Past

Everything in Canterlot’s Castle Square was a reminder of the celebration. Flags fluttered from the towers and spires of the castle, confetti covered the cobblestones in a thick layer, and fireworks flashed in the sky.

At one of the tables outside, six ponies, one with a crown on her head, were laughing.

“That was something,” Twilight Sparkle said, wiping away tears from her eyes.

“I was just about to say the same thing,” a voice came from nearby, and all the ponies turned at the sound.

Starlight Glimmer and Spike were approaching the six Elements of Harmony, the little dragon holding something wrapped in paper and tied with ribbon behind him.

“I know maybe it wasn’t the coronation you planned,” Starlight continued, “but it’s good to see all of you laughing.”

“We wanted to give this to you before you left Ponyville,” Spike went on, “but… things got a little hectic…” He held the prepared gift out from behind his back.

“Since you’re moving away, we thought if you missed any of us or Ponyville, this might help,” Starlight added.

Twilight hopped down from her stool and ripped open the wrapping with her magic.

Inside was an ornate album with a gold-embossed cover. When she opened it, the Princess of Friendship found herself looking at moving pictures of herself and her friends. Lots and lots of pictures.

Twilight couldn’t hold back a sigh of delight.

“It’s a book of memories!” Pinkie exclaimed, standing beside her.

“And we all chipped in some,” Applejack said.

“No matter how much things change,” Fluttershy said, “you’ll always have this to look back on.”

“I love it,” Twilight replied as she put the album away. “Thank you so much. But I don’t want to only look back. Obviously the coronation wasn’t perfect, but that doesn’t matter. It’s our relationships that really count, and we have to maintain them.”

“But now that we’ll be living in different places, I’m not exactly sure how,” Rarity said worriedly.

“I am,” Twilight said with a smile. “I suggest we meet once a moon. In fact, my first royal decree as ruler of Equestria” – she raised a hoof in the air – “is to establish this Council of Friendship!”

Everypony responded with cheers and laughter.

Suddenly there was a coughing nearby, and the seven mares and dragon turned to see the captain of the guard approaching.

“Your Highness,” the brown stallion in armor addressed Twilight. “Their Highnesses Princess Celestia and Princess Luna request that you and your friends come to the castle immediately. An urgent matter of national importance has arisen, requiring your presence.”

The friends glanced at each other. They all had a look of utter bewilderment on their faces.

“I’ll wait for you here,” Starlight said with a slight smile. “Maybe it’s something really important.”

The six followed the captain to the castle’s main gate.

Celestia and Luna were waiting for them in a small side hall. In front of the two alicorns, a blue chest with six locks stood on a dainty table, and six differently shaped keys lay around it. Both princesses looked worried, but it was unclear whether it was the appearance of the chest or what it might be hiding.

The guard let the six ponies and Spike in and, after bowing, stayed outside the door.

Celestia pointed to the chest.

“This had just been delivered from Everfree Forest. The graduates of the School of Friendship were spending time in the cave of the former Tree of Harmony and found this item. I have ordered the keys to be taken from the chamber, as they may fit the locks, but if not, I’m afraid we are all in for a new challenge now.”

“Hmm… Well, let’s have a look,” Twilight said, walking over to the table. “Wait…” She blinked suddenly. “There’s some kind of inscription here–”

“Yes, we have noticed that too,” Luna said, pointing to the white letters on the side of the chest. “But what could it mean?”

“HASBЯO…” Twilight read and shook her head. “It doesn’t make any sense. Any ideas?” She turned to her friends.

“Let’s just open it!” Rainbow suggested. “And then we’ll figure out what to do about it.”

“Okay,” the Princess of Friendship nodded. “That’s what we’ll do.”

Together, the mares inserted their keys and turned them all at once.

There was no flash of magic or anything like that. The lid of the chest simply split into halves, which immediately fell apart, revealing the contents.

“W-what is it?” Fluttershy mumbled in fright, her hoof covering her mouth.

In the glow of Celestia’s telekinesis, six statuettes from the chest landed on the table.

Each figurine represented one of the ponies, and the polished wooden stand bore the inscription.

“Be Pleasant,” “Be Smart,” “Be Strong,” “Be Unwavering,” “Awareness! It was under ‘E’!” – and finally, “Be Awesome.”

