The Unforgiven

Chapters

Ruins
Flashback
Friendship
Truths
Enemy
Monster
Forgiveness

Ruins

The ruins of the greatest city ever born inside Equestrian borders, which once was the capital of a diarchy and held one of the three castles back when Equestria was ruled only by alicorn princesses.

Atop the mountain, now, were only the dead stones of great buildings, houses and shops that bring no memory whatsoever to anypony anymore. The desert streets of the decadent city were mostly devoid of all life, save for some rats and small critters here and there that gave it the atmosphere typical of long forgotten civilizations. The moss on the walls and the stones that composed the street added to that atmosphere, although there was nopony to appreciate it.

Until now.

Walking on the streets of the ancient city, she looked around inside every structure. As an archeologist, she was looking for relics of times beyond any ponies’ memories. Her face then gazed upon a, surprisingly, still clean and reflective silver dish. Approaching, she could see her own face covered in a pale yellow coat and some dust markings here and there. With a hoof, she shook the dust aside and raised her explorer’s hat in front of her, to blow away its dust as well. When she looked back at the dish, before donning her hat, she could see a glimpse of her horn and the rose-colored mane that gave her name.

She smiled. Not quite the ancient relic she was waiting for, but worth something. As the silver dish moved along her body, it reflected her exploratory nature: perfect balanced between the bulkiness of an athlete and the fineness required for easier escapes. Sometimes, she really wished to have the wings of her long gone ancestor, but also, she praised herself for magic skills, which saved her life more often than not. Also, it showed the matching tail, also the same red color of her mane, and on her flank a stylized compass, with an actual rose bulb pointing to “north”.

Before the dish could be properly placed in her saddlebags, though, she caught a glimpse of a black blur moving just outside the building she entered, the ruins of an ancient shop. Placing the dish on her bags, she slowly moved to the stairs at the back of the shop, her horn already channeling some magic as she did. From the edge of her sight, though, she saw a deep orange blur outside the window.

Damn… Not now… Turning around and looking at every possible escape route, the unicorn couldn’t exactly figure a way out. She then changed tactics, taking a few steps back, she aimed at a window and ran towards it, already charging her magic.

Using her hard horn to shatter the, surprisingly, intact glass pane, she threw her weight forward in a mid-air spin and quickly found her target. A deep orange and black striped large feline that was stalking the second floor’s windows, with help of some strange artifact, was quickly brought down by a red magical blast. Not enough to kill, it wasn’t in her nature to do so, but enough that he would be unconscious for the next few hours. Completing the somersault, her horn was the first to enter another window, one which glass was already gone. Much to her surprise, though, a small shard still in the window’s pane made a cut on her flank, a couple inches below her cutie mark.

Upon landing, she cursed the small cut before starting in her trot once more, and every time her left hindhoof stomped the floor it release a whole new world of pain across her. “Damn… It wasn’t that deep a wound!” and then she began cursing also for not taking those lessons about first-aid spells.

She started to worry more and more about her state, not sure if she would be able to hang on much longer like that. However, now that she had announced herself to be there, she couldn’t stop. Not until she was sure it was a place where she could rest safely.

And suddenly a black blur pounced on her. Her quick reactions, though, allowed her to row and avoid the deadly claws of another predator feline, this time a black panther. The unicorn noticed that now, while she backed away, the other ‘friends’ of the panther had joined it, all of them, but for the still ‘sleeping’ tiger, were actually walking towards her, stalking. The group was composed by a jaguar, the panther that pounced over the unicorn, a lynx and, strangely enough, a cute-looking cat. Behind them, came walking the only one she didn’t want to see that day.

“Ahuizotl…” she said between gritted teeth.

“Daring Rose… Long time no see you…” said the strange-looking canine creature with hands in place of forepaws and another hand at the end of his monkey-like tail tip. His fur was tuxedo-like in some aspects, being mostly deep blue with a brilliant cerulean color in his belly, under his muzzle and in his three hands.

“It wasn’t all that long, actually… Only two weeks ago…” Daring Rose answered, trying not to show him her only weakness right now. “By the way… this is not one of your cursed citadels or temples, or anything of the sort… What are you doing in the ruins of Canterlot?”

“You are there for a reason, Daring Rose… And I want whatever you’re after…”

“Switching places now, are we? It’s normally me that follow you to take back whatever you’re stealing for some evil scheme or another…” the unicorn commented.

“It doesn’t quite matter now… Hand over whatever you found al--”

Before he could finish his sentence, though, he was hit squarely in the chest by a very dark and heavy-looking sphere. Daring Rose looked behind her, where apparently the ball had come from, wondering who would put a trap in the corridor of a house. Then she saw a cannon pointed at her shoot again. Instinctively, she closed her eyes and waited for the killing blow, only to hear the cannon shooting three more times and not a single ball hitting her. Opening her eyes again, she finally noticed the strange creature behind the cannon, with what could be a pony head supporting a concave helmet of sorts, which straps where hanging loose under his muzzle line, a snake-like body, two different arms connecting at each side of his body at shoulders’ height, one eagle-like and the other lion-like, and two legs down his body, a dragon-like paw and a horse-like hoof. He also had a pair of wings, one typical for pegasi and the other for bat-ponies.

“What the…”

The creature looked at Daring Rose and smiled, one of his fangs pointing out from his muzzle. He then took out his helmet and bowed slightly at her and, in doing so, he revealed an antler and a distorted blue horn, none of which would be normally hidden under his helmet. “The ‘what’ is a Draconequus, and the ‘who’ would be Discord, former god of chaos and spirit of disharmony.”

The first words to reach Daring Rose ears were ‘god of chaos and spirit of disharmony’. Only a couple seconds later that she caught another one, “You said… ‘former’?”

“Yes, I did.” Discord then disappeared and reappeared between Daring Rose and the offending group, the helmet back atop of his head hiding both his horns, “I have orders to ask you to leave the city politely before I start kicking you all the way out.”

“And whose orders are those?” Ahuizotl asked.

Discord smiled, “That’s not important… Let’s just say her authority is unmatched in the last… few years…”

Something in the way Discord said ‘few’ made Daring Rose wonder if there was a double meaning in his words.

Ahuizotl, though, had his eyes wide-open and made a hasty retreat, soon followed by his feline predators. Daring Rose was about to ask something when she stepped forward and winced in pain. The Draconequus turned to face her, his helmet now gone along with the cannon. “What’s the problem?” he asked.

“I had… a cut in my flank…”

“Hmmm… I’m not that good with healing magic. However, I know somepony which is…”

“Another god of chaos?”

“Oh no… She’s much friendlier than that. Come, I’ll take you to her,” with a snap of his eagle claws, a small wheelbarrow appeared under Daring Rose, surprisingly more comfortable than she thought possible, and the spirit of disharmony… former spirit of disharmony started pulling her forward before both of them disappeared in thin air.

At the next second, after she recovered from her momentary daze, Daring Rose noticed that wherever she was, it wasn’t the same ruins as before. A large library, high enough to put two houses above one another with roof and all and wide enough to support five of the same side by side, was filled to capacity with a variety of books of many kinds, some of which Daring Rose never heard about and plenty that history said where completely wiped out of existence.

“Indeed a formidable collection,” the voice of a mare easily surprised Daring Rose, which jumped in mid-air. Before she could land on her injured leg, though, a pinkish magic aura surrounded her and slowly put her down. Daring Rose could then feel the same magic focus on her wound and slowly close it, leaving not even a scar. “Sorry, never meant to scare you.”

Daring Rose, then turned to the mare in question and gasped in surprise, not quite trusting her eyes with the sight. In front of her stood a very large pony, about twice her height, covered in lavender fur and a flowing purple mane and tail, both of which had eventual streaks of red, blue, purple, orange, pink, yellow, cyan and a very dark blue crossing them randomly. Her eyes were violet as well and had a serenity about them that enchanted the smaller unicorn. It was only later that Daring Rose would notice in the rather large and pointy horn above her eyes, in the middle of her forehead and the large pair of wings, carefully folded on her back.

The pony in question even had a crown behind her horn, four ponyshoes adorning her hooves and a beautiful torc around her neck, all of them in brilliant silver-like metal, which Daring Rose was sure wasn’t silver somehow. The torc even had a brilliant emerald in the center of it, and the crown supported another emerald in its center.

“Who… are you…” Daring Rose whispered, not truly waiting to be answered, or heard by the way.

“I am, my little pony, called Twilight Sparkle, once known as the Princess of Friendship and co-ruler of Equestria along with other Princesses as well. But that was a couple millenniums ago.”

“And you… You are still alive?” she asked, not truly believing her eyes.

Twilight chuckled at the question. “So it seems young one.”

Only then Daring Rose noticed what she had done and bowed respectfully for Twilight. “Sorry, Princess! My name is Daring Rose! I’m really sorry for invading your domains…”

“Rise, my little pony, and it’s alright. I was, actually, expecting somepony to come to this city. It can be very lonely sometimes with only me, Discord and Philomena.”

“Philomena?”

“My former teacher’s pet. She’s a phoenix that, after Celestia passed out, decided to stay at my side.”

“Celestia? As in… Princess Celestia? As in…”

“As in late Princess of the Sun, the one responsible to bring morning every day? Yes. And if you’re wondering who’s been raising the sun and the moon since the other Princesses’ death, it has been me.”

“But… if you were alive all this time… why haven’t you said anything?”

Twilight’s smile faded and she downed her head. “You’ve wandered through the streets of Canterlot, haven’t you?” at Daring Rose’s nod, Twilight continued, “My magic alone has stopped this city from crumbling any more than its actual state for two thousand years now. What you saw was the result of another battle, one that ended with me requiring more magic than I ever thought I would ever need.”

“But… back at that time… You were an alicorn already right?” Daring Rose asked.

Twilight only nodded, “The youngest of all four pony Princesses and the only one not to know the true extension of her powers.” At Daring Rose’s puzzled look, Twilight explained, “As I said, I used to be known as Princess of Friendship. And each Princesses’ titles are representation of their natural magic talent. Princess Celestia was the Princess of the Sun and Princess Luna was the Princess of the Moon for example. And as Princess of Friendship, my magic was based on the Friendship. In easier lines: my magic was as strong as my friends’ magic combined. That gave me a subtle talent no other pony in Equestria had, has, or will ever have. If it’s common accord, I can take other ponies’ magic to myself.”

“SAY WHAT NOW!?” Daring Rose jumped at that revelation.

“The first time I had to use that ability, I didn’t know it was mine. Celestia herself made it seems like it was some kind of ritual. A villain known as Tirek had attacked Equestria and was robbing ponies of their magic. In order to keep Equestrian alicorns’ magic safe, Celestia, Luna and Cadance agreed on giving me their magic. In my mind, I was ready to receive their magic, so my ability instinctively activated. Somehow, Celestia already knew about my ability, so she played that card.”

“You… had the power of four alicorns in one?”

Twilight left a deep sight at the memory, “I felt all that power flowing within my body. I could easily reach the Sun and the Moon as I could also feel other ponies’ emotions about the others around them, all those abilities from the other three Princesses. However, controlling them was another history and I almost blown up with the plan. Tirek found me and I almost let him get the magic out of me. But when he destroyed my old home, my anger and hate for him seemed to give me ultimate control of all that magic. I engaged him. Seems like that all four alicorns alive back then had enough power to be equivalent for Equestria’s whole population of earth ponies, pegasi and unicorns, as well as a Draconequus. Yes, Discord had his magic drained as well.”

“Quite an unpleasant memory, if you wanna know,” Discord say, rolling in a tray with tea and cookies for them to eat. “There, Miss Sparkle.”

“No need to be so formal about it, Discord. You’re my friend, not my servant,” Twilight smiled again.

“Where you found these anyway?” Daring Rose asked.

“I’ve learned not to ask,” Twilight grinned, as she took one of the cookies to her mouth. Encouraged that the Princess herself doesn’t seem to mind, Daring Rose used her magic to lift one for herself. “With our powers surprisingly tied, Tirek and I fought. A quick but very harsh battle--”

“I remember hearing they ended up cutting the whole upper part of a mountain…” Discord intertwined. Twilight glared at him before leaving a smile and nodding.

