A Mercenary's Ending

It had been only a year since Twilight had been in Canterlot, her last day there being the day she was released from the psychiatric hospital. Two years since she had really visited the place, since during her last year in the city she hadn’t been in her right mind. She looked around as she and the other five mares were escorted through the streets by the guards who had returned from the ruins of the pink castle that had apparently once held special significance to ponies of old. Beside her, lieutenant Sundance Spirit kept his eyes alert, scanning the ponies on the roads and looking for trouble.

Twilight had been gone for only a year, but to her eyes, it might as well have been a lifetime. Not just for her, but for the ponies of Canterlot. The mood in the city seemed different. The tension in the air was palpable, and there were definitely fewer ponies out than should have been out in the middle of the day, and those who were out looked more on alert than before. Some were doing their business while looking up at the sky often, looks of fear on their faces. Twilight immediately understood what and who they were fearing. Majesty.

On the trip back from the east, Sundance and several other ponies of the guard who had chosen to come back with her told her that tensions in Equestria seemed to be growing, and that included tensions between ponies and non-ponies, much to Twilight’s shock and shame. There had apparently been incidents where ponies in cities like Manehattan had been both jeered at and defended by ponies, the latter belonging to a growing movement that was spreading throughout Equestria. Not only that, but smaller towns had outright kicked non-ponies out. Twilight knew that eventually, if nothing could be done to stop Majesty, she would move on the inhabitants of those towns and pass some punishment on them.

But more importantly, it showed Twilight that nopony had learned from the example that was Jason Wright. Nopony had learned to be any better. No, that wasn’t quite true, she admitted to herself. There were definitely good ponies out there as was evident by those who defended nonponies in Equestria. Although that might not have been enough, especially since as a former Princess of Equestria she had studied as much of the laws as she could in her initial first few weeks. She had skimmed over citizenship laws for nonponies, and they had been draconian at best, but she hadn’t paid too much attention at the time, believing that the deal that nonponies were given by the government was amazing. Now she recalled them, and it made her sick to know just how unfair those laws were to nonponies. Even ponies who were born outside of Equestria were given what she now saw as preferential treatment.

If things didn’t change, Majesty would sweep over the entire nation, punishing those ponies as she saw fit. There was a part of Twilight that couldn’t blame her. Equestria’s fate seemed to be sealed. But the other part of her couldn’t just give up. She had to do something. What if her parents were punished and turned into something else? Sure, it wouldn’t affect how Twilight felt about them, but it would definitely affect her parents. She couldn’t watch her parents fall into the same despair that she’d seen from the ponies turned humans in Maretime Bay.

She came back to reality, vaguely aware that somepony was gently poking her side. Turning, she saw a concerned looking Pinkie Pie looking at her. “You alright?” the earth pony mare asked.

“Oh…yeah. Sorry. I’m just lost in thought.” Twilight tried to give her old friend a reassuring smile, but it felt hollow from her.

“Canterlot is certainly different from when I was here last,” Rarity observed, looking at the shops they were passing by, a majority of which were closed with a few boarded up. “Lieutenant Spirit, what’s been happening here?”

The stallion sighed. “Things have been quickly going downhill ever since the first attack by the alicorn,” he explained. “Not to mention that this new group calling themselves True Harmonists have been forming protests about the state of affairs in our nation.”

“True Harmonists?” Twilight hadn’t heard of them, but that wasn’t surprising since she hardly left her lighthouse.

“Yes,” Sundance replied. “They’ve been around for a couple of years now, but recently they’ve been making more public statements, passing out fliers, organizing protests, and things like that.”

“What kind of protests?” Fluttershy asked.

“No need to worry,” Sundance replied, “so far they’ve all been peaceful. Peaceful on their part, I mean. A day or so ago, there was an attack in Manehattan. The True Harmonists were at a peaceful protest when some older ponies attacked them and sent a few of them to the hospital. Thankfully there were no deaths, but some of the Harmonists were seriously injured.”

