Shadows of the past

It was a cold night in Equestria, and it got colder the further north you went. Most of the ponies were sleeping warmly in their beds at that time. However, flying through the skies was a pony who was normally always awake at that time, as she was the princess of the night. She flew quickly to embark on a mysterious mission.

“Is it really the Crystal Empire?” Luna thought as she flew, guided by the northern lights. “If what my sister told me is true… I must hurry! I wish I could get there faster!” Luna thought frustrated. Annoyed with herself for still not having recovered all her powers and thus be unable to use her magic from a greater distance.

It had been several hours since Luna had left Canterlot and she still had quite a distance to go. For the same reason, she still couldn’t see with her own eyes what she had been able to see with the magic telescope that was on the castle balcony.

“When was the last time I visited the Empire…?” Luna thought after shaking her head to stop thinking about her own incompetence. At that moment, Luna closed her eyes, and the first memory that came to her mind was a very vague image of her sister, Celestia, being just a small filly, along with another adult alicorn, both smiling at her.

Luna's mind constantly struggled to forget the nightmare of having been Nightmare Moon and being locked away for a thousand years. So, in her desire to forget, curiously, some of her oldest memories could be seen more clearly. At that moment, the memories that came to her mind were the first memories she had of her life.

'Luna flashback.'

A few thousand years ago, Equestria was the youngest nation in the world, just a few years old. Its borders were still not very defined, given that years before completely colonizing the continent, Equestria had only a few towns, which would later form the large cities it has today. Furthermore, on that continent, many independent kingdoms still coexisted. Of those kingdoms, none was as prosperous as the Crystal Empire.

The success of the Crystal Empire was explained by several factors. One was to be the oldest city on the continent. Another factor was their famous magic crystals, which were the basis of their economy since they had a wide variety of magical uses that could even be used by creatures that didn’t use magic. And finally, and most importantly, that place was the residence of the powerful Queen Amore, a powerful immortal being of great magical power, who, at least until a few years ago, had been the only known alicorn in the world.

In that enormous city, a unicorn with gray fur and a long beard was walking clumsily. Who, by the city's fashion standards, was dressed gracefully, wearing a blue cape and a large hat with golden bells.

“Ouch! Don’t pull my beard!” Star Swirl said while the baby he was carrying pulled playfully on his beard. A beard that was still years away from turning completely white, as it would be known to all the ponies who read history books. “Don't worry, we're almost there.”

“Star Swirl!” A small filly with white fur and a pink mane yelled surprisingly. Jumping on Star Swirl’s back. Doing it so hard that the poor unicorn almost lost his balance, fearing for a second that he would almost drop his valuable cargo.

“Ugh…! Always with so much energy, little Celestia.” Star Swirl greeted with a smile to the little filly. "What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be in the castle?”

“My ‘Celesti-sense’ told me you were coming, so I ran to see you.” Celestia smiled, jokingly.

“So Celesti-sense, huh?” Star Swirl laughed, raising an eyebrow.

“If so, I think I have that ‘Celesti-sense' too.” A soft and elegant feminine voice said from behind, approaching where Star Swirl and Celestia were.

Instantly, the magician turned around and saw a tall and beautiful alicorn with pale pink fur and a long red mane that faded to blue, which waved and shone almost with a life of its own. In addition, she was wearing a crown, bracelets, and a breastplate with the emblems of a heart. That was Queen Amore, who was probably the pony that Star Swirl was most respected in the whole world.

“Queen Amore.” Star Swirl said quickly, making a small bow.

“It's a pleasure to see you again, Star Swirl.” Amore smiled, who always enjoyed the magician's company, because she loved that Star Swirl, like her, had such a great passion for magic and knowledge. “As I was saying, it's strange, but for some reason I felt that you were coming here, as if-” At that moment, Amore fell silent in surprise, seeing what Star Swirl was carrying.

"A baby!" Celestia shouted, full of emotion. Stepping closer to see the small, dark blue-furred baby filly, which Star Swirl held and covered with a blanket.

“She's not just a baby.” Star Swirl smiled mischievously, glancing at Queen Amore to see her reaction. Then, the unicorn uncovered the body of the little blue filly, revealing that not only did she have one horn, but she also had two enormous wings. “She's an alicorn baby.”

Just as Star Swirl expected, Amore's jaw dropped in surprise, which greatly amused the magician. While Celestia instantly screamed with excitement, trying to pick up the little baby with her own hooves, which she finally succeeded when Star Swirl allowed her after warning her to be very careful when carrying the little baby.

"Where did you find her?" Amore finally asked, still very surprised without stopping to see how Celestia held the little alicorn baby.

“Meh… It's a long story. One that involves some grumpy thestrals and a promise that will one day have to be fulfilled.” Star Swirl responded and shrugged as if he didn't want to care. “On the way here, she couldn't stop crying. So I put these bells on my hat to distract her. Only then did she stop crying.” Star Swirl added, shaking his hat a little to make the bells ring, which made the little baby alicorn giggle.

“I was already wondering why that change of look…” Amore smiled, looking askance at the unicorn. “You should keep them. They look good on you.” Amore joked.

"Really!?" Star Swirl asked, slightly blushing, who sometimes didn't understand sarcasm. Then he focused again on what mattered and smiled excitedly. “Isn't that amazing!? Until a few years ago, you thought you were the only alicorn. Then Celestia showed up, and now this baby shows up. That means there may be even more alicorns hanging around!”

Far from the excitement of Star Swirl, Amore simply stared intently at the baby.

“No… There are no more alicorns. Now, I am sure.” Amore smiled, approaching Celestia and smiling at the baby. As she did so, the little alicorn baby smiled.

“How can you be so sure?” Star Swirl asked confused.

“I just know. It's just like I told you. As soon as you arrived in the city carrying this cutie, I felt, like Celestia, that I should come here.” Amore smiled, loving the baby's smile. “Now that I have Celestia and this baby next to me… I don't know, it's like I just… I feel complete.”

"Me too! I knew I loved her from the moment I saw her!” Celestia smiled, lifting the baby into the air, loving her smile.

"Together forever!" Celestia murmured, full of happiness, as if she were telling the baby a secret. Then she brought the baby closer to her again to give her a loving kiss, loving the smell and softness of the little alicorn baby. “She could be my little sister!”

"Yes, she is. She’s already part of our family.” Amore smiled, just as happy as Celestia.

For a few seconds, Celestia looked at Amore and her beautiful smile. Her mind was establishing the canons of what a family was, and if that little baby was her little sister, then there was something else that Celestia's childish mind still couldn’t understand. Seeing Amore there, smiling at her with her new little sister, she finally understood.

“Mommy…” Celestia smiled, looking at Amore. Who, for her part, was slightly shocked to hear her being called mother.

For a second, Amore seemed lost in thought. Then she blinked rapidly, as if she had returned to reality, and smiled again, only this time, with a slightly sadder smile.

“Sweetie, unfortunately I’m not your mother.” Amore smiled, hugging Celestia. “But I love you, and we are family. And no one is ever going to change that.”

While the three alicorns hugged each other, Star Swirl looked from behind and put on a sad look. He had already had a conversation with Amore regarding Celestia's upbringing. In fact, Amore was not Celestia's mother. She had only found her by chance, just as he had found the new alicorn baby. Although Amore acted as a mother to Celestia, the queen decided that it would be best for her not to be seen as a mother since, being an alicorn, Celestia would also be immortal, and Amore did not want that. Being both immortal beings destined to reign for years, there would be a difference in hierarchy between them. No, Amore was thinking about the future, and she wanted Celestia to grow without anyone being above her, even though Celestia could challenge her if she made a bad decision.

“By the way, does the baby have a name?” Amore asked, turning to look at Star Swirl.

“Yes… In the tribe she was in, the bat ponies called her ‘Luna.’” Star Swirl responded, smiling.

The days passed peacefully in the Crystal Empire as little Luna grew up. For his part, Star Swirl decided to stay studying in the Crystal Empire for an indefinite period of time. Both because at that time the Crystal Empire was practically the center of world knowledge, and also to indirectly act as a babysitter for both little alicorns.

Sometimes, poor Star Swirl had to check the carts that came to trade magic crystals to the Empire one by one since the little alicorns would disappear and hide in some cart, only for Star Swirl to look for them. Despite everything, Star Swirl couldn't get angry at little Celestia and Luna, who simply ran away laughing as if the powerful unicorn wizard was just another one of their playmates.

Still, there were days when each of the ponies in that particular gaming trio did things on their own. At that time, the concerns of the two little alicorns went in different directions due to their ages. While Celestia worried about being the only filly her age to still not have a cutie mark, Luna was still in the childish phase of wanting to discover and learn everything by herself. For this reason, Luna often escaped to see what Queen Amore and Star Swirl were doing in their free time. Both the wizard and the queen spent their free time reading and studying, which Luna found very boring.

“Time spells?” Luna asked confused, after asking Star Swirl what he studied.

"That's right. It’s an unexplored field of magic.” Star Swirl responded very excitedly, putting aside the scroll he was writing on. “Actually, I have made quite a bit of progress in the last few years, although… I don't know if I’ll ever be able to publish my studies.” The magician added with a sad smile.

"Why?" The innocent Luna asked.

“Well… I've reached a point where in theory, I think it's possible to alter time. But at this point, I don't know whether to continue… It could be dangerous.” Star Swirl responded with a more somber look, thinking about what would happen if someone actually altered time; the consequences could be horrible. At that moment, Star Swirl realized that he was being too gloomy in front of little Luna, so he radically changed his look and smiled. “Maybe instead of focusing so much on temporal spells, I should have focused more on dimensional spells… Who knows, maybe in some other universe, I did manage to travel to other realities, Hahaha!” Star Swirl laughed to change the subject.

“Then… what does the Queen study?” Luna asked, who, at that point, was only asking out of curiosity, but the truth is that she didn't understand much of what Star Swirl was talking about.

“Queen Amore is more interested in immortality spells.” Star Swirl responded, for a moment, looking away as he remembered something. "I guess for someone immortal, being alone must be a huge burden... I don't even want to imagine it..." Star Swirl added, again with a somber look. Then again, Star Swirl realized that he was talking about topics that a little filly like Luna couldn't understand, so he quickly shook his head and smiled again. “Many questions for one day. Why don't we go see some of the Queen's mirrors?” Star Swirl added, knowing that this was a perfect excuse to change the subject, since Luna loved seeing the magic mirrors in the castle.

