Flurry Heart and The Original One

Chapters

The Princess of Balance
Mysterious Visitor
Coronation
Return of Darkness
The Ascent
The Original One
The Titans Awaken
Flurry's Rising
Epilogue

The Princess of Balance

Author's Note

Hey, guys!

I've been on a bit of a Pokémon kick lately, and I came up with this little story. It's mostly just for fun, so sorry if it's not spectacular, but I wouldn't dare shirk my duty as a writer for something even as simple as this. Enjoy!

The Princess of Balance

In the vast, frigid desolation of the Frozen North was its lone oasis whose protective warmth was born of pure love, the ponies’ very own Crystal Empire. High within the Royal Tower in the center of the glimmering city standing in her balcony was Flurry Heart basking in the radiant light of Celestia’s afternoon sun. Today was the eve of her eighteenth birthday, and tomorrow, she would be officially coroneted as Equestria’s newest princess.

As her mother and father already represented love just her aunt Twilight was the Princess of Friendship, Flurry Heart’s sphere would be a balance of both of these ideas. Her father conceived the idea of calling her the Princess of Growth, but even he quickly dismissed it as too vague to describe her. Ever since she was a foal, Flurry Heart had been taught and raised by her parents and aunt as well as the Royal Sisters, so she was far more sensitive to the world around her than her elder royalties, and her Cutie Mark became a grand map of the world. In recent years, she had helped to mend rocky relations with the griffons and build healthy ones with the dragons, something even her aunt experienced a little difficulty doing. She even managed to slowly introduce the zebras and ponies after taking the time to visit their native land and learn about their rich culture. Her varied amount of growth leading to her sensitivity had allowed everypony to come to an appropriate title: the Princess of Balance.

“Flurry?” somepony called from behind her.

Flurry looked back to see her father approaching, and she smiled. “Hi, dad.”

Shining Armor was the same as always. His youthful vigor had refused to leave his body even if it had started to age, and his enthusiasm sometimes caused him to embarrass himself, which he didn’t complain about if it meant getting a laugh out of his family. Fathering his daughter had helped him ease into a more mature disposition despite this…..and with her help, he finally had grown his wings. “How’s my little Princess of Balance?”

Flurry giggled. “Dad, tomorrow hasn’t happened yet.”

“It might as well have given all you’ve been able to accomplish.” Shining said. “You’ve grown so much, you might as well be Mt. Everhooof.”

Flurry blushed. “Aww! Dad, stop it.”

“I’m just saying, pumpkin.” Shining said. “You might not have been alone most of the time, but your influence helped us make Equestria even more peaceful than it already was.“ He then looked back at his wings. “And you helped your old man finally realize his true potential.”

Flurry rested her head on his shoulder. “Even if you never got those wings, that wouldn’t make you any less of a prince, or my father.”

Shining chuckled. “Great. Now you’re mom’s got you saying that.” He joked.

“We’re only saying it because it’s true. We love you, dad.” Flurry said as she looked up at him.

“I love you too, honey. We’re so proud of you” Shining said. “Now, what did I come to get you for?.....Oh, right! Rehearsal for the ceremony is about to start!”

Flurry gasped. “That much time has passed already!? Oh my gosh. Thanks, dad!” She ran off of her balcony and exited her room with her father following.

*****

It took Shining a moment to calm her down, but the two eventually trotted through town to the empire’s auditorium. Many a passerby took the time to greet their soon-to-be new princess along the way, which she happily returned. The royal guards standing in front of the entrance bowed to their lieges upon allowing them entry. The auditorium itself was a unique place despite being mostly crystalline like everywhere else in the empire. It had some renovations done to it that were the result of influence of Equestrian ponies so as to accommodate tourists and immigrating residents, and much of the performance hall itself was reminiscent of the one in Canterlot where the Hearth’s Warmth Eve play was performed. Stagehands were finishing up the decorations and testing the equipment before they could get started.

“There you two are!” They looked over to see Cadance trotting up to them.

“Hi, mom!”

“Hi, sweetie.” They gingerly hugged for a quick moment before another familiar voice spoke.

“What am I, chopped liver?” Flurry looked up and saw that it was her lavender-colored aunt.

“Hi, Aunt Twilight!” Flurry hugged her tightly as well.

Twilight giggled. “Hi, scary bear.”

Flurry let go of her and pouted in mellow annoyance. “Really? I’m about to hit 18, and you still haven’t let that down?”

Twilight playfully smirked. “I’m enjoying the last few moments of it that I can.” Flurry grumbled and blushed.

“Come on, Twilight. Let her feel like an adult.” Next to her aunt was a white pegasus stallion with deep blue eyes and a lunar silver mane and tail. His Cutie Mark depicted a sword being held skyward with wings growing from either side of its hilt, which suited that fact that he was wearing armor that matched his coat with gold piping along its edges and carried a sword.

Flurry regained her smile and hugged him. “Hi, Uncle Airheart.”

Airheart chuckled and hugged her back. “Hey, kiddo.” He said.

Airheart was Twilight’s new husband of four years whom she met when Flurry was about ten. Before becoming the Prince of Friendship, he was a mercenary whom Spike had hired a few times without her knowledge, much to her annoyance, but each time he helped, Twilight had been continually impressed with his diligent motivation to help others even if he sometimes ended up as being more of an errand boy than a warrior. She offered him the position of her guard captain, which he took with some hesitance as it would effectively end his ability to freely travel to help those in need, but he quickly realized that a relationship with Twilight was far from a hindrance on his life. If anything, his sense of freedom never completely left, but what little of it did was filled with a sense of joy that he could never have had otherwise. Nopony was surprised, and everypony was overjoyed when the two finally decided to tie the knot, Flurry especially with what fond memories she has of him telling her stories of his previous adventures across Equestria and what all he learned on his travels.

“Man oh man. Time sure does fly by, huh? I coulda sworn just the other day you were still ten and eating through Twilight’s books.” Airheart said.

“I still kinda do. Well, my own copies of them anyway.” Flurry said. She looked around and wondered something. “Where’s Spike?”

“Who? Me?” In walked the purple dragon himself, whom had grown to about Shining Armor’s height over the years along with his own set of wings. His features had become much more defined, his fire breath was far more powerful, and he actually looked objectively handsome, even from a pony’s perspective.

“Yeah, you!” Flurry said back playfully. The two high-fived. “I’m guessing you guys just got here?”

Twilight nodded. “Yeah. Our train had to stop to do some maintenance on the heating system, and in the freezing cold no less.”

“The other dragons I brought and I had to keep them from becoming pony-sicles.” Spike said.

“But it looks like we were on time anyway. Barely though. Phew!” Airheart said.

“Speak for yourselves. I was too busy staring at the sun to care about time. Dad had to come and get me.” Flurry said.

“Oh, honey!” Cadance said.

“Speaking of which, where are Celestia and Luna?” Flurry asked.

“They’re with Thorax and Pharynx helping the Changelings with their part in the ceremony. I think they we’re visiting the museum afterwards.” Cadance said.

“Speaking of which, I should probably check back in with Ember. Sorry to cut the reunion short! See ya later, Your Highness!” Spike said as he took his leave. Everypony bid him their farewells.

“Fillies and gentlecolts, Spike has left the building.” Airheart joked, which got him a laugh out of everypony. “Let me check with the other guards before we get started. It shouldn’t take but a moment or so.”

“Ok, honey.” Twilight said. The two shared a quick kiss before parting ways. Once everything was accounted for, they began their rehearsal.

*****

The rehearsal went without much issue, and each time they ran through it, Flurry Heart became more and more exited for the real thing to happen. She was humbled young mare, but her aunt’s enthusiasm bled onto her, as well as her uncle’s adventurous spirit. After they cleaned up, they decided to meet with the Royal Sisters at the Crystal Museum, so they went.

It didn’t take long for them to find their regal scions of the sun and moon, as a few guards could be seen around the entrance to the ‘Unknown Artifacts’ exhibit. Despite her excitement, Flurry kept her voice down when she went to greet them. “Good afternoon!”

The Royal Sisters smiled upon seeing their youngest addition. “Good afternoon, Flurry Heart.” Celestia said.

“And happy early birthday, Princess of Balance.” Luna said. They all bowed to one another.

“What brought the two of you here of all places at a time like this?” Cadance asked.

“It was a bit of an inconvenience more than anything else, really.” Luna said.

Celestia stepped slightly away from her sister to reveal a glass case they were observing that contained a curious item. It was a pink rectangular stone slab about the size of storybook that was perfectly shaped as far as the naked eye was concerned. Inscribed in it was a message in a completely unknown language. “Oooh! What’s that?” Twilight excitedly asked as she practically pressed herself against the glass.

Airheart had to gently pull her away. “Museum property first and foremost, hon.”

“Found by yours truly, no less!” Approaching them was Sunburst and Starlight Glimmer. Sunburst served the museum as an archaeologist when he wasn’t the court wizard for Cadance and Armor, and Starlight was their Old Ponish translator. The two had decided to remain friends due their loss of connection over the years, but their friendship remained ever strong. “Starlight and I found that when exploring the caverns beneath Canterlot just a week ago.”

“I’ve studied good few ancient languages in my time, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything remotely like this.” Starlight said. “We wanted to tour it around in museums across Equestria to see if anypony could make heads or tails of it.”

“I’m afraid this object is foreign even to me.” Celestia said. “It may outdate anything we’ve ever discovered.”

“We’re terribly sorry this had to be taken care just before your special day, dear.” Luna said.

Flurry shook her head. “Don’t worry about it. I can’t wait to see if I can learn something about it.” She turned her gaze onto the mysterious stone plate. What sort of relic was it, and of what civilization that left it behind? Flurry could sense a strangely magical vibe from it, and it felt otherworldly despite bearing a somewhat familiar feeling. “Wow…”

“Well, it’s going to be time for me to lower the sun soon. You should go on home and get some sleep dear. We wouldn’t want the Princess of Balance to be groggy on her coronation, now would we?” Celestia said.

“Now, we wouldn’t!’ Flurry said. “Thank you, you two.” Flurry left the museum with her parents, and they all went home while Twilight and Airheart went out for a quick date.

*****

Along the way, Flurry and company happened to pass by the bakery where the festive treats were being prepared. The bakers put in charge of the goodies none other than Flurry’s childhood friends, who were outside moving some boxes when she saw them. “Pumpkin Cake!” She ran up to her.

Pumpkin looked up upon hearing her name and happily gasped when she saw her royal friend. “Flurry!” The two happily embraced. “Hey, pretty princess!”

“No! You’re the pretty princess!”

“No! You!” They went back and forth for a moment before Flurry noticed that other half of the duo. “Pound?”

Pound loudly moaned upon hearing his name. “Hey, Flurry….” He mumbled.

Flurry giggled and pranced up to him. “Watcha up to?” she asked flirtatiously.

Pound rolled his eyes. “The whole cookies and cake shebang again what with your coronation and all. Congratulations on that, by the way. I mean, it was gonna happen whether you liked it or not, so…”

“So be happy about something once in your life, Mr. Gloom n’ Doom!” Pumpkin said. “Ugh! I swear. Even Pinkie has trouble getting him to smile.”

“Aww, Poundy!” Flurry cooed.

“I’ve told you a million times to stop calling me that!” Pound said. He acted as though he was completely frustrated, but Flurry and Pumpkin could see the red tints on his cheeks, and they giggled.

“Alright, alright. Enough hugs and kisses.” Shining said as he lightly leered at Pound.

“Honey, they’ve been friends since they were foals. You shouldn’t be too surprised.” Cadance said.

Shining sighed. “I know, but….”

“Pound and I are gonna make the best cake ever for you, Flurry! Equestria deserves a an awesome princess like you!” Pumpkin said.

Flurry giggled. “Thanks, Pumpkin. And you too, Poundy.”

Pound nodded. “Yup.” His sister pouted at his lack of enthusiasm while Flurry just fluttered her eyelashes at him before they parted ways.

*****

When they finally got back to their palace, they noticed that one of their guards was searching the grounds around the Crystal Heart as though she had lost something. “Is everything ok?” Shining asked.

“Oh! Yes, sir.” She said. “It’s just that some of the other guards and I could swear we’ve been hearing an animal scurrying around the palace since this morning, and we’ve searching high and low for whatever it might be.”

“Oh dear. Well, let’s hope we don’t wake up to pest problems tomorrow.” Cadance said.

“Even if we do, we’ll still enjoy the day, mom. And if it gets really bad, Fluttershy can take care of it.” Flurry said. With that, they decided to let the setting sun be their cue to go to bed a little early for the big day to follow.

Mysterious Visitor

Luna’s moon had finally been risen to bless the night upon them, and Flurry Heart found herself anxious as she finalized getting ready for bed. She knew she needed to sleep, but the events that would follow were some she was greatly looking forward to. She knew better than to expect everything to go right, but she learned from Celestia to live in the moment regardless of how wrong everything might have been going. Tomorrow, she would be formally crowned Princess of Balance, and her journey would have a new beginning.

Just as she was about to crawl into bed, she suddenly heard scurrying feet. “Huh?” When she looked around, she saw that her balcony door was slightly ajar. “H-Hello? Is somepony there?” Her curiosity overwrote her sense of safety as she cautiously approached the door and cracked it open. What she saw was even more curious.

Calmly sitting under the moonlight and facing her was an odd creature that she’d never seen before. It was a bizarre mix of a cat and a goat, but it only had one horn that jutted out of its right temple and curved up and around its head like a scythe. It had a snow-white coat, it’s horn along with its cat-like face and a jewel-like growth on its forehead were a dark grey, it had red eyes, its tail was shaped something like a bat wing, and its paws had dark grey claws that were spaced out in such a way that they almost looked like duck feet.

Flurry was certainly startled to see such an exotic looking animal suddenly appear on her balcony, but….she was strangely not unsettled by its presence, but at the same time, she could feel an ominous air around it. Although, she couldn’t place why; it seemed so relaxed and serene just sitting there staring back at her, but she could detect a hint of seriousness in its eyes, as if it was trying to tell her something important, but as it was something completely foreign to her, she couldn’t begin to interpret whatever message it was trying to convey. “Well, aren’t you a curious little thing. Was it you that got our guards’ attention earlier today?”

The creature just purred and calmly licked its paw in response before staring back at her.

Flurry lightly giggled at seeing it actually respond to her. “What brought you all the way up here? I don’t have any food for you.”

The creature suddenly stood up an all fours and looked at her more seriously. “…sol…”

“Huh!?” Flurry could swear it spoke something rather than make an animal sound. It then jumped onto the balcony railing with reflexes she’d never seen even in the Wonderbolts and stared at her with an almost authoritative expression.

“Absol…” it said. It’s horn began to glow a shaded whited aura, and a gust of wind suddenly started blowing.

“Wh-Wha!?” The wind gradually swirled around the creature into a small cyclone that enveloped it. Flurry shielded her eyes from the miniature storm, and when it subsided, she opened her eyes again to see that the creature was no longer there. “Huh?”

She looked around the balcony and even looked down below it to see if it had somehow survived a fall all the way to the bottom, but nothing. It had vanished without a trace. “Wh-Where’d you go?” she stammered, utterly flabbergasted that something that looked like a normal albeit undiscovered animal could disappear so mysteriously. “What was that thing?..... I’ll have to ask Fluttershy tomorrow, or maybe even aunt Twilight.” She muttered as she finally went to bed.

*****

Flurry’s alarm clock resounded loudly, beckoning the young princess awake who would quickly shut it off and excitedly start getting ready for the big day. As soon as she finished fixing her bed mane and everything, she trotted out of her room and made her way to the dressing room where she’d receive her finishing touches.

As she trotted through her palace, the encounter from last night was fresh in her mind. Was it just a crazy dream she was having? If not, then what was that starnge creature, and what was it doing at her balcony? Something didn’t feel quite right, but she today, she wanted to worry about her big ceremony along with everypony else.

Her thoughts were interrupted when she realized that she had reached the dressing room doors. When she entered them, she was met with the sight of her mother, her aunt Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy all there ready to help her get ready. “There you are, birthday filly!” Cadance said as she trotted to and hugged her daughter. “Or should I say….Princess of Balance?”

