“We should do this as soon as possible,” worried Winter. “I'm sure mother is already freaking out and may have already sent the army this way to turn over every single rock.”

“I know, I know,” agreed Rarity, pacing the room. “I'm just trying to wrap my head around the logistics here. We don't need to actually gather every single Kirin into the plaza to pull this off, right?”

Winter scratched her head. “I don't think so. The phrasing and artwork I've seen, if taken literally, seem to suggest that Kirin all share a connection with the crystal and it doesn't matter where you are, if something changes in the crystal, you'll feel it.”

“Okay, what about the queen afterwards?” raised Autumn, still sitting at the table. “Opening everyone's hearts won't necessarily mean she stops being a threat or that I’ll get my throne back or that you…” She turned to Rarity quizzically. “What exactly is your endgame here?”

“Me? I’ll be happy if I can just live in peace,” she answered dismissively.

Her answer was decidedly non-committal but the question forced her to confront the very obvious issue facing the Kirin, particularly the displaced lightning Kirin. They needed good leaders to rebuild their home and usher them into what was hopefully to be a new era of unity. The inescapable reality was that she was supposed to be one of those leaders. By birth and the powers that be, she had been tapped to be part of this princess triad. She was a Kirin that had almost no knowledge of Kirin culture but she was apparently just as legitimate as the other two leaders. Perhaps it was that outsider's insight that made her uniquely qualified for the position. The idea sounded more ludicrous the longer she thought about it. Would they accept her if she stayed?

“So how do we deal with her,” Autumn reiterated. “Especially if we're committing to a pacifist agenda?”

“We'll cross that bridge when we come to it,” sighed Rarity. It was always an eloquent way of saying she didn't know.

Autumn shrugged. “Here’s hoping we won't but I wouldn't count on it.”

“I'll try to talk to her,” said Winter, her forehead wrinkling anxiously at the thought. “But it's not going to be fun.”

“We can always help you too,” offered Rarity. “Assuming things aren't too volatile.”

“That’s a big if. Let's just go. We're losing time. We can talk through it on the way. All we need to do at this moment is get there, touch the stone and possibly use a little elemental magic if necessary.”

Rarity laughed nervously.“Elemental magic you say? I don't have any Kirin elemental powers.”

“Seriously?” scoffed Autumn. “None?”

“Yes, I already told you that, remember?”

“But you're a Kirin. You can do Kirin magic, you just need to learn like everyone else did. It should be easy since you're an adult.”

“Hold on, this is the first I've ever heard about that part of the process,” complained Autumn, rising from her chair. We need like fire, ice, lightning magic for this?”

“Maybe,” shrugged Winter. “It's hard to know because some of the materials I’m going off of blur the line between poetry and historical documentation. So whether something is literal or figurative is sometimes a guess. It- it's possible we don't even need that but it never occurred to me that one of us not knowing elemental magic could be a sticking point.”

Rarity sighed. “Okay but shouldn't we just come prepared. If I can learn, how am I going to learn? Can you just teach me?”

The other princesses exchanged skeptical glances.

“Uh… we don't know anything about summoning lightning because we're not lightning,” replied Autumn. If you can't figure it out yourself then it's just something that's supposed to be passed down from your parents or the elders in your clan.”

Rarity deflated. “Well that's just great. I don't know of any… wait, elders? Fizzle…” she murmured. “I wager she could teach me.”

Autumn shrugged. Rarity rushed to the door but paused to look back at them. I'll be back in a minute. Be ready to leave… and be nice.”

Rarity galloped through the dead town all the way to the old mare’s cottage. The way they put it, Kirin elemental magic was a basic skill spell like levitation or illumination. It should be easy, she reasoned, if someone just pointed her in the right direction.

She stepped up onto her porch and knocked politely. Fizzle appeared shortly with a quizzical expression.

“Excuse me, Fizzle. I have a rather odd request that I think only you can help me with. Can you teach me to use lightning magic… right now?”

Fizzle stared at her and then laughed. “You don't know how? No, I guess you wouldn't,” she muttered stepping out onto the porch. “C’mon. Practicing lightning's an outside thing.” She walked down the length of her garden fence and then some more before turning around expectantly.

