Roots of a Cold Heart

Chapters

Aftermath, Part II
The Tree
The Valley
The Sisters
The Departure
The Heart
The Ritual
The Princess
The Farewell
The Storm
The Fire Alicorn, Part I
The Fire Alicorn, Part II
Aftermath, Part I
Epilogue, Part I
Epilogue, Part II
Alternate Ending

Aftermath, Part II

Sunny made her way down the beach at a steady trot, her gaze unable to avoid glancing over at the Boardtrot.

The damage was immediately noticeable; the ice sheets that had resulted from the Windigo storm had damaged support beams, splintered several areas of walkways, and a few sections of the park had sunk almost entirely into the bay when the ice melted in the aftermath. Engineers had been so busy the last day determining total damages up in town that there hadn’t been any time to even begin inspecting the amusement park yet.

Sunny continued past the entrance gates to the park, to a small cavern around the bend. It was occasionally used as a camping spot for beach parties and Filly Scouts, but for the past few weeks, it had been the shelter of one Allura.

Once Opaline and the alicorn spirits had sent the Windigo’s packing back to whatever ethereal plane they had come from, they had found both the orchid alicorn and the snow leopard up on the roof of CanterLove Studios… And Allura was in much worse shape than Opaline had been, which is why her rabbit, Twitch, finally opened up to Hitch about what had been going on.

“Opaline is awake… And rather remorseful,” Sunny began when she saw Hitch and Zipp standing vigilantly next to the prone Allura laying on the cavern floor next to a fire. “Any change here?”

“Well, she’s still breathing, so… No, no changes so far,” Zipp replied.

Twitch chattered as he sat up on Hitch’s back.

“We’ve done all we can, pal. It’s up to her to pull through. If she does, then the important question is ‘will she be cooperative?’. Because I don’t want any more of this mind-wiping nonsense,” the sheriff told him.

“Problem is, we don’t have any way to keep her from doing that if she feels like it,” Zipp replied.

The voices were apparently enough to get the leopard to begin to wake up, because she began to stir. With a shiver, she slowly opened her eyes, and the blurry trio of ponies slowly cleared in her vision.

“Ugggh… Get away from me… Leave me alone…” she said, her voice shivering and hoarse.

“After what you almost did, I don’t think so. Stay still, your body temperature is still dangerously low,” Hitch said.

“Do not command me,” Allura replied. "You are content to see me trapped here… I will get home… One way or another...”

Twitch hopped off of Hitch’s back, scampered past the fire, into the leopard’s vision.

“Twitch…” Allura said, relieved to see him.

“’One way or another’?” Zipp asked, her tone half-mocking. “So the whole ‘half-frozen to death’ up on the roof was just a clever ploy? Twitch told us what you were trying to do. You found the pieces of the Nova Charm all over the Boardtrot, and you used them to open a portal. A portal that you thought would take you home. But what came out of the other side could have wiped out every living thing on this side. Yourself included. So maybe it’s time for you to stop and listen to the ponies here who actually take care of each other. We could help you if you just gave us a chance!”

The leopard laughed weakly.

“So all the loving little ponies of Maretime Bay would just welcome me with open hooves? Conveniently forgetting all of the videos you’ve made over the last few weeks that made them so terrified of me?” Allura asked, her icy stare piercing the pegasus’ heart.

“What choice do you think you have?” Came another voice from the mouth of the cave. The ponies and rabbit looked, and saw the towering silhouette of Opaline enter the cave, followed a moment later by Misty. “She’s told me what you’ve been doing. Stealing food, wiping ponies’ short-term memories, leaving them standing out in the middle of nowhere wondering how they got there, and now, finally, ripping open a portal to let world-ending spirits pass through. I don’t know you, and you don’t know me, but answer me this one single question, Allura; what would have happened here if I hadn’t shown up? You’d be nothing more than the highest corpse in the land up on that roof, slowly surrounded by countless more. Would that have been enough to make your brother proud?”

Opaline’s harsh words made everyone in the cave remain silent for several moments, broken only by the crackling flames of the fire and Allura’s labored breathing.

“Still, she’s right,” Zipp said.

“What?” Sunny asked.

“About me. About my vlogs. There’s staying safe, and then there’s fear-mongering. Maybe I crossed that line without realizing it. I’m sorry, Allura,” Zipp told her.

“Even if you do accept their help, Allura, we promise nothing. There may be no getting back to your home and your family, and if that is the case, that is still no excuse to meddle in magic you do not possibly comprehend, and condemning this realm to certain death,” Opaline continued.

Allura winced. The words stung.

“Step back,” Opaline advised the ponies present, her horn lighting up.

No sooner did Sunny, Hitch, and Zipp step back, did Opaline fire off a spell at the fire. The flames turned from orange to blue and purple, and a sparkling magical bubble popped into place around the fire and the leopard and rabbit next to it.

“The fire is enchanted and will last for days, as will the magical field. I can try and make enchanted charms which would be an adequate defense against her mind tricks,” Opaline told them.

Zipp and Hitch were still not used to the alicorn being helpful all of a sudden.

“I’m not going to sugarcoat this,” Opaline said, returning her attention to the leopard now magically encased next to the fire. “You may have to start over here. Away from your home, and away from your family. The sooner you accept that, the better. It won’t be easy, it may even be the hardest thing you’ve done. But make no mistake, I will not let you endanger Equestrian lives again. Take this time to talk to the only friend you’ve currently got. Ask him how he certainly would have perished in the blizzard had he not taken shelter in the lighthouse with them.”

The alicorn figured that was enough for now, and turned to leave the cave, followed by Misty, Sunny, and Zipp, leaving only Hitch in front of the bubble.

“We’ll make sure you’re given food and water while you recover,” the sheriff told her, and then headed out to the beach, where he decided to stand guard, while his friends headed back into town.

Author's Note

Well, if it wasn't completely and totally obvious, the leaked animatic of TYT S2E29 really kickstarted this chapter; before that, I had absolutely no idea what I intended to do with Allura. I wasn't even intending her to survive, before a pre-reader suggested it.

The Tree

Cold.

Opaline Arcana laid prone on her side, trapped in a cluster of roots that made up the base of the Together Tree that she had attempted to grow in and around her home.

Cold, and hollow.

Those were the words she would describe how she felt, but not the kind of cold that shivering would even temporarily solve. The roots had glowed a brilliant green for a time, as the tree had quickly overtaken her throne room, then they had darkened as the glow faded, trapping her in near pitch black, with her only source of light coming from the intermittent glow of her cutie mark, floating somewhere on the other side of the intertwined roots that had wrapped around her.

The dark orchid alicorn had room to stand, if she wished, but little else. Even with her countless years of knowledge, she was not aware of what powers were at work here; she had not felt hungry, or tired, since becoming imprisoned, and she was fairly certain she should have by now… It had to have been days now, or perhaps even weeks…

It dawned on the alicorn that without natural bodily signals, keeping track of time within this dark prison of tree roots was quite impossible.

Another possibility that settled into her mind was that this imprisonment was not life, but perhaps limbo.

Over fifteen hundred years of waiting, of planning... Only to have her birthright ripped away once again.

It was unfair. It was abhorrent. She was an Alicorn of Skyros. It was her destiny to rule.

‘You can take my Cutie Mark, but you can’t take what makes me… Me. Hope. Hope for a better future. For all ponies to make their mark. That’s why you and I are never going to be the same, Opaline. Because I have hope, and I have friendship.’

Even that had been denied to her. By Skyros. By Celestia and her younger sister Luna. By the dragons, and by Misty. By all accounts, it was this overwhelming, all-powerful, unstoppable force of unity, and she had not known it, and not given the opportunity to know it.

Opaline slowly turned her head to gaze at the floating indigo sphere, containing her faded and blackened cutie mark of a horn and flaming wings.

‘My mark! My power! Come back!’

Giving chase when it had been whisked away was what got her locked behind the Together Tree’s roots. She had lost count of how many times she had attempted to reach it. No matter how much she stretched or strained, it remained tortuously just out of reach of her hooves, and the roots had been unrelenting against what little physical strength she had.

Was this to be her eternal fate? Trapped within this magical tree, forever taunted by her power and identity stripped from her?

She took a deep breath before sitting back in resignation.

So cold. Empty.

Her ears twitched when she thought she heard… Music? Yes… The very dull, repetitive thumping of deep, bass-filled dance music.

Part of her wanted to be annoyed, but that part was very quickly overruled by the fact that it was something new, not maddening silence, or only the sound her own breathing to keep her company.

After several minutes of the repetitive beat, however, she began to wonder if it was just another method of this tree torturing her, making her go mad. As she resorted to trying to breathe steadily to the beat, all of a sudden, she felt the roots underneath her begin to vibrate…

...And then begin to loosen.

All in the next moment, her entire body weight shifted, her hooves left the roots she was standing on, and she felt herself go into a freefall. Her next breaths were very hard to come by as she could do nothing more than squeeze her eyes shut and wait for the falling sensation to stop...

She held her eyes shut tightly for as long as the falling sensation lasted. When it faded, she risked breathing again, and then slowly opened her eyes.

She still saw the roots, but the ambient lighting was brighter. Barely, but noticeable, and curiously, the increased light was not coming from the glowing sphere containing her mark. She reached over, and upon the tip of her hoof coming into contact with the closest two roots, she found that they parted quite easily. She withdrew her leg for a moment, just enough time to get to her hooves. Taking another breath, she reached forward again with both of her front hooves, and parted the thick roots enough to poke her head through, and look at her surroundings.

There were broken pieces of her castle and the Together Tree everywhere, all the way down to the beach. The whole structure had collapsed and fallen down the edge of the cliff.

Opaline pushed harder, and the roots gave way, allowing her to squeeze her barrel and back half through, and her hooves came into contact with dirt for the first time since her imprisonment.

She had a moment of panic for barely a moment when she didn’t see it at first due to the setting sun, but there it was; her cutie mark, still floating in the imprisoned sphere just a few feet away. But when she stepped forward toward it, reaching out, it floated away, keeping itself just as far away from her as it always had.

Quickly growing desperate, Opaline lunged after it, spreading her wings and flapping once, but immediately found out she had lost the magical power of flight as she unceremoniously somersaulted once, colliding with a chunk of what used to be part of her castle wall. She scrambled to her hooves again and took to hopping over snapped tree roots and climbing over the piles of rubble, following her floating, encapsulated cutie mark out into the open as the dirt and rocks gave way to the white sands of the beach.

Finally pausing when her hooves were on the sand, she wondered how long she dared take her eyes off of her cutie mark to gaze up at where her castle used to be.

The only part of the entire structure that was still standing was half of the cobblestone arched bridge that had extended out from the hill; the rest had joined the rest of the ruins down at the bottom of the cliff. The fact that she had survived the fall with little more than a few scrapes was nothing short of miraculous.

She turned back to her cutie mark as it floated at the water’s edge. Not wanting to risk seeing how far it would go out into the ocean, she merely stood and stared at it from her spot in the sand.

No magic, and it was acting as if it and her body were opposite ends of a magnet.

“Ugh, how do I get it back?!” She asked frustratingly, pounding the sand with her right hoof as she sat down.

She noticed the floating mark flicker for a moment, before it started to float to the right, following the coast to the north. As it slowly got farther from the sitting alicorn, the cold sensation seemed to intensify, and this immediately got Opaline to her hooves, following it as the dusk continued to give way to night. Doing so seemed to stop the sharp stinging chill, and returned it to the dull, muted cold.

“Alright,” she muttered in a resigned, slightly irked tone. “Lead the way.”

Author's Note

And we're off. My first new story in over a year.

This one came at me in a creative wildfire, and I don't have it all figured out yet.

I've never been the best at fluff, and I think I'm going to have to take a good whack at it, otherwise this premise that came to me may collapse.

Still, wanted to get the opening written up and posted to gauge interest. So thanks for reading, and I hope you come along with me on this new and interesting ride!

The Valley

As Opaline trotted north up the Equestrian coast, the dark orchid alicorn couldn’t help but feel like she was on a leash held by her cutie mark. It was not hard to keep pace with the sphere as it floated northward, but she was unable to stray from following it. It matched whatever pace she moved behind it, but when she tired of the sand and tried to head farther up the beach to the hills of grass and dirt, she was overcome with a squeezing, freezing sensation that overwhelmed her and chilled her to her bones.

Needless to say, in her current powerless state, she was not keen on experiencing that sense of dread again, and so resigned to trotting through the sand, tinted a light blue by the moon overhead; the sound of the late night tide her ears’ only companion.

Opaline had silently played through the events that had led her to this mysterious predicament of hers. Curiously, vengeance was farthest back in her mind right now; centuries of research, decades of planning, weeks of scheming, and at last, when all the magic in the realm was hers to control… She was cast down with a song.

‘~Don't look now, things will get better
So, hold my hoof 'cause we're growing together
We've got the strength to take on whatever
'Cause we've got the magic, we've got the magic in us’

She cringed as she recalled the hundreds of singing voices from across Equestria emanating from her Together Tree, shortly before that hatchling used the dragonstone to undo weeks of work.

‘And what is friendship, Opaline?!’

That had been Sunny Starscout’s final question, and though it was very likely rhetorical at the time, she had to admit that she honestly did not know. Friendship was magic, but what kind of magic? What kind of magic could overpower generations’ worth of research and artifacts?

Just as she didn’t know what kind of magic could keep her tethered to her floating cutie mark, moving on its own accord to an unknowable destination, and she had to follow it or face… Again, she knew not. But it wasn’t something she was willing to test. The chill she got when she distanced herself from her mark frightened her beyond measure, and she felt defenseless enough as it was without it being on her flank.

