The darkness that surrounds it is absolute. Nothing but an inky void and the melding of nothingness and the tiny whisper of its own presence are there for it to perceive. Rapidly, however, 'it' begins to form some more solidified distinctions. 'It' is a mare, and her name is Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. She is, in fact, very separate from the seemingly neverending vastness around her, and as she lifts a hoof that was not there moments ago - and yet, has always been there - to just in front of her muzzle, this fact is confirmed.

"Thou hast- er, you have become much better at establishing yourself within the blank slate of the Dreamscape, Twilight Sparkle."

Twilight's brows furrow slightly in concentration, and slowly, the lack of reality around them begins to shift into a replica of the Crystal Castle's gardens. Soft, damp grass tickles at the frogs of her hooves as it spirals outwards, and soft sunlight shines down upon her through the various leaves and foliages above her. Soon, Princess Luna comes into view across her, the steady clopping of her hooves replaced with a barely-there thumping as they, too, meet the ever-expanding garden.

"Thank you, Princess." She giggles lightly. "I've certainly improved from the first time. I didn't know it was possible to take four hours just to remember how to have a body!"

Luna's lips curl upwards into an amused smile in response, and she nods to the other, beginning to walk along the multicolored crystal path stretching out ahead of them. "Indeed. Though, we- I wager that you have not called upon me for one of our meetings for a simple flaunting of your skills?"

The Princess of Friendship walks alongside the taller mare, her expression settling back into a more serious, somewhat troubled one. "No, not quite," she says with a shake of her head. "I'm pretty sure you already know what I'm going to ask you, so..." When she pauses to pluck an Amethyst Hyacinthus from its stem, turning to Luna and offering it to her to try before resuming their walk, it's clear that she does so in an attempt to distract herself.

"Alas...my sister is still just as much of a stubborn fool as we- I remember her from over one thousand years ago, Twilight Sparkle." Offering the younger princess a small, empathetic smile, she gives Twilight a brief wing-hug before folding the appendage back to her side. "Fear not, friend. Celestia may be an ass sometimes, but she does always come around...eventually." Her grin is one hundred percent cheek as she eats the flower in one bite. "Thank you for the new treat! We- I should visit the Crystal Empire soon; I doubt that this dream can recreate the real flavors perfectly."

She stumbles, nearly trips over her own hooves, inhales her own spit, then spends the next five minutes hacking and coughing as Princess Luna absolutely howls with laughter and gently thumps her on the back. When she recovers, she gives Luna the most stern, disappointed glare she can manage with her slightly bloodshot, watery eyes. It's not that effective. "L-Luna! Language!" But the lunar princess's words had their desired effect; despite her projected objection, the other's joy is infectious and she finds herself giggling soon after speaking.

Lifting her snout up into the air slightly, she alters her gait slightly so that she's prancing more than trotting down the path, her voice higher and more nasally as she calls out to the heavens, "We wouldst not dare to make use of any such foul, depraved language, Princess Twilight Sparkle! We speak only the truth as it shouldst be told! Now, fetch us some more delicacies from thine beautiful Crystal Empire, post-haste!"

Shaking her head with mock disapproval, she grins and walks ahead of Luna slightly so that she can pluck a Lapis Lily from a lush garden bed full of them, bowing deeply to the other princess and holding it high above her own head within her magical aura. "Of course, my esteemed Princess Luna! My deepest, most sincerest apologies for my accusations! Here is your first delicacy; would it please my princess to flog her subject for such an impudent display?"

They both fail to uphold the charade for any longer, bursting out into laughter for a good few minutes before coming together into a hug as Luna pops the deep blue flower into her mouth. A soft hum of appreciation leaves her, and she sighs after swallowing.

"I meant what I said, though, Twilight Sparkle. Whether you wish for me to visit or not, your gardens will be devoured come my next visit." She gives the lavender mare one more squeeze with her foreleg before releasing her, her grin fading to a simple, pleasant smile. "Speaking of devouring...how are the Crystal Castle's poor chefs doing? Or thine brother, for that matter?"

Twilight snorts and plucks a few Malachite Mint leaves from another garden bed, passing them into Luna's magical field before speaking. "I've placed the chefs on a strict 'do not interact with Cadance no matter how much she begs or cries or wakes you up in the middle of the night' schedule, and have taken over as the head chef. In what is perhaps more shocking news than the story of how King Sombra got his cutie mark, my food didn't turn her off her cravings. Instead..." She turns to give Luna a horrified look. "...I got better at cooking."