“Yes… Tirek threw me against a mountain and then punched me all the way to the other side.” Then she got serious again, “But that’s not important. In the end, Tirek cheated and brought my friends trapped in magic bubbles. All seven of them, Discord included. He wanted to trade my friends for all the alicorn magic from Equestria.”

“And what you did?” she asked as she slowly ate the cookies, as if she could actually watch the battle in front of her.

“I traded, of course,” she smiled. “And I would trade again, for the lives of my friends are worth infinitely more than all the magic in the whole world ten times…”

“If so… how you managed to defeat Tirek? After all, we do have magic today…” Daring Rose asked.

“My friends and I were, then, granted the last key to another very special kind of magic: the magic of harmony. The six of us, this time Discord and Spike excluded, were infused with a new power, and with it we six could rival all the magic from Equestria and rather easily, if you believe. It was if the power of the whole world was flowing through our bodies and we could do anything. And what we did was steal back the ponies’ magic from Tirek, send him back to Tartarus and then return the stolen magic to their rightful owners.”

“Wow…”

“Since then, Equestria lived in peace,” Discord commented. “Well… at least until she appeared…”

“She?”

Twilight nodded. “And that was the battle that caused the most damage to Equestria…”

Author's Note

SORRY!

I know I've been out for away too long, but I've been fighting some life issues, a real bad internet with an even worse attitude, a thousand meters long creator's wall (if it was a block I could go around it) and one or other little project here and there.

The Unforgiven is one of those little projects I've been working under. This is the first of the RESTORING THE HARMONY saga. Since I began writting it barely after Tirek's defeat, there's a lot of things that aren't pictured in the series as of late, besides I've been trying to adapt whenever I could. It took this long because I wasn't satisfied with some of the details, and I had to proof head myself. I'm looking forward to your opinions both on what is in this particular story and your ideas about the direction the second part could lead to.

FEEL FREE TO COMMENT!

Flashback

“It all started two thousand years ago, in a day just like any other…”

The bright day had started and Twilight opened the windows of her room in her Crystal Palace, took out a deep breath and looked over the city that, following Princess Celestia… no… Celestia’s ideas, was now part of her own kingdom or something like that. Afraid to failure in ruling over it, the first of Twilight’s decrees as Princess of Friendship was that everypony should keep their usual jobs, what kept the Mayor Mare as the mare in charge of the town and would free Twilight from at least that little problem until she had learned to deal with it by herself.

After admiring the town for a couple of minutes, she smiled and took in a long breath and released it slowly. Then she jumped out of the window, opening her large wings, and glided down, just to be met by two pegasus guards that now composed what was being known as Magic Guard, and started singing out of nowhere.

“Morning in Ponyville shimmers
Morning in Ponyville shines
And I know for absolute certain
That everything is certainly fine
There's the Mayor en route to her office
There's the sofa clerk selling some quills

My Ponyville is so gentle and still
Can things ever go wrong?
I don't think that they will
Morning in Ponyville shimmers
Morning in Ponyville shines
And I know for absolute certain
That everything is certainly fine!”

She then remembered the last time she tried to sing this one. All her friends had suddenly exchanged cutie marks and after she solved that problem, she had ascended into a new alicorn princess. However, this time it seemed like she could sing this lovely song forever, there was simply nothing to grow wrong in the world.

And she was about to do just that when she felt something. It was strange, just a tingly sensation in her wings, like something was tickling it. But… it felt different…

“Your Highness?” both guards asked in unison.

When she got a hold of herself, Twilight noticed she was worried. Her eyes had widened somewhere between her stop and now, her wings were closed tightly shut against her back almost painfully, her horn was hot as if readying a magic of its own will and all her four legs were stiff and frozen in place. Whatever that sensation was, her body seemed to know what it was better than her mind.

She calmed herself down, breathing slowly until she recovered her self-control. Then she looked to the two guards following her. “I want you to go and gather the other Bearers, Spike and Discord. Make Spike your first priority, though.”

“Yes, your Highness!” both bowed to her before flying out to fulfill their mission.

Twilight then returned to her castle, her eyes now serious, almost angry at something she doesn’t quite understand. What is that feeling I have? she thought. I never had anything like that…

Twilight didn’t have to wait too much. Her friends were quickly brought to her presence with a very worried Pinkie Pie rushing towards her in their lead.

“You felt it! I know you felt it!” Pinkie Pie said to Twilight as they were all in the room.

“What? How do…” Twilight’s eyes suddenly widened again. “Your… Pinkie Sense…”

“Your body got all itchy-stiffy and you had this sensation of something going to happen! I know you had it!” Pinkie Pie accused.

“Hey Pinkie! Stop that okay!” Rainbow Dash pushed the pink mare back to the floor and not all over Twilight’s throne.

“Pinkie has come to each of us telling you would need our help, darling…” Rarity asked as she also approached them. “However, she never said why…”

Twilight just closed her eyes and nodded softly. “What Pinkie Pie said is true. I felt this sensation something was going to happen. The only time I ever felt that was when I was fighting Tirek and I could foresee a little of his movements…”

“Indeed, there was a large distortion in the magic somewhere I can’t exactly place my claws on,” Discord announced. “Normally I’m able to pinpoint these distortions with precision but this time…”

“It was like coming from everywhere at once, wasn’t it?” Twilight asked. Discord only nodded at that. “Care to share how your ability to track these distortions works, Discord?”

The draconequus nodded, “Part of it is due my natural chaos magic. You have to understand that it’s always easier to stir some chaos where the magic is instable. Whenever there’s a disturbance in the magic force, it’s more likely for me to be able to cause chaos. Another part of it is the simple fact that as more magic you have the more sensitive you become to it. If you fuse both characteristics, I do need to know where these distortions are, since the chaos lead me there and I have quite a lot of magic myself.

“We also have to take in account the size of the distortion. As you may guess, the bigger the distortion, the easier it is to be felt. The tricky part is that, besides me, the creatures with enough magic to feel it are dragons and… alicorns.”

“If it’s so, why haven’t I felt the distortions caused by Tirek?” Twilight asked. “Or the Princesses for that matter?”

“Celestia and Luna could feel it: they had visions about Tirek. You and Cadance, though, couldn’t feel it because you’re still growing as alicorns. Different from Celestia and Luna, your powers aren’t that much developed yet. A simple example is your manes and tails. Luna and Celestia are ethereal, while yours and Cadance’s aren’t. When the Princess gave you their powers, I felt the distortion but I wasn’t sure what it was about since I was at the side of the person robbing other ponies’ magic.”

Twilight’s mind cast back to that day then. For a brief time, Twilight had felt her mane and tail to become ethereal, just like Celestia and Luna’s. “But… when I received their power…”

“It doesn’t mean that magic belongs to you, Twilight,” Discord answered. “If I know you well, you should keep referring to it as Celestia’s magic, Luna’s magic and Cadance’s magic. That’s why you couldn’t feel the distortions: besides the amount of magic in your body, you didn’t act as if it was yours. Then, during the battle with Tirek as you narrated to us, you forgot whom the magic belonged to, and you achieved a different lever of sensibility: you could feel the movement of Tirek’s magic inside his very body.”

“Geez… I never thought I would be saying this but…” Rainbow Dash looked at Twilight, “Discord has a valid argument, Twi.”

Twilight then shook her head. If that was right then, it had only one meaning, and it scared her out of proportions. “You noticed it Twilight?” Discord asked.

“What she noticed now?” Applejack asked.

“Considering that Discord is telling the truth… then I’m actually the weakest of all Alicorns, what places me barely among the ten creatures when it comes to raw amount of magic… counting dragons of course…” Twilight answered.

“Eighteen place, actually… I occupy a comfortable sixth position, Celestia is the first no doubt,” Discord answered.

“Then how comes Celestia couldn’t defeat you?” Rainbow Dash asked Discord.

“If I am to guess, she can, but she would never pay the price…” Twilight answered. At their friends’ puzzled looks, she elaborated, “Her domain is the sun. If she was to bring that power into battlefield, not only her enemies would suffer but everypony else close to her as well.”

“Right,” Discord answered. “What held Celestia back had always been the lives of her subjects. Princess Luna holds seventh place in that rank. Between Celestia and me are the group known as the Dragon Court, four dragons as old as Celestia herself. And besides Cadance in twelfth place, all the others are dragons as well. Of course, there are other creatures out there but I'm not sure how much magic they have.”

“I knew dragons were magical creatures but to have so many dragons between the twenty more powerful beings…” Spike commented.

“Back at subject, though…” Twilight called their attention. “Since I rank so low and I could feel that the distortion…”

Discord shook his head, “What worries me, Twilight, is not that you could feel it.” At the Princess’s puzzled look, Discord pointed a claw at Pinkie Pie. “The moment an earth pony, even one almost as random as me, could feel it…”

“It means this distortion is way bigger than we ever thought possible to happen,” the new voice got all of them by surprise. In the next second, through the door, Princess Celestia appeared, followed by Princess Luna and Princess Cadance at each of her sides. “Whatever it is, I think that not even the Elements of Harmony will be enough to stop it if we let to act too late…”

Friendship

“What?” Daring Rose asked as soon as Twilight finished that part of her history. “You… you were meant to meet with them all? The most powerful beings ever?”

Twilight nodded, “There was something at edge of happening and we couldn’t just stay sat. However, the dragons refused to help, saying we lacked decisive evidence about this ‘new treat to the world’.”

“And what you did?”

“We trained,” Twilight answered. “And we then discovered that my friends and I had a different kind of magic, the harmony magic was still within our heart and, after training, we could bring this power out…”

==================

Rainbow Dash hit the ground rather forcible, bouncing once before resting in the dusty ground. Her mane returned to her usual rainbow-colored colors as the power of harmony slowly left her. At her side, Rarity already had fallen along with Fluttershy and Spike. The others, besides tired, were still training between themselves, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Twilight still glowing in their rainbow-power state, as they started calling it, fought the other three princesses. Cadance was already exhausted and about to fall on her legs, Luna wasn’t tired enough to start committing slips and Celestia barely stated to sweat, what gave Twilight an insight of the true powers of her mentor that were using only basic magic attacks.

Pinkie Pie darted forward, followed by Applejack and Twilight flying overhead. Luna Took impulse to intercept Pinkie Pie, Cadance prepared another spell to throw at Applejack, and Celestia focused her eyes on Twilight Sparkle, giving a single step back.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie popped out of existence, leaving a surprised Luna to meet Applejack’s right forehoof squarely in her face. Enhanced by the rainbow-power, the strength of the farm pony easily threw Luna way out of her place, as Pinkie Pie reappeared already behind Luna when she used her wings to counter the effect of the punch. The pink pony then stomped over the Night Princess, pressing her strongly on ground.

In the meantime, though, Cadance attacked Applejack with a strong magical blast in her side, just to see a purple barrier to drain all her magic. The farm pony then bucked the barrier, sending the magical structure right at Cadance. As it slammed in the pink alicorn, Cadance fell unconscious as well. It left only Luna and Celestia.

Twilight and Applejack kept their route towards Celestia, the Solar Princess being their most powerful enemy, when a dark blue blast threw Pinkie Pie right into Applejack’s side and both mares were knocked out almost instantly. Twilight then teleported and once behind Luna tried a magical blast at point zero, just to see it being stopped at a golden barrier. Reaching her harmony magic, though, the golden barrier crumbled and Luna was sent bouncing in the ground, ending unconscious at the side of the ponies she had just taken off.

However, the Princess of Friendship was already exhausted, and with a glance at Celestia, she took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I surrender...”

Upon those words were mentioned, the world around them began to fade to reveal one of Canterlot’s biggest rooms. It was round and held a large mattress instead of a bed at one of the corner, the most comfortable mattress she had ever had the pleasure of sleeping over. The rest of the room was mostly filled with shelves for books and other items. Twilight was once said that this room was from dignitaries of countries that culture stimulated polygamy, so the mates could sleep all in a single mattress instead of dividing them in rooms or beds.

For their training sessions, it has come in hoof: as they all lay down, Luna induced then to sleep until certain conditions were met and they would use the dream realm to train, were lethal damage would only wake up the target. It allowed them to put themselves in the training without actually worrying about harming each other.

Celestia was the first to say something, “Very good, Twilight. Knowing the limits of your strength is a step to victory.”

“Even so, Princess... the difference between us...” Twilight said, downing her head.

