Magisight: Thaumaturgical Ocularity

by PsychicKid

Rating: everyone
Tags: Applejack, Original Character, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Rainbow Dash, Sunburst, Mystery, Adventure, Twilight Sparkle
Length: 120499

A series of strange dreams and a new, burgeoning power sends Twilight on an adventure that will change her life forever.

What began as a studious endeavor into the origins of tribal magic quickly becomes rife with bedraggled exhaustion as a strange message invades Twilight's dreams, forcing her research to take a drastic new course that leads her on an adventure all across Equestria. For every answer she finds, yet more mysteries arise. What is the source of the daunting dreams which plague her at every moment's rest? Will she see with eyes unclouded... or lose sight of what's truly important?

Written by PsychicKid
Edited by Ember Heartshine
Cover art by Prince-Lionel (http://Prince-Lionel.deviantart.com)
Cover text, insert music, & special thanks: Cadenza Heartsong (https://www.youtube.com/c/Heartsong)
Pre-reader chapter 31: Floral Spring

Links to my story's music can be found below. They are intended to be paired with certain chapters/sections of the story, and emphasize a specific location, so give them a listen for extra ambience! Their paired chapters are indicated by the link URL. All songs produced by Cadenza Heartsong.

Amethyst Hollow - Chapters 7-9

Peacegrove Village - Chapters 12-19

Cloudsbane - Chapters 25-27

Takes place after S7/The Movie, but before S8. Story was drafted when S8 was brand new, so it does not take anything from S8 and later into account.

Published 2019-03-01 02:20:01 UTC
Last updated 2020-06-27 00:38:42 UTC

Chapter 2: The Mystery Begins

Twilight would be hard-pressed to prove to anypony that just moments ago, powerful magics were being woven in Luna’s chambers. The room had returned to normal, no longer overflowing by blinding magic and the arcane Dreamscape imagery dancing to and fro. Twilight bit her lower lip and ruffled her feathers, bristling with frustration.

“This just doesn't make any sense!” Twilight said, frantically pacing back and forth, her mind caught in a whirlwind of panic as Luna looked on. “If you can't view the dreams I've been having, then… “ Twilight paused, her eyes betraying her worry. “They are dreams right? I'm not going crazy or anything... Am I?”

“'We are just as perplexed as you are. It is rather rare that a pony could shield his or her dreams from us; not even Celestia can do so with any ease. On the rare occasions it has happened, it is always behind the veil of intense emotions, usually fear. You're not hiding anything from us, are you?” Luna asked, her head tilted with her eyes narrowed. Luna trusted Twilight, of course, but she was most curious to learn more.

“No! I mean, I don't… I haven't had a good night’s sleep in days! It's like I said, I began this big research project, and that's when these dreams—no, nightmares—started,” Twilight replied, her pacing slowing as the adrenaline began to wear off. Her shock remained, however: why had Luna not been able to locate her dreams?

“Hmm... Perhaps you can explain to us just what it is you've learned. 'Tis a topic as old as Equestria itself, and much of the information has been fragmented and lost to myth over the centuries. Maybe we can find a clue to these missing dreams of yours within your research,” Luna said, her gaze flicking toward Twilight's saddlebag.

Twilight floated the book she had shown Starlight out of her saddlebag and placed it on the table, dust pouring off the worn cover. She turned to the same page which depicted the three pony tribes. She then followed with some of her scrolls of parchment, rolling them out alongside the book.

“Although the inherent magic differs among the pony tribes, I’m finding evidence of a deeper connection that involves each tribe, with alicorns at the center of these connections since they possess traits of all three. This could even tie into Equestria itself; if I could just find some answers!” Twilight snorted, stomping her hoof into the carpet.

“You theorize that perhaps alicorns are responsible for imparting magic unto the other three?” Luna asked.

“Well, maybe. It very well could also be the other way around. We don’t really know exactly where magic came from, it’s just always been there, like air and water. The alicorn tribe vanished long ago and—” Twilight caught herself on the faux pas and stammered. Luna’s stoicism relaxed as she smiled slightly and nodded, urging her to continue.

“A-anyway, there are almost no reliable historical accounts of what life was like for the other three tribes before unification. It's all myths and mare's tales. There’s simply far too much we don’t know,” Twilight said, her body sagging in disappointment.

“While your research is commendable, it does not explain why I cannot enter your dreams. I know this was not the answer you sought, and it may take some time to find the one that satisfies your dilemma,” Luna said with a grunt, lips pursed.

“We could ask Princess Celestia for help! M-maybe she can help us find a connection between my studies and this strange message in my dreams,” Twilight said with desperation.

Luna let out a curt, indignant snort. “We mean no disrespect, but if we can't find the solution to a conundrum involving my Dreamscape, what makes you think my sister can?”

Twilight chuckled nervously, her glance shifting side to side, from Luna to the book on the table and back again, struggling to come up with an answer. Luna gave another snort, her face scrunching up before letting out a most un-princesslike howl of thunderous laughter. Twilight couldn't help herself, and despite the anxiety hanging around her, she joined her fellow princess in a display of mirth.

Luna took a deep breath and then cleared her throat. “Very well. Our sister is still awake, so we should be able to seek counsel before we must raise the moon tonight. Come. She will be in the throne room.”

Luna took her leave as Twilight began to pack her notes back into her bag. The fit of laughter from earlier had given her the extra energy boost needed to return to her neat and tidy nature, allowing her to ensure her things were packed just right.

As she reached the threshold, she turned toward the broken tea cups on the floor. She shut her eyes in concentration, and deep within, a simple repair spell began to take hold. Far easier than transmutation, but a level above levitation, pathways of magical information began to flow from one nexus point to another inside her, creating a simple, yet beautiful canvas of esoteric art within her.

The magic completed itself and began to surge, projecting itself through her horn. In a matter of seconds, the tea cups glowed with a purple aura and levitated themselves back together, coming to rest onto the table as if nothing had happened—save for the spilled tea on the floor. She nodded with satisfaction at her repair job as she joined Luna, heading for the throne room.

The two princesses made their journey through the familiar castle, passing by the stained glass windows in the hallway that led to the throne room. Twilight had always been enamored with this type of artwork, for they told a special kind of story that couldn't be told in writing. Her pace slowed, her head turning toward the mural of her ascension to an alicorn. She mentally recounted her journey from student, to friend, and to princess. She smiled to herself, quickening her pace to catch up to Luna.

As Twilight and Luna approached, two sentries moved from their position in front of the double doors to either side and began to kneel, allowing them to pass through. The horns of both princesses came to life, their auras surrounding the massive doors as they slowly swung open. At the end of the room, seated atop her throne, was Princess Celestia. Twilight and Luna entered and made their way along the lengthy carpet to Celestia.

“Twilight Sparkle! It’s rare to see you visit unannounced, especially with Luna in tow! Is something the matter?” Princess Celestia asked, her wings unfolding to show not only her majesty, but her open love.

“Princess Celestia!” Twilight said, her tone perking up, feeling much more open with her scholastic anchor present. “I need your help with something big.”

“I would be glad to help, Twilight. Please, tell me what is bothering you, and Luna and I will do our best to assist,” Celestia replied.

“Well…” Twilight hesitated, rubbing the back of her neck sheepishly with her forehoof. “It involves a series of strange dreams I’ve been having lately.”

Celestia tilted her head slightly. The last time she had encountered the Dreamscape, she had almost literally burned a hole in Starlight's psyche. “While I am flattered you would seek my advice on dreams, Twilight, it’s not exactly my area of expertise. I assume this is something serious since you brought my sister along. Am I right?”

Luna cleared her throat, taking a few steps forward. “She actually came to us first. Though we are loathe to admit it, there have been… complications.”

“Complications? Come, tell me.” Celestia motioned at the two, beckoning them to her.

Twilight and Luna joined Celestia at the top of the dais, Luna taking her seat on the throne next to her sister. Twilight stood before them, trying to keep her balance as she wobbled back and forth, her fatigue getting the better of her yet again. Another yawn escaped her.

“As I told Luna, three days ago I began an in-depth study of the origins of magic and how it ties the pony tribes together. I’ve been finding evidence of some sort of deeper connection involving alicorns, but nothing conclusive yet. However, the night I began this study, I started having these dreams,” Twilight said.

“And what of these dreams? What happens in them?” Celestia asked.

“Well, truthfully, very little. I hear a voice calling out to me. I think it’s a mare, but I’m not for certain,” Twilight said, her body slouching, the mental exhaustion of recalling the dream taking a physical toll on her.

“A mare? And what does she tell you?”

“Just a message. I can’t quite tell the tone of voice, if it’s ominous, friendly, or even if it’s even a pony at all. All they say is…” Twilight gulped and sighed nervously, her legs visibly shaking as she recounted the words. “‘Seek, learn, know.’”

Celestia blinked. Her pupils narrowed as she gave a quick inhale.

“Princess? Are you okay?” Twilight asked, her voice wavering with a combination of exhaustion and unease.

“I am,” Celestia replied, clearing her throat and straightening her posture. “I’m just… concerned. Luna, you said there were complications involving these dreams?”

“Indeed. All dreams are subject to our jurisdiction, and Twilight’s are no different. However, we were completely unable to locate any traces of those dreams, or that she even had any dreams at all. In normal circumstances, I should have been able to locate it without any issue,” Luna said.

“That is most peculiar indeed,” Celestia said, furrowing her brow. There was a certain uneasiness in Celestia’s voice that Twilight wasn’t used to.

Luna turned to her sister. “Even our most powerful dream archive magic was unable to locate it. From our perspective, it was as if she had a completely dreamless night. Barring illness or some similar trauma, ponies always venture into the Dreamscape at night, even if they don't recall their journey.”

“Well, if Luna were able to view my dreams in normal circumstances, could they be abnormal circumstances? Like maybe a message from somepony?” Twilight asked.

“Well,” Luna said, “It's not an impossibility. Sometimes the dreams of two ponies can become intertwined and linked, allowing them to share the same feelings and emotions. Such links leave trails of magic behind that are unique to each pony, not unlike our magic auras when we cast a spell. Unfortunately, we saw no such magic signature lingering in any of the dreams we examined.”

“Hmm…” Twilight said to herself, her eyes drifting back and forth quickly as she considered various scenarios. “What about from outside the Dreamscape then? Is that even possible?”

“As far as I know, doubtful. If an outside message from the waking world made it into the Dreamscape, or if stars forbid there were an intruder, well, let's just say they would not escape our watch,” Luna said, wings spread and a confident smile across her face.

Twilight sighed, dejected. She was frustrated, tired, and cranky, but she tried her best to maintain her composure. She was a princess, and she needed to remain strong. “I really don't want to abandon my studies. I feel like I'm finally making headway, but I don't know if I can keep it up if I keep losing sleep like this,” Twilight said, fighting to keep her eyes open and her body straight.

Celestia smiled at her faithful student, doing her best to project an air of calming guidance with her words. “I don't think it will come to that, Twilight. While these visions are indeed concerning, I know if there is one pony who can not only decipher their meaning, but also probe deeper into the mysteries of Equestrian magic, it's you.”

Twilight felt herself stand a little taller, feeling Celestia’s words build her back up again. She could only muster an awkward halfsmile, feeling a lack of the self-same confidence her mentor had placed in her. “Thank you for the kind words, Princess Celestia, but I’m not sure if this is something that I can solve on my own.”

“My domain is of the sun and maintaining harmony in Equestria, and Luna’s is of the moon and to keep watch in the night. Yours is an intermediary domain, much like your very namesake: that of magic itself,” Celestia said. “I am afraid Luna and I may not be able to offer much direct assistance, but if this is the path your studies have led you down, then I have no doubt in my mind you will uncover its mysteries.” She approached her protégé, placing her hoof under Twilight’s chin, gently nudging her gaze towards her with a motherly smile.

“As such, might I suggest the restricted archives of Canterlot Library? If these dreams are something that Luna cannot pry into, then perhaps we are dealing with ancient magic that predates even ourselves,” Celestia said, provoking an irritated nicker from Luna. “It's very possible that the answer you seek is hidden away within its chambers.”

“The… The restricted archives!?” Twilight said, her voice rising into an audible squeak. She shot straight up and gave a little hop in place, grinning from ear to ear. The prospect of being able to once again do research in such an ancient treasure trove of knowledge was something she could never resist. “I haven't had a chance to do research in there since that incident with the memory stone!”

Celestia chuckled at Twilight's excitement. “Well, you certainly don't sound too upset anymore now, do you?”

Twilight's muzzle scrunched up as she blushed, looking away as she idly traced her forehoof in a circle in front of her. “Well, it’s just that…”

“I think this is your best course of action, Twilight. You are more than welcome to stay in one of the guest rooms at the castle tonight. We can escort you in the morning after sunrise,” Celestia said.

“Actually, Princess, I was thinking we could go to the library tonight… if it’s not too much trouble. If I’m going to end up having the same dream for a fourth night in a row, I might as well get a head start!” Twilight said, giving an awkward giggle-snort. It was a serious suggestion—but also halfway an excuse to get to the archives that much sooner.

Celestia smiled gently, narrowing her eyes playfully. “Part of me knew you would suggest something like that. Very well. There is ample time before we must begin the day’s sunset, so Luna and I will accompany you. You’ll need the two of us to undo the magic lock on the restricted section.”

Twilight let out an excited whinny and pranced in place. The giddiness and expectation was almost enough to make her forget about her fatigue. She was no stranger to pulling all-nighters while studying and being completely exhausted for days afterwards, so she took respite in the idea of tonight turning into an average weekend evening for her.

The alicorn trio departed the castle, making their way through the late-evening streets of Canterlot. As it was nearing sunset, many ponies were already home or in the process of closing up their shops for the night.

With night time approaching, Twilight let out another loud yawn, covering her mouth with a wing. She tussled with her thoughts: the notion of going into the restricted archives was exciting to be sure, but in the back of her mind she knew that at some point tonight, she would likely be subjected to another restless sleep. She let out a sigh as the sun was nearing its final position for sunset, needing only the final push from Celestia to end the day.

As the group trotted along, the Canterlot Library soon came into view. Its massive green glass dome that adorned the top of the stone-grey structure danced in the evening sunlight, reflecting its light down onto the princesses. One being nocturnal, and the other sleep-deprived, Luna and Twilight both reflexively shielded their eyes from the sudden brightness. Celestia, however, gracefully walked on without breaking stride, her mane and tail glistening in the light.

Twilight and the others entered the library through its giant, golden front doors, and evidence that the building was preparing to close its doors for the night could be seen all around. It was dim inside, with only scant sources of light still burning, and the stillness indicated all patrons had already departed. The librarian was organizing some late returns behind the front counter and ensuring everything was in proper order.

“I hope you don’t mind the unannounced visit just before you close, Ivory Inkwell,” Celestia said to the librarian, an elderly, cream-white unicorn with a greying brown mane.

The mare chuckled. “Oh, you know it’s no trouble at all, deary,” she said with a slight bow. “Anything for the Princess. Please, make yourself comfortable. Is there anything I can help you with tonight?”

“Twilight Sparkle has some very important research, and she cannot waste a single second. We’ll be coming by in the morning to check on her progress,” Celestia said with a sincere smile.

Ivory blinked, a tad surprised, but eager to help nonetheless. “Well, don’t let me be the one to get in the way of a good study session! I was just getting ready to close up for the night, but I can stay for a few minutes until you all get settled in. You three just holler if you need something!” She said with an upward trill to her voice.

The princesses made their way through the massive library, navigating through the maze of bookshelves to an isolated hallway. At the end of a small corridor was an unassuming bookcase, the majority of the books were of bland and drab titles such as The Taxation of Trade Routes: A Brief History of Imperialism or Three Hundred Twenty-Four Uses for Sand, intended to keep nosy ponies away. Nestled amid the shelves were a pair of books; a yellow one with a sun marking for its title, and a shorter blue one with a similar moon marking.

With a quick magical tug from each of the two sisters on their respective books, the bookshelf began to click and whir. It suddenly slid open, dust tumbling down as the musty and damp staircase to the restricted section revealed itself. Illumination was dim, a series of everburn torches dotting the walls along the downward staircase providing just enough light to see. At the bottom was a pair of of massive, oaken doors, half-torn cobwebs and spider webs dangling all about.

Another dual-cast from Celestia and Luna pried these doors open, flinging dust and dirt in every direction as the cavernous archives were revealed. Upon entering, on either side were a pair of staircases that curved back toward the wall and onto an upper balcony. The upper floor of the restricted section was clearly unfinished, with the smoothed over rock walls eventually giving way to jagged natural stone that jutted out. The ceiling was much the same way, with lichen-covered stalactites hanging downwards. On the opposite wall, a fireplace carved into the stone suddenly lit on its own. Golden pillars surrounded and contained the flames within.

Dotted all along the walls, in both hoof-made bookcases and within carved-out holes in the rock, were all kinds of books, scrolls, parchments, tomes, and even assorted knick-knacks—boxes, potion flasks, pottery, and other dusty relics. Some of the items were so old they looked like a stiff breeze would crumble them into ash.

Twilight’s eyes scanned the room as she entered, half of her mind wanting to explode in joy at the thought of perusing the restricted section again, and the other trying to remain calm and focused. She had a mystery to solve and secrets to uncover! Holding onto that thought, she trotted triumphantly toward the stone desk in the center of the room.

Aside from a thin film of dust, the desk was completely clean. Twilight placed her hoof on the surface, leaving a faint imprint in the dust, idly tracing it around as she continued to take mental note of the books and other items scattered throughout the cavern. This world of knowledge would be her domain to take hold of and tame. As Celestia and Luna had their own dominions, so too did Twilight.

She shut her eyes tight as she began to weave the framework of an intermediate spell, lavender energies sparking and glowing deep within her. Visible only to her mind’s eye, lines began to jut out like a cracked window, extending out and bending at a myriad of different angles, yet never intersecting each other. Over two dozen lines took shape and extended out, looking something akin to branch formations of a tree. Just as quickly as it began, the lines suddenly stopped, with tiny rounded ends glowing at each terminus.

The ghostly tendrils of energy hovered in place motionless for a fraction of a second, and then with a violent jerk, they suddenly retracted, each tether of magic shrinking with blinding speed back toward Twilight. As the spell finished, over two dozen books flung themselves toward her, coming to rest in neat stacks on the desk and to the side on the floor.

“There! That should be all the books on magical theory, history, definitions, and spell catalogs! Or at least the ones that I remember seeing the last time I was here! There’s still a whole other section to check!” Twilight beamed ecstatically, starting to unpack her own books and notes to cross reference with the archive’s own.

Celestia smiled to herself as she watched her pupil set up her study space. She trotted over to her, her shoes clattering against the hard stone floor with an echo. “You’re free to use the restricted section and anything in it for as long as you require, Twilight,” she said, putting her wing around her.

Twilight tensed up, her focus momentarily broken by the sudden brush of feathers. She then began to relax as she felt the warm, motherly embrace of the princess. She shut her eyes for what felt like a second, nodding off as three days’ worth of tiredness creeped its way back into her—but this time without the stress of the dreams. For that brief moment, she finally felt at peace.

“If you need anything, Twilight, please don’t hesitate to ask. I can tell just how devoted you are to this topic, and that you won’t let these dreams dissuade you. If anything, I imagine you’ll find even more answers to your questions once you decipher their meaning,” Celestia said, giving her a gentle face nuzzle as Twilight mumbled tiredly to herself as she come around again. “We’ll return tomorrow morning after sunrise.”

“Mmhf… Yeah…” Twilight mumbled into a yawn, stretching her forehooves into the air. Celestia smiled and joined a waiting Luna by the doors. By the time Celestia turned back to look at Twilight, she already had three books and two parchment scrolls open, digging straight into the task ahead.

“I can think of nopony better than her to dig deep into the roots of magic. Don’t you agree, Luna?” Celestia said.

Luna snorted, cracking a small grin. “We still think that if we’re unable to solve a nightmare, nopony else can.”

The two of them smiled and chuckled to one another, heading out through the double doors of the archive and closing them with a loud, echoing thud.

Chapter 3: The Circadian Bond

The pile of unread books quickly shrank as Twilight made her way through her selections. Some were left open and set aside to reference later, while others with no useful information were stacked high in a constantly-growing pile. It had been some time since Celestia and Luna left her, and she felt confident that she would be able to find something, anything, that led to an answer about her strange dreams.

The light from the fireplace flickered and danced, embers popping and crackling, a relaxing sound that Twilight soon found herself trying to fight off as the hours ticked by. She was tired and desperately needed sleep, but every part of her wanted to keep going. She wanted answers: not only to sate her own curiosity, but to retake her peaceful night’s slumbers.

“Under penal code 27.2, section 2, subsection C, any pony who is found in violation of said terms as outlined in section 1, subsection A, will be subject to either 30 days imprisonment, or an image of an inverted tree draped over their cutie mark for 14 days to signify…”

Twilight yawned loudly and stretched as she closed the book and shoved it aside. “This one isn’t any help either.” She groaned dejectedly and rested her head on her hooves, leaning into them in exhausted frustration. The “irrelevant” pile continued to grow considerably until she finally found something that caught her attention.

“The Crystal Heart and its Links to Equestria…” Twilight read aloud. She rubbed her eyes, unconsciously licking her lips with excitement. “Ooh… This looks promising! But that's strange, there's no author.” She stretched again, standing upright and fully alert as she flipped through the book, her eyes racing across the text. Many of the earlier chapters covered basic information about the Crystal Heart that she was already familiar with, but about halfway through, the book seemed to suddenly take a turn for the poetic.

“As the land gives its bounty, so too does ponykind give in turn. The Crystal Heart will reflect desires true, and help bridge the gap between the two, making all laid bare as crystals through and through. With love, hope, and bonds flowing like water, the land will return in kind, bringing beauty and magic to all, body, mind, and spirit alike.”

“Kinda flowery for a reference book. Although I guess it is over a thousand years old,” Twilight said with a snort.

“Body of earth, mind of aether, spirit of sky. When all three love one another: the land, she loves; when all three are of strife: the land, she mourns. The Crystal Heart will mirror and reflect, and the cycle will sustain eternally.”

“Hmm… It talks about the land giving its bounty, and ponies giving a bounty back. I know the Crystal Heart reflects the state of the Crystal Empire, and that magic can spread all over Equestria. Is that what it means by ponies giving back? Body, mind, and spirit…” Twilight muttered to herself, frantically scribbling notes to compare with the information from home.

“Body of earth, mind of aether, spirit of sky. This has to be referring to the three pony tribes! But why refer to them like this? I mean, I know it was a thousand years ago, but sheesh,” Twilight said as she drew a quick sketch of the pony tribe diagram, pairing each tribe with its matching esoteric description. She capped the sketch off with an image of the Crystal Heart, punctuated with an alicorn and a question mark in the center.

From the alicorn, she drew a new line, pointing off on its own to where she drew an amorphous blob and wrote “Equestria” in the center of it, surrounding the silly sketch with a series of questions marks and lines denoting its importance.

“It’s a start, but it still doesn’t fully explain the tribal links to alicorns. I can’t help but feel like maybe there’s more to that text than just flowery... descrip...tions,” Twilight murmured into a quiet yawn as she jotted down the last of her notes.

She caught herself at the brink of falling into slumber as a scribble at the bottom of the page caught her eye: a tiny pictogram of a quill in a vial of ink. Printed next to it was the text “Crystal Magic: Revision 3” with no other accompanying text.

“That's strange. Normally a citation would also include a page number, author name, and year of publication… Why does nothing from a thousand years ago have an author!” She groaned to herself as she threw her hooves up to her head, tussling her mane about.

She continued to flip through the book, scanning the text more intently. Despite the bizarre nature of its writing, something about it compelled her curiosity. The book became more and more haggard as she dove deeper into its pages, so she had to take great care to avoid damaging it further.

As she reached the final pages of the book, the ink was smeared and smudged beyond all legibility, making it completely unreadable. She let out a tired, disappointed groan. She had been hoping for something else to guide her way: a hint, a clue, a scribble in the margins, anything! She rubbed her weary eyes, straining to keep them focused, her head and ears drooping. She snapped back erect with a jerk, trying to stave off the encroaching sleep.

It was then through her hazy gaze that she noticed something peculiar about the final page. It almost looked like... “Wait a second... This text repeats itself!” she exclaimed. She still couldn't read it, but there was without a doubt: the smudged text formed a pattern, a repeating series of consistent, blobby words. The text was hardly page filling, only ten lines in length, each line only a few words long, but there was no mistaking a theme of similar shapes of repeating words. Each line was more or less identical, were it legible.

She spent some time studying it, then suddenly gasped as the translation hit her. “Three words! Oh my gosh oh my gosh-oh-my-gosh! Sweet Celestia it's the same! Three words! It's just like my dream! Three words!” She let out a girlish squeal and almost floated off the floor, her wings fluttering in excitement. She had finally found her clue!

Her horn lit up and she quickly turned the book over, her face sinking when she saw the blank spaces on the cover. She snorted in frustration. “That's right, the author isn't listed... If I could just find out who wrote this book, maybe I could research their identity, find out more about their personality and what their special talent might have been. If I do that, I could figure out if these three words are the same as mine.”

The gears in her head began to turn, feeling a realization spark inside. She quickly flipped through the book once again, stopping on the page that referenced the Crystal Heart.

“Of course! Crystal Magic: Revision 3! If I can find a copy of that, maybe I can cross-reference a list of authors and sources and find out just who wrote this!” she said while quickly taking notes down next to her pony tribe diagram. “I just don’t think we have that book here in the archives...”

As her research continued, Twilight began to lose track of time. She had no idea how many hours had passed since she started, but her eyelids began to finally grow relentlessly heavy. There was no fighting it any longer, and she knew it. Using the last of her cognitive energy she pushed the books and her notes off to the side so she wouldn’t sleep directly on them and risk muddying the ink.

“So tired… I’m so cloooosee…” she whined softly, trying so desperately to keep going, wanting to see this through to the end before she fell asleep. Her vision of the room around her grew hazier and darker as the soft crackling of the fire lulled her to sleep. With another quiet whine, reality gave way to slumber and she was finally asleep, too exhausted to maintain her study for the night.

“Seek…

...Learn…

...Know…”

Twilight’s eyes flew open with a start, but slowly began to close again, resting halfway in a state of grogginess. She mumbled to herself and groaned, slowly sitting up as her joints popped. She stretched up straight, then slouched back down again with a sigh, nearly tumbling over and losing balance.

“Four nights in a row… But at least it feels like I finally got some sleep,” Twilight muttered, trying to regain her composure. She felt tired, but not nearly as exhausted as the previous night. At least this time she wasn’t drenched with sweat or suffocating. She was relieved that she was able to garner even just a few hours of restful sleep, despite the sudden awakening.

As she wobbled, a drop of incredibly frigid water fell from one of the stalactites above and her hit her squarely on the rump. It was so sudden—and so cold!—that she let out a yelp, her horn flaring to life in response.

Her reflexes kicked in as another spell took shape on instinct, building, assembling, casting, and then falling back into magic particles as it lived for only the briefest flash of a second. Known only to Twilight’s inner consciousness were those shapes that formed a light, violet, grid-like map of the surrounding room and its contents. A dark purple dot to represent the source and a light purple dot marking the destination signified the trajectory of this particular spell.

There was a hiss and crackle of magic as Twilight suddenly vanished. Nearly instantaneously she reappeared on the other side of the room in a sparkling flash, reforming into existence next to the fire place with a clumsy stagger.

Twilight shook her head, her mane flopping about as her vision slowly began to return, catching sight of the leftover aethereal trails that her spell left in its wake. A faint, wispy line of purple flecks of light danced from where she re-appeared, flowing across the room in a low arc from where she had stood in front of the desk. The crumbling remnants of a magic circle lingered there, until they too faded from sight. Twilight shook her head again, the dimming trails of magic having utterly vanished.

“What... What in Equestria was that!?” she cried out. Teleportation was a cinch for Twilight, having mastered its intricate qualities years before she even moved to Ponyville, but never in her life had she seen something like this before!

Twilight continued to stare into the space between her and the desk, mouth hanging open with disbelief. She felt as if in a trance after what she had seen. After a moment of staring at what had been, she pulled herself together and ran back to her workspace. A flurry of paper swirled around as she reorganized her study materials, levitating a freshly inked quill over a blank parchment. She began to take notes at a blinding speed.

“Okay! Okay, okay. First things first. Teleportation.” Her voice was quick and raspy as she recalled her textbook’s definition of the spell’s most basic form. Clenching the quill with her magic she began to write, reading aloud.

“Teleportation is a spell that instantly transports you and willing creatures or objects of your choice within range. The destination you choose must be known to you. Your familiarity with the destination determines whether you arrive there successfully. Consequences of a failed teleportation are more severe the less familiar you are with the target area.”

She stopped writing and stared at her notes. This was teleportation. This was how it worked, how it's always worked, and how it will continue to work. Even with greater mastery and practice, the basics don't change.

“Why is it so different now!?” she yelled out. “What does this mean? Am I sick, am I hallucinating? I know some complicated spells generate lingering magic auras, but never teleportation… not like summoning or conjuration! Why would something like that suddenly leave a magic signature behind?”

Twilight began to pace back and forth, her hoofsteps echoing off the stone floor as she considered the possibilities from lack of sleep to the effects of breathing the dank air for so long.

A creaking sound filled the musty chamber as the large double doors slowly opened, Princess Celestia peeking in with the care and deliberation of a concerned mother checking on her sleeping filly.

Despite Twilight’s frazzled mane and posture, not for a moment did Celestia’s warm and gentle expression waver. “Good morning, Twilight. Did we come at a bad time?” Celestia asked with her usual air of gentle concern as the door came to rest fully open, revealing Luna by her side.

“Celestia, Luna! Oh thank goodness you're both here! I have so much to tell you!” Twilight yelled, a mix of excitement and worry in her voice as the strange after-effects of her teleportation spell lingered on her mind.

“I’m sure you do, Twilight," Celestia said as the pair gracefully entered the room. “We were just about to lower the moon and raise the sun, and we thought maybe if you were awake to view it, it might help ease some of your stress.”

“I… That might not actually be a bad idea. Is there enough time to go over my notes before that?” Twilight asked, her eyes large and practically pleading for succor from such an exhausting night.

“Oh, I suppose we can spare a few extra minutes. In exchange, you have to come watch the sunrise,” Celestia said with a wink, eliciting a giggle from Twilight.

“Of course!” Twilight beamed, already in a much better mood. “For starters, I do have some good news! I was actually able to sleep last night! Or maybe it was this morning? I’m not exactly sure, I lost track of the time. Either way, I’m feeling a lot better!”

“That’s wonderful, Twilight! Although I suspect there’s more to it than that.” Celestia said as she turned to her sister.

“Indeed. We stood ever vigilant in the Dreamscape last night, and while you indeed fell asleep, we saw no trace of you entering into a dream. Do you recall anything from your time asleep?” Luna said, face wrinkled in annoyance. She did not like that her dream world was getting the better of her.

“Well, it’s been the same as the last three nights. It’s the same dream, the same three words.” Twilight said, her voice trailing as she mentioned the source of her sleep deprivation.

Luna huffed. “Of course. This infuriates us to no end!”

“Now Luna, shouldn’t you be a tad more worried about the well-being of your fellow princess?” Celestia asked, almost sounding like a mother playfully scolding her child.

“I—Well—Of course we’re worried! I never said we weren’t!” Luna blustered, blushing in frustration.

“It’s okay, really,” Twilight said with a smile. ”I know deep down you’re worried about me, Luna. I also know you’re proud of your Dreamscape, and it would be great if we could solve this—for both of our sakes.”

“You might say she has her… own, unique way of sharing her affection and concern,” Celestia said with a smug grin as she looked toward her little sister.

Luna pouted, turning her head away.

“Some things never change, it seems,” Celestia said with a giggle. “Just like some things here. I can tell you’ve been hard at work studying. Why don’t you share with us what you’ve learned?”

Twilight grinned with an innocent squeak. “Right! Well, it took all night, but might have finally found a clue about the meaning of these dreams! First, I found a book titled The Crystal Heart and its Links to Equestria,” Twilight said as she began to levitate her notes and diagrams, along with the text of the book.

“It not only had cryptic passages that alluded to the three tribes, but the final page was covered with a repeating, illegible three-word phrase,” Twilight said, motioning over her notes.

“That’s fantastic news, Twilight! Was there anything else you were able to uncover?” Celestia asked, eyes beaming with pride for Twilight.

“Well, there may be another book titled Crystal Magic: Revision 3 that I can use to learn more about the first book’s author, and possibly decipher the message. Unfortunately, we don’t have that book here,” she said, frowning with disappointment.

“It sounds like you’ve made a great deal of progress, but I am sad to say I am not familiar with that particular book series. If it doesn’t exist here in the archives, then based on your description of it, it’s likely in the Crystal Empire,” Celestia said as she stood over the desk, eyes glancing over Twilight’s research.

“I agree. I think my best course of action is to travel there next. I can always return here another time if I need to, but the Crystal Empire is a much longer trip, and I think that’s where I’m going to find some answers!” Twilight said as notes and books flew about with her magic and slid into place in her saddlebag. “Is it okay if I take some of these books with me? I promise I’ll take care of them, given their age!”

“That’s perfectly fine, Twilight. However, we should get going now. If we wait too much longer, ponies will start waking up rather confused,” Celestia said, motioning her head toward the door, never once losing her motherly grace or smile.

“Right. Of course!” Twilight finished packing her notes and reference material, while being sure to find room for the extra book that had finally given her the first clue. As she trotted alongside the older princesses, she thought about how she should best explain the teleportation spell. What she had witnessed defied normal conventions for a teleport spell, and even though it was made under a state of sudden shock and panic, it shouldn’t have misfired in such a way. The only remnants from a teleport spell should be the flash of light and sound at the beginning and end.

Twilight mulled over both the strange spell and the notes she had gleaned, not fully paying attention to her surroundings as she followed the two sisters out of the library through Canterlot and toward the castle. She followed Celestia and Luna onto the highest balcony of Canterlot Castle where they fulfilled their duties each day and night of keeping the slow heartbeat of the world alive. The sky was locked in a purple stasis between sun and moon, bearing her namesake.

The two sisters stood on opposite ends of the balcony, their backs to each other and looking outward toward the land: Luna faced the sinking moon to the west, and Celestia looked on toward the light trying to peek out from over the eastern horizon. They both closed their eyes and began to concentrate, their horns flaring to life.

Even among ancient spells, solar and lunar magic held no equal—in ages past such sorcery was so unwieldy and so potent that it was known to whither a unicorn down to a useless husk. But not these alicorn sisters; for in one, magic of the paradoxically brightest and most blackest night began to weave itself. The magic was thick and dense, worming its way through the void and enshrining over a sphere of light, guiding its slow, yet purposeful motions. So too, did the moon over Equestria began to sequester itself beyond the horizon for its own slumber.

And in the other still, warm trails of orange and white circled and coiled around itself, a feeling of saturated emotion that was built upon a myriad of distinct, yet equal, parts. The radiance transcended the physical nature of the earth ponies, the free-spirited grace of the pegasi, and the contemplative sorcery of the unicorns. The sum of all three swirled and pooled within, growing brighter as balls of light began to dance and twirl into and among themselves, shrinking and growing as if being mathematically manipulated.

The magic was mighty, transcendent as it gripped the star that lay sleeping below the horizon, and slowly the daybreaking sky did become the colors of Celestia’s mane itself. Light shone across the land as the gentle, life-giving sun made itself known to all.

Celestia and Luna opened their eyes and relaxed in unison, having concluded another cycle. The ponies of Equestria ventured forth into another gift of the morning, rested from their nightly sanctuary.

Twilight stared in awe, the two sisters turning toward the balcony entryway as if nothing unusual had occurred. They shared a glance, nervously approaching.

“Twilight? Is everything okay?” Celestia asked with concern.

Tears were streaming down Twilight’s face.

She had seen it all.

Chapter 4: With Northern Journey

Twilight stood in place, utterly frozen in shock. Her confusion bordered on bewilderment as her half-glassed over eyes remained motionless. Never before had anypony else borne witness to such intimate spellwork. The magic that the royal alicorn sisters possessed was unmatched and unrivaled by anything else in all the land. While it’s true that thousands have witnessed the magic of the sunrise, Twilight had just seen something truly magical.

Celestia approached Twilight and gently used the tip of her wing to dry the tears streaming down her face. Twilight gasped as she felt herself snapping back to reality, shaking her head and rubbing her eyes.

“Twilight, are you okay? What’s wrong?” Celestia asked as she crouched by Twilight’s side and draped a wing over her back.

“I… I need a minute,” was all she managed to squeak out, hyperventilating as a rush of thoughts swirled about. The majesty that she just witnessed was nothing short of awe-inspiring, and likely something very personal to Celestia and Luna. And she had just seen all of it.

The gears in Twilight’s head began to turn as she recalled the events of the previous day. Luna’s dream magic, the teleportation backfire, and now this incredible display of raw power.

“Alright…” Twilight said, still panting. “I think I’m okay now. Princess Celestia, Princess Luna. Your magic, it… I could see it! All of it! I mean yes, your horns were glowing, obviously, and I did see the moon fall and the sun rise, but that’s not what I mean! What I mean is, I saw your magic!”

Celestia gave a reassuring smile, leaning over to nuzzle her face gently. Celestia ruffled her feathers and adjusted her wing, ensuring the protective shield encapsulated all of her student. The gentle expression of Celestia’s love did much to quell Twilight’s panting.

“Tell me from the beginning, Twilight. Go as slow or as fast as you need to,” Celestia said warmly. Not once did she waver, despite the confusing nature of Twilight’s tale.

“Okay… Luna! Do you remember the spell you used yesterday to view past dreams in the Dreamscape?” Twilight asked, starting to calm down.

Luna simply nodded, eyebrow quirking as she tried to follow the tumble of words falling from Twilight’s mouth.

“Those shapes! The lights, the dots of energy, the connections they formed! It was like they were forming a complicated spell grid of sorts! It had circles, stars, moons, and shapes I couldn’t even begin to describe! The magic flowing all around and through you as you were casting that spell! You… You remember it, right?” She asked as her voice cracked into a high pitched squeak as she finished her question.

Luna stared at her, puzzled by the description Twilight gave of her spell. “That particular spell’s outward manifestations do not have these… ‘grids’ of which you speak. Visions of the moon and stars are part of the incantation process just before the Dreamscape reveals itself, but not in the manner you describe. Curious, why did you not bring this up sooner?”

Twilight tilted her head, her confusion only growing. “I thought they were a normal part of the spell. It’s not uncommon for incredibly rare or complex magic to create runic circles or some other area of focus, but you’re absolutely positive you’ve never seen anything like I described?”

Luna shook her head and muttered to herself. “Most interesting indeed… Hmm…”

Twilight sighed with dejection. It felt that for every answer she unearthed, two more questions joined it. “There was also a teleport spell this morning. I uh…” She stopped and blushed, suddenly embarrassed when she realized it was a drop of water that spooked her. She rubbed her tired eyes and regained her train of thought.

“Right, the teleport spell! I teleported from the desk over to one of the bookcases to fetch a reference book,” she said, lying about the details to avoid embarrassment, “and when I opened my eyes, there was a faint trail of magic forming an arch from where I started to where I went. Not only that, but at the start point were the remnants of some kind of magic circle! I’ve never seen teleportation do that!”

Twilight turned to face Celestia, who was wearing a look of contemplation and deep thought. “I can only assume you saw something similar a moment ago,” Celestia said.

Twilight nodded, her eyes widening. “It was simply… One of the most beautiful and magnificent things I had ever seen in my life. It was like your magic itself reached out to the sun and grabbed it. But there was more to it than that!”

Twilight paused, giving Celestia a weak nuzzle. “I’ve never seen anything like it before in my entire life. I know magic can be incredibly potent, but seeing it filled with such… life, was just…” Her voice began to trail, proper words now failing to escape her lips.

Twilight had to fight the tears back as she recounted the magical splendor she had witnessed. Celestia and Luna shared a stunned look, Luna visibly shaken as her pupils shrank in surprise. Celestia managed to maintain her composure and continued to listen.

“When we cast a spell, it forms deep within our subconscious, but it’s intangible; you can’t physically see or interact with it. But I could see it. It’s as if it were right there in front of me, staring me in the face. It defies almost everything I know about spellcasting and magic theory. It’s not been in any textbooks or lessons or anything!” Twilight’s voice cracked, her frantic excitement overwhelming her usual clinical demeanor.

The weight of trying to deal with a sudden shift in how magic theory behaved and operated grew heavier on her, forcing a haggered sigh from her lips. She was not only still tired, but her emotions were starting to catch up with her, compounding her exhaustion. Twilight tried to keep herself from falling over by leaning against Celestia’s side.

She held Twilight close in the soft embrace of her wing. Twilight couldn’t tell if it was the gentle warmth of the ascending sunrise or Celestia herself, but her thoughts began to slow and become more orderly as she calmed down.

“Twilight,” Celestia said firmly. “I know this is a very confusing and stressful time for you, but it’s as I said last night. This is a problem related to magic itself, of which I know you are more than capable. You represent the Element of Magic, so it should come as no surprise that you are beginning to see beyond what we currently understand.”

Twilight’s frown twitched away, her lips breaking out into a clumsy smile as a tear escaped from her eye. She dried it using a wing and looked up at Celestia.

“Consider the three words from your dreams. I firmly believe there is a hidden meaning between that message, your studies, and this new method of viewing magic. I know you can uncover its secrets, Twilight,” Celestia said as she nuzzled Twilight’s cheek. She stood tall and proud over Twilight, her wings outstretched. As the rising sun was eclipsed behind her, Celestia gave Twilight a smile. “In time, you’ll see the true height of your aspirations… Just as my sister and I did so long ago.”

Twilight’s knees started to wobble as her wings flared for balance. Though she was younger, smaller, and less experienced than her mentor, the confidence she felt from her made Twilight realize that this was nothing to be scared of. This was something for her to seek out, to learn more about, and to eventually know the truth.

“I know what needs to be done,” Twilight said confidently. “Moping will get me nowhere, so I need to go to the Crystal Empire! If the pony who wrote that book had the same dream as me, maybe I can also find clues as to how or why I’m able to see magic!”

Celestia looked down at Twilight and smiled. “While I’m no stranger to bizarre magic and other such oddities, something tells me this will be a path for you to walk on without us,” Celestia said. “While we will be more than willing to help in any way possible, this may be something you have to ultimately accomplish with your own power.”

Twilight gave Celestia another quick nuzzle, then trotted over to Luna to share the same affection, much to Luna’s surprise.

“Thank you. Both of you. Sometimes I feel like I’d be lost without you… Without all of my friends,” Twilight said, her voice trailing.

“You give yourself far too little credit, Twilight,” Celestia replied, not once breaking her motherly demeanor or smile.

“I can’t thank you enough… Princess Celestia, Princess Luna,” Twilight said, bowing to both of them. “I’m going to head out right away. I won’t let you down!”

“We know you won’t. Nor will you let yourself down, either,” Celestia said, bowing to Twilight. Luna followed the gestured in kind.

Twilight smiled and waved to the two before she leapt from the balcony, wings spread as she soared down over the buildings of Canterlot. The two sisters watched from their precipice as the purple speck vanished into the slowly growing crowd of ponies.

“Normally you have all the answers,” Luna said, turning to her older sister. “Not even an inkling this time?”

Celestia stood silent and closed her eyes, her mane and tail waving in the early morning sunlight. A moment passed. An idle bird chirping nearby broke the silence.

“It is not my place to give an answer this time, Luna. It is hers,” Celestia said, turning to return to the castle interior.

Luna looked over the balcony for a moment and exhaled audibly. “Perhaps so. She was right about the Elements, after all.” Luna turned to follow her sister, the two of them disappearing into the castle.

Fortunately for Twilight—who was still stewing in her own head—not too many ponies were on the early morning train ride from Canterlot to the Frozen North where the Crystal Empire lay tucked away. The mysterious words, the bizarre magical visions, the vague clues hidden in books still to be discovered: these thoughts weighed heavily on her mind as she let out a heavy sigh.

Much of the journey was spent poring over the notes and books that she had brought with her, hoping she hadn’t overlooked something critical. However, all signs pointed in the same direction, and Twilight knew she needed to continue her research in the North.

While she was pondering, she noticed in the corner of her eye one of the train attendants pulling along a small refreshments cart selling hot tea and light snacks to the passengers. Twilight looked up from her pile of work as she watched the unicorn attendant exchange words with an Earth pony passenger before levitating a small plate of diced carrots onto the table in exchange for a bit.

Twilight blinked and rubbed her eyes. The exchange appeared so normal in contrast to the spectacle Celestia and Luna had given her. Levitation was among the basic of basics in terms of unicorn magic: a glow from the horn, a shimmer around the plate, and the exchange was done. It was no different than if she had merely grabbed the plate by her mouth and handed it off.

Twilight jotted down some notes about her observations, comparing the complex internal workings of dream magic to the mundane and almost invisible levitation magic. Her observations began to cause doubt about her own knowledge. Why could she so clearly see these complicated spells, but not simple ones? So deeply was Twilight buried in these thoughts that she didn’t even notice the attendant trying to get her attention.

“Princess? Princess?” The attendant nervously raised her voice, waving a light blue foreleg in front of Twilight’s face.

“Huh?” Twilight responded dimly. “Oh! I’m sorry, I was so lost in my… studies that I wasn’t paying attention!” A terrible and horrific groaning sound emanated from below the table as Twilight realized that she hadn’t eaten anything since the day before.

“Maybe some snacks might help? Or something to drink?” The unicorn offered, levitating a daisy and daffodil sandwich alongside a fresh cup of tea to an empty space on the table. Before Twilight could respond, the attendant began to trot off, bringing her cart with her.

“Wait! Miss! But I didn’t pay yet!” Twilight yelled.

“Oh, I couldn’t make one of the princesses of Equestria pay for her train snacks! I’m honestly surprised you didn’t want an entire car to yourself,” the mare said over her shoulder.

“Please, I insist. I may be a princess but I’m not more important than anypony else here,” Twilight said with the most sincere smile she could muster as she levitated three bits onto the pony’s snack cart.

The unicorn couldn’t help but return the smile. “I think that’s why so many other ponies look up to you, Princess Twilight. It’s no wonder you’re the Princess of Friendship!” She turned away, heading off to the next car along her rounds.

Twilight flopped onto the cushioned seat and looked at the sandwich in front of her. Those kind words began to sink in, mixing with the turbulence already brewing inside her mind. Although it was a compliment, she couldn’t help but wonder about the weight of her title. She had certainly been no stranger to these thoughts, especially when she had first ascended, but now they were starting to return.

The Princess of Friendship. What exactly did that title mean, coming from an ordinary pony? A leader? A teacher? A ruler? Perhaps. But above all, a friend.

The Element of Magic. A reflection of the eponymous Element of Harmony. In the past, it was only wielded in the most dire of circumstances, but now it currently rested in the Tree of Harmony with the other five. Despite this, she always embodied its traits: her prowess and knowledge of magic was more than ample proof. Magic was indeed her domain, as Princess Celestia said.

Twilight groaned and rubbed her temples in frustration, as thoughts unbidden began to swim alongside those of her dreams and sleep-depriving research. Of her role as a Princess and ties of friendship to others. Of alicorns and their connection to the three tribes. Of the magic that permeated… everything.

Twilight looked wistfully out the window, the mountainous terrain of the far North becoming more apparent as unmelted frost clung to the foliage. “There’s just so much locked away here,” Twilight said to herself. “The archives of Canterlot were a good start, but there’s bound to be even more clues in the Crystal Empire!”

The train began its final approach towards its destination as the shining beacon of prosperity crept over the horizon. Twilight smiled, for the Crystal Empire was full of mystery and legends, a veritable treasure trove of knowledge. Its massive crystalline structures stood defiantly against the chilled air, housing centuries of undisturbed knowledge deep within its walls.

Twilight was determined to uncover the secrets she so desperately sought.

Chapter 5: For Clandestine Authors

The early afternoon sun reflected off of the myriad of colorful structures, dazzling with radiant brilliance; a stark contrast to the mundane glasswork that was used in some of Canterlot’s non-royal structures. Towering over the city rose the gorgeous Crystal Castle, a glittering behemoth of a structure serving as a symbol of ponykind’s defiance to the deathly chills that lay outside the kingdom’s borders.

The seat of the Empire wasn’t Twilight’s goal, however, and her sights focused on the lower buildings—hoping to probe the land of its mysteries and unearth some answers to her magical dilemma. Twilight began her trek through the city streets, pausing every few blocks to take in the sights of the majestic buildings. Certainly a significant difference compared to the thatch-straw and wooden structures of Ponyville, but there was something that even further set the small town apart from the Empire. Most of the ponies that saw Twilight stopped what they were doing and bowed to her, recognizing her royal authority, for they were not as familiar and personal with her as her Ponyville friends.

Twilight still smiled and waved, showing her warmth and compassion despite the stress weighing on her mind. She was determined not to let her anxiety get the better of her and distract her from her duties as a princess—at least on the surface.

After wandering through one of the residential districts for a time, Twilight finally arrived at a colossal blue and green building—her destination. Two sculpted griffon statues flanked the stairway leading up to the double doored entryway. Each had their front left talon raised slightly, giving an air of sophistication that seemed to beckon knowledge and critical thinking.

She hesitated with slight trepidation for a moment before swinging open the twin doors using her magic. To her relief, no crazy arcane circles or sigils wove and danced through the air this time. She sighed. Of course there wouldn’t be, she reminded herself. These strange visions had never manifested on basic magic, only appearing during powerful spells.

The Crystal Empire’s library was a massive, multi-level structure housing thousands upon thousands of books. “I always forget how huge this place is,” Twilight said to herself. “Each book here was printed at least a thousand years ago—” She suddenly stopped as the gears in her mind clicked into place, her face broadening into a grin.

“If the Crystal Empire was frozen away in time a thousand years ago, then that means everything here is just as pristine as it was when it was first sealed away! Books here would technically only be a few years or decades old, not centuries!” Twilight exclaimed, her voice echoing through the multi-story chambers as she pranced in place. An unseen “SHH!” came from somewhere in the library, causing her to suddenly stop and scrunch her mouth up, a blush touching her cheeks as her ears folded in embarrassment.

“Right! Time to get started!” Twilight said to herself with a giggle as she leapt into the air, gliding towards the rows of bookshelves. She smiled joyfully as as she scanned their contents, her horn glowing to life and snatching up anything remotely related to the Crystal Heart, magic theory, or the pony tribes and their history. A perfectly clean and empty study desk had become a fortress of books as Twilight nestled in, her notes, parchment and quills at the ready.

“First things first!” Twilight said as she snatched the first book from the stack. “I’m so excited, I was actually able to find a copy of Crystal Magic: Revision 3!” She gently set the green and gold book down, quickly flipping through the pages and scanning them at a rapid pace.

“Oh, shoot!” She said in a hushed whisper. “The only thing in here related to The Crystal Heart and its Links to Equestria is the exact same text that I found in the first place. Everything else is just descriptions of the Crystal Heart and generic descriptions of Crystal Ponies.”

She grunted to herself and snorted, her bangs catching the air and flapping upwards. She turned to the front cover. “There is an author though, two of them even! Written by Star Glider, co-written by Emerald Dew... Yes! I just need to cross-reference what else they’ve written, and locate additional sources via that! Maybe with that I can find out who wrote The Crystal Heart and its Links to Equestria or maybe even find something better!”

Twilight looked up from her desk. Up on the floor above her caught a glance of an elderly Earth pony perched atop a sliding ladder, organizing and reshelving books. She took hold of the copy of Crystal Magic: Revision 3 with her magic and flew up towards her.

“Amethyst Maresbury!” Twilight suddenly blurted out, making the pony lose her balance and nearly fall over from surprise. Twilight put her hoof over her mouth with embarrassment to stifle her sudden yell. Amethyst held fast to the ladder, shooting Twilight a nasty glare that rivaled Fluttershy’s own. Her annoyance at nearly falling clearly paled in comparison to her disapproval at the noise Twilight was making in her library.

She adjusted her glasses and began to descend down the ladder, returning to the floor as Twilight landed next to her. She cleared her throat, “Princess Twilight, please, even though you are a princess, this is still a library.”

Twilight let out a timid squeak, shrinking away slightly and looking down in embarrassment. She knew better than to cross a librarian; despite her status as a princess, librarians were the true gatekeepers of knowledge.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight said. “I’ve been all over Equestria and back again trying to hunt down answers for this research project of mine. I guess I just got a little carried away,” she said with a sheepish smile.

“Well, it’s always an honor and a delight to have a member of royalty pursue higher learning. What is it I can help you with?” Amethyst replied, her tone shifting from that of a scolding aunt to an eager facilitator of knowledge.

“It’s a long story,” Twilight said, rolling her eyes a little. She really didn’t want to launch into the full explanation again. “But, I’ve been hunting down some books from the Crystal Empire and I think I’ve come close to finding what I’m looking for.”

Twilight brandished the copy of Crystal Magic: Revision 3 and held it in front of Amethyst. “What can you tell me about the authors of this book, Star Glider and Emerald Dew? I think their works might be a valuable clue in my research!”

Twilight could see Amethyst’s eyes widen and grow watery, exaggerated by her large glasses. “Well…” She said. “I’m afraid I can’t tell you much about this Star Glider, but I can at least help you with Emerald Dew.” Her voice began to trail off as she looked wistfully past Twilight, focusing on something not quite there.

“Is… Something wrong?” Twilight asked.

Amethyst came back, shaking her head sadly. “Oh, not at all. Just recalling some old memories from long ago. Emerald Dew was my aunt, you see. She and my mother were very close, so I spent a lot of time with her.”

Twilight’s ears lowered as she realized that given the age of Amethyst, it was very likely that Emerald was no longer with them.

“In her younger days she was something of an adventurer and explorer. Always poking around the snowy mountains, looking to find the next big secret across the horizon,” Amethyst said as she looked over the floating book, recalling the memories. “She spent her later years doing research on magic and other such things as a way to pass the time. It was just a hobby, so she didn’t publish much else besides the book you have. The only other book I can think of is she helped contribute to one of the book series concerning the Crystal Heart…”

“The Crystal Heart and its Links to Equestria!” Twilight yelled out, wings stretching as she arched back on her hind legs excitedly, kicking her forelegs.

“Shhhh!”

Twilight fell back to all fours with a loud clop. She blushed and smiled nervously. “Heh, sorry… getting a little too excited again.”

“Anyway, yes. That was indeed a book she lent a helping hoof to, but I haven’t seen it in some time… I don’t believe we have it on our collection.” Amethyst said.

“You mean…” Twilight said proudly, turning back towards where her study table was, horn glowing as she pulled a book over. “This one?”

“Oh my, yes! I haven’t seen that in… Well, I guess technically a thousand years!” Amethyst said with a chuckle, adjusting her glasses as she looked the book over. “I can tell this one has seen better days. It’s been in Canterlot this whole time, hasn’t it?”

“It has, yes. I found it in the Canterlot Library. I was wondering though, do you know if Emerald Dew ever had… strange dreams? Visions involving words or anything like that,” Twilight asked.

Amethyst tilted her head, the unusual question catching her off-guard. “I… I don’t think so. She never mentioned anything of it to me, anyway.”

Twilight opened the book to its final page, showing the repeating pattern of a smudged trifecta of words. “So, you don’t know anything about this at all?”

Amethyst leaned in and examined the page, squinting her old, tired eyes, and rubbed her chin as she tried to make sense of the mess in front of her. “I’m afraid not. She never mentioned anything of the sort. Perhaps that page was written by Star Glider?”

Twilight exhaled in disappointment, her excitement deflating slightly. She had been hoping that this would bring her closer to unraveling the mystery of her tumultuous nights, but it appeared she hadn’t gained much ground at all.

“I’m sorry that this isn’t what were you looking for. I don’t know if it helps at all, but there was another book that the two of them wrote concerning Amethyst Hollow,” the elderly librarian said.

“Amethyst Hollow? Is she another relative of yours?” Twilight asked, her ears perking up, hoping this might be another researcher she could investigate.

The librarian laughed softly. “No, no. Amethyst Hollow is a place. It’s a tucked-away cave buried in the mountains to the North, somewhere near Mount Everhoof. It was one of the last places she explored before she retired from such adventures. They say there are…” Her voice grew quiet and hushed as she leaned closer to Twilight. “Strange things there.”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide. Maybe this would be where she can find more answers! “What sort of strange things? At this point I’ll take any lead I can get!”

“Well, I’ve never been there myself. All I know is it’s an ancient place frequented by unicorns from long ago. Something about lots of magic being gathered in one place causing strange things to happen,” Amethyst said. “Emerald was curious about her unicorn lineage, hence her attraction to it.”

Twilight’s face froze in a state of curiosity, the gears of her mind turning as they ticked over such a mysterious sounding location. “I absolutely have to learn more about this place! It could be a massive breakthrough for my research, particularly on unicorn magic. And if Emerald Dew and Star Glider knew it, maybe I can find a clue about these dreams!” Twilight’s face was beaming with excitement, her face widening into a huge grin.

“Well, unfortunately, if you’d like to read it, Sunburst has the book.” She grumbled, her annoyance plain as she raised her hoof and shook it.

“Oh! Well, if Sunburst has it, that shouldn’t be an issue! …Right?” Twilight asked.

Amethyst cleared her throat. “Let’s just say he has… a few overdue books, and The Unicorns of Amethyst Hollow is one of them.”

“Well, I know where I’m going next. Maybe he can offer his own insight too!” Twilight practically pranced in place like a filly at the prospect of this book.

“Well, if you do go, please remind him to return it when you are finished… along with the other eighty-three books he has checked out!”

Twilight giggled awkwardly to herself and smiled nervously. “Of course. I’ll give him a friendly reminder. I know all about getting wrapped up in studies, so I’m sure he didn’t mean any harm.”

“Oh, I know he doesn’t. If you need any more help, don’t hesitate to stop on by. Princess or not, I’m always happy to help a pony in the pursuit of knowledge.”

“I will. Thank you so much for your help. I really think I’m getting closer to shedding light on this mystery!” Twilight said as she flew back to her study desk, her magic already at work packing up her own books. As she looked over the stack of books she had pulled from the library’s shelves, she blushed a bit with embarrassment: In the end, she hadn’t needed any of them save for the one copy of Crystal Magic: Revision 3, and a little help from Amethyst. Regardless, she still had to return them to their proper spots.

Twilight wanted to test something new this time. She prepared a mass-levitation spell, but instead of closing her eyes to focus, she kept them wide open, trying not to blink in case she missed something. Her horn hummed and glowed with magic as the spell took root deep within, her subconscious extending dozens of glowing trails of purple and white from her mind. She concentrated, focusing on the empty slots on the various bookshelves to which the books belonged.

The beams of light within her mind’s eye turned and angled, suddenly stopping in one general area, not unlike that of oversized teeth on a comb. The endpoints glowed and pulsed, then suddenly each rocketed off in a different direction. Some stayed close, while others went far off and away, turning and angling at sharp angles but never intersecting, until finally each one abruptly terminated in a small ball of light.

She felt this magic building inside her, crystal clear just like recalling a recent memory. Fractions of a second later, this spell suddenly took physical shape and form, as the very same beams of light projected from Twilight’s horn in the same manner as did her subconscious, each one seizing hold of one of the library books on the desk. She gasped loudly at what she saw, but her concentration did not waver, her scientific inquiry overriding any sense of wonder in the moment. After the recent events, she didn’t want to get startled into losing potentially valuable data.

The beams of light suddenly rocketed off, mirroring the the same pattern her subconscious held, except each one was dragging along with it one library book each. They reached the myriad of terminal nodes, the books neatly shelving themselves as the beams of magic gently released their grasp, and slowly began to unravel and crumble away like flower petals dancing in the wind.

“I… I can’t believe it.” Twilight said to herself, wiping sweat from her brow with a fetlock. “I’m not seeing things! Luna’s dream magic, the teleportation spell, Celestia and Luna’s sun and moon magic, and now this. Ordinarily a levitation spell would simply envelop the object or objects in a magic aura, but this is… extraordinary!”

Twilight began to prance in place, her panic and confusion from her earlier magic mishaps finally giving way to enthusiastic glee and curiosity. “It’s like I could see the magic itself coming to life and grabbing the books! This is amazing, this is wonderful! This is—!”

“SSHHH!!” an echo came from somewhere in the library.

Twilight blinked hard and jerked her head. Her ears folded in as she fidgeted in embarrassment, giggling to herself.

“Right. Sorry,” she whispered to no one in particular. “Now there’s one more thing to test.” She looked at the copy of Crystal Magic: Revision 3 on the desk and concentrated. She could feel the spell construction take place as the straight line of purple magic shot forward and grasped the book. However, this sensation was only the spell forming within her. She felt it for certain, but she could not see it. The book merely glowed and then slowly lifted up above the desk, no indication of anything out of the ordinary, and certainly not mirroring the light show from earlier.

Twilight cocked her head and frowned, narrowing her eyes as she leaned in to look at the floating book. “That’s strange. I can’t see anything other than my normal aura, and anypony can easily see that. Hmm…” She thought to herself before setting the book down, then lifted a quill and parchment and began to write notes on her recent observations.

“Magic only seems to take shape on complex or powerful spells that requires a high degree of concentration. Examples include alicorn magic, teleportation, and mass-levitation. Basic spells such as levitation of one or a few objects do not exhibit this behavior,” she read aloud as she wrote.

She smiled at her notes and rolled the parchment up. “Okay! Next on my list is to go to Sunburst!” She beamed excitedly as she packed up the rest of her notes, trotting through the library projecting an air of excitement and thirst for knowledge that only Twilight could. She was close, so very very close, and the key to unravelling this mystery lay in Amethyst Hollow. She just needed the book in Sunburst’s possession.

Twilight bid her farewells to Amethyst and took to the sky. She flexed her powerful alicorn wings—born of pegasus magic—taking flight and beating down on the air below. As she made her way to Sunburst’s home, ponies on the ground who noticed and recognized her kneeled, even though she was above the rooftops.

Upon landing in front of Sunburst’s home, she quickly trotted up the stairs leading to the front door and knocked, refusing to waste any precious seconds.

Silence.

She knocked again. Then once more. If she didn't know Sunburst, Twilight might have grown nervous. As it were, however, he was much more likely trapped in his studies—a feeling Twilight knew all too well. “Sunburst! Sunburst are you home!?”

Dull sounds emanated from inside punctuated by a terrible crashing thud, followed by a squeaky yelp. After a moment, Twilight heard the clamouring of frantic hoofsteps making their way closer.

The door suddenly flung open, colliding with Twilight and knocking her backwards off of the stairs and onto her rump. “Ow!” She yelled as Sunburst peeked his head out the door, frantically looking this way and that, clearly excited at the company, his unfocused eyes having trouble seeing through the large glasses that lay askew on his snout.

“Sunburst! I’m right here!” Twilight said, rubbing the back of her head with her hoof.

“Oh! Twilight! I-I didn’t see you there! I’m so sorry! I’m surprised you didn’t knock!” Sunburst replied, adjusting his glasses with the tip of his hoof.

Twilight stood, wobbling in place before dusting herself off with her wings. “I did knock! I just don’t think you heard me until I shouted your name,” Twilight said, her face blushing red and pouting, still reeling from the sudden door impact.

“Oh! Oh goodness, I’m so sorry! See, I was busy reorganizing my collection of books on the history of magic-based kitchen appliances, so I didn’t hear you knocking. Please, come in, come in!” Sunburst said with his characteristic hint of nasally awkwardness.

The two entered Sunburst’s home, the door closing behind them with the yellow shimmer of his magic. Scrolls and books were piled high in seemingly every nook and cranny of the house, reminding Twilight very much of a condensed and messy version of the library she had just come from.

“I’m sorry it’s such a mess... I wasn’t expecting such sudden company, but it’s always nice to have friends visit!” Sunburst picked his way through his living room, carefully navigating the stacked books, charts and other such knick-knacks.

Twilight couldn’t help but giggle. Every time she visited Sunburst she was reminded that their shared passions for knowledge and magic were nearly identical, though their outwardly expressions of them were not. “Oh, I’m not worried about the clutter. I’m actually here for a reason, Sunburst.”

“Oh?” Sunburst’s horn glowed as he cleared away a stack of books piled on a stool at his central table. “What reason would that be?”

Twilight quietly observed nothing out of the ordinary with his levitation magic, just like her own basic spells. “There’s a book I need that you have checked out from the library. Are you familiar with The Unicorns of Amethyst Hollow?”

“I am! I’ve got it buried around here somewhere…” Sunburst said as he began to search through the stacks of books. “At least I think it’s here somewhere…” he muttered, “What exactly did you need it for?”

“Well, there’s actually a chance you might be able to help me anyway, with or without that book, given everything you know about the arcane!” Twilight said, her eyes lighting up with anticipation.

“Really? Well, do tell! There aren’t many other ponies who appreciate magic quite like we do,” Sunburst said as he poked through a bookshelf, muttering to himself as he hunted the missing tome down.

“Everything started four days ago. I was in the process of beginning an in-depth study on the origins of magic and how it relates to the three pony tribes, and how that relates to the alicorns. The night I started, I began having strange dreams.”

“That’s not it… No, not that one…” Sunburst said to himself, tossing aside a pair of unrelated books. “Dreams? What sort of dreams?”

“It’s a message. A three-word message. Seek, learn, know. Have you ever heard of anything like this happening to any other ponies?”

“Can’t say that I have. Have you spoken to Luna about this yet?” Sunburst asked.

Twilight smirked. Even if he didn’t have an immediate answer, his logical train of thought was reassuring. “I have, yes; and Celestia too. I spent a night in the restricted section of the Canterlot Library, and some of the books I found there eventually led me to hunt down some books in the Crystal Empire.”

“Well, I’d be happy to help if I could just find it!” Sunburst said while he continued to search through his unorganized piles of books. Some of them fell to the ground open as Twilight noticed the stamped library sleeve in the front cover. She just rolled her eyes at the due dates.

“That’s not even the half of it, Sunburst. I can see magic!” Twilight exclaimed, her wings unfolding out as she reared back on her hind legs, excitedly kicking her forelegs until she landed back on them.

“Huh? I’m not sure I understand…” Sunburst turned to face her and adjusted his glasses, tilting his head. “Ordinarily we can see horns glow and the telekinetic aura… But judging by your tone, I assume you mean something else?”

“Yes! While I was watching Celestia and Luna raise the sun and lower the moon… I could…” Twilight hesitated, her eyes fidgeting around as she lowered her head, mouth working wordlessly as she struggled for words. “I can’t even begin to describe it! I could see this beautiful aura of magic, it was so warm and pure and gentle! It had aspects of all three pony tribes, all rolled into one spell!” Twilight’s face broke out into a huge grin as she continued to rapid fire her explanations. The more she prattled on about her strange new gift—and the more that she tested it—the more she was starting to embrace it.

“There’s also my teleportation spell, and my mass-levitation spell! When I cast them, it’s as if thoughts deep within my subconscious make themselves manifest for me to actually visually perceive! I can see grids and lines and runes and just so much stuff!”

Sunburst’s mouth gaped as his glasses slid down his muzzle, forcing him to adjust them back into place. “That’s… That’s incredible! I’ve never heard of anything like that before! This could change how we study magic spells!”

“So far it only works on very powerful or complicated spells. I can’t see basic levitation spells, but I’ve been able to witness anything from an intermediate-level levitation spell up,” Twilight said as she levitated a random book from the floor up to the table, even though she knew neither of them would be able to see anything special.

“Very fascinating… So you’re limited so far to just intermediate unicorn magic and alicorn magic. What about earth pony magic or pegasus magic? Have you seen any of that?” Sunburst asked as he leaned in and examined the book Twilight had set on the table.

Twilight blinked and paused for a moment. “I hadn’t actually considered that yet, but I’m afraid not. Their magic manifests in far more subtle manners, like plant growth or cloud manipulation, and I haven’t had the chance to witness any since all this started. I wonder if this has to do with me being born a unicorn.”

Sunburst suddenly stood proud with a triumphant “Aha!” nearly knocking Twilight off balance in surprise. “I found it!”

“You did!? Oh my gosh, hurry, let’s see it!” Twilight beamed, excited and eager that her clues were once again within reach.

Sunburst pulled out the book they were searching for, levitating it from one of the many book piles onto the table. It was in good shape: its red cover studded with gold gems, dulled slightly by dust from being left aside for so long. Emblazoned on the front Twilight read the title, The Unicorns of Amethyst Hollow: Written by Emerald Dew (with revisions by Star Glider).

“This is it! It looks like these two were partners in crime if Star Glider helped her edit it! That means it’s very likely Star Glider has been to Amethyst Hollow as well, in which case, there might also be a clue there about my dreams!”

The two scholars dove into the book, shutting off the outside world as they took in every single word about the mysterious location.

Twilight began to read aloud, her eyes steadily growing wider with each sentence. “Amethyst Hollow is located in a cave deep underground at the foot of Mount Everhoof. Characterized by its strong aetheric readings, unicorns are naturally drawn to its majestic crystalline structures that grow in the subterranean caverns. This pull is so strong that a group of powerful sorcerers used them as meditation grounds. These crystals were mined from hollowed-out passageways with great care and precision…”

Sunburst read from the next page after Twilight. “While it is not fully known what causes the growth of these crystals, or what gives them their magic-altering properties, it is theorized that they share similar principles on the composition of unicorn-based magic. Very young unicorns, or those with smaller magical reserves, found themselves struggling with even the most basic of spell construction while within the cave.”

They continued to pore over the book, sharing ideas and bouncing theories off of one another. Twilight was having so much fun studying with Sunburst that she almost lost focus on her goal. She couldn’t help but giggle, not really minding as it took the edge off to just indulge in simple research like she wanted to in the first place.

“So,” Twilight said, after having gone through several of the important chapters, “What we’ve learned thus far is even long before Sombra seized the Crystal Empire, unicorns at one point had been visiting Amethyst Hollow.”

“And it’s full of magically-charged, naturally growing crystals,” Sunburst said with enthusiasm, taking notes for his own curiosity. “At first the crystals would warp unicorn magic and make spells difficult to cast, but the unicorns adapted and were able to grow stronger with magic and develop more intricate spells. It was an ancient place of meditation and study for them.”

“The exact nature of the crystal growth is still unknown, but it’s definitely worth checking out. Judging by the way these crystals are described, it almost sounds like they are somehow made of unicorn magic. It’s just a theory, but if that’s indeed the case, then this place will be a veritable gold mine of knowledge!” Twilight said, her eyes practically twinkling with excitement.

“Are you intending to go there right now?” Sunburst asked, a bit of nervousness in his voice.

“After adequate preparation of course! Would you care to join me, Sunburst? I can tell you’re just as interested in this as I am!” Twilight asked with a pleading, rapid eye blink, hoping to have company with her on the trip.

“Well… I don’t know, Twilight. I’d love to, but if it’s really all the way out by Mount Everhoof, and that’s a pretty long trip outside the city. It’s very cold and mountainous that far north.” Twilight could practically feel Sunburst’s anxiety at the prospect of leaving the safety of his study—his sanctuary, even—and venturing out into the frigid unknown.

“I know it’s scary, Sunburst, and I won’t force you to go, but think of what we could learn! Not just for my research or my mysterious dreams, but I bet once we arrive there, you would have such peace of mind from just being in such a place overflowing with knowledge and secrets!”

Despite the stress and confusion of these dreams and trying to find answers, Twilight was finally back to herself. She was ready to seek out knowledge and learn more of the myriad mysteries of magic.

Sunburst hesitated for a moment, looking around at his various books and notes scattered around the mess of his home. His gaze turned back to Twilight, who wore such a serene and calming demeanor which did much to assuage his own trepidation. He smiled, knowing that she would be both a friend and a leader befitting her titles.

“Alright, I think I should be okay. If I’m with one of the princesses, then there’s really no danger at all aside from being a little chilly!” Sunburst said, Twilight’s confidence rubbing off into him.

“Good!” Twilight said. “Then let’s get ready!”

Chapter 6: Towards Amethyst Hollow

The snow crunched softly under Twilight’s and Sunburst’s hooves as they made their way over the mountain range north of the Crystal Empire. The journey thus far had been cold, but largely uneventful. The terrain grew more and more dangerous the farther they traveled. The flatlands just outside the city eventually gave way to forests, which then transitioned to steep hills and jagged cliffs. Their destination: the mysterious caverns known as Amethyst Hollow.

The dreams had persisted each night of the trip, much to Twilight’s chagrin, but since she was slowly putting together pieces of the puzzle the dreams hadn’t been depriving her of rest as badly as they had the first few nights.

Twilight looked at her detailed map of the mountain range as Sunburst trotted ahead, surveying the area before them from atop a cliff face as he struggled with his oversized pack against the wind.

“Can you see The Withers plateau from there!?” Twilight yelled, barely audible as the blizzard howled over her voice.

“I-I think so! If we can cross this valley, then climb up to the plateau, we should be close to Amethyst Hollow!” Sunburst shouted as he scanned the immediate surroundings. He trotted back over to Twilight and shook his head in frustration.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, leaning closer.

“I think it’s too windy for you to fly us over there. We’ll either have to wait for these winds to die down, or we’ll have to find a way down the cliffside, then back up again to reach The Withers. Even still, we’re going off of vague descriptions. There’s no guarantee Amethyst Hollow is even over there,” Sunburst said, shivering as he pulled his cloak tighter around him.

“Well, it’s the best lead we have to its location and it’s the closest. Even if this one doesn’t work out, there’s still three more potential places it could be. It just means we’ll have to hike deeper into the region. Mount Everhoof is just beyond The Withers!” Twilight said as she pointed to the circled parts on the map, indicating probable locations where Amethyst Hollow lay hidden.

“I guess our next step is finding the safest route to take, then,” Sunburst said as he put his hoof to his chin, squinting to get a better view of the map.

Twilight giggled proudly. “I don’t think that’ll be an issue! Stay close to me and I’ll teleport us there!” Twilight’s horn began to glow, a map of the nearby surrounding area made of lavender unicorn magic began to take form. Invisible to Sunburst, but both visually and mentally visible to Twilight, the map instantly completed itself. A fraction of a second later, two aetherial nodes, one purple, one orange, appeared on the map where the two ponies stood. The destination glyph of her spell appeared on the other side of the chasm on the plateau.

A moment later the two ponies disappeared with a crackle of purple and white magic, appearing on the other side. Sunburst yelped in surprise and stumbled, falling backwards onto his rump. Twilight turned to face the direction they teleported from. Just like her teleportation spells before, there was a magic leyline circle where they once stood.

She tilted her head in confusion, however, noticing something very strange about the arch of magic this time: Unlike the teleportation spell in the archives, the arch suddenly branched off from its original path, turning jagged and uneven as it staggered towards where they had actually landed. A clumsy and wavy circle surrounded them, a crude approximation of the teleportation circle.

“That’s strange… We’ve landed off-target by about sixty feet,” Twilight muttered to herself.

The intended path and destination were muted in color, their paths still visible, but clearly re-routed as the spell fired. As the high winds began to brush the magic away like snow, the ground below them began to shift and rumble.

“W-What's happening!?” Sunburst yelled out.