The Crystal Empire was famous for its magical crystals, but some of these were so special that they had been crafted by Queen Amore’s own magic to create relics unique in the world. The process by which a magical crystal was filled with alicorn magic, changed its properties, and released some special effect, was called ’crystallization.’ Back then, Amore’s crystallization had achieved feats that even in Star Swirl’s eyes, could not be explained in any other way than as ’magical miracles'.

“This is the one I like the most!” Luna said happily, after reaching the hall of mirrors and standing in front of the last mirror there was. "Hello!" Luna greeted the mirror with a bright smile.

From the mirror that was in front of Luna, curiously her reflection was not seen. In its place, the image of an elderly pony in an old study appeared. This pony had the peculiarity of having a more elongated and curved horn, in addition to wearing rather strange clothes. That pony in the reflection seemed to be surprised by the presence of little Luna and simply responded to the greeting with an awkward smile.

“That is a ’screen mirror,' and it is used to contact our allies.” Star Swirl said, quickly moving Luna out of the front of the mirror, then giving a small bow to apologize to the pony on the other side of the mirror. “I'm sorry for the inconvenience, Master Lotus Spirit.” Star Swirl added with a nervous smile. Thinking about whether it would be necessary to write a letter of apology to the ambassador of the ’Eastern Kingdom.'

“Why aren't there screen mirrors in everypony's house?” Luna asked, full of curiosity.

“Because special magic crystals are very rare to find, especially those used for screen mirrors. The most common are memory crystals, which are used for ’memory mirrors'.” Star Swirl responded, pointing to the rest of the room, where there were dozens of other mirrors. Both Star Swirl and Luna passed one of the other mirrors, and instead of seeing their reflection, they saw the image of Queen Amore, smiling happily as she hugged a very young Celestia. “These crystals store the memories of the ponies, and thus, we can see our best memories whenever we want… It’s a wonder of magic!” Star Swirl added with eyes full of excitement because he always marveled at how extraordinary Amore’s magic was to create something like that.

“Seeing memories is boring,” Luna said that at that age, she has little value in remembering the past. “Are there no other mirrors?” Luna suddenly added, asking something she had never asked before.

“Yes there are. But there are some that are so rare and special that the Queen keeps them in her room. In fact, I have written a small catalog of the ones I have seen, although I am not sure if the Queen has shown me all of them... The ’warning mirror' shows you any nearby danger that is threatening you, regardless of the distance. The ’soul mirror' can show you your soul, regardless of how you look on the outside. The ’past mirror' can show you any image from the past as long as an ancestor of yours was there to see it. The ’future mirror' can show you an image of your future, but it'll only show you one image until that future is fulfilled. And... I think those are the most special ones... I think last time the Queen was trying to create a ’portal mirror,' but I don't know if she managed to do it.

“Wow… A mirror that can show the future! I want to see it!" Luna said excitedly.

“I don't think the Queen will allow it. Plus, it's a very confusing mirror. In my case, it showed me an image that I didn't understand, and I only understood it until it happened.” Star Swirl responded, smiling, with a thoughtful look as he remembered.

"What did you see?" Luna asked curiously.

“Heh… I saw myself holding a little blue-furred baby in my hooves.” Star Swirl smiled with love, looking at Luna. “I didn't understand the vision, so I went on a long journey to try to understand what it meant. How do you think I found you? Hehe... The paradox always seemed curious to me because if I had not seen the vision, I would not have gone out in search of you. Which came first? The chicken or the egg?” Star Swirl smiled passionately, because precisely that paradox also led him to study more about time spells.

“Wow… You found me!” Luna smiled delightedly, hugging Star Swirl’s hoof. Then, Luna's little mind realized a very important detail. “But if that vision has already been fulfilled, then you can look in the mirror again, so it’ll show you another vision.”

At that moment, Star Swirl put on a surprised look and became a little tense. Then, seeing that Luna was looking at him attentively, he put on a more serene look.

“I did…” Star Swirl replied, looking tenderly at Luna. “But there are things that must come in due time.” Star Swirl added with a sad smile, caressing little Luna's head.

A few months later, a day came in Luna's life that was confusing for her and everyone in the kingdom because no one there had known anything other than happiness and a peaceful life in that brilliant kingdom. The days of peace ended as the guards became soldiers, and in the cities, rumors of empires destroyed in a matter of days became more and more frequent. Queen Amore and Star Swirl left the city several times, taking many guards with them, and it seemed that with each raid they made, they returned more wounded and with fewer soldiers.

For young Luna, who understood nothing about chaos, death, and war, they were days of great confusion and excitement, seeing how creatures from dozens of races that she had never seen in her life met with the Queen to try to plan their defense against an invisible enemy that Luna didn’t even know.

Finally, a day came when Queen Amore gathered her defense council for the last time. By then, the council had been reduced by more than half, as most of its leaders had fallen in battle, and in most cases, along with all their tribes, thus forever extinguishing races of ponies and other magical beings that would never set foot on the earthly world again.

That day, the palace maids were too scared to pay attention to little Luna. She had already been surprised to see so many beings in the city, hundreds, perhaps thousands of ponies and other creatures gathered in the city, waiting for something that everyone knew was soon to arrive. Not understanding what was happening and as curious as any filly her age, Luna followed Amore and the other leaders of that army from afar, knowing that they must have the answer to everything strange that was happening there. That's how Luna sneaked behind a door without anyone seeing her and was able to see and hear part of what was being said in that war council.

“Anugypt annihilated, the great walls of Trot have fallen like playing cards… Even Cunabula has disappeared from the map!” A creature inside the room screamed desperately, banging the table loudly. That creature wore a tunic, and while his legs and tail resembled those of a lion, its upper part was that of a pony, although his mane was more like a lion's mane. “We can't fight that creature. It's invincible!”

“If we give up, so be it. That's why we must keep fighting! It’s not just to protect a race, but to protect this world of harmony from chaos.” Queen Amore responded, trying to raise the morale of the few leaders, queens and kings who were still alive to fight. “The battles we have fought have not been in vain. The beast is weakened, now is the time to defeat it!”

“You know it's coming here, right?” Star Swirl said with a sad and worried voice. “You know what it's looking for.”

“I know… Therefore, here will be our last defense.” Amore responded with a sad but determined look. “Just like I feel a connection with them, that cruel monster can sense when the three of us are together… Perhaps, meeting for the first time was what woke it up in the first place…”

“I don't agree with your decision.” Star Swirl said, putting on a firm but worried look. “You need all the help you can get. I have to-"

“You must take care of the future of this world. They both are, and you know it.” Amore interrupted, looking firmly at Star Swirl, who simply lowered his head. “Star Swirl, swear to me that you’ll protect them at all costs.”

“I… I swear…” Star Swirl replied, with a deep pain in his heart.

"Luna? What are you doing there?" Celestia suddenly asked from the hallway behind Luna. Causing Luna to jump in fright.

“S-Something bad is happening…” Young Luna stammered, who at her young age, still couldn't fully understand what the adults were talking about in that room. But what she was sure of was that it was something bad because she had never seen Star Swirl so sad, nor Queen Amore so scared.

"What are you doing here!?" Star Swirl suddenly asked, opening the doors and discovering that the two little alicorns were there.

Before Star Swirl could say something else, the sky suddenly darkened, and everyone turned to look at the balcony.

“Girls!” Amore shouted, running to give the two little fillies the warmest, tightest hug she had ever given them. “Remember that I love you.” Amore added with a beautiful smile. Then she turned and looked at Star Swirl with determination. “It's time, go!” Amore shouted, scared.

Knowing that they had little time, Star Swirl simply closed his eyes in frustration, illuminated his horn, and he along with Celestia and Luna disappeared from there. At the same instant, at a great distance, in the distant hills of the Crystal Empire, Star Swirl and the young alicorns reappeared.

“Star Swirl! What did you do? What's going on!?" Celestia asked, very scared, seeing that they had moved away from the Queen and their home.

"We must go." Star Swirl said seriously without responding. Taking Luna so that she was on his back and pulling Celestia to get them away as quickly as possible.

“What will happen to Queen Amore…!? What will happen to my mommy!?” Celestia shouted in panic. Knowing already that something very bad was happening.

“She'll be fine, I promise.” Star Swirl said, giving his all to be strong as he continued to pull Celestia. "She’ll be alright. Because if she falls… This world will be doomed.” Star Swirl unconsciously whispered. Struggling with his own pain of moving away from the empire, Amore, and his friends.

The last thing Luna remembered from that moment was a red star, like a kind of shooting star falling in the direction of the empire, illuminating the entire horizon with its fall.

That was not the last time that Luna would see Amore, but in her memories, Luna would always keep that image as the representation of the powerful queen that Amore was, with that beautiful smile, because, when Luna saw Amore again years later, she would see that little remained of that brilliant figure that Amore was one day.

'End of flashback.'

As if she had woken up from a dream, Luna suddenly shook her head after vividly remembering her past. For a second, she thought that she should forget about the past and focus on the future however, as if fate was mocking her in the face, after flying for hours, what she saw before her eyes made it impossible for her to forget the past.

In front of Luna was the enormous crystal city she once saw more than a thousand years ago, shining like a beacon in the night amidst the frozen steppes of the north. If Luna had seen that image after returning from her exile, she would have assumed that this was normal; however, she had flown over those lands months ago. She had verified with her own eyes that there was no trace of the Crystal Empire there and that only the strong storm that always reigned there remained, only that in recent months, it had increased in intensity.

Luna landed in front of the pillars that welcomed the city, and as soon as she crossed them, she was surprised to see that the storm vanished and she was now standing before the same Crystal Empire that she always remembered.

“Can the barrier be crossed so easily?” Luna said, surprised, thinking out loud. Turning to try to feel the invisible magical barrier that separated them from the storm.