Flurry giggled. “Thanks, mom.” She looked around the room at her peers. “All of you…”

Rarity ushered her up to the mirrors set up for her with her dress next to them. It was an extravagant gown that matched her mane and was adorned with crystalline flowers in the chest area. Rarity had once again outdone herself. “Oh, where has the time gone?” she said. “It feels like mere days ago that you were small enough to be carried in one hoof.”

Flurry blushed. “Oh, stop…”

Rarity and Twilight worked together to meticulously dress Flurry in her gown. Applejack was apparently helping the Cake twins with the baking while Rainbow Dash was obviously getting ready with the Wonderbolts, and her father and uncle were out rallying the royal guards while Pinkie was adding her magic touch to all the festivities. Cadance just happily stood beside her and watched her daughter slowly begin to come of age, wondering indeed where all the time went.
Fluttershy was having her animals help her do Flurry’s mane. The presence of the small critters around her made her think again of her unexpected guest last night, and she became a little uneasy of the unusual encounter, especially with how it ended. Why did such an ominous being appear to her the night before her coronation? Furthermore, what even was it? One would think that such a mystical creature would have at least been seen once, but as much as she’s read, she couldn’t place a name, face, nothing that would classify it. No potential records of its existence came to mind. It obviously bore some level of intelligence, so maybe it’s avoided contact with ponies until now, but why make its presence known now?

“Getting nervous, honey?” Cadance asked.

“Huh!?” Flurry was broken out of her train of thought upon hearing her mother speak. “Oh…. I guess so.”

Fluttershy could tell she wasn’t telling the whole truth. “What else is bothering you, Flurry?” she asked.

“Well….. You’re an animal expert, right?” Flurry asked.

“Of course I am, sweetie. Why do you ask?” Fluttershy said.

“Well, last night…” Flurry told them about her encounter with the bizarre creature and went into detail about its appearance and behavior, making a point to note how it ‘spoke’. “And then it just summoned a whirlwind and completely disappeared in it. Does that sound familiar to any of you?”

Twilight and Fluttershy were highly intrigued by Flurry’s story while Cadance found herself concerned about what her daughter’s encounter meant. Rarity was just mortified that an animal had found its way into a royal palace. “N-No, Flurry. I can’t say I’ve ever seen or heard anything so bizarre.” Fluttershy said.

“And it made sounds that sounded like speech?” Twilight said. “Are you sure you weren’t just dreaming?”

“I’m pretty sure Luna would have showed up to help me work through a weird dream like that.” Flurry said.

“We should tell those two about this as soon as we meet up with them. This could be a bad omen.” Cadance said.

“Oh, come on, mom. It was just some weird cat-goat thing. What? Was it going to spit up cursed hairballs everywhere during my coronation?” Flurry said. Despite her words, she too felt unnerved about something about that creature, but she didn’t want her mother to worry.

“EWW! Darling, never bring up a proposition like that again!” Rarity said. “It’s awful enough when Opal Essence vomits her own, and in my work room no less!”

Flurry giggled at Rarity’s reaction. “Sorry, Rarity. Maybe I shouldn’t have brought the whole thing altogether. Let’s just enjoy the day, ok?”

“A-Alright, honey.” Cadance stammered, still apprehensive. They finished dressing her and began making their way downstairs.

*****

When they arrived outside, they met with the sight of the Crystal Heart overseeing a grand chariot with the Royal Sister sitting in the backseat, waiting for the one meant for the front row. Beside it were Shining Armor and Airheart, who happily approached the mares upon seeing them. Shining could barely believe that the decorated mare of honor before him was his grown daughter, and Airheart could only be proud to see his niece look so adult.

“Honey…..you…” Shining started to choke as though he was holding back tears.

Airheart patted him on the back. “Easy, big papa. We just had the floor waxed.” He said. He then faced his niece. “You look amazing, sweetheart. Congratulations.”

“Thanks, uncl- UWAAH!” Flurry was caught off guard when Shining suddenly embraced her.

“I’m so proud of you, honey!!!” He exclaimed followed by profuse sobbing.

Flurry just awkwardly smiled and gently patted her father. “Ehehe….Thanks, dad….”

Cadance managed to pry him off of her, and he came to his senses. “Oh. Hehe…. Sorry….” He said. The mares giggled while Airheart just shook his head in amusement at his brother-in-law. “Your uncle’s right though. I can’t believe this day is finally here…. I love you, sweetie.”

“I love you too, dad.” Flurry gave her father a gentle peck on his cheek.

Celestia called out to her. “Come, Princess of Balance. Your subjects await you.”

Flurry nodded at them and looked at the others. “I guess I’ll see you after the parade.”

“Have fun out there, sweetie. And remember to smile.” Cadance said. She gave her daughter a kiss of her own.

Flurry giggled. “That’ll be easy.” She happily joined the Royal Sisters on her chariot, and her former company watched as it rolled away, ready for the ceremony to begin.

As their own chariot pulled up, they parted ways with Rarity and Fluttershy and boarded it. As they did, Twilight and Cadance got their husbands’ attention. “Shining, Airheart, there’s something we should tell you.” Twilight said.

*****

“Fillies and gentlecolts of all ages, dragons, zebras, changelings, yaks and griffons alike who’ve come to bear witness to this momentous occasion, today is a very special day for not just Equestria, but for the whole of the world we’ve come to be able to better share because of this one very special mare. Today is the day she comes of age and receives her crown as a princess of our nation. She has been raised by her parents, The Crystal Empire’s very own Princess Cadance and Prince Shining Armor, received the wisdom of the Royal Sisters, and was blessed with the knowledge and experience of Princess Twilight while Prince Airheart shared his experiences with her. She can only be the Princess of Balance! Behold Princess Flurry Heart!”

The announcer proudly proclaimed Flurry’s coronation as her chariot came rolling out with parading guards at the front. As both griffon and pony guards alike raised their weapons in salute and griffon trumpeters resounded their horns, the Wonderbolts came soaring out and performing over the chariot, and then out came Ember and Spike along with a few other dragons following suit. They exhaled celebratory flames as they whipped and whirled through the air with their equine wingmen, the ponies below jubilantly cheering them on as they hailed their new royalty. The yaks had built a series of ice and snow sculptures in the likeness of the Princess of Balance with the craftsmanship that only they possessed, and they did a stomping ritual in her honor as they passed by them. Zebra dancers performed a ritualistic dance of their own that was accompanied by music of their native land while spiritual incenses were burned. The Changelings fluttered about and scatters sparkling scales and magic dust as confetti around the parade.

Flurry Heart was in awe of everything that was happening. As she waved to and blew kisses at the crowd, she felt overjoyed seeing all the cultures beyond ponies coming together and just celebrating as though they were one people. Even if she hadn’t been an official princess yet, Flurry knew that this was her greatest accomplishment yet, and she knew that everyone would be happier in the end. Nothing made her quite so happy herself.

But as ponies threw flower petals into her parade’s path, she happened to look atop a random house where a familiar face looked back at her. “Huh?” It was hard to make out immediately, but her visitor from last night was standing there as if to proclaim its territory, silently watching her with that same mellow authoritative stare. Everyone else was completely oblivious to its presence, and it completely ignored the festivities as it focused solely on her.

“Flurry Heart?” Luna said.

“Oh! Y-Yes?”

“Is everything okay, dear?” she asked.

“Oh… Yes. I-I’m sorry.” Flurry said before she went back to smiling and waving. She discreetly looked back atop the building to see that the creature had once again vanished. “What are you?” she muttered to herself. She wondered that for the rest of the parade until they completed their round back to the palace.

Coronation

When Flurry Heart’s chariot arrived back at her palace, she and the Royal Sisters got off, and the soon-to-be crowned Princess of Balance joined the celestial sovereigns on a set stage overlooking their subjects. All the cultures stopped what they were doing and congregated around the stage to hear the royalty.

Celestia tested the microphone before speaking, signaling everyone to give her their undivided attention. “Thank you all for coming to this wonderful celebration, and for all of your contributions to the ceremony as we gather her to welcome the newest addition to Equestria’s royalty. The circumstances of her birth were unexpected to say the least, but perhaps it was a positive omen foretelling the wonderful changes she would help come to pass. As far as we’re all concerned, I’m sure we’d all like to say she became one long ago, but today, I am more than proud to formally crown our dearest Flurry Heart as Princess of Balance.” As Celestia was speaking, Flurry Heart took the opportunity to discreetly eye around for the strange creature, but as far as she could see in the little seconds that she had, it was nowhere to be seen.

Everyone clapped as Flurry stepped up to Celestia and lowered her head to receive her crown. Her humble yet joyful smile resonated with Celestia as she placed the crown on the young alicorn’s head. Flurry then walked up to the microphone as Celestia gave her the space. “ Thank you, everyp- no….everyone. I think we can all agree that today isn’t necessarily about me, but all of us coming together as one. When I was little, I was around many who believed that we were meant to keep each of our part of the world to ourselves, never truly trying to find peace and common ground, but I never believed that for a second. We’re all children of this world, and children are taught to share what they have with others at a young age, why shouldn’t that continue into the rest of our lives? Seeing you all here smiling for me, for all of us as though we were together form the beginning….I can only be optimistic about the future. I can’t give enough thanks to my parents for raising me, my aunt and uncle, the Royal Sisters, Spike and Dragon Lord Ember, Prince Rutherford, King Thorax and his brother, Pharynx, The rulers of Griffonstone and the all of the Zebra chiefs I had the opportunities to meet….all of them and how they left their mark on me. The world has always been a canvas meant to be painted with all the beautiful colors that it gives us, but it’ll take all of our combined efforts to keep this masterpiece as it is. Thank you.”

Everyone clapped more joyously than before as the newly crowned Princess of Balance concluded her speech, and Cadance couldn’t help but to shed a tear from watching her daughter finally come fully into adulthood. Shining hugged his wife, and Twilight and Airheart looked at their niece with humble pride, as did the Royal Sisters as she walked off the stage and joined up with them. Tables full of delicious-looking food lined the courtyard around the Crystal Heart just for them while the townsfolk and visitors had entire areas to themselves. The other Elements and the Cake twins were also present along with the grown CMC, and they all happily welcomed Flurry.

Cadance was the first to embrace her daughter as she let the dam barring her tears give way. Flurry returned the fervent hug and patted her mother’s back. “I’m so proud of you, honey!” she lightly sobbed.

“Take it easy, mom.” Flurry whispered. Cadance managed to calm herself as she let go of her daughter.

Pinkie suddenly popped up between them. “Wowie Kazwoie! That was a party for the Pinkie history books! You looked great there, Flurry! And that speech was the icing on the cake!!! Happy Coro-Birthday-nation, Flurry Heart!!!”

Flurry giggled. “Thank you, Pinkie. You really went all out for me.” Pinkie made her signature exaggerated smile.

“Aww! What about us?” Pumpkin Cake trotted up to her along with her brother, who didn’t appear quite as sullen as usual. “We practically pulled an all-nighter finishing up preparations.”

“In other words…we only got about four or five hours of sleep.” Pound added. His head seemed to involuntarily lower for a split second before he corrected himself, snoring in the process.

Flurry nuzzled her head under Pound’s chin and giggled. “And I’m so thankful for you, Poundy!” she cooed. Pound gently pushed her away while trying not to let his face fall into a frown on Flurry’s big day. “And you too, Pumpkin. I’m so glad to have friends like you!” She hugged her. “And you too, Ms. Applejack.”

Applejack nodded. “You sure all welcome, Sugarcube.” She then held her hat over her heart. “Ah still can’t believe it mahself… It’s just like watchin’ Applebloom get big all over again.”

“Oh, stop. All of you. Today’s not just about me. Look at all this delicious food. It’d be shame if Applejack, Pumpkin and Poundy’s efforts went to waste.” Flurry said. They all agreed and started gingerly mingling as they picked up a snack or two.

At some point, a few more familiar faces finally joined their end of the soiree. “Thorax! Pharynx!” Twilight said.

It was indeed the Changeling king and his brother, their self-proclaimed warlord despite them not ever having been in any major conflicts. Even Pharynx’s militant disposition carried throughout the celebrations, but not without a sincere smile. “Hi, Flurry! Oh! I should say ‘Princess of Balance’.” Thorax said.

“Just Flurry is ok, Thorax. Good to see you!” Flurry said. She turned to his brother. “You too, Pharynx.”

Pharynx lightly chuckled. “No problem, shrimp. Ya did good.”

“Pharynx, be a little more excited.” Thorax said.

“You should know how I am by now.” Pharynx responded.

“It’s ok, Thorax. But mark my words, I’ll find a way to bring out his soft side.” Flurry said.
Pharynx cracked a devious smile. “Challenge accepted.”

Powerful wing flapping could be heard approaching, and they revealed to be carrying Spike along with Ember. “Are we late?” Ember smarmily asked.

“Right on time, I’d say.” Luna said. “You all put on such a splendid performance, I must say.”

“Really! And thanks for not burning everything to the ground!” Flurry joked.

Spike laughed. “Our pleasure!” he said. “Oh! Ember had a coronation gift for you.”

Ember roughly nudged him. “Dude!”

“You do?” Flurry asked.

Ember sighed. “It’s….kinda stupid, but….” She reached into her ceremonial armor and pulled a golden necklace adorned with a grey jewel that was surprisingly lustrous. “I found this weird little gem and had it all ‘embroidered’ or whatever into this necklace. Thought you might like it.” She was noticeably blushing as she handed it to Flurry.

“Oh! Thank you, Ember!” Flurry said as she gazed upon her new treasure. As she took a closer look at the jewel, she strangely felt as though it was somehow….dead, as if it had something sucked out of, or it simply withered away from starvation. Even stranger, she could swear that she could make out a pattern that looked something like a section of a DNA strand. “It’s so lovely! Where did you find it?”

Ember pondered the question. “Somewhere back home, but….can’t remember exactly where I dug it up. Anyway, when I popped it in my mouth, it tasted terrible, so I thought I’d gift it to you instead. Don’t worry; I cleaned it.”

Flurry giggled. “How courteous.” No one else of interest came by for a while, and everyone pretty much centered their attention on Flurry Heart, who was more than happy to interact with her friends and subjects alike. As she did, she made a point of looking around for the creature, but again, it had made itself scarce.

After some time had passed, the other royals caught up with Flurry Heart. “Enjoying yourself, princess?” Airheart asked.

Flurry nodded. “I am. How about you all?”

“Well, your mother and Twili told us about your little visitor last night.” Shining said.

“Would you kindly describe it again for us?” Celestia asked.

“Oh, sure!” Flurry went into detail once more about her nighttime visitor just as she did in the dressing room before the parade. “Ring any bells?”

As much experience as they had, even Celestia and Luna found themselves utterly befuddled by the existence of such an enigmatic being, and they were thus clueless about its identity. “No… I’m afraid not. What a curious thing.”

“Before anypony asks, no, she wasn’t dreaming. I would have sensed so.” Luna said.

“Told you so.” Flurry said.

“Can’t say I ever came across anything like that in my own travels before I met Twilight.” Airheart said. “And it summoned some wind and just….vanished?”

Flurry nodded. “It had a single horn, so maybe it’s magical in the same manner that unicorns are?”

“While that may be conjecture, it’s still a sound theory. Let us know if it appears again.” Celestia said.

“Ok.” Flurry said.

“In the meantime, your uncle and I are gonna get ready for our ceremonial duel.” Shining Armor said.

“Cheer us both on, ok, Princess?” Airheart said.

“Sure! Just try not to kill each other, ok?” Flurry said.

Shining shook his head. “Nah. I’m past those days, honey.”

“You keep saying that, but I swear, man!” Airheart chuckled.

“Oh, shut up.” Shining said. He and Airheart playfully nudged each other.

“Ok, boys.” Twilight giggled. The two stallions bid their farewells and parted ways with the mares. “ Those two…”

“Right?” Cadance said. “He and I are going out for pizza later tonight with Flurry. You two wanna join us?”

Twilight shook her head. “Sorry, Cadance. We’re probably gonna have to start packing up tonight. He’s got that dueling class he teaches to foals on weekends back home, and I still need to review those foreign affairs proposals that Flurry wrote. They’re official now that she’s a coroneted princess.”

