“And what the hay is that supposed to mean?”

Twilight turned to Applejack, seeing the look on her face and sighing before speaking to her. “What I meant by that is…well, it is sort of my fault that Spike’s egg found its way into Equestria.”

Noting Applejack’s, as well as the others confusion, Twilight gestured for them to sit down, allowing part of her brain to divert to fixing up the mess in the kitchen while she spoke to the girls.

“In one of my past lives, I was known as Sunset Shimmer, and my family at that time lived near the dragon borders when relations between Equestia and the dragons were not so peaceful. They…they were killed by dragons, and I…in my rage, I set off and loosed my fury on the closest dragon nest I could find. I…I already killed off several when I entered a abandoned cave, and I found one egg which had been left behind. I wanted to smash it, but before I could Celestia stopped me, and took the egg to be cared for till they could either return it to its mother or figure out how to hatch it.”

She waited with baited breath while her friends processed this information, till finally Pinkie spoke up. “So your saying…that you…or a past version of you is the reason Spike doesn’t know who his parents are?”

When Twilight nodded, Pinkie’s ears drooped a bit, but Twilight was quick to walk over and hug her friend. “You don’t have to worry Pinkie, I’m not that mare anymore, that was nearly a thousand years ago.”

“But you have her memories…”

“But the memories that matter most are the ones that are closets to me in this life, the rest is just old information that I simply have access to again, like an old book you haven’t read in years.”

She then ended the hug with her friend, before getting up and turning to the others. “Now as much as I would love to stay, I have to get back to Canterlot, there’s a big ceremony up there that I have to be a part of, otherwise I would be staying here longer.”

“Well don’t stay away too long darling,” said Rarity with a smile.

“I won’t,” said Twilight, before vanishing in a flash of light.

*

Back in the dragon lands, Jewel and Ember were busy looking over old books, while Spike rested peacefully, wrapped within one of Jewel’s wings.

“Are you sure it was the scent of a Soul-Thief you detected Empress?”

“Yes I am sure, father allowed me to experience a memory where he smelled such a creature, and whatever that thing is in Twilight’s body bore the same scent.”

“And what over the other scent, the one that you said marked her as a clutch killer.”

Ember grimaced at that, “Another memory from my father, of a mare disappearing with Princess Celestia after said mare ravaged an entire dragon nesting ground near their border, and she shared the same scent.”

“But that can't be possible,” said Jewel, “the one who nearly destroyed my clutch and ravaged our nesting grounds died ages ago, how can they be the same?”

“If that thing is a soul-thief, it would make perfect sense, for that kind of destruction gets etched on the soul, which no new body can hide.”

Jewel hesitated for a long moment, but before she could speak further she jumped as someone teleported into her cave, which turned out to be the new king of the Changeling’s, Thorax.

“I hope whatever this matter is is important Ember, for I just had to turn down an invitation by Twilight Sparkle to a ceremony in her honor.”

“The mater has to do with her,” said Ember, “but first, have you or any of your changelings ever heard of a creature known as a Soul-Thief?”

Thorax stood still for a long moment, then a feral hiss escaped his lips, while his wings stood out on end. “Where is it?”

“So you have heard of them?”

“Yes I’ve heard of them,” said Thorax with a growl, “all changelings have heard of them. They are harbingers of sorrow, and enemies to the great web of love!”

Ember looked confused, “The what?”

“You have heard of the idea of soulmates right?” asked Thorax, “the idea that two beings are meant to be together.”

This caused Ember to blush, but she nodded all the same.

“The idea is in fact truth,” said Thorax, “and it's all due to the Great Web of Love. All beings on this planet are connected to the web, and due to this connection, we all have soulmates, from you, to me, even the princesses themselves. This web is a delicate thing, and it only takes one broken strand to cause the entire thing to become a chaotic mess. Soul-Thieves deny souls the ability to unite with their soul mates, leaving them in endless misery till their soulmate is freed from perdition.”

Ember remained silent for a moment, and then she spoke, “The soul-thief I smelled is in the body of Twilight Sparkle, and from what I could tell this one smelled old.”

“How old?” asked Thorax.

“Near as old as Celestia and Luna if I were to wager a guess, but don’t quote me on that.”

Thorax dawned a grim look at that, “that is troubling indeed, for the event I was going to specifically was to celebrate the fact that Twilight Sparkle has become the consort of both Princess Celestia and Luna.”

