Gate of Tartarus | November 8, 1502 | 12:00

Hello, Lady Inquisitor Sunrise. I left you this note as a token of appreciation, though I advise you incinerate it before the Empress finds you. I'm sure you recognize this place, the Gateway to Hell. It's ironic, isn't it? It makes me think that Cerberus is not guarding against those who wish to leave Tartarus, but rather those who wish to enter in from Hell. That's all this world is anymore, for all of us. My penance is coming, of that I am certain. However, are you? We will meet again.

Sunrise gritted her teeth, angry with herself for allowing the gryphon to use her own former ways of friendship against her. She was on guard, yet she failed to realize the recklessness of such a creature. Why? After all she had gone through, she still had that part of her on the inside, and it cost several thousand lives in the process. He was right about one thing, however, she needed to incinerate the note. The last thing she wanted was for the Empress to have even the faintest thought that her own pupil would be colluding with an enemy of the state. The very thought of supporting anything that scum of a creature did made her stomach turn. She lit her horn, doing so as she heard a crackling of thunder in the distance. Of course, there were no clouds in sight, and she figured it was a sonic boom. The inquisitor lit her horn again, firing a flare into the sky before realizing she hadn't much strength to use more magic. Before falling, she quickly let herself lay on the ground as she heard the soaring of Daybreaker nose-diving towards her. She smiled.

"Sunrise!" Daybreaker said with a tone of concern, landing on the ground and leaving a small crater beneath her as she stepped up to the alicorn and knelt down, "are you alright?"

"Gryphon got me," Sunrise replied nonchalantly, "I suppose he left me at the Gate of Tartarus to make a philosophical point that I'm too tired to care about."

"Come, I'll take you back to the castle," Daybreaker said, helping Sunrise up to her feet as she opened a portal to Canterlot, "you will need plenty of rest, please conserve your energy as best you can."

"I'm alright Empress, really," Sunrise said, starting to feel strange about Daybreaker's overt concern. The two of them walked towards the portal and through it, Daybreaker's wing covering Sunrise. Several guards standing by kneeled immediately upon seeing the two of them, though Daybreaker did not dismiss them as she typically would, instead continuing quickly to Sunrise's resting quarters.

Sunrise was taken aback by Daybreaker's behavior now, as the Empress was tucking her in, rushing in and out and barking out orders to guards to gather soup and tea, warm blankets, and other such accommodations of only the highest-quality comfort. Sunrise, who was feeling more than fine, began to notice that the castle's highest staff, from top chefs to guards and healing mages were scattering around outside as if the Empress was dying. Finally, when the Empress came back in, Sunrise leaned up, but before she could talk, the Empress gently laid her back down, providing soup like an overreacting mother.

"It's alright Sunrise, it's okay," Daybreaker said, though it seemed more like she was reassuring herself than anything, "just lay down and rest, it will be alright."

"Daybreaker, I'm alright, it was just a hit to the head," Sunrise replied, beginning to lean up again.

"LAY DOWN!" Daybreaker shouted. Sunrise felt her heart skip a beat at the volume of Daybreaker's voice, and everything fell silent for a moment. It was the first time Sunrise had felt real fear towards the Empress, and it showed in her expression as she was frozen in place. Daybreaker gave a frustrated sigh, shaking her head, "I'm sorry, Sunrise, I don't think you understand."

Daybreaker approached Sunrise and gently stroked her mane, embracing her slightly and easing the tension in the inquisitor's mind.

"What happened, Daybreaker?" Sunrise asked softly, "I've never seen you like this."

"I nearly lost you, Sunrise," Daybreaker said, "even if you had it all under control, even if you were only unconscious and nothing else, I had no way of really knowing what would happen. I lost so many today, I thought you might have been one of them."

"Oh," Sunrise said, before she noticed a quiet whimpering coming from the Empress as she was holding herself back from weeping. Sunrise returned the embrace as she felt the heat of steam from the Empress' eyes roll gently across her neck. After a moment of silence, she spoke up once more, "what of Chrysalis? The fight went well I assume? I heard you coming from that direction."

"There was no fight," Daybreaker said, regaining her composure and leaning up. Sunrise was confused.

"What do you mean?" she asked. Daybreaker's expression returned to her typical stern nature.

"I tore her skeleton from her flesh," the Empress replied, "I made her feel more pain than all that which she had dealt in her life, and before I could finish she drowned in her own blood."

The two were quiet for a moment, before Sunrise quirked a brow.