Before thinking about more unsolved mysteries, Luna remembered that she had to hurry on her mission. So the blue alicorn opened her wings again and took flight, heading towards the Crystal Castle. However, while flying, something distracted the alicorn. A huge group of ponies was gathered on one of the streets, and from the air, Luna could recognize the only stallion she would recognize anywhere.

“Dusk Shine!?” Luna exclaimed, almost in shock.

After touching the Crystal Heart and disappearing, Shining Armor's vision and mind went black. Had something exhausted him? Did something put him to sleep? He was not sure. The only thing that was certain was that he was slowly regaining consciousness, but doing so wasn't much better than remaining unconscious. Opening his eyes, all Shining saw was darkness, an absolute void of eternal darkness with which he couldn't even see his own white hoof in front of him.

“Why did I touch that floating crystal heart? Was I so careless!? Now I’ll die here!!” Shining Armor shouted desperate. Feeling more afraid than he had ever felt in his life. “Cadance!! Where are you!?" Shining shouted trembling, covering his face as he tried in vain to calm down while a strange cold ran through his entire body.

At that moment, Shining felt something else brush against his body, like an icy breeze passing through him.

“Damn crystal heart! Damn Dusk Shine and his friends! I curse the fate that abandoned me!” Shining shouted in that darkness, this time furious. Radically changing feelings. “They are all ungrateful! I'm alone as always! Everyone wants to get away from me!!”

For the second time, Shining felt another icy breeze pass through him, this time from the side. After this, Shining opened his eyes in surprise, and this time, tears didn’t stop falling from his eyes.

“Forgive me everyone!! I have disappointed you again!” Shining cried, unable to contain his feelings or his tears. "I don’t want to be alone! Please forgive me!”

“What is that…? Hngh! Anyone here? It’s impossible! Hngh!!” A second voice said from the eternal darkness. A voice that seemed to speak with great effort, as if it were trying to contain something very heavy.

Oblivious to that voice, Shining Armor couldn't control himself. He was just crying uncontrollably without knowing why as if he had never been so sad in his life.

Suddenly in the distance, a small crystal blue light faintly shone not far from Shining. A bright light that grew brighter with every second. As it illuminated everything around, finally Shining Armor could make out his surroundings. Around him, there were dozens of shadows that waved in circles around him. Shadows of different sizes and shapes, but what disturbed Shining the most was that those shadows seemed to have the faces of ponies.

Without warning, Shining felt a great chill on his back, and then, he saw that one of the shadows had passed through him from his back, leaving completely through his chest without damaging his body, but leaving his body very cold.

"Help! Help!! What are these things!!" Shining shouted in panic, on the verge of despair.

"I'm not like that... What is happening to me!? Calm down! Control your emotions!!"Shining shouted in vain in his mind. The overflow of emotions was too much to think clearly. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't control himself.

Without warning, a swift golden beam of light passed by Shining and directly hit the shadow that had passed through Shining. Instantly, the shadow evaporated, and its remains fell like hot tar on the ground.

As if Shining had come out of a spell, his thoughts finally cleared, and he was able to think clearly again without the fear or confusion he felt taking over him. Then, Shining turned around, but he couldn't see much. Dozens of golden rays of light passed by him without touching him, hitting and melting all the shadows that had been surrounding the white unicorn.

With the blue light becoming brighter and brighter, Shining was finally able to recognize something more than the shadows in that immense darkness. Not far from him, there was another pony. A unicorn with gray fur and green eyes, who wore a purple cape with a white border, also, just like royalty, wore a crown with a necklace, both made of blue metal adorned with a golden jewel in its center, also of ornaments of the same blue metal on his hooves. That pony quickly used his magic to also fight against the shadows that surrounded him, melting them with his magic, so he was standing on a huge puddle of that black tar that remained once the shadows disappeared. That was a sign of the enormous number of shadows that that pony had defeated, and even at that moment, unlike Shining, the shadows that surrounded that pony were hundreds of dark ghosts that were trying to get closer to him.

"Are you okay?" That pony asked, with a very elegant voice, looking directly at Shining. Then, he also got a good look at Shining from tail to head and put on a surprised look. “Are you a unicorn?”

The blue light that was shining became brighter, and Shining could finally understand why. It wasn't that the light was getting bigger, it was simply that it was a bright spark coming towards them. Then, the spark of blue light, which was no bigger than a ball, passed between Shining and that gray unicorn. As it did so, the shadows attacking the gray pony seemed to weaken, and he took the opportunity to launch dozens of golden rays from his horn in an instant, finally managing to defeat the shadows that surrounded them.

Surprised to see that pony's great magical ability, Shining stared at him attentively. However, he was distracted again when the reflection of the blue light, now receding, began to rise. The blue light rose and rose towards the sky of that dark place until it suddenly disappeared.

“That must have been Golden Quill…” The gray unicorn muttered with a thoughtful look. At the same time, he illuminated his horn so that the darkness would not engulf him or Shining. For his part, Shining tried to use his lighting magic, but although he felt it emanating from his horn, it didn’t shine.

“Lighting your horn will not do here; this darkness is not caused by a lack of light.” The gray pony said with a serious look. Quickly walking over to where Shining was and standing in front of him face to face. “Are you coming from outside the Crystal Empire? Did you make it through the storm?” The gray pony quickly asked, staring at Shining, as if he was in a hurry to get those answers.

“Y-Yes… I think so.” Shining stammered. A little dazed, because he still couldn't understand what was happening or where he was.

The gray pony immediately looked up, where the spark of blue light had disappeared, and then illuminated his horn. Shining Armor immediately recognized that the pony was about to teleport. His mind cleared immediately, and he used his own magic to contain the gray pony's hooves on the ground. Fortunately, Shining’s magic did work this time.

"STOP! Enough questions without answers! Enough of the mystery ponies! I need answers!!" Shining shouted very annoyed and full of frustration. "What is this place? What were those shadows you destroyed!?” Shining shouted, looking seriously at the gray pony. Deciding that it didn't matter if he dueled that unicorn, he would get the answers he needed right there, one by one.

The gray pony seemed unfazed by Shining’s action, he simply looked down, seeing his hooves immobilized by Shining’s pink magic. Then he raised his gaze and saw calmly and steadily the angry face of the white unicorn.

“We are inside the Crystal Heart.” The gray pony replied calmly. “And those 'shadows' you saw are what I call umbrums. Negative emotions that inhabit this place, that when mixed with old memories, materialize and take shape… I guess that is the best definition.”

"Emotions?" Shining repeated in disbelief. Remembering when those shadows passed through him and how he felt when they did.

“And by the way, I didn't destroy them. I only held them back for a moment.” The gray pony added, motioning with his gaze for Shining to look around. As Shining did so, he saw that from the dark tar that had been left after destroying those ghosts, new faces were beginning to appear from it and began to rise again. At that moment, Shining felt a chill as he looked towards the farthest part of the abyss, from where that brilliant light had been born. There now was absolute darkness, one that made Shining shiver just by looking in that direction. “These are the small ones, but there are four umbrums that I can't control so easily. Therefore, it’s best that we get out of here before they recover.” The gray pony added, lifting a hoof and putting it in front of Shining for him to take.

“I was restricting his movement with my magic… How could he let go so easily!?” Shining thought in surprise, seeing that that pony had raised his hoof.

"Who are you?" Shining asked, looking at the gray pony's hoof and then staring at him.

“You can call me Sombra.” The gray pony responded, proudly raising his head.

Without waiting for a response, Sombra took Shining's hoof and activated his magic. Instantly, both he and Shining were back in the plaza below the castle, in front of the Crystal Heart. Shining shook his head as if he had been dizzy for an instant and then inhaled sharply, grateful to be able to breathe clean air again and to feel light in his fur.

“K-King Sombra. W-We didn't know you'd be here…” One of the guards Shining had seen before he disappeared said from afar. He approached along with another dozen guards.

Shining Armor looked closely at those guards and was surprised to see that they could not look King Sombra in the eyes. They kept smiling, but their faces were fighting to do so, like they didn't really want to be standing there.

"Calm down, there's no problem." Sombra responded with a subtle sad smile. “Go back to your work. I’ll return to the castle immediately.”

As if the guards had been released from great pressure, they all sighed, bowed, and left. The further they got from Shining and Sombra, their faces returned to normal smiles.

After the guards left, Sombra looked up at the sky with an impatient look, as if he needed to go somewhere. Sombra took two quick steps, but instantly stopped and lowered his gaze. On his face you could see that he was struggling between making one decision or another. Finally, he turned around, and this time it was his turn to use magic on Shining, immobilizing his hooves. Leaving Shining very surprised.

“Now it's my turn to ask questions,” Sombra said, approaching Shining and staring at him. “Who are you and how did you get here?”

On the highest floor of the castle, the recently awakened Cadance looked still confused at the crystal-furred pony standing in front of the statue of the ancient alicorn queen.

“Amore? No, my name is Radiant Hope.” The lilac, crystal-furred pony said, looking at Cadance in confusion.

"I-I wasn't referring to you... But to the statue." Cadance responded, glancing at the statue behind Radiant Hope. “You said she was the Guardian of the Empire, and seeing that everything here seems to be made of crystal, even your fur, I assume this is the Crystal Empire…” Cadance added, looking uncertainly at the crystal pony.

"That's right." Radiant Hope replied smiling.

“It's impossible... Aunt Celestia said it disappeared centuries ago.” Cadance thought confused, but still, she continued with her hypothesis, which was the only one that fit everything.

“That means that what you call Guardian of the Empire, must be the former Queen Amore.” Cadance said, pointing at the statue. “In the history books, she appears as a powerful unicorn princess, but Aunt Celestia told me that in reality, she was a powerful alicorn queen…”

“And more things that Celestia told me, that I'm not sure if I should say yet…” Cadance thought, remembering the conversation they both once had about the Crystal Empire.

At that moment, Radiant Hope turned around and looked carefully at the alicorn statue.

“Queen Amore… Was that her name?” Radiant Hope murmured unsurely, lowering her gaze and making a confused and somewhat sad look. “I… I've always known her simply as 'Guardian'…” The crystal pony added with a thoughtful look.