The lunar princess places a hoof to her forehead and pretends to faint for a few seconds before resuming her trot, shaking her head with amused amazement. "Well, at the very least, we can all be sure that Princess Cadance's foal will come out very healthy. Perhaps a little bit too healthy, if her diet is to be any indication of what the little one will be like."

Eventually, their stroll must come to an end, and as Twilight's Dreamscape begins to melt away around them, they hug for one last time.

"It was a pleasure, as always, Twilight Sparkle. Do keep in touch with us- me, and I will, of course, let you know when my sister decides to remove her head from her rear."

When Twilight opens her mouth to express her shock at Princess Luna's language once more, however, she finds the void around her rapidly giving way to the bright sunlight of reality, and as she wakes up, she's scowling but giggling into the sheets.

She catches Spike staring at her, concerned, and she leans over to pat the top of his head affectionately. "I just had another chat with Luna, Spike. I swear, that mare's going to give me grey hairs one day!"

Tall, jagged pillars of shimmering midnight crystal rise up around her, far too quickly for her to even hope to run out without getting impaled by one. Her horn glows with its characteristic warm glow, only for the agony of a migraine to split through her skull as a crackle of green-imbued black magic strikes her horn, a ring of sparkling raven rock encasing the base of her horn and effectively both cutting off her arcana and forcing what had been building up back down into her body. She cries out and staggers, nearly falling to her belly, before she rights herself, wide eyes frantically darting about to try and find the source of the deep laughter permeating every single one of her senses.

"K-King Sombra?" She curses herself for the stammer. "SHOW YOURSELF, COWARD!"

That laughter rises in volume, maliciousness curling and twisting throughout every new chuckle. The voice that greets her is, however, not his, and does not, in fact, even belong to a stallion at all.

Narrowed red eyes meet her own, the black fog surrounding her hooves rising up to cause the gorgeous, royal purple mantle to flutter about her haunches. Occasionally, Celestia catches a glimpse of a dark purple six-pointed star surrounded by five, smaller black ones, as the luxurious fabric rises up high enough.

A lavender hoof reaches through the bars of her prison to cup her chin, and Princess Twilight Sparkle - somehow now the same height as Princess Celestia now - grins a grin more befitting a carnivore than the herbivore that she is.

"You're so fucking pitiful, Celestia. Look at you now." She draws her hoof back, slapping her former mentor across the face so hard that she feels something crunch beneath the force of her strike before beginning to circle around her like a bird of prey. "You could have had yet another alicorn slave- sorry, I mean another alicorn 'friiieeend' at your disposal, and yet, here you are now..." She licks her lips, and revels in the full-body shudder that runs over Celestia as she catches a glimpse of the deadly-sharp fangs now residing within Twilight's muzzle.

With a flash of black and green magic, she pops into Princess Celestia's prison, still grinning that cruel, predatory smile. "This is your fault. I want you to remember that as I take you apart, bit by hypocritical bit, you COW."

Her upper lip curls back into a snarl, and now Celestia gets a proper look at just how sharp those teeth are, gets a proper feel of how sharp they are, and all she can do is scream as they tear into her flesh and pain becomes her whole world, but she's lived for millennia and has certainly lived through worse as a prisoner of war.

What she hasn't lived through is the feeling of betrayal by someone that she's betrayed, the feeling of having failed, the feeling of deserving it she deserves this Twilight's right to be hurting her and now she can't breathe and all she can taste is blood and her intestines are strewn about the cold cold ground and she can't tell if the sound of meat ripping is really that loud or-

When she wakes up, she's still screaming at the top of her lungs, back ramrod straight and throat hoarse and tasting faintly of blood from how hard she'd been wailing within the dream. It takes her several long, eons-long minutes to catch her breath, for her chest to stop rising and falling quite so quickly, for her heart to stop thrumming within her breast so hard that she fears that it may burst out from her rib cage.

Faintly, she thanks her past self for having had the foresight to cast that soundproofing spell before she had drifted off. It seems to have become a part of her nightly routine at this point.

She gulps down metal-tinted saliva and flops back down onto her bed, uncaring of the distinctly gross feeling of cooling sweat against her fur, skin, and mane. It seems to have become a part of her nightly routine at this point.