"I don't mean to be disrespectful, but there's something I don't understand," Sunrise said cautiously, Daybreaker looked at the inquisitor, maintaining her expression, "why didn't you do that from the start?"

Daybreaker closed her eyes, breathing in slowly.

"War crafts loyalty, Sunrise," the Empress said, "in the loss of life, there is a net gain to it's value. I didn't anticipate what happened in these last few days, and it was a failure on my behalf not to see what such a childish creature like Chrysalis would do. The gryphons fought valiantly until Nightmare Moon eradicated them and their leader. They organized, and they fought, and we would have won that war with our own ponies rather than my own power. Nightmare Moon ruined that. I still wanted to see my little ponies win by themselves, by their own collective strength, that way it would forge them into a stronger nation. However, Chrysalis had her final victory in tearing apart the foundation of their being, whether she meant to or not. She was a child, I should have killed her from the start and allowed a more responsible Changeling to take over."

"I see," Sunrise said, thinking to herself, "it makes sense. Ponies relying on gods become weak, but ponies relying on themselves become strong. A leader is as good as her people, else she is a tyrant."

"Exactly," Daybreaker said, "but now there is no war, just death. I am not sure what to do to develop that strength in them."

"Rebuild, run some propaganda, continue organizing the nation to incorporate new technology and learning, all of the things a leader would typically do in peacetime after war, then," Sunrise replied, looking Daybreaker in the eyes, "declare war on Nightmare Moon."

"Declare war on my sister?" Daybreaker asked, though she wasn't sure why. She would have killed her sister at the first given opportunity when the Nightmare awakened, yet now she felt her heart drop at the very notion of doing so. Sunrise only smiled.

"Allow the pupil to instruct the teacher, my Liege, " Sunrise said, leaning up from her bed, "the ways of friendship are still within us both, the impulse to correct everything with diplomacy alone. That is what allowed me to let my guard down with Slyphani. We drank, and I told him it was hopeless, whereupon he detonated that bomb. We were laughing together, smiling together. Me, with an enemy of the state. I let my old ways consume me in that dire moment, you mustn't do the same. We will rebuild the Empire, repopulate the Empire, and we will tear down anyone in the way of the Empire. The sun should grace every blade of grass, every grain of sand, every shingle, every brick, and every mountain of this world or it shouldn't grace them at all. The Nightmare has gathered the heretical Thestral all in one place, already half of the work done. In the process of doing so, we will find Slyphani, and I will pluck his second eye out with my bare horn for letting Twilight out to kill all of those precious ponies."

"Sunrise Sparkle, my faithful student," Daybreaker said, smiling greatly and giving the inquisitor another hug, "you have surpassed my expectations once again with your brilliance. I could not ask for a greater pupil than you. Regardless, I still believe you should at least rest and enjoy a break from all of the madness. Flash Sentry is here, I believe he wishes to speak to you if you are alright with that."

"Of course, Empress," Sunrise said, "he may come in."

Vesalopolis, Changeling Hive | November 8, 1502 | 13:04

"What a fucking mess," Pharynx said, walking through the green sludge that used to be Queen Chrysalis, "she let herself give up. How foolish, she should have regrouped."

As he searched, he found what looked like part of a face, a few teeth still attached and even some muscle. Pharynx leaned down, sniffing it, before changing himself into an ape and picking up the face with his hands.

"Take a good look at me, Queen," he said, "you won't leave the Undersky with cowardice, regardless of your status. Ascension is achieved through the great works upon the Breeding Grounds, and you have failed us. Maybe you will be forgiven by the Hivemind, but it seems you have taken it with you, leaving us alone to struggle. How rotten."

"You have no room to speak ill of the rotten, Pharynx."

What was left of the face of Chrysalis fell to the ground with a light and soupy plop as Pharynx turned to the voice with a snarl. He couldn't mistake his brother's voice for any other Changeling, he knew it all too well. With a quick flash, he reverted to his original form and took a few steps towards Thorax.

"The prodigal returns, yet still heretical," Pharynx scolded, "you dare to tread upon these hallowed grounds after having defiled them?"

"Cut the nonsense," Thorax snapped, "the Queen made that all up to keep us in line, you know that."

"The Queen proved herself an arrogant fool in the end, disloyal to the Hivemind," Pharynx retorted, "her claims change nothing, as she is dead."

"You will be, too," Thorax said, gritting his teeth, "for what you did to my friends."