Twilight felt sick again. She felt the same rising panic that she had felt that day so long ago when she had learned from Celestia that it was her own actions that led to Jason’s-

She couldn’t say the word, it was too much. She took several deep breaths, relying on the exercises that her nurse back in Maretime Bay had taught her, and soon she was back in control of her emotions. She looked up at Sundance, who was talking to Applejack. The mare had apparently asked something, and he was answering. “…far as I know,” he was saying, shrugging. “There have been a few other incidents through the kingdom, but nothing as violent as this.”

“Equestria’s being torn apart at the seams,” Rarity muttered in shock.

“Maybe it should be…” Rainbow Dash said with a downcast expression.

“Rainbow Dash! How could you even suggest such a thing!?” Rarity squealed in surprise.

Rainbow looked up at her former friend, a glare in her own eyes. “Face the facts, Rarity. Ponies are almost beyond saving at this point.”

Twilight joined in as the others gaped at Rainbow. This was something that none of them expected from the formerly brash pegasus. “What do you mean?” Fluttershy asked softly, her voice indicating that she wanted to understand her former friend’s point of view.

“We had our run,” Rainbow said, “and it wasn’t even a good one. We just…we aimed our negativity outward instead of at each other. United against the rest of the world. What the tartarus kind of unity is that?” She looked up at the others. “Maybe that alicorn Majesty has some kind of point and we need to be punished for everything.”

“Mutilating ponies isn’t punishment,” Rarity argued. “It’s torture.”

“Ah dunno…” Applejack muttered, having remained silent up until that point. She looked over at Rainbow. “We made Jason feel like the ponies in Maretime Bay feel now. Ah hurt ‘im bad.”

“I did too…” Rainbow said with a tone of despair. “Maybe…maybe we deserve this. Maybe this is karma.”

“Listen to yourselves…” Twilight said, “you’re already giving up? You two are always the last to give up.” She trying to muster herself to give them hope when she didn’t feel any hope at all.

“You never spoke to us ever since that day,” Rainbow said with an icy tone that struck Twilight to her core, “so what the tartarus do you know?”

Twilight bit her lip. “I-I know, but-”

“Yah weren’t there when that plague destroyed a hundred years of mah family’s farm,” Appejack said with an equal amount of bitterness, “mah family’s legacy. Yah weren’t there when ponies hired by other ponies attacked us when we were movin’ tah Maretime Bay. When they broke Big Mac’s leg…”

“You weren’t there when the ponies in Zephyr Heights mocked me constantly, when they hit me with rocks and sticks, calling me a fraud, a tormentor, a-” She turned away, her bottom lip quivering, “-a lightning obsessed murderer…”

“Yah spent so much time in that hospital and when yah got out, the princess gave yah a cushy job at a lighthouse,” Applejack snapped at her.

“I-It’s an important job,” Twilight began lamely.

“Horseshit,” Rainbow said, stomping her hoof on the ground in anger. “You light an oversized candle every night. Big deal. I could do that. Fluttershy could do that.”

Twilight wasn’t sure what was worse, what her former friends were saying or how they were saying it. Even in her darkest times she was cared for more than the others. She could understand Celestia’s anger at them two years ago. She could understand their punishment, and she had grown to accept that. But now she realized that perhaps she alone hadn’t been punished enough. Her ears lowered and she looked at her front hooves, silence reigning the street. Even the locals were watching. “Are you…suggesting I got off easy?”

“Yah spent all that time in that loony bin, getting cared for, fed, and then when you’re all better the princess gives yah a simple, ‘important’ job,” Applejack said, making quotation marks with her front hooves at the word important.

“And she probably gave Rarity’s parents that bakery,” Rainbow spat out with a glare at the white unicorn, who flinched back.

Rarity tried to defend herself. “N-No, she didn’t-”

“As Rainbow said earlier, horseshit,” Applejack growled. “It’s probably because yah both got those.” She reached up and smacked Twilight’s horn.