As badly as she wants to hate King Sombra for the dreams, however, she hates herself more. She's not so stupid that she would ignore the blatant symbolism ingrained within them. It's clear that she fears that her protégé will be lost to the same dark forces that took King Sombra, that she fears that King Sombra will force Twilight Sparkle to trot that same path, that she fears that...

...and here she must gulp again, grimacing as her dry throat makes itself known, because this one is always the hardest truth to face, because what she fears most is that...

...that neither of the previous scenarios were even remotely possible. That Twilight Sparkle will simply forget her for all of eternity of her own volition, because Princess Celestia had been too stubborn to give in to her student, the same student that had displayed wisdom far beyond her years time and time again.

Luna's words echo within her mind once more, so clearly that it is as if she were truly within the solar diarch's mind. She doesn't scream and whip around, attempting to find her sister, as she had the first time. It seems to have become a part of her nightly routine at this point.

'Do not take gambles upon that which you cannot bear to lose, dear sister.'

She had only ever seen that unknown, melancholy emotion with such intensity swirling about within those beautiful aquamarine eyes once before: The brief period of clarity she'd had right before Celestia had blasted her to the moon with the Elements, where she had managed to beat back The Nightmare for just long enough to give Celestia that look which still haunts the sun princess even now.

The screams and threats that the lunar diarch had leveled upon her - all whilst making use of that archaic language and The Royal Canterlot Voice - had been terrifying and humbling in their own right, yes, and they had certainly drawn the attention of nearly the entire barracks' populations, but those final words that she had spoken at the end, combined with that...that look...

Princess Celestia feels something in her mind suddenly click as she ruminates upon that final encounter. She can't put words to it - she doesn't think she, nor anypony else, ever could - but she understands now. She knows what that look in Luna's eyes had meant.

Hooves shaking furiously, it takes her nearly ten tries to finally get her desk drawer open with clammy hooves - she doesn't dare trust her magic right now - before she begins to rifle through the absolute disaster of parchments, quills, and sealed ink pots. Most are letters that Twilight had written to her, back when she had been her student, but some are letters that Celestia had written to her.

'Twilight, I DEMAND that you come back and...'

'Twilight, I know that you're a reasonable pony. Come to Canterlot so...'

'Twilight, please, let's just talk about...'

'Twilight, you must understand where I'm coming from...'

Blinking away tears, she crumples up every single letter she comes across that she had written before she finally locates a blank piece of parchment. With trembling hooves, she scrambles to open a pot of ink - finding it empty, she hurls it towards the trash bin in the corner of her room, uncaring when she misses it by four feet - before opening a new one, getting ink all over her pristine, alabaster coat in the process.

'Princess Twilight Sparkle,

Please...I pray that this letter reaches you, for it has been quite some time since we last spoke. I've realized that I was - no, that I AM - a fool. I would apologize, but I fear I cannot do so properly through a letter. Please, come to Canterlot so that we may talk in person.

Sincerely,

Princess Celestia

Taking a deep breath, her horn comes alight with a golden glow, illuminating her sallow, tear-streaked face, before she surrounds the sealed scroll with her magic, directing the letter towards Twilight Sparkle.

As it vanishes, her heart soars with joy-

-only for that joy to be crushed into a tiny black speck as the scroll is promptly spat back out into her face, along with the achingly familiar red glow of the spell's "failed to find target" response.

Robotically, she places the letter upon her desk before, with stiff limbs, she carries herself back over to her bed, stumbles into it, and buries her face into her forelegs, ink staining her face as the first note of her sorrowful song carries throughout her bedroom.

Sometimes, as King Sombra teaches her new spells, she still reminisces upon the first time he had taught her in his own unique way.

"Princess Twilight Sparkle, you are well aware of the ways that I told you in which I teach, correct? While I have not had a pupil for quite some time, my methods have not changed a single speck, for they have remained more effective than any others I've seen in all the time I've lived."

She nods resolutely, hooves planted firmly against the shimmering blue grass of the Crystal Castle's gardens as she meets King Sombra's gaze with her own, steady one. "I'm sure, King Sombra. It's new to me, and while it's...I won't lie, it's a little bit scary to think about. But I love new things, and I love learning. Plus, I have zero reason to distrust you." She offers him a small smile.

