Roots of a Cold Heart

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.