She must have been walking at a steady trot almost all night, because the sky to the east was barely starting to brighten with the very early dawn, when her cutie mark started to drift to the northeast. She followed it up the hill, grateful to get her hooves out of the sand and onto grass.

Opaline followed her mark over the crest of the hill, and stared down into an unremarkable looking valley.

It would be some time before the sun came over the distant hills to the east, so she watched her footing as she descended the hill, and noticed her mark pause momentarily next to a sizable white-gray boulder.

Erosion had taken its toll, to be sure, but she was still able to make out the barely-noticeable engraving.

Welcome to
SILVER SHOALS

She raised an eyebrow curiously; was this a village? Or rather, had it been? There was nothing but grass stretching out across the entire valley. Any unmaintained, non-enchanted wooden structures would have succumbed to the elements and rotted to soil long ago; any distinct paths in and out of the valley were now overgrown.

She silently gazed up at her mark expectantly before it resumed its slow journey into the valley.

As the descending hill began to level out, her ears twitched. Were those… Whispers?

Opaline carefully scanned her surroundings, looking for the source of the sounds while she still followed her mark towards the valley’s center. It did not take her long to conclude that it was taking her to the source as the pair of whispers slowly became more distinct, and she heard them call her name.

“Opaline… Opaline Arcana…”

They sounded neither benevolent or malevolent, but just… There. Present.

The ground had leveled out entirely by the time she saw them; a pair of… Candles? No, torches?

No… Two distinct flames, hovering next to each other above the ground at chest level about two dozen feet away; all to easy to spot due to the darkness that was still prevalent in the early morning.

Her mark was heading directly for them.

The flame on the left was almost pure white, while the one on the right gave off a glowing, smoky aura of a midnight blue hue.

When the alicorn had closed to ten feet, her mark floated up above head level, and began to glow brighter as it came to a stop above the pair of flickering flames.

In the brightened glowing light of the floating sphere, two transparent, fully grown alicorns faded into view around the flames, one white with a flowing cerulean, turquoise, and cobalt blue mane with pink streaks, and one dark blue with a flowing sapphire blue mane.

Opaline’s gait came to a halt, and her eyes widened as ancient memories flashed in her mind.

“Opaline… You are here.”

Author's Note

Art by maren

The Sisters

A Long Time Ago…

Opaline Arcana stood carefully in the hall of Skyros Academy, her left ear pressed up against the polished oak door of the first dormitory of the north wing.

“It’s such a relief that mom and dad aren’t taking it terribly hard,” she heard the muffled voice of Celestia, by far the Academy’s most gifted prodigy.

Her younger sister, whom she shared the room with, scoffed audibly.

“More like not hard at all, ‘Tia. They haven’t been able to stop fawning over the fact that we’re powerful enough to be chosen for this task… Especially at our age. Even if it is a one-way trip,” Luna replied. “Do you really think we’re ready?”

“The overseers have told us they’ve taught us everything they possibly can to face the threats down in Equestria,” Celestia replied.

“I’m not sure which one concerns me more,” Luna began. “The chaotic demigod, or the unicorn king with the shadow magic in the north. With everything we’ve learned already, how can this ‘Starswirl’ down there possibly help us?”

“The very fact that his achievements have reached us here should tell you everything you need to know, Luna. He’ll no doubt be familiar with how the aetherial fields differ down there. The demigod has done so much damage to the realm that Starswirl has had to recruit an entire tribe of gifted unicorns that keeps their world’s axial tilt intact, so the sun and moon keep moving. The Academy overseers claim that Starswirl has managed to create a set of extremely powerful magical items using a nexus of aetherial energy, with enough power to overcome these threats. He just needs somepony powerful enough to wield them,” Celestia told her sister.

“Hm,” Luna said, raising an eyebrow, impressed. “If he knows how to not only locate aetherial nexii, but also harness their energy without atomizing himself, perhaps he can augment our training.”

“That’s the plan, at least,” the elder sibling replied.

They heard a soft thump against their dormitory door. Turning her attention to investigate, Celestia gripped the door handle with her magic, and pulled it open, fast enough so the eavesdropper on the other side could not regain her balance, and slumped into the open doorway.

Celestia snickered.

“Oh, Arcana. Not even eavesdropping is beneath you, I see,” the white alicorn said, picking up the prone underclassmare with her magic before she could get to her hooves.

“Jealous, are we?” her younger sister sneered, and the dark orchid alicorn’s horn flared in anger. “Oh my, what are you going to do with that? Light a candle?”

“She’s just as likely to burn the entire wing down,” Celestia joked. “If you’re here for your tutoring session, Arcana, I’m afraid that being twenty minutes late is grounds for cancellation. My sister and I have preparations to make, after all. I’m sure you know.”

Of course she knew. The entire academy had been talking about it for days now.

“So I’m afraid that you’ll have to find another upperclassmare to fill your tutoring slot. My sister and I have much more important things to worry about now than under-performing freshmares,” Celestia told her as she was floated out of the doorway and back out into the hall, dropping her unceremoniously onto the hallway floor as the two sisters followed out and closed their dormitory door, locking it.

“Keep practicing, Amateur Arcana,” Luna sneered, looking down at her as she and Celestia turned to head towards the main campus. “Work hard and you might be good enough that they’ll let you light the wall sconces.”

Opaline sneered at the ghostly visages of the two Skyrosian Alicorns that she had not seen in over a millennium and a half.

“What is the meaning of this?” She asked angrily, her gaze lifting from the pair up to her floating cutie mark. “Did you bring me here to listen to them gloat some more? If you came back to me, I could show them what I’m capable of now!”

As her voice echoed across the otherwise empty grass field, Celestia took a single step forward.

“Opaline…” She began.

“How are you two even alive?” Opaline interrupted. “More than half of Equestria doesn’t even remember your names anymore!”

“We are not,” Luna replied. “We are echoes, memories. Try to think of us as pieces of the ponies you knew. Pieces… Left behind.”

“Left behind?” Opaline asked, trying to grasp what they were explaining.

“Regrets that never healed. Promises left unfulfilled,” Celestia replied.

“Pah!” Opaline spat. “What could you possibly regret? You turned me away, rejected me, and came down here! You defeated a jester with super powers and these peons worshiped you for it!”

“We took our monumental task seriously,” Luna began. “But nothing the Academy told or taught us could have prepared us for the suffering Equestrians we encountered when we came here. It was humbling, to say the very least.”

“We defeated Discord, that ‘jester’ you speak of, with the Elements of Harmony, after great effort. But nopony is perfect, not even the Alicorns of Skyros, as much as Equestria’s citizens wanted to paint us as such,” Celestia continued. “We banished King Sombra to the depths of the arctic ice, but could not save the Crystal Empire from the curse he had set upon it.”

Opaline had fallen silent, opting to listen silently, unsure of why they were providing this history lesson, as Luna stepped forward next to her elder sister.

“I callously dismissed your awe of my sister and I as jealousy, and yet, I was powerless against my own jealousy as I witnessed the admiration and reverence my sister received… And I conspired to set myself upon her, and take it for myself,” the dark blue alicorn told her.

“The realm we had been sent to save would have perished had I not the courage to imprison my fallen sister in the moon. Then, for the first time in my life, I found myself completely and utterly alone. In that loneliness, I remembered you, Opaline Arcana. Being unable to return to you or otherwise speak with you, I prayed you would forget the way we treated you,” Celestia told her.

The slightly taller elder sister paused, and Opaline saw the tears fall from her eyes, before she met her gaze again.

“Clearly that was not what came to pass,” Celestia continued, her voice quivering. “Our selfish dismissal and cold words were the start of your fall, the beginning of your heart becoming just as cold as we were to you, and for that, we are so very sorry.”

Opaline’s eyes widened, and her tight lips parted just slightly as she took a small step back, feeling something in her chest squeeze and twist. The sorrow in the apparition’s voice was absolutely genuine. The squeezing sensation rose to become a lump in her throat, but she forced herself to swallow it.

“You…” Opaline whispered, her voice faltering. “You think some heartfelt history lesson and an apology is enough to… To undo how you made me feel?!” Opaline asked incredulously, unable to stop her voice from breaking.

She didn’t care if they were memories, or echoes, or whatever… She wouldn’t let them see her like this. She turned and began to gallop away, but didn’t get farther than twenty feet before the sharp, freezing, stinging pain compelled her to skid to a halt, and drop to her knees, as the chilling sensation finally caused her shoulders to heave and the tears she was holding back to spill over.

She wept silently as she felt the deathly cold fade again as Celestia, Luna, and her floating cutie mark came to her left, right, and above her, respectively.

“No,” Celestia answered, kneeling down next to the dark orchid alicorn. “These pieces, these echoes, were not left behind for mere words.”

“I was trapped and alone for a thousand years, and I was able to find repentance at the end of that dark tunnel,” Luna said.

“Friendship is for everypony, Opaline, and with it, change is possible,” Celestia told her. “I have seen it with my former enemies, my proteges, and my own sister. Wherever your mark intends to take you from here, it is a journey we do not want you to make alone…”

With that, the two alicorns on either side of her extended their hooves towards her. Opaline took a deep, quivering breath, and reached forward, placing her front hooves on either of theirs. As they pulled her up, the apparitions of the two sisters faded from view, leaving just the white and blue flames at the tips of Opaline’s hooves. They snaked and swirled around her legs, and slowed on the front of her chest.

She thought they would sink into her body, but instead, an ethereal gold peytral materialized around her neck and barrel, with six empty spherical sockets, not all that dissimilar from the one that had held the cutie marks of Sunny Starscout and her friends.

The pair of flames settled on the left and right sockets, and they began to glow like lanterns that had just been lit.

Opaline took another shuddering breath as she now felt just a little warmer, like a blanket had been laid over her on a chilly night. She stared down at the peytral for another moment, before her gaze rose to meet her cutie mark, still floating out of reach, as the sun was now moments away from rising over the hills to the east.

“Well, what are you waiting for?” She asked rhetorically, still trying to keep her voice from shuddering. “A written invitation?”

She wasn’t sure if she was ever expecting the sphere to audibly respond, but sure enough, it began to float away from the center of the valley, continuing north as the morning sun began to rise over the valley.

Author's Note

I want to thank everyone for their enthusiasm and encouragement for this story's opening chapters. As G5 is in the middle of its death knell, it has been such a fun mental and creative exercise these past couple days trying to remove or correct what I personally saw as Opaline's greatest flaw; her cartoonishly evil mannerisms and characteristics, (or 'card-carrying villain').

I really hope I can do her justice.

Because when it comes to the dozens and dozens of stories I have written for this universe over the last thirteen years, I have always had the most fun going in narrative directions that Hasbro either couldn't or wouldn't.

And that is frequently the best thing about writing fanfiction.

The Departure

A Long Time Ago…

“I am tired of waiting! I have been more than reasonably patient, and you mean to tell me that the council still has nothing for me down there?!” Opaline asked incredulously.

“It has nothing to do with your ‘readiness’, Preserver Arcana. It has to do with there being any need of you down there, which there is not. In actuality, it seems there is no need for any of us here any longer,” the advisor replied.

“What?”

“In addition to the two Equestrians that have ascended to aethereal alicorns, our seers have sensed the natural birth of one as well. They have taken it as an omen that we are no longer needed,” the academy advisor told her.

“And that means what?”

“The council has decreed that the uplifting of Equestria is complete. We are departing at the top of the hour.”

Opaline slowly nodded, and made an effort to have the surprise fade from her face.

“I see. I am well-versed in preparations. I will make sure all possibly unstable artifacts are secure,” Opaline told him.

“Very good, Preserver Arcana. You don’t have long, so I’ll be on my way,”the advisor said, before making his way back towards the main hall.

Inside, Opaline was seething.

It had been just over a millennium since Celestia and Luna had departed for Equestria, and since then, there had been little to no noteworthy contact, other than the two aethereal ascensions. Now, there was a natural-born, non-Skyrosian alicorn down there.

So that was three reasons why she was continually denied her destiny, and thus remained up here maintaining ancient artifacts for the Mage’s Guild.

If she did not act now, who knows how long she would be up here. With her luck, the council would find another realm, just in time for another prodigy to skyrocket through the ranks of the academy.

No.

It was time to blaze her own path, and seize control of her destiny.

After the departure of Celestia and Luna, her magical talents had developed quickly, and after graduation, she very quickly settled into a position as Preserver of the Mage’s Guild, responsible for keeping the variety of magical antiquities of the Guild in working order. Even before her knowledge grew considerably with the work, it was a career she immediately deemed mundane.

Mundane, but considerably knowledgeable, and that would be useful in a pinch if she had precious little time to take action.

She quickly returned to the wing of the guild she was most familiar with; Artifact Storage. She knew exactly what she would need, and luckily it wouldn’t be terribly hard to conceal. The streets would likely be crowded by citizens to watch the departure, it was apparently quite the spectacular light show in what passed for the sky in this realm.

Going over to her desk for one quick moment, she grabbed an empty glass vial, before heading over to the corner shelves, with nine enchanted barrels. Carefully removing the lid of the third from the left, she dipped the vial in slowly, and filled it halfway with the volatile Sand of Scintillation. Too little, and it wouldn’t have the necessary effect for long enough; too much, and it would very likely attract too much attention, no matter what the light show up above was like. But if it was precise enough, it would effectively stun any one alicorn that was close enough to the vial shattering.

The other item she needed was also close by, and luckily under what little authority she had as well. She trotted three rows down, then headed down the aisle, leaning down to the second shelf, and carefully lifted the glass display case, and picked up the small golden bangle that sat on the velvet platform.