While Radiant Hope seemed to be dealing with her own thoughts, Cadance took the opportunity to look at everything around her. That was a beautiful room with several pillars, in which everything seemed to be made of crystal, except for some flowers that were on the altar of the alicorn statue. Not far away, there was a window, through which Cadance raised her head to see better and was surprised to see a huge city that seemed to be at the foot of where they were.

“How did I get here?” Cadance asked, touching her head as she tried to remember the last thing that happened before she lost consciousness.

“You fell from the sky.” Radiant Hope responded, stopping looking at the statue and returning her focus to Cadance. “Yesterday, I had a strange feeling as if someone was calling me. Then I went out to the balcony of the castle and saw how the aurora in the sky lit up brightly for a second. The next thing I saw was you falling unconscious from beyond the clouds. Luckily, I managed to grab you from the balcony before you fell to the ground.”

“So that happened…” Cadance murmured with a thoughtful look. Realizing that there was something in Radiant Hope's story that closely matched something she felt before she fell. Just before she fell unconscious, she also felt a strange sensation, as if something or someone was calling her from somewhere.

After thinking for a few seconds, Cadance was distracted when she saw that Radiant Hope had been staring at her, with a tender and adorable smile, as if she were seeing something very charming.

“Oh! I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you feel uncomfortable.” Radiant Hope said with an awkward smile. “It's just… you're so beautiful.”

Cadance smiled kindly and blushed slightly. Every word that Radiant Hope said felt so pure that Cadance also felt a very pleasant sensation when seeing and hearing that crystal pony.

"Thank you. You’re very beautiful too, Radiant Hope.” Cadance responded kindly. Then she noticed both Hope's kind gaze and that of the statue of Queen Amore. “Your eyes are as kind as those of that statue… In fact, I would say they are quite similar to each other.”

“The Guardian and me? Hahaha, I wish we were similar.” Radiant Hope answered smiling, turning to look at the statue again while Cadance also approached it. “In fact, you and her look more alike… You could be sisters!”

“She is also very pretty, but I don't think we are that much alike, beyond being both alicorns.” Cadance said smiling.

"I don’t say it for that. I know more alicorns, and I assure you that they don't look as much like the Guardian as you do." Radiant Hope said smiling. “In fact, one of my best friends is an alicorn.”

“You know other alicorns?” Cadance asked surprised.

Before Cadance could ask anything else, footsteps of hooves began to be heard from afar, indicating that someone was approaching.

“It must be Sombra!” Radiant Hope said scared, turning to look at the room door. Then she quickly pushed Cadance away. "Hurry up! You must hide!”

Not understanding the reason for Hope's fear, Cadance was forcibly pushed behind the Guardian statue, while Radiant Hope quickly returned to standing in front of the statue as if she were completely alone. Just at that moment, the door burst open, revealing that a handsome, tall pony with gray fur and a purple cape had arrived, which Cadance had never seen in her life.

“What is this feeling…?” Cadance thought as she looked at the gray pony. Feeling a particular chill.

“Hope!” Sombra shouted, looking seriously at Radiant Hope. "What are you doing here?"

“N-Nothing! I was just visiting the statue of the Guardian of the Empire.” Radiant Hope stammered with a very nervous smile.

Sombra looked intently at Hope and slowly narrowed his eyes.

“You're lying to me…” Sombra said seriously, running to pounce on Hope.

"No, no! Sombra, no!” Hope screamed desperately, as she fell on her back and Sombra pounced on her.

For a second, the only thing Cadance saw from her angle of vision was Sombra moving on top of Hope as she struggled to get free and moved her hooves as she screamed to be let go.

“Get away from her right now!” Cadance screamed in terror. Coming out of hiding to face that wild gray pony.

"No! Hahaha! Sto… Hahaha! Stop Sombra!” Hope laughed, crying with laughter after Sombra lunged at her to tickle her. Something Cadance could only see once came out of hiding.

As Cadance ordered, Sombra instantly stopped tickling Hope. However, it was not because of the authority of the pink alicorn, but simply because of the surprise of seeing that there was someone else there, and even more so when seeing that it was not just any pony.

“An alicorn…” Sombra said in surprise, leaving his mouth half open in surprise.

“Aww… You ruined the surprise…” Radiant Hope said standing up. Making a pouty face when she saw that her surprise was ruined.

“Cadance!” Someone else shouted from the door. A voice that made Cadance turn around immediately, as her eyes lit up.

“Shining!” Cadance shouted with joy when she saw her beloved husband there. Running towards him to give him a big kiss.

While the two lovers kissed for the joy of having met again after their sudden separation, Radiant Hope looked at them with a loving smile. Meanwhile, Sombra was still somewhat stunned to see that there, in his castle, there was an alicorn again.

“Y-You… Are you an alicorn princess?” Sombra asked after a while, a little nervous. Just as Shining and Cadance finally ended their long kiss. “Is Equestria still ruled by an alicorn?”

Before Cadance or Shining could say anything, Radiant Hope jumped up and comically hit Sombra on the head.

“Ouch…! What was that for?" Sombra asked confused, rubbing his head.

“Before asking questions like crazy, let's give our guests a proper reception.” Radiant Hope said, looking seriously at Sombra. “Do you know how long it's been since we had visitors!?”

Sombra subtly looked away for a few seconds, as if he were hesitant to follow what Hope was telling him. However, finally he gave a big sigh and gave in to what the crystal pony asked of him.

“You're right…” Sombra said with a small smile. While Radiant Hope smiled proudly, knowing that Sombra never refused anything she asked of him. “Do you want to accompany us to the dining room? I am sure that there we will be able to formally introduce ourselves and resolve all the questions we mutually have.” Sombra added, looking kindly at Cadance and Shining.

The alicorn princess and her husband looked at each other for a second. They were both full of questions, but it was also true that the correct thing to do in a foreign castle was to follow protocol. Furthermore, although this entire place was extremely strange, it didn't seem like they were in danger. Shining had verified that Sombra was not someone evil, and Cadance saw Radiant Hope’s pure heart, so it wouldn't be wrong to accept their invitation.

After accepting the invitation, the four ponies began to walk down a hallway. Radiant Hope smiled as hard as she could, Sombra tried to hide his nervousness, Shining continued to marvel at seeing the beautiful crystal palace, and Cadance kept a thoughtful look, still trying to remember everything that had happened before she fainted after falling off the globe.

“Dusk Shine, Spike and the girls!!” Cadance suddenly shouted, remembering something extremely important.

"Don’t worry. I told Applejack and Rarity to follow me with the others in this direction.” Shining said with a small smile, touching his wife's back to reassure her. “As soon as I told Sombra that I hadn't fallen from the balloon alone, he sent some guards to look for them in the city. If they are here, the guards will let us know in a few minutes; otherwise, we’ll go out to look for them outside the city immediately.”

“Dusk is very smart. I'm sure he and his friends are fine.” Shining thought, starting to look askance at Sombra. “What worries me the most is the fact that Sombra was very scared when he found out that there were more ponies here. That's why he immediately ran to check if that crystal pony was okay.” Shining thought, looking at Radiant Hope this time.

Cadance was more relieved to know that someone was already looking for Dusk and his friends. That made the strange weight she had been feeling finally disappear. Thus, she was able to focus more on what was now in front of her. Her sight inevitably focused on the purple-cloaked pony walking in front of her. She still couldn't explain that strange chill she felt when she saw him for the first time. With Cadance’s ability to sense the hearts and feelings of those around her, she felt there was something strange about Sombra, but she couldn't make it out. For a second, the first thing she associated that strange sensation with was what the cruel Queen Chrysalis once made her feel, however, the more Cadance saw Sombra, she realized that it wasn't like that, what she felt in Sombra was strange, but it wasn't evil. Then Cadance caught Sombra's gaze, and, although he struggled to hide it, Cadance could feel in his heart the fear and impatience that he felt at that moment.

“I am an alicorn princess, and I do rule Equestria.” Cadance said as they continued walking, watching Sombra carefully. Remembering the question that had made the elegant gray pony so nervous. “But I don't do it alone. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rule alongside me.”

As if lightning had struck, both Sombra and Radiant Hope froze on the spot.

“You know Woona!!” Radiant Hope shouted full of excitement. Turning to jump in front of Cadance. Causing the pink pony to be very surprised while the crystal pony filled her with questions.

Distracted by how she was, Cadance failed to see Sombra's reaction, but Shining Armor did manage to see him. Unlike Radiant Hope, Sombra's paws trembled and he fell to his knees. Then he covered his mouth as his eyes expressed great emotion.

“She's alive…” Sombra whispered weakly, putting on a big smile and closing his eyes. Shedding a small tear as he touched a small paper that he hid behind his cape.

"Uh? Are you okay?" Cadance asked worriedly. Finally noticing that behind Hope, Sombra had fallen to his knees.

“Y-Yes… I'm fine.” Sombra said quickly, standing up and wiping away the tear he let fall, hiding his face from Cadance. Then he turned around and put on a radiant smile. “It's just that you gave me the most wonderful news in the world.” Sombra added, finally leaving his uneasy gaze aside and now walking with a pleasant and tender smile.

"Yeah! The best news in the world!” Radiant Hope added, as happy as ever. Also walking again to join Sombra's side.

For her part, Cadance also walked again while Shining also hurried to her side.

“Cadance, you must be careful with the information you reveal.” Shining whispered to Cadance. “Sombra and Hope don't seem like bad ponies, but we still have to be sure what's going on in this place.”

"I know. It's just he was the same as you and me, I could feel it. The only thing he thought about was flying away from here.” Cadance said smiling. “His soul was crying to know if his beloved was safe or not.”

In one of the neighborhoods far from the center of the enormous city that was the Crystal Empire, a large crowd of ponies gathered to see the new arrivals. The news that a group of 'opaque' ponies, along with a small dragon, had arrived in the city the day before had caused great excitement. They had all wanted to invite these new friends to their homes to share and laugh together; however, they were disappointed to discover that they had suddenly disappeared after visiting Coral and Amethyst’s house. Fortunately, as always in that perfect city, disappointment did not exist, and that strange feeling simply disappeared instantly and everyone looked for the mysterious group of newcomers as if they were playing hide and seek. Therefore, joy overwhelmed them when they finally found them. Even joy gave way to laughter as they didn’t understand why the lavender stallion in that group was screaming with a crazy face at that very moment.