He returns it with a low chuckle, lowering his head slightly as his horn glows with the sinister-looking arcana that he's so (in)famous for. "Very well. Keep your defenses lowered and your mind open, please, and let me know if it hurts. It shouldn't, but...you'll see what I mean when I say that sometimes it can feel dangerously close to doing so."

The king's words send a shudder of apprehension up her spine, but she keeps herself open, lowering her head in response so that their horns are at an equal level. A jet of black magic streams from the king's horn and encases her own within its light-leeching cloud, sinking into every single groove and permeating the microscopic pores of the magical conduit. Her mind positively explodes with the knowledge; it is though he's beaming the experience of casting the spell directly into her brain, into her soul, and it's...breathtaking. Beautiful in its own right, even as her body tingles and she must strain to keep herself from raising her defenses. The magic within her doesn't know that she consented to such an invasive procedure, after all; all it knows is that she's being attacked.

After several minutes of the energy exchange, King Sombra's magic tapers off into nothingness, and as the green-speckled black loses the steady feed, it, too, dissipates into the air surrounding her horn. It's at this time that she realizes that she'd scarcely been breathing, so enamored with the feeling of learning so...so directly.

It leaves behind a strange feeling. Not as though she's been violated, of course - she doubts that King Sombra could ever make her feel such a way - but...almost as though their arcana had melded together for those minutes, like the lines between them had simply vanished.

She grins.

Her horn glows with purple, and if she notices that, as a stream of magic jets out, it's just a few shades darker, nearly magenta, she either doesn't notice or doesn't care. Several seconds later, the fur on the back of her neck still standing from the distinctly strange and wonderfully new sensation of making use of knowledge that she has absorbed from another mind, her eyes move to find that she's transformed the tiny, ceramic mouse figurine in front of her into a...

Twilight's brows furrow into a deep frown as King Sombra's hearty laugh booms throughout the gardens.

The mouse is now a live, cat-sized manticore.

"Twilight, all I did was give you the knowledge. It takes experience and knowledge to be able to cast a transfiguration spell of such a magnitude, remember?"

The miniature monster growls - though, really, at that size, it's more of a squeak - and chases its own tail before beginning to stalk after a butterfly.

"Try it just a few more times. I'm sure you felt the energy drain; the magical reserves within you are much like your physical muscles in that they must be exercised and trained to be strengthened." Remembering the story of how she got her cutie mark, he gives her a teasing smirk. "The difference between a weight-lifter's biceps and your magic is that you must also train your magic for precision."

Her cheeks go red and she flicks his ear with her magic before giggling in response, nodding and powering up her horn once more. "Alright. I've got this."

As her knees wobble and she pants to catch her breath, ears flattened and sweat dripping down her left temple, King Sombra gently wraps a hoof around her barrel to encourage her to lean against him. Her cheeks flush with irritation at herself and her perceived thaumaturgic incompetence at her inability to cast the latest spell that she's decided to attempt.

"Dammit!" She hisses out from in-between gritted teeth, her voice airy as she wheezes every now and then, horn still sparking from the near-overload of magic that had been forced through it.

"Twilight," he says, a warning low in his voice, "do not allow your anger to overcome you. It is both unnecessary and a hindrance to your education." He tilts her head so that she's facing him, and gives her a small, caring smile, those eyes encouraging her while still retaining just a hint of that scolding aura. "The mages that I taught this spell to were well into their senior years before they could cast it, and they found that writing about it was much easier than actually doing the deed." Feeling that she's well enough to stand on her own now, he gives her one last pat on the back before stepping away, nodding to her. "One more time, and don't strain yourself. This is not a race. If I find reason to believe that you're overexerting yourself, we're stopping your training for a month. The point of my position as your teacher is to push you, not kill you."

She blanches at the threatened punishment, and nods, conjuring up a glass of water to sip at to further gather her strength. The approving look in King Sombra's eyes makes her chuckle; obviously, he was hoping to get her to cast that spell with the statement.

After taking a few more minutes to catch her breath and rest up, she feels ready to attempt the spell one last time. With one more, final deep breath, her horn glows, steadily increasing in luminescence until it streams out towards a seemingly unremarkable patch of recently-overturned earth. Under the steady attentions from the alicorn's arcana, several bright green sprouts slowly, slowly push up through the dirt, unfurling as the plants grow before the ponies' very eyes. They continue to mature, the first, tender leaves shriveling up and falling off as larger, broader leaves uncurl, neon green flowers blooming soon after. The flowers fall off, and tiny turquoise snap pea pods have just started to form before Twilight cuts off her magic, knowing that she's reached her limit.