“Alicorns of Great Skyros,” came the booming voice of a High Councilor that echoed across the entire city. “Our watch over the realm of Equestria has come to an end at long last. Once again, we journey into the great unknown. May our travels be swift and safe.”

Opaline glanced at the timepiece on her desk; she had ten minutes before the top of the hour. She had to go, now. She knew once the ritual was started, it would be unable to be halted. So not only would it be a one-way trip, but it was very unlikely that even if she was missed in the next few minutes, there would be nothing they could do in time, and who would run from their life here in pursuit of a mere Mage’s Guild preserver?

Having what she needed secured in the inside folds of her cloak, she left her office, and shut the wooden door behind her, heading towards the main entrance.

The gateway out of the realm was near the center of the city, under continuous watch. It wouldn’t take long at all to vanish once she was at the portal.

Her ambitions had gotten her nowhere here. She would happily take her chances down in Equestria.

Once out of the main entrance of the Guild, she trotted down the stairs and onto the wide main street of the ancient city of Skyros. She stayed with the small crowd as they made their way towards the center to see the city ascend into the infinite expanse of the void, where they would remain until the High Council found a realm or civilization they deemed worthy of uplifting.

She wanted no part of it.

As soon as she came to a suitably dark alley, she slipped off of the main street, put her right hoof into the folds of her cloak, and slipped the Bangle of Invisibility, and she and her cloak vanished from the visible spectrum.

Spreading her wings, she took to the sky as the streaks of light got brighter as they arced across the sky. She kept her flight as steady as possible to avoid any noticeable bends of light as she silently glided towards the Hall of Departure.

Suddenly, the marble pillars that lined the main road began to glow blue, as the energy needed to ascend into the void began to course through the entire city. Opaline saw a single solitary watchmare standing at the entrance of the Hall of Departure. She began to glide downwards towards the steps, and reached into her cloak again, pulling the vial out of the other inner pocket. Right before she landed on the steps in front of the watchmare, she threw the vial downwards, and it hit the stone ground and shattered right in front of the guard’s front hooves. There was a small flash of white light and a puff of gray smoke, and the watchmare began to wobble, dazed, but stayed on her hooves.

The invisible Opaline took a step forward, and deftly removed the ringed skeleton key from the mare’s bandolier, and immediately continued towards the large set of double stone doors. She slid the key into the iron keyhole, turned it, and as soon as she heard the lock click, she pulled the door open just far enough to slip inside as she pulled the key out of the lock, and pulled it shut.

The Hall of Departure was empty, save for the burning wall sconces on the pillars that led down the large hall, to a central elevated platform in the main chamber.

A moment later, Opaline saw the Bangle of Invisibility lose its charge, and she and her cloak rejoined the visible universe. She dropped the bangle along with the key behind the first pillar she galloped past, as the chamber began to glow as well as the city continued to magically charge for its journey.

From everything she read about the ritual, she had one minute, maybe two, and by the time the watchmare outside regained her senses, the city of Skyros would be roaming the expanse of the void. Of course the city leadership would eventually discover what she had done, as the Mage’s Guild would be down one of the longest serving Preservers.

But in just under two minutes, there wouldn’t be anything they would be able to do about it.

She ascended the trio of steps to the central elevated platform, where a large magical portal was built into the floor of the chamber. The portal shimmered with the blue and white of Equestria’s sky and clouds, and a pair of large chest-high braziers burned bright with orange flames on either side of the portal.

Opaline removed her cloak, bunched it up, and tossed it into the left brazier, disturbing the flames briefly before it began to burn.

The dark orchid alicorn gazed down into the sky on the other side of the portal, turned to look back down the hall for a moment, then turned back, took a deep breath, leaned forward, and jumped.

Author's Note

Special thanks to reader Max Stroberger for helping me flesh out Opaline's backstory in Skyros today!

The Heart

Opaline shook herself out of more ancient memories as she continued following her cutie mark across the arctic snowfields. This segment of her journey had been much longer; the sun had risen and fallen at least two dozen times before Opaline had decided to stop counting. As the landscape became more of the same day after day, it had been easier and easier to fall back into her memories.

She was also getting more and more concerned with how long she had gone without food or sleep, and seemingly had no need to. She figured it was the magic of her cutie mark, or the ‘echoes’ of Celestia and Luna and this ethereal peytral on her chest…

...But if that magic ran out, there was nothing here out on these snowfields to sustain her, and certainly no shelter of any kind. She couldn’t exactly stop and think about it, because her floating mark kept on its northward trajectory. So the only thing she was able to do was think about it while keeping a steady pace.

The alicorn could not help but wonder what the possible endgame was for this sojourn she was being taken on, and why the echoes had accompanied her, and had been silent since. Perhaps it was better than floating there in the middle of an empty valley, or if they hadn’t come with her, they simply would have faded away, and gone to join the rest of their selves that had left them behind.

She was grateful for the silent company, though. The light emanating from the peytral was soothing, and thus walking on this sea of endless white was not uncomfortable in the slightest.

But what could possibly be all the way up here?

She almost didn’t notice it at first, but her floating cutie mark began to float down towards the snow. As soon as she figured it would sink down into the field of white, the snow gave way, melting around the glowing purple and orange orb. As she continued to follow, she saw the path it continued to forge was essentially creating a ravine that was barely wide enough for her as it continued to descend into the snow and ice.

After nearly a minute of walking, her floating mark revealed a crystalline surface about twenty feet below the surface of the snow, and continued in further. As she continued into the mysterious structure, she saw that the orb wasn’t so much melting the snow as it was pushing it away to reveal more of this ancient, cavernous structure that had been buried under at least thirty feet of snow. It was a tower or castle of some sort.

Her cutie mark came to a circular pedestal on the floor, where a frozen book sat closed, and the cutie mark’s glow increased considerably. More of the snow was pushed to the edges of the chamber, revealing incredibly high arched windows, in what indeed looked to be the top of a tower that had been buried long ago.

There, on the edges of the pedestal were two more flickering flames hovering in the air. The one on the left was just a slightly deeper shade of pink than the one on the right.

Opaline’s mark brightened further, and sure enough, a pair of transparent alicorns materialized on the pedestal.

Princess Flurry Heart ascended the spiral stairs of the Heart’s Tower, by far the highest point of the castle, and normally, home to the most breathtaking views of the Crystal Empire. But now, all that you could see on the highest point in the city, was a wall of blowing snow on all sides. They had snowstorms before, but nothing like this, and if nothing was done, Flurry would put bits down that this storm was very capable of burying the entire region in snow and ice.

She took another deep breath, remembering the calming, meditative exercises she was taught in her youth.

Then she wondered that in the near century since the Empire’s return, why did they never have an elevator installed in here?

She finally reached the top of the staircase, and saw her aging mother with an open spell tome, standing in front of the Crystal Heart.

“Flurry, there you are,” her mother, Cadance, greeted. “Did everyone make it out on the last train?”

Flurry couldn’t hide the look of sorrow from her facial features, and shook her head.

“There are a few that have refused to leave their homes. The last train left without them,” she reported.

Cadance nodded sadly.

“I’d be lying if I said I didn’t somewhat understand their desire to stay here. For some, this is the only home they’ve ever known, and they would rather be here than down among the increasingly frightening unrest,” the elder alicorn replied.

“Mom, are we really going to let them freeze to death up here?”

Cadance gazed over at her daughter sympathetically.

“It’s their choice, sweetheart, and they’ve made it already,” she said.

Flurry turned to gaze down at their city, becoming increasingly covered with more snow than she ever remembered.

“How could it have come to this…?” She asked at just above a whisper.

“This was everypony’s responsibility; to listen, to love, and to settle disputes before they turned into division. If that responsibility is not lived up to, then the alicorns are powerless to keep the pieces together,” Cadance answered.

Flurry felt a shudder go down her spine.

“Then what can we do?” Flurry asked.

Cadance turned to the next page in the tome she was holding with her magic.

“We can save as many lives as we can. We can make sure Equestria gets another chance, somewhere down the road… And with this spell, we can permanently seal the Windigos away, and get Twilight what she needs,” Cadance told her, passing her daughter the spell tome, as she lit up her horn, and offered her right hoof. “For Equestria, sweetheart?”

Flurry looked at her mother’s notes, and saw what her part was, before setting the book down and lighting her horn up as well, taking placing her own hoof on hers.

“For Equestria, mom.”

“More alicorns…” Opaline began, looking first at the light pink alicorn with a tri-colored mane of violet, rose, and pale gold, with light purple eyes, and second at the slightly shorter one with a magenta coat, with a gray-violet mane with arctic blue streaks, and light opal eyes.

“I don’t believe I’m familiar,” the dark orchid alicorn finished.

“Mi Amore Cadenza. Last ruler of the Crystal Empire, and the Princess of Love,” Cadance began, before motioning to the other. “This is my daughter, Flurry Heart, the first natural-born Equestrian alicorn in our history. I see you’ve already had the pleasure of meeting my adoptive aunts.”

Opaline glanced down at the peytral on her chest.

“If you want to call it that,” she replied before returning her gaze to the pair on the pedestal. “Princess of Love, hm? Is that what has been sustaining me all this time? These echoes and this peytral? It took me weeks of following my mark to get here, and in all that time, I have not rested or eaten, nor have I frankly felt the need to.”

“For those that can commune deeply enough, the magical energies of aetherius can be as sustaining as the freshest food,” Flurry replied.

Cadance stepped forward.

“You have been alone for a long time, Opaline Arcana. Much longer than anypony deserves. Maybe your mark senses that. Loving acts sow seeds that reap beautiful, wonderful experiences. Sadly, the opposite is also true; selfish acts sow seeds that hurt, twist, and corrupt. Maybe you don’t have to be alone anymore.”

Opaline’s eyes left Cadance’s gaze, and rose to her floating cutie mark once again.

“I wasn’t always alone…” She replied, just above a whisper, as another voice of the past echoed in her mind.

‘And all this time, I thought we were friends!’

‘No! We weren’t! It’s so sad… You’ve got all the power in Equestria, and you still have never felt true friendship.’

‘Ha! I have friends!’

‘You have to force others to pretend to be your friends! That’s control!’

‘You ungrateful little pony!’

‘You were by yourself for so many moons. All alone. I actually feel really sorry for you.’

Opaline felt her emotions begin to well up in her throat again as she continued looking up at her mark. At first, she wanted to assume that this was how she had made all three tribes feel as she had taken their Cutie Marks for her Together Tree. That they had all felt as barren and helpless and cold as she had during this journey.

But they didn’t.

Misty outright refused to help again with her cutie mark right in front of her, and mere hours later, Sunny still stood against her with no mark, with all three tribes still united and singing.

A few moments more, she was markless, trapped, and then had no choice to follow her mark, as it tantalized her for this entire journey, more alone and afraid than anypony who had opposed her had been.

Opaline took another shuddering breath as she fell to her knees again.

“What do you want from me? I don’t even know these alicorns…” she asked her mark, as it floated above the pedestal, unmoving and silent.

Cadance and Flurry stepped up to her.

“You’re right. We don’t know you,” Cadance said.

“But we would like to help. Because you may be able to help Equestria,” Flurry continued.

“A threat is approaching, and most of the time, unity is enough. But on the rare occasion that it isn’t, perhaps that is when a Skyrosian comes down, to augment that unity,” Cadance told her.

Opaline slowly got to her hooves.

“I don’t think they’ll be doing that this time. The entire city departed for destinations unknown when they sensed the birth of your daughter, considering the uplifting of this realm to be complete. So no, a Skyrosian will not be coming down to save Equestria again,” she told them.

“Maybe that doesn’t matter,” Flurry replied.

“And why is that?”

“Because maybe, a Skyrosian has already come down to help…” Flurry told her, before she and her mother held out their hooves towards her.

“And she just hasn’t realized it yet,” Cadance finished.

Opaline looked down at the two hooves being offered, looked at her mark again, took a deep breath, then placed her right hoof on both of theirs.

As before, the ghostly alicorns faded from view, and the two pink flames traveled up her right leg, and took their places on her peytral, below Celestia’s and Luna’s. Now with the four sockets on the sides occupied, only the one on top, and the one in the middle remained empty.

And she felt even warmer now.

She was about to look up at her mark when the entire area began to vibrate, then shake violently. Her floating mark moved rapidly up the ravine it had made, and Opaline followed at a full gallop, as she saw the sides of the narrow passage begin to crack, and she heard snow and pieces of ice fall behind her as the ravine began to collapse.

‘Almost… There…!’

She could see the blowing snow up in the sky as she came closer to the top of the ice fields. She saw her mark clear the ravine, but just as she was almost there, she felt a weight crash onto her back, and she was shoved down into the snow, darkness enveloping her a split second later.

The first thing she thought of was the bathtub full of jam that had been thrown at her weeks ago.

Then the chill set in.

‘No. Not yet!’

Opaline took as big a breath as her compressed body would allow, and focused on the flames of the echoes in her peytral. She had to be close to the surface, she had almost made it…

She drew her front hooves back, then thrust them forward, again and again, striking the top of the snow and ice that had fallen on her.

On the third strike, she broke through to the surface. Slowly, she made the hole bigger, and after a couple minutes, was able to pull herself out of the snow. Once she was completely out, she collapsed onto the snowfields, taking several deep breaths, thankful for the inner warmth that the flames of the echoes brought, looking up at her cutie mark that was seemingly waiting for her.

Once she had caught her breath, she got to her hooves.

“Wherever you’re taking me… Whoever or whatever needs help… If I see this through to the end, just let me see her. Let me see Misty… Please.”

Her cutie mark hovered in place for another moment, before beginning to move back in the direction they had come, and Opaline followed, not taking her eyes off of it.

