alicorn´s possessed magic up until a few minutes ago and while Discord is very capable. His abilities trivial to the ones of an alicorn, even if he remains the second strongest being on Equus. I'm also going to take a strong guess that none of you cast a spell on me beforehand that would bring me back to life should I die!? – You might have a grand wisdom thanks to your long live, but even such a thing you wouldn´t have predicted. That I´m sure."

Both older Princesses had to laugh, however they didn't laugh at Twilight. But because the young princess was so absolutely right.

"Ha-ha, oh no, you're absolutely right, you certainly were killed by Tirek a hour ago, no doubt about that. And as unbelievable as it sounds, we can in fact explain it to you. Surprisingly that´s a thing we both know, but thought it to be another legend so far."

"You see, an alicorn is in fact a very, very mighty creature. Contrary to what many assume, it is not possible to create an alicorn with any kind of magic or by any other means we possess. At least that is what we assume to count for any being including an alicorn. If a Seraphicorn would be capable of it we don´t know. Alicorn´s are a being with extraordinary abilities and that says something if you know what we as alicorn´s can do."

"Essentially an seraphim is the next step of evolution of an alicorn, as aside from more wings on it´s back and a more unique appearance it looks like one. However, a Seraphicorn has powers we currently know nothing about and a specific section in the book also claims that one of the thoughts he got of his encounter with the Seraphicorn told him that she would create valid and reliable means by her own design to protect the world from harm in the long run. The only thing that comes to mind for me with this particular Information, is the suggestion of the creation of alicorn´s, the prime form of peace and protection we know to exist in our universe.”

Now Celestia raised her voice. "And it even would make sense for you to be the one creating all the other alicorn´s. Just think about it."

"I'm the princess of the Sun, and your Cutie Mark is a Star Twilight. You surely could tell me, what the Sun really is? A star, correct?!" Twilight nodded, but remained listening to Celestia "Now when can you see the most stars in the sky? At night. And Luna is the princess of what again? Even your coat and mane color is a dead giveaway."

"Exactly - You possess the kindness and compassion of me, the ancient knowledge of magical arts and sheer power of Luna, and the all-encompassing love of Cadence. Oh and of course all the peace, love and harmony you yourself are known for. You compose every single aspect of us other three in one being. So I'm pretty sure that I'm right."

Twilight was at a loss of words and so Luna took over until the young lavender seraphicorn had found her voice again.

Luna shuffled her hooves in slight discomfort on the ground before she continued, not sure if she should first wait for Twilight to be back to reality or not. The alicorn mare seemingly not entirely confident what she was about to say. But then she did nonetheless.

“Yet this whole fact from the book, stands in high contrast to the assumption of it not being possible to create an alicorn with magic or other powers as the implication clearly suggests otherwise. Which so far, was why we assumed that our origins would probably remain our greatest mystery for good. We had to resign ourselves, for better or for worse, to the fact that, simply put, with our ascension we were claiming our birthright and taking on the power we should always have possessed."

“I know that all sounds utterly crazy, but I got a valid point to prove to you Twilight that I´m telling the truth.”

The young lavender seraphicorn pricked her ears forward and her eyes sparkled with interest. What could Luna possible mean by that?

"Profetien vil gå i opfyldelse, som jeg siger, det vil ske ved mine kræfter og kun mine kræfter", Luna only stated, waiting silently for the other mare's answer with slightly raised eyebrows in Twilight's direction.

"Huh?" Twilight tilted her head, her gaze puzzled as she translated. “The prophecy will become true, as I say it will be by my powers and mine alone” – "What prophecy are you talking about Luna? Who or what is this prophecy from and what is it even about?"

"Well as you will have already guessed, it originates from the seraphicorn. The mysterious being in the stallion's dream spoke of a prediction. "I will return someday and reclaim what was rightfully mine" , the way she said it however didn't sound like a threat, but a statement to be ready at all times for the coming arrival of this creature. She also gave him the knowledge of the words I just told you and he had written them into his book. Even if he had absolutely no idea what they could mean.”

"So- what was this prophecy about?" Applejack was also curious, as the rest of the mares so far silently standing some meters behind the three alicorn´s and listening.

"I can't answer that directly as much as I'd like to, the second important information he has received from the being out of divine magic about these mysterious words, he has also written down in the book. But they are as much nonsense to me as the first. We won't know until we learn that the seraphicorn is here and can tell us what they mean. But it is quite possible that she will arrive on Equus at some point in time and claim some of her powers that have been left to us or the regency of Equestria itself perhaps. A right she also probably has without doubt, as it seems to me that this mare is responsible for the species of the alicorn´s in the first place. Without that one Seraphim, we might not even had a kingdom or rulers to lead. At least, it all sounds very plausible to me. But perhaps she just wants to live here in peace, it would be like her at least. What we got from the book is, that she is the avatar of peace and good, so the last is probably the most likely to happen. All just speculations as I can't answer that for the life of me."

It was Fluttershy who spoke next. “But if Twilight was able to translate those words into Equisch, shouldn’t that mean she can understand the others as well?”

Luna banged her horseshoe against her forehead and grunted in mental pain. “ Dammit, my mind just seems overwhelmed with everything happening today. Of course Fluttershy, that’s why I asked Twilight the initial words in the first place. Sister! Why didn’t you alert me to this?”

Luna spun around to Celestia and stared at her in annoyance. The white alicorn innocently shrugged her shoulders with a sly smile.

“I was testing to see if you noticed on your own. Which apparently you didn’t, good thing Fluttershy was paying attention. Congratulations by the way dear!” Celestia modestly nodded to the butter yellow pegasus, who blushed slightly in return.

“Hhhrrr, anyway I quote”, Luna stated while dramatically extending her wings and rolling her eyes to her elder sisters joking nature. “Kun ét væsen vil vide, hvad disse ord betyder, og modtage mine kræfter, min viden og alt andet. Indtil den dag vil jeg være et spejlbillede af mit tidligere jeg, indtil jeg endelig kan blive genfødt. En skygge, en samling af hendes kærligste og stærkeste minder, opbevaret her, indtil hun vendte tilbage. Opbevaret her for dig", Luna ended. “In the entire process, the seraphicorn never directly gazed at him, but seemed to focus on someone behind him, even if, from his memories, there was no other individual there. Possibly the focus was directed at the one for whom the words were initially intended, in other words, her future self. A better theory I do not have.”

“So Twilight? Can you translate that one as well?”

The lavender seraphicorn narrowed her eyes for a second and returned her attention back to Luna.

“Only one being will know what these words mean and receive my powers, knowledge and everything else. Until that day, I will be a reflection of my past self, until I can finally be reborn. A shadow, a collection of her fondest and strongest memories, kept here until she returned. Kept here for you.”

"Wow, you're right Luna. Those words really ARE meant for me. I quiet can't believe it myself, but there's no other reason why they shouldn't be, if none of you could translate them and I can", Twilight was grinned from ear to ear, her ears twitching with joy.

"Sooo...Twilight – ?", Rainbow Dash began, but did not finish her sentence. " – Whereas no, I'll ask that later, maybe it'll sort itself out."

Twilight would have loved to ask her cyan pegasus friend what the question was about, but decided against it. It was Dash’s own decision after all and she wouldn't push the pegasus to ask the question if she still intended to wait. Even if she was very curious. With an expectant look, the lavender princess turned back to Luna.

"Well, another point from the book, right after the prophecy is also intriguing and we have even been able to decipher them in the meantime, something the stallion failed to do so many years ago. Are you familiar with the constellations strong earth pony, swift pegasus, wise unicorn and immortal alicorn?"

"Of course," Twilight shot out like a gun. These four constellations were some of the most important and well-known in Equestria. Just about every single pony in the kingdom knew the story behind them, it was practically a legend. A legend that gave confidence to the Pony’s and promised that everything would be fine in the end.

"Then I suppose you are also aware that there is a dedicated star for the sun, moon and solicitude in the constellation of the alicorn? And more so, that constellations reflect the destinies and duties of each single pony and so the alicorn constellation is the one reflecting ours? Based on your nod, I assume that I am correct so far. Which brings us to the matter at hoof, that we knew Equestria wouldn't just be blessed with three alicorn´s in the end, but four. As there was one more bright star, we didn’t know who it belonged to for almost two thousand years. Now, after you had ascended to an alicorn we know it’s yours."

"Huh, sounds pretty solid so far. But there has to be more right?", came from Twilight briefly.

"Yes, there's more, the interesting part is just around the corner. Right in the center of the alicorn's chest is a cluster made up of six special stars, the middle one by far the brightest and largest, surrounded by five smaller but still very luminous stars. These six stars are special, because unlike all the other stars in the cluster, not counting the three reserved for Tia, Cadance and me, they are incredible bright and also stationary like ours. They didn’t move an inch from their Position, as we would have guessed. We thought only our four stars, for each alicorn one, would proceed to stay in perfect arc and the other five would move further away with time, but they never did. It was like the forth alicorn dedicated star had bound five smaller ones to his might and dragged them along the sky, calling them to circle him in a flawless arc.”

“That is why someday in the past, our pony’s began to assume names for the collection of stars and so the “peace cluster of bond” also called “the harmonic or friendship cluster” was born. As it was eventually revealed – your destiny, to be blunt. Yes, your friends will likely begin to age and die one day while you as an alicorn remain eternally young. But don´t fret, you already knew that would happen someday and we three will always be by your side to keep your spirit up, if you ever need help. We are in this together as alicorn´s – or alicorn´s and one seraphicorn now I should say – and that will also remain that way for eternity. So it is only logical that we also carry the “burden” together, although I wouldn’t call it something like that. Immortality isn’t a curse, the same as mortality. It is what one does with both that makes it count in the end. I hope that knowledge will make it at least a fair bit better for you”, Luna’s gaze was empathetic to the young seraphicorn, it was something very serious after all.

Princess Twilight’s answer surprised the older princess however. “Actually I’m quiet fine with what will eventually happen. Yes, it was hard at first and I’m not gonna lie about the fact I shed some tears. But you know what? All of my friend’s mentally supported me and strengthened my trust in the future. They made me realize I have at least another 180 years to have fun with all of them and find solutions to said problem. That’s by far enough time for me I would say. We both know what I already achieved in two decades and my friend’s got 18 more.”

“Huuh! You truly have the best friend’s someone could wish for, Twilight. It will remain my distinct honor to raise the sun for each of them any day to come”, Celestia interjected with a soft voice.

“Hrm”, Luna cleared her throat and brought the attention back to herself. “Anyway, it’s good to see yourself so happy and close to your friend’s despite it all. My next thing however, will make your future even brighter than it already is and was made by your mutual friends. You surely are knowledgeable to the legend of the alicorn zodiac. It is a constant, unwavering sign for hope, protection and empathy, even in the darkest of times. It also stands for the known fact, that each individual soul is as immortal as an alicorn and can’t truly be lost to the world. Once a being dies, the soul returns to the core of the planet, the source of all life on Equus and merges with its gigantic life-force. In due time it will be reborn and walk among the soil and gras once more. Especially if it has a clear purpose and a location to return to, the rate of rebirth is highly increased. You will meet your very first friends again sooner than you might think, maybe they look different, are not the same pony race you knew them too or don't remember their former life’s. But trust me when I tell you that you will recognize them when you encounter them and your bond will form as thigh as it currently is."

