Heart of Courage

Princess Celestia stared down at her city. Perched on a rather large cloud, she had an unobstructed view of the valley below. The setting sun cast long, dark shadows on the miles of barricades built by her little ponies. Weeks of backbreaking work had fortified the Equestrian city just in time for Lord Moonclaw’s arrival. She could see where his wulven had camped in the northern hills. His soulless army did not need food, water, or sleep, but even immortal Moonclaw himself still had to meet the requirements of a living creature much like herself.

The sun princess’ shoulders sagged and her head slowly drooped. Standing alone high above Canterlot, she allowed herself a rare break in her usually indomitable composure. Even her mane and tail seemed to falter in the etheric breeze in which they usually fluttered. For an instant, the immortal princess was as ordinary as the average pony.

The moment did not last long as movement from the enemy lines captured her attention. Princess Celestia narrowed her eyes at a dark shape rising up into the air from the middle of the wulven camp. It angled towards her and she could eventually pick out the two leathery wings flapping hard as they drew closer to her. The large bestial form, straight out of so many ponies’ nightmares, rose up above her before settling down on another small cloud with a poof.

Moonclaw flexed his claws as he stood up and stared at her. His large predatory eyes regarded the alicorn in front of him, trying to gain some insight of her intentions. Princess Celestia bowed her head towards him in greeting before speaking.

“Good evening, Lord Moonclaw. I am glad you agreed to meet with me.”

“This better not be a trick, Celestia.” His rough voice growled an unspoken threat at such an idea.

“It is not, I assure you. No pony else knows that I arranged this meeting. I simply wanted to speak to you face to face.”

The tall wolfish beast narrowed his gaze but detected no subterfuge from her. “Very well then, what would you like to discuss?”

“I want to apologize to you, Moonclaw. I am sorry for what Luna and I did to you.”

Whatever he thought he was going to hear, that obviously was not what he had been expecting. Moonclaw’s jaw hung agape as he processed what Celestia had said. “What? What do you mean?”

Princess Celestia averted her gaze. “My sister and I overreacted when you challenged us. After what Discord had put us through, we did not want to put Equestria through another period of hardship so soon after we had recovered from his chaotic reign.”

“You chose those ponies over me!” The cloud under Moonclaw slowly darkened to a deep grey and a thunderous rumbling reverberated through the air. “You threw me in a cell for wanting more for us! I wanted more for the three of us!”

“And that’s the problem, Moonclaw. It’s not just us anymore. Equestria is a place of harmony and prosperity for every creature. How could watching over such a nation of wonderful citizens not fulfill your desire to make a difference in this world? I think our little ponies could surprise you with their resolve and dedication. They believe in this nation and they risk their short, mortal lives to defend it.”

Over on his cloud, Moonclaw turned away in thought as his perch gently faded back to its original fluffy white appearance. Princess Celestia opened her mouth to press on, but something about the expression on his face gave her pause. She stood perfectly still, yet even with all of her attention directed at him, she couldn’t hear the next thing he murmured.

“What was that?” Celestia cautiously inquired.

“I said Twilight Sparkle surprised me.” Lord Moonclaw lifted his gaze. “I’ve thought about her visit many times since I had her dragged away. She spoke against me in my domain. A weak, vulnerable, little pony talked me down in the middle of my fortress, surrounded by hundreds of my wulven creations. At first I thought that it was stupidity, and that your ponies were no better than wild animals. It took some time, but I finally understood that she risked her life for the small chance that she could have averted a war. I still am amazed at her bravery.”

Princess Celestia could not help herself and she flashed a sad smile. “Twilight Sparkle exhibited the best qualities of Ponykind. I knew that she was special from the first time I met her when she was just a little filly.”

“I heard about what happened to her and if it means anything, I am sorry. She must have been trying to find a way to stop my army, and for that, I feel responsible for her demise.” Lord Moonclaw let his shoulders relax and he composed himself, taking on more of an amenable stance. “I should be happy that you cannot use your Elements to stop me, but I think that she deserved a better fate than what befell her.”

“Please let this stop then.” Princess Celestia fought back as her lips threatened to tremble. “For Twilight’s sake?”

Lord Moonclaw visibly stiffened and with a slow determination, he shook his head side to side. “I am afraid that it is too late for that, Celestia. You went too far for me to forgive over a simple apology.”

Princess Celestia closed her eyes and averted her gaze. “Then can we keep this just between us?”

His ears perked up at this. “You mean, end this once and for all? Just me and you?”

The alicorn princess stood her full height and nodded her affirmation. “Please leave the rest of Equestria out of our feud. Even my little sister only followed my lead back then. Let us settle our disagreements and spare these little ponies from any further pain and heartache.”

“Very well, then. What do you propose?”

“Meet me in the southern tower tomorrow at noon. I will arrange for my personal guards to be elsewhere and I won’t breathe a word of this to anypony, including my sister.”