“Please. I need to tell her that I am sorry.”

Author's Note

The Ritual

There was an increasing uneasiness in Opaline’s stomach, and for the first time, she wished she could stop and sleep it away. More and more, memories surfaced of not just ‘rescuing’ Misty, and the years of manipulating her, but also of centuries past, where she had schemed and lied, getting Celestia’s, Luna’s, and Twilight’s Equestria to tear itself apart from the inside.

Just what was she hoping to accomplish? What was she expecting? For all of Equestria to immediately drop the unrest, mistrust, and racism once she had ascended to the throne? Or had she not mentally gotten that far, and just been dead-set on tearing down everything Celestia and Luna had accomplished, then going from there?

She could not honestly answer these questions as she followed her cutie mark through an increasingly heavy forest. She didn’t recognize it for most of the trek through the trees, but then her mark approached an especially large tree.

Then she saw the grown-over stairs, leading up to the enormous double doors, and the dark purple, reflective coating serving as the base of this crystalline tree, which wasn’t all that discernible in the darkness of the forest canopy.

Opaline hesitated.

“W-wait. Please, wait,” Opaline asked her mark as it approached the doors.

This had been the site of her first unexpected defeat, and the beginning of centuries of waiting.

If her floating cutie mark was listening, it did no such thing, and glowed brighter. Just as it had shoved incredible amounts of snow and ice aside up north, it snapped twigs, vines, and branches as it forced the doors open, revealing the dark, cavernous foyer inside.

Taking a deep but shaky breath, she headed up the stairs, and passed through the doorway. Even with the ambient lighting of her mark, and the four flames in the peytral, the interior was still quite eerie. It had not looked like this the first time she was in here…

A Long Time Ago...

Princess Twilight stood in between her throne and the one to her right, which once belonged to one of her best friends, Wonderbolt Captain Rainbow Dash. A half-dozen Class V spell tomes sat open on the inactive cutie mark map that the seven thrones surrounded, each with a powerful ancient artifact resting atop the open pages; the Helm of Yksler, the Crown of Grover, Knuckerbocker's Shell, the Cloak of Clover the Clever, the Talisman of Mirage, and the Amulet of Aurora.

There was a dull thud from somewhere outside, and the reverberation was enough to make the strings of memory gems hanging from the Golden Oaks Chandelier sway slightly.

She prayed the exterior shield would hold for just a little longer, and that Cadance and Flurry would come through.

They had to.

The double doors to the throne room opened, and in walked a pair of figures that immediately grabbed Twilight’s attention; a fully armor-clad cerulean griffon, and a light blue unicorn mare with a flowing purple mane.

“Reporting as ordered with the VIP, Your Highness,” Gallus said, coming to attention, the bottom of his golden spear hitting the floor of the throne room reverberating on the walls of the Hall of Friendship.

Twilight came around her throne and embraced the unicorn.

“Glimmer Dawn… It feels like it’s been ages,” Twilight greeted. The mare immediately returned the embrace as best she could to the towering lavender alicorn, then parted, looking up at her with persian blue eyes. They reminded Twilight of the mare’s grandmother and namesake, Starlight Glimmer.

“I wish it was under better circumstances, Your Highness. Please don’t mince words with me. We’ve lost, haven’t we?” Glimmer asked.

Twilight swallowed the lump in her throat as there was another dull thud against the shield that was protecting the castle from the Everfree Forest, which had been encroaching for days now, and she glanced over at the nearly century-old griffon, who would no doubt still argue that he had a few years to go before being out of his prime. The green marks and forest debris on his armor proved that it had been a fight through the supernatural forest to just get here.

“Colonel Gallus, at ease, please. I can’t have you expending any energy standing on ceremony anymore,” Twilight told him, sniffling more tears away as she turned back to the immense round table in the center of the room. The griffon went to parade rest in response to the princess’ chiding.

“Princess…” Glimmer said, taking a step forward, letting the monarch know that she hadn’t been escorted through hostile woods to be spared harsh truths.

“We’re losing. But I’m taking steps to ensure that Equestria gets another chance. Which is why I have a monumentally important task for you,” She told the thirty-year old mare.

“Name it,” Glimmer immediately replied, as another thud impacted the shield outside.

Twilight’s horn lit up, and with it, reached into a saddlebag that had been set on Spike’s old throne. She took just a moment to look at the smaller seat, the only one that had no mark on it.

She hoped he was safe. She had ordered him and all other visiting dragons to the Dragonlands two weeks ago when Canterlot had been evacuated. It was the safest place, especially if she succeeded in what she aimed to do shortly.

Out of the saddlebag came two items; a rolled scroll, and a small plastic petri dish containing a single seed. With these in the grasp of her magic, she again approached Glimmer Dawn.

“You know the Daisy Meadows, just under two day’s hike from here, between here and Bridlewood?” Twilight asked her.

“I do,” Glimmer responded, nodding immediately.

Twilight passed her the map.

“I’ve marked a location on this map, one of the highest hills in the Meadows. Go there, and plant this,” Twilight said, passing her the petri dish. “This is a very magical seed. The petri dish is sealed and enchanted, for safe travel. When you bury it in the soil, it will dissolve.”

“What will that do?” Glimmer Dawn asked.

“It will be part of the hope for future generations. After you’ve planted it, I want you to go over the mountain pass to Bridlewood. Most of the unicorns are gathering there. You’ll be safest there.”

Now Glimmer Dawn was holding back tears, as she took a deep breath, and nodded in understanding after depositing the map and petri dish inside her saddlebags, as the shield outside held off another impact.

Twilight turned to one of the last remaining members of her Royal Guard.

“Gallus. I want you to escort her there. Keep her safe. Once she’s over the pass, split off and return to Griffonstone,” Twilight instructed.

Gallus’ expression betrayed his disagreement.

“I would much rather return to you, Your Highness,” he objected.

“I permitted you to stay at my side after the collapse of Cloudsdale and after we evacuated Canterlot. But this is my last command to you, Colonel, and I hope you do yourself and myself credit by carrying it out to the letter. Equestria’s central government is defunct. My kingdom is gone. You’ll have nothing to return to. After Glimmer is over the mountains, you will be relieved of duty.”

Twilight turned back to Glimmer.

“One more thing, Glimmer. Do not use magic, under any circumstances. It’s not safe. Is that understood?” Twilight asked.

Shuddering, but keeping her emotions in check, the unicorn nodded.

All three of them jumped when one of the top windows of the Hall of Friendship shattered, and Gallus immediately had his spear up and ready for combat. However, he lowered it when he saw his princess’ alarmed expression turn to one of relief as a trio of sparkling, glowing crystals flew in from the broken window, and came to a hovering stop in the center of the large table underneath the Golden Oaks Chandelier.

The bottom one was turquoise, and looked like a spread pair of wings. The center one was a brilliant round diamond, that would've made Rarity blush. The top one was an elongated and pointed dark sapphire.

“They did it…” Twilight said, her voice relieved. “Cadance and Flurry actually did it...”

There was another impact on the shield outside, and this one sounded bigger, and longer, and made Gallus turn towards the front of the castle.

“That sounded like a magical impact…” he said.

“That means that our time is up. Gallus, Glimmer, go, out the back. Head west to the meadows, and don’t turn back for any reason,” Twilight told them, as the notches of her horn lit up as magic coursed through it again.

“I’m not leaving you, Princess,” Gallus objected again.

“Colonel, you lived through the only international unity in recorded history. If you want future generations to have any hope of that happening again, you will go, right now!”

With that, Princess Twilight shifted her attention to the open tomes and artifacts on the table.

Gallus gripped his spear tightly, part of him wanting to turn to whatever magical threat was hammering on the shield outside, already knowing who it must be.

“May the winds of Equus be forever favorable to you, Your Highness,” he said.

With that, he turned to Glimmer, and with a talon on her back, guided her out the west side door of the Hall of Friendship, leaving Twilight alone at her throne as she continued charging her horn.

Another surge of magic slammed into the shield outside, and it faltered this time. Twilight’s attention moved to a small glowing rune next to the tomes, and she climbed up on the table, placed her hoof on it.

Suddenly, the shield that had surrounded the entire castle, rapidly drew in, and shrunk to where it was much more concentrated and powerful, but only surrounded the table and thrones. The charging of her horn complete, she looked to the six open tomes and artifacts, and rapidly fired a white magical beam at each of them, and they in turn began to hover off of the surface of the table and glow intensely, as each of the six artifacts fired rainbow prisbeams into the trio of crystals in the center, as Twilight returned her attention to the main doors on the other side of the shield.

For a few moments, the only noise was the energy of the half dozen prisbeams behind her. That ambiance was shattered as another blast of magic impacted the doors out to the main hall, blew them open, and blew them off their hinges. They rushed towards the shield, smashed into it, before being knocked to the floor, the shield seemingly no worse for wear.

Twilight followed them as they nearly flipped end over end, before her eyes returned to the open doorway, and locked eyes with the one responsible for Equestria’s downfall.

Opaline Arcana.

“And here it is…” The dark orchid alicorn began, slowly striding into the room. “The last stand of the Princess of Friendship, with all the magic, nowhere left to hide, and no friends left to help her.”

Twilight remained silent, her lips pressed tightly against each other as she stared down at the alicorn from her elevated position at the table.

“Those eyes… Such hatred. Just for taking what is rightfully mine. You’ve led me on quite the chase, so I’ll make this quick. Make your shield as small and focused as you want; all foundations eventually crumble. Now it’s time for the Princess to make way for the Queen!!!”

With that, Opaline let loose a fiery white-blue beam of magic surging towards Twilight. All in the next half-second, Twilight took her hoof off of the glowing rune, and ducked in one fluid motion. The shield dropped just before Opaline’s spell impacted, and instead it continued on to slam into the trio of crystals.

The mysterious crystals that had arrived through the window were undeterred by Opaline’s spell, and worked just as Twilight was praying they would, initiating a magical feedback loop, and keeping Opaline’s spell locked on.

The intruder had clearly not anticipated this.

“Wh-what? What trickery is this?!” Opaline shouted, finding herself essentially shackled to the crystals through her spell.

Twilight rose out of her prone position, horn continuing to crackle with energy.

“No trickery,” the Princess of Friendship began, hopping off of the table, stepping up to Opaline, who was now struggling to stand. “A very real ritual that you just unwittingly triggered, and all it’s going to cost is your magic. If one is faced with a decidedly unwinnable battle, the most sound strategy is to not fight at all.”

Opaline gritted her teeth, struggling in vain to break the magical feedback loop.

“So, you mean to take my magic from me?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Not just from you. From myself as well, and from everypony and everything, too. From every single aetherial nexus, artifact, and tome, and put it where you can never get to it.”

Twilight took one more step closer, now just a couple feet from the locked-down alicorn.

“And this isn’t hatred,” Twilight told her, as she continued glaring at her disabled opponent. “I don’t hate you. Part of me wants to, but I don’t. I hate what you’ve made me do. But you, Opaline? I pity you. I pity whatever circumstances have led you down this path.”

At last, Opaline’s spell weakened, fizzled, and ended, as Twilight reared up on her rear legs, her front hooves beginning to glow an intense white.

“Expellere!!!” She screamed, bringing her front hooves down with a thundering clap mere inches from where Opaline was struggling to remain standing. There was a blinding flash of light, and she heard Opaline scream angrily.

“Noo!!!”

When the light faded, Opaline Arcana was nowhere to be seen.

Twilight looked back to the table, where the prisbeams had gained considerable intensity, a moment before what somewhat resembled a Sonic Rainboom erupted out from the crystals right in the throne room, before very quickly expanding out beyond the walls of the castle…

Glimmer Dawn and Gallus ran side by side as they hopped over branches and vines, away from what very little remained of the town of Ponyville. The Everfree Forest had expanded exponentially, but thankfully, the wildlife inside it had not, and so encountering dangerous predators wasn’t as probable as it would be inside the Forest’s historical borders.

Glimmer tripped over a branch she didn’t see in time, and fell almost face first into the dirt. Before she could even get to her hooves, a vine began to coil around her leg.

“Gallus!” she called out. The griffon turned and saw her predicament. He came up, raised his spear to deliver a blow to the sentient vine, but right before he could bring his weapon down, he was knocked off of his paws and claws by a blast of air, knocking him back, and saw that it had hit Glimmer as well. He saw a rainbow surge across the sky, just before his attention was brought back to the ground by Glimmer, who was groaning and wincing in pain.

“Ugh… My horn…!” Glimmer groaned.

As quickly as it had arrived, it was gone, and Gallus rolled upright, stood up, and was in the process of grabbing his spear, but faltered when it was heavier than he ever remembered it being. The golden weapon had been gifted to him from Twilight during his promotion ceremony so long ago, serving as his badge of office. The princess had it enchanted to be extremely lightweight in his hands, the magic coursing through it evidenced by the glowing blue runes etched into the metal.

The blue light was now gone from the spear, feeling nearly twice as heavy now, and when he returned his attention to the prone unicorn in front of him, he saw that she was able to free herself from the vine.

Then they both noticed how eerily silent the forest had gotten. The vines and branches that had spent weeks expanding and snaking across the ground were now completely still.

“Are you alright?” Gallus asked, helping Glimmer to her hooves.

“N… No. My magic… I… I can’t feel it…” Glimmer answered, running a hoof lightly across her horn.

“Come on,” Gallus said, urging her along. “We should get out of the forest by nightfall.”

Twilight slowly ascended the stairs to the top balcony of her old castle, carefully keeping the trio of crystals levitated in what very little remaining magic she had left. Her horn’s reserves were nearly completely drained, and it would not be returning anytime soon.