“Worry not, Twilight Sparkle!” Luna said with a smile. “Count your blessings... Discord says you reached the tenth place in that rank of his and all your friends managed to get a place among the twenty most powerful magical beings! You’re doing extremely well for a training started only a month ago!”

“And besides, Twilight, I had thousands of years to learn my limits and develop my powers,” Celestia said with a smile. “If we were to compare me at your age with you, I wouldn’t scale into the first thirty.”

“Oh! I see you are back!” Discord grinned as he rolled a tray with plenty of food and drinks for them all. “How was the training?”

“Ah! Now I can easily say I can defeat you, monster!” Luna said with a chuckle as she lifted a slice of some kind of bread. All the others then started to eat as well.

“Yeah right... Remember me again... why I’m left out of your training?” Discord asked.

“Luna’s sleep spell doesn’t work properly on you Discord,” Cadance answered between two mouthful of food. “It could have disastrous effects, both on your health and to the realm of dreams on which we train,” make it three mouthfuls.

“Right, of course it’s that...” Discord said.

“But you can be useful in other ways, Discord,” Twilight said. “In the case worse comes to worst, you can teleport innocent ponies to safer places. That’s why I said for you to train massive personal teleportation.”

“Sheesh…” Rainbow Dash said as she rubbed her back. “I didn’t know a dream could make me sore in the awaken world…”

“Don’t be stupid, Rainbow darling,” Rarity said then. “If it was possible, we all would be sore and hurt all over.”

“Actually, some ponies have this kind of… hmmm…” Luna brought a hoof to her chin thinking on a proper word, “I guess we could call it a ‘peculiar trace’, where he or she can actually feel what passes in her mind.”

“You mean that we could be hurting Dash in our training sessions?” Fluttershy asked. Over the last month, more than only her harmony magic was taught to her and, besides she was still kind and caring, one would never recognize her compared with the same mare she was before this training started. She now would stand for herself with more strength than ever before still without hurting other ponies or creatures at all.

“Not actually,” Celestia said with a smile. “She’s just being a little dramatic. She can’t feel what happens in the dreams or she would be hurting her belly, where my magic hit her last.”

Twilight let out a sigh of relief at that particular news. With a smile, she got up, “Well… there is one thing this training had made me feel while awake. Who’s up for a walk?”

Before Twilight could start to leave, though, she felt Celestia’s magic holding her tail. The others looked at them puzzled before Celestia said, “I just have to trade a few words with Twilight. You can all go ahead and stretch your legs, we’ll join you soon.”

Luna was the first to catch the drift and nodded, rushing the others out the room. If Twilight was any judge, she was a little too much closer to Cadance, as if she had something to tell her as well.

With only both of them at the room, Twilight looked at Celestia, a curious look in her face. The white alicorn slowly got up and walked to the balcony. “Twilight, answer me. What are you missing?”

“What?” Twilight asked back. “Sorry, Prin- Celestia… I don’t think I follow your line…”

“You are an alicorn, Twilight,” Celestia started. “There’s no doubting that, after all you have the wings and the horn. However… there is something missing there’s not?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow at Celestia’s question. The youngest of all alicorns of Equestria looked at the eldest alicorn, looking for whatever she was missing. Of course, Celestia was a lot taller than her and Twilight could only hope that, if she ever happened to grow to Celestia’s size, her horn would get a better proportion to her size as well. The wings were another great part of the Sun Princess, also in proportion to her larger mass. But since she was looking at those things, she returned her gaze to what was, to her at least, Celestia’s most beautiful feature. Flowing as if for its own will, Celestia’s mane always remembered Twilight of the aurora, a beautiful sight she only saw in her dreams and pictures. If the real thing was as beautiful as Celestia’s mane, Twilight would be contended.

And suddenly it hit her. “My mane…”

Celestia chuckled at that and just shook her head no, “It is indirectly related, Twilight, but no. Even a common unicorn can have a mane like mine. However, it’s extremely magic draining, so we never taught it to other ponies. Luna and I, though, have the magic to spare and it helps in ruling Equestria, since my mane works as a crown by itself.”

“If… it’s not that… then what is it?” Twilight asked.

“Think a little, Twilight Sparkle. What you, the Princess of Friendship, has not yet achieved that I, the Princess of the Sun, had thousands of years develop?”

“If you’re talking about magic, I thought that was the reason behind our training…”

“It is related to magic, but it’s not the magic. Tell me, Twilight, what was the biggest difference between your and Rarity’s magic back when you were an unicorn?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow before closing her eyes to access her memories, “Besides the fact that I could perform a lot more spells? After all, Rarity’s talent was finding gems and dressmaking, while mine was magic in itself…”

Celestia gave her a smile, “Exactly Twilight. A unicorn’s talent often limits what they can and can’t learn magic wise. Alicorns’ only difference is that we have the magic reserves to force ourselves and learn every single magic there is in the world. However, even you, Cadance and I together couldn’t lower the moon choose Luna decided it’s not time for it yet.”

“That’s why Nightmare Moon managed to keep the moon from lowering?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, but you’re getting off topic.”

Twilight had to focus herself in order to not press more that subject. Then she looked at Celestia again, “You mean that even alicorns have the unicorns’ trace of magic pointed at their cutie marks?”

Celestia chuckled, “Was it so simple, you would have grasped your potential easily. I would just lock you up into Canterlot’s library for a couple months. Remember: your talent, by your cutie mark, is magic itself.”

“Oh, right…” Twilight then thought hard, closing her eyes, trying with all her might to find what she was missing when a sudden shift in magic field called her attention. This time, she could pin-point its location precisely: it was Luna’s quarters and the reason was Cadance: her magic had somehow boosted up greatly. “What the…”

“Luna left to have this same talk with Cadance, Twilight,” Celestia answered. “However, she had a lot more pieces and clues than you have, so it was easier to her.”

“Then… why don’t you give me a good clue?”

Celestia gave Twilight a smile, “What’s the relation between a title and a cutie mark?”

“A… title?” Twilight asked curious about what Celestia was thinking. “Well… normally the title of a pony is matched to their cutie marks… after all, if they have a title, they are very good at that. For example, Applejack is the--”

“She is the most dependable pony in Ponyville,” Celestia intertwined, “And also the pony to get more ribbons in any rodeo ever.”

“Well… yeah… but, there’s Pinkie Pie that--”

“That is one of the best cupcake bakers in Ponyville, only losing to the Cakes themselves.”

“Fluttershy is--”

“A pony with marvelous talent for singing honed by a few years of practice of Ponyville’s Pony Tones. Rainbow Dash is also the biggest fan of Daring Do ever, only matched by yourself, and Rarity also was part of the Pony Tones, which turned quite famous recently.”

Twilight thought on that. Really, those titles were part of their friends’ lives and they were known for them. She also remembered that they had other titles as the Element Bearers, which only Pinkie Pie had a direct match for her cutie mark.

“They have--” suddenly an insight hit her, “Different, but the same!”

Celestia smiled, “Explain, Twilight.”

“A title, as a cutie mark, is something you earn by knowing yourself and that also shows to other ponies who you truly are! As you said, Applejack is the most dependable pony you will ever find, but because she deserved that title by working hard!”

The Sun Princess only nodded.

Upon the light of her discovery, Twilight rethought on her titles. Celestia’s student? No, she had overgrown that one a few years back. Element of Magic? No. As Celestia pointed out, she was already very knowledgeable into magic department. That only left…

“Princess of Friendship,” Twilight said. “Everything I ever did and accomplished was from and with my friends, and I’ve… we’ve grown stronger every time. And…” she raised her eyes to meet Celestia’s, “Friendship is MAGIC!”

With those last three words, her whole world took a turn. Her magic charged by its own, enveloping her in a light sphere and suddenly Twilight found herself in a place totally different from the room she was.

It was a library, but not any simple library. And when she recognized it, she gasped in surprise: It was the Golden Oak Library, her former home and workplace!

“So, finally you decided to show up, huh?” somepony said above her. What puzzled Twilight the most was that it was her own voice. Looking up, she found herself floating and flapping her wings gently, before slowly landing in front of her. However, it took a few seconds to the lavender alicorn gasp in surprise again: this Twilight was a pegasus!

“Shesh, Pegas… She had no way to know! She had to find it by her own!” said another voice like her, this one coming from her lab. Twilight’s expert eyes, though, learned by their mistake and found quickly that this new Twilight was an earth pony, lacking in both wings and horn. However, her body was a lot more developed and, even if she said so herself, quite beautiful.

“Arty!” the pegasus Twilight called. “Finally you left your lab? That’s a miracle!”

“We have a special guest,” the earth pony grinned. “This makes the situation special.”

“And in that we all agree,” a fourth Twilight joined them, coming from where Twilight’s room was back then. This one, as Twilight suspected it would, was a unicorn. “Pegas, Arty, our Ali finally paid us a visit and you know the protocol.”

“Answer all her questions indiscriminately,” both earth pony and pegasus Twilights said together.

“WAIT!” alicorn Twilight yelled at them, that now were aligned in front of her. “What the hay is going on? I saw my home being destroyed by Tirek and now it’s there and with three copies of me from different tribes?”

It was the unicorn Twilight that spoke first, “This is not real, Ali. At least, not as much, this is just a representation of a place you used to come when you needed some time for yourself or to think on a problem. And now, you’ll need that time to sort things out.”

“That much I guessed…” alicorn Twilight said. “But why you called me Ali?”

“Ali is the short for alicorn,” answered the pegasus Twilight with a smile. “Unsurprisingly, Pegas it short for pegasus and Arty is, somehow, short for the earth part in ‘earth pony’ and Uni is for unicorn. We couldn’t be calling each other ‘Twilight’ you know?”

Twilight quickly scratched the back of her head with a forehoof, “Well… since you’re already used to it, could you use ‘Twilight’ when talking about me?” All three of them nodded. “Good… So… Why I’m seeing all three of you now?”

“We represent your three different types of magic, the earth pony, the pegasus and the typical unicorn magic,” Arty answered. “And why you’re seeing us, that’s simple: you’re still sorting your magic in the tribes. ‘This is earth pony magic, this is pegasus magic, this is unicorn magic and this is alicorn magic’. So, in order to help you sort it out, your mind created us.”

“What? You’re saying these magic are one and the same?” Twilight asked.

“Yes,” the other three Twilights answered in chorus. Uni then continued the explanation, “What you call ‘unicorn magic’ is the ability to control one’s magic to cast different spells.”

“Your definition of ‘pegasus magic’ is the ability to fly and control weather with your hooves,” Pegas continued with a smile.

“And ‘earth pony magic’ is being one with the earth, both to have physical strength and enjoy the growth of the nature,” Arty finished.

“The ‘alicorn magic’ is what you always feared, Twilight. It’s your emotions taking the front to reach the magic and interact with the world,” another voice surprised Twilight a lot. It was behind her and when she turned, she saw the rainbowfied form of herself: a flowing purple mane with pink, lavender and yellow streaks, as was her tail. All four hooves covered in six pointed stars varying between purple, pink, yellow and bluish stars, and her wings started lavender, turned pink in the middle and ended purple. “But you still prefer to call it ‘harmony magic’ instead. And in truth, there’s no ‘alicorn magic’, since it’s the combination of all the others.”

“What… are you talking about?”

“Mony! Do not tell her anything straight way!” Uni called the newcomer.

Twilight’s ears flattened on her skull, she closed her eyes and bowed, pressing her head against the ground and with both hooves over her head.

“Err… Maybe we’re overdoing things there?” Pegas asked.

“That’s what you gain by not telling her this straight,” the one called Mony said. “Calm down, Twilight. They are really with your best interest in their heart, but I happen to know you don’t have the time.”

The alicorn looked up from the ground to the face of Mony, “What do you mean?”

“Twilight Sparkle, Daughter of Twilight Velvet and Night Light, Sister to Shining Armor, Protégé of Celestia, Bearer of the Element of Magic and Princess of Friendship, which of these titles more closely defines you?”

Twilight looked at the rainbowfied version of herself curiously and thought intently. The other three Twilights, though, maintained the silence, besides their indignation of Mony’s actions.

Meanwhile, in Twilight’s mind, she thought about all those titles Mony had called. Which one best defined her? Daughter? Sister? Protégé? Bearer? Princess? Which one? And more important, why it defined her?