Lord Moonclaw studied the sun princess’ face for any deception, but not detecting any, he nodded once. “Very well, Tia. I will have my army probe your defenses to keep your ponies preoccupied, but I won’t order them to attack unless you try to break our deal. Regardless of the outcome of our duel, my wulven will cease to be a threat to your ponies.”

“Thank you, Moonclaw.” Princess Celestia gave him a grateful smile. “And that’s the first time you’ve called me Tia in a long, long time.”

With a respectful bow, Moonclaw turned and made ready to fly back to his forces. “I will see you soon, Princess.” He spoke over his shoulder before leaping into the air, flapping his wings hard. Back on her cloud, Princess Celestia watched him go with a mixture of despair and regret plastered on her face. She had managed to negotiate an end to the war that would spare her ponies, but the cost of her gamble might end up being too great either way.

“Wake up, sleepy head.” A cheery voice easily drew the unicorn from her troubled dreams. “We are scheduled to arrive home in a few minutes and I don’t want you to miss it.”

Twilight Sparkle shot up in her bed, breathing harder than one usually should after a long night’s sleep. “Wha… oh, I’m sorry. I must have missed my alarm.”

“No you didn’t.” Socket Wrench said as she pushed her storage trunk back into its secure wall-lock. “I thought you should be rested on your big day so I turned it off and did your daily duties for you. James was okay with it.”

“Wow; that was generous of you.” Twilight swung her legs over and clambered out of bed.

“Well, I am the element of generosity apparently.” Socket winked as she looked over at Twilight. One glance though, and her smiling face changed immediately to a worried gaze. “Hey, are you okay?”

Twilight thought about waving off her friend’s concerns for only a hesitant second before she told her the truth. “I had another vision of the past. I saw Celestia agreeing to challenge Lord Moonclaw to a duel in order to end the war with no more bloodshed.”

“Twilight, I’m sorry.” Socket Wrench stepped over and gave her a hug with one of her wings. “I know these visions are disconcerting, but today is a particularly special day for you and I want you to be happy and excited!”

“Why is that?” Twilight pulled away from the hug to work on exchanging her sleepwear for her uniform.

“Not only are you going home to Harmony, but we are supposed to take Tank down to land at the Royal Spaceport in Old Canterlot. And guess who is going to meet us there.”

Twilight Sparkle pulled the tab to make her outfit automatically shrink to fit her perfectly. Glancing over at Socket, her eyes widened with barely restrained excitement. “Princess Celestia?”

“And Princess Luna!” Socket leapt up and fluttered her wings before landing and turning to trot out of her stateroom towards the bridge. Behind her, Twilight wore a huge grin on her face and she took off to keep up.

The two ponies ran along the corridors of the frigate, neatly avoiding other crew members who were themselves, working fast to prepare the ship for their arrival. Not a single face, pony nor human, bore anything other than smiles and barely restrained laughter. After years of endless war with the cygnul, they were finally going home.

Twilight Sparkle followed Socket Wrench onto the bridge of the UEN Rainbow Dash. Various sailors worked diligently at their stations, passed data slates around, or conversed with others about various sensor readings or ship status reports. All voices murmured down as one by one, they took note of her appearance on the bridge. They all stood at attention, showing respect to the one pony who had made all this possible; the pony who had saved them all.

James Fletcher took note right away of the rest of the bridge crew and he stood up and turned to face her. “Twilight Sparkle, are you ready to go home?”

She smiled up at the human and nodded her head. “Yes, I am.”

Cheers erupted from the sailors in the control room, and Captain Fletcher allowed them to celebrate for a dozen seconds before waving them back to work. “Keep it tight people. I want us to be the best looking ship out of the fleet.”

“Aye, aye, Captain, but we already best looking ship. No one can keep up with us.” Dmitri Bearclaw winked at Twilight as she went to take up her familiar seat. She may have rolled her eyes at him but the corner of her mouth still curled up with amusement.

James went to retort when Isamu Zhang cut in just before he could berate the earth pony. “He means, no barrel rolls this time, Dmitri.” He raised his eyebrows in a sidelong glance aimed at the pony.

The accosted stallion opened his mouth with mock indignation, but before he could get to defending himself from an accusation that Twilight felt was probably one hundred percent true, Alice fizzled to existence on James’ armrest and she addressed the room. “Stand by for emergence into Harmony local space. One minute remaining.”

Her announcement killed the relaxed atmosphere on the bridge immediately, and Twilight watched everyone sit up straight and simultaneously double check their stations. She pulled her seat’s computer around with a forehoof, but every single section of the ship glowed with a reassuring green light. One of her ears swiveled around when the entrance to the bridge slid open again and she glanced over at her shoulder in time to see Victoria stride in. The human made her way over and Twilight angled her screen for the medical officer to see.

Victoria Schaefer’s eyes scanned the computer before she nodded an affirmation. “The repairs done by the Pegasopolis shipyards are holding together quite well.”