The princess is still breathless, but she's not about to pass out this time, and as she worriedly glances over to King Sombra, he gives her a wide, approving grin, trotting over to nuzzle her before leaning down to view the plants still glistening with residual magic. As he speaks, however, he is careful to keep his tone even. "Princess Twilight, you and I both know that your magical skills are beyond those of any creatures upon this planet - don't give me that modest look, you know it's true - and that this is a feat that nopony your age could ever hope to accomplish."

She sighs. She knows what's coming next. "But...?"

He stands back up, coming over to Twilight's side and sitting down, nudging her with his shoulder to suggest that she do the same, which she does.

"But, I know that you could have done better. I'm not reprimanding you for what you've done today; it was wonderful, and I am proud. However, something has been troubling you. I've seen you struggle to cast spells before. You have, in fact, struggled much worse with several other spells, and you haven't gotten as upset as you did today." He turns to look at her with that piercing look in his eyes, seeming to stare into her soul. "What's wrong, Twilight?"

A heavy sigh leaves the mare, and she leans against the dark unicorn, wings drooping down against her sides as she stares down at the ground. "...you know how mothers have that 'mother's instinct', where they always know when something's wrong with their foals?" She feels his neck muscles flex as he nods. "Well, I've got the same thing, and I'm pretty sure that that's true for most other sons and daughters. For instance, back when I lived in Canterlot, I knew that my mother had banged her hoof into the kitchen counter so hard that it fractured when I was at the grocery store several miles away. I felt something wrong about my mother, dropped all of the groceries I'd been holding, and teleported right back to the house to find her laying on the ground, clutching her hoof, and screaming her lungs out." Despite the grisly details, she giggles. "But when I got there, she immediately stopped, because she saw my worried face, and the fact that I had no groceries, and asked me both if I was okay and where the eggs were."

King Sombra lets loose a low laugh of his own, shaking his head softly. "It seems like something that both you and any mother would do, yes." He pauses, already aware of where this conversation is leading, and when he next speaks, his voice is soft. "...I know that Celestia was just as much of a second mother as she was a mentor to you."

She nods, blinking furiously to keep the sudden burning behind her eyes at bay. "Yes. And...I-I can feel her hurting. I've felt it since I left, but...it's been getting worse with every passing day, Sombra. It got so, so bad last night." Her voice drops to nearly a whisper. "Spike can feel it, every time she tries to send me a letter, you know. He doesn't tell me, but his body shakes a little bit, like it used to right before he'd burp out a scroll. He did it last night. I saw, because I-" She gulps, audibly, in another attempt to keep from crying. "-I-I couldn't sleep. I felt her hurting so badly."

Sombra wraps a foreleg around the base of her neck, pulling her in for a gentle hug as he rests his chin atop her head. The position is a little bit awkward, now that Twilight's grown a few inches and he's remained the same height, but the gesture's comforting for the both of them all the same. "...do you think that you're ready to see her, Twilight?"

It takes her several long moments of contemplation, and she's still really only half-sure when she replies, but she nods shakily, voice trembling as she chokes out, "Y-Yes, I...I think I am." Her voice firms up slightly as she steels her resolve. "At the very least, I'm willing to try." She pauses, then looks up at him, tears shimmering along her lower eyelids. "...c-could you come with me, please?"

He gives her a small, supportive smile, and nods, nuzzling her one last time before pulling away so that they're sitting comfortably side-by-side once more. "Of course, Twilight Sparkle. Nothing would please me more."

After they've had time to eat - Twilight in particular finds that she needs a glass or two of Crystal Berry wine to prepare herself for the request she's going to make of Spike later - they both return to their respective bedrooms to wind down for the night. When Twilight sits down at her desk rather than upon her bed, however, Spike rolls out of his own bed and walks over to her, tugging on one of her wings gently.

"Twilight?"

She looks down to find him looking up at her. His face has gotten a little bit sharper, the baby fat starting to melt away, and his voice has lowered slightly, but she'll always see him as her adorable baby brother. "Yes, Spike, I'm...I'm alright." She gulps, allowing the vague warmth running through her veins from the alcohol to embolden her for her next words. "...but, um...I-I think..." She groans and faceplants onto her desk, voice muffled as she continues. "I want to send a letter to Princess Celestia. I want to talk to her."