“I-I think we landed on an unstable piece of— Aaahhh!” Twilight screamed as the snow gave way from under them, sending them tumbling down the slope and into the valley below. Sunburst let out a shrill shriek as he fell down behind Twilight.

The giant chunk of snow they were once standing on landed on the ground below as Twilight instinctively began to cast a levitation spell in an attempt to slow the fall. She watched as her magic energy wrapped around Sunburst and herself, fighting against the pull of gravity. It was too little, too late, however, and it proved too slow to negate their fall. There was a loud crunch of wet snow as the two ponies embedded themselves into the remains of the miniature avalanche.

Twilight gasped and coughed, the force of the impact knocking the wind out of her. Once she recovered, she searched frantically for her friend. “S-Sunburst!? Are you okay!?” she shouted. A muffled yelp came from behind her. Whirling around, she spotted him planted headfirst into the snow, his hind legs kicking and flailing uselessly. She used her magic to loosen and clear the snow around them, freeing her companion.

“Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh!” Sunburst screamed, his eyes darting to and fro in an unfocused manner as his legs flailed and kicked about.

“Sunburst! Sunburst! You're not hurt, are you!?”

“Aaahhhhhhhh— why am I yelling!? We're not falling anymore!” He rolled over as Twilight placed him down, laying on his back and panting from the rush of adrenaline. “Y-Yeah... I'm okay. I think. Ow-ow-ow...” He winced and twitched his front left leg.

“Are you sure? You don't sound okay,” Twilight said as her face wrinkled with worry. She wobbled over to him, rather dizzy and sore herself. She used her magic to gently hold his leg as she leaned in and examined it. Sunburst could feel magic pulse over his leg, much deeper than a standard levitation or telekinesis spell. It wasn't painful at all—it even tickled a little—making him twitch.

“Thank Celestia, it's not broken or twisted. I think it's just sore from the landing. Can you stand?” Twilight asked, gently setting his leg back down and ending the spell.

“I-I think so.” Sunburst said, bringing himself to all fours. His sore leg wobbled, causing him to grunt loudly in pain before settling back down. “Maybe not. Ow...”

“Don't force it then. Let's rest for a while. I couldn't in good faith ask you to press on with even a minor injury,” Twilight said as she surveyed their surroundings. The cliffs on either side of them were fairly steep, and the valley extended too far out of the way of their intended destination.

“Hmm... Let me check the map and see if we can find a safe place to rest for a while,” Twilight said, unfurling the map from her saddle bag. “Now, there should be a slope we can traverse about half a mile—” Twilight was suddenly cut off as a sudden gust of wind seized the map and yanked it from her magic grip.

“Twilight, the map!” Sunburst yelled, reflexively reaching towards it even though he was too far away.

“Hey! Stop, come back!” Twilight yelled as the map rustled loudly and folded in the wind, fluttering off and away. Her horn glowed as she attempted to seize it with another spell, her magic taking hold of the edge of the map.

The map began to straighten out and slow down, and Twilight sighed with relief. The spell suddenly began to peel off of its surface like a film, dissipating away in spite of her efforts. “What!?” Twilight yelled out, her focus broken as the map tumbled and blew out of the valley, out of sight.

“No! Our map!” Twilight yelled into the wind, pulling her foreleg over her face to shield her eyes from the snow being whipped up. She peeked out from behind her leg to make sure her eyes weren't playing tricks on her—but the map was indeed gone.

“Now what do we do?” Sunburst moaned out, ears folding back anxiously.

Twilight bit her lower lip in frustration, but she knew she couldn't give in to her emotions. Their safety needed to take priority, especially with Sunburst's injury. “Come on! I think I saw a nearby cave on the map just before it blew away!” Twilight said as she turned to face Sunburst, her horn glowing as she lifted him off the ground.

“T-Twilight, hey! I can walk, it's really not that bad!” Sunburst protested, adjusting his glasses as snow kept clinging to its lenses.

“I'd estimate it to be a good fifteen or twenty minutes away, and with this wind and uneven terrain I don't want to risk you injuring yourself even further!” Twilight said, an air of protective authority ringing in her voice over the winds. Sunburst merely nodded as Twilight set off, injured stallion and saddlebags in tow.

The princess slogged through the wintry weather, the random gusts of wind threatening to make her lose balance or her grip on the floating Sunburst. Every once in a while she made sure to pause and check on him. For a fraction of a second she could swear to Celestia that she noticed a very faint tether of magic linking the levitation spell to her being. Or perhaps it was the wind and snow playing tricks on her eyes.

“There! We're almost there!” Twilight exclaimed and pointed. Sure enough, a stony maw tucked away in the rock came into view as Twilight hustled inside, collapsing onto the ground into a sprawled-out mess. The spell holding Sunburst flickered and faded as he was gently set down onto the ground.

“Thanks Twilight... Really. I owe you one. I actually don’t think my leg is injured as badly as I thought,” Sunburst said, rubbing it gently.

Twilight rolled over onto her back and sighed, staring up at the rocky ceiling. “I'm glad, but if I hadn't dragged you all the way out here, you wouldn't have hurt yourself,” she said as she pressed her front hooves to her eyes in frustration. “Now we have no map or reference points to navigate with. I'm so sorry, Sunburst...”

“Hey, there's no reason to beat yourself up. I came with you because I wanted to. Besides, I think you handled yourself admirably. You took action in a dangerous situation and got us both to safety!” Sunburst said with a smile. He tried to stand on all fours, but after a few moments he sat back down. “Maybe I shouldn't overdo it just yet...”

“I... You're right, Sunburst. Thank you,” she replied, her arms flopping back onto the ground as she sighed in exhaustion. “We really should rest here for a while.”

“I agree. With the severity of the wind, visibility will be very poor. I wouldn't want to risk getting lost all the way out here in the mountains,” Sunburst replied as he curled up into his cloak, exhausted from the perilous hike. He started to nod off, dozing into a half-awake slumber.

Twilight stared up at the ceiling, her thoughts tracing back through the day’s events. She rolled over and pulled out one of her notebooks and a quill, setting them down in front of her. Twilight began to write, using her mouth in lieu of her magic. She needed a brief respite from all of the insanity they’d put up with as of late.

Amethyst Hollow Expedition Notes: Magic Anomalies, she began.

Item One: Teleportation spell misfire. I was able to see the three dimensional magic map again when I cast a teleportation spell (see previous notes in Canterlot). Somehow, the spell misfired and my companion and I landed off target, triggering a small avalanche.

Item Two: Levitation/grasp spell misfire. A sudden gust of wind blew our map out of my grasp. Normally I am fairly proficient at grabbing items in mid-air, even in motion, but I visibly saw my spell veer off into the wrong direction when I attempted to seize the map. Unfocused emotions, stressful situations, adrenaline, etc can all be responsible for clumsy spell use, but the way the spell behaved seemed to rule out all of the above.

Item Three: Levitation magic link. (?) While lifting Sunburst across the terrain to the safety of a cave, I saw what I assumed to be the manifestations of visible levitation magic, but it vanished as quickly as it appeared. Possibly a mild hallucination caused by adrenaline and poor weather conditions.

Twilight sat the quill down and looked at a hoof-sized rock nearby. She focused on it as her horn glowed, bathing the rock in magic. She flung it left and right, up and down, but she could not see any kind of tether or link. Her levitation spell appeared as would be expected. She sighed and dropped the stone with a clatter, picking her quill up again with her mouth.

Observation: Ever since evening three, I am able to see visual manifestations of alicorn magic, advanced unicorn magic, and intermediate unicorn magic. Manifestations of basic unicorn magic currently do not occur. Cause of magic misfires currently unknown.

Twilight sighed again and closed the notebook, tucking it and her quill away in her saddlebag. “I just don’t understand what’s happening to me,” she muttered to herself, taking care not to disturb Sunburst. “Magic shouldn’t behave this way… All of these strange patterns and glowing magic lines… They’re similar to some of the notes I’ve seen in my advanced magic theory books, so I wonder...”

She stared off towards the back of the cave. She could feel a strange, almost heavy air about the surrounding area. She hadn’t noticed it before in her excitement, but now... She shivered uncomfortably, feeling almost dizzy—akin to trying to walk straight after being spun around in a circle while blindfolded. She rubbed one of her temples and shut her eyes tight, trying to shake the unease away.

Something about the cave just felt so… unnatural. Twilight couldn’t quite place her hoof on what. As she peered around in the darkness, a pattern almost seemed to form among the stalactites. She blinked, and suddenly everything came into focus in her mind’s eye. The realization hit her like the avalanche from earlier, and she gasped so loudly it echoed inside the cave. “Or maybe it’s too natural! Sunburst! Sunburst, wake up, I think we’re close to Amethyst Hollow! The map was right!” She shot up onto all fours with glee as Sunburst mumbled to himself, shaking himself out of a very rough slumber.

“Bwuh, huh…? What are you—” He said, punctuated with a loud yawn.

“Sunburst! The reason why my magic has been acting so strange is because we’re close to Amethyst Hollow! Don’t you remember, from the book? The naturally growing crystals react to unicorn magic, and without proper focus, can wildly alter spells!” Twilight said ecstatically, whipping out her notebook once again to quickly amend her previous entries.

“What makes you say that? Do you think this cave is the entrance?” Sunburst asked as he stood up carefully. He still felt a little shaky, but at least he wasn’t wincing every time he moved anymore.

“Well, I’m not one hundred percent sure if this cave is the entrance, but we are close. If the cave system extends underground, then it’s entirely plausible there are pockets or clusters of crystals buried below, which—if we happened to be traversing over while using magic—would explain why so many spells have been behaving oddly,” Twilight said as she read over her notes, her wings reflexively extending as she tossed the pieces of the puzzle around in her head.

Sunburst looked around, using his magic to lift a stone and swing it around. “Hmm, nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. I can lift this rock and move it without any difficulty,” Sunburst said as he put his hoof to his chin and squinted at the rock, as if expecting it to do a trick.

Twilight looked carefully at Sunburst’s manipulations. She couldn’t see his levitation spell either; it looked perfectly ordinary. “There’s a chance we might not currently be close to any of the crystals, but I don’t believe we’re very far from one of the potential entrances if I recall the map correctly.”

A chilly draft blew towards them from deep within the cave, ruffling their manes and tails about as they shivered.

“So now what?” Sunburst asked, pulling his cloak tight. “Where do you think the entrance is?”

“Well, we were heading for The Withers when my spell went awry… If my recollection of this area’s geology is correct, many of the cave systems here should be interconnected. If we follow the one we’re in, it should take us to the cave we were aiming for. That would put us right at Mount Everhoof’s base, and the entrance to Amethyst Hollow should be nearby,” Twilight said with confidence, stamping her front hoof down with a smirk.

“Well, if you’re ready to go, then I am! I think my leg is better now, so I should be able to walk,” Sunburst said, trotting around back and forth eagerly. “Just as long as we don’t have any more avalanches.”

Twilight smiled at Sunburst, making her way to his side. “I won’t let anything else happen to you, Sunburst. This whole expedition was my idea, and I will see to it that nothing bad happens. You have my word both as a princess and as a friend.”

“That means a lot to me, Twilight.” Sunburst smiled and sighed happily. He turned to face Twilight, his face changing to a sudden determined curiosity. “So, what are we waiting for then? We could have the discovery of a lifetime waiting for us!” Sunburst said, rearing back and kicking his front legs. He winced and dropped back to all fours, his foreleg buckling as his weight shifted back onto it.

“Are you sure you’re okay to walk, Sunburst? We can wait if you need to,” Twilight asked, leaning down to check his leg.

“No, I’ll be fine, honestly. I’ve strained myself harder carrying forty books out of the library at once!” He replied, his enthusiasm doing little to mask his pain.

She giggled happily, nudging Sunburst gently. “If you say so! Just let me know if you need to stop and we can take a break.”

The two gathered their saddlebags and began their venture deeper into the cave. It didn’t take long for visibility to diminish as they traveled the steady upward incline.

“It’s so dark in here!” Sunburst said, his voice wavering. “I can’t see my own hoof in front of my face!”

“Nothing a little illumination spell won’t fix!” Twilight said as her horn glowed. Although there is precious little to witness as an observer for such a spell—besides the obvious increase in illumination—her subconscious began to brighten. She felt the same way a filly does when walking alone in the dark but carrying a security blanket, only this time the filly is wrapped up in a gentle coating of internal magic.

The duo trekked through the cave for a time in silence, their hoofsteps echoing through the tunnel. As they navigated some twists and turns, Twilight noticed a surprising lack of forks or secondary passageways to be led astray down. Soon, natural light began to slowly trickle into the cave.

“We’re almost through!” Twilight said as she cantered towards the exit with visible excitement.

“Twilight, w-wait up!” Sunburst said as he tried to keep up, nearly tripping over his cloak in his haste.

As they approached the light, Twilight began to feel a strange, dizzy sensation. She wavered in place, losing her balance and coming to a sudden stop.

“Hey, what’s wrong? Why’d you stop?” Sunburst asked, panting as he caught up to her. Twilight lost hold of her illumination spell and the light dimmed, flickering and sputtering. She felt uneasy, as if her blanket was suddenly snatched away. With a pathetic sizzle, the illumination spell finally burned out.

“Ugh… What happened?” Twilight muttered under her breath. She shook her head and stumbled a bit, regaining her footing with some effort.

“What was that?” Sunburst asked. “Do you think we could be getting close?”

Twilight shook her head, blinking rapidly as her vision adjusted to the minimal natural light. “I… I think so. I felt dizzy and found it really hard to maintain my spell all of a sudden, so that must be a good sign.”

Sunburst breathed a big sigh of relief. “As long as you’re okay. If we’re getting closer, then we have to keep going!” Twilight nodded with a shaky smile, and they continued towards the slowly-encroaching light from the outside world. As they progressed, the incline rose higher and higher, culminating in a very steep angle upwards.

Sunburst was panting, already tired from the long journey through the cave. He looked up at the exit, the path before him sloped at an eighty degree angle and at least five shoulders high. His heart sank and his ears folded back as he looked at the impossible wall. “I-I can’t climb this! It’s way too steep!” He turned and looked his body over, his voice getting quiet. “And I’m not exactly the most athletic of ponies either…”

“You don’t have to be,” Twilight said. “I’ve got this!” Before he could protest, she scooped him up onto her back and took off into the air with a mighty wingbeat.

“Oooh!” Sunburst blushed brightly. He sprawled across her back, clinging to her saddlebags as they flew. “Are you sure this is safe!?”

“If I can’t shoulder the weight of a single pony, then who am I to call myself a princess?” She replied, tapping into her reserves of alicorn strength as she bounded up into the air, carrying Sunburst. A few short seconds later she found herself clearing the lip of the exit. With a crunch on the snow, she landed and set Sunburst down.

“There! Another happy landing!” Twilight said with a giggle, flexing her wings a little before folding them against her sides.

“Please tell me you’re not referring to the avalanche from earlier, are you?” Sunburst asked nervously, his heart still beating from the sudden uplift.

“Well, uhm, you see, ehehe…” Twilight laughed sheepishly. She was proud of her quick, easy, and practical solution to getting out of such a steep cave, but embarrassed all the same due to the teleport blunder from earlier. All she could do was sigh happily and collapse into a heap on the snow, grateful that they finally made it onto the plateau.

“It shouldn’t be far from here, should it? The closest probable location, I mean,” Sunburst said as he surveyed their surroundings. The rocky peaks of Mount Everhoof towered over them, rising impossibly high through the clouds.

Twilight joined Sunburst and looked around, putting her hoof to her chin as she squinted to try and figure out where they ended up. The wind had died down, so there were no more snowdrifts making vision difficult. “We’re not too far from where the first probable entrance is located. And if that’s the case…” Twilight said as she closed her eyes.

Her horn began to glow as a spell of unrivaled, exquisite beauty danced through her psyche. Her purples and lavenders gave way to blues and whites as her magic glistened like sparkling diamonds hidden in the blackness. Rhomboidal shapes danced and flickered in the strange three-dimensional space of her mindscape, some dazzling like jewels of unrivaled scarcity, others dim and distant.

Twilight opened her eyes once the spell was complete, and she watched a wave of sapphire energy radiate out from her horn. The magic wave swept through the area around her, working its way into every surface. As it bled through the snow and the earth, she began to see outlines of gem clusters and other precious metals illuminate.

“Oh! Is that a gem-finding spell?” Sunburst asked, his voice carrying up in pitch with excitement.

“It is! It’s a copy of Rarity’s spell, and it’s a special, unique variant tied to her cutie mark and special talent. If the crystals in Amethyst Hollow are of a similar composition to most gems or precious metals, I should be able to locate the entrance,” Twilight said as she focused the spell, expanding its range. “If I can just keep its range constant I can—Ahh!” She cried out as a sudden surge of magic knocked her off her hooves, disrupting the spell and forcing it to dissipate.

“Twilight! What happened!?” Sunburst yelled as he propped her up with a hoof to keep her from falling over… again.

“I-I don’t know! It was like somepony shone a bright light into my face!” She blinked and rubbed her eyes, her pupils shrunk to pinpricks. She shook her head and regained her refocus, scanning the horizon with earnest. “There! Fourteen hundred feet to the northwest, underneath the base of the mountain!”

“Is that where Amethyst Hollow is located?” Sunburst asked, squinting in the direction Twilight’s outstretched foreleg indicated.

“It has to be! While the spell was active, I detected a huge group of crystalline structures. At that point, the spell’s waveform suddenly collapsed and all of that magical buildup backfired and hit me,” Twilight said before closing her eyes to concentrate. She fired off another surge of the gem-location spell, and sure enough, it warped and de-stabilized as it approached the mountain before collapsing into nothingness.

Twilight glanced over at Sunburst. “With so many instances of magic failure, there’s no way this can be a coincidence. If the crystals in Amethyst Hollow can disrupt or otherwise influence unicorn magic, just like the book says, that explains such a catastrophic failure!” Twilight exclaimed, her face breaking out into a huge, nerdy grin.

“I see! Your spell overloaded the gems, which couldn’t handle such a not only potent, but also proximal, concentration of unicorn magic, which thereby prompted waveform instability!” Sunburst said as his face brightened and he adjusted his glasses.

“I know, right!?” Twilight let out a squeak as her grin grew. “We’re almost there!”

The two galloped across The Withers with renewed vigor and determination, kicking up snow behind them. The base of Mount Everhoof on the other side of the plateau grew closer as they approached, the pair coming to a halt at the edge of the cliffside. A massive, gaping entrance into the earth was tucked away at the end of the opposite overhang, leading into the mass of rock that made up the base of Mount Everhoof. Massive pillars of crystal jutted out from ground near the entrance blanketed by the thick snow. A faint, eerie glow of pink and purple bled from the cavern and into the air around it.

“We made it! That has to be it!” Sunburst yelled.

“Amethyst Hollow!” Twilight said, spreading her wings with anticipation.

Chapter 7: Into Caves Unseen

Author's Note

My talented proof reader Cadenza Heartsong, has released a song to go alongside this chapter, and the next few, as ambience! Please, take a listen as you read, and let the music take you away to the mysterious, magical caverns in the Frozen North...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enM_eJvSstc

Chapter 7: Into Caves Unseen

Twilight and Sunburst stood at the giant cave’s entrance, flanked on either side by massive crystals that towered over them. Although the crystals outside were blanketed by snow, patches had fallen off over time, revealing lavender-stained prism bodies. They glowed brightly, permeating through the darkness to allow them to peer inside.

The two looked at each other with disbelief. They had finally arrived at Amethyst Hollow.

“This is it! We’re finally here! Oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh-oh-my-gosh!” Twilight squealed, her outburst making Sunburst recoil a bit. He pursed his lips, knowing that the sudden giddiness belied her exhaustion.

“We should be careful,” Sunburst muttered, leaning in to examine one of the nearby crystals. “We don’t know for sure what exactly awaits us down there,” he said with a gulp, taking care not to touch the radiant surface of the crystal.

Twilight trotted closer and peered inside. Crystals of a myriad of sizes peppered the entirety of the interior, lending a deep, aetherial glow along the cavern’s walls. Twilight relaxed a little at the sight, her face breaking into a huge, carefree grin. Her eyes were spellbound, transfixed as the lights from within reflected on her eyes like pinpricks of starlight.

“You seem awfully calm about this,” Sunburst said, his eyes glancing about at the mysterious lights reflecting off his glasses.

“Huh?” Twilight said, Sunburst’s voice snapping her back to reality. “Sorry, I just—” she stopped herself and slowly looked around the entrance of the cave, surveying her surroundings in a systematic, circular method. “Something about this place just doesn’t seem all that scary.”

“It may be a dark, mysterious, cave filled with magical secrets,” Sunburst replied, “But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s still a dark, mysterious cave!”

Twilight idly swished her tail back and forth, her gaze fixed toward the darkness. Smaller, flickering crystals seemed to dance along the ceiling through a combination of the light from outside and the crystals’ own natural light. “It’s beautiful…”

Twilight’s eyes grew wider as the light from the crystals brightened, casting shadows on the rocks and walls of the cave, each moving in their own—almost living—way. Blips of magic shot between the crystals, arcing like lightning. “Do you see that, Sunburst? Those little surges of magic!” Twilight said, pointing with a hoof up at a patch of crystals on the ceiling. Lines and various shapes flickered in and out of reality around the crystals as magic was conducted between them, the sparks fading with each passing moment.

“I don’t see anything. The crystals are glowing intermittently, yes, but I don’t see anything like magic being used, if that’s what you’re asking,” he said as he adjusted his glasses, blinking in an attempt to get used to the darkness of the cave.

Twilight’s ears drooped as she frowned, upset that he didn’t seem to share in the spectacle. “I… I see… You really can’t see anything?” she asked. Sunburst merely shook his head in response.

“Well, if you can’t see it,” Twilight continued, “then maybe it’s related to the magic-viewing phenomenon I’ve been experiencing.”

“That could very well be the case,” Sunburst replied, biting his lip as his legs wobbled and shook in fear. With a heavy sigh, he stared resolutely into the intimidating darkness before them. “L-Let’s get going then!” he stammered, his voice strained. “And, Twilight?”

“Yes?” she replied, still transfixed by the sights within.

“Make sure I don’t bump into anything, okay? It seems like you’ll be able to see a lot better than I ever could in here,” he said, his horn sputtering in a vain attempt to create light.

Twilight giggled, taking a step toward her friend and motioning him closer. “Don’t worry, Sunburst. I won’t let anything happen to you. Anything else, I mean.” Together, they entered the cave.

There was a sharp drop off a few dozen feet in front of them, with a sloping passage to the left, leading down into an open room. A tunnel on the opposite side led deeper into the cave as an eerie purple and pink glow gently pulsated in the distance.

“Do you really think ancient unicorns used to frequent this place?” Sunburst whispered as they trekked across the room to the tunnel. His mouth was slightly agape as he looked all around, taking in the twilit shadows on the walls. “If you told me nopony had ever set hoof in here, I’d believe it. There aren’t any signs of civilization. No pathways, no carvings… nothing.”

“I agree. But I imagine the cave system extends further into the mountain, so we’ll likely have to head deeper to find anything of merit,” Twilight said astutely, motioning her head toward the passageway that lay before them.

Twilight and Sunburst entered the tunnel, winding down deeper into the earth. They passed by a large crystal nearly identical to the ones they found outside, save for the lack of snow. The crystal radiated a much stronger light than the smaller ones, but it was still quite gentle and warm.

“Do you think they’re safe to touch?” Sunburst asked, stopping to examine the crystal closer. He leaned in and adjusted his glasses with his hoof.

“They’re certainly strange, but they don’t feel dangerous. Let me try it; I don’t want anything bad to happen to you if they’re unstable,” Twilight said as she reached forward, giving the crystal a quick tap with her hoof. A gentle plink echoed through the cavern as a ripple began to form and expand seemingly beneath the surface of the crystal, not unlike water.

The vibrations grew more intense, and Twilight saw a small cube-form wiggle out of the aether surrounding the crystal. It was composed of intersecting straight lines, forming a cage-like shape in three dimensions. About a quarter of the cube was jagged and missing. The sight made something visceral and primordial stir deep within her.

She gasped sharply as the realization hit her. “A transmutation spell!”

“Wait, what?” Sunburst asked, his glasses sliding down to the end of his muzzle.

Twilight’s lips pursed into a small O-shape as her eyes widened. “In case you can’t see it, there’s a broken cube-matrix that appeared after tapping the crystal. It looks just like a spell waveform from one of my textbooks! The shape and structure implies an unfinished or botched transmutation spell.”

“That’s… That’s incredible! You can not only see spells being cast, but the magic that’s locked within these crystals! The fact that it resembles a theoretical spell waveform is nothing short of extraordinary!” Sunburst exclaimed.

Twilight reached forward and waved her foreleg through the cube. It instantly broke apart into tiny lines and fragments before fading from sight.

“I see,” she said. “With no user to charge the spell with emotions, it’s unstable and incomplete. It’s almost like the frame of a building with nothing inside.”

“Fascinating indeed… This could change so much in the field of magic, and we’re only in the first tunnel!” Sunburst shouted with glee, feeling his anxiety melt away under the excitement of learning new magic theories with Twilight.

“I’m going to give it a try now too!” Sunburst suddenly exclaimed, trotting over and giving the crystal another tap.

Plink.

The same ripples diffused across the crystal’s surface, giving Sunburst a shudder. This time, a sphere took shape before Twilight. It was thick with a rainbow of colors as gentle beams of light shone through its membrane, reminding her of sunbeams peeking through a cloudy day.

Twilight leaned close and turned her head, squinting. “It’s just… raw, unfocused magic. It kind of reminds me of my fights with Tirek and Starlight. In fact, I’d say that’s exactly what it is!”

As quickly as it appeared, the orb began to unravel itself and peel away, fading into the darkness of the cave.

“And just like that, it’s gone. With no spell for it to focus onto, it just sort of fizzled,” she observed, ears twitching with curiosity. Her head was tilted slightly, her mouth slightly open as she turned to stare at the crystal. Her eyes were sparkling in its light; or was it a momentary return to the innocence of learning magic as a filly, wide-eyed with curiosity?

“I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it,” Sunburst chimed in, still shivering. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like it before in my life!”

Twilight mumbled to herself and thought for a moment, her ears perking up in realization. “I actually think you might have! If I’m seeing waveforms of unicorn spells like transmutation, then it only lends credence to our theory that the crystals are made of unicorn magic. That sensation you’re feeling is just like casting a spell!”

“That makes perfect sense! It’s hard to describe, but being next to these crystals feels almost like…” He bit his lower lip, twirling his hoof in place as he struggled to find accurate words for such a strange feeling. “It’s like casting a spell from a scroll, but on a level even more abstract from that… Almost like giving yourself a hug… Somehow.”

“Even scrolls still need sufficient spellwork from the reader to successfully be used, but part of the nexus point comes from the scroll itself. Wow, this is kind of hard to put into words,” Twilight said, looking the crystal over some more. “There’s something else I’d like to try…”

Her horn started to glow as she readied an illumination spell. As soon as the spell was prepared and began to light the cavern up, the crystal glowed brighter. Light shot from it and bounced onto the smaller crystals embedded in the ceilings and walls as the illumination spell started to waver wildly.

“Ahhh! H-Hey!” Twilight cried out and stumbled, almost falling over as the spell literally fell to pieces, chunks of light stripping away from itself and coiling up into the natural light that the crystals bled. The ribbons of light fell apart like crumbling leaves in a river before finally disappearing into nothingness, leaving only the crystals’ ambient glow.

“What… What in Equestria was that!?” Sunburst yelled, his voice echoing through the cave.

Twilight regained her composure, rubbing her head with her hoof. “It’s just what I expected to happen. These crystals seem to disrupt unicorn magic. It explains what we saw outside. The book has been accurate so far, so we have to be careful when we use our magic. We don’t know what could happen,” she said as she gestured toward all of the crystals with a hoof.

“We should be thankful that these crystals give off enough light to see. Without illumination magic, we’d be black and blue from all the tripping!” Sunburst said as he cast a nervous glance along the walls of the cave.

Twilight giggled. “Come on! We need to go deeper! If unicorns really did inhabit this cave centuries ago, then it’s possible they left artifacts or clues left behind!”

Sunburst nodded, and the two unicorns turned to continue their spelunking deeper into the unknown. The tunnel curved and twisted, bringing them hundreds of feet down under the base of Mount Everhoof. As they explored, something that Sunburst had said rolled its way around Twilight’s mind.

Black and blue… She thought to herself. Black and blue, black and… green? Images of the past suddenly dredged themselves out of her memory.

“Hey, Sunburst?” Twilight said, stopping mid-stride as she turned, facing a crystal the size of a pony jutting out of the floor. “What do you know about Sombra and his dark magic crystals?”

Sunburst stopped and looked over at Twilight, tilting his head in confusion. “That’s a bit sudden. Why do you ask?”

Twilight approached the crystal, eyeing it closely as she observed the unstructured unicorn magic fade into translucency. “Well, don’t these crystals somewhat resemble Sombra’s? At least, in shape and size.”

“Hmm… Now that you mention it, they do! How fascinating… And Sombra was also a unicorn. Are you suggesting there might be a connection?”

“Well…” Twilight said somewhat absently as arcane runes of an incomplete augmentation spell flittered by. “Maybe. I’m honestly not sure. On one hoof, the similarities are pretty uncanny, aside from the color. Here, I don’t feel any sense of malice or oppression, unlike when Sombra attacked.”

“I see. Well, it’s not impossible, but details on Sombra are scarce. Even my own knowledge is limited,” Sunburst admitted, somewhat dejectedly. “Was dark magic a part of your research?”

Twilight shook her head. “No, only the pony tribes.”

“Dark magic can technically be considered an offshoot, not unlike the magic that bat ponies and crystal ponies use,” Sunburst said.

“True, but they would still be derived from the same basic principles of aether.” Twilight blinked, putting her hoof to her chin as a thought suddenly crossed her mind. “Actually, as I say that, it likely is a coincidence, since all of the above would still be tied to either unicorn magic, pegasus magic, or earth pony magic.”

“I’d still be careful. There’s likely a good reason that particular kind of knowledge is scarce,” Sunburst said with a slight quiver in his tone.

“You’re right,” Twilight said—only half-convinced. “It’s probably just a coincidence.”

The two resumed their walk, Twilight turning her head to eye the crystal one last time before they rounded the bend, and its dim, lavender light fading out of sight.

“So… Twilight?” Sunburst asked, his hooves clopping against the solid rock as he trotted, echoing gently through the tunnels. Condensation dripped from the stalactites above into small pools of water irregularly, breaking his concentration. “What exactly prompted all of this? I mean, I know you're here mainly because of those bizarre dreams, but what made you pursue this topic in the first place?”

Twilight continued her pace alongside Sunburst. She hung her head and sighed a little as her ears lowered, mouth curling into a frown. “Honestly, at this point I'm not entirely sure. After the recent events with the Storm King, I'd been reflecting about what I've accomplished thus far as a princess.”

Sunburst nodded with a grunt of assent. Crystals continued to dot their path, providing some much-needed guidance forward. Twilight sighed again; despite her lack of confidence, she still felt calm. She felt almost at home surrounded by all of the latent magic gently wafting through the air.

“I wanted to learn more about just how magic came about in Equestria, particularly after the Storm King stole it so easily from me and the other princesses with the staff of Sacanas. Never before had I been tested like that in my duties as a princess,” she said as she sighed and lowered her voice, “Nor had I ever felt so powerless.”

“You told me about what happened during your confrontation with him. Did you feel powerless because you literally had your magic stolen? Or...” He bit his lip, his voice laced with concern.

It took Twilight a moment to realize that the sound of her companion’s hoofsteps had stopped. She turned back to face him with a worried expression.

“Or was it because you thought you had lost your friends?” he asked solemnly.

Twilight's face grimaced as she tried to find the right words, her tail flicking a little as she fidgeted in place. “The latter,” she finally replied, flatly. She sat on her hindquarters, her forelegs planted on the ground in front of her as she looked down. “I really thought I had screwed things up. Equestria, the princesses, me… my friends.”

Sunburst took a step closer, giving Twilight a reassuring and comforting nuzzle against the back of her neck.

“As soon as they returned, I could feel that… that spark that I felt so many years ago. It's such a distinct and unique feeling, almost its own class of magic. Beyond weaving illusions or making plants grow or making it rain… Or ruling a kingdom.”

Twilight turned her gaze deeper into the tunnel, her face reflected in a square-shaped crystal nearly the size of a filly that jutted from the wall.

“After that day, I began to wonder just how I stood up in the grand scheme of things. Celestia and Luna control the sun and moon, and Cadance reigns over the Crystal Empire. I… solve problems,” Twilight said dejectedly.

“But you were able to save Equestria! You and your friends have done it so many times!” Sunburst said.

“I know, but after all of that, life just kind of went back to normal for a while. I took it upon myself to see if I could learn the secrets of how magic came to be, and just how it all interconnects,” Twilight said, lowering her head again as she idly traced her hoof into the dirt. “We see it every day when ponies interact, when they laugh together, cry together, fight with each other, and fall in love. I think it goes far deeper than what we currently know.”

“I know I haven’t known you as long as your friends in Ponyville, but I am honored to call you a friend. I’m more than happy to help you find the secrets you seek,” Sunburst said with a reassuring, if a little awkward, smile.

Twilight stood, feeling her stamina and confidence returning from Sunburst’s encouragement. “Thanks, Sunburst. It means so much to me to have such understanding friends like you at my side.”

Sunburst smiled widely as they embraced, Twilight nuzzling against Sunburst’s warm fleece cloak.

“We should keep going and see where this tunnel leads, then!” Sunburst said, walking alongside Twilight as the two ponies resumed their trek deeper into the cave network.

The duo trotted along, renewed with energy from their little pep talk. Their hoofsteps echoed in the ancient caverns as crystals steadily appeared in greater frequency and size the further they went. They rounded a bend in the passage and found themselves at a fork in the path.

“Well, we can go left, or we can keep going straight,” Twilight said. The path ahead seemed darker with fewer crystals, while the path to the left permeated with a much thicker and heavier feeling air. Crystals continued to line the hallway as they peered down the left corridor.

“I say we go left. There’s a higher concentration of crystals down this way,” Sunburst said. “That’s probably going to be our best lead to follow for now.”

“I think you’re right. If we stay on the path with the most crystals, that should take us closer to where the ancient unicorns may have congregated,” Twilight said as they started down the tunnel. “At least, I hope it does.”

They continued through the tunnel system, using the crystals as a guide until they came to what appeared to be a dead-end wall of crystals. A massive flat crystal took up most of the room before them, flanked by several others of varying sizes jutting out of the rocky walls.

“So… Now what? We didn’t take a wrong a turn, did we?” Sunburst asked, looking over his shoulder.

“No, I don’t think so,” Twilight said as she peered at the crystals, her own reflection staring back at her. Her eyes scanned along the edges, looking at the walls and ceiling in particular where the crystal met the rock.

“I don’t think this is the end of the road. While I won’t rule out the possibility of a cave-in blocking a path that we overlooked, the farther down we’ve gone, the more intense the magic in this cave feels. There’s probably more on the other side of these crystals!” Twilight said.

Twilight leaned in closer again, shutting her eyes. “Yes, there’s definitely something on the other side. This entire area feels just like I do when I use magic, and I can feelmagic practically leaking from it.”

“Hmm… Now that you mention it, it does feel a little stuffy in here. It’s surprisingly not very cold in here. It’s sort of humid, but, not hot? I don’t really know how to describe it!” Sunburst said, waving his hoof in the air as if he were running it through water.

“It almost feels like walking into Sugarcube Corner and being bombarded with all of the fresh baked sweets, but instead of confections, it’s like walking into a room full of unicorn magic that’s just… there,” Twilight said with apprehension, not entirely sure how to describe it.

Twilight walked around the edge of the large crystals, her eyes being drawn to them as she examined every tiny detail. “No way around, over, or under… Sunburst, I’m going to try something!”

“W-wait a second, you don’t plan to use a spell here do you!?” Sunburst cried out. “You saw what it did to your illumination spell. If you try to teleport to the other side without knowing what’s there, or even just blast the crystals… Celestia knows what will happen to you!”

Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated. She focused her thoughts and tried to hone in on the naturally occurring frequencies of the crystals around her, letting them coalesce and ebb their way into the spell that she was preparing. Arcane sigils appeared around and in front of her, stars within circles dancing wildly in the air as the invisible disruptions of Amethyst Hollow began to interfere. This time, instead of pushing back against the magical resistance Twilight gently adjusted her spellweaving, letting her magic flow alongside the crystals’ influence.

“Twilight, what are you—” Sunburst began.

“Here we go!” she cried out. Sunburst squeaked in panic and dove to the ground, facing away from the crystals as he covered himself with his cloak for cover.

Twilight kept her energy focused and flowing, letting it mingle with the natural radiance of the crystals nearby. A high pitched whine echoed through the cave as the spinning arcane symbols flowed together and overlapped into one giant mark in front of her. Twilight reared back, then flung her body and head forward, her horn piercing the exact center of the symbol.

Lavender light filled the cave as a thin beam of energy shot forth and struck the crystal dead on, whirring with an ear-piercing squeal as it merged with the structure—crystal and spell becoming one. Twilight grunted and struggled, unfolding her wings to brace for extra balance as she tried to maintain the spell in spite of the surging crystalline magic.

Bit by bit, the crystal began to warp, reshaping itself like melting ice as her spell continued to mingle with it. The more Twilight pushed the crystal apart, the thinner it got in the center. Soon a small hole formed in the middle.

“Come on Twilight, you can do this!” She said to herself, the condensed, solid unicorn magic of the crystals proving to be difficult to wrestle with. “If I can stay with it… S-Stay matched to its wavelength… Yaahhh!” She cried out as she continued to funnel her magic into the crystal, fighting against its constantly-shifting magic imprint. Inch by inch the hole continued to widen and grow, glowing red-hot like molten glass.

Accompanied by a great shout of determination, her horn surged with light, filling the hallway. The beam of energy emanating from her horn widened for a split second, then shrunk back down to a razor thin wire of light, before winking out of existence. The room fell silent, save for some small chunks of rock falling from the ceiling.

“Is… Is it over?” Sunburst asked, peeking up from his cloak.

“It’s just as I suspected. There’s a passageway on the other side!” Twilight beamed with excitement as she gaily bounced up toward the newly-formed entryway, just large enough for them to crawl through at about shoulder height. As she peered into the crawlspace, she felt a gust of… something. She quickly threw her foreleg up to her face and turned away, flinching at the feeling. Curiously, there were no air currents or wind, as her tail and mane remained stationary.

Sunburst stood up and approached, turning his head against the rush. “Ahh, even I can feel that. All that magic on the other side is making me dizzy…” Sunburst said, trying not to fall over.

“Do you think you can make it to the other side? Crawling through such a small tunnel might be difficult, and I’m honestly still not comfortable teleporting to the other side. Not with such a huge crystal this close,” Twilight said, helping him balance with a wing.

“I’ll be fine. There’s no turning back now, not after we’ve come this far,” Sunburst said as he approached the newly formed hole, trying to look through it to the other side. “Too hard to see anything on the other side. I guess we really don’t have a choice now.”

“I’ll go first and make sure it’s safe. I’ll signal to you if I think you should cross over or not,” Twilight said as she climbed up to the opening, wiggling and squirming her body into it. She grunted, inching her way through the narrow passage. Sunburst watched as Twilight’s form grew smaller and smaller, just barely visible in the crystal’s natural light.

Twilight let out a yell as she suddenly tumbled out of the end of the tunnel, doing a flip and landing on her back with an undignified thud.

“Twilight? Twilight, are you okay!?” Sunburst yelled out, stuffing his face into the tunnel to try and catch glimpse of her, his cheek smushing against the wall.

“I’m okay…” Twilight said, half dazed and dizzy. She coughed, her back aching from the impact. She shook her head and stood back up, shakily balancing herself against the wall. “I-I’m okay! Really, I just fell!” She turned to look around the room she’d fallen into.

A gasp escaped Twilight’s lips as she laid her eyes on the massive cavern before her. Her mouth hung agape, slowly raising one hoof up to cover it, her wings extending out in shock.

“Sunburst! Sunburst, you have to come in here! Hurry! Hurry-hurry-hurry!” Twilight yelled, excitedly bouncing in place, her hooves clattering against the stony ground.

“Ack, okay! H-Hang on, I’m coming! I think my cloak is caught on something in the tunnel here and—Ahhh!” Sunburst cried out as he finally wrestled himself free of the tunnel and landed in a tangled pile of his clothing.

“Gah… That tunnel was way too cramped. I don’t want to do that ever again!” He grumbled as he stood, adjusting his glasses with a hoof; using his magic this deep in the cave would be too risky. The adjustment proved to be in vain, however, as they slid right down his snout as his jaw hit the floor.

Twilight and Sunburst stood at the precipice of a steep cliffside that overlooked a huge chamber. A sea of crystals filled the floor of the cavern before them, stretching as far as the eye could possibly see. It was packed with such density that from above it looked like an eerily glowing ocean, the reflecting light of condensed magic not entirely unlike rolling waves. The natural light from the crystallized unicorn magic reflected off of the walls and ceiling, dancing with a whirlwind of a thousand pinks and purples from their various glows. So mesmerizing was the spectacle that their mouths simply hung open in awe.

As they bathed in the gentle light from the cavern, their eyes began to strain. They grimaced and flinched as their senses were assaulted not just by the pulsing hues, but by the magic itself. The sheer volume of condensed unicorn magic littering the cave was almost too overbearing to take in.

Sunburst rubbed his temples, his eyes shut hard from trying to adjust to the thick magic in the area. He slowly opened his eyes, vision returning and gaining focus.

“It’s… It’s beautiful.” he finally said, breaking the silence. He wiped his glasses down with his cloak, not wanting to risk using magic to clean it.

Twilight too, was slowly starting to adjust to the strange sensation of being surrounded by what felt like a legion of unicorns. “There must be hundreds—No, thousands of crystals here! The magic is so thick, it’s nearly palpable!” Twilight said, taking a few steps forward to get a better view. Her view was taken upwards, however, as sparks of color suddenly shot from her horn.

“Oh fascinating… Your horn must be reacting to the high concentration of magic that’s in the local atmosphere,” Sunburst said as he walked up to Twilight’s side, his own horn starting to spark a little bit. However, just as quickly as the magic reactions began, they seemed to stop.

“This is definitely the right place then,” Twilight said. “I never thought I would see crystal formations this pure and beautiful before. It puts the underground chambers in Canterlot to shame!”

“Hey, look down there, that way!” Sunburst said, pointing toward the crystals. “Doesn’t that one look like a pony-made structure?”

Twilight leaned forward and squinted. “Oh, I see it too! It looks like some sort of amphitheater or coliseum! But I can’t really tell from here. I think we should check it out! I bet that’s where ancient unicorns congregated! Oooh, this is so exciting! Come on!” Twilight said excitedly as she hopped in place before trotting toward a slope that made its way downward. Sunburst followed her eagerly as she headed into the heart of Amethyst Hollow.

Chapter 8: With Advancing Grace

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Chapter 9: For Mind's Actualization

Twilight was neither here nor there. Her entire existence felt like it was caught up in an aimless, yet gentle, blanket of aether. She slowly opened her eyes as she drifted through the bright abyss of whites and purples.

“Where…” she tried to mutter, but even speech was gripped by the suffocating fog that permeated the strange space. She attempted to move with great difficulty, barely managing the tiniest of fidgets. Indiscernible shapes winked in and out of existence all around her as far as she could see, not unlike soap bubbles drifting about a particularly eventful bath.

These feelings were far more intense than that of the crystals of Amethyst Hollow. It felt like the warm embrace of using unicorn magic but magnified several times over, nearly overwhelming her. She couldn’t be sure how much time had passed, but it felt like eons as her mind struggled to adjust to the kaleidoscope of colors unfurling all around her.

With a strained kick of her legs, she was able to propel herself slowly forward. Or was it up? She shook her head as all sense of direction was stripped away, as if the physics of this world were designed by a mad scientist.

“Just... Where in Equestria am I?” she said, somewhat dazed. “I was in Amethyst Hollow, and I completed the spell and—” she gasped and looked around frantically. “Sunburst? Sunburst? Where are you? Are you okay?”

She spun weightlessly in the air, freed from the fetters of gravity, her head twisting this way and that searching for any sign of her friend. She sighed with concern. Sunburst was nowhere to be seen. I’m sure he’s fine. If nothing happened to the cave, he’ll be okay on his own for a little while.

Fed up with the slow drifting and useless leg twitching, she flapped her wings slowly. They moved with less resistance than her legs, but her motions were still sluggish.

“Why won’t—What’s going on here?” she cried, struggling to flap faster. But try she as she might, the only movement she could produce was the useless flailing of her body and legs. Twilight spun aimlessly in space, her breath catching suddenly as she spotted something out of the corner of her eye. She squinted, getting a closer look at the form: a jagged, sphere-shaped outline drifting lazily through the air toward her.

“Is that—?” Twilight reached out and tapped it. A strange crackling filled the air as the spell flickered and shone, forcing Twilight to cover her eyes. When she peeked out from behind her foreleg, the spell had vanished. Her mouth hung open as the pieces slowly started fitting together in her head.

“Aha!” she shouted, a beaming smile spreading over her face. Her eyes closed as her breathing deepened in preparation to cast another spell. Her horn flared to life, and the very instant the spell took shape within her, the sea of magic surrounding her started to invade her subconscious. It seized her grip on the spell with power a thousand times stronger than the crystals in the cave.

Twilight relinquished her spell, and the attack instantly ceased. She retched, panting as sweat started to trickle down her face. As her heaving subsided, her lips quirked into a weak smirk. “I knew it. I’m inside the crystals of Amethyst Hollow! It’s an entire arcane aetherstream of unicorn magic.”

Twilight quietly observed the space around her for a few minutes, taking in the sights. Random, incomplete spells flickered and meandered about, many of them familiar to her. Others, however, were oddly foreign.

“Oh wow,” Twilight said, reaching over at a phantom spell that shifted and warped, shining with different colors. She recognized it as an illusionary spell, but this one… She paused, her eyes focused on the iridescence in the center. This one felt different.

Turning her head, she saw a glittering sheet of gems arranged in a grid, crackling softly as lights flashed between them. A spell related to gem work! Twilight leaned in closer. To her surprise, all of the intersections and base arcane framework for it to be gem magic were present, but it felt like something was missing.

“How curious,” Twilight said, voice trailing as she rubbed her chin. “It’s definitely a gem spell, but something about the broken framework seems to make it oddly unique…”

Unique… The word swirled in her head. Unique… unique… Twilight gasped as the light bulb suddenly lit inside her head.

“That’s it! The missing magic is related to a unicorn’s special talent! Oh my gosh, this adds a whole new level to… to everything!” Twilight beamed ecstatically, watching the spell drift past into a cloud of formless magic. Twilight couldn’t help but giggle; this place was a veritable treasure trove for her research! And she wanted to learn more still. “If I use the same principles as the spell I used to transport myself here, and combine it with my own special talent in magic, maybe I can tap into these spell structures to learn even more about them!” Twilight said into the aether, watching a daisy chain of different spells twirl around her.

She closed her eyes again, letting her body go limp. Carefully, she felt out the energy that surrounded her. On the surface it seemed more chaotic than anything she had felt before. She could feel the constant change of its unbound nature, but as Twilight gently caressed the magic she found a hidden order to it all: A pattern could be found tucked away deep within the quiet, invisible chaos.

A spell was born inside her mind. One of primal instinct, the most basic of magics: the magic of thought. She felt the aether creep in, attempting to sweep the fledgling spell away into the esoteric void again, but this time she was ready. The spell danced and ebbed; growing, shrinking, changing, and shifting along with the melody of unicorn magic that flooded into her.

Her thoughts were focused only on that which surrounded and permeated her physical form, her horn glowing brighter as the spell coalesced into the river of magic she swam in. It finally snapped into place.

She opened her eyes, her horn surging with energy as she moved in step with the energy around her. All that remained was one final push, and the spell would be complete. Words arose unbidden and escaped her lips.

“Hear my hallowed favors now,
To my will you shall bow.
Magic within, magic without,
Of perfect clarity, I have no doubt.
The secrets of Amethyst Hollow,
To lead those who’ve yet follow.
I see it now, chains cast aside,
The powers of the unicorn mind!”

A whine hissed out from nowhere in particular and the magic surrounding her horn expanded, enveloping her in a deep indigo light. The magic weaved its way into the space around her, creating a perfect, symbiotic link of harmony. The bond generated a brilliant flash of magic, which oddly did not hurt her eyes. It felt natural, almost pure. As quickly as the light appeared, it vanished, as did the glow of her horn. The spell was complete.

She opened her eyes slowly. “It worked! I… I think?” She said, patting herself down, relieved that she was still in one piece. She looked around again, and noticed that the spell-shapes had stopped moving entirely.

“I wonder…” Twilight muttered to herself. She focused in on a translucent grid of several crosshatch patterns overlayed among one another, each fragile line barely large enough to see. She reached out to it with her mind, her magic now effortlessly flowing from her subconscious into the energy around her. As it met with the spell, a swirling cocoon of layered magic began to encapsulate Twilight. Her eyes widened as she realized what type of spell she had found.

Inch by inch, the magic formed around her body, completely covering her. Her giggles echoed from inside the glowing shell. Bands of magic began to break through as it burst apart, revealing quite an unusual sight: A pair of gossamer-thin, translucent, and rainbow-stained butterfly wings spread from her body, just above her pegasus wings. She gave the wings a gentle flutter, propelling her forward easily.

Twilight sighed with relief. She had never been able to cast that spell so quickly and with so little effort before! She felt as if the spell components had just… come to her. Not only that, but she had finally realized the secret to moving around in this mysterious space. With childlike glee, she propelled herself forward with her new wings. Of course her pegasus wings wouldn’t have worked in here! In this world of hyper-condensed unicorn magic, she could feel that the magical frequencies pegasi used to fly were completely negated.

She danced weightlessly through the magic clouds and shapes, reaching out and touching some of the spells. Levitation, offensive magic, mending spells, scrying, transmutation, walking on water: all of these and more peppered the space around her. Hundreds of spells revealed themselves to her—potentially thousands of them! With a flash of her horn, Twilight took hold of the spell-shapes.

“Now,” she said to the forms with a cocky grin, “we line you up in order, easiest to most complex…” The magic spells were reordered according to Twilight’s will like a textbook glossary. She fluttered about the air without worry; with no sun in this aetherial space, she need not fear burning them away.

“Perfect! All in order! Now for some more tests!” She couldn’t help herself, giddy at the thought of magic in its purest form being right in front of her to manipulate. She seized a levitation spell, and used that to grasp a transmutation spell. She snapped the levitation spell’s structure in half, which caused the transmutation spell to suddenly rocket off in a random direction, flinging itself into the distance until it vanished as a speck.

Twilight flinched and lowered her ears. “Whoops,” she muttered with a blush. Her horn glowed, and she recreated the structure needed for a transmutation spell. She gently moved it back into place, replacing the entry she had sent careening off into the void.

Twilight beamed excitedly, flipping in a giddied loop through the air. “There’s so much I could learn and experiment with in here! I could write a book—no, two books—no a dozen books on it!” She continued to flutter along her catalogue, the structures growing more complicated as she went. The further she flew, the more specialized each spell became. She noted that each spell-shape had the same type of missing pieces, a pattern that repeated as she looked over spell after spell with increasing acuity.

Feeling momentarily content with her hoofs-on research, Twilight spread her gossamer wings and laid on her back, floating along the magical currents. She drifted idly as she relaxed among the magic, soaking in the latent energy and feeling energized with knowledge. Her body was worn out from all of her flying and dancing about, but her mind was calm, peaceful, serene; not unlike a quiet night of study by candlelight. Answers slowly began to drift into her mind as she meditated among them.

“Natural magic of the land, of Equestria…” she muttered to herself. “This is pure, natural, Equestrian unicorn magic, and Amethyst Hollow is where it’s concentrated strongest…” Her mind turned toward the cave itself, of the crystal protrusions found all around.

“The extreme buildup of natural unicorn magic in this subspace must have ruptured into our world, which manifests as those crystals. That’s what drew the ancient unicorns to this spot!” Her eyes lit up as everything finally began to fall into place. She exhaled deeply, trying hard to relax. Without a quill and ink, she wanted to be sure to remember everything. This new knowledge would be instrumental for her research, she realized. She gently rolled over to float on her stomach—assuming the arbitrary “down” she had chosen was accurate. A sigh escaped her, tinged with frustration.

“Three words… Three words…” She muttered as blurry, hazy visions of a dream nearly-forgotten began to appear in her mind’s eye. Twilight’s research had advanced significantly, but she had also hoped to learn more about her dreams. As she pondered, three muddled, illegible words from the past started to take shape—but strangely, they were not her own. As she reached out with her mind, she felt the presence of another consciousness; at least, the shadow of one.

“So, somepony else had a dream just like me… Long ago. So I’m not alone.” Her anxiety eased slightly as she carefully opened herself to this presence, the words slowly clarifying themselves.

When… all… three…

“When all… three…” she muttered. The words resonated cleanly as she spoke, pushing aside some of the spell-shapes floating about. She turned with a gentle flutter to read these new forms manifesting before her. Somehow, they looked familiar, almost like she were remembering something from a—

Star Glider! “Of course!” she said, her eyes widening as the final piece completed the puzzle. “These are the same words Star Glider heard! The words on the last page… it all makes sense now!” Twilight gasped as she felt the past-mind grow stronger. The outline of a yellow mare with a flowing green mane began to take shape in front of her. Or was it behind? It didn’t matter. The pony turned and waved, smiling as Twilight’s mind suddenly filled with new ideas. Her wavering image solidified and she gingerly stepped down onto an invisible floor. Star Glider—somehow Twilight just knew this was she—stood before her, a gentle smile causing the corners of her eyes to wrinkle along well-worn laugh lines. Twilight felt a little uneasy, however—something about Star Glider seemed different than what she had been expecting. Something seemed… off.

As she opened her mouth to speak, Star Glider’s form began to break away, falling apart piece by piece like broken glass. Before Twilight’s eyes, the form coalesced into a whirlwind of brilliant scarlet and white magic—through which Twilight swore she could see the shape of another pony, but it vanished into the aether before it became clear.

As the image faded, Twilight’s mind slowly drifted back toward the present. The gift of knowledge from Star Glider continued to roll around inside her, confusing the path, but a sparkle of orange and red suddenly caught her eye and snapped her focus back. “Sunburst!” She yelped, jerking upright. “Ohhh, I got so wrapped up in this magic excitement that I almost forgot about him!”

She turned toward the still-organized row of magic and slowly scanned up and down the spells. “I’ll need a more advanced teleportation spell to make it out of here. The spells here are incomplete, but since they originate from the latent magic of this place, I might be able to use these principles to my advantage.”

Twilight focused on the magic that surrounded her, allowing the natural flow to guide the formation of a brand-new type of teleportation spell. Instead of using a map of her surroundings, the spell itself carved out a path to her destination. Her horn shone brightly as her incorporeal form faded away, melding with the aetherstream around her.

Sunburst paced back and forth, running everything over in his mind. Despite all of his research, he couldn't figure out where his friend had gone. Perhaps a teleportation spell? No, that couldn't have been it. Even though he didn't have the aptitude for it, he knew what a teleportation spell looked like. Or did he? Sunburst paused to stare blankly at the stage, his thoughts a jumbled mess. Everything about this place set him on edge. The magic interference, the cold, the smoke...

Sunburst sniffed the air. "Smoke? There wasn't smoke in here before..." He reflexively tried to illuminate his horn, but only a few weak sparks sputtered out. Right. Nervously, he started sniffing his way around the platform. No, he decided. Not smoke. Mist.

Sunburst peeked his head over the edge of the platform, staring closely at the cracks above which Twilight had disappeared. An indigo vapor was wafting its way out of the seemingly solid crystal surface. Without warning, the mist suddenly flashed brightly and took shape into a physical form. And there she stood: Twilight Sparkle. Seemingly unharmed, but with a disheveled mane.

“Twilight? Oh sweet Celestia, Twilight! You’re back!” Sunburst yelled, scampering up the side of the stage. “I’m so glad you’re okay! You suddenly vanished, a-and I had no idea what had happened, And I was starting to panic a-and…” he found himself stumbling on his words as he tripped into a relieved embrace.

“I’m fine, Sunburst. Really! Oh, I wish you could have seen this. It was absolutely amazing! I was inside… inside Amethyst Hollow!” Twilight said into his cloak.

“What do you mean? Like another chamber that’s even deeper than this one?” he said, releasing Twilight and looking about at the crystal walls around them. He hesitated for a moment as an implausible thought struck him. “Or are you talking about the crystals?”

“Sort of, but also kind-of-not-really? It’s hard to put into words. It was like a stream of magic that runs all throughout this cave complex. Since being there, and meeting someone”—Sunburst shot her a questioning look—”I think I have a better understanding of how this place works,” Twilight said as the two of them walked toward the edge of the stage before hopping down to the ground.

“All these crystals,” Twilight said, motioning with a hoof, “and all these strange disturbances are in fact unicorn magic. The platform is basically a giant cork where the magic leaks out.”

“Leaking… Just out of the ground?” Sunburst asked, checking the bottom of his hoof with a grimace.

“Sort of. It exists on a trans-spatial plane that uses magic the same way we use physics. It’s there, but not exactly tangible. That’s why when it leaks out into our world, it manifests as these crystals. Without the structure of a controlled spell, they fracture and crystallize in this world. That’s also why random spell patterns occasionally leak out,” Twilight said.

“And you were inside all of this somehow? As in, not inside a crystal physically, but instead inside some kind of quasi-pocket of magic existing between the physical and the magical? That’s amazing! That’s incredible! That’s book-worthy… no, two books-worthy!” Sunburst declared with a beaming smile.

Twilight noticed the natural light of the crystals slowly beginning to illuminate the space once more. The thick presence of unicorn magic still weighed on Sunburst, she knew but the level of intensity in this cave was far weaker than the aetherstream.

“So, you mentioned that… you met someone in there,” Sunburst prompted.

“Well, I’m not sure that met is the right way to put it. More like… saw in passing. But… Sunburst, it was Star Glider. She was there, in the aetherstream. And she showed me things that I… It’s hard to explain,” Twilight said, tapping her chin. “Let me show you this, first,” Twilight said, her horn glowing as she naturally and effortlessly bent the magical atmosphere of Amethyst Hollow to her will. A spell shot forth, sending a cascading light up into a large crystal that hung overhead.

The crystal glowed, shining with a brilliant lavender as the light refracted through it. The light reflected and bounced inside the crystal, filling it up. Once full, each surface shimmered and beamed the spell across to other crystals, which in turn filled and projected outward in a fractal pattern throughout the cave.

The lavender color of the magic shifted in hue slightly toward that of Twilight’s own magic aura. Her magic wove in perfect harmony with that of Amethyst Hollow.

“And that’s not all I learned!” Twilight exclaimed happily. “While I was drifting—did I mention there was no gravity?—I didn’t quite hear it, but I felt a whisper of three words! Somepony else long ago had a dream similar to mine!”

Sunburst’s eyebrows raised in surprise. “That’s great! So our hypothesis about the book was correct. If Star Glider did indeed write the final page, then maybe that actually was her,” he said.

“That seems to be the case, but the words were different than mine,” Twilight said with a pause, her excitement fading into a small frown. “Not only were they different, they didn’t even make sense.”

“Well, what were they?” Sunburst asked.

“‘When all three,’” Twilight said, her frown deepening.

“When all three… what?”

“That’s it. I’m absolutely sure that’s what she said, but there’s nothing that I saw to really indicate three of anything. In fact, the only thing I can think—” She gasped as her eyes lit up. “Wait!”

She murmured to herself, pacing hectically, recalling her notes in the context of her strange vision. She gazed past Sunburst at nothing in particular, and casually tapped the air in front of her, picturing her mental notes.

“With harmonic balance, the… and you can carry the four…” she muttered—as far as Sunburst could make out—as he nervously looked on.

“Unicorns, unicorns, unicorns!” She exclaimed. “There’s not been a single thing here about earth ponies or pegasi! Even my wings didn’t work inside the aetherstream!” She muttered.

“Well… Yeah. I mean, we kind of already knew that,” Sunburst said flatly.

“No, that’s just it! Think about it, there have to be other places! I’m an alicorn, Sunburst. I possess traits of all three pony tribes, but I was born a unicorn. It makes sense that my new ability would manifest first in unicorn magic!” Twilight said frantically as the stream of thought spilled forth. “If my dreams really are related to my research, then there’s a strong possibility that—” Twilight gasped as a second realization dawned on her.

“When I saw Star Glider, I thought something about her seemed unusual. I couldn’t place my hoof on it then, but I’ve finally figured it out. Star Glider wasn’t a unicorn! She was an earth pony!” Twilight said, dancing excitedly in place.

“An earth pony? But, why would an earth pony do research for something so heavily steeped in magic? Most unicorns wouldn’t even have the aptitude for it,” Sunburst asked.

“Well, I’m not sure to be honest. But Emerald Dew, the other author, was a unicorn. My understanding is that they were friends, so maybe she was a research assistant? In any case, the fact that an earth pony was having these dreams is a breakthrough!” Twilight said.

Twilight paced back and forth again, considering the possibilities as her thoughts turned inward. “I’m a unicorn-turned-alicorn, Star Glider was an earth pony, and my dreams are related to my magic study and my ability to see magic came right after. There’s no doubt about it: This is all connected!”

“If you’re right—not that you aren’t! I’m just thinking about all possible explanations—maybe with enough time you’ll be able to see pegasus and earth pony magic too!” Sunburst realized, eyes glittering with excitement. “There must be other places out there in Equestria just like Amethyst Hollow! We just have to—”

Sunburst was interrupted by a loud shimmering sound. Twilight suddenly twitched and blinked, freezing in place.

“Twilight? What’s wrong?” Sunburst asked, leaning closer. With a start, he pointed at her flank. “Hey, your cutie mark! It’s glowing!”

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed. “The friendship map!”

Author's Note

"Hear my hallowed favors now, To my will you shall bow" lyrics used with permission from PrinceWhateverer's Frailty. Thank you!

Chapter 10: The Map Beckons

Twilight pranced back and forth in a frenzy, hoofsteps clopping against the cold, stony floor. This entire day had been a whirlwind. “Okay Twilight, there’s no reason for panic,” she said to herself. “You’re just hundreds of miles from home, hundreds of feet underground in an ancient, magical cave, and now there’s a friendship problem that specifically requires the Princess of Friendship to solve. No big deal, no pressure!” Twilight said with a nervous chuckle, a drop of sweat working its way down her brow.

“That is rather tricky… Even if we left right away, it would take a day at minimum to get back to the Empire. And then the train ride back to Ponyville isn’t exactly short, either,” Sunburst said, his voice wavering.

Twilight groaned with frustration, racking her brain for more options. “I would have liked to spend a day or two at home taking notes and going over everything we’ve seen here,” she said with a sigh. She paused, taking a big breath in. After holding for a second, she exhaled and made a gentle pushing motion with her foreleg, as if she could simply push the stress out.

“I just need to think this through logically and carefully,” Twilight said to herself. “It’s unlikely to be a life and death situation, and while my absence might make the situation worse if it’s left unchecked for a day or two, it’s also unlikely that I won’t be able to fix the issue.”

Twilight’s gaze shot upward as a thought suddenly slammed into her. “Then it’s also possible that more of my friends were called by the map. If I’m not back in a timely enough manner, then that might jeopardize their travel plans!”

“Well, the map will show the cutie mark of everypony called on a friendship mission, right?” Sunburst asked, adjusting his glasses. “If anypony else is summoned, they’ll know to wait for you.”

“That’s the other problem. If they do wait, they won’t know how long I’ll be. If they go on without me under the assumption that I’ll catch up, there’s a chance they won’t be able to solve the friendship problem on their own, and sending an incomplete group could potentially make it worse!” Twilight exclaimed, trying—and failing—to stay calm. “The map is very particular about who it chooses, and why.”

“I see,” Sunburst said with a touch of dejection. He idly kicked a small pebble, his gaze turning toward the ground. “It’s too bad the distance is too great to teleport. Even if it weren’t, the magical properties of these crystals would send you wildly off course again.”

Twilight gasped and turned back to Sunburst, overcome with a sudden realization. “That’s it!”

“What is?” Sunburst blinked. “Teleporting? Y-You can’t be serious!”

Twilight closed her eyes and muttered to herself. “If the arcane frequency is oscillating at thirty-two-point-three-repeating dekahertz, I should be able to calculate and reshape six of the eight rune vertices to match the frequencies as they change every three deciseconds.”

“Wait a minute… That would mean shifting your spell’s target before teleporting, during passage, and right as the spell completes!” Sunburst said, his eyes darting back and forth as he “read” invisible calculations. “To maintain such a swift spell-change, one would have to basically think faster than thought itself!”

As Sunburst spoke, Twilight scribbled out a series of advanced calculations on the floor using an elongated piece of rock. Seemingly meandering shapes, numbers, grids, and all sorts of magical pictograms began to fill the ground around them.

“A-huh,” Twilight said absently with a nod. “Well, if we do that…” She said as she scribbled out a line and replaced it with an updated number set. She took a moment to glance at her glowing cutie mark, then back over at her sprawling mathematical diagrams. Looking up at Sunburst, Twilight beamed proudly. “You make it sound as if it’s going to be difficult!”

“Difficult? It’s more than that, Twilight. It’s impossible! I know you’re the Element of Magic—and I don’t doubt your abilities—but the amount of power and concentration needed to safely bypass aetheric disturbance on this magnitude would be… would be…” Sunburst said as his eyes darted up and down, to and fro. He absorbed the data written out before him, poring over Twilight’s notes.

His jaw dropped.

“This… could actually work,” Sunburst said, stunned. He had never seen the classic teleportation spell described with such finesse and complexity. “In theory at least. Are you sure you can do this?” he asked with a waver in his voice.

“If we’re being perfectly honest…” Twilight said, pausing as she looked down and at the notes. With a confident smirk, she snapped her head back at Sunburst. “Yes. Yes I am! My experiences and magic link with the aetherstream, it…” She hesitated, finding it hard to describe using just words. “I don’t know. It just feels natural. It feels right to me. It feels like it’ll be almost as easy as levitation, just a little more time consuming.”

“And just to make sure I understand this right…” Sunburst said, his eyes scanning Twilight’s work. “Based on your distance equation, and these aetheric-oscillation-shifted lat-long coordinates…” He stopped and looked at Twilight with a confused look. “We’re going from here to the Crystal Empire? Don’t you need to get to your castle?”

Twilight giggled sweetly. “Well, I can’t exactly dump you off at my home and expect you to take a train back, now can I? I dragged you out on this silly expeditation, the least I can do is let you sleep in your own bed tonight!”

Sunburst blushed, crossing his forelegs as he looked away in embarrassment. “I-I guess you’re right. I almost forgot about myself in this equation!”

“What are friends for?” Twilight said with a smile.

Sunburst stood next to Twilight, preparing to be her passenger. He fidgeted nervously as Twilight closed her eyes to focus. After a moment of quiet breathing, her horn began to glow.

The numbers, arcane swirls, and symbols bent and swayed with the flow of magic, as the internal map of Mount Everhoof, the Crystal Empire, and the surrounding Frozen North wobbled like a melting oil painting. Her start point, deep within the bowels of the crust under the mountain, glowed with a pale lavender and orange light.

Her destination lit up like a beacon at the very peak of the mountain. The spell was completed, and the two ponies vanished with a blinding surge of magic.

One decisecond.

Twilight refocused the spell, changing its destination to a location roughly halfway between the Crystal Empire and Mount Everhoof. The aether of Amethyst Hollow continued to influence her spell, for the conduit linking the origin in the cave to this new destination was still open.

Two deciseconds.

As the second destination coalesced around them, Twilight could feel the influence of Amethyst Hollow loosening its grip on her spell. The map in her mind slid into focus as the spell reshaped itself, altering the destination one last time.

Three deciseconds.

A hiss and crackle filled the empty marketplace as Twilight and Sunburst reappeared in a bright orb of light and magic. As it dissipated, it left blackened scorch marks on the ground below them in a several foot radius. Stars swirled in front of the winded ponies, soot comically coating their bodies and faces. Twilight somehow found herself on her back, her legs twitching feebly.

“Hahh… Hahhh…. Whoo…” Twilight panted and gasped, breathing heavily as she wiped the sweat and soot from her forehead. She looked skyward, her magic-blurred vision slowly coming together as the eye-stars bled away into the actual starry sky of a chilly Crystal Empire night.

A small smile cracked her lips as her half-shut eyes adjusted to the dimly lit street. “Haha…” She chuckled weakly. “I did it…”

“Yes, you certainly did,” Sunburst said with a loud grunt. “But could you… Ow! Get off me?”

Twilight blinked and looked around for the first time. She discovered she was resting atop of a rather comfortable fleece cloak wrapped around a rather disgruntled orange unicorn.

The weight pressing down on Sunburst knocked the wind out of him, puffs of soot escaping his mouth and nose like a bellows.

“Oh! Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Twilight said, apologizing frantically as she scampered off of him. She looked around, shaking her head as her senses returned to her. The night was still. The markets she had brought them to had closed up hours ago and everypony was likely sound asleep in their homes by now.

“I guess we were in Amethyst Hollow longer than we realized,” Sunburst said, coughing as he cleaned his glasses with his cloak. He sighed with relief, grateful to feel the return of functional magic away from the cave.

“If we ended up where I think we did, I don’t think we’re too far from your house,” Twilight said, looking down one of the roadways. “I could walk you home if you’d like, since it’s so late.”

“Oh!” he hesitated, blushing and fidgeting with his front hoof. “I think I’ll be okay. Don’t you need to get back to Ponyville? For the map, I mean.”

Twilight smirked. “Well,” she said, sliding out the word, “while that’s true, if I was able to teleport from Amethyst Hollow to the Crystal Empire, teleporting back home should be a cinch! It’s a little further, but there’s no magic disturbance to fight between here and there.”

“If you say it’s okay, then I suppose… yes, I’d like the company,” Sunburst said, trotting alongside Twilight down the road. Firefly lamps speckled their way every two dozen feet or so, providing just enough illumination for any night owls. The gentle clopping of their hoofsteps and the nearly-silent firefly buzzing were the only sounds that punctuated this peaceful night.

“It still amazes me how the ancient unicorns were able to practice and train in that place,” Sunburst said as they walked. “I’m not nearly as magically adept as you are, but even I could just feel how… oppressive the atmosphere felt.”

“It really was something else, wasn’t it?” She said as they rounded a corner. “I suppose my magical abilities made it easier for me to adapt. It honestly felt like… like home. It’s the only way I can describe how natural it felt.” Twilight smiles, recalling her first steps into the cavern. “Still, rearranging the magic properties of that wall was definitely a challenge! I’ve never worked on a sub-runic level before… at least, not beyond theoretically.”

“Oh, I bet. If you’d been off by the tiniest fraction, it could have backfired and shot magic all over the place!”

“I wasn’t about to let a wall get in the way of my research!” Twilight said stubbornly.

“Speaking of which, do you think the answers you found were satisfactory? Is it going to be enough to let you sleep properly again?”

Twilight stopped mid-stride, hanging her head slightly. “The answers I got… while they felt right, I’m honestly not sure. I can’t help but feel like there’s more to it than that. All it really means is that another pony at some time in history had a similar dream.”

She craned her neck to look at the gentle glow of her cutie mark as it cast a light on a nearby building. “I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the map would call me after learning what I have about unicorn magic. And with Star Glider being an earth pony, I have my suspicions that this is only the beginning.” Twilight nickered. “With any luck, the friendship mission will be related to all this. The map is comprehensive, but there are many regions of Equestria that haven’t been explored for centuries. It’s possible it could lead me to another location like Amethyst Hollow.”

“Well, Amethyst Hollow was an ancient unicorn coven. Could there be one for earth ponies and pegasi, as well?” Sunburst mused. “You said your initial research involved the pony tribes and how magic ties them all together, correct?”

“Right! That’s why I don’t believe any of this is a coincidence. Magic can sometimes work in ways we don’t yet understand, particularly when dealing with things like dreams, visions, prophecies, et cetera. My—our—run-in with Nightmare Moon taught us that all too well,” she said, sighing gently as memories from long ago surfaced in her mind. “Despite the mystery, there’s always an answer hidden somewhere—even if we don’t see it right away,” Twilight continued. “It took over a thousand years for one of Starswirl’s spells to be completed, after all!” she said with pride, fluttering her wings. An annoyed frown creased her face as her ears lowered. “Unless it’s Pinkie Sense,” she snorted.

“I don’t think anypony will ever figure that one out,” Sunburst remarked with a grin. “Even in my oldest books I don’t think I’ve found anything quite like it.”

“Nope! She’s one-of-a-kind!” Twilight said with a smile.

As the duo continued their stroll, even the distraction of Twilight’s glowing cutie mark faded into the background. The recounting of tales and old magic studies drew to a close, however, as they finally arrived at the staircase leading to Sunburst’s front door.

“Well, here we are!” Sunburst beamed, trotting up the steps and using a simple unlocking spell to let himself in.

Twilight blinked as she saw the spell: Two parallel orange beams connected Sunburst’s horn to the door knob. Secondary lines drew themselves from the primaries, filling the gap between them in angular bends and turns. The void filled itself with these patterns, tumbling into place as the beams rotated around each other.

A click came from the door as Sunburst swung it open.

“Everything okay, Twi?” Sunburst asked, turning back to glance at his silent companion.

“Huh? Oh!” She shook her head. “I was distracted by the unlock spell. I know in lieu of a regular key, a unicorn can create a custom lock, but…” She yawned, the late hour suddenly washing over her. “I’m still not used to seeing it in front of me.”

“Well, if nothing else, I can do my part here! I have old books from not only the Crystal Empire, but all over Equestria. I can start going through them and see if I can find anything about this new gift of yours,” Sunburst said with a confident smile.

“Oh, that would be wonderful! Once I finish this friendship map business, I hope I can sit down and do some more research of my own.”

“If I find out anything—anything at all—I’ll be sure to let you know. But first…” He echoed her yawn, his eyes becoming watery. “I need some sleep. I’m exhausted…”

Twilight smiled warmly. “Get some rest, Sunburst. It’s been a wild day for both of us. I’m going to head back to Ponyville now.”

He nodded in agreement, nearly stumbling over the threshold. “Good night!”

“Good night!”

Twilight focused, visualizing her home in Ponyville. Ordinarily, the sheer distance involved would have taken nearly a full minute of uninterrupted concentration, but her improved clarity made the return spell come to her with ease. She finalized the spell in seconds. Instead of a massive map of Equestria, this time her bond with her home allowed the image of her castle to appear before her mind’s eye.

With a flash of light, Twilight Sparkle departed from the Crystal Empire.

“That dang Twilight, I knew she was gonna be gone in Canterlot for a spell, but I was hopin’ she’d be back by now!” Applejack said, gesturing with frustration toward the two spinning cutie marks floating over the Friendship Map.

Starlight let out a monstrous yawn, putting a hoof to her mouth. “I’m sure she’ll be back any minute now…” She levitated a hoof-sized azure stuffed unicorn onto the table and nuzzled against it tiredly. Its silken cloak and hat shimmered in the light emanating from the map.