“But there is a burden we as alicorn´s have to bear. While most of our subjects are far too reluctant to approach or even try to befriend one of their princesses head-on. Afraid of either wronging something in their presence, upsetting them, or otherwise falling in disgrace. Yet your status as the seraphicorn/alicorn of friendship and harmony/peace will in itself make it a lot easier for you to be able to befriend ponies. Even hundreds of years from now, additionally to your new sparkling and incredible appearance you will still be able to do so, without trouble. Naturally, the same applies to each and every rebirth of your best friends and generally ensures that they are being drawn to you and approach you without fear. So your pact of friendship almost seals itself each time. As of thinking about it for a moment, maybe you won’t even have the same problems as we with approaching our pony’s.”

Twilight's smile, was a little dampened for a brief moment, but the thought of never really losing her friends and always having them around herself, seemed to give her the strength she needed. “Wow – I don´t know what to say, so I better say nothing and try to comprehend.

The air fell silent as every pony thought about what they just heard. After a minute or two, Celestia took over for her younger sister in speaking, while Twilight seemed still a bit lost in her mind.

“To be honest, I wouldn´t know what to say in your position either, so no worry. It is after all much to process. As much as we know a seraphim is the ultimate embodiment of a certain fundamental force in reality and has single supreme control in its hooves. And while light, non-corruptive darkness and love are all such powers, magic however is a universal force able to create all three of them. Therefore it would also fit perfectly for each of us alicorn´s to have the abilities we have.”

“Especially you Twilight, the power I sensed and still can feel exceeding from you is strange, but it still feels to me like my very nature.” Celestia shock her head in self disbelieve. “As crazy as it all seems, but I highly believe the legend in the book to be true. You were or rather are that very being of magic, the unicorn scientist saw in his dreams and got insight from. And likely also the one that created the race of alicorn´s in the first place. Your new signature of power is simply too familiar to my own, to be anything other than that.”

Luna stalled Twilight hence she could voice a counter to Celestia´s mind blowing statement.

"Many say, because of our powers we are gods and even if I would never ask another pony to address me as a divine being. Nevertheless, I can still confirm that every alicorn is some kind of demigod. Our range and level of powers are vast and almost limitless. It´s a known fact we do not need oxygen or food to survive, do not die of old age, are immune to any known disease, virus or bacteria and it is incredible and almost impossible to harm, if not kill us. Yet, as you have experienced for yourself, our bodies can die.”

“Yes…but I don’t see so far, what your referring to”, Twi interjected.

“Please wait just a tiny bit more, I will get to that”, Celestia smiled.

“And here’s the twist very few actually know about, the body of an alicorn is killable, but our soul or rarely referred to as spirit is free from influence on any mean. Even more so as the standard soul, that could in some cases be contained and bound to rituals in both situations. Luckily every soul of a being other than an alicorn is also incredible durable and actually hurting it permanently is almost impossible to archive. But draining some of the life Energy Equus has to use it through a bound soul is still possible.”

“The soul of an alicorn however is completely different and remains as said immune to influence, magic and other means. I also doesn’t return to the Planet core once we would be killed. Since, from this specific perspective, we are not a part of Equus' life energy. Our magic can interact with every aspect and entity of the Planet. Yet, alicorn´s are their own independent force of live, we are as said bound to the universe or more precise the celestial bodies we control. Lulus Moon, your Stars, or my Sun. Only Cadance still needs a celestial body, or perhaps her planet transcending bond to love is something that counts as well.”

Luna nodded to her sister’s statement, the older alicorn was fairly right and she almost couldn’t add something else to it – almost. Turning her entire body more to Twilight, she raised her brow and addressed the lavender princess. “You surely know the fundamental concept of how magic works in our world?” Obviously Luna knew Twilight’s answer, the young mare was after all the seraphicorn of magic and even before that the most skilled Unicorn ever born since Starswirl the Bearded. And even the old stallion, with his decades of work and research, she had almost surpassed in skill, ability and magic at 17 before she ascended to an alicorn, far surpassing anything known before.

Twilight’s smile was broad and she fluffed all of her wings in utter joy of being asked her favorite thing to converse about. “Of course!”

Clearing her throat she began.

“There is both active and inactive mana. The active one is freely leaking from the main and secondary leylines that span the entire planet. So it can later be absorbed into the body of all the inhabitants of the planet via hooves, horn, claws or other means and stored in their magic core. From there, it can be used for all the various tasks that will require magic. I’ll use a unicorn as an example for my further explanation, as they use magic the most frequently and are generally the most commonly used for explanations in schools and universities.”

“Depending on the spell, when a unicorn uses magic they use up a certain amount of mana, this used up mana is called inactive mana and is freely released into the environment while acting the magic. It will mostly be absorbed mainly through the flora and fauna, thus returning it back into the soil and back to the planet core. Equus will recycle the depleted mana back into active mana in its core and release it back through the leylines. The cycle exists since the very basic life evolved on our planet and the general total amount of active mana is based as far as it is known on the total magic potential of its inhabitants with a factor of about 3:1. For a living being with a capacity of 1,000 magic units there are about 3,000 magic units present in the core of the planet. Though this would be a rather small amount for a Unicorn, they possess about 2,500 on average while a Pegasus comes to 400-500 and an Earth Pony to just under 250. However, that doesn’t mean that a Unicorn is stronger than the other two subspecies, the conversion ratio is just different and each race is most effective in its own area.”

“As for how it stands for us alicorn´s I can’t say for definite, as you both confirmed that our energy is not universally connected to that of the planet.”

“Nevertheless, I have a solid guess, two even. The first is based on the idea that we receive our power or mana from our celestial bodies and the used mana returns to them for recycling. The second possibility itself, has arisen to me just about an hour ago and further confirmed through you both.”

“Since I awakened, I have felt a greater connectivity to my alicorn powers, the stars and the entire cosmos around us. My guess is therefore that our mana originates directly from the deepest corners of the universe itself and returns there when we utilize our powers. After all, an alicorn is vastly more empowered than even the strongest of ponies on this planet combined,” Twilight lightly stomped her now white glowing front hoof on the grass to solidify her point, extended one of her wings and lastly energized her horn in a glow of magic. Her hoof created a small fields of cracks onto the ground as it landed with a rumble that shook the nearby area. While the magic, that had begun to flow from her feathers of her outstretched wing, kicked up a short but strong breeze, that ruffled the manes of all nearby. Lastly the magic from her bright horn fixed both the cracks in the ground as well as the wind swept manes of her close friends in an instant. With a sly smile Twilight turned back to her companions.

“As it is, we therefore have an immensely greater amount of mana at our disposal than others and are also capable to wield much greater forces, as our magic cores can store enormous amounts of raw magic. We are also capable of using many spells that only we alicorn´s can perform. I used to check my mana pool many times a day, even to the point where it got to a habit of doing it every time I close my eyes for a second. And as you both surely know I was quite good at magic, so my pool as a unicorn was already more than only average in size and depth, even in young years. However, after I became an alicorn, my mana pool had expanded to sizes I could only dream of before and it has taken me a while to even find the edge of it. Now, after my last resent changes, I can’t even find the bottom, let alone the edge, of my mana Pool anymore. No matter how far I let my mind wander over my mana pool, there is still more coming.”

“By all means. Yet there has to be a point from which our mana springs, to which it accumulates and lastly were it is also recycled. Checking all the facts, we can narrow down the possible locations from which our mana might come. The vastness of the universe itself will not provide a solid source, for that it´s still way to random and chaotic. Would be a better origin for Discord´s Powers, than the ones of an alicorn. That all our powers might come from a single celestial body I do not believe either. Your Sun Celestia or Luna’s Moon are very powerful bodies no doubt, but the powers I can feel ever since my ascension to an alicorn make me strongly doubt this thesis. More so now that I´m a seraphicorn – a transcended alicorn – and therefore not to neglect the latest level I mentioned from an hour ago,” Twilight briefly rambled her thinking.

“No matter it´s size and power both your celestial objects or my stars contain, it´s still not nearly enough power to fuel such a large amount of mana for four alicorn´s. There must either be a gigantic Planet, celestial body or something similar. Or that´s all false guesses and it even comes all down to a sub dimension from which our magic originates. Whereas thinking about it for once, the second option would sound more logical in terms of security and overall reliability for our powers. A whole dimension filled with pure alicorn magic would protect itself by the nature of our powers against any damage one could throw at it. And probably also kill any other being except an alicorn if they enter the Dimension thanks to an almost unlimited concentration of alicorn magic…”, the lavender mare mumbled at the end almost inaudible.

Luna had to laugh, much to Twilight’s confusion. She really hadn’t expected such a well explanation, even from Twilight. But she always liked to be surprised by the young mare’s intelligence. Twilight didn’t realize so far how accurate her quick guesses and the ideas she had expressed were. She had found exactly the right solution, without much sidetracking.”

“Luna?”, Twilight tilted her head and raised her right eyebrow. Why was Luna laughing all of a sudden?

I’m really sorry dearest Twilight, but I simply couldn’t hold on to myself any longer. To you, your assumptions probably sound so empty and random, yet they hit the nail right on the head. And not just a little bit, but as precisely as you could possibly do. I can’ add nothing more, except the confirmation that it is indeed an entire sub-dimension of our reality. An entire dimension from which the mana of an alicorn emanates, to which it is returned and where it gets stored. Also your murmur at the end corresponds also to the truth. It would be extremely unwholesome for instance your friends to enter this alicorn dimension – the astral plane by the way, as it is called by us. They couldn’t survive a second in it and while I don’t know for sure if one can feel pain in the astral plain, it would still be a horrible finite fate for them All. I think we can agree to spare them that. The other things, as I said, have already been correctly guessed by you.”

Luna darted her head to her elder sister. ”Tia? Is there anything else you can think of that Twilight or I hadn’t mentioned yet?”

The addressed white alicorn just shook her head briefly.” As I mentioned, you two are much more familiar with magic than I am. My knowledge is based only on more than a millennium of books that I have read. While that is also a lot, I have never really been interested in more than the general concept of mana and magic. I’m the mare for everything to do with the physical and strength. You the one with the intellectual and emotional.”

Nodding in sympathy and also smiling a bit, Luna focused her attention back on the junior seraphicorn.

“Then I’d declare that checked off – unless you have any more questions dear?”

Twilight friendly negated the question with an equally quick movement of her head.