"If I shall die, then I shall die in valiance, a martyr of the Hivemind," Pharynx said, "but I won't die by your tainted hooves."

Thorax let out a shout, firing a bolt of hivemagic before lunging towards Pharynx, who stepped out of the way of the projectile and changed to his alternate form, stopping Thorax mid-air before grabbing him and throwing him into the wall. Pieces shattered from the impact, landing beside the little changeling. Pharynx approached, lifting an arm to strike before Thorax changed as well into a form similar but far more elegant and stopped the strike. Pharynx was surprised for a moment, but quickly threw another punch into Thorax's gut.

"You're a zealot for a dead cause!" Thorax shouted, taking the pain and channeling his anger into a punch to Pharynx's face, "and you killed innocent ponies for it!"

Pharynx didn't reply, instead grunting at the pain and landing another blow before throwing Thorax over his shoulder. Thorax quickly regained his footing, lunching forward and taking Pharynx through a wall. The structure of the hive had stopped changing since Chrysalis' death, and the damage done to it now would never repair. As more punches were exchanged, blood began to spill, and the fighting of the two Changelings morphed into large creatures was shaking the crippled walls of the hive. As time went on, Pharynx figured Thorax would tire out, given his brother wasn't so keen on combat as he was. However, the exact opposite was happening, as Thorax began to crackle bits of Pharynx's exoskeleton, causing more pain than he was willing to admit to.

"Respond to me! Respond to me you gods-damned bug!" Thorax screamed, throwing what seemed like an endless barrage of rough punches, "you killed them! Why?! You had a choice and you chose to follow the losing side and kill dozens in the process!"

Pharynx let out a roar, catching one of his brother's punches and breaking Thorax's arm, causing him to revert back to his changeling form. The former general threw his brother onto the floor, causing it to break beneath them as they both landed separate on the floor of the room below. Pharynx reverted by volition to his changeling form likewise, walked towards Thorax who was writing in pain from a broken foreleg.

"You think I wanted to kill them?!" Pharynx shouted, warranting a confused look from Thorax. Pharynx picked his brother up, neglecting the pain of Thorax's foreleg entirely as he locked his eyes onto his brother's, "no. . .no I didn't want to kill them. Do you know how difficult it was to make myself touch their filthy bodies? Hoisting up their dead flesh onto those pikes with my magic, what a waste of the hive's precious gift! Gouging out that little runt's eyes with my bare hooves was worse, I had to stop once the fluid started to leak onto my exoskeleton. It was disgusting. Instead I gathered a wood splinter and pried at them all while having to listen to those ear-shattering screams. I should have cut out her tongue!"

Thorax screamed, gathering all his strength as his foreleg crackled in response to being forced around Pharynx's neck with enough strength to break the surrounding exoskeleton and pinch the fragments into his flesh. Pharynx struggled to maintain himself as blood began to leak from his neck. Thorax threw his brother onto the ground, using his broken foreleg to continue punching Pharynx in the face until he was too weak to move. Every hit caused a surge of indescribable pain in Thorax's body, but he liked it. He deserved it. He let this all happen, and what he was doing now wouldn't solve of alleviate it. He was doing it anyway because of his own selfishness, because there was nothing left for him to cling to. Nothing left to tell him what was right or wrong. In this moment, all he could think of was that sweet little filly being butchered by Pharynx, all the while looking like himself.

"You want religious zealotry? Huh?!" Thorax shouted, "how about this one, an eye for a fucking eye!"

Pharynx cried out as Thorax changed his hooves into talons, clawing his brother's eyes from his skull as if taking a scoop to them. The talons reverted, as another punch was delivered to Pharynx's profusely-bleeding face.

"At least I have the strength. . .to do the job. . .right!" Thorax said, punching with every pause before letting out another shout and throwing his hoof into Pharynx's face at such a force that it sunk through the changeling's skull and spewed the insides of it onto the floor below.

Thorax was panting heavily, the adrenalin still rushing through him before he looked down at what used to be his brother's face. He let out a whimper, suddenly laughing before it devolved into hideous sobbing. He fell backwards, no longer able to feel the pain in his foreleg as his mind had already blocked it out, along with everything else. The violence was too much for him, and he didn't even realize it. He looked over to see Drizzlepop standing above him, eyeless, beginning to scream without ceasing. He couldn't help but to laugh, there was nothing else he could do. All of this that happened so suddenly, it couldn't have been real. It was just a dream, it had to be. The changeling got up, finding a piece of hive protruding crudely from the ground in a sharpened point, before throwing his head onto it with as much force as he could muster before everything turned to black.