Applejack grunted. “I know. I shouldn’t get all antsy, I just didn’t expect her to be this late.”

“I really need to get to sleep,” Starlight said. “It took hours to clean up the twenty pounds of instant sour cream Spike destroyed the kitchen with for his nachos,” Starlight said with a sniff. “I’ll be washing the smell out of my mane for months…”

Applejack grimaced, her eye twitching at the disgusting mental image. “Worst-case scenario I can just sleep in my chair. Twilight’s gonna zap in here as soon as she finishes her business in Canterlot, and I don’t need her huntin’ me down at Sweet Apple Acres when I’m right here in the cas—”

The two ponies recoiled and shielded their eyes as a flash of magic filled the room, beams of light dancing off the walls. Starlight blushed fiercely, seizing her unicorn doll and zapping it into her bedroom before Twilight could see it.

“Twilight!” Applejack and Starlight shouted in unison.

Twilight stood triumphantly before them, unfazed by the long-distance teleport. “Starlight!” She said gleefully, racing across the room to give her number one graduate a hug. “Oh, your cutie mark isn’t…” she said, turning to. “Applejack? Oh, this is so exciting!”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’m here too. Friendship business. So what kept ya? I’ve been glowin’ here for an hour.”

“It’s… complicated. My cutie mark started glowing while we were in Amethyst Hollow, and I had to walk Sunburst home afterwards. I teleported here as quickly as I could. It was quite the adventure,” Twilight said.

“Right…” Applejack said, drawing out the word flatly.

“Wait, ‘Amethyst Hollow’? Teleporting here?” Starlight blinked. “Sunburst? Walking home with—I thought you went to Canterlot! Just where in Equestria were you?”

Twilight giggled. “Well, it’s kind of a long story. You won’t believe what happened!” She trotted over to take her seat, motioning for her friends to join her at the map. Applejack sat down on hers, while Starlight took Spike’s throne next to Twilight.

“Honestly, I should be thanking you, Starlight. You gave me the idea to go see Luna, which turned out to be the best place to go for my research,” Twilight said, smiling with pide.

“Research?” Applejack asked. “Starlight mentioned something about magic something-or-other between all the different pony tribes, right?”

“Mm-hm!" Twilight replied with a nod. "I’m sure Starlight told you, but I started having strange dreams right after beginning my research. Luna used her dream magic to see if she could help, but she couldn’t find the dreams.”

Starlight and Applejack looked at each other. “I take it that’s bad,” Applejack remarked. Starlight yawned loudly, nodding with a soft murmur.

“If nothing else, it’s concerning. But that’s not the best part. I was able to see the internal magic workings as she conjured up a link to the Dreamscape in her subconscious, visualizing a physical manifestation of arcane nodes that normally would be impossible to perceive!”

A moment passed, and Applejack slowly raised her hoof. “Uh—”

“In other words, I could see the spell as it was being cast!” Twilight finished, using a simpler explanation.

“Now, ain’t that normally what happens when you use magic? I always see your horns glowin’, and I’ve also seen some right proper lights when you’re goin’ positively nuts with it,” Applejack said.

“Sort of. While the immediate effects of a spell are normally visible,“ Twilight said, her horn glowing as it plucked Applejack’s hat from her head, spun it in the air, then dropped it back down on her head, “the construction and composition aren’t visible to an outside observer, with very rare exceptions.”

Applejack’s eyebrow quirked upward as she turned to Starlight. “And in Ponish?”

“It sounds like it’s kind of like walking,” Starlight clarified. “You don’t really think about it, but your brain is telling your legs to move forward, and you can see effect even if you don’t see everything going on inside. Right?”

“Exactly!” Twilight beamed as her wings spread out in excitement. "That’s my student!”

“I mean, your explanation makes sense, but I’ve never heard of something like this happening before. It’s kind of a lot to take in…” Starlight replied, barely suppressing a yawn. “So, you can see magic. That's neat, but what's Amethyst Hollow? And what were you doing with Sunburst?” Her tone took on a sharp edge.

Twilight pointed across the map toward the miniature Canterlot Castle. “After arriving in Canterlot, I did some research that led me to the Crystal Empire. From there, I enlisted the aid of Sunburst, who had the book I needed from the Crystal Library, and from there we set out to locate a hidden cave complex under Mount Everhoof known as Amethyst Hollow.”

“So, you went on this big, grand adventure…” Starlight remarked, leaning closer to Twilight. “With Sunburst.” Twilight nodded enthusiastically, her mane bobbing erratically. Starlight leaned in further, eyes narrowed. “Alone.”

Twilight blushed, backing away in her chair. “Hey, it's not like that! He and I share an academic curiosity!”

Starlight sat back, letting out a sarcastic “Mm-hmm…”. “I'm just giving you a hard time, you know that,” she said, grinning wryly.

Twilight laughed nervously and smiled back. “Of course I do, Starlight. You know I don't—In any case, we found Amethyst Hollow, which we discovered was an ancient training ground for unicorns studying magic. Even stranger, it turns out that the area is made out of crystals formed from solidified unicorn magic.”

“Solid unicorn magic? I don't know anything ‘bout how unicorn magic works, but that don't make a lick of sense to me,” Applejack said.

“I know, I couldn't believe it either. What's wilder is that it’s perfectly natural. It was just… leaking out of the ground, like a spring. Over time the magic became so concentrated it crystallized!” Twilight explained rapidly, her face broadening into a whimsical smile.

“It gets even crazier than that, if you can believe it,” Twilight said, but as she inhaled in preparation to launch into another ramble, she noticed Starlight beginning to nod off. “But I can explain all that tomorrow. I’m so sorry I kept you up. I just wanted to make sure you all knew I was all right.”

“Heh. Of course we knew you were okay, Twilight. Ain’t nopony better at studyin’ magic than you!” Applejack said with a smile as she leaned back in her chair.

Twilight nodded happily, then leaned in to look at the map. Their cutie marks were encircling a massive tree lying in the heart of a rolling wooded area far to the south-east.

“How strange…” Twilight muttered to herself, rubbing her chin in confusion.

“What’s up, Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“I’ve never really paid attention to this part of the map before. I don’t know of any places on modern maps with a tree like that,” Twilight said. She contemplated for a moment, trying to recall if she’d ever heard anything about such a location, but nothing came to mind. Her concentration broke as she let out a yawn rivalling Starlight’s.

“I think…” Twilight said, a second, smaller yawn forcing its way out, “I think we should get some sleep. I got so excited and forgot just how late it was.”

“I definitely can agree to that.” Applejack said. “Ain’t never been called by the map so late in the day before, ‘specially after spending the better part past lunch out in the east orchard. Heh, hopefully my glowin’ behind won’t keep me awake.”

Twilight rolled her eyes. “Please, I’ll take this over the stuff I’ve had to sleep through lately.”

“Y’mean the nightmares?” Applejack said with a frown, her husky voice lowering.

Twilight nodded as she stood. “Yeah… I mean, there’s a chance that they’re all over now, but we’ll just have to see. I promise I’ll explain everything in detail tomorrow morning,” Twilight said, her eyes shutting tight as she stretched. “Even the parts with Sunburst, Starlight.”

She looked over at Starlight slumped in Spike’s chair, snoring peacefully. Twilight giggled. “Maybe another time, then. You’re welcome to stay in the castle overnight, AJ. I imagine you don’t want to go all the way back to Sweet Apple Acres this late at night,” she said.

“That’s mighty neighborly of you, Twilight. I think I’ll take you up on that offer,” Applejack said, chuckling at Starlight. “She’s all plumb tuckered out. I guess cleanin’ up twenty pounds of nachos and sour cream does that to ya.”

Twilight blinked. “Wait, what?”

Chapter 11: Towards Illustrious Silver

“Compass.”

“Check.” A clawed hand marked the box on a scroll of parchment.

“Fresh parchment.”

“Check.”

“Inkwells and quills.”

“Check and check.”

“Two maps of the area, one modern, one antiquated.”

“Check, che—um, anti-what?”

“…Old.”

“Check!”

“Checklist?”

“And double check!” Spike finished, rolling the parchment up neatly and tucking it into Twilight’s saddlebag. “Now, promise me you won’t be gone so long this time!”

Twilight turned and smiled, giving Spike a quick hug. “As much as I’d like to, I’m not sure if I can keep that promise. Ordinarily I wouldn’t be too worried about a friendship problem taking up too much time, but if there’s any chance it’s related to Amethyst Hollow…”

Twilight’s face sagged a bit as she dwelled on the roadblocks to her research and the many sleepless nights she had been forced to endure.

“Aw, don’t sweat the small stuff, sugarcube,” Applejack said as she placed her hoof around Twilight, causing her to perk up. “You said it yourself, you slept loads better last night, and all that fancy magic stuff in Amethyst Hollow don’t sound like nothin’ to sneeze at. Besides, this is way out in the middle of the forest. Ain’t nowhere near the Crystal Empire!” She gave her friend a squeeze.

“I hope you’re right. The things I learned at Amethyst Hollow are nothing short of revolutionary, so naturally I should be able to handle one measly little friendship problem!” Twilight said confidently.

“So,” Spike interrupted. “You’re just gonna zap over to this big tree, fix the problem in say, half an hour, and then zap back, right?”

“Oh Spike!” Twilight said, giving him a playful noogie against his protest. “My time in Amethyst Hollow may have strengthened my understanding of unicorn magic, but I don’t want to risk teleporting to a totally new place and causing a scene. Not to mention the chaos that can happen with a passenger along for the ride!”

“You weren’t all that scared zappin’ Sunburst this way and that, especially with all those crystals messin’ with your magic,” Applejack pointed out, tilting her head in confusion.

“That’s true, but that’s because I was teleporting to a familiar place. I was coming home.” Twilight’s eyes focused, as if she were reciting notes from an invisible book in front of her. “Adjusting the magical oscillations to the shifting frequencies of the aether emanating from the crystals came to me as naturally as breathing, and the homepoint node spell helped me hone in on the Crystal Empire’s coordinates and—”

“Ahem,” Applejack cleared her throat. “And for those of us without an education straight from Princess Celestia?” Twilight let out a soft eep, her mouth working soundlessly for a moment.

“R-Right. Sorry,” Twilight stammered, blushing fiercely. “It was really easy to focus, much easier than I thought it would be. Granted, I could have really messed up if, say, somepony deliberately disrupted my focus,” she said, drawing a magical circle in the air with a line running from one side to the other, “but it didn’t feel any different than casting a regular spell,” she finished, bending one end of the line out of the circle and letting it fly down the hall. “That’s kind of what it felt like the first time I tried to teleport there. This time…” Twilight brought the line back into the circle. “Everything just clicked.”

“I don’t think you’ve gotta worry about that. If you think it’s safer to land outside the forest and make our way in on hoof, I ain’t opposed to that. Wouldn’t be the first time we’ve gone trampin’ blindly through the woods!” Applejack said with a chuckle.

Twilight smiled, nodding, and turned to Spike. “Spike, I take it you can hold down the fort with Starlight for me again while I’m gone?”

“You can count on me!” He said, standing at attention and giving Twilight a salute.

Applejack returned the gesture with a grin. Twilight nodded and stepped closer, her horn glowing as she prepared the spell. She visualized the forest surrounding their destination—the mysterious tree—as she envisioned a pathway from her castle to the edge of the forest.

The preparations complete, Twilight allowed the spell to cast. In a flash, the two ponies vanished.

Spike sighed. “Well, the nachos didn’t work out.”

Starlight looked at Spike, raising her eyebrow. “Spike?” she asked, her voice trailing with suspicion.

“I guess I’ll have to make that double-decker-gem-burger with extra hot sauce that I’ve been dying to try!”

Starlight facehooved.

Twilight gasped as the sudden heat and humidity of the forest washed over her. She knew few ponies had made the trip from the frozen north to the subtropics in less than twelve hours, and now she felt she understood why! As she regained her bearings, she noticed Applejack stumbling from the stress of teleportation. The earth pony’s footing swayed this way and that, leaving slight depressions in the damp soil, before she finally managed to steady herself.

They stood on the edge of the forest, sweat-dripped necks craning skyward at the towering trees before them. The vegetation, while somewhat familiar, was just alien enough to make them uneasy. Though neither of them were strangers to botany, the broad tropical leaves mingling with temperate deciduous leaves was a firm reminder of their distance from Ponyville. Interwoven bands of silver streaked through the plant life, reflecting the bright sunlight. The ponies' ears rang as a cacophony of avian cries filled the air, competing with various insect chirps. Occasionally, a shrill cry would drown out all the rest of the fauna.

“Well, here we are. The Silverglade Forest. I can see where it gets its name,” Twilight said as she examined one of the shrubs nearby. As she idly flicked a leaf with a hoof, sunlight reflected off of the gossamer lines.

“It don’t sound all that bad, does it? It’s honestly kinda pretty,” Applejack said, tilting her head as she leaned in for a closer look. “Still, ain’t never seen plants like these before.”

“Neither have I. They’re quite beautiful,” Twilight said, following the reflections with her eyes. “I’ve never seen this phenomenon before—at least, not without a magical origin. Plants affecting light like this… It makes me wonder why the map brought us here.” After a moment of observational prodding, she pulled a map from her saddlebag along with her notebook. “I couldn’t find much information about the Silverglade Forest, let alone anything about a giant tree. Just a few scattered notes about it being… well, silver. We’ll need to be careful,” she said. "On the bright side, we should have clear weather for most of Equestria the entire week. That'll make our journey here a bit easier."

“Well, if the map is callin’ us all the way out here, then I think it’s obvious that somethin’s livin’ here,” Applejack said.

“Well, that’s the thing,” Twilight said, putting the map and her notes away as she shook her head. “I don’t really know for sure. None of the notes I could find said anything about it one way or the other. But, you’re right, there must be something here. Otherwise the map wouldn’t have called us.”

Applejack stood by Twilight’s side and stared into the forest, a cocky grin plastered across her face. “Well, what’re we waitin’ for? We got ourselves a friendship problem to hunt down!”

“Let’s do this!” Twilight said excitedly, and the pair began their trek into the unknown.

The thick grass crunched under their hooves as they walked. Tall, wide trees with trunks of the deepest browns peppered the path before them, along with a myriad of plants and grasses of vibrant greens. Silvery strands accented the leaves throughout the forest. Applejack cantered ahead of Twilight by a few meters, looking all around at the flora. Despite the thickness of the plant life, she managed to leave a path wide enough for Twilight to follow.

As they progressed, Applejack noticed the trees began to grow further apart from each other. Soon enough, small spaces nearly resembling trails began to wind themselves around the trees. "We should keep going this way, Twi,” she said, motioning in front of her. “There’s a patch of real nasty critters over thattaways to the south, ‘n I’m sure we’d rather not run into any wildlife.”

“Really? How can you tell? I can’t see anything through the trees!” Twilight wheezed. She gagged as a small bug flew into her mouth, coughing and spitting it out as her eyes watered fiercely.

“Well, I mean…” Applejack said, trying to find the right words. “I can’t really explain it. It's just something everypony in the family can do. I ain’t so good at spottin’ critters as Apple Bloom—she’s got a real knack for that—but we usually just know where things are. Ain’t been wrong many times before, and I ain’t keen to found out if I am now.”

Twilight nodded, familiar gears turning in her head as she followed. The pair trotted in comfortable silence; Applejack trying her hardest to find a suitable path for Twilight (livin’ in a tree didn’t do her no favors for hikin’, I tell ya…) while the latter idly followed as thoughts raced in her head. As the sun grew high in the sky, Twilight noticed something peculiar: while her friend had been choosing a route with lighter underbrush, occasionally she would divert strongly to one side or the other regardless of the path's density. Soon enough, Twilight formed a hypothesis. “Applejack, wait up a second.”

Applejack paused, looking over her shoulder. “What’s up, Twi? I’d really rather we get movin’, I'm gettin’ a mite nervous wanderin’ around in here.”

“It's about that, actually… your feelings around this place, I mean”, said Twilight. “You’ve never been here before, right?”

“Of course I ain’t! Why do ya think I’m nervous in the first place?” she said, a touch of annoyance clouding her voice.

Twilight shook her head. “I think it’s more than that, AJ. This kind of intuition… it’s unique to earth ponies. I think—no, I suspect…” she trailed off.

“Twi, you ain’t suggestin’…” Applejack shook her head. “I’m an earth pony, we can’t use magic. No horn, no magic,” she said, pointing at Twilight's horn.

Twilight gave a quick, excited clap as she smiled. “That’s just it! I've read about the applications of earth pony magic before, but truth be told, it’s never been the subject of much study.” Twilight’s cheeks flushed slightly as Applejack quirked an eyebrow. “But now I have a good opportunity to do field research! Alicorns are more than just pegasi and unicorns. We’re also earth ponies too! Nopony’s really given that much thought since you can’t see it from the outside.”

Twilight blushed further as embarrassment flooded her cheeks. “Although I, um… I have gotten a little bit stronger since earning my wings.” She gave her backside a quick raise, effortlessly raising the heavy saddlebag few inches before coming back down.

Applejack chuckled, grinning. “Well I think that's just wonderful, Twi!” She pulled Twilight into a mighty earth pony hug.

Twilight let out a squawk as the wind was squeezed out of her, returning the hug with her wings. “Do you think…” she inhaled deeply as Applejack released her, “you might be able to show me how it works? If it’s magic like I think it is—no, like I know it is—maybe I can see it for myself!” Twilight said.

“Well…” Applejack said, rubbing the back of her neck as a blush ran across her cheeks. “I can try. It's not really somethin’ I put on display intentionally for an audience, but I'll give it a shot!”

Applejack trotted to a nearby tree as Twilight curiously leaned in, quill at the ready. Applejack gave a quick tap to the trunk, a hard clunk echoing from it. She made a second tap, then a third. Curiously, Twilight didn’t observe Applejack focus or concentrate like a unicorn would. Twilight noticed faint surges of color: greens, browns, and oranges gently flowing from the base of Applejack's hooves with each tap.

Unlike the distinct glyphs and shapes of unicorn magic, the swirls danced through and around the tree, worming their way into the ground. The ghostly tendrils of warm magic snaked under the soil as Twilight followed them with wide eyes.

One of the trails suddenly lit up, glowing a light blue as it took off out of sight. Another became bright green and meandered its way elsewhere. Finally, a red wisp pointed off in a third direction, deepening to a dark crimson.

“Looks like if we keep headin’ southeast, we'll run into a freshwater river—should be plenty clean for drinkin’ if I’m not mistaken. There's a grove of fruit trees and some berries to the northeast…” Applejack said, trailing off as she looked in the red direction.

“And to the south?” Twilight asked, fixating on the red line as its flow smoothed and stopped, growing rigid.

“Trouble,” Applejack said flatly. “Let's not go that way.”

Twilight grimaced and turned to focus on the other aetherial trails. “Now, just to be clear, you can't see any of this?”

“See what, Twi? The giant critter south of us? I mean, I ain't sure what it is exactly, but—”

Twilight cut her off. “No, not that, this!” she said, gesturing toward the fading greens and blues.

“Uhhh…” Applejack drew out. “Y’mean the ground?”

“No, I—I’m sorry, I didn't mean for an outburst. I just got caught up in the moment and…” She cleared her throat. “If my hypothesis is correct—and my observations seem to support it—earth pony magic is starting to manifest for me similarly to unicorn magic.”

“Well, if you’re seein’ some magic stuff going on, I definitely can't. What's it look like?” Applejack asked, leaning in closer to the ground as if trying harder would let her see something.

“It’s beautiful. Swirling lines of the brightest colors I’ve ever seen! There’s a blue trail pointing southeast and a green one pointing northeast,” Twilight said, gesturing along the ghosts of the trails. “And…”

“An’ I take it there's one for trouble too, ain't there?”

“There is, though it's a straight red line. It’s not flowing like the others. I imagine the angular shape is to emphasize the size or relative threat level of whatever it’s pointing to,” Twilight said.

“It definitely gives me the willies, that's for sure,” Applejack said, following Twilight’s gaze with a frown. “I think we should head toward the river. If we can find water, that should lead us to some ponyfolk… if anypony actually lives out here.”

Applejack picked up a trot in the blue direction, Twilight following closely. Along the way, Twilight traced a wingtip along the ground where the magic path had been. Though she couldn’t see it very well with her eyes, she felt its magical residue on the soil. She rolled the new information around in her mind, considering these new possibilities and probabilities.

As the two made their way through the increasingly-dense forest, Applejack took notice that her friend’s pace had slowed. “Try not to dawdle too much, Twi! There might be some spiders lurking in the underbrush,” Applejack yelled, shuddering at the thought. Twilight perked up, finding herself paused in a small clearing.

“I’m sorry, AJ. All this new earth pony insight has just gotten me distracted.” Twilight looked around the clearing, taking note of the position of the surrounding trees. “I’d like to try something… something I just need to test for myself!” she said.

“Well, can it wait until we find the river?” Applejack asked with a groan. “It'd be safer there…” Applejack muttered.

“It’ll just take a second, I promise! This clearing should help me focus…” Twilight said, her voice trailing off. She closed her eyes, digging her hooves gently into the soil. She knew she had mastered the magic of her unicorn side, and at least had proficiency flying, but she felt disconnected from the physical aptitude her earth pony friends possessed.

After a moment of concentration, Twilight felt a gentle pulse—no, a double pulse. A heartbeat, she realized. It was faint, and she almost couldn’t follow it, but as she kept her thoughts focused she began to feel a gentle flow around her hooves. She steered her thoughts to follow the sensation, and soon her head filled with the sounds of water flowing through the forest.

The gentle stream of light blue coiled around her hooves, snaking their way toward the river in her mind. The heartbeat grew louder as she approached the shoreline, details of the surrounding area becoming more pronounced. This is it! she thought. I can sense—no, I can feel the land!

Beneath the thudding heartbeat, a muffled voice began to nag at the edges of Twilight’s consciousness. Almost in response, the pulse grew louder, obscuring the voice.

The voice sounded again; louder, more distinct. “Tw… iht…”

Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub lub-dub; the heartbeat grew closer, more insistent.

Suddenly, between two beats, the voice broke through. “TWILIGHT! Watch out!”

Twilight’s eyes snapped open and she spun around, gasping as a giant hissing maw eclipsed the sunlight above. A forked tongue flicked through scaly lips, and Twilight’s eyes widened as she looked down the body of a massive python. She felt something click inside her mind, and without thinking she planted her front hooves, pulled in her hind legs and bucked the towering creature square in its jaw. It hissed with pain, its body trailing as its head launched backwards and slammed into a tree with a mighty thud.

“Snake! Run for it, AJ!” Twilight shouted, her hooves churning the soil as she broke into a gallop.

“Ya ain't gotta tell me twice!” Applejack yelled, turning tail alongside her friend.

The pair tore through the forest, ducking and weaving through the foliage. It was a painfully long time before the angry hissing and thrashing faded into the distance. The two finally came to a stop as their adrenaline started to wear off.

“You… okay… Twilight?” Applejack asked, her breath coming in gasps between words.

“I think so. Thank you for having my back… If you hadn't seen the python, I could have been a goner!” Twilight replied with exhaustion, her breath growing ragged as she panted.

“I'm surprised you didn't see it. Whatever you were doin’, you should’ve at least been able to feel something that big sneakin’ up on ya,” Applejack said.

“It's funny you mention that,” Twilight said, dusting herself off. “I was trying to manifest earth pony magic like you do. I was able to feel out the river, and I felt a… I’m not sure how to describe it. A pulse, maybe. I couldn’t get a good idea of the distance, but I could definitely feel it!”

“I guess you could put it that way. You just sorta feel the flow of things through the ground.” Applejack pursed her lips. “But I take it you couldn’t feel the danger, huh?”

“I… I think I did,” Twilight said sheepishly. “I may have misunderstood the sensation at first. I felt a heartbeat growing as my perception neared the river. It got a lot more intense just before you yelled for me. I knew something was wrong the moment I came back.”

“Just be careful next time, sugarcube. I ain't gonna be the one to explain to Celestia why her newest princess is livin’ inside a giant snake's gut,” Applejack said curtly. “Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t just zap yourself away… or zap it.”

Twilight blinked. “You know… The thought didn’t even cross my mind. Maybe I was so busy using earth pony magic, I didn’t think to call upon any unicorn magic?”

Applejack chuckled and grinned. “Either way, you sure sent that snake flyin’! You’re a mite stronger than you look, y’know. Could use a pony like you on the farm someday.”

Twilight blushed and couldn’t help but smile. “I think ‘someday’ is a little further out than you think, AJ. Ever since I became an alicorn, I’ve noticed enhanced strength when doing physical work around the castle, but I’ve never done done something so… so…”

“Exhilaratin’?” Applejack suggested.

“Well…” Twilight began. She paused, images of all the battles she had fought quickly flashing through her head. As she recalled, she realized the emphasis on her magical prowess, not as a physical combatant. Her thoughts turned to the earlier excitement. “Yes. Exhilarating,” she finished with a giggle.

Applejack smirked, glancing over Twilight’s shoulder. “Let's get some more distance from that snake. There'll be plenty of time for sightseein’ once we get to the river.”

“Agreed.”

Twilight watched carefully as she resumed following Applejack. With each step, the colorful swirls flared under her hooves, all but the light blue quickly fading. Applejack quietly adjusted her course to follow, using its invisible guidance. “It's gonna take us about half an hour or so, assuming we don't run into more trouble,” she said.

Twilight murmured an acknowledgement, busy jotting down more observations alongside quick sketches of the plant life and small critters she found.

The two ponies trudged through the undergrowth, passing through swarms of insects, under flocks of squawking birds, and over the loud crunching of leaves and grass. Twilight’s ear perked up, a familiar sound piercing through the air.

“Y'hear that, Twi?” Applejack asked, leaning into the sound as she cupped her hoof to her ear.

“I hear and feel it!” Twilight said, light blue magic swirling like a fog in her wake.

They emerged suddenly into a large clearing, the bushes and grasses of the forest dropping off in favor of hard-packed sand and rocks. Before them lay a wide river, dozens of fish leaping in and out of the crystal-clear water. Both ponies squinted, trying to catch a glimpse of the opposite side. If Twilight hadn’t felt the river for herself, she could almost believe she was standing on the shoreline of a lake.

“Yeee-haw, we found it!” Applejack said, rearing back excitedly. Twilight glimpsed a blue flash from beneath Applejack’s hooves when they hit the ground. “Good thing too! I don’t know about you, but I was getting a mighty powerful thirst.” She waded out into the shallows, dunking into the water to take several huge gulps.

“That really hit the spot!” Applejack said, wiping her mouth. She glanced back at Twilight, still on-shore with both maps floating in front of her. “Somethin’ wrong, sugarcube? You ain’t drank nothin’. C’mon, get some water. I’m sure y’all need it.”

“Hmm...” Twilight murmured. “It's strange, this river isn’t present on either map.”

Applejack cocked an eyebrow. “A river this big? I have a hard time believing that,” She said, wading back to shore.

Twilight frowned, sitting on the firm sand. “I thought so too, but there’s nothing. No deltas, no watersheds… nothing. I’m guessing this area hadn’t been thoroughly explored when these were made.”

Applejack pointed at one of the maps. “Well, river or no river, that tree is still out there, and that’s where the cutie map is sending us. Means there’s at least somethin’ living out here.”

Twilight folded up the maps, carefully returning them to her saddlebags. “If nothing else, we can always follow it and see if it leads us to civilization,” she said. “For now, though… you’re right.” She trotted to the river’s edge and drank, the cool water invigorating her.

Twilight looked slowly around, pausing as her gaze swept past Applejack. “It should be safe out here in this clearing. AJ, can you keep an eye out for anymore… trouble?”

“Can do, sugarcube. Though you should know, if ya start driftin’ off on me again I’m gonna make sure I get heard this time, y’hear?” Applejack said flatly.

Twilight giggled. “I trust you. Do what you have to do.” She relaxed and closed her eyes, letting her thoughts wander. As her instincts took hold, images of forest life filled her mind with greater clarity and density than any encyclopedia in Equestria. She winced, the rush of sensations overwhelming her. Trees, fish, the river, bats, snakes, more trees, crickets, all making themselves known to her at once. Her eyes clenched tighter, sweat rolling down her brow as the images merged together into a bright, white static. With a yell, she lost her balance and collapsed onto her side.

“Twilight!” Applejack yelled, her hat flying off as she hustled over.

Twilight groaned and pressed her hooves against her temples, massaging them. She slowly rolled onto her stomach and muttered, “Augh…. Applejack…”

Applejack touched her shoulder. “You okay? What happened?”

Twilight shook her head slowly, her eyes twitching beneath their lids. She grimaced as she struggled back to all fours, slowly opening one eye, then the other.

“Hey now, don’t overdo it,” Applejack said. “Tell me what happened.”

“I uh…” Twilight said. “I think I overdid it.”

Applejack rolled her eyes. She grabbed the rim of her hat with her teeth, flipping it back onto her head.

“I was… It was…” Twilight took a moment and shook her head again, her vision slowly returning as her migraine faded. “It was beautiful… I could feel the forest. The water, the trees, the animals, everything!” She hopped in place a little, groaning as a wave of nausea washed over her.

“Everythin’ huh?” Applejack asked, tapping a hoof against her chin as she thought. “I remember Apple Bloom had somethin’ similar happen to her when she was just a filly. She got all kinds of sick ‘cause of all the livestock we had on the farm. Kept her in bed for two or three days. Only happened once, but boy did it spook us.”

“Wait, really? You think it was the same thing I just felt?”

“I sure do. Granny Smith said it was somethin’ along the lines of there being too much life and energy all around so your body has no idea what to do, so it just shuts down. I’ve heard it happenin’ to some of my cousins too, so it definitely runs in the family,” Applejack said.

Twilight tilted her head, thinking. “I’ll be honest, AJ. There’s not a whole lot of documentation on the mechanics of earth pony magic. A lot of stuck-up unicorn scholars turn their muzzles up at it for not being ‘real’ magic. It was too ‘subtle’ for them,” Twilight said, frowning awkwardly as the last of her headache wore away.

“Heh. I ain’t surprised. They wouldn’t know a hard day’s work if it bucked ‘em in the behind,” Applejack said with a conceited grin.

“Regardless, based on what I’ve witnessed first-hoof and what you’ve shared with me, I believe magic runs naturally through all earth ponies just like unicorns. Your magic manifests differently than ours, like pegasi walking on clouds. Naturally some earth ponies have more aptitude than others,” Twilight said.

“Kinda like how Rainbow Dash can clear the sky out lickity-split, but Fluttershy likes stayin’ on the ground?” Applejack asked.

“Something like that, yeah. Such differences are also likely related to their special talents. For example, you and your family have a strong affinity for apples, whereas another might find their calling with something else, such as carrots, flowers, or pears. The different plants you might be connected to could have an influence on the strength of your magic.” Twilight blushed, pawing at the ground. “Of course, it’s all just a hypothesis.”

Applejack cracked a smile. “Heh. I suppose that makes sense.”

Twilight smiled at her friend. She always appreciated Applejack’s support, even when she knew her rambling wasn’t quite understood. She looked up and down the river, craning her neck to see to the horizon. “Applejack, I’m going to try this again… and see if I can follow the river in both directions. That way maybe I can locate some kind of trace of civilization.” She touched Applejack on the shoulder. “I promise I won’t overdo it this time,” she said with a smirk.

“You’d better not, y’hear? I wasn’t kiddin’. I swear I’ll carry you back to Ponyville myself if I have to,” Applejack said.

Twilight chuckled, shaking her head. She took a deep breath and let herself focus again, setting aside everything around her save the water. Slowly, she reached out with her magic and allowed it attach itself to the current.

Her perception widened, both upstream and down. Every time her magic picked up the sway of a fish, or the deep thrum of a water-dwelling lizard, or the gentle chirp of a turtle, she felt herself flinch—but she would not be deterred. She maintained her concentration, following the magic flows as they spread throughout the river. Finally, one end of the flow suddenly branched up and out of the water, lighting up like a Hearth’s Warming tree.

Twilight gasped and opened her eyes, releasing the magic. As her sensation rolled back into her singular mind, she nearly fell over again (and would have, had Applejack not braced against her). “You okay?” Applejack asked.

Twilight shook her head, her eyes spinning as she tried to catch her bearings again. As she reacquainted herself with her surroundings, she nudged Applejack to look upstream. “We need to go that way! It’s pretty far, maybe two hours by hoof, but all we need to do is follow the river and we’ll get there!”

“What is it? You think it’s ponyfolk?” Applejack said, eyes growing wide as a gleeful smile spread over her face.

“No doubt about it! We follow this river, we’ll find our friendship problem!” Twilight said excitedly. The two set off alongside the river as they made their way deeper into the heart of the Silverglade.

Chapter 12: And Golden Boughs

Author's Note

Once again, Cadenza Heartsong has made another amazing song to go alongside Twilight's journey. Just around the bend is a comforting, nostalgic village. Let the music bring you back to a simpler time, one where old traditions hold steady and a coming of age tale fast approaches...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qeiLBoJaeIo

Chapter 12: And Golden Boughs

The plant cover and foliage grew thicker as they travelled further upstream, the thin strips of silver shining bright as they trotted. The size and fullness of the silvery veins steadily grew in luster.

Twilight and Applejack stumbled through the tangled underbrush, the flora growing lusher and more vibrant with every passing step. Uneven terrain, unknown and potentially dangerous plants, a myriad of creatures both great and small, and general fatigue all stood in their way.

“We’ve been out here for hours!” Twilight complained, her body bobbing up and down with exhaustion. She nickered, blowing her bangs out of her eyes, mane and tail dripping with sweat.

Applejack gave a reassuring—if slightly nervous—smile. “Well, that two hours must’ve been as the bird flies; probably didn’t really account for bein’ slowed up by rough goin’.” She retched, her tongue hanging out. “Or that nasty cloud of Twittermites.”

Twilight groaned, summoning the last of her dwindling energy reserves to maintain pace with Applejack. Even with her alicorn strength (and all that that entailed), Twilight knew she was still no athlete. She grunted as she narrowly avoided tripping over a tree root.

Applejack turned back and smiled at the struggling alicorn. “Now don’t you fret nothin, sugarcube. I reckon we’ve been walkin’ for about four hours, so we’re gettin’ pretty close!”

Twilight laughed hoarsely, a smile noticeably absent from her face. Not even two, but four hours? She became intensely aware of how heavy her eyelids felt and the sheer volume of exertion wearing her thin. On top of her physical fatigue, the irresistible urge to practice her hitherto-untapped earth pony magic was growing stronger by the step.

It felt as if each time she tried her magic, it only compounded her weary state. But, surely they had to be getting closer. I don’t know how much more of this I can take, Twilight thought. Maybe just one more test to see...

Twilight tapped a hoof against the ground, sending out yet another magic pulse. The foci shone through the native aether as they illuminated her way. She knew Applejack was no liar: as she promised, they were getting closer by the minute. The magical confirmation brought Twilight a small measure of reassurance.

“Y-Yeah,” Twilight said, her voice wavering slightly as she stumbled. “I can... feel… it,” she said between breaths.

“You be careful now,” Applejack said sternly. “I know you’re startin’ to overdo it, Twi. I know you. You’re focusing too much on feelin’ stuff out with earth pony magic.”

Twilight panted, wrestling a scroll from her bag. She quickly scrawled earth pony overuse super tired day workout. Without even bothering to proofread, she quickly rolled it up and tucked it away.

Reaching the top of a large crest, Applejack whooped. “Twilight! We’re here!”

Twilight perked up , hustling over to join Applejack. Spread out before them in a large clearing was a settlement—no, a village! Dozens of wooden and straw homes peppered the glade before them. The river cut alongside the edge of the village, small fields layered on either side.

However, what held their focus wasn’t the village. An impossibly tall tree stood amidst the houses, its massive canopy providing shade for the entire village. Thick branches jutted out at odd intervals along the trunk, curling through the air. Applejack squinted; could she see a light—no, several lights—on the trunk? It was reminiscent of Twilight’s—

“Are those windows?” Applejack asked.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she fell onto her haunches. Her jaw hung open as she stared at the colossal tree. “Yeah… windows,” she said quietly. Sure enough, dozens of the windows dotted the surface of the tree.

As they stared, Applejack noticed Twilight acting unusually quiet. “Uh, you okay, Twi?” She asked, stepping closer to her friend.

Twilight hesitated. In her eyes, the tree gave off a soft aura, its branches obfuscated by intermittent shimmers of gold. “I’m… I’m fine,” she said, her voice trembling. “Just suddenly reminded of home.”

Applejack glanced at the tree, then back to Twilight. “I get what’cha mean,” she said as she pulled Twilight into a hug. Twilight sighed as Applejack held her. “Come on,” she said, “Let’s get into town and hopefully we can catch our breath. We’ve still got a friendship problem to fix!”

Twilight looked past Applejack, the tree’s aura causing the air to waver. A few balconies jutted out from some of the branches, with plant decoration that looked to be deliberately cultivated. From these, too, a slight aura drifted. “You’re right. The friendship problem should be our first priority.”

The two carefully made their way into the village. A buzz of excitement and low hum of activity filled the air, as ponies of all colors dashed about, carrying streamers, scurrying up ladders, clamoring over rooftops… it seemed as though everypony had a job to do.

“I wonder what all the fuss is about,” Applejack said.

“They must be preparing for some kind of festival,” Twilight observed, a sigh slipping from her lips. “Finally, something normal.”

“Howdy there!” Applejack said with a wave to a pale green earth pony. She sported a bright yellow mane with curls tumbling over her slim shoulders, a farmer’s hoe emblazoned on her flank. Her sky-blue eyes grew wide in surprise. With a gasp, she dropped a ruby-red lantern from her mouth and rushed over.

“Oh my Celestia! Are you two okay? You look positively horrible!” She pranced in place as words tumbled from her mouth in a rush.

“Heh! We’re all right, just a mite tired,” Applejack said, gesturing toward Twilight. “We’re actually here on official friendship business! We were wonderin’ if—“

“Wait! Are you an alicorn?” The pony interrupted, bouncing up and down as she zipped over to Twilight. She nosed herself under Twilight’s wings, flipping them up to a shout of surprise from Twilight. The pony looked her all over, poking at her horn, wings, mane, and seemingly every other possible nook and cranny.

As quickly as the investigation began, the earth pony zipped a few paces away, her head tilting in confusion.

“I thought Princess Celestia had a white coat?” the earth pony asked, her voice rising to a squeak.

Applejack quirked an eyebrow while Twilight stammered. “I… well, she… yeah it’s… but I’m not…”

“Yes... She does,” Applejack said bluntly, pursing her lips. “But she also ain’t the only alicorn in Equestria. Y'all don't get out much, do you?”

Twilight stepped forward, clearing her throat. “Hello, I’m Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship,” she said. “We’re here on official friendship duty. We were wondering if you knew of any problems going on in your village. And… maybe a place for us to rest, too. We've come all the way from Ponyville and we're just exhausted from the trip.”

“Yes, yes, of course, of course!” the pony squeaked excitedly, her mane bobbing wildly as she nodded rapidly. “Come on, follow me!”

As the pony led them along the grassy road, Twilight and Applejack noticed more and more ponies out and about, each one helping to decorate the town.

“We’ll go to the elder! I’m sure she can help you!” Their new companion said, hopping along as they approached the center of the village. A few ponies caught sight of the two newcomers, stopping to stare with wide eyes.

“They uh… sure are excited to see us,” Applejack said nervously, glancing from one gawking pony to the next. “Right?”

“Oh! Sorry, we don’t get a lot of visitors, especially not a Princess! I think everypony is just a little surprised!” the earth pony said.

Applejack rolled her eyes with a smirk, glancing at Twilight. “You hangin’ in there, Twi?”

“Yeah, I’m feeling much better now that we’re finally here. And honestly… everypony here is in such a good mood, it almost seems like there isn’t a friendship problem at all!” Twilight said with a smile.

The trio arrived at a large house near the center of the village. Twilight was reminded of the town hall in Ponyville—albeit much smaller and with thatch-straw for its roof. Its relative size and overall level of craftsmanship led her to conclude that this was indeed the home of the elder… whoever that was.

“Here we are!” The guide pony said as she knocked on the door in a quick pattern. “Elder, we have guests!”

“Come in!” A shaky voice sounded from inside. Their companion opened the door, revealing a spacious living room. An older mare with a somewhat frazzled and greying blonde mane was seated on the floor behind a small table. A number of aged photos lined the wall behind her, each one housed in a wooden frame nearly matching her tawny coat. “Come in, come in!” The older mare gestured eagerly toward Twilight and Applejack.

“You two get some rest afterward, okay? The festival starts tomorrow night and I’ve still got a lot of work to do!” The earth pony said, bouncing her way back into the village. Twilight watched her for a moment, smirking, before closing the door behind them.

The pair turned to face the elder. The smell of hot ginger tea filled their nostrils, the soothing scent providing some comfort to their weary bodies.

“Please, have a seat. I’m Ivy Bramble, the village elder. It seems you’ve met one of my protégés, Holly Thicket. You young ones look like you’ve travelled far to get here.” Her weary eyes were only half-open, but Twilight could see their deep hazelnut color with ease. She noticed a spark behind those eyes, a spark that spoke volumes about the experiences of this unassuming mare. Ivy took a sip of her tea and sighed contently, setting the ceramic mug down with a gentle clink. “What brings a pony such as yourself to our little far-flung corner of Equestria, Princess?”

“We came because we believe there’s a friendship problem somewhere in this village,” Twilight said as she took a seat at the table opposite Ivy. “We have an artifact we call the Friendship Map that calls us to places around the world when we’re needed to help solve problems. Is there anything going on around the village that you might be able to tell us about?”

Ivy took another sip of tea. She reached across the table and set down a pair of cups from seemingly nowhere, producing a kettle and pouring some tea into each. “If that’s why you’re here, I think I have a pretty good idea of what you’re looking for. Sugar?”

“No thank ya, ma’am,” Applejack said, graciously taking a cup and blowing on her tea. “What kind of problem are we lookin’ at here?”

“First, a little history!” Ivy said. She slowly stood and shuffled over to the wall of photos, looking them over slowly with her aged eyes.

“Our little home here is named Peacegrove Village, founded many centuries ago by earth ponies. Much like Ponyville, if I recall correctly,” Ivy said with a glance at her guests. “Our founders took shelter from the ravages of the Silverglade under the tree I’ve no doubt you saw on your way in,” she said, sighing as she touched a photo of a young filly surrounded by a cheering crowd of ponies.

Twilight and Applejack couldn’t help but smile as they noticed the filly’s mane matching the elder’s. They had each seen pictures of Granny Smith as a filly and knew they were sharing a special moment with their new host.

“The dangerous creatures of the forest dared not approach the tree or clearing it protected, so it was decided to set up a permanent settlement along its base,” Ivy said.

“This tree sounds mighty important to y’all. Do ponies actually live in there?” Applejack asked. “We saw lots of windows and balconies all along the outside.”

“In a manner of speaking,” Ivy said. “It is a place of relaxation, young one—a place of study and growth. Those that wish to meditate and find peace, or learn more about the forest—or about themselves—hear its call. It’s not uncommon for some ponies to spend several days at a time in their own space, but they all have their own homes to return to once they have found solace.”

“Was the tree always inhabitable? It seems unlikely that a tree in such an underpopulated region of Equestria would grow on its own to accommodate ponies living inside,” Twilight asked, tilting her head inquisitively.

“Very observant, young one!” Ivy said with a chuckle. “There was always something special about that tree, something alluring… but it took time to turn it into what it is today. The turning point came one night as the full moon shone brightly atop the tree. Our ancestors had never seen the moon in that position in the sky before, much less as bright and full as the tales tell.”

Applejack nodded, listening intently. She knew Granny Smith’s tales from the founding of Ponyville, but this was something new. Twilight found herself engrossed in the story as well, subtly taking notes to cross-reference with her Almanac of Astronomical Anomalies later.

“It was a gorgeous sight,” Ivy said, her voice wavering. “The moonlight lit up the entire tree brighter and more beautiful than Luna’s starry sky… our ancestors described it like something out of a fairy tale.”

“And then?” Twilight asked, furiously scribbling notes as the elder spoke.

Ivy chuckled. “Even more incredible was what followed: At noon the next day, the sun shone directly overhead, in the same spot as the moon. With that season’s crops approaching harvest time, it was seen as a blessing from Celestia herself. Everypony in the village went straight to work, harvesting corn, apples, pears… you name it! The crops had become ready for the harvest overnight, a full month earlier than they were due.”

“That sounds…” Twilight said in a hushed whisper, her eyes widening and sparkling with light. “It sounds…” She struggled to find an adequate word.

“Our ancestors were amazed,” the elder mare continued. “The village was in perfect harmony that day… but the young fillies and colts turned out to be the most eager and productive. Many cutie marks were earned that day. It was then that the founders decided to make this a yearly holiday; a coming of age celebration and an appeal for a good harvest.” Ivy pointed toward a photo of the moon high on the wall. “Every year since then, the moon and the sun have blessed our village in their conjunction.”

“That’s fascinating…” Twilight said. She felt the gears turning in her head once more. “To think that the sun and the moon would line up like that! Normally there’s a slight discrepancy to account for the axial tilt of the planet, which helps signal when to change the seasons, so a conjunction between the two bodies is rare, bordering on the impossible! I would love to speak to Princess Celestia about…”

Twilight cut herself off, blushing as she noticed Applejack’s eyes start to glaze over while Ivy gave her a gentle smile. “Sorry! I get a little carried away sometimes.”

“It’s quite all right, young one,” Ivy said gently, sipping her tea.

“Well, I think that’s just plumb dandy of y’all to celebrate it every year. It sounds a lot like the Apple family reunion we hold just before the annual applebucking season!” Applejack said, wearing her smile in her voice.

“In the centuries since, the festival has grown and changed over time, but we always remember our roots of our beginnings. Thus was born the twin Festivals of the Argent Moon and Aurum Sun!” Ivy said, raising a weary hoof to point at the various decorations outside.

Twilight found herself leaning in, revelling in all of this new, unexplored history. Applejack, on the other hoof sat calmly with her tea, smiling at the idea.

“You two are in luck… the Argent Moon is expected for tomorrow night,” Ivy said with a smile. “We would be most honored if you could stay for the events.”

Twilight let out a squeal of excitement. She glanced at her cutie mark, then back up to Ivy. “We would love to! If the festival is tomorrow night, then it must be why the map called us here.” Twilight said. Wait a second… she thought. If the festival is expected to begin so soon, why would the map give us only a day’s notice?

“You said you might have an idea on what might be causin’ an issue, Miss Ivy?” Applejack asked. “Is there somethin’ specific going on?”

Ivy sighed as her ears drooped, speaking softly. “Indeed I would… As I said, it’s our annual coming of age ritual. Fillies and colts of the appropriate age are required to take part in a ceremonial test of wits and strength to prove themselves ready for adulthood. Some earn their cutie marks during the celebration, and others later, but everypony ends up with some idea of where to start looking. Cutie mark or no, this is to show they are ready to help lead and care for the village.”

“I see…” Twilight muttered to herself, idly fidgeting with her quill. “And you’re thinking it has something to do with this part of the festival?”

“Yes.” Ivy said flatly. “A young filly named Hopeseed has proven to be…” She paused, biting her lower lip as she frowned. “Difficult. For the last several weeks she has grown very distant from the other yearlings and withdrawn from her schooling and chores. Her parents say that she eats meals in silence, and just heads straight to bed afterwards.”

“Has she told anypony else what’s wrong?” Twilight asked.

“She has not. I am inclined to believe that she is concerned about the ceremony tomorrow, but she refuses to speak to us. All day she hides in different places throughout the village, and every time somepony finds her she just runs and hides again,” Ivy said with a frown.

“She ain’t in the forest, is she?” Applejack asked. “I don’t think it’s safe out there for a filly.”

“I don’t believe so, the forest frightens her. She’s always been very timid, but she was happy. This is very unlike her.”

“Do you want us to help look for her?” Twilight asked. “Maybe there’s something we can do to help.”

“I can’t ask that of a guest. Her parents are looking for her, and I’m sure she’ll come around sooner or later. For now, you should focus on getting cleaned up and rested! You two are filthy!” Ivy said with a maternal chuckle.

Twilight and Applejack looked at each other, then down at themselves, then turned in unison back at the trail of dirt they had created from the door. Bits of twigs, leaves, and dirt were caught in their manes, smudging their faces, and discoloring their coats.

“Oh my gosh, we’re so sorry! We’re so tired from our journey that we didn’t realize—” Twilight began, but was interrupted by Ivy’s laughter.

“It’s quite all right, Princess! Please, make your way to the tree. Many of the study rooms have private baths and beds, so you can clean yourselves up and rest. If there’s a green card on the door, it’s free for anypony to use! Go on!” she shooed Twilight and Applejack toward the door.

“I see… We will. Thank you so much for your village’s hospitality.” Twilight said, bowing her head in thanks. “We’ll do whatever we can to help Hopeseed. I imagine just finding her isn’t the solution the Map brought us here for. It sounds like there may be a more ingrained issue for her to work through, so please tell us when you do find her.”

“I will, I promise. The main entrance to the tree is straight down the road from here. You can’t miss it!” Ivy said with a reassuring grin.

The two visitors stood, hastily sipping down the last of their tea. Applejack waved goodbye to their generous host as she followed Twilight out the door.

Twilight could feel the tree’s aura wafting over the village much more powerfully than any of the other trees. She didn’t even need to focus to feel its gentle magic.

“It’s just like Amethyst Hollow…” Twilight whispered under her breath.

“Hmm?” Applejack paused. “You say somethin’, sugarcube?”

Twilight smiled and shook her head, motioning her friend to carry on. “It’s nothing. I agree with Ivy, we’re in no real condition to help look for Hopeseed right now. Let’s rest up and form a plan, and hopefully we can help out later.”

“Sounds good to me,” Applejack said. As the two approached the towering trunk of the village, the sheer height induced a mild sense of vertigo. Twilight found herself unable to look up at the canopy without feeling ill. As Ivy had promised, a set of wooden doors marked the entrance into the sanctuary—but these were no ordinary doors.

The circular door was split horizontally, the upper and lower halves intertwining with one another. The lower half of the door was split again vertically, and along this split a diptych was formed. The right side extending upward along the door was a mural of the daytime sky: Light blue with wispy clouds and a bright, golden sun in the lower corner. Painted on the left was a deep purple night sky, peppered with white stars and long, rolling clouds that mirrored the pattern of its twin. In the upper portion, a silvery full moon gleamed in the daytime light.

“Wow, they sure meant it with the what’s-it sun and who’s-it moon, didn’t they?” Applejack said with a chuckle.

Twilight nodded, astonished. The celestial bodies weren’t quite identical to the cutie marks of her elder Princesses, but given the reverence this village held for this festival, she was confident in her association. Twilight took hold of the door with her magic and pulled, slowly opening it with a loud creak. One glance inside told her what she already felt: she was home.

Chapter 13: Within Submerged Mysteries

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Chapter 14: Hunt For Hopeseed

“Seek…

…Learn…

…Know…”

…

“When all three—”

Twilight let out a soft gasp, her eyes opening as the gentle sunlight wafting in through the window washed away the last traces of her dream. She fidgeted under the blankets, her eyesight slowly adjusting to the light. She heard nearby snoring: Applejack was still asleep.

“Always the same dream,” Twilight murmured to herself, sitting upright. She quietly levitated her notes out of her bags and looked them over.

Day 7: Same dream as prior, but with additions. The message from Amethyst Hollow now plays after the original message: “When all three.” Despite this, I feel slightly less agitated and have awoken more well-rested than previous nights. The meaning of this addition is unknown, but I maintain belief that it is connected in some manner to the three pony tribes.

At the bottom, she added:

Day 8: No change from previous.

She stared at the parchment and sighed. She rolled it up and carefully placed it back in her bag. It was true, she had slept better, but the strange messages continued to gnaw at her mind. I’m not cursed, am I? She thought, twirling her quill about. No, don’t be silly. Maybe I’m just stressed—well, more stressed than usual. But that doesn’t explain the original message…

She groaned to herself, putting the quill away. I need to stay focused. AJ and I still need to solve this friendship problem. Twilight rolled over as a yawn broke the serenity.

Applejack rose, stretching high. “Mmm… Mornin’ Twi…” she said, yawning again as her back cricked. “Sleep well?”

Twilight’s eyes darted to her bag on the floor, then back to Applejack. With a blush, she replied, “More or less. Remember the message from Amethyst Hollow?”

Applejack nodded sleepily, rubbing her eyes.

“It showed up in my dreams again,” Twilight said. She sighed. “I’ve been hearing it since I returned from the north.”

“Wait a minute,” Applejack said, rolling over and out of bed. “Y’all didn’t say nothin’ about that dream changin’ up on you.”

“I didn’t want you to worry,” Twilight said, looking down and picking at a corner of her sheet.

Applejack sighed and rolled her eyes. “‘Course ya didn’t…” she mumbled. “Either way, we’d best get goin’ and see if Ivy found Hopeseed.”

“I agree,” said Twilight as she climbed out of bed. With a flourish of magic, their beds were made and saddlebags draped over their backs, much to Applejack’s surprise. They left the room and made their way to the base of the tree. Aside from their hoofsteps and the various water fixtures, the tree was still.

Upon exiting the tree, they were greeted with more streamers and decorations covering the village. The ponies of Peacegrove had clearly been busy: lanterns and small celestial effigies hung from ropes slung between rooftops and every wall and window seemed to hold some kind of ornamentation. Some distance away, a strange structure caught their attention as they made their way toward the main thoroughfare.

“Is that a stage?” Twilight said, craning her neck to get a better look.

“Sure looks like it,” Applejack said. “Pretty sure that weren’t there yesterday. These ponies really know how to get things done ‘round here.”

Ivy Bramble was perched on the edge of the stage, hanging firefly lanterns around a large goblet-like container. Its bowl could easily contain two or more mid-size ponies. Behind Ivy and the goblet, a curtain was hanging from a scaffold at the rear of the stage. Its elaborate pattern depicted an image similar to the mural painted on the tree’s entrance.

“Wow!” Twilight said, eyes twinkling as she leapt onto the stage. “What’s all this for?”

“Oh! Good morning, young ones!” Ivy said, finishing up a lantern. The large goblet was adorned with a number of colorful pink and green flowers running along vines connecting it to the corners of the stage. The pair were reminded of the streamers clinging to the buildings.

“Hoo-whee!” Applejack whooped. “Y’all sure got somethin’ nice here. Is that made of the same wood as the tree tree?” She asked, motioning above her.

Ivy chuckled warmly. “Indeed it is! An astute observation. It plays a very important role in tonight’s festival.” She took a step back to admire the wooden ornament, nodding. “Tonight at sunset, all fillies and colts who are of appropriate age must take part in the coming of age ceremony. By using their budding talents, they must each locate an arĝenta-oro, a rare flower that blooms only during the night of the festival.”

“I’ve never heard of a flower by that name,” Twilight said, tilting her head curiously. “It sounds Old Ponish.”

“An angry olive?” Applejack asked. “That’s kind of a weird—” Twilight cleared her throat loudly, interrupting Applejack and making her muzzle scrunch up.

“That’s because it is Old Ponish. Most ponies here call it the ‘silver-gold blossom.’ It only grows here in the Silverglade,” Ivy said, “and for only one night each year during the festival. During the magic of the Argent Moon and Aurum Sun, it shimmers with the most brilliant of colors, but only if placed in the goblet before midnight! That is every yearling’s task during the ceremony.”

As if from the aether, a pale green earth pony suddenly appeared next to the group. “Oh! Am I interrupting?” she asked, prancing in place. She quickly glanced between each member of the trio, her mouth curled into a frown.

Twilight and Applejack yelped, stumbling back, but Ivy was undisturbed by the mare’s sudden presence. “Holly Thicket!” Ivy said with a wrinkled smile. “What brings you here? You look distressed.”

“We’ve been searching high and low and left and right for her! And even backwards and forwards and sideways a little,” Holly said, her tail bouncing as she bounced.

“Simmer down, Holly, what’s got y’all ate up?” Applejack said.

Twilight gulped. She felt she knew what was going to tumble out next.

“We kept looking and looking and looking until we couldn’t look any longer! We just can’t find Hopeseed anywhere!” Holly cried out, the words somehow spilling out of her muzzle in the right order.

The color drained from Ivy’s face as she leaned against the stage centerpiece. “Oh. Oh dear me, that’s not good…”

“How can we help?” Twilight said, stepping forward. “The festival is tonight, right? You’ll need all the hooves you can get!”

“Oh, I’m not sure—” she paused, considering the offer. “You’re right. We could use the help. Thank you, young ones,” Ivy said, sighing. “I can’t even begin to tell you how important it is she succeeds tonight.” Ivy gulped, then exhaled sharply. Twilight spotted a bead of sweat trickling from her brow.

“Is something wrong?” Twilight asked.

Ivy sighed and turned away, staring at the goblet. An idle breeze ruffled their manes as she stood in silence. “It has only happened once… or so the legends say. Three or four generations after the village was founded, there lived a troublesome colt who refused to take part in the ceremony. He was exceptionally gifted, but his natural talent made him arrogant.”

Holly sighed, her ears and head lowering.

Ivy turned to face Twilight. Her heavy eyes spoke volumes no words ever could. “He was convinced he would be able to find his blossom with no effort, so he didn’t start looking until the Argent Moon was but minutes away.”

“I don’t think I like where this is goin’,” Applejack said with a grimace.

Ivy nodded grimly. “Indeed. He failed his coming of age ceremony.”

“So, what happened to him?” Twilight asked with a worried frown. She hadn’t considered a time limit with which to find Hopeseed.

“The story goes that the Tree rejected him!” Holly blurted out, gesturing toward the towering canopy. “With its magic treating him like an outsider, he couldn’t stay. They say he ran into the Silverglade, never to be seen again.”

Applejack couldn’t believe her ears. “That’s ridiculous!” She said, stamping a hoof. Everypony around the plaza flinched in surprise. “Why would y’all just abandon one of your own like that? Over some dumb flower?” she shouted with exasperation.

“Applejack, please…” Twilight said quietly, touching a hoof to her friend’s shoulder.

“It wasn’t their decision to make!” Ivy snapped back, her aged voice cracking. “Haven’t you noticed something about this clearing the village is in? About the tree?”

Twilight and Applejack looked at one another, then up at the tree, then back down to Ivy. They shook their heads.

“The tree protects us. No monsters can enter this hallowed ground, nor can any dangerous plants take root in its sacred soil! I know the story of the stubborn colt could just be a mare’s tale passed down through the centuries, but our society’s very existence is proof enough for me! I don’t want to take that chance of losing both that and Hopeseed!” Ivy cried, fighting back tears.

“I… I’m…” Applejack stammered, looking down at the dirt. “I’m sorry, I didn’t know,” she said, regret lacing her voice.

Ivy shook her head with a nicker. “It’s fine, young one. You’re right, you didn’t know.” There was a scathing bluntness in her tone.

“Why didn’t you tell us yesterday? We would have been more than willing to help search,” Twilight said. “And if what you’ve told us is true, why did it let us in?”

Ivy’s breath caught. “I don’t know. You’re here now, and that’s what’s important.”

“Oh! Oh! I thought she was Princess Celestia, so maybe the tree did too!” Holly piped up, bouncing in place.

Applejack rolled her eyes. “An’ what am I? Chopped oats?” She lowered her voice, whispering to Twilight. “I don’t like this. That story sounds like a bunch of hooey to me. Let’s find this Hopeseed gal and get the hay outta here.”

Twilight simply nodded. “As much as I would love to learn more about the myths and stories of your village,” she said, “I believe we have more pressing matters now.”

Applejack nodded. “Where do ya think we should look first, Miss Bramble?”

“I’m just not really sure,” Ivy said. “Her parents and a few others were looking late into the night, but if she still hasn’t been found then—”

“What about the tree?” Holly asked, perking up with a giggle as she pointed as high as she could.

Twilight and Applejack followed Holly’s hoof, their necks following the height of the tree. “Well, I reckon there’d certainly be a lotta hidin’ places for a youngin’,” Applejack said.

“Applejack is right. We didn’t notice anypony else last night, but there’s so many rooms she very well could be in there,” said Twilight, peering at the upper branches.

Ivy touched a hoof to her chin and thought for a moment. “Well, it’s worth a shot. We’ve never found her hiding in the tree before, but we’re running out of options.”

“The two of us can cover more ground in there. We can do something nopony else has tried!” Twilight said proudly, flaring her wings out. Ivy and Holly let out quiet exclamations of awe.

“Sounds like a plan to me!” Applejack replied with a confident smirk, straightening her hat.

“I’ll go with Holly and meet up with some others to check the rest of the village,” Ivy said. “It’s stretching us thin since the festival is tonight, but…” She bit her lower lip and shook her head. “I’m sorry. It’s probably just an old mare’s tale, but I can’t stand the thought of her—” Her voice broke, a quiet sob escaping her lips.

“Trust us, Ivy,” Twilight said, draping a wing over the elder’s back, “we’ll find her. If she’s not in the tree, we’ll let you know right away and go from there.”

Ivy looked up at Twilight, her eyes watering. “Thank you,” she whispered. “Truly, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

Twilight smiled and hopped from the stage with a flourish of her wings. “Don’t worry. We won’t let you down.” She broke into a canter with Applejack back down the busy path to tree.

“Good luck, young ones,” Ivy said quietly as the two ponies turned a corner and were lost to sight. “I have faith in you.”

The deep thud of the closing door echoed through the tree as they stared up into the colossal trunk. Despite their night here, its dizzying height and web of criss-crossing pathways still held their awe.

“Oh dear,” Twilight said with a nervous gulp. Her vision wavered a little as her gaze continued to scan up, up, up. “I almost forgot just how big this place is.”

“Yeah…” Applejack said, drawing out the word. She bit her lip. “I think you’re right though. We should split up. You can fly up and check topside while I check around the lower rooms.”

“And then we can meet somewhere in the middle. Good idea, AJ. Let’s go!” Twilight said, leaping into the air. Applejack gave her a wave, then galloped to a nearby doorway to begin her search.

Twilight flew up, higher than she could have possibly imagined. After what felt like hours, she finally landed on the uppermost walkway she could find. She entered the first room in front of her: a spacious, multi-level study room tucked away at the end of the walkway. A quick mass-levitation of the books, furniture, pillows, desks, and all manner of scholarly knick-knacks in the room revealed no residents of the room—aside from a few field mice who scurried into the wall.

“Not in here,” Twilight muttered, carefully walking through the room. Taking care to duck some of the heavier items, she checked every nook and cranny she could find. Satisfied, she gently set everything down exactly as it was before her intrusion.

She drifted from room to room, checking inside and under every little thing she could find. Plants, behind the books in a bookshelf, behind the bookshelf, even underneath impossible items like a stray teacup. No item escaped her scrutiny.

“No,” Twilight said, closing a door.

“No.” Another door slam.

“No, no, no!” Slam, slam, slam!

Twilight groaned in frustration, hanging her head. “I’ve tried every bathroom, bedroom, study room, outdoor room, balcony, vestibule, pantry, hallway, closet, workshop, gallery, boudoir… I’m not sure she’s in here at all!” She stomped a hoof in anger, the loud clop echoing through the hollow.

As she fumed, she found her temper cooling as the sound of water greeted her upon opening yet another door. She paused, hearing the occasional door close down below—hopefully Applejack is having better luck than I am, she thought—but the persistent trickling quelled her annoyance.

She took a breath and held it, pushing it out with her foreleg as she exhaled. She closed her eyes, trying to purge her mind of excessive thought. The trickling filled her awareness, and her mind’s eye began to visualize the flow of water through the tree. Although it was relaxing, she couldn’t seem to break her focus from her singular insertion point. If anything, the constant motion distracted her. An odd tingling sensation made the hair on her back stand on end, and she finally let go of the spell as her concentration broke.

She sighed, taking one quick look around the room. “Guess that didn’t work,” she grumbled. She peered over the edge of one of the walkways, catching a glimpse of Applejack ducking into a room on the floor below. Maybe Applejack’s found something, she thought. I certainly haven’t. With a graceful leap over the railing, Twilight glided down to the next floor.

“Applejack!” Twilight called as she hustled through the open door.

“Oh! Hey, Twi. Find anything yet?” Applejack asked as she scanned the room, sparing just a moment to wave to her friend. Applejack cocked her head to the side and give a firm tap on the floor with her hoof. “Don’t seem like she’s in here either…”

Orange swirls radiated from Applejack’s hooves, curling along the grain of the wood to all corners of the room. Applejack gave another tap, the pathways pulsing brighter. Twilight followed the magic trail with her eyes as a few solidified: one streaking toward a bed in the corner, and another slipping under the doorframe of a closet on the opposite side.

Another tap. “Wait. Somethin’ is in here,” Applejack said, her eyes narrowing. She slowly made her way to the bed and began to dig up the sheets, then ducked to look under the bed itself.

“Not here…” Applejack mumbled to herself.

“I see, so your earth pony magic is—” Twilight began excitedly, but was cut off by a quick shush from Applejack. Twilight obliged, covering her mouth with a hoof as Applejack put her ear against the closet door.

Applejack motioned her head at the door, waving Twilight over. Twilight walked closer, doing her best not to make any noise. She cautiously stood behind Applejack, preparing herself for… well, she didn’t know what for. Applejack yanked open the door, and with a sudden shriek and the loud flapping of leathery wings, a giant bat tumbled out of the closet. It collided with Applejack, nearly toppling her backwards as it scrambled to escape. Another hiss, and the bat was gone, flying off deep into some other well-hidden cranny.

“Oh, horseapples! Just a bat!” Applejack said in frustration, slamming the door shut.

“‘Just’ a bat?” Twilight gasped, panting. “That thing was huge!”

“Well, bat or not, it ain’t no Hopeseed. I didn’t feel no danger, so I was hopin’…” Applejack said with a snort.

A silence fell between the duo as Applejack fumed. Twilight stared at Applejack’s hooves, rolling her notes around in her head.

“What’s wrong, sugarcube? I didn’t step in somethin’, did I?” Applejack asked, looking at her hoof this way and that.

Twilight chuckled nervously, blushing. “No, I… No. I’m just still trying to figure out earth pony magic. Something seemed different and I can’t quite put my hoof on what.”

“Heh,” Applejack scoffed. “Still feels weird sayin’ I’m usin’ magic… But either way, it ain’t like lookin’ for a critter on the farm. Somethin’ about this tree is mighty distracting and it’s makin’ it hard to get a good idea of where stuff is,” Applejack said with another snort.

“Tell me about it. My best guess is that being inside a giant tree—a giant living organism—interfered with such magic,” Twilight said, pacing back and forth.

“How do ya figure?” Applejack asked.

“I think all of this living magic is blunting your—our—ability to feel our way around like we could outside. You remember trying to do farm work while exhausted?”

Applejack scrunched her muzzle and muttered, “Jus’ once or twice.”

“It’s kind of like that. I think. It’s harder to put the senses out there. All this water sure isn’t helping, either,” Twilight said. She groaned, willing away thoughts about her essay.

“Well, it’s dry as a bone in here. Maybe you could give it a go? We sure as sugar ain’t had any luck otherwise, and if not, we can go find Ivy and see if she’s had any luck,” Applejack said.

Twilight nodded. She breathed deeply and crossed her forelegs. As her eyes shut, she focused on the tree’s aura. With no running water to distract her, she could feel the tree’s natural embrace clearly. Golden wisps of magic danced in her mind’s eye, creeping in from all directions. They felt warm and gentle, yet Twilight could feel an ancient might resting just beneath the surface. There was power present, and it was growing every second. Her concentration wavered as images flashed in her mind: familiar images. The Silverglade Forest. The Golden Oak Library. And then…

Twilight gasped, staggering. She nearly tripped, and was her wings flared open for balance.

“Twi! You okay?” Applejack asked, gently steadying her friend.

“I… It…” Twilight panted. “I’m fine. I just got… lightheaded.”

Applejack huffed loudly. “Ya sure? I mean, that’s the third time you’ve—”

Twilight sighed, turning away. “I know, AJ.” she said. “Let me try one more time. I simply lost focus. Nothing dangerous this time.”

Applejack grunted a begrudging assent.

Twilight closed her eyes once more. Applejack’s right, she thought. There is something about this tree that… She shook her head, her face wrinkling as she tried to remain focused. You can worry about that later. Focus, Twilight. Focus…

She felt her perception fall away, her natural surroundings highlighting in her mind’s eye. She could feel Applejack’s warm presence… the spark of a few dragonflies on the wall… another family of mice scurrying away. She could even sense a very distant trickle of water—somewhere in the foyer—but this time, it didn’t pull her from her trance.

Her her tail flicked as something new caught her attention at the fringes of her perception. A faint aura came into view: still within the tree, but just distant enough that Twilight couldn’t quite bring it into focus. The aura flared a blinding white, flickering in and out of view. No—more like shaking. As Twilight approached through the aether, it darted off into the murky void.

Twilight’s eyes shot open with a gasp. “AJ!” She shouted. “I think I found her!”

“You did? Where? Is she in the tree?” Applejack urged.

“It was down in the foyer! Follow me!” Twilight said, streaking out of the room with Applejack hot on her tail. The pair galloped across the walkways, each ramp and stairway bringing them ever closer.

Applejack screeched to a halt as they reached the ground floor. “This is where we came in. I don’t think she’d be hidin’ in plain sight,” she murmured, glancing around.

Twilight was silent, slowly stretching out her awareness. White traces of magic lingered, but she could find no firm signs that they belonged to anypony. The trails persisted, running faintly along the floor. “Maybe it’s her, maybe it isn’t… but this doesn’t feel like an animal, and it definitely isn’t water.”

Twilight bounded into the air and spread her wings, gliding around the hollow—following the dim path of magic. As she flew, it led her to a small doorway tucked deep within a corner. She landed quietly and peered inside. To her surprise, the room was nearly bare—containing only one small desk, upon which sat a wooden telescope. The white energy she pursued led her straight to it, before veering off toward the wall. With a quick flicker of her horn, she lifted the telescope off the table to reveal a small button underneath. Twilight smirked and pressed the button with a loud click.

“What in the world are you doing?” Applejack asked as she trotted into the room. Without a word, Twilight zoomed over to the opposite corner—continuing her pursuit of the lingering magic, and nearly blowing Applejack’s hat off in the process.

Several rows of bookshelves were also carved into the wall, a multitude of books crammed into the limited space. Twilight scanned these up and down—trying hard to avoid getting distracted by the unfamiliar titles—until she spotted a small statuette of a pony’s head.

She seized it with her magic and pulled, a loud grunt escaping with the effort. It didn’t budge. Something was weighing it down, preventing her from lifting it. “Stuck…” Twilight mumbled through gritted teeth. She sighed and released the spell, moving to take a closer look. I don’t want to risk damaging it, she thought, but something’s not right here. I can feel it.

Twilight pondered for a moment before reaching into the shelf for it. As her hoof came in contact, the head easily gave way and rotated away, a familiar click echoing in the small space.

“There we go!” Twilight beamed, a low rumbling noise filling the air.

“Hey Twi? Whatever you just did…” Applejack called from the doorway. “I think you’d best get over here!”

Twilight hurried to Applejack’s side. “What is that?” Twilight yelled over the rumbling. The central waterfall began to shake, spraying water on the floor as the ground shook.

“Look!” Applejack pointed at the pond. The wooden planks that surrounded its perimeter sank beneath the floor, locking into place one by one as they spiraled farther down. As the cacophony subsided, a dark staircase descending below the pond was revealed.

Applejack squinted suspiciously at Twilight. “What did you just do?” She asked, her voice cracking slightly.

Twilight giggled nervously and fidgeted with her hooves. “Interior decorating?”

Applejack rolled her eyes with a sigh. “Right. Either way, it’s definitely as good a lead as any. Celestia knows we ain’t makin’ much progress up here!”

Twilight took a careful step onto the first wet step, conjuring an illumination spell as she picked her way down. Within minutes, the two were in total darkness, disappearing into the mysterious tunnel deep underground.

Chapter 16: Festival of Hope

A low rumble stirred the tunnel as a loud clanking echoed through the tunnel. Wooden steps above them slid into place with dull thuds, one by one locking into place to guide the ponies out. The last one came to rest and light poured in from above. They ascended quickly but carefully, emerging back into the foyer.

“Hoo-whee!” Applejack whooped. “The garden sure was pretty, but there’s just somethin’ about the open sky no amount of shiny plants can replace.”

Twilight stretched, flexing her wings out as she yawned. Hopeseed froze mid-stride stepping from the stairwell, staring hard at the doors. Twilight and Applejack shared a concerned look.

“Hopeseed?” Twilight asked. “Is everything okay?”

Hopeseed fidgeted with her bandana and looked to the floor, a flush running over her cheeks. The ground began to rumble as the stairwell disappeared from view, the floor around the pool locking into place. The rumbling stirred the pond, making splashes and ripples cascade across its surface. Hopeseed seemed to not notice, and only just managed to avoid getting splashed.

Twilight walked up to Hopeseed, the wood creaking under her hooves. “Hopeseed,” she said, crouching to her eye level. “I know you’re scared, but you want to help your garden, right?”

“Mm-hmm,” Hopeseed murmured and nodded—but she couldn’t stop a bead of sweat trickled down her forehead. “Do you think everypony is gonna be mad at me for hiding?”

“Nah. Even if they are, I’m sure they’d be more relieved to find you ain’t hurt,” Applejack said, walking over to join them.

“And you’re sure you don’t want to tell Ivy and your parents about the garden?” Twilight asked, gently touching Hopeseed’s mane.

Hopeseed flinched away. She took a few unsteady steps forward, pausing to look up at Twilight with a thoughtful look. “Yeah,” she said, looking back down at the floor. “I’m sure. I just—” she gulped. “I don’t want anything to mess it up before tonight.”

Hopeseed turned back to face Twilight and Applejack. “They do want me to make it… right?”

Twilight nodded, smiling warmly. “They don’t just want you to succeed,” she said, “they know you can.” With a reassuring wink, she and Applejack trotted to the doors and pushed them open.

The sunset-stained sky peeked its way through the canopy, bathing the village with a mottled late-evening glow. The trio paused at the sight, faint smiles tinting each of their faces. Twilight looked out into the evening, marvelling at the festivities.

The last of the day’s light streamed down onto a long line of colorful tents arranged on either side of the main pathway. Ponies were hustling between them, carrying decorations, hauling carts of food, bringing building materials to incomplete tents, and other busywork.

“Heh, it’s just like the Crystal Fair,” Applejack said. “Just with less… immortal unicorn-demon-things tryin’ to swallow everything up.”

Hopeseed trotted down the stairs, Twilight and Applejack scrambling to keep up. Twilight thought she saw a twinkle in the filly’s eye as she smirked. “I always liked the festival when I was little. Every year I’d stuff my face with caramel apples and pies and candy before the ceremony but now…” She glanced up at the decorations with a grunt. Wooden carvings and totems with the sun and moon emblazoned on them lined the edges of roofs, sat on the food stand countertops, hung from firefly lanterns—the imagery was everywhere.

Her ears lowered and she shook her head. “Now it’s my turn… Gotta be brave, gotta be—” Hopeseed muttered. She gulped, her eyes darting around. Her pupils shrank to points as she started breathing heavily, taking a few steps back and stumbling into Twilight. Twilight quickly caught the panicking filly, deftly stretching a wing to maintain her own balance.