“They should.” James answered without looking up. “They’ve been building ships there for generations. Hell, that’s where they built the Dash.”

Victoria reached forward and closed the status readouts on her computer. “Don’t worry, Twilight, the ship is fine. I think you will not want to miss our arrival.”

She smiled up at the medical officer when she heard Alice call out from James’ seat. “Stand by for reemergence.”

“Hang on, Victoria.” James glanced over his shoulder at them, and Twilight felt the human hang on to her seat.

“Exiting subspace in five … four … three ... two … one.” A familiar tug tinged her horn, but the transition went smoothly as the frigate slipped back into reality.

Twilight Sparkle let out the breath she didn’t realize she had been holding in and her shoulders drooped noticeably. She focused on the front screen of the bridge relaying the view outside, and she instantly tensed up again. “By, Celestia…” Twilight whispered as her eyes widened in awe at what she saw.

A thousand shimmering lights danced across the dark, star-strewed sky. Everywhere she looked, fireflies of many different shapes and sizes drifted every which way, each traveling to some unknown destination for some unknown reason. In her mind, she knew what she was seeing were ships and spacecraft, but the sheer volume of them in such close proximity caused her heart to flutter in apprehension.

Twilight swallowed her nervousness, reminding herself that this was friendly territory. However, that thought didn’t help when several of the local craft wildly changed direction. She pursed her lips tightly together as they curved around and over towards them. On the front display, several yellow hazard icons circled each oncoming ship and Alice calmly stated out a warning. “Captain, I am detecting several small civilian vessels heading in our direction. They all seem to be unarmed and registered to the large news corporations based out of Harmony.”

“No doubt they seek to be the first to interview us.” Isamu Zhang’s stoic tone of voice might have expressed his indifference except for the obvious rolling of his eyes Twilight noticed as he peered back at them.

Dmitri tackled the issue more bluntly. “Bunch of bucking vultures.”

“Alice, have they entered our restriction zone?” James kept his voice level and cool, as he always did to keep his crew focused.

“Not yet, but they are ignoring my repeated calls to change their vector or risk us firing warning shots.”

“They are in for a big surprise.” James had turned his head to lean over to speak under his breath to Twilight and Victoria whom both smiled back. They both knew what followed close behind the Rainbow Dash and who should be arriving any second.

Like back when the Athens followed them to the Outlier controlled world of Elysium, it took the larger warship a longer time to make the journey than it did the nimble patrol frigate. Rainbow Dash’s warp drive may have been an older design, but it only had to move a fraction of the mass compared to the heavy missile cruiser. This let them move across the stars much faster than any other vessel, giving them an advantage the crew of the Dash used to stay ahead of trouble on more than one occasion.

Rainbow Dash’s artificial intelligence tried to compensate for the shorter travel times they experienced by engaging the warp drive well after her escorts had left, but faster than light travel was still not an exact science. Like her namesake, the little patrol frigate outdid herself and she still beat the honor fleet assigned to accompany her from Pegasopolis. To the numerous civilian vessels burning their way to the lonely warship to break the greatest news story since the founding of the United Equestrian Nations, it looked like the Dash had traveled alone. It definitely surprised them when three massive Equestrian battleships abruptly appeared in formation around the tiny frigate.

Two kilometer long warships covered in railgun turrets, missile pods, and lance batteries suddenly popped into existence in the intervening space between the Dash and the oncoming news vessels. On the front screen, Twilight saw the local communications network flood with much sterner warnings than the ones Alice had already been transmitting. She didn’t know if it was the wording of these messages or the fact that they were backed up by enough firepower to lay waste to an entire solar system that finally got the reporters to respect their space, but she had a guess that it was probably the latter.

The civilian vessels altered their courses to loiter just outside of their exclusion zone. Twilight Sparkle watched as additional ships from their escort fleet warped in and took up position around them. Heavy cruisers, destroyers, and even a starcraft carrier joined with the Rainbow Dash as they reformed into a protective detail. Up on the front screen, several small message alerts flashed as the news vessels pinged their ship for interview requests, but Alice went ahead and ignored every one of them.

As one, the fleet came about and the stars swung around. All of a sudden, a brilliant yellow orb came into view and Alice had to darken the camera feed to compensate. The small yellow dwarf sun dominated the solar system and Twilight Sparkle couldn’t help but smile when she realized what she was looking at. Celestia’s sun!

Her eyes sparkled at the sight. The sun she had grown up with every day, once again graced them with its gentle light. She was looking at something that, for the last couple of weeks, she thought she would never see again. Twilight carefully took in a shaky breath, feeling her lips quivering but she managed to keep herself together until she noticed a bright, blue and green crescent off to the right of the sun. Then, everything went blurry. I’m home….