Dusk Shine didn't understand anything that was happening in that crazy city and he didn't care that everyone thought he was crazy. He simply needed to externalize his emotions, since no matter how hard he tried, he didn’t understand the strange magic that surrounded the mysterious crystal ponies, capable of isolating a city, altering the passage of time, memories, and even... subdue death itself.

“The ponies keep coming…” Applejack muttered as Pinkie Pie, worried about her coltfriend's emotional stability, 'lovingly' slapped him several times to bring him back to sanity. “Are we really that interesting?”

“Young Amethyst wanted to make sure you were okay, after you left her house without warning.” A young mare with crystalline green fur said, who was very close to Applejack and could hear her. “And we all wanted to help her find you.” The crystal mare smiled.

“I also wanted to help young Amethyst Maresbury, but there was another reason too.” Another crystal pony nearby said, a young stallion with blue crystal fur. “Hey, Smoky Quartz! Didn't you say that your great-great-great-great-great-great-great third grandson was looking for the new arrivals?”

"Oh yeah!" Another pony responded from the middle of the tumult of ponies, whose head they could barely see due to the large crowd. “Star Arrow and the other guards were looking for them on the King's orders. It seems that there is another pony in the castle that comes from outside.”

“Another pony that came from outside!?” Dusk Shine suddenly asked, raising his head. With his cheeks swollen after regaining his sanity thanks to the effective treatment of his dear marefriend. “That must be Shining Armor!”

“Dusk Shine!” A new voice said from the sky.

When Dusk looks up, he almost momentarily loses his sanity again when he finds there one of the ponies that he least thought he could find in that strange place.

"Princess Luna!?" Dusk shouted in amazement, seeing that the blue alicorn landed next to him, while the crystal ponies that had been surrounding them retreated when they saw the alicorn there. "What are you doing here?"

“That's the same question I was going to ask you.” Luna responded, equally surprised to see Dusk, Spike and his other friends there.

Before Dusk and Luna could continue talking, the murmuring around them distracted them. Seeing Luna there, all the crystal ponies began to chat among themselves with shocked looks while looking at Luna. As more ponies spoke, the murmur became more noticeable and Dusk could catch that there was a word that was repeated: 'Guardian of the Empire'.

“Why are they calling you Guardian of the Empire?” Dusk asked, looking at Luna.

“I don't know… It's not the first time they've seen me. At least some of them must remember me, but no one has ever called me that before.” Luna responded, with a look just as confused as Dusk’s.

“Do some ponies remember you? Does that mean you know these ponies are immortal!?” Dusk asked in amazement.

“Yes… The Crystal Empire is… A pretty special place.” Luna responded somewhat unsurely, since only now did she realize how negligent she was in her youth, without questioning basic things that she should have paid more attention to before. “I always thought it was the product of Queen Amore’s powerful magic, but…” At that moment Luna fell silent and turned her head to focus her sight on the large street in front of her, which led directly towards the castle.

The crystal ponies, who were attentive to everything Luna did, noticed by her gaze where she wanted to go and immediately made way for her through the crowd. Several of them even made small bows.

“Queen Amore?” Dusk asked, closing one eye and making a thoughtful face as he struggled to remember that name. “That… That is the name of the ancient unicorn princess who ruled the Crystal Empire, right?”

“She was not a unicorn… To what extent did the nobles of the kingdom alter history to delegitimize the other kingdoms!” Luna responded annoyed, without looking at Dusk. Starting to walk towards the castle. “We must go to the castle. There we will find the answers we seek.”

“We were just going there.” Dusk said as he and his friends hurried to go to Luna, while the crystal ponies made way for them. “It seems that Shining Armor is there, or maybe it's Cadance.”

“Is Cadenza here too!?” Luna asked in surprise, stopping for a second and then quickly walking again. "What's going on here? How did you all get here?”

“Uh… It's a long story.” Dusk said, pressing his lips tightly, while in his mind he struggled to control himself, but at that point, his sanity could no longer support any more mysteries. “I'm sorry princess, I promise to tell you everything that has happened to us so far, but I REALLY need to get at least some answers now before my mind explodes!” Dusk said gritting his teeth and putting on a crazy look for a second. “Is this really the Crystal Empire? Hadn't it disappeared hundreds of years ago? How much do you know about this place and the magic that surrounds it!?” Dusk asked, a little hysterical. Forgetting all elegance, he brought his face closer to Luna and looked at her with a pleading look, because his brain needed answers.

Luna looked carefully at Dusk, blushed subtly at having Dusk’s face so close, and then looked away, giving a small sigh.

“I grew up here for the first years of my life, with Celestia.” Luna responded, again remembering her past.

“I… I never read anything like that in the history books.” Dusk said, trying to remember his Ancient History classes. “I always thought that you and Celestia lived among the ancient unicorn ponies until you settled in the Castle of the Two Sisters.”

“Over time you will learn that not everything that is written in the history books is how it really was…” Luna said, narrowing her eyes. “We only started living in Everfree Forest Castle after getting our cuties marks… That whole time was very chaotic. After fleeing the Crystal Empire, we did not hear from our old home again for many years, until one day, SHE contacted us…”

'Luna Flashback.'

Celestia and Luna walked together through the halls of their enormous new castle, 'The Castle of the Two Sisters' they had called it. A palace worthy of the newly crowned Princesses of Equestria to reign over their new domains.

At first, both alicorn sisters had been amazed to know that they would live in that beautiful castle, but they soon realized that the place was too huge, and for that reason, despite the many servants and other important ponies that were there, it felt very lonely at times, especially for two young ponies who were still even just fillies.

That day, both sisters were bored as usual, and decided to go in search of their beloved magic teacher. Upon reaching his room, they were surprised to see that the door was ajar, as Star Swirl normally was always very cautious and closed his room when he was alone, so that no one would interrupt him or spy on him at his work.

Wanting to surprise their master, the mischievous fillies silently opened the door and sneaked into the huge room of the great wizard of the kingdom. A room that looked more like a huge library than a bedroom to rest in. As they silently entered between the large shelves full of books, both alicorns raised their ears when they heard their master's voice from the center of the room. It seemed like he was talking to someone.

“We've already talked about it, you can't visit them. It's too dangerous for the three of you to be together!” Star Swirl’s voice said, with some concern in his tone of voice. “You made me swear to protect them, and unfortunately, until they are older, the only way to keep them safe is for them to stay away from you. If we’re not careful, what happened in the Crystal Empire could repeat itself.”

“They’re like my daughters. I watched them grow up since they were babies. They’re my only family!” A female voice said, who seemed to be crying.

“I know… But they are still too young to understand everything we go through and the problems that come with their condition as alicorns.” Star Swirl responded with much regret in his voice. “If they see you, they'll want to go with you, and I can't let that happen.”

For a moment, a sad silence reigned in the room as if both voices knew that they had reached a dead end in which, despite their wishes, they couldn’t do what they wanted.

“I have continued studying your case, even from here. But I don't think there is a possible solution to what you asked me that day..." Star Swirl said with great sadness. “Immortality is a blessing, but that same blessing is what prevents you from being a mother… It is a natural law of life.”

“Immortality is not a blessing… It’s a curse… The curse of being an alicorn.” The female voice said after a long silence, with a dull voice. “I am condemned to live for eternity, and now I don't even have a kingdom to protect. Just a huge, desolate ghost city…”

While they listened, Luna didn’t understand much of what was being said, her mind was more focused on trying to recognize the female voice that was speaking, since she was sure that she had heard it before somewhere. At that moment Luna raised her head to ask her sister if she recognized that voice, then Luna was surprised to see that Celestia had a look of shock and her eyes were full of tears. Finally coming out of her shock, Celestia completely forgot about Luna and quickly advanced from her hiding place towards the center of the room, to which Luna also quickly followed her.

Before them, indeed, was Star Swirl as they expected, but he wasn't alone, at least not in theory. In front of him was a small mirror resting on the floor, which Luna especially knew very well. It was a ’screen mirror' and the image it reflected was that of the face of someone they had believed to be dead for years.

“Queen Amore!!” Both little alicorns shouted with tears in their eyes. Running straight to the mirror.

“Stop girls! Be careful with the mirror!” Star Swirl said frightened. Stopping both alicorns before they lunged and broke the mirror.

“Girls!! My dear girls! How much you have grown!” Amore said from the reflection in the mirror, also excited. Covering her mouth as she cried.

“W-We thought you were dead.” Celestia said, crying with emotion.

“No, dear, I… I'm fine, don't worry.” Amore responded with a tender smile. For a fleeting moment, glancing askance at Star Swirl, who, for his part, simply looked away, putting on a look full of concern.

“I'll give you a few minutes alone.” Star Swirl said, forcing a small smile and releasing the little alicorns. “Just be careful not to touch the mirror, it's very delicate, and also… be careful what you say.” The magician added, looking up, subtly looking at Amore more than at the fillies. A look that Amore understood, also returning a serious and fleeting glance before smiling again at Celestia and Luna.

For several minutes, Celestia and Luna talked with Amore, telling her about their adventures in recent years, with the nobles of the three tribes, Celestia's trip to the Dragon Land, how they obtained their cuties marks... Almost the entire conversation focused on the little alicorns, since every time Celestia or Luna asked Amore something, like where she was or what had happened that day, Amore simply avoided answering and came up with a new question to refocus the conversation in the young princesses.

As the minutes passed, Amore's image slowly became more blurred, and the sound coming from the mirror became intermittent. That was the signal for Star Swirl to re-enter the room.

"That is all for today. The screen mirror is not made for long talks, otherwise too much magic could destroy the core of the crystal.” Star Swirl said, approaching Celestia and Luna to say goodbye.

“We’ll meet again! Right?" Celestia screamed in fear one last time, before Amore’s image faded completely.

"Yes, it’s a promise." Amore responded with a tender smile. Then she lowered her head and put on a more serious look. No longer talking to Celestia and Luna, but rather, promising something to herself. “I… I’ll get my family back, no matter what it costs me. Even… if I have to break the laws of nature…” Amore added with a strange dull look. A look that Star Swirl caught a glimpse, and it worried him because he recognized the hopelessness and determination in that look, and from his own experience, he knew that there was nothing more dangerous than someone powerful having lost all hope...