Present

The central maneframe flickered brightly with amethyst light. The humming of the giant machine and the ordinary maneframes connected to it was deafening. Green columns of numbers and lines of logs flashed across the displays at an incredible speed, reflecting the processing of a unique request.

The launch of the Gardens of Equestria megaspell.

But the six ponies standing around the supermaneframe, as well as the unicorn present as a hologram, were not looking at the machine that was supposed to cleanse their world of Taint and radiation. Their eyes were on another pony who was hovering in a sphere of white light above the spire of the maneframe, pointing to a hole in the ceiling of the cave.

“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!” The pale green alicorn mare’s thunderous laugh echoed through the room, and everypony fell to the ground, covering their ears. “I FEEL THIS POWER! THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY ARE SERVING ME! EVERY LAST ONE OF THEM!”

Around her, six crystals of various shapes, removed from the golden frames that now lay on the floor as useless trinkets, spun rapidly. A star, an apple, a balloon, a lightning bolt, a jewel, and a butterfly.

“No!” shrieked the black unicorn, whose white mane was streaked with yellow and red. Tears welled up in her eyes as she looked at the rust-colored pegasus beside her. “Calamity, tell me there’s something we can do…!”

“Ah wish Ah knew, Velvet!” he replied. “That freakin’ skank took all the crystals! Can’t ya just telekinetize one of ‘em out?”

“Are you kidding? They’re spinning so fast that I can’t concentrate–”

“You can’t anyway – her magic is keeping them close to her!” shouted a gray unicorn with a blue mane, standing on the other side of the maneframe. Her horn glowed brightly with tension, as if she were trying to pull a boxcar toward her. “We won’t make it that easy!”

“How the fuck are we supposed to run the fucking spell?!” The yellow pony with the leather wings sewn to her back snapped at her. “We didn’t fight this long to give it all to that bitch now…!”

“Apex, I’ll put all Blackjack’s debts on you!” the young filly blurted out, glaring at the alicorn. “You’ll owe me for every pony, for every bullet we spent a year ago to save the Wasteland…!”

The gray ghoul pegasus wriggled on the ground, shaking and curling her hooves around herself. “Pls don’t quarrel…” was scribbled on a nearby chalkboard.

“BOW DOWN TO ME, MORTALS!!!” roared the alicorn, and the light around her grew even brighter, making it painful to look at. “NOW, WITH THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY, I CAN DO ANYTHING, AND NOPONY CAN STOP ME ANYMORE!!! ACCEPT THE REIGN OF YOUR NEW EMPRESS, APEX. RADIATION AND TAINT WILL POISON EQUESTRIA FOREVER!!!”

“No!” came from the speaker in the holoprojector. A short unicorn mare in an armored Stable barding gave the impostor a hateful stare. “Come on guys, remember who you are! You are the Elements! Don’t let her take control of you!”

Calamity looked at Velvet Remedy, Charity at Whisper, and Ditzy Doo at Homage. Something unknown glimpsed between them all at that moment, but there was no longer fear in the eyes of the six. Instead, a faint hope flickered in them.

“Alright, Littlepip…” Homage hissed with a strain. “I’ll do whatever you say… Apex!” she shouted. “You were not artificially created but born of a pegasus stallion and a unicorn mare! Yes, they were injected with the first prototypes of the Impelled Metamorphosis Potion to affect the genome, but you were born a living pony! Your parents were killed by O.I.A. officer Trueblood to hide evidence! But then the bombs fell, and you were frozen for two hundred years until Whisper liberated you! You’re not a higher being, you’re just an ordinary pony! It’s not too late to stop and let us finish what we started!”

“YOU THINK I’LL LISTEN TO YOU?! WITHOUT RADIATION, MY RACE WILL DISAPPEAR FROM EQUUS WITHOUT A TRACE! I CAN’T LET THAT HAPPEN!”

“I understand you, Apex… and I forgive you,” Velvet said softly. “But please don’t make a mistake. We'll definitely try to work something out…”

“Take the whole fucking Wasteland!” Charity yelled. “Just call off those monsters of yours that are crawling all over the place! Don’t let them kill anypony else, that’s all! And what about us? We’ll survive, just like we’ve done for two hundred years! Take it, I don’t care! Take it all!”