“Fabulous, let’s return to the previous matter we had a few minutes ago. You are well aware, that whatever may happen, the soul of an alicorn remains on Equus, floating around and shaping the planet for good. That fact is pretty neat as well as a soul is normally invisible to the eye and almost untraceable by most arts of magic. Some very capable sorceress or an alicorn with its improved and superior vison would be able to see a soul. But while Equus might by far not be the biggest of planets, it’s still considerable big and finding an ethereal outline of a pony on its surface would still be incredibly hard.

Our soul will continue doing so, as long as it takes for our bodies to be revived. It’s a hard, dangerous and weekly long but with enough preparation feasible and almost safe ritual for non-alicorn´s and a still minute long but thanks to our powers simple task for an alicorn and seraphicorn. Once we are brought back, our soul is instantly pulled to our old selves, no matter the distance or location. As though nothing had happened in the first place to us."

“Yet it likely will leave us weakened for at least a few hours, until we have back our full strength. Still the power we got immediately following our resuscitation is rather high and certainly allows us to successfully defend and prevent our attacker from being able to kill us a second time. Well and there is the cool fact a force field will surround the body of a resurrected alicorn and protect it’s body for at least half a minute from incoming damage. Giving us even more time to prepare for fight or defense. For the worst we just had to flee with teleportation, still better than being killed over and over”, Celestia added with a calm voice and a smirk.

"But-", Twilight was about to start, but was held back once again by one of Luna's hooves and her friendly voice.

"If you would wait just a minute longer, dear. As far as I can guess, there is one more thing my sister would like to tell you, and I'm quite sure it can clear up the question you just had. I have a good guess, what it is about.”

Celestia nodded to Twilight for being patient just a little bit more and to her sister for the little help. “For what I got from today is, it seems to me that an alicorn can revive itself when it unlocks its true destiny and at the same time ascends to become a seraphicorn – a true god.”

“A status known to be just a legend as it is so very powerful that it renders you a being that can no longer be killed or even wounded. As such an entity is free of the influence of the concept of existence and remains its own independent force in the universe that can interact normal with it but can’t be interacted as long as they don’t want to. A true deity, embodies one of the fundamental aspects of the multiversal reality, and thus becomes a self-perpetuating immortal and soul bound to the concepts of reality, time and it’s embodied aspect. For as long as his aspect exists, a true deity can’t die and for as long as he exists, something exists with that very aspect. A flawless and unbreakable cycle that sustains itself, as I said. And well, as light, non-corruptive darkness, love and in your case all kinds of magic, are four such aspects, I reckon my chances of being right rather high.”

“I can't tell you exactly how I know about that all, maybe I once read it in the book or maybe it's an internal feeling I know without having it ever learned. But I stand by it, it is now no longer possible to harm your body on any level, which creates a little problem with you being you. So, I sincerely beg you to let this theory stand for the time being, without testing. I don't wish to have to search for a way to bring the sole Empress of Equestria back from the dead for at least the next few years, but longer is always better y know. Moreover, after the events of today, I doubt that Equestria would be able to cope with your renewed demise anytime soon without suffering serious consequences. Our kingdom may be vigorous and managed to get through a lot, but I think it would be preferable to let it return to a ´normal´ state first, before we start experimenting elsewhere."

"Agreed?"

Celestia eagerly peered at her fellow peer and friend, burning to hear Twilight's statement.

"Love to, Tia", Twilight grinned wide over both ears. "Today has been busy and I think it will take me several weeks or more to truly understand and accept all that has happened in the last 24 hours. And all of Equestria itself probably years if not longer, except the ones that sadly never will accept it. There are and always will be the ones complaining about the aspect of logic, for the existence of a being that is truly immortal and unable to die, has powers that cannot be put in relation to anything because they are so powerful or whatever else you want to name”, the lavender seraphicorn shrugged with a deadpan look. Indicating she had it sown to hear that every day anew and actually didn’t care anymore what such ponies might think. She knew her abilities to the core and that meant she was also aware what was the truth and lie about an alicorn’s and seraphicorn´s powers.

Celestia and Luna giggled.

Twilight´s eyes narrowed. “Nevertheless, I would like to inform you, that the three of us will have quite a few conversations to share with each other and I'm sure Cadance would like to be there as well. So, Spike? If you would be so kind to inform Cadance as fast as possible as well, I would be more than grateful. And who knows, we might find some gems in all that rumble and dust kicked up in Canterlot after all”, Twilight cheekily winked at her faithful draconic assistance and son – at least according to their mutual view, not biologically.

The young dragon saluted and quickly got to work writing a letter to the fourth princess of Equestria and sole ruler of the Crystal Empire.

Her request in good claws, the young princess turned back to the two remaining alicorn´s and her close friends with her on the field. Twilight snorted through her muzzle and hung her head slightly as their eyes met. "All things considered, with what I found out myself and learned from both of you - but I don't feel like a goddess. Not at all. Just like a really strong pony with the thrill to do good with all I have."

"And there is nothing wrong with that. Those who don't consider themselves worthy or fit to lead and rule are the best leaders there are. Those who believe it is their right to lead are the worst kind of tyrants. Stay just as you are dearest, for as long as your solicitude and humility knows no end, you will do great things, I am sure. Nevertheless you will more than once have to deal with Ponies and other creatures that see you as such and will worship you no matter what you say. That’s the only curse we alicorn´s have and will have to accept and deal with", Luna yoked and Celestia had added the last two sentences to her younger sisters words.

Twilight got red like a tomato and a deep blush painted her cheeks. She composed herself rather fast and her horn glowed in its new characteristic pure white as she casted a spell onto herself – namely her throat. As she spoke her voice was amplified to the royal Canterlot voice and only at the beginning a bit shaky due to her mild embarrassment. Otherwise her voice was solid and strong as it was cast across the meadow.

N- nevertheless, that's also one of the reasons why I would like to postpone the coronation - at least until the castle is restored. In any case, we still have to accommodate all the other creatures, whom I hereby cordially invite to my coronation, if they didn't already know.” Twilight extended her hoof towards the assembled crowd behind the other princesses, that had silently watched and listened to what happened. Most of them now began to slightly bow or nodded their heads in the lavender seraphicorn ´s direction, that they had understood and were honored to be invited to probably one of the most sacred of events Equestria had. “While the castle´s atrium was vast before, I will arrange for it to be built just a tiny bit larger. Not more than 20% however, there shouldn´t be any problem with space in the next many years to hold festivals and announcements. Even if the population of Equestria will increase, as I´m very confident it will."

Twilight would have expected a lot, pretty much anything actually, but Celestia, Luna and even Discord bowing low before her in a show of deference befitting a grand ruler shocked her still greatly. The Draconequus had never bowed his head before any creature or pony, it was just something not meant for his status, he had said. And now he had his head lowered and his knee on the ground in front of her of all ponies. Yet Twilight quickly realized that all three meant it in the spirit of mutual esteem and not as anything else.

"As you wish Your Highness," retorted all three in union and Celestia added something else as she rose a second later and went to Twilight, stroking her cheek kindly with one of her big, white wings.

"Twilight, I can't tell you how overly proud I am of you, that despite the stressful situations today you still keep the reins so tight. It shows me that you are the perfect pony to take charge of Equestria from us both. There is no one I would trust with the wellbeing of Equestria more than you. Your devotion of preserving all life no matter who they are or if they wronged you once, all even at the expense of your own, shows that you have truly merited your Crown and the status of an alicorn – ehhh I should probably say seraphicorn now”, Celestia awkwardly giggled. Twilight just shrugged her shoulders. Alicorn or seraphicorn – technically she was still the same species. She just had four more wings on her back and probably a hundred times more power than earlier that day.

“Even if the second isn’t our doing. A mother will always put her children first", Celestia had spoken further while Twilight spun her thoughts.

Utterly caught off guard by being distracted in her thoughts, Twilight's voice was uneven as she looked up and spoke to Celestia. Never had she expected such a high and honest spoken praise coming from Celestia. Her heart was warmed and swelled with kind of every good feeling she ever felt.

"W-wow, thank you. You don't know how honored I am to hear that from you. You've always been the pony I've looked up to the most second only to my mother and whether that will ever completely change, I doubt it."

Retracting her wing Celestia continued to smile and was shortly joined by her younger sister. So far the dark blue alicorn said nothing and just watched the conversation between former mentor and student.

"You're more than welcome. I appreciate how much you've always looked up to me. It’s an overly great honor for me as well. But since the day you became an alicorn as well more than three years ago, we are at least equals. Even if I believe you will have an even greater legacy than my sister or me. As you might guess however I would rather have you as a mutual friend and companion than someone who looks up to me. In fact, you have been more of an inspiration to our ponies than I have ever been to them. That might sound unbelievable but it’s true. Lulu and I might be alicorn´s and great leaders, but your compassion, friendliness and harmony to others is the real deal to what our pony’s look up to. Ponies are creatures that deep down ultimately strive after peace and harmony after all. So that´s something you should not forget for yourself and your capabilities.”

“I might be capable of many things and in some I’m also very good as it is expected from a being more than a millennia old. But there are still many things left, I am able to improve. Like your blazing unhindered kindness and devotion to our subjects for example. That probably is a thing coming from your embodiment of friendship and Harmonic peace. I, for one, have distanced myself a little too far from our ponies in the last few centuries, and Luna has been on the moon for 1,000 years what’s partial a fault on my part. There will be difficulties in getting in touch with our subjects anew, but with your help it should be possible with ease.”

Twilight hit a new world record in Red and hadn’t she been an seraphicorn probably would have fainted because of too much blood in her head.

Celestia proceeded unhindered, an alicorn and Twilight for sure couldn’t die because of something so trivial than that.

“I understand that it will probably be a long time until we no longer have the student-teacher relationship we had in the past and you have become fully accustomed to no longer addressing your peers as princesses, as that is not a necessary. I like it more being addressed as Celestia or Tia, while not being on royal duty’s, especially by my dear friends. Either way, let's not stress and rush things, there is more than plenty time for each four of us."

Celestia draped one of her large white wings over Twilight's spine as she pulled the equally tall seraphicorn closer to her sides and gave her a friendly smile and cheek nuzzle. Which Twilight returned, nudging Celestia in the side of her cheek with her own muzzle. The white alicorn´s voice was gentle and quiet as she spoke anew.

"Just as you have respect and regard for Luna, Cadance, or myself, we have the same amount for you. Remember at all times, you ARE an alicorn/seraphicorn and that alone is a sacred and honorable accomplishment that you can be very prideful of. While it may be a heavy burden at times to have so great power and authority to make decisions, or to be required to solve so many problems on a daily basis, each of us is still a pony. Yes, a pony with unique and incredible powers/abilities, eternal live that can’t be erased and a body that defines the laws of the very universe itself, but still. Just. A. Pony.”