Despite Amore's promise, she never used the screen mirror again to contact the princesses. No matter how Celestia tried, Amore simply wouldn't activate the mirror from the other side. Both Celestia and Luna feared that this was a sign that something bad had happened to Amore, a worry that also began to fill Star Swirl, so one day, the wizard embarked on a long journey to meet Amore. Forcing Celestia and Luna to stay in the castle, as it was a dangerous trip, and even more dangerous, it could be that the three of them would find themselves together again.

After several weeks of absence, one day Star Swirl finally returned to the castle. There, he told the young alicorns that he had not been able to find Amore. In fact, the strangest thing was that a great storm had appeared out of nowhere in northern Equestria, right where the ruins of the Crystal Empire should be located. As much as Star Swirl tried, he couldn't fight the huge storm and couldn't move forward any further. From that date on, that inexplicable storm would be called 'The Northern Storm,' an eternal storm that made it impossible to access that specific point in Northern Equestria.

Time passed, and Star Swirl and the princesses continued with their lives, although they were always attentive to any possible news about Amore or the strange storm that reigned in the north of the continent. Finally, a few years after seeing Amore in the mirror the last time, one night Luna, in her new position as Princess of the Night, ran to wake up Celestia and Star Swirl. There, Luna showed them the strange lights that began to appear in the northern night sky, illuminating the sky with beautiful green and purple flashes.

The morning after the appearance of that mysterious northern lights, Star Swirl packed up and said goodbye to the princesses. To his surprise, Celestia didn’t oppose his departure, unlike Luna, who insisted on going with him. However, with the help of Celestia, Star Swirl convinced Luna to stay in the castle as well.

“Tia! What are you doing!? It’s the first sign we have that Queen Amore may be okay!” Luna yelled annoyingly at her sister once Star Swirl was already gone. “Are you no longer interested in knowing if she is okay?”

“Don't be silly, Lulu.” Celestia responded, looking at Luna annoyed. Then she used her magic and made a travel backpack appear next to her. “Star Swirl would never let us go with him... That's why we'll follow him on our own.” Celestia added with a smile full of pride.

Both alicorn sisters followed in the old wizard's footsteps, always taking care not to get close enough for Star Swirl to notice. Fortunately, both had been trained by Star Swirl himself, and Celestia especially, was very skilled in magic, so they managed to go unnoticed on that long journey until they reached the frozen north. There, both alicorns saw for the first time with their own eyes the great storm that devastated those lands.

While Star Swirl advanced with effort through that storm, the princesses had no choice but to shorten the distance, since, in that great storm, they could barely see a little ahead. In fact, in a moment, the worst happened, and both completely lost track of their master.

Knowing that they only had to follow the trail left by Star Swirl before losing sight of him, both alicorns quickened their pace to try to see where the magician was. They advanced and advanced blindly through the great storm until suddenly they collided head-on with Star Swirl, which had stopped dead.

“Celestia! Luna! What are you doing here!?" Star Swirl asked, very surprised to see the young princesses there.

“We follow you.” Celestia said, rubbing her sore nose after bumping into Star Swirl. “Why did you stop?”

“Oh! I'm sorry. I stopped because there is a magical barrier here.” Star Swirl responded kindly, touching his hoof to an invisible wall while illuminating his horn to try to understand what kind of magical barrier it was. Suddenly, Star Swirl opened his eyes in surprise, and his smile disappeared, becoming angry again. “Wait a second, don't change the subject! Why did you follow me!? I told you it was dangerous!”

Suddenly Star Swirl quickly turned around as he felt the magical barrier reacting. Then the wizard lowered his hoof and saw that the strong barrier had become much less dense.

“They're inviting us in…” Star Swirl whispered, surprised. Realizing that something or someone was controlling that powerful magical barrier.

The unicorn wizard turned again to see the two young princesses. His priority would have been to get them back to the safety of the castle, but he couldn't tell them to go alone in that storm, much less order them to wait there and freeze in that storm. As for Star Swirl had no choice but to tell them to come with him and not leave his side.

Upon passing through the barrier, the three ponies were instantly surprised by what they saw. The storm didn’t exist in that place and more importantly, before them was the great Crystal Empire, as both Celestia and Luna remembered it. For his part, Star Swirl made a face of even more surprise, because he had visited that city after the great war, and had seen with his own eyes that that beautiful city had been almost completely destroyed... How was it possible that it was intact now!?

“It's reconstructed detail by detail…” Star Swirl murmured surprised, starting to walk. For a second, forgetting that he was with Celestia and Luna, and simply marveling at seeing that beautiful city rebuilt from the ashes.

Slowly the three ponies approached the center of the city. As Star Swirl approached, he was even more surprised to see that there were ponies there. A small group of no more than fifteen ponies, who were in the square below the castle, formed a line.

“It's a pleasure to have visitors!” A young crystal-furred pony said, with a big smile. “The Queen notified us of her arrival! So we gathered the whole city to welcome our first guests.”

None of the three ponies moved at first. Celestia and Luna were waiting to follow in Star Swirl’s footsteps, but the wizard seemed to have frozen. He simply stared at the crystal-furred ponies in front of him, with a look of utter confusion.

“Is it a time spell? No, if it were, the problem of paradox would arise… Did she manage to solve it?” Star Swirl murmured, deep in thought. Walking to get closer to those ponies with shiny fur.

As if they were just experiments, Star Swirl began to touch the faces and bodies of those ponies, analyzing them in detail. While the ponies simply laughed and let themselves be touched, amused by Star Swirl’s funny expressions. Then Star Swirl widened his eyes even more as he saw the object behind the line of crystal ponies. There was an extremely bright heart-shaped crystal, radiating light as it floated and rotated on its own axis. Slowly Star Swirl approached that object, immediately noticing the enormous amount of magic it emanated. Then, he turned around again and looked again at the ponies that inhabited that city.

"What is this…?" Star Swirl murmured with a confused and fearful look because there were few things that the magician's brilliant mind could not understand. Despite not understanding, Star’s mind Swirl was already starting to formulate some crazy theories, but they all scared him.

Without wasting any more time, Star Swirl followed one of the guards who guided him into the castle. He was always closely followed by Celestia and Luna, who simply looked at the beautiful palace in amazement and smiled, noting that it was just as they remembered it. Eventually, they all made it to the throne room. However, once there, the guard diverted them and instead guided them towards the Queen's room.

Upon opening the door, Celestia and Luna's eyes lit up when they saw that there, lying on a bed, was finally the pony they had fought so hard to find, Queen Amore. Instantly, both alicorns ran and hugged her, while Amore just smiled with effort and caressed their manes. For his part, Star Swirl stayed where he was, with a perplexed look as he noticed how the young alicorns’ excitement prevented them from seeing something at first glance.

Amore’s appearance was unrecognizable, little remained of the beautiful, strong and tall figure that was once one of the strongest, oldest and wisest being in Equestria. Amore’s body was extremely thin, as was her face, which seemed to be very haggard, as if she had not eaten or drank water in days. Her eyes had completely lost the spark of life and strength that had always characterized her, and from the few words she said to speak, and from how she moved, Star Swirl could tell that just talking and moving was causing her pain despite trying hard to smile. Seeing her in such a state, Star Swirl pressed his lips together and forced himself to stay strong, even though his eyes watered.

“Amore… What have you done…?” Star Swirl finally asked, after the princesses finished hugging the Queen.

At Star Swirl's question, Amore looked at the wizard with her dull gaze and put on a genuine tender smile.

“I did it, Star Swirl… I fulfilled my dream…” Amore smiled with effort. Then she turned slightly to look behind the back of her bed. “You can come out now.”

Hearing the signal, a small unicorn filly with blue eyes, lilac fur, and a light blue mane, full of joy, quickly jumped out from behind Amore's bed. Behind her, another small colt with green eyes, grey fur and a black mane, came out more timidly.

“They’re Radiant Hope and Sombra.” Amore said slowly, smiling tenderly at the sight of the foals. Then she stared at Star Swirl and smiled again. "They are my children."

"What…?" Star Swirl stammered, with a face of absolute amazement. So surprised, that he took a step back, as if he could no longer bear any more surprises and almost fainted. Then the magician held his head and tried to organize his thoughts, which at that moment were in chaos. It was then that Star Swirl looked terrified as he remembered something extremely important that he forgot due to all the surprises he had found there. “The three of you are together! We must flee from here!” Star Swirl shouted, very scared.

“Calm down… Nothing will happen here…” Amore said, making an effort to get up a little more and remain in a sitting position. “The Empire is now outside the normal time and space of Equestria… No one should feel that the three of us are here together.”

"Out of time…? So you did use my time spells…” Star Swirl muttered surprised. Then he put on a thoughtful look, until slowly his mind was theorizing to solve one by one the mysteries that he still did not understand. "No... While I was studying time, you were studying immortality..." Star Swirl murmured, looking seriously at Amore.

Understanding that Star Swirl's cunning mind would discover what was going on there sooner or later, Amore also put on a serious look.

“My children, go and play with the princesses in the hallway.” Amore said, looking tenderly at her little children. “I have to talk some things with the grumpy uncle Star Swirl.”

Following her mother's orders, the smiling Hope launched herself at the alicorns, amused by the sight of their wings. Meanwhile, the young princesses smiled one last time at Amore and left the room, finally followed by little Sombra. After leaving, Star Swirl immediately closed the door.

“Are you really a princess? What does it feel like to have wings? I like your mane! Do you want to be my friend?" Little Hope asked quickly, holding onto young Luna's neck. Choosing her to be her new friend since she seemed less serious than the white alicorn. "Let's play! Let's play!"

"Uh? Me? What?" Luna stuttered, surprised at little Radiant Hope’s excess energy. While she was pulling her to take her to her room.

As Luna was forced to leave, she watched as Celestia simply stared at the door to Queen Amore’s room, looking at it with a serious look. And a little further behind Celestia, was little Sombra, who was simply looking at Celestia timidly from behind a pillar, with his gaze fixed on her.