Likely not in her lifetime.

She pushed open the doors to the top balcony, which gave her a wide view of the surrounding area. What used to be Ponyville was now nothing but forest. Very little remained of what had been her hometown for some of the most formative years of her life. The only structure she could see off in the distance was Town Hall, half collapsed by the supernatural forest that had expanded over anything and everything in the region, and thanks to what she had just done, was now just as natural as everything else.

She glanced up for just a moment at the closest mountain, seeing the gray plumes of smoke still rising from Canterlot, and obscuring most of the city from the naked eye.

She looked back at the crystals that her sister-in-law and niece had created using a ritual of their own and the Crystal Heart. These would be instrumental in someday returning magic, new and old, to Equestria one day.

When that day would come, was impossible for her to know.

She closed her eyes in concentration for a moment, before transferring the last iota of her magic at the tip of her horn to the glowing crystals. They responded, shining in her direction, and she took a breath.

“If you’re seeing this, magic is now more powerful than it’s ever been, and Earth pony magic has been activated for the first time in the history of Equestria. Magic is alive. Always changing. Growing stronger. There are evil forces out there who will want to exploit it. Once, a pony tried to steal all the magic in Equestria for herself… And almost succeeded. I did all that I could to protect it from her. There was one way… A hexad of spells, combined into a ritual, to hide Equestrian magic, dragon magic, and both regions from her. By summoning all of my magical strength to achieve placing the magic in the crystals and the Dragonstone putting the Isle of Scaly into prolonged hibernation to make the dragons undetectable. Lastly, the Together Tree will continually renew the barrier, keeping her out, and keeping the ground fertile for all three pony kinds to grow food.”

She took a breath before continuing, trying to put herself in the hooves of whoever would possibly find this message.

“But the spell is broken. You are exposed to the world once again. You must watch out for Opaline. Reunite the crystals, find the Dragonstone, before she oppresses both populations under her rule. Remember; friendship is magic; a magic she can’t take from you. Because I’m with you.”

With her message complete, she watched the crystals rise into the sky, hundreds of feet above the castle, before splitting off and soaring off across the horizon in three separate directions.

That was it.

It was done.

On the next breath she took, she lowered her head, and finally released her churning emotions inside, as she broke down into tears. Her shoulders heaved, and even as she grieved for what she had just forcibly taken from every single pony of Equestria, a small part of her couldn’t help but be angry, no, livid, at them.

For letting Opaline’s words and actions sink in, divide them, and tear the fabric of their society apart from the inside. For not coming together and solving the problem, and instead forcing her to buck it imperceptibly far down the road, for a future generation to solve.

She took another deep breath as she finished crying it out. She knew it wouldn’t be the last time.

She surveyed the surrounding area again, unsure of what to do or where to go, very quickly deciding that she didn’t want to go anywhere for now, and she certainly didn’t want to favor any one tribe with her presence.

In an age-old practice, she brought her right hoof to her barrel, took a deep breath, and let it out as she reached out with the same leg, before turning to head inside.

She would stay here tonight.

And tomorrow? Tomorrow was a new day.

The Princess

‘Come out, come out wherever you are, Princess.'

Opaline's own voice pierced her memories as the alicorn ascended the stairs in the main hall of Princess Twilight Sparkle's castle, following her cutie mark up to the second floor.

Opaline had largely used words and clandestine actions to slowly spur on unrest throughout Equestria centuries ago. There had actually been next to no magical combat on her part, and what very little there was, took place in this building, and it hadn't even lasted sixty seconds.

When it got to the top of the stairs, the floating cutie mark continued up the second, shorter set of stairs to the left, and then made a right down the gently curving hall. It slowly curved around to an open doorway, which had no doors on the hinges, and she immediately remembered why.

‘And here it is… The last stand of the Princess of Friendship, with all the magic, nowhere left to hide, and no friends left to help her.’

Her floating cutie mark slowly drifted into the dark, circular room. She wondered why it had taken the long way in, at the other side of the hall.

‘Retracing my steps, no doubt,’ the alicorn thought to herself.

The centuries had taken their toll; the giant chandelier made out of the roots of a tree had long since rotted away, and the gemstones that had hung from it were now scattered around the table and the surrounding floor. Opaline’s cutie mark gently pushed these out of the way as it made it’s way over to the throne on the right side of the table, one of six.

Well, seven, counting the smaller one to the right of the throne her cutie mark was heading for.

There, just above the seat of the chair, hovered a flickering purple flame, and Opaline had absolutely no second guesses as to who it was as her cutie mark rose above the throne, and its luminescence increased, revealing Princess Twilight Sparkle, staring sullenly out towards the center of the table.

The room was silent save for the sound of Opaline’s hooves as she approached the princess. Rather than sit in the throne to the left of hers, she merely decided to approach the table and sit down on the floor.

Nearly half a minute passed in silence as Opaline glanced from gem to gem on the surface of the table, the light of her cutie mark being refracted in each one.

“Am I supposed to know what to say?” Opaline finally asked, her voice barely carrying across the cavernous room, not yet looking at the echo of the alicorn that had banished her to the edges of the nation centuries ago.

“I suppose not, no,” Twilight replied, her tone sad. “Even after all this time, I don’t know quite where to start either. Other than, that perhaps maybe we were supposed to fall. Equestria, that is.”

“Do not coddle me, Sparkle!” Opaline spat. “I am not following my mark across this land to be told that my choices were not my own, that my fate was preordained!”

“I’m not telling you fate,” Twilight answered, finally looking up from the table over to the dark orchid alicorn. “I’m telling you what I told myself. The only explanation, the only words that brought me the smallest comfort as everything I helped build collapsed around me… As more and more ponies let their prejudices and preconceptions take hold, and forgot the core tenets of what made us strong. You don’t pass every test. Sometimes you fail… You fall… And when you do, the real strength is getting back up.”

Twilight’s gaze returned to the gems scattered across the table.

“You did not fall. Our duel barely lasted a single minute,” Opaline told her. “I imagine whatever piece of yourself you’ve left behind is feeling quite proud… Seeing me like this after all these centuries.”

Opaline noticed Twilight’s form shudder.

“Are you really still so lost?” Twilight asked, looking over to Opaline again. “That you would imagine that the Princess of Friendship would take pride in how you must be feeling right now? Because I don’t. No one should feel that empty, and alone, and scared. No matter what they’ve done. Is that what you think, Opaline?”

“I don’t know what to think. I don’t know why the others have come along, what they think I can do to help, who I’m supposed to help, or why my mark has been leading me across Equestria to all of you… Or if this sojourn will even help me get it back! I don’t even know… Know if…”

Opaline’s words trailed off as her eyes widened at the possibility, wondering why it hadn’t occurred to her weeks ago upon first stepping out onto that beach from the ruins of her castle and tree.

“Am I even alive?” She asked Twilight. “For the past several weeks, I have done nothing… Nothing, but follow my mark. I have not eaten, nor felt hungry, have not slept, nor felt tired. And if I get too far from my mark, I feel cold. Cold and terrified that I will vanish into nothing.”

“I don’t know,” Twilight answered. “And that’s the truth. If this echo, memory, whatever you called it, of myself was left behind, does that mean there’s something after this? Am I here to help solve something unanswered, unfinished? If that’s the case, what is it that you want, Opaline?”

Opaline’s words to her mark played in her mind.

‘I need to tell her that I am sorry.’

The alicorn’s eyes widened in another realization; that this had all started with an apology… From Celestia and Luna. Knowing that they had regretted how they had treated her, regretted it for all this time… Something changed inside her.

“I don’t know what I want. I don’t want power anymore. Because what I thought was power, I had it. I had it all. And it was all for nothing before Equestria’s unity. Powerless before a song. I need to tell Misty I am sorry. That is what I want, Princess Twilight Sparkle, and I will follow my mark to the ends of Equestria to get that opportunity. But as for how you all think I can help? I haven’t the faintest idea, how when it comes to unity, to friendship, how it could not possibly be too late for me.”

Finally, Twilight moved, and got up from her throne, taking the few steps required to stand next to the sitting Opaline.

“It is not too late. Something is coming, and you could be the deciding factor,” Twilight began, looking up at the cutie mark floating above them. “Your mark has been leading you to our echoes, to the pieces we left behind. I have a feeling that if you want it back, you’ll have to make yourself worthy of it.”

Twilight paused to look down at the ethereal peytral around Opaline’s barrel.

“If they believe you can make a difference, then who am I do doubt them?”

Opaline again scoffed softly in frustration.

“So I am to wield a power that I have never experienced before, against a threat that none of you can tell me about? Because you believe that, once again, I am meant to? So I was self-exiled from Skyros, denied every chance at what I believed to be my destiny, cast down by you, spent centuries in solitude, cast down again, only to be stripped of my mark, and now, called upon, at what could be the very end!”

Twilight took a quiet breath, and sat down next to Opaline.

“Your choices were always your own, Opaline, and they still are. There were many threats to Equestria in my lifetime; power-hungry leaders, oppressive warlords, reality-warping demigods, shapeshifters… From a millennium-old alicorn to a sociopathic child… And I would not deny any one of them the opportunity to experience the magic that defined my life. Some of them saw the light… And some of them did not. The choice was always theirs to make, and it is yours too. So after everything you have experienced, after you have seen what the power of friendship can do, are you going to seek it out, or turn away from it again?”

Slowly, Twilight reached over, and offered Opaline her left front hoof.

Opaline shifted uncomfortably, as she still struggled with the unfamiliar knot in her stomach, as she reached over, and placed her right hoof onto Twilight’s left, and just as it had happened four times before, the apparition of the Princess of Friendship vanished, leaving only the purple flame, which traveled up her leg, and settled into the top socket of the peytral, leaving only the center one empty.

She got to her hooves, and looked up at her mark.

“Onward, I suppose?” She asked it.

The sudden speed at which the mark flew out of the throne room almost caused Opaline to scream, before scrambling into a gallop to chase it out of the throne room, into the hall, and back down into the foyer, worrying that she was going to trip over a vine or tree root, and lose sight of it, and that would be the end of this journey.

But deep down, she knew that her mark didn’t want to lose her, that it was just spurring her on, to an unknowable destiny that was rapidly approaching.

Author's Note

Sorry about the delay, after such a rapid release of chapters. My weekend was spent watching the Halo World Championship, and in addition to that, this chapter was something I really, really want to nail.

I hope I pulled that off.

I also don't quite know how to bridge what I've written so far to what I always envisioned to be this story's conclusion, and honestly, last Thursday's TYT episode didn't make that any easier.

I also don't know if I'm going to be able to settle on just one ending, in terms of Opaline's final fate. Perhaps this will be another project of mine that gets multiple endings.

In the meantime, thank you very much for reading!

The Farewell

A Long Time Ago…

Gallus and Glimmer walked on the dirt path north towards Bridlewood. The mare and griffon had been silent for the most part, their steps the only companion to the slight breeze. It had taken them nearly an entire day to pass the mountain to the east, and Gallus had not had the heart to look up at the remains of Canterlot even once.

With how Equestrian society had more-or-less collapsed at scale, he had believed it was safest to make camp their first night over one of the gradual hills, to stay out of site of the road. But even then, they had not encountered anypony else on their trek.

So when they spotted an earth stallion come over the crest of the next hill, they immediately tensed up, but kept walking towards him, and the top of the hill. As they slowly closed in on each other, his details became more clear; a light gray coat, with a black mane. He appeared equally wary, and as they closed in to twenty feet, Gallus saw the blue eyes as well, but couldn’t discern the cutie mark due to his large saddlebags that he had on.

It didn’t stop the stallion from spitting on the ground in front of the pair as he passed.

“Horn head…” he muttered just above a whisper.

After hearing that derogatory insult, and far worse for months in Canterlot and Ponyville, something inside Gallus snapped, and before Glimmer could react, he swung out with his spear just as the stallion was finishing passing, and caught his back left leg, tripping him as he fell onto his barrel as Gallus finished the turn, weapon in both hands and pointed down at the earth pony.

“Gallus, stop!” Glimmer protested as the griffon stepped menacingly toward the stallion, bringing the tip of his spear to the pony’s neck, as a warning not to get up. The stallion met his glare with his own, filled with anger, but also with a modicum of respect due to his weapon.

He felt Glimmer put a hoof on his spear just above where he was holding it with his talons.

“Gallus, he’s not worth it,” Glimmer told him.

“Why not? Can’t even keep his racist comments to himself against an armed escort…” the griffon replied, tightening his grip on his weapon.

“It’s not what Princess Twilight would want,” the unicorn replied.

His traveling partner’s calm tone began to douse his frustration and anger at the personification of Equestria’s collapse laying crouched in front of him. Slowly, he withdrew the tip of his spear from the stallion’s neck, but kept it leveled toward him.

“Keep moving,” Gallus said sternly. “One more word out of your mouth, and I’ll see to it that you arrive at Maretime Bay with a scar and a limp.”

The stallion took the threat seriously, and was up and off with a gallop as the afternoon sun continued passing overhead. Gallus did not move or turn away until he had lost him over the horizon. Only then, did he turn back to the north, and resumed his walking pace with Glimmer.

“There’s not going to be any fixing this, is there?” Gallus asked quietly.

“If I had to make an educated guess… Not anytime soon,” Glimmer commented. “But who is to say what the future will bring?”

“Without the Windigos as an existential threat, who knows how long this damned tribalism will last now…” the griffon commented.

“And without the Windigos, here’s hoping that unity will be stronger than ever if and when we come together again,” Glimmer told him.