As Celestia fell silent and Twilight proceeded to stand there with red cheeks and unmoving, still processing things, Luna took over in speaking. "Each of us is a being that is highly valued and honored, not because of the powers and magic we possess, but because of what we have done for our ponies throughout our existence. Each of us has helped shape the world into what it is today and although you were still so young for an alicorn, you have done no less than any of us, maybe even some more as your new auras and your ascend to a seraphicorn are any indication. I can practically feel the raw harmony and peace permitting the air around you. And that includes your friends, of course. I would never dare to exclude them. They accompanied you throughout this journey and made you the pony that you are today. Accordingly, I'd say we're quit," Luna winked.

Silently spreading her second wing, Celestia gestured with her head to Twilight´s other five friends and Spike, standing a few meters behind Twilight, to come under her other wing as well. All six delightedly made their way immediately to Celestia although they were still a little uneasy, except Spike. He had lived almost his whole live in the Castle and was very familiar with the white alicorn and it wasn’t like Celestia had any ill intend in wishing for them to come near her. Settling under the alicorn's large wing, Celestia pulled them closer to her body as well, as the alicorn gave them a good hearted wing hug.

Celestia´s voice was full of compassion and very silent as she addressed the mares cuddled under her wing. She even caught herself twice restraining herself from giving any of Twilight's six friends a nose nudge with her own muzzle. It didn't seem appropriate in the current situation with so many others watching, but later in private, that could quickly change Celestia smirked.

"Thank you! Thank you, for all you have done for Twilight. Let me tell you that you are the best friends Twilight could ever have. I´m a little jealous. All of you have my equally full respect as well, in your situation I could not have stayed so calm when I saw Twilight lying on the ground so battered and broken. It proves to me how strong each of your characters is and how unbreakable your mutual friendship really is. Even in the face of a total disaster, like in this instance the presumed death of your friend and leader Twilight. You didn’t stop fighting for what you believe to be right.”

“It might have been a bit tardy, that each of you was prepared to avenge Twilight, whatever the consequences of your actions might have been. But in contrast to what I would normally say to pony’s, that yes it was foolish. I can understand that the one thing you could think of after Twilight's fall was raw unbothered revenge.”

Celestia cleared her throat. “To be honest, I wouldn't have done it any differently in your position, but being over a thousand years old…I have seen and experienced many things that permitted me to see the matter somewhat neutrally, even if my heart and soul was burning in incredible grieve for the loss. Somehow, deep down, I knew this wasn't the end."

"T- Thank you Princess," Applejack uttered stuttering as she tipped her hat and lowered into a bow to Celestia. Followed by each of the rest of the mares, including Spike giving a bow to Celestia. However, her cowboy hat was promptly grabbed in golden magic and placed back on Applejack's mane as Celestia used her front hoof to help the mares up.

"Nothing of that, please. No one of you has to bow to me either anymore, you already got that privilege years ago - you have earned it more than once in your lives. Besides, Twilight is a princess just like my niece, sister and I. As her dearest friends and something like her second family, you are just as much a part of the royal family as she is.”

Celestia´s gaze got thoughtful. "Come to think of it, how is it that you have never received an official title of honor for your deeds? We, or rather Twilight should do it as the new ruler. You've certainly earned it." With a wink and a light laugh to everyone, Celestia continued. "And it's not as if the nobles could do anything about it really, if one of their princesses decided to do so."

"Thank you Pri- Celestia!" all five mares replied almost simultaneously, while Celestia inclined her head slightly in the direction of the other mares in thanks and honor.

"Please, as I said before, you have nothing to thank me for. Rather, that should be my job today. What you all had to go through today was something I wouldn't wish on anyone, not even my enemies. I know in more than one case, what it is like to have to witness something like that. Unfortunately, I myself was not denied that in many occasions and it was nothing to take ever lightly - but enough of that. It´s the long gone past anyway and today should be a day about joy and fun, rather than somber and grief. That said, what do you think, Twilight? Does that also seem as a good idea in your mind?"

Celestia moved her head to the lavender seraphicorn and cocked it a fraction to the side inquiringly.

The latter smirked. "I think that can be arranged, as I had even toyed for some time with the idea of bestowing titles of nobility upon my friends and son Spike. I guess until now I was just too reserved, maybe slightly afraid of what the nobility would say if I gave such a thing to my closest friends. Surely they'd suspect I'm abusing my Position and power to give them an advantage," Twilight replied with a slight tint on her cheeks.

"Oh Twilight. You know as well as any of us that this is nonsense. Each of your friends deserves to receive a high honor for their deeds - like a title, for example. Most of the nobles know that, they are just too envious to acknowledge - and even if they did complain!", countered Celestia slyly. "Even then, there would be nothing they could do about it. We are their princesses, the pony’s above telling them what to do. As well as one doing many things for our kingdom every single day, often putting our own interests second just to see our subjects happy. I think it's only fitting and legitime, that we use our power to do something good for ourselves or others from time to time in controversy."

Twilight scratched her chin. "Hmmm, you're right, Celestia, but I'll still have to think about it, though."

Nodding with understanding, Celestia consented to Twilight. "Fine by me. It’s your independent decision. Take your time and first get used to running an entire kingdom for a while, but you shouldn’t take too long to make up your mind either." On which Twilight nodded knowingly.

Applejack, who had been generally very quiet until now, had shot Twilight several narrowed-eyed glances in the last quarter of an hour. Twilight had not failed to notice them, but had planned to wait to see if Applejack would speak up herself. Her friend's gaze had been directed mainly at her chest and sides, but as it seemed she didn´t seem to be interested in her six wings. Rather searching for something. If Applejack hadn´t spoken up, she would have later asked her in private. Instead, the organ-colored earth pony mare raised her voice of her own accord.

"I would like to ask you all one last question. I'm not the only one who saw that parts of Twi's body were kind of - uhh transparent until recently? And even now there's something different about her fur. It has such an unusual shimmer to it. I´m well aware that alicorn´s are pure creatures of magic and have some really powerful abilities and magics, but I've just never seen anything like this before."

Celestia was the first mare to speak up, even though Rarity had also started to say something in reply. Twilight in turn, pricked up her ears and looked down her body in surprise.

"No! I had asked myself the same thing. It's something I couldn't explain. Now that I've looked a little closer with the help of Magical Sight, I can explain it even less."

None of the gathered mares bothered to ask what Magical Sight was all about, Twilight had already explained it to them once about three years ago. Luna however, didn't seem to know this fact, as the dark blue alicorn almost inevitably began to explain.

"An alicorn, by itself, without magic, has the natural ability to see the magical lineages in a pony's body as they pass through it from the magic core if they wish too. As well as being able to track individual accumulations and processes of magic through the body, such as when a unicorn were to use magic to cast a spell or a pegasus wanting to move a cloud out of the way. Given that Twilight had mentioned the magic core earlier, I think you know what it is?" Luna paused for a few moments until all the mares nodded in confirmation.

"But no such thing exists within Twilight any longer and with my magic and a few more spells, I can confirm I am not mistaken." Luna turned to the young seraphicorn, who looked more than surprised towards her and her gaze drifted back and forth between Luna's and her own chest. A moment later, Twilight lifted one of her hooves up as well, looking over it thoughtfully as she turned it back and forth.

"I'm really surprised you haven't noticed it yourself, it´s your body after all. Although I reckon it probably just feels normal to you and that's why you haven't noticed it yet. Possibly you wouldn't have even found it out for a long time, as your body doesn't show anything unusual from your perspective."

Luna cleared her throat. Oh boy, this is going to sound so fucking retarded. "Dearest, your entire body is now your magic core. Every fiber and cell of your body even down to the very atomic level is empowered or has been completely replaced by your unique brand of alicorn magic. As I see it, every single function of your body is being guided and executed by this new magic, though how this can be possible even I have no idea. That is something you have to find out for yourself. Knowing you, however, you will quickly succeed. My guess is that what we saw on the injured or missing parts of Twi's body was directly her raw new full-body magic core. After all, at first glance it looks to me like it's a flawless magical replica of her physique.

In response, Rarity now spoke up almost immediately. "So, if we were to, just theoretically, remove all fur, skin and such, we would have a creature made entirely of alicorn magic with the appearance of Twilight?" By the horrified looks from her friends and Twilight staring open-mouthed at her, the off-white mare fairly quickly realized that her theory wasn't really being met with sympathy. Which was why she quickly jerked her hooves upwards and flailed them wildly in the air defensively. "No, no! Speaking purely theoretically, of course – we still shouldn't try it, even if it were possible."

Twilight acted relieved. "Eh yes, I do beg to differ. I'm kind of attached to my fur and skin thanks and that' not just physically," Twilight quipped even though her look said she didn't mean it as a joke.

Everypony fell into a prolonged laughter that was rekindled by the rest of their friends every time one of them tried to pause. Almost two minutes passed before they were able to get themselves under control and wipe the last tears of joy from their eyes using their hooves.

"While I don´t want to spoil the fun. What about those two over there?," Luna interjected once the laughter had died down and she too had herself under control once more, as she pointed with her hoof to the statue of Chrysalis and Tirek. "With young Cozy I reckon things are clear, Princess Twilight surely already has a plan to get her back on the right path, but with those two I'm at a loss for now."

Both other alicorn´s and the remaining mares, tossed their heads at Luna's voice to glance over at the statue a few feet away.

Twilight cleared her throat. "As I said to both of them, I will be trying again with them in a millennium, until then they will be given a nice place in the castle gardens. They should have kept their promise for once...my mood to deal with them at the moment isn’t exactly the best. Better for them to stay in their stone prison, rather than me approaching them now."

Twilight cast her gaze behind her back and offered Cozy one last brief and friendly smile. To which the young pegasus rose within the force field and bowed deeply before Twilight in thanks and reverence with a single tear at the edges of her eyes.

"Guards!”, Twilight´s voice was commanding and forceful, almost bordering to the royal Canterlot voice, so she would be heard across the entire meadow.

“Please see that Cozy is placed in a safe and comfortable place, you will guard her at any times until I say otherwise, but I do not allow to hear a word that she has been mistreated. She is after all just a young, misguided foal, that was scarred and forced into doing things she didn´t want. I am more than confident I can straighten that out in no time. Until then, she is under my personal royal protection and I want her to be protect as well as you protect us princesses. Now go, I will deal with the problem later."

Six of the nearby guards on standby saluted and began trotting toward the force field, which was disintegrating into thousands of sparkling magic sparks by Twilight as they neared. Twilight watched as Cozy raised herself to her four legs and followed the guards without a fight. Why should she even? Princess Twilight had probably just granted her the least of a punishment she would ever get from any being she could have wronged.

Turning her head back to her friends and flashing especially Rainbow Dash a brief smile, that was returned by the cyan pegamare she proceeded in talking. "Come on girls, I have a brilliant idea of what would be appropriate after such a stressful and crazy day."

As she stretched the two lowest of her large wings to their fullest, she dropped them over the backs of the smaller mares, dragging her top five towards her middle, against her fluffy Coat. After a moment she began to urge them forward, towards Canterlot. Having taken a few steps, she flicked her horn into action and hoisted Spike onto her back, just below her neck, where the young dragon clung to keep from slipping off the seraphicorn´s large back.