“Twilight, it’s alright.” Victoria Schaeffer gently rubbed the unicorn’s back as sobs wracked her body. She wiped at her eyes, trying to focus on the little garden world growing larger in front of them, but all of the weight and worry she had carried came crashing down now that she could see her home planet.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” She finally managed to collect herself enough to make out faces on the bridge but it seemed she was not the only one moved by the sight of Harmony. Multiple crew members wiped at their teary eyes. Even Dmitri Bearclaw sniffled a couple times as he tried to reassure her with a smile.

To her left, James cleared his throat a bit longer than he usually did. “Alice, take us home.”

The cheers from the crew of the UEN Rainbow Dash could be easily heard echoing through the corridors of the frigate.

Princess Luna watched the wulven lines through her telescope. Usually, she reserved its use for exploring the night sky, or to teach the local school children about the various phases of her moon. Tonight however, she used a wider lens to focus on objects only a few miles away, rather than the stellar phenomena she usually studied.

“What are they doing?” A scratchy voice asked from her right. Luna blinked and stole a peek at the cyan-coated pegasus hovering next to her. The pony’s silvery scale armor helped accent her rainbow-hued mane and tail, but though she wore the uniform well, it had been designed with a different purpose in mind.

“They are feinting the flanks again, Rainbow Dash. As soon as they get into range of our spellcasters, they retreat before we actually try to hold them off.”

“But that doesn’t make any sense?” Rainbow threw her hooves up into the air with disdain. Her face scrunched up in a scowl before she crossed her forelegs in front of her.

Princess Luna pulled her face away from the eyepiece and she surveyed the valley before them. “You are correct. It does not make sense.”

“Why then are they doing it?”

Luna ignored the irate pegasus at first while she stared down at the lines of fortifications surrounding the mountain city. Eyes narrowed in thought, she twisted her head towards one of the larger towers of Canterlot. “I do not know, but I have been concerned about my sister since last night. She has not eaten anything since lunch yesterday.”

Rainbow Dash relaxed and faced the dark-coated alicorn. Her eyes widened with concern and the angry bravado she spoke with earlier no longer accented her tone of voice. “That doesn’t sound like Princess Celestia at all.”

“No, it does not. Do you think she knows something we don’t know?”

Rainbow Dash’s wings slowed and she extended her hooves in time to gently land on the balcony. In front of them, a series of horns sounded, reverberating throughout the valley. No sooner had they caught her attention when a dark swarm erupted from the wulven lines, rushing towards the defenders of Canterlot. Pony artillery answered the charge immediately and took a heavy toll on the attacking wave of wulven. Just before the howling warriors reached the maximum range of the front lines, they suddenly routed and retreated back to the safety of their trenches.

What she saw drew a dark glare from the pegasus. Rainbow stamped her hoof and turned towards Princess Luna, “They had more than enough wulven in that charge to make it to our front line defenders. I think we need to go find your sister right now and find out what the hay is going on.”

Princess Luna’s gaze met Rainbow’s and she nodded her affirmation. “I’m afraid you are correct, and we have no time to spare. Gather your friends and meet me in the great hall. Tell them to be ready for anything.”

Rainbow turned to dash away when Luna stopped her with a raised hoof. “In fact, you better retrieve the Elements of Harmony and bring with you.”

A pained expression appeared on her face and Rainbow paused in the air. “But without Twilight, they won’t work.”

“Yes, but they still might offer you some protection. It’s better to be on the safe side.” Luna replied and Rainbow took off with a few powerful beats of her wings. The princess of the night watched her leave before looking back over the stalemate on the frontlines. Already, she could see the wulven army roiling behind their fortifications, ready to make another feinted charge. “What did you do, Tia?”

Twilight Sparkle woke up with a start as a loud alarm began bleeping somewhere nearby. She stumbled backwards in shock as she took in the pristinely white walls and floor around her. Bright, bluish-hued lights hurt her eyes to look at directly but she finally noticed a few familiar faces watching her with concern through several large glass windows.

“It okay, Twilight.” She looked over at Dmitri Bearclaw as the brown earth pony pressed his grinning face up against one of the transparent walls they shared. “Did decontaminate alert wake you up?”

The lavender unicorn rubbed her eyes and swallowed a few times to rid herself of her dry mouth. “I guess I dozed off.” She hopped off of a couch that would have been much more comfortable without a thick layer of cold plastic sheeting on it. Twilight swiveled her ears around until she pinpointed the annoying repetitive blaring coming from a console visible on the other side of a second glass wall in front of her. There, a white unicorn in a long lab coat pressed at the screen a few times until silence finally graced her cell.

The unicorn lifted her head and smiled at Twilight’s tired and still blinking face. “I apologize for the wait. Because of your crew’s … unique encounters with the cygnul, we had to make sure that no pony brought back anything nasty from their region of space.”

“I’ve already told you that we never left the ship while we were there.” Twilight heard James Fletcher reiterate his counterargument for what seemed like the hundredth time as she finally came to and remembered how they ended up here. What did that administrator call us; temporary isolated guests of the United Equestrian Nations?