She remembered her childhood, when her parents granted her every single chance for her to grow and fulfill her dreams. Shining Armor also helped greatly in those same dreams, being already a very experienced unicorn back then. And with their help, she was finally accepted as Celestia’s protégé and her life met happiness for great time. She could really live like that forever, but then Nightmare Moon attacked and she became the Bearer of the Element of Magic, along with her friends. By the way, it was only alongside her friends that Twilight reached alicornhood and had a castle of her own as Princess of Friendship.

If all those titles were so connected to one another, how could she choose one? That’s when she finally understood.

“All of them,” Twilight said. Mony and all other Twilights smiled at that. The alicorn Twilight rose once again now with a smile in her face, “I am who I am thanks to every single one of those titles. I can’t choose one above the others, for that would only diminish me.” She then looked at all four Twilights in front of her and smiled, “And now I see that I can’t choose a ‘kind’ of magic over another. We all are one and the same. I am Twilight Sparkle,” she then saw all other versions of herself slowly shining brightly and smiling one last time at her, “Princess of Friendship!”

Truths

Daring Rose smiled at the revelations Twilight told her, “So you were born as a unicorn? It means I can ascend to an alicorn as well?”

“Let’s not dream so high as yet, okay?” Twilight smiled at her softly. “For now, it’s getting late, time for me to lower the Sun and raise the Moon. Care to come and watch? It will be the first time in a long while that a pony saw such a thing.”

“Of course I want to!” she jumped upright, excited as never before.

“Discord, please, find Rar-109.”

The draconequus made a quick bow and vanished. Daring Rose looked at Twilight curiously, “Errr… what’s this ‘Rar-109’, Princess?”

Twilight Sparkle only got up from her mattress. “As I said, it has been a long time since any pony has seen this. And as such, I intend to make it a formal event. Discord will fetch you a dress from my personal achieves and see you to your room so you can freshen up. The town may be in ruins and dusty, but this situation calls for it.”

Daring Rose’s smile widened even more. She only watched as Twilight walked graciously outside the large library and, not too long later, Discord appeared with a box in his claws, “This way, Miss Rose.”

==================

The sole unicorn in the whole city was now in front of a circular, badly damaged altar with a piece of what would once be called a sun and at the other side a moon, also broken and mostly unrecognizable. She was wearing a glamorous light green dress with beautiful darker laces adorning around her neck. The tail of the dress was artfully decorated with small roses in full blown.

Discord looked at the altar and tsk-ed. With a snap of his fingers, the altar returned to its former glory long before Twilight appeared. From afar, a chirping could be heard, going straight to Daring Rose’s direction. Turning to that sound, the unicorn saw a beautiful orange and red bird, which feathers moved in her flight like fire. She was utterly enchanted by the creature, which landed gently on Discord’s antler.

“Oh. Hi there Philomena. Came to see the Moon Rise?” Discord asked, to which the phoenix only chirped and nodded, before looking at Daring Rose.

Enchanted by the sight of the phoenix, the unicorn was with her muzzle agape. She never saw a phoenix in person before. They were very rare even before some greed ponies began hunting them down for their feathers.

Then her attention changed to the altar Discord just fixed. From the other side, Twilight came walking, her mane moving softly in a breeze Daring Rose couldn’t feel in her fur. The Princess was wearing more than just her usual regalia, a long dark blue dress with silvery stars placed all around her neck. Both forelegs were completely left out, showing her lavender coat, as the hooves were still covered in the silver ponyshoes she saw earlier. When near her waist, the dress would then part in half to allow her ever flowing tail to be free, but it was still glamorous with the white fluffy edges which went under her belly.

Twilight stopped there, right between the Sun and the Moon and mouthed a thank you to Discord, who just nodded with a smile, and looked at the three of them. Daring Rose noticed that, in her eyes, Twilight wasn’t ‘seeing’ just them, but rather a full town of ponies looking at her.

With a warm smile, Twilight spoke: “My little ponies, another day has come to an end. May the Sun set taking your problems with it and the Moon rise bringing light for your dreams!”

And then, the alicorn began floating, her horn glowing a soft pinkish aura and Daring Rose noticed the change in the color of the skies: the Sun was sinking in the horizon. As the darkness took over the sky, Daring Rose looked at the other side and noticed a silvery body rising at the horizon. For the very first time in her life, she had a perfect view point to see the ‘beacon of dreams’, as some poets called it, to rise slowly and leisurely before being thrown into its orbit around Equestrian night.

Twilight then floated down and landed softly with barely a sound to be heard when her ponyshoes hit the marble altar. “And then, may the night begin,” Twilight said finally.

“Wow... that was... beautiful!” Daring Rose said.

Without losing her smile, Twilight walked down from the altar and towards the smaller pony, “Thank you, Daring Rose. However, this was just a copy of the original. It was always a masterpiece whenever Celestia was there to raise her Sun and Luna do the same with her Moon. Besides two thousand years of practice gave me a pretty good control over them, I’m still learning how to make them works of art like my two mentors did.”

“Luna made it even more beautiful? How is it even possible?”

“You would have to see in order to understand. It would be like trying to explain music to deaf: they can feel the vibration, but the lyrics are completely lost.”

“I guess I understand,” Daring Rose said.

“Let’s head back inside. The nights are getting chilly as we approach the winter,” Twilight said, turning and returning to the castle.

“Come to think of it… you do a Winter Wrap Up around there?” Daring Rose asked.

Twilight then suddenly came to a halt. Discord downed his head to whisper in Daring Rose’s ears, “It’s a touchy subject…”

Philomena had, by then, left his antler and was flapping her bright fiery wings in front of Twilight’s face. The alicorn gave her a sad smile. “It’s alright, Discord. It’s just a bad memory, but it’s part of Equestrian history and as such must be remembered,” Twilight said.

“A… part of Equestrian history?” Daring Rose asked puzzled.

As Twilight resumed her walk, she turned her face to the smaller unicorn and answered, “Ever heard that old saying? ‘Those who don’t know their own history are fated to repeat it’?”

“I… had heard it a couple of times, but never understood it fully…”

“Well… I guess you’ll see what it means now,” Twilight answered. “Back then, when I was just a newly crowned princess, I almost destroyed Ponyville when Tirek attacked. I knew the destructive power of mixed magic. However, I choose to turn a blind eye to it…”

==================

During one of Twilight’s courts, she suddenly lifted her head, feeling another of those monstrous magical disturbances. It had been the fourth in this last month. After she embraced her alicorn nature truly, Twilight has begun to grow both magically and physically, already getting half again as taller than her brother, her horn slowly growing proportional to her new size as did her wings. What called more the attention of everypony now was Twilight’s ethereal mane. Since Celestia declared she had enough magical reserves to keep one without endangering her running out of magic, even in the heat of battle, Twilight preferred the weightless ever flowing characteristic mane and tail of Princesses. And hers were a deep purple in color, gently softened at the edges, with pink streaks running randomly through the entire length, actually moving in random directions and not keeping static.

What called most of Twilight’s attention, however, was the fact that she could pinpoint more and more the precise location of the disturbance. It was both good and bad news: good for her own powers were growing and bad for the disturbances were also growing more powerful.

“Is everything alright, your highness?” one of the ever loyal guards asked Twilight.

“Yes, it is. Let’s continue,” Twilight answered. Not quite a lie, since for now everything was alright. The rest of the court passed uneventful and soon Twilight had a little time to herself.

“Twilight?” Spike peeked inside her room slowly to access if it was a good time or not.

“Come in, Spike,” the alicorn said without looking back. She was sitting in the window of her room, looking at the south horizon of Ponyville. The disturbance had come from that direction, generally speaking.

“Actually, I was charged to take you to dinner…” the dragon answered. The once baby dragon was now more as a teenager one, having grown in size and developed some muscles. As he grown in age, also did his horns and wings, and also her breath slowly become more powerful. Months back, when Twilight went to chat with the other dragons, she was informed that Spike was still a child for dragon standards: all dragons started as bipedal and then evolved into the gigantic creatures famous to be impervious to magic and powerfully magical themselves.

“I’m sorry… I’m not feeling that good today… Would you mind in bringing my dinner to my room, Spike?”

“Not a problem, Twi. However, would you mind if I joined you?”

Twilight chuckled softly and turned to him with a warm smile, “Of course not, Spike. I truly expected you to join me, really.”

During dinner with her number one assistant, Twilight’s mood improved some and she was able to smile while doing small talk with the dragon. The next morning, the winter would arrive officially and there would also be what became routine training for her and her friends with Celestia, Luna and Cadance. Unknown to him, Spike had helped Twilight to have the best night’s sleep she ever had.

The following day’s training started as any other. Twilight and her friends were met by the unmatchable force of three fully grown alicorns. However, practice quickly brought their harmony magic, only Twilight not summoning it now, as they all darted to start another fight. This time, though, the lavender alicorn had another target in mind.

As usual, Luna and Cadance charged against Twilight and her friends, but all of a sudden, a pinkish spark made the Princess of Friendship all but disappear in thin air only to reappear a second later in front of her mentor to everypony’s surprise. That second hesitation in Celestia’s defense was all Twilight needed to charge her horn and shoot a point-blank all powerful magical blast right into Celestia’s chest.

With the Solar Princess flying backwards fast, Applejack was the first to see an opening and gave a full body tackle on Luna, soon joined by Rarity’s magic blast and in care by Fluttershy’s natural protective magic. Cadance, though, had to deal with Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash, one so fast it blurred her vision and the other just naturally random and completely unable to be predicted.

Different from all other training starts, Twilight’s team had started with the advantage.

Celestia, besides surprised, didn’t stood long in the state, flapping her wings and regaining composure barely soon enough to avoid Twilight’s hooves on her back. Celestia tried to counterattack with a spin reinforced with magic, only to see it barred by a strong pinkish shield. Twilight and Celestia’s battle above the others created such powerful magic and physical blows that after a while, all the others all but stopped in common agreement to watch them fight. In the course of six months training, Twilight Sparkle ascended from the weakest of the living alicorns to matching Celestia’s powers.

After a particularly strong blow, both were sent backwards, flapping their wings and holding still in place. Celestia was tired as Twilight, a feat in itself, and kept a huge grin in her muzzle.

“Good to know you’ve came such a long way, Twilight...” Celestia said.

“I’ve been waiting long enough to hear this, Celestia...” Twilight grinned back. After her ascension was complete, she found it easier to call Celestia and Luna by their names rather than their titles.

“But let’s see if you’re really that much stronger after all!” Celestia then stiffened her both wings and all four legs, raising her head and charging her horn.

Before Twilight could use that little time to attack, she had to bring her best defenses up: the process of charging her horn was enough to actually create heat waves from Celestia!

Luna, at the ground, looked at everypony else and yelled: “DREAM TRAINING OR NOT, RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

Twilight only looked at the others and saw them running before bringing her attention back to Celestia. “Celestia! What are you doing?”

“This spell is called Solstice Wrath, my apprentice, and it will test your resistance and power to their limits!”

Instead of leaving through Celestia’s horn, the spell was projected in a wide radius all around Celestia’s body. Twilight knew already if she touched those flares it was ‘game over’ for her, so she thought fast and quick. Charging a magic of her own repertoire, the lavender alicorn shoot it against the Solstice Wrath, only to see the spell itself burning and disappearing.

Now flying backwards, Twilight finally understood the Solstice Wrath. It was magical flames so hot it could burn magic itself. And by the way it was growing, soon it would engulf her friends, no matter how fast they ran. She acted first, though and teleported right before them.

“Luna! Cadance!” everypony there quickly came to a halt upon seeing Twilight popping out of thin air.

“Twilight! What you’re doing! RUN!” Luna called.

“It’s useless, Luna!” Twilight called back. “I have to stop it! Or else there will not be anyplace for you to hide! Luna, Cadance, remember what happened with Tirek? I need you to perform that ritual again and give me your magic!”

Luna looked behind them. The flares were growing closer to them, dangerously closer, so she didn’t have time to argue.

“Twilight! That wasn’t a ritual! It’s just your natural magic!” Luna called.

“WHAT?” Twilight yelled back. She was about to ask more when Luna cut her.

“TWILIGHT! We explain later! You must focus now! Remember that sensation! You have my consent!”

Cadance, after being surprised by Luna’s revelation, nodded her head and agreed, “You have mine as well!”