“I hope they don’t turn out too ridiculous.” Flurry said.

“Don’t worry, Flurry. I have more faith in you than that.” Twilight said. They all shared a little laugh and went back to doing their own thing.

Flurry found herself a moment of peace and quiet away from all the festivities. It was nice to take in the solitude, especially considering what today was. Even if her mysterious visitor occupied her thoughts, she was still being graced with the joyous laughter of everyone around her. There wasn’t a thing that could keep her from smiling. She basked in the light of Celestia’s sun, letting it warm her coat as the cool breeze tickled her skin underneath. As she looked out into the distance, the fabled Mt. Everhoof stood proud and tall in her sight. She had always wondered what was atop its summit, as no one in recorded history had ever surmounted it, much less even traveled there. Now that she was the Princess of Balance, perhaps she could rally all the strength the world would offer to finally explore its wonders; she could always sense that something was there waiting for her, but she couldn’t imagine what.

Suddenly, Flurry felt an odd shift in the atmosphere that lasted for a split second. “Hmm?” She didn’t know why, but it felt as if it originated from the mountain, as if it was trying to call out to something. She looked around to see if anyone else felt it, but everyone was as blissful as can be. “Hmm…” Then, she suddenly heard what sounded like a distant roar from a ferocious beast. “Huh!?” She looked around quickly and just so happened to actually look into the sun, where she for a split second caught a glimpse of a silhouette that looked as though it might have belonged to a manticore before it just vanished. The sunlight’s intensity returned and prompted her to look away again. “It’s just one thing after another…”

All of a sudden, the sounds of laughter turned into shrieks of fear, and Flurry looked up to see inexplicable dark clouds forming over the empire that bore an incredibly evil aura, and she was afraid she knew why…

Return of Darkness

Flurry spotted her family and rushed over to them, wondering what was going on. Ponies ran for cover wherever they could find it while others looked curiously at the phenomenon, wondering what was about to happen. “Aunt Twilight!”

“Flurry!” Twilight said. Everyone became more and more apprehensive as the cloud expanded and blanketed the sky. Guards stood ready to fight while capable magic users had their horns lit, but what formed in the clouds was everyones’ worst nightmare.

An effigy of a familiar face constructed from the black clouds. It was a unicorn stallion with a curved horn and malicious green eyes. His smile was the only thing more frightening. “Well, well, well…. It’s been such a long time.” He slowly hissed.

“SOMBRA!” Celestia exclaimed.

Sombra demonically purred. “How nice of you to remember me, Celestia, and how nice to see my empire so pristine since last I left it.” The empire’s residents trembled in terror as they were being addressed.

“It’s not yours anymore, Sombra! You better just stop now! We’ve gotten more powerful over the years!” Shining declared, poising his sword towards the dark king.

Sombra just laughed as his true form slowly lowered himself to the ground. “So have I. How do you think I was able to awaken just now?” As his hooves touched the ground, surrounding bouquets quickly withered and all of the food suddenly spoiled and rotted. He then locked eyes with the Princess of Balace. “So I see Equestria has crowned their newest royalty. How exciting!” he hissed. “And she’s the daughter of the two who usurped my throne to boot….. That, I’m afraid is going to be a problem.” Flurry found herself panicking as his glare became more intense.

“YOU DON’T DARE GO ANYWHERE NEAR MY NIECE!” Airheart shouted as he charged Sombra, his sword at the ready.

“AIRHEART, NO!!” Twilight exclaimed, but her words didn’t reach her husband in time.

Airheart soared towards Sombra at blinding speeds, and when he was close enough to draw his sword, he tried to slash it across the evil king’s face. However, he was stopped by a dark force field that shielded Sombra, who smiled maliciously. “Huh!?”

Sombra charged his horn and caused the force field to expand in such a way that it practically exploded, sending Airheart flying back to his family, and tumbling along the ground. “Honey!” Twilight immediately went to his aid and was relieved to see that he was largely unharmed save for a few minor cuts and bruises. But she helped him up, and she got her game face on and rallied her friends. “Girls, let’s take him down!”

The Elements of Harmony wasted no time letting their magic surge as the most powerful spell known to ponykind began to cast, but Sombra seemed eerily unfazed. Rainbows violently spiraled around the Mane Six, congregating above them into a ball of magic that then let loose on the lunatic. The intense blast of magic enveloped Sombra, giving everyone hope that he’d be so easily defeated. How foolish they were….

The swirl of rainbows darkened into shadows and violently burst, throwing the Mane Six back and cancelling their spell, revealing a sneering Sombra, who was alarmingly unharmed. “Wh-Wha!? HOW!?” Twilight exclaimed as Airheart came to her aid.

Sombra guffawed like a maniac. “Do you truly believe that those little accessories will even be able to touch me!? HA!! I’ve built my power over so many years that even they have become impotent! I’VE BECOME A GOD!!!” He stomped his hoof, which caused a wave of darkness to surge across the ground. For a second, nothing happened, but everyone then noticed that they’re shadows were looking up at them with glowing red eyes!

“Wh-What!?” Cadance stammered. Their shadows rose from the ground and stood up as though they were corporeal entities just as their casters were. They let out hollow moans as they stared daggers at everyone else around them.

“What’s this supposed to do, scare us!?!?” Ember retaliated as she breathed fire on her shadow, causing it to dissipate momentarily, but it regenerated within seconds. “Oh, crap…”

“HeheheheheHAHAHAHAHA!!! SEIZE THEM ALL!!!” Sombra commanded. The shadows heeded their master without question an began their assault of the empire. While most of the townsfolk showed little resistance, Ember and Pharynx led their toughest forces throughout the city and fought back against the risen shadows. However, they only kept coming and were seemingly invincible. Airheart and Twilight worked together to defend surrounding townsfolk while Cadance, Flurry Heart and Shining Armor went to the Crystal Heart. Celestia and Luna battled with Sombra to keep him at bay, but his power had certainly grown over years of resting, and they were being weakened little by little.

When the Crystal Empire’s royal family reached their most treasured artifact, they were met with a terrible sight. “OH NO!!!” Cadance exclaimed. The Crystal Heart was still intact, but it had been corrupted by Sombra’s dark magic and was being guarded by their guards’ conjured shadows, who were on the ground defeated.

One of the shadow guards charged them, but Flurry blasted it away with her magic. “What are we supposed to do now!?”

“We might just have to rely on sheer force until we can find a weakness!” Shining said.

Celestia and Luna were suddenly sent flying towards them and tumbled to their hooves, horribly weakened. “Ugghh…”

They all gasped as Sombra came floating on a cloud of dark magic, laughing. “Go ahead! I implore you!! Let’s make this fun…” He stepped down from his cloud and absorbed back into his horn. “Go on. Your move.” He taunted. The three tried not to panic as they silently planned their move carefully. Cadance and Flurry began charging their horns while Shining went for his sword. “TOO SLOW!!” Sombra suddenly bellowed. He launched two blasts that each hit either of Flurry’s parents.

Flurry gasped. “MOM!! DAD!!” She heard Sombra laughing behind her and looked back at him. “”

“Now then….” He summoned shadow chains that wrapped around her legs and bound her to the ground, sending her into a heart-stopping panic. “Let’s get to know one another, Princess of Balance!” he growled.
Flurry tried to use her magic to break out, but the chains on her seemed to inhibit her horn simply by being attached to her. She panicked as Sombra slowly approached her with his horn charging with dark magic, and the malefic smile on his face. With the Crystal Heart seemingly captured and the Elements deemed useless, the situation seemed utterly hopeless. On the very day she became a princess, Flurry Heart couldn’t even save anyone, even herself from one foe…

“AAAAAAB-SOL!!” Out of nowhere, a gust of wind violently blew over them, but much to their surprise, the gale actually formed blades of air that cut Flurry free of her restraints.

“WHAT!? WHO DARES!?” Sombra boomed. He was suddenly struck in the head by a blur moving at blinding speeds. “OOF!!!” He was hit with enough force to knock him to the ground.

Flurry looked over and noticed the blur land. It was the creature! “ You again!”

It looked at her. “Absol…”

“That’s what came to you last night?” Cadance and Shining had recovered and showed up next to their daughter.

“Mom! Dad!” Flurry hugged her parents. “Yeah! That’s it!” She then noticed that it was carrying something on its back. “Wait….is that?” It was the pink stone plate that was being exhibited at the museum.

Sombra staggered to his hooves. “Nrgh! How dare you!” he roared. He glared with devilish fury at the creature, but it was as calm and collected as ever. “I’ll make you know your place, you little rat!” He charged towards it, but it jumped out of the way with lightning fast reflexes, and Sombra was becoming more flustered. “WHY YOU LITTLE!” He charged a shot of dark magic, but then the creature’s body suddenly started flashing in such a way that it looked though clones were being produced from either side of it, throwing Sombra off focus. “Wha!?”

“SOL!” The creature suddenly blurred across the battle field at imperceptible speeds and furiously swiped at Sombra’s face with its claws and scythe-like horn, its horn emitting a dark aura as it did. When Sombra had been sufficiently dazed, it landed in front of him, and the pink slab then levitated above it and glowed a powerful but somewhat calming aura. It absorbed some of the stones light into its horn, and it radiated a spectacular pink that matched the stone, but shimmering, and the creature glared at Sombra. “AAAAAAAB-SOOOOOOL!!!!!!” It fired a blade of what was presumably magic from its horn right at Sombra, who erected his force field, but the blade sliced through it like a hot knife through butter and struck him true.

“AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!” He was blown back as though he’d been right on top of a bomb when it exploded, and when he was struggling to stand back up, everyone noticed that he had sustained some manner of a burn where he was struck by the magic blade, indicating malignant damage.

“WHOA!!” Flurry exclaimed. Even though it probably broke into the museum to pilfer the plate, it was promising to see that it could make use of it in such a way given the situation.

It then let the plate down onto its back once more and looked at Flurry. “Absol!” it said. It then ran off with the plate occasionally stopping to look at her again.

“W-W-Wait! Where are you going!?!” Flurry exclaimed. “We need your help!”

The creature motioned its gaze skyward. “Sol!” When Flurry followed where it was looking, it was none other than Mt. Everhoof.

“Wha…..What about Mt. Everhoof?” Flurry pled.

The creature once again motioned for her to follow it. “Ab! Sol!” It ran off again.

“Nrgh! Guys, I don’t know why, but I think it wants to take me to Mt. Everhoof for some reason! Maybe it knows there’s something there that can help us! Can you hold him off until then?” Flurry said.

They all nodded. “We’ll try! Just be careful, honey!” Cadance said as she hugged her daughter, Shining Armor Following suit.

Flurry nodded. “Right.” She raced off just as Sombra looked like he was about to regain his strength and after her new ‘friend’.

The Ascent

As Flurry soared through the darkened streets of her kingdom, bobbing and weaving through onslaughts of the risen shadows and chasing after the strange creature, she felt a great deal of regret having to leave them for a glimmer of hope she knew she was gambling on. The only way she could absolve herself was to blast anyway shadows along the way, especially those that threatened her subjects, having to abandon her dress as it was holding her back. She noticed some table of food that hadn’t been spoiled by Sombra’s magic, and picked up the first bag she saw to store them in for the road ahead. All she managed to nab was five apples.

The creature itself was too making quick work of any shadows in its way. Flurry found herself utterly astounded by its ability to move with such speed and agility, and its dexterity with its horn. Whatever this being was, it was a gift from the high heavens right now, and it was for some reason leading Flurry away from what she needed to do most- defeat Sombra, even though it fully demonstrated it could do so itself.

She finally caught up to it out in the ice fields beyond the magical border of the Crystal Empire. She casted a heating spell to keep herself from freezing to death in the frigid blizzard, and the creature was out there patiently waiting for her, plate in paw. She panted and glared at it with frustration. “Why are you taking me away from my kingdom when it needs me the most? What’s at Mt. Everhoof that’s so important that it can’t wait until we take down Sombra!?” She demanded.

The creature just looked back at the fabled mountain, and then back at her. “…sol…”

Flurry sighed. “Please…. Just tell me. I have to know.”

“Ab…. Absol.” It said.

“You…can’t really say much else than that, can you?” Flurry asked. It shook its head. “Ok then…. I don’t know what ‘Absol’ is supposed to mean, but…..can I just call you that until I know what you are?”

The creature perked up as if she had guessed something correctly. “Sol! Sol- Absol!”

It was then that Flurry caught on. “Oh! So ‘Absol’ is your name!” It nodded with an approving smile. “Alright then, Absol, I still don’t know why you’re taking me to Everhoof, but it’s pretty obvious that you’re an intelligent creature and on our side.”

Absol nodded. “Absol.” It said. Flurry giggled, thinking it was oddly cute how it said its own name.

Flurry opted not to ask about its abilities or the pink stone it had, or for that matter, how it made use of the power it held; Absol could only say its name, so getting an explanation out of it would probably be like pulling teeth. It seemed unbothered by the freezing weather, probably because of its thick coat, which Flurry was happy to observe. They hastily made their way to the mountain, but not so quickly that they’d tire themselves out in the raging blizzard. Absol kept a good few feet in front of Flurry, occasionally looking back to make sure they weren’t being pursued by Sombra’s shadows, as was Flurry.

At some point, Absol stopped Flurry when they reached a large, lone hunk of ice laying in the icy land, covered in a blanket of snow and frost. “Sol…”

“Huh? I thought we were going to Mt. Everhoof.” Flurry said. Absol looked at the ice and assaulted it with its amazing speed, causing the blanket of snow to fall off. “ WHAT IN THE WORLD!?!?”

Sealed deep within the ice was an enormous, monstrous creature that looked something like a dragon, buts its wings were frozen over and spiked at the tips. Its arms and hands were tiny compared to the rest of its seemingly already frozen body, and its head seemed to have some sort of icy armor frozen over some of it, not crossing over its soulless yellow eyes. It was the tail that was the truly bizarre part about it; it looked like an ironer with three prongs jutting out of each of the corners, as if it could be inserted into something. Flurry could sense that it wasn’t just some prehistoric animal fossilized in ice- it was alive, but dormant and in a very deep slumber.

“Absol, what is this thing!?!?” Flurry pled, having no idea that such a dangerous looking creature existed so close to her kingdom.

Absol just smiled and put its paw on her hoof, as if to assure her that all was going to be well. “Absol…”

Flurry found herself moved by the gesture, and looking into its eyes could tell that it was being completely sincere. She smiled and nodded at it. “Ok…” They resumed their trek through the Frozen North, but Flurry couldn’t help but to take one more look back at the frozen monster, wondering what it meant to Absol and how it might come into play.

*****

At last, they reached the foot of the mountain. Seeing up close for the first time, Flurry found herself….intimidated, as if she could feel the mountain itself sizing her up for some reason. She almost felt as if she being told that she didn’t belong there, but Absol brought her here for a reason, and whatever reason that might be, she had to have faith that it would help defeat Sombra. She gulped. “O-O-OK….Guess we better…..start c-climbing….”

“Sol…” Absol ran over to a part of the mountain that looked as though it was a cave entrance. Flurry followed it and sure enough, there was a path leading inside.

“Oh! Are we going through here?” Flurry asked. Absol nodded and led her inside.

As she ventured further in, Flurry began to feel the presence of a magnetic field, which wasn’t too surprising considering what the mineral content could be around her. What was a little surprising was just how much warmer it was getting the deeper they went. After a moment or so, they reached a large chamber that had a few bodies of water surrounded by mounds of stone. There wasn’t a clear path forward, but Flurry was curious about this place now that she knew it didn’t seem quite to desolate.

Absol led her up and over the rugged terrain and to a sheer rock wall that was only about fifteen feet high, but there was a ledge that one could stand on, and Absol jumped up there without issue. Flurry just flew up there. Walking around the corner, she was surprised to find a staircase carved from the stone! “” Wherever she was, she had stumbled upon some remnants of an old civilization. Sunburst would have had a fit. She kept her horn lit as she walked up the flight of stairs with Absol, and when they reached the top, they again came into another chamber, but without any little lakes. Instead, there were a couple of partially broken down wooden bridges that spanned over some long gaps between rocky cliffs. She and Absol easily navigated through the room, but what they finally came to was an even bigger surprise.