He yelps at the action, and immediately scrambles up - using her body as a jungle gym to do so - to pick her head up off of the desk before he sits on the wooden surface and gives her a hard stare. Not judging or glaring, but an intense gaze all the same. "Twilight, are you sure?"

Twilight hesitates, then nods. "Yeah, I'm- I'm sure. It's been long enough, and...I think she's changed. I don't need Luna to tell me, either. I just know." She gives Spike a small smile, which he returns with an understanding nod.

Her horn glows with the cancellation spell for the letter rejection spell she'd cast upon him what feels like so many years ago, and it surrounds him before sinking into his skin. They both pause for a few moments afterwards, almost as if they expect for Princess Celestia to suddenly develop omnipotence then flood the room with letters, but nothing happens.

They both slump down with a sigh.

Then Twilight straightens her back somewhat, picking up a quill and dipping it into a pot of ink before beginning to write out a letter to Princess Celestia.

'Dear Princess Celestia,

I apologize for the late hour at which I'm sending this, so I won't take offense if you don't respond until tomorrow. I realize that it has been years, but if you would still like to talk, I'd be happy like to come visit you in Canterlot so that we may discuss the topic which split us apart during our last meeting. I suppose I also wouldn't say no to some tea, for old times' sakes. I must inform you, however, that I do plan to bring along King Sombra.

Respectfully yours,

Princess Twilight Sparkle'

She levitates a black candle over, lights it, allows a few fat globs of wax to drip down upon the center of the edge of the rolled scroll, then presses the elaborately carved toe of her left horseshoe into the almost-hardened but still-malleable wax of the seal. Once finished, she holds the letter out to Spike with a hesitant smile. He takes it, holds her hoof with a firm claw and a reassuring smile of his own, then turns his head to the side and lights the letter aflame.

They're both about to call it a night when Spike's throat rumbles and he suddenly belches out a letter, just barely avoiding leaving a scorch mark upon Twilight's face in the process. When he holds up the letter, Princess Celestia's royal seal lays upon the red wax.

Twilight blinks. "Well. That was fast."

'My dearest Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle,

You've absolutely no need to apologize for the timing. I am so glad grateful for the second chance to talk that you're extending. King Sombra is, of course, welcome to come visit too. I'd love to talk absolutely any and all times whenever you're free. As you can imagine, being the co-ruler of Equestria leaves me with quite a few responsibilities, but I'm sure Luna won't mind picking up my 'shift' for however long our meeting lasts. Please visit soon

Respectfully yours,

Princess Celestia'

At exactly 6PM on the dot, two clouds of dark magenta magic interspersed with small crackles of black begin to form within a space about ten feet away from the princesses' thrones. A few seconds later, with the sharp bang of rapidly expanding air as it's displaced by two beings, Princess Twilight Sparkle and Spike appear where the clouds had been. A moment later, King Sombra pops in just a few feet behind Twilight, following a cloud of his own viridescent-speckled obsidian arcana.

The only pony to witness this is Princess Celestia. She had ordered everypony else to stay out of the throne room under pain of imprisonment, even her own royal guards. As she notices that her former student's aura has darkened and taken on several traits of King Sombra's own arcana, she must bite back the beginnings of tears. She has - for the most part - dispensed of the notions that she knows by now are silly that King Sombra might have somehow 'tainted' or otherwise 'ruined' Twilight. No, she struggles to rein in her emotions because she recalls that, under her own tutelage, Twilight Sparkle's magic had begun to take on faint streaks of gold as a result of her constant interaction with Princess Celestia's own energies.

It stings, greatly, to know what the strong presence of those black sparks means.

Taking a moment to adjust her crown upon her head (not to mention check on Spike, who stumbles a bit dizzily but seems otherwise fine), she finally meets eyes with Princess Celestia, lips pursed into a straight line as her face remains unreadable. She gives the other alicorn a curt, formal nod, the action imbued with a frosty coldness that freezes Celestia's bones even from so far away.

The solar diarch takes a deep, shuddering breath, wings tensing against her sides.

'I can do this.'