The frustration she felt about their predicament faded away the moment that the double-paned glass door to her isolated room opened. Twilight walked out and reunited with the rest of her friends out in the observation hallway. The unicorn in the lab coat tried to call out for their attention, but they took a small amount of guilty delight in ignoring her demands as they conversed with one another.

“Victoria, did you see the city lights on the moon? I didn’t realize that…” An angry snort interrupted Twilight and she looked back over her shoulder.

“Please, if you would follow me!” The unicorn grew irate enough to lose her patience and Twilight stopped talking with Victoria to acknowledge her presence. She felt a pang of regret for causing the pony to lash out, especially since she couldn’t even remember her name, but all Twilight had to do was think about the armed reception party that had waited for them in the orbital dock to hold those feelings at bay. My idea of a ‘Welcome Home Party’ is not being held at gunpoint and sequestered into an isolation cell.

“I’m sorry. It’s been a long couple of weeks for us.” James Fetcher stepped in, playing on his more diplomatic side.

The unicorn’s frown faltered and she reached a hoof up to rub at her forehead. “Yes, well, if you would like to leave quarantine, then please follow me. I’ve been directed to bring you to the primary observation deck.”

The pony turned and swished her tail once before making her way out of the opened airlock chamber separating them from the rest of the orbital station. She didn’t even bother to check to see if they were following. Socket Wrench shrugged her shoulders and made the first move, slowly flying after the unicorn.

Eager to leave this horrid portion of the station, Twilight Sparkle followed Socket, trotting lightly to catch up to her. “When do you think we can visit the surface?”

Her pegasus friend gestured a hoof at the back of the doctor and rolled her eyes. “I thought they were going to clear us to land at Canterlot Interstellar Spaceport but we were directed here instead. I guess we really spooked them by showing up alive.”

“Can you blame them though?” Isamu Zhang hopped forward and joined the two ponies. “Look at it from their point of view. We vanished weeks ago during the largest cygnul incursion in decades. Then, we reappear safe and sound on the opposite side of Equestrian-controlled space.”

“Don’t forget that we showed up carrying the news that a simple patrol frigate wiped out the entire cygnul war machine in one fell swoop with the Elements of Harmony.” James carried on with Isamu’s train of thought. “Apparently, Alice told me before we landed that the whole system has been under lockdown for weeks because they’ve been under the impression that someone stole the Elements.”

“Hmm,” Twilight nodded her head as she started to understand the precarious predicament they had brought upon Harmony. “I guess I can see why they didn’t take us fully seriously at first. If I hadn’t been along to see the things we saw, I might not have believed us either.”

As they had discussed their current dilemma, Twilight somewhat noticed them navigating down several pristinely clean corridors. Unlike the dark and dirty space station over Midnight City, the ceilings, walls, and even the floors seemed like they had been cleaned within an inch of their life. Though she no longer had to worry about a layer of oil and grease sticking to her hooves, the complete absence of any other soul onboard aside from the six of them and their guide led Twilight to wonder if the Equestrian leadership had other plans for them.

The conversation died down as they passed through several identical intersections, and it didn’t take more than a hoofful of turns before Twilight felt completely lost. She took note that any wall-mounted screens or signs they passed by all remained dark, so if they needed to make a quick escape, she hoped one of her friends had the directional sense to get them back.

Her fears ended up being unfounded as they walked up a short staircase which ended at a rather large metal door bearing the words, Primary Observation Deck, written in blocky meter-high white letters above it. In front of them, the large sliding door vanished into the ceiling with a pneumatic hiss and their guide stood at the threshold and directed them inside. Twilight and her friends exited the hallway to find themselves in a large circular room with chest-high windows running along nearly every inch of the walls.

She picked out on the broad, low-set booth tables scattered across the wide open space. By a quick estimation, it seemed they could comfortably seat upwards of three to four hundred. They tiered down in concentric circles to an empty central platform that Twilight figured might be large enough for some sort of entertainment to take place.

Twilight Sparkle walked straight over to one of the nearby windows. She stared, mouth-agape in awe as she took in the immense size of the space station they were in. A gently sloping metal deck extended away on all sides from the observatory, interspaced with antennas or sensor domes larger than the Rainbow Dash herself. They protruded from the station’s hull in a random sort of pattern, yet they extended as far as she could see before shrinking to tiny pinpricks that vanished in the distance.

Two tiny spacecraft zoomed overhead, and she ducked on instinct. Twilight Sparkle ignored the thick accented laugh from behind her and she watched as the little round ships zipped across the surface of the city-sized space station and dive out of sight. In the direction they had soared away, she picked out the enormous and beautiful bluish-green marble of Harmony. This close to her homeworld, Twilight could easily discern the artificial rings that circled the entire world.