“Oh, wow!” Flurry gazed in awe as before her was a painting made into a section of the wall. It depicted three beings in a triangular formation around some red circle that she couldn’t quite interpret. The beings themselves looked like short primate-like creatures with two tails and were just floating there. She then noticed that the wall it was painted on was actually a wall made of gold-colored bricks. “What’s this, Absol?”

“Sol.” Was all it could answer. It then looked out into the chamber they’d just traversed. “Absol!” It was obviously calling out to something, but Flurry had no idea what.

She then heard a sound that sounded like a low bell ringing, and she felt something approaching. “Zoooongggg….”

When she followed her ears, she was startled to see a bizarre entity floating towards them. It looked like an iron bell with arm-like appendages growing from the top of its head, and it had patterns on its ‘face’ that made it seems as though it really did have a face, eyes and mouth included. “Whoa.” She said, keeping her guard up around the strange being.
Absol seemed to ask the bizarre being something, but the bell’s attention was on Flurry. It looked at her curiously with its eyes that would have seemed dead if not for the life-like light that emitted from them. “Umm…. H-Hi there….” She nervously smiled at it.

“Ab…” Absol seemed to be telling the bell that she was its friend and not something to worry about, but the bell eyed Flurry again, still unsure of what to make of her.

Flurry then remembered the bag of apples she had and pulled one out. “W-Want one?” she stammered.

The bell examined the apple for a second before realizing what it was. “Bronzong….” It suddenly glowed a bluish aura all around, and the apple levitated right out of Flurry’s hoof, surprising her. Even more to her surprise, it actually opened its ‘mouth’ and consumed the apple, chewing it before swallowing the whole thing. As if to express its satisfaction, the bell let out a calming ring that put Flurry a little more at ease. It then faced the mural. “Brooooonzooooonnnggg….” It again alit with that mysterious aura, but this time, it caused the bricks in the mural to open apart like a double door!

“” Flurry was being surprised every second, and she wasn’t sure whether to be amazed or terrified, or even both. “Holy hayseed…” If anypony had explored this place in ages past, they surely would have recorded at least this much about it. She had barely even entered this place, and she could already gain a huge sense of mystery from within its walls. She came back to her senses when Absol called for her, and the two went through the opened way. “Thank you!” she said to the apparently psychic bell. The bell rang once more and closed the way behind them.

*****

They once again found themselves in a tunnel, but for a longer while this time, and it was much more lively. Floating around them in great numbers were weird looking bats that didn’t appear to have eyes, but had long legs without feet; a few of them had bodies that were almost entirely opened mouths, which was pretty frightening. Even stranger were rocks and boulders with faces and limbs! Some only had a pair of arms while others stood on two feet and had four arms. There was even another variety that stood on two stubby legs, had a navy blue body with a large red rock in its face that resembled a nose. They all seemed to eye her the way the bell did, but her company of Absol was likely what was keeping them from getting hostile.

The two came to an exit out into an outer area of the mountain. The snow fell like grains of rice being poured from the sky, forcing Flurry to cover herself with her wings while keeping her heat spell active. She happened to look down the mountain to see Sombra’s darkness clouding over the Crystal Empire, further encouraging her to keep going. Absol was of course largely unbothered by the heavy snowfall, but he slowed down so as to let Flurry follow more easily.

Sometime into their hike, Absol led her into a flat area of the mountain that had a few trees that was surrounded by cliffs. It stopped to take a moment to stretch its body, likely exhausted from the hike up. Flurry couldn’t help but think it was kind of cute, as it reminded her of how Pound sometimes did after a long day of baking whenever she visited Ponyville. “I’ve got a few more apples in my bag if you’re hungry.”

Absol perked up upon hearing that. “Ab?”

Flurry reached into her bag and pulled one out for her escort and handed it to him. “Here you go.”

Absol let the apple drop to its paws, but instead of immediately digging in, it tossed the apple to about eye level and used its scythe horn to slice it into two equal halves. “Sol!” It lightly kicked one of the halves to Flurry’s hooves.

“Oh! Thank you, Absol.” She picked up the other half with her horn and was about to chow down when something jumped out of the trees and snow-covered brush.

“BOMAAAAAA!!!!” Whatever it was came out and slammed its huge glowing green fist between them. They managed to hang onto their apple slices as they jumped away, but Flurry was horrified at what she saw. It could be described as a yeti that was somehow a mobile plant and not an animal, indicated by its apparently tree branch-like limbs along with clusters of pine needles covering its body that likely served as its fur. “SNOOOOOWWWW!!!!” it roared.

Flurry was flustered. First a psychic bell, sentient rocks, bizarre-looking bats, and now an animalistic frost tree? What kind of place was this? Even Equestria’s ecosystems weren’t known to be home to crazy life forms like these! “WHA!?”

Absol jumped between her and the tree monster. “ABSOL!” It seemed to be trying to command the monster to stop rather than stand ready to fight it, but the berserk tree wouldn’t heed it. It roared as it slammed its fists onto the ground which caused columns of ice to erupt from the ground one by one quickly towards Absol. Absol’s body suddenly sheened a clear-colored aura just before it dodged the ice pillars with its imperceptible speed, leaving a white streak in its wake. It then charged the ice monster, crashing itself into the beast’s face, which barely even caused it to nearly fall over. Absol used its momentum to backflip off of the monster and charge its horn with the same wind power Flurry had observed before. “AAAAAAAAB-SOL!!!!!!” It threw from its horn a sharp-looking gale that Flurry recognized as the same wind that freed her from Sombra’s chains.

The tree monster covered its body to shield itself from the wind, and its weight kept it from being toppled over by the forceful gale. It took that opportunity to charge its own energy at its mouth. It formed a green energy ball at its lips and violently vomited it towards Absol. “BOMAAAAASNOOOOOOW!!!!!!” It had managed to catch Absol off guard as it was still holding its focus on its razor wind technique, and it couldn’t put up an immediate defense.

“SOL!!” Absol went flying back upon being hit by the forceful direct blast and tumbled to the snow-covered ground in a heap.

“ABSOL!” Flurry exclaimed. She faced the tree monster and glared. “HOW DARE YOU HURT MY FRIEND!” She fired a blast of magic at it just before it could slam its fists on the ground to attack again. It hit with such force that it came close to knocking the beast over, prompting it to glare over at her. She was internally quite frightened to be combatting a completely unknown monster, but she wasn’t about to abandon Absol. “Come and get me!” she hissed.

The ice monster fell for the taunt and turned its undivided attention to Flurry. It inhaled a large volume of air and exhaled chunks of ice about the size of basketballs. “SNOOOOOWWWW!!!!!” Flurry quickly erected a magic shield that blocked the ice shards, and she blasted it forward to try and topple it over, which nearly worked if not for that fact that it was really skilled at regaining its balance. As it flailed it arms from trying not to fall on its back, Flurry took the opportunity to charge towards it with her horn pointed forward and ready to strike it, but it corrected itself more quickly than she thought, and it forcefully smacked her with a glowing green fist.

“AIIEE!!!” Flurry felt as though she had been hit with a whole tree, and she crashed into the ground like meteor, snow scattering everywhere. “Ugggghhhh….” She struggled to lift her head up to look at the monster, and her heart started racing when she saw it towering right above her, roaring like a predator ready to strike the final blow, which it was about to. It sent its glowing fist down towards her, and she closed her eyes.

“AB-SOL!!!” Absol suddenly parried the fist away with an energized slash from its horn, forcing the monster to cease its assault.

“Absol?” Flurry weakly said. Absol had a few bruises on its body, but it seemed unbothered by its injuries as it faced up at the tree monster. Before the beast could ready another strike, Absol flashed the pink stone slab at it, and it suddenly calmed down. It looked at the plate as if it was about to receive some punishment from it, but also seemed sort of…..amazed.

“Bomaaaa…” It bowed its head as if to apologize and gently helped Flurry to her hooves; it even brushed the snow off of her coat. “Snoooowwww…..”

Flurry used a healing spell to fix herself and Absol up before looking up at their former attacker. It seemed genuinely remorseful of its actions. “We scared you, didn’t we? You must live here.”

It nodded. “Abomasnow….” It muttered.

Flurry reached into her bag and pulled out another apple. “Here. Hungry?” The frost tree gently grabbed the small fruit with its big hand and munched on it, obviously enjoying it. It let out a satisfied roar as if to thank her, and she giggled. “Oh! You didn’t get yours, did you, Absol?” She noticed that their initial apple halves were on the ground and dirty, so she pulled out another one and asked Absol to cut it in half, which he did. She and her bizarre friend happily enjoyed their food, and she could feel a friendly warmth building between them.

“Absol…” It rested its head under her neck, and she gently stroked its coat. Its fur was soft and silky, and it radiated a strange warmth that probably came from the odd powers it possessed.

It started lightly nuzzling her, and she started laughing heartily. “HEEHEEHEEHEE! Absol, that tickles!!! HAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!” It stopped and lifted its head away, and she calmed down. The frost tree monster then motioned for them to follow, quite business-like as Flurry noticed and they complied.

The Original One

The frost monster escorted Absol and Flurry Heart to a cave entrance further in the small valley that was just big enough for it to lead them through it. It ushered them in after itself and bid them farewell. Within the cave in front of them was another flight of stairs that seemed to go on forever in the darkness, but when they ascended it, it made a sharp right turn and at the top of this flight was a light at the end of the tunnel. Flurry could feel a welcoming breeze blowing down from that exit, and she excitedly ran out. What she saw absolutely amazed her.

She found herself in an open ruin that resembled a stone temple that had lost its roof. There were stone pillars, some pointed and others flat at the top, and each were easily 30-40 feet high. Rubble from the fallen roof lined the edges of the floor, and in the center was a mural carved into the stone floor. It depicted the summit of the mountain and pulses of light emanating from it and spreading across the world around it. Curious, she looked around and gasped when she realized that she was at the summit. All this time, there were ruins of an ancient altar of unknown origins, and nopony was the wiser to it. She could picture Sunburst frothing from excitement if he could be here.

It was then that Flurry realized why she felt so uneasy about the mountain in the first place- it was some sort of sacred ground that she probably should never have treaded upon. However, Absol brought her here for a reason, and that reason must’ve been here at this summit. Absol walked up the center of the temple where the mural was and placed the pink plate onto it. It motioned for Flurry to back away, and she did. Absol then backed away slightly from the plate and howled. “SOOOOOOOL!!!” It bowed its body as if to worship whatever deity might have been enshrined there, and for a moment, all was still…..almost too still.

The plate suddenly began to slowly ascend on its own until it was about level with the tips of the pointed pillars, Flurry watched in awe as the pillars alit at their tips and shot beams of light into the sky, all of them connecting at one point far above the plate and in the clouds. The congregation of light above ‘took’ the beams of light from the pillars and folded them into one large beam that shot down onto the plate. The plate rose into the clouds and was swallowed by the light. A burst of light erupted from the clouds, and Flurry could then make out a shape descending towards them.

It was an equine form, but not quite like a pony, more like a centaur. Its thin mane seemed to be only attached to the back of its head rather than its neck and flowed out behind it, but didn’t wave nearly as much as Celestia or Luna’s. The same went for its relatively small tail. As its form became less shrouded by the lack of sunlight, Flurry could begin to make out its true appearance. Its coat was white, but had a gray underbelly with the same color scheme as the shade of the lower half of its mane and tail. Its neck was somewhat tall for what it resembled and had two tufts on either side of it, and it had a face that was the same gray as its underbelly, but it didn’t seem to have a mouth. However, it had emerald green eyes with red pupils and a green circle underneath each. Strangely enough, there seemed to be a piece of gold on its forehead, and its hooves, which were oddly pointed were also golden. The elephant in the room was the golden pinwheel that seemed to be wrapped around its torso and had four emeralds in either corner where some parts of it crossed. Flurry started shaking when she saw how big it was; it was easily 10-11 feet tall, dwarfing even Princess Celestia. Absol maintained its bowing position as the being floated its way down.

The white being floated there just above the floor of the altar staring down at Absol and Flurry, the latter uncontrollably trembling in terror and crouched like a frightened foal as she eyed the being without blinking. She could feel its gaze looming onto her as it hovered there, and she could tell that it didn’t feel threatened in the slightest. It then slowly let itself down onto the ground, but as gently as its hooves touched the ancient stone floor, its sheer power caused a terrible shock wave to resound across the area, nearly throwing Flurry down and causing her to whimper like a scared puppy. She had seen any assortment of powerful spells and artifacts ranging from the Elements of Harmony, Celestia and Luna moving the sun and moon, the Crystal Heart purging the Frozen North’s blizzard from her empire, the Changelings ability to seamlessly shape shift, etc. But this being…..this one singular entity held a terrifying power that made all of those combined look like squirt guns. Standing close to it felt almost oppressive as its power radiated from its body, so much so that Flurry feared that if she stood too close to it, its very presence would kill her.

Flurry began crying from utter terror as she looked up at the godlike being like a child begging their abusive parent not to hit them, but it seemed so calm as it eyed her back. Absol continued to bow to it, which told her that perhaps this was indeed the god that was once worshipped here, and she had just haphazardly walked onto its holy ground. There was a terrible tension between them for a moment…….until the being broke it. “Speak.” It said gently.

“AIIEE!!” Flurry jumped, startled to suddenly here it talk to her. It didn’t react to her pitiful behavior, as if to give her room to becalm himself. Somehow, Flurry managed to find the words to reply. “Y-Y-You…..ca…..c-c-c-can talk?”

It maintained its neutral gaze onto her. “All living beings can speak in one way or another, verbal or otherwise. I am merely able to communicate and translate between all manners.” It had a grand male voice that sounded like a stallion of 50-60 years even though it must have lived for far longer. “Why have you ascended this holy summit?”

Flurry trembled as she felt as though she was being interrogated despite the being’s consistently mellow demeanor. “U-U-Umm…..Uh-Uh-Uh!!!” She gulped heavily. “A-Absol brought me here.” She stammered. She felt horrible for potentially throwing her new friend under the bus, but it was the truth and she didn’t want to lie to this god.

He faced down at the bowing cat-goat. “Is this true, my child?” it softly asked.

Absol rose from its bowing position and faced up at its apparent god and nodded. “Sol.”

“Is that so? Why?” the being asked.

Absol turned pointed out to the left. “Ab. Absol.” Out in the distance was the darkened Crystal Empire, shrouded over by Sombra’s evil magic. Seeing it now made Flurry’s heart sink.

“Oh dear…” the being muttered, sensing the obvious darkness. “And my plate was there in her possession?”

Flurry panicked upon hearing that. She didn’t want him to get the impression that she had stolen it for the fear of feeling its wrath. “N-N-NO!!! I –I DIDN’T TAKE IT!!! S-S-S-SOMEPONY FOUND IT UNDER ANOTHER MOUNTAIN AND-”

“Where was it found?” he asked.

Something about the way he asked was strangely soothing, and Flurry managed to ease her nerves so she could answer. She stammered an explanation of how Sunburst had led an expedition into Canterlot’s mountain where the plate was ultimately discovered and brought to the Crystal Empire for exhibition and study. “It…..belongs to you?”

“It does.” He said. “But it seems that the world has changed far more than I could have imagined in my absence. I recognize nothing that you made mention of.”

“A-Absent?” Flurry asked.

“Yes. I have slept for many millennia, and only now has my Pixie Plate been recovered and returned to me. I honestly began to lose faith that I would ever rise again.” He replied. “What is your name, child?”

Something about his tone seemed not so much threatening, but rather than of a stern yet benevolent father figure that meant no harm, but Flurry couldn’t blame him for being weary of her as she too was a foreign entity. Nevertheless, she began to feel gradually less threatened by the being, and she was now only mildly shaky. “My….My name is Flurry Heart- Equestria’s Princess of Balance.”

“Princess you say? And how long have you been in power?” the god asked.

Flurry heavily sighed as the harsh truth gnawed at her heart, especially given the circumstances. “I….I was actually just coroneted today….” She mumbled as she held her head down in shame.