“And you will be brave, Hopeseed.” Twilight said, helping her back to her hooves.

Hopeseed looked up at Twilight and nodded, sniffling as a single tear ran slowly down her cheek. She took a deep breath and dusted herself off. Applejack touched a reassuring hoof to her shoulder. “Hopeseed, you’ve got this. Trust me, Twi’s helped me out of more ‘n a few pickles before, and she ain’t let me down. I know you won’t neither.” She ruffled the unruly mop atop Hopeseed’s head. “It’ll all work out,” she said with a grin.

“I… thanks…” Hopeseed whispered, wiping the tear from her face. She looked down the path, then up at Applejack, then back down the path. She stood a little taller and said, “I’ve got this.”

The trio walked down the road, watching the last of the tents fly up with coordination rivalling Twilight’s own. Ponies of all shapes and sizes were setting up their stalls, the scent of fresh cooked treats and snacks wafting through the air. Applejack yanked Twilight back on course, finding her drifting toward a caramel apple stand.

“Sure is lively, ain’t it?” Applejack asked, perhaps a bit too loud. “Reminds me of home.”

Twilight pouted. “It wouldn’t have taken that long,” she whined. Hopeseed couldn’t help but giggle.

Ivy’s home came into view as they rounded the last corner. Though there were no activity tents or food stands set up nearby, plenty of decorations were littered around the small field all the same. Twilight shared a nod with Hopeseed, the latter’s eyes full of determination, and knocked.

“Come in!” Ivy’s muffled voice cried out from inside.

Twilight pulled open the door with a loud creak and peered inside. Ivy was hunched over a map spread across her living room table, a cup of tea balancing precariously on the corner. With a pair of reading glasses on her face and a quill in her mouth, she scribbled X after X on the map. Without looking up, she mumbled, “Come in, come in! Don’t got all night, you know,” the quill shaking in her mouth as she spoke.

“Miss Bramble? We have somepony here who would like to speak with you,” Twilight said as they walked in. Hopeseed peeked in from the doorway.

Ivy looked up from the map, her quill clattering to the table as she gasped. “Hopeseed!” She cried, “Oh, thank Celestia you’re safe!” She stood as quickly as her frail body would allow (Twilight swore she could hear creaking) and picked her way over papers scattered across the floor. “Just where in Equestria have you been, child?” She said. Hopeseed let out a small eep and ducked back behind the doorway. Twilight started after her, but the young filly stumbled back into the cottage.

“I-I…” Hopeseed stammered, her ears turned flat against her head.

“Miss Bramble, please don’t be too hard on her, she was just—” Twilight began.

“You had so many of us worried sick!” Ivy cut her off. “We thought something might have happened to you. We didn’t know where you were, if you were safe, if you were even coming back,” she said, shaking with emotion.

Hopeseed felt tears forming in the corners of her eyes, but she sniffled and fought them back.

“Now look,” Applejack said, stepping over to stand between the two. “I know you’re upset at her for runnin’ off and causin’ a headache ‘n all, but you could at least be grateful she ain’t hurt!” Applejack said with a nicker. She stomped her hoof against the floor, causing a few trinkets on a counter to rattle.

“We… I…” Ivy sighed heavily and adjusted her glasses with the tip of her hoof. “You’re right. I’m sorry, Hopeseed. We were all just so worried.” She offered her hoof to the filly, who gingerly took it.

She turned and slowly made her way back to the table, Hopeseed in tow. Twilight and Applejack followed close behind. “Tea?” She asked wearily. “A pot just finished a moment ago.”

Before anypony could respond, Ivy rolled up the map and stashed it under the table. She brandished three more teacups from seemingly nowhere—Seriously, how did she do that? Twilight thought—and set one down in front of each guest. Ivy filled each cup, dropping two sugarcubes into Hopeseed’s cup with a splash.

Ivy took a long sip and sighed. “I’m sorry, young ones. It’s just been so stressful today. Doing the head count of all of the appropriately-aged yearlings, making sure we have enough food for all of the stalls, tending to the forest, organizing the search for Hopeseed…” She nodded toward the rolled-up map.

“I can definitely relate to that,“ Twilight said with a giggle. She cleared her throat loudly and looked at Hopeseed. “Is there anything you wish to tell Miss Bramble, Hope?”

Hopeseed trembled and took a deep breath, holding it for a second. “I’m sorry,” came tumbling from her mouth. “I just got really scared! There’s a lot of pressure with everything about the festival. A-And I had to—” she suddenly cut herself off with a bite on her lip.

Ivy took another sip of tea. “You were scared.”

Hopeseed simply stared into her cup and nodded.

“I was scared too when I was your age,” Ivy said with a weary chuckle.

Hopeseed looked up from her drink. “You were?”

“Indeed,” Ivy said. “I was absolutely terrified of the whole thing, and I just couldn’t understand why everypony was fretting over a silly ol’ festival.” She took another sip of tea. “But I saw how happy everypony was. All of those smiling faces…”

Ivy slowly rose from the table and walked to the wall of pictures. She gazed at the photo of herself, a gentle smile spreading across her muzzle. “Thorn Patch, Celeste Thicket, and Poppydazzle…” her voice trailed off. “Long gone now, but they were so proud of me. Their pride carried me through the ceremony.”

She sighed wistfully, her hoof grazing a curious photo—not one of a pony or part of the village, but a close-up of a white flower. Its broad tepals bloomed into a six-pointed star, a slash of orange running from curled tip to base. Three flat stamina peeked from inside a deep central tunnel, each seemingly a different shape.

“What’s that?” Hopeseed asked, getting up from her seat to get a closer look.

“Ah, this?” Ivy said, straightening the frame. “It’s a special flower I was taking care of before the ceremony.”

Twilight and Applejack quickly exchanged glances, joining them by the wall. “I think I’ve seen this in a reference book before,” Twilight said.

“Oh? Have you now?” Ivy asked playfully, her eyes twinkling in a manner Twilight hadn’t seen before.

“It looks like a dragonsbreath lily!” Twilight beamed. “But they only grow in the Dragonlands, so how did you…”

Ivy chuckled, waving off the question. “I honestly couldn’t tell you, Princess. I was helping in our family garden and one day it just suddenly appeared in the far patch. Maybe it was a blessing from the tree, or even from further above. It bloomed like that,” she nodded to the picture, “just before my Argent Moon, so my friends knew I could pass the trial.”

Hopeseed stared up at the photo with wide eyes, struggling for words. Despite the aged photo, something about it spoke to her. Twilight blinked—was that another tinge of magic?

“I…” Hopeseed said, turning to face everypony. “I can do this. It’s scary, but I can do it,” Hopeseed said, grinning nervously.

“Wonderful!” Ivy said with a clap. “Now then, I think you two should run along and enjoy the festival! The ceremony doesn’t start until sundown, so why not get something to eat? I’ll take Hopeseed and help her get ready for tonight.”

“I think that sounds just dandy, Miss Bramble!” Applejack said. She playfully nudged Twilight. “We can get you one of them apples you were droolin’ over.”

“That does sound wonderful!” Twilight said. A most un-princess-like rumble came from her stomach. Twilight blushed and let out a nervous laugh.

“Oh yeah, definitely need some apples,” Applejack said with a smug grin.

“You’ve certainly earned a respite, young ones. I’ll call back the other search parties now that Hopeseed is safe. Just be sure to meet us at the stage before sundown,” Ivy said. She looked down at Hopeseed with a smile. The filly swelled with pride and smiled back broadly.

Twilight gave a gentle nod. She could feel her own pride welling up within. Is this how Celestia feels whenever I accomplish something?

“We will. Thank you so much for your hospitality, Miss Bramble,” Twilight said, bowing to excuse herself. “We’ll see you then.”

“Y’all stay outta trouble now, y’hear?” Applejack said, winking at Hopeseed before following Twilight outside.

In just the short time spent with Ivy, the plaza around them had exploded into a bustle of activity. Groups of ponies were wandering about, laughing and playing and eating. Twilight’s stomach rumbled loudly as the scent of corn on the cob, apple pie, and all sorts of goodies saturated the air. She stopped to watch a group of three fillies—even younger than Hopeseed—crowded around a brightly-colored tent, scrambling over each other to get closer to a chestnut-colored colt. A faint orange aura glowed around the colt just before he reared back, flinging a small hoop into the tent with his mouth. A stallion’s voice suddenly bellowed, “And we have a winner!” as the group of fillies cheered.

“Twi! You comin’?” Applejack grunted, motioning her over. She had found the caramel apple stand!

“Oh! Coming!” Twilight said, hustling over to join her friend, who shot the princess a grin. She licked her lips, already salivating from the smell alone.

“Now let’s see if these Peacegrove ponies can hold a candle to Apple family cookin’!” Applejack boasted with a smirk.

“Candle Holder?” came an excited voice from the stall. “She’s two stands down at the ring toss and—hey! It’s you!”

“Holly!” Twilight said happily, her wings spreading as she hopped with glee. “I thought you were helping Ivy look for Hopeseed?”

“I could ask you the same thing!” Holly said, her eyes widening at the display. “We decided that since there were so many ponies out but we still had to work on the festival we thought it would be a good idea to look in shifts, so here I am running this stall for right now until Auburndale comes to replace me. Did you guys have any luck?”

“We found her, Holly. Now take a breath before ya pass out on us,” Applejack said, leaning on the counter.

“Really?” she squealed. “That’s so so so wonderful! I'm so happy I could just explode! Where’d you find her, huh? Huh? Huh? Huh?” Holly punctuated each question by leaning closer to Applejack over the counter, bopping her on the forehead.

“Woah, easy now!” Applejack said, pushing the ball of excitement away. “We found her in her, uh… I mean, she was below…” she stammered, nervously looking around. “W-we found her in the Tree! Yep, that’s where she was. All up in the… Tree. With the books. And the… yeah.” Beads of sweat formed on her brow as she murmured to Twilight, “…technically.”

“We’ve already brought her back to Ivy, and she said she’s going to let everypony else know,” Twilight said, taking Applejack’s place at the counter.

Holly let out a huge sigh. “Oh thank the Princesses!” She glanced at Twilight’s horn and wings, suppressing a giggle. “I guess that includes you too, huh?” She stifled a snicker, which grew into uproarious laughter, as she planted her face against the counter and pounded it with a hoof. Twilight looked toward Applejack, who was fighting the urge to join the contagious mirth. She rolled her eyes and waited.

After a moment, Holly took a deep, gasping breath. One last “Hah!” escaped, and she finally composed herself—as well as she could, anyway. “So! Can I get you two some caramel apples?”

“Yes!” Twilight exclaimed, exasperation dragging her vowels out. She leaned over the counter, taking a look at all of the different choices. Holly yelped and stepped back, flailing to avoid tripping over the debris littering the inside of the stand.

Applejack smirked and pulled her hungry friend back. “Yes, Holly. Two, if ya wouldn’t mind.” Applejack said.

Holly bounced to the back of the stall, picking two of her favorite apples—Goodbye, Phil and Bill! she thought—and swiftly returned with the treats in tow.

“They look delicious,” Twilight said, her mouth watering. “How much?”

“On the house! Ivy’d make me clean the cobwebs from the tallest branch of the Tree if she found out I charged a princess for something!” Holly said, bouncing in place on her hooftips.

Twilight hesitated, looking away for a moment. Receiving special favors due to her title still made her uncomfortable. “Right,” Twilight said, forcing the word out.

“Thank ya kindly!” Applejack said, accepting both caramel apples from Holly with a nod. Holly waved them goodbye, bouncing happily once more before disappearing under the counter.

Twilight and Applejack walked slowly down the row of tents. The festival began to wind up, the sound of laughter, idle chat, and play filling the air. A couple of giggling fillies pelted past the duo, an exasperated stallion chasing after them.

“Now this is what makes it all worthwhile,” Applejack said, taking a big bite. “Don’tcha-ghee?”

Twilight nodded, chewing on the tacky caramel. As they walked, different types of fireflies woke up along the trail, their lanterns amplifying not only spectacular greens and yellows, but reds and blues as well. The decorations seemed to dance on their own in the natural light, casting shadows and reflections all around. They came across a small gap between a pair of tents, taking a seat in the grass to rest.

As they ate, Twilight's gaze idled on the guardian tree looming over the festival. Her thoughts churned in her head, slowly drowning out the dull roar of the villagers. “It's been over a week since this started…” she muttered, sighing quietly.

Applejack looked over at her friend, staring off into space. “Hey Twi, you okay?” She asked.

“Huh?” Twilight replied distantly. “Yeah… I'm fine.”

“No you ain't. You’re a worse liar ‘n I am, and I’m the gosh-darned Element of Honesty.” She scooched a little closer. “What’s the matter?”

Twilight's ears lowered as she blushed. “Can’t hide anything from you, can I?”

“Eenope. Worried ’bout Hopeseed, right?” Applejack asked, taking the last bite of her apple.

“Well, yes and no. I think she’ll do fine, but I can’t help but think about…” Twilight said, staring across the plaza at the Tree. “I’m just nervous for her, that’s all. Not to mention my own problems.”

Applejack swallowed her bite, deftly flicking the stick into a nearby bin. “For starters,” she said, “I think she’s gonna do just fine. I mean—don’t get me wrong, I’m a little worried too. I ain’t never seen a garden do all that before, but I can’t help gettin’ the feelin’ that she’s somethin’ special.”

Twilight looked down, idly drawing a circle in the dirt with her hoof.

“Second, don’t you get all fussin’ and mopin’. Once we see Hopeseed through all this, you’ll have all the time in Equestria to lick this magic problem. And I know you Twi, you ain’t never let magic beat you before, and I know you ain’t about to start now,” Applejack said, grinning with pride.

Twilight smiled thinly. “I hope you’re right. We’ll help Hopeseed with the ceremony tonight, get back to Ponyville tomorrow night, and I can compile more detailed earth pony notes.” She put her head in her hooves with a groan. “Assuming I even get any sleep tonight. These ridiculous dreams—”

“Twi?” Applejack said, reaching over to cover Twilight’s mouth.

Twilight blinked.

“You got this.” Applejack stood, offering a hoof to her friend.

Twilight accepted, allowing herself to be pulled to her hooves. “You’re right. And if this crowd of ponies is any indication, it’s almost time for the ceremony.”

A steady stream of ponies were flowing toward the Tree—even the stall runners and food vendors were joining the crowd. Twilight and Applejack pushed their way into the drove of villagers, melting into the crowd.

The duo found themselves arriving at the ceremonial stage. Flickering lamps adorned the oversized goblet. Something about them caught Twilight’s eye—What was it? As she peered closer she realized that these fireflies left gold and silver trails in the air behind them. She had never seen species like these before! The patterned curtain behind the goblet danced in the otherworldly light.

The crowd of ponies steadily swelled as the sun set, the lanterns seemingly shining brighter as nighttime drew closer. A figure took to the stage, casting a long shadow across the curtain. As it approached, the dancing lights revealed the face of Ivy Bramble.

Ivy cleared her throat, and the throng of ponies instantly grew silent. “Fillies and gentlecolts!” she said, her aged voice ringing clear across the plaza. “Today is our most special day of the year, for sunset marks the beginning of the Festival of Argent Moon and Aurum Sun.”

A cheer erupted from the villagers, who stomped their hooves into the dirt in thunderous applause.

“Each year, it is up to the oldest yearlings to put their wits and skills to the test to seek out the silver-gold blossom—what our ancestors called la arĝenta-oro—which blooms in the forest only once a year on this night. It is through our children that a path to the future is carved, and the blessings of the Argent Moon will ensure they, and our village, do not stray off that path into the darkness. Let us reflect.”

Ivy lowered her head as the rest of the village followed suit. Twilight and Applejack glanced around, then at each other, the unfamiliar ritual catching them off-guard. They joined the villagers in silence.

“Now,” Ivy’s voice cut through the still air. Everypony rose their heads in response. “Will our yearlings please join me on stage?”

Ivy stepped aside as one by one, young fillies and colts of all colors marched onto the stage in an orderly line. Excited parents and loved ones cheered and waved at their children as they took their place on stage, many of them blushing or recoiling with embarrassment.

“There’s Hopeseed!” Twilight whispered, pointing at the filly standing nervously near the back of the stage. Hopeseed fidgeted with the bandana that hung around her neck.

“These young fillies and colts will be the ones taking part in the ceremony tonight, and in doing so will take their first steps into adolescence,” Ivy said. “With their efforts tonight, they will help strengthen and reinforce the magic that protects our home.” Many of the villagers cheered.

“And let us not forget tomorrow!” Ivy said, projecting her voice above the cacophony. “At high noon, the Aurum Sun will shine over the Tree with a golden light, blessing us with a bountiful harvest!”

The crowd of ponies cheered again, the dull roar echoing off the canopy. Something about Ivy’s words resonated with Twilight. Golden light… Twilight looked up at the Tree, squinting to discern lights far above. Indeed, small golden motes began to form around the leaves, dripping like water from high above. Fireflies? She thought. No, these are different…

“Before we begin the festivities, I would like all of us to formally extend a warm welcome to not one, but two guests of honor,” Ivy said, directing the crowd’s attention toward Twilight and Applejack. “If you haven’t already, please welcome Princess Twilight Sparkle and her friend Applejack to Peacegrove Village!” The crowd collectively turned to face the duo, applauding joyfully. Twilight blinked, her attention ripped from the canopy before smiling awkwardly and waving to the nearby villagers.

Ivy turned to face the Tree, her head slowly following its trunk skyward. Through the gaps in the canopy, a twilit sky could be seen. Twilight felt a strange sensation steal her attention back to the Tree—as if it knew her name and was calling it, ever so quietly. She shifted from hoof to hoof, struggling to get a closer look. The light flowing from the Tree brightened, the color slowly shifting to a deep silver. Those definitely aren’t fireflies, she thought, squinting as the wisps shone brilliantly. Covering her eyes with a hoof, she glanced at the ponies nearby. None seemed to notice the light. Earth pony magic!

Ivy turned back toward the crowd, her head lowered solemnly. “From sundown until midnight,” she said, raising her head high. “That is the window for our yearlings to seek their own silver-gold blossom. Yearlings, are you ready?”

Most of the yearlings were already moving with anticipation—the excitement onstage was second only to the hum of the crowd. A few were looking around nervously, taking cues from their peers. Hopeseed was among the latter.

“Then without further ado…” Ivy began.

The yearlings suddenly snapped to attention, several taking on exaggerated athletic stances. Hopeseed deftly untied her bandana and pulled her mane into it, retying it to the back of her head in one swift motion.

“In the name of the lunar Princess and all of her blessings…” Ivy’s hoof rose into the air.

The crowd fell silent, overtaken with anticipation. The last moment before sundown ticked by for an eternity—when something extraordinary happened.

Twilight’s breath caught as the silvery wisps hung in the air, suddenly motionless. They pulsed, slowly at first, waves of aether sparkling over the tree in a mist. Even from this distance, she could see the leaves moving as the magic pushed against them. Nopony else seemed to be focused on the Tree—all eyes were on Ivy and the yearlings.

The mist coalesced over the Tree as veins of silver running beneath its bark lit up. The light spread in all directions, illuminating from the highest branches to the roots beneath the soil. The magic spread from the tree across the ground, flowing through the village and out of sight. The web of silver glowed bright, eliminating all shadows Twilight could see. ‘Silverglade’ indeed, she thought.

Suddenly, the light pulsed once, and the crowd began to cheer wildly. Twilight looked to Applejack, whose jaw dropped in amazement. Their eyes met. “You seein’ this Twi?” She shouted. Twilight nodded, her heart swelling as the crowd settled down. A few foals were even playfully poking at the silver veins, making the light dance around their hooves.

Ivy’s voice suddenly boomed across the plaza as she brought her hoof down in an arc. “I declare the one thousand, thirty-third Festival of the Argent Moon… begun!”

Chapter 17: A Bloom Untarnished

Applause and cheers filled the village as the yearlings dashed off of the stage toward the forest. Some pelted onward on their own, others stuck together in pairs, and a few hesitated at the edge of the forest before finally venturing forth. Hopeseed nodded to Twilight and Applejack before leaping from the stage, a determined glint in her eyes.

Some of the villagers galloped after the group, stopping just short of the forest’s edge to cheer them on. As the fillies and colts were lost to sight, the crowd began to disperse, milling around the plaza or returning to their stalls.

“What do ya think, Twi?” Applejack asked. “You think she’s gonna be okay?”

Twilight paced nervously, her eyes tracing the varied silver paths running through the ground. Wisps of magic bled from the ground where the surface was breached, gently following the source veins through the air. One of the trails lit up as it intersected one of the trees in the distance. “AJ, can you still see this?”

“You mean all this light?” Applejack sliced a hoof through a wispy trail. “Yeah, I can. Is this what you’ve been seeing? ‘Cuz whatever it is, it’s… actually kinda pretty.”

Twilight shook her head. “This isn’t quite the same thing. Something reacted to the Tree earlier, and I believe it was the catalyst for whatever spell this is.” Twilight knelt closer to one of the wisps. Despite its glow, Twilight found she was able to look directly at it. She waved a hoof slowly above it, then below it. Intriguing… she thought. This magic doesn't seem to cast a shadow. As she reached to touch it, a green and blue bolt of magic shot out of the stream and flew over her shoulder, making her gasp and stumble backward.

“Applejack! Did you see that?” Twilight said, frantically motioning her friend over.

Applejack trotted over, staring hard at the vein. “Uh, I mean… It’s glowin’, all right.”

“A spark came out of it. You didn’t see any—Look! There it is again!” Twilight pointed at the cracking trail of—now red and orange—magic as it flowed along the ground and into a silver vein, following it with her hoof until it vanished from sight.

Applejack sighed. “Look Twi, I’m real sorry, but I can only see what’s in front of my face. Somethin’ tells me that everypony else in the village is in the same boat.”

Twilight grunted with annoyance. She carefully pushed her hoof into the light and closed her eyes. She felt warmth flicker through her, and her perception expanded readily. She felt herself yanked away, a whirlwind of magic suddenly whisking her mind’s eye down the trail of light and into the forest.

Her sense of space was carried along like a leaf in the wind as sensations all around came into view. She saw a group of villagers, then a cluster of trees, then insects, then a lizard, a spider, more trees, a laughing pony, a mug carelessly knocked to the ground; all kinds of sounds and sights at once. Twilight struggled to maintain control, feeling her breath grow short. As threads of her perception peeled away, she felt a singular line of magic holding itself together. Carefully, she guided the thread around, probing the space.

She could see a young filly running through the forest, veins of silver casting shadows all around her. Twilight couldn’t tell who it was, but it didn’t feel like Hopeseed. As she turned the thread to search further, it suddenly shot off on its own and crashed into the ground, knocking Twilight back to lucidity.

“Twi! What in Equestria—” Applejack murmured, glancing around. She leaned in, whispering. “What did you just do? Your eyes got all glowy ’n stuff…” she lowered her voice further, “kind of like you were usin’ the Elements.”

Twilight shook her head, taking a moment to catch her breath. “I… I’m fine. It wasn’t Elemental magic. Remember what happened in the pool? I started to lose track of my physical body and—”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “I ain’t sure what’s more alarming: The fact that you ain’t bothered by it or that you wrote an essay about it.”

“It was the same thing!” Twilight continued on, unhindered. “Somehow I was able to ‘feel’ my way through the currents and I followed them all the way into the forest.” The sound of giggling drifted past, and she looked over Applejack’s shoulder to see two fillies bounding back and forth over the silvery trails. A gentle flow of magic arose nearby and one of the fillies jumped straight through it. Twilight’s eyes widened and she reached out reflexively, as if to catch her, but the young pony passed through unabated. She watched them as they continued around the plaza and out of sight.

“It looks like whatever magic this is, it’s not affecting anypony else,” she said, retracting her hoof. She looked around the now-empty plaza. Besides a few scattered ponies chattering—seemingly oblivious to the magic around them—the majority of the villagers had drifted off elsewhere in the village. She stood tall, raising her head high with a confident smirk. “Can you keep an eye on things for me?”

“Oh no, I don’t think I like where this is goin’,” Applejack groaned as her eyes narrowed suspiciously.

Twilight giggled. “Please, if I drown on solid ground, I hereby give you permission to publish an essay on it.”

Applejack smirked, resting a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “You just do your magic thing. If things get weird… I’ve got your back.”

Twilight smiled, planting her hooves firmly into the ground. She took a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she eyed a nearby trail of magic. When she reached for it, she found it drifting slowly toward her. It knows what I want, she thought with amazement as the stream smoothly enveloped her hoof. Almost instantly, she felt her consciousness whisked away once again into the aether.

Her perception frayed as she found herself pulled along an overwhelming current of magic—away from the forest. She struggled in vain against the force, vaguely feeling her physical body drop to a knee with the effort. Her squirming shifted her focus along the path she was being taken, and as she turned her struggling ceased. A titanic pillar of magic loomed before her, bolts of colored magic running through every aetherial vein.

The Tree, she thought. Or more accurately, the Tree’s magic. She found the gentle aura alluring, allowing herself to drift closer. Despite the immense display of power—and a deep twinge of loss—she felt safe. Warm. This much magic in one place… Maybe Ivy’s stories about the Tree were true.

Sparks of colored energy caught Twilight’s eye, crackling along the Tree’s roots in a dozen different directions and cascading into a rainbow of magical hues. A pulse of energy whizzed past her, its trail radiating a familiar magical signature. As she turned to follow it with her eyes, she was pulled roughly behind it, as if tethered.

As Twilight let herself be dragged along, she felt her awareness splinter into a dozen fragments, each following a different trail of magic. The different vantage points fed into her senses, tumbling over each other and causing her physical form to drop again, now on both front knees.

I—I c-can’t control-trol it, control it, I control, can’t it, Twilight struggled, her thoughts echoing along the length of her perceptions. She could feel the magic signatures of hundreds of trees, an uncountable swarm of insects, roosting night owls, the dozen or so yearlings searching frantically in the underbrush—she was bombarded from all directions by shapes, sounds, and even feelings.

Her thoughts drifted, her “eyes” scattered throughout the forest. The yearlings… Twilight muttered internally, idly following a bright sparks along a beaten trail. I can watch the yearlings… I can—Hopeseed! A surge of clarity shot through Twilight, allowing her to realign her perceptions. If I can find her, I can help her. Her voice continued to echo but as each thought pulsed through her mind the echoes fell into alignment with one another. Soon she could think clearly again, her voice sharpening with a clarity she didn’t even recall from the physical world.

Her perspectives became clear in her mind, no longer competing for dominance but rather synergizing into a net of observation throughout the forest. Along this net, pulses of crackling rainbow energy continued to flow through the ground, deeper into the forest. A small bundle of magic came into her view, a mass of waving green that flowed into itself. She reached out to touch an outstretched stream as she realized—a colt! The form coalesced as she realized the shape of a young colt, barely shoulder-height. He leapt across the uneven terrain, effortlessly dodging jagged rocks and flares of red danger. Pulses of magic rippled out from where his hooves struck the ground. Twilight sailed along the aetherstream, barely managing to keep sight of him.

Together, they crested a small hill and the colt's magic flared with excitement. Before them lay a shining beacon of silvery rainbow magic. The silver-gold blossom! Twilight gasped. The physical characteristics of the flower were difficult to discern, but as the colt stepped down to the shimmering aura, she knew he had succeeded. The plant’s light shone forth as the colt plucked it, marching triumphantly back to the village.

As Twilight pushed her perception closer to examine the flower, she was suddenly yanked away and carried back along one of the many threads of her perception. He faded from sight as she hurtled up the vein of magic, rejoining with another thread. She was stunned for a moment, her other selves temporarily silenced. Only the sound of her heartbeat remained.

One by one, she carefully probed with each of her consciousness fragments back into the forest. She felt the presence of more foals, but Twilight had difficulty telling Hopeseed apart from the rest. She directed each fragment to release their own probes, the lavender auras flowing smoothly through the silvery veins. As her spell grew larger, she felt a dull pain rise up within her mind. She groaned, feeling small sparks leak from her horn as the spell threatened to dissolve. In spite of the pain, she held onto the thread as each pony’s aura shifted in color. Light blue, brown, yellow, green—the yearlings’ coat colors.

Where is she? Twilight strained desperately. She should be down one of these paths, but… Twilight panted heavily—was she sweating? She couldn’t be sure. With a grunt, she forced her perception into a wider range.

A familiar magical signature registered in the growing fog around one of her spells, rainbow magic rippling around the dull yellow form of a filly. Somepony else found one. She released her hold on that particular fragment—Hopeseed was not here. The split rejoined Twilight’s primary consciousness, bringing with it a gentle respite from her headache.

Each aura found their own blossom in turn, and with each found blossom Twilight’s observational load was reduced significantly. Finally, only six fragments remained, and as she turned her full attention toward one of them, the aura began to glow white. Hopeseed! Twilight breathed a heavy sigh of relief.

Her breath caught as she followed Hopeseed’s aura. Unlike the smooth flow of the others, this aura was ragged, each wisp jerking as they moved as if being pulled by an outside force. The center of her magical presence was marred by a dark ball of anxiety and pain, occasionally pushing its own tendrils out.

Hopeseed moved seemingly at random. She paused every few steps, looking around frantically. Waves of magic burst forth from her hooves as she trotted, and although they lit up in a number of different colors, none of them shimmered with the signature of the silver-gold blossom.

She can’t find it, Twilight realized. Two more yearlings found their prize together, and Twilight quickly recalled their probes. Only four auras remained, and all but Hopeseed were steadily closing in on their target. Twilight, called her name, but the sound wasn’t carried out to the extremities of her perception.

Hopeseed stopped at the edge of a clearing, prancing in place and muttering to herself. Twilight struggled but couldn’t make out the muffled words, and she watched helplessly as Hopeseed dove into the bushes, following a silvery vein.

Hopeseed, no, she tried to yell. There’s nothing down there but more trees! Her protests echoed along the magical stream and dissipated before reaching Hopeseed. Another yearling found their blossom with a flash of brilliant light, and Twilight knew time was steadily trickling away.

Hopeseed’s path grew thick with foliage and downed trees, finally coming to a dead end at the base of a large rotting oak tree. With an angry snort, she turned away and slowly plodded back, following the silver wisp as it shot over and around the obstacles. She grumbled something, the meaning muddied through the distance. Hopeseed’s ears drooped as she hung her head, the filly’s aura slowly becoming wrapped inside the black wisps.

One more flash of brilliant light, followed quickly by a second. Only Hopeseed remained. She let out an exasperated sigh and reached back to feel her bandana, a shimmer of grey magic springing from the cloth and gently embracing Hopeseed. Even across the distance, Twilight could feel… she couldn’t quite describe it. Another presence?

A moment passed. “No, not yet,” Hopeseed said. She took a step forward and closed her eyes. Bright emerald light spilled forth from her hooves, snaking across the forest ground and through the foliage. “This way!” she said excitedly, following the trail.

Wait, green? No-no-no, the blossom has a rainbow aura. Hopeseed! Her warnings evaporated into nothing, and she could only watch in disbelief as Hopeseed dove headlong into the underbrush.

Twilight pressed her perception outward in her pursuit of Hopeseed, but over time she began to feel heavy. Her vision blurred, and she began to fall behind. I—I can’t… keep… the spell…. Her surroundings shifted around her, and her vision began to spin. She could hear—A crowd? Noise and excitement filled her senses. A familiar—if muffled—voice reached through the haze.

“Twilight?”

“What’s happening to her?”

“Is she sick?”

“Mommy, I wanna see the magic princess!”

“Now just hold yer horses everypony!” Applejack said, holding her hooves wide and standing between the growing crowd and her friend to keep the nosy villagers at bay.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life,” Holly said, jaw hanging open. Her face remained unchanged as she ducked and jumped around Applejack, trying to get a closer look.

Twilight floated gently above the ground, trails of the silvery light being drawn into her hooves. Her eyes were wide open, glowing with white magic. Her mane and tail waved gently in the light, twinkling as magic ran along their length.

“Now, uh,” Applejack said, her eyes nervously darting around the crowd. “She’s uh, she’s just—” She looked up at Twilight. “She’s doin’ real big important alicorn princess… magicky… things?” Applejack stammered. “Yup! That’s our Twi, doin’ all that magic… stuff.”

Holly cocked an eyebrow, momentarily standing still to give Applejack a suspicious look.

Sweat beaded along Applejack’s brow as she looked at Holly, then at Twilight, then back to Holly. “Yessiree, this whole shindig’s ’bout the Princesses, right? Twi’s just, um, doin’ her part!” Applejack said, an artificially-wide grin creaking over her face. Come on Twi, get yer flank back here! she mentally pleaded.

“Hey! I think she’s coming out of her spooky magic-thing!” Holly squeaked. Twilight slowly drifted back to the ground, the aetherial tendrils sinking beneath the soil once more. Her mane and tail straightened and dropped back to normal as the glittering motes of magic winked out of existence. She blinked, the light fading as color returned to her eyes.

Twilight groaned loudly, wincing as she touched a hoof to her forehead. “What… What happened?” She shook her head. “Hopeseed! Where is she? I saw her running through the forest—I saw everypony running through the forest! Her magic! I saw it but—”

Applejack shoved her hoof into Twilight’s mouth, shushing her. “Now simmer down, Sally. Y’all don’t wanna make even more of a scene now do ya?” she said, leaning in close to whisper, “Look, I got somethin’ real big to tell ya.”

Twilight looked around, her ears flattening against her head in embarrassment. She hadn’t noticed the crowd—practically half the village had drifted over to none-too-subtly stare at her. “Why are they all looking at me like that? Did someth—” Twilight cut herself off. “Oh… right.” She could feel the heat in her cheeks rising. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “Has anypony made it back yet?”

“Yeah,” Applejack said. “Everypony’s back ‘cept Hopeseed. But that’s the thing, the silv—”

“How much time is left?” Twilight interrupted. She looked up at the full moon shining through gaps in the canopy above, hard beams of light providing dappled illumination all over the village. “It looks like there’s only a few minutes left before it’s over. Ohhh, where is she?” Twilight groaned, taking a few nervous paces toward the forest.

“Twi! Listen to me! The silver-gold blossom, it’s—just look at the darned thing!” Applejack yelled as she suddenly grabbed Twilight and spinning her to face the stage. A number of hoof-sized blossoms filled the centerpiece, each shining golden petal shimmering with magic, surrounding their silver, heart-shaped stamen. A resplendent rainbow aura surrounded the bouquet, filling Twilight’s vision.

“That’s…” Twilight’s voice trailed off. She mouthed la arĝenta-oro to herself. She glanced at the sky. Midnight continued to inch closer, second by tortuous second. “We have to find her,” she said, face hardening with determination.

“There ain’t no time!” Applejack exclaimed. “I dunno how long you thought you were stuck in that magic thingy, but you’ve seen the moon! It’s almost midnight, Twi!”

“I know where she is, AJ! If I just teleport, I can—” She turned as a sudden commotion rose from the crowd. The villagers stood aside, revealing a panting, dirty Hopeseed. Mud caked her coat and twigs protruded from her mane and tail. Tears streaked through the dirt on her cheeks. To Twilight’s dismay, she was empty-hooved.

“Hopeseed! Are you hurt?” Twilight galloped to the filly’s side. “Listen, the silver-gold blossom, it's actually— “

Suddenly, a massive swell of magic slammed into Twilight’s backside. A brilliant display of blue and silver light engulfed the Tree as she stumbled against the onslaught. The canopy above solidified into a pitch-black mass, faint pinpricks of light appearing among the leaves.

“Twi?” Applejack’s voice wavered. “What’s goin’ on?” She gulped, shielding her eyes with her hat.

Twilight was stunned. The villagers erupted into a cacophony of yelling and applause as the magical traces shone brilliantly. Twilight squinted as the magic surrounding the blossoms wafted toward the Tree, merging with its light with a flash. As the different sources of magic mingled, she could feel the foundations of a spell begin to form. Thick aetherial vines arose from the junction and wove themselves around the Tree, crimson florets sprouting along their length. Stars and crescent moon-shapes danced all around the edge of the spell, flickering as they dove between the vines. With a deep thrum that echoed throughout the village, the vines suddenly grew taut and merged with the Tree’s silvery veins. A wave of light burst from the Tree, following its roots toward the perimeter of the village.

“It’s midnight,” Twilight said hoarsely. She followed one of the veins with her eyes, curiosity overwhelming her. As the magic reached with the forest, an enormous translucent wall rippled all around the village, stretching out of sight past the Tree’s highest branches. A barrier spell, Twilight realized. It shimmered with each surge of combined earth and lunar magic, growing ever stronger.

A frantic yelling pierced the crowd of cheering ponies, shaking Twilight from her daze. “Princess Twilight! Where is she? Where is Hopeseed?” Ivy’s voice carried clear across the plaza. She ran to Twilight and Applejack, her joints audibly creaking in protest. Her face was twisted with worry, tears forming at the corners of her eyes. “I lost sight of her once the Argent Moon began. She didn’t—she didn’t—”

Applejack put her hoof on Ivy’s shoulder. “Easy now, Ivy. Deep breaths. She prob’ly ran off, thinkin’ she failed.”

“But she did fail. Oh, by the Princesses, nopony has failed in generations. I don’t—I can’t—” Ivy wailed, color draining from her face as she hyperventilated.

Twilight looked through the crowd at the goblet on stage—and the plants within. A faint smile crossed her lips. “I think I know where she is, Ivy. And I don’t think she failed.” Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes. The magic cascading throughout the village made it difficult to focus, and she found herself struggling to keep her spell from being consumed by its roiling energies.

“Come on, just a little more,” Twilight muttered, her brow furrowing as she strained to maneuver her tracer around the magical turbulence.

Twilight sighed with relief as her probe pulsed with a soft white light. Twilight nodded, her eyes opening as she let go of her spell. “Just as I suspected. AJ, Ivy, follow me!” Twilight dashed toward the Tree without waiting for a response, while Applejack helped Ivy keep up as well as she could.

“T-The Tree? Impossible!” Ivy stammered. “The Tree would have rejected her. It won’t allow her to stay!” Her voice cracked as the trio entered. Streams of silvery light danced along walls, casting wavering shadows on the floor.

Twilight hesitated as the spellwork shone around her. Up close, she could see the lunar components of the spell merging seamlessly with the phytoid earth pony magic, creating a hybrid. Squinting against the light, she could just make out the basic framework of a barrier spell running through the aether—the very same spell components protecting the Crystal Empire. As the light approached the floor, it wove itself into a latticework that allowed for the safe passage of certain magical signatures. Twilight realized with a gasp that none of the gaps within the lattice were filled. The barrier had not been breached.

Twilight flashed a smile to Ivy. She stretched her wings proudly and stood tall, her shadow casting all around the room. “Trust me, the Tree hasn’t rejected her. She’s right here under our noses!”

Twilight dashed to the corner, throwing wide a familiar tucked-away door. Sure enough, she found the wooden telescope still resting on that particular desk. She quickly lifted it and pressed the button beneath. She galloped across the foyer, screeching to a halt in front of a wooden pony bust. She gave its head a quick tap, watching it spin into place with a click.

A loud rumbling filled the Tree and the ground shook, causing the shadows to dance and sway violently. “What in Equestria is happening?” Ivy cried.

“Something amazing,” Twilight said as she pointed Ivy toward the pool in the center of the room. The Elder watched in awe as the staircase slid into place around the pool. Ivy’s mouth hung agape as Twilight and Applejack helped her down the damp steps.

“What… I don’t understand…” Ivy sputtered as they descended. “Has this been here the entire time?”

“I don’t know how long it’s been here,” Twilight said, helping Ivy off of the bottom step. “I don’t think anypony knows. But Hopeseed has known about it for quite a while. You’ll see.”

“She what?” Ivy asked, dumbfounded. The magic of the Tree above had grown in intensity as they descended, and here it was visible peeking through every crack in the soil. Outlines of the Tree’s roots could be seen running through the ceiling and walls.

“You’re gonna be so proud of her,” Applejack said with a grin as the party made their way into the grotto. For a time, it felt as if the worry of Hopeseed had left Ivy, as she turned her head this way and that to gawk. Twilight and Applejack narrowly kept her from tumbling into the pond as they led her down the path toward the secret garden.

A glint of rainbow light shining down from the ceiling caught Twilight’s eye. A stream of magic flowed smoothly along the wall and into the ground, snaking its way through the soil and toward the garden along the same path she now walked along. All three mares gasped and stood enraptured as they stepped out of the tunnel into the garden.

“It’s… beautiful,” Ivy said, her voice trailing as she took a slow step forward. Twilight and Applejack looked around the garden excitedly. Standing in stark contrast to the dying garden of yesterday, the flowerbeds of Hopeseed’s garden had been completely revitalized. Every plant had nearly doubled in size, their vivid colors shining throughout the cave. As they wandered deeper toward the center, a beam of iridescent magic suddenly shot into the air with a brilliant flash.

“Well I’ll be,” Applejack muttered, removing her hat and placing it against her breast.

Twilight spotted the young filly as they rounded the last corner, sitting at the base of the Royal Gladiolus. “Hopeseed!” Twilight cried, dashing toward her. Hopeseed simply continued to stare upward at her crown jewel. Its golden blooms shone radiantly, bright wisps twisting around each other to feed into the column.

“I don’t believe it,” Ivy breathed. “I’ve never seen such a large collection of blossoms before!”

“She grew this,” Twilight said proudly. “All of this. All by herself.” Twilight gestured her hoof all around.

“She… grew all of this?” Ivy said, her voice cracking.

Hopeseed suddenly snapped from her apparent trance and scrambled back, away from the group. “I’m sorry!” she howled, tears streaming down her face. “D-Don’t send me out of the village! I know I couldn’t—I didn’t—I couldn’t find a—a b-blossom—” Her face contorted as she wailed, pressing herself against the stalk of the Gladiolus. Ivy swiftly stepped forward and pulled the filly into a tight hug, her own tears wetting Hopeseed’s shoulder.

“Hopeseed,” Ivy sobbed. “You didn’t need to. If I had known…”

Hopeseed pulled back, looking up with a look of confusion. “Wh-What?” she squeaked, sniffling.

“Congratulations,” Ivy whispered. “You passed. You have passed the coming of age ceremony. You found—or should I say, grew—your silver-gold blossom long ago. Your very own arĝenta-ora floraĵo.”

Hopeseed’s face shifted, her jaw dropping with dumbfounded shock. “But I thought—Princess Twilight said this was a… a Royal Gladiolus?” Hopeseed sniveled, her tears slowing.

“It is,” Twilight said, stepping up to one of the blooms and cupping it gently in her hoof. “What I call the Royal Gladiolus, your village calls the silver-gold blossom. Down here, they’re one and the same!”

Hopeseed stared at the flowers above her, their auras shining brightly. Pulling away from Ivy, she slowly stepped forward and plucked one near her height. Twilight smiled as a gentle wave of magic washed over Hopeseed, her mane swaying in its gentle warmth. A mote suddenly leapt from the center of the blossom and flowed into her chest. The filly shuddered, eyes closed, as a wisp of dull grey magic gently seeped from her bandanna and wrapped her in a soft embrace.

A shimmering noise from behind Twilight suddenly stole her attention. A warmth spread over her haunch and she knew—her cutie mark was glowing. She exchanged a grin with Applejack, their friendship mission complete.

Chapter 18: For Body's Ascension

“Seek...

...Learn...

...Know...”

…

“When all three—”

Twilight awoke with a gasp, her eyes snapping open as she hurtled back into the waking world. She threw her hoof up to shield her eyes from the sunlight pouring in from above. Sunlight? She winced and looked around, spotting vestiges of the Argent Moon celebration littering the ground. Right.

She yawned, rolling to her side slowly and feeling the grass beneath her. Applejack snored nearby, hat draped over her eyes. An empty mug—or three—lay on the ground next to her. Twilight spotted Hopeseed curled up in a group of snoozing foals. A misty blanket of magic draped over them, the silvery wisps being carried away by the gentle wind. Songbirds tweeted their morning songs across the plaza. Muffled activity could be heard in some of the nearby homes. Looks like some ponies made it to their bed last night, Twilight thought. As she stood, her back cricked loudly, and she snorted with annoyance. Maybe if I’d had the foresight to sleep in the Tree last night, I could’ve slept a little better.

With a sigh, she flicked her horn and her notebook appeared in a flash of light before her. She levitated a quill above the last page of her expedition notes, hesitating. She glanced over her most recent entries.

Day 7: Same dream as prior, but with additions. The message from Amethyst Hollow now plays after the original message: “When all three.”

Day 8: No change from previous.

She sighed and slouched. Resting the journal on the ground, she began to write in the space below.

Day 9: No change from previous.

Twilight idly spun the quill in mid-air as she reflected on last night’s events. She resumed writing.

Observation: I had considered the possibility of the Argent Moon’s magic having an impact on my dreams, but that hypothesis lacks evidence to support it. Perhaps my dreams are not directly related to these adventures? Will need to follow up. During the transition to midnight, a combination of lunar and earth pony magic enhanced a protective barrier around Peacegrove Village. A full report will follow upon return to Ponyville.

Note: Will update after the Aurum Sun, which has yet to take place as of this entry.

Twilight closed the book and sent it back to her bag with a flash. She glanced upward. Where once she saw Luna's starry night sky, now hung overhead Celestia's clear blue sky, shining brilliantly as beams of sunlight streamed down. By her estimate, the Aurum Sun would soon be upon the village.

“Mornin’ Twi,” Applejack yawned. Twilight turned to see her friend already standing and stretching with a loud crack-POP! She sighed and flicked the brim of her hat to rest properly on her head. “Hooo-whee! That was one crazy festival. Ya sleep well?”

Twilight sighed, shaking her head. “Not exactly. I—Well, it's not been as bad lately, but maybe I would have slept better in a bed.”

“Weird dreams again?”

Twilight nodded and pursed her lips.

“Heh, can’t say I’m surprised. But look on the bright side,” Applejack said as she slung a foreleg over Twilight’s shoulder, tugging her toward the stage. The silver-gold blossoms shimmered as the late-morning sun shone directly onto the goblet and casting rainbow reflections into the air. One of the blossoms was markedly much larger than the rest. “Hopeseed sure did all right, wouldn’t y’say?”

Twilight looked toward the pile of sleeping youngsters—a few of them had roused and started making their way home. Hopeseed gently stirred. Twilight couldn’t help but smile, a sense of pride swelling in her heart: not just for Hopeseed but for all of the accomplished foals.

Ponies scurried about the village, the streets slowly stirring back to life. Some were carrying farming tools: hoes, rakes, scythes, and so on. “Huh, ain't that somethin’,” Applejack said, quirking an eyebrow.

“Something wrong, AJ?” Twilight asked.

“Not really, it's jus’…” Applejack hesitated, rubbing the back of her neck. “Nothin’ seemed ripe for harvest in the village. It ain’t apple buckin’ season back home, and it shouldn’t be time for pears yet neither.”

Twilight tapped hoof against chin thoughtfully. “We are pretty far south. Maybe it has something to do with the localized climate.”

A weary chuckle came from behind the duo. “Not exactly, young ones.”

“Ivy!” Twilight squealed happily. She rushed over and gave the Elder a gentle hug, Applejack trailing along behind.

“Good morning to you too, Princess.” She chuckled. “You gave out plenty of hugs last night, what’s one more?” Ivy said as she returned the embrace. “Truly, I can't even begin to express my gratitude for everything you've done for us.”

“It’s no trouble at all,” Twilight said with a smile. “What did you mean just now? You said, ‘not exactly.’ What’s got everypony in such a hurry?”

Ivy began to trot slowly toward the Tree, beckoning to Twilight and Applejack with her head. “The blessings of the Tree, the moon, and the sun… They grant us both protection and a bountiful harvest. The fields and orchards may not be ripe yet—and still wouldn’t be for some time anywhere else in Equestria—but come noon on today, the Aurum Sun…” Her voice trailed off, yet there was an unmistakable vigor in her tone. Twilight and Applejack shared a glance over the older pony’s back as her creaking joints seemed to loosen for a moment, a spring in her step appearing where none had been before.

Twilight pondered her words, looking up at the Tree and the gentle silvery aura that bathed it. Her eyes darted back and forth, as if reading invisible calculations in the air before her. “I see. If the Aurum Sun reacts with the lingering magic of the Argent Moon, then I suppose it’s possible for both magic streams to synergize with the latent earth pony magic… in which case, the same effects that cause the explosive growth of the silver-gold blossoms could then be applied to mundane flora.”

Applejack frowned and raised an eyebrow. “And in Ponish?” she said as Ivy smirked with a chuckle.

“The magic that’s still all around us can’t affect non-magical plants, but when it’s combined with the Aurum Sun it spurs a faster, more bountiful harvest. That’s what Ivy meant by waiting until noon. Right?”

Ivy laughed joyfully, her weathered voice sounding youthful again. “Right on the nose. I'm much too old to help with the harvest, but everypony in the village who can will help provide us another year of plenty.”

“Hi!” Holly’s voice suddenly rang out from above, her tangled mess of a mane peering over the canopy of a nearby tent.

“Good morning, Miss Thicket!” Ivy said, continuing along unfazed by Holly's sudden appearance.

“Everypony’s just about all ready, and they should be here soon!” Holly said, bouncing down to the ground alongside the group. “We're gonna have so much tasty nommy-noms to eat after today! Oooh, maybe I'll get to meet Bill and Phil’s children before I devour them!” She licked her lips, a small amount of drool dripping off the tip of her tongue.

Twilight and Applejack found that words had escaped them, leaving them simply bewildered.

“Anynoodle, I need to find Lily, she overslept again and keeps snoring so everypony keeps asking, ‘Holly, when are you gonna come get Lily?’ So of course I’ve got to go get her! I'll be back soon!” With a quick wave, Holly zipped away out of sight.

A small crowd of ponies had made their way back into the plaza. The calm air carried many pleasant conversations and exchanges. The shrill laughter of a colt or filly occasionally rose above the buzz of the crowd. Nearly all of the adults wielded farming equipment.

Twilight caught sight of Hopeseed. Flanking the filly were two ponies, a mare with a grey coat and orange cream-colored stallion. Twilight noticed something… familiar about the mare, but couldn’t quite put her hoof on it. As she looked closer, the mare hugged Hopeseed and a gentle spark of magic flowed from one to the other. Hopeseed’s bandana. It came from her mother. Twilight broke into a big, goofy smile that could have rivaled even Pinkie Pie as she beamed with pride.

Ivy took the stage and cleared her throat, prompting the full attention of the crowd. “Fillies and gentlecolts! It is with great pride I conclude our one thousand, thirty-third Festival of the Argent Moon, and the ushering in of the one thousand, thirty-third Aurum Sun!”

The villagers cheered and applauded by stomping their hooves—if they had a hoof free.

“Once again, this season’s yearlings have proven themselves ready to walk on the path to adulthood, and in doing so have ensured protection by our guardian Tree for another year. This year, there is one filly in particular I would like to present to you for her extraordinary work preserving the traditions passed down by our ancestors.” Ivy gave Twilight a wink, who smiled with a nod in return. “Hopeseed, would you please come to the stage?”

The villagers applauded as Hopeseed slowly walked up and onto the stage. She blushed and rubbed the back of her foreleg, a small smile forming on her muzzle. “For many moons,” Ivy said, gesturing her hoof in a wide arc, “this young one has been toiling away out of sight. And what could be a more fitting time than our yearly festival for her labor to bear fruit?”

Twilight and Applejack shared a chuckle as Ivy delivered her speech—poor Hopeseed’s cheeks flushed a bright red at all of the attention. As the elder spoke, the sun continued its steady march across the sky, the minutes ticking down closer and closer until noon—and the Aurum Sun. Fuzzy golden motes of magic materialized around the Tree, drifting lazily through the air as they flickered around beams of sunlight. Twilight squinted, Ivy’s speech fading into the background as she focused. She spotted a few of them merging with one another, growing in size and intensity. The aura surrounding the Tree slowly shifted in hue to mirror the golden energy surrounding it.

A glint from atop the Tree caught Twilight’s attention. Was that a mirror? She strained to get a better view. No, it looks like… Something about this mystery felt achingly familiar, but the answers were just out of her reach—and this nibbled at her thoughts. She gazed into the middle distance as she pondered.

“Everythin’ okay?” Applejack said, giving her friend a gentle prod. “Ya look a little nervous. Is the Tree gonna do somethin’ flashy again? The way folks’re talkin’ about this Almond Sun thing… I hope you know what’s goin’ on, cause I sure don’t.”

Twilight mumbled a vague response.

“Uh, Twi? Hey, Twilight!”

“Huh?” Twilight’s eyes snapped back into focus and she glanced toward Applejack. “Sorry, I…” She cleared her throat awkwardly. “I believe a second magic juncture is about to occur,” Twilight said. Applejack rolled her eyes and shook her head.

“There’s something else, something I didn’t notice last night. I think I see a spike in magical activity at the top of the tree,” Twilight said, pointing with her hoof. “At this distance, I’m not really sure what it is.”

“You gonna check it out?” Applejack asked. “I mean, I ain’t gonna stop ya, on account of that friendship problem we licked. Heck, it’s temptin’ to offer a hoof on their harvest,” she said, glancing at the ponies all around. “Though I still ain’t seen nothin’ ready for harvest yet.”

“I think that’s a great idea, AJ!” Twilight said. She excitedly hopped in place at the prospect of finally having some time to herself for her research. A gleeful grin spread over her face. “We’ve got plenty of time, so you can help the villagers set up for harvest while I do some hooves-on research with the Tree!”

“Sounds right dandy! Just, uh… Keep yourself safe, all right? It’s lookin’ to be almost noon, and after last night it’ll be a while before I’m gonna let you outta my sight for too long,” Applejack said with a worried frown.

“I’ll be fine. Trust me.”

The two mares nodded to one another before striking off—Applejack joining the growing crowd of harvesters and Twilight cantering toward the Tree. Twilight managed to slip past the crowd and ducked into the foyer, carefully closing the door behind her. The motes had spread along the inside of the Tree, the drifting wisps larger than ever. Twilight gazed across the pool as thin, misty tendrils arose from deep within, fading to nothing before even reaching the next floor.

I wonder… Twilight thought as she trotted to the water’s edge. She gingerly lowered her hoof toward the water, pausing just before breaking the surface. She stared down at her reflection in the otherwise still water. She looked over her own shoulder and she could more clearly see the swirls of magic trickling from the depths. She took a deep breath and pushed her hesitation aside, thrusting her hoof down into the cold water.

A shiver ran through Twilight’s body, but it wasn’t from the temperature—which was surprisingly warm, actually—as she reached into the pool, a strange tugging sensation goaded her into the water. The energies pooled around her hoof as the sound of rushing water filled her mind. She felt her mental pathways expand, her perception merging with the water falling from above. She channeled her focus and pushed her mind’s eye up against the stream and along the multitude of waterways feeding the pond. Up, up, up she went, swiftly ascending the Tree.

Her awareness suddenly crested the top of the water’s source: a pool of water on what must be near the top of the Tree. She gently probed her consciousness forward through the water, then into the wood on the opposite side. She broke her perception into several small fragments as she surfaced, tracing paths along the outside of the pool. A large, wooden frame stood firm against her as she grazed along its contours. Six evenly-spaced branches sprouted from the wood around her, fading out of sight of her vision. That’s it.

She blinked, and her surroundings suddenly forced their way back into view as she snapped back to her physical body. “That’s it!” she cried triumphantly.

Her horn sparked to life as she assembled an aethereal map of the Tree before her. Remnants of solar magic steadily filtered in around the drifting earth pony magic. Twilight could feel the magical presence inside the Tree begin to rise, placing strain on Twilight’s spell. The motes of earth pony magic mixed with Twilight’s unicorn magic, and cracks started to appear in her matrix as it warped heavily out of shape. With a resonating crack, the spell shattered and Twilight was thrown backward against the door.

Twilight groaned loudly with the impact, barely catching herself as she fell to the floor. “I guess the… harmonic frequencies are too different… to find parity,” she mumbled in a daze. She took one wobbly step forward and failed to take a second. As she collapsed on the floor and rolled to face skyward, her vision wavered in and out of focus. She closed her eyes and breathed.

Deep breath in.

Deep breath out.

Deep breath in...

She slowly opened her eyes and looked around. I guess unicorn magic is out… She struggled to her hooves and flared her wings, glaring upward. With a grunt, she leapt into the air. She reached up with a hoof at the next floor, each wingbeat providing only the slightest lift. As she struggled, the strain on her body sent rivulets of sweat cascading through her mane.

“Great,” she panted. “Not even… my wings…work right in here…” In spite of the resistance, Twilight managed to stay airborne as she passed floor after floor. Upon landing on the highest catwalk—and pausing to catch her breath—she spotted a plain, unassuming door at the opposite end. She slowly walked forward, wobbling with exhaustion and trying not to think about the dizzying height.

She pushed the door open and stepped outside into the Tree’s crown. Pillars of wood jutted upward from the branch, arching together to form a large ring looming overhead. Resting in the center was a massive lens, its crystal-clear curvature fit snugly within. A reservoir of still water rested beneath.

Such hoofwork, Twilight thought as she slowly circled around the perimeter. I’ve only ever seen optics this precise in the telescopes at the Canterlot Observatory. She completed a lap around the pool, noting latent magic wafting lazily through the air both within and without the strange device. She peered into the water, sunlight easily penetrating the halcyon surface. The water ran deep, and she found she could just make out a set of carvings along the bottom. A focused beam of sunlight refracted through the lens and down toward the symbols, illuminating one of the glyphs almost completely. A fiery sun shone from the depths.

Wait, that’s—Twilight gasped, for the first time noticing the symbols on either side formed the shape of a crescent moon. One of the narrow arcs shimmered with faint traces of blue and silver. This isn’t just some random prehistoric artwork—these are Celestia and Luna’s cutie marks! Her eyes darted back and forth between the symbols. Solar and lunar cycles!

Golden light continued to waft gently from the Tree around her, a visible column of light steadily increasing in luminosity with each passing second. Twilight remained at the water’s edge, fixated on symbols below, as the solar marking shimmered under the sunlight. She traced the path of a nearby magic stream flowing from the branch into the glassy confines of the lens, reacting to the sunlight as it poured in from above. Twilight took a deep breath and raised her hooves into the air, thrusting them down into the water.

In that instant, the sunlight refracting through the lens suddenly widened. The sunlight merged fully with the earth pony magic, forming a new spell that immediately wove its way into the water. Twilight was enveloped by this new magic. Much to her surprise, the focused light did not hurt her eyes. If anything, it was even softer than a typical summer’s day. The warmth draped over her like a blanket, and she could see the shape of broad roots forming within the light.

Twilight could only stare, her senses deprived from her—she could not even feel the water splashing around her hooves. Within the aethereal roots were drifting wisps of sunlight criss-crossing between each other to take on new shapes. Twilight tilted her head. Apples? And corn! And pears! The ever-multiplying crops drifted along the twisting spell, descending down into the Tree.

Down? Twilight gasped as she found herself floating in midair within the pillar of sunlight, her physical surroundings faded from view. The crop spell drifted before her, leaving two symbols behind in its wake. The lunar mark shone with a bright silver light, unyielding against the sunlight. The solar symbol glowed as well, its golden light dancing through the magical constructs.

When all three…

Twilight gasped, the thought welling up unbidden. A mix of curiosity, excitement, and a tiny dab of dread filled her heart as the light around her began to form a new spell. The shape was unlike any unicorn spell or earth pony magic she knew—or could even make an educated guess at. It slowly took on the shape of a pony, its hue shifting to a light yellow. A deep green mane and tail sprouted from its mass, billowing despite the lack of wind.

“Star Glider! Is that you? Can you hear me?” Twilight drifted down, aether rippling from her hooves as they connected silently against an invisible ground. The aged mare smiled, but shook her head. The vague, misty outline of her form broke away, shifting colors into a strangely familiar scarlet and white. The image took the shape of another pony, but this latter figure was too incorporeal for Twilight to make out. Its colors subtly shifted in the light as it flowed about.

Twilight gulped, stopping a few feet in front of it. “You’re…” she said, hesitating. “You’re not Star Glider, are you?”

There was no response. Or at least, nothing that seemed like a response. The yellow and green of Star Glider’s form had all but shifted away, only occasionally appearing within a rainbow shimmer as the light from the magic struck it at just the right angle.

Have… been… connected…

The entity did not speak directly, but Twilight could feel the words echo within her heart. “I don’t understand!” Twilight cried. “What does it mean?”

Twilight suddenly felt herself being yanked downward along a trail left behind by the spell. It began to branch outward in a number of directions, and Twilight felt her consciousness split as it was dragged along each path. Her head began to pound as the spell progressed, her fragments following each strand of magic toward a series of concentrated wisps of earth pony magic. Each one swirled a different color, and as she reached the end of each trail, the pain in her mind amplified further.

Twilight noticed the branch of the spell containing apples beginning to coil up into the air. With a rush of magic and light, it splintered yet again, carrying along with it several dozen spheres of energy. The spheres arranged themselves into a strange pattern above the colored wisps. Twilight squinted, pushing back the pain, as the shape of an apple tree formed, capturing the magic in place. With a flash, the individual spheres suddenly ceased all movement, and one of the wisp clusters—this one orange—sounded a muffled cheer. Its shape slowly became distinct within the aether, and a familiar voice echoed through the mist.

“Hoo-whee! It’s just like the Zap Apples back home! Twilight’s sure gonna regret missin’ this!”

Applejack? Twilight drifted along the magic as the rest of the wisps began to undulate, distant cheers echoing all around. A smile crossed her lips as she felt the joy from her friend flow over her. The pain in her mind subsided, allowing her to focus with greater clarity on the rest of the streams. Pears, corn, squash, potatoes—all surging from the spell and out toward the ponies. As the aether took various positions in the trees and fields around the village, each branch took on a solid shape. The ponies tending to these crops erupted in cheer with each surge.

Once the spell had finally dispersed, Twilight felt her split perspectives whisked back into wholeness. Before her floated the magic entity, a flowing form of white and crimson. As magic flowed in and around it, the colors shifted into purples, pinks, blues, magentas—it even settled on Star Glider’s colors for a moment. It nickered, its form flickering as if aflame.

“Please,” Twilight said as calmly as she could. She took a step forward and looked up at the form as it grew to a towering behemoth. She gulped, but did not waver. “Tell me. Who are you, really?”

Silence. The being said nothing, and its form began to peel away, each piece drifting away as embers into smoke. “Don’t go!” Twilight cried, reaching out with a hoof. She found no purchase. A sense of fulfilment abruptly washed over Twilight, despite the entity’s departure. Was it reassuring her? The message echoed in her mind again.

Have been connected…

Twilight closed her eyes, a smile crossing her lips, her physical being slowly returning to her perception. She could feel water flowing over her as she was pulled back into reality.

Chapter 19: A Memory Lives

With a lurch, Twilight crested the water and flung herself over the edge of the pool. She wretched loudly, coughing up what felt like gallons of water. She lifted herself out of the water with an unsteady heave and onto the branch, panting heavily.

“Could I seriously,” Twilight groaned between coughs, “get a break from all this drowning?” She rolled onto her side, her labored breathing slowly returning to normal. She wasn’t sure how much time had passed. It was still daylight, but the sun had creeped down behind the ever-present canopy overhead. The magical activity had also subsided in her absence—she could no longer see aethereal refractions beaming down from the strange wooden construction, and the drifting motes of sun magic had all but disappeared.

With a slow exhale, Twilight rolled over and slowly stood. She trotted carefully toward the edge of the Tree’s crown, peering down at the villagers far below. From between cracks in the Tree’s branches, she spotted dozens of farmhooves hard at work. Even at this distance, Twilight could make out faint—and familiar—magic auras flaring up around the fields and trees.

“This is incredible,” Twilight muttered under her breath. “I need to see this for myself.” She flexed her wings and crouched to take flight, but a wave of uneasiness gave her pause. She stretched a wing forward and looked carefully at her primaries, then glanced up at her horn. It sparked a little as a mote drifted into it. Maybe I should take the stairs, she thought, sighing. As she made her way along the water’s edge, she idly traced a wing along the contours of the strange device. She shivered as sunbeams pouring in through the lens seemed to electrify the base carvings.

The inside of the Tree was still—not even the air itself seemed to stir. She looked down toward one of the lower walkways, and suddenly leapt to it without a moment’s hesitation. She landed gracefully and crossed the walkway, but stopped mid-stride as she reached the stairs.

Did I just—she thought, craning her neck to look at her wings. Still clamped shut—definitely no flight involved. The jump was practically a reflex. Most surprising of all, she found her legs remained strong despite such a precise jump at altitude. With a smirk, she glanced over the side of the railing and made another leap, bounding down to the next walkway. Then again, and again, and again, each jump made in quick succession. Her laughter echoed through the empty halls of the Tree.

Twilight landed on the ground floor with a grunt. She looked to the walkways above, the overwhelming height of the Tree no longer dizzying her. “I can’t believe I just did that!” She shouted to nopony in particular. She flexed her knees slowly—nothing seemed sore or out of the ordinary, nor did she feel out of breath. “I guess I’m stronger than I realized.”

As Twilight closed the door behind her, she caught sight of Applejack having an animated conversation with Ivy. Hitched to Applejack’s backside on an ill-fitted harness was a cart overfilled with apples of all colors and sizes. She spied Hopeseed resting on the top of the apple pile.

“I can get this here cart unloaded at the storehouse, but I still don’t understand how in Equestria you had this much at once,” Applejack said.

Ivy chuckled wearily. “Just like the Argent Moon last night, the Aurum Sun—”

“—gave Peacegrove its blessing of solar and earth pony magic, expediting the already-planted crops!” Twilight interrupted, beaming happily as she joined the pair.

“It seems our young Princess has been busy,” Ivy said, a wide, if tired, smile crawling over her muzzle.

“Didn’t your mother teach you not to butt into other ponies’ talkin’?” Applejack half-scolded, quirking an eyebrow. Twilight blushed, stammering an excuse. “Never mind that now,” Applejack said, waving her friend off. “Where in Equestria did y’all disappear off to this time? You know I don’t mind you checkin’ out your magic stuff, but not only has it been nearly four hours, but you’re also soaking wet!”

Twilight squeaked and touched her mane with a hoof. She was indeed still dripping with water, her mane and tail matted against her body. She gave the pair a sheepish grin, and could swear Applejack’s eyebrow was about to take off and leave her face. Twilight struggled to find the right words.

“What were you doing up there for so long, little one?” Ivy asked with concern. “I know our calendar is old-fashioned but surely it can’t be that interesting. You all but missed the Aurum Sun!”

Twilight smiled nervously. “N-not exactly,” she said, her words drawn out as her thoughts organized themselves. “Trust me, I got a first-hoof look at everything. The calendar, as you call it, is really—” Twilight’s recollection flashed to the strange entity showing itself in the aetherstream, breaking her train of thought.

“But that’s not important right now,” Twilight said, shaking her head to bury the uneasy memory. “Right now, I’m more amazed at the harvest!”

“Boy howdy, you sure missed it, Twi,” Applejack said, uncomfortably adjusting the harness. “Left and right like magic, apples just kept poppin’ up all over the orchard, just like Granny Smith’s Zap Apples! Ain’t just the apples neither; just ‘bout everything they planted in the last few weeks suddenly grew ripe as if they’d been growin’ for a full season.”

Twilight smirked, perhaps a little too smugly for Applejack’s liking. “Trust me, AJ, I didn’t miss a thing.”

“Lemme guess, you did some magic-whatzit and it let you see the harvest from the Tree, like how ya saw Hopeseed last night?” Applejack rattled off flatly. Hopeseed, peering from the top of the pile, couldn’t help but blush.

“Something like that,” Twilight said with a giggle. She looked up to the filly. “How are you feeling today, sweetie?”

“I feel great!” Hopeseed beamed, hopping to the ground. “Kinda sleepy, but I helped mom and dad out with the apples and we picked a whole bunch!”

Applejack chuckled, playfully pulling her in to deliver a noogie. “Ya sure did, squirt. They’re real proud of ya. We all are.”

“Hey!” Hopeseed squirmed away from Applejack, giggling as she fought against the onslaught. As Hopeseed turned to the side, Twilight gasped.

“Hopeseed! You got your cutie mark!” Twilight said happily, flaring her wings. “I must’ve missed it this morning.”

Hopeseed blushed and turned away shyly, slowly turning to face it toward everypony. A familiar blossom with two blooms adorned her flanks, their petals shimmering in the afternoon sun. “That’s amazing!” Twilight said.

“We truly cannot thank you enough,” Ivy said, bowing as gracefully as her joints allowed toward Twilight and Applejack. A sound not unlike hardwood boughs bending sounded as she stood once more. “Surely, there must be something we could do for you in exchange for all that you’ve done for us.”

“No need, ma’am,” Applejack said, tipping her hat. “It’s what we’re here for: helpin’ ponyfolk in need.”

Twilight tapped a hoof against her chin as her eyes focused into the middle distance, muttering to herself. “Actually, there may be one thing,” Twilight said. “Does the phrase, When all three have been connected carry any significance in your village, particularly the latter half? Stories, legends, official records, census data, anything?” Twilight’s cadence quickened as suggestions rolled off her tongue.

Ivy closed her eyes and let out a long exhale, falling deep into thought. After pondering for a moment, she shook her head slowly. “I’m afraid not, young one. There are all kinds of stories surrounding our festival, but nothing quite like that. At least, none I can think of that use that particular phrase.”

“I see…” Twilight said, her ears lowering with disappointment. She sighed and looked down at her hooves, idly tracing a pattern in the dirt.

“This part of them weird dreams you keep havin’? You didn’t fall asleep in the water upstairs did ya?” Applejack asked, her eyes narrowing.

“Three more words revealed themselves to me while I was examining the solar capture apparatus,” Twilight said, carefully dodging part of the question. “It happened at the apex of the Aurum Sun, right as my magic merged with the Tree’s. The extension of the phrase isn’t helping me understand the dream.”

“I’ll admit, I ain’t never seen anything like it myself. I’m not the studyin’ type, but I’ve sure seen more ‘n my share of weird things over the years,” Applejack said.

“I’ve heard vague mentions about such phenomenon in some of Starswirl’s old books, but the research was spotty and inconsistent, and it seems like he abandoned it at some point before his disappearance,” Twilight said, kicking a small pebble away.

“Do you still have those books?” Hopeseed chimed in eagerly, eyes widened as she looked up at Twilight.

Twilight sighed, shaking away a faded a memory. “Sadly, no. They were lost when an evil centaur named Tirek destroyed the Golden Oak Library.”

Ivy gasped and sputtered something incoherent, stealing everypony’s attention. “Excuse me, Princess,” she stammered. “I don’t mean to interrupt, but did you say the Golden Oak Library?”

Twilight’s voice grew soft. “I did, yes.”

“I… I had no idea. Oh dear me, I’m so sorry, young one,” Ivy said, taking a step closer and pulling Twilight into a surprise hug. Twilight flinched at the unexpected contact, but returned the hug all the same.

“What’s wrong, Ivy?” Twilight asked. “Is everything okay?”

“Never in my wildest dreams did I think I would hear this story through to completion,” Ivy said, her voice cracking as a tear ran down her face. “I’m so thankful he was okay.” Twilight looked expectantly at Applejack over Ivy’s shoulder. Applejack frowned, shrugging. “There’s something I must give you. Please, come with me. It’s at my home,” Ivy said. She released Twilight, a huge, wrinkly smile on her face.

“What about these apples? Y’said you needed them at the east storehouse,” Applejack said, releasing the lock on the cart. The very moment the harness stood empty, a blur zipped past her and with a click, the harness was locked again.

“I got it!” Holly chimed in a singsong voice. Before Applejack could blink, she had taken the apple cart. “The squash and corn is all stored away, so I can take care of just a few apples.” She giggled, nestling naturally into the harness as if it were made for her.

Ivy smiled. “Very good, Miss Thicket. Run along now, I have to see to our guests.”

“I hope you two had fun! I know Bill and Phil sure did, but I need to make sure Dill and Lil get to bed. They’ve been awake all day and I think they’re starting to get grumpy!” Holly rambled, merrily skipping away with the cart of apples.

“Y’know, I reckon I ain’t never gonna get a good read on that one,” Applejack said, shaking her head.

Twilight stifled a giggle, pausing as she touched Ivy’s shoulder lightly. “You said something about ‘him’ being okay. To whom were you referring?”

“All will be explained in due time. This way.”

The scent of ginger tea filled Ivy’s home as she poured cups for her guests. Twilight and Applejack blew on their drink before taking gentle sips. Ivy sighed contently as she set her cup down. “And so goes another festival,” Ivy said. “I wonder how many more I’ve got left in these old bones of mine.”

“Hey now, don’t say things like that,” Twilight said. “I’m sure you’ve got plenty of—” Applejack gave Twilight a rough prod and shook her head. Twilight noticed a peculiar glint in her friend’s eye, and she let the thought trail off as she cleared her throat.

Ivy chuckled wearily, giving a wrinkly smile. “Oh, don’t you worry none about me. I’m just glad to see the foals of the village blossoming into fine ponies.” She took another sip of her tea.

“What was it you wanted to show us, Ivy?” Twilight asked. She glanced around the room, taking note of all the photos and knickknacks—mementos of festivals long gone.

Ivy’s smile wavered slightly as she set her cup down. “Wait right here. I’ll go fetch it.” Ivy stood up—creaks and all—and carefully ascended the stairs. Despite her age—and the creaking—she didn’t seem to struggle. A door opened, and a few moments later it creaked shut. Ivy reappeared on the steps soon after, a small wooden box in tow. She gently set it down in front of Twilight. Despite its small size, intricate carvings adorned each face. Along the sides, carvings of ponies of all races celebrated together, traces of vines and young trees filling the space between each figure. Emblazoned across the lid was a symbol Twilight was beginning to know very well: A rising sun opposite a setting moon, a tree betwixt them.

“I never did tell you,” Ivy slid the lid off of the box to reveal a small sapling, “the name of our Tree, did I?”

Twilight looked at the sapling. Its swirling aura was small, but Twilight could feel its potential locked deep within. She was transfixed by the incredible display of raw intrinsic magic, noticing that the spellwork didn’t fall into any specific class. It was crude, powerful, and untarnished. Something clicked in Twilight’s mind as she suddenly recognized the aetheric signature.

“The name of our Tree,” Ivy said, smiling, “is the Golden Oak.”

Twilight sat back, mouth agape. Her gaze shifted back and forth between Ivy and the sapling. Her lower lip quivered as the familiar sensation of pieces falling into place grew in her mind. Applejack was similarly stunned, her mouth working wordlessly.

“I don’t understand—How did—” Twilight squeaked, her voice cracking as her eyes began to water.

“Do you remember the tale I told you? About the colt who was rejected by the Tree?” Ivy asked, gently sliding the box closer to Twilight. Twilight nodded slowly as Ivy continued. “There were rumors of a certain tree growing somewhere far, far away after he left. Now, we don’t get much hoof traffic out here, but the occasional lost traveler regales us with tales of a tree not too dissimilar from our own, if just a bit smaller in stature.”

“Are you saying,” Twilight said, gulping. She found it difficult to tear her eyes from the sapling. “The colt from your village planted the Golden Oak Library? My library?”

Ivy chuckled. “Who can say for sure? I, for one, find it too much of a coincidence to ignore.”