Their station, larger than any city she had seen from her original time period, was still absolutely dwarfed by the megastructure. It not only wrapped completely around the equator of the planet, but a thinner ring ran up and over the north and south poles. Dozens of immense towers ran all the way from orbit down to the surface, keeping the structure firmly in place. She had never thought of her home world as small, but the structures seemed to crowd her beloved Harmony.

Thousands upon thousands of spacecraft of all shapes and sizes moved across the surface of the garden world. Some were in the process of accelerating out of the gravity well towards a destination among the stars, while others carefully reduced their velocity to dock into the orbital megastructure. Twilight could even see bright lights moving up and down the towers connecting the rings to the planet, marking locations of city-sized elevators ascending into orbit, or descending to the surface.

So enamored was she in taking in all of the activity going on in front of her, Twilight refused to allow her eyes to blink, least she miss a single moment of this incredible spectacle. I’m here. I’m home. I am in a space station in orbit over the planet I came from. It’s right there; so close I feel like I could touch it. Her throat grew thick and she had trouble swallowing for a moment. Using a forehoof to wipe at her cheeks, Twilight did not pick up on the sound of another door opening behind her.

She did perk up, however, when a soothing voice spoke to her; a voice she had not heard in a long, long time. “Greetings, my most faithful student. It is truly good to see you again.”

Twilight Sparkle spun around, afraid that her ears were playing tricks on her. There, in the open doorway across the room stood a tall, regal, white alicorn. Adorned in a flowing white-silk robe, her pastel-colored mane and tail gently wavered in a ceaseless breeze in the still atmosphere of the observatory deck. Other than maybe looking a bit leaner, she did not appear a day older than the last time Twilight had seen her. She still wore the same caring smile, the same gentle eyes, and the same regal composure that drew so many ponies’ trust in her rule.

Princess Celestia strode towards her. Twilight Sparkle felt her legs start to shake and she forced herself to sit down on her haunches before she collapsed. “It’s really you.” She managed to speak, barely above a whisper.

“Oh, Twilight Sparkle.” Princess Celestia stopped in front of the panicking unicorn, lifting a forehoof to caress her chin. “I have been looking forward to this day for such a long time. I am so proud of what you’ve accomplished, even with all of the challenges you’ve faced. You still never cease to surprise me, Twilight, and I am so happy you made it safely back to me.”

“Princess!” Twilight blurted out a moment before a series of crippling sobs wracked her smaller frame and she all but threw herself towards Celestia. The larger alicorn easily caught the little unicorn mare and she sat down as she stroked her back gently.

“Shh, shh.” Princess Celestia held Twilight against her while she cried freely into her mane. “You’re safe now. It’s alright, Twilight.”

“I was so worried I was never going to see anypony again!” Twilight Sparkle sputtered out between ragged breaths. She slowly started to calm down, and she wiped at the damp fur around her eyes and she blinked rapidly until Princess Celestia’s smiling face finally grew clear.

Twilight relaxed her grip and Celestia lowered her carefully to the deck. “My most faithful student, you have traveled across the known galaxy and saved not only Equestria, but all of life as well. We are all so grateful for what you and your friends did for us.”

Stepping back to give the princess space, Twilight Sparkle felt her face flush from the praise. She glanced to her right where James, Socket, Dmitri, Victoria, and Isamu were standing in a row. They all smiled, or grinned at her. “I know I couldn’t have done it alone.”

“Ooooo, Twilight Sparkle.” A sarcastic voice oozing with barely suppressed contempt caught her attention and she looked over behind Princess Celestia to see a strange conglomeration of several different animals float over to her. “The amount of turmoil you and your friends caused while tearing across the galaxy will take years to fully recover from. I could work ceaselessly for a decade and still not come close to what you’ve done to the UEN. Well done; well done.”

“Hello, Discord.” Twilight eyed the draconequus warily as he clapped his mismatched hands together.

“Don’t be like that, little pony.” Discord picked Twilight up and squeezed her against him as he spun around in the air. “I have truly missed your company.”

Twilight’s ears fell flat against the top of her head and she pushed her forehooves against Discord’s chest. “I’m sure you have.”

“Oh, Twilight, I’m being serious.” Discord set her down and clasped his hands together. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

“Wha….” Twilight took a step back and stared at the draconequus as he wiped away the remains of a cupcake that she didn’t remember noticing earlier from his face.

“Why do you seem surprised? We are supposed to be best friends after all.” Discord cocked his head to the side and gave her a wink.

“Discord….” Princess Celestia rolled her eyes while Twilight’s mouth opened and closed over and over while she processed his words.

“I don’t think I understand.” Twilight Sparkle looked back and forth from Princess Celestia to Discord. “I don’t want to sound rude, but I didn’t think he liked me at all.”

“I think I can explain.” Twilight looked between Celestia and Discord to see a dark blue alicorn coming towards her accompanied by two rather tall stallions; a pegasus and an earth pony. Between them, the alicorn carried a large floating plastic shipping crate nestled in her magical aura.