“Hmm…. And I’m to presume that the celebration was rudely interrupted?” he asked.

“That’s putting it lightly.” Flurry muttered. “Who or what are you anyway? Us ponies have great historians, but I think I’d know something about a temple at the top of Mt. Everhoof.”

“Mt. Everhoof?” he inquired. “I have only ever known this mountain as Mt. Coronet, and this summit, the Spear Pillar. Hmm…. It would seem even I have become nary a memory.” He said. “But to answer your question, my name is Arceus, but I have also been known as The Original One.”

Flurry’s eyes widened in curiosity. “The… ‘Original One’?”

Arceus nodded. “I have faint memories as this was eons ago, but in the chaos that was the birth of this universe, I was the lone form of life that had been birthed with it.” Suddenly, seventeen of the stone plates, including the Pixie Plate that she had returned to him appeared and orbited perfectly around his torso. “As my infant self explored the creation of reality itself, I came across these seventeen fragments of creation, each being the very essence of an aspect of Nature itself.” He explained.

“Fragments….of creation?” Flurry inquired.

“Think of them as the universe’s afterbirth where I had been born. As such, they were a close part of me. Gradually, I realized the power they held and my ability to control them, and I eventually realized that I had been given a responsibility. Using the power of my plates, I allowed the very essence of the universe to surge all around it, and life other than myself finally began to churn. Before that though, I formed three other beings that I could trust to maintain one respective aspect of the universe that were each of far greater magnitude than all others- time, space and anti-matter. The universe would be in balance this way. As time went on, I realized that the power I still held then was growing unstable, and I might have collapsed in on myself. My initial idea was to spread more of my power across the universe, but that would then throw it all off balance, so I simply decided to pick any singular point in the universe where I could spread my essence and maintain it so that I might become stable.” Arceus explained.

Flurry’s initial terror had now become sheer disbelief. If what Arceus was saying was true, then she was speaking to something that was as old as the universe itself! She could only imagine the kind of answers that he could provide, or the wisdom he’d accumulated over his eons of living. “And that place was Equestria?”

“It was indeed this world, but not as you know it now.” Arceus answered. “In ages past when this world was at its own infancy, my essence allowed the evolving life to become as sensitive to the aspects of the universe as I am, but not nearly on the level of my mine. It became a norm. Some were fish of all sizes that could control water, some were plants and stones that gained sentience and dominion over their elements, some were spectral beings that were the very essence of death, and others were fearsome dragons, but even that only scratches the surface- life is quite a creative artist, you know. Over time, I began to view and care for them as my own children. However, they were not the only creatures occupying this world.”

“Were they the people that built this place?” Flurry asked.

“They were.” Arceus said. “They called themselves ‘humans’, and they were a people of great complexity. My children had become quite accommodated to their presence, and they had even begun a sort of symbiotic relationship.”

“What sort of relationship?” Flurry asked.

“My children had a pension for testing their strength against one another, and they allowed the humans to use this common instinct to become a worldwide sport for them. They would venture deep into the wilds and catch them, and then train them to battle to their fullest potential, helping them to grow as living beings in the process. It became a common form of friendship, and they even coined a collective name for my children- Pokemon” Arceus explained.

“They made each other fight!?” Flurry exclaimed. “That just sounds cruel and abusive!”

“To the uninitiated, it may seem that way, but that was just how things were. My children valued their relationship with the humans, and over time they even helped give them more identity than I could. Those who studied my children gave them names to go by, often after the distinctive sounds they each made or simply by how they appeared. I merely caught on.” Arceus explained.

“Even you, Absol?” Flurry asked as she faced her new friend.

“Absol…” It nodded before gently nuzzling his god’s leg.

Arceus faced down towards his child. “Absol in particular is what is known as a Dark-type. It is in tune with the aspects of the universe that those with a will to survive would rather repress, evil aspects- the dark side and cruelty of Nature.” He faced out towards the darkened Crystal Empire. “Such as the evil that plagues your kingdom now.

Hearing such an explanation suddenly made Flurry weary of Absol. “Is that…..good?”

“Do not presume that means that Absol is evil itself. Even I cannot escape the dark side of the universe, so to understand it rather than fear or succumb to like many otherwise would is truly a strength to bear.” Arceus said. “In Absol’s case, they have the ability to foresee coming catastrophes, and they warn those that would be affected by appearing to them.”

Flurry gasped upon hearing. “It appeared at my balcony just last night before Sombra awakened!”

Arceus looked down at Absol. “Did you now?” Absol nodded. He then looked back at Flurry. “Is this the first time one has appeared to you?”

“Yes! We had no idea such beings even existed! We’ve had plenty of disasters that we were able to take care of, but why would it appear now?” Flurry said.

“Perhaps you just answered your own question.” Arceus said. “Absol will not appear before those who will not be left helpless to stop whatever disaster may come to pass, but it is quite clear that your situation now is most dire.”

It was then that Flurry realized why Absol had brought her here. She gulped before speaking. “Mr. Arceus, I-I know it may not be my place to ask, but…..will you help me defeat Sombra?”

Absol perked up and faced his god as if to plead. Said god stared at her for a moment before speaking again. “Princess Flurry Heart, I do not believe I finished my origin tale.” He said. “I mentioned before that humans were a species of great complexity- I meant that on an intraspecies level. In the latter years of their existence, wars erupting between them became almost a daily occurrence, and my children were often caught in their crossfire, sometimes literally. They had forgotten what it meant to live, to share this world and embrace its beauty, and they became more concerned with controlling it and even Nature itself…..the fools. Each day, more of my children became victims of their violence as did the planet itself. It would have cruel to simply exterminate them, so I withdrew my children from them and let them drive themselves to extinction. The world had become desolate, and I was forced to fall into a deep slumber along with the titans I had created. However I planted the Pixie Plate, the most frivolous aspect of Nature in my control in hopes that something, anything would come of it, and that my plate would return to me once the world had been born anew.”

“That’s…..That’s terrible….” Flurry’s heart sank upon hearing the tragic ending.

“So I must ask you one simple question, and if I am satisfied with your answer, then I will lend you my aid.” Arceus said. “And I must trust that you will speak for the whole of your kingdom’s populace as any ruler ought to.”

Flurry’s breaths suddenly became heavy. She knew that Arceus had no real obligation to help her or Equestria, but she was desperate and wanted all the help she could get now that Sombra’s power had grown too much. Plus, looking into his eyes, she knew that Arceus was willing to do the right thing. She mustered some confidence and nodded. “Ok!”

“Very well…” Arceus said. “My question to you is this: What sort of world do you envision?”

Flurry mulled over his question, knowing that Equestria’s fate was riding her answer. She thought back to her life and all the accomplishments she had performed. What did they all truly mean? Why did she do it all? Was it all just for the sense of accomplishment, or did she really adhere to her beliefs? She then thought about what her world was like beforehand. Would it have been better that way with everyone largely separated? Would their unity today do more harm than good?.....No. If she was truly doing so much harm, then her actions wouldn’t have so celebrated, and she suddenly knew why.

“The world I envision is as simple as this, Arceus: You shared all of your essence, your wisdom with everything around you because you thought it could hold true beauty in all sense of the word. I’ve always thought the same for this world alone, so I did everything I could to bring everyone together when there would otherwise be unbuilt walls between us, walls that others were too afraid to break down, but I knew those walls prevented this world from growing further than it had before. I want to see a world where no one can be afraid of expressing their own beauty while accepting others and balancing each other’s out if need be. I believe that a balanced world is a truly healthy one.”

Flurry looked at Arceus with confidence, but deep down, she was incredibly anxious. Arceus had been completely expressionless this whole time, and the suspense was killing her. “I see….” He finally broke the silence. His tone remained as neutral as his expression, making the tension even more gut-wrenching. “And you hold these values of friendship that you preach close to your heart?”

Flurry nodded. “Friendship is practically the very basis of our culture.”

“So you say…” Arceus said. He took another glance out at the dark cloud that had now completely shrouded the empire, and for a moment, Flurry could swear she could detect a hint of pity in his eyes. He then floated his Pixie Plate towards her. “I will allow you to make use of my Pixie Plate if you would so desire, so long as you return it to me.”

Flurry shook her head and gently pushed it away. “No thank you, Arceus. This plate is a piece of you that you finally got back. I couldn’t take it from you again in good conscience.”

“Hmm…” Arceus returned the Pixie Plate to its orbit around his torso. “I now see why your subjects revere you so. Very well. I will gladly help purge this ‘King Sombra’ of yours and the darkness that he would use to infect the world.”

“ You will!?” Flurry asked. When Arceus nodded, she was about as overjoyed as a high school filly who had just been asked to prom by her crush.

Arceus then leaned his head down and looked at her more closely. “Hmm?” He seemed to be eyeing her necklace. “Well now! How did I not notice that right away?”

“Huh? You mean my necklace? I got this as a coronation present today.” Flurry said.

“Did you? Well, that jewel that adorns it holds more significance than you may realize.” Arceus said.

“Oh? Does it belong to you too?” Flurry asked.

Arceus shook his head. “No. It is what is referred to as a Key Stone.”

“Key Stone?” Flurry asked as she looked at her present. “What does it unlock?”

“Power, Princess of Balance. Power that can only be attained by a strong bond between trainer and Pokemon.” Arceus answered. “Although, it seems that this one has lost its luster over the many centuries it must have been buried and unused. Let me mend that.” The emeralds on Arceus’s pinwheel started glowing, and they shot little beams of light towards Flurry’s jewel, which seemed to awaken it. Flurry looked it at in amazement as its grey hue had become something of a beautiful rainbow luster, and the DNA-like pattern in it was much more defined as it had turned black.

“Wow….” Flurry cooed. “But….there aren’t any Pokemon trainers in Equestria, Arceus, least of all me.”

“I beg to differ.” Arceus said as he looked down at Absol, who was walking up to Flurry. “You seem to have formed a bond with this Absol quite nicely. While you are indeed not necessarily its trainer, it has nevertheless put its trust in you.” His emerald glowed again, but this time, they created a silver necklace around Absol that also had a pendant. While it was similar to Flurry’s Key Stone, Absol’s jewel was a marble that had the color scheme of its body within its swirly pattern.

“Is that a Key Stone too?” Flurry asked.

“No. It is a Mega Stone, specifically an Absolite. Absol is one of few Pokemon that can Mega Evolve during a battle. When this happens, its power drastically increases, and it dissipates when all has become calm.” Arceus explained.

Flurry eyed her friend in awe, imagining what Absol would be able to do with whatever this ‘Mega Evolution’ was supposed to do to it. “Wow… Really?”

“However!” Arceus said sternly, startling Flurry. “Mega Evolution puts quite a strain on my children, and is often very painful for them. I remember a few instances where it was even fatal, so you must solemnly swear that you will use it as an absolute last resort and nothing else.”

His suddenly shift in tone was a little frightening, but Flurry could tell that Arceus was being a watchful father to Absol, as he should have been. “I swear on my honor as the Princes of Balance.”

“Good.” Arceus’s tone was back to being neutral. “Then I see no time like the present to awaken forth some ancient reinforcements.” Arceus rose back up into the sky as his golden pinwheel began to shine brighter than Celestia’s sun. When he reached the clouds he emerged from, he unleashed a massive pulse of light that raced across the land.

The Titans Awaken

Within the tundra of the Frozen North, the frozen being that Flurry happened upon sensed the call of its master, and its yellow eyes glowed a piercing light that alone was able to crack the ice imprisoning it. Seconds later the iceberg was obliterated, and the ice dragon let out a haunting but powerful roar upon being freed. Sensing its call to arms, it broke into a sprint towards the shadow cloud.

*****

Far in the small garden kingdom of Japon where the legendary Mistmane once lived, priestesses at the top of a sacred tower carried out their duties under the watch of a stone statue of a majestic bird that towered over them. Nopony knew how it got there or even who built it, but it was loved and seen as a symbol of peace and harmony by the explorers who happened upon it, and it became the founding point of their culture and kingdom.

However, news of Sombra’s return quickly reached even them, and those who had time to pray did so fervently. Their head priestess led their prayer around ceremonial torches that had been lit. “As we gather here in this hour of darkness, we hold our hearts up in great hope that the warriors we send to the Crystal Empire will be protected and their blades guided. May Sombra’s darkness be forever purged this time and peace be returned to Equestria. Please! Whatever high power may hear our plight, answer us!!”

She got her wish when an inexplicable wave of light surged across the sky, startling everypony and leaving them to wonder what was happening. What startled them even more was that the giant bird statue suddenly began cracking, light pouring out of the cracks more and more and it came closer to crumbling. The fire from the torches even floated towards it began violently swirling around it. “Wha…. What’s happening!?” one of the younger priestesses said.

Eventually, the stone statue exploded into countless pieces, prompting the priestesses to cover their eyes. When they opened them again and looked at what remained of their sacred statue, they were met with a sight both awe-inspiring and terrifying. The statue turned out to be a husk for an actual, humongous red bird with a golden crown resembling monkey tails. It spread its wings, revealing the rainbow and golden color scheme of its feathers. “” It’s caw was majestic and caused waves of fire to surge from it, but surprisingly, nothing was burned; the priestesses didn’t even feel much heat.

They looked up at it, paralyzed in fear while simultaneously gazing in awe, and the rainbow phoenix looked back down at them, but it was strangely calm as it gazed back at them. It then lowered its head to the head priestess, causing the elderly mare to shiver in terror. Rather than being devoured by the fiery avian, she was pleasantly surprised to find that it gently nuzzled her with its beak while lightly cooing, as if to thank her and her disciples for tending to it for all the time it had been in apparent slumber. Its touch felt divine, as if it had been some sort of god watching over their kingdom this whole time and they were never the wiser. The head priestesses found herself giggling in delight at the divine birds gesture, and they all calmed down. The bird then lifted its head away and spread its wings, ready to take flight. It let out another powerful caw before taking flight and leaving its former caretakers to see it off happily.

*****

“COME ON!! SOMBRA’S GONE HAYWIRE, AND HE’S NOT PLANNING ON STOPPING!!” Garble had flown hurriedly from the Crystal Empire at Ember’s command to get reinforcements from the Dragon Lands. A horde of other dragons led by Former Dragon Lord Torch followed him as they soared through the air at mach speed over the Celestial Sea.

“SAY NO MORE, BOY!!” Torch exclaimed, his massive form greatly dwarfing the other dragons. All of a suddenly a wave of light surged across the sky far above them. “WHOA!!” He and the other dragons were startled at the sudden phenomenon, but seeing as nothing else came of it, they resumed their course towards the empire without further delay.

“Huh…weird.” Garble muttered. However, a few minutes into their flight, they suddenly heard something from the ocean below them. It sounded almost like….a song.

“Wha in blazes?” Torch said. The song repeated a couple of times as the dragons slowed down a little to listen for whatever might be making the sound.

One of the other dragons suddenly noticed something in the water. “WHOA! WHAT’S THAT!?” she exclaimed. Everyone followed her gaze to see a gigantic shadow just below the surface of the water that was following them at their speed. It seemed to know that its presence had been detected, and it dove quickly. A moment later, a huge waterspout suddenly erupted from the ocean. “YAAAHHHH!!!” They all banked away from it as they witnesses the shadow swim up its vortex.

The waterspout violently burst, revealing the shadow’s true form. It was a bizarre, monstrous being that wasn’t quite as big as torch, but its sheer power could be felt all the way to where the dragons were. It was a white being that could be described a majestic hybrid of a whale and a dragon with hand-like wings and a sky blue underbelly. It had a few navy blue scales that jutted out from it’s back and around its eyes. It let out a whale-like roar that caused torrential whirlwinds to suddenly blow all around. It was unimaginably powerful. “HOLY SMOKES!!” Torch exclaimed, not in all of his years ever seeing anything like this being. It silently acknowledged its draconic peers without so much as flinching and took off at terminal velocity towards the Crystal Empire.

*****

On the rocky shores of the unnamed village once home to Rockhoof, the descendants of the Mighty Helm were arming themselves and getting ready to depart for the empire to lend their aid. Their families gathered food for them to take for the dangerous mission ahead, knowing that Sombra would put up a strong resistance.