Twilight’s eyes widened as she stared down at the sapling. Twilight knew the Elder was right. The familiarity of the Golden Oak wasn’t just a superficial coincidence. She had felt an ache in her heart she couldn’t put a hoof on, and now… The books hidden away in carved-out crannies, the private study rooms, the tucked away bedrooms—she felt her nostalgia rise in a lump in her throat as if she had been given the miracle of seeing a deceased friend one last time.

One tear fell from the corner of her eye. Then another. Tears streaked down Twilight’s face as she sobbed quietly, the memories of her beloved home rolling through her mind.

Ivy made her way around the table to Twilight, engulfing her in a warm hug. Twilight sniffled and buried her head against the Elder’s shoulder, fighting to keep her composure. Ivy pulled away with a gentle smile. “There, there. A smile better suits a princess, wouldn’t you say?” Twilight nodded weakly, a shaky smile forming amidst the tears. “When the time is right, I want you to plant this sapling where you see fit, so the blessings of the Golden Oak, the sun, and the moon can grow their roots across generations to come.”

Twilight nodded, drying her eyes, her smile growing firm. She recalled her time spent in the Golden Oak Library when she first moved to Ponyville. So many wonderful memories, both magical and mundane. “It’s true that I do love my castle, and in practice, not much has changed since it grew to replace the Library. The loss of my Golden Oak left a hole in my heart, one I don’t think could be filled with a hundred castles.” She gently touched the sapling, feeling its warmth spread along her body. “Although I may not live to see it grow to maturity, with this I can at least give these feelings a new home with somepony else who may need it.” She met Ivy’s gaze, a twinkle shining in her eyes. “Thank you.”

The village was humming with activity as the party left Ivy’s cottage. The majority of the fields and trees had been tended to, and there was certainly enough time to see Twilight and Applejack off. Ivy and Hopeseed stood alongside them, a crowd forming from the villagers not needed elsewhere. As ponies settled, Twilight took a step forward and cleared her throat.

“Good afternoon everypony!” Twilight said, raising a hoof in a simple wave—her wing subconsciously following suit. “I’d like to extend my gratitude for welcoming me and my friend Applejack into your village. We were sent here to solve a friendship problem, but we never could have imagined the true friendships blossoming once they had their chance. The love and warmth you all have for one another is reflected in the passion you display during your festival, and we have been truly blessed to witness it first-hoof. I thank you all,” Twilight said with a low bow. The village cheered, the buzz of excitement filling the air.

“However,” Twilight continued, eyes flicking from smiling face to smiling face. “It is with a heavy heart that I must bid my farewell.”

The village let out a collective awwww of disappointment. Applejack smirked and rolled her eyes.

“I will miss all of you terribly, and I hope it is not too long before I get to visit again.” Twilight said. She leaned down to hug Hopeseed as she stepped back, the crowd’s applause fading into the background. “Especially you, Hopeseed. You’ve made all of us so very, very proud. Thank you”

Hopeseed blushed and buried a smile under a hoof. “Oh, come on, I should be the one thanking you!” she said with a giggle.

“Friendship is a two-way street, Hopeseed,” Twilight said, beaming with pride. “Believe me, we’ve learned just as much from you as you have from us. The things you learned during the festival will help both you and your village grow, and we will take what we’ve learned back with us to Ponyville.”

Hopeseed smiled widely, the corners of her mouth trembling as she looked down at her hooves. “You’re really gonna come back to visit?”

“Of course I’ll come back! I have a lot of work to do in Ponyville and the rest of Equestria, but I’ll never forget Peacegrove!” Twilight said, rearing back happily. The rest of the village cheered joyfully in response as Twilight pulled Hopeseed into another hug. Applejack sighed, joining them in a group embrace. When Twilight opened her eyes, she saw traces of a white aura flowing gently from Hopeseed. It was warm, innocent—and content. With a sigh, she squeezed Hopeseed tightly one last time before letting go.

“Well everypony, it’s time for us to go. I hope we can see each other again soon,” Twilight said, blinking back a few tears that threatened to fall. The crowd cheered and waved goodbye as Twilight’s horn began to glow. In her mind’s eye, a map of Equestria appeared before her. A directed yet somehow gentle flow of magic projected from the Silverglade, honing in on their return point: Ponyville. Home.

“Goodbye, young ones!” Ivy shouted wearily, her foreleg creaking as she waved.

“I’ll come visit you too!” Holly said, leaping up into the air from the crowd of ponies. She flailed in mid-air as she waved goodbye, the leg motions enough to (almost) keep her suspended above the crowd.

In a flash of purple and white light, Twilight and Applejack vanished with a loud crackle of energy.

Chapter 20: Within Twilit Tranquility

The familiar hiss-poof of teleportation magic echoed throughout Twilight’s castle as she and Applejack emerged in a flash in the map room. A few wisps of magic residue lingered in the air, reflecting from the crystalline walls before dissipating back into the aether.

Applejack stumbled a few paces, slumping against the table as she held her hat in place. “I ain’t never gonna get used to that. Zappin’ all over always rattles my bones an’—” She wrapped a foreleg around her belly, gulping as a wave of nausea rolled over her. “Ya’ll know we earth ponies ain’t made for zappin’.”

Twilight, stood firm and steady, eyes closed as she held her breath. After what felt like several minutes, she finally exhaled and relaxed her posture. “The more I do these long-distant teleports, the easier they seem to get… but I can’t ever leave anything to chance.”

“How d’ya mean?” Applejack asked, crawling into her cutie mark-adorned chair. Twilight followed suit, collapsing into her own chair and leaning against the high back.

“With all of the latent earth pony magic floating around Peacegrove, it’s difficult to focus certain unicorn spells. In a similar vein, the sheer volume of raw unicorn magic in Amethyst Hollow interferes with the magical frequencies I use to cast spells.” Twilight glanced at her friend, noting her blank stare. “Imagine… Imagine pouring a glass of water out in a desert and having it evaporate instantly,” she said, mimicking a pouring motion. “Take that same glass and pour it out into the ocean. In both cases, the glass of water you started with is basically lost.”

“I guess that makes sense, but what makes it so easy for you?” Applejack asked, kicking back in her chair as her hat fell down over her eyes.

“I’m a firehose, not a glass,” Twilight said smugly. Applejack snickered and peeked an eye out from under her hat, the two ponies sharing a grin. “I’d say you’ve got the right idea, AJ. Taking it easy sounds like a good idea, but I really should start documenting everything we saw.”

Applejack slowly sat up and readjusted her hat. She stretched, her back cracking loudly. “Now look here. I’m exhausted and I know you’re just as tired as me. Ya need to get some serious R&R before you think yourself into an early grave.”

Twilight opened her mouth to protest, but the words died in her throat as the doors suddenly flung open. Spike sprinted full-tilt into the room, leaping onto Twilight and squeezing her in a tight hug. “Twilight, you’re back!” Twilight was knocked from her chair and tumbled to the floor with a yelp, hooves and claws a tangled mess in their embrace.

“H-Hello to you too, Spike!” Twilight said as the wind returned to her. Her horn flashed and the two teleported in place, separating from one another.

“You two’ve been gone for days!” Starlight said, walking into the room. “What happened out there?”

Twilight took a step forward and staggered, fighting to keep her balance as a wave of fatigue suddenly crashed into her. She sputtered into a yawn as she leaned against the map. “It’s good to see you too, Starlight.”

“Twi, you’ve been all over Equestria and back for over a week straight,” Applejack said, making her way over to help steady Twilight. “I ain’t givin’ you a choice, sugarcube. Go take a break.”

Twilight nodded slowly, her eyelids drooping as she swayed to one side. As Applejack reached to keep her from falling, Twilight suddenly lurched upright. She looked at Applejack, then to Starlight, and finally settled on Spike. “Yeah… You’re probably right. I can—” she yawned loudly, “I can take better notes when my head is clear.”

“Do you want me to get you when dinner is ready? It took four tries but I think I’ve finally perfected my ultra-gem-super-sundae!” Spike boasted, a small bit of drool falling from his tongue. Starlight shook her head and made a gagging face behind him.

Twilight giggled, patting Spike’s head. “I think I should at least nap first, but that does sound wonderful. Well, maybe not the gem-sundae-thing.”

“I can fill ya in on all the details,” Applejack said, propping Twilight to standing again. “I don’t know magic like y’all, but I got the gist of it at least. After that I gotta get back home. Big Mac can only deal with Apple Bloom fussin’ about pickin’ up my chores for so long.”

Twilight gave Spike a quick hug before starting toward the door. “Thanks, AJ. I’m going to my room and try to get some rest. We can talk about it in more detail after I get my notes in order.”

“Just make sure you relax… Okay, sugarcube?” Applejack asked, her stern voice laced with worry.

“I will,” Twilight said, suppressing a yawn. A magical aura shimmered around the doors as Twilight opened them, stepped into the hallway, and closed them behind her.

Twilight trudged slowly through the castle, the hallway’s plush carpet muffling her hoofsteps. Her thoughts turned to the Golden Oak—though she had just been in its presence moments ago, it felt strangely distant. She gazed at the crystal pillars and towering doorways, a sense of ease settling over her mind. She was many things: a princess—her castle serving as proof; a librarian—the memories of the Golden Oak Library surfacing in her mind; and above all else, a friend. The physical tree might be gone, but she was still Twilight, and she carried that aspect of herself wherever she went.

She opened the door to her bedroom and smiled. When she left, her room had been a disaster—her own personal brand of organized chaos. Books and papers formerly scattered all over the floor and desk had been straightened out into neat stacks. Twilight looked at one of the stacks by the door, quickly scanning their spines. Everything is right where it belongs. I’ll have to remember to thank Spike later.

Twilight staggered toward her bed. Despite the allure of sleep, something caught the corner of her eye. She blinked, turning instead to make her way toward her desk. It, too, had been organized in the same manner as the rest of her room. A loud yawn escaped her, and she rubbed her watering eyes. I’ll sleep better once I get some of my thoughts out on paper.

She stumbled over to her desk, taking care not to knock anything out of place. She levitated her field notes notes from her saddlebag, Ivy’s box coming to rest in front of her. She examined the carvings adorning the lid. “I’ll take care of you another day, I promise,” Twilight muttered to the sapling resting inside. “When the time is right.” She floated it over to a shelf above her bed and sighed contently.

She levitated the rest of her notes into neat stacks on her desk. Stacked all around in an organized manner only her number-one assistant could manage were books and tomes covering everything Twilight could find about magic and the pony tribes. Before I dig into Starswirl’s notes, first things first, she thought. She centered her expedition notes on the desk and flipped to her most recent entry.

Day 9: No change from previous.

Observation: I had considered the possibility of the Argent Moon’s magic having an impact on my dreams, but that hypothesis lacks evidence to support it. Perhaps my dreams are not directly related to these adventures? Will need to follow up. During the transition to midnight, a combination of lunar and earth pony magic enhanced a protective barrier around Peacegrove Village. A full report will follow upon return to Ponyville.

Note: Will update after the Aurum Sun, which has yet to take place as of this entry.

Twilight put quill to paper and began to write.

Day 9: con’t: While observing a magical focus found on the Golden Oak (see below, “Lens”), an entity revealed itself to me in a vision.

Observation: The Aurum Sun phenomenon took place at noon, mirroring the Argent Moon twelve hours prior. Naturally occurring earth pony magic flowing from the Golden Oak converged with a high concentration of solar magic (possibly alicorn-related? See prior Day 9 notes on lunar magic and Argent Moon), which produced a wide-radius combination accelerated/enhanced crop growth spell centered on the village.

The strange message from the magical entity replayed in Twilight’s mind, sending shivers down her spine. She continued to write.

Lens: A multi-purpose lens device is perched on the crown of the Golden Oak, serving as a heating system for the Tree’s waterworks as well as a calendar for their festival. It also appears to serve as a magical focus for solar energy. During the Aurum Sun, I projected myself into this stream of amplified magic, whereupon I was transported to an earth pony-aspected aetherstream (see notes on Amethyst Hollow).

I encountered an entity—whom I originally believed to be the spirit of Star Glider, but the entity itself stated otherwise—which I believe to be behind the strange messages. This entity (referred to hereafter as “E”) appeared at both Amethyst Hollow and the Golden Oak in two seemingly unrelated circumstances. Both instances involved E passing on a partial message to me. A separate report may be necessary upon further clarification.

The current messages as delivered by E are as follows:

1. Seek, learn, know
2. When all three
3. Have been connected

Twilight sighed and sat the quill down. Her gut was telling her the messages formed a coherent phrase, but she felt that she was missing vital pieces of it. When all three have been connected… she played back in her head. When all three, when all three… Her eyes idly drifted along the rows of books, when one of them caught her attention. Its spine was worn, its title having rubbed off long ago, but Twilight knew the titles to all the books in her collection. With careful precision, she gently wrapped it in her magic and pulled it close, flipping it open to a bookmarked section.

The diagram of the three pony tribes. The connection they shared with the alicorns. Twilight’s heart leapt into her throat as she looked it over. The book looked like it would fall apart in a stiff breeze. She flipped her notebook over to a fresh page and readied a spell. Her horn glowed, preparing the spell’s structure—a long, thin cylinder with sigils glowing along its length. She rolled the cylinder over the ragged book, transcribing the page’s contents and melding them onto its “surface.” Twilight rolled the cylinder along the notebook, transferring its contents and creating a perfect copy.

Can’t risk something happening to a book this old. Finding a readable copy was hard enough, let alone finding another. She very carefully slid the musty tome back into its home. She looked down at her notebook, the diagram of the pony tribes much more vibrant on fresh paper. She scribbled Amethyst Hollow and Golden Oak next to their respective drawings. She focused on the diagram of the pegasus, its wings spread in flight.

“A location for pegasus magic,” Twilight mused. She shakily stood from her desk and walked to her bookshelves, methodically scanning the rows of books for—she didn’t know what. She let out an exasperated sigh and glanced at her cutie mark. “I got lucky with the cutie map. No such luck this time.”

Twilight spotted a slim volume toward the top of her shelf and levitated it down, reading the title. The Basics of Cloudseeding. “Well, it’s a decent enough place to start,” she muttered, setting down at her desk with the book. Pegasus magic, or at least weather manipulation and cloudwalking, is far more well-documented than earth pony magic… Maybe this can help me find a clue. She flipped through the stiffened pages, seeking to find something—anything—that might help.

Skimming it yielded no answers—this text only introduced the basics of creating precipitation. She sighed and pushed the book aside before seizing another one from the shelf. Spring has Sprung. A decent book in its own right, covering everything within and between the four seasons, but nothing useful. Twilight groaned and shoved it away with more force than was perhaps necessary. Another title, The Pegasus Art of War by Sun Tzhoof, caught her attention. A history book through and through, but Eastern Shoe period writers were more focused on the engineering of weather golems and commanding lightning than the essence of pegasus magic itself. A thump echoed against her vaulted ceiling as it landed on the top of the nearest stack of books. Why must this be so difficult?

Twilight began grabbing books at random in her desperation. She yanked yet another book toward her, nearly pulling the entire bookcase down with it in the process. She froze, her pupils shrinking in terror as the bookcase wobbled dangerously back and forth above before coming to rest. Okay, I really need to calm down, she thought, taking a loud, deep breath.

“Wait a minute… this is one of Starswirl’s books,” she murmured, noticing his cutie mark emblazoned on the cover in place of an author’s name. Her eyes focused sharply on the title. “A Treatise on Dark Aether. That’s interesting… I don’t think I’ve read this one.” Twilight tapped her chin thoughtfully. “Starswirl the Bearded wrote about dark magic?”

Twilight’s thoughts drifted back to Sombra’s attack on the Crystal Empire—and the dark crystals that amplified his magic. Her eyes narrowed and she broke into a cold sweat. The crystals in Amethyst Hollow, color aside, did look a lot like those. Curiosity got the better of her, and she flipped it open.

As the study of the formation of base magic continues, certain anomalies have been observed. They are a sick and perverse abomination of unicorn magic that treads on the borderline of heretical. With primary magic use intrinsically linked to cutie marks, the application of dark magic seeks to circumvent this with unusually high potencies that even I am unable to ascertain the extent of. Even after consulting with the elders of the Alicorn tribe, we are no closer to an answer, but still no less aware of its potential for danger and misuse.

Twilight bit her lower lip as she read through the pages. The text jogged her first memory of dark magic: Celestia giving a small demonstration of Sombra’s power before her first journey to the Crystal Empire. She recalled the sickly green stain in Celestia’s eyes—not to mention her own experience using dark magic—and her stomach lurched.

She closed the book with a heavy sigh. Of course something like this wouldn’t help. I can worry about Starswirl’s pet projects after this mess is over. She got up from her desk and trotted across the room to a map of Equestria on the wall.

“Maybe I’m looking at this from the wrong angle.” Her horn glowed and she bathed the northern region of Mount Everhoof in magenta light. The Silverglade Forest—albeit with the Golden Oak absent from the map—far to the southeast shimmered in a light-green light. Her eyes darted back and forth between Mount Everhoof and the Silverglade: back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

“A place for pegasus magic,” she said quietly. Her gaze fell upon the most obvious landmark: Cloudsdale. She pondered the floating city and frowned. Although Cloudsdale was a major city of Equestria, and a de facto “capital” of sorts for the pegasi, it was never affixed to one static location for longer than a season. Since it usually stayed within so many dozens of miles from Canterlot, cartographers often just slapped it somewhere nearby and called it “good enough.” Not only that, but Cloudsdale was well known. Amethyst Hollow and Peacegrove Village were on the far-flung edges in Equestria; it was unlikely for any sort of pegasus nexus point to be right under her muzzle. Twilight groaned in frustration, pressing her forehead against the map as if trying to force an answer out.

The window rattled as a sudden gust of wind howled outside.Twilight yelped and scrambled against her bed, her heart thumping in her chest. Intermittent flashes of light lit up towering purple clouds in the evening sky. “How strange,” Twilight muttered, panting as her mood shifted from fear to confusion. “I checked the weather schedule before leaving for the Silverglade, and we should have clear skies for at least another week.” Twilight gingerly walked to the window and peered outside. Leaves and small branches from the trees below were blowing across the courtyard as billowing thunderheads loomed over the mountains beyond the borders of Ponyville. Despite the occasional yellow-white flash from above, neither distinct streaks of lightning nor the rumbling of thunder made their way to the castle.

Twilight glanced over her shoulder at the growing mess on her desk and shook her head. “I need a break,” she said as she opened the window. The wind threatened to smash the crystalline panes, but her magic held them firm. Perhaps some hooves-on research will help. The wind picked up, and Twilight kicked off out the window, closing it behind her. She hovered in place against the wind and stared up at the massive, roiling clouds. Though they were large enough to mask the sunset, this storm didn’t seem particularly powerful—not a drop of rain had fallen.

Twilight soared toward the clouds, rising higher and higher into the sky, past the highest towers of her castle and eventually even above the distant mountains. The air grew frigid as her ascent continued, passing into lower hanging mists. Droplets of condensation collected on her wings and froze in place. She stretched her hooves and breached the undercloud layer of the storm cell. Tiny arcs of electricity discharged in the clouds all around her, following a curious path skyward. Low rumbles of thunder echoed all around. There they are.

She pressed upward, her wings slicing through the cloudwalls. She flew higher and higher, until she finally broke through the anvil-top with a gentle puft. The darkness of nighttime came into view, the colors of a fast-fading sunset visible in the distance. She hovered above the cloud top, her primary flight feathers flinging off some of the ice and cloud bits that clung to her. Flashes of light danced through the clouds below. The sight was mesmerizing; she had never observed a storm from above.

Twilight descended and landed atop the cloud. She howled as a flash of light blinded her, a crackling blast of electricity shooting from the cloud. She sailed backward through the air—an arc of electricity momentarily connecting her to the cloud—before landing flat on her back with a thud on another, friendlier cloud. Her frazzled mane and tail sputtered and discharged more electricity, and her hooves felt numb. She rolled over and whined loudly, grumbling incoherently into the cloud.

Twilight finally managed to shakily make her way to all fours. She stared trepidatiously at the cloud-ground before her and raised a hoof. She slowly, carefully, inched her hoof closer, and the moment her hoof made contact, she quickly retracted backwards. There was a minor discharge of electricity—thankfully not strong enough to knock her off her hooves—but nothing unexpected. Twilight frowned, prodding the cloud dejectedly. The cloudtop lit up, but all storm clouds did when properly disturbed. She sighed, continually tapping the cloud, but each touch was more half-hearted than the last.

Nothing.

No magic runes winking in and out of existence. No colored wisps to lead one toward safety or danger. Nothing at all. Twilight plopped down onto her haunches, sulking. I don’t understand, she thought as she stared down at her hooves. Each of the tribes appeared in sequence. So why can’t I see pegasus magic? An electrical discharge that strong should have still had some kind of residual magic.

Twilight slammed a hoof against the surface of the cloud, a small flash of lightning arcing along the surface. Ordinary lightning. “But why?” she cried out in frustration. “Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to decipher more of that ridiculous message?”

She stretched a wing and gave it a few gentle flaps. She eagerly watched for any sign of magical action, folding her wing with a heavy sigh. “Nothing from weather manipulation, nothing from cloud walking,” she tapped the solid cloud surface, “and nothing from flight.” She flapped her wings a few more times, stirring some of the vapor around her.

As Twilight sat, enjoying the calm, portions of the cloud cover began to break apart to reveal the landscape far below. Peering over the edge, she could just make out the roofs of Ponyville. The darkness of nighttime crept across the sky, and for a moment, she felt that day and night were in equilibrium. The crimson sunset sky deepened into a brilliant indigo as the moon slowly began its journey above the horizon.

A strange sensation of both awe and sorrow crept over her. Ponyville—even the whole of Equestria itself—felt so small and insignificant from above the clouds. She looked toward the setting sun, then the rising moon. She smirked, realizing her position betwixt the sun and moon—a fleeting twilight, harbinger of both sun and moon.

Wind blew through her mane as she looked across the land. She knew the answers she seeked were unlikely to be in Ponyville, but she smiled softly, content with the understanding that it would always be there for her. The clouds continued to meander across the skyscape, fenestrae growing wider to reveal the lights of Ponyville flickering on to welcome the night. Twilight drew herself to her hooves, her back protesting as she righted herself.

I should get back. Spike will have dinner ready soon, and I don’t want to disappoint him. Twilight dove off the edge of the cloud, riding the air back to her castle. As her wings flared for landing, her mind filled with the warm feelings of her home and the prospect of time with her friends.

For once, Twilight felt she had earned a respite.

Chapter 23: The Storm Calls

Twilight rested her hooves on the windowsill, awestruck at the chaos unfolding before her. A swirling blizzard had fallen upon Ponyville and the surrounding countryside, blanketing the area outside Twilight’s castle with a sheet of blinding white.

“What in Equestria…?” Twilight wondered aloud. Her head spun, and she slammed the window shut to block out the light. She staggered as vertigo pushed her sense of direction askew. Her door suddenly flung open, bringing her back to her senses.

“Twilight!” Starlight burst into the room in a panicked sweat. “What’s going on out there?”

“I… I don’t know!” Twilight stammered. “I just woke up and it was freezing inside, and when I looked there was this giant blizzard going on and I think it has to do with the clouds I saw yesterday and—” Twilight paused, panting as she caught her breath. “Starlight, I need you to stay here and watch after Spike.”

“What’s the plan?” Starlight asked, her voice laden with concern. “I can help out there. I don’t know weather dispelling magic, but I can still—”

“No, Starlight.” Twilight said firmly. “Spike has trouble with Ponyville’s regular winter, let alone something even colder like this. Keep him safe while I try to find Rainbow Dash… She can help me fix this mess.”

Starlight opened her mouth to protest, but just shook her head with frustration. “Okay,” she relented. “I’m getting a little tired of you disappearing off to Celestia-knows-where while we have to deal with all this madness.”

Twilight frowned. She knew Starlight wasn’t trying to insult her, but that didn’t mean she was wrong. “I know, and I’m sorry. I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t truly believe this is far more important.”

Starlight sighed, glancing away. “Yeah…” Her ears lowered. “Yeah, you’re right. I’m sorry too.” She smiled softly, looking sidelong back to Twilight.

They shared a quick hug, nodding to one another as they parted. Twilight disappeared in a brilliant flash. Starlight sighed deeply before dashing off to find Spike.

Twilight stumbled as she appeared outside on her balcony, the intense drop in temperature and poor visibility causing her to reel despite her preparation. She shook her head, squinting against the blinding light of the whiteout.

As her eyes adjusted, she suddenly realized wasn’t the bright snow giving her trouble. Fragments of broken fractals danced amongst the snowflakes, feeding into themselves, turning at oblique angles before suddenly halting with broken tips. She squinted, trying to make sense of them, but the shapes were moving too quickly to follow.

A streak of rainbow light from above broke her concentration. Twilight looked upward as it zigzagged above, shoving clouds into one another and breaking them apart. “Rainbow Dash!” she called out, her voice vanishing into the gale. For each cloud Rainbow knocked away, another one took its place; this was a battle of attrition Twilight knew her friend couldn’t win alone.

Twilight locked onto Rainbow’s aetheric signature with a strained grunt, teleporting herself some hundreds of feet in front of her. “Rainbow, wait!”

Rainbow yelped and flared her wings, coming to a screeching halt in the air. Twilight could see the magic flowing through her friend’s wings change from vibrant cyan to a dull midnight blue as she slowed. “Celestia’s flank, Twilight!” Rainbow screamed as she stopped mere inches from Twilight. “How many times have I told you not to bucking tel—”

Twilight shook her head. “I’m sorry! I had to get your attention somehow. Do you know what’s going on?” She gestured to the blizzard unfolding around them. “Was there an accident at the factory?”

“I don’t know, Twi,” Rainbow shouted, her voice cracking in agitation. “It’s been like this for an hour. I’ve got Derpy and half the team at Sweet Apple Acres trying to redirect a thunderhead and Cloudchaser and Flitter are over town hall with the heatwave, and—”

“Wait, a thunderhead? And a heatwave?” Twilight stammered, taken aback. Her mouth fell agape as she looked over the rest of Ponyville. The blizzard extended only a short way into Ponyville before dispersing. Lightning flashed over Sweet Apple Acres to the west, and she could see sweltering heat waves rising from the rooftops across town. A handful of criss-crossing blurs streaked across the sky; pegasi trying desperately to control the clouds.

“I think I have an idea!” Twilight’s horn ignited. She felt magic flowing through her body, composing a spell that evolved to shift and realign itself to compliment the magic flitting in and out of existence throughout the snowfall. “Back up, Rainbow!” She took aim and released the magic, shooting a beam of swirling light into the clouds. Her spell made contact with a spell strand, coalescing into a bolt of electricity that arced through the storm like lightning. The snowfall slowed and the cloud started to break up slightly, but with a crack of magical feedback the broken puffs grew into new, stronger clouds. The spell crackled and dissipated, overwhelmed by the weather.

“That’s just making it worse!” Rainbow yelled. “Why isn’t this working? Don’t you use magic to change the seasons in Canterlot?”

Twilight shook her head. “It’s not the same. Changing the seasons without the help of pegasi or earth ponies involves crafting a long-term holding spell that takes dozens of specially-trained unicorns to cast. It’s still technically spring, so the only spells I know won’t work. Besides, Canterlot’s weather comes from Cloudsdale!”

Rainbow groaned in frustration, smacking her forehead with a hoof. Twilight furrowed her brow as she concentrated, her eyes darting between the snowstorm, the thunderstorm, and the heatwave. “I can probably brute-force the snowstorm—but it might just reform on its own if it’s not properly handled. Sweet Apple Acres is flooding, and—the heatwave is the least dangerous for now, as long as we get everyone to cover, but that’ll take time to fix and it and it will only get worse the longer we wait… Okay, I think I should have… Let’s just—”

“Twilight!” Rainbow shouted, kicking an errant stormcloud away. “Don’t go all egghead on me now! This isn’t helping!” Rainbow grunted and looked across to the thunderstorm. Twilight followed her gaze. “I’ve got an idea. Go to Derpy’s team at the farm,” Rainbow barked. “Help her break off half of that thunderhead and bring it into town.”

“Of course!” Twilight said. “The rain will help cool the houses!”

“I’ll do the same with this mess,” Rainbow said, her wings fluttering with anticipation. “We can bust up the stragglers after making sure everypony’s safe from the heatwave!”

Twilight nodded and took off toward Sweet Apple Acres. The sight below was utter chaos. Ponies were fleeing to find any kind of cover, while others were trying desperately to keep gardens safe with hastily-thrown tarps. As she soared through the air, she felt the temperature rising rapidly. Falling snow gave way to a torrential downpour as lightning lit up the sky ahead. Twilight saw a small team of weather ponies frantically flailing against the storm clouds above, making negligible headway. She spotted Applejack below, herding her livestock toward the barn, and swooped down toward her.

“Applejack!” Twilight yelled through the rain. A crack of thunder rumbled overhead and Applejack seemed not to hear. She flew closer, hovering just above the ground. “Applejack, are you okay?”

Applejack grunted over the squealing of the pigs, trudging through the thick, wet mud. “Twi? Is that you?” She raised her hat and squinted. “Twi! What in the hay is goin’ on? We ain’t supposed to get rain like this fer months. This ain’t Discord, is it?”

“I don’t think so, the rain’s not made of chocolate, so he probably…” Twilight groaned, pushing aside her bangs to clear her eyes. “There’s no time to explain! Where’s your family?” She said frantically, her wet mane clinging to her back as she looked around.

“They’re okay, I’ve got ‘em holed up in the house. Safest place with the risin’ water. I got all the livestock up in the barn—‘cept the pigs—an’ the east orchard is pretty much entirely underwater. I’m just hopin’ it won’t spread much further.” Applejack brandished a rope, lassoing a panicked pig that darted off. “Winona!” A yip replied to the muffled call, the dog running after the pig and chasing it to Applejack.

“I’ll teleport you to safety. Rainbow Dash is taking care of a blizzard near my castle, and I need to help the team here!” Twilight said.

Applejack stumbled, nearly losing her balance in the mud. “Blizzard? What in the—”

“Hold on!” Twilight focused her magic, a map of Sweet Apple Acres painting itself in her mind’s eye. The barn lit up,full of faint magical signatures, while three strong signatures illuminated the second floor of the Apple farmhouse. Applejack braced herself against the errant pig as Twilight’s magic engulfed the group. With a flash, Applejack, Winona, and the pig vanished—the former appearing in her home, and the latter two appearing in the barn with the other livestock.

Twilight turned her focus skyward and leapt straight up toward the struggling Derpy.

“Twilight!” Derpy whined, tears streaming down her face. “Help me! I-I can’t fix it. It’s too big and mean!”

“Derpy, it’s okay, I’m here now,” Twilight said, giving her a quick, reassuring hug. “You’ve been very brave today, but together we can take it.” She looked up at the swirling mass of blackened grey above and gulped. “I hope.”

“I don’t want anypony to get hurt. This storm is really, really big, and Rainbow Dash was yelling at everypony to hurry, s-so I—” Derpy stammered, her sentence trailing off.

Twilight placed a hoof under Derpy’s chin, meeting her wayward eyes as well as she could. “We’ve got a plan. Rainbow Dash wants us to break this storm cloud in half and bring it to town hall, but we’ll need everypony working together.” She looked around to the other pegasi around, each barely maintaining altitude in their exhaustion.

Derpy nodded and smiled widely. “I can help! We can help!”

Twilight patted her shoulder. “Everypony, follow me!” She turned into the cloud again, rain pouring down her mane. Lightning streaked through the air, striking a nearby tree and shattered it into thousands of splinters. Derpy cried out in fear as Twilight quickly threw up a shield. The wooden shards bounced harmlessly off the shield’s surface, making it ripple like water.

“Derpy! Are you okay?” Twilight said, turning to face her.

Derpy was shivering, but she gulped hard and took on a determined pose. “I-I’m okay!” she stammered. “Really! Let’s go!”

Twilight nodded. “Sunshine, Open Skies, with me! We’ll take the right side of the storm cloud, and everypony else take the left. If we circle back around and meet in the middle, we can slice off the half facing Ponyville. There’s no time to lose!”

Derpy gave a sloppy salute. “Go left, meet in the middle. You got it boss-lady-ma’am!” Her voice wavered as the other two weather control ponies moved to flank off her wings.

The six ponies flew toward the thunderhead, Derpy’s group veering left, Twilight heading to the right with her companions. As Twilight approached the cloud, she slowly dipped her hooves into its outermost layer. Water vapor clung to her as electricity sparked out from the cloud, but she held fast as she carved a path along its surface. Wisps of purple energy peeled from the cloud, circling around her hooves. The jagged edges of the cloud’s composition smoothed out as they reacted to the magic, and once the two made a connection, the cloud matter suddenly poofed into harmless, ordinary moisture.

“Okay, this is it,” Twilight muttered to herself. She licked her lips, flaring her wings as magic streamed from her flight feathers. She banked hard and away from the cloud, looping back around in formation. Her wings stuck straight out as she dove hooves-first into the grey cloud. Lightning flashed all around her, her hooves continuing to drill down deeper toward the storm’s center as she focused her newfound pegasus magic. Her wings sliced through the cloud, cleanly parting it. Not only was she physically pushing portions of the cloud apart, but she could see her own magic severing the aether keeping the cloud together.

Eventually, she spotted a shape speeding toward her through the mist. “Derpy! Are you okay?” Twilight called out. She came to a stop, wings keeping her aloft—touching down on a piece of the storm cloud would be too dangerous.

“I’m okay,” Derpy said, her lips quivering. The rain and lightning subsided once the two met in the middle. Twilight looked over Derpy’s shoulder and could see the path she cut through from the outside. Sparks of lightning arced in the gaps, threatening to pull the cloud back together.

“Great work. On three, we buck the clouds apart,” Twilight directed. Derpy nodded, taking position next to her, their backsides facing the cloud as they reared back. The other weather ponies moved into position along the newly-created eye of the storm.

“One,” Twilight said, swallowing hard.

“Two,” she continued, thunder rumbling from deep within the cloud as if in response.

“Three!” Twilight and the pegasi bucked as hard as they could. Flashes of purple and dull blue rippled over the surface of the cloud, propagating into synchronized waves as they traveled along the stormfront. A slight smile tinted her face as she noticed wisps of tan magic dancing among her kick, a small seed of earth pony magic aiding in the push.

“Is it working?” Derpy asked. The cloud rumbled, but otherwise remained stationary. The lightning arcs stopped, leaving the air with an eerie silence, but resumed mere moments later.

“Again!” Twilight yelled. The pegasi kicked the cloud once more. Another wave coursed outward, stripping away more of the cloud.

“Again!” Another swift, powerful kick. The magic flashed brighter and spread faster across the cloud.

“Again!” With one last, mighty kick, the cloud shuddered and started to drift away from the two ponies as Twilight’s buck shimmered, nearly its entire area reverberating with a mix of pegasus and earth pony magic.

“Did we do it?” Derpy panted, her mane and tail standing on end from static electricity.

“We’re not done yet,” Twilight strained between heavy breaths. “Let’s get this half to Ponyville. By dividing the cloud, we should have reduced its precipitative output by at least seventy-five percent… The farm should be safe for now.”

“R-Right!” Derpy nodded. Twilight led the team through one of the carved-out passageways and exited the cloud, brilliant sunshine bathing them in its warmth. Twilight noticed the rainfall had slowed significantly, and the formerly gale-force winds had calmed. Besides a few quiet rumbles, the thunder had also ceased. She shook her head sadly as the increased visibility revealed some of the extent of the damage to Sweet Apple Acres. Trees were blown over, their roots clawing upward into the air, and smaller structures like chicken coops and sheds had been completely demolished. Despite the rain, the barn and house seemed to be mostly intact at first glance.

Twilight grimaced at the damage, but she knew the heat in Ponyville demanded her immediate attention. The Apples are a strong family. They’ll be all right. “Okay, team, let’s cool down Ponyville!” They each pressed against the cloud, a gentle stream of magic emanating from their hooves. Twilight watched as the energy coalesced, forming a semitranslucent wall in front of them. As they pushed, the cloud slowly complied with their efforts.

Below, the rain had slowed to a drizzle. They pushed the thunderhead into position over town, alongside a second stormcloud already overhead. Flecks of sleet streamed down from the combined cloud’s underside. Even from this height, Twilight could see ponies peek from their windows. As the temperature down below plummeted from too hot to comfortably cool, a few even took a few tentative steps outside. Rainbow Dash rocketed around the cloudhead toward Twilight.

“Hey!” Rainbow yelled, waving her down. “You brought the rain cloud! How’s AJ? What happened?”

Twilight grunted as she broke off a large chunk of the cloud. Rainbow helped her position it directly over town square, filling a small gap in the rain. “She’s safe,” Twilight panted, her movements shaky. “There’s some damage, but nopony got hurt.”

Rainbow breathed a sigh of relief. “You got here just in time, too. Any longer and we’d be seeing some ponies with heat stroke out here!”

“What about the blizzard by the castle?” Twilight asked.

“I got this half of it taken care of, but I just sent some weather ponies up that way to finish the rest. Derpy!” Rainbow said firmly, bringing the pegasus to attention. “Bring your team and go help Flitter and Cloudchaser. Me and Twilight’ll wrap up here.” She flashed a smile. “You did a good job out there today.”

“You got it lady-boss-ma’am! Thank you!” Derpy said cheerfully, giving a salute with her wing before flying off to join the other pegasi.

Twilight hovered in place, slowly turning as she looked across Ponyville. She caught sight of Derpy and her small team crisscrossing through the clouds above her castle, breaking them apart. In the distance, the silhouette of Canterlot peeked its way through soot-black clouds. Flashes of lightning illuminated it, casting ominous shadows against the towers.

“Oh no,” Twilight groaned, fatigue beginning to set in. “It’s in Canterlot too? What else could go wrong?”

“Twilight!” A panicked voice cried out from the ground. Twilight and Rainbow Dash looked down to see Starlight and Spike running through town square toward them.

“Spike, Starlight!” Twilight twisted into a dive landed next to her friends. “What’s going on?”

“It’s terrible, Twilight!” Spike said, gasping for breath and holding a scroll aloft. “I just got a letter from Princess Celestia!” Twilight’s ears folded back as her heart sank.

“There’s tornadic winds in Chicoltgo!” Starlight cut in, a look of panic crossing her face. “The Appleoosan Basin is also flooding!”

“And there’s a huge thunderstorm in Canterlot! The Princesses are fighting it off now!” Spike said, pointing off in the distance. Everypony looked toward Canterlot, the storm enveloping the tallest tower. The brilliant flashes of lightning were dazzling—almost hypnotic—as distant booms rocked across the landscape. Twilight could see faint beams of magic being shot throughout the cloud. It was too far away to discern any detail, but from the colors and sheer power they could only be from Celestia and Luna.

“We have to help them!” Twilight gritted her teeth and lowered into a take-off stance, ready to launch herself toward Canterlot.

“Twilight, wait!” Spike cried. “The Princesses say they’ve got Canterlot under control, but it’ll take time to stop. I think you’ve got bigger problems to deal with right now.”

Twilight collapsed onto her haunches. “I can’t just sit here and do nothing, Spike!” Twilight said, feeling panic rise within her. “Ponies could get hurt, or worse!”

“Well,” Rainbow Dash interjected, struggling to find words, “what about Cloudsdale? Maybe something’s wrong at the weather factory.”

Twilight bit her lip and rolled the idea over. She shook her head, frowning. “No, it can’t be Cloudsdale. That doesn’t explain the weather in Chicoltgo or Appleoosa. How many other locations are having weather problems?” Twilight asked.

“Well…” Starlight bit her lip. She floated another parchment to Twilight, unrolling it for her. Twilight gasped. It was a map of Equestria, with a series of red crosses over nearly every major settlement. Ponyville, Canterlot, Manehatten, Las Pegasus… the list went on.

“All of these…” Twilight squeaked, her voice lowering to a whisper. She looked over the map with fervor, jumping from location to location. Chicoltgo, Whinnyappolis, San Neighigo, the Crystal Empire, Seaward Shoals, all had markings over them.

“Wait,” Twilight said sharply, focusing intently on the southwestern corner of the map. There it was, staring her in the face: Seaward Shoals and its strange weather factory lingering at the far corner of Equestria, out over the South Luna Sea. Twilight glanced at the map’s legend. “This map is brand new. It was published just this month!”

“What does that have to do with anything?” Starlight asked with a nervous shrug.

“To the library, now.” Twilight commanded with a stomp. Before anyone could react, Twilight’s magic enveloped the group and transported them to the castle.

As the group reappeared, Rainbow Dash fell to the ground with a tumble, caught off guard by the teleportation. “Freaking horsefeathers, Twi, could you not?” She grumbled as she stood. “Why are we even here, anyway?”

“I discovered something last night while doing a little light reading” Twilight explained, flying from shelf to shelf frantically and plucking books down with her magic.

Starlight sighed with exasperation and rolled her eyes. “I’ll yell at you later for breaking your promise,” she said as she watched Twilight dart around the room. “So tell us why we’re here.”

“I’m really, really, sorry, Starlight… I’ll make it up to you somehow, I promise,” Twilight murmured. Starlight merely shook her head. Twilight landed with a thump and laid out a stack of books on a nearby table. “I need every book we have on weather or the weather factories, specifically anything related to the South Luna Sea.”

“Why there?” Spike asked as he scampered onto the book-filled table. “I’m not even sure where that is!”

“It’s a long shot, but last night I found an abandoned weather factory in that region. If a factory is left unattended, the lack of maintenance could cause the weather to go out of control.” Twilight said, floating another row of books before her. She began to scan through them, sorting them into piles based on usefulness.

“Yeah, but all over Equestria?” Rainbow Dash said as she looked over some of the titles. “Cloudsdale’s big, but mistakes there only affect Ponyville and Canterlot.”

“That’s…” Starlight interjected, peeking up from her book, “actually not true.” Twilight leaned in to listen with earnest. Starlight raised the book so she could see, showing off the title: The History of Cloudsdale. “It says here that 200 years ago, an explosion in one of the snow machines generated enough pressure to force snowfall over half of Equestria for the entire winter.”

“Okay, yeah, maybe that’s true,” Rainbow said, her voice dripping with sarcasm, “But so what? It’s not like these kinds of accidents happen every day.” Starlight rolled her eyes.

A sudden worry overcame Twilight as the pit in her stomach grew, making her chest ache with stress. “Oh no…”

“What is it, Twilight?” Spike asked, setting a small stack of books down.

“What if the factory we’re dealing with is…” Twilight gulped. “Bigger than Cloudsdale?” A chilling silence came over the room. Spike nervously scratched a scale, the scraping sound echoing against the vaulted ceiling.

“We need to learn more about this factory.” Twilight finally broke the silence, flipping open another book a random. “I’m not going in without a plan.”

“And what are you planning to do when you get there?” Rainbow Dash asked, stretching a sore wing. “I know you’re smart, and it’s not like I don’t trust you or anything, but this whole thing just sounds kind of fishy to me. Like, really? A weather factory bigger than the one in Cloudsdale? Everypony knows Cloudsdale has the biggest factory in Equestria.” She scoffed and rolled her eyes.

“It’s just a hunch, and I could be wrong… but we are dealing with something that’s over a thousand years old. If what Starlight found is true about Cloudsdale, then it stands to reason an accident at a larger factory would cause more widespread damage.” Twilight said, flinging a hoofful of books away, opening another three to scan their contents.

“You said it was abandoned, right?” Spike piped up. “What could have possibly happened?”

Twilight sighed and shook her head. “That’s what I don’t know. It could have been residual magic, it could be sabotage, it could be anything. But what I don’t understand is why it’s stationary. Every weather factory drifts to ensure they keep wild weather under control… Every weather factory except this one.” A deep, heavy sigh escaped her lips, and she buried her head in her hooves. “But that’s why we need to find out as much as possible!”

“You’ve got it, Twi!” Spike hopped to the floor, scampering to the shelves to fetch more research material. The group continued to pore through books and parchment as they were brought to the table. A growing pile of books without useful information formed along one wall. Desperation slowly settled over the room as directly relevant material was exhausted and tangentially-related works were all that remained.

As musty tomes of general magic theory and local political history came across the table, Twilight found herself scrambling through books faster than ever. She finally broke the tense silence with a loud “Aha!” The sound of books clattering to the floor filled the room as a startled Spike tripped and spilled his payload.

“Did you find something?” Rainbow asked. She and the others crowded around over Twilight.

“I did,” Twilight said, her voice wrought with concern, “And it’s not good. According to this, the South Luna Sea weather factory was a primary front generator for most of Equestria over a thousand years ago. The magic in the South Luna Sea caused the waters to unnaturally heat up, generating more energy for the local area. Because of this, the factory never moved, and it funneled the excess energy to help other factories with their own weather.

“But,” Twilight continued, “As pegasus magic and technology improved, this extra energy became redundant and it was deemed too risky to keep funneling it from so far away. They built a magic structure they call ‘the sarcophagus’ around the weather pocket powering the factory and abandoned it nearly three centuries ago.”

“They didn’t just shut it down? Great, now we have to deal with the fallout!” Starlight said, her words punctuated by a twinge of frustration.

“Hey,” Rainbow snapped, “weather factories aren’t something you can just stop. I don’t know how it all works exactly, but I’ve been a weather pony long enough to know it’s complicated!”

“I don’t fully understand how it all fits together, either.” Twilight said, closing the book with a loud snap. “But we don’t have much of a choice. This is the only lead we have.” Twilight steeled herself, a familiar sense of determination growing within as she looked toward Rainbow Dash. “I can’t do this alone. I’ll need your help.”

Rainbow scoffed playfully and grinned. “Please, this’ll be a breeze! You know I can’t just let Ponyville get pushed around by a bunch of crazy weather!”

Twilight nodded firmly, but the serious glint in her eyes didn’t waver. “We need to go now. It’s not just Ponyville that’s in danger. If we don’t do something, all of Equestria could be doomed!”

Chapter 24: Through Clouds' Bane

The wind howled over the landscape like a banshee. Swirling black clouds flowed over the once-quiet village of Seaward Shoals, blanketing it in an oppressive darkness. Twilight and Rainbow Dash appeared in a brilliant flash of light a few miles outside the village, nearly falling prone as the wind slammed into them.

“It should be right over this hill!” Twilight shouted. Her horn flared as the nearly-horizontal rain plinked against a hasty barrier spell, sending ripples over its surface. Sweat trickled down her brow as she strained, leaning into the wind as she summoned stabilization magic into her barrier to keep it from peeling away.

“I haven’t seen wind this bad in a long time!” Rainbow Dash yelled. She held her wings in front of her face, shielding herself as specks of rain managed to penetrate the barrier. She trudged alongside Twilight, her mane whipping in the wind.

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” said Twilight, straining to keep the spell up against the storm. “We just need to keep our eyes out for any—” A sudden crack alerted her and she dropped her barrier with a shout, flying a dozen feet into the air. Magic surged from her horn as an infinitely-tight hexagonal latticework wove into existence, spreading outward into a massive protective barrier. It shimmered with completion just as a massive tree hurtled through the air toward them. With a thunderous shockwave, the tree crashed into Twilight’s spell and splintered into fragments. The shield rippled with the impact, but the tight framework of her spell held fast. Twilight returned to the ground, dismissing all but the smallest elements of the spell, re-weaving them into a smaller barrier once more.

Twilight sighed with relief, placing her hoof on her chest as her heartbeat roared in her ears. “That was way too close,” she muttered.

“No kidding!” Rainbow said, a tiny waver in her voice belying her bravado.

The pair crested the final hilltop; lightning danced through the sky above them and illuminated the landscape in an eerie, stark light. Seaward Shoals lay nestled along the shore, only a tad smaller than Ponyville. The sea churned, spewing rough waves that slammed against the shoreline while a lone lighthouse beamed weakly into the distance.

Out over the water, the sky blackened as if night had begun to fall. A massive arm of the cloud ceiling sagged downward, moving slowly in a funnel vortex. The clouds immediately above the village were much more stable: still a dull grey, but Twilight couldn’t see any active precipitation from this distance. She squinted and spotted a small group of pegasi tearing through the grey cloud belly, arcing upward, and disappearing back into the cloud cover.

“They must be keeping the storm at bay,” Twilight said, pointing up where the pegasi re-entered the clouds. She looked back down at the village. “The streets are fogged up, but otherwise the town seems to be safe.” Sure enough, aside from roof damage, all of the buildings were intact.

“Forget the fog, we gotta help ‘em!” Rainbow shouted, zooming off into the sky with a rainbow trail.

“Rainbow, wait!” Twilight cried, taking off after her friend. “We need a plan!” The four pegasi broke through the clouds once again and paused when they noticed Rainbow. One of them, who was wearing a familiar blue-and-yellow jumpsuit, broke off and approached. A blue stallion saluted Rainbow Dash as they met.

“Airpony First Class Stormspark of the Wonderbolts Weather Reserve, reporting,” he said between haggard breaths. “You came just in time, Captain Dash!”

“Yeah, yeah, save the formalities,” Rainbow said, waving him off. He fell at ease, then gasped and promptly saluted again as Twilight joined them. “Just what in the hay is going on out here?” Rainbow demanded.

“We were anticipating a storm, ma’am, but this one’s getting out of control,” Stormspark said, motioning downward. “It was snowing an hour ago, if you can believe it, but now it’s all melted and flooding the town… not to mention the fog! It’s taking everything we’ve got just to keep the winds out.”

“Is this your entire team?” Rainbow asked, a mix of worry and disbelief crossing her face.

Stormspark nodded slowly, his eyes sullen. “There’re a few other pegasi who live here, but they’re all fisherponies. They don’t have the training to handle a storm this big!”

“Well, now you’ve got us here to help!” Rainbow boasted, playfully ribbing Twilight. “So, what’s the plan, Princess?”

Twilight flushed deeply, looking up at the sky. The cloud cover directly over the village was lighter than the swirling blackness around them, but this safe zone was steadily inching closed as the storm encroached back over the space. “We need to create a localized high pressure system. That should keep the storm over the village at bay for a while.”

“Got it! It might be a little tough with just the six of us, but with you and me here that should make up the difference!” Rainbow said, flicking her mane back proudly.

Twilight nodded and flew along the barrier between storm and calm, the other ponies falling into formation behind her. The rainfall and high winds steadily encircled the town as they took position. “On your mark, Rainbow!”

“Three!” All six ponies took position, falling into a rough diagonal formation behind Rainbow. Twilight fell into a wingpony position opposite the other four.

“Two!” The clouds continued to inch closer. Thunder rumbled overhead as rain began to sprinkle against them.

“One!” The group tensed up, their wings folding against their backs. For but a moment, Twilight caught a glimpse of magic welling within the folds of Rainbow Dash’s feathers. A dense cluster of latent airborne magic fed into her wings in preparation for the sprint. Twilight shuddered, feeling the same sensation against her sides—or perhaps she had always felt it, and just never noticed?

“Mark!” Rainbow Dash rocketed forward, leaving a multi-colored trail of magic in her wake. Twilight followed suit, her own wings leaving behind a trail of deep lavender wisps. She glanced across to Stormspark, acting element leader, and noted yellow bolts of energy flowing from his wingtips. Twilight banked tightly around the storm system as Rainbow Dash led the way through the clouds.

The formation maintained their speed as they circled around the perimeter of the village. Twilight watched in awe as the pegasus magic fought back against the roiling storm around them. The clouds above the village parted, sunlight streaming through and pushing the darkness back. The dark fog enveloping Seaward Shoals grew thin, evaporating under the warm radiance.

“Keep going!” Rainbow yelled. “We’ve almost got it!”

Once, twice, thrice more, the group circled the village, forcing the cloud barrier back further. As they completed their final lap, Twilight found herself needing to shield her eyes as the light poured in from above.

“There,” Rainbow panted, sweat slicking her mane against her body. “We should be good for now.”

Twilight hovered next to her friend, body slumped over as she gasped for breath. Stormspark slung a hoof over Rainbow's shoulders, struggling to stay airborne. “Yeah,” Twilight said between breaths, “That should buy… buy us some time.”

The group descended onto the nearest rooftop. As their hooves clattered against the clay shingles, Stormspark and the other three pegasi promptly collapsed from exhaustion. Twilight managed to keep herself propped up on a chimney, though her head spun. Rainbow hovered above them, seemingly unfazed. I’ll bet she could clear this weather a thousand times over, thought Twilight with admiration.

Twilight gazed across the sea toward the horizon. Her breath caught as she spotted the funnel cyclone—it seemed to have grown larger. Intermittent lightning cascaded around its body. She also noted flashes of magic surrounding the storm, though was unable to make out any details. The magic drifted away from the storm system, cresting in waves as it crashed along the distant shorelines before making its way deeper into Equestria.

“I can’t tell you how grateful we are, Princess Twilight,” Stormspark wheezed, struggling to his hooves. “How did you know to come here?”

Twilight sighed, flicking her bangs out of her eyes. “The weather has been out of control all over Equestria and I’ve personally seen freak accidents in Ponyville and Canterlot! My—our—research led us out here, and I have reason to believe that Seaward Shoals is the closest settlement to an erratic, abandoned weather factory out there in the South Luna Sea.” She pointed to the vortex.

The pegasi let out a collective gasp, glancing nervously between each other. They whisper among themselves as they trembled with fear.

“What?” Twilight asked, bewildered. “What’s wrong?”

Stormspark’s legs wobbled as he spoke. “Princess Twilight… that’s no weather factory.” he said. He glanced back at his friends, their faces frozen in terror as they looked across the sea to the darkening sky. “That’s…” He gulped loudly, taking a careful step away from edge of the roof. “That’s the Cloudsbane.” He shook his head. “We’d better go to the lighthouse. There’s something you’ll want to see.”

Stormspark plodded up the creaking steps of the lighthouse while Twilight and Rainbow Dash followed close behind. He threw open a rickety wooden door and stepped aside to let them in. “This is my home. Don’t mind the mess.” He said with a weak chuckle. Maps, papers, books, and charts were scattered all over the floor, desk, and walls. A lone bed rested in the corner, with a simple kitchen and bathroom tucked away off to the side. With all of the research and notes strewn about, Twilight felt right at home.

“What is all this?” Twilight asked, beaming with excitement.

“This,” he said, ruffling through some papers, “is everything we’ve compiled on the Cloudsbane over the last few years. Some of this stuff goes back centuries.”

Twilight trotted up to the desk and smiled, taking in all of the knowledge spread out before her. Even with a quick glance she could see there was so much to go through: nautical maps, precipitation charts, average wind speeds over time, tidal patterns… It’s amazing just how much information there can be for one tiny part of Equestria.

“So the million-bit question is, just what is this Cloudsbane thing?” Rainbow piped up. She stared at a random chart on the wall, struggling to make heads or tails of the ancient text.

Stormspark sighed in exasperation. Putting a hoof to his temple, his eyes closed as he shook his head. “That’s the problem,” he said. Without looking, he leaned over the desk and pointed to a map of the area. A large scrawled X indicating the Cloudsbane mirrored Twilight’s own research. “We don’t know. Nopony in all of recorded history seems to know.”

Twilight tapped a hoof against her chin as she examined the map. “What can you tell us about it? I’ve been researching sources of pegasus magic, and it seems to me that the Cloudsbane might hold the key to understanding it.”

“Nopony can get close to it, for starters.” Stormspark pulled down a detailed local map, unrolling it over the clutter. It stretched nearly from one side of the desk to the other, and Twilight bit her lip as she examined the parchment. “The Cloudsbane is the largest atmospheric formation on record,” he continued. “We’ve tried to penetrate the cloud layer surrounding it, but it’s too dangerous. The pegasi we’ve sent in come out soaking wet and singed. The last thing we want is somepony to go in… and not come back.” A muscle in his jaw worked as he grimaced.

He flipped open a notebook with a sigh, handing it to Twilight. “This is a log of the Cloudsbane’s radius, measured at noon every day for the last year. They’re just estimates done on fly-bys; Everypony’s too scared to get close.” Twilight took the book and skimmed the entries.

“This is…” Twilight said, her voice faltering. She flipped page after page, hoping against hope she misread. “It’s larger than Cloudsdale.”

“Well, yeah. I thought we already figured that out?” Rainbow said, scratching her head.

“No, I thought it could be potentially larger than Cloudsdale’s weather factory. This is larger than Cloudsdale itself. The entire city!” Twilight exclaimed, reading through the pages frantically. She glanced at the map, and her heart sank as she realized the average recorded sizes lined up with the scale of the map. Each month the Cloudsbane waxed and waned, as if on a cycle. Her blood ran cold as she arrived at the most recent entries. Three days ago the entries stopped, replaced with the sentence Immeasurable; merged with upper clouds. The following entries were merely question marks.

Twilight groaned. “Stormspark, you said nopony can get close to it, right?” she asked. He nodded. “In other words, if it is a weather factory, then it’s safe to assume no maintenance has ever been done on it?”

“Like I said, anypony who gets close is pelted by rain and lightning. Sometimes it sends storm clouds out over the town, but they’re usually small enough to bust pretty quickly.” He gestured to one of the small porthole windows above the desk. “We’ve been working almost non-stop for the last three days just to keep things at bay. Take a look.”

Twilight looked out at the shoreline. The waves crashed ever higher as sheets of rain poured over the sea. The storm was very, very slowly creeping inland—closer to Seaward Shoals. The clouds above were the same dark grey, with streaks of a sickly green fading in and out of the cloud barrier. The black vortex hanging down from the clouds flashed with lightning, particles of free-flowing magic emanating from the monolithic cloud. A thin stream of dark blue wisps wove its way skyward, sparking lightning in the surrounding clouds as the torrent grew stronger.

Other colors drifted through the air, spreading out in all directions as they reached the shore. Many of them were muted in color, slowly fading between deep shades of red and green. Twilight followed a dark-green band of magic as it spun off to mix with a swirling air current. It wove into itself, spiralling faster and faster as it pulled in the air around it and adding to a growing magical charge. The ocean below shimmered as an inky tendril rose up to meet it. As the two merged, a swirling, violent column of wind screamed to life.

“Oh no,” Twilight stammered. “Oh no, no, no, no, no.”

“Let me see!” Rainbow said, pushing Twilight aside. She gasped loudly. “Twister!”

“W-what?” Stormspark stammered, his wings snapping open in surprise. “It’s never done that before!”

“Stormspark, are there cellars or underground spaces nearby?” Twilight asked, shooting him a look of concern.

He stumbled over his words, fear gripping his voice. “Well, I… uh, there’s a small cave just outside town, but it might be flooded.”

“Perfect,” Twilight said with a firm nod, “I need you to gather the villagers and get them to that cave, now. Rainbow Dash and I will take care of the waterspout and then head into the Cloudsbane ourselves.”

“But you can’t!” He yelped. “It’s too dangerous, nopony’s been inside for centuries!”

“Hah!” Rainbow barked. “Who do you think you’re dealing with? The fastest flyer in Equestria and the most powerful Princess? We’re not scared of some dumb old factory!”

Stormspark’s eyes flicked back and forth between the two. Rainbow wore her signature cocky grin, and a slight frown of determination tinted Twilight’s face. He grimaced, but slowly nodded in response.

Twilight and Rainbow exchanged a look and a nod. Twilight’s horn sparked, and with a flash, the trio appeared outside at the base of the lighthouse. The waterspout had formed some distance away, but was quickly making its way to shore.

“Go, Stormspark, go! Get everypony to safety!” Rainbow directed.

“Yes, ma’am!” he replied with a salute, flying in a wide arc toward the town center. Twilight and Rainbow Dash took off in the opposite direction toward the looming storm. Visibility worsened and the wind howled more ferociously as they approached the waterspout.

“It’s rain-wrapped!” Rainbow shouted over the noise. “If we get too close, it’ll blow us off balance! But if we’re too far, we can’t break it up!”

Twilight squinted, traces of pegasus magic flashing before her. Azure wisps surrounded their wings as the rain continued to pick up, but Twilight ignored these to stare at the swirling cerulean tempest picking up speed as they approached. Twilight rubbed her eyes. The magic signatures were incomplete and chaotic, but she could still spot the same familiar magical frequencies.

“That’s it,” she muttered to herself. “Rainbow! I can see the magic that makes up the waterspout’s base. Come on, I think I know what to do!” she called back through the rain.

“On your six!” Rainbow said as Twilight banked to one side, flying against the winds. Rainbow stayed tight, blinking the rain from her eyes. “Why didn’t I bring my goggles?” she grumbled. Lightning cracked around them, the rain soaking through their feathers. Twilight and Rainbow held their wings firm against the vortex, circling the perimeter.

Twilight watched as razor-thin lines of magic coated their wings, slicing through the air. They tumbled through the air, colliding into the dozens—no, hundreds—of chaotic magical arcs. Their unique magic signatures coursed through the energy, forcing order upon the energy locking it into place like cogs of a massive machine. Just like the stormcloud over Ponyville, portions of the magic neutralized and faded away into the aether. In time, the azure bolts peeled away to reveal the swirling, impossibly-dark core of the vortex.

“Keep going, just a bit more!” Twilight shouted. She strained, pushing her wings to their limit as they encircled the tornado over and over. Each pass stabilized the magic further, calming the winds as it was shaped and controlled. A huge swath of the formless magic structure was cut away, like the final strike of an axe against a tree. With the conduit between the water and cloud belly above finally severed, the spout started to break apart.

“Almost… There…!” Twilight grunted. “Rainbow, now!”

Rainbow let out a whoop as she and Twilight flared their wings wide. They hummed with energy as aether crackled along their flight feathers, a deafening thunderclap sounding behind Twilight as they surged forward on one mighty wingbeat. A brilliant rainbow-colored shockwave filled her peripheral vision, a familiar sight dancing outward as they accelerated. Rainbow rocketed out from behind, a cyan blur against what remained of the storm. The expanding rings of the Sonic Rainboom overpowered the waterspout and shattered it, the trailing swells of magic rumbling as they retreated. Twilight followed Rainbow away from the storm as the Sonic Rainboom stretched outward and made its way toward the Cloudsbane.

Twilight and Rainbow both came to a halt over the shoreline, looking on as the Sonic Rainboom collided with the cloud barrier surrounding the Cloudsbane and tore a ragged hole through its side. Lightning erupted from the clouds, almost seeming to attack the rainbow aura left behind. It was too far away for Twilight to make out the details, but she could see the effects of Rainbow Dash’s magic disrupting the storm clouds. Thick layers of disrupted clouds broke apart and faded away into nothing. The remnants were still impossibly large—easily surpassing Cloudsdale—but Twilight knew this was their one and only opportunity. Swirling tufts of grey condensation started to coalesce toward the central cloud formation, closing the opening.

“There’s no time to waste! If we don’t hurry, it’ll rebuild itself. Come on!” Twilight yelled as she took off toward the Cloudsbane.

“You don’t gotta tell me twice!” Rainbow said, flying after Twilight. The two careened through the air, their wings straining against the storm. Though exhausted, they blazed a path toward the opening. Despite the damage done, the hole was incomplete and Twilight’s hooves collided with the dark clouds with a deafening crack of thunder as lightning discharged around her. Her hooves illuminated with a burst of deep indigo as her magic cut through the obstacle before her, steadily chipping through into the barrier. Rainbow slammed into the wall below her, carving a wider path through.

The resistance of the Cloudsbane’s walls pushed against Twilight away, and the deeper she burrowed, the more intense the force grew. She couldn’t spare the time throw a shield spell out to divert the lightning—she knew manifesting unicorn magic could prevent her hooves from breaking the clouds apart. She cried out with pain as lightning struck, dancing across her wings.

“Twilight!” Rainbow yelled out.

“I… I’ve got this…” Twilight grunted through gritted teeth. Her vision blurred as a burning sensation spread across her back, making each wingbeat agony. She screamed desperately as magic flashed from her hooves and the clouds before her were violently sundered. The tunnel of clouds surrounding them suddenly gave way to open air as they shot forward, crashing into a white cloud platform and tumbling among the fluff. They landed in a heap, groaning dizzily.

“Did we do it?” Twilight panted as she rolled onto her back, wincing as her wing’s shoulder twinged. Her faded vision could just pick out the skyscape above her. A long column of pitch black clouds hung overhead, slowly revolving around each other.

“I think so… I’ve never been through a storm cloud that intense before.” Rainbow said as she came to her hooves, flexing her wings. “Ow! How’re you holding up, Twi? You didn’t get hurt, did you?”

Twilight’s wings splayed out under her. She weakly moved them, grimacing as she felt a grinding on one side. “I’ll be fine. I’m just exhausted.”

Twilight could hear the soft crunching of the cloud as Rainbow walked off, peering over the side. “Uhh, Twilight? You might wanna come look at this,” she said, her voice trailing.

Twilight struggled to her hooves and tucked her wings in. She stood by Rainbow and her jaw fell open, awestruck. Vast brass structures stood tall on cloud platforms that peppered the air, their high arches connecting a few nearby tinged with green. A central platform stretched out for miles before them, disappearing into the distance. The buildings were in severe disrepair, their hardened cloud components crumbling away like aged concrete. Several tall structures loomed over the platform, a weblike network of bridges interconnecting at every conceivable angle. The style of towering columns and imposing hard angles reminded Twilight of the architecture in the older parts of Cloudsdale. Smaller buildings, the size of homes, made up another side of the main thoroughfare.

“I don’t think this Cloudsbane thing is just a weather factory,” Rainbow said, gulping.

“You’re right,” Twilight said nervously. “It’s an entire city.”

Chapter 25: From Cloudborne Cacophony

Author's Note

We have another music track to accompany Twilight on her journey! Hunker down and steel yourselves for the approaching storm, for the winds are tempestuous and the rains blistering. What dangers await Twilight and Rainbow Dash in the Cloudsbane? Best be on your guard, weary traveler...

https://youtu.be/slNVSlRIE_M

Chapter 25: From Cloudborne Cacophony

The ruins of the Cloudsbane lay before Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash. Spires of hardened cloud matter pierced the sky, eclipsing what little sunlight streamed through the steadily swirling darkness overhead. The air was surprisingly still. Even as dull flashes of lightning arced through the cloud walls around them, the booms of distant thunder were muted. Twilight took a few careful steps forward and peered over the edge of the cloud platform.

“I…” Twilight’s voice cracked as words failed her.

Rainbow joined Twilight, her jaw dropping in awe. “What in Equestria happened here?” Rainbow asked to nopony in particular. She tensed up as she looked across the ruins.

“Well,” Twilight bit her lip, closing her eyes to recall. “It was abandoned over three hundred years ago. If nopony has been here since then—” A loud rumble stole their attention as a nearby structure finally gave way to the ravages of time and imploded. Dust and broken cloud debris mushroomed into the sky, spreading out along the ground and covering the smaller buildings. Flashes of discharged magic lit up within the rubble.

No, something else had to have happened here, Twilight thought. This damage is beyond just time.

“Where do we even start?” Rainbow said, idly kicking at a tuft of cloud. “This place is huge!”

Twilight sharply took a breath. “Our plan hasn’t changed. We find the weather factory, see what’s wrong, and fix it if we can,” she said resolutely. She gulped, feeling her nervousness—or was it excitement?—building within as she took in the ruined skyscape. “There’s something I want to try first. I think it might help if we…” Her voice trailed off as she focused her senses inward. She took slow, steady breaths to loosen her body and pressed her hooves into the cloud. She summoned probes of magic, sending them skimming through the puffy surface. As her awareness spread, she suddenly felt resistance. Her magic refused to travel more than a few feet from her. Of course, she thought, it’s incompatible. Pegasus magic interferes with earth pony magic… I’ll have to write about this.

Twilight recalled her magic and shook her head, sighing with disappointment.

“Uh, Twi, you okay?” Rainbow asked. “You kinda zoned out for a second there.”

“I’m fine. It was a long shot, but I was just testing something,” Twilight said with a frown. “I had a feeling that using earth pony magic on a cloud would possibly give us some insight into what happened.” She shook her head. “But it didn’t work.” A moment passed as Twilight looked over the city. An idea suddenly struck her.

“Wait,” she said sharply under her breath, “the clouds at Sweet Apple Acres.” She gazed into the middle distance as she recalled how she and the other pegasi battled the storm cloud. Some of my energy was infused with earth pony magic. There must be a connection..

Rainbow rolled her eyes and groaned as she hovered above Twilight, her wings itching to fly. “Come on, we’re wasting time!” she protested.

“Just one more try, then we’ll look for the factory from above. I think I have another idea.” Twilight said. She closed her eyes to focus—this time feeling the pegasus energy flow from her wings—and a swirling mixture of pegasus and earth pony aether cascaded from her hooves into the clouds. The pegasus energy crackled along the cloud surface, warping its subaetheric structure and carving a path for the earth pony aether to tunnel through. It took longer than using the same magic on the ground, but Twilight made steady progress as her magic flowed from their platform down into the city. She swayed gently, forward and back as she breathed, tendrils of magic worming through destroyed homes and businesses. Twilight thought she heard Rainbow ask something, but the muffled voice faded into nothing.

There was nothing else. No plant life, no animal life, and certainly no pony life. Most of the magic probes remained a neutral tan-brown, with only a scant few becoming light blue showing leaking moisture scattered throughout the clouds. Twilight tried to force her consciousness along these paths to better understand the city’s layout, but a familiar resistance kept her tethered to her physical form. She could feel the reluctance between the different types of magic, preventing them from fully mixing on an aethereal level. As she crossed the threshold into some ruined homes, the connection was suddenly severed and she snapped back to her physical senses.

Twilight took a moment to recompose herself. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t—” she panted.

“I dunno what you’re trying to do, but we need to hurry!” Rainbow grumbled. She took off toward the city without waiting for a response.

“Sorry,” Twilight muttered, her voice cracked as her spirits fell. She dove from the platform, catching up to Rainbow. “I was trying to sense if there were any signs of life here… but I didn’t find anything. No ponies, no vegetation; nothing.”

“So what does that mean for us?” Rainbow said, slowing to fly side-by-side with her friend.

Twilight shook her head. “It’s complicated, but earth ponies can sense other living creatures through the land. Adapting that to clouds is…” Twilight paused, hung up on her words. “Difficult. Difficult but not impossible. I think we’re completely alone up here.”

Rainbow looked around, a sense of unease welling in her stomach as she took in the abandoned metropolis. She grimaced, catching sight of what looked like a large sports arena—or what used to be one, anyway. The entire side facing them had caved in, revealing the bleachers on the opposite side. “You don’t think something bad happened here, do you?” Rainbow asked nervously. “Like...a really bad accident at the factory?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, shaking her head slowly. “I honestly don’t know. It happened so long ago, and everything is so decayed I can’t tell if…” Twilight bit her lip, a chill running up her spine. “If they were able to leave at all.”

They drifted past an ornate tower rising nearly to their level. Entire pieces of it were missing, the hardened-cloud nature of the rubble turning to vapor long ago. A broken walkway projected from one side, heading toward a nearby tower before terminating in mid-air. Peeking through what used to be a window, Twilight saw what looked to be a small bedroom. The remnants of furniture—including a rotten bed and a smashed bookcase—lay among scattered papers, torn books, and other debris. “There’s so much history here that’s been lost…” she whispered, feeling a tear roll down her cheek. She glanced around and felt a pang of loss in her chest. Many of the surrounding buildings seemed to be large homes, a few smaller residential towers punctuating the surroundings. Hundreds must have lived in this place long ago, all reduced to nothing. An indistinct yell from Rainbow broke her attention, and she flew away from the destroyed tower.

“C’mon, Twi!” Rainbow shouted. “I think I see it up ahead!” Twilight flew next to Rainbow and squinted to look into the distance. At the end of the main skyway loomed a massive structure, dominating the skyline and blocking out a good amount of sunlight.

Twilight slouched as she hovered, taking in the awesome sight. “It’s enormous,” she breathed.

“Yeah, I know,” Rainbow said, her voice wavering ever so slightly. “Like, I knew Cloudsdale was big, but this is just ridiculous!” She glanced at Twilight, nudging her as she flew on. “Let’s go. If there’s anypony who can figure this out, it’s you.” A broad grin spread over her face as her natural bravado took over. Twilight couldn’t help but smile back, and they continued deeper into the city.

As they flew, passing by more ruined structures and evidence of disaster, Twilight felt her heart sink lower. This city—Cloudsbane, or whatever it once was—really wasn’t unlike Cloudsdale, even reminding her of Canterlot at times. They were clearly approaching some kind of commercial sector, maybe even the downtown district. The closer they got to the factory, the more dilapidated their surroundings became. Buildings steadily went from merely crumbling to having been completely demolished, only the bronzed support structures remaining as evidence of their existence. It became impossible to discern what some of them used to be. The entire front facade of the factory looked like it had blown outward, with gigantic pieces of the structure carving giant swathes out of the clouds below.

“This place is totally trashed,” Rainbow said, hovering with awe as the destroyed factory loomed above. The skyway they had been following split at an intersection right in front of the factory. Flashes of light flared randomly within the walls.

“There’s clearly some kind of activity coming from inside, even if nopony’s here.” Twilight said as she landed on street level before the factory. Smashed carts and other vehicles littered the area, whatever contents they were carrying long since worn away by time. Everything else around her had been completely levelled, merely the outlines of their foundations peeking through the cloud surface. Something horrible happened here… “Dash, what could have done this?” Twilight said quietly as Rainbow landed next to her.

“Looks like wind damage,” Rainbow replied, “I think.” There was a pregnant pause until she spoke again. “You don’t think this could happen to Ponyville, do you?”

No, this isn’t just wind damage. But… Twilight shook her head. “If we don’t stop the rampant weather, then who knows what will happen. First, we need to—” A sudden explosion tore through the air, rattling nearby buildings. Twilight looked up toward the source. Arcs of pegasus magic sped violently through the air, penetrating the storm surrounding the city. “It’s coming from the factory!”

“Twilight!” Rainbow shouted. “More important things to worry about!” She grabbed Twilight and spun her around. A nearby building had collapsed inward, a wall of debris rolling toward them.

“Inside, now!” Twilight yelled, taking hold of Rainbow and disappearing in a flash of teleportation magic. They reappeared inside the factory, in what she guessed was the main lobby. The large gap in the wall left them exposed, and Twilight quickly threw up a shield to fill the holes. Her lavender patchwork illuminated the dull grey walls. Smoke rumbled against the building, flowing upward and away.

“I can’t keep this up for long,” Twilight grunted. Her horn flared as she focused stabilization magic into the shield. “Can you find a way out of here?”

Rainbow quickly glanced about. The remnants of a receptionist desk—or at least the outline where one once stood—took up the rear of the room. A set of sturdy-looking double doors remained standing on the far wall. “In here!” Rainbow bolted for the doors.

Twilight galloped after Rainbow as she flung them open and dove through. “Come on, let’s hurry,” Twilight said frantically, her horn’s aura starting to flicker with the effort. “I can keep the shield up for a little while, but it’s harder the further we run.”

The hallway rocked violently as a deafening thoom sounded behind them, causing overhead lighting to flicker with random bursts of electricity. Twilight held her head between her hooves, feeling the force of the debris pounding against her shield. If the shield falls, we’ll get buried in here. She inhaled sharply and focused intently on the spell, her horn growing warm as the flow of magic intensified. The cacophony faded into nothingness as Twilight’s perception suddenly fractured.