Rarity joined her, trying to mask her unexpected excitement.

“Been a long time since I did this.”

At first Rarity thought the comment odd but the far off look in the old mare's eyes told her that she wasn't meaning the act of using lightning magic but rather the act of teaching it to someone… someone who was no longer here.

“First thing's first: you gotta have lighting blood in you to summon lightning.”

“I'm ninety-nine percent sure I do at this point.”

“There's lots of different things you can do with lightning and ways you can harness it but most spells build off of making a horn bolt or shooting a bolt of lightning from your horn. But before you do that, you have to build up a charge in your horn. Watch this.”

Fizzle concentrated effortlessly and her horn began to glow and crackle with white electricity before she allowed the power to dissipate innocuously.

“Okay, how do you do that,” asked Rarity, fully intrigued.

Same way you cast any spell: you gather magic there. That's the hard part and you already know how to do it. The difference with your natural elemental magic is that it's more like you're gathering magic from the air instead of from your own body. You're drawing down and in through the tip of the horn instead of up and in through the base. Try it.” Fizzle moved off to the side and out of the way.

Rarity concentrated. It took a moment but her efforts were soon rewarded with a tiny snap as electricity arched between the fork of her horn.

“Oh,” she exclaimed, trying to look up to witness the tiny, fleeting phenomenon. She tried again, emboldened now, and the power began to flicker frenetically for a while before stabilizing with the desired consistent crackle. It felt like a weak buzzing in her head.

“That's the way,” commended Fizzle. She floated a murky looking old bottle from the ground onto a fence post in front of them. “Now the easiest way to explain this is if you try to grab something like you would to levitate it while you have a lightning charge going in your horn, instead of grabbing it, you'll hit it with lightning. Easy. Try to hit that bottle.”

Rarity started up her charge again. She focused on the bottle and near instantaneously a pop sounded as a white bolt sprang from her horn and sent the vessel tumbling into the grass with a thunk.

“I did it,” she giggled. “I'm a real lightning Kirin!”

“How about that. With the same mental motions you use to float something through the air, you can make a solid lightning arc for as long as you can concentrate. Just don't get the spells mixed up.”

“Thank you. You know, you’re almost like the lightning mother I never had now.” - - -

Cookie sat propped up on her plain white bed. An open book stood on the table over her lap. She was half way through her third story from the hospital library. Another homicide detective thriller.

There came a knocking at her already opened door. “Knock knock,” announced Twilight, her smiling face poking inside.

Cookie looked up in surprise to see the Princess of Friendship floating a potted lily, Rainbow Dash in tow.

“Princess Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash? Nice to see you. What an odd surprise. Thank you.”

Twilight set the little flower on her table.“How are you feeling, Cookie?”

She cleared her throat. “Still hurts but I'll be fine. I can get around by myself with a splint. The graft is really the thing keeping me in a hospital room.”

Rainbow eyed the delicate dressing on her side where she'd been scorched. “What about Hondo?” she asked.

“They're supposed to wake him up tonight. I want to see him so badly but I don't know if I will before tomorrow morning.”

“That's great news though.” nodded Twilight excitedly.

Cookie stroked the red and pink speckled petals of the flower. “So… I get the sense you two didn't come just to check in on us.”

Twilight and Rainbow exchanged glances.

“We know what really happened to you,” began Twilight. “We know what you and your family really are and where Rarity went.”

“We're worried about her,” added Rainbow. “Everyone is.”

Cookie cocked an eyebrow. “Who's everyone?”

“The five of us… and Sweetie Belle… and Spike, she added flatly.”

“Was it Sweetie?”

“Huh?”

“Who told everyone.”

“Yeah. It was an accident. She showed her Kirin form to the Apples and then had to explain everything.”

Cookie laughed weakly. “Well she made it this long so that's something at least.

“Why keep this a secret from everyone,’ asked Twilight pointedly. “Especially from the ones who could support Rarity?”

Cookie sighed and settled into her pillows. “How much do you know about the Kirin, princess?”

Twilight shrugged. “Not much, I confess, even with a huge library. Until I saw one right in front of me, I thought they were mythical creatures, just stories.”