“Princess Luna!” Twilight hopped forward and threw her forehooves around the lunar alicorn.

Luna returned the embrace before stepping back and gesturing to the earth pony next to her. He had a sunflower-yellow coat, an orange mane and tail, and his eyes were a brilliant deep purple. “Twilight, may I introduce Prince Arthropod. He is one of the high chairman in the Senate and he works with us to run the UEN.”

“It is an honor, Twilight Sparkle.” The earth pony bowed its head, and Twilight returned the gesture.

“And this is Midnight Eclipse, the Royal Historian of Canterlot.” Luna pointed at the pegasus.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you.” The pegasus reached forward to shake Twilight’s hoof and she saw that he wore an eye patch to cover his left eye.

Twilight tried to not stare at the patch, instead choosing to look at his normal, golden-irised eye. “Royal Historian? That sounds fascinating!”

“Um, yeah. It is!” Midnight Eclipse seemed momentarily taken back by Twilight’s interest in his position and she wondered if he was as reclusive as she had been in her younger years. “I’m here to help you understand some of the weird situations I am sure you found yourself in. Times where you might feel like others knew things about you that make no sense.”

Twilight Sparkle thought about several notable instances where ponies or humans said or did things that confused her. She reminisced about her visit to Midnight City and Deval Aldridge nicknaming her princess, much to James’ dismay. “That would certainly help explain a few things.”

The pegasus smiled and waved a forehoof at the large plastic crate and Princess Luna set it down and opened up the front with her telekinesis. The side facing Twilight swung upwards and as soon as she laid eyes on what was inside, she shot backwards with a shout of surprise. Inside was something she wished she would never have to see again, and one look at the glittering crystalline contraption made her blood run cold.

“Are you crazy!” Twilight Sparkle shouted at the eight faces in front of her. “That thing is dangerous!”

“Don’t panic Twilight,” Luna reached out towards her, “we are perfectly aware about this machine’s capabilities and it is perfectly safe.”

The black-coated pegasus nodded his head and took a step forward. “My duties involved studying this device and its capabilities. I’ve actually spent the greater part of my life studying it.” He seemed to smile a bit as he said so.

“Anyway, Twilight,” he turned his head towards the device, “we now know how this machine works and how to safely use it.”

Twilight Sparkle slowly let her raised forehoof drop back to the deck and she relaxed from a defensive posture to a more wary one. The purple unicorn eyed the machine, still not wanting to get any closer to it. “That sounds fascinating, but please forgive me if I am hesitant to see how that thing is relevant to our discussion.”

“Well,” the pegasus looked from Twilight to the device and back, “I have to use it to send you back home. You were never meant to stay in our time period.”

Twilight stared at the historian. Her mouth opened and closed several timed before she found her voice. “What do you mean?”

“Twilight,” she turned her head to see James Fletcher take a step towards her, “each of us grew up learning stories about you and your friends saving Equestria more times than I can count on both hands. You all lived out your lives thousands of years before I was born. Your future isn’t here with us. We must return you back home to your original time period.”

“You mean I have to leave you?” Twilight’s ears drooped and she blinked to try and clear up the blurry faces in front of her.

James Fletcher’s lips wavered but he collected himself and dropped down on one knee. “It hurts me to say it, but yes. In this universe, you have to go back or else we risk the integrity of this timeline. The longer you stay here, the greater risk we face of our universe radically changing. Five thousand years is a long time for even the smallest of changes to drastically alter history.”

The ease of how James made his argument drew suspicion from her and Twilight wondered if he had practiced it beforehand. She carefully narrowed her eyes at him. “Did you know this whole time?”

“I did,” James did not even hesitate to tell her the truth and he reached forward to touch her shoulder. “I knew from the beginning that we would have to send you back. Though, I didn’t count on us taking a few, unexpected detours, on our way here.”

This broke Twilight’s serious composure and she laughed along with the others in the room before James continued. “I also didn’t realize that we would become the best of friends either. It did hurt knowing that we would have to part ways so soon, but I wouldn’t trade our friendship for anything.”

Twilight’s gaze dropped to her hooves and her chest heaved in a few shallow breaths. She felt herself threatening to cry but she managed to compose herself and look back at her friends. Friends who she had laughed with, whose shoulders she had cried on, who had fought beside her and for her with upmost courage and bravery. But she also could not forget her old friends, those ponies who had originally taught her the magic of friendship. With a quivering smile, she nodded in agreement. The lavender mare concentrated quickly and a large, well-used hand cannon popped into existence next to her. She cleared the weapon to render it safe and then the floated it over to James.

He took the pistol from her telekinetic grasp and slipped it into the small of his back. James then wiped at his face and Twilight took a step forward. “So I guess this is goodbye?”