Ember looked panicked at that, but was stayed from speaking by a the voice of Spike.

“Its true, before I got in range of Twilight to tell that she was not who she was supposed to be, I overheard her telling the other girls that the Princesses had revealed that she was the reincarnation of their soulmate, and that they had used a spell to awaken her old memories.”

Jewel sighed grimly at that, “Then it is true, though this will complicate matters, for if this Soul-Thief is indeed the soulmate to the Sun and Moon, they will not give her up litely.”

“But we cant let it escape,” said Thorax, “if it is as old as Celestia and Luna that means many souls may be trapped within perdition due to it including Twilight Sparkle, and more will follow if we do not act.”

“Don’t you think I know that,” said Ember, “but we have to be careful. The dragons have only just formed alliances with Equestria, and the same thing can be said for the changelings, but if we move against her those ties could become strained, even severed.”

“So what do you suggest we do?”

Ember thought about it for a moment, and then she spoke, “Are any of your changelings still capable of infiltration?”

Thorax nodded, “Pharynx still insists that some of the changelings practice that craft, as a means of defense.”

“I want as many eyes in Canterlot as possible, but make sure they are not spotted by Twilight herself, if she really is that old, she will no doubt be quite powerful and I do not want to risk any of you getting caught or worse.”

“And what about you?”

Ember sighed, “if dad were awake I would just ask him about what he knows about Soul-Thieves, but as he is sleeping right now I will have to stay here and comb through the books, for there has to be something here that can help us combat it without risking Twilight’s body.”

Thorax nodded grimly, for he did not want to tell her that he thought her cause was hopeless, “I’ll let you know what we find out.”

With that he vanished, leaving Ember and Jewel to return to their books, soon joined by Spike as her began heading to the lower shelves.

“My Darling you should be resting, you still have not recovered from your growth.”

“I know mom, but Twilight raised me, and if any of these books can help save her, I have to do what I can.”

Jewel hesitated, and then nodded her head, “That you must my darling, that you must.”

*

Twilight appeared within her chambers, and was just about to go get changed when she heard a knock at her door, and figuring it was one of her mates, she headed over to the door to open it.

However, her smile disappeared when she saw who it was, “What do you want Blueblood?”

“I am here as a high royal within Princess Celestia’s court to hereby charge you, one Twilight Sparkle, for high crimes against the crown through use of dark magic.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at that, “And pray tell, what sort of dark magic am I supposed to have employed?”

“Mind alteration, which you used against Princess Luna and Celestia to make them take you on as their consort, thus elevating you beyond your pitiful station into one you are sorely undeserving of.”

Smirking, Twilight spoke, “I’ll see you in court then.”

With that, she slammed the door in his face, before teleporting to Celestia’s chambers to find her fixing what looked to be a lovely meal for three.

“Ah Twilight,” said Celestia, “I was just getting a quick meal ready for us before the preparations for the ceremony complete.”

“Well I am afraid we are going to have to put those on hold for a while, for Blueblood has charge me with high crimes against the crown.”

Celestia stood silently for a long moment, and then her main and tail burst into flames as she dropped what she was doing and began heading for the door. “When I get my hooves on that no good…”

She was stopped as Twilight expertly intercepted the mare and planted a kiss on her lips, casing a bit of steam to explode out from her as her mane and tail were effectively put out. Then she pulled back, and nuzzled the side of her lovers cheek before speaking. “I know how angry this must make you dear sun, but I think it would be best for everyone if we let Blueblood try and have his little moment.”

“But what if he wins?”

“He won’t win,” said Twilight, “and besides, this will allow us to come forward more openly with the fact that we are soul mates, which will make the ceremony run that much more smoothly.”

“…if you are sure?”

“I am,” said Twilight, “now get back to cooking, for I would like to at least enjoy one more good meal before the trial makes it all but impossible.”

*

Deep within the place between worlds, the mares and stallions that had been trapped their by the fell shadow were gathered, Nyx waiting till she was sure everyone was there before finally speaking.

“My brethren, our most recent arrival has just revealed to us a monumental peace of information about the fell shadow, something I believe can tip the scales in our favor once our plan is complete.”

She then gestured for Twilight to speak, who took a deep breath before beginning with her tale. “When I was looking over the fell shadows magic, I realized that her magic signature looked very familiar to me, and when I took a deeper look it brought forth memories to me, memories of the fell shadow before she became what she is.”