“There’s a good reason for that. The Kirin live in an isolated society. They only know Kirin and they only trust Kirin and only the Kirin in their own clan. In general they're stubborn, closed-minded and just not interested in things beyond their little word.”

“But you're not like that,” argued Twilight.

“I could have been. It's just because my only option was to run away and live with ponies who ended up being so very different.”

Twilight sat down in the chair beside her bed. “You all live in the same region I assume and your clans never found a way to just get along?”

“Not any time I or any elders I asked could remember. Power seemed to be always more important than unity between clans and having an enemy to unite against is a powerful tool for a leader to keep their subjects unquestioningly in line behind them. The leaders help perpetuate that sentiment... Did you know that I used to be a spy for the Ice Clan?”

“Sweetie did mention that but there were honestly a lot of jaw dropping details to absorb about your situation.”

“I was often taking direct orders from the ice princess herself, neck deep in vitriol and jingoism. Once I was sent on a mission to steal a certain document from the Fire Clan's archives. Unfortunately a lone elderly scholar was there when he shouldn't have been and saw me. I quickly subdued him and coerced him tell me where the document was. He didn't fear death or pain but said he'd cooperate if I simply told him what clan I belonged to since I hid behind a mask and bodysuit. In general it's best for a spy to leave no trace behind including appearance or affiliation. I lied to him and said I was of the Lightning Clan. He wisely assumed my answer was false and that meant that I was ice. I said ‘how do you know I didn't anticipate you thinking that and change my answer accordingly?’ He told me that I answered too quickly. He'd spent probably over half a century chronicling historical events and interviewing Kirin who were too embarrassed to admit their mistakes or wanted to exaggerate their achievements for the annals of the Fire Clan. He'd been lied to many many times and likely wrote down both fact and fiction regardless of if he believed or knew otherwise simply because he had to. I pointed this out and told him that he cataloged propaganda to prop up his corrupt government and vane princess. He told me ‘Perhaps but do you not also have scholars and a princess in White Glade? Everyone is the hero of their own story and the villain of someone else’s.’ And with that he showed me the document and I left.”

Cookie shifted to stretch her stiff neck. “As Kirin we say the same bad things about each other but we can't both be right. Of course I'm inclined to believe that we're the ones who are right and they are lying because I'd always been told we were right and they are liars but someone from another clan would believe the exact opposite about our clan versus theirs. If we're right, how can they be just as sure that they're right? If their leader is lying to them then couldn't our leader lie just as easily to us about the very same things? It seems silly looking back but it had never occurred to me that perspective wasn't the arbiter of righteousness. That was the first time I really began to question the system and it never stopped bothering me.”

Twilight rubbed her chin thoughtfully “I like that story. It really underscores the need to see through someone else's eyes.”

Rainbow shrugged. “We don't get many leaders like that in Equestria but when we do, we usually just kick their flanks.”

Cookie laughed weakly. “I know you do. But back to the matter at hoof, my fear is that if a team of weird aliens show up in the Kirin homeland it could cause total mayhem. Not to mention that Rarity is on a sensitive personal mission. I don't know exactly what the conditions are like over there but she might be hiding or operating under cover and you wouldn't want to jeopardize that.”

“But she could also be in serious trouble,” argued Rainbow emphatically.

Cookie nodded. “Yes she could be and no one understands that better than me but I have faith in her and I truly believe that interfering is actually more likely to be harmful than helpful.”

Twilight frowned with concern. “So you're not going to tell us where the Kirin live?”

“Sorry. I hope you understand. Rarity is not my real daughter but the feelings I developed for her over the years that I raised her are no less real. I spent her entire foalhood and beyond dreading this moment, when our past and present collide. I haven't stopped worrying about her since she left me here and I'll continue doing so every day until I see her or hear good news from her. It feels like a nightmare so believe me when I say that there's no way I'd be doing it if I didn't truly believe it was best for her.”

Twilight leaned back and sighed. “As difficult as this is for us to accept, you do make some good points and I respect your position.”

Rainbow looked like she wanted to keep arguing but said nothing.

“Thank you,” mumbled Cookie.

The three conversed until visiting hours were almost over.