There was no more pain for Thorax, who had killed not only his brother, but his own mind in the process.

Canterlot, Solar Empire | November 8, 1502 | 13:12

Sunrise was enjoying her soup as she heard the door creaking open, Flash leaning out from behind it with a gentle knock. Sunrise smiled.

"Come in," she said, "have a seat."

Flash walked in, closing the door behind him. Sunrise put the bowl on the bedside table and leaned forward a bit more in the rather sizeable bed.

"So uh, I have a bit of explaining to do, I guess," Flash said nervously. Sunrise quirked a brow as she gave a slight grin.

"You guessed well," she said. Flash laughed a bit, looking for somewhere to sit before Sunrise patted the bed. He sat down beside her and gave a sigh.

"I thought you needed some time alone, and I didn't want you to feel pressured or upset, but, well," he scratched his head, "I didn't know what else to do so I said something nice and walked away. By the time I came back, Spike told me what happened and I went to look for you as quickly as I could. Then, well, everything else happened."

"Dominos," Sunrise replied, suddenly grabbing Flash and pulling him down beside her, "but at least everything is alright."

Flash wasn't sure what to say. Noticing this, Sunrise decided she would take Daybreaker's advice and relax her mind. She gave Flash a deep kiss, slowly pulling him closer until he was on top of her. No better distraction exists than an intimate moment. Around ten minutes later, Daybreaker decided to check
on Sunrise to see if everything was going well between her and Flash, but as she approached the door to hear particularly distinguishable sounds of creaking and soft moaning, she raised her brows and turned around the other way figuring that they were getting along just fine.

Hall of Unity, Mount Metazoa | November 13, 1502 | 15:22

Several days had passed, the seven equines and two gryphons having made virtually zero progress on figuring out what to do about the current situation. At this point, they were adjusting to life in the Hall of Unity, which was now defenseless without the great sentinels that Discord's magic had created. The news hadn't quite worn off for all of them, but Fluttershy was most affected, still crying nightly and having to be consoled by Dash who took the responsibility of looking after her. Pinkie would bother Rarity, Gilda, and Applejack occasionally with surprises and party streamers to keep laughs going, as well as baking enough food for them to live on having gathered the resources for it by some strange means. Applejack herself would talk to Sunset, doing her best to encourage her to stay alert at the very least and keep up a little hope. Nova spent a lot of time with herself, given she didn't get along with any of them very much except for Starlight Glimmer, who was mostly invested in Sunset. Sunset, of course, was likewise mostly invested in Starlight.

"Hey, Glimmy," Sunset said, "I had an idea."

"Yeah Sunny?" Starlight replied, nuzzling Sunset's neck. Sunset chuckled softly in response before continuing.

"Not really an idea I guess, more of a thought," she explained, "but maybe it's alright for us to just hang around here for a while, given the news that Chrysalis is dead and the war is over. I think we could get around much easier once things have calmed down and the Empire has it's governing focus on rebuilding."

"That's a good point," Starlight pondered, "we could probably even. . ."

Starlight's voice trailed off as she was staring at Sunset with an expression of fear. Sunset didn't quite know why, though began to realize that Starlight wasn't staring at her, but rather just behind her. In that moment, she felt an ominous presence, and an icy breath on her back. She slowly forced herself to turn, almost paralyzed with fear until she saw a dark alicorn standing above her.

"Y. . .you're. . ?" Sunset stammered, stumbling back into Starlight Glimmer who caught her and kept her on her feet. The alicorn smiled, looking down on the two of them.

"Nightmare Moon," she said with a giggle, "and while your fear offers me cathartic entertainment, I should clarify that I'm not here to hurt you. The opposite, rather."

"What are you going on about. . ?" Starlight asked doubtfully. The Nightmare laughed softly.

"Daybreaker isn't as heartless as she wishes to be," Nightmare Moon explained, "I think she is vulnerable to the old ways, and while I don't want to wage war with her, I also don't want her to brush those feelings of hers off to quickly. I believe we can work together to bring your ways of friendship back to the Solar Empire for the sake of keeping my Thestral's safe from her blazing sun."

"And how do we know you're not lying?" Sunset asked, regaining her composure as she stood up. Nightmare Moon gave a frustrated groan and she shook her head.