Murmuring swept over the gathered ponies, but eventually it stopped as Twilight continued speaking. “The memories brought to me by this familiarity were those of a time when she had been my little sister, who back then was known as Twilight Everfree Sparkle. In that time, she had just met the Princesses, and was looking for a way to prolong her life so that she could be with the princesses for all time.”

Twilight choked back a few tears, and then continued on. “She had already discovered her talent for soul magic at the time, but lacked a deeper understanding of its many mysteries, and I…I wanted to help her…”

She tried to fight off more tears so she could explain further, but she was saved the trouble when one of the others, a mare with a pale pinkish purple cote and purple mane and tail with a blue streaks running through both, spoke up. “You taught her didn’t you, you taught her the knowledge necessary for her to start all of this!”

Twilight nodded, “I was just trying to help her…I never expected it to have this result…”

All the ponies began yelling and shouting, many directing their ire towards the purple mare, till finally Fuji slammed her hooves down, causing everypony to shut up as she spoke.

“Look, I know you all are angry by this news, but Twilight is not to blame for this, she is as much a victim as we are where the fell shadow is concerned. The fell shadow being related to Twilight means we have that much more of an edge on her then we did before, so we should work on exploiting that edge.”

She then turned to Twilight, “Discover as much as you can about the magic, for I feel it is the key to taking her down.”

Twilight nodded, then watched as everypony dispersed, before sighing as Majesty came up and nuzzled her side.

“It’s going to be okay mom.”

“I know sweetie,” said Twilight, nuzzling the top of her daughters head before looking to her and speaking. “Now, show me those spell forms again.”

*

Twilight sighed as she sat in the defendants chair, the entire court waiting for Blueblood to make his grand entrance, as he was wanton to do.

When the doors finally opened, she watched as Blueblood walked in with a hawkish looking griffon, and from the memories of her host, she knew this griffon by the name of Hebzeba acted both as Blooblood’s lawyer, as well his mistress.

Smirking a bit, she looked to the pony she had called, Raven Inkwell, whom she knew Celestia trusted above all others when it came to such matters.

However, Blueblood spotted her as well, and immediately began to raise objections. “Excuse me, but you should not be here Raven, you only act as my Auntie’s lawyer!”

“And as her lawyer it is my privilege to act as the lawyer to their consort…”

“Which I do not believe she is yet…”

“By ancient law,” said Twilight with a smirk, “Celestia and Luna may claim any mare or stallion as their consort, and the ceremony recognizing them is just a formality for the public.”

Blueblood remained silent for a moment, before looking toward his lawyer and began whispering to her, before stopping as a new pony entered the room.

“All rise for the honorable judge, Might Hollow!”

Everypony stood as an old mare in robes walked into the room, the mare taking the seat usually reserved for Celestia before gesturing to everypony else to sit down and then speaking. “Normally in a matter concerning one or more high royals, either Princess Celestia or Princess Luna would be presiding over these proceedings. However as they are involved with the defendant, the accuser felt that they would be unfairly biased, a sentiment I happen to agree with.”

Twilight caught the smirk on Blueblood’s face out of the corner of her eye, but ignored it as Might Hollow continued to speak. “Twilight Sparkle, you have been accused by Prince Blueblood of using dark mind altering magics to coerce both Princess Luna and Princess Celesita into making you their consort, and in doing so rising above your station, how do you plea to these charges.”

“My client pleads not guilty your honor,” said Raven.

“Very well,” said Might Hollow, “does the prosecution have any witnesses they wish to call at this time?”

“We do your honor,” said Hebzeba, “the prosecution would like to call Pillow Feather to the witness stand.”

Twilight chose at that point to tune out of the proceedings, waiting till she was called to the stand. Instead, she choose to look over the memories of her host, mainly, the memories pertaining to her dealings with Nightmare moon.

If she was honest, it galled her that she had not been the one who saved her dearest Luna, instead it was some random mare with a powerful talent. It also galled her that this mare held a connection to the Element of Magic, an artifact which by all rights should belong to her sister, but as far as she could tell, the soul she had latched onto bore no resemblance to the soul of her mighty sister.

Sighing, she allowed her attention to return to the proceedings for a moment, and saw that a guard had been called to the stand, and Raven was questioning him.