“Can we get you anything?” asked Twilight, getting up from her chair.

Cookie shook her head. “The only thing I need right now is my husband by my side and my daughter to come home in one piece.”

“Well, I'm afraid. we can't help you with those but we wish you two a speedy recovery.”

The two visitors said their goodbyes and left the hospital intending to fly straight back to Ponyville.

“I can’t believe there's just nothing we can do here,” groaned Rainbow dejectedly as they stepped out onto the sidewalk.

“There's still something we can do,” replied Twilight. “It just won't be for Rarity.” - - -

Rarity slowed her companions as they came upon the overgrown plaza. They convened behind a crumbling wall of a long lost building on the outskirts of the site.

“The queen has likely deduced that all three of us are together and, one way or another, have the wherewithal to activate the crystal if we chose to. Guarding the crystal from us would be a smart move on her part. We need to exercise caution here.”

“It looks safe,” whispered Winter, peeking around the corner at the lonely temple. There were no signs of any sort of presence and the only sound was a soft breeze in the treetops.

“You thought that about the candy shop too,” quipped Autumn absently.

“I don't see anyone,” breathed Rarity. “But just in case, I'll go scout ahead first. If I think it's safe I'll call you over.”

“We'll stay here then,” agreed Autumn.

Rarity nodded as she cautiously made her way out into the open. Crossing the plaza, she looked around in all directions for anything out of the ordinary, any sign of danger but everything looked normal and peaceful. She slowed to a creep after entering the shadow of the temple, allowing her eyes to adjust before looking through a doorway to the inside. It was vacant just as they thought it was.

Rarity stepped in and gazed up at the Kirin frescos adorning the ceiling. The expressions of the figures depicted ranged from ecstatic to placid. The artwork seemed to be hyping the power contained within this place. Keeping vigilant, she made her the spiral stairs and descended. She silently slunk down the steps, feeling her way in the darkening passage. As the light died, she did not illuminate her horn but kept walking. The decorative metal mesh appeared along her left side, indicating that she was near the bottom where a faint glow manifested before her like the first light of dawn.

Her hooves set down on the cool stone floor and the light of the magnificent crystal grew from her presence. The room was cylindrical, mirroring the space of the rotunda above it but significantly smaller. The room was open and empty aside from the great crystal centerpiece and an artistic flourishment of tendrils radiating on the floor from the base of the crystal's metal altar. The pattern wasn't too dissimilar from veins or tree roots.

There was very clearly no one there. What luck. Rarity gazed into the inviting gleam of the Unity Crystal as she approached. She placed a hoof atop one of its three points as the light reached its zenith, at least for a single princess.

Though enchanted by it, Rarity turned away and hurried back up the steps to ground level. She went to an arched doorway and looked out far across the plaza, back to where the other two were waiting and motioned excitedly for them to join her.

Autumn and Winter exchanged glances before starting their way briskly to the temple.

“It's clear,” said Rarity as they reached the doorway. “This is it.”

She turned and led them quickly down the stairs to the chamber below. The crystal glowed brightly as the trio spilled onto the floor and surrounded it, naturally taking positions at the points. The room echoed with their voices as they marveled at the crystal's newfound luminosity. It was so brilliant but not harsh on the eyes. Not only did it glow but the energy within appeared to ebb and flow like iridescent fluid.

“I believe there really is a soul in there.” Rarity held up her hoof tentatively. “So we just all touch it at once.”

As soon as the words left her mouth they all became aware of the sound of clopping hooves on stone.

“Someone's here,” gasped Autumn, freezing in place.

They were cornered. A pair of fizzling, hoof sizes incendiaries flew down the stairs and boggled about on the floor before detonating with a blinding flash and a painful concussion.

“Get down on the ground,” ordered a booming voice.

With her ears ringing and her eyes scrunched shut, Rarity felt a pair of familiar icy impacts strike her broadside, sending her crumpled to the floor as a team of guards descended upon them.

It was a trap. They came from nowhere.

I suppose I was due for a loss, thought Rarity as she felt the cuff snap over her horn.

Author's Note

And with this chapter this story is now officially the longest fan fiction I've ever written.