"Listen to yourself, honestly, replay that sentence in your mind and tell me it doesn't sound so absolutely belligerent and stupid," the Nightmare scolded, "I could tear the entrails from your body right now if I wanted to, and tie you two lesbian lovebirds into a knot with them at that! I don't need you dead, I don't even want you dead. You've done nothing to me, and you are of no threat to me. I just want my subjects safe, and I want my sister to remain docile, so I will help you."

Sunset pondered it for a moment, along with Starlight Glimmer who was already coming up with schemes and plans to use this to their advantage. Sunset looked to the floor momentarily, thinking of what working with Nightmare Moon might truly entail, before concluding that it was necessary to do in order to have a secure way in and out of the Empire so long as the Lunar Empire was at peace with the Solar Empire. Something was bugging her about what Nightmare Moon said, however. Rather how she phrased it. She looked back up to the alicorn.

"You called her your sister," Sunset pointed out. The Nightmare quirked a brow.

"Yes, because she is my sister," Nightmare Moon said with a highly dismissive tone, "we have the same parents. Why is this such a revelation to you?"

"Oh for fuck. . ." Sunset growled to herself as she closed her eyes for a moment before looking at the Nightmare, "specifically you called her your sister, and proceeded to not insult her for the next five minutes. I think you still want her love."

The Nightmare growled for a moment through gritted teeth as she averted eye contact, but at that point it was pretty obvious and there was no use in lying to keep up an image. She sighed, turning around and walking a few paces to look out of the window and up at the stars. After a moment, she closed her eyes, before turning towards the two equines and opening them.

"Yes," she replied, "yes, I do. Namely I want to believe that she still has it in her. I don't think that even I have it in me to rule the world alone. I like my time alone, but I also like the option not to be. Of course, you little things wouldn't do at all, even my Thestrals don't compare to my being, but Daybreaker is an equal to me. The only equal to me. I don't want to lose her."

Sunset exchanged looks with Starlight as the Nightmare sighed, turning back to the window. A few seconds had passed before she felt a hoof on her side, opening her eyes to see Sunset giving her as much of a friendly embrace as she could from her stature.

"Then we'll do our best," she said, "you can count on it."

Canterlot, Solar Empire | December 10, 1502 | 22:32

"It still feels strange for the sun to be out at this hour," Nightmare Moon said, standing beside her sister on great balcony of Canterlot's castle. It had a brilliant view of the Solar Empire all the way to the Crystal City. Glistening waterfalls, a pink sky, and large cities and pristine infrastructure spread beyond the rich folk of Canterlot. It was near utopian to gaze upon.

"At least I compromised," Daybreaker said, "I know the equines sleep in the dark, and I didn't want our civilian factories spending more time making black-out curtains than producing the other goods and services. So, I let the sun set, casting a beautiful array of colors across the sky like a painting of my own every night, similar to yourself, sister. Of course, not as spectacular."

Nightmare Moon laughed softly, leaning on her sister's shoulder as they kept their eyes affixed on the radiant sky.

"I'm glad we have peace now, I sincerely hope it lasts," she said. Daybreaker just smiled.

"I believe it will," she said softly. They sat in silence for a while longer, before Nightmare Moon readjusted her head to a more comfortable position and spoke.

"Have you come up with a plan for dealing with Cosmos yet?" she asked, "I figured that draconnequus would have come by now."

"No need," Daybreaker replied. Nightmare Moon leaned up for a moment, looking at her sister with a confused expression.

"However do you mean?" she asked. Daybreaker simply grinned.

"Cosmos will not come to a place where her malice is outmatched by three creatures greater than herself," Daybreaker said, "it would hurt her pride too much."

"That is a good point, dear sister," Nightmare Moon replied, laying her head back down and laughing, "then we truly will have peace."

"Yes. No more wars."

Graymourne Castle | March 15, 1503

"You know, I met someone like you once," Nightmare Moon said, "oh yes, the King of the Gryphons. I pulled his entrails from his body. Ripped them through that fattened belly of his. His corpse is still being eaten by maggots what remains of his pitiful little mansion, and something tells me you want to endure the same fate, Slyphani."

"Oh, heh, that bastard?" Slyphani said, gesturing his talons with a jingling of the chains that held him up, "he was just a source of income. I could have cared less about how he died, I just wish I could have killed him myself."

"A lot of that going around lately," the Nightmare replied with an unamused frown, "that aside, I'll allow you to entertain me with just a single reason I should let you live."

Slyphani smiled.