She felt weightless; detached from her body. Twilight found it difficult to move as she struggled to turn her head, her surroundings growing dim. She looked across this aetheric plane to see the latticework of her barrier spell, visible through the walls, crumbling as the magical threads unlocked from one another. The spell is failing!

Ripples cascaded across the surface of the spell, each individual particle of dust sending its own imprint into the magic around it. The spellform weakened each time it was struck, and Twilight could feel them strike against her consciousness. This isn’t just debris from a building, she realized with shock. These are—she cried out as a massive flash danced across the surface, stunning her. She squeezed her eyes shut, the brilliant vestiges of ancient pegasus magic burning themselves into her mind. Locked away for centuries and corrupted by age, the untethered magic manifested as uncontrollable lightning and danced along the factory’s exterior.

Twilight focused her magic once again, a stream of sigils weaving themselves through the air as she redoubled her efforts. The damaged fragments of the spell slowly righted themselves as these additional arcane bindings reinforced them. They locked together with a high-pitched snap, residual particles of unicorn magic scattering every which way. Another bolt struck against the barrier, but as the light dissipated, the shield still held firm.

Twilight sighed, blinked, and suddenly found herself standing next to Rainbow Dash in the hallway.

“Hey, Equestria to Twilight!” Rainbow shouted, her muzzle practically in Twilight’s ear.

Twilight yelped, stumbling away and folding her ears. “I’m right here, you don’t have to yell.”

“Well, you just stopped moving all of a sudden. I thought you might’ve gotten hurt.” Rainbow said with a shrugging. She kicked into the air, hovering a few feet above the floor. “We need to go. I wanna get as far away from that as we can.”

“The spell should hold for now,” Twilight said as she walked alongside her flying friend. “I was able to reinforce it on a sub-aetheric level, so the only way it could break is if the erratic pegasus magic somehow matched the inverse-phase frequency of my own spell signature, which is statistically nearly impossible because—”

“Yeah-huh, that’s great,” Rainbow muttered indifferently. Twilight pouted quietly. “We need to find the main control room. That’s where this sarcargo-thingy should be, right?” Rainbow continued on, unaware of Twilight’s annoyance.

“That’s my hypothesis, at least,” Twilight said with a sigh as they made their way down the dim hallway. “I don’t even know exactly what it is we’ll find when we get there. The book suggested the sarcophagus is some sort of magical containment field, but that’s something only unicorn and alicorn magic should be capable of.”

“You’re the egghead, not me,” Rainbow said with a chuckle. Twilight shot her a look from the corner of her eyes, a slight smirk spreading across her face. Rainbow pointed ahead.“If this place is anything like Cloudsdale’s factory, the room up ahead should be processing. That’s where they make all the clouds. We should be able to get into the control room from there.”

They passed through another set of double doors at the end of the hallway, craning their necks as the ceiling suddenly vaulted high above them. They stepped nervously onto a catwalk suspended over empty space. Twilight took a peek downward, regretting her decision as she saw the room descend down, down, down. On the other end of the room, the catwalk came to an intersection, leading to a pair of doors on opposite sides of the room. On the far wall, her walkway came to a third door. Shattered windows lined the wall alongside one of the doors.

A menagerie of broken machinery was strewn about the space and along the walls, suspended by cables and weakening cloud matter. They were much larger than the devices in the Cloudsdale factory. Conveyor belts linking the machines together had warped over time and torn to shreds. An unsettlingly large pile of dark-grey clouds had accumulated to one side of the room. Uncontrolled lightning discharges sparked across the walls and between equipment.

“Yikes, this place has seen better days,” Rainbow said as she flew out over the work area.

Twilight made her way down the catwalk, wanting to get a closer look. Most of the machinery was so damaged she couldn’t tell what it had been used for. A series of long tubes came from above and fed into a funnel hanging overhead. Although they were smashed to pieces, Twilight assumed these had originally been part of a cloud generator. A nearby gathering of black clouds sparked as they swayed gently.

“Where do we go from here?” she asked, looking up at Rainbow.

Rainbow took a quick scan of the room. “I’ll bet one of those doors will take us closer to the main control room, I’m just not sure which one. There’s three doors, and only two of us.”

Twilight tapped her chin as she idly examined one of the broken machines, deep in thought. She prodded a lever with her hoof, which promptly snapped off and fell to the ground far below. She waited for a moment, listening for an impact, but couldn’t make one out. “I don’t think we should split up.” she said. “If part of the building collapses, or there’s a sudden outburst of weather, we won’t be able to find each other easily.”

Rainbow flew down to Twilight, her eyes narrowing with annoyance. “Well, we don’t have a lot of time here. If we don’t stop this now, then Ponyville and all of Equestria could be in even more danger!”

Twilight bit her lower lip. She took a deep breath before speaking. “I know we’re pressed for time, but we just have to trust that the princesses and weather teams can mitigate the damage. If we get lost or injured—or worse—then things will just go from bad to worse.”

Rainbow let out an exasperated sigh and descended next to Twilight. “Fine. You’re not wrong, I guess,” she said, looking away. Twilight rolled her eyes.

“Let’s check up there,” Twilight said, pointing at the central door. “That looks like an office. Maybe there’s a map or something else we can use.”

The black clouds nearby crackled as the energy within seemed to have reached some kind of tipping point. Twilight quirked an eyebrow and stared at it for a moment. “I guess even the debris is unstable,” she remarked. She could see bolts of pegasus magic dancing within the cloud, but something about it looked… wrong. It wasn’t too dissimilar from storm clouds she had seen before, but Twilight felt something off about it.

Twilight took a slow step toward the pile, leaning in gingerly. I don’t want to risk discharging it in here. Sure enough, she could see an unmistakable pattern within the pegasus magic. It was consistent, repetitively tracing some kind of image. I know I’ve seen this kind of pattern before… but where? She thought back to her travels, and as her memories drifted to her friends in Ponyville, the realization hit her. “It’s the aetheric signature of a cutie mark,” she whispered.

“A cutie mark what-now?” Rainbow asked with a frown.

“My goodness, this is so fascinating,” Twilight whispered excitedly. “This cloud was made centuries ago and still has the unique signature of the pony who made it!”

Rainbow groaned and smacked her face with a hoof. “That’s so fascinating. Great. I’m glad you can do some research while we’re saving Equestria. Or did you forget we’ve got a sarcopha-thingy to find?”

Twilight ignored her friend and looked more closely at the sizzling magic. The flashing colors began to slow, steadily warping into a deep black she felt more than saw. Green splotches bubbled up amidst the inky blackness, disrupting the pattern. She shuddered, feeling a pit form in her stomach. What is that? And why do I feel so… sick?

“Twilight, come on!” Rainbow Dash shouted from above. Twilight tore herself away to see that she Rainbow had already flown halfway toward the doorway.

“Right, sorry!” Twilight said sheepishly. “I’m coming!” She leapt up to join her friend, but she couldn’t shake the unease from her mind.

A sudden rumbling filled the room, catching them off-guard. They glanced around desperately, trying to find the source. The sound echoed around the room, pulsating from the ceiling and the walls, and Twilight found it hard to concentrate. Flecks of tiny debris fell from the clouds, dissipating into the charged air. Twilight gasped with realization and slowly turned toward the broken storm clouds. “Rainbow, look!”

The fluff started to undulate as the magic within coalesced into a singular, radiating bead of green energy. The edges of the cloud started to pull inward, slowly reshaping itself. Four columns of cloud matter—no, legs—sprouted from a central body as a short neck grew out, followed by a head. Two ears sprang upward as a muzzle elongated from the front of the head, forming a face. Where the eyes should have been instead rested two unsettling black voids. As the cloud edges solidified, the green light within faded from view.

“Uhh, Twilight?” Rainbow asked, quickly flying backward a few feet. “Why are the clouds turning into a pony?”

Twilight hovered in place, speechless. Never in her time studying magic had she seen anything like this. Her mind raced, overwhelmed with fear as she tried to think of an explanation. “I-I don’t know!” She stammered. “It looks like the magic started to assemble itself and it must have—”

A deafening rumble of thunder filled the room. A mouth suddenly appeared along the muzzle of the pony-creature, unhinging and hanging open grotesquely. Piercing green light suddenly radiated through the eye sockets. Pieces of cloud matter broke off as two wings broke outward from its body, a whoosh of wind buffeting Twilight and Rainbow. From the open mouth, a horrifying shriek emanated and echoed through the room. Lightning shot from its body in random directions, just barely missing the pair as it arced into the equipment all around.

“Yow!” Rainbow yelled out as another bolt zipped past her. “Too close for comfort!”

The cloudborne monstrosity’s head tilted unnaturally on what passed for a neck, swivelling around to focus directly on Rainbow. The creature bellowed, unintelligible words beginning to form as a more directed bolt flew toward them.

Twilight screamed, quickly conjuring another barrier to deflect the blast. The lightning cracked all over the room, striking random sections of wall and machinery. “Rainbow! Hold on!” Twilight yelled, her magic brightening and enveloping them. They vanished in a burst of magic, reappearing in a cramped room full of filing cabinets, wall-mounted pressure gauges, and a long wooden desk. Sunlight streamed in from a shattered window frame. They were in the office overlooking the processing room. Twilight breathed a heavy sigh of relief and peeked over the windowsill. The strange creature was visible down below, turning its head methodically back and forth as if searching for them. Every few seconds it would shriek in a butchered, long-forgotten dialect.

“What is that thing?” Rainbow whispered, panting heavily as she leaned back against the desk.

Twilight sat quietly, her hooves to her head as her thoughts churned over themselves. She mentally recounted everything she had ever learned about pegasus magic, going through book after book in her mental library. She threw her hooves to her mouth to suppress a gasp as she remembered the one book she needed.

“It’s a weather simulacrum,” Twilight whispered.

“A weather simu-what now?” Rainbow asked, her snout scrunching up in confusion.

“It’s an artificial construct sculpted out of charged weather clouds. You might have heard them referred to as ‘golems’.”

“Like those things in Daring Do and the Lost Skyopolis?” Rainbow said, excitement glinting in her eyes.

Twilight groaned. “Look, I’d be excited to learn more about it if it wasn’t shooting lightning at us. I don’t think Daring Do had to worry about that.”

“So, how do we stop it?” Rainbow asked. She yelped and ducked as bolts of lightning arced through the windows and into the room. They sliced through the damaged filing cabinets, melting them into slag that slowly sunk into the floor. The two looked on in horror as the destroyed furniture dropped through the floor, leaving a scorched hole behind. The construct burst through the windows and landed before them with an echoing thud. Its ear-piercing wail rose in intensity as streaks of electricity shot around the room.

“Back outside! Hurry!” Twilight tried to yell over the shrieking. Rainbow had her hooves to her ears. Twilight motioned frantically toward the open window with her wings, the sound too unbearable to take her hooves off her ears. Rainbow nodded, her face contorted in pain. The two launched themselves through the window back into the main room. Lightning flashed through the windows while portions of the wall started to crumble.

Suddenly, silence.

Twilight and Rainbow hovered over the dilapidated production lines, holding their breath. Smoke poured from the windows. “Is it gone?” Rainbow asked. She gulped, puffing her chest out. “I-I mean I’m not scared or anything! But there’s no way that thing is still there after all that.”

Twilight squinted through the haze. Aside from a quiet crackling of muted energy, no sound came from the room. She stiffened as a dark azure flash pulsed through the smoke. Then another. Please, please, please, please be residual discharge, Twilight thought, her heart sinking. The charred blue mingled with a murky blackness, twisting around each other as the magic fed into itself. The familiar green bursts of energy followed soon after. Twilight’s stomach turned at the sight, despite the smoke obscuring them. Dark blue vortices shone the shadows, but these quickly twisted into the darkness themselves.

This isn’t regular pegasus magic. Something else is going on here. It’s so familiar but… The energy suddenly pulsed, coalescing into solid extrusions. The corrupted cloud matter sharpened into points, a grating squeal ringing through the air that set Twilight’s fur on end.

“Get behind me!” Twilight shouted as the image suddenly clicked in her mind. Magic leapt from her horn, a lavender shield quickly weaving itself around them. She felt her horn ache as she fed as much magic as she could into it, microscopic hexagon cogs locking into place as the barrier solidified. Just as the shield glistened with completion, a monstrous crack of deep blue-and-black lightning tore through the room, striking her shield directly in the center. The lightning ricocheted in all directions, ravaging the room all around them. Machinery was set ablaze as chunks of the walls were blasted away, leaving smoldering craters.

Twilight looked up at the lightning, sweat running down her face as she held the spell firm. Something was wrong with this magic. Its composition was twisted and perverse—more so than any magic she had seen so far. The magical structure of the lightning had innumerable sharp, erratic lines dancing wildly within itself, and there were strange, sagging clumps seemingly attached to the remains of the golem. Some of them ruptured, sending splashes of black and green over the structure that sparked more energy.

“Rainbow!” Twilight yelled, her voice straining as the lightning surged across her shield, portions of the spellweave loosening under the assault. “Once I drop the shield, I need you to get close. Slice what’s left of that thing with your wings, like you’re busting a regular cloud, and I’ll handle the rest!”

“You’re asking me to outfly lightning?” Rainbow asked incredulously as pieces of the ceiling fell down around them.

Twilight grunted, her shield shimmering dangerously. “You’re the fastest flyer in Equestria! I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t think you could—” Rainbow cut her off with a hoof on her shoulder.

“Who do you think you’re talking to?” Rainbow said with a confident smirk. She flared her wings and stretched. “I’m not about to let some stupid cloud-pony-monster-thing get the best of my friend, much less my speed.”

Twilight’s worried frown gave way to determination. She nodded, their eyes meeting with an understanding like no other. The lightning abated for a moment, and a twisted, crystallized caricature of the creature landed on the catwalk in front of them with a loud crunch. Remnants of the twisted cloud matter clung to its body, mixes of blue pegasus magic and some form of unknown, black magic flickering within its torso as it struggled forward. The deep, empty eye sockets sparked furiously with green arcane energy with each creaking step.

“Now!” Twilight yelled, dropping her shield. Rainbow bolted forward, tearing through the air toward her target. The golem shrieked, lightning striking forth from its wings. Some of it flew toward Rainbow, but most of it flung off in random directions, destroying more of the room. Rainbow spun through the air, deftly dodging the electrical onslaught. On her approach, she extended her wings out level, dragging her feathers through the side of the creature. Cloud matter was torn asunder, the crystalline form cracking open. Twilight sharpened her focus toward the magic inside the golem. A strange, black blob of magic had gripped most of the pegasus magic swirling within. There was a strange sense of weight to the shadow, a sharp contrast to the few bits of flowing magic that were still free. Rainbow banked hard and away from the golem, nearly running sideways along the wall as her momentum carried her around.

Twilight readied another spell. A shimmering grid of unicorn magic appeared within her mind’s eye. As she focused, a line suddenly broke from its position and bent itself at a right angle. Then another, and another. At the speed of thought, her conjuration spell took shape into a complex web of magic, wrapping about itself into a rod of energy. She released the spell with a shout. A towering lavender mast burst forth from the ground far below, interposing itself between Rainbow and the golem. The straight lines of her spell’s foundation drew the wild and erratic aether into itself, sending the lightning downward.

Before the electricity struck the ground, Twilight broke the spell from its base and reconstructed it. Magic flowed all around the broken edge of the lightning rod, its shape reforming as tiny pieces formed from the aether and snapped into place like a giant puzzle. The new end started to curve back around, but Twilight was running out of time. The lightning was catching up. She had to outpace lightning. Not just lightning, but…

Twilight cried out as she desperately called upon a magic she had forgotten she knew. She could feel the edges of her vision fade as a massive surge of energy poured into her spell, stringing a connective link from this new lightning rod to her target. She thrust her spell forward with a heave and lodged it into the open side of the golem—just in time. The lightning crackled through the conduit and into the dark orb.

Twilight and Rainbow threw their hooves to their ears and pressed themselves flat against the catwalk as the golem let out one final cry of anguish. Magic pulsed through its eyes and mouth, growing brighter as electricity enveloped it from the inside. A high-pitched magic whine drowned out the monstrous cry, and the light suddenly vanished, leaving behind not but a few sparkles of free-floating cloud energy. The darkness had released its grip, and the azure magic stabilized around the room.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow shouted, her wings flaring as she leapt into the air with an adrenaline rush. Twilight took a few shaky steps before collapsing into a heap, panting heavily. A gentle wisp of purple energy curled like smoke from the corner of her eye, fading as Twilight dismissed the spell. Rainbow landed next to her, worry crossing her face. “Hey, you okay?”

“I’ll,” Twilight panted between breaths, “be fine… Just need to—” she strained, trying to stand, before dropping again. “Rest.” She stared upward, her vision blurry as her eyes refused to focus. She watched vaguely as the pegasus magic that had formed the golem flickered above the room, slowly blipping out of existence as it returned to the air from whence it came. Twilight squinted. The strange globs of green, sickly magic hovered in the air, persisting beyond the pegasus magic. She squeezed her eyes shut, panting quietly, as she fought her exhaustion. When she opened her eyes again, the magic had faded. Did I just imagine it?

Rainbow slumped against the railing next to Twilight. Sweat trickled down her face, matting her mane, but was otherwise unhurt. “Well, what’s the plan now, Princess?” Rainbow asked with a weak chuckle. “Back to finding the main control room?”

“Yeah,” Twilight said. Her voice was raspy. She let out an exhausted sigh. “I’m just worried.”

“We beat that golem thing into last week, and some bad weather isn’t gonna put a stop to this pegasus! So, what’s wrong?” Rainbow asked, preening some of her flight feathers.

Twilight bit her lip. Runaway pegasus magic is one thing. If this Cloudsbane factory is a nexus point of naturally occurring pegasus magic, then the weather anomalies in theory make sense. But that golem…

Twilight swallowed dryly. She recalled similar magic signatures, long ago and far away from here. “It’s nothing. Give me a minute, we can go soon.” She closed her eyes, deep in thought.

How did King Sombra’s magic end up here?

Chapter 26: To Magics Unyielding

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Chapter 27: For Spirit's Awakening

Twilight and Rainbow Dash descended through the ravaged corridors. A pale light illuminated the space below them, its delicate cerulean hues refracting through Twilight’s shield. They carefully glided around jagged debris jutting out from the walls. An ever-present hum of idle machinery steadily grew louder the deeper they went.

After a slow, arduous descent, they landed on the lowest floor, their hooves muted in the heavy air. They found themselves in an immense control room, evidenced by the myriad of gauges, switches, levers, dials, and all manner of machinery scattered about the room. Massive cloudcrete slabs had fallen to rest atop much of the room, crushing machines and structures alike. The few parts of the room that weren’t buried in wreckage had been ravaged by time or some other force of nature.

The persistent drone had peaked, overwhelming any other sensation. Looking around for the source, Twilight gasped. What had once been a hallway had evidently become a channel for some kind of tremendous force. A series of sheared-off brass joists lined the walls of the hallway, crackling with ambient magic. Sparks of lightning—real lightning—ran down the walls, providing brief flashes of illumination. Twilight, however, saw so much more. Lingering traces of pegasus magic arced into the room and contacted the floor. The patch that it struck glowed for a moment, shifted faintly, then fell back into stillness.

“This is it,” Rainbow said, her voice cracking as she walked atop one of the larger pieces of rubble. “These were storm doors. They close if there’s a problem with the weather core. I-I’ve never seen them actually close before, not in Cloudsdale, but…” Her voice trailed off as they approached.

Rainbow hopped off of the debris and trotted alongside Twilight, the pair coming to a stop just a few feet from the hallway. Rainbow glanced between the twisted supports and the crumbling walls. “The doors didn’t just fail. They were blown off,” she said, her voice wavering with a mix of awe and fear.

“Blown… off?” Twilight whispered hoarsely. The dim light only extended so far, and the hallways faded into darkness. She could sense the fear in Rainbow’s voice as they stared into the unknown. Twilight felt a knot in her stomach. Even the physical lightning seemed to have no effect on the darkness, vanishing down the hallway. It disturbed her. A single pale blue dot flickered far in the distance, eluding Twilight’s attempts to look closer as it winked in and out of sight. Though faint, the signature of warped pegasus magic was undeniable.

Twilight took a deep breath. “We have to be ready for anything. Who knows what could have done this?” She said, taking a small step closer to Rainbow.

Rainbow gave her a sidelong look, and the two shared a brief moment as a smile curled over both their faces. Twilight could see a familiar fire alight in Rainbow’s eyes. With a firm nod, they kicked into the air together began their flight into the core.

Twilight tensed as the lightning crackled, striking her shield and conducting along its surface. She sighed with relief as the energy bounced harmlessly into the walls and floor as they flew. The sporadic discharges grew in both frequency and intensity the further they went. Out of the corner of her eye, Twilight noticed irregularities in the surrounding energy. There’s dark magic in the… She shook her head. No, focus.

“Almost there,” Rainbow Dash muttered. They reached the end of the hallway as it opened into a cavernous room. A narrow catwalk encircled above, just below the domed ceiling, while an assortment of destroyed equipment lay strewn across the floor. A number of large openings had been built into the ceiling, though some of them had collapsed with age.

Their eyes were drawn, however, into the center of the room. A misshapen spheroid of swirling blacks and greens hovered in the air, flinging an alien light in every possible direction. Twilight squinted, trying to make sense of the spellwork before her. This spell structure… it’s identical to a shield spell! But there’s something more. She carefully flew slightly closer. There! Her eyes widened.“There’s pegasus magic connecting the negative space in the framework!” She whispered. The spell fragments of the sarcophagus were powerful—not at as refined as Twilight’s unicorn magic, but powerful in its own right. The ghostly illumination was too dim to physically see inside, but a wispy, aetheric form danced within. Twilight tracked an errant spark of energy that escaped through a crack in the inky structure; it zig-zagged through the air until it found its way out through one of the holes in the ceiling.

“That’s it!” Twilight shouted as the pieces fell into place in her mind. As if in response, the swirling mass buzzed louder, its drone broken up by howling winds and the crackling of electricity. “This is the containment unit—and containment has failed. The core is sending weather all over Equestria!”

“So, what do we do?” Rainbow yelled over a sudden gust of wind. “I’ve never seen one of these up close before, and somehow I doubt they normally look like this!”

Twilight’s brow wrinkled in frustration as she thought. What do we do? If dark magic is indeed keeping the core from overloading—again—then I can’t just break it apart. But if I don’t do something then all of Equestria is in danger!

“If I match the inverse-phase frequency of the spell’s matrix, I should be able to bring it down entirely, dark magic or not,” Twilight said. Her shield rippled as the wind battered against it, making her mane blow out behind her. “It’s like flying against a storm cell to slow it down.”

“And then what?” Rainbow asked, gritting her teeth against the wind seeping through the shield. It kept most of the wind at bay, but didn’t do anything about the cold for poor Twilight.

“One of two things. We fly in and start cloudbusting it like a normal cloud. It‘ll be mostly formless, but if it’s pure pegasus magic then it will rely on the same principles. The other…” Twilight gulped and looked nervously up at the monstrous weather core. “Another meltdown. And this time, without access to the same techniques to contain it, all of Clousdbane and most of the coastline could be destroyed.”

“Including us. Fantastic,” Rainbow said, rolling her eyes. A frigid blast of wintry air slammed into the shield, coating it in ice. Rainbow grunted, kicking off the unexpected shell. Twilight’s concentration broke, and the shield fell away from their bodies.

Twilight reflexively wrapped her wings around herself, shivering. “Can you do something about the errant weather?” She said through chattering teeth. “If you can keep it away from me, I can try to cast a spell that could fix this!”

“You got it!” Rainbow said with a salute, her toughened weather pony fur unaffected by the cold. She leapt into the air and banked tightly around the core. Magic crackled along its surface and sparks shot out toward Rainbow, but she tucked and spun, deftly avoiding the strikes. Twilight watched in awe as sparks of pegasus energy emanated from Rainbow’s wingtips, shaping her wake and dragging the cold air along behind her as she flew into a tight tornadic spin. Faster and faster she flew, a pale rainbow-colored twister welling up from the ground below. Stray weather leaking from the sarcophagus was quickly sucked in while cacophonous booms of thunder echoed around the room.

The wind and lightning around Twilight slowly pulled away, giving her a clearer view of the roiling magic before her. She felt nausea grow again in her stomach, but she swallowed hard and grit her teeth, fighting against it.

“Why is the frequency so low?” Twilight muttered. She stared at the swirling green and black energies, tracing aetheric pathways through the space above. She closed her eyes and began to channel a counterspell. This will be tricky, but I don’t have a choice. I can do this! Magic burst around her horn as the spell began to form, a familiar hexagonal lattice shimmering into existence. Twilight strained, twisting each strand into a tiny arcsine wave. Reciprocal peaks and valleys crossed through her mind and around her horn, the hum of the core phasing slightly as she adjusted the magical frequency. If my hypothesis is correct, dark magic has the same properties as unicorn magic but at a lower, more resonant frequency… I can use unicorn magic to counter it.

Energy swirled around Twilight. She thrust her horn at the core and unleashed a torrent of countermagic, her new spell wrapping itself around her beam as it struck her target. Twilight yelped as the magic collided, the spellform sparking as it tried to fit itself into the umbrum magic’s negative space.

Only it couldn’t. Twilight panted, struggling to reshape the spell, adjusting its baseline frequency. The dark magic sparked, its strength roaring in her mind as it pushed back against her insufficient power. She felt a small voice within her mind—no, her spirit—that cried out that this was wrong. Her stomach lurched as a wave of unease suddenly came over her, shattering her focus. Her eyes snapped open as the spell cracked, whined, and flew apart. A burst of energy flung Twilight onto her back and she skidded along the floor, coming to a stop with one wing pinched awkwardly beneath her.

She slumped against the ground as the world spun, her vision going black as she lost consciousness.

Twilight…

Was she dreaming? Twilight couldn’t be sure.

Twiiiii-liiiiight…

A muffled voice pierced the ringing in her ears. Her eyes fluttered open, wincing as the light struck her. Formless shapes filled the room around her, one light blue blob standing above her and reaching down with its hoof.

“Hey! Twilight!”

Twilight’s vision suddenly slid into focus, Rainbow Dash’s hoof roughly shaking her. “Twi! What happened? Are you okay?” Rainbow asked worriedly. She glanced at the sarcophagus as she helped Twilight to her hooves. The wind howled fiercely inside the reactor room, whipping their manes about. The swirling dark energies pulsed with a sickly green light, as if taunting her with its existence.

“I don’t…” Twilight panted, her voice cracking. “I don’t understand! The counterspell should have… It should have…” She trembled, panting heavily as she flexed her sore wing. “Why didn’t it work?”

“You’re not giving up that easy, are you?” Rainbow snapped, touching a hoof to Twilight’s cheek and nudging her to face the core. “You see that thing? We’re kicking its flank and saving Equestria! I can’t do it alone, and you can’t do it alone.” She glared up at the massive orb, unable to see the dark magic within but more than capable of seeing its effects on her friend. “We’ll do this like we’ve done everything else: Discord, Tirek, Chrysalis, Sombra, the Storm King. We’ll do this together.” Her wings flared, excess pegasus magic crackling along her spine to the tips of her wings.

Twilight gasped quietly. She glanced back and forth between Rainbow and the core, suddenly seeing an unrealized connection. She scanned over the twisted spellforms, taking in every single detail, every tiny little speck of magic. How could I not have noticed it before? No arcane sigils. No complicated spellweaves aligning the aether into just the right spot. There was only the wild, untamed energy of flight and freedom. The energy pouring from Rainbow’s pure force of will flicked away, discharging into the air around her, but the energy of the core was marred by a sluggish, oppressive grip of dark magic. The sarcophagus. What should have been the very essence of pegasi was instead tethered by the same corruption that formed the weather golems. “That’s it,” she muttered.

“What’s it? You got an idea?” Rainbow said with a smirk.

“It’s not just Umbrum magic,” Twilight said, shaking her head. “Not as we know it anyway. That’s why my counterspell failed. It was born of my unicorn magic. Even with the correct inverse-frequency, the catalysts are completely different. Brute-forcing my way through the magic would have compromised the—”

Rainbow Dash cleared her throat loudly.

Twilight blushed deeply. “Sorry. I’ll make a report on it later, but the short of it is that it’s dark pegasus magic.”

Rainbow quirked an eyebrow. “Is that even a thing? Like, that’s all supposed to be Sombra stuff, right?”

“I don’t know,” Twilight said, the confidence fading from her voice. “This is something that likely hasn’t been documented in centuries, and I have to figure it all out with no research, no notes, nothing! What little we did find was destroyed by those simulacra.” Her ears drooped as Rainbow pursed her lips.

Twilight took deep breaths, focusing her thoughts. Ever so faintly, but growing louder by the moment, a storm surged within her spirit. This time she flung herself into it. The edges of her vision blurred, and she felt darkened wisps of purple flames burst from the corners of her eyes. She spread her wings and looked back at them—the feather tips arced with lavender magic for but a moment, then were consumed by an ever-growing presence of power. Rainbow stepped back nervously as she watched her friend’s sclerae fade to a deep green. The wind kicked up around them as the core bathed the room with chaotic weather anew.

Got to... Control it... She thought, trying to keep her focus from crumbling under the weight of such immense power. It's so heavy. I can't—I can't... She cried out suddenly, losing her grip on the darkness that was buried within. It started to slip away, the fire in her eyes sputtering out.

“You got this, Twi! Take that magic, kick its flank, and show that weather core who's boss!” Rainbow shouted over the growling wind. Twilight looked at Rainbow, who gave her a cocky grin. Their eyes locked, and for a moment Twilight grew cold; surely Rainbow could see the effects of dark magic. But her friend’s trust was steadfast. Rainbow reached out with a hoof and touched Twilight’s shoulder, the grin fading to a gentle smile. “You’ve got this,” she whispered, somehow overcoming the gale around them. Twilight could feel the confidence flowing from her friend, and felt a second wind catapult her spirit skyward.

Twilight felt the magic surge through her, spreading across her body to her wingtips. In a flash, a swirling mist of greens and purples began to stream from her feathers. She twitched one wing, and gasped as a rush of air slammed into the opposite wall, taking papers and bits of equipment with it. The power welling within her was intoxicating, but she knew she couldn't crack under its influence—she had to tame it.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She raised a hoof to her chest, and slowly exhaled, settling her focus as the hoof returned to the floor. Her eyes opened. Rainbow Dash stared as the vulgar green tint was overwhelmed, and Twilight’s brilliant violet irises flared through with a magical radiance. Another deep breath, and another blink. The deep purple wisps faded, and soft, sparkling indigo auras trailed behind. Though Rainbow could not see it, crackling lavender bolts of magic pierced the tempest around Twilight’s wings, burning it away wherever they touched.

Twilight crouched low, feeling the last vestiges of darkness slip away, and kicked off directly at the sarcophagus. She bolted toward the looming sphere, the shouts from Rainbow growing indistinct. She banked hard near the surface, free-flowing magical sparks leaping from her wings as if drawn into the space. Her spell connected with the ancient magic, this time easily overpowering it and shearing off a huge chunk of its foundation. “Now, Rainbow!”

Rainbow took to the air, darting around the room and knocking away clouds and gusts of wind that began to spill from the core. She kept a careful eye on Twilight, being sure to clear her path. “I’ll keep the room from falling apart. You can finish this thing off!”

Twilight landed on the far wall, leaping from it and coming around for a second pass. Her wing sliced through the spell as if it were air. The rush of wind through her mane, the speed, the sharp maneuvers; despite the gravity of the situation, she couldn’t help but feel a sense of boundless freedom.

With one mighty buck, Twilight tore the sarcophagus asunder. Beams of light shimmering with every color imaginable radiated outward, forcing Rainbow Dash to cover her eyes. Lightning crackled in the gaps, threatening to pull what little remained back into place. Can't let it reassemble its spellform! Twilight banked through a tight Immelmann turn and focused her magic as strongly as she could into her outstretched hooves. As she approached the remnants of the sarcophagus, bolts of electricity emanated along her forelegs.

Twilight collided with the dark magic with the peal of thunder, lightning bursting forth. Blinding flashes of green and purple filled the room, slowly subsiding as the rumbling echoed throughout the room. The maelstrom slowed, the rushing winds slowly dying down to a gentle breeze. When Rainbow finally opened her eyes, the hideous prison had been vanquished, and in its place a soft-yellow sphere of light held itself aloft. She scratched her ear, trying in vain to quell the ringing. “Twi?” Even to herself, Rainbow’s voice was muffled. “Twilight, you did it! You stopped the Cloudsbane!”

But Twilight was gone.

Twilight’s eyes opened slowly, struggling with heavy lids to blink away the darkness. Soft, formless blues and whites filled her vision as she drifted through the space. Cautiously, she flexed one wing, wincing with a sharp pain. She fidgeted as her senses steadily returned to her.

I… she thought. I’m back. She stared around the space, remembering the futility of physical movement in the aetherstream. All around were the vague shapes of clouds sprinkled across an endless sapphire abyss.

Twilight felt her head spin as she impulsively flew topsy-turvy, making impossible loops and rolls. Despite—or perhaps because of—her disorientation, she giggled. The giggle gave way to a cackling laugh, punctuated by excited whoops with each maneuver. The sensation of flying so freely washed over her, melting all her stress away. This was nothing like her visits to the clouds above Ponyville, or even experiencing it vicariously through Rainbow Dash.

This was what it meant to be truly free—untethered from the constant clawing grip of gravity. The same fulfillment of self-actualization and of ascending to be one with nature. As she listened, she began to hear the sounds of formless magic discharging all around. A tiny shock here, a great bolt of lightning there. No arcane sigils or wandering glyphs of incomplete magic: she was inside the pegasus aetherstream.

Twilight did a twirl through the air as she ascended higher, feeling a warmth not unlike that from the sun, despite the lack of any apparent light source. Looking down, shapes started to become apparent amidst the haze. “Pegasus magic,” she whispered. She smiled as the esoteric shapes of the weather wafted past her. She began to read patterns in the magic. The shape of arcing lightning; another of swirling rain water; and yet another of blistering heat. Not enough on their own to trigger any phenomenon, but they still formed the building blocks that governed her world’s weather.

A flicker of light—no, darkness—caught Twilight’s attention. A massive nodule of magic had erupted from the sky below and ascended rapidly before suddenly rocketing off away from her. It was difficult to discern, but Twilight could swear its makeup shared similarities to those around her. “What in the world…?” Twilight muttered. She took off toward the source of the magic, descending down, down, down.

The air rushing through her mane gave her rush of bliss. She broke out into a broad grin as she flew. Another cluster of pegasus magic—this one swirling with wind—flew past her toward some unknown destination.

Cloud cover started to swirl around her, pooling together into towering cumulonimbus walls. Darkened lightning arced along the surface, capturing latent pegasus magic and drawing it back into the clouds. The fledgling spell grew, the lurid colors of Umbrum magic permeating the air around her.

That must be it the dark magic they used on the weather core! Without a moment’s hesitation, she propelled herself through the darkened space, the Umbrum magic flowing along the surface next to her—as if it knew she was there. She felt her eyes stain with green and black energy, her wings growing sluggish as dark purple energy flowed from them. A pang of fear welled in her breast, but she stifled it. Not this time. I’ve beat you once, and I’ll beat you again. I’ll stop this madness once and for all!

She flew through the air, leaving a streak of sparking purple magic in her wake as she dodged around rapidly-forming storm clouds. With equal parts grace and dexterity, she banked along one wall, slicing her wing through the cloud matter. The green aether winked out with an otherworldly howl. When she pulled her wing back out, a familiar surge of energy burst along her feathers, the pure pegasus magic forcing away the darkness.

Twilight continued to counter the looming darkness with her heightened pegasus magic. Unlike untamed Umbrum magic, its use did not feel as though it were weighing her down. It tingled, but the more she focused the stronger her resolve became. She turned sharply away from the decaying dark magic and hovered, blinking away the trails of dark energy flowing from the corners of her eyes. The sundered spell rippled and began to crumble, Twilight’s aerial onslaught proving too powerful for it to resist.

She let out a sigh of relief, the sparkling wisps fading from her eyes and the crackling of magic around her wings slowly vanishing off into the aether. Light poured through the clouds, bringing a smile to Twilight’s face. “Now all that’s missing is…”

When all three…

“That voice…” Twilight whispered to herself. The light from the clouds started to gather together. The magic was familiar, but she understood no more of it than the last time she saw it. Rivers of light coalesced in the air in front of her, shimmering brightly. This magic was pure and untainted; not poisoned like the golems’.

Have been connected…

A form manifested as the light pulled tighter. A vaguely pony-shaped head protruded from the surface. A glorious mane of crimson flew behind its head as its body and legs took shape. A hint of a unicorn horn became visible on its head. This form held firm, no longer shackled to Twilight’s perception of Star Glider.

“It’s you!” Twilight yelled, her voice cracking. “Just who are you?”

The Element will ascend…

Its mouth did not move, but the voice echoed throughout and within. Twilight’s face twisted with confusion as she felt its message play in her heart. She looked at the entity, as a sudden gust of wind tore through her mane. “More…?” She whispered, her voice a mix of fear and frustration. “Tell me! Please! What does it mean?”

Magic swirled around the creature, a myriad of colors twinkling and sparking as it enveloped the entity. Just before it was completely obscured, Twilight’s sight suddenly focused, and a pair of majestic, white wings burst forth from the light. She was enthralled. So much uncontained pegasus magic! As it gathered together, it became clearer. The purest form of the weather, unbound clarity of the blue sky, condensed tighter around the form.

“What’s happening?” Twilight cried out, but her voice was whisked away by a rush of magic that surged past her. Ribbons of unbound magic twirled through the skies, and Twilight felt her spirit carried along along each branch as it split off in a dozen directions.

Twilight’s sense of self became fragmented, tugged across each band of magic. Her “wings” spread out across each, riding its currents effortlessly. She felt truly free—a hundred times over. As she flew, shapes and colors formed below. She began to recognize familiar places: Yakyakistan, Las Pegasus, the Badlands.

Images flooded through her mind as she soared across the aetherstream. Storm systems churned violently below her, but when the magic of the Cloudsbane passed overhead, carried by this outpouring of magic, their spellform was neutralized. The violent bolts of energy making up the windstorm over Chicoltgo broke apart. Along another stream of consciousness, she flew over the Appleoosan Basin. The torrential rains ceased and the clouds were blasted apart, becoming nothing more than fluff and broken aether. The temperatures in the Crystal Empire cooled. Canterlot was released from the violent storm’s oppression.

Twilight was taken to every city, town, and village all over Equestria, watching as the weather was blown away to reveal the bright, shining sun above. Finally, she turned her attention back to Seaward Shoals as the threatening tempest dissolved before her. The clouds broke apart and crumbled away. Shivering ponies peeked out from their shelters before the magic took her away.

Each of the streams carrying Twilight aloft curved back, returning to their source. She felt her consciousnesses steadily pull closer and closer before finally rejoining into a singular focus. Each instance of her perception that rejoined carried with it the experiences of flying over Equestria’s vast landscapes, and the joy of bringing solace to the suffering land. A broad grin crossed her lips as she felt her heart soar. She looked up, the white and scarlet pony visage towering overhead.

The Element will ascend…

Blackness crept in from the edges of her vision. Twilight felt the wind rushing through her mane as she free-fell back into reality, feeling the gentle puff of a cloud across her back before all sensations left her.

Amongst the ruins of the Cloudsbane, Twilight Sparkle slept her first peaceful night’s rest in what felt like an eternity since her long journey began.

Chapter 28: A Vision Gives

Seek…

…Learn…

…Know…

…

When all three have been connected, the Element will ascend…

Twilight drifted through a twinkling void of bright lavender, orange, and blue gases. It reminded her of her astronomy books; impossibly distant and large nebulae drifting around her in their silent wonder. The gaseous giants in the distance flickered with light, beckoning her. She could see faint traces of magic within the light, the scale of which was impossible to discern. A peaceful smile crossed her lips.

The voice repeated, speaking directly to her heart.

“When all three have been connected, the Element will ascend…” The lights seemed to pulse in time with the message. Three purple sparks, then three orange wisps, then three blue arcs. Curiously, when the word “ascend” was uttered, the lights all signalled simultaneously.

“Who are you?” Twilight whispered into the darkness. To her surprise, there wasn’t a trace of anxiety in her voice. The lights blinked faster and faster, steadily swirling together. The color shone bright, then gave way to a creeping darkness and an all-too-familiar shade of green.

The darkness was calm, almost soothing. Twilight felt no malice within its spellspace. It still carried a mighty weight… but it was oddly pleasant. The darkness mixed seamlessly with the light, neither side resisting. Soon, the darkness melted away, revealing even brighter, shimmering magic against the void.

“When all three…”

The magic started to shape itself, slowly taking on the form of the entity that had followed her through the aetherstream. Twilight was dwarfed next to the entity, as if she were once again a filly standing next to her mentor. Yet she felt that same sensation of safety and warmth.

“Have been connected…”

A brilliant pair of violet wings unfolded from the form’s back. A horn pierced skyward, sparking with incredible arcane force. A brilliant, flowing mane of deep purple billowed behind it—flecks of starlight winking in and out of existence within, a streak of magenta flowing along the middle.

“The Element will ascend.” The voice changed mid-sentence, sharpening in clarity like a lens shifting into place on a microscope, and Twilight found herself subconsciously mouthing the words. That voice… Before she could speak, bright light shone through the entity’s eyes, bathing Twilight in a warm glow that brought a smile to her weary face. As her eyes adjusted to the flood of light, the remaining darkness was blown away like mist, revealing the entity’s shining alabaster fur and its now deep crimson mane. As it spoke again, light spilled from its mouth.

“Seek. Learn. Know.”

Twilight shot awake. She felt a familiar softness under her and a gentle scent in the air. She yawned, blinking away the vestiges of sleep. She was back in her bedroom. Her horn flickered to life, illuminating the room just as she left it before her departure to Seaward Shoals. She found her gaze fixated on the photo of her friends on the nightstand, the familiar sight bringing a smile to her face.

She kicked off her sheets rolled out of bed, feeling completely well-rested and alert. She trotted to the window. It was nighttime in Ponyville, with the now-waning moon hanging overhead. Twilight let out a sigh of relief. The hailstorm had stopped.

What happened? How did I get back to Ponyville? Twilight thought. I remember the Cloudsbane, the aetherstream… Her mind wandered as she recalled the wondrous sensation of flight. She stared into the clear night sky, the stars winking hypnotically. A gentle breath escaped her lips and she fidgeted with her wings. A yearning to soar among those beautiful blips of light filled her heart.

Lost in thought, a sudden, terrific growl emanated from her gut, jostling her from her reverie. “Oh! I guess it’s been a while since I last ate…” A sheepish blush crossed her cheeks. “It’s a good thing no one's here to witness this…”

Twilight made her way to the kitchen. The halls of her castle were quiet and dimly lit by candles. Twilight noticed little flickers of latent magic within the walls—remnants of when the castle was first created, she surmised. They brought her a sense of relief, as if the responsibilities of her station and the excitement of her bizarre adventure were fleeting dreams.

Upon entering the kitchen, Twilight was greeted by an equally surprised (though far sleepier) Starlight Glimmer.

Starlight yawned, wearing a strange nightcap; light purple with gaudy golden stars stitched in. “Hey Twi. Feeling any better?” She asked nonchalantly. A mug of warm milk hovered next to her.

Twilight sighed, settling into a nearby chair. “Yeah. I finally feel like I got a proper night’s sleep after what feels like forever. How about you?”

Starlight simply shrugged with a grunt. “Can’t sleep. Ponyville’s been flipped upside-down ever since that weather incident.”

“Weather inci—” Twilight cut off with a sharp gasp, memories flooding her. “The storms! What happened? Where’s Rainbow Dash?”

“Rainbow Dash and a couple other pegasi carried you back from Seaward Shoals. Said something about a lost city, Daring Do, weather monsters, that Cloud-something-or-other, and an explosion of tornadoes,” Starlight said, taking a casual sip of milk. “You were knocked out pretty hard. It’s been about three days, I think.”

“Lost city? Explosion of—three days? Cloudsbane!” Twilight said, her thoughts tumbling over each other in her head. “What happened to the Cloudsbane? Did we do it? What happened in Ponyville? Is everything all right?”

“Easy there, you’ll wake Spike,” Starlight said as she touched Twilight’s shoulder. “It is three in the morning, you know.”

Twilight sighed, slumping against the chair. “Sorry. I just feel bad since I just woke up from the best sleep ever. Everypony else has been dealing with this while I’ve been asleep.”

Starlight smirked, sipping the last of her milk. “Well, you earned it. We haven’t seen the sky so clear before.”

Twilight tilted her head, confused.

“Come on, see for yourself!” Starlight set her mug down and made her way to the door, beckoning Twilight to follow.

Twilight’s stomach suddenly roared. The two shared a knowing look.

“Let me grab a bite to eat first,” Twilight said, an embarrassed flush tinting her cheeks.

Starlight and Twilight stepped into the cool night air on the highest balcony of the castle. Twilight’s anxiety stilled as her mane fluttered in the gentle breeze, her head craned skyward.

“The sky… It’s so clear…” Twilight said, wanderlust dripping from her voice. She slowly gazed across the night sky, her mouth slightly agape. Each tiny pinprick of light was so clear and unmuddied. Even in the space between stars, she could see the faintest of lights trying to shimmer through Luna’s curtain. She looked to the east. Canterlot shone with unfiltered light and majesty atop the peaks that towered over Ponyville. No fog, no clouds, no mist. Just the light of life from its denizens.

“Rainbow Dash says if you go high enough, you can even see the Crystal Empire’s light beyond the horizon!” Starlight said excitedly, gesturing to the north.

“What happened?” Twilight asked, her voice trailing away. Her sudden realization of the sheer enormity of the universe above her made her dizzy. She closed her eyes and propped herself on the bannister.

“Beats me.” Starlight shrugged. “There was a huge rush of magic overhead, and it blew all the weather away. One minute it was hailing, the next there wasn’t a cloud in the sky!” She said.

“And is it like this everywhere?”

“That’s what the pegasi said. Celestia even sent a letter to you—sorry, I opened your mail while you were out—saying that everywhere from the outskirts of the Badlands all the way to the Crystal Empire is completely clear.” Starlight walked to the edge of the balcony and held her hoof up. “Not even wind much stronger than this. Heh, I bet this is going to mess up the weather schedule for all the weather factories. I don’t know what you and Rainbow did, but you guys saved us.”

Twilight’s ears folded back and she blushed softly. “To be honest, I’m still not entirely certain what happened. One minute I blacked out, and the next I woke up in bed.”

Starlight approached her friend and leaned against the railing next to her. “Did you want to talk about it? It sounds like it’s weighing on you.”

Twilight idly traced her hoof in a circle on the stone floor. She looked toward the stars above and sighed. “I wouldn’t put it quite like that. I haven’t felt this great in weeks. It’s like I’m walking on air!”

Starlight rolled her eyes and smirked. “Whatever you say, Princess.” Starlight playfully flicked one of Twilight’s wingtips.

A stillness overcame the balcony, and the sounds of shared giggling broke through the night. “All that aside,” Twilight said, smiling into a content sigh, “Like Amethyst Hollow and the Golden Oak, there was a magic aetherstream within the Cloudsbane. This one was naturally linked to pegasus magic.”

Starlight chuckled. “How’s that for coincidence? You find your special magic pegasus place and it turns out to be the cause of all of this weather.”

“Well, there was more than just pegasus magic hidden away there,” Twilight said, her heart sinking. Images of the decayed urban landscape flashed in her head. “Before the city fell to ruin, the pegasi at the weather factory dabbled in dark magic.”

“Dark magic? You mean the stuff that Sombra used? I think Sunburst might have mentioned him once or twice,” Starlight said.

“Information about the magic of the Umbrum is scarce, and everything I saw in the Cloudsbane contradicts what little we do know. There were weather simulacra powered by dark pegasus magic. The sarcophagus containment unit and the corruption of their weather core was due to the same type of magic.” Twilight frowned. “It makes me nervous knowing there are other powers in play we can’t predict.”

Starlight quirked an eyebrow. “Okay, back up. Dark pegasus magic? Now that’s a new one.”

“Believe me, I feel the same way. Like you said, it’s something we believed to be linked to King Sombra and the other Umbrum, and vis-a-vis related to unicorn magic only. Yet ancient pegasi were able to utilize it somehow,” Twilight said. There was a brief pause. She felt a wave of nausea build within, but she swallowed and shook it off. “I was able to utilize it somehow.”

Twilight spread her wings, drawing one forward and examining it closely. Starlight looked it over as well, giving it a gentle prod. “Well, they seem normal enough to me,” Starlight said. “How are you feeling?”

The hazy images of the Cloudsbane aetherstream resurfaced. The corrupted pegasus magic; the mysterious entity; the mysterious words.

“The Element will ascend…” Twilight murmured.

“Do what now?”

“That was the most recent message. It forms a complete sentence. When all three have been connected, the Element will ascend,” Twilight quoted, her lips pursing as her frustration built.

“What does all that mean?” Starlight asked. She rolled her eyes, more annoyed than confused at the absurdity of the message.

“I…” Twilight hesitated. She glanced toward Canterlot off in the distance, the royal palace dominating the illuminated skyline. “I don’t know. I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what ‘all three’ refers to. It’s the last part of the message that I don’t understand.”

“About the Element?”

“Well,” Twilight sighed. “I think it refers to me. I’m confident that ‘connecting the three’ means Amethyst Hollow, the Golden Oak, and the Cloudsbane. As far as ‘the Element’ is concerned… The only logical conclusion is that it’s referring to me as the Element of Magic.”

“I don’t know, I think you’re pretty well-ascended already,” Starlight said dryly, imitating the flapping of wings with a hoof.

Twilight chuckled, batting a gentle gust of air toward Starlight. “I’ll have to do more research. I can’t help but feel like there’s one more step involved, I’m just not sure what. The three foci of tribal pony magic were just the beginning. There’s got to be more to it, I’m sure of it! There has to be a final piece, and I suspect it’s tied to alicorns.”

“Do you think the Princesses can help?” Starlight asked, motioning toward Canterlot.

“Maybe. I haven’t had a chance to see them since this whole thing started. First the Cutie Map calls me away to Peacegrove, then stormageddon happens. I’m going to go over my notes, compile them into a report, and present my findings to the Princesses as soon as they’re ready,” Twilight said.

“If you say so. I think it would be better to go now. I’m sure they can help you find answers,” Starlight said, shrugging.

Twilight shook her head. “Princess Celestia is asleep, and Princess Luna is likely presiding over night court or monitoring the Dreamscape,” she said. “Short of another emergency, I can’t just show up asking for their help now.”

“I didn’t mean now-now.” Starlight clapped a hoof to her forehead and groaned.

Twilight blinked, the realization of her own literalness slowly dawning on her. She attempted to stifle a giggle, but soon broke out laughing. Starlight exhaled through her nose, unable to fight back her own smile.

“Right, right,” Twilight said amid her laughter. “I’ll figure something out in the morning.”

Starlight yawned loudly, her eyes watering. “I’m with you on that one. I should get back to bed.”

“Me too. Thanks for chatting with me, Starlight,” Twilight said with a smile.

“Anytime,” Starlight said, ushering the Princess to her room.

The warm morning air rushed through Twilight’s feathers and mane as she soared high over Ponyville. Much to her relief, it looked like most of the damage had been relatively minor—in the grand scheme of things. Teams of ponies were hard at work repairing stripped roofs and clearing the streets of scattered debris. A familiar voice carried above the general chatter, and Twilight made her way to its owner.

“Come on team, chop chop! We’re almost done, let’s give it one last push!” Rainbow Dash barked, flying overhead as teams of ponies worked on hauling away carts of rubbish.

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight called, flying down to hover next to her. “Is everything okay?”

Rainbow smirked. “I could ask you the same thing! You feeling better?”

“I-I think so,” Twilight said, rubbing the back of her neck. She glanced at the ponies scampering about on the ground. “The more I look at it, the more relieved I get. The storm didn’t cause as much chaos as I’d thought.”

“We got off pretty lucky. Most of the real damage was at Sweet Apple Acres, but I’ve got some pegasi helping AJ out. It’s mostly just clearing snow and replacing stuff that melted in the heatwave. Somehow, by Celestia’s flank, nopony got hurt,” Rainbow said. She descended, motioning for Twilight to follow down into a cleared patch of grass. When they reached the ground, they plopped down next to each other. “You should have seen what happened to the Cloudsbane!”

“That’s what I wanted to ask you about. What happened? I did fix the weather core, right?” Twilight asked. She stared skyward, taking in the ever-expansive, cloudless sky.

“Oh heck yes you did!” Rainbow exclaimed, raising her forelegs into the air and flourishing with spread wings. “I don’t know what you did, but there were these crazy lights and lots of lightning and a WOOSH and all of the clouds got pushed away!”

Twilight sighed and closed her eyes, her shoulders relaxing as she leaned back. She pulled images of the aetherstream from the recesses of her mind, their clarity startling her for a moment. “I see. That corroborates with what I saw in the aetherstream.”

“Saw in the whozits now?” Rainbow asked, tilting her head. “You mean inside the weather core? I saw you disappear when you flew into it.” She nickered angrily, giving Twilight a little shove. “Next time warn me that that’s going to happen! I was worried.”

Twilight blushed and looked away nervously. “I’m sorry, Rainbow. I didn’t know it would happen. I wasn’t even entirely sure what I was going to do.” She shuffled closer, resting her head on her friend’s shoulder. “I didn’t mean to make you worry.”

The pegasus huffed, the feathers at the base of her wings bristling. “It’s fine. You’re the one who knows this stuff. Everything’s a surprise to me. I mean, heck, I didn’t know pegasi had magic before. Not like your magic, Twi.” She casually slung a hoof over Twilight’s shoulder, shifting uncomfortably. “What was it like in there, anyway?”

“It’s hard to explain,” murmured Twilight. “It’s kind of like a big… space of magic. Imagine nothing but sky and clouds. You don’t fall, though. There’s no gravity. I remember…” She paused, the strange pony-like entity appearing in her mind’s eye. The first three words of its message echoed silently in her heart.

“Um, hello?” Rainbow asked, waving her hoof in front of the spaced-out Twilight. “You remember what?”

“Huh?” Twilight blinked, her eyes refocusing on reality. “Oh! Sorry, it’s…” She said, stumbling on her words. She shook her head. The right words seemed to have escaped her. “It’s complicated. But I managed to excise the dark magic inside the weather core, and that started a magical chain reaction that wiped out all of the pegasus magic it had sent out over Equestria.”

A silence fell between them. Ponies continued to work and flitter about all around. Rainbow rubbed her forelegs, seemingly lost in thought as she looked down at them. Twilight, meanwhile, replayed the recent events in her head. A few ponies wandered in Rainbow Dash’s direction, but decided not to interrupt and passed by.

“What happened after the weather was restored to normal?” Twilight finally asked.

Rainbow stretched and leaned away, nudging Twilight’s head off of her. “The weather core kind of… spat you out. It was weird because you didn’t really fall, you just sorta glided really slowly to the floor. I carried you out of the factory and brought you back here on a train. The crazy thing is, the factory’s still intact, and so’s the rest of the city! After all that, only the big storm cell was blown away. It was like it wasn’t even there!” Rainbow said excitedly.

“What about the rest of Equestria? How did they hold up?” Twilight asked.

“About the same as Ponyville, really. Some places were hit a little harder, but the rest of the Wonderbolts are working ‘round the clock keeping things under control. Worst-case scenario, some wrecked houses and a couple of bruises and scrapes.”

Relief washed over Twilight. “Thank Celestia. It could have been so much worse. I can’t thank you enough, Rainbow Dash.” Twilight reached over and pulled her friend into a brief hug, much to Dash’s surprise.

“H-hey! You know it’s no problem, right?” Rainbow said, pulling away with a smirk. “Weather is kinda my thing, and I couldn’t let you deal with all this by yourself.” She batted Twilight with a wing, a mild blush running over her cheeks.

“I know. I’m truly grateful to have somepony as dependable as you as a friend,” Twilight said, smiling. A faint spark of magic leapt from Rainbow’s wingtip to Twilight’s snout. It was so light that she wasn’t even sure whether she had seen anything at all. Yet a sense of warmth bloomed in her chest. When she blinked, the light was gone. Twilight gazed into the middle distance, dumbfounded.

“You’re right, I am pretty awesome. But uh, you okay?” Rainbow asked, waving her foreleg in front of Twilight’s blank face once more.

Twilight sputtered and shook her head. “Huh? What? Oh! Yes, I’m fine. Sorry, just… thinking!” She stammered unconvincingly.

Rainbow raised an eyebrow. “You sure you’re okay?”

“I’m fine. Really. I’ve just got a lot on my mind. I need to compile a report about this later and send it to the Princesses for advice. Not to mention all of the other things I’ve been neglecting in my time away,” Twilight said. She looked around at the other ponies. Some were hauling beams of wood, others carrying saddlebags full of tools. Ponies of all kinds were helping in the recovery effort. She noticed a pegasus above directing two others, and they split off in different directions.

“Buuuuut,” Twilight said, drawing out the word. “I think we should help out here for now. After this, I’m going to go check on the others.”

“Sounds like a plan!” Rainbow said, leaping into the air. “Come on, let’s go fix Ponyville!”

Chapter 29: Rise To Harmony

“Okay, that should be it for now! Great job, team!” Rainbow Dash’s voice carried through the town center. Her declaration was met with a rally of cheers, some ponies collapsing into exhausted lumps.

Twilight let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat from her brow. She fell to her haunches and released the telekinetic grip on her clipboard, letting it tumble onto the grass. She looked up at the sky, shading her eyes with a hoof. The group had worked well into the late afternoon. Ponies started to congregate by a number of water coolers that had been set up, and the noises of hammers and saws that had filled the air moments ago gave way to the hum of idle chit-chat.

“Here.” A voice shook Twilight from her reverie. Rainbow Dash held out a cup of water in her wing and wore a proud grin. “Thanks for helping us out. We got done a lot faster ‘cause you kept us organized,” she said with a nod down to the clipboard. “I didn’t expect you to get your hooves dirty, but you really pulled through.”

Twilight took hold of the glass with her magic, taking a few gulps and sighing. “Well, ever since becoming an alicorn I’ve gotten bigger and stronger. And recently…” She stood tall, flexing her wings and bearing down in a pose she’d seen in an exercise textbook. The glass drifted above her like a pendulum. “I’ve become a lot more attuned to my earth pony and pegasus magic. With all three of them—”

When all three…

Twilight gasped, her horn sputtering out. The glass tumbled, knocking into her head with a dull thunk. Stars floated in her vision as she shook her head, her wet mane scattering droplets of water all around.

Rainbow snickered, then fell onto her back as she burst out laughing. “Looks like the storm wasn’t quite over, Twi!” She managed to squeeze out between laughs.

Twilight sat upright, her mane clinging to her head and face. She nickered with annoyance, but couldn’t help the smile spreading over her face. She spied a pile of towels on a nearby cart, and floated one over to dry herself off.

“Here, let me help you.” Rainbow yanked the towel free of Twilight’s magical grasp and started scrubbing the water from her friend’s mane. Twilight sputtered in protest, but didn’t move to stop her. “I’d offer my Rain-blow Dry, but I still haven’t heard the end of it from Rarity since last time. You okay?”

Pulling the towel back from Rainbow, Twilight patted down her fur and wringed the towel into the grass. “I’m fine. I…” That voice. She brushed her bangs aside and nodded. “I’m fine. So, what's next?”

Rainbow gave Twilight a sidelong look. “I think that’s most of the heavy lifting. Everything left is just little stuff.” She sat up and looked about the plaza, now full of socializing ponies. “Besides, I’d say we’re done for the day, anyway.”

Twilight brought up her clipboard and flipped through the pages. As usual, she had made notes of all the major parts of Ponyville needing to be cleared. She scanned down her list, noting one particular unchecked line. “What about Sweet Apple Acres?” Twilight asked worriedly. “I haven’t seen the Apples since the storm started, and according to this, none of the repair teams have been out there yet.”

“Oh, I stopped by there the other day. Applejack said she had it under control, but you know how she is,” Rainbow said with an annoyed shrug.

“Yeah, I don’t think so,” Twilight said with a frustrated sigh. “If she brushed you off just like that, she’s probably withers-deep in trouble. Did you at least check?”

“I’m not going near a thousand angry chickens!” Rainbow huffed. “If she says she’s fine, then she’s probably fine!” She snorted. “But, I guess if it’ll make you feel better, we can go check together. With stuff in town fixed, we can help her if she needs it.”

“Actually, I have a better idea!” Twilight beamed and flared her wings. Rearing excitedly, her horn flared brilliantly as she summoned one of her oldest spells. The all-too-familiar teleportation matrix appeared in her mind’s eye, scooped up Rainbow Dash, and whisked them away.

“Consarnit, Apple Bloom! Quit messin’ with the coops and go help your brother out in the west orchard! Me an’ Winona can take care of the critters!” Applejack bellowed from the front porch. A pair of feed sacks hung heavily from a saddlebag strapped to her back, filled to the brim with seeds and corn for the chickens.

“Just a minute, sis! A few more nails and I’ll—Woah!” Apple Bloom flailed her forehooves, trying to regain her balance, and tumbled from the top of the chicken coop. She landed with a wet splat in the flock of crowing fowl and struggled to her hooves just in time to watch the hen house she’d just spent all day building suddenly implode with the sound of snapping wood.

“Oh for Pete’s—” Applejack yelled, leaping from the porch and dashing to the commotion. She grumbled with annoyance as both of the feed bags slipped from her saddle, spilling their contents all over the yard. “Apple Bloom, are you okay? Apple Bloom!”

A few chicks that had been chasing each other around Apple Bloom bolted away as Applejack skidded to a halt. Apple Bloom gave a half hearted nod and a squeak that sounded vaguely like, “Uh-huh.”

Applejack sighed and pulled her sister from the mud. "Go clean up, get yourself somethin’ to drink, and once your head’s on straight go help Big Mac.” She watched Apple Bloom scamper off toward the house. With a loud whistle, she grumpily started chasing the escaped chickens. “Go on, git—Hey! You’re not supposed to—Get out of there! Winona, help!”

A bright flash of magic accompanied by a familiar poof stole Applejack’s attention away to the farm’s front gate. Twilight Sparkle and the rest of her friends appeared out of thin air. “Applejack! How are things coming along?” Twilight called as she trotted to her friend, the others following—or in Pinkie’s case, bouncing. Applejack dropped to her haunches, a long drawn-out groan escaping her.

A chicken landed on Applejack’s head and flapped off with her hat, clucking wildly as it vanished into the crowd of chickens. “Hey! You get back here!” Applejack cried out after it. She leapt to all fours and gave chase.

Twilight blinked and grimaced. “Guess that answers that question.”

“Oh, oh my goodness!” Fluttershy said, her airy voice little more than a whisper. She took off after Applejack, bounded down the hill, and slid to a stop in front of the flurry of feathers. She cleared her throat. “Okay, everyone! Let’s all quiet down!”

All of the chickens stopped and looked at Fluttershy at the same time. After some confused clucking amongst each other, and a gentle hoofstomp from Fluttershy, they all formed a line in front of her. The one that had stolen Applejack’s hat dropped it off at her hooves before joining the lineup with a guilty cluck.

“Now, let’s all be good little hens for Applejack. I know you’re scared because of the weather, but I’m sure they’ll get your home fixed as soon as they can. Don’t you think that…” As Fluttershy continued her speech, Twilight’s attention shifted and her friend’s voice seemed to fade. She squinted. A gentle mist of soft yellow arose from Fluttershy’s body, wafting over the flock. It shimmered in the light, and the more Fluttershy spoke, the quieter the chickens became.

“Let’s all go to the barn while we wait nice and quietly for Applejack to put together your new home,” Fluttershy said, trotting along with a bounce to her step toward the barn. The chickens calmly followed, entering the barn one by one.

Applejack sighed with relief and adjusted her hat. “Thanks, Flutters. They’ve been raisin’ a ruckus ever since the storm blew through.”

“Oh, it’s no trouble at all. How are the rest of your animals?” Fluttershy said, rubbing her foreleg slowly. A small smile crossed her lips.

“Mostly okay, jus’ some of ‘em are still a li’l spooked,” Applejack grunted, motioning to the barn. “Got everyone in there ‘cept the pigs.” She nodded toward the repaired enclosure, full of happily squealing pigs.

Twilight trailed along behind her friends, transfixed by the sudden sight of magic flowing between the two. Something Fluttershy said made Applejack laugh—Twilight couldn’t quite make out the words at this distance. She did, however, notice their smiles coincided when that brief, faint trail of magic pulsed between them. A blink later it was gone, just as quickly as it appeared.

Fluttershy disappeared into the barn as Applejack made her way back to Twilight and the others. “Fluttershy is gonna keep an eye on the animals. I can’t tell y’all how grateful I am that you’re here.”

“If you needed help, why didn’t you come get somepony?” Twilight asked. She levitated her clipboard from her saddlebag, flipped to a blank page, and started scribbling some notes.

“Heh, well,” Applejack said, rubbing the back of her neck, her face flushed with embarrassment. “Truth be told, I thought we’d be able to lick it on our own. I mean, we got a lot done before y’all showed up, but with the damage in the west orchard, it’s set us back a bit. RD came by the other day and I told her we had a handle on it.”

“Well, we’re here now, and that’s what matters!” Rarity said, brushing her mane back behind her ear. “You just tell us what needs done.”

Applejack chuckled. “If you say so, Rarity. I ain’t about to turn down a hard worker, but don’t come crying’ to me when you get all muddy!”

Twilight glanced from Applejack to Rarity, then back to Applejack. The faintest trails of magic shimmered between them. A series of orange wisps flowed from Applejack to the rest of her friends, and a pale white arc linked Rarity and Applejack. What in Equestria is this? Twilight bit her lip as she pondered. Fluttershy’s special talent is handling animals, so I thought… why Applejack and Rarity…? Twilight blinked, and once again the magic had vanished.

“Okay, I think that’ll work!” Applejack announced. “You catch all that, Twi?”

Twilight started and blinked a few more times, her eyes refocusing. “I… what?” she stammered. She felt her balance reorient, and she stumbled.

Applejack rolled her eyes and huffed. “Rarity’s gonna help us out with branch pruning, and RD can haul ‘em off to the house. Me an’ Big Mac’ll take care of the bigger trees after cuttin’ ‘em up. Pinkie Pie’s gonna help Granny Smith with supper. Think y’can write that down on yer fancy to-do list?” Applejack grumbled.

“Oh! Right! Sorry, it’s… it’s been a long week,” Twilight breathed, her voice distant. She rubbed her head and started scrawling down a new checklist.

Applejack put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder with a gentle smile. “Believe me, sugarcube, I understand. There ain’t been no rest for any of us since we got back from Peacegrove. But I think just one more day is all we’ll need to have everything sorted! Come on everypony, let’s get to it!” Applejack whooped loudly and reared back, kicking her forelegs excitedly.

Everypony cheered along with her, though Twilight’s were half hearted. Her thoughts kept drifting to this strange new magic. Something happened between Rainbow Dash and I… Now it’s happening to the others. It looks vaguely like tribal magic, but… there’s something different. Twilight trudged behind her friends, not paying particular attention to the direction—she was too busy taking notes on the back page of her clipboard. At this rate I’m going to be writing a book to the Princesses.

They eventually joined up with Big Macintosh in the west orchard. He nodded to Applejack and continued on in silence, hauling a cart filled to the brim with logs. Twilight surveyed the damage and smiled slightly. It wasn’t as bad as she was expecting, but she knew it would still be a lot of work for just the Apple family by themselves. Against all of her better instincts, she decided to defer the taskmare role to Applejack. She just couldn’t take her mind off of the strange magic tethers. Her checklist-making and note-taking went into autopilot as Applejack told her this-and-that about the orchard’s layout and which parts needed the most attention.

This is so strange. They’re not using magic, so what is it? I didn’t see it with anypony else in town. She watched as Rarity levitated piles of branches into Rainbow Dash’s cart. That familiar lattice—the most basic of unicorn spells—manifested itself before Twilight. Nothing unusual there.

“Oh! Darling, wait just a moment,” Rarity said, putting her hoof on Rainbow Dash just before she took off. Rarity looked over the cart carefully. “Let me re-adjust this for you.”

Rarity hummed to herself and used her magic to better sort the branches in the cart. She began to weave and affix them to one another into intricate patterns. Twilight watched as Rarity’s magic shimmered from her horn, the careful precision of her levitation and mending spell criss-crossing into the mass of branches. At that moment, she saw another pearlescent link form, connecting her to Rainbow Dash.

“Gee, thanks Rarity!” Rainbow Dash muttered, rolling her eyes. “We good to go now, or should we put some ribbons on it?”

“You’re all set, though I do think ribbons would really tie it all together!” Rarity said with a flourish. “Oh! Applejack, what are we doing with these branches once we’re done bringing them back to the house?”

“Burnin’ ‘em,” Applejack said bluntly, her attention focused on loading Big Mac’s cart. “Them little twigs ain’t worth nothin’ anymore, so once we’ve got ‘em all rounded up, that’s probably the best thing to do with ‘em.”

“What?” Rarity said, utterly aghast. “But these wood patterns are my best yet! I might even be able to…” She squealed as inspiration struck her. “Oooh, I have an idea for a new summer accessory line! Wooden rings and hoofwear studded with gems! It combines the chique with the rustic! Rust-ique?” She tapped a hoof on her chin.

Applejack rolled her eyes with exasperation, but couldn’t help the smirk spreading over her face. “Y’know, that actually don’t sound too bad! Maybe y’all can look into that after we’re done cleanin’ the farm.”

Twilight was entranced, her newfound sight overwhelming her with information. She could see magic flowing from Applejack and Big Mac’s hooves into the ground below them. The direction and color of the magic seemed to correspond with downed trees. Rainbow Dash flexed her wings, little sparks of blue energy crackling within the feathers. Rarity continued to fuss with the branches, her magic completely enveloping them.

When all three have been connected...

The colored tethers flashed into existence once again. They sparked between each of her friends, then vanished as quickly as they came. She hurriedly scribbled down more notes, her mind racing.

It seems like it happens whenever they interact. I can’t tell if it’s explicitly magical. It looks like magic, but the strands appear independently of their magic use. Once we finish here, I’ll need to set up an observation and—

A hoof against Twilight’s shoulder made her yelp in surprise, the clipboard flying wildly into the air as she recoiled.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash stepped away. “Hey, relax! We’re just trying to talk to you.”

Twilight took a deep breath, feeling her senses return. “I-I’m fine,” Twilight said, exhaling loudly. “Sorry, just lost in my own head again.”

Rainbow fidgeted in the cart’s harness and flexed her wings. “I was trying to tell you that I’m heading back to the house with these.”

“Right, yes, of course,” Twilight murmured. She ticked a box on her checklist. She scanned down the parchment. “With the amount of debris, we should be able to clear most of the smaller stuff in…” She twirled her quill around in mid-air, doing calculations in the air with it. “Three hours.”

“Three hours? We’ll do it in two!” Rainbow scoffed before taking to the sky, cart in tow. Twilight watched as blue aethereal ribbons flowed from her chest, linking to all of her friends. The magic persisted even as Rainbow soared over the treetops, and only faded when Twilight blinked.

Twilight continued to keep tabs on the new magical phenomenon as they worked. They never lasted long—no more than a second or two at the most—but they twinkled just long enough to keep stealing her attention. I’ve got to get to the bottom of this! She shook her head, exasperated. Still, she couldn’t help but smile as they flared up, more and more. Something about them was oddly… comforting.

The scent of delicious cooked oats, apple pie, and other treats filled the Apple family home. Twilight and her friends settled around the kitchen table, excitedly whispering amongst themselves. Granny Smith slowly trundled from one end of the kitchen to the other, precariously balancing trays of food as Pinkie Pie assisted in her own bouncy way.

“Heck yeah,” Rainbow said excitedly, wiping drool from her mouth. “I’m starving!”

“I’m just glad we got all of the animals safe,” Fluttershy said softly. She peeked out from under her mane to Applejack and Apple Bloom. “You’re going to have the chicken coops fixed tomorrow, right?”

“Uh-huh!” Apple Bloom said with an overly enthusiastic nod. “I think they’ll be okay one more night in the barn. That lullaby you sang to them was enough to even put me to sleep!” Apple Bloom blinked slowly before letting out a wide yawn.

Pinkie Pie bounced over to the table. “Thanks to Granny Smith’s recipes, I think I’ve got everything figured out for everypony!” she exclaimed, taking a deep breath. “Rainbow Dash wants her oats extra crispy, Fluttershy easy on the sauce, Rarity no sauce, Twilight wants hers cut into two-by-three squares, Applejack wants ‘all the fixin’s,’ Granny Smith’s needs to be as soft as possible, Apple Bloom wants her dessert first, and Big Mac isn’t picky!” she rattled off, pointing to each of her friends in turn.

Cheers and laughter resounded throughout the home. Food was served, drinks were poured, and everypony shared in the revelry. Twilight smiled and allowed herself to be swept up in the joy. How could she not? She was with her best friends! Pinkie’s grin grew and grew—just how much happiness can one pony contain? Twilight laughed as Pinkie scampered to and fro, helping Granny Smith with serving second helpings and dessert. It was a miracle that Pinkie could find the time for herself to eat.

Then, Twilight saw it. A dazzling light show erupted from Pinkie Pie’s body, invisible to everypony but Twilight. Her mouth hung open as the trails of light stretched all across the room, growing in brightness. All the colors of the rainbow anchored Pinkie Pie to every single pony in the room. Sudden giddiness washed over Twilight as she wordlessly ate, for once too lost in the moment to turn magic theories about in her head.

Twilight blinked, and the light vanished. She felt her breathing grow labored, a jumble of emotions flowing through her mind. I have to get to the bottom of this, she thought. She slumped down, resting her head on Rainbow Dash’s shoulder as weariness overtook her.

“Everything okay, Twi?” Dash murmured, shifting slightly to bear the weight.

Twilight smiled softly. “Everything’s great. I sometimes forget how wonderful it is to have so many amazing ponies to call my friends.” My friends… my friends… The words echoed in her mind, yet another piece of the puzzle she knew she would solve.

Light filled the library and the shimmering of unicorn magic echoed through the chamber. A myriad of books found themselves bathed in the magical glow and, with a flash, blinked into Twilight’s bedroom. Twilight scanned the books floating around her. Magic & Myths, Lost Civilizations of Equus, Beyond the Eden Breach, The Trials of Ponykind, and similar titles adorned the withered spines.

She let out a disappointed nicker. “No Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide. I never had a chance to finish researching that one.” One by one, the books piled neatly to one side as Twilight cast her thoughts back to that first evening with her friends. The first encounter with Nightmare Moon had been one of the most difficult trials of her life, but the love from her friends made all of it worth it. The mental image of them standing defiantly against the fiend melted away to a more recent one—sharing the laughter and joy around the Apple family table. Two very different situations, but the very same friends sharing an important moment.

Twilight’s warm smile firmed as determination filled her spirit. “First things first.” She pulled out her journal and opened to the most recent entry, penned what felt like a lifetime ago. She closed her eyes, allowing the quill to trace her thoughts as she recalled her adventure.