Spike was perplexed for a second, he hadn’t ridden a pony so tall in a long time and the overview he now had was many times better than the one from his own height. As his claws vigorous but cautious grab more into Twilight’s fur he soon snuggled his whole body deeper into Twilight´s coat.

“Dam Twilight, your mane is unbelievably soft, I could probably fall asleep in it right away," Spike marveled as he dug his face deeper into Twilight's sparkling, flowing mane.

Twilight chuckled. "He thanks. That´s probably a side effect of my new seraphicorn-alicorn powers and don´t worry you'll have plenty of opportunity to ´cuddle my awesome mane´ many times over in the future. Well at least until you're too big to fit on my back that is. Luckily that will still take many decades and by then I should probably have found a change Alternation spell that works. I don’t know how big your special breed of dragon tends to get, as there is no clear record about another purple and green scaled dragon like you. But my alicorn magic should provide a strong enough source of Power to change your size to a fitting one. Even if you end up getting as tall as Canterlot Mountain itself”, Twilight smirked as she cast a cursory glance over her shoulder and nuzzled Spike with her muzzle.

Spike grinned as he winded himself deeper again in Twilight’s heavenly soft mane and fur. A sigh escaping his mouth.

While the sun slowly sank beyond the horizon, where it originally belonged at this point of day, it framed the seven friends in a bright corona of brilliant sparkling lights and colors as they made their way down the grassy field. Celestia and Luna silently watched the departing mares.

Stepping up next to her older sister, Luna lovely placed one of her wings over her sister's hips, followed by Celestia doing the same to Luna.

"Do you think she'll get over the loss of her primary and first friends?", Celestia craned her head towards Luna, her gaze both questioning and somewhat insecure at the answer her younger sister might have for her. An answer that only could add to her own worries about Twilight and the brilliant seraphicorn´s being.

Luna smirked. "Certainly, she will. Twilight has always been an exceedingly strong mare with a superior mind, acting on speed and ideas probably matched by none. We have to give her credit knowing that, over the years she has gotten a pretty good handle on her fears, that only will get better with more years of ruling. That said, you yourself have felt the type of magic and more importantly sheer level of power that she is now carrying around with her as a matter of principle. It´s like your standing in front of the Power of an entire universe compressed into a single pony shaped point. It feels beatific in every imaginable way I could think of.”

"You think we'll get to the next plain someday, too?", Celestia curiously glanced at her sister sideways, deep into her sparkling eyes. Luna's muzzle curved into a mischievous grin.

"I'm even pretty confident that it will happen eventually. After all, it's the next step in an alicorn's evolution and we have all the time in the world - literally. Still, Twilight IS magic and that will always make her special. Especially in strength and skill when it comes to anything involving magic itself. Besides, she will surely develop abilities that we ourselves can only dream of. Magic is and always will be the most powerful attribute of an alicorn, most of our powers are relying on it. Above all, much speaks for my assumption. Twilight is just slightly older than 20, where we and Cadance are more than 1,400 and 680 years old, respectively. Yet her abilities with magic already far surpass ours."

Her older sister said nothing, but that voiced all it had to so that Luna knew what Tia was thinking.

Luna´s eyes got clouded as her mind wandered. “I honestly don't know what Twilight is capable of at this point, she transcended to a higher form not seen or heard of before, but it's certainly going to be something that Equestria and the rest of the world will remember for eternity. Owing to the fact that she will outlast eternity itself, what’s normal for an alicorn, but still. She´s the only one achieving the former thing. Something you, Cadance and I still have to, so we better get to work sooner or later”, Luna chuckled dryly.

Luna spoke hence her sister could voice anything. “And besides, I´m not 100% sure that Twilight´s very first friends aging is still a problem she or any of them has to deal with. It´s just a random hunch, but it´s quiet strong…”

Celestia gave a smirk and gently bobbed her head in silent agreement. What else should she say to that? It felt to surreal to be true, even if it was.

"You know, it's like the end of an era, wouldn't you say?"

"I do, but with Twilight as empress in charge of our beautiful kingdom Equestria, I don't see what could be possibly wrong with it. True, you and I have spent the last scant millennium turning the realm into a paradise for our ponies, and it is by far more fertile, glorious, and secure than it was so many years ago -"

"- but in contrast to the harmony, peace, and friendship that Twilight will bring to Equestria, even that is but a drop in the bucket," Luna finished the thought for her sister.

"Our deeds will be remembered forever, I'm sure about that, but now is the time for Twilight to be the leader we all know she has been for years. I am so proud to have such an honorable and caring pony as a friend. And you, too, can be equally proud of yourself for the opportunity to have been her teacher to guide her on her journey."

Celestia laid her head in Luna's neck and closed her eyes as she nuzzled into her sister's soft, flowing mane.

"You're right, I am indeed."

“Armonia e pace eterna attraverso l'amicizia, Twilight”, Luna voiced in a low tone as she gazed behind the mares almost over the crest in the meantime, while she conversed with her older sister. “May your rule be as fruitful as ours. I know it will be.”

*End of Chapter Three*

Author's Notes:

Thatˋs how the Tailfeathers look like in my Opinion
Made by: Spoofi69

The Tale of the old unicorn was inspired by a Art I love since more than two Years.
This one made by: Aidapone

Twilightˋs dress for her accent to the Throne of Equestria to become "Empress Twilight Sparkle of Equestria". Obviously she has still her six wings and other appearance, but thatˋs how I would imagine her dress for the Coronation.

Made by: ItsTaylor-Made

The rest following is canon pretty much. Except that Twilight's coronation wasn't as much of a disaster as shown in the episode. While the episode was very good from my perspective and the idea was fun and entertaining, it´s just not something fit with my crazy self. :D
- And yes, I made Twilight´s friends pretty much immortal once more and gave alicorn Twilight powers beyond believe and made her an unkillable and quiet omnipotent goddess. That´s just something I do on a daily basis. Hope you liked it anyway as much as I had fun in writing.
- That was something to write, you can trust me. About 40.000 words? Bro, what have I done? That was meant to be a SHORT Story, sprung from an idea I had while working. Write it in a few hours and publish it afterwards. Yeah…no. Took me several weeks to finish actually and it´s just one of five/six? projects I´m working on. There is one more chapter for a new Story to translate and then I will finally finish my first and actually main Story after as of now, more than six months of not posting a chapter xD That particular chapter lays dormant on my drive 80% finished since, ehhh end of January I guess.
- Yeah, blame me if you want.

Story itself is kind of complete, but I will write another chapter picturing Twilight's Crowning. (~~Hopefully this Weekend~~)
Yeah no...was to tired on Saturday to write more than 500 words, sorry and now I have a sudden emergency of a New idea for a chapter to write - huh that doesn't actually Sound so bad

Prequel - The Empress of Harmony

View Online

*4*

Canterlot, the very heart of Equestria. The glorious and magnificent capital of the mighty Pony Kingdom, constructed into the top of the side of Mount Canterhorn, the highest mountain in all of Equestria, and thus with an unobstructed view over the entire surrounding countryside and its impressively radiant landscape. The vast green and vibrant hills with its slight ups and downs, the small and large blue sparkling lakes and ponds dotted all over the landscape.

The gorgeous blossoming apple trees with its thanks to an apple loving godly beings powers ever ripe juicy fruits. That could be seen flourishing in the distance near a small but resent historically very important town.

There was so much more that could have been said about Equestria and it would take hours maybe even days to list everything worth mentioning about the glorious and peaceful kingdom of Equestria. But if one were to summarize it, everything came down to the fact that it was a paradise for anyone who was willing to follow the ways of harmony and peace, as well as the cohesion and sincere cooperation of all.

Absolutely nothing and no creature at all could sneak up on the city without being seen from miles away. Canterlot was built in such a way that an attack from above would not be obscured by the mountain, and otherwise a clear view was maintained from the front and in every surrounding direction of the city.

Most of the rooftops, avenues and mansions of the noble district were covered with incredible wealth and values. Even the outermost houses of the city, less luxurious and inhabited by the more common rest of the citizens, were more impressively and beautifully built than in any other city of Equus elsewhere. Yet this was nothing special, Equestria was by far the wealthiest and greatest kingdom on the planet Equus and poverty was a case among millions.

Even the smaller villages of the kingdom, such as Ponyville, located right at the foot of Mount Canterhorn, had experienced significant growth in recent years. The small village now resembled more of a moderate-sized town, and was home to at least four times the number of ponies in an area nearly 8 times the size it had been a decade ago. Even though most of the boom was probably due to the young and, until recently, resident princess of the small resort. After all, who wouldn't want to reside in the same town as one of Equestria's revered regents? Especially considering the fact that this young alicorn mare was also considered the friendliest, most benevolent and smartest pony in the entire kingdom and a friendship with her almost came naturally.

Like any alicorn of Equestria she was a pure, mighty and supernatural being with transcendental force over the totality of the universe and out beyond. The incarnation of vitality, fertility and harmony in all its forms. The last one even was embodied by the lavender mare to a greater extent than any other being, even any fellow alicorn.

Canterlot itself was the trading and governing point of the reigning monarchs and Equestria, as well as the place where the grand princesses' home castle, Canterlot Castle, was located. The castle even more impressive and richly decorated than the city itself and built directly higher up the cliff side of Mt. Canterhorn, making it impossible to attack it from the back. If it weren't also for the smaller of the two invisible alicorn magic powered protection shields around the castle, which shielded the castle from any damage or attack from all sides.

The larger sized version was protecting the entire surrounding city of Canterlot itself, making the capital of Equestria the most gorgeous and well-defended place in the entire pony kingdom at the same time. Even without counting the thousands of palace, royal and honor guards in the city, who were stationed mostly in the capital itself but also spread throughout the rest of Equestria.

However, not two weeks ago, large parts of the palace were in ruins and the surrounding noble district and the rest of Canterlot had also suffered heavy damage. It had not been a pretty sight that Equestria's three attackers had left on the city and even on their approach to the capitol they had occasionally left major damage. But the Pony's refused to let something like that get them down, the united will of the inhabitants of Equestria was too strong to be broken by something like that and in less than two weeks almost all the damage in and around Canterlot had been repaired. Most of the destruction in the rest of the kingdom was also quickly repaired, but unlike the capital, it would take another week or so.

The costs have been high, but the kingdom possessed almost immeasurable wealth, more than every other kingdom together and the crown knew how to manage its wealth efficiently. There were also some gigantic donations from individuals to restore the capital to its former beauty more quickly, if not more splendidly. Everypony was willing to contribute it´s part and the princesses gave back in the long run with tax rebates and write-offs even a large part of the bits that were funded. Even though most would freely give their money to the country just to avoid seeing their homeland in ruins. Only the minority truly stoked themselves around immense wealth.