“Iron Rod, it has long been known that you have harbored deep feelings for Princess Celestia, which resulted in you being transferred to the Lunar Guard due to how you were behaving when around her. Is it at all possible that you feelings for the Princesses factored into your claim that my client has brainwashed the princesses with dark magic.

Tuning out of the proceedings again, Twilight once more began looking over her hosts memories again, and eventually stumbled upon something that caused her to pause, for they were memories pertaining to the release and reformation of Discord.

“He could be a problem,” thought Twilight as the guard began yelling at Raven, the mare having managed to push a button much to the prosecution's chagrin. “I’ll have to speak with him after this bullshit is through, for if he does not approve of what I’m doing, he could cause some serious problems for me in the future.”

“Miss Hebzeba,” said the judge in a stern voice, causing Twilight to look up as the judge spoke further. “does the prosecution have any witnesses that actually saw Twilight perform or use dark magic?”

“Um…well not really…”

“Then I am afraid I am going to have to deny you the right to more witnesses,” said the Judge, before turning to Raven. “Miss Raven does the defence have any witnesses they would like to call forth.”

Raven nodded, “The defense would like to call Twilight Sparkle to the stand.

“Very well,” said the Judge, “Miss Sparkle, please take your place at the witness stand.”

“With pleasure your honor.”

*

Luna knew she was going to get an earful from Celestia later, for she had wanted Luna to be there with her while the trial was under way, but Luna felt this was far more pressing.

Ever since the reveal of how Twilight was truly defying the cycle of death and rebirth, it had been weighing on her heavily. While her sister seemed ok with it, Luna couldn’t shake the feeling that it was causing harm in some way, and was now endeavoring to prove herself wrong.

Currently, she was in the deepest part of the restricted section of the royal archives, specifically in the section pertaining to soul magic.

Luna doubted she would find anything today, for the information on soul magic was vast, held within hundreds upon hundreds of tomes, but even with that said, it was very likely that the magic her Twilight was using might not have been recorded by anyone, as it seemed unique to her.

But it felt familiar, which was terrifying to her, for save for her beloved mate, most of her encounters with soul magic users tended to be horrific. However, all those users abused soul magic, which always led to madness, were as her mate knew the limits of soul magic and did not push them beyond said limits.

Sighing as she came to the end of another book, she considered giving up for that day, till she spotted something out of the corner of her eye.

It was a pitch black book, with a single red crystal set in its cover, which denoted it as belonging to the former King Sombra.

Opening up the book, she found that it was one of his old research journals from back when he was the arch mage of the Crystal Empire, pertaining to his research into soul magic and how it related to the Crystal Ponies connection to the crystal heart.

She combed through the tomb, looking for anything which might relate to her beloved Twilight, till finally she came upon a section regarding Sombra’s visit to the ancient changeling empire.

“In my research regarding the changelings knowledge of soul magic, one of its greatest practitioners, a changeling named Glittering Seal, deigned to share a valuable and disturbing piece of knowledge relating to soul magic practitioners.”

“She told me about something called a Soul-Thief, which was a soul magic practitioner who has severed themselves from the cycle of death and rebirth, rendering themselves effectively immortal. Once they sever themselves in this way, they cannot take on physical form as a soul normally does when it returns to the mortal realm.”

“Instead, they must steal the body of another by severing their hosts original soul and taking its place. If done correctly, and I only say this to get across how horrid this action is, the soul they sever returns to the realm of the dead before being reborn once more in a new body.”

“However, most are unable to preform this spell properly, and thus those that are severed wind up in a pocket plane created as a by product of the miss preformed spell, where they remain till the Soul-Thief’s spells are undone…”

Luna did not want to read further, for she already found herself horrified by the implications. She did not want to entertain the idea that her beloved Twilight could be like this, but the evidence was stacked against her.

She began flipping through the rest of the book, but came to a sudden stop as the scrawling became erratic, and her eyes were drawn to the words of at the top of the page.

“MY CRYSTAL HAS BEEN STOLEN FROM ME!”

Crystal, the nickname Sombra had used for his beloved daughter Umbranox, Luna’s last mate before she had been claimed by the nightmare. It chilled her to the bone, for now that she looked back, the entire time during their fight he had been shouting at them to “Return My Crystal!”

Looking back to the book, she began to read further.

“Two weeks ago, the princesses came to my home to speak to my daughter, and revealed to her that she was the reincarnation of their soul mate, a mare they called Twilight Everfree Sparkle.”