Rainbow Dash then shot forward, “And ours! We will give you everything, Twi!”

Twilight looked at them surprised but closed her eyes and did as Luna said. The flares were getting hotter and hotter by the second, coming closer and closer to them. Twilight soon could feel their magic and, as easily as that, she reached those magic. When she did, she felt her friends’ magic following her will, moving as she asked and then out of their body and into her own.

But different from last time, she felt this magic now not only for belonging to her friends, but as Princess of Friendship, a part of herself. Shooting her eyes wide open again, Twilight took a burst of strength and took off, leaving seven tired-looking cutie mark-less ponies behind.

Focusing her new found magic, Twilight’s horn glowed white with rainbow sparks before quickly returning to its pinkish traditional color and creating a whirlwind barrier. As the magic began to spin, the flares were suckled inside it... and died! She now had enough magic to triumph over Celestia’s behemoth and she made progress going forward. As she reached visual range of Celestia, Twilight charged her horn once more and shot a simple magic blast against the Solar Princess. A loud hiss could be heard as Celestia’s spell tried to burn Twilight’s magic and soon it hit Celestia’s chest, but instead of shooting her backwards, the spell enveloped her and began to drain all her magic through those potent flares.

Outside that shield created by Twilight, the inferno-hot flares slowly died down and the seven magically drained ponies walked slowly towards Twilight. The lavender unicorn, after confirming that Celestia was tired enough to surrender inside her shield, slowly floated down and only then broke the spell. In the next second, she also could easily separate the magic from within her body and return it to her friends without any complications.

Celestia looked at Twilight, “How...”

Twilight also was drained by such powerful magic, but smiled nonetheless, “I’m the Princess of Friendship, Celestia... So I got by with a little help of my friends...”

Celestia chuckled, “You figured it out or was you told?”

“I was told, I admit,” Twilight agreed. “Care to explain me how you knew about my magic before I did?”

“By watching how the Elements of Harmony reacted with you in comparison to us...” Luna answered for Celestia. “Whenever Tia and I used the Elements, they drained our magic and focused it at the Element of Magic before casting the intended spell. However, when it was you whom represented the Elements of Harmony, whenever you used them, your magic focused first on Twilight and then was released. The Elements of Harmony were preparing Twilight for its own and particular kind of magic, the magic of Friendship.”

“That’s why you gave me your consent...” Twilight said. “I remember when Discord had... messed with us. When I tried using the Elements of Harmony, I couldn’t feel the others magic...”

“In other words, we weren’t willing to share it with you...” Rarity nodded.

“And that’s the weak point of Twilight’s magic,” said Celestia. “Do not ever leave her side, any of you.”

“You bet!” Rainbow Dash said with a smile.

“Best Pony Friends Forever!” Pinkie Pie said bouncing excitedly around Twilight.

The other ponies chuckled and nodded with them. Twilight looked at Luna and Cadance. “So… and about you two?”

Both Luna and Cadance giggled, “We surrender.”

And with that, another training day had come to an end. Along the following two months, once a week, they all continued training and developing their skills.

And then, came a day that always was special to Twilight: Winter Wrap Up!

Using her usual uniform that combined all three groups of workers, she and spike were in front of her Friendship Castle were the meeting was being held. She grinned to Everypony there and smiled.

“Another winter has come and gone, and now it’s time for another Winter Wrap Up!” Twilight’s announcement was met with a loud cheer from everypony. They talked among themselves for quite some time before Twilight hit her hoof three times. Even with the rather loud sound of their rumbles, the ponies stopped to look at their Princess now. “I’m pretty sure everypony knows their places just like last year, but always pay off to remember. Applejack?” Twilight called with a smile.

“Clear the ground and plant the seeds,” answered the farm pony.

“Excellent. Pinkie Pie?”

“Cutting the ice while skating!” answered the enthusiastic earth pony.

“Just wait a little to start. Rainbow Dash?”

“Clear the skies and bring the birds in!” the cyan pegasus said already flapping her wings.

“Very good. Fluttershy?”

“Wake up the critters from their long slumber and get them to their new homes.” Answered the yellow pegasus.

“Which will be built by…?”

“By me of course, and my fabulous team,” answered Rarity right on cue.

With a large smile, Twilight continued with her check to fit everypony in their functions. With that out of the way, Twilight asked if there was any pony new in town that would like to help and assigned them to their proper teams, once again remembering the unicorn outsiders that they were going to do a Winter Wrap Up earth-pony style, so no magic allowed!

And then, as every year started, the ponies started singing in unison the typical Winter Wrap Up song. With the cheerful melody warming their hearts, the ponies started working on their chores in order to bring spring to bear once more in time.

After plenty of hard work, everypony gathered before Princess Twilight’s Castle once more, “It was a very good work, everypony! Now I declare--”

Suddenly a chill run down Twilight’s spine, along with Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Rarity and Pinkie Pie. Spike noticed this and hasn’t lost a single second, already taking off a scroll and a pen out of his back and writing to Princess Celestia. All the six Elements of Harmony turned their face to the same direction.

As soon as she recovered from her shock, Twilight faced the other ponies and, in the Royal Canterlot Voice that claimed no arguing, she addressed them all. “EVERYPONY! IT’S A ROYAL ORDER! EVACUATION PLAN ALPHA! GO!”

After the decree of Twilight, not a single stayed. They all rushed to fulfill to perfection the evacuation plan Twilight had made for this occasion, as Twilight and the others faced the direction south of Ponyville. With her friends at her side, Twilight let out a weak smile, trying to say to herself it was alright and that she wasn’t afraid.

“What a way to greet Spring…” commented Applejack.

“Indeed… It may not want to return ever after this…” Rarity said, still a lot more dramatic than a pony had the right to be.

“Do not forget for what we’re fighting today, girls…” Twilight took a step forward, her mane suddenly stopping its ethereal motions and falling softly over her neck and one of her shoulders, as her tail also fell almost touching the ground. “The enemy is strong and we’ll need every single drop of magic we have.”

==================

“And then what happened?” Daring Rose asked curiously after a full minute of silence.

Twilight closed her eyes and looked into the starlit sky, “Let’s take dinner first and then settle for a nice night of sleep.”

“Do you need any sleep at all?” the unicorn asked.

“No, but you do. Even more so after a full day exploring ruins after climbing up a mountain.” Daring Rose was about to argue further, but she was stopped by a jaw-cracking yawn. With a chuckle, Twilight looked at Discord, “Would you please fetch some comfortable bedding to our guest, Discord?”

With a short bow, Discord smiled, “Of course, Twilight.”

Much against her will, Daring Rose just nodded and followed the former spirit of chaos and disharmony.

Enemy

As she woke up, Daring Rose looked around and couldn’t recognize exactly where she was. Last thing she remembered was a dream about one of the long dead Princesses of Equestria, one which she was quite intimate with and, if she was any judge, a friend.

However, when she looked a bit further into the room she was, she doubted it was only a dream. The room was very fancy and had a rather large wardrobe at the side of plenty of shelves on the left side and a couple more shelves at the left with a large table. And, standing on the table, she noticed a bright orange bird looking straight at her.

“It wasn’t a dream was it?” she asked the bird, looking around a bit more. She had slept on a large four-post bed with rather expensive and fancy design as all other furniture in the room. The colors white and gold dominated the area, even in the weak light from the moon of the previous night, shyly seeping through the windows in contrast with the bright sun light that now bathed the room. The bird chirped and nodded at her.

“So… I’m in Canterlot, right… eh… Philomena?” The phoenix took off and landed above Daring Rose’s head, nesting on her mane. The unicorn smiled and got up. “I’m going to take a bath before joining Princess Twilight…”

Philomena chirped and took off, now to join the Princess, or so Daring Rose assumed.

==================

As the magical energy responsible for the strong distortions approached, the fear and uncertainty inside Twilight’s heart grow. Thankfully, Celestia and Luna managed to get there before the battle started and the mere presence of her old teacher already did wonders to calm her racing heart.

Tense minutes rolled. Whatever it was, it was in no hurry at all. Twilight, without looking, asked Celestia, “Are you afraid?”

“Afraid of what, Twilight?” she asked back.

“You know… Please, don’t make me say it…”

A sad smile parted Celestia’s muzzle, “A bit…”

A bit more of silence passed before Luna also said something, “Kind of exciting is it not? I mean… since Discord’s attack we have not been under this kind of pressure…”

“I see nothing exciting about a life or death battle…” Rarity commented. “I mean, we’re giving other ponies their chance to live and all, but…”

“But it will not be our first time doing this,” Rainbow Dash said. “Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Discord’s seedlings, Tirek… Not counting others ‘minor’ dangers we faced, like that dragon…”

“The Everfree Forest… Hydra comes to mind…” Applejack said.

“Cockatrice…” Fluttershy commented.

“That entire Mysterious Mare-do-Well thing!” Pinkie Pie said.

“Yes… We had quite an exciting life…” Twilight said with a smile, her confidence somewhat restored.

Not too long after that, they could see in the distance the form of a creature slowly walking towards them. For an instant, they thought Tirek had returned somehow, for the silhouette had two separated arms like he did. However, the shadowy form lacked the long horse legs of the centaur. It was Rainbow Dash the first to recognize what the lower torso of the creature looked like.

“What the! Is that a snake tail?” she asked in amusement.

“A naga…” Celestia said Rainbow Dash’s question. “Indeed they have a snake tail and an upright torso, like Tirek. However, they have two pair of arms instead of one and are extremely powerful magic wise.”

“I know it’s a silly question but… Is she evil or good?” Rarity asked.

“I guess we’re about to find out…” Luna said as the naga approached them.

Twilight, though, felt something different in the air. A quick glance at Celestia and she knew the Sun Princess also felt it wasn’t quite right, “Be alert. I believe it’s only a diversion…”

With Celestia’s short nod, they all readied themselves for the possible coming trap. And it was a surprise when they could finally see this naga in person. Her body was mostly covered in cuts of all deeps, her lower left arm missing and a large hunk of her body was taken way, like a bite, from her snake tail. With a gasp, they noticed she tremble and fall on her face.

Fluttershy was over her in no time, but even with her newfound powers, she knew that this naga person was beyond salvation. The naga looked at her and whispered, “Beware… She’s… coming…”

Out of sheer exhaustion, the naga breathed her last. The others approached the deceased body and Luna asked, “What in Tartarus could cause this to a naga?”

“For the first time, I don’t know the answer, Luna,” Celestia said.

“Allow me to enlighten you then,” said a female voice.

In a flash of light easily recognized as a teleportation spell, everypony could easily identify a fox stopped in front of them. Different from common foxes, though, this one was sitting and looking at them with intelligence in her deep green eyes. Her snow-white fur was just beautiful to the eye and the tip of her tail had a bright golden fur swinging casually but giving the impression of having many more. Only after a second they noticed it wasn’t an illusion: the fox in front of them had nine luxurious tails swinging behind her.

“I am Empress Nikko Burashi, or Daylight Brush on your language, and I am a kitsune from the far eastern lands.”

“And may we know what you’re doing here?” Celestia asked.

“I would really like to say I’m here to form alliances, Pony Princess,” Nikko looked up to meet Celestia’s eyes. The kitsune hardly reached the height Celestia’s chest, leave alone her face. “But I’m afraid that would be a lie. I need the gems so easily found on your country, so I came in a straight line towards your capital, Canterlot if I’m not mistaken.”

“Straight line?” Luna’s eyes bulged. ‘But that mean… San Palomino Desert…”

“A few interesting lifestyles there have. Found even a nest of those,” she said pointing to the naga with her nose. “Very strong magical beings. Not a match for kitsunes, though. Neither are you.”

“Do not underestimate us, Miss Burashi,” Celestia said. “By the way, I am Princess Celestia of Equestria. If you want our gems, surely we can get to an agreement?”

“I’m afraid you haven’t understood my intentions, Celestia-sama. I’m not looking for a few gems. I’ve came to take all of them, every single one.”

Every pony was ready to burst out when Celestia raised a hoof. She then looked the kitsune in the eye, “I’m afraid we cannot accept that, Miss Burashi.”

The kitsune sighed, “I really thought you would be willing to surrender and go without a fight. As I said, Celestia-sama, your powers are nothing compared to mine.”