When they came to the top of the hill, they saw the Daisy Meadows before them. Glimmer dug into her saddlebags and came out with the topographic map that Twilight had given her, oriented it correctly, and determined their position from how high the hills were. It wasn’t hard to spot one of the larger hills, where Twilight wanted the seed planted.

“I think that’s it, over there,” Glimmer said, pointing to the northwest.

Gallus scanned the landscape, and not seeing anypony else around, proceeded with Glimmer into the meadows. Most of the hills were low and flowing across the horizon, similar to most of the rolling prairie that made up most of the region.

They came to the hill marked on Twilight’s map, and set their saddlebags down. Glimmer dug into hers, and came out with the petri dish that had been entrusted to her. The seed within had a light sparkling sheen to it, making the unicorn wonder if the dish had somehow protected its contents. Without her magic to dig, she began digging with her front hooves while Gallus sat down, but nonetheless kept watch on their surroundings.

It didn’t take more than a few moments for Glimmer to dig a hole six inches deep, and carefully set the petri dish down into the soil. Trusting that Twilight knew what she was doing, she slowly filled in the hole, before gently patting the last of the soil down, before putting her saddlebags back on, and joined Gallus as they headed down the gentle slope down to the dirt road, and then continued north.

One mile more, and they came to a cobblestone bridge that crossed the otherwise impassable ravine that stretched over the horizon on both sides.

“Careful, this looks like it hasn’t been maintained in quite some time,” Gallus commented as they began to cross.

Sure enough, they weren’t even halfway across before the griffon felt the bridge shift, and in the next moment, he threw his spear to the other side as he jumped up above Glimmer, wrapped both of his front legs around her, and with several full flaps of his wings, lifted her off of the bridge just as the bulk of it collapsed, quickly vanishing into the darkness of the chasm. He wasted no time in getting her to the other side, where his spear had landed tip-first in the dirt.

“Wow am I glad you came along,” Glimmer told him once she was on solid ground, catching her breath.

“Yeah, same here,” Gallus said, peering over into the ravine, before turning back to the path that continued north.

By the time the sun was dipping below the horizon, they had reached the top of the last mountain range between the remnants of Ponyville and Bridlewood, where the unicorns had been gathering. They made a small fire, set out their sleeping pads, and sat silently after dinner. Afterward Glimmer could do little more than sit and stare out at the prairie below, down at an Equestria forever changed.

“So that’s Bridlewood down there?” Gallus asked as he and Glimmer gazed down at the forest, looking minuscule from up here on the mountain.

“Yeah,” Glimmer answered, before turning to the griffon. “Sounds like you’re not planning on joining me for the final hike.”

“I wouldn’t want any other unicorns to get the wrong idea about you if they saw you approach with me,” Gallus reasoned. “Griffonstone is almost a straight shot east from here… As much as it pains me to head there and not back to Twilight’s castle.”

“What’s stopping you?” Glimmer asked.

“The fact that it’s not what she asked of me. I don’t think she should be alone, but if that’s what she wants, after all the tragedy that’s happened around her… Then I’ll obey her final orders,” Gallus explained, as he dusted away the ashes of last night’s campfire, leaving no evidence that anyone had camped up here.

Glimmer took a deep breath, then stepped forward and pulled the armored griffon into a hug.

“Then safe travels, Colonel Gallus, and when you get to Griffonstone… Be a beacon. Of light, of hope. Of proof that your time here in Equestria made you better.”

Gallus returned the hug.

“You do the same, Glimmer Dawn. I hope Equestria sees that better future… Someday.”

They parted from the hug, gave each other one last smile, then the griffon took to the sky, while the unicorn began headed down the snaking road that would take her down the mountain into Bridlewood.

The Storm

Opaline was once again utterly convinced of a powerful magic being involved in this journey of hers, as every breath she took at a full gallop did nothing to hinder or wear her down as she chased her mark. The thick forest eventually gave way to rolling prairie, and her shadow drew longer and longer to the left as the sun continued to slowly dip below the western horizon.

The warmth of the ethereal peytral drove her onward in the wake of her mark, but more than anything, it was the possibility, the hope of redemption, after being wrong for so very long, that had kept her going.

When she came to the crest of the next hill, she saw storm clouds fill the darkening sky on the horizon to the south. She continued down the hill, and almost didn’t see it at first, but when she realized that it wasn’t a trick of the eyes due to the setting sun, she skidded to a halt, barely a few feet in front of a sheet of ice that was covering the entirety of the next hill…

...And slowly spreading outward towards her.

Opaline leaned down to get a closer look. It was as if it was a spreading flood, but frozen. Her gaze rose to see her cutie mark continue to climb the hill, and so she took a deep breath, and stepped onto the ice, only to stop after two steps.

The air had become instantly, bitterly cold, and she could immediately see her breath on the next exhale.

What was this? What was happening?

She saw the glow of the peytral intensify, the warmth spreading to her hooves, and protecting her from this clearly unnatural chill as she made her way up the hill towards her mark, the peytral magically providing her hooves with traction on the ice as she continued to climb. When she came to the top, she couldn’t help but gasp, coming to a stop again.

This ice and frost had come from over multiple hills. If it had been moving at the same speed, this had been happening for days.

Was this the threat that the echoes sensed? What could she possibly do? She still didn’t have her magic, or her mark. But as it had always been, any other path was a lost cause, and she galloped into the cold after her mark, hoping that it, or the echoes, would let her know how she could help, whenever they got to where they were going…

Sunny Starscout carefully went from page to page of ancient manuscripts that her father Argyle had collected, looking for anything, any iota of information that could possibly help them in this ever increasingly desperate situation, as she sat at the dining table on the ground floor of the Crystal Brighthouse.

Every howl from the ethereal creatures circling outside in the freezing sky above chilled her to her bones.

Her friends were here, and they were warm and safe, and the Unity Crystals on the top floor had stopped the supernatural frost from penetrating the interior of the structure, for now, but Sunny knew, and dreaded, that eventually the food and fuel would run out; not just for her and her friends, but for everypony in Maretime Bay, who to her knowledge had been likewise sheltering in place for just about three days now. Right now, her only hope was that anypony from Zephyr Heights or Bridlewood would notice the spreading frost, or the dropped cell phone reception from the region, and find out a way to investigate, and maybe help.

“Any luck, Sunny? Do we have Allura to thank for this?” Hitch asked as he approached the table, with Sparky and Twitch, Allura’s pet rabbit, on his back. The dragon’s magical fire had been keeping the fireplace going for far longer than traditional wood-burning could have, and since that was the warmest place, they had stripped their beds of the blankets and pillows and had made the living room their defacto sleeping area. As for the rabbit, he had come scrambling into the Brighthouse last of all after the blizzard hit, sans his snow leopard companion, and had since just been grateful to be out of the cold.

Sunny looked up and shook her head at Maretime Bay’s sheriff, who wanted nothing more than to head outside to check on everypony else, but was unable to because the spreading frost and ice had frozen the windows and doors of the Brighthouse. When the gargantuan swirling storm had rapidly generated over Canterlove Studios, and the frosty white ethereal flying equine spirits came out of it, he could do little more than order everypony inside as ice and frost had started to inexplicably spread over the entire town, and for all he knew, beyond.

Even Zipp wasn’t able to out-fly the freezing wind that had preceded the spreading ice, and was grounded and forced indoors with the rest of them before she could go for help.

“From what little dad was able to collect… If these creatures are what I think they are, there may be no stopping them,” Sunny told him.

“What do you think they are?” Hitch asked.

“Windigos. Spirits that feed off of fighting and hatred,” Sunny explained. “They were one of the oldest folktales in Equestria’s history. The tribes came together in unity to fend them, and the fatally frigid weather they brought, off.”

“But, I don’t get it. Equestria has been reunited, so why are they here now? And even when the tribes weren’t united, where were they then? Did Princess Twilight stop them somehow?” Hitch asked.

“That… Is what I can’t find out, but yeah, I have to assume that her protection spell kept Equestria safe from them as well.”

“Something’s coming!” They heard Misty call out from the second floor, as she came galloping down the ramp into the foyer then into the kitchen, sliding to a halt.

“What? Who?” Sunny asked.

“I couldn’t tell. There was too much frost against the windows upstairs, but it’s glowing and orange, like… A fire or torch or something. It’s coming from the hills to the north, and it’s getting bigger!”

That got Sunny up from her seat at the table, and galloped upstairs to have a look. Had the frost spread so far that somepony was actually managing to fend off the cold and investigate the source?

The storm had frozen the entire exterior of the structure, so none of the windows or front door could be opened. The earth mare went to the elevator on the second floor, and pressed the button to activate it. The platform rose up to the third and topmost floor, where the Unity Crystals continued to float in midair in the middle of the top room, generating a magic shield that protected the top floor from the freezing cold. Sunny approached the shield, and looked as far down onto the road as she could.

Indeed, some sort of glowing orange light was coming up the hill, and up here, with the sea at the bottom of the cliffs frozen and silent, she was able to hear galloping hooves over the howling wind, coming from a silhouetted equine figure from just behind the orange light. That was all she needed to see, before she turned, got back on the elevator, and rode it down to the second floor.

“There’s somepony out there! We need to get the front door open!” She shouted the moment she was off of the lift, running down to the first floor.

“Didn’t we already try that?” Zipp asked, getting up from the couch in front of the fireplace.

Sunny stepped up to the front doors, put her front hooves on the handles, and began to pull.

“Come on, all together!”

Her friends could tell that the urgency in her voice was real, and joined her at the front door. Izzy and Misty grabbed the door handles with their magic, and Zipp and Pipp stood by to flap as hard as they could, while Hitch took the right door, and Sunny took the left.

“Ready? One, two, three!” Sunny called out, and together, they all pulled as hard as they could.

There were creaks and groans of protest from the door as the hinges struggled to move, and on the third pull, both doors finally gave way and burst open on their hinges, and all six ponies tumbled to the floor.

Sunny was the first to look up at the open doors, and sure enough, the backdrop of Maretime Bay that usually greeted her was now warped and distorted through a sheet of solid ice, now glowing orange from the floating orb on the other side.

The orange glow intensified, and where unicorn magic and dragon fire had been powerless against it, the six ponies, dragon, and rabbit watched as the sheet of ice ebbed, and slowly but surely melted into a puddle on the front porch.

Everyone’s eyes were on the mysterious glowing orb for but a moment, and while Sunny thought she may have recognized the black winged symbol enclosed within, her gaze quickly fell to the equine form behind it. The towering equine stepped into the glowing light of the orb, and everypony’s eyes widened at the dark orchid alicorn they recognized all too well.

“Opaline!”

Author's Note

Alright, after wrestling creatively with how exactly I want to go into the final part of this story, I'm just saying 'screw it', and diving on in. I didn't want to keep followers needlessly dangling for scenes that I have played over and over in my head with no improvement.

So as always, thanks for reading! Perhaps your feedback and insights can help improve what I've got coming.

The Fire Alicorn, Part I

Opaline headed up the hill of ice at a full gallop, the ethereal peytral around her barrel providing magical traction for her hooves to move as if they were on grass and dirt, following her mark across the iced-over prairie. She focused on keeping her breathing steady, for it wasn’t the pace at which she was moving that she had to keep calm against, but the growing belief that this sojourn that she had been led on was quickly approaching its conclusion.

At the top of the next hill, she came to a halt, and her eyes widened at the scene before her.

The southwestern coastal town of Maretime Bay lay before her, and looked like it had been hit by an ice storm. The waves that normally could be heard crashing against the cliffs were silent as the ice had also spread down to the expanse of the ocean.

Over to the east, a gargantuan storm twisted above the largest building in town, and around it was a magical domed shield, glowing with a silver sheen. On the other side of the shield, she saw three ghostly equine forms gallop in a circle in midair, with a howl that sent chills down her spine.

“Windigos…” Opaline whispered to herself.

Her mark continued down the last hill, towards the town proper. As she galloped down the coastal road, she saw that not a soul was out on the streets, and that everypony had taken shelter indoors. She wasn’t able to see any of them due to the iced over doors and windows.

Instead of turning towards the shield on the far east side of the town, her mark instead continued towards the only other bright light in the vicinity; the lighthouse at the cliffside on the southwest cliff edge. The unity crystals in the light chamber at the top was like a beacon against the blowing ice and howling winds.

She galloped under the arched bridge and headed up the hill to the solitary structure. The ice had begun to encroach on the exterior, but didn’t look like it had penetrated any of the doors or windows, and hadn’t been able to get close to the top floor.

The front double doors had been caked in ice, and her cutie mark came to a stop in front of them.

What, was she supposed to knock or something?

She also wasn’t sure she was ready for this… Even after her encounters with the alicorn echoes helping her now, facing the ponies who had been instrumental in casting her down was something she did not want to do.

But it seemed she had no choice.

She heard muffled voices on the other side.

“Ready? One, two, three!” a familiar voice called out, moments before she heard the door begin to strain.

She heard the door creak and groan as the ponies on the other side started to pull hard against the ice. On the third pull, the doors burst open, but the sheet of ice cracked, but did not collapse.

Suddenly, the glow of her mark increased again, and in the warm light, the ice began to melt and give way. A few moments later, it had been reduced to a puddle on the front step which quickly re-froze, but the doorway was now open.

The ponies on the other side were looking up at the glowing orb for just a moment before their gaze collectively lowered down the alicorn that approached the open front door as her mark began to float inside.

“Opaline!” She heard Sunny yell, her tone unquestioningly accusatory.

The two pegasus siblings jumped forward to slam the doors shut, but not before her mark had made it inside, and as the doors shut and latched, Opaline fought the urge to push back against them as she lost sight of her cutie mark for the first time since she had emerged from the ruins of her castle.