Twilight flinched back, wincing in pain. “Wh-What-?”

“Yeah…yeah!” Rainbow said in a mocking tone now. “You used to tell us stories about Celestia’s School for Gifted…oh, what was it, Applejack? Can you remind this stupid pegasus?”

“Unicorns,” Applejack sneered. “And who lives up here most? Unicorns. Who are most of the nobleponies? Unicorns. Who got to be the Captain of the Royal Guard? Yer brother, a unicorn. Can yah spell nepotism?”

“I didn’t even know you knew that word,” Rainbow snorted.

This earned her a glare from Applejack. “I ain’t as dumb as you hoity-toity airbrains think us mudslinger ponies are,” she said darkly.

Twilight couldn’t believe what was happening, but at the same time she could believe it. She might not have ever left her house except for groceries, but she had heard from her nurse about the situation in Maretime Bay. The ponies who once lived in Ponyville might have lived together, but before their untimely transformation into humans, they were segregating themselves by race. The only exceptions to that were the foals who didn’t care enough about racial differences to care. Why would they? Fillies and colts were remarkably resilient, and even if they missed Ponyville, they lived by the ocean now and it was summer, which meant swimming, sandcastles, sunbathing and more.

“Airbrain? How dare you?” Rainbow was trembling with barely repressed rage. “At least you had a home longer than I did! I had to sell my cloudominium and then it was taken apart to make extra clouds! You got to stay a farmer! I had to become a damned waitress!”

“Boo hoo for you!” Applejack roared back. “You still have your parent! We couldn’t bring mine!”

That was it. Rainbow’s hoof shot out and slammed into Applejack’s muzzle, sending the earth pony sprawling onto the cobblestone road. Standing up, the orange mare spat out a glob of blood and spit before screaming and charging at Rainbow, catching her on one of her wings. There was the sound of snapping bones and Rainbow screamed in agony. “DAMN YOU!”

“MAKE ME!”

The two were immediately at each other’s throats, and Twilight could tell they were not holding back.

Neither did the guards. Two of them, unicorns, fired stunning spells at the two, catching them instantly and making them go limp. Twilight looked away, and was only then conscious of the sounds of crying. Looking back, she saw Fluttershy curled up, her wings covering her face. Pinkie looked even more miserable and hopeless than she had before, and she looked even grayer. Rarity was sitting on her haunches looking at the ground, a stunned expression on her face.

Twilight’s head was spinning. Things were falling apart between them, although she supposed that was inevitable. Still, they had both made a few good points. She knew her family had lived in relative comfort in Canterlot with the stallions of her family having served, many with distinction, in the Royal Guard for centuries. She was beginning to wonder if the princess had done that on purpose for some reason.

She felt a twinge of anger at that. Anger that was poorly timed because at that moment she heard the familiar voice of the princess calling out, “What is going on here?”

Twilight’s anger burned hotter than she thought possible and she whirled on her former mentor. The princess hadn’t changed too much, but Twilight thought she saw a few extra bags under her eyes. Bags which she ignored as she took a slow step forward, unaware that her mane and tail were starting to move on their own. “You…” she said, her voice low and growling.

To her credit, Celestia didn’t move, but Twilight was satisfied to see a brief look of confusion and shock on her face. “Twilight, what-?”

“You nepotist,” she growled angrily. The guards moved to intercept her but Celestia waved them off as she began to back away. “Did you put all of my ancestors into the Royal Guard for some reason?”

Celestia looked even more confused. “Twilight, what-?”

“And why is it that your school only focuses on gifted unicorns instead of gifted ponies altogether?” Twilight continued, her mane and tail moving faster, almost like a flame. She had never felt so angry or betrayed in her life, and she was tired of holding back.

“Twilight, please calm down-”

“And let’s not forget that almost all of the nobility are unicorns,” Twilight said, her voice being raised more, “and that unicorns were the only pony race that had a noble line before the founding of Equestria. Why did we become a monarchy? Why didn’t we do something different?”