“I thought I told you not to underestimate us, Miss Burashi.” Celestia said again.

Surprising them all, the kitsune nodded, “If that’s so, we shall start our battle. Are y-”

Before the kitsune could even finish her speak, Rainbow Dash darted forward to tackle her down and succeeded, now both were in the air until three tails of the kitsune wrapped around the pegasus waist and threw her against the ground. With a swing of one tail, the golden tip literally painted a line in the middle of the air where the kitsune landed and stood on all four paws. Rainbow Dash, though, kept going forward against the ground for at least three meters, making a deep gash along the path.

“RAINBOW!” Twilight yelled, already teleporting to her friend’s side. The kitsune leapt against her to attack, but had to avoid the golden and bluish blasts from Luna and Celestia. The shield she ‘painted’ with a single tail, besides not even cracking, was moved along with her about four meters back. Again she painted a floating platform with a tail and landed over it securely.

“Well, I may have underestimated you a little,” the kitsune, though, still smiled. “Only a little, though. You’re still no match for a kitsune, much less a kyubi no kitsune like me.”

==================

“What happened then?” Daring Rose asked Twilight after the lunch, when they got comfortable in the library she first met the Princess of Friendship.

“We fought. A long and hard battle, one that destroyed most of my home back then, a small town called Ponyville,” Twilight answered. “Nikko Burashi was a formidable opponent. Not even when Cadance arrived we were able to make her use her full power. At maximum, she had to use five to six tails to avoid and attack us back.”

“Use… her tails?”

“Seems like kitsunes’ magic is unleashed from their tail, like we unleash from our horns as unicorns. That’s why they can be a little more artistic with their magic and ‘paint’ it in the air.”

“And what it does have with power?”

“Have you tried to cast a specifically hard spell? One that’s at the edge of your abilities?” at Daring Rose’s nod, Twilight smiled. “Then you have noticed that the common glow that envelops your horn was then overlapped by another glow. If you pressed further, it would overlap again and again over and over. The maximum overlays history registered were, ironically, nine.”

“The amount of tails the kitsune had…”

“Yes. So according to how many tails she used, stronger and more precise was her magic. But even with only two thirds of her power, she was fighting my friends and me on the same level. It was clear who was going to win through sheer exhaustion.”

“And what have you done?”

“My friends gave me their consent,” Twilight said. As Daring Rose seemed to not register, she elaborated, “I used my talent as Princess of Friendship and took their powers to myself. At start, it may not seem to make too much a difference, but in reality it does. Take a shield made to resist stones of 10 centimeter radius. It will not be harmed if your throw ten stones of 1 centimeter radius each, for its resistance is set for much larger stones. However, if you take a stone of the equivalent size of ten of those 1 centimeter stones, the shield will be pushed to its limit.”

Suddenly Daring Rose’s eyes widened as she understood, “You were the most powerful beings in Equestria back then, so she had to use over half her powers to fight you, but when you all fused your powers together, she had to use her whole power!”

“Indeed. And not only just that, but with the power of four fully developed alicorns and the six elements of harmony, even her couldn’t stand a chance. I was just going to take out her magic and trap her in stone. Little did I know what I was about to do…”

“A kitsune that loses all its magic turns into dust,” Daring Rose answered. “Didn’t you know it?”

Twilight just shook her head, “No I didn’t. But how do you know?”

“Well… Equestria build relations with other nations long ago, I mean, about half a century ago. Zebras, changelings, griffins, hippogriffs, minotaurs, goats and even nagas… they all have a strong relationship with Equestria nowadays, including culture exchanges, so we know a bit of each other.”

“So the changelings live in peace with ponies now?” Twilight smiled. “That’s a tale for another time though. But yes, I have no means to know back then that a kitsune without magic turned to dust, unable to return ever more. In other words, it died. It took me most of a week to overcome my mistake and the fact I have taken a life. However, Equestria was safe once more and that, in the end, was what truly mattered.”

“So… how Canterlot became destroyed? I think you said that Ponyville was destroyed…”

“Twilight had killed the kitsunes’ Empress,” Discord answered. “Of course, they decided to retaliate.”

“They launched a full attack at Canterlot. Besides their troops weren’t as powerful as Nikko, They were indeed very powerful, and the Royal Guard was losing ground. Even adding mine, my friends’ and the other princesses’ powers, we were losing. And once again, it had come to overkill or losing our country. This time though, the amount of enemies meant that I couldn’t focus the destruction area only in front of me. By expanding it to Canterlot, everyone inside its radius was killed. Ponies, griffins, zebras, kitsunes… The only four being that still breathed after that massive wall of fire was me, my faithful assistant Spike, the immortal Philomena and my friend Discord.”

“You mean…”

“With their powers mixed with mine, they had nothing left to protect them from the magical blast. Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie… I accidentally killed them all. To save Equestria, I killed all its pillars. And then, out of shame, I hid myself. My only companies being the three friends to survive that cursed blast.

“In the end, I became Equestria’s worse enemy…”

Monster

“In the end, I became Equestria’s worse enemy,” Twilight said, her face down, not able to look on Daring Rose’s eyes.

“What? NO!” the unicorn shot right up more than a little angry at that statement. Twilight only looked at her curiously. “If it wasn’t for you, the kitsune would have taken over the whole Equestria back then!”

“Even so, young one, there are many ways to do ‘the right thing’. I choose the wrong one to save Equestria, believing that magic itself could make anything. I just forgot there was one thing no amount of magic in the whole world will ever be able to do: magic alone cannot and will not ever be able to give life.”

“But that…”

“With my burst of rage and magic, I killed the ponies most important to my life. My mentor, my sister-in-law, my parents, and most of my best friends, they all became ashes in…” even with the somber moment, Twilight couldn’t hold a chuckle at her thought, “… in ten seconds flat…”

==================

“Gates north and west are giving up by now! Twi! What are we supposed to do?” Rainbow Dash asked still in her rainbow-powered form. The speed she had with that power made her the most viable way of communication between the many defense points of Canterlot.

“Applejack and Pinkie Pie must hold on a little longer! Tell them that they can go up to 60% of their power!” Twilight answered and Rainbow Dash vanished in a rainbow stream.

Earlier in the battle, Princesses Celestia and Luna were hit by a magic poison or something that made them sick. They were out of danger by now but still recovering over their sickness before returning to the battlefield, so they both gave their powers to Twilight, just in case they were needed.

“I should be able to help them, Twily!” Shining Armor called from her wife’s side.

“I know it, Shining. However, we can’t afford them finding out where we’re hiding Luna and Celestia and with me having to move constantly between there and the frontlines, your invisible barrier allied with the power of Cadance are our best chance to give Luna and Celestia time to recover!”

“Twilight is right, Shining!” Cadance agreed. “We must trust our ponies to protect their land and loved ones!”

Shining Armor was ready to protest further, but shook his head. “Maybe you’re right…” he said. “Sorry… Just too long being captain of the Royal Guard…”

Twilight looked up from where she stood, “Incoming Fire Bombs!”

She then opened her wings and teleported before flapping them, focusing her magic and enveloping all five immense fire balls the kitsunes had lanced from behind the walls. As answer, she threw all of them high up and forcing them to shock each other and explode where they would likely be harmless. They’ve learned hard enough that the kitsunes’ ‘paint magic’ do not seems to respect ponies’ knowledge about magic.

From her vantage point, Twilight looked around and noticed the four walls of what was now the Inner Circle, they all being protected by Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack and Pinkie Pie. Rainbow Dash acted mostly on advanced attack, flying above the wall erected by Rarity’s magic, and delivered of messages. Some even thought to see two of her at same place going in different directions, both allies and enemies.

When Rainbow Dash approached her for more news on the battlefront, Twilight noticed something different. “Twilight! They got a demon with eight tails in their numbers! She’s not as powerful as the other but having to deal with her and the whole kitsune army is just impossible!”

Twilight focused her eyes, “Warn the others and keep the Inner Circle safe and fighting. Change tactics with Shining Armor and Cadance, they are to place a hiding and a shield spell over Celestia and Luna and move into battlefield. You shall check on them regularly and ensure they’re safe. Sorry, Dash. I know you feel better in the frontline and all, but with me going there, I trust you to keep them coordinated.”

Rainbow Dash let out a sigh. “Fine, Twi. If there’s no other way, I’ll do it. I assume Cadance is responsible for Inner Circle then?”

“Cadance shall help and protect ponies. I’m expecting Shining to become military leader,” Twilight answered simple. “Better I go now. Where’s this eight tailed kitsune?”

“North. Not hard to find, I swear it!” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight then turned to north and went flying there full speed. True to Dash’s words, it was not hard to see where she was, after all, she was casting most of the fire bombs anyway. Twilight hovered in place and shot in her direction a single powerful magic blast. The eight tailed kitsune managed to evade the blast, but a few weaker kitsunes didn’t have that luck and most of them died instantly, a few even unluckier were slowly dying from the burnt caused by the massive spell.

The Princess of Friendship landed in front of her new rival, both looking each other in the eye and the kitsune was first to attack. Jumping against Twilight to bite her neck, she got surprised by the strength of the pony princess’ wings which threw her behind. Using a brush-tail, she ‘painted’ herself a support to break her fall before jumping back and using that support as a shield against Twilight’s blast.

From the sides of her shield, the kitsune threw eight fireballs against Twilight which then teleported behind the kitsune ready to steal her magic once and for all. She was met, though, by a wave of the eight tails, creating a wind powerful enough to knock her out of balance and all but destroy a wall by the impact. Focusing all eight tails to send a dark ray against the place the alicorn was supposed to be, the kitsune never thought of the possibility of Twilight flying and reaching her from above.

To their merit, the kitsunes could be very elusive when they wanted to. They now stood, eye to eye, looking each other over.

“You’re holding back…” Twilight called.

“I want slaves, not bodies,” the kitsune answered. “Who else would dig the gems for us to use?”

“I see.”

“What you’ll do about it, Princess?” she asked. “I happen to know you’re the weakest of them all… Being just recently crowned…”

“So you have nothing to fear, right?”

“Why that comment?”

“Because you forgot to watch out your other sides.”

The kitsune looked at her both sides and only then noticed herself surrounded by all sides by Twilight’s spell, a variation of Celestia’s Solstice Wrath that Twilight tuned up a bit. It locks the enemy into a strong force field and then feed heat until it’s no more. Soon the magic enveloped the kitsune and she put out her best shields, not sure what was going to happen. Soon, flare after flare, the interior of the shield began hammering the kitsune’s shield, the heat increasing more and more. Twilight called this spell Flashfire, which was based on a ‘natural’ phenomenon where the heat raised so much that even the air itself burned, giving out a strong flash before burning everything in a confined space.

The kitsune could feel the heat building in and she knew she had done exactly what the alicorn had wanted her to do. However, she still had a trick upon her tail. Using only one, so her shield wouldn’t break up too soon, she soon enveloped herself in a dark cloud. And then, all of a sudden, her shield gave up and the Flashfire gave its characteristic bright flash before disappearing altogether. Twilight, though, looked up to the top of a building.

“So kitsunes can teleport too…” Twilight commented.

“Rather rare ability,” the kitsune assumed. “You almost had me, Princess.”

“‘Almost’ is not good enough.”

“I assume it’s not.” The kitsune then smiled at her, “But there’s nothing much you can do about it. You, ponies, will pay for killing my mother!”

All of a sudden, the Kitsune started to gather the magic in her tails. Noticing the amount of magic the kitsune was going to throw at them, Twilight’s eyes widened and she teleported away. Luck of lucks, Rainbow Dash was bringing another report to Shining Armor when she appeared.

“Dash! I’m so glad you’re here! Bring all the girls there! RIGHT NOW!” Twilight called. As Rainbow Dash was gone, Twilight called another ally. “Discord! I need you to evacuate every single pony you can as soon as you’re able! You have my authorization to not wait for permission!” her answer came in form of a griffin claw coming out of a stone pillar with a thumbs up, which also quickly disappeared. She then turned to Cadance. “Sorry, but I’m afraid I’ll need to borrow your magic once again.”

The other girls reached them just in time to hear Cadance, “You have my consent.”