“I’m going into a coma,” the holographic Littlepip warned. “I’ll try to use the Single Pegasus Project against the radwyrms…”

Her image blinked, distorted, and disappeared.

“Muffins?” Ditzy Doo wrote on her chalkboard and showed it to everypony. Velvet and Homage giggled hysterically.

“And Ah…” Calamity stammered, then closed his eyes and hugged Velvet. “And Ah just won’t leave y’all… whatever happens to us.”

“That’s enough, Apex!” Whisper shouted as she rose into the air on her thestral wings. “I liberated you, so I will destroy you! Together, we will stop you now! Equestria belongs to everypony, and the Gardens were meant to give life, not destruction! And we will do it whether you want us to or not!”

“WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?!” The alicorn laughed again. “WHAT MAGIC DO YOU HAVE AGAINST MINE?! ADMIT YOUR FAILURE ALREADY!”

“There is such a magic!” Whisper replied, spreading her forelegs and looking around at all those standing around Crusader. “And this is friendship!!!”

A new burst of laughter erupted…

And suddenly, something changed.

The crystals of the Elements of Harmony stopped spinning and, as if of their own free will, threw themselves into the air from the alicorn to the six ponies. In a flash of magic, they transformed into golden PipBucks on each one’s leg, bearing the images of their cutie marks.

Around Apex, the light turned from snow-white to reddish, and the column of the supermaneframe shimmered with different colors.

“WHAT?!” The alicorn’s eyes bulged and she flapped her wings, but some force held her still. “THIS IS IMPOSSI–”

A glow enveloped all the six and lifted them into the air. Rainbow beams burst from the PipBucks and swirled around Crusader’s spire in colorful ribbons, hiding Apex's figure in a small hurricane.

On one of the displays, the relentless flickering of text stopped. The last line of the console read:

Activation complete.

And more were added.

Preparing magical circuit... 100%. Complete.

Launching...

And then the accumulated energy shot a huge rainbow column through the hole in the ceiling of the cave. Shards of stone flew in all directions.

An invisible wave of the megaspell swept in all directions from the lonely peak, cleansing the earth of what had poisoned it for so many years.

For a brief moment, the entire land turned green… though it wilted immediately.

But now, Equestria was alive. And could share that life with everypony.

Future

“…Big and scary, you say?” Zipp raised an eyebrow, hovering above the ground with her smartphone on her hoof. “Hmmm…”

“Yes! I went for a ride today – you know, to get some inspiration… and there it was!” ranted Izzy, driving her Unicycling Cart off to the side of the group.

The scooter rolled silently through the grass that covered the meadow. In the distance, a lone, huge tree with pink leaves could be seen.

“Maybe it’s the entrance to some ancient dungeon with terrible secrets!” said the lilac unicorn in a loud whisper, blinking and even taking her front legs off the steering wheel, but she immediately shrieked and clung back.

“Whoa, sounds dangerous,” Sunny said, walking in the middle of the whole fivesome. “But hopefully there’s nothing in there that can hurt us.”

“Another adventure-e-e-e-e!” Pipp sang into her device and raised it above her head. “Ah, well, why is the coverage only good in the city…? That way, I’d be able to keep my pippsqueaks happy with new content from all over Equestria!”

“Whatever it is,” the white pegasus pulled her VR goggles over her eyes, “Detective Zipp will investigate it!”

“Oh, come on,” Hitch brushed it off. “What’s so big and scary that… Uh-oh…”

The five ponies stopped and looked at what was in front of them.

In the middle of a flowery meadow stood a strange-looking structure with no windows and a low, rounded roof. The front wall, clad in a thick layer of metal over reinforced concrete, had been torn open; a heavy steel door hung on a hinge. On the inside of the door was an unusual drawing of a crescent moon surrounded by six pictograms, and just above it was a red, jagged inscription written like a hoof: RC-13.

The doorway gaped darkly, inviting the five ponies to step inside and touch the gruesome secrets of bygone centuries.

THE END

Author's Note

My special thanks to Kkat, Somber, and everyone else who created and extended the fictional universes of FoE and MLP:FiM.