“It was-”

“And why…the…FUCK…haven’t you done anything about the inequality between the pony clans, or more importantly, about the differences in treatment between ponies and nonponies in Equestria!?” She was shaking now. Unknownst to her, her tail and mane were now ablaze, much like they had been when she had erupted in anger during her first encounter with Pinkie Sense. There were shouts of alarm and demands from the guards to back down or they would act. Her fur was cream white, her eyes were red, and her mane and tail were an orange blaze. “WHY IS EQUESTRIA SO BROKEN BECAUSE OF YOUR FOOLISH INACTION!?” she bellowed in a voice that rivaled the Royal Canterlot Voice. “YOU’RE NOT EQUESTRIA’S MOMMY! STOP ACTING LIKE IT!”

Celestia was so stunned that she didn’t expect what happened next. Twilight blasted magic at the princess, something that nopony who knew her expected her to do. It was a blast of blood red magic, magic that could easily have either seriously injured or killed anypony. However, mere inches from impact, a purple aura surrounded the princess and pulled her directly out of the way. The blast of magic flew into the sky, but was intercepted by another blast of magic, this one the color of moderate cobalt blue.

Twilight turned to see who dared interfere with her actions, only to be stunned into silence when she saw her own mother standing there. She looked drained and weary. Twilight faltered. “Mom…?”

She then felt something hit her in the chest. Turning, she saw Luna next to her still stunned older sister, her horn smoking from the discharge of magic. Twilight felt herself growing weaker, but not weak enough that she couldn’t do anything. She screamed in defiance and charged her horn, but Luna was faster. Another stun bolt, and Twilight collapsed, her last memory was of her mother weeping.

Princess Celestia had canceled everything after Twilight and her former friends had arrived in a very…disturbing manner. She was sitting in the castle’s hospital wing near three occupied beds. Three of the former Elements of Harmony lay there, sleeping off the stun bolts that had been used against them. The other three were in three castle rooms, none of them having the strength to speak to each other or even at all. They were all completely exhausted. Twilight Velvet was by her daughter’s bed, holding her hoof and stroking it.

Luna was dealing with the Day Court so Celestia could be here. She had never before seen Twilight get so angry. It had scared Celestia, mostly because the younger alicorn had taken on a form similar to…to her Daybreaker form.

Celestia knew that she had a form like Luna had Nightmare Moon. Every alicorn had something like that. Cadance even had one named Heartbreaker, which thankfully had never activated. Sure, there had once been other alicorns who had shown wicked tendencies before, like Opaline Arcana, but the others were sadly dead from a plague that wiped out Skyros. And then there was Majesty, an apparently ascended alicorn who was older than any other alicorns she knew of.

Apparently, Twilight had her own dark form, and that broke Celestia’s heart even more than when she was punishing her and her friends. She had to do it because it was the right thing to do and nopony, not even a former princess, were above the law, but it still broke her heart in many ways. Now, though, seeing her former student losing control to anger hurt. Not because of the danger to her young mind, but because each and every word Twilight spoke was true.

She was no better than the ponies who had tormented and caused the death of Jason Wright.

Of course, she had always blamed herself for his death. She had done nothing to check in on him. She had trusted in the wrong ponies. In that sense, she was no better. But now Twilight had opened her eyes even further to her own failings. The nobles, her school, the laws surrounding nonponies, the latter of which she was more aware of and had been attempting to change for the past few years but with fewer results than she’d hoped for thanks in part to the nobles pushing back.

It was her turn to be angry, not just at the nobles, but at herself. She had failed so much in trying to change things for the better the way she had been doing things. Twilight was right. She wasn’t Equestria’s mother. She was a princess, the highest authoritative figure in the kingdom, or one of two. She was no figurehead.