“Let us make haste, everypony! The princesses will be waiting for us!” The battalion’s leader ordered. They all shouted affirmations at him. Suddenly, an unexpected wave of light surged across the sky. “Huh?” the leader said. “Is everypony alright?” Nopony was harmed, but certainly frazzled by the sudden anomaly.

As if to make matters more terrifying, the volcano erupted with incredible magnitude minutes later, sending the entire town into a mass hysteria. However, the lava flow seemed oddly…..controlled, as if some force was directing the volcanic debris away from the town. Even if they had an anti-lava trench dug between their village and the volcano, they still kept their guard up. But what happened next was worthy of another legend.

Looking closely at the smoking summit, they could see enormous claws emerging from the fiery pit, and something began crawling out! What emerged from a wave of lava spewing out of the volcano was a gargantuan red lizard-like monster with black patterns lining its body. When it reached the foot of the mountain it stood up on its hind legs and let out a guttural roar that caused the black lines on its body to glow a deep blue, and it seemed to cause the sunlight to became radiant to the point that the townsfolk could barely look up without almost being blinded. They were nevertheless horrified that such a monstrous being existed right next door.

Its footsteps were heavy enough to cause small tremors as it made its way towards the ocean, largely paying the town no heed, but it seemed to be taking care to not have it burn. When it reached the shoreline, it let out another roar and slammed its claw onto the sand right where the land met the sea. The townsfolk watch as the land below the sea rose above the water, forming a bridge for it to cross the sea. It broke into a blazing sprint, bringing the intense sunlight with it.

*****

In the maritime city of Baltimare, the news of Sombra’s return had thrown its populace into a panic. Some sailors and fishermen started leading their friends and family onto their boats so that they could evacuate, and they found themselves having to fight off some freeloaders that were trying to stow away. The mayor tried his damnedest to defuse the situation. “All of you, please calm down! There’s nothing to be panicking about. I’m sure they the situation well under control over there!” Unfortunately, he was ignored. What nopony could ignore was a wave of light surging past them across the sky. Curious about the previously unseen occurrence, the pony’s hysteria mellowed down as they discussed what it could have been.

Suddenly, they noticed that the sea water began to quickly recede as if the sea itself was about to sneeze. After a few tense minutes of observing the event, the ponies were terrified when they noticed an enormous wave making its way towards their town! They all ran for dear life inland to try and escape the sea’s wrath, but they were relieved albeit very confused when the massive wave suddenly stopped in its path just before it could touch the docks. As they anxiously observed the unnatural phenomenon, they began to notice a massive shadow swimming back and forth within the wave. Something was underwater observing them, and it made the tension even thicker. The wave moved back a little and formed a sort of theatre-like shape, as if it was about to present something, perhaps the shadow beneath it. Lo and behold, it did.

What emerged in the center of ‘theatre’ was something from a sailor’s nightmares. It was a gigantic whale-like fish that had a blue body with a white underbelly and red archaic patterns lining its upper half, as well as its fins. “” Its hollow roar that sounded as though it were still underwater caused its red linings to shine luminously, and it seemed to be what summoned a torrential downpour that the local weather ponies would never be allowed to bring forth during their rain schedule.

The denizens became even more terrified when the water beneath it began rising out in a sort of cushion for the monster to sit it. It roared once more and caused its water cushion to rise out of the ocean altogether and form wing-like add-ons to its massive fins that it used to fly at a relatively low altitude towards the Crystal Empire, taking its heavy rain with it.

*****

In Canterlot’s Museum of Natural History, its guards were being excused by the curator to make way to the Crystal Empire. Even though it was an emergency, he had all of them check out one by one so as not to get their shift schedules confused, and he could reorganize them later once they came back…..if they came back… As they all left, he uttered a silent prayer for their safe return.

All he could do was walk around his empty museum and hope that everything turned out alright. Apart from Sombra conquering Equestria and potentially the world around it, those guards have been nothing but good to him, and he’d feel awful if anything happened to them just because he let them throw themselves to the wolves. Plus, he valued all of the wondrous treasures he displayed in the place he thought of as his second home. It was always such a joy to see them bring smiles to the guests that beheld them, especially the foals. What would become of this place should Sombra succeed?

Suddenly, he felt as though something powerful passed over him, and he got chills running down his spine as every hair on his coat stood up. “G-Goodness me…” He was startled by violent flaring sounds coming from another exhibit room. He rushed towards said room, which happened to be the geology exhibit. For whatever odd reason, two stones in particular had begun glowing, and they were ones that everypony at the museum, namely the curator himself and the researchers found peculiar simply for the fact that they’re origins could not be discerned. Both were smooth, near perfectly round if not for the three concave indents in them that formed a perfect triangle if the dots were connected, but one was a vast white while the other was a deep black. The fact that looked almost identical made the researchers theorize that they were of the same origin, and the event the curator was witnessing was further proof of that notion.

Both stones were floating in the air and moved away from one another as if to give the other space. The white stone suddenly had flames swirling around it while the black stone began violently sparking as though a thunderstorm was about to erupt from it. They suddenly began bursting into flames and lightning respectively, causing the curator to cover his eyes. “MY WORD!” When the light subsided, he could feel two powerful presences before he could even open his eyes again. When he did, his heart nearly stopped.

The stones had inexplicably transformed into two ferocious looking monsters. One was a white dragon-like beast that oddly was furry rather than scaly, as if it were some strange mammalian dragon. It had piercing, yet gentle blue eyes and two wavy manes that flowed from its head much like the Royal Sisters. Its arms acted as it wings, and it had a shackle-like growth on its neck. The other was a black dragon that looked much fiercer than its counterpart and had a smooth body one would expect from a draconic being. Atop its head was single horn that had a blue tip to match the blue lightning that violently sparked from its body. It had red eyes that weren’t so gentle unlike its counterpart. Also unlike the white dragon, it had four limbs apart from the two terrifying wings on its back. Both of them had tails that resembled generators of some kind, but the white one’s radiated intense fire while the black one’s was generated storms worth of lightning.

“”

The white dragon’s roar was strangely graceful and sounded like a high-pitched scream while the black dragon’s roar was far more ferocious and dominant. Despite being in the presence of two terrifying beings, the curator found himself strangely mesmerized by them…..until the white dragon exhaled what must have been a megaton of fire onto the ceiling of his museum, blasting it wide open, and they took off into the Equestrian sky.

*****

Deep in the fabled Everfree Forest was Ponyville’s famed shaman, Zecora out and about. The news of Sombra’s return had prompted her to enact a doomsday plan she had crafted in the event that they would fail to sufficiently hold him back, much less defeat him. She examined a map of hidden shelters she had prepared throughout the forest and planned who would hide where. She sadly only had made enough room for three times Ponyville’s population, but she swore that it would only be for those who were sick or injured, or otherwise were too weak to fight. She was on her way to one of the shelters to make sure it was optimally stocked with supplies and resources for whomever it might house when she felt an odd disturbance in the air. “Hmm?”

The disturbance then extended to a surge of light racing across the sky. Her sensitivity to the flow of Nature nearly caused her to vomit from how powerfully she felt the light’s influence on the area around her. “Argh! What is this great power I feel?” She then felt another disturbance coming from nearby, one that even caused some manticores and timberwolves to flee, so she rushed in that direction to find a lake at the bottom of a pit that easily 150 feet deep. Zecora became worried when she realized that it was for some reason turning a murky black.

Suddenly, an unknown object began rising out of the lake. Looking closer, Zecora could make out a large black cocoon-like mass with white diamond patterns around, and she felt a dark aura emanating from as it inexplicably hovered far above the lake at about the level of the cliff’s edge where Zecora stood trembling. Whatever this thing was, it felt ominously unnatural.

The cocoon then flared an oppressive burst of energy, and Zecora could sense everything around becoming weak. She then realized that this mass was absorbing the vital essence of everything around it, even her own! She choked and sputtered as she struggled against the devouring force that caused all of the surrounding flora to wilt exponentially faster. After a few tense moments, the cocoon suddenly began to fold open! It turned out to be a gargantuan, monstrous red bird with its wings and tail feathers spreading out to form a sort of ‘Y’ shape and had claw-like growths on their tips. It had black vein-like growths under its wings and torso, and its body was glowing in such a way that the vital essence it was devouring was being drawn into its heart. It had a large tuft of fur around its neck that resembled a storm cloud, and its head held its two horns that curved forward like scythes, and its piercing blue eyes.

“”

It bellowed a blood-curdling mix of a caw from a bird of prey and a roar from a dragon, and a now skin and bones Zecora could only weakly cower as she stared at the seemingly demonic avian. It didn’t seem to acknowledge her as its body suddenly glowed a bright red before taking off like a rocket.

Zecora could do naught but desperately take heavy breaths as her bones felt as though they could collapse into dust at any moment. She could even muster the strength to speak, much less scream for help. However, some other force must have heard her silent pleas, and there was a sudden swell vital essence surging from within the forest on the other side of the lake. Everything that had been drained by the demon bird had been instantly revived and rejuvenated, Zecora included. “What is this madness?” she wondered, despite being thankful for whatever restored the natural balance, even though it too felt unnatural.

She heard something coming out of the bushes in the direction of the vital surge, and when she looked, another bizarre being appeared before her. It was a majestic blue stag with eight tree branch-like antlers, four jutting out equally from either side of its head and strangely bearing various gems on them. The lower half of its body was a soft black with a bushy tail, and its legs had ivory colored growths lining down all the way from the sides of its knees to around its hooves. Zecora was awestruck by its angelic presence.

It gently gazed upon the shaman before leaping clean over the lake and landing right next to her. Even if she was surprised by its agility, she sensed its purity and wasn’t at all frightened. It was a good nine feet tall and was looking down at her, making no sounds. The look in its eyes was somehow….motherly, as if it was assuring Zecora that all would be well and that she had nothing to worry about. It then sprinted away in the direction of the monster bird.

*****

After receiving news of Sombra’s return from a courier, attendants of the king of Griffonstone began rallying guards and warriors that had stayed behind and taking volunteers from the townsfolk as militia to fight against the dark king. Being a proud species, any unrest one would expect from a threatened society was instead filled in by sheer seriousness. Even if their relationship with the ponies hadn’t been eased by the mediations of Princess Flurry Heart, the possibility of Sombra conquering their kingdom was one they could not ignore regardless of the circumstances. Taking action was the only option.

“Get a move, you lot!! The king’s in one sour pickle ‘long with the rest o’ the lugs in the Crystal Empire, n’ Sombra won’t be stoppin’ to smell the roses once he makes his way south!” The griffon guard captain ordered. She was a fierce old hen who commanded respect amongst Griffonstone’s populace, not just the military. She had allowed her lieutenant to take her place at the Crystal Empire without her supervision as a test of her aptitude in case it was finally time for her to retire her position after decades of service. Deep down her lieutenant knew that her superior wasn’t into ‘sappy stuff’ like the coronation, but she was nevertheless thrilled to have so much faith put into her, which the king also approved of. Needless to say, the old hen was cursing herself for having too much faith that nothing would go wrong.

Suddenly, all the griffons were startled when a large pulse of light surged across the sky, even the captain. “What in Grover’s name?” She put her talon down and stepped on something squishy. When she looked down, there was a small green mass beneath her talon. She lifted her talon and was shocked to see that it was a living creature! “What’re you s’posed to be?” It was about the size of her talon and had a gelatinous green body with a hexagonal red organ inside of its belly. It had eyes, but one was much bigger than the other and actually had a pupil. It glared up at her, likely not happy that it had been stepped on while the captain was still frazzled that such a bizarre being suddenly appeared seemingly out of nowhere.

The creature jumped back and began shining very luminously, and everyone watched as inexplicable bolts of green energy suddenly appeared and began being rapidly absorbed into the little blob. Its entire body suddenly shined to a point where it couldn’t be seen, and after a few moments, the light swell subsided to reveal an inexplicable and almost unnatural looking wolf with green and black skin that seemed almost cellular than animalistic. It had a scarf-like growth on its neck, and the patterns on it body seemed to be comprised of hexagonal scales, indicating that it had spawned from the green blob.

It let out a powerful howl before taking off at breackneck speeds.

*****

To say that all hell had broken loose in the Crystal Empire was an understatement. The dark cloud covering the city blocked out the sun, and the only light illuminating anything was the plethora of red lightning flaring from the shadow cloud as well as the street lamps that were now glowing a blood red. The royalties from all nations were valiantly fighting against Sombra while the guards did their damnedest to defend the townsfolk from the shadows, but were starting to fail. In the time that Flurry had been gone, Sombra had conjured shadow monsters that were black and demonic forms of manticores, timberwolves, ursa minors, giant worms, and even horrific knock-off’s of Cerberus. One by one, the shadows captured townsfolk and imprisoned them in corrupted shackles that sent painful shocks throughout their bodies as they were forced to mine the crystals outside of the castle town.

Twilight and Airheart found themselves in a random street fighting off a pack of the shadow timberwolves when they realized that they were starting to get more and more out of control. The Princess of Friendship was reluctant to have to put heavy amounts of faith into her husband, but she charged his sword with the fiercest magic she could conjure, allowing him to hack and slash through the bestial demons with ease, which he did so with aerial agility that could rival that of Rainbow Dash. He stayed close to her in case any of them tried to sneak up from behind while she blasted them into puffs of smoke with her magic. Any townsfolk caught in their crossfire were ordered to flee and find shelter.

“Airheart, I hate to say it, but……we might not win this time. The Elements were useless, and Sombra’s got us nearly pinned down! On top of that, Flurry left with that…..thing for some reason, and I’m worried sick about her!” Twilight said.

Airheart cleaved a shadow wolf in half before soaring back to his wife. “Don’t you dare start losing faith now! The second you do is the second you become vulnerable! Keep your spirits up, and I promise we’ll pull through!”

Twilight was ready to start crying. She knew Airheart was right, but how high of a price would they have to pay in order to best Sombra as he was now? Her train of thought derailed when his devilish laughter resounding from down the road. They looked over and were horrified to see him carrying the exhausted Royal Sisters and married couple with his magic. Laying at his hooves were Ember, Spike, Thorax, and Pharynx all completely spent and beaten within inches of their lives. “NOOOO!!!!” Twilight exclaimed.

“YOU MONSTER!!!” Airheart exclaimed

Sombra chuckled. “Oh, don’t mind me. Just your average, everyday king claiming his rightful throne. And it just so happens that you’re in the way as well, so if you don’t mind, I’ll be kindly making you wish for death!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!!!!!”

Airheart aggressively pointed his sword at the demonic king. “YOU’RE GONNA BE THE ONE WISHING FOR DEATH AFTER WE’RE THROUGH WITH YOU!!!”

“Oh, am I?” Sombra taunted. Suddenly, the atmosphere felt incredibly tense with an ominous pressure, as if something was enraged. Airheart and Twilight grew anxious as they feared that Sombra was about to do something drastic, but what happened next was something out of their nightmares.

A dark swirl suddenly erupted from the space between both parties that quickly expanded into a portal that seemed to lead into a void of darkness. After a tense moment of observing the sudden anomaly, Twilight and Airheart were startled when an enormous pair of red eyes shined from the darkness. Then, a massive hoof cloaked into shadowy goo reached out from the portal and slammed into the street in front of them. Gradually, a gargantuan form of some kind of draconic demon crawled out of the portal, eyeing them as they backed away in horror. When it completely emerged, the portal behind it closed, and the shadow goo covering it just dissipated, revealing its true form. It was a six-legged dragon-like monster with a dark grey body and golden growths around its hooves, head and neck. The underside of its neck had red and black striped patterns lining it, and its wings looked as if they were made of shadows apart from the red claw-like tips spawning from them. It towered over the royal couple of friendship as Twilight cowered beside her husband, who could do naught but eye the monster back in sheer terror.