The prestige and triumph of having helped make Canterlot and the Kingdom of Equestria arguably the most formidable country of them all far outweighed the practical benefits of bits. There were only so and so many things that a ton of money could buy that were truly still of useful value in the Pony Kingdom. The princesses maintained a steady balance, as good as even and tried to grant each of their subjects the most beautiful and peaceful life possible since more than two thousands of years.

Speaking of the Princessess. As Luna and Celestia emerged onto the balcony of Canterlot Castle, the balcony that overlooked the massive forecourt and from which the most important speeches and proclamations of the reigning regents were made, they were virtually tongue-tied. Earlier this day, many ponies, dragons, griffins, changelings and other creatures had gathered in the forecourt of the castle. But in the last half hour, there had gathered easily at least twice as many. The two older alicorn´s couldn't even see the back rows of spectators anymore. Only a few pegasi above, occasionally looking down and shouting, suggested that there were more spectators to be gathered there. The natural curvature of the courtyard in front of the castle, apparently seemed to block out the view of the last arrivals.

With a reverent smirk, Luna ignited her horn and fired a thick beam of her light blue magic into the sky. As it rose, it split into seven equal parts that spread across the entire capitol, exploding each in a bright blast shortly after.

Some of the creatures observing had been momentarily surprised by the sudden loud and bright Explosion. It caused most of those present to look up at the balcony and what was now hanging above it thanks to Luna.

Far above on the horizon hovered now seven huge replication spells. Each of them reproducing every little event that happened on the royal balcony for all to see.

Now nobody had to be afraid of missing anything, Luna confirmed to herself in her thoughts.

Celestia had also lit her horn while Luna was working her magic and now amplified her voice to the royal voice of Canterlot. Making sure that even the last row of spectators could hear her clearly, as if she were standing in front of them.

"Inhabitants of Equestria and beyond. We, the alicorn´s of Equestria, welcome you to what is arguably the most important event in our kingdom in over a millennium. On behalf of all of us, we are honored that so many of you have come and wish to attend today's event. Please bear us just a tiny moment longer, we're about to begin."

As the crowd began to cheer in anticipation, both eldest alicorn´s turned their backs from the front of the balcony towards the room beyond and slowly walked inside. The scene that presented itself to them caused a smile to slide across the muzzles of both.

Rarity was busy applying the finishing touches to Twilight's self-designed coronation gown, turning Twilight steadily in a slow circle to get a good view of the seraphicorn. The golden necklace, with its purple four-inch gemstone framed in obsidian in the Center. That the off-white unicorn had received from her seraphicorn friend, sparkled steadily in a mild shade of white surrounded by a rainbow-colored corona - Twilight's own new magic color.

It added a new layer of magic around the corona of Rarity´s own, enhancing the generous unicorns magic.

For as the young seraphicorn had found out a few days ago, only her alicorn magic and only that alone could still generate an effect on her body or even touch it at all. And even that only when she actively allowed it. Every other kind of magic or try therefore simply failed to produce an effect.

Therefore, Twilight had enchanted a gemstone with her new powers and had it worked into a necklace by the resident royal blacksmith in Canterlot to give it to Rarity as a Gift. So she could help her with her further work on her impressive coronation dress and future wardrobe. Which she would need for festivities and occasions in the future as the sole regent of Equestria.

Rarity had been very happy to receive the kind gesture and wore the necklace with pride ever since. The necklace - or rather the gem itself had several further incredibly powerful enchantments placed on it, apart from the simple possibility of levitating Twilight.

Such as several level 10 protection and support spells. These included an alicorn magic powered and infused shield that would effectively protect Rarity from any attack on her life and also disarm and stun most attacker for at least several minutes. Second a reinforcement that opened the floodgates of the astral Dimension. It allowed Rarity to draw on all of Twilight's available mana for a maximum duration of 10 seconds, for any magical spells and magic based actions she desired. A prolonged duration than that would kill a non-alicorn in the harshest way possible due to the magical feedback of the used mana. And also the fact that an alicorn was directly connected to the astral dimension with it´s very soul. And that - was hardly something any alicorn and foremost especially Twilight wanted.

It was common knowledge that the depleted mana from spells was released into the ambient environment and returned via the earth to the core of Equus to be recycled. Subsequently, it would be released back into the environment via the leylines and could be absorbed by the planet's creatures in an ever flowing cycle of arcane power.

With the physiology of an alicorn, however, that was completely different. First of all, their magic and mana did not stem from Equus. The amount the planet contained was gigantic, but compared to the default level that an alicorn, especially Twilight, was carrying around, it was just a drop into the ocean. An alicorn drew its mana directly from the astral dimension, a subdimension within reality that was filled to the brim with alicorn magic and could only be entered with it.

But even with alicorn magic in one' s possession, it wasn´t recommended by any means to try and enter the astral dimension. Just like the prolonged use of an alicorn's mana, the stored magic in the dimension would also act as an incredible strain on the body of a non-alicorn. Due to the virtually infinite amount of mana, however, the effect was at least a thousandfold and would sub atomize anyone and everything faster than they could even enter the dimension.

All things considered, that would not be such a devastating issue, but an alicorn's magic level knew only two states. Consistent or increasing. For every unit of mana consumed, the same amount of fresh mana would flow back to the alicorn´s body and be absorbed by it. For an alicorn, that was routine, but for any other organism, it was an effort that could not be survived. Add to that the fact that alicorn magic by itself always tried to keep the caster alive no matter the cost and you had a rather tricky loop.

At first glance, that sounded like a good deal, but if you went deeper and investigated, you would discover that the magic used to maintain the vitality of its user was self-consuming. This led to a perpetual cycle and steadily increasing consumption of alicorn magic, which eventually nevertheless had to end in the demise of the casting Non-alicorn. As eventually, the body could no longer absorb enough mana per second to not perish from the resulting consequences.

While alicorn magic was the most powerful form of energy the universe possessed and truly enabled one to do anything imaginable, it was also an energy that only an alicorn was capable of fully and safely wielding. Therefore, the use of the amulet's special ability was limited to a single use per day and a maximum duration of 10 seconds at a time. Within that time, not enough depleted mana could accumulate and be replaced with new to pose a threat to the one casting.

The most important of all enchantments, however, was a magical lock calibrated to a specific magical Signature. It prevented the necklace from being removed by anyone other than Rarity or Twilight. In addition, it also prevented the necklace from being lost. For even if it were stolen, as soon as it was beyond a certain radius of a few meters or not worn by either of the two mares for a certain period of several minutes, it would teleport back to the neck of whichever pony was currently closer to the necklace location.

Hefting their sight back to the matter at hoof in front of them, both alicorn´s continued to smile. The aforementioned lavender seraphicorn, was pleased but somewhat annoyed by Rarity's perfectionism. Trying in vain to persuade her that it was not necessary to add more preciousness to her outfit. Already Twilight wore jewelry worth a small household, and Rarity still insisted on adding more items and seemed not to be dissuaded.

Twilight's floor length gown was made entirely of the purest silk hoof crafted in Saddle Arabia and was a darker purple than her own coat. The dress was framed by a hem of soft white pegasus fleece wool and further adorned by many of golden accents along the entire gown. Around her neck hung a golden chain with a beautiful sun attached. It was also golden and had a large round gemstone in its center. Within it sparked the blazing power of an entire sun. Further a gold brooch with a lavender clip hung down from both of Twilight's ears and the gold jagged crown she had always worn on occasions up until now had been polished to the last ounce.

As Twilight directed her gaze downward to avoid following Rarity's bustling, at least for a moment, her eyes fixed on her hooves. Each of the four ends of her legs had an equally beautiful crafted golden hoof shoe like her Crown. It continued up the front of her base and ended in three spikes - the middle one being the largest and longest of the spikes. The front of the shoe, in a semicircle, was plated the same dark purple as her robe and was complemented by a small round ruby in the Center of it.

Rarity would also have loved to add jewelry to her wings, but with the assistance of Rainbow - the expert on wings, she had been able to dissuade her unicorn friend.

A pegasus' wings were the most sensitive part of a pony's body, even more so than a unicorn's horn. Both were crisscrossed by almost innumerable neural pathways, and a unicorn as well as a pegasus could use them to sense the slightest changes in weather or air. Even if the Pegasi, due to their deep connection to the sky, were a good deal better than their unicorn colleagues. The wings and horn of an alicorn, however, were so incredibly sensitive and precise that even that felt like a blow through a meter of cotton-wool.

These facts led even Rarity to think about and finally refrain from attaching jewelry to Twilight's wings. A seraphicorn Twilight frustrated by emotions and sensations on the day of her coronation as sole regent of the kingdom, Rarity preferred not to encounter. She had seen for herself on the meadow in front of Canterlot with the three villains what this could lead to and what an unrestrained terrifying level of power an alicorn and seraphicorn really had. Even if she knew as a matter of fact that Twilight would never dare to attack her, let alone forgive herself for it.

Rarity raised her voice as she gazed into the violet eyes of her seraphicorn friend. They not only sparkled with a friendly glimmer, but also an incredible level of intelligence and arcane magical might, comparable to an entire universe burning deep within. No matter what one might like to say about Twilight, she was and remained an incredible cunning mare and the seraphicorn/alicorn plus mistress of all magic. While the latter followed her command without hesitation.

"But dearest! You are about to be introduced as the next regent of the kingdom, an event that hasn't happened in over a millennium. You'll have to look just perfect, and I want everyone to see that Equestria really has something to offer."

Twilight just rolled her eyes. "So...if you meant that Equestria can show that it's extremely prosperous, then you've already accomplished that."

"I almost look like a Christmas tree - a Christmas tree decorated with tons of gold, alicornite and precious gemstones...".

The young seraphicorn´s voice trailed off on purpose, hoping that Rarity understood Twilight's tone and would finally stop frantically running from side to side of her. Only to find another tiny wrinkle there to straighten, until she ran to the other side to straighten out the wrinkle that had appeared there. A constantly repeating cycle, from which there was no way out, but Rarity did not seem to notice.

Twilight watched the frantic trotting for a few more seconds, while she glanced helpfully at Luna and Celestia, whom she had just spotted at the doorway to the balcony. The two older alicorn´s, however, only smirked and wordlessly surveyed the spectacle as well. Neither of them was going to interfere in Rarity's affairs. Twilight would have to do that herself. The fashionista was known for her perfectionism and the patience as well as the temperament she showed during the process, so it was better for them not to interfere.

With a quiet frustrated sigh, Twilight sparked her long horn and stripped her own magic stemming from the amulet from her fur. As well as at the same time, blocked Rarity's ability to access the energy in the amulet or even her own magic anew.

The unfamiliar feeling of no longer having any control over her own magic, and experiencing a sudden ´void´ in the place where her own magic was supposed to be, made Rarity wince briefly. However, when her eyes met Twilight's and the lavender seraphicorn rolled her eyes in amusement, she relaxed almost immediately.