Her thoughts were interrupted by a groaning noise from a nearby bed where Rainbow Dash was beginning to stir. One of the nursing staff was quickly by her side. A pegasus nurse. After Celestia had heard about the argument and about how it had devolved into racial insults, she decided that for the moment each of their nurses would be of a corresponding race to the patient. She had been receiving reports that mentioned a few incidents between the three pony clans, and she feared that the moment newspapers reported on the incident a few hours ago, those tensions would only increase. Not to mention the True Harmonists. They might not have intended to stir up trouble of their own, but their very existence was causing more conservative ponies to act up.

“Easy, Miss Dash,” the pegasus nurse said, “lie back and take slow, easy breaths.”

“…Thirsty…” Rainbow Dash croaked.

The nurse nodded and grabbed a glass on the nearby table, lifting it up to Rainbow’s lips. “Open,” she instructed.

Rainbow did so, and the nurse helped the prismatic pegasus take a drink. After a while, Rainbow was helped to a sitting position. That was when she saw where she was and who was with her. She looked down at Applejack and frowned. “Is she okay?” she asked the earth pony nurse at her side.

The second nurse nodded. “She’s just sleeping.”

Rainbow then noticed Twilight in a bed and her eyes widened in surprise. “What happened to her?” she asked.

Twilight Velvet, who was standing in as her daughter’s nurse, looked up tiredly. “She had to be stunned too…”

“Huh? What for?”

“She attacked me,” Celestia spoke up, her voice sounding as tired as Twilight Velvet looked.

Rainbow looked over at the princess in shock. “She did…what?”

“She fired magic at me that could have seriously hurt or killed any normal pony,” Celestia clarified.

Rainbow looked back at Twilight with eyes wide as saucers. “I don’t believe it…” she muttered. She turned back to Celestia. “Is she having a…what’s that hospital word where your brain injury opens up again? Begins with an R, I think. Recapse? Reclapse?”

“A relapse,” Celestia said, “and I don’t know. I hope not. She’s suffered enough as it is.”

“Why did she do it?” Rainbow asked.

Before Celestia could reply, she heard a groaning noise. Both she and Rainbow Dash turned to see Applejack stirring in her bed. They watched as Applejack’s earth pony nurse gave her a potion to help her wake up. Apparently, Applejack had been stunned by two blasts unlike Rainbow, so she would need more than just water to recover, but she would be back to full health quickly enough. “Whu…what in tarnation happened?” she groaned as the nurse helped her into a sitting position.

“You and Miss Dash were fighting and the guards stunned you so you wouldn’t hurt each other.”

Applejack looked over and saw Celestia. Her eyes narrowed. “Tryin’ tah keep us earth ponies down, ah see,” she growled.

“And trying to keep us pegasi grounded,” Rainbow added with her own anger.

This wasn’t going the way Celestia had hoped. She had flashbacks to her early days as a princess, when the three tribes were bickering on how to run things. The nation might have united the tribes in theory, but that didn’t mean prejudices changed overnight. They had needed to change in that time, and she and Luna had worked tirelessly alongside their magic teacher and the old Pillars to make sure the change was set into motion. She cursed her younger self for not being more alert about the change’s negative side effects.

Before Celestia could speak again, the universe silenced her by waking up Twilight. Unlike Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Twilight shot up out of bed, eyes wide as she took in ragged breaths. Twilight’s mother was there instantly, putting her forelegs around her daughter. “Hush now, Twilight, I’m here. Take calm, deep breaths.”

Twilight’s eyes darted around the room, then locked onto Celestia. Her own eyes widened, then narrowed. “You…” she growled, but that made her fall into a coughing fit.

Twilight Velvet immediately helped her swallow some water to clear her throat. Unlike Applejack. Twilight Sparkle’s alicorn physiology would help her to recover from two stun blasts from Luna much better. “Just relax for a bit,” Velvet encouraged her daughter.

At that moment, Luna walked in, flanked by two of her personal chiropteran guards. “I came as soon as I heard that they were waking up,” Luna said as she joined her sister.

Celestia nodded slowly, barely acknowledging her sister’s presence. “Thanks,” she muttered, her head lowering.