“No, no wait!” Opaline objected, coming up to the shut doors, but decided to not push against them. The last thing she needed these ponies to think was that she was here to fight and divide them again. She took a deep breath, as she felt the otherworldly chill begin to overcome her again, and tried her best to resist it, wondering how to best present her case…

The moment the doors slammed shut, nearly in the alicorn’s face, Zipp eyed the floating mark curiously and suspiciously, as it had made it indoors before they had closed the front doors.

“Please, I’m here to help!” Came the muffled voice of Opaline Arcana from the other side.

Sunny stared at the barred front doors with uncertainty as Zipp began to follow the floating cutie mark up the stairs. It looked like all of the other ones that had come out of the Together Trees.

“Likely story!” Hitch countered. “For all we know, you’re the cause of this!”

“N-No, but please listen,” Opaline replied, already sounding like the cold was getting to her. “I know there’s likely nothing I can do to get you to believe me in a hurry. But I have been following my cutie mark across Equestria ever since my castle collapsed. It has lead me to memories, to echoes, of the alicorns. To Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Cadance, and Flurry Heart. They have told me I can help. Sunny… Sunny Starscout, if you can’t believe me, then please, believe them.”

“That was months ago…” Sunny quietly told herself.

Silence fell onto the interior of the lighthouse again, save for the howling winds outside.

“Please…” Opaline repeated, her voice almost pleading.

It wasn’t Sunny that took the first step towards the door, but Misty, who approached the bar lock, and placed her hooves underneath to prepare to lift it.

“Misty…” Hitch warned.

The unicorn turned back to him.

“I’d rather deal with the consequences of believing her than leaving her out in this cold,” she said.

With that, she lifted the bar lock up ninety degrees back up to its unlocked position, then opened the doors, coming face to face with her abusive former caretaker.

The look the alicorn’s eyes was unmistakably one of regret when they met the unicorn’s gaze.

Misty took several steps back, and the alicorn slowly stepped in, looking as if she was unsure if Twilight’s protection spell wouldn’t vaporize her on the spot.

“So if it’s not you, do you know what’s going on?” Hitch asked.

“Windigos… Wintry spirits that—”

“Feed off of hate and mistrust,” Sunny finished the alicorn’s sentence. “But how? Equestria’s been reunited. Why didn’t they do it back when the tribes separated? And if now, how? What hate are they feeding off of?” Sunny asked the same questions she had posed to Hitch earlier.

“Their own.”

The ponies surrounding Opaline almost jumped back at the voice, because it didn’t come from her lips, but rather from the glowing peytral she was wearing from one of the flickering flames, one of the pink ones.

“The Windigos are vengeful, angry that they did not get their chance to feed on this realm when hatred and mistrust spread centuries earlier. The spell to seal them away was risky, because if that seal was ever broken, they would no longer need this realm’s negative emotions to sustain themselves.”

“...If you say so, whoever you are,” Pipp replied to the talking flame.

A glowing light began to descend from the second floor again, and Sunny looked back briefly to see the floating cutie mark return from upstairs, now glowing intensely with the Prisbeam magic of the Unity Crystals. She turned back to Opaline to see the almost palpable relief wash over her at just the sight of the orb.

“And you’re going to stop this, how?” Zipp asked as she saw the orb slowly float over towards Opaline and the front doors.

“I don’t know,” Opaline said as she watched her mark float above her, back outside. “To say that I’ve just been along for the ride would be an understatement.”

Sunny and her friends watched silently as Opaline turned to head back outside and follow the multicolored glowing orb. She paused one last time, turning to look back at Misty.

“Whatever happens, please… Please know how sorry I am, Misty.”

With that, Opaline Arcana broke into a gallop, following the orb back down the hill into Maretime Bay, towards the heart of the Windigo storm...

Author's Note

This chapter was going to be much longer, but decided to split it up and post the first part, because I'm going on vacation at the end of this week, and I'm not sure I'll have it finished by then.

The Fire Alicorn, Part II

With her cutie mark flying ahead of her now glowing with the multicolored magic of the Unity Crystals, Opaline felt a renewed sense of purpose as she galloped towards the frosty white shield that had encased the large building up on the hill.

She had not felt this determined since she had departed Skyros so long ago, and right now, she was not certain at all where she stood on her belief on fate and destiny. Had she come down here, believing it was her right to rule, only for her to be called upon now, in Equestria’s sudden hour of need from this otherworldly force?

If so, where was the choice? Where was the hope and strength gained from believing she was doing the right thing?

Although she was initially prepared to charge right through the dome of wind and ice, she skidded to a halt when her cutie mark, glowing with the prisbeam magic, slammed into the dome, and was seemingly stopped in its tracks.

The sphere’s magical glow intensified, but that did seemingly little to nothing at overcoming the barrier.

Opaline flared her wings out, wanting to do something, anything other than stand here, useless.

“Tell me how to help! I want to help!” She pleaded up at the sphere.

She focused, trying to keep the sense of panic from breaking through to the surface as she heard the Windigos roar in defiance on the other side of the shield. She looked down at the peytral around her barrel, as the flames still flickered within, with one slot still empty.

“What can I do? What else is needed?” She asked the echoes within.

“Unity,” Twilight’s voice replied.

Opaline was confused and frustrated. Didn’t they have that? Wasn’t that what her mark had gone up the tower to get? What more could it need?

The answer came in the sound of galloping hooves approaching from behind her. She turned, and saw Misty come through the blowing ice. The unicorn looked up at her with a mix of uncertainty and hope, before she looked up at the glowing cutie mark, and the shield it was attempting to get through.

Then, fighting against the cold, Misty took a deep breath before closing her eyes.

“I might seem a little quiet, but my strength is very real. When my cutie mark comes to life, my heart helps me feel!”

For barely a second, Opaline wanted to scoff at the short chant, but then the girl’s cutie mark on her flank began to glow, and sparkling energy began to float from her up and over to the mark pushing against the shield.

The two pegasus siblings were next to come through the blowing frigid air. They came to either side of Misty, and likewise closed their eyes in concentration.

“I’m a princess of a different kind. Always trying to figure out why. When my cutie mark comes to life, I blast off bravely across the sky!”

“I’m a stylish pop star princess. My voice makes me strong. When my cutie mark comes to life, confidence is my song!”

Their cutie marks also began to glow, and send sparkles up to her own mark.

For barely an instant, Opaline fought the urge to roll her eyes.

This was just as preposterous as the song they all sang.

The earth stallion with the baby dragon and rabbit on his back and the jam-filled-tub-flinging unicorn were next, coming to Opaline’s left side.

“I sparkle like the stars, ‘cause I’m always super glittery. When my cutie mark comes to life, watch this brilliant creativity!”

“I’m the pony of the law, coolest dragon dad you know. My cutie mark comes to life, and my kindness overflows!”

Lastly, she turned to her left and saw Sunny Starscout, with her ethereal glowing wings and horn. The mare stepped up to her left side, looked up at her with another uncertain, but determined smile, and closed her eyes.

“I’m all three pony kinds wrapped up into one. My cutie mark comes to life with hope as bright as the sun!”

Suddenly, in what could have passed for a sunrise behind them, Opaline turned again, and saw the crystals atop the lighthouse fire a prisbeam out over the town, right at the shield, and it hit where her mark was pushing against it, and at last, the dome shattered and collapsed, revealing the large factory at the top of the hill, as well as the trio of ghostly equines galloping in the air above it.

Opaline was expecting the cutie mark to continue forward, so her eyes widened in surprise when it began to slowly descend towards her. The sphere that had encased it began to crack, and as it slowly dropped to the front of the peytral, it shattered and fell away, and what had been jet black within the confines of the sphere was now full of color; a lavender horn with blazing blue wings.

Opaline drew in a gasping breath as her mark settled in to the center socket, and she felt a familiar, almost overwhelming warmth envelop her.

To Tartarus with it… If it worked, it worked.

She closed her eyes, and concentrated on that warmth.

“I spent my life in the dark, obsessed with fulfilling my Skyrosian birthright. With the guiding fire of my mark come to life, I can finally embrace the light!”

Sunny watched in stunned silence with her five friends as all in the next moment, Opaline’s spread wings came alive in a blazing blue fire, along with her eyes and horn, and the five flames in her peytral burst forward, leaving trails of multicolored fire in their wake as they surged up to meet the trio of Windigos that were rapidly descending towards them.

With one strong flap of her wings, the orchid alicorn joined them in the sky, her horn ablaze and sending bolts of pyromancy spells out, causing the Windigos to pull out of their dives to avoid them. But as soon as they scattered, the trails of flames from Opaline’s peytral were there to meet them, cutting their escape vectors off and slowly but surely forced them up towards the eye of the storm they had come out of as the surrounding sky was alive with a rainbow of flames. The spectacle even brought some other citizens out of the warmth of their homes to gaze up at the fiery light show.

After one last collective scream of defiance, the corralled Windigos were pushed back through the eye of the storm, before the five flames began spinning around the center, and everypony had to shield their eyes from the blinding explosion of light that disintegrated the storm overhead. The rapidly warming air turned the blowing ice into rain, and the ground became wet as the ice that had covered everything began to melt as Maretime Bay was almost instantly returned to the dark of night as the trails of fire faded away.

As Sunny's heart pounded against her chest, her eyes darted to and fro, looking up at the night sky for any sign, she caught a glimpse of Misty, seeing her face full of worry as the unicorn was looking skyward doing the same thing.

“Opaline???”

Author's Note

Well, here's the second part. I'm hoping this climax is what you were all hoping for.

I'm also really hoping that the cutie mark chants were a little more impactful when they are used once, and only once.

Where do you think it'll go from here to wrap up? I'd love to hear suggestions! Thanks for reading so far!

Aftermath, Part I

Opaline felt her senses return one by one. She first felt the carpet underneath her, then the light smoky smell detected by her nostrils, and as her eyes slowly opened, she heard and saw the flickering flames in the fireplace she was laying in front of.

Then, lastly, the warmth that the fire brought.

She must have let out a soft groan, or began moving as she woke up, because immediately there was a hoof on her shoulder, and she looked up to see Sunny Starscout standing over her, smiling gently, before bringing the tip of her hoof to her mouth, a silent gesture to keep quiet. The alicorn quickly discovered why, as she turned to see Misty positively passed out on the couch.

“Come over to the kitchen, I’ve got some soup on the stove,” Sunny whispered, before stepping away, letting her roll and slowly get to her feet.

After she looked at the sleeping Misty again, she turned her head further to see her cutie mark on her flank, saw that the ethereal peytral had vanished, then finally turned back to the kitchen. As she made her way across the small foyer to the dining table, the smell of the fireplace was replaced by the inviting aroma of the broccoli cheddar soup that Sunny ladled into a bowl, added a spoon, then took it over to the dining table where Opaline had sat down.

“We found you on the roof of CanterLogic, and brought you back here. You’ve been sleeping for over a day. Your stomach’s been grumbling for hours, I was surprised you didn’t wake up sooner,” Sunny told her, her voice a little louder now that they were across the lighthouse from the sleeping unicorn.

Opaline took the spoon, full of soup, in her magical grasp, and brought it up to her mouth and sipped. It was delicious.

“Th-thank you, Sunny. I’m… I’m sorry, I simply don’t know what else to say yet,” Opaline told her host.

“You’ve got plenty of company in that regard. I’m not saying we’re all going to be able to forget what you tried to do months ago… But I also won’t deny that I don’t know what we would have done if you hadn’t shown up, and that it’s thanks to you that we’re all still here.”

“You’re only one pony, and your friends, only five more. I’m sure there are quite a lot more out there that will remain unconvinced, especially if the storm and the ice the Windigos brought didn’t leave this region,” Opaline countered, as she continued sipping at the hearty soup.

“Well, you may not have as much of an ‘Apology Tour’ to go on as you think. More than a few ponies saw what you did, and a good number of them recorded the entire thing on their phones. ‘Opaline Arcana Saves Maretime Bay’ is currently trending #1 on ClipTrot, according to Pipp,” Sunny continued, before glancing over at Misty softly snoring on the couch over by the blazing fireplace.

“She never left your side since we put you in front of the fire.”

Opaline felt another pang of regret for her past actions.

“There’s so much I can’t explain. From the moment I emerged from the ruins of my castle, my cutie mark had a mind of its own, leading me to each of those ‘echoes’ of the alicorns of the past. The journey took weeks, and I didn’t sleep, or eat, nor even feel the need to… Until now.”

Opaline couldn’t stand on ceremony any longer, took the bowl of soup in her magic, and put the rim to her lips, and began to gulp it down. Sunny smiled gently; if anything, she took it as both a compliment to her cooking, and was also understanding that whatever supernatural condition the alicorn had been under, it was gone, and she was likely starving. She finished what remained in the bowl in four gulps, before setting the bowl back down on the table, and set the spoon in it.

“And now…” Opaline paused, glancing down at her flank, and the cutie mark on it. “Now I’ve got what I had been longing for ever since emerging from the ruins. So… Now what?”

Sunny couldn’t get a chance to answer before they both heard Misty stir over in the living room. The unicorn yawned, stretched, then immediately sat up when she saw that Opaline was no longer in front of the fire place. Her eyes wide, she immediately started frantically looking around until she saw the earth mare and alicorn over in the kitchen.

“You’re finally awake!” Misty said, hopping off the couch and trotting across the foyer to the kitchen. “Are you alright?”

Opaline couldn’t meet Misty’s gaze for more than a moment, before her eyes fell back to the dining table. Sunny could tell her shame and regret was still eating at her inside.