They looked at Sombra, expecting him to be smirking deviously at summoning such a terrifying monster…….but he was scared stiff as well, as if whatever this beast was came of its own volition. It turned its attention away from Twilight and Airheart as it faced the now cowering Sombra, who had dropped the captive royal out of fear. “Wh-Wh-Wh-Wha…!?.....WH-WH-WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS!?!?!?!” The monster was completely facing him and lowered its head to stare at him more closely, as if to threaten the mad stallion or even size him up as prey. When it lifted its head once more, it let out the most chilling roar that anypony in history had ever heard.

“"

It’s roar sounded as though it had echoed from whatever hell it just spawned from as its shadowy wings began to expand. It roared once again, and Sombra watched in horror as the dark cloud he had cast over the Crystal Empire was slowly but surely being absorbed and devoured in the monster’s wings! “WH-WHAT!? STOP THIS PEST!!!” Sombra bellowed.

All of Sombra’s shadow troops and monsters stopped what they were doing to assault the gargantuan demon dragon, and it glared at him, clearly not feeling threatened. As they all converged towards the beast, some of the shadows fired magic at it, but it tanked every hit as though they were barely flea bites. Just before they could reach the monster, another intense pressure suddenly pressed onto the atmosphere, so much so that it was enough to cause the unconscious royals and Spike to stir. They were shocked back to their senses upon seeing their ‘guest’. They all gasped from the shock of seeing such a terrifying creature suddenly appear.

The pressure intensified when a blue swirl appeared low in the sky beside Twilight and Airheart, and just like the black one, it erupted into a portal. They could all hear the fearsome breathing of another ferocious monster resound from within it, and not even a second later, one burst out. It was an enormous quadrupedal blue draconic monster that seemed to be covered in some kind of metal armor that was growing from its body. Its head was elongated into a sort of diamond shape and head piercing red eyes. It seemed to have a blue diamond centered in its chest. The portal closed behind it as its hooves hit the ground.

“”

As it roared, Twilight and Airheart noticed in a clock store across the street that the hands were moving too fast and in random directions, and they could feel everything around them being distorted. When it ran out of breath, everything felt normal again, and that’s when they realized that this being’s roar was able to ripple the very flow of time! “WHAT IN THE HAYSEED IS GOING ON!?!?” Airheart exclaimed.

The blue dragon’s chest diamond suddenly began glowing, and the steel plate growing out of its back expanded a little. They could feel time itself being….absorbed into its mouth and congregated into a cosmic cluster. Seconds later, it exploded from its mouth into a massive torrent of temporal fire aimed right at a group of shadow monsters rushing towards its presumed friend. The entire wave of enemies was obliterated in the wake of destruction, and time felt regulated once more.

Before they could process what all had just happened, a pink swirl appeared behind Twilight and Airheart and expanded into a large portal, and from it emerged another monster. It seemed to be a counterpart to the blue one that had just appeared, but was bipedal and was a pearly white with pink patterns lining its body. It had small fin-like wings that looked barely big enough to let it fly, and its shoulders were hemispherical and each had pearl-like growths in their centers.

“”

Its roar was short and sounded like a resounding whimper of a dog that actually sounded threatening, and as it did, Twilight and Airheart could feel the very fabric of reality shake like a wine glass right in front of a speaker. Already frazzled by the appearance of yet another extradimensional horror, the third dragon began charging vast amounts of energy into the pearl on its left shoulder. Its left claw started glowing a powerful pink light, and after a few seconds later, it released it as a blade of light that distorted space as it traveled towards another pack of shadow monsters, wiping them clean out and stabilizing space as it dissipated.

Sombra could only look on in horror as the shadow cloud became thinner and thinner, to the point where the sun could barely peek through. However, when it got to that point, the demon dragon stopped and began surging the darkness it had absorbed throughout its body. It then let out another howling roar as it blasted its energy in all directions, purging any nearby shadows and completely expelling the dark cloud. “H-H-HOW DARE YOU!!!!” Sombra nervously bellowed.

All of a sudden, a green sparkle appeared in the sky, and moments later, a large meteorite crashed into grassy terrain outside of the town. Surprisingly, it didn’t cause a very big shockwave for its size, as if the meteor itself tried to control its landing. Green light began pouring out of cracks that gradually formed around. It then exploded as a green serpentine form squirmed into the sky. When it was still, it was revealed to be a serpentine dragon with yellow archaic patterns lining its body and no limbs apart from a pair of arms with three clawed digits. It had dorsal fins along its body and four large horns protruding from around its head in an ‘X’ shape. It let out a guttural roar as it slithered through the sky, breathing any assortment of elemental torrents at the shadow monsters.

The awakened royals looked on in complete confusion, namely Celestia and Luna, who had no idea that such being even existed, much less were attacking the Crystal Empire despite the fact that they seemed to be here to help. “Sister….what….?” Luna stammered, completely flustered.

Celestia could only shake her head in disbelief. In all the years she had lived and all the worldly knowledge she had accumulated, she was flabbergasted that she had never seen or heard of any sort of hints of such profound beings within her kingdom. Suddenly, the Royal Sisters’ heads began painfully throbbing. The way their horns were acting up told them that their respective celestial bodies were somehow moving on their own. They appeared side by side in the sky like they had before shortly after Twilight became a princess, and the Royal Sisters could feel something trying to break out of the sun and moon. “Nrgh! RRGGHH!!!” The throbbing was getting worse as they could feel previously unknown seals being broken.

“Are you two okay!? What’s wrong!?” Thorax interjected.

“AIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!!!!”

“ARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!”

The Royal Sisters’ horn shined luminously as their celestial bodies burst into light. Cadance and Shining Armor happened to peek up at the lights in the sky and witness a light rocketing down towards them. It landed beside them with meteoritic force, but was oddly gentle. When they looked up, they were met with a huge white lion with an almost metallic-looking coat. It had black paws with golden claws and orange patterns around it’s ankles, and it’s mane had tufts of orange along with golden growth around it. Its forehead looked as if it were made of space, and it even its eyes were in it.

Understandably startled, they were frightened when they heard a hollow sound from the moon. Something just materialized out of the moonlight. Looking closer, it was a ring of gold with a cluster of cosmic matter within. It then unfolded in such a way that it revealed to be some kind of celestial bat hanging upside down. It fell from the moonlight and made a graceful yet haunting bat chirp as it flipped right side up and flew towards them, letting the moon lower again.

Once the Royal Sisters’ headaches had subsided and they could process what had happened, they were in utter shock that there were now apparently beings living in the celestial bodies. However, they were even more flustered when they saw an assortment of more monsters rapidly approaching the empire.

Flurry's Rising

Arceus appeared out of a portal not too far outside of the empire with Flurry Heart and Absol riding on his back. The Princess of Balance watched in awe as the wide array of terrifying monsters, some clearly even bigger than Arceus converged on the empire and assaulted Sombra’s shadow army. “Arceus…are these your reinforcements?”

Arceus turned his head to face her. “Yes. I gave rise to these titans to act as guardians in my stead as I slumbered, leaving the world to its own devices unless a state of great emergency demanded my attention.” He looked back out at them. “How pleasing to see that they have remained ever powerful even after countless centuries of dormancy. I feel almost irresponsible for not allowing them watch the very world I charged them to protect change as it passed through the currents of time.”

Flurry Heart put her hoof on his neck. “If they were eager enough to heed your call without so much as a second thought, I’d say that’s proof positive that they trust you as much as they must revere you, even after so long.”

Arceus looked back at her again and much to her surprised, lightly chuckled. “How lucky these people are to have gracious rulers such as you.” Flurry blushed and smiled upon being flattered by a god. “Speaking of whom, I believe they are waiting for you.”

“Hmm?”

Arceus turned his body in such a way that the side of his body faced the empire, almost as if he was a ship letting his passengers depart. “Go on, Princess of Balance. Fight for your kingdom in its hour of need.”

Flurry was a little shocked that Arceus didn’t seem to be accompanying her to the empire, but she looked in his eye and felt the divine trust he put in his titans being directed towards her, and any hesitation she had was thinned out. His pinwheel then glowed and gently poured light into her horn, which she readily accepted. She confidently nodded. “Right! Come on, Absol!”

“Sol!” She and her cat-goat friend leapt off of Arceus’s back and rushed towards the Crystal Empire with Arceus’s divine gaze being ever watchful over them.

*****

The royals and surrounding townsfolk watched in a mix of horror and joy as they watched the variety of monsters completely decimate Sombra’s forces. They regenerated quickly, but the sheer power of these titans kept everything at a solid stalemate, and the dark lord himself was anything but pleased. Apart from the destruction, the blue deer used its holy powers to cleanse that corrupted shackles from the captive townsfolk as well as shred the shadows with its antlers and blast them with blasts of holy light. Its demon bird counterpart used a dark tractor beam fired from its body to devour the shadows and use them to generate dark energy pulses it fired from its mouth, which were surprisingly harmful to even the surrounding shadows. The green wolf, upon reaching the area howled and called for more of the green bolts of light to congregate towards itself, and it grew further into a bizarre serpent that had black frills extending from the back of its neck. It summoned a torrent of green arrow-like projections that pierced and shredded the shadows and caused miniature earthquakes below they’re feet.

The black and white dragons seemed to join forces with the ice dragon in another sector of the empire. The white dragon vomited torrents of fire while the black dragon crashed and clawed into its foes with lightning surging around its body. The ice dragon made things easier for them by flash freezing the ground and making arenas of ice to trap their foes. At one point, the shadows made a desperate move and congregated together into a horrific draconic form of its own. It was serpentine with six arms that had long, serrated claws. The ice dragon and white dragon looked at each other and nodded, and the ice dragon folded it frozen wings and fired the spikes jutting out of them at the white dragon, who curled up into a ball of intense fire that the ice dragon plugged into its tail, and it was suddenly enveloped in a miniature sun. When it dispersed, the two dragons had fused together! It was still bipedal and had the generator tail, but it had red plug-like growths running between that and its wings. It looked as if the ice dragon had simply adopted the white dragons body type and fur while its face was still dominate. The black dragon unleashed a blast of lightning that paralyzed the shadow dragon just enough for the now fused dragon to blast it with burning ice that easily annihilated it. They then defused and resumed their reign of destruction.

The giant red lizard found itself surrounded by shadows as it summoned sharp columns of stone to pierce its foes and caused mini magma eruptions right beneath them. However, it felt the need to take drastic measures. It surrounded itself with powerful red energy that became crystalline around it. After a moment, the giant ruby burst to reveal that the beast was now glowing as if it had bright lava for skin apart from its red shell. Its very presence caused the grass around it to ignite from being so hot, and the shadows could only tremble as their monstrous foes volcanic power intensified.

The same went for the blue whale fish as it summoned torrents of water to swamp the shadows, but it surrounded itself with blue energy that crystallized over it. It too burst open to reveal that the aquatic beast had adopted similar traits to the now empowered magma lizard in the respect that it had lava-like flows within its body, and its water powers dramatically increased in magnitude.

The green serpent briefly returned to the meteor it had emerged from and began absorbing some kind of energy from it. There were green crystals from within the fallen rock that reacted to the dragon’s presence and sent some energy up towards it. The serpentine drake became surrounded in a blinding ball of light for a moment, the earth below it trembling as if to fear what would happen. After a moment, the light exploded from it as if it were a shell to reveal a drastic change in the serpent. Its body now had black segments along with green which had luminous growths in them, and the horns on its head were replaced by two large tusks that curved outward. Flowing out from those tusks were long, golden ribbon-like growths that extended nearly down the length of its body. It top horns were still there and had those same ribbons as well. As it was being charged by a shadow ursa major, it soared high into the sky in and came slamming into it in a blaze of emerald light, completely destroying it's shadowy foe.

The solar lion made quick work of the smaller shadows by shredding them with fire-bathed claws and firing beams of solar light. It took out a bigger one by slamming into it with a meteoritic tackle. Meanwhile, the lunar bat blasted them with telekinetic waves and a few times, folded its body up and allowed six points along the gold rims of its body to converge lunar light onto its forehead, which it fired to purge the shadows.

The rainbow phoenix made a point of protecting the townsfolk and summoned pillars and walls of fire between them and the shadows so that could get away while the avian whale dragon blew destructive gales that tore the shadows to shreds.

*****

As they looked on, the royals felt safe enough to confront Sombra without having to worry about the safety of the townsfolk. “Well Sombra, I don’t know where all of these monsters came from, but it’s clear that they know who the real monster here is. I’d highly suggest you surrender now lest you suffer the same fate as your conjured fiends.” Celestia warned.

Sombra was gritting his teeth in sheer frustration, not believing that a previously unknown army of do-gooder monsters had the nerve to appear now of all times just as he was about to finally succeed in his conquest, and he was trying to hide his fear of one them completely maiming him. “You must feel terribly lucky that they decided to show their ugly faces now! Otherwise, I surely would have had you biting at my hooves…” he growled. The grey demon dragon loudly hissed at him, causing him to wince in fear. “Nrgh! I’ll conquer you all, rest assured! I WILL find a way to exterminate these pests!!”

“Pfft! Likely!” Everyone looked over to see a certain somepony they’d been waiting for.

“FLURRY!!” Shining exclaimed, both he and Cadance relieved to see their daughter safe and sound as was everyone else.

“You…..” Sombra growled.

The extradimensional dragons seemed to acknowledge Flurry as if they were expecting her, likely due to Arceus’s summon. “These beings were called here by someone I met atop Mt. Everhoof, someone my new friend, Absol introduced me to. I guess you all already know that they’re on our side.”

“And where is this friend of yours now, Little Miss Balance!?” Sombra roared.

Flurry smirked as her horn lit with the holy light blessed unto her by the ancient god. “He couldn’t make it, but I have a gift for you from him!” She blasted a beam of magic at him that gleamed with the golden light of Arceus’s pinwheel. Sombra snarled as he erected his force field, but Flurry’s magic completely shattered through it and blew the dark lord off his hooves.

“UWAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!” Sombra screamed as he skidded across the ground.

“ABSOL, NOW!!” Flurry commanded.

“SOL!!” Absol rushed towards the fallen Sombra and charged his horn with the essence of midnight. “AAAAAB…. SOL!!!-SOL!!!-SOL!!!” He slashed at Sombra three times just before the dark king could stagger to his hooves and jumped back out of his range.

“Nrgh!!.... Cursed fleabag!” Sombra growled. He tried casting his shield again, but was horrified when his spell wasn’t responding at all. It had been completely nullified! “WHAT!?” He started to panic and expelled a huge amount of dark magic from his horn. “COME TO YOUR MASTER, NOW!!” All of the shadows throughout the empire were pulled towards Sombra as though he were a magnet. They congregated into a gigantic mass of shadow that resembled Sombra if he were a horrific cross between a pony and a serpentine dragon.

“”

It’s bellow was about as demonic as the grey dragon’s, who looked ready to combat the energized Sombra when he felt an influence from high above call to it. It looked up and was calmed by whatever this force was, as if it was being told to let Flurry handle the situation, to which it complied.

The Sombra dragon exhaled a torrent of shadow fire towards Flurry and Absol, but she shielded them both with a powerful magic barrier that she held just long enough until he ran out of breath. “Absol…..I know it might be early, but….you think now’s a good time?” Flurry asked as she held onto her Key Stone.

Absol gave her a mellow, but confident smile and nodded. “Absol!”

That was all she needed to hear. “Alright.” She held her Key Stone close to her heart as it began to glow. Energy strands erupted from the gem and converged onto Absol’s Mega Stone. The Absolite reacted to the Key Stone’s influence and shrouded Absol in a ball of light. Flurry watched in awe as it noticeably changed even in the blinding light, growing wings and its tail extending some along with its horn adopting a more curved form. The shell of light around Absol violently burst open to reveal its mega evolved form. “Wow….”

“ABSOOOOOLLLLLL!!!!!!” Absol aggressively howled at Sombra, breaking Flurry out of her brief trance and reminding her of the foe she had to fight.

“Okay, Absol! Let’s dance with this devil!!” Flurry, having expended her blessing on the magic blast that nullified Sombra shield could only rely on her strength of heart to power her magic, which she thankfully had in strides. She fired another beam of magic at Sombra that was without Arceus’s golden light, but was much bigger and abraded against the frenzied king like someone running barbed wire across his body, but he managed to blow it away with a burst of darkness from throughout his body, leaving him open for Absol to attack with its razor whirlwind technique, which was powerful enough to be classified as a mini hurricane. It then went into its hyper speed mode and blindsided Sombra from just about every direction within a matter of seconds before returning to Flurry.