Celestia felt somepony nudging her side. “Sister…”

The alabaster alicorn looked over at the dark blue alicorn of the night, finally fully registering that Luna was there. “I’m sorry,” she said, “I’ve got a lot on my mind.”

“Such as?” Luna prodded.

Celestia’s anger returned, and her mane and tail moved a bit faster, much like Twilight’s had when she experienced her rage filled moment. “My failings are piling up, sister,” she said, loudly enough that everypony in the room could hear it, “and I, for one, am growing tired of it. I hate that it took this Majesty to fully open my eyes to the sickness that is spread across our kingdom. It should have opened further with Jason’s suicide, but it didn’t. I am the damn princess, not the mother of this kingdom!” She slammed her hoof down on the ground, causing cracks to appear in the floor itself. She looked over at Twilight. “Your attack on me aside, you were right, young Twilight. This kingdom is unbalanced. We might have lasted for centuries, but that doesn’t mean that we have made any sort of progress when it comes to our own internal and external policies.”

“Ah’ll be darned…” Applejack muttered.

Ignoring that, Celestia continued. “I hope it isn’t too late to create change before Majesty strikes again. Her actions are too far, but her points…well, they’re well made. So far, she has only punished those she deems guilty, and by and large she did target those who have either escaped punishment or were not punished enough, at least in her opinion. I plan on trying to speak with her.”

“That might not be as easy as you make it out to be, sister,” Luna said. “She strikes me as a fanatic. Someone a lot like Opaline. She might pretend to listen but be plotting.”

“I have to believe she is not that far gone yet,” Celestia said, “but if she is…when I will fight her myself.”

Luna’s eyes bulged, and so did the others in the room. “Sister…the last time you truly fought anyone-”

“I created the Badlands, I know,” Celestia said.

“Excuse me, truly fought?!” Twilight shrieked in rage. “You mean you could have defeated other villains instead of having me and the girls do it?! WE NEARLY DIED SEVERAL TIMES!”

“Twilight, please calm down,” Velvet said, trying to push her daughter back into bed.

Twilight, however, wasn’t to be deterred. She shoved her mother off, sending her sprawling, before the young alicorn jumped up and glared daggers at Celestia. “You once told me,” she said in a deadly tone, “that a princess cares for their subjects. That a princess should put their lives on the line for them. When have you ever done that? For real?”

“Twilight Sparkle!” Her mother’s shout caused the younger alicorn to jump and turn to her mother in shock. Velvet looked angry, almost as angry as young Twilight. “Before you make any sort of accusation against someone, what is the one thing you should do? You are a smart mare, but you are letting your anger get in the way of your rationale. Even the princess has a right to speak in her defense.” She then turned and gave Celestia a warning glare. “Even if there’s not much she could say.”

That stung the alicorn a bit, but she nodded and thanked Twilight Velvet. “I should probably speak to the others as well,” she said.

“Guards, call the other former Elements to meet us in here at once,” Luna ordered.

“At once, your highness,” her guards said as the two chiropterans flew away, vanishing into a dark shadow.

Five minutes later, the other three were in the room, sitting near the beds of the first three. The nurses were gone now as the information the princess was about to share was secret. Celestia didn’t miss that Pinkie Pie was next to Applejack. Rarity next to Twilight, and Fluttershy next to Rainbow Dash. When the doors were shut and windows closed, Celestia stood. She was facing her failures head on from then on, and it had to start with her failings regarding these six.

Clearing her throat, she faced Twilight first. “Twilight Sparkle, you’re right. If I had wanted to defeat the enemies we have faced, I could most likely easily have done so. I don’t let anypony else know this, but because I have a thousand years more of experience than Luna, I am much more powerful than she is. Even back before I banished her, I was marginally more powerful. My power, however, comes with great responsibilities. My magic even back before Luna’s banishment was too powerful for me to use. I used it once in a moment of heartbreak and anger. The Badlands were once a flourishing and verdant valley full of life and beauty. My sister and I had a retreat home there where we could spend a week a year on the lake that once existed there. One year, an army of rogue diamond dogs invaded and began terrorizing the local inhabitants. My sister and I didn’t know about it until the dogs had raped and massacred every single pony in that valley.”