Suddenly understanding what was going on, only Shining Armor not quite grasping that, Twilight reached out with her magic to take to her again all the magic from her friends, and as she was already with Celestia’s and Luna’s magic, once again she became the de facto most powerful being in all Equestria. Her last vision was Discord taking her friends and letting out a vocal message to her: Discord did all he could by now.

Clear from her inhibitions, Twilight charged her horn with practiced easy, what the kitsune probably lacked, and shot it in the proper direction. Suddenly both behemoths of magic hit exactly in the middle of them both, each one almost in an extremity of the city. Every single kitsune and building got in the middle of the blast was utterly destroyed, not even ashes remaining. However, the eight tailed kitsune had no chance whatsoever to survive a blast that killed a nine tailed one. In ten seconds of struggles, Twilight’s magic hit the kitsune and, from there, a huge spherical explosion took over all of Canterlot.

Extending her shield as strong and as far as she could, Twilight only managed to protect Canterlot’s castle, the rest of the once beautiful city was now a huge crater from where their magic collided, a continuous groove from the blasts to each side, an even bigger crater where the magic hit the kitsune or ruins due to the after effect of Twilight’s spell. The only difference between Canterlot and Ponyville was the capital had a long time of influence of alicorns’ magic, so most of its buildings survived, even more the closer to the castle they were.

After making sure the battle was over, Discord came over to see Twilight. Also, different from the aftermath of Ponyville, Twilight survived this blast a lot less tired and a lot more intact. “We won, Twilight,” he claimed. “Come and we’ll…”

“I’m going to the Kitsune Empire,” she said with determination. “Alone. Finish this off once and for all, destroying all their library about their magic and killing everyone with more than three tails. After all, every soldier that we faced today had four tails or more.”

“Twilight… look at what you’re saying!” Discord tried.

The Princess of Friendship then cast him a glance that frozen his spine -- quite literally, after all, small icicles formed along his spine -- and after he shook it off, she continued, “I’m not doing this for revenge, Discord. This will continue until they are terminated or we become their slaves. I’m not accepting any options, so I’ll make sure there’s no chance in Tartarus they’ll be able to fight once again, not in the very distant future!”

==================

“And then I did just that,” Twilight said. “Destroyed every single magic school and library in the Kitsune Empire and killed every kitsune with more than four tails I found. I used my magic to conceal my form, so they wouldn’t associate the sudden attack to Equestria, and no race would ever think in attacking a dragon after their whole Empire was almost totally destroyed by a single one of them.”

“But… what happened to the other Princesses?” Daring Rose asked.

Twilight’s head feel, “My campaign in the in the Kitsune Empire, even with my power and speed, took a full month…”

==================

Twilight walked back into the refuge they had created for the ponies in case there was the need for Twilight to use her full power again. As she walked, though, ponies were saddened and altogether weak, about to break. There was a private area where the Princesses and her friends would stay, for they needed a lot more care now that they didn’t had their magic to help them.

As the Princess of Friendship approached, she was greeted by her brother. “Twily…” he said in a very low tone.

“Shining? What happened?”

“We tried, Twily… We tried everything… but…”

Twilight’s eyes widened and she all but pushed her brother aside. There was nopony else inside but the eight ponies above their beddings. The two central ones held Princesses Luna and Celestia, their manes and tails not flowing anymore, with Celestia’s now a pink common pony mane and Luna’s light blue. At Celestia’s left side stood Cadance, Rarity and Pinkie Pie and at Luna’s right, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Applejack. To this day, their flanks were still blank by the lack of magic in their bodies, but as soon as Twilight saw them, she began crying. There was no need to try and return their magic.

There were no living beings to return magic to.

Shining Armor came after her a little later, touched her shoulder, “Discord told us what you did Twily. Nopony blames you, and you were right. Celestia and Luna would--”

“They would be alive…” Twilight cut him, still crying. “I killed them… I knew they needed their magic back, but I left… We should have gone all together… I would take their magic with me and by the end of the day, I could return it to them… So they would stay alive and we would have won same way… I was foolish, stupid and impulsive… I… I killed them… I KILLED THEM ALL!”

The last words accidentally triggering the Royal Canterlot Voice shook the whole cave they were hiding in. Nopony needed a clue to say what that was about and, somehow, Twilight felt their sympathy. Nopony blamed her, truly. And it only hurt her more, for she knew it was her fault. Why couldn’t they see it? Why couldn’t they see the monster she became? Monster… as Nightmare Moon… Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra… Tirek… Nikko… A new monster entered in the Hall of Shame: Twilight Sparkle, the monster that killed Princesses Luna and Celestia, a monster that killed every single of the most powerful beings in the world, a monster that was unmatchable in power and knowledge… A monster that would live forever to mourn the loss of those she once, and still, loved… A monster that killed those she loved…

Discord appeared by her side and touched her other shoulder and, with his head, signaled to Shining Armor to leave. The prince nodded and left the small sanctuary.

“Twilight?”

“Better you go away, Discord, before I kill you too…” Twilight said between her sobs.

“It was an accident, Twilight,” Discord answered. “Nopony knew the effects magic drain could cause in a pony. When Tirek attacked, it lasted a few hours before you girls returned it so there was no time gap to analyze. The ponies which lost it for more time were for a couple days max, but your friends stood without their powers for a full month. There was simply no way for us to anticipate what would happen…”

“And does it change the fact that I killed them?” Twilight asked.

“Your ponies need you Twilight. They have nopony else to run to!”

Twilight stood in silence for some time. Then she closed her eyes and sighed, “They have Shining Armor.”

And before anything else could be said, Twilight Sparkle teleported away.

==================

“She hid her presence so well it took me ten years to find her there,” Discord assumed.

“Y-Y-You named first Chancellor Shining Armor?” Daring Rose asked.

“Maybe,” Twilight allowed. “White coat, blue mane and tail, shield cutie mark.”

“That’s him…” Daring Rose said. “He… History said that he became the first Chancellor after the Princesses passed away… But nothing proves that one of them given him the power!”

“And since it was a verbal… order only, there will never be a way to prove that.”

Forgiveness

After Twilight finished the history to Daring Rose, the Princess herself took the unicorn to a tour through the ruins, pointing most of the places and saying where (and what) a shop was even when they reached the main destruction site. The sight of the destruction surprised Daring Rose more than she thought it would. A deep groove seemed to extend from close to the castle to the edge of the town, which could be about fifty meters across, probably larger.

“And right there…” the Princess stopped and pointed at a crumbling house at the edge of the groove in the side they were now, “is the house where I grow up. Of course, it was a couple millenniums ago, but it’s still there, surviving for a couple meters only…”

“Wow… The house where one of the Princesses were born…”

“You said you were an archeologist, right?” Twilight asked. She then looked at one side where, instantly, Discord appeared. “Discord, go back to the castle and bring them.” The Draconequus nodded and disappeared again, puzzling Daring Rose. He wasn’t gone for long, though, before he appeared again, bringing a box and presenting it to Daring Rose, “I believe these would have a better use in a museum.”

Using her magic to open the box, Daring Rose’s eyes widened even more. Inside the rather large box where the regalia of three from the four Princesses of Old Equestria, only Twilight’s one missing. The sets were complete, from the regal and large golden set of Celestia, the outstanding black set of Luna and the more delicate golden set of Cadance. And as she was impressed with the sight, she barely noticed a fourth set being added to their proper place inside the box. Looking at the silver carver set of the Princess of Friendship, Daring Rose raised her face to see Twilight, now without a piece of her regalia.

“But…”

“I have no need for these anymore, Daring Rose,” Twilight stopped her. “I lost my friends, my family and my home. I even lost the right to rule over my little ponies. You’re doing fine without me, I assume?”

“Well… The Equestrian Trinity Parliament is not flawless but the system works rather fine…”

“Trinity?” Twilight ignited her horn, her magic quickly restoring the building that once was her home as she easily remembered it. She pointed at the table where both of them sat, the box being placed aside. Discord served both of them more tea as Twilight looked at Daring Rose. “Please, enlighten me.”

“Well… History shows the change of the Military Hierarchy to an earlier form of our actual parliament still under the rule of Shining Armor. Along the years, the system refined itself and grew stronger and more consolidate. Actually, the Trinity represents the three classes of Equestria and its three tribes, which places a total of nine parliamentarians: three pegasi, three earth ponies and three unicorns; one of each representing the aristocracy, one the common citizen and the last the military. Recently the parliament added three more beings and they are now known as the ‘foreign tribes’, tribes from other races not from Equestria, like the crystal ponies, thestrals, zebras, minotaurs, griffins… you name it.

“Aside from these, called High Parliament, there are the Noble Parliament, where only the elected ones can enter and discuss new laws and actions; and the Common Parliament, where any citizen can join to propose laws and courses of actions.” A chuckle escaped Daring Rose’s muzzle, “You could say that the ponies now have a more active political lives.”

“And what about the crystal ponies?” Twilight enquired. “Why they don’t have a proper seat in the parliament, but are placed with the foreign?”

“They emancipate after their Royal Family’s death. The Crystal Republic is now home to the crystal ponies,” Daring Rose said with a smile. “Most of them still value the lessons from their last Crystal Princess or something.”

“Cadance,” Twilight smiled. “She was well known in the Crystal Empire as the Crystal Princess.”

“And it was thanks to the gems of Equestria, the crystals from the, now called, Crystal Republic and the crazy machinations of both earth ponies and unicorns that Equestria discovered a new kind of science: technology!” Daring Rose said with a smile. “We have plenty of useful tools and devices now, both for work and for fun! Well… at least those which works outside of ancient and dangerous ruins…”

Twilight actually chuckled at that one. “And what’s so interesting about this ‘technology’?”

“Mostly that it’s accessible to all races and tribes without constant supervision of unicorns,” Daring Rose said with a smile. “With it, we can, for example, follow things happening in the other side of the world almost in real time in the comfort of our home!

“There’s also the possibility to chat with people far away as if they’re just at your side! Documents, messages, even images can travel the whole world in matter of seconds! And no talking about the games and other recreational technologies!”

Twilight smiled at her, “It really seems imposing. Maybe you could send me one of those devices so we can keep contact?”

“Well… I could but… these devices have a little… problem…” Daring Rose said a bit embarrassed. “They need to be recognized officially… so you need to come and get one yourself…”

“Oh… that’s a problem…”

Then Daring Rose had an idea, “Maybe, Princess, that’s actually a solution!” Twilight looked at her curiously. “I mean… from what you told me until now, everyone knew what needed doing and no one blamed you… only yourself. Maybe it’s time for you to forgive yourself and move on? Come with me! I’ll take you to a tour across the New Equestria and you could see it all with your own eyes!”

Twilight looked at her, “I’m not sure, Daring Rose… I mean… the moment I announce I’m alive…”

“Ponies will respect you, Princess, but I don’t think they will hand over a system that works so well to return to the Princess time! Maybe build a Castle for you and keep you as a royal figure, but without any major political influence!”

“Somehow I don’t believe that gonna happen.”

“But there’s a possibility, Twilight,” Discord said. “You could disguise yourself as a unicorn and walk among them, learn their new culture and determine for yourself if it’s going to happen or not.”

“And how do you suppose that I hide this much power?” Twilight asked. “The moment I step into the city, everypony will notice my presence, regardless of my actual form!”

“Well… After what they call ‘The Great Massacre’, the kitsunes developed a new kind of spell to seal their power away. They are afraid that if any of them acquire power equivalent to more than three tails worth, the ‘Shinigami’, their version of the Reaper for what I know, will come and take them…” Daring Rose commented. “They call it a Hoshi no Tama or something like that. It’s translated as ‘Star Balls’ or something alike and I saw one once. They are really shining spheres that conceal their true powers. Most kitsunes just create and destroy these just in case the Shinigami decides these counts as their power as well.”

“See?” Discord said with a smile. “I can go and learn this spell and then bring it back to you. No harm done and you seal enough of your power to pass as a common unicorn. And don’t give me that look, Twilight!” Discord called as soon as he saw Twilight’s disapproving gaze upon him. “You know that hardly a unicorn could match your magic as a unicorn!”

Twilight let out a long sigh. “You won’t let me leave this with a ‘no’, right?” she asked and received three nods. Looking at Philomena she raised an eyebrow, “Et tu Brute?”

The phoenix looked embarrassed but held her decision. Daring Rose giggled, “And you can take Philomena as a pet! It’s a given that phoenix are rare, but if they are in a family for generations, as is almost your case, they let it slip. And by the way she acts around you, you can pull that one!”