"Well, for starters, you love your sister, and you've gone through some effort to reestablish the doctrines of harmony in the Solar Empire," he said, "I don't quite know if you have just been double-talking her to stab her in the back, or if you really are stupid enough to think she still has it in her, but like I said, that doesn't matter to me."

"Is that supposed to convince me?" Nightmare Moon asked with a quirked brow, "you've only told me what you already know. Hooray for you, you are still sly enough to gather information that shouldn't be public. What is your point?"

"There's my proof anyway," Slyphani continued, "you're still waiting on me to give you a reason because you know I have something up my sleeve that might help you with your goal—aack."

Slyphani felt a painful sensation in his eye as his vision turned a shade of blue for a second. The Nightmare, with a lit horn, leaned towards his face.

"All the more reason for you to tell me this sleeve-hidden trick of yours before I pluck out your second eye," she said quietly, before releasing his eye and stepping back, "now get to the damned point."

"Fine, master interrogator you are," he said with a thumbs up, "anyway, your methods are starting to look suspicious to the Royal Guard, and you know that if you get found out before this long-winded plan of yours can be completed, it's war between the bifurcated empire. So you need someone with the talent for espionage, and more importantly, you need a scapegoat if things go wrong."

Nightmare Moon stared at him for a moment, he was grinning as he knew it was an irrefutable point. The Nightmare looked down at the ground for a moment, lost in thought before looked back up to him. She smiled, and subsequently laughed before dropping to a deadpan expression.

"I'll take my chances," she said, lighting her horn.

"Wait wait wait wait!" Slyphani shouted, this time with desperation as he felt a pressure from his bowels being grabbed by magic, "you don't understand you need to have a non-thestral non-equine who isn't trusted so that you can remove the risk and have more effective methods of transporting the element bearers without having to take any of the slack for their efforts, you need me YOU NEED ME!"

He felt the pressure release, panting as the Nightmare began to laugh heartily.

"Oh, I know, I believed you the first time," she said, to which Slyphani looked up with a confused and angry expression, "I just wanted to hear you beg. Hahaha!"

"Bitch." Slyphani thought to himself.

Hall of Unity, Mount Metazoa | January 3, 1503 | 08:04

Starlight awoke from the bed she had been sharing with Sunset Shimmer for the last month now, noticing that Sunset was not with her. She frowned, rubbing her eyes and starting to get up before she heard the door open and immediately caught the scent of freshly-prepared breakfast food.

"Ah-ah-ah, you better get back in that bed and relax for all the effort I went through not to wake you up," Sunset playfully reprimanded, carrying the tray with magic to Starlight before hopping back into the bed herself and making herself comfortable under the covers. Starlight smiled, giving Sunset a gentle kiss on the cheek.

"What's all of this, then? Hearts and Hooves isn't for another month, you know~" she said. Sunset shook her head.

"Oh, I know that," she replied, "I just happened to wake up early and wanted to do something special today, that's all."

"Waking up to you is special," Starlight said, earning a smile from Sunset.

"You're sweet," Sunset said softly, "now eat up."

About thirty minutes had passed, the two of them sweet-talking each other, cuddling and other such things until Starlight's morning drowsiness had finally reminded her of it's existence and eventually allowed her to drift off to sleep. Sunset stayed in the bed for a while longer to look at Starlight in admiration, before gently getting out of the bed and walking over to the desk. She took out a piece of paper and a quill, opening a new bottle of ink and beginning to write.

Dear Princess Twilight,

You taught me many great things throughout your life. Lessons that you and I both shared with my friends in the human world. Lessons that hopefully will allow them to carry on without me until the day their lives pass by. I know I can never see them again, and I know I can never see you again, because you have died. Still, I would forgive everything you have done. You are still my friend, you're just not around to stop the pony you've become. Sunrise Sparkle and Twilight Sparkle are not one in the same. They are two separate ponies, and you, Twilight, were not defeated. I know you fought till the very end to do what was right, whether or not you knew what the future would hold. I know you had faith in Celestia, and believed that her choices were made out of wisdom even if they weren't. So I can't hold a grudge against you, and I never will. I refuse to stain the memories we made, the joy, the sorrow, the laughs, the cries, all that we shared, with the thoughts of the monster who has stolen your mind and body from you forever. You were a good pony, Twilight, and we all still love you. We all still forgive you, and in your memory, we will all do right by you to bring friendship and harmony back to Equestria.

Sincerely, and with love,
Sunset Shimmer

Author's Note

That took a lot of time and effort.