Giving in to little Hope's insistence, Luna ended up arriving at Amore’s children's room. There, Radiant Hope began by passing a bunch of toys and dolls to Luna so they could play together. Young Luna was older than Radiant Hope and had long ago decided not to play with dolls anymore since, in her perception, she was already too old for that. However, at Hope's offer, seeing her radiant smile, Luna's inner filly won, and she ended up enjoying and laughing while they both played with their dolls together.

“You're so funny, Luna,” Hope said, smiling at the alicorn after playing for a while. “I like that we are friends.”

For a second, Luna simply blinked as she digested those words. Hope had already mentioned it previously, but Luna hadn't paid attention to it. After all, how could they become friends with just a simple word? It was then that Luna felt an emptiness in her stomach as she realized something.

“I also like… that we are friends.” Luna smiled slightly, blushing, realizing that it was the first time she had said that.

As she looked around the room, Luna noticed several drawings stuck on the walls, drawings made by the hooves of a foal. Upon seeing them, Luna realized that they were drawings of ponies, quite poorly drawn, which had some bright things coming out of their heads and others had dark things coming out of their heads.

“What is that on the ponies’ heads?” Luna asked curiously, approaching the drawings, because there was something familiar that had caught her attention. “Are they flies?”

"No! They are not flies, Woona.” Hope said making a pouty face, since Luna hadn't understood her drawing. Giving her new friend Luna the nickname ’Woona.’ “They are fairies! The fairies that come out of the heads of the crystal ponies.”

“Fairies?” Luna asked surprised.

"Yeah. I see these bright ones that come out during the day.” Radiant Hope said, showing the drawing Luna was holding. Then she took another of the drawings and passed it to Luna. “And Sombra sees these dark ones, who come out in the night.”

Luna looked at the drawings for a few seconds and then smiled.

“Do you see them too? I thought only I saw them!” Luna said happily. “Although I see both, the bright ones and the dark ones. But I only see them at night when the ponies are sleeping.”

“Wow …! That's great! Maybe you can make friends with them!” Hope said very excited. “I have tried to get close to the fairies, but I can't touch them, and they don't speak either because they’re very small. While Sombra, he is afraid of them.”

“Get closer to the fairies…?” Luna muttered thoughtfully because that had never occurred to her. She always thought that those things were just her imagination since neither Celestia nor Star Swirl saw them.

Without realizing it, Radiant Hope planted the seed in Luna for the Princess of the Night to discover her real potential and discover years later that those 'fairies' she saw were the dreams and nightmares that the ponies had in their dreams. Forging an entire astral plane to guide those fairies on a plane that would help her access dreams. An astral plane that never guided either the 'fairies' of Radiant Hope or those of Sombra, since those 'fairies' that Amore’s children saw were not dreams but... something else.

'End of flashback.'

“Radiant Hope was my first friend… my only true friend.” Luna said back in the present. Walking with Dusk and his friends as they finally arrived at the castle. “The last time I saw her, we were both adults. She was so happy, but I couldn't be… I was afraid of what might happen.” Luna added with a sad look. “When the Empire closed again, I fell into a great depression… Shortly after, I became Nightmare Moon.”

Dusk Shine looked at Luna, and saw that remembering her past hurt her, especially that part. So he decided to stop asking for a moment so that Luna wouldn't feel pressured and would recover.

“What does she mean by the Empire 'closed again'?” Dusk thought, slightly frustrated. “Now I know a little more about the alicorn sisters' past, but I still don't know what the hell this place is!”

Upon reaching the central square of the city, just below the castle, the guards, who seemed to be sleeping and playing, quickly got up when they saw who was approaching. Immediately, one of the guards rushed into the castle while the others ran to greet Dusk and company.

“Oh! We were looking for you.” One of the guards smiled when he saw Dusk and company. Until his gaze landed on Luna, and upon seeing her wings and horn, he had a look of amazement, like the other guards.

“Were you looking for us, or were you lying there doing nothing?” Spike asked from Dusk’s back. Like everyone else, he had caught a glimpse of the lazy guards resting.

"Uh? Oh yeah! We looked for you yesterday, but since we couldn't find you, we decided to wait for you to appear on your own.” The man who seemed to be the captain of the guard responded, distracting himself from looking at Luna. “We knew you were going to appear sooner or later; after all, nothing bad ever happens here.” The guard smiled.

“Wow…! What's that?" Dusk suddenly asked, immediately noticing the great magic emanating from the heart-shaped crystal rotating in the center of the square.

“It’s the Crystal Heart. It's-” Luna answered calmly, until she opened her eyes in surprise as she understood that she never really wondered what the Crystal Heart really was. In the past, she simply assumed that the Crystal Heart was just a powerful magical artifact that protected the city since forever… Was it really like that? In her memory of her first days in the Empire couldn't remember if the Crystal Heart was before or after her, Celestia, and Star Swirl returned to the Empire when she was older. “Come on, we should see who's in charge here.” Luna quickly added, walking again to go to the castle stairs. With an annoyed look when she realized how careless she had been for not asking herself such obvious things before.

Finally, everyone followed one of the guards, who led them to the dining room. There, Dusk and the others sighed in relief when they saw that Shining and Cadance were right there. Both sitting at a large table where they had served what seemed to be a large banquet. Next to them were two other unicorns, Sombra and Radiant Hope.

"Dusk! Girls!" Cadance shouted excitedly. Getting up with her husband to go hug everyone.

Of course, the first one Cadance hugged was her beloved favorite foal, Dusk. While Shining took the opportunity to affectionately caress Spike’s head on Dusk’s back. For their part, Dusk’s friends were excited to see that everyone was safe and healthy; however, their excitement quickly passed them by when they saw the other two unicorns approaching. In particular, their eyes fell on the tall and elegant gray unicorn with a purple cape. One that made the five mares' hearts jump for a second because of how handsome he was.

“It can't be… LUNA!!” Hope suddenly shouted, full of emotion. Running straight towards the last pony that had entered the room. Then Radiant Hope jumped to hug Luna, who, for her part, froze with her mouth open, stunned to see who had come to greet her.

While Luna was hugged, she slowly raised her gaze and was shocked again to see that in addition to Hope, in front of her was also Sombra. Who, for his part, was also frozen by the surprise of seeing Luna there. Of all the possible ponies they could meet, they were now both standing face to face with the pony they least expected to have encountered there. After the greetings, the only ones who still seemed to be in shock were Luna and Sombra, still unable to believe that the other was alive in front of them.

“Woona, I missed you so much! I knew that one day we would see each other again!” Radiant Hope said with a bright smile. Finally stopping hugging her best friend's neck.

“Uh... Yeah. I... I'm glad to see you too, Hope.” Luna smiled nervously, looking at Hope from head to tail, noting her crystalline fur. Slowly coming out of the initial shock after seeing that Hope and Sombra were still there, inhabiting the castle after so many years. Especially after Celestia told her a certain... 'secret.'

“I think there are a lot of things to tell us to catch up.” Sombra finally said, shaking his head to regain the composure and elegance that characterized him. “We were just about to eat. It would be a pleasure if all our guests joined us.” Sombra added, with a small bow and a charming smile.

As Sombra headed to the table, the first to follow him were Rarity and Fluttershy, who seemed to have been struck by the handsome unicorn, followed by Rainbow Dash, Applejack and Pinkie Pie, who also thought he was very handsome, but hid it a little better. For her part, Cadance smiled at Dusk to make him trust that everything there was fine, and together with Shining and Spike, they also went to sit at the table. Finally, Hope clung to Luna and pulled her to sit next to her, chatting like a parrot as she did so. At that moment, a small and subtle golden flash appeared in front of Luna, dropping a paper that Luna managed to grab with her magic.

As she sat down, Luna saw that there was something written; she read it and immediately narrowed her eyes in annoyance. Looking up, she saw the one who had secretly sent her the note, it was Sombra, who was looking at her intently.

“I hate that look… I know perfectly well who it reminds me of…” Luna thought annoyed.

Despite all the questions they had, Dusk and company could not put aside their hunger since they had not eaten anything except hot cocoa for almost two days. So everyone was grateful for the enormous banquet there. Of course, Sombra took advantage of the moment to make presentations and take the lead in the conversation, guiding the topics of interest.

Apparently, Shining had already told Sombra how they got there after the balloon crashed, so he started asking more questions about what had happened before that. This was how Dusk and company began to tell of their trip to the yak village, and before that, their trip to the Dragon Land, and before that, adventure after adventure. Without realizing it, Sombra's great eloquence captivated everyone, making even Dusk forget, at times, all his questions while he had fun telling his experiences.

That afternoon of conversation could have dragged on forever; however, Dusk finally realized that there was someone who seemed to not be enjoying the conversation. It was Luna, who was the only one who hadn't said a word, other than to occasionally chat and smile with Hope, who couldn't stop laughing and remembering anecdotes.

“I'm sorry to be rude… but we've already talked too much about ourselves.” Dusk finally said, in the middle of a fun debate that Sombra and Shining were having regarding the training of the guards. “We have answered many of your questions, but you... have not yet answered any of our doubts.”

“This is not an interrogation. I thought we were having fun with the conversation.” Sombra responded innocently. However, upon seeing the determined look in Dusk’s eyes, he simply sighed and put on a small smile. “Go ahead, young Dusk. Tell me, what do you want to know? I promise you that I’ll answer you with the absolute truth.” Sombra smiled kindly.

Seeing Sombra's smile, Dusk became worried for a second. That kind smile reminded him of someone, but at that moment, his mind couldn't associate it with anyone. It was a genuine smile of kindness, but for some reason, it also seemed a little… sad?

Leaving that thought aside, Dusk tried to organize his thoughts. He had dozens of questions in his mind, but he knew he had to be careful. Just like Sombra said, he couldn't make this look like an interrogation. He had to correctly choose the most important questions and, based on that, clear up the mystery.

“This is the Crystal Empire, right?” Dusk finally asked. Deciding the order of his questions. “If so, how did it appear here overnight? Where had he been before? “How did it disappear in the first at all?”