At this, Victoria, Socket, Dmitri, and Isamu rushed forward to embrace her, dragging James along as well considering that he was in their way. They wrapped their arms or forehooves around Twilight, lifting her up as they held each other for the last time. Twilight sniffled and squeezed her eyes shut, feeling a few tears rolling down her cheeks. “I’m going to miss you all.”

Socket Wrench was the first to respond. “Twilight, I’m sorry you have to leave.”

“We’re going to miss you too, Twilight Sparkle.” Victoria’s shaky voice could be heard from somewhere in the tangle of bodies embracing her.

“I wish it didn’t have to be like this, Twilight.” James spoke up from his position crushed between Dmitri and Victoria.

Though his cheery voice usually did not tremble on the edge of sobbing, she could see Dmitri trying to hide his face in between her shoulder and James’. “I sorry, Twilight, for all my jokes and pranks.”

“No you’re not.” Isamu quickly interjected from somewhere on Twilight’s right and everyone quickly laughed. He then more somberly spoke to her. “We will all miss you, Twilight; until the end of time.”

Slowly, Twilight’s friends released her one by one and they backed up until she was the only one in front of the Rift Apparatus. She eyed the machine with a frown before looking at Princess Celestia. “This just seems so sudden. Why do I have to go back so soon? I mean, I just got back and you’re immediately sending me away? Why?”

Princess Celestia opened her mouth, but hesitated for a moment. “Twilight, I won’t lie to you, but we are pressed for time here. You have to return right now or else you might miss out on your important part in the Wulven War.”

Seeing her shocked and confused, Midnight Eclipse stepped forward to quickly explain. “Twilight Sparkle, you traveled to our time period with the Rift Apparatus. Therefore, you are still connected with the device even if you haven’t been consciously aware of this connection. I know you have been having episodes of Time Bleeding Syndrome during your travels. You have been experiencing these because you are still tied to your original timeline and the Rift Apparatus knows this. It is trying to send you back in order to heal the space-time continuum, but if you wait too long, that connection will fade and cease to exist.”

“Heal it? My part in the Wulven War? I don’t understand why it has to be now?”

“Twilight,” From his perch up near the ceiling, Discord grew bored with a game of cards against three smaller versions of himself, “If you keep asking questions, even I will die of old age.”

Ignoring him, Princess Luna rolled her eyes. “What Midnight is trying to say, is that our timelines are locked together right now and the Rift Apparatus can’t quite send you back to any particular time of our choosing. Every Time Bleeding symptom you experience is another event set in stone that cannot be changed anymore. Each second you spend with us increases the risk that you miss the chance to return to the past.”

“And if you wait too long, you will miss the end of the Wulven War entirely.” Midnight Eclipse finished up.

“We didn’t intend to place this bind on you, Twilight Sparkle.” Prince Arthropod reached a hoof up and scratched the back of his head while giving her an awkward smile. “But we were in a delicate situation where we couldn’t exactly explain what Rainbow Dash’s mission was and why it was so important to the rest of the government. I am sorry that your journey was not an easy one, but I am glad to see you made it back on time and in one piece.”

Twilight Sparkle’s eyes went out of focus as she digested this. It sounded peculiar but her forays into time travel in the past had at least made her aware of how dangerous and finicky a school of magic it was. One thing didn’t make sense though and she spoke up. “What do you mean about my part in the Wulven War?”

“You saved us all, Twilight Sparkle.” Princess Celestia beamed down at her with a wide smile. “Your actions helped end the war and brought peace to Equestria.”

“Wha… I… What do you mean?” Twilight stepped back and raised a forehoof to protect herself.

“Twilight,” the reassuring and calm voice of James caught her attention, “you need to trust us.” He gestured with outstretched arms at her friends standing around him.

“Do you trust us, Twilight?” Isamu Zhang had a sad smile, but she felt herself relaxing from his calm and reassuring composure.

Twilight Sparkle took in a deep breath and let it out with a huff. Then she pursed her lips together and nodded. James Fletcher turned and gestured at Midnight Eclipse who then began fiddling with the Rift Apparatus which immediately began spinning up. An involuntary feeling of ice running through her veins flooded her body but she stood there with her head high.

The time machine powered up much like she had remembered it except when the shield popped into existence, it appeared centered around her instead of around itself. Twilight wanted to break and run, but she fought back her nerves and in a scene similar to the one where she last saw her friends from the past, she met the eyes of her friends from the future. They all stood there, smiling with tears running down their faces, but she could still easily see the pride in their eyes.

“How do I stop the war?” She shouted as the Rift Apparatus grew increasingly louder.

“We can’t tell you that, Twilight!” James Fletcher cupped his hands around his mouth. “But, don’t worry, you will figure it out!”

“How do I know that?” She had to squint her eyes and lift a hoof to block the light emanating from the brilliantly shining diamond at the heart of the device.

“Because you’ve already done it!” She heard James yell a split second before the world warped around her, a searing flash of agony washed across her body, and everything went white.