The room began growing warm and Celestia’s mane and tail moved like a flame. She continued with a trembling voice. “I was…so angry…so vengeful…that I flew there and wiped out every. Single. One. Of. Those. FUCKING! DOGS!” A blast of heat emanated from her before she took a few deep breaths. Luna walked over and put a comforting wing over Celestia’s back. “I have raised the sun and moon for a thousand years. The power I have inside me can destroy this entire world if I let all of it out at once. I can control how much I let out to an extent, but not enough to be able to defeat what we’ve faced. I also didn’t show my true abilities because if I did that, other nations would fear us.”

“They hate us now,” Twilight said with a scowl.

Celestia nodded. “I know…and I will work to change that…by fixing the mess of a kingdom we live in.”

“I’ll believe that when I see it,” Rainbow muttered.

“You make a fair point, Miss Dash,” Celestia said. “Actions speak louder than words, or so the saying goes.”

“This doesn’t change anything,” Twilight snapped. “You could have trained to learn more control over your magic. If you’re as powerful as you’re claiming, then the enemy alicorn has to be much more powerful, and she has control.”

Celestia nodded in agreement. “She is much more powerful than any of the alicorns I know. I could feel the magic radiating off of her. Even if the four other alicorns in the world attacked her, we’d be no match. That’s why I’m going to attempt to defeat her another way. By changing Equestria for the better.”

Before anypony could say anything else, a swirling green mist formed in the air above Celestia’s head. In a flash of bright green light, a scroll appeared in front of Celestia, which she caught with her magic. Looking at the seal, she saw that it was from Cadance of all ponies. Surprised, she broke the wax and opened it, reading it carefully. “Thank Harmony…he’s safe now.”

“Who is safe, sister?” Luna asked, trying to get a peak at the letter herself.

“The human who Majesty captured,” Celestia said.

That caught the attention of everypony else in the room, even the formerly stunned ponies. “What does the letter say?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

Celestia cleared her throat. “To her Royal Highnesses Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. I bid you a fair greeting. As of one hour ago, we are hosting a human in our care who says he has met both of you. He has requested that I write to you in the hopes to meet, as he has information about a certain alicorn that you may find useful. He also says that currently said alicorn is temporarily out of commission but that will not last for long. Please come directly to Crystalia as soon as possible. Cordially, Empress Cadance the First.”

The room was silent as everypony there digested the letter’s contents. It didn’t take Celestia long to decide what to do. She stood, turned to Luna, and was about to say something when Luna’s feather ruffled. “I am coming too,” the younger alicorn said.

Celestia opened her mouth to object, then closed it. She had no right to deny her sister this, especially since Luna had wanted to officially meet with the human at some point. Luna had been particularly taken with Jason Wright the first time around, especially since he had complimented her so naturally. Celestia had warned her sister that Revan had suffered in his own way since arriving on Erda, but that didn’t stop Luna from wanting to at least meet him once. “Go pack, then,” she said.

Luna nodded, then teleported away.

“There’s no way we’re not coming,” Twilight said, sitting up with a more determined look on her face now.

Celestia shook her head. “Twilight, you need to rest-”

“We have something we need to give to him,” Twilight interrupted her. “Something Discord said we should do.”

That caught Celestia’s attention. “Discord, where has he-?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” Twilight said, “but he’s doing more to help than you are, so we’re going and that’s that.”

Celestia couldn’t argue. She nodded and turned to Twilight Velvet. “Your own research into your family history may be important. Would you and your husband like to accompany us?”

Twilight Velvet winced a bit, but nodded slowly. “I’ll go fetch him.”

“No need,” Celestia replied. “I’ll send somepony to get him. For now, tend to your daughter. I have to pack myself. We leave in half an hour.”