"P- Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle. I- uh- th-thank y-" Her face crumples, and any dignity or composure she may have possessed completely shatters as tears begin to stream from her eyes, forelegs wobbling before she collapses onto her belly on her throne, wings falling limp. "Oh Twilight, I-I- I'm so- snff- I'm so, so sor- hic!- sorry! I-I doubted it, a-at first, b-be-because I- I-I only knew the- th-the biased- h-his- snff!- history books, b-but I knew you were right f-fruh- from the second I scanned you, a-and I- I-I shouldn't have doubted you from then on, I should- sh-should've just listened, oh Twilight, I-I'm so very sorry! I was so wrong!" It takes her several minutes to be able to breathe enough from her heaving sobs to continue, but despite the snot dribbling from her nose, she is, at least, now able to speak a little bit more clearly. "I-I should have trusted your judgment, Twuh- Twilight," she stammers out, voice wobbling as she drags a foreleg over her face, smearing tears and snot everywhere. Princess Celestia is not a pretty crier. "I should have trusted you."

Throughout Princess Celestia's entire, sobbed-out apology, Twilight had remained stone-faced and silent, allowing her to speak uninterrupted. When it finally seems that the solar diarch is finished and has gone silent save for a steady series of sniffles and wiping away the weakened but still-constant stream of tears running down her pink cheeks, the purple alicorn turns to King Sombra, their eyes locking. They seem to have a wordless communication, an entire conversation taking place within the span of a few seconds, before he nods once. With that, Twilight walks over to Celestia, squeezes herself into the throne beside her, opening a wing, and wrapping it around her barrel for a hug. After several years, she's now only a little less than a head shorter than her ex mentor, and her wing is now large enough to give the other mare a proper wing hug.

"Princess Celestia...I forgive you."

She lets out another wail before turning and burying her face within Twilight's neck, nuzzling her and wrapping her forehooves so tightly around her ex student's neck that, for a few moments, she struggles to breathe. The shorter alicorn doesn't stop her - she's dealt with waaay more choke-y hugs than this from Pinkie Pie - and sooner or later, Celestia's grip eases up enough that she can take a few quick, deep breaths before returning the action (albeit with less force).

None of the creatures in the room are sure, exactly, of how long it takes for Princess Celestia to stop crying - and it takes even longer for her to stop death-gripping Twilight - but enough time passes that Princess Luna must take it upon herself to lower the sun before she raises her beautiful moon. As the stark white light begins to shine through the stained glass windows, Celestia and Twilight seem to snap out of their cuddle-daze, and they look at each other before breaking off into a series of giggles. They look over to Sombra and Spike, finding them exchanging sketches of each other. A loud and indignant 'HEY! I am NOT that tall!' from King Sombra forces a snort out of Twilight, and Sombra looks over at her with an overexaggerated glare as he holds up the offending drawing in question.

"Excuse me, Princess Twilight Andromeda Sparkle! I have every right to be upset about this! This is a mockery of my royal beauty!" At first, she doesn't really see the issue with it, until the paper unfolds - still not that bad - then unfolds again...then a final time. The final picture is a four-foot-long drawing of King Sombra with disproportionately long forelegs and hind limbs, his head and neck looking comically small and short as a result.

Twilight Sparkle bursts out laughing, tears gathering in the corners of her eyes as she takes the parchment from Sombra and holds it up to the moonlight to get a better view. "Now this is art! I think we should frame this."

Spike nods, standing up and putting his claws on his hips with pride as he juts his chin up into the air. "Agreed! It is some of my finest work."

King Sombra just groans and presses his face into the marble floor of the castle, mumbling something about evil alicorns and evil dragons.

A soft snicker from Princess Twilight's side draws the attention of the other two ponies and one dragon to her, and a light pink flush comes to her cheeks - distantly, she's made aware of the dampness upon them and lifts the wing furthest away from Twilight up to dry her face - before she clears her throat and offers them all a small smile. "So, uhm...would you all care for some honey lemon tea? I believe the chefs have just finished baking a fresh batch of orange-cranberry scones, too."

As they nod and her horn glows to signal the kitchens, her chest glows with the distinct feeling that, although things aren't back to the way they were before - she's well-aware that they never really will be again - they will, at least, be alright.

Author's Note

This story's pretty much wrapped up! I do plan to write some bonus chapters, but I'm marking it as complete since the main story arc's finished now. I hope you've all enjoyed reading just as much as I've enjoyed writing it!