"Goodness Twilight! You just gave me quite a scare for a brief moment there."

"But could you please refrain from doing that again. It just feels plainly wrong. Would you?" Rarity´s bright smile brought about a chuckle from the taller mare in front of her as Twilight rolled her eyes again.

"I wouldn't even have to resort to the possibility of blocking your magic, if you would just listen to me for once. So will you please do me the favor?” Twilight's gaze was friendly and inquiring, her head tilted slightly to the side. Her eyes, however, also held a sharpness that said she would not allow Rarity to keep running around her.

Rarity nodded and perked her ears to listen to Twilight.

"You did a pristine job taking care of my dress, appearance and further posturing. I can assure you that no one could have done it better than you. But it's really enough now. I look gorgeous and imposing and it's all thanks to you."

Twilight did a short pause.

" Yet, half of Equus is waiting for us to begin and you know as well as I do that it was planned to hold the ceremony of my ascension to the sole regent of Equestria in the last sparkles of dawn. If for no other reason than the appropriate name and resulting joke it gave us."

At this Twilight smiled. It had been Pinkie - who else? That had made her aware of such an appropriate time of day for the coronation of someone named ˋTwilight Amitica Aurora Sparkleˋ. It was therefore decided that today's event would culminate in exactly 18 minutes and 46 seconds – and 237 milliseconds, but who would care about something like that…?

The moment Celestia would set her sun and Luna raise her moon, it would combine to create a wonderful transition from light to dark - the twilight of the day and, moreover, the time of day after which both her parents had named her at her birth. She had even been born right in the middle of the dawn of the rising sun – so that made it even more special.

Rarity, meanwhile, nodded devoutly, wordlessly agreeing with her friend. After Twilight saw that Rarity would not contradict her further and continued to work on her dress, she loosened the grip of her magic around Rarity's so that the other mare could regain her magic and utilize it.

"Thank you dearest, I..." Rarity probably would have said some more, but when she noticed Celestia and Luna behind Twilight in the corridor. Both standing there like that and observing the situation, she tilted her body into a slight short bow and fell silent. Her gaze became questioning as she glanced at them.

Twilight had long since noticed the other two alicorn´s in the room, thanks to her alicorn perception, but first wished to finish her conversation with her friend. However, since Rarity was not saying anything more and had also bowed slightly to them, it was a clear indication that she could turn to her two fellow alicorn´s to converse with them.

As Twilight arched her body around she nudged Rarity´s side with one of her hooves, to get the Unicorn to raise herself. With a year’s long, almost family close friendly relationship with both Luna and Celestia and her as the third royal alicorn in the room and one of Rarity’s dearest friends - bowing was a thing Rarity really shouldn’t be necessary to do. And she KNEW that, there was no way Twilight was wrong with it.

Turning around, Celestia began to approach until she stopped only two meters away from Twilight , their eyes met. Her younger sister Luna, also stepped further forward, but stopped a good meter behind Celestia. While her friendship with Twilight was exceedingly good and they both had a very good relationship, her sister had the longer and more intimate affair with Twilight, sprouting from a years-long student and teacher bond.

"My Sister and I are really just so proud of you. If you still need a moment, that is alright. It is your Coronation after all." Celestia bowed her head to Twilight and Luna followed the gesture as well, which was also acknowledged by Twilight. But not even a second later they were all interrupted by a fanfare and hundreds of cheers, which made their heads and ears prick up quickly.

Luna started. "Although, it would be nice to be able to start soon. The crowd is already getting impatient and to keep up our arranged plan to put the crown on your head at the twilight, we don't have too much time left either as you know. So are you ready?" Luna's look was friendly and she indicated that while she would much prefer to start soon, she would not force Twilight to do so. It was her coronation and if the young seraphicorn would need a moment to herself or alone with Rarity, that was perfectly fine.

Twilight scratched her chin briefly before answering. "Hmm, yes!", Twilight smiled back at Luna. "My dress is fitted, and I'm also more than ready to step in front of the assembled crowd. Even if I'm still a little nervous", Twilight announced with a slight blushing of her cheeks and an awkward laugh into her front hoof.

Luna replied back to Twilight.

"That is to be expected dearest, even we are quite nervous today. It is, after all, probably the most thrilling day in Equestria's history in many hundreds of years. Our kingdom has never had such a change of power. But that's logical, we were the first alicorn´s to rule Equestria since its founding after all. Besides, you haven't seen the crowd outside yourself yet, but I've never seen so many ponies and other creatures in one spot. Your friendship with the other kingdoms is truly beyond belief."

Now Celestia raised her voice as well, adding to her sister's statement. "If I were to guess, almost all of Canterlot and half of all the other major cities of our kingdom, as well as about two-thirds of the major creatures of all the other kingdoms, probably gathered in front of the Castle. Truly something to be proud of. Not even we have managed to gather even half as many allies behind us in a millennium as you have achieved in just a few years. And that's not even counting all the friends you've made, which is probably at least ten times as many as you have allies. Alicorn´s are widely beloved around the planet. Our decisions are after all always rather fair and faithful. Yet you probably have less enemy’s on Equus than a dozen."

"We saw it just over two weeks ago in the grassland outside Canterlot during the attack on our capital and what was even worse, your own life. So many were willing to stand up for our kingdom Equestria and most importantly your honor. Not only as Equestria's princess but as a close friend and ally, fighting to the end, whatever the cost."

Luna interrupted her sister in the midst of speech, giving her a brief apologetic look, which Celestia returned with a nod of understanding on her part.

"I have never experienced something like this, even in my more than one and a half thousand years alive. Never in the entire history of Equus have all the major kingdoms gathered in one place to fight for a single nation. We are lucky that it turned out as well as it did, but I am sure many would have fought for you even to the bitter end if it had been necessary." Luna paused for a moment and put on a friendlier smile, today was not a day to spoil the mood, but what she wanted to say needed to be said.

"I can tell by the look on your face that the thought has crossed your mind as well, and your calm demeanor tells me that you know how well we got off in truth. But today is not a day for thinking about what might have been. Let's be glad that it never had to come this far and probably never will. Let's simply enjoy what is. Today is your special day and a date we should all celebrate not mourn."

With those words, Luna bowed her head once again to Twilight and shortly after began to turn away from Rarity and Twilight beside her sister to slowly trot towards the balcony.

Out of the corner of their eyes, the two sisters saw how the other two ponies in the foyer of the castle also bowed their heads slightly in thanks. Whereas for Rarity it was probably still more a remnant of the general gesture for royalty. Even after she didn't have to do so anymore and was one of the closest friends for years of one of the four royal alicorn´s and soon to be regent of the country. Celestia had explicitly mentioned it as well, yet Rarity was probably still not quite used to the notion.

Celestia and Luna stepped out onto the balcony, while Rarity most certainly added the very last finishing touches to Twilight's attire. Even if her seraphicorn friend had expressly forbidden her to continue tinkering with her coronation dress, Rarity certainly wouldn't let that stop her.

Just because Twilight was part of the rarest and mightiest species in the entire universe. A kind so powerful that they could litteraly rewrite the fundamental logics of the universe all on their own with just a brief thought and only had to follow them themselves if they wanted too. A being that had become invulnerable and immortal - not only through time itself, but on every conceivable and unfathomable level. Possessing, in addition, absolute control over the strongest aspect of an alicorn - it´s alicorn magic and every other little thing that had even the slightest thing to do with magic.

Could also further control, cancel and direct all magic with a single brief flick of her horn or hoof…Only because Rarity could in no way even begin to stand a hint of a chance against someone like Twilight. A seraphicorn that could disarm and incapacitate her with her very presence alone…No, Rarity would not let such marginal and unimportant trifles deter her from her intention.

Celestia raised her voice once Luna and she had reached the edge of the balcony, letting the royal Canterlot voice ring out over the thousands gathered.

"Inhabitants of Equestria and beyond!"

Celestia's address was punctuated by deafening cheers from the assembled crowd, with most of the Jacks also stomping their hooves to the ground, almost causing a small earthquake among the crowd of assembled representatives of the land. But even if, Canterlot had been specially protected with spells against any natural disaster and would be able to survive even that without problems. The cheers were accompanied by a barrage of precise fire from the dragons, aimed at the sky. Ember Magmaheart, the reigning Dragoness of the reptiles nation, was cheering the loudest and stretched her bright red glowing scepter upwards in her arm.

Both princesses on the balcony of the castle had to grin and waited patiently for the cheering crowd to fall silent again to listen to them.

Celestia then raised her voice a second time. She would take the first part of the speech, as the two sisters had agreed. She would hold the beginning and Luna would take over from about the half.

“My sister and I have ruled this land for quite some time, but even we know that change eventually comes to us all. And though we know it can be unsettling, it's as natural as the rising and setting of the sun, moon and stars.”

"Both of which we will be happy to leave in the hooves of our successor, even though we will still be taking on the task ourselves until an indefinite time. The strain and adjustment necessary of running an entire kingdom will probably be enough for her for the time being. It would be unfair to place that burden on her as well, even if we have no doubt that she would be up to the task as well by no doubt."

Now Luna took over for Celestia. “And so without further ado I give you the new Ruler of Equestria and our successor. Princess Twilight Amitica Aurora Sparkle the first; seraphicorn auf Harmony and Peace; Embodiment of Magic; Mistress of Friendship; a dear and loyal friend to all of us and so much more, that would exceed the frame.”

To Twilight, this was the cue she had waited at the doorway to the balcony after Rarity had assured her that her dress, and therefore she, was now ready to step in front of the crowd. As Luna spoke these words, she closed her eyes and trotted forward until she came to a stop between the two older alicorn´s. Her head was held high, as was seen amongst many of the nobles in Canterlot; her steps precise, determined, and even, her entire dress and adornment pristine to the last ounce, and overwhelmingly adorned with jewelry.

Even if her general appearance as a recently matured seraphicorn, with the characteristic flowing mane and tail with all its constellations of the firmament in it. The aura of divine magic around the entire body and her six alicorn wings neatly folded over each other on her back was certainly an impressive enough sight for all gathered in front of the balcony to witness.

As she stopped between Luna and Celestia, her eyes opened and for the first time she saw all the creatures gathered in Canterlot just for her coronation as the new regent of Equestria. Her nervousness came to a head for a short time. However, it quickly turned into excessive happiness and joy, and a broad grin crossed her entire muzzle.

For what else should she feel but infinite joy. The sight of so many thousands of creatures, gathered just to witness today's event of her coronation, allowed absolutely no other feelings.

With a single flourish of her white-rainbow colored magic, she grabbed her old crown as Crown Princess of Equestria from her head and slowly placed it on the specially provided pedestal with its lavender velvet cushion in front of her. Its red embroidered edges and short twisted golden cords hung down each of its four sides.