Day 10:
Dream message continues to persist, but with new additions. As seen during my time in Amethyst Hollow, the fragment from the Golden Oak Aether has been added to the message (see Day 9). Since my abilities have not yet extended to pegasus magic, I must be particularly observant for any signs of pegasus activity throughout the day and update accordingly.

Day 10 con’t:
It took some time, but my abilities to visualize pegasus magic have started to manifest. The trigger to this new ability was an intense display of magic at a Wonderbolts show, via Rainbow Dash’s Sonic Rainboom. The arcs of magic left behind not only provided the first evidence of the base composition of pegasus aether, but also Rainbow Dash’s own latent abilities. I hypothesize it is related to her status as the Element of Loyalty—possibly a deep-seated connection related to the Sonic Rainboom linking the six of us together in the first place.

Day 11:
Weather disasters all across Equestria. An ancient weather factory, now known to be the mythical Cloudsbane, sent an incredible amount of weather to nearly every major city in the kingdom. Minor cloud cover built up over time until it finally culminated in the worst (and most unusual) storm Equestria has ever seen. Through some teamwork, and some clever use of pegasus weather control magic, we were able to clear the skies above Ponyville. I researched as much as I could find regarding the pegasus weather factories, and found an anomalous entity above the far-away town of Seaward Shoals.

Day 12:
I travelled to Seaward Shoals with Rainbow Dash, the pegasus most suited to assist me in this leg of my journey. We discovered that their weather was indeed controlled by the Cloudsbane, and that the weather patrol had been unable to access it for many generations.

Upon investigating the factory, I learned that Umbrum magic—colloquially known as “dark magic”—was the culprit. Based on my observations of renegade weather simulacra, the corruption of the factory’s weather core, and the pegasus magic containment unit, a pegasus variant of Umbrum magic had been employed.

Twilight scanned her writing, flicking the tip of her quill against her chin. She pondered for a moment before resuming.

Perhaps it may be more accurate to say an Umbrum variant of pegasus magic. Contrary to prior research by Starswirl the Bearded, Umbrum magic variants of all three tribes may exist. Alicorns have been known to utilize the familiar “standard” variant employed by King Sombra (the unicorn variant) with difficulty. I was able to control this new pegasus variant while in the Cloudsbane, though I am not sure at what cost. With proper focus and discipline, repeated use of the magic appears to have mitigated its side-effects, but these conclusions are pending further research. No Umbrum variant of earth pony magic has been observed or attempted.

Twilight paused, looking down at her hooves. She shivered, imagining the powerful—and terrifying—things Umbrum magic was capable of. Just what could earth pony magic be bent toward?

She sighed, setting aside her journal and taking a moment to breathe. She gazed across the room toward the top shelf of her bookshelf, remembering the box given to her by Ivy Bramble. A smile crept across her lips. “Perhaps both of these thoughts can wait for another day.” She completed her journal entry, quickly proofed for spelling errors, then tucked the journal away. She pulled the top book off the research pile and opened it to the first page, taking care not to crack the ancient binding.

Hours melted away into the night, and Twilight’s stack of research books dwindled to but a hoofful. She trudged through ancient civilizations, wandered far-off lands, and lived mythical cultures, yet still did not find herself any closer to the final piece of the puzzle. It’s all tied to alicorn magic, it just has to be. She sighed with frustration. Plowing through her fatigue, she opened one last book—a nearly-forgotten tome that was nearly falling to pieces. She carefully turned the delicate pages to reveal the the ancient tribal emblem: an icon representing each of the three pony tribes surrounding an alicorn in the center. Sifting through her notes, she pulled out her clean copy of the page. Scribbled in the margins next to their respective tribes were Amethyst Hollow and Golden Oak. She penned Cloudsbane next to the pegasus icon. She stared at the alicorn. She couldn’t tell if the image was trying to give her the hidden answer or taunting her with its existence.

“When all three have been connected…” Twilight muttered. She stood from her desk and stretched, grunting loudly. She wandered her way over to the large map of Equestria on her wall. Her horn glowed, and three orbs of light shone on the map. A lavender orb illuminated Mount Everhoof; an orange orb rested above the Silverglade Forest; a bright blue orb shone above the South Luna Sea.

Is the answer right here in front of me? She extruded colored lines of magic from each of the points, connecting them. Her eyes gravitated toward the center of the triangle. Canterlot? No, Canterlot is just a bit too far east. That means…

Calculations ran through her head as she took measurements, summoning an aethereal ruler and compass. The only location equidistant to all of the foci is… She brought up a scrap of parchment and scribbled a few quick calculations It can’t be—but it is. The Everfree Forest! Twilight’s horn pulsed with light, and a fourth glowing orb—this one crimson—situated itself on the forest.

She ran through the numbers again and again, furiously writing so hard that she actually tore the parchment in half. Her heart raced. She felt excitement building within, crescendoing on elation. This new focus wasn’t just the Everfree Forest. It was a specific location deep within.

When all three have been connected, the Element will ascend…

“The math checks out,” Twilight said confidently to nopony in particular, allowing the parchment to flutter to the floor. A wide grin spread over her face. It was there. It had to be there. The original resting place of the Elements of Harmony.

The Castle of the Two Sisters.

Chapter 30: And Aether Immemorial

Twilight Sparkle paused at the edge of the Everfree Forest, staring ahead into the looming cavernous entrance formed by the overlying canopy. An errant wind blew by, bringing with it the scent of moss and dirt. Even with the weather under control, the Everfree Forest still followed its own rules.

Naturally, she had come prepared to face the dangers of the forest. Her saddlebag sat heavy across her back, filled to the brim with notes, maps, and plenty of parchment. To the casual observer, the princess may have seemed ready for a study session, not a hike through the woods.

Twilight knew there wasn’t any real reason for her to be here, at the forest’s edge. She could just teleport herself to the castle without any hassle—she’d been there plenty of times in the past. But today, something nostalgic about this particular trail gave her pause.

“This is where it all began,” she muttered to herself, digging a hoof into the dirt. “When we set hoof into the Everfree Forest for the first time… together.” Images of her friends flashed one by one in her mind as she reminisced on their trials and challenges deep within the forest—the challenges they had overcome all those years ago. Now here she stood, before a new trial, and the thought of facing it alone made Twilight shudder.

She glanced over her shoulder toward Ponyville. Her lingering anxiety evaporated as she felt her friends’ presence, even at this distance. No, I’m not truly alone. Not anymore. She took a deep breath and let it out slowly, a broad smile creeping across her face. Let’s do this. With a brilliant flash of magic, Twilight vanished.

She re-appeared next to a deep chasm, the traces of her teleport spell fading in the dim light. Across a rickety bridge lay the Castle of the Two Sisters. Dim moonlight pierced through broken towers and fog, but the imposing structure did little to break Twilight’s resolve. She had been here plenty of times—both alone and with her friends—and a new sense of eagerness and excitement welled within her.

The forest was still, nary a hoot or howl breaking the silence. Twilight focused and closed her eyes. She felt her newfound earth pony magic course through the soil in all directions around her. She turned her focus toward the castle and honed in on other living creatures—she had to be sure some nasty forest denizen hadn’t decided to move in recently. The chasm and the surrounding clearing were mostly devoid of life; just the occasional insect colony or mouse nest. She peeked out with one eye and watched as the colors drifted through the ground, turning up negative one after the other. Curiously, once her magic reached the castle itself, the pale red probe suddenly lit up with a rainbow of colors.

As the sudden influx of magic pulsed into Twilight’s mind, she swiftly recalled her perception. How strange… No creatures appear to have taken residence in the castle. But for something to register like that… She stopped and collected her thoughts. There must be earth pony magic in there.

Her horn lit up, the subtle geometry of her arcane scanning matrix washing over the entire castle. She tuned the spell to trace specific signatures—namely the traces left behind by whatever her earth pony magic had found. Better safe than sorry, she thought. After a short moment, the spell lit up, a series of sigils appearing before her.

“Ah-hah! It’s not just earth pony magic!” she shouted, rearing up with excitement. With a childlike grin, she leapt into the air and took flight toward the castle. The last of her spell dissipated, the aetheric traces fading without her unicorn magic fueling it. The sparks of magic between her feathers felt fuller; stronger! The sensation grew as she approached. Pegasus magic, too… If this feels like all three, then it can only be alicorn magic!

Twilight landed heavily just short of the steps leading into the castle, kicking up a small plume of dust in her haste. Through the haze, she gazed up at the broken towers rising defiantly into the sky despite their ruin. Moss had overgrown large portions of the crumbling stonework, and what remained of the outer wall was covered by long, tendril-like vines of ivy. She knew from her studies that the doors had once proudly displayed an intricately-carved mural celebrating the rule of her mentors, but this had been ravaged by time. Details were hard to make out, but the slender body of an alicorn accompanied images of the sun and moon on each side.

I’ve never really stopped to look at this up close before. Twilight pressed a hoof against the spongy, rotten wood. It almost reminds me of the Golden Oak, if Peacegrove had been abandoned like this… Rusted hinges creaked in protest at her touch, dust and cobwebs raining from above. Twilight’s hornlight filled the space with an eerie purple glow as she instinctively threw up a weak barrier. She carefully pulled open the door and stepped through the large entryway, the dim moonlight streaming down through an enormous gap in the ceiling. A shiver ran down Twilight’s spine. Even the castle remembers Nightmare Moon. She meticulously skirted around patches of thick grass that had spent centuries breaking their way through. A number of different passageways flanked the hallway, leading deeper into the castle. She continued onward, making her way toward a set of stairs at the rear of the chamber. A pair of moth-eaten banners hung from the ceiling, ancient depictions of Celestia and Luna embroidered on each one.

Twilight reflected on her past visits here. She was no stranger to the castle’s sprawling hallways, yet each time she explored, there was always something new to be found: a new secret staircase here, a false wall leading into a private study chamber there. With a deep breath to steady her nerves, she made her way through the foyer.

The castle’s dereliction steadily improved as Twilight walked through the dusty halls closer to the re-decorated throne room, a reminder of her time spent here with her friends. She smiled softly as she pushed the heavy, creaking doors open. For a moment, Twilight was struck by the similarities to its successor in Canterlot.

Memories and emotions bubbled into her surface thoughts the longer she stared at the twin thrones. The sensation of sunrise—condensed magic circling around itself, swelling and contracting in deliberate patterns—began to rise within Twilight. She felt Celestia’s sunrise in her heart; the very core of her being filling with light and warmth. She felt a connection form deep inside—a connection to something powerful, yet gentle.

As Twilight’s focus shifted from one throne to the other, the magic of Luna’s moonset re-surfaced in her mind’s eye. An oddly comforting chill crept over her, complimenting the solar warmth. Twilight sighed, feeling as if a familiar blanket had wrapped itself around her. Here, she knew she belonged.

A sudden gust of wind blew through the throne room, pushing the memories away and pulling Twilight back to the present. Tapestries hanging all around the room billowed noisily in the breeze. Twilight shook her head, taking one last look toward the dais and then—

And then Twilight saw it. A dark blue figure stood between the thrones, its form swaying slightly against the wind. “Princess Luna?” she whispered. The specter looked familiar, but as Twilight stepped closer, her heart lurched in her chest as a wave of malevolence washed over her.

The ghostly visage rose into the air, careening toward Twilight. Despite her knowledge, her magic, and her experience, she found herself unable to react. As the form approached, a familiar chilling presence pressed itself into the back of her mind. “You know who I am…” it hissed. As the realization struck her, a similar entity blew in from the ceiling, its opposing radiant light brushing away the malicious presence sinking into her brain and interposing itself between Twilight and the dark mist.

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat. The breeze gave way to a tense stillness, small arcs and pops of energy crackling between the amorphous specters. It—no, she—is right, she thought. I do know her. And if this is a ghost of Nightmare Moon’s power, then the other can only be… Suddenly, a ray of piercing black magic erupted from the shadow of Nightmare Moon, barely missing Twilight as she dove for cover. “Celestia!” she cried, watching in horror as the ray cut through the glowing white form of her mentor. As she struggled to her hooves, a dozen offensive spells racing through her mind, the two separated halves of Celestia’s energy soundlessly re-formed and became whole once more.

It dove toward Nightmare Moon’s form, colliding and swirling about with it before both shades disappeared in a violent crack of fragmented magic. Twilight’s breath came in ragged gasps. What in Equestria was that? The fur at the base of her mane stood, and again the frigid hatred welled up around her. Turning back to the thrones, the inky phantasm rose up once again. “You know who I am…” the voice sounded in her head again. Glancing upward, the formless energy of Celestia appeared once more.

Stepping away, she observed the battle repeat itself over, and over, and over. How very fascinating! Long ago, Twilight had peered into the past with Zecora’s help and borne witness to Nightmare Moon’s banishment. This must be a lingering shadow of what happened back then—such an extreme display of magic must have impressed itself onto this room.

As Twilight made her way closer to the thrones, the magical tempest faded into the night. “That was…” Her voice echoed across the chamber, but further words failed to come to her lips. The throne room was now completely still save for a gentle breeze weakly nudging a few leaves across the floor. She cautiously approached Celestia’s former throne. Lingering motes of both Princess’ magic twinkled in the air.

Though faint, Twilight could sense the warmth of Celestia’s sun within the drifting aether, but it also carried a far deeper emotion. A lump formed in her throat and tears sprang unbidden from her eyes. A deep, sorrowful mourning that bridged past and present permeated the space around the throne. Twilight found herself wanting nothing more than to rush to Celestia’s side and give her a big, reassuring hug.

The magic surrounding Luna’s throne evoked a different, yet somehow similar dichotomy. It felt cool to the touch, and as Twilight held her forehoof against the ancient metal, a stiff yet comforting chill spread along her leg. However whenever she closed her eyes, she could feel a budding core of jealousy. It wasn’t the alluring force of Umbrum magic, tempting her to desire its raw power—she shivered as she felt its pure, unfiltered anger. The sheer hatred binding the magic together startled Twilight, as if it were directed at her specifically. It probably lashes out at anypony who gets too close. I can’t imagine the anguish Luna must have been holding inside. Nightmare Moon had been banished a thousand years ago—a shadow of the past reaching through the eons to speak to Twilight.

I haven’t experienced anything like this before… These visions have to be a part of my new abilities. Or perhaps something else? Twilight idly ran a hoof across the lunar throne, her heart aching for what happened so long ago. Perhaps it’s tied to my—our alicornhood. She pondered for a moment, standing betwixt the thrones. She took a deep breath and focused. Arcane magic swirled around her horn and took on a new spellshape. Twilight pulled in the threads of latent energy surrounding her, affixing it to pieces of the latticework to complete it. She felt the magical equivalent of gears locking into place as aetheric conduits traced through the air along a complicated three-dimensional pattern of her own design.

Sweat rolled down Twilight’s forehead and matted down the fur under her mane. The complex web of magic surged with her effort, illuminating the space around here. Only one missing piece… And this time, I know what it is. She closed her eyes and dove inward, reaching down into the core of her being to touch the magic inside of herself. As she made contact with the magic of her Element, she felt heat rising below her wings and hooves. She glanced back, and saw a new kind of energy sparking through her feathers as she lifted into the air, pulled by the force of her spell. Her mane and tail billowed in the air, specks of light flickering within. Her cutie mark illuminated from within and wrote itself into her spell, bridging the final pieces. With a low, nearly subsonic rumble, the spell came to life, and the “gears” began to turn.

Twilight blinked, and felt her awareness lurch as her surroundings suddenly shift. The throne room was mostly intact, save for a scar that had been carved along the ceiling. Celestia’s body lay on the ground, her normally ever-drifting mane nearly motionless. Twilight reached toward her reflexively, but held herself back. This isn’t really happening, she reminded herself.She looked up toward the moon, where Nightmare Moon cackled over her fallen sister. Twilight had seen this play out once before.

“Oh, dear sister,” Celestia said, her voice sounding clear as the day she had spoken these words. “I am sorry, but you have given me no choice but to use… these.” The golden light of her magic sparkled, and the floor slid open to reveal the original stone pedestals holding the Elements of Harmony aloft. They hovered over their respective plinths, rotating quietly in place. Celestia took hold of them with her magic and activated them. The magic within the Elements shone brightly as Celestia flew up through the ceiling to confront Nightmare Moon for the last time. Twilight spread her wings to follow, but caught a flicker of motion in the corner of her eye. She turned to look into the corner of the throne room, but gasped as the pulse of magic sparked again. It had manifested outside the castle. Whatever it was, a warm light burned in the distance, and Twilight could see its power through the stone. She leaned to take a closer look, then realized it was somewhere underground. In the chasm?

Twilight blinked, stumbling as she suddenly found herself back in the present. The glow, however, persisted. That magic… Of course! Twilight broke out into a broad grin, barely able to contain her excitement. The answer was obvious! Focusing her magic, she flared her wings as she teleported into the air outside the castle. She could feel the cool night air rush through her wings as she descended into the ravine. She banked toward the cave opening leading to the Tree of Harmony. After rounding the last corner, she could clearly see the unconstrained magic emanating from the Tree’s resting place. Her feathers sparked as she approached. Whatever magic is present in the Tree, it can react with all three forms of tribal magic.

Twilight landed softly. Even from the cavern’s entrance, the Tree of Harmony shone with an otherworldly light. Its pale blue surface illuminated the darkness; its crystalline branches piercing the air around it and wafting pearlescent magic all around. As she stepped closer, Twilight gasped. A rigid web of arcane spellforms blipped in and out of existence around the trunk as flowing tendrils of magic flowed smoothly into the ground, illuminating all different colors. She glanced up to see crackles of energy dancing along the tips of the highest branches.

“It’s so beautiful…” Twilight muttered. She looked up at the ends of the five largest branches. Five of six. The sixth Element—Twilight’s Element—rested within the tree’s center, lines of magic coursing outward to the others.

Twilight approached the Tree, her eyes fixated on the Element of Magic. Each pulse of magic felt familiar. No longer fleeting and restricted by her still-burgeoning powers, she could clearly see the light within the magic before her. It’s the same magic I saw flowing between me and my friends.

Small foci of magic flowed back and forth along the tracts, like two rivers running in parallel. A faint tether of magic linked the other five elements to one another, creating a web of faint colors and lights. There’s more to this than just the tribal magic, she realized. It’s the magic I feel when I’m with my friends. Her eyes watered as a flurry of memories surfaced, placing her hoof to her chest. Whenever I’m feeling scared or lost, they’ve always been there for me, just like I have been for them. The joys, the triumphs, the defeats; they’re what link it all together. More than just arcana, plant growth, or cloud walking. This…

A single tear fell to the ground.

“This is the real magic of Equestria.”

As her words echoed throughout the cavern, the Element of Magic began to shine brightly within the Tree. Its magic flooded into the other Elements, which in turn responded with aether of their own. A continuous loop of magic, produced from the ever-deepening, never-ending bonds of friendship whirled within the tree. The light cast down across Twilight, and she could feel her friends standing with her, their love giving her strength.

“I think… I understand now,” Twilight said, as if speaking to the Tree itself. “This was all your doing, wasn’t it?”

There was no response. At least, none that a regular pony would notice. Subtle shifts in the aetheric signature of the tree told Twilight everything she needed to know.

“You’ve been guiding me closer to you this entire time, haven’t you?” she continued. “There’s still so much I don’t understand, but that’s why you sent those messages to me in my dreams.”

She thought of her research. Her insatiable thirst for knowledge, the need to understand every aspect of magic. “You helped me discover how the different types of magic work. You guided me to the ancient nexuses of magic and showed me how they connect to the ponies of Equestria.

“You brought me to the brilliant crystalline caves of Amethyst Hollow. The ponies living under the protection of the Golden Oak. The untamed spirit of the Cloudsbane weather core.

“And now I’m here. I’ve sought. I’ve learned. And now I know… Your message is a spell, the final key to unlocking my true potential!” Twilight took a step forward, nearly touching the trunk of the Tree. She felt her friends step with her in unison despite their distance. Twilight slowly closed her eyes, summoning the magic each of her friends gave her.

“When all three…”

Her horn flared a brilliant lavender, arcane might coiling as it expanded to connect with her surroundings.

“Have been connected…”

Impossibly long waves of color flowed from Twilight’s hooves. Oranges and greens and reds and blues cascaded through the ground around her, tiny sprouts suddenly rising out of the hardened bedrock.

“The Element…”

Her wings sprang open, aether sparking and crackling within her feathers as a strong air current blew through the cave. The now-familiar voice rang true in her heart alongside her own.

“Will ascend!”

A booming thunderclap rocked the cave as her eyes flew open. She could feel her eyes suddenly darken, her sclera burning a bright green. Purple plumes of magical fire surged from the corners of her eyes. Not this time. Her knowledge flooded her very being. The different types of magic coursed through her, causing every muscle in her body to tighten as she strained to contain them. She steadily maintained her focus, not once wavering as she guided even the legendary power of Umbrum magic through her, bringing it to heel.

With a slow, steady blink, the green in her eyes faded. The darkened jets of fire gave way to trails of indigo magic, and Twilight’s irises shone brightly with sunlight. The magic of the Tree reached out to Twilight, its aura encompassing her. It was welcoming and familiar, and Twilight willingly allowed her aetheric essence to be pulled into the ancient wellspring of magic.

Silence returned to the cavern housing the Tree of Harmony as Twilight blinked out of existence, save for the faintest of whispers echoing through the cavern.

Ascend.

Chapter 31: An Ancient Resonance

Twilight Sparkle slowly opened her eyes. All around, a vague white haze drifted by. Individual motes of magic danced in the air around her, tracing patterns wherever she looked. She blinked rapidly, bringing her surroundings into focus. Before she could get a good look, the lights burst apart into a dazzling snowfall. A cascading rainbow of magic swirled into a miniature tornado around her, gently buffeting her through the space. One by one the colors peeled off from one another, vanishing into the air like so much steam.

She allowed herself to drift, acclimating to the now-familiar environment of the aetherspace. Twilight felt a tickle along her ear as magic flowed all around. The purest of colors mingled together, creating new shapes and hues. Twilight flinched as her hoof brushed against something. A moment of experimentation later, she found herself standing on solid ground—though gravity did not seem to have as much of an effect as she’d expected.

Now… Twilight looked around slowly. She could just barely make out the shape of the scenery around her, evidenced by interruptions in the flow of magic. Carefully picking her way around the invisible obstacles, she struck off in a random direction, keeping her eyes—and mind—open.

A clouded dark shape caught her attention, standing in stark contrast to the gentle light. Making her way toward it, the object seemed to grow in her view faster than she was moving. Eventually, the structure towered over her, a gaping void in the aether. Her attention focused upward, she suddenly stumbled over an unseen rock. No, she thought as she felt around the space. Not a rock. Stairs. She took a few tentative steps up and felt in front of her with a hoof, eventually contacting a familiar texture. These are the doors leading into the Castle of the Two Sisters, but…

The castle was incomplete from her perspective. Portions of it phased in and out of view, leaving missing chunks between sections that would otherwise be impossible. Indeed, the stone itself seemed to play by its own rules, disobeying the basic laws of optics. Yet she could see through the void into the aether of her world, catching glimpses of familiar sights. She watched in fragmented perspectives as the baleful force of Nightmare Moon collided with Celestia’s sorrow again and again, locked in their eternal conflict.

How fascinating… For their battle to leave such an imprint that it’s visible even in the aetherstream, there must have been incredible repercussions. She broke out into a broad grin, smiling so wide her cheeks started to ache. Despite the grim severity of the unfolding scene, she couldn’t help her curiosity. She picked her way down the steps and wandered away, feeling the ancient echoes flare behind her.

She trotted along an invisible pathway, her hoofsteps leaving ripples in their wake. A series of sigils inscribed within concentric circles floated by, but Twilight could see many of the spells were missing essential pieces. Unicorn magic… She paused to read the spell. Based on the runic signature, this looks to be some sort of size-altering transmutation magic. She glanced to the next spell, reading magic to support cultivating pears. Its energy suddenly surged, and the spellform re-aligned itself into a new shape. Twilight blinked. Oranges?

Shards of pegasus weather magic drifted past and collided with some other unicorn spell, flashing before fading to nothing but nondescript traces of formless aether. A gaseous sphere of magic bubbled up from the “ground” ahead, signatures of all three tribal magics swirling within. I wonder if this is some kind of primordial magical energy? With all forms of magic contained within, perhaps this is where my power derives. She reached out with a hoof to gently touch the surface of the magic and—

“Seek…”

Twilight gasped and looked around. The voice seemed omnipresent, but… somehow, it sounded different. Familiar. She stammered, taking a deep breath and summoning her confidence. “I’m here!” she shouted into the void.

“Learn…”

Twilight shuddered as the voice echoed through her mind, steeling herself for what she knew would come next. This time the voice—it sounds like… No, that can’t be right. She shook her head. “I listened to your message and followed your clues! Show yourself!”

“Know…”

The voice rang out crystal clear, so pure that Twilight couldn’t tell whether the voice was a figment of her imagination. Is it echoing off of my alicorn magic?

“Seek, learn, know…”

Twilight spread her wings wide and crossed her forelegs. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the muscles in her body loosening as she meditated. The surrounding aether gently nudged Twilight, tugging her toward a new destination. She reached out to the magic—she called to it. It answered her call, and a sense of wholeness bloomed in her chest. Images flashed by in her aetheric view. My friends. Their presence—no, their friendship—filled her being.

Twilight felt her mane and tail begin to drift, gently waving in a nonexistent breeze. Broken fragments of tribal magic slowly gathered around her, assembling themselves, unbidden, into intricate hybrid spells. With each new piece of the weave, understanding she had felt was just beyond her grasp steadily awoke within her.

“When all three have been connected…”

This is the key, she thought. The focus of the three tribes. The unbreakable link between them that made harmony possible. Introspection. Growth. Freedom. Twilight’s spirit soared, in-tune with all three at long last. One after another, spells from all the different tribes continued to merge before her, forming incredible shapes and combinations that even her most advanced theory books had never dared to illustrate.

This is it. Twilight could feel it. Her perception drifted impossibly within itself as she maintained the harmonious link to the magic flowing around her. An electrifying tingle ran along her spine, and the jumble of magic grew brighter. Twilight caught a glimpse of all three forms of magic merging, and the ground began to shake with a deep rumble. A chorus of voices rang out above the din.

“Mind. Body. Spirit.

“Together, they form… life.

“When all three have been connected, the Element will ascend…”

The energy surrounding her suddenly halted and began to glow with a blazing intensity. All the different colors melded together, creating a kaleidoscope effect that filled the entire space. Twilight took a breath, letting the magic permeate her soul. What little barriers remained were torn down, and Twilight could feel the magic—the knowledge—flow into her mind unabated.

Her perspective shifted suddenly, and she could feel the magic of this space stretch infinitely in all directions. Small pockets of magic seeped seamlessly back into the real world, her vision dragging across countless iterations of itself. Through one gap, the essence of a lush forest dominated her perception. The Everfree Forest? But I just—Twilight gasped sharply as thousands of animals and plants bloomed into existence. As her vision swept across the familiar landscape, it didn’t stop at the boundaries of the Forest—it exploded out all across the land, connecting to the farmlands of Ponyville, the skies of Cloudsdale, the mountains of Canterlot, and further beyond.

The magic continued its journey across Equestria, and Twilight found herself lost among the individual sparks of pony magic. Pegasi arced among the cloud tops ahead, crackling trails of magic spreading from their wings, and she could sense the weather factories working through the night. Deep within Canterlot, some arcane scholar was tinkering with her latest project. Magic streamed from her horn into the device, making it whirr and click. A crystal diode resting nearby lit up and blinked rhythmically, and the unicorn nodded.

Twilight yearned to stay and watch, but her perception was whisked away along the aetherstream. Most other ponies had gone to sleep, but she could still sense their presence. So many thousands upon thousands of ponies, each with hopes and dreams and bonds and fears. For just a moment, Twilight felt a connection to them all. Her individuality frayed, her consciousness slowly fading. Taking what passed for a breath in this world, she relaxed and allowed herself to be pulled apart across Equestria.

Ascend.

Stars twinkled in the endless expanse of aether, shining points of light standing out amongst the pastel hues drifting in their own way. Twilight felt her awareness cross the vast stretches of space as she returned to a single perspective. She coalesced along a series of branching pathways of magic, each flowing into the other until five distinct trails solidified before her. As the conduits began to flow, tugging aspects of her mind along them, she knew where they would lead her. She felt them. Love filled her heart, and in an instant, all of her anxiety melted away.

The paths converged, one by one, and her sense of self grew as her physical form manifested once again. I’m back to normal!.. I think. She curiously looked herself over. Still in one piece, at least. She reoriented herself, the gentle pull of gravity helping her alight on the unseen ground. A wave of energy suddenly washed over her from behind. She spun around, gasping as the Tree of Harmony towered over her. Its size—its power—was magnified many times over here than in Equestria.

Twilight took a careful step closer. Magic erupted from the ends of the branches and soared through the air, leaving sparking trails in their wake. Some of the streams broke apart, clusters of undifferentiated magic disappearing to someplace else in the aetherstream.

A sudden blinding light surged from the Tree. Magic surged as spells swirled into one another, creating impossible new shapes before fading away. Two streams of ivory and crimson emerged from the trunk, dancing and flowing around each other before solidifying into an equine shape. The body and head formed, and a shining horn and majestic pair of wings sprouted from the creature. Its shimmering red mane cooled, taking on the gentle colors of the sunrise. The space surrounding the entity seemed to bloom with light, gentle oranges and yellows forming a subtle aura.

Twilight blinked and rubbed her eyes. Despite the light, she found herself unable to look away. “Princess…” she paused. “I-I don’t think I know your name. We met before, in Amethyst Hollow. Do you remember?”

“I am all of Harmony, made one.” The voice of Celestia filled the aetherstream, stray magic pulsing in a dazzling display of light.

Twilight’s mouth hung agape. “Y-you’re…” She stammered, unable to gather her thoughts. She cleared her throat. “You sound just like my mentor.”

The entity chuckled musically, subtle vibrations in the space lifting some of the tension from Twilight’s shoulders. “Does this form bring discomfort?” it asked, tilting its head. The aethereal gaze met Twilight’s, a gentle—almost maternal—smile forming on her face. Her eyes reflected a visage of Celestia’s wisdom, but Twilight could see something far deeper within.

Twilight shook her head. “Not at all. I was just… surprised. I understand now that the Tree of Harmony isn’t just a magical nexus point, but a living being intentionally trying to communicate with me. That’s who you are, isn’t it?”

“It is as you say. You may call me Harmony, if you wish.” With each word, Twilight could feel a gentle breeze flow over her. “Luna maintains an impressively stalwart watch over the space you call the Dreamscape, but even her abilities pale in comparison to—”

“The living focus of alicorn magic,” Twilight finished Harmony’s thought. Harmony nodded. “The origin of all Equestrian magic. The experiences I had at the other nexuses… those were you, weren’t they?” The corners of her mouth quirked into a small smile.

“Nothing slips by you,” Harmony said, her serene voice beginning to deepen slightly. “It took many moons, but I knew one day you would come to seek answers. I am grateful that my messages did not fall on deaf ears. Your curiosity and desire for knowledge is admirable, Twilight Sparkle.”

A sense of pride flickered in Twilight’s chest, and her smile broadened. “That reminds me,” Twilight said, her brow furrowing as she thought, “you mentioned Luna’s Dreamscape. Does she… Do she and Celestia know about you?”

“It is likely that Luna has her suspicions, but my work is subtle. My influence has gently guided many ponies toward the right path over the centuries, but only the most gifted magical scholars know of my existence.”

Twilight’s smile slowly faded. “Then why didn’t they tell me…”

“As I said, my influence is subtle. Intangible. Even they do not know my true form; just of the Elements and their ties to me.” Harmony touched a hoof to Twilight’s shoulder reassuringly. “When you and your friends found me and returned the Elements to my care, I regained the strength to reach out into your world. I chose to reveal myself to you.”

A thousand questions burned in Twilight’s mind. So she sent these messages to me, but why? So I could prove myself somehow? How much do Celestia and Luna know? What about Cadance? Starswirl? Doesn’t she know what happened at the Cloudsbane? Could she have stopped it? Maybe there are limits to her direct influence. She seems to be able to manipulate magic from all three tribes. Does that mean she can—no, that’s something I can do too. Maybe she knows something about— Twilight took a breath, steadying her nerves.

“Why?”

“When all three have been connected, the Element will ascend,” Harmony replied, her smile growing ever so slightly.

Twilight exhaled—she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding her breath. Of course. It should all have been obvious. With a chuckle, she took a confident step forward—she could feel the magic surge around her in response.

“Harmony is a fundamental concept in Equestria,” Harmony said. “It is maintained and kept stable by the bonds forged between all the world’s creatures.” Her horn shimmered with a rainbow light, and an image took shape in the space before them. Twilight gasped as she saw herself in the Golden Oak Library, prior to her ascension. Spread out on the table was Starswirl’s journal. The images shifted rapidly, showing her friends in peril with their warped destinies, the threads of harmony between them broken. One by one, each of her friends rediscovered their true selves, a gleam of light echoing through the vision as their bonds were repaired. The series concluded with Twilight’s ascension to an alicorn.

Twilight’s saddlebag opened on its own, and she watched as her notebooks, wrapped in Harmony’s aura, drifted toward the specter. One of them opened to reveal an all-too familiar diagram: a rearing earth pony, a flying pegasus, a contemplative unicorn—all surrounding a majestic alicorn.

“Such harmony cannot be maintained without all three tribes in equilibrium.” Harmony’s voice lowered to a gravely whisper as her expression fell, and ice began to crackle and grow around the notes. The forms of three windigoes encircled them, a discordant melody ringing in Twilight’s ears. As the cacophony reached a crescendo, Harmony dismissed the magical display with a glance.

Twilight perked up.”’When all three have been connected,’” she quoted. “You meant more than just my understanding of tribal magic. It wasn’t until I realized its relationship with the magic of friendship that I came here.” A small gasp escaped her. “This is like my ascension, isn’t it?”

“I left the clues long ago. Becoming an alicorn was just your first step on this long journey,” Harmony said, a smile returning to her radiant face.

“The undeniable link between ponies,” Twilight mused, “existing only when we co-exist with one another.” Her thoughts drifted to her friends. “Bonded together.”

“The choice was yours in the end. Destiny is but one path laid out for a pony to walk. One can choose to reject it, but the parts you have yet to play are still unfolding. Perhaps it would be best if I showed you the impact of your journey first-hoof.” Harmony extended a hoof to Twilight, her warm smile never faltering.

Twilight glanced between Harmony’s face and her outstretched hoof. Traces of magic drifted all around it, familiar tribal magic that she had grown so accustomed to seeing. Unicorn, pegasus, earth, alicorn… And even dark magic, she realized with a start. I can do this. I have to do this.

She reached out and took Harmony’s hoof.

Magic bloomed around them, impossible colors shifting as dozens of voices began to speak. With each word, a new trace of magic erupted in the chaos. Harmony stood calmly, her mane billowing in the aether. Twilight’s heartbeat quickened, watching as the magic blended together before her eyes. Discerning individual tribal magic was nearly impossible, but she could sense a pattern in the madness. Each spellform joined with the other around them, seamlessly producing new spells before breaking apart again.

Twilight stared at the shifting magic, not daring to blink for fear of missing a single second of this wondrous display. Slowly, the weaving tendrils began to form a familiar shape—her cutie mark. Lavender light bathed their forms, a long shadow stretching out across the aethereal ground. The light faded, and darkness enveloped them.

Twilight took a deep breath. The air was clean and cold, and it instantly invigorated her senses. Her vision refocused as tiny pinpricks of light shone from below. Instead of the magical void of the aetherscape, she was greeted with the hazy, pre-dawn landscape of Equestria sprawling out in all directions. The light of the sun was very slowly making its way across the eastern horizon.

A hoof touched Twilight’s shoulder. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Harmony said softly.

Twilight smiled. The entity’s presence was calming, and seeing Equestria from this height made her troubles seem so far away. Settlements peppered the landscape, their dim lights fading off into the distance.

“Your magic has blossomed in so many wonderful ways over the course of your journey. It has been a privilege watching you grow.” Harmony said, drifting idly through the air.

“You mean my ability to see magic?” Twilight asked. She placed a hoof to her chest, feeling so light floating up here—and so in tune with her abilities.

“I mean your talent. It was only a matter of time before your abilities reached a crescendo. I was merely the messenger.”

“So this was… all me?”

“It was.”

Twilight looked to the east, toward Canterlot. Warm magic pulsated gently from the mountainside capital, and even from this distance, she could see the mighty auras of the two sisters. A tingling sensation grew in her chest, and she now recognized it not only as her alicorn magic, but a combination of all types. A perfect unity of body, mind, and spirit, joining together to give their world its slow heartbeat. The sun crept over the horizon, steadily lighting the land. Twilight felt the same life-giving aura emanate from Harmony as she felt from Celestia.

Twilight yelped as she felt the tug of gravity suddenly take hold, her wings instinctually flaring out. She looked to Harmony, whose magnificent wings extended upward as she serenely hovered in place. Here, too, she saw them: sparks of pegasus energy flicking from the tips of Harmony’s spectral wings. On a whim, she broke off and descended toward her home, the morning light glinting off the spires of her castle.

The early birds of Ponyville began to stir as she arrived. From this height, Twilight could see ponies beginning their day. Shops opened, fillies scampered to school, and—most importantly—friends saw one another. Two mares, trotting along far below caught her eye. She couldn’t quite tell who they were, but she knew they had to be enjoying each other’s company. A spark flickered between them, and a tether formed. The sight made Twilight’s heart leap with joy.

Twilight thought back to her friends. Those brief flashes of light. Those were… Her eyes grew misty as more and more tethers began to appear. They didn’t just form between ponies who had direct contact. Magic lines criss-crossed all over town, linking ponies in their homes with others in all colors of the rainbow. With each new connection, the magical glow around Ponyville grew brighter and brighter. Twilight’s breath caught. “What… what is this?”

“I think you know what it is.” Harmony drifted forward, peering over Twilight’s shoulder. Twilight glanced toward her and noticed a deep purple thread connecting them.

Twilight eyed the thread curiously. She blinked, and it persisted. The longer she stared, the happier she felt, as if a true connection had formed with this strange entity. She’s right. I do know what these are… at least, now I do. A long silence fell as she considered her journey. “I’m honored to be your friend,” Twilight said with a smile.

“I am grateful you feel that way, Twilight Sparkle.” They embraced, Twilight letting herself collapse against the entity’s shoulder. Her aethereal fur, soft and warm, lifted memories from Twilight’s youth back up to the surface. Even Harmony visibly relaxed, leaning into Twilight slightly. The magic below them continued to grow. Ponyville was awash in a sea of aether, and it didn’t take much longer for tethers to arc their way from the village in all directions. They were innumerable, all different colors and wavelengths. Earth ponies, pegasi, unicorns, and even—

Twilight gasped as her gaze landed on the castle. A light green and purple source of magic flickered within, tethered alongside a mote of pale lavender. Something about it seemed different. It didn’t feel like any of the magic she had seen before—there was a strange competitive streak to it, yet it carried the soft, limitless potential of a child. Of course, Twilight realized, that’s Spike! And the other is Starlight!

“Look,” murmured Harmony.

Twilight turned, knowing exactly where Harmony was directing her. She squinted, gazing over the horizon toward the Dragonlands. In this half-aether state, her view stretched far beyond the normal limits of physicality—a myriad of colors danced over the rocky terrain in the distance. Her mouth hung agape in awe.

“Dragon magic, and the bonds linking them,” Harmony confirmed. “They are a prideful, competitive race. Yet, not so different from ponies in some ways.”

Twilight blinked. Bonds beyond anything we could have imagined. She looked down at Ponyville. Each stream of light gleamed in its own way, and Twilight felt she could reach out and touch them. She reached down toward the aether, and her perspective suddenly shifted as she found herself standing on the cobblestone road. Harmony landed silently beside her as ponies walked by, seemingly oblivious to their presence.

“Friendship is a powerful magic,” she muttered, pacing in place. “From artifacts like the Elements of Harmony to simple greetings between acquaintances, it’s all around us. And if there was ever any doubt in my heart, it is now gone.” She motioned all around, watching as the tendrils of magic continued to grow. “An empirical, observable manifestation of friendship!”

Twilight giggled. She spun slowly in place, her eyes scanning the far horizons. She could see the faraway shadow of Cloudsbane—its link to the pegasus aetherstream still plainly visible, but finally calm and stable. Looking to the north, she saw the light of the Crystal Empire shine brightly over the mountaintops. Even from this distance, she could sense the Crystal Heart—that first clue she had discovered that eventually led her here.

She focused on the Crystal Heart. Her vision narrowed, and she could see—curiously enough—its own bonds of love connecting to it each citizen of the Empire. Just one of many nexus points linking us together… not entirely unlike the Tree of Harmony. She turned toward the southeast. A gentle, golden aura lit up the distance, and Twilight could see the ponies of Peacegrove going about their day. The aether shimmered with warmth, given protection by the Golden Oak.

In every direction she looked, light bloomed over the horizon. A brilliant aurora sparkled above the Badlands, reflecting the love shared between the changelings. Chrysalis is in for a shock if she ever goes back to the hive. Just out of the corner of her eye, she spotted muted browns and yellows illuminating Griffonstone. A gentle sigh escaped her lips.

Out past the Appleoosan Basin and beyond the Badlands, beyond the scrapyard city of Klugetown, and even further across the sea and Mount Aris’s spire… there, her heart sank. Darkness clouded the land, and inky, twisted tendrils of energy crept along the tips of the waves. She frowned. This isn’t Umbrum magic… this doesn’t look like anything like I’ve seen before. Twilight rubbed her temples, her thoughts muddying the longer she looked. Mistrust, jealousy, rage, anger. Emotions flooded over her, pressing themselves into the crevices of her mind. There is no joy to be had in the fractured dominions of the Storm Empire. The lands formerly held by the late Storm King were vast and distant, yet she could feel the rippling effects of the unchecked oppression and chaos.

“Unfortunately,” Harmony whispered, “not all accept the magic of friendship. Though the magic of the land gives life, there are those that fear or reject this blessing. Perhaps one day, you will be the one to bring this beautiful gift to those that are in dire need of it.”

“I see…” Twilight said as calmly as she could. She gulped, fighting back nausea. As she withdrew her perception, her thoughts drifted to the Storm Empire’s invasion of her home. With the Storm King destroyed, she could only imagine the political turmoil unfolding within its borders. “Entire countries without friendship in their hearts… It must be a painful existence.” Twilight’s ears drooped, sympathy welling within her for creatures she had never met.

“You can unite the world, Twilight Sparkle.” Harmony’s soothing voice helped pull Twilight’s thoughts away. “Where Celestia and Luna brought unity to ponykind, and Cadance helps mend hearts in the north, you can bring joy to all creatures.”

“By understanding the joy that friendship brings, and that it is directly tied in with the magic of the land itself…” Twilight said, looking out over her world. She saw ponies playing, talking, working. She even saw some arguing and fighting, causing the tether between them to waver. She could feel her chest tighten, the conflict drawing some of her own feelings into it. Yet, though the bond strained, it did not snap. She knew their friendship could be mended in time.

A blue light flickered on the outskirts of Ponyville, hovering some distance over the town. Several others began to light up in turn, all across the town and its surrounding countryside. White, pink, yellow, orange. Bright traces of magic formed, linking them together in a tight web. All at once, wisps of magic broke off from each light, rocketing toward Twilight. Her mane and tail blew to one side, caught in an undetectable wind, waving with speckled starlight reflecting deep within.

Twilight closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and exercising complete control over her aether. For the first time since her journey began, rather than follow along the flow of magic inside, she directed it along pathways she chose. All traces of magic aside from her friends vanished from view. The only colors remaining were those of her friends’ magic, each line shifting to purple just before converging with her own aether. She felt them all with her, and in that moment, she felt truly at peace. A familiar spark lit up within, and a single tear fell from her cheek.

“They’re here…” Twilight whispered, her voice cracking. “They’re all here.” She felt their warmth in her heart, comforting her. Their presence grew, and she wept. Tears streaked down her face as she found herself overcome with emotion. All of her worries drifted away, and her mane and tail surged with light. Her horn, wings, and hooves all flashed to life with a dazzling rainbow aura, mirroring the one surrounding Harmony.

“You have done well, Twilight Sparkle. Know that should you need guidance, I am never far. You will make a fine leader…” Harmony said. Her form started to break apart, swirling back into the ever-expansive aetherstream.

The shimmering aura of magic fully enveloped Twilight, her physical senses pulling back into herself. The love of her friends, and the love she felt between the countless other friends within her home made one last tear fall, before her consciousness was swept away into the magic, back toward Equestria—back toward her home.

Chapter 32: Journies Across Equestria

Light gently shone from the Tree of Harmony, filling the cave. Each of the Elements of Harmony shone in turn, their magic streaming into the open air. The tendrils coalesced, and bit by bit, the body of Twilight Sparkle emerged. She felt her mind opened with perfect clarity, and not a single mote or speck of stray magic escaped her sight. A contented sigh escaped her lips, which curled into a confident smile.

She looked back toward the Tree, and her gaze fell upon the celestial and lunar glyphs—her mentors’ cutie marks—carved into its trunk. I wonder how much they know. She snorted, her smirk tightening.

Twilight held her hoof to her chest, feeling the warmth of the Tree within her. “Thank you,” she whispered. Her eyes flashed with magic, and a familiar purple tether manifested between her and the Tree. With a second flicker, the link vanished from view. She turned and slowly made her way out of the cave, the early morning sun still rising steadily in the east.

She took to the sky, pegasus magic crackling along her powerful wings. Now above the treeline, she turned toward Canterlot, its majestic spires glistening in the dawn like dew. I think it’s finally time to tell the Princesses, Twilight thought. Her horn shimmered, and a familiar map appeared before her in her mind’s eye. A destination blip appeared; with a final, effortless push of magic, Twilight vanished into the morning air.

Twilight stood outside the throne room, its tall doors flanked by two stoic guards. She took a deep breath, pulling a notebook from her saddlebag. “I hope I can sufficiently explain my theory of harmonic resonance…” she murmured to herself. Twilight continued to rifle through her notes, making last minute tweaks, corrections, and muttering the occasional “Ah-ha!”

The guards shared a nervous glance with one another, and one of them cleared his throat. “Princess?” he asked uneasily. Twilight perked up and lowered her notes, one pencil in her mouth, and another gripped by her magic. “I said, ‘Princess Celestia is ready to see you,’” he said, the firm authority of royal guard training in full display. She blushed, awkwardly stuffing her notes back into her bag.

“S-sorry about that!” she stammered. The guards stepped aside wordlessly, and Twilight entered.

Across the open chamber, Celestia rose from her throne. “Twilight!” As she stepped down, she beamed with pride. “I hear you have some good news to share. Come, walk with me.”

Twilight stepped up alongside her mentor, and they made their way together along the hallways of the castle. Twilight could feel the excitement within her bloom. “Princess Celestia, I have so much to tell you about. Since coming back from the Crystal Empire, I’ve been all over Equestria! Oh, I forgot to send you letters along the way. But just wait until you see—”

Her rambling was cut short by a warm chuckle. “I’m sure you’ve done a wonderful job. It may help ease Luna’s worries to hear about them as well. Now, where did—ah! Tiberius?” Celestia stopped, calling out. A sharp click-click echoed through the hall, and a small, furry head popped up from a nearby vase. The opossum clambered onto the floor, skittering on the marble toward them. Tiberius slid to a halt before Celestia, standing on his hind legs and cocking his head. “Tiberius, would you mind waking Luna? Let her know that Twilight has returned. We will meet her on the balcony.” Tiberius let out a small rumble, followed by another click-click before scampering off toward Luna’s tower. Celestia chuckled again. “If we start now, I fear we’ll beat him to my sister. Let’s wait awhile so she can… make herself presentable.”

Twilight glanced up to the stained-glass window above. Nightmare Moon, she thought nervously. “A-actually, I wanted to tell you about something I found at the Castle of the Two Sisters.” Celestia stiffened slightly, her gaze dropping to the floor. Twilight reached up to touch Celestia’s shoulder. “Do you remember when my friends and I found the Tree? My friend Zecora helped me go back and see what happened that night.” Her mentor sighed deeply, and Twilight saw tears welling up in her eyes. “So much pain and anger…” Twilight continued. “Last night, I came across some kind of shadow, and I think it was the events of Nightmare Moon’s banishment echoing through time.” She reached up and pulled Celestia into a hug, memories flashing through her mind. “Do you know what I just realized?” she whispered.

There was no response, but Twilight felt Celestia return the embrace. “I realized that the shadows were different. The magic left behind by your use of the Elements repeated almost word-for-word what you said to Luna before… you know.” She sighed. “Nightmare Moon’s shadow was different. It seemed like it spoke to me, as if it didn’t know what happened.” She pulled away, looking up at Celestia. A small stream of tears rolled down one cheek, but otherwise she looked as regal as ever. “I believe now that Nightmare Moon and the Tantabus are truly vanquished, even the aetherstream is beginning to forget. The damage done is beginning to repair itself. I think…” she hesitated. “I think it also means Luna forgives you for what happened.”

Celestia let out a quiet, choked sob. “Twilight, I—” She stopped as Twilight squeezed her tight, this time burying her face against Celestia’s neck like a foal. A quiet moment passed, then Celestia cleared her throat. “That was… surprisingly affectionate,” she said. “Thank you.”

Twilight grinned. “As always, it is my royal duty to make sure everypony feels like they belong.” Her smile faded slightly as Twilight stepped away and looked up at the mentor who had been with her all these years. “Even you.”
Celestia nodded, blinking back her tears. She turned and took a step away, and Twilight fell into step beside her. “You have discovered much about the magic of friendship, Twilight. I am grateful to be your student in this regard.”

They continued their walk through the dawn-lit hallways in silence. This deep within the castle they were met with only the occasional guard, each giving a salute as the princesses walked by. Twilight noted that each guard they passed shared their own magical link with Celestia, a shimmering gold thread of admiration and respect. The patterns were not as intricate as the one she and Celestia shared, but they still displayed some small degree of familiarity. Celestia must take an interest in each individual’s life.

Upon stepping out onto the castle’s highest balcony, Tiberius skittered out from behind them onto the railing. “Ah, there you are!” Said Celestia. “Will Luna be joining us soon?”

The opossum clicked and danced about wildly. He ruffled his hair up to resemble a crown, made exaggerated yawn motions, pouted, warbled hideously in what could only be described as angry curses, and finally stuck his tongue out at Celestia before mock-fainting on the railing.

Twilight blinked. “What… What did he say?”

Celestia chuckled. “As you might have guessed, Luna hates being woken up this early.” Celestia motioned for Twilight, who leaned in closely. “Don’t tell her I told you this, but there was one incident long ago with a pineapple and the pancakes I made for breakfast, when she—”

“We have arrived,” Luna’s voice boomed from the doorway, nearly blowing Tiberius from the balcony. He chittered and caught himself, his tail wrapping around the bannister. Thank goodness for his quick reflexes! Twilight thought. “Twilight Sparkle, I expect important news from your journey, if it were important enough to send Tibbers to wake us.” Tiberius swung from the railing and deftly landed at Luna’s hooves, scampering up to sit on her shoulder.

Twilight sputtered, the sheer impact of Luna’s entrance catching her off-guard. “I, uh… Well, you see, er—”

“Luna, I knew you would be like this,” Celestia said, stepping forward. Twilight gulped as she saw a fire alight in her eyes. “That is why I sent Tiberius. You keep your room so dark, neither I nor the guards can navigate it!”

“So, it has come to this, dear sister,” Luna murmured, her horn alight with deep blue magic.

“Oh? You’re approaching me?” Celestia growled, her eyebrow quirking as a haughty sneer spread over her face.

“Celestia, Luna, wait!” Twilight cried.

From seemingly nowhere, a white blur closed the distance from Luna to Celestia, and something collided with the older alicorn’s face with a loud WHUMP. The pillow seemed to hang in mid-air, its soft shape forming to her muzzle, before dropping to the floor. Both sisters smirked, snickered, and then finally burst into laughter. Luna pulled her sister into a tight hug. “We can’t bid you a proper good morning without getting closer.”

Twilight sighed so hard with relief that she nearly collapsed. Holding a hoof to her chest, she took a deep breath to still her racing heart. The corners of her mouth curled into a smile. As Celestia and Luna embraced, a burst of colors bloomed, their love arcing in so many ways to surround them. A magnificent display of sunlight and moonlight, mingling together in near-perfect harmony. What stood out the most to her, however, was the incredible array of hues drifting between them. Luna’s bond with Celestia is born of the night, but not of darkness, she thought. She recalled the malice from the aetherstream, and the imprint it had left. She did not feel any traces of it remaining in Luna. Simply the natural link between siblings—playful rivalries and all.

Twilight fell to her haunches, and the sound of Celestia and Luna’s laughter faded into the background. She struggled to fight back tears, but they sprang unbidden to her eyes. She choked, and began to cry softly.

Luna’s ear twitched, and she turned to Twilight curiously. “Twilight? Is aught amiss?” she asked.

“I think I understand,” Celestia said warmly. She gracefully made her way toward Twilight and draped a wing over her back. Twilight could feel her bond strengthen, a gentle calm flowing over her.

“I meant what I said,” whispered Twilight. “It’s true. All of it. And I’ve seen it for myself.” Twilight smiled broadly. The faint tether appeared, its brilliant white wisps shimmering with sunlight linking her to Celestia. A second link formed, this one glittering with starlight as it connected with Luna. A sense of belonging settled within Twilight, and she could feel it spread to the others as they held each other tight.

Luna took a sip of tea and sighed quietly. She glanced toward Twilight and Celestia, each enjoying their own cup. She closed her eyes, feeling the warmth of the afternoon sun streaming in through her bedroom window. Flipping through Twilight’s notes, she scanned each line as if expecting to find the answer to her question within. “So, if what you say is true, then this… ‘spirit of Harmony’ has been intruding into our Dreamscape for nearly a moon?”

Celestia closed her eyes, seemingly lost in thought. Twilight raised her hoof to say something, but she was unable to find the words to explain. It was Celestia who spoke first. “I have known about this spirit for some time, though I never encountered it directly. Even Starswirl’s ancient journals of the Tree of Harmony describes it—her—at best as a vision, merely the ponysonification of instinct.”

“I see,” Luna murmured to herself and rubbed her chin as she looked at Celestia. “When Tirek escaped from Tartarus, you mentioned seeing a vision of it.” She laid down Twilight’s notes and stared at them, her face showing bemused curiosity.

“Harmony didn’t mean any harm,” Twilight said. “She probably found the Dreamscape as her best method of communicating with me.” She could sense Luna’s discomfort, and touched her hoof reassuringly.

“Just so,” Luna sighed, acquiescing. “We are a tad loathe to admit it, but your magic has always shone brighter than any star in the sky. We know you have an important destiny ahead of you… one that may be far greater than either mine or my sister’s.”

Twilight couldn’t help but blush. The thought of not knowing everything about her destiny as a princess picked at her mind, but she pushed her doubts away when she thought of how far she had come. “Harmony hinted at that as well,” Twilight said, looking down at the ripples in her tea. She idly swished what remained about in the cup. “She also said that it was a choice. That it was merely one possible path.”

Twilight looked over the tribal diagram, her eyes tracing along the connections between the three pony tribes with the unifying alicorn in the center. She pressed her hoof against it. “Destiny or not, any path with my friends is one worth traveling.”

“Well said, my faithful student,” Celestia said with a proud grin. “Perhaps it is unbecoming of me to address you as such for this particular accomplishment. Everything you’ve done has been in the name of understanding magic, and it has given you a wondrous gift.”

Twilight sat in thought for a moment. “I understand what you mean, but I don’t believe this is a ‘gift’ in the literal sense.”

“Oh?” Celestia asked, sharing a glance with Luna.

“Harmony said that this… this was all me. That this was somehow a natural progression of my growth from studying the magic of friendship.” Twilight blushed slightly, glancing away.

Celestia smiled. “Then perhaps she sensed that a certain little pony was just bursting with latent potential, and she needed a guiding hoof to help stay it.” She winked playfully at Twilight.

Twilight’s face flushed deeper, redder than the shiniest apples at Sweet Apple Acres. She recalled her entrance exam to Celestia’s magic school so many years ago, how she had positively surged with uncontrolled magic. Not to mention turning Mom and Dad into potted plants, and Spike into a castle-crushing behemoth!

“We never stop growing, nor do we stop learning.” Celestia continued, looking out toward the balcony. Her long neck and flowing mane augmented her regality. “Even as we grow into leaders of those who have yet to follow, we will always continue to learn more about not only this world, but also each other, and ourselves. I have no doubt that this newfound knowledge of yours will help ponies of all kinds.”

Twilight gazed down at the pillow she rested on, and idly tapped her hoof. A sharp, dark thought entered her mind. The Storm Empire. Twilight shook her head, clearing the haze away. “No,” she said, standing up. Celestia and Luna looked at each other, bewildered. “Not just ponies. All creatures.” She trotted toward the window and looked out over Canterlot. “When I was with Harmony, I saw not only the magic of friendship flowing through Equestria, but other lands as well. The dragons, the griffons, they all had their own unique ways of showing one another their love and understanding.”

Twilight hesitated. There’s so much pain out there. The Storm King left a scar on this world that’ll take a long time to heal. “But there are lands just as distant that refuse to let this magic into their hearts. Long ago, the two of you helped unite the three pony tribes under one banner. With my new knowledge and abilities, I think I can spread this magic to the entire world.”

Twilight stood tall, her mane and tail flowing and catching the light just right, seemingly shimmering with faint sparkles. Or, perhaps for the briefest of moments, they were.

“Oh Twilight,” Celestia said, beaming with pride. “I am so unbelievably proud of you.”

“So, let me get this straight,” Applejack said, peering over the magical projections of the cutie map with a quirked eyebrow. “You’re sayin’ you can see unicorn magic, pegasus magic, earth pony magic, and now some kinda catch-all thingy about the magic of friendship?”

Everypony in the room turned to Twilight, sitting comfortably in her chair. She took a deep breath. “In short, yes.”

Applejack sat back, astonished. “Well, color me red and put me on a tree.”

“Right…” Rainbow Dash said, drawing the word out. “So, how does it work again?”

Twilight grinned and pulled over the chalkboard she’d prepared for just this moment. “Magic permeates our land and runs through all living creatures,” she said, her horn glowing as a duplicate of the cutie map rose from the table and affixed itself to the chalkboard, pressing into the slate and leaving a detailed map behind. “Over my journey, I—no, we—” she paused, giving a nod to Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “We encountered these four points where localized tribal magic is the strongest: Amethyst Hollow, Peacegrove Village, the Cloudsbane, and the Tree of Harmony.” She circled each of the four points. “Certainly not the only places in Equestria where this magic can be found, but definitely among the most potent.” With a flourish, she chalked a series of lines connecting each point to form a triangle, each connected to the Tree of Harmony in the center.

“My goodness, Twilight!” Rarity said, leaning across the table. “Why, you’re a regular Daring Do, as it were. Your discoveries could change everything we know about magic! You’ll be the talk of the town! Of all of Equestria!”

Twilight’s ears folded back and she blushed softly. “Well, maybe. I’m not exactly looking to become famous or anything. I want to help everyone, not just ponies.”

“Yes, yes,” Rarity pouted. “I suppose you are a princess, so there’s no way to go much higher on the social ladder.”

Twilight focused on the tether between her and Rarity. Although she was not privy to her friend’s direct thoughts, the shimmering waves of bright, alternating purple and white light warmed her heart. Is this pride I’m sensing? “Oh, come now Rarity,” Twilight said. “You know there’s more to life than whatever the Canterlot elite is up to.”

Rarity looked sidelong at Twilight, a faint smile curling across her face. “I suppose you’re right. We really are proud of you, you know?” The tether grew brighter, and Twilight could feel the connection with Rarity pulse with love.

“I only wish you girls could see it,” Twilight said, lowering her head, a sigh escaping. “It’s so beautiful that I can’t find the words to adequately describe it. I don’t even know how I’m going to write a proper report on this!”

Applejack chuckled. “I wouldn’t worry none about that, sugarcube. We’ve all got our own little peculiarities we can’t explain. Jus’ knowin’ that you’re happy an’ safe is enough for me!”

Without warning, Pinkie Pie suddenly launched upward—sending a squeaking Fluttershy scurrying under the table—and landed straight on the table with a loud thud. “Oh! Oh! What do mine look like?”

“Uh—”

“All of those wibbly-wobbly-flowy-glowy-wavy thingies! What do you see?” Pinkie Pie leaned in closer with each word, speaking so quickly Twilight could swear she was vibrating.

“I-I don’t—It’s not—” she stammered. Pinkie stared up at her, eyes wide and pleading. Twilight smiled, shrugging. “Well… Here goes!” she said, focusing inward. Colors instantly filled her vision, blinding her. She yelped at the sheer, overwhelming force and fell backward, tumbling into her throne and toppling it over with a tremendous crash. The others clambered to her side, a chorus of concerns echoing off the walls.

“Twilight? Are you okay?” Fluttershy said softly, leaning close to check on her.

“I… Huh…?” Twilight groaned and rolled her head slowly back and forth, rubbing the afterimage out of her eyes.

“Pinkie Pie, what did you do?” Starlight said, exasperated. “She looks like she’s just seen a ghost!”

Pinkie Pie gasped. “Oh no, I’m a ghost now? Like that Harmony mare Twilight met! Does this mean I can go through things?” She reached a hoof toward Rarity, running it through her mane. “Ooooh, I can go through things.”

“Yes, darling, of course you can. Because that’s my impeccably-coiffed mane you’re playing with!” Rarity said, flicking her mane back with an annoyed stomp.

“Simmer down, y’all,” Applejack said curtly, shooting Rarity and Pinkie Pie a glare. She snorted. “Come on Twilight, out with it! What happened?”

Applejack and Rainbow Dash helped Twilight shakily to her hooves. “I…” she took a deep breath and collected herself. “I’m sorry. The sudden magic influx from Pinkie Pie was… a bit much.”

Pinkie Pie bounced over. “Oh no, I’m sorry Twi! I didn’t mean to hurt you or anything like that! I was just curious and—”

“It’s okay, Pinkie… It’s just…” Twilight glanced up at Pinkie and paused, blinking slowly. She triggered her newfound power, and focused on the streams of colors nearly pouring off of her friend. Not only did the colored bands connect Pinkie Pie to everyone in the room, but dozens—no, hundreds—were radiating elsewhere, outside the castle. In that instant, Twilight felt a spark of realization. “You really do care for everypony, don’t you?”

“Well, duh,” Pinkie Pie said, cocking her head to the side and blowing a raspberry. “I’m friends with everypony in Ponyville, and then some!” She gasped loudly, rocking back. “Oh my gosh, is that what you can see?”

Twilight nodded with a soft “Mm-hmm,” and smiled.

Pinkie Pie started humming, her entire body shaking so hard that she began to leave the ground. Her smile stretched wider and wider, stretching her cheeks until she shrieked with joy, launching out the window and up into the sky.

“How in the—” Rainbow Dash yelped.

Twilight cut her off with a raised hoof, shaking her head.“Just… Don’t ask.” Pinkie Pie can wait for another day. She stumbled over to her chair and righted it with her magic, promptly flopping into it with a deep sigh.

“What are you going to do next, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked, peeking up from under the rim of the table. “If I were you, I’d probably curl up in bed with the covers wrapped around me nice and tight and take a long nap.”

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, but Rainbow Dash interjected. “Fluttershy, you always do that when you’re stressed. Not everypony handles things like you.”

Fluttershy nodded with a smile. “Oh yes, and it’s always very comfy.”

“Shoot, I say she’s earned a little R&R after all this hullabaloo,” Applejack said, adjusting her hat.

“Oh, they had that room in the Cloudsbane factory!” Rainbow Dash said with a chuckle.

“Beggin’ yer pardon?”

Twilight looked over her friends and propped her cheek up with her hoof, basking in the gentle glow of the friendship magic. She smiled softly as the wisps criss-crossed the room, linking everypony together. Even Pinkie Pie, who had somehow manifested herself back into the room. Twilight struggled for a moment to keep track of all the different colored tethers, but she found it impossible. Instead, she relaxed and passively took in the sight. Her friends were all chatting together happily, giggling, and even tossing some banter. She felt a little spark inside her, and seeing magic flowing between them only affirmed her feelings. Proof that she was home.

Proof, that friendship was magic.

Chapter 33: For Futures Unwritten

Twilight felt a tightness in her chest as she made her way through Ponyville alongside her friends. Just on the edge of town, she paused. Although the smoldering wreckage and scorched earth had long since been cleared away, the empty plot of land before her reflected the hole in her heart. Where once stood the Golden Oak Library—her first home in Ponyville—now only a vacant field of grass remained.

Applejack trotted up to Twilight with a shovel slung across her withers. “You okay, sugarcube?” she asked, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight sighed and levitated a small box from her saddlebag. She carefully rotated it in midair, examining the carvings adorning each side. None of the carved pony figures were alike, each with subtle but significant differences. Some were tall, some were well-built, and each had a unique cutie mark. But what stood out the most to Twilight was that each of the three tribes were equally represented. Celebrating and dancing amongst one another with flowing vines and young saplings growing between them.

“My, the level of detail is exquisite,” Rarity chimed in, leaning close with sparkling eyes. “Maybe if it had some sapphires to compliment the—no wait, emeralds!”

“Yeah yeah,” Rainbow Dash said, rolling her eyes, as Fluttershy started to inch closer to get a better look. Rainbow flexed her wings, flying just above the rest of the group. She hovered above Twilight, peeking her head just over Twilight’s shoulder. “So, what’s in the box?”

Twilight cleared her throat and used her magic to nudge Rainbow off to the side. “It was a gift,” Twilight said. She looked at the box again, losing herself in the complexity of the carved figures. A small smile crossed her lips. “A gift from Ivy Bramble, the elder of Peacegrove Village.”

Twilight opened the box, revealing a seedling lined with intricate golden veins and a protruding sprout. It teemed with a familiar magic signature, one that filled her with nostalgia and hope. She slowly trotted to the center of the field. Though long gone, she could feel a faint aetheric imprint left on the land. Just like the Castle of the Two Sisters, she thought.

Pinkie Pie suddenly materialized right next to Twilight, leaning in super close to the box. “Oooh, is that the special thingy you were talking about?” She squeaked out rapidly.

“It is,” Twilight said quietly. Her smile grew a little wider.

“I guess this is kind of like its birthday! We’ll have to throw a party later!” Pinkie said, hopping in place.

Twilight gave Applejack a knowing look, who nodded and gave the shovel to Twilight. With a mighty thrust, Twilight struck the earth. She tore into the dirt and piled it to the side, methodically digging a hole just right for the young sapling. Removing the seedling from its container, she held it above the hole. Sure enough, she could see the magic along the swirling gold mingling with the Golden Oak Library’s remnants in the soil. “So the story was true…” she muttered.

“You say somethin’?” Applejack cocked her head.

Twilight glanced away, brushing a tear away with a wingtip. “Do you remember the story Ivy told us about the colt who fled Peacegrove?” Applejack nodded. “I thought the connection was too good to be true. But from what I can see,” Twilight motioned toward the seedling, “the sapling she gave us is a relative of the library. My library. It came from the Silverglade after all!”

Applejack grinned. “Fancy that! So it ain’t all a bunch a’ hooey after all!” She took the shovel from Twilight’s magical grip and stood over the hole. “Now let’s do right by it and make some new memories.”

Surrounded by her friends, Twilight planted the sapling, giving Applejack space to gently pack dirt around it. Twilight watched as magic flowed from her hooves and into the soil, illuminating the growing roots underground with flashes of soft, purple light. She found herself lost in the sight, unaware if a minute had passed or only seconds, but then a faint glow caught the corner of her eye. Wispy trails of aether emanated from her friends, flowing toward the sapling. Although not strictly earth pony magic, it was still a shared moment between her and her best friends. The sapling shuddered as it sprouted out of the earth, blooming with a small, gilded flower.

“Thank you, everypony,” Twilight said, feeling a warmth spread over her body. “It means a lot to me that you came with me.”

“Oh, Twilight, you know we wouldn’t miss something like this for the world,” Fluttershy said from behind her mane. “I know how you felt when… Well…” Her face trailed off and she looked down, digging her hoof into the ground.

Twilight hugged Fluttershy. “I know. We all lost something that day, but what’s important is we didn’t lose each other, and we never will.”

“You said it!” Spike piped up, leaping up onto Twilight’s backside. “I like my new room in the castle, but I still sometimes miss that old library. So cozy!”

“It’s a shame I never got to see it,” Starlight said dejectedly. “Unless…” She put her hoof to her chin with a wicked sneer.

“No!” Twilight shouted, her wings extending in a panic. “No time travel!”

“I know, I was just kidding!” Starlight snickered with a smug grin. Twilight felt her heart pound in her chest, but soon found herself laughing alongside her friend.

“It’ll be a long time before it grows to be the same size as the original, but it warms my heart knowing future generations will be able to study and learn in a safe haven like I once did,” Twilight said. She sighed contently and gazed at the sapling in silence, reflecting. “Come on, girls. Let’s go home.”

Twilight sat at her desk, her notes neat and orderly—for once. She carefully shuffled through a large stack, slipping colored tabs into key sections for reference. Dominating the upper shelf of her desk was a copy of the tribal diagram. She looked up at it with a smile. Her long journey had started with this simple drawing, and now it would end in kind.

She glanced out the window. The sunset hues of orange and gold dominated the sky, a new night beginning as the shadows lengthened. It’s twilight. The thought relaxed her, sharpened her mind. Finally, she would have time to herself. Setting down the sorted stack, she stood and slowly walked toward her map of Equestria. Colored pins marked her journey, each one representing a new experience. Images replayed in her mind: the glittering caverns of Amethyst Hollow, the majesty of the Golden Oak, and the unstable ruins of the Cloudsbane. Her satisfaction grew as her gaze alighted upon the Tree of Harmony.

She found herself looking further southward, toward the edge lacking all but the roughest of details. A slight unease pricked at her mind as the dark images from the aetherstream returned. If I’m going to be a true princess of Equestria, then I need to learn more about how the world works. How friendship manifests itself between dragons, between griffins, between all kinds of creatures. She pursed her lips. No, I have to experience it. And I think the best place to start is…

The lands to the south, across the ocean, were not as well documented as Equestria and the surrounding kingdoms. The words “Storm Empire” were spread across a wide swath of land.
Twilight knew that in ancient times, these lands had not been the dominion of an empire, but contact with the region had been suppressed for centuries.

One day, she thought. She pressed her hoof gently on the map, and as she focused, she could swear just for a moment that she felt the pain and darkness that gripped the people of the fallen Empire. For now, though…

She shook the thoughts away and returned to her desk. The urge to record her experiences and conclusions down to paper gripped her. It was borderline intoxicating, which for most ponies would have been unusual. Not so for Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. The final step of her journey was a simple report, one that she had been longing for since the first night those three words had come to her.

“Seek…

…Learn…

…Know…”

Twilight perked up. She could swear that the familiar voice had called to her, but all she heard now were the curtains blowing in the breeze. Using her magic, she closed the window and returned to her work before her. This research will be for the betterment of all living creatures all over the world, she thought. With a quick dab of ink on a fresh quill, and a smile on her face, she took to the blank parchment before her.

“Thaumaturgical Ocularity, or Magisight: The visual phenomenon of magic at its most fundamental level. A first-hoof account by Princess Twilight Sparkle.”

Chapter 1: With Three Words

“Seek...

...Learn...

...Know...”

Twilight Sparkle let out a sharp gasp, eyes snapping open in alarm as the blurry visions of the dream realm gave way to reality. Nestled among her blankets, the princess sat up in her bed, still delirious as the mysterious words replayed in her mind. The befuddled haze in the wake of the bizarre dream left her vision blurry and unfocused. Her body felt heavy, her mind clouded, her very being gripped by a sense of dread and unease. It was still the dead of night, a night barely half-concluded based on the dim moonlight peeking out from the cloud cover. She squirmed about like a sleepless foal, eventually kicking the covers off and stumbled out of bed.

She nearly tripped over the scattered books and parchment on her floor as she meandered towards her desk. Ordinarily, Twilight would have been much more organized and never would have gone to bed with her studies in such disarray, but the last several nights had been plagued by those disembodied words, replaying in her mind.

“Seek... Learn... Know...”

Her horn shone with magenta light, dimly illuminating the room and casting shadows on the wall behind her. Distorted images of the stacked books and papers danced all around her. She lifted a quill, levitating it to a blank parchment that rested next to the object of her latest studies: a set of aged tomes bearing varying and ancient accounts of magic and its origins in Equestria. The only things of importance were fragments and misdirections scattered in centuries-old pages. Next to those books were her own notes. The first several pages were neat, proper, and coherent, but as her studies went on and her sleepless nights continued, the writing became more erratic and chaotic. Upon the blank parchment, she finally wrote:

Seek. Learn. Know.

Twilight let out a tired groan as her tempestuous thoughts and the stress of the words plaguing her mind swirled and transitioned to crankiness. She was exhausted and unable to form any more coherent thoughts as she stared at the message with heavy eyes.

It wasn't uncommon for a pony to dream of things related to their daily life or major events, be they silly and mundane or epic and life-changing. She would frequently dream of mountains of books or ancient sigils of magic or Spike belching out letters of praise from Celestia, especially after a day of intense studying and research. Sometimes even the best ideas could come from the myriad of emotions that only a dream may bestow. However, three consecutive nights of the same message with the same foreboding feeling could not be a coincidence.

She yawned loudly and stretched, stumbling as she sent a stack of books clattering to the ground with a loud crash. She yelped and sprang upright, fluttering her wings to maintain balance in an attempt to avoid joining the mess on the floor. With a tired wobble and her eyelids drooping with the night's sleepiness, she dropped back down on all fours. Twilight folded her wings in as as she shuffled slowly across the room, through the mess, and back to her bed. She collapsed with a soft thud, knocking half of her covers off into a lump, and almost immediately fell back asleep.

As the hours passed, Twilight tossed and turned in her bed, never fully returning to tranquility. She mumbled in her sleep and snored softly—behavior unbecoming of a princess—as she felt a hoof slowly pushing her from side to side in an attempt to rouse her from her slumber.

“Twilight...?” A soft, concerned voice cut through the darkness, as the gentle touch slowly brought Twilight back to the waking world.

Twilight let out a groan, raising a hoof over her face as the sunlight streaming in from the window made her head pound even with her eyes shut. Her mane was messy and ragged from several days' worth of ignoring personal grooming thanks to these strange visions. After some time, she cracked her eyes open.

“Starlight...? Is that you?” she mumbled, letting a yawn wash over her as she rolled over to face the voice. Twilight blinked slowly, groggy from the poor slumber and sunlight streaming in through the window as the hazy form of Starlight Glimmer came into view.

“Hey, Twi. You okay? I noticed you've been acting kinda funny the last couple of days, and I was a little worried I didn't see you this morning since... Well...” she said, squinting playfully as she finished her thought with a wry smile. “It's noon.”

Twilight sat upright in her bed, eyes cracked half-open as she attempted to force herself awake with a yawn, a stretch, and another cranky moan. She looked over at Starlight, who was busying herself by scanning the room slowly and taking note of the various scholarly effects scattered across the floor. Her gaze alighted on the mountain at Twilight's desk and she shook her head, unable to believe the mess before her.