“She just came home the day before, and while she acted like my daughter, I could tell something was off, even though my wife did not notice. So, I preformed a soul scan, and what I found within the body of my daughter was monstrous. A Soul-Thief now lies within my daughter, one that is very old, and worst of all, one that as far as I can tell did not cast the spell properly.”

“I don’t care how long it takes, nor what dark magic I have to research, but I will free my daughter…even if it kills me…”

Closing the book, Luna hesitated for a long moment, before with a yell she threw it away from her, before cupping her head in her hooves. While she would have to verify the source, the evidence was damning, especially after what her sister had told her.

However, there was one surefire way she could find out if any of the souls replaced by her late love were trapped in perdition, and so she teleported herself to her bedroom, before taking a deep breath and closing her eyes as she reached out with her magic to attempt to reach the soul of the mare that had saved her from The Nightmare.

*

Her senses returned to her, it was to the sound of many panicking ponies, who she recognized as ponies she had met before, though several she had not.

Deciding it would be best to calm things down quickly, she opened her mouth and spoke. “Be still kind ponies, I am not here to harm you…in fact if I can I would like to help.”

Silence hung for a long moment, then a mare stepped forward and spoke, “Do you recognize me your highness?”

Luna looked her over, taking in her raven black main and tail, to her dark brown coat, and finally her emerald green eyes, and so she spoke. “I do Fuji, and I want to say I am sorry for my part in doing this to you, for you have been here the longest.”

“You did not know,” said Fuji, “but I must ask, how did you get here?”

Luna smiled, then pointed to Twilight Sparkle, who looked at her in confusion. “What?”

“You know Twilight Sparkle that I not only govern the moon and the night, but I also guard the dream realm. But what I never told you…or anypony for that matter, is how ponies actually connect to the dreaming. You see, when a pony dreams, they are in fact casting their soul from their body into the dream realm, which helps revitalize them. This means that in a way, I am also a guardian of souls, and through the use of soul magic, I can locate souls I have guarded within the dream realm, as long as they have not returned to the realm of the dead.”

Twilight still looked confused, “So wait, if you can find us like this, surely you can get us out of here right, like how you can move ponies through the dream realm.”

Many of the ponies around began murmuring in assent, but Luna shook her head. “If we were in the dream realm I could, but you are disembodied souls trapped within a pocket plane, one which I can only enter, not effect.”

“Then how do you plan to help us,” said a voice, causing Luna to turn around, though the moment she saw the mare she immediately froze in terror.

Luna had known from the moment she had decided to attempt to reach Twilight Sparkle that she would be seeing many a face she had looked at with love and affection. But nothing could prepare her for looking upon the face of Umbranox once again.

Umbranox saw the pain flash through Luna’s eyes then, but sadly, Umbranox was not a gentle soul. “Listen princess, I am not the mare you once loved, nor are any of the others trapped here. That mare took our bodies, our faces, and our lives, so I ask again, how do you plan to help us!?”

The last part had come out as a shout, which startled Luna out of her shock, but more importantly demonstrated the difference between the mare before her, and the Umbranox she had known all those years ago.

Taking a deep breath, Luna spoke. “While I may not be able to get you out of here, I can help you figure how best to get out of here, and to start, you need to form a connection with the other element bearers.”

“And how do you suggest we do that,” asked Yin, who along with his brother had moved to the front of the gathering of ponies.

“After all we are sort of trapped in this pocket dimension as you called it,” said Yang.

Luna hesitated, and then spoke once more. “Have any of you heard of a spell known as Soul Manifestation?”

Author's Note

Well....it's been a while.

I know some of you are going to be a bit confused by Luna's addition to the good guys side, but I hope it wasn't a total surprise. When we come down to it, Celestia has had a thousand years to not only come to grips with what her soulmate has been doing, but also accept it. Luna on the other hoof has had this knowledge thrust upon her after a thousand years of separation, and thus it has caused more conflict within her.

So in this iteration of the story, Luna is going to be helping Twilight and company, because now that she knows the truth, she cannot simply stand by and let what her soulmate is doing continue.

So anyways guys, next chapter should be out sooner than this one, and for those who follow my other stories, expect a chapter for Fenrir in the coming days. Till then if you guys have any questions or comments, please feel free to drop them down in the comments below, I love hearing from you guys.