“That's several questions in one.” Sombra responded, smiling amused. “Indeed, this is the Crystal Empire. I don't know what they say in the Equestrian history books about us, but the truth is that this is not the first time that the Crystal Empire has closed or opened to the world. By closing, I mean isolating itself from the world… The Crystal Empire was built to protect itself from the dangers of the world, isolating itself in its own space-time plane if required.”

“A different spatial plane?” Dusk murmured in amazement.

"No, no! He only partially answered my questions; he’s not giving me direct answers.” Dusk thought, realizing how bright that gray unicorn was. “Who controls the apparitions? Why was it designed that way? Who has the power to do that!? He's answering questions indirectly to make me have even more questions and deviate from the goal I want to get to!”

“I guess you noticed the magical barrier.” Sombra continued talking, always smiling. “That barrier isolates us from the big storm outside. At the same time, it also partially isolates us from ordinary time. Here, time moves faster than outside.”

Every word Sombra said was kind, and without asking Applejack, Dusk would swear he was completely honest too. But it wasn't all, that smile... Dusk finally realized it! He looked up for a second and saw that both Luna and Cadance were staring at him, as if they wanted to tell him something with their gazes. They had noticed it too. Talking to Sombra... It was like talking to Celestia! Everything he said was true, the honest truth, but there was always something hidden, as if they both decided to take on the world's problems alone and to protect everyone; they didn't lie, but they didn't tell everything they knew either.

Mentally Dusk imagined playing chess against his teacher, and he knew that he was doing it now. Only this time, it was not against the Princess of the Sun, but against Sombra; and he didn't do it on a chess board, but in a conversation.

“What is the Crystal Heart, and who created it?” Dusk asked, quickly coming to the conclusion that several answers could be resolved from that question.

“The Crystal Heart is a powerful magical artifact created with ancient magic,” Sombra answered calmly, always smiling. "It has several functions, such as maintaining the climate within the barrier, creating the aurora that works like day and night for us, in addition to being a fundamental piece of the crystallization process, which helps the ponies of this city can live in peace. As for its origin, I'm not sure, as the Crystal Heart was created before Hope or I were born. But if I had to guess, I would say that the Guardian of the Empire used her powerful magic to create it and protect us, since she was an alicorn of great power.”

Even though Sombra patiently answered his questions, Dusk didn't feel like he was winning. On the mental chess board he imagined, it seemed like he was winning, but he soon realized he was being backed into a corner. Despite being filled with more and more questions, Dusk struggled to focus on his goal and resolve the fundamental questions that overwhelmed him as soon as possible.

“What is crystallization?” Dusk asked seriously. “What kind of magic is capable of altering the natural cycle of life and death?”

For the first time, Sombra didn’t respond immediately. This time he took a couple of seconds to respond.

“Crystallization is a unique magic that can only be created on this plane of space, within the Crystal Empire, thanks to the magic of the Crystal Heart.” Sombra answered, calmly and slowly. “At some point in their lives, their bodies crystallize so they can continue their lives beyond the natural cycle of life and death. For that, they abandon their negative emotions to live peacefully in this paradise that is our Empire.”

“Is that why ponies are so happy? Along with their organic bodies, do they abandon parts of their negative emotions?” Dusk thought, unable to stop his mind as more questions filled his head and he no longer knew where else he should continue. “Wait a second, what about Golden Quill’s death? He was definitely dead! How does it work?”

While Dusk tried to organize his thoughts, Luna looked carefully at Sombra. Everything that Sombra said was new to her. She had never questioned how that Empire really worked, and like Dusk, her mind swirled with dozens of questions as she tried to fit the new information with what she herself had observed before her banishment, along with the last thing Celestia had told her about the Crystal Empire. For his part, another who was left with a thoughtful look was Shining Armor, remembering what he experienced with Sombra 'inside' the Crystal Heart.

“Abandon negative emotions... Is that what those shadows were? That is the true identity of an umbrum!?” Shining thought, also beginning to fill with questions as he tried to fill in loose ends.

Without anyone noticing, Sombra smiled, pleased, and stood up. He had won the chess game. He had answered enough questions to satisfy his guests' doubts while filling them with new questions and skillfully evading what he was truly afraid to say out loud.

“It's been a great talk, but I think it's time to rest.” Sombra said looking at the time on the clock. “Tomorrow is a busy day, and we must rest.”

"Oh, it's true! Tomorrow is the Crystal Faire!!” Radiant Hope said, looking at Luna and smiling at her excitedly. “Do you remember crystal corn-on-the-cob? It's so delicious! We should definitely eat one together tomorrow!”

“W-Wait!” Dusk interrupted quickly, seeing that Sombra had stood up, ready to leave. “O-One last question!”

Sombra closed his eyes serenely and smiled.

“Of course, young Dusk.” Sombra smiled kindly. Tell me, what is that last question?”

"No, I don’t know! I have dozens of questions and I don't know which one to ask! ” Dusk thought very nervously. “He knows it, he knows he won. With all this excess of information, I don't know what the key question is to solve all this mystery…”

“What happened to your mom?” Pinkie Pie suddenly asked, with a genuinely innocent look.

For the first time since they had started the conversation, Sombra's smile faded. For a second, he seemed to turn pale and widened his eyes in surprise.

“W-What?” Sombra stammered. Trying in vain to hide his surprise at that question.

"Your mom." Pinkie Pie repeated, looking at Sombra and Radiant Hope, who, unlike Sombra, gave a confused look. “Luna told us that Queen Amore was your mother and that she seemed very sick when she and Princess Celestia returned to the Crystal Empire. I wanted to know if she was able to recover.”

A dead silence filled the room. It took no great intellect or much thought to disarm Sombra. All it took was a simple question full of genuine curiosity and compassion, a question to the soul that neither Dusk nor Shining nor the princesses had thought about after believing that the answer was in the head and not in the heart.

“Sombra, w-what is she talking about?” Hope finally asked, seeing that Sombra still didn't respond, with a scared look. “Princess Cadance also mentioned that name. She said that the name of the Guardian of the Empire was Amore … Is it true? Why do they say she is our mother?” Hope asked, turning to ask that last question to Luna.

“I-In a way, Queen Amore is the mother of all the ponies in this kingdom…” Sombra finally answered, returning to his calm tone of voice. However, in his eyes, you could see how nervous and worried he really was.

“Enough Sombra! Enough of these half-truths!” Luna said, finally not being able to accept it anymore. Then she picked up the paper that Sombra had secretly sent her and angrily placed it on the table. It read: ’Please don’t mention the Queen’. “Because of our old friendship, I thought I would trust you and follow what you asked of me. But I can't take it anymore. I’ll not allow you to deny the Queen and deny her existence or the love she always felt for you and Hope.”

“You don't understand…” Sombra responded, lowering his head in anguish and sadness. “I'm just trying to protect you all.”

“You are just like my sister. You think it’s your duty to protect everyone at the expense of yourself,” Luna said with a sincere look full of concern. “You shouldn't bear all the problems yourself. You can trust us.”

Luna's last comment made Sombra open his eyes with a start. That Luna said those words made Sombra deeply angry. Who in an instant forgot his anguish, fear, and sadness and replaced it with fury.

“Don't YOU tell me everything Celestia sacrificed to protect the world!” Sombra shouted, exasperated, releasing an anger that had been stored for centuries. “Do you know how much she suffered when she had to banish you? And even banished, you made her nights a living hell!”

Once again, a dead silence filled the room. This time it was Luna who was stunned, with a look of mixed horror and sorrow.

“W… What does he mean?” Hope asked, scared, looking at Luna, worried seeing her expression. Without understanding anything that Sombra and Luna were shouting at each other. “Banished?”

“I know I'm not the right one to talk about Celestia's pain... And I'm not the right one to say that I don't hide the truth either.” Luna said seriously. “Celestia made me promise not to tell anyone, but sometimes you have to tell the truth, no matter how painful it may be.” Luna added with a sad look, looking at Dusk, at Cadance, and finally, at Hope. “After my fight with Celestia, I transformed into Nightmare Moon and she had no choice but to banish me to the moon. There, Nightmare Moon… I… I couldn't escape, but in my desire for revenge, I found other means to attack the ponies… The world of dreams.” At that moment, Luna paused briefly to breathe as she felt her heart tighten. “For a long time I attacked the ponies in their dreams, filling them with terrible nightmares. No matter how hard Celestia tried, she couldn't stop me in that world. It was inaccessible to her. For the same reason, she discovered another way to contain my attacks… She purposely exposed her mind. She stopped protecting herself so that my fury would be directed only in her direction... I... For hundreds of years, I prevented Celestia from having peaceful nights. I... I destroyed her fantasies and turned them into nightmares. For a thousand years, I prevented my sister from having a peaceful night in her life! All to sacrifice for others so that the rest of the world could sleep in peace! Everything to defend them from her evil sister!!” Luna screamed, full of pain, crying with anger at herself.

For the third time that afternoon, the room fell completely silent. With all the ponies present being shocked at such a revelation, pale as they imagined such horror. While Sombra simply lowered his face and hit his face with his hoof. He knew that, Celestia herself had told him the last time they had met, but it wasn't something he would normally have revealed. It was the rage and anger relieved by seeing Celestia cry while he comforted her that made his rage take over for a second, and he attacked Luna with that revelation. For her part, Luna couldn't stop crying. She stood up and quickly left the room. However, before doing so, as she passed Sombra, she looked at him with a look of mixed sadness and anger.

“The truth may hurt, but it is the only way to free yourself.” Luna said with a firm look, still crying. Continuing on her way to leave the room.

"Luna! Wait!" Radiant Hope shouted worriedly, also quickly standing up to go after her friend.

Like Luna, Hope also stopped for a second as she passed Sombra, looking at him very angrily. She was full of questions, but right now what she was interested in was comforting her best friend, so after glaring at her brother, Hope continued running to catch up with Luna.

After Luna and Hope left the room, Sombra also began to slowly leave the room, in complete silence.

“You can rest here tonight. There are many rooms available.” Sombra said, turning for a second to look at his guests. Smiling but with a downcast look. “I hope that tomorrow… We can have a clearer and more honest conversation.” And without further ado, the elegant gray unicorn left the room, leaving Dusk and his friends with an uncomfortable and sad feeling.

End of chapter 36

Author's Note

Many thanks to 'Silveranon' for his great help