Starlight trotted about and glanced at the the various book titles and open notes. It was as if Twilight had lifted an entire wing of her library and dumped half of it on the floor, then the other half on her desk. As she took in the sight, a handful of titles caught her attention. “Reflections on Magic: Misconceptions Regarding Earth Ponies and Pegasi... The Unity of the Alicorn... La Magio de Harmonio… Buried in your magic research again, huh?” Starlight asked.

As she surveyed the scholarly landscape spread out before her, one parchment in particular caught her eye—not because of what was on it, but because of what wasn’t on it. Starlight cocked her brow. It wasn’t like Twilight to leave any free space in her notes, much less only writing down three words.

“I guess you could say that...” Twilight replied with another yawn as she rolled out of bed, finally dragging the rest of her sheets onto the floor. Starlight turned back to her friend with a sigh, rolling her eyes at the mess before her. Even Twilight during one of her breakdowns would always be neat enough to make the bed. She stumbled towards Starlight, tripping over a stack of books with a cry. Her eyes snapped open as she took a sudden and very un-princess-like tumble into an even larger pile. The mountain of books came crashing down upon Twilight, burying her under their withered pages.

As the dust settled, Starlight sighed to herself at her friend's clumsiness, using her magic to start clearing the books away until she could see Twilight's dazed expression, her jaw slack and her eyes going in two directions at once.

“Here. Let me help you,” Starlight said, taking hold of Twilight’s hoof and pulling her out of the books and back onto all fours. “Are you okay? You've been acting kind of distant the last few days, and, well... I mean, just look at your room! It looks like Rainbow Dash was practicing in here!” Starlight frowned, looking around quickly as if to make sure Rainbow Dash wasn’t magically listening in. "She wasn't practicing in here, right?"

“No, I haven’t seen… Well, it's complicated,” Twilight mumbled as she clumsily sat down, her head drooping as she fought to keep her eyes open. She levitated the nearly-bare parchment towards Starlight, who caught it in her own magic as Twilight drifted out once again. With a nicker, Twilight shook herself awake. “I've been having these strange dreams for the last three days. Visually, I can't recall anything, but I can hear a voice...”

“A voice?” Starlight asked as she looked over the parchment. Taking a closer look, the three scrawled words slowly became clear.

Seek.

Learn.

Know.

“Yes, the voice almost sounds like a mare, but...” She tapped her hoof against her chin, her eyes drifting upwards as she tried to gather her thoughts. “It's as if the voice comes from everywhere around me, rather than from a specific source. All she says is 'Seek, learn, know,' and then I wake up in a cold sweat, feeling like I’ve been smothered by some kind of overwhelming presence. I'm so exhausted from this I can barely see straight!”

Starlight grumbled to herself, puzzled by the strange message. “Do you remember anything specific that might have happened three days ago that could have caused this?”

Twilight sprang to her hooves with excitement, mentally clicking into scholar mode at Starlight’s curiosity. “Well, I've started this big research project on the origins of magic that I’ve been wanting to do ever since I became an alicorn!” Twilight beamed, a renewed vigor rushing through her at the opportunity to share her findings with somepony else.

Twilight's magic seized one of the many open books piled on her desk, drawing it towards them. The leather-bound book sent a wave of musty air through the room, making Starlight wrinkle her nose. Its cover was practically falling to pieces. The book was opened to a diagram depicting each of the three pony tribes arranged in a circle, with an alicorn in the center. Linking each of the ponies together was a series of lines and arrows, signifying that each tribe was connected to the other two, with the alicorn connected to all three.

“Now, note the poses of the three pony tribes! The earth pony is rearing back, showing physical strength and a connection to the land and animals. The pegasus is mid-flight, which makes sense given their dominion over the sky. And of course, unicorns, focusing on the introspective and esoteric. See how she's in deep concentration with a magic aura surrounding her horn? As you can see, this diagram illustrates that each tribe is linked, shown by these arrows pointing from each tribe to the other two. What we have here is a harmonic balance: a representation of the idea that each tribe is essential to the others for survival, while simultaneously showing that there is no real hierarchy.”

Twilight's excitement continued to grow as she explained. It seemed that for a moment she was back to her old self—maybe Starlight had simply imagined the princess being utterly exhausted. She rolled her eyes, unable to help but smile with relief seeing her friend going nuts about her studies.

“Now, we can turn towards the alicorn shown here in the center. Alicorns demonstrate magic of the other three tribes, essentially the sum of three parts, while also granting protection, wisdom, and guidance to them. Based on this, I hypothesize some sort of deeper meaning exists within these bonds, and I’m sure that more evidence is out there beyond the old Windigo tales.

“Of course, normally when ponies speak of 'magic' they tend to think of unicorns, levitating, transmutation, and things of that nature. What they don't think of is the subtle, innate magic of earth ponies and pegasi. For example, if an earth pony and a unicorn were to plant the same type of seed in the same type of soil, using the same temperature and amount of water, the earth pony's seed would grow faster and larger, just by the latent link that they have to plants. This is also why pegasi can walk on and manipulate clouds, whereas unicorn magic is pretty inefficient at it, and earth ponies can't manage it at all.”

When Twilight stopped for a moment to breathe—it was a wonder she hadn't fainted in her excitement. Starlight simply nodded and grunted a muffled "Mmm-hmm," in response. Her interest in the topic was only passing as she was far more concerned about Twilight's well-being than her rambling about magic. At the very least, she seemed well enough since one of her her trademark lectures sprang from her so readily.

“Wow, Twilight, this is all so very...” Starlight paused. “...Fascinating. But do you have any idea why this is making you have these weird dreams?”

Twilight sighed with annoyance. “That's just it, I don’t have the faintest idea. While I've certainly dreamt about magic, and even had epiphanies in my dreams, I've never had anything like this before. For Luna's sake, I've even had nightmares about being eaten by a giant book that left me less spooked than last night!” Twilight replied, clapping her hooves together to simulate a book eating her as she spoke.

Starlight perked up, her voice rising in pitch as she instantly honed in on the answer. “Hey, now there's an idea! Why not go see Luna? Maybe she could offer some insight on what all this means!"

“Ooh, that's a wonderful idea!” Twilight said, eyes widening and—did Starlight see a twinkle in there? “She knows all about the world of dreams, so maybe she can help me recall them and we can finally get to the bottom of this!”

Twilight hurriedly levitated a saddle bag over from a rack on the wall, accidentally knocking over some more books in the process. Books and papers flew about, caught in the flurry of her magic before being stuffed into her bag; already so full of notes and relevant titles that she thought might be helpful.

“Starlight, do you think you could watch over the castle for me while I'm gone? And make sure Spike doesn't get into any trouble either!” Twilight said, running over to a bookshelf, looking for anything else that might help her.

“What, you're leaving right this minute?” Starlight asked, her gaze following Twilight as she zipped across the room.

"I know, I know it's short notice," Twilight said, suppressing a yawn, "But I need answers!" The light around her horn flickering out as her bags settled into place, causing her shoulders to sag a bit. “And I know I won’t find them here. Trust me, I’ve looked! I’m sure Luna will be able to help me find what I’m looking for… whatever it is I’m looking for…”

Starlight fidgeted nervously. She didn’t want her friend to realize she’d tuned out most of the rant and didn’t fully understand what was going on. “Uh… Well, try not to overdo it! I know how wrapped up you can get sometimes… just don't accidentally open a portal to Tartarus or something while half asleep!” She said sheepishly.

“Thank you, Starlight. I really appreciate your concern, but trust me, I’ll be fine!” Twilight said with a wink. “I shouldn't be gone too long, a day or two at the most!”

A checklist and an accompanying quill materialized out of thin air, levitating in front of Twilight as she quickly marked the various boxes. “Okay, that’s all of my notes taken on this project, four of my most referenced books, my notes about the dreams, and extra paper for extra notes!” Twilight said excitedly, the checklist poofing into smoke as quickly as it arrived.

“Okay! That’s everything!” Twilight said, turning to Starlight. “The castle is in your hooves!”

“Have a safe trip!” Starlight said, waving her friend off.

At that, Twilight dashed out of her room and down the hallway, nearly stumbling over herself as she vanished from Starlight's sight. She turned and looked back into Twilight's bedroom, letting out a heavy sigh.

“What a terrible mess… Bet I can make Spike clean it up,” she said to herself with a playful sneer.

A tapping on her large, indigo bedroom doors brought Luna to attention as she sat at her table, drinking a cup of warm tea. “You may enter,” she said, turning to face the door.

A purple aura surrounded the two doors as Twilight slowly swung them open. She had never been inside Luna's private chambers before, and she was entranced by the divine blues and blacks that decorated it. The ceiling was pitch black with flecks of light scattered all throughout. Twilight's face lit up as she recognized it as the constellations that dotted the sky each night. Golden astrolabes and other measuring devices were lined up on a desk, hinting at a mutual obsession with organization.

“Twilight Sparkle. To what do we owe this unexpected pleasure?” Luna asked as she set her cup of tea down, steam still drifting from the cup.

“Princess Lunaaahhh!” Twilight began, the last syllable drawing out into a long yawn. Luna held her tongue and stared at the alicorn inquisitively. “I came here because I need your help with something. I've been having a series of bizarre dreams lately, and I think they might be related to my recent studies. The dreams have been so invasive that I haven't had a decent night's sleep in three days!”

“Hmm… I see,” Luna said, furrowing her brow. “Please, come in. Have a seat, and perhaps we can assist.” Luna invited her in, pouring a second cup of tea and setting it down on a dark blue saucer at another seat at the table. Twilight’s hooves were practically silent against the soft carpet as she trotted in. Placing her saddle bag down as she took her seat, she drew in a deep breath, taking in the heavenly and relaxing aroma of the tea in front of her.

“It's chamomile,” Luna said. “We find that it helps calm our nerves and lets us focus before venturing into the Dreamscape, the realm of dreams of which we hold dominion. Pray tell us, what exactly is happening in these dreams of yours?”

“Well, that's what’s been bothering me... I don’t remember very much at all.. All I really remember is a strange message,” Twilight replied, opening the saddlebag with her magic and pulling out a sheet of rolled parchment. She unfurled it out on the table, revealing its cryptic message.

“That’s it,” Twilight said flatly. “That message is the only thing I hear, and it startles me awake feeling like a fish out of water. I think it's related to my studies, since the dreams started right after I started taking serious notes and research on the origin of magic, and how it links the three pony tribes.”

Luna took another sip of her tea, her stoic gaze unwavering from Twilight. “Are you sure it's not just stress? Thoughts related to one's daily struggles and long term goals tend to be among the most common of intrusive thoughts to one's own dream world.”

“Maybe so, but three nights in a row of the exact same dream makes me suspicious. I feel awful every time I wake up, too, like I can barely breathe!” Twilight said, her voice trailing a bit as she let off another huge, deep yawn, fighting sleep with all of her might. She caught herself, unwilling to seem rude in front of the princess.

Luna gently set her cup down with a soft clink, quirking an eyebrow at Twilight. “Most curious. Most curious indeed. Ordinarily, when a pony is troubled by nightmares, we can sense their terror, and if it's powerful enough, we can choose to step in and take action to ensure nothing has invaded their sanctuary. Yet if these nightmares are as menacing as you are describing, then we are rather concerned.”

“What do you think it means? Could they be magically-induced nightmares?” Twilight asked, worrying that such a thing could very well be the answer—particularly if she had accidentally exposed herself to some strange spell while combing through her books.

“What concerns us the most is we have never sensed any nightmares from you these past few nights. Nothing goes unnoticed in the Dreamscape by us, and were you indeed in such distress, we would have surely noticed it straight away,” Luna said, putting a hoof to her chin as she closed her eyes to consider the possibilities. She mumbled to herself, her poise dropping in her contemplation.

“You never sensed my dreams? Are you absolutely certain?” Twilight asked, hoping Luna would recall otherwise. If this were the case, even Luna might not be able to help.

"Prepare yourself, Twilight Sparkle!" Luna's voice suddenly boomed, her eyes snapping open with a blaze. Her horn lit up with the brilliance of the full moon as she lifted from her chair, her magic carrying her up into the air. The brightness caught Twilight off guard, throwing her from her seat and onto the floor. The magic emanating from Luna caused the whole room to shake violently. The tea cups vibrated off the table, crashing to the ground and spilling onto the carpet with a soft clatter. The astrolabes spun wildly, reflecting the light from Luna in dizzying patterns as the lights etched on the ceiling grew brighter, lines forming between them and drawing out the designs of the constellations.

Magic raced through Luna’s mind, centuries of experience helping her draw and calculate the spells necessary to access old dreams of nights gone by. Nodes of deep and aethereal alicorn magic lit up inside her: dots and lines connected into eclectic and archaic grids, which fed into circles and a myriad of indecipherable shapes that pulsated and glowed with ancient magic and caused her body to vibrate.

As Twilight looked on with awe, she saw motes of these magical machinations flicker in and out of existence, seemingly both surrounding Luna and feeding into and throughout her body. She saw approximations of the moon and the stars dancing and twinkling all about as the magic took shape before her eyes. It was not uncommon for complex or unique magic to bleed into the outside world before the spell was finished, but Twilight had never seen anything like this before!

Luna fired off a series of complicated and powerful spells, giving her unrestricted access to the deepest parts of the Dreamscape. Hazy, visions floated past Luna, one by one passing her unblinking gaze as her horn glowed and surged with arcane circles and star patterns. Twilight could barely make out the details in the shapes drifting by. If she looked closely, she could swear that many of them contained images of ponies—but further details escaped her. The visions danced past Luna, seemingly dozens at a time as she dove deeper into the Dreamscape, hoping to dredge up an answer or clue.

The spell ceased as suddenly as it began. The dizzying colors and lights vanished, the constellations on the ceiling returned to normal, and Luna floated down, gracefully returning to all fours. Her face was contorted with concern, her eyes shut hard as she shook her head. A moment passed, and Twilight shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

“Princess Luna…?” Twilight finally asked. “Were you able to find something? Anything at all?”

Luna’s eyes snapped open, still utterly consumed by a brilliant white light. They quickly returned to their usual blue and green radiance with the spell’s end. “I… We don't understand… This doesn't make any sense,” she said with a waver in her voice Twilight had never heard before.

“What doesn't? What doesn't make any sense?”

“We can't find these dreams of yours in the Dreamscape at all.”

Chapter 15: Unveils the Garden

The ancient wooden steps creaked beneath Twilight’s hooves as she descended down, down, down into the earth. As the pair climbed deeper, the wooden walls gave way to a rough-packed soil. A rumble from above sounded as the light from the foyer faded. A thud echoed through the stairway and they were enveloped in darkness; the entry had sealed.

“Ya think Ivy knows about this place?” Applejack asked, her voice wavering as they approached the bottom of the staircase, stepping onto a damp loam floor.

“I’m not sure. I can still sense faint traces of… something. Whatever it is, it knew the secrets needed to get down here,” Twilight said, bringing her horn close to the ground. The magical illumination revealed a set of small hoofprints in the soil, leading down a long, dark corridor. “Ah-hah! I knew I felt somepony!” She dropped closer to the ground, her muzzle barely an inch above the dirt as the light dimmed.

“Uh, Twi,” Applejack said, “What in the hay are you doin’?”

“These hoofprints have the same magic signature as the entity I felt through the aether. Whoever they are, they’re definitely the same pony we’ve been tracking,” Twilight said, standing straight as her horn shone brilliantly once more. “I just hope our elusive friend is Hopeseed.”

Grassy vines snaked along the walls and floor as they followed the hoofprints, hampering their progress. Twilight spotted the occasional glowing mushroom growing from the cracks in the walls, giving the tunnel an eerie tint.

“Oooh!” Twilight squealed, stepping close to one of the mushrooms. “These are dusk-caps! You don’t see too many of these around Ponyville.” The lavender hue of her horn’s magic mingled with the pale blue light of the mushroom, casting a dusky purple across her face. Faint swirls of magic wisped around the dusk-cap.

“Come on now, Twi, let’s not dawdle. We can always come back later,” Applejack said, cocking her head down the hall. “Besides, your horn’s the only useful light down here.” A chuckle escaped her lips. “Gotta keep them eyes forward, Twi.”

“Okay, mom,” Twilight muttered. “I’ll be careful.” She pursed her lips in irritation, grumbling as she carefully picked her way down the tunnel with her friend in tow.

After what felt like hours, Twilight spotted a dim light shining in the distance. She perked up, calling back, “We’re almost there, AJ!” Twilight reared back gleefully and broke into a gallop.

Applejack picked up behind, crying out, “Now hold your horses, I can’t see nothin’ without you!”

The two barreled out into a cavernous grotto, screeching to a halt as iridescent plant life shone brightly all around. As Twilight’s vision cleared, she gasped in awe: flowers with towering stalks overlooked shrubbery with massive bulbous bases; giant boulders covered in brightly-colored moss and vines peppered the landscape; bugs and insects of unreal size skittered about among the foliage and into hidden cracks. A gentle vapor wafted through the air, permeating this strange place with a scent not entirely unfamiliar, but which could not be placed.

Twilight stared across the expanse, her mouth working wordlessly. Magic emanated from the multitude of plants, their aetherial signatures blending with their natural glow. Pink, blue, orange, green, red—Twilight struggled to think of a hue she didn’t see. “I’ve never seen so much bioluminescent flora in one place before!”

“Bio—whozit?” Applejack asked softly, captivated by the enormity of the space.

“It means they give off their own light,” Twilight said as she let her own illumination spell flicker out. “Some plants use it to attract pollinators. Others can indicate a magical property that might be useful for things like potion brewing or alchemy.”

“Right,” Applejack murmured, nervously walking across a small patch of indigo grass. She approached a large flower, its stem soaring over her and terminating in a broad, flat head with sky-blue petals. “Still, they sure are pretty.” She cocked her head, as if listening. “Twi, I think there’s somethin’ out there…” she said, poking through a patch of tall grass as she meandered off.
Looking upward, Twilight spotted giant tree roots piercing the high ceiling, weaving through each other in every direction imaginable. She slowly walked beneath one, her gaze following its contours as she realized its scale. “Some of these roots are nearly as big around as your work wagon, AJ!” she said. Lush vines snaked along the roots, flowers blooming throughout their length.

“Oh my gosh! A soil scarab! Come look at this, Applejack!” Twilight said, fluttering quickly to get a closer look at a minuscule golden insect resting on a root. It flew off with a rapid buzzing as she neared. “And over there! An igneous iguana!” She bounded ahead a few paces. A mottled grey-and-green lizard scampered out from a crack in one of the boulders, disappearing into the grass.

“Applejack, are you seeing this?” Twilight said, glancing behind her. “AJ?” Her ears lowered and she scanned her surroundings nervously. “Applejack!”

“I’m over here, Twi!” came a voice from the thicket. “Quick, you gotta see this!”

Twilight sighed with relief, cantering past a small cluster of fireflies into the brush. “I’m coming! Did you find her?”

“Look!” Applejack said, pushing the thick grass aside as Twilight popped into view. Twilight looked through the opening and gasped, her eyes widening.

A shimmering blue pond was nestled among the grass, glowing with a faint light rivalling the plants around it. Warped images of insects reflected off its surface, their own magical glow creating an aurora mingling with the lights around. Lotus blossoms floated alongside lilies drifting aimlessly along the surface. A gentle trickle of water—decidedly not glowing, Twilight noted—fell from the ceiling soundlessly into the pond.

“I’d never imagine findin’ somethin’ like this underground…” Applejack said, gingerly taking a few steps out of the underbrush. Twilight spotted a twinkle in her friend’s eyes (From the water? She thought).

“Oh!” Twilight breathed, pointing across the water to a cluster of flowers seemingly hanging in midair. “Those are air lilies!” She waded through the grass, carefully stepping around the mass of vines carpeting the ground, until she stood beneath an enormous blossom. The smooth petals curved gracefully downward, nearly within hoof’s reach. Some of them idly floated to and fro, while others had their root systems spread out above and mingling with the tangle of vines and roots above. She spotted a few more around the clearing, gently bobbing up and down despite the still air.

“Feels like a swarm of jellyfish is after us,” Applejack said with a chuckle as she struggled through the grass.

“I’ve never seen them in them in the wild before. The only known specimens are being kept in Canterlot for preservation. They’re supposed to be nearly extinct! So how…” Twilight said, her voice lowering to a whisper. She unclasped her saddlebag to fetch her notes, balking as a shiver washed over her.

“Gettin’ chilly? It ain’t that cold down here.” Applejack said.

Twilight’s whole body shuddered, the sensation running along her spine from head to tail. As she regained her composure, she shook her head. “No… not exactly. It feels like a chill, but—this is different. It’s… Sad.” Twilight said with a frown, looking up at the floating flowers. Despite their splendor, she couldn’t muster up a smile.

As if on queue, Applejack yelped as she felt her own shiver creep down her back. “You ain’t kiddin’! That ain’t right.”

Twilight took a breath, closing her eyes. She grimaced as the white aura flared into her mind’s eye without prompting. Something about it felt different—no, wrong. It felt more complete in her perception, yet the finer details were still muted and shaking. Her ears twitched as a familiar sound drifted across the water.

“Applejack!” She whispered. “Do you hear… crying?”

Applejack put her hoof to her ear. “Yeah, I do.”

Twilight started as she caught a flicker of light from across the pond. She could feel this was not the light a bioluminant flower gave off—this was purely magical. “Over there, in the reeds!” A dozen or so air lilies drifted idly over the pond, seeming to congregate over the opposite shore. The two looked at one another, then took off around the lake. Twilight noted that the closer they got to the far side, the less vibrantly the grass glowed. As they struggled through the brush, the grass began to crackle, pieces of the dying plants falling to the ground as they brushed against them. The light from these leaves—both biological and magical—gradually dimmed. Their pace slowed as the sound grew louder: they were close.

Twilight peeked through a bare thistle cluster and spotted the source: a young filly, small even for yearling standards stood by the pond’s edge, rinsing a green-and-white bandana in the water. Her pale white coat was dirty and her bushy brown mane and tail seemed to be covered in needles, branches, and dead leaves.

Twilight approached carefully, stepping around the dry twigs and leaves to move in quietly. “Hello there, little one. Are you Hopeseed?” she asked, pausing a few steps away.

The filly yelped and jumped into the air, tumbling over herself and landing in the grass. The bandana fluttered through the air into the grass beside her.

“Hey now, it’s okay, don’t be scared! We’re here to help!” Applejack said with a smile.

The filly struggled out of the grass, staring at the two with wide, emerald eyes. She hastily tied the bandana around her neck. “Who… Who are you?” she stammered.

“I’m Twilight Sparkle,”

“And I’m Applejack!”

“And you’re Hopeseed, aren’t you? The other villagers have been looking all over for you.” Twilight said, taking a delicate step closer.

The young earth pony nodded with a timid murmur. “Yes, I’m Hopeseed… But I don’t want to go back to the village! They’re just gonna… gonna make me…” She sniffled, her legs quaking as she slowly stepped out of the reeds.

Twilight and Applejack quickly exchanged looks. “You mean the festival, right?” Twilight asked.

Hopeseed recoiled at her words, a hoof reflexively reaching for her bandana.

Applejack smiled. “What’s that you got there?” She asked warmly.

“Oh!” Hopeseed squeaked, perking up. “You mean my bandana? My mom made it for me a real long time ago. I got it all dirty so I was washing it.”

Twilight caught a faint glint on the filly. A brief pulse of light radiated from Hopeseed—no, from the bandana. How curious, she thought. “It must be very special to you then,” she said aloud.

Hopeseed nodded silently, flicking its free corner. “I’m not scared of this cave ‘cause I know I’m not alone when it’s with me.” She fidgeted with its knot, and a second sparkle flashed. Not just the bandana, Twilight noted—a nearby plant stalk brightened for the briefest of moments. The ephemeral lights shined in a color she had a hard time identifying.

Applejack reached out to touch one of the many wilting flowers, flinching as it broke free of its stem and fell to the ground with a soft crack. “Hey uh, y’all know what’s goin’ on with the plants? They ain’t seemin’ too lively.”

Twilight stared at the deceased flower, petals breaking off easily as Hopeseed prodded it idly. Everything around here is dead or dying, but why? The soil next to a pond of this size should more than suffice to feed them.

“I don’t know,” Hopeseed said, grinding the dry pistil underhoof. “They’ve been like this for a long time. Even the plants in my garden are getting sick.”

“Your garden?” Twilight asked. The dead grass around the filly seemed to sway, but they couldn’t have—this far underground, even the strongest gale would have trouble getting down here. I must have gotten less sleep than I thought.

“Yeah!” Hopeseed’s voice rose as she hopped excitedly in place. “I’ve been working really hard on it for forever. But ever since Ivy Bramble started nagging me about that dumb festival, it’s all getting sick,” she said with a sniffle, her muzzle twisting into a frown.

Twilight and Applejack exchanged a quick glance again. “Could we see your garden?” Twilight asked.

“If you can help me fix it. All the plants are really sick, ’specially the big one in the middle,” Hopeseed said. She kicked the last of the dying flower into the water and shuddered.

“We’ll do what we can,” Twilight said with a reassuring smile.

Hopeseed nodded slowly, eyes darting between the intruders as she considered. She untied her bandana and slung it around the back of her head, swiftly tying her mane back into it. “Alright. Follow me and stay close. I’m not going out to find you if you get lost.”

Hopeseed led Twilight and Applejack through the grotto, taking them further away from the entrance and down a tunnel on the far side. Much to their surprise, the flora began to thin out the further they went. Not dead or dying plants, but simply no plants at all lined the tunnel. Applejack nervously strayed away from the occasional stalk plants—she didn’t want to harm the only living things growing this far into the cave.

“Here it is!” Hopeseed said with a touch of pride in her voice. The tunnel widened and rows of dulled flowers flanked the path leading down the center of the garden. Though each plant was dimmed from their condition, the pair had no trouble seeing just from the sheer volume of glowing plants. Tall, short, round, square, star, flowering, stalked, leafy, brambly—Twilight squealed with joy as they trotted through this veritable encyclopedia of rare plant life. Her enthusiasm, however, waned like the surrounding plants, for as she approached she noticed that many plants were predominantly brown and dying—most in far worse shape.

“Land’s sake…” Applejack muttered, equal parts impressed and concerned. A cold chill came over her, making her shiver.

“Wow,” Twilight said, gaze darting about as she tried to take in every little detail. “Hopeseed, did you grow all of this? There’s a lot here for just one pony to manage all by herself.” She looked around—no flourish of colors, either mundane or magical. Just a bare baseline of bioluminescence casting dim light around the grove. The scope of the garden was indeed impressive, but the health of the plants made her heart twinge.

Hopeseed nodded—a small, fleeting smile briefly crossed her lips. “It used to be all bright and alive, but that stupid festival…” she kicked at the dirt and sighed. “My plants got sicker and sicker the closer we got to it. Now I don’t know what to do with them.”

Twilight examined the rows of flowers, her heart dropping as a sense of dread draped itself on her like a coat made for Big Macintosh. There’s something definitely wrong here, but what? If it was magical in nature, she couldn’t sense it. Hopeseed’s voice broke through her pondering.

“There’s a special one I wanna to show you. It’s really pretty and really important to me, and I don’t know what I’m gonna do if it ends up… like the rest,” Hopeseed said, her voice trailing off. Without waiting for Twilight or Applejack, she made her way further down the trail.

Applejack grimaced as they passed row after row of wilted flowerbeds. She looked to Twilight, opening her mouth to speak, but found her words suddenly difficult to recall as she followed her gaze. The duo stopped in their tracks, riveted by the centerpiece: atop a small mound lay rooted a towering stalk—three fillies high, in Applejack’s estimate—with at least a dozen golden blooms, each notably bearing a single silvery heart-topped stamen sprouting from the center. Despite their impressive size, the flowers seemed… tarnished somehow.

“This is the best one!” Hopeseed beamed as she leapt up to its side. “But no matter what I do, it keeps getting sicker. Every time I come down here—” She gently nudged the lowest bloom, letting out a whimper as all but one petal fell to the ground.

Applejack moved closer—craning her neck to get a look at the tallest blooms—and prodded the remaining petal. It crinkled like paper, threatening to break off like the rest. “Somethin’ ain’t right here. This ain’t like any blight I’ve ever seen at the farm. What do you make of it, Twi?”

Twilight did not respond, her attention entirely fixated on the plant. She spotted a small, almost invisible veil of magic surrounding each flower, but it faded in time. She felt something stir in her mind.

“Twi? You okay?” Applejack asked nervously.

Another moment of silence hung over the group before Twilight suddenly exclaimed, “I’ve seen this before!” Her eyes screwed shut as she skimmed her memory for a long-forgotten piece of research from her early days as Celestia’s pupil. “Hopeseed, do you have any idea what this is?”

“Well—I—uhm…” Hopeseed stammered, staring at her hooves. “I saw some buds sprouting here, so I just started taking care of them. It used to look a lot brighter, I promise!”

Twilight smiled gently, the image from her books finally solidifying in her mind. “This is a Royal Gladiolus.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow. “I’ve seen gladioluses, heck, we grow a bunch of ‘em for Rose back on the farm. But I ain’t never heard of a royal gladiolus,” she said.

Twilight cleared her throat. “It’s an extinct flower—or was an extinct flower,” she said, carefully examining one of the blooms. “They haven’t been seen since the banishment of Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago.”

Hopeseed gulped, her ears folding back with dismay. “A thousand years?” She squeaked. “And I just… killed it?” She started to whimper, tears welling up.

“No, we can fix this!” Twilight said brightly. At least, I hope we can. “We just need to—”

Twilight’s breath caught in her throat as a sudden aura surged from Hopeseed, filling the air with an inky blackness. When it came into contact with the surrounding flowers, they shriveled up even further. A few of them dried and cracked, dropping to the ground.

Hopeseed sniffled, fighting back tears. “See? They’re all dying, and I can’t fix it! They used to be so bright and colorful but now they’re…” she coughed, a loud and wracking sound causing her whole body to convulse. “I hate it!”

That’s it! Twilight thought, all of the pieces of the puzzle finally dropping into place. Hopeseed is causing this, but not in the way she thinks. She moved closer to Hopeseed, the dried grass crunching under her hooves as more plants wilted and died.

“You’re worried about the festival, aren’t you?” Twilight asked as she crouched by Hopeseed’s side and draped a wing over her back.

Hopeseed perked up in surprise, a choked sob escaping her lips. “Yes,” came the weak reply. She idly traced a hoof in the dirt, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I can’t do it. I can’t find a silver-gold blossom. I’m not good enough.”

“Hopeseed, you’ve grown a very rare plant, one everypony thought went extinct over a millennium ago. Even if it’s sick, I think that’s proof that you are good enough,” Twilight said, flashing a beaming smile down at Hopeseed.

“But it shouldn’t even be sick!” Hopeseed wailed. “It was doing fine until everypony started getting ready for that dumb festival! I just… I just…”

Applejack cleared her throat. “Hey now, let’s not get all fussy. I know you’re worried about your garden, but you ain’t being real honest with yourself right now.”

Hopeseed fidgeted against Twilight, shrugging off her wing.“What’s that supposed to mean?” She asked with a quiver in her voice.

“Your mom made that for you, right?” Applejack asked, pointing at the bandana.

Hopeseed nodded, sniffling.

“Y’all don’t wanna leave her, or leave the village, so you holed up down here. But all that worryin’ about the festival is makin’ your garden suffer!”

Hopeseed, tilted her head in confusion, mumbling under her breath. Twilight glanced at her, nodding as a smile spread over her face.

“My orchard back home needs more’n just rain and sunshine to grow. Sure, those are the important bits everypony knows, but more than that you need love and integrity. Where we’re from, the Apple family is the best when it comes to growin’ apples. It ain’t no family secret—ya can’t just pull this stuff outta the sky. Carin’ for the trees comes from the heart!” Applejack said proudly, holding her head high as she struck a confident pose.

“AJ’s onto something,” Twilight said, kneeling to look Hopeseed in the eyes. “I have a very special gift that lets me see magic, and I’ve been seeing a lot of magic coming from you, Hopeseed. Your feelings help guide the plants all around, and when you’re upset…” she drifted off, her gaze drifting toward the gladiolus petals lying on the ground.

Hopeseed gulped nervously as she looked up at Twilight. “That doesn’t…” she stammered, “What’re you talking about? I can’t—I mean, I don’t think—”

“I know it’s confusing,” Twilight interrupted. She tapped her chin, rolling the words around in her head. How can I say this so she’ll understand? I barely understand it myself! “Think of it like this,” she began, “have you ever been so sad that someone close to you felt sad too?”

Hopeseed nervously rubbed one foreleg against the other. “Th-there was one time I was playing with my friends, and I tripped and fell and I scraped my leg up and started crying a whole bunch, ‘cause it really hurt! My friends started crying too until Mom showed up.”

“I think the same kind of empathetic response is what’s happening to your garden… The plants feel bad because you’re feeling down,” Twilight said. She gingerly touched Hopeseed’s shoulder, gazing out over the wilted flora.

“Huh,” Applejack grunted, “Y’mean all the love an’ care I give the orchard is actually magic?”

“That’s my working hypothesis, at least!” Twilight said, beaming.

“Well I’ll be a pig’s uncle,” Applejack muttered, dropping to her haunches as her mouth hung agape.

Hopeseed gulped nervously, looking up to Twilight. “W-what do…” she stammered, “What can I do to stop it?”

“You’ve come this far, sugarcube, ain’t ya?” Applejack said, playfully ruffling Hopeseed’s mane. “Well, maybe with a lil’ help from your mom,” she chuckled.

Twilight unconsciously bit her lip as she carefully watched flecks of magic float from Hopeseed’s bandana, weaving their way up and into the dying blooms. A spark of positivity, she decided. The gentle swirling blend of the filly’s white aura mingling with wisps of grey flowing from the fabric. The stem of the royal gladiolus shivered as the magic seeped into it, the flowers ever so slightly shining brighter.

It all adds up… Twilight thought. “Hopeseed, how long have you been down here?”

“A-a while,” Hopeseed whimpered. “I hid when they started putting up the festival stuff.”

“And when did you start working on this garden?”

“About… six moons ago?” Hopeseed said, her voice shaky.

“You weren’t worried about the festival six moons ago, were you?” Twilight said, smiling as she gently touched a healthier bloom.

“I-I don’t think so… Six moons is a long time!” Hopeseed said.

“And your garden was doing so well then! The festival wasn’t on your mind back then, but a little bit of doubt started to creep in as it got closer, didn’t it?” Twilight said, holding open an inviting wing.

“I—uhm—well, I…” Hopeseed stammered. She instinctively took a few steps into Twilight’s embrace, her eyes unfocused as thoughts tumbled through her mind.

“The very fact that you could grow something so rare and precious on your own speaks volumes about your love for plants,” Twilight said. She touched Hopeseed’s bandana with a hoof. “I can tell your mom put a lot of love for you into this. Love is a very powerful source of magic. It even has its very own Princess,” she said with a gentle giggle.

“If you can take all of your love for this garden and put it into the ceremony tonight, you’ll lick it for sure!” Applejack said with a wink.

Hopeseed looked up at her gladiolus, a small tendril of magic swirling into a flower. The petals regained a little of their intended shine, and she smiled. The bloom straightened itself as the petals slowly curled open. Twilight could only watch as a sudden burst of magic emanated from the filly, washing over the entire garden. The plants rocked as if struck by a gust of wind, swaying as Hopeseed’s love fed into them. One by one, the decrepit flowers perked up, a gentle glow filling the grotto.

“I know it’s scary. Coming of age, I mean,” Twilight said, pulling Hopeseed close under her wing. “Your garden is scared too. But I know if you show the village what you just showed us, the tree will have to let you stay.”

Hopeseed gulped, faint gray wisps tinting the flow of magic. “I still don’t want to do it… And I’m not sure I want Ivy to know about the garden yet.”

“I know, sugarcube. But if you don’t face your fears, it’s gonna eat at you forever. Much as I hate to say it, if you stay cooped up down here I reckon they ain’t gonna let you back up,” Applejack said. She walked around the base of the mound, nodding as each flower started to shimmer dimly. “An’ if you let that happen, your garden ain’t never gonna get better.”

Hopeseed looked out over her garden. She stood still in thought as her flowers grew, each one adding their color to the walls. With a sigh, she kicked at a small rock and watched as it tumbled down the hill into the grass below.

“You really think so?” Hopeseed asked, looking at Twilight and Applejack. “I want to help my garden, but I’m just so…” she hesitated. “I’m so scared. If I leave it might get worse, a-and I don’t want anypony to be mad at me for being down here!”

“Nopony is going to be mad at you, Hopeseed,” Twilight said, smiling warmly. “But we need to let everypony know you’re safe. Trust me, this is something you can do.”

Hopeseed looked around—first to Applejack, then to Twilight, her gaze finally coming to rest on the Royal Gladiolus looming above. “Okay,” she said with certainty. “I’ll do it.”

Twilight grinned as another pulse of white magic flowed from Hopeseed. It was gentle and thin, lingering in the air and covering the plants like early morning’s dew. The trio made their way out of the garden, Hopeseed confidently striding ahead. As the darkness of the tunnel enveloped her, Twilight took one last look at the garden. Her heart swelled, knowing this young filly would succeed; standing proud, the Royal Gladiolus shined in full glory as every flower blossomed and cast prismatic light all around.

“Hey, Twi!” Applejack yelled. “You comin’? Hopeseed here reckons it’s almost time for the festival, and I—”

“Of course,” Twilight chuckled, rejoining her friends. “I wouldn’t miss this for the world.”

Chapter 21: Of Friendships Entwined

“Seek…

…Learn…

…Know…”

…

“When all three have been connected—”

Twilight’s eyes snapped open. Her vision cleared as she blinked hard, forcing off her fatigue. A sense of relief bubbled up inside her as she felt her sheets’ comforting embrace, casting aside the fog in her mind. However, a lingering sense of unease still nipped at the back of her thoughts.

The message persisted as with each night’s rest, though now including the Star Glider entity’s portion. At least that much was consistent—her lack of progress with her pegasus research gnawed at her, and explaining to Starlight and Spike why her mane and tail were buzzing with electricity had taken longer than she would have liked.

Twilight threw off her covers and rolled out of bed, trotting slowly to her desk. Twilight dug through her saddlebags, pulling out her journal, and began to write.

Day 10: Dream message continues to persist, but with new additions. As seen during my time in Amethyst Hollow, the fragment from the Golden Oak Aether has been added to the message (see Day 9). Since my abilities have not yet extended to pegasus magic, I must be particularly observant for any signs of pegasus activity throughout the day and update accordingly.

She quickly proofed her notes and sighed. She was glad that a consistent pattern had formed, but it seemed her abilities were reaching a plateau. I should be able to see pegasus magic by now. Perhaps hearing more of the message is the key? She tapped her chin and allowed her thoughts to drift as she made her way out of her room. Alicorn and unicorn magic became visible after hearing the first message, and then earth pony magic after hearing the second part after returning from Amethyst Hollow. I’ve heard more of the message since my time in the Silverglade, but… Her thoughts trailed off, and she found herself stepping off the bottom of a staircase in a mindless wander.

I should cross-reference my notes with my collection in the library, Twilight thought, navigating her way through the labyrinthine hallways. I only checked the books in my room last night, so maybe I’ll find— Her train of thought was interrupted abruptly as she reached the library door, a pair of voices drifting through from the other side.

Twilight swung the doors open smoothly open, taking a startled step back as the energy of a passionate debate struck her.

“I’m telling you, The Splash would make short work of Mineral Mare using his faster-than-water typhoon skills!”

“And I’m telling you that the Mare has a special mineral suit designed to deal with things like that! It wouldn’t magically malfunction like that!”

“Ahem.”

Starlight and Spike snapped up from the pile of comics on their table toward Twilight, standing in the doorway. “Oh, good morning Twilight!” Spike exclaimed, nearly leaping across the room to give her the biggest hug his little arms could muster. “Did you sleep good?”

“I did Spike, thank you,” Twilight said with a giggle.

“What do you think, Twilight? Mineral Mare or The Splash?” Spike asked, tugging her toward the comic-strewn table.

“I… What…”

Starlight sighed and rolled her eyes. “Come on, Spike. You know she doesn’t care about comic books.”

Twilight held a hoof up. “Well, actually, I—”

“Oh, Celestia, why.” Starlight buried her face in a hoof.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak, an analysis of the two heroes already beginning to form in her mind, but closed it again without comment and smiled. She put her hoof to her chin. “As tempting as this is, a conversation about the merits of a fight between a mineral-based suit of magic armor and a hero who can control the flow of water will have to wait. I wanted to apologize again for… flying off last night instead of resting.”

“Hey, we said it’s okay,” Starlight said with a wink. “It’s Applejack who doesn’t need to find out, right?”

Twilight sighed with relief. “I guess it’s a good thing she left after I—” she cleared her throat, “retired to my room.”

“I’m glad you’re back, Twi. Things have been kind of dull around here lately,” said Starlight. Her expression subtly darkened, a slight blush running over her cheeks. “Especially now with Trixie out on tour.”

“Hey!” Spike protested. “You had fun playing Ogres & Oubliettes with me, right?”

Starlight scoffed and waved him off indignantly. “Oh sure, because rolling three natural ones in a row, tripping on my weapon, and slicing my leg off is totally my idea of fun.”

As the spat escalated, Twilight found herself giggling uncontrollably. The embattled pair scowled at her, but Twilight only fell onto her back and howled louder. A moment later, after a few deep breaths, she wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. “Oh goodness,” Twilight said as she rolled to her hooves. “I’ve missed you two. It’s a relief to see something normal for once.”

Spike’s expression softened as Starlight rolled her eyes and levitated a bundled scroll from a desk. “Do you know what this is?” She asked, a sly smirk creeping across her face.

Twilight shook her head. Starlight unrolled the scroll and brandished a hooffull of tickets. “I talked to Rainbow Dash this morning, and she’s got a show up Canterlot this evening. With a little effort, she got us tickets!”

“Wait, what?” Twilight stammered. She snatched one of the tickets and examined it closely. Sure enough, it was indeed a ticket for a Wonderbolts show dated for that very night. Words tumbled from Twilight’s mouth as she began to speak. “I mean—but, I can’t—with my research…”

“Twilight! Deep breaths,” Starlight said, placing a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Just… relax, okay?”

“Sorry,” Twilight said, sheepishly clearing her throat. “I’m not trying to sound ungrateful, it just caught me off-guard. I feel like I’m right on the edge of a breakthrough, so I don’t know if—”

Starlight pressed her hoof against Twilight’s muzzle, cutting her off. “And that’s why I got us these tickets!” She said with a satisfied grin. “I don’t fully understand how it all works, but you can ‘see’ magic, right? And for whatever reason, you can’t ‘see’ pegasus magic?”

Twilight nodded. Where is she going with this?

“Maybe seeing a Wonderbolts airshow might help jump-start your magical vision!” Starlight said with a smile. “Besides, if nothing else, it’ll be a nice evening with your friends.”

Twilight perked up, squeezing Starlight in a tight hug. “Thank you, thank you, thank you! I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.” She released the hug. “You’re right. I’ve spent the last week and a half zapping from one end of Equestria to the other, so I think this is exactly the kind of time off what I need.” A flush ran across Twilight’s face and she chuckled nervously. “I’m sorry I’ve kept myself cooped up in my studies. I haven’t really been a good friend to you lately, huh?”

Starlight shook her head with a smile. “Don’t sweat it. Now, come on. We should get going.”

“Huh?” Twilight asked, taken aback. “Why so soon? The tickets said that the show isn’t until sunset.”

“Oh, I forgot to mention we’re meeting everypony else for lunch,” Starlight said with a sly grin. “It is noon after all. Come on, we can talk on the way.”

Twilight, Starlight, and Spike walked together through the winding roads of Ponyville. Whenever they passed by, ponies stopped to say hello before going about their business. However, Twilight’s focus was absent and she found herself staring at the sky more often than not.

“Twilight?” Spike said. “Hey, Equestria to Twilight!” He jumped in front of her, waving his claws in the air.

Twilight blinked and shook her head, her eyes focusing on the dragon. “Huh? What’s…” Twilight peered over his shoulder to find she had nearly collided with her favorite flower shop’s sign. “O-oh, sorry… I guess I wasn’t paying attention.” Spike grunted.

“You’ve been out of it since we left the castle,” Starlight said. “Is something wrong?”

“Well, it’s just—” Twilight said, looking up again. She pointed up at the sky. “See those three clouds across the way?”

“Yeah,” Starlight said, her voice trailing. “What about them?”

“According to weather control, it’s supposed to be clear today. It’s supposed to be clear all week, but it stormed last night. There shouldn’t even be any clouds in the sky today,” Twilight said, a sense of frustration building in her tone.

“Oh come on,” Starlight scoffed, “a few clouds isn’t a big deal. I’m sure some pegasus is on their lunch break or something. Which is where we should be going as well.” She gave Twilight a sidelong look.

Twilight’s ears lowered as the trio continued walking. “It just worries me,” Twilight said, staring into the middle distance in front of her. “It could be a coincidence or a mistake, but I can’t shake the feeling that it’s connected somehow.”

“Well, you said it yourself, right?” Starlight said, glancing back to Twilight. “You didn’t see any pegasus magic last night, and aside from some broken branches and the rain, nothing bad happened either. Weather mistakes happen all the time.”

“I—” Twilight said, struggling to find fault in her logic. “I suppose you’re right. I’m sorry.”

“Look, just push all that aside for right now, focus on lunch, and enjoy tonight’s show. If you see magic tonight, then great! If not, then you can go straight back to studying, okay? Besides, we’re here.” Starlight said with a flourish.

Twilight’s gaze followed Starlight’s enthusiastic gesture. “Burger Princess?” Twilight said, tilting her head. She reflexively licked her lips. The garish, cartoony sign of a non-descript alicorn hoisting a hayburger atop a silver platter loomed over the entrance. A small group of ponies were visible through the windows, happily eating away. “I haven’t been here in months!”

“Rainbow Dash said you two used to come here all the time after moving to Ponyville, so she thought lunch here with everypony would be a great idea,” Starlight said. She opened the door with her magic, the above bell ringing to signal their entrance.

“TWILIGHT!” a shrill cry pierced the atmosphere of the restaurant, everypony freezing in their tracks to stare as an impossible blur of pink and fuzz careened through the air at logic-defying speeds and latched itself onto Twilight. The two tumbled backwards, landing back in the dirt outside the restaurant.

Twilight groaned loudly, coughing as the air was forced out of her. “Oof! P-Pinkie Pie!” Twilight panted between haggard breaths. She squirmed in vain within Pinkie’s vice. “I-It’s great to see you too.”

“You were gone for practically forever! At least ten forevers! But now you’re back and it’s time for your ‘welcoming-home-your-friend-who-went-on-a-reality-bending-magic-adventure’ welcome home party!” Pinkie said rapidly, her words blurring together as quickly as her movements.

“I—”

“Come on!” Pinkie chirped as she rocketed from the ground—Twilight trapped helplessly in her grasp—and back into the restaurant. Time seemed to resume as the other patrons shook their heads with disbelief and returned to their food.

“Hey Twi,” Rainbow Dash said, waving nonchalantly. “What’s up?”

“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight squirmed her way out of Pinkie’s embrace and smiled. She looked around, seeing all of her friends waiting in line to order. “You’re all here!”

“I told you I invited everypony!” Starlight said with a wink.

“Oh my stars, Twilight,” Rarity suddenly trilled. “You simply must tell me about this Amethyst Hollow place you went to! Just imagining those gems, my goodness!” Her eyes sparkled as if reflecting the cavern itself.

Twilight came to her hooves, dusting herself off. “Wait, how do you—”

“I filled ‘em in on all the basics,” Applejack said, raising her hat. “As much as I could anyway.”

“I want to learn more about the Silverglade Forest,” Fluttershy said, one eye peeking from behind her mane. “There’s probably all sorts of wonderful critters there just waiting to be loved.”

“Okay, okay, let’s give her some space,” Starlight said. “She can tell us all about it once we sit down to eat, but remember, she’s here to relax with us, not do more research.”

Twilight and her friends took their seats at a large corner booth. She found it difficult to pay much attention at first, but the presence of her friends and the ever-shifting flow of topics did much to warm her heart. Still, she couldn’t help but spy on a pegasus out of the corner of her eye as he fluttered to his seat, sighing at the absence of magical traces.

“Hey, Rainbow Dash,” Twilight piped up during a lull in the conversation. “Do you know anything about the weather schedule for the past few days?” Starlight gave her a snide look.

Rainbow Dash finished a swig of her cider, her mug clattering loudly against the table as she belched. Rarity shot the pegasus a scathing look that went ignored. “I dunno,” she said with a shrug. “I’ve been practicing my routine for tonight’s show, so somepony else is covering Ponyville’s weather.”

“I see,” Twilight said softly, ears lowering.

“And they’re doing a pretty terrible job of it, too!” Rainbow said, slamming her mug down so hard what few drops remained splashed out onto the table. “You can’t just schedule a windstorm like that without at least a day’s notice! Somepony could get hurt!” She sat back in a huff, staring into the bottom of her drink.

“Now, now, darling, please,” Rarity said, idly brushing her mane with a hoof. “It wasn’t all that bad. I rather liked the rain. It’s quite soothing when getting one’s beauty sleep, wouldn’t you agree?” Rainbow feigned a gag and rolled her eyes.

“It was unusual, but I do agree with Rarity,” Twilight said. “I even flew up last night to check the clouds myself, and I didn’t really see anything out of the ordinary. Just some moderate wind, light rain, and the occasional lightning strike.”

Applejack choked on her drink, coughing as she finished her gulp. “Consarnit Twilight, you flew off in that storm last night? Don’t tell me y’all almost drowned in a rain cloud!” she said, a frustrated grimace spreading over her muzzle. Rainbow Dash snorted into her new drink, some cider spraying out her nose.

“I feel like there’s a story behind this. Would you like to share?” Rarity said, daintily taking a small (most ladylike!) sip of tea.

Twilight’s face flushed with embarrassment as she struggled to stammer out an explanation. Before she was forced into a peer review of the drowning essay, her saving grace trotted up to the table with a cheery smile. Adorned with a somewhat tacky yellow apron, the waitress levitated trays of food to their places. She flashed a broad smile at the group and made her exit, humming a small tune under her breath.

“Aw yeah! I’m starving!” Rainbow said, diving mouth-first into her sandwich. Flecks of food and ketchup spread across the table as Rarity and Fluttershy recoiled.

“Rainbow Dash, were you born in a barn? Honestly!” Rarity turned her nose up in disgust as she levitated a fork and knife to her hay-wrap, gingerly cutting it into bite-sized pieces. She glanced across the table to see Applejack mirroring Rainbow’s behavior. Applejack froze in place with her mouth full of food, blinked, and grinned. “Ugh. I’m surrounded by the most uncouth of manners. Twilight, dear, surely as a Princess you could—”

“Mfph?” Twilight mumbled through her second hayburger, dropping the remainder onto the wrapper of the first. Barely breaking the stride of her consumption, she gulped several mouthfuls of her drink and settled back into her chair with a loud sigh. “Oh sweet Celestia, I needed that. I’m sorry, Rarity, did you say something?”

Rarity’s eye twitched. “W-Well, at least some of us have manners… right, Fluttershy?”

Fluttershy looked up from nibbling her salad and nodded meekly, smiling through puffed-out cheeks. She swallowed and took a sip of water. “I’m just happy to see everypony having a good time. We were starting to get worried about you, Twilight.”

Pinkie Pie suddenly leapt from her seat with a sproing and landed on the floor.

“Pinkie, what are you—” Twilight started, biting her words off as Pinkie’s tail vibrated with an intensity she hadn’t seen for some time. She gasped as the fluffy mass of pink curls shook, streams of magic flicking off as if thrown by the force. The colors swirled, bent, cascaded, and looped into one another, creating spiraling fractals of an ever-brightening pink that wormed their way through the air. Twilight couldn’t tear herself away, a line of drool escaping her gaped mouth. This magic… It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen before! Is this what I think it is? The spell structure pulsed in a strange, hypnotic rhythm.

Twilight blinked, and a series of images flashed through her mind: The restaurant, her friends, something flying through the air and landing on—

“Twitchy tail! Twitchy tail! TAKE COVER!” Pinkie shrieked and dove beneath a table. Seven of her friends covered their heads as well as they could, but Twilight… Twilight blinked and her horn flared, suddenly catching hold of a nearby stallion—along with his food tray and milkshake as they flew from his mouth. He stood frozen in place, hanging in the air in the middle of tripping over an errant chair.

“Th-thank you!” He mumbled as Twilight levitated his tray to a nearby table. She released him, and he stumbled from her telekinetic grasp but remained upright. He shivered, nodding to Twilight again before hurrying to his table.

Twilight sighed with relief, slouching back against her seat. Before she could grab the last of her food, Pinkie suddenly popped up in front of her, nearly muzzle-to-muzzle. “Twilight!” She trilled excitedly. “Did you just see my Pinkie Sense?”

“Well, I… I uh…”

Pinkie yelped and suddenly found herself enveloped by Starlight’s magic aura. Starlight floated her off the table and back to her seat. “Come on, Pinkie. Nopony can make sense of Pinkie Sense.” Starlight said, dismissively waving her hoof.

“Actually, I—” Twilight muttered, shaking her head. “I’m sure we’ll figure it out someday.” That “someday” might be very soon, she thought to herself. “I’ve already observed earth ponies sensing danger in their environment. Pinkie Sense might be related.”

Pinkie bounced in place, grinning from ear to ear.

“That’s my hypothesis, anyway,” Twilight finished as a slight blush ran across her cheeks.

“Y’see?” Applejack laughed. “Y’all figured out Pinkie Sense. This pegasus stuff oughta be a breeze compared to that!”

Twilight sighed, hovering her half-burger in the air and staring at it. “Yeah, you’re probably right.” She smirked as a thought struck her. “I wonder if I could figure out Holly while I’m at it.”

Twilight and her friends—sans Rainbow Dash—meandered through the crowd at Canterlot Stadium and shuffled their way to their seats. Twilight received a fair number of curious looks from random ponies—most of them part of the conceited class of Canterlot’s elite, turning their snoots up at the thought of a princess joining the rabble in the “cheap seats.” She didn’t care. Twilight was more happy with her friends, and she even managed to spot a few familiar faces from Ponyville. For a time, the stress of her research faded.

“Oh yeah,” Spike drawled, his voice trembling as drool dribbled from his lips. “I’ve been saving you.” He brandished a glittering, gem-encrusted cupcake.

“Spike! Where did you—” Twilight stammered.

“Snuck it in,” said Spike nonchalantly, taking a big crunch out of it. “Pinkie Pie helped!” He pointed at Pinkie, who whipped a similar cupcake out of her mane and swallowed it in one bite.

“Spike, you know that’s against the rules, right? No outside food or beverages!” Twilight protested, but Starlight playfully poked her.

“It’s just the one cupcake,” Starlight chuckled. “He’ll be fine! And look at the balcony, the princesses are here too!”

Twilight’s gaze followed Starlight’s pointing foreleg upwards, spotting Princesses Celestia and Luna seated in the open air balcony suite. A lump grew in Twilight’s throat as she gazed at the two sisters. Perhaps she could seek insight after the airshow. The drone of the ponies surrounding her faded into the background as her gaze drifted across the arena.

“Clouds?” Twilight muttered. A number of nimbus clouds wafted lazily above the stadium against the evening sky. “That’s strange. Those are too far away to be part of a routine. Normally the Wonderbolts clear the sky for a performance…”

“Oh, oh, oh!” Pinkie Pie cried out, bouncing on her tail. “They’re starting!”

A single cloud floated into the the stadium, coming to a stop in the middle. A dark purple pegasus stallion with a slicked back black mane—and equally dark sunglasses—spoke into a megaphone. “Fillies and gentlecolts!” The crowd erupted in a cheer. The stallion spoke with exaggerated purpose and poignant enthusiasm, making ostentatious poses with each emphasized word. “Get ready to stomp your hooves for Equestria’s one and only—the greatest—the bravest—the fastest—the death-defying team of the world’s greatest fliers…!”

There was a pregnant pause as the announcer stopped. The crowd hushed with anticipation. The announcer struck one final pose on his hind legs, foreleg on his cocked hip. “The Wonderbolts!” he cried out as a half dozen streaks of black smoke—and one rainbow—soared overhead with a thunderous roar. The crowd flew into a frenzy so powerful even Twilight felt herself giving into the energy of the moment.

“Check it out, y’all!” Applejack exclaimed. “There’s Rainbow! Yee-haw!” She cheered and waved her hat.

Fluttershy squeaked quietly in excitement. “I wonder what they’ll do first.”

“Rainboom! Rainboom!” Spike started to chant, gesturing in time with his words.

“Aaaaaaaand they’re coming down in the descent, folks!” The announcer bellowed, his words nearly drowning in the cacophony. “Out of the dive leading the pack is Spitfire, with Soarin and Surprise coming in line astern! Spitfire breaks away into an ascent and curves backwards, as Soarin and Surprise—Are they going to do it fillies and gentlecolts!? I can’t believe my eyes! A double reverse-corkscrew aileron roll!”

Twilight didn’t take her eyes off of the Wonderbolts for even a second. Even blinking felt like it would waste precious seconds as her eyes traced every single loop, turn, bank, angle… Many of the techniques kept wing usage to a minimum outside of gliding into turns, but the sheer speed and angle of attack on some of their maneuvers could only have been completed using pegasus magic. Twilight swallowed hard, a bead of sweat trickling down her face. She glanced upward. The sky was clear again. Did I imagine the clouds? She tore her attention away from the sky to catch the tail end of Rainbow Dash’s trick.

“And that was the Buccaneer Blaze, fillies and gentlecolts!” The announcer’s voice boomed from all directions, the wild cheering surging in response. “I hope none of you blinked and missed it!”

Twilight watched as the Wonderbolts flew in formation along the bleachers, suddenly breaking off and banking to a tight helix in the center of the arena. All of them—except Rainbow Dash. With a whoop, she rocketed higher and higher, her rainbow streak trailing behind as she faded out of sight into the orange-stained sky.

Pinkie Pie suddenly shrieked. “Ahhhh! THIS IS IT!” Twilight could feel her practically vibrating in her excitement.

The speck that was Rainbow Dash took position high above the stadium. From one end of the arena to the other, a hush fell over the crowd. Suddenly, with a crack of thunder, Rainbow shot toward the ground harder than Twilight had ever seen. Another shockwave rumbled across the sky, this one accompanied by a red burst of light. It faded quickly, but another one—this one orange—immediately burst forth. Then a yellow flash. The shockwaves propagated outward, forming concentric rings of light in the sky. Next came green, then blue. The air in front of Rainbow compressed, squeezing her body and propelling her groundward ever faster. Her coma brightened with each pulse of color—now an iridescent purple—the crowd of ponies exploding into screams of wonder.

Twilight’s focus was fixed on Rainbow, so utterly spellbound it felt as though time itself had started to slow down. There was something… different about this. Flashes of colored lightning sparked from Rainbow’s body, arcing toward the compressed air around her. Wait. Colored lightning? The air around Rainbow flared a brilliant white, and it too started to take on the same colors as the lightning. Twilight gasped when she finally realized the unseen connection.

“Her cutie mar—” Twilight cried out, but was cut off by a deafening thunderclap. Rainbow surged through the light, simultaneously shattering the sound barrier and generating a massive rainbow shockwave. Twilight found it difficult to watch—the air around Rainbow seemed to visually crack like a splintering mirror. The lightning changed color as it leapt outward from Rainbow’s body to dance within the growing concentric rainbow rings, taking on not the colors of the Sonic Rainboom, but something else entirely.

The magic dancing within the Sonic Rainboom shifted itself, filling Twilight’s eyes with vibrant colors she had never seen before. The mass pulsed a familiar blue, before shifting back to the multi-colored wave. Orange followed suit, and once equilibrium was reestablished, pink came shortly after. Then yellow, followed by white. Out of the corner of Twilight’s eyes, she saw an aura flicker around her friends, each one glowing as their respective wave of color washed over the stadium. Just as the Sonic Rainboom crested out of sight, a flare of brilliant purple peeked back over the horizon.

All at once, she felt the tension drain from her body. She slumped against the bleacher seat, and a smile crossed her face. The relaxation gave way to a feeling of determination. Confidence welled up in her chest as she leapt from her seat to join her friends in exuberation.

Rainbow Dash arced herself skyward, a trail of rainbow colors streaking behind her as the remnants of the Sonic Rainboom broke apart and drifted away. Twilight could feel the bonds of loyalty comprising the magic of the Sonic Rainboom filling her very being.

Awash in the intensity of her victory, she cried.

Chapter 22: Where Winds Unbound

Twilight watched as the last vestiges of Rainbow Dash’s performance broke apart and faded into the darkening sky. Stars began to twinkle throughout the deep indigo curtain, providing the pegasus with the perfect backdrop to pose for her fans. A wide smile broke across Twilight’s face, a few more tears rolling down her cheeks. The excitement in the stadium tapered off—or perhaps Twilight had simply tuned it out.

Rainbow Dash and the other Wonderbolts flew into position near the announcer hovering upright in a row as if they were standing on their hind legs. The air itself seemed to move around their wings. Nearly invisible smokey-white wisps were drawn toward their wings as they raised into the air. As the Wonderbolts’ wings came down, the air was pushed between the gaps in their flight feathers and aethereal sparks danced between them. The sparks surrounding each pegasus had a different color, though Twilight couldn’t quite make out the details from this distance. The Wonderbolts bowed to the crowd as the announcer rattled off each of their names again.

“Wasn’t that awesome, Twilight?” Spike cheered out, tugging at her side to get her attention. Twilight, lost in her thoughts, didn't acknowledge him. Her smile grew as she gazed at the pegasus magic on display before her. The Wonderbolts turned to face a different portion of the stadium, taking another set of bows.

“Twilight! Hey!” Spike shouted, prodding her repeatedly in the side.

Twilight yelped and shook her head, flinching away. “Huh? Oh! Sorry, Spike, I was just… distracted.”

Starlight leaned over Spike with a smug look on her face, giving Twilight a playful elbow. “Told you.” Spike grumbled and produced a bit, handing it to Starlight.

“I guess you made the right call,” Twilight said. A flush ran over her face as she wiped away her tears. “Thank you.”

“What are friends for?” Starlight said. “Oh, but there’s one thing you have to promise me!”

Twilight tilted her head inquisitively.

“No stressing about it until you get home, okay?”

Twilight sighed and closed her eyes. She couldn’t help but smile. “Deal. That’s a fair compromise.” She shuffled out of her seat, joining her friends as they merged with the ever-growing throng. The announcer and Wonderbolts left after the show, leaving the stadium vacant. Twilight looked up to the royal balcony. The sisters were already gone.

How strange, she thought. I was hoping I could catch one of them after the show. I don’t have a full report ready but if nothing else I could—“Woah!” Twilight suddenly lost her footing, tumbling down an unobserved flight of stairs. Nearby ponies ducked for cover or flung themselves out of the way of the princess, but with a flare of her wings, Twilight righted herself midair.

“Twilight, are you okay?” Spike cried out, leaping several stairs down to her. Starlight turned, eyebrow quirked.

“I’m fine, really!” Twilight stammered. She settled herself to the ground, taking a glance back at her wings. Magical microcurrents flowed through her feathers with each flutter, sparking into a gentle lavender as the magic took shape. Twilight smiled gently, staring perhaps a bit too long at the sight.

“You’d think she’d just got them yesterday, the way she’s starin’ at ’em,” Applejack said flatly.

“All right, come on now,” Starlight said, rolling her eyes. She grabbed Twilight’s hoof and tugged her along, following the few ponies left filtering out of the stadium. Twilight watched as the swirls in the air current shifted, gently trailing behind her before dissipating entirely as she folded her wings against her body. “Let me guess, you tripped and fell because you got distracted watching the magic, right?”

Twilight glanced at the empty balcony. “Kind of,” she muttered. She chuckled sheepishly and blushed, taking her hoof back from Starlight. “It’s fine. I’m fine, really!”

Starlight pursed her lips, but eventually relented. “Come on. Let's get Rainbow Dash so we can head home.”

Twilight took one last look upward before joining her friends.

Twilight gazed out the window of the train car, the bright lights of Canterlot growing dimmer as the train steadily made its way back to Ponyville. Despite the nearly-full ride, the atmosphere somehow remained quiet and relaxed. Pinkie Pie and Spike were giggling quietly amongst themselves, while the rest of her friends dozed. The train entered a tunnel, and for a time, the city blinked out of sight.

Twilight closed her eyes, focusing on an image in her head. Her horn lit up softly in the darkness as she visualized her research journal tucked away in her desk. With a flash of light, it—and a quill, of course—materialized before her. She opened it to her latest entry and began to write.

Today’s observations yielded extraordinary results, not only with regards to pegasus magic but also further insight into earth pony magic. I have written somewhat extensively in the past about a phenomenon known locally as “Pinkie Sense,” named after the resident of Ponyville with whom it manifests. I found striking similarities between the the magic I beheld in Peacegrove Village and Pinkie Sense. Generally speaking, earth ponies possess a naturally heightened awareness of the natural world. Food crops, water, animals—many earth ponies are particularly skilled in the cultivation of these elements. Pinkie Sense appears to be an extremely situational offshoot of this principle, granting Pinkie Pie an acute awareness of her immediate surroundings, possibly transcending temporal boundaries. The triggers for this ability will require further research.

Twilight spun the quill idly in midair. She looked over to Rainbow Dash—snoring rather loudly against an equally sonorous Applejack—before resuming.

I was unable to visualize pegasus magic for the entire duration of the Wonderbolts air show until the show's climax. Rainbow Dash performed her signature Sonic Rainboom, which appeared to carry characteristics not previously observed. The initial shockwaves were accompanied by flashes of a given color pattern, along with streaks of red-, yellow-, and blue-colored lightning—matching the colors of Rainbow Dash's cutie mark. I hypothesize this is linked to her own special talent and magic (see notes RE: Amethyst Hollow w/r/t cutie marks) and is how she alone is able to produce a Sonic Rainboom.

Additionally, colors not normally associated with the rainbow propagated after the initial shockwave. There were six in all: cyan, orange, pink, yellow, white and purple (in that order). These colors seem to correspond to my friends’ and my coat colors. A comforting wave of emotional energy accompanied these colors, which culminated in a sense of excitement as the magic faded from view. I believe this sensation is related in some way to Rainbow Dash’s Element of Loyalty. More information is pending further research.

Twilight closed the book and set it aside. She leaned up against the window, resting her chin on her hoof as she peered out into the night sky. The moon was bright—currently waning gibbous—and surrounding by twinkling stars. An errant cloud drifted past a few minutes later, obscuring it from view. Twilight nickered. Stupid weather schedule.

Twilight, Starlight and Spike made their way through the still streets of Ponyville back toward the castle. A few other ponies had gotten off the train with them, but one by one, families and individuals departed from the main road back to their homes. Soon enough, only Twilight and her friends remained, with only a few firefly lamps to keep them company as they walked.

“So,” Starlight said, breaking the silence. “What’s the plan?”

Twilight levitated her journal in front of her and scanned the newest entries, rolling her new observations around in her head. “I need to find a new place.”

Starlight frowned. “You’ll be leaving again, then?” Her hushed tone expressed volumes of concern.

“I don’t mean like that,” Twilight said, flustered. She stopped walking and sighed, gazing skyward. “I was drawn to Amethyst Hollow and the Golden Oak because they’re hubs of unicorn and earth pony magic, respectively. I’m sure there must be somewhere in Equestria that’s a similar center of pegasus magic. I just don't have the slightest idea where to look.”

“Well, you're not exactly on a time limit, are you?” Starlight said. “The cutie map’s call was just a coincidence.”

Twilight wanted to protest, but she knew Starlight was right. “That doesn't make this any less important. There has to be a connection. There just has to. The strange messages, my ability to see magic… there could be more at play here than we can even begin to comprehend!”

Starlight put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “Twilight, breathe. It’s late, and if you get yourself this worked up, you’ll never sleep.”

“She never sleeps anyway when she gets like this,” Spike said with a chuckle..

Twilight took a deep breath, held it, and exhaled. She repeated this twice more, clearing her throat as she felt herself settle. “I know. I just can’t leave this unsolved! It could change everything we know about magic.”

“And you've made a huge step tonight, haven't you?” Starlight asked, the trio resuming their walk. “Just yesterday you were beating yourself up because you couldn't see pegasus magic, and now look where you are.”

Twilight considered her pupil’s words. “I suppose you're right.” She looked up at her approaching castle, twinking above them as its crystalline walls refracted the moonlight. The glittering image struck her with inspiration. “Why don’t I move my research into the library tomorrow? I've already exhausted most of the books in my room, and having you two nearby might keep me from going crazy.” She laughed nervously, a blush tinting her cheeks. “Well, keep me from going as crazy.”

“Oh!” Spike suddenly piped up, jumping up and down and flailing his claws. “Maybe you can help us figure out who would win in a fight between The Splash and Mineral Mare!”

Twilight stepped into her bedroom, the neatly made bed practically singing her name. Its alluring melody fell on deaf ears as she trotted right past it to her desk. A little research before bed won’t hurt anything. Starlight won’t be too mad, right? She looked over the stacks of books piled high, even now threatening to topple over with one wrong nudge. Nothing here was of use to her right now. She needed the books in the library. With a flare of magic, a small stack of tomes materialized on an empty space on the desk, causing the towering book stacks to shift menacingly. She ignored this hazard, pulling down the top book and read the title aloud. “Maintenance Procedures for Stratos-Tier Weather Factories.” She flipped it open and began to mutter to herself as she read.

“Before we can discuss standard maintenance procedures for any category of weather factory, we must first understand the fundamentals regarding their construction and basic operation. Scattered throughout Equestria are pockets of untamed weather. Weather factories—and sometimes entire cities—are built around these as a foundation to bring structure and stability to a local region’s weather.”

Twilight paused to consider the text. “Untamed weather?” she repeated to no one in particular. I’ve heard ponies describe the weather over the Everfree Forest like that, but never in this context. How interesting.

“Pockets of untamed weather can be prone to aberrancy based on the locality’s pegasus weather control. In other words, weather factories must be constructed with mobility in mind to ensure these pockets are kept in check. Without proper consideration, the results could be disastrous, including but not limited to the cessation of weather factory output and uncontrollable weather forming from the pockets.”

Twilight closed her eyes in thought. Magic that’s connected to a pony, yet has no permanent structure. As she considered this idea, imagery of the raw magical forces she observed in the recent days floated through her thoughts. “Amethyst Hollow and the Golden Oak…” she muttered.

She opened her eyes and slowly paced around her room. Yet, Amethyst Hollow and the Golden Oak are stationary locations. These pockets of pegasus magic are constantly on the move. Which I suppose makes sense, given how often Cloudsdale relocates.

Her pacing had brought her close to the map of Equestria on her wall. Her eyes landed on Cloudsdale, its path around the Canterlot region clearly marked in a predictable pattern. I need a map of Equestria’s weather factories.

Twilight summoned a dozen scrolls from the library, unfurling them all in in a series before her. The center two were the most recent surveys of all active and decommissioned weather factories in the kingdom. The other maps were older—some significantly so—and described similar surveys with varying degrees of accuracy.

Scanning each scroll, she grimaced at the amount of data on just one, let alone twelve of them. A comparison spell it is, she thought as she readied her magic. A lavender-colored halo appeared below the scrolls, slowly forming itself into a stack of magical surfaces. The scrolls glowed a similar color, as if lit from within, and projected their contents into the stack. All but one of the scrolls drifted to the floor, released from the spell, as the stack merged together into one sheet and impressed itself onto the most recent map. The contents of the other maps glowed softly, highlighting the differences between each survey.

Twilight spread the map out on her desk. She cycled through the different layers of the projected maps, comparing the changes over time. Some surveyed locations—such as Cloudsdale and its weather factory—were consistent throughout the centuries. Others, she noted, had drifted a fair distance over time. The factory serving Fillydelphia had drifted nearly a hundred miles away, yet half a century ago it was right above the city.

“Interesting,” Twilight said, rubbing her chin. “Not even Cloudsdale moves around that drastically.” She watched as Cloudsdale’s location updated over the years of surveying, tracing its expected route around the skies of Canterlot. Despite the wide discrepancies between certain factories, they all shared one thing in common: mobility.

Twilight pored over the map with a new perspective. Each weather factory she checked had corresponding untamed weather pockets, and each relocation would match the location of new ones. Manehattan, Canterlot, Las Pegasus—she checked them all again and again. Every one had a different location noted on successive surveys, even if the move was only a few dozen miles.

Her gaze trailed to a far-flung corner of Equestria, far to the southwest over the South Luna Sea. Wait a second… She brought her full attention to the little forgotten square inch of parchment. The factory here remains stationary. She peeled back the map layers as far as she could go, back to the oldest of the surveys predating the establishment of Canterlot. It didn’t matter whether the map was a millenia old or just a handful of months. Sure enough, an unlabeled weather station lay floating off the coast of a small village labeled “Seaward Shoals.”

She closed her eyes and mentally skimmed her notes. But why did it close 300 years ago? The pegasi usually dismantle retired factories… but this one never was.

As the magic faded from her horn, she rolled up the maps and sent them back to the library, and gazed across to the map on her wall. She ignited her horn again, bathing the paths of her adventure in magical light: Mount Everhoof in magenta, and the Silverglade Forest in green. She looked toward the southwest. A mysterious weather factory was floating out there somewhere above the South Luna Sea. She bathed the location in a light-blue glow.

“I think that’s going to be my next stop!” Twilight said triumphantly, entirely focused Seaward Shoals. “First thing in the morning I’ll find everything I can about Seaward Shoals and the South Luna Sea. I’ll bet the library in Cloudsdale has more in-depth information about ancient weather factories archived somewhere!”

Twilight sighed and felt herself grow weary, struggling to keep her head up as her exhaustion suddenly caught up to her. She knew there was no use in fighting it any longer. She yawned loudly, her magic flickering out. “First thing in the morning,” she muttered to herself. She made her way slowly to her bed and wrapped herself up in a fortress of blankets.

A sudden howl of wind made her blearily peek out to the window, but her overworked mind casually dismissed it. “Clear weather… tomorrow…” she muttered into a yawn, pulling the covers back over herself. The window rattled for a time until it too faded from her awareness, and Twilight slowly drifted to sleep.

“Seek…

…Learn…

…Know…”

…

“When all three have been connected—”

Twilight awoke with a shiver, curling up under her blankets and pulling them tighter with her magic. She fussed, the unusually cold air creeping through the gaps and preventing her from returning to her slumber. She sat up with a grumble, mane curling up in disarray. A rattling—the same rattling—brought her attention to the window. The glass had completely fogged up; only the light coming through told her dawn had broken.

With a snort, she rolled out of bed. The chilled air pierced through her fur, sending a shiver down her body. “What in Equestria…” Her teeth chattered as she mumbled to herself. Dragging a comforter with her for warmth, she slowly trekked across the room to the window. As she opened the window, a rush of wind and blinding white flakes suddenly poured into the room.

“Snow?”