Philomena chirped some and nodded. Twilight finale agreed, “Fine. I’ll cast this Hoshi no Tama spell. Discord, you’ll help me get a disguise that won’t directly give up my identity and you’ll keep close, in case I need to get my full power again.”

“Agreed, Your Highness,” the Draconequus agreed. “If you allow me, I’ll go burrow a book about this spell…”

“Actually, it’s more of a ritual than a common spell,” Daring Rose said. “A friend of mine asked my help with that one a while ago.”

“A… friend?” Twilight asked not sure if she heard right. “As in a kitsune friend?”

“Yes, Princess. Remember? The races now live in peace, and there’s quite a number of kitsunes living in New Canterlot now actually,” Daring Rose answered.

Twilight let out another breath, “I suspect times have changed… So, you know this ritual then?”

Daring Rose smiled and nodded softly, “There’s a little variation for you have a horn only instead of multiple tails, but my friend also said this spell was compatible with unicorns. Powerful enough unicorns are supposed to undergo this in order to visit the Kitsune Empire, due to their mythology and believe.”

“They don’t want to call the wrath of their Shinigami?” Discord chuckled, but a look of Twilight shut him up. “Sorry.”

“How is this ritual supposed to be?” Twilight asked.

“When I read at the script, I noticed a lot of it was only for culture and a waste of magic. It seems the reason for kitsunes being averagely more magical than unicorns is because they need to be artistic when using it…” Daring Rose explained.

“Let’s respect tradition. Tradition is important on a spell, as much as knowing it right and in a ritual so much more,” Twilight said with a smile.

Daring Rose nodded. “I see. Well, you must start by painting your seal with your own magic. The seal can be anything you want, something that symbolizes you. You must understand that kitsunes don’t have cutie marks, so I guess these seals work as a substitute.”

“I suppose it’s not an indoor ritual, right?” Twilight smiled.

“Well… yes and no… That varies with the amount of magic you’re sealing… which is quite a lot in your case…” Daring Rose agreed. “Well, there’s something you want to do it?”

“May I suggest a place?” Discord asked.

==================

They were back where Daring Rose has saw Twilight rise the Moon. She had to agree that there was no better place in all of Equestria to place a ritual like this.

“Well… let’s take it piece by piece again,” Twilight said from the ritual. “First, my seal; then the ‘flames of soul’; the vows of sealing; expanding my magic; and finally condensing it?”

Daring Rose nodded, “Shokan explained to me the meaning of each step. The seal is the expression of your soul, your individuality among your own kind, kinda like our cutie marks as I said.

“The Tamashi no Hono, the ‘flames of soul’, is summoning fire balls that will keep an orbit around you along all the ritual. Each ‘flame’ will hold a portion of your magic. On kitsunes, it’s proportional to their tails. In your case, you can share however you feel like, so you can have a better grasp of what magic you’ll seal and you’ll retain to yourself.

“The vows of sealing refer to the moment you can reclaim your powers. You can set different vows for each fraction of your magic, so you can reclaim them if a situation calls for it. It’s mostly the reason why the Tamashi no Hono are also called ‘flames of truth’ some times.

“Expanding your magic outside your body represents your trust in the elements and in the others around you to protect you while you’re totally powerless. It’s also a preparation for the last step: condensing your magic.

“As a guide, you use the ‘flames of soul’ to gather and hold your magic within. When your magic reaches a certain point, it becomes physical, a crystal, and can be held and protected for whenever you need to recall them. Remember to focus on the magic you want to return to you after the ritual is finished, or else you’ll be utterly powerless!”

Discord was scratching his beard during the whole explanation, “Hmmm… a ceremony full of meaning. I believe Tirek would love to be present with all this magic roaming free…”

Even Twilight chuckled at the thought, “Not mentioning the chance to get revenge on me. After all, I would be utterly powerless. Well… time to start working…”

Twilight then closed her eyes and focused her magic. Her horn lit and just behind her, a purple light just like her cutie mark appeared and she began floating. Then she opened her eyes and wings, ten large fire balls started spinning around her slowly and, after they were in a consistent orbit around her, Twilight declared her vows: “I, Princess Twilight Sparkle of Equestria, vow to only reclaim this magic under circumstances that would endanger Equestria or a portion of its population.”

Unexpected to even Twilight (actually only Daring Rose expected it) the ten flame balls pulsed a little and shone a bright golden for less than a second. Following up with the ritual, Twilight externalized all of her magic, something she was afraid to do for quite a long time. Her own magic, even after all these years, was able to part what portion of it belonged to each of her friends, separating it slowly. It turned out that Twilight would retain enough magic to be half way into the power of an alicorn and the rest of it, even her own magic, would be sealed way.

Guiding each group of magic to a particular flame, Discord pointed at each vividly colored magic amalgam in a very specific order, yellow, dark blue, cyan, red, blue, purple, orange, pink, and finally a pale pink color, calling respectively, “Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, Applejack, Twilight herself and Fluttershy.”

“And the tenth magic group?” Daring Rose asked.

“That’s also Twilight’s magic. She’s parting a part of it so she won’t have the magic of an alicorn, but only a very powerful unicorn,” Discord answered. “The tenth group is the magic she’ll return to herself.”

Looking back at the Princess, Daring Rose noted that the flames had died and, in their place, where softly glowing crystal spheres, only one of them floating back to Twilight, breaking up and fusing back to her owner. The others were quickly enveloped in Twilight’s magic aura and kept floating as she gently lifted back to the floor and touched it. Only then her seal faded. The shining orbs were still glowing in the same colors Daring Rose saw the magic parting while Twilight was condensing it.

Nine orbs, nine magic powerful enough to protect the world against utterly anything.

Discord snapped his bird-claws and a case appeared over it with precisely nine round padded slots on it, each one of them with a cutie mark belonging to those same beings. Twilight smiled, “Well thought, Discord. Thank you.”

As the orbs floated to their respective place, Discord looked at Twilight with a touch of concern, “How do you feel, Twi?”

She just smiled at him, “A bit tired, I guess. Or not. I mean, I know my magic is at the full but…”

“You know you’re still missing a large part of it, right?” Daring Rose took this long to say something because, now, she could look at Twilight and even with horn and wings, the mare was just another pony. Her hair wasn’t ethereal anymore, probably by Twilight breaking the spell to not consume any more of her, now smaller magic reserves. “Shokan says it’s the worst part of the ritual.”

“Wait, says?” Discord asked. “I thought you said kitsunes broke theirs!”

“They do. But when your body is adapted to an amount of power, it finds its way to grow into it again. Your magic grows faster to restore that amount of magic you once had, or so she says. That’s why kitsunes must do it frequently after they do the very first time.”

“I guess I understand,” Twilight said. Flapping her wings and noticing she would not be able to fly anymore. “Good bye, pegasus magic.”

Discord then snapped his fingers again and both wings simply disappeared, “Now that you only have unicorn magic again I can do that and more. Let’s work on your disguise, Twilight?”

After about two hours of trying new colors for coat, mane and tail, Twilight was turned into a dark blue coat mare, remembering a bit Luna’s coat, with a dark-silvery mane and tail. Her cutie mark, though, wasn’t touched by magic, so she became Twilight Star.

She smiled and then presented herself to the others, which agreed she was beautiful in that new form of hers. Philomena then flew over her and softly landed on her mane, just above her horn.

“Hmmm… You sure there will not be problems if I brought Philomena with me?” Twilight asked.

“Legally? Very few. Of course we would like to take you to register her as a pet or something quickly enough or else she may end up ‘disappearing’ due to her feathers.”

Twilight looked at her puzzled, “What do you mean?”

“That phoenixes are an almost extinct species nowadays…” Daring Rose said in a sad tone.

“And then I shall go with you,” a male childish voice said from behind the sun in the altar they were. Twilight quickly recognized it though.

Much to Daring Rose’s puzzlement, a new phoenix flew and joined Philomena for a little before they parted, the newcomer decided he wanted to know the new person there.

“I thought Peewee had returned to his parents,” Twilight asked and looked in Spike’s direction. “I suppose you’ve felt the magic distortion?”

“Hard not to feel it. Just took time to be presentable and teleported in. And about Peewee, we met each other a while back and he recognized me before I did. We’ve been together since then.” The small purple dragon finally appeared and Daring Rose’s first word to describe him was ‘cute’, being small with greenish belly and green spikes and eyes. “Oh, and who’s the new girl?”

“Her name is Daring Rose,” Twilight answered. “I thought you would be more surprised in seeing me as a unicorn, and a very different one at that…”

“Nah, your cutie mark gave you away. You know, if you wanna go to the New Equestria, you’ll need to change that cutie mark, Twilight. That one belongs to a Princess of Equestria, it is a dead giveaway!”

“But… My cutie mark is who I am!” Twilight tried to fight back.

“That’s the spot, Twilight!” Spike continued. “If you go there, the ponies will expect you to return to the throne and rule them again. That is whom you are! Princess of Friendship! If you want to go there unnoticed, you must be not you! And it must start by your cutie mark.”

Twilight thought hard on that and answered back, “But there’s no magic strong enough to change a cutie mark!”

“Illusion!” Spike, Discord and Daring Rose said together, making Twilight’s ear fall down in embarrassment.

“FINE! Fine… I’ll… change my cutie mark…”

“What name you picked?” Spike asked.

“What’s about the name now?”

“Knowing you, it would be something like ‘Twilight Star’, or ‘Crystal Sparkle’. You’re never good with names,” he answered. Daring Rose and Discord only chuckled at that as Twilight got even more embarrassed. “Hmmm… these colors… Why not Star Stream? Then your cutie mark can be a silver six pointed stars with a cloud of smaller ones following it. Like a shooting star or something.”

“It’s actually a very good name and idea,” Discord said with a smile. “And I’ll do one better than a simple illusion.” At the snap of Discord’s fingers, Twilight felt something strange on her flanks and turned to see what was going on. She could see a second coat cover growing over her cutie mark, hiding it completely without making it disappear, and then the new fake cutie mark appeared above it. “There are spells to look over an illusion, but nothing will notice a coat hiding her cutie mark.”

“Thank you Discord,” Twilight said. “And Spike, even if you want to come and protect us, I can’t let you. You would be another dead giveaway…”

“Actually, not that much,” Daring Rose said. “Equestria is also home for young dragons from time to time. It just happened you met outside the city while moving there.”

“Fine then. But it would be better if you camouflaged yourself too,” Twilight called.

With a snap of his fingers, Discord quickly changed Spike into another baby dragon, one red with yellow belly and golden spikes. Daring Rose let out a low whistle, “Forget Philomena’s feathers. They’ll be coming for Spike’s scales!”

“And I’m not Spike anymore. Call me… Crimson.”

“I won’t accept any more remarks about my choice of names after that, Crimson,” Twilight chuckled. “Okay, Discord, you’ll have the power to lower the sun and the moon in my absence. Please, for all that you praise and love, STICK TO SCHEDULE!”

“Don’t worry, Twilight. I’ll keep things running smooth, I promise,” Discord said with a smile. “Cross my heart and hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye,” he said as she danced with the little rhyme.

Daring Rose blinked, “What was that?”

“Pinkie Promise. Long story short, created by Pinkie Pie, the most random pony in history of Equestria,” Twilight explained. “And nopony breaks a Pink Promise EVER.”

“Anyway, better we go then, right? New Canterlot isn’t anywhere near there!” Spike called, jumping on Twilight’s back. He then chuckled, “Like the bad old times, right Twilight?”

“Only this time I’ll need your help with magic more often than not,” she smiled. “But silly as he is, Spike… better, Crimson is right.”

“Kinda…” Daring Rose smiled. “If we follow the rails, we’ll reach a small station to a village settled at the foot of this mountain. Besides people avoid Canterlot and Ponyville Ruins, they recognize the need to grow in their direction a little. They just respect the peace.”

“I bet all my spikes that ‘Ponyville Ruins’ can be translated as ‘Everfree Overgrown’…” Spike whispered to Twilight and both of them shuddered at the thought.

“Well, by hoof, we’ll not be able to reach the foot of the mountain before sunset,” Twilight said. “One last night here, at Canterlot, and then tomorrow morning we head down to this village you said.”