Sombra swung his bladed tail at them, and Flurry, as though she learned by example formed a huge sword of magic from her horn and parried the tail away. She then lunged forward and plunged her magic sword into Dragon Sombra’s abdomen, causing him to roar in agony, but he blasted her away with a bolt of shadow fire. While she managed to land on her hooves, she panicked for the briefest of moments when she saw Sombra lunging down at her. He would have chomped her had the Royal Sisters not blasted him with solar and lunar magic respectively, which only managed to hold him back as he tried to resist the assault. Shining Armor and Cadance took the opportunity while he was distracted to rush over to the Crystal Heart and cleanse it of Sombra’s curse while it was unguarded; their combined love magic easily purged his poison from the sacred gem.

Having his source of power cut off from him, Sombra’s empowered form began to shrivel as though it had been starved, giving Thorax and Pharynx an idea. They used their magic to copy Sombra’s dragon form before it had been starved and held him in place while Ember and Spike cold clocked both temples and held his head still. “NOW!” Spike shouted.
The Elements of Harmony gathered together once more and began charging their spell. However they released their magic into Airheart’s sword as he soared towards the pinned and weakened Sombra dragon. His sword brilliantly shined with the harmonious rainbow light, and he dove down from Sombra’s head to his lower abdomen, cleaving his shadowy form wide open and exposing the weakened king himself.

“ABSOL, NOW!!” Flurry commanded. She fired a ferocious bolt of her magic that was carried by Absol’s razor wind, which tore the shadow dragon to shreds and struck true on Sombra, who didn’t even scream in agony as he fell to the ground in a heap, completely depleted of power and stamina.

The titans calmly gathered around their fallen adversary, powering down if needed and stood behind the royals and Elements. Absol’s Mega Evolution suddenly disappeared in a flash of light right before everyone’s eyes, and he dropped to his knees exhausted. Flurry rushed over to him. “Are you ok, Absol?” she asked as she cradled him in her arms.

Absol lightly nuzzled his head against her chest. “Sol…”

Flurry smiled and pulled out the last her apples and handed it to him. “Here you go, sweetie.” Absol happily munched on his well-deserved snack, and she gave him a light kiss on the top of his head.

Everyone was incredibly thankful for the monstrous beings coming to their aid, but they were still uneasy with them being so close with how terrifying they were. Flurry, however, was completely unafraid of them, knowing that they were called to arms by Arceus. She looked around at all of them, and they seemed to recognize her as their master’s ally and nodded at her. The solar lion stood next to Celestia, who was still shocked that there even anything living in her sun, but the lion, which wasn’t much bigger than her lightly nuzzled her neck while purring, as if to thank her for watching over the daytime that presumably it did before. The same happened for Luna and the celestial bat, but it just levitated there and let a quiet chirp that exuded the same gratitude as its solar counterpart. Both sisters felt strangely comforted by their new friends.

Cadance and Shining Armor ran over to and embraced their daughter, thankful to every high power possible that she was alright and so proud of her monumental albeit inexplicable accomplishment given the….interesting circumstances. “Oh, honey!” Cadance said.

Flurry wasted no time returning the hug. “Mom! Dad!” Absol got out of the way just before he could be crushed between them. They broke off after a tender moment. “Are you all alright?”

“Our heads hurt a little from trying to fight Sombra, but other than that, we couldn’t be better!” Shining said. “What about you? Where did all of these things come from anyway!?”

“Was there something that summoned them at Mt. Everhoof?” Cadance asked.

“Mt. Coronet, mom.” Flurry said. They looked at her confused.

Twilight and Airheart ran over to them and hugged Flurry as well. When they broke off, all of their attention was turned towards Absol. “So this was the animal that visited you last night, huh?” Airheart said.

“I’m glad it helped you, but…” Twilight looked at the bizarre feline-like creature curiously, unsure of what to make of it as if it just calmly eyed her back.

Fluttershy eagerly approached it, being an animal lover. “Oh, my! I’ve never seen anything like you, little guy!” she cooed, trying to pet it, but Absol coldly pushed her hoof away.

“Sol.” It walked back up to Flurry and affectionately leaned against her. Fluttershy was stunned that an animal actually resisted her attention in spite of her affinity with any variety of fauna.

“Ooh….rejected.” Airheart joked, earning him an annoyed glare from the animal caretaker.

Suddenly, a flash of light briefly lit the sky, and in its place was a form Flurry immediately and happily recognized. “Arceus!”

The original god floated down towards the cluster of royals and fallen Sombra as his titans bowed before their descending master. When he was floating just above the royals and townsfolk onlookers, the titans all let out celebratory roars and howls as if to welcome him. After a moment, Arceus lifted his foreleg by his knee alone, which was enough to command these beasts into silence. He let his leg down once he was satisfied. As he did atop Spear Pillar, he gently floated down to the ground just as Sombra was beginning to stir. Arceus lightly touched the ground just like before, but he still sent out a shock wave as though he’d fallen onto it at terminal velocity, but it was noticeably gentler than before. It nevertheless startled everyone save for Flurry and Absol along with the titans, who were expecting it.
Celestia was especially shaken. She was in the presence of something far above even herself, and even with the position of authority she held, she couldn’t help but to tremble at the very sight of such a divine entity.

Arceus looked down at the pitiful Sombra cowering at the sight him. “King Sombra, I presume?” He said, his voice booming.

“AIIEE!!” Sombra hyperventilated as he tried pathetically to keep his cool. “A-A-And who do you think you are!?”

Arceus’s expression remained ever neutral, but Flurry could feel authoritative anger in his eyes. “I’m the one you should be thankful did not confront you this day, lest your tyrant spirit be erased from existence!”

Much to everyone’s surprise, Sombra seemed to find the threat amusing, and cackled even in his panicked state. “I’m the tyrant? Hehehe…. I’d say you and I would work well together."

Even with his face unchanging, Flurry could suddenly feel an aura of wrath flare from Arceus. His pinwheel glowed, and Sombra was suddenly lifted in the air surrounded by a golden glow. He was slowly but surely being drawn towards Arceus’s face, and he could see the ancient god’s eyes gleaming red with rage. “Don’t you dare presume me to be anywhere near your rock-bottom level, you tainted dung!” he growled.

Sombra choked on his own terror and couldn’t even scream or plea for mercy. Even Flurry was startled Arceus’s actions. Being a god, it was indeed admirable that he would be able to balance his wrath with his divine authority that demanded that he keep his cool, but she trembled at what the wrath of someone who shaped the universe must have felt like.

After a moment of staring him down, Arceus put the now curled up Sombra back down where he was apprehended by a few guards, one of whom put an anti-magic sock over his horn. Even as they did their duty, they found themselves marveling at their ally. Arceus then turned to face Equestria’s highest authority. “Princess Celestia, I presume?” His tone was far gentler and actually friendly.

Celestia gasped, still terrified of him, but managed to keep herself collected. “ Y-Yes. And you’re….was it ‘Arceus’?”

“My apologies if I or my titans frightened you. We have only now just awoken from countless centuries of slumber. As such, you are as unfamiliar to us as we are to you, but I assure you on my honor that I am not your enemy.” Arceus said.

“I’d say you’ve made that abundantly clear, Arceus. We cannot thank you enough for rising against our foe and saving us.” Luna said.

“Why do you credit me? It was your esteemed Princess of Balance that is worthy of today’s glory.” He turned to face Flurry Heart. “It was she and her companion, Absol who returned to me my Pixie Plate and awakened me to this world once more. When we introduced and she explained the situation, I had no choice but to take action.”

“Huh? But you said you’d only help if I gave you a good answer to your question.” Flurry said.

Arceus chuckled. “I had every intention of helping you to begin with, Princess Flurry Heart. I merely wanted to test your conviction, and needless to say, I was quite pleased.”

Despite feeling a little lied to, Flurry couldn’t help but to blush at her divine friend’s flattery. “But Arceus, just who are you?” Twilight asked. Arceus explained to them everything he did to Flurry. As he did, everyone felt Flurry’s disbelief as he told them the history he had seen. “You….YOU ACTUALLY CREATED THE UNIVERSE!?”

“Not created, but simply shaped it. I know not what created the chaos that eventually settled into this universe, but I was the only one there to spark the fire that would create life.” Arceus answered.

“The way say that your plate was planted….it sounds almost as though Equestria itself is what grew from it!” Cadance said.

“So it would seem. I knew to expect the unexpected from the Pixie Plate’s essence, but even a god can be surprised.” Arceus said. “But enough about me. I do believe a certain princess is deserving of praise.”

“Is she ever!” Thorax said looking at Flurry. Everyone started clamoring around the Princess of Balance and cheering her name. Arceus’s titans even let out mellow roars to celebrate her.

However, one of them apparently had something to say. The grey demon dragon let out a mellow call that Arceus responded to. “Hmm?” The dragon faced down at Sombra and growled. “Would you now?”

“Is something wrong?” Celestia asked.

“It would seem that my titan, Giratina would be willing to imprison Sombra in his dimension. He would be the only one there apart from his warden and unable to escape.” Arceus said.

Celestia shook her head. “That’s kind of you, but Sombra has offended us, therefore he answers to us.”

Arceus and Giratina nodded. “Fair enough.” Arceus said. “Then please don’t let us keep you from your celebrations.”

“Nonsense, Arceus. You and your titans are deserving of some pony-style gratitude!” Twilight said.

“Yeah! Let these guys find some room and enjoy the festivities.” Airheart said. All of the royals agreed with them, namely Flurry.

Arceus chuckled. “I suppose we could relax for a while. It has been a few millennium anyway.” With that, the many denizens of Equestria threw one of the biggest celebrations they’d had in years.

Epilogue

The day after the celebration, all of the foreign royals had returned home while the pony royalty were gathered at Canterlot Castle in Celestia and Luna’s throne room along with the Elements, Spike, Flurry’s Absol, and Arceus. The Pokemon god took up a lot of space even in the huge room, but nopony complained since they had made a friend out of him. Sombra had been imprisoned in the deepest recesses on Canterlot’s dungeons.

“Arceus, I don’t think I ever properly thanked you for helping everyone. I know better than to lose hope, but…I wasn’t exactly optimistic.” Flurry said.

“I’m afraid I did not give you my thanks either. You allowed me to awaken once more, and now I can watch this world grow and mature as did in ages past.” Arceus said.

“Well! Guess that makes us even.” Flurry said. The two shared a chuckle.

“I think I speak for all when I say that we look forward the future if it means you helping us.” Celestia said.

“I’d say this is the start of wonderful friendship, Arceus. We can’t wait to learn from you and better our world from your universal wisdom.” Twilight said.

“This universe’s balance will always be my priority, but I suppose a closer relationship with this world’s inhabitants would relieve me of my ignorance of it. That error was largely due to my decision to leave it to its own devices and grow as Nature would ordain.” Arceus said.

“As any leader should to some extent.” Luna said. “Will your titans go back into slumber?”

“A few of them may until they feel the need to rise again. In fact, a few them may do so simply to contain their immense power from those around them. Otherwise, they will explore the world of their own volition. I assure you that they will not cause any destruction, lest they are willing to answer to me.” Arceus said.

“Sweet! That giant red bird thing was totally the bomb! But so was that time-rending dragon! They were so awesome when I got to see them up close! I wonder if I’ll bump into them again sometime?” Rainbow Dash said.

Arceus looked down at her. “They are not mere animals at a petting zoo, you know.” He said sternly.

Rainbow Dash felt a chill run down her spine and was immediately prompted to mind her manners. “Ehehe….r-right.”

“Though speaking of animals…..perhaps it’s time to finally started bringing my children back into this world.” Arceus rose into the air and let his pinwheel glow.

*****

From the outside all across the world, a vast multitude of eggs of varying sizes and colors appeared in locations both civilized and remote, charted and uncharted. Those who had the fortune of witnessing them appear knew that it must have been Arceus letting his ‘Pokemon’ return to the world. Everyone wondered what kind of wondrous creatures would hatch from them, and how they would affect their lives.

*****

Arceus lowered himself back down to the floor, but without releasing a shockwave this time and formed one egg for the each of the Mane Six, Spike, Cadance and Shining Armor, and Airheart. “In due time, these eggs will hatch, and my children’s legacy will be born anew. You will share this world with them as humans once did in ages past. Though, I must say that you all are far more approachable than they ever were.”

“Let’s not dwell on the past, Arceus. We have an amazing future to look forward to.” Flurry said. Her Absol purred as it rested its head on her shoulder. “Absol and I will help you ease your Pokemon into the world. It’ll be part of my duty as Princess of Balance.”

The look in the old god’s eyes was soft and welcoming. He had certainly built a trust between himself and the new princess. “I will deeply appreciate that, Princess Flurry Heart.”

“Please, Arceus. Just ‘Flurry’ is fine.” She said.

“Yes. Let’s not let formalities make our interactions needlessly complicated.” Luna said. “Although….erm….not to be rude, but…”

Arceus chuckled. “You and your sister already have suiting companions in the form of Solgaleo and Lunala respectively. As the ones responsible for day and night, I can think of no better candidates, and you seemed to get along with them quite nicely.

“Well….I suppose we did, didn’t we?” Celestia said. “I just hope they don’t feel confined to the sun and moon.”

“They do not. Call for them, and they will surely come to you. I’m sure even they get lonely.” Arceus said.

“Oh, good!” Celestia said. “Fitting them into the castle should they want to come in might be a bit of a task, but I’m sure we’ll find a way.”

“You simply came in here via a portal, so perhaps it won’t be quite that aggravating for those two.” Luna said.

“Hmm…” Arceus thought for a moment. “Allow a minute, please.” He rose back up into the air and enveloped himself in a cocoon of light that was so bright, that everypony had to cover their eyes. This lasted for a quite a little while before the light dissipated, and they were met with a shocking sight.

Before them was Arceus, but…..he had transformed himself into an alicorn! His white and black mane still had the same color scheme, but it flowed more gracefully just like the Royal Sisters’. His eyes were the same deep emerald that normally would surround red ones, and he was wearing golden braces around his ankles just above his black hooves. His pinwheel had become his Cutie Mark, and the golden notch on his forehead became a small crown. He was only a few inches taller than Celestia. “Perhaps I can be more relatable to the populace as I appear now?” His mouth actually moved and was smiling with mellow happiness.

Everypony was too awestruck to speak for a few moments until Airheart broke the silence. “What else can you do!?”

Arceus laughed out loud heartily. “I’ll take that a ‘yes’.”

“Indeed. The Equestrians will certainly feel less….imposed upon by the presence of another alicorn rather than a ten-foot celestial entity, right sister?” Luna asked. However, when she looked up at her sister, she could see that the solar sovereign was just blankly staring at the ponyfied Arceus with her eyes open wider that she’d seen before, and her mouth just barely hanging open. “Sister?”

“Huh!? Wh-What!? O-Oh!! Y-Yes, of course! Th-this is a spectacular look for you, Arceus. Eh, pardon me. I-I just wasn’t expecting you to do that. I mean, you spontaneously decided to up and turn yourself into an alicorn, and well….hehehe…..” The others could blatantly see Celestia blushing as her eyes went everywhere during her nervous rant in which her voice could be heard shaking. They all held back giggling, namely Luna. “Wh-What? Do I have something on my face?” Celestia started randomly searching her face.

“Regardless. I can’t wait for the future, Arceus. I’m so glad I was able to meet you and start such a wonderful friendship.” Flurry said

“Ab! Absol!!” Flurry giggled upon seeing her friend share her joy.

“Then let us stop waiting for the future and see it through.” Arceus said. They all happily agreed and began arranging a political meeting with the other royals from around the world, one led by a very proud and able Princess of Balance to discuss their new relationship.

As they did, Flurry Heart held back tears of joy as she looked around the room and down at her Absol. Even if it took the reawakening and help of a primal god to truly realize herself, she couldn’t have felt more proud and joyful that the future she and everyone hoped for whether they knew it or not was starting to come into fruition…