Now, she would no longer need this crown after her ascension to the Regent of Equestria. Instead she would receive an entirely new crown. Later, after her coronation was done, the crown would be displayed in a specially prepared magical showcase in the 'Halls of the Alicorn´s' under Canterlot. These halls possessed a legendary, almost mystical status that extended far beyond the borders of Equestria and each year these halls were visited not only by tens of thousands of ponies, but also by creatures from the farthest corners of Equus nowadays.

Located deep beneath the city Canterlot, protected by hundreds of spells. These halls contained the most valuable and historical artifacts, books, scrolls, weapons, everyday items and among them very soon the crown of the first and so far only crown princess Equestria ever had. Just seeing all this made the visit worthwhile, but the walls, floors and passages were lined with the purest white and beige marble found on the planet. The floors were so clear and polished that you could see your reflections on them, making them a real magnet for foals.

The walls and passageways were further decorated with precious metals such as Alicornite and Shade, as well as gemstones almost equal in purity to the jewels worn by Equestria's highest royal representatives in their regalia and crowns. Along with hundreds more banners, flags and paintings of Equestria's most important personalities. Whereas most of the decorations were obviously devoted to the four alicorn´s of the Pony Kingdom.

There were even sections in the back of the halls that were entirely dedicated to one of the princesses each and decorated in the appropriate colors and aura. There, as in the castle of Canterlot itself, the greatest achievements and successes of the princesses were on display in large stained glass images and preserved for future generations for all to see.

With Twilight having rested her crown on the velvet cushion of the pedestal, Luna and Celestia, to her respective left and right, ignited their horns in characteristic magic and lifted their own crowns up from their heads. Holding them side by side about half a meter above Twilight's head.

Now came the second part of the spell, slowly the two ancient regents of the land guided their crowns closer together until both head accessories met in the center just above the tip of Twilight's sharp long horn.

In a bright ball of golden-blue magic and under a truly impressive light show of sparkling alicorn magic, Celestia's golden crown and Luna's dark blue one merged, forming a single new imperial head crest.

As the magic began to slowly fade away, a single large crown was revealed. It was made entirely of alicornite held in a dark silver and serrated in two rows. With the four outer tips of the crown, two to the left and two to the right each had a square, dark purple amethyst at their tip, framed in obsidian at its base, binding it firmly to the crown.

The middlemost of the five spikes was significantly larger and was also topped off by an amethyst set in obsidian about three times its size. Each of the gems was, as was to be expected for the crown of an Equestria princess, pristine and without any enclosures and sparkled as brightly in the slowly setting sun as the one itself.

Twilight glanced up for a moment at the new crown hovering atop her, marveling at the beauty and elegance emanating from it. Her new crown as the soon-to-be Regent of Equestria was very similar to her previous crown as Crown Princess, but it was significantly more impressively designed than the latter.

Twilight also knew that the ancient spell that melded the princesses' crowns had a life of its own and could not be foreseen as to what the end result might look like. The ancient spell always adapted the crafted object to the one it was intended for, mysteriously enchanting and enhancing it in the process.

Slowly, the magic of the two elder alicorn´s caused the new crown to float down until it slowly slid past her long horn and settled on her head in front of it, officially crowning her as the new ruler of their pony kingdom. Celestia, who just like her sister had been looking to the side and thus at Twilight the entire time. While their crowns were fused and then settled as a single new crown on Twilight's head, were about to turn away to address the assembled crowd once again and proclaim the joyful news.

But all of a sudden, the amethysts of Twilight's crown flared up in a glaring slightly brighter light than the gems themselves, and the eyes of both alicorn´s went wide as they took a step backwards, startled.

The magic auras that emanated from an alicorn continuously by the second were generally known to be extremely powerful, and Twilight's alicorn one had far surpassed even that. But suddenly that power had increased by such a factor that even the harmonic power emanating from Twilight two weeks ago on the meadow battlefield was a joke against it.

"Wow!" chimed out from both alicorn´s at the same time.

Within a fraction of a second, a bright magenta flaming halo of magical fire formed about 10 inches above the crown itself, increasingly resembling a tiara that spiraled up along the length of Twilightˋs horn, reaching almost to the tip of the magical accessory. Although the magical fire was flame-like, no heat emanated from it. It continued to 'burn' steadily above the head of the seraphicorn princess of magic.

Even those gathered in the forecourt of the castle had suddenly all fallen silent and merely gazed in amazement at the unexpected spectacle that was taking place on the balcony of the royal castle of Canterlot. Only scattered low whispers could be heard as some of the creatures began to murmur what it could possibly mean.

"I've - never seen anything like that in my life. That was definitely unexpected," Luna began slowly as she stepped closer with her eyes intently examining the burning tiara above Twilight's head. Twilight just gazed from the crown to Luna and back, her voice lost.

"That my dear, you can say loudly," Celestia added, also stepping closer to Twilight. "Do you have any idea what that could be? As I said, my specialty isn't magic, so I can't put my hoof on it."

The dark blue alicorn mare shook her head. "Neither can I. But the spell we have used shapes the crown to the best possible outcome of whoever is worthy to wear it." Luna held her hoof up and pointed upon Twilightˋs head. "Accordingly, I simply presume that is the end result."

“It is!”, Twilight voiced and added further. “I can´t possible tell you why I know that, but it is the reason I know got a flaming tiara above my head every time I put on my crown.”

Both other alicorn´s atop the balcony nodded. Twilight was the best of them in magic, if she said the ancient spell was responsible for it, it was.

"I suppose it will be as it is," Celestia smirked, turning her gaze to her lavender fellow.

"You will certainly find out where this magic comes from quicker than either of us. Perhaps it is also a visual and physical extension of your own native powers. Who knows. We'll certainly know soon enough, owing to you, though."

Twilight gave a speechless nod in the direction of her former mentor and then took determined steps towards the edge of the balcony ahead. Where she eventually stretched all six wings wide slightly bent upwards from her. Her eyes were friendly and caring as she looked over the thousands of creatures that now looked up in amazement at her in the square below.

All the gathered creatures slightly bowed in a collective movement and then fell into a threefold, loud tribute. The ponies, of course, cheered the loudest for their new ruler.

"All Hail divine Empress Twilight, May her Regine be long, just and fruitful."

Twilight was happier than she had ever been in her lifetime and she would give anything to fulfil the shouts of her subjects and allied kingdoms. The honor and respect they had for her was incredible. She still didn´t felt like a goddess, divine creature in general or even empress as she was called. But with her recent new powers and the seraphicorn status in general, that would obviously be a thing she had to come to terms with.

As the cheers and shouts died down, she bowed her head to the assembled creatures in return for their trust in her.

When Twilight spoke, her voice was determined, amiably warm and, thanks to the royal Canterlot voice, clear and loud.

"Thank you all! As truly as I stand here before you, I will do my utmost as the new Regent to make our kingdom the most wonderful and secure place one could ever imagine.”

She raised one of her front hooves.

“However, under no circumstances, at the expense of others. Because if there is one thing that is more important to me than anything else. It is the amity spirit, the harmonious peace and the solidarity of all the creatures of our little planet Equus with one another. Such is my soul oath to each and every one of you. If there are ever any issues with the way I rule, I sincerely ask that you do not be too shy to seek audience with me and address them. Even as a seraphicorn, ruler of an entire kingdom and incredible strong being, it is important to me that no one is overheard. That alone even characterizes my title as seraphicorn of friendship, apart from many other things."

The cheers were even louder for Twilight this time than before and lasted equally as long. While Twilight stood at the edge of the balcony with all her wings still stretched far away from her, and the grin on her face as wide as it had been, she had her ears slightly tilted back.

For Luna and Celestia were whispering quietly to each other, even though they were well aware that Twilight could still hear them perfectly. Which basically rendered the whispering superfluous, but whatever...

"I told you sister, she's our perfect successor. If not Twilight, who else should ascend the throne of Equestria after us and bring fame and glory to Equestria?", intoned Celestia and Luna replied unceremoniously delighted.

"No, no one else would be better suited leading our kingdom into an era of peace and friendship than her. Ever since I met her, she has been a natural born leader and I am proud that I have seen her grow with her duties. My heart almost bursts with joy to see her finally confident in herself, that she is the regent everyone has seen in her for years."

"I can' t even begin to imagine how very happy and proud Duke Nightlight and Duchess Velvet of House Sparkle feel for the success of their daughter. While their son, Shining Armor has already come a long way, their second offspring has arguably achieved the greatest attainment there is. Alicorn Princess, Ruler of all of Equestria, a god now that she ascended to a seraphicorn...not some titles to mess with. The glory to her House Sparkle, Twilight brought, will be legendary for all time, even more so than it was with the many previous loyal deeds of her family tree", Celestia ended.

It didn't escape Twilight's notice how both sisters rested their heads against each other and turned to look ahead at her.

Twilight grinned across her muzzle. The two elder alicorn´s were right. She had finally become self-assured that she was up to the task of being sovereign of all Equestria. Empress Twilight Sparkle...hm, I'll have to get used to that, but it doesn't sound too bad. At least much better than Queen Twilight Sparkle.

As her gaze wandered over Canterlot and she watched the sun slowly fully disappear behind the horizon, creating the twilight – her time of day, she already made plans for her reign, which would truly begin in full swing tomorrow.

Armonía para siempre! (Harmony forever)

*End of Chapter Four*

*End of the Story*

Author's Notes:

A short chapter for the crowning of Twilight to wrap up the story..."short"...ehh no! Probably should have expected something like that with my state of being.

Anywho...
Being able to use the limitless and unbridled power of an alicorn for 10 whole seconds may not sound like much, but it's significantly more than one might think at first thought. The reflexes, precision, coordination, agility and much more of an alicorn are so vast that one second of their mental flow and the things they can accomplish in that time is equivalent to about a full minute for any normal creature. Time is thus indirectly stretched in this sense - not literally, even if an alicorn would be capable of doing it. In those 10 seconds that Rarity has access to Twilight's mana and the abilities that come along with it, she is able to get as much done as if she had 10 minutes of access to Twilight's alicorn magic. Which possibilities it opens up hardly needs to be said, once you've seen what Twilight is capable of as the mistress of magic.

Twilight´s Coronation Gown is based on this Picture: Empress Twilight Sparkle of Equestria - Gown. I posted it before, but just to be safe...

Her new Crown was based on this Picture here:
Crown of the Empress of Harmony

Because someone commented on it: Seraphicorn's are still considered alicorn's as their body shape is the same as the one of an alicorn but with four additional wings. (And some sparkly, wavy upgrades) A Seraphicorn's powers are still absolutely different and even superior to any alicorn by far though.

And that´s the End of my Story, this time for real. If there ever will be a sequel with the two imprisoned creatures after 1,000 years I don´t know. Maybe someday, but not in the near future. Still have much to many projects for that ongoing and still to write.

Thank´s for reading and see you in the next one!

Broken Promise

by Nova Star Sparkle

Shouldn´t have done that...

...No really...

...You shouldn't!

Prequel - The Empress of Harmony