“I’m going to go check on Hitch and the others, and see how they’re doing with our other problem. I get the feeling you two need some time alone,” Sunny told them. With that, the earth mare made her way over to the front doors, and left Misty and Opaline alone as she exited and headed down the hill.

“Come on, I think you could use some fresh air,” Misty told Opaline, wanting to lighten the mood a bit and not outright tell her she looked sick to her stomach, waving her over as she made her way over to the elevator.

Slowly, Opaline took a deep breath, then got to her hooves, and followed the unicorn mare over to the lift. They both got on, and Misty tapped the button to take them to the top floor. Opaline was silent for the brief ride up, but she found the fresh air blowing across the top floor of the lighthouse refreshing and inviting, glancing up at the Unity Crystals momentarily before walking out to the exterior, leaning on the railing as she looked out at Maretime Bay, and the coast and rolling hills on either side.

“According to Hitch and Sprout, the ice and water damage was minor to moderate, especially down at the Boardtrot, and in town, a few burst pipes, but nopony was hurt, thankfully,” Misty told her.

Opaline gazed down at the shoreline, spotting Sunny as she headed down to the beach and went along the cliffside, to whatever their ‘other problem’ was that she was referring to. Off nearly against the horizon, a construction crew was inspecting the roof of the large building at the top of the hill to the east.

Misty must have seen her shudder once again.

“Are you alright?” The unicorn asked gently.

The alicorn lowered her head and began to weep softly.

“No… No, Misty I am not alright. I have been wrong… All this time… My entire life. My entire outlook on life has been wrong. So much time, so many centuries, wasted. That’s not time I can get back.”

Misty came up to her at the railing overlooking southern Maretime Bay and the western shoreline

“No, you can’t. But there’s nothing wrong with starting over, even after all this time. I know that can be scary, believe me I know, but it’s a lot less scary…”

Misty paused to lean over and wrap her front legs around Opaline.

“...When you don’t do it alone.”

Misty felt Opaline’s form shudder as she embraced the Alicorn, and slowly, Opaline brought a foreleg up to return the hug.

“I’m sorry, Misty. I’m so, so sorry…” Opaline whimpered.

Misty tightened the embrace.

“I forgive you, Opaline. You’re not alone anymore.”

Author's Note

Epilogue, Part I

Regardless of the confident manner she had spoken to Allura hours ago, Opaline Arcana was anything but, as she had been content to remain up on the top floor of the Crystal Brighthouse, watching as the town continued to clean up and repair the water damage. She was so absentmindedly looking out at Maretime Bay that she hadn’t noticed the elevator platform descend behind her, and didn’t notice until it returned back up, with Misty standing there.

“Hey, I thought I’d come let you know dinner is ready,” the unicorn told her.

Opaline gave her a soft smile in return, as she turned to join Misty on the platform, before the unicorn tapped the panel on the side, and it began to descend back into the structure.

“I’m sorry if I’ve been distant. I still feel out of place,” the alicorn told her on the ride down.

“Don’t worry about it,” Misty reassured her. “This is a big change for you. No one’s going to blame you for taking time to find your niche.”

“Even centuries ago in Skyros, I preferred the solitude that working with magical artifacts brought me. I’ve acknowledged the power of unity and companionship… It doesn’t mean I quite understand it yet.”

“I’m sure you will, with time,” Misty replied. “And don’t worry about needing some alone time. I was the exact same way when I moved in here.”

The pair stepped off of the elevator and Opaline immediately smelled the inviting aromas coming from the ground floor. Pipp and Izzy were setting the table when Hitch walked in through the front doors, having traded places with Zipp for the time being keeping an eye on Allura and Twitch at the cave.

“Well, I don’t want to sound too hopeful, but after we’ve demonstrated that we can keep her fed, Allura may be coming around,” the sheriff began as he went over to the dining table to sit down. “In no small part due to Twitch, I’m guessing.”

“Here’s hoping,” Sunny said as she brought over a lidded pot, setting it down on the center of the table, before she turned to Misty and Opaline. “So will the enchanted charms you suggested be much of a headache if we wind up not needing them?”

“Not at all, they’ll be relatively simple, and could be created relatively quickly, such as the bracelets that… Izzy, makes. It’s Izzy, right?” Opaline asked. In her solitude on the top floor, she had endeavored to memorize the names of the ponies who had helped her seal away the Windigos again.

“Yup!” Izzy answered immediately. “I can make as many as we need, and if we don’t need them, I can easily unicycle them into something else!”

As Opaline took her seat at the left corner of the table, Sunny returned from her second trip to the kitchen, setting down a platter stacked high with grilled cheese sandwiches, cut diagonally, optimal for dipping into the steaming hot tomato soup that was ladled out of the pot into their individual bowls.

“Apart from any potential enchanting work you’d want me to do…” Opaline began. “I don’t know how long it will take for me to find my place here, but I would like to make an effort to reverse any of the damage I caused centuries ago. So if there are other tribes of ponies beyond this region, or even reaching out to the kingdoms beyond Equestria… I’d like to do my part.”

“It’s not solely your fault,” Sunny told her. “The blame is shared with everypony that let themselves be divided. And when the time comes to reach our hooves out again, we’ll gladly accept your help, Opaline.”

“Alright, enough mushy stuff,” Pipp interjected. “Let’s chow down!”

Author's Note

Not too much more for this story, aside from another flashback, and then perhaps an alternate ending that I had initially thought of when I was entertaining the idea of Opaline not surviving sealing the Windigos away.

Thanks for reading! A little more to come!

Epilogue, Part II

Some years ago…

Argyle Starshine wiped the sweat from his brow as he pulled the last of the vines down which had obstructed the large archway and double doors built into the crystalline tree before him. He took a step back, and looked over his work, before he glanced over to his expecting wife.

“Not tiring yourself out too much, are you?” Velvet Starscout asked, in an undeniably teasing tone, as she sat on her sleeping bag.

Argyle smiled softly at her.

“I’ll gladly tire myself out if it means you and our little one aren’t overworked or stressed,” he said, coming in for a kiss.

“Luckily our little one isn’t due for a few more months, which is why I was even able to make this trip in the first place. Good thing, because if this is what we think it is, I wouldn’t want to miss this.”

“I think it most certainly is what we think it is, dearest. It matches the description, it’s the right distance from Canterlot… Years of searching, and we might have finally found it!”

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s get those doors open!” Velvet told him excitedly, getting up from her sitting position. She walked up the stairs, joining her husband as they pushed together. Untold years of growth, rust, and dust gave way to the strength of the two earth ponies, and slowly, the doors creaked open, revealing the dark, cavernous foyer.

“Oh my stars… This is it. I just know it! We actually found it!” Velvet exclaimed, nearly diving into Argyle as she hugged him.

“Good thing we’ve got plenty of food for this trip; looking through this place could take days. I wonder how much is intact,” Argyle commented.

Both ponies reached into their saddlebags and placed elastic bands on their heads with flashlights, and immediately switched them on.

There was considerably less growth inside the structure. Nothing had broken through the windows or doors, and had merely grown over the exterior of the structure, which, according to ancient manuscripts they had collected, had resembled a tree in the first place. No wonder this place easily blended into the surrounding forest.

“Where do you want to start?” Velvet asked.

“The throne room. I’ve heard stories of how stunning it was,” Argyle replied.

“I’d keep those expectations in check, sweetheart. Remember what Canterlot looked like when we were up on the mountain?” Velvet asked him.

“I know. Maybe this place will be in better condition with all the growth around that kept it hidden,” Argyle hoped.

The pair of ponies headed up the stairs, the vast majority of illumination coming from their flashlight headbands; almost no sunlight made it through the overgrown windows this deep in the surrounding forest. The light beams from their headbands were also being expanded due to most of the crystal surfaces in the interior being reflective, casting the light further down the halls. After ascending the stairs, Argyle and Velvet turned right down the hall, which slowly curved outward and around; which they silently hoped was the throne room.

Indeed, the hall rounded all the way towards the back of the tree-castle, and an open arched doorway was built into the inner wall.

“Oh my goodness, there it is!” Velvet exclaimed.

The doors were found inside the room, flat on the floor, clearly blown off the hinges. But the centerpiece of the large chamber was the large, round table in the center of the room, with seven thrones surrounding it, six tall with a shorter one next to the throne on the other side of the table.

Scattered all around the surface of the table, and even the surrounding floor, were dozens upon dozens of diamond-shaped gemstones. Velvet reached down and picked one of the gems up, looking it over in her hooves. For a moment, she thought she saw an image embedded inside the facets, but upon looking at it from another angle, couldn’t quite make anything out. She had heard of so-called ‘memory gems’ before, but wasn’t sure how long that enchantment lasted. Especially since nopony really remembered what happened to Ancient Equestria, and the magic it had.

“Hun, come take a look at this,” she heard Argyle say, pulling her attention to the front of the table, where a large, disc-shaped brass pedestal rested.

“Is that a… Compass?” Velvet asked, as her husband gently ran his leg across the surface, wiping away the dust. Upon first inspection, it certainly looked like one; fifty notches on the outer edges, with a triangle, diamond, circle, and square every ninety degrees. In the center was an emblem of some sort, looking like spread wings and a point at the top, surrounding a center circle.

Argyle reached into his saddlebags and produced a tape measure, extending it, and got a measurement of the brass disc from top to bottom.

“I thought so,” the stallion stated.

“What are you onto, hun?” Velvet asked.

“The light chamber at the top of the lighthouse back home? This compass would fit perfectly below the projector globe,” her husband answered.

Velvet took another look, and her eyes widened at the realization.

“How did this get from Maretime Bay to here? Or… Or was the lighthouse in Maretime Bay made for this?” Velvet asked.

“Now you’re talking, sweetheart,” Argyle said, before getting his hooves underneath the disc to begin to figure the weight. “If we go slow and steady, I’m pretty sure we can get this down to the wagon. I think it will fit in back when we’re ready to head home.”

“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, love. We’ve got this whole place to get through.”

Author's Note

The story is marked as complete, but if I get seriously motivated, and if you folks want it, I can cook up a little alternate ending I thought of months ago. Let me know if that's something you'd like to see!

Thanks for reading!

Alternate Ending

Alphabittle headed west at a steady trot across the rolling hills a few hours northwest of Maretime Bay, at the edge of Equestria’s borders. The coastal town had been cleaning up the damage for days after the freak ice storm that had formed over the Canterlogic factory. Word had spread quickly that help had arrived from the last place absolutely anypony had expected.

In the aftermath, Queen Haven had arrived with construction crews to help with repairs, and he’d be joining her there to help...

...Right after he was done here, seeing the one pony he wanted to see more than anypony right now.

Coming over the crest of the last hill, he was greeted with a view of Equestria’s western coastline, with a long, arched stone bridge that now lead to nowhere, coming to an abrupt, collapsed end looking over the coast.

As he descended the hill towards the bridge, he saw his reason for visiting, his daughter, Misty, come up from the beach with a piece of flat stone just a bit bigger than she was, her horn glowing brightly as she half-dragged it up to the bridge, and took it towards the collapsed edge. The unicorn mare was concentrating so strongly on her telekinesis that she hadn’t noticed him begin to descend the hill. By the time he had crossed the bridge, she had gotten the piece of debris set close to the edge of the bridge, overlooking the coast and sea as it stretched across the horizon.

With the tingling of her magic no longer distracting her hearing, she heard the hoofsteps come up behind her, and she turned to see her visitor.

“Hey, kiddo,” Alphabittle greeted.

Misty took one shuddering breath before lunging forward into her father’s embrace, and began to quietly weep into his barrel.

“Dad…” she whimpered.

“Sunny told me you’d be out here. Everything okay?” The stallion asked.

He felt his daughter shake her head as her shoulders heaved.

“No… We looked everywhere for her, dad. She vanished after the storm collapsed. After saving all of us, after experiencing true friendship for the first time… She’s gone…”

Alphabittle sat there and held his grieving daughter, trying to come up with any comforting words he could.

“I truly don’t know what to say, sweetheart, other than, I’m sorry. Sunny and the others told me what happened. The fact that you were the first to listen, the first to open the doors and hear her out… That’s a gift, Misty. I know I wouldn’t have been able to do that… If I ever came face to face with the mare who took you from me… I don’t know. I’d probably have wound up getting hurt, or doing something that I’d have to live with for the rest of my life. Try to take comfort in the fact that she saw the light, that she found friendship, before the end came.”

Slowly, Misty pulled away from the embrace, and took a deep breath as she got herself under control.

“I am trying, dad. I really, truly am. That’s why I came here. I wanted to make… A memorial, a place to remember, something to commemorate that she likely not only saved Maretime Bay, but all of Equestria, if Sunny’s ancient books are to be believed.”

“Then have at it, sweetheart. I’ll be here if you need anything,” Alphabittle told her.

Sniffling, she smiled, then turned back to resume her work, getting all manner of paints she had borrowed from Izzy. After brushing the surface clean, making sure it was free of dirt and sand, she got to work carefully stenciling out a shape, looking to be a horn sided by a pair of wings.

Once the stenciling was complete, she opened the small containers of paint from her saddlebags, and began working as her father silently observed. The wings became a brilliant blazing blue, and the center horn, a rich, vibrant violet.

With the lettering complete, she finally stepped back, and admired her work.

Dedicated To
Opaline Arcana
of Skyros
It is never too late to reach out in friendship.

Misty took another deep breath as Alphabittle stepped forward and put a leg around her shoulder.

Smiling up at him, she cast a spell on the stone that would protect the memorial from the elements, before she leaned in and hugged him again, before packing up her saddlebags. Without any more words, the father and daughter headed across the bridge, and back over the hills towards Maretime Bay.