The journey back to Canterlot wasn’t terribly eventful. The ponies left the hive behind and made their way to the port-platform. They also didn’t talk that much, since the weight of what Oran just did, hadn’t disappeared yet. Celestia was the first one to go through the teleporter. When she arrived at the other side, she got greeted by a certain night blue alicorn.

“Tia! Thank the moon, you’re back. How did it go?” She asked with an excited smile, which slowly faded away when she saw the sad frown on her sisters’ face. “Don’t tell me, that she refused.” Luna looked shocked, but that calmed down when Celestia slowly shook her head.

“No, Luna she accepted. She said that she will be coming to Canterlot in six months.” Celestia sighed. Her sister looked worried.

“Sister, what’s the matter? Why do you look so worried if she accepted?” Luna asked with a caring voice and Celestia just shook her head.

“It’s nothing Luna. It’s just that some things happened back there that unsettled me.” Luna got closer to her sister and nuzzled her gently on the side of the head.

“Tell me, Tia. What happened?” Celestia slowly told Luna about the events that have transpired. The Elements Of Harmony settled down at the leftover tents. All the injured guards were gone, but the tents were still fully built. On the other side of the tent, were two chariots that waited there for their passengers.

“Where are the injured guards?” Twilight walked up to one of the chariot-puller.

“They were brought to Canterlot, Ma’am.” He briefly explained. Twilight sighed silently.

‘At least they are alright.’ She thought to herself while walking over to the tent, where her friends were. When she entered, her friends were packing up the things they had left in the tent before they went to the hive.

“HE SAID WHAT?!” they suddenly heard Luna scream from out of the tent. A collective sigh escaped the ponies in the tent. They tried to forget what happened in the hive, but that reminded them again. While the elements were busy packing their things, Celestia continued to tell Luna of what happened.

“And then he killed all 800 Changelings.” She made a pause for the information to sink in, but continued afterwards. “When Chrysalis heard that, she looked devastated. Even if, I don’t like her, I still felt deeply sorry. No race should go through something like this. She just told us that she agreed our terms and that she would come in six months. Then she gave us the Elements Of Harmony back, and we left the hive.”

Luna looked shocked. “I still can’t believe this.” Celestia nodded.

“It’s hard to imagine someone killing that many beings, I know.” Luna looked at Celestia with an ‘are you serious?’ expression and shook her head.

“I didn’t mean that. It was expectable that Oran wouldn’t let them live. What I am so shocked about, is how Aren played with your lives. How could he even think about getting you and the Elements Of Harmony into danger?” Luna looked enraged. “I knew that he meant trouble.” Celestia looked down at the grass.
“Luna, even if he played with our lives. If it weren’t for him, we wouldn’t be here right now.”

“If it wouldn’t be for him, we would still have all of our guards. We would never have to camp in this clearing. If it wouldn’t be for him, we would have gone in there with a group full of guards.” Celestia sighed after Lunas’ rant. Everything she said was right. It was Arens’ fault that the wheel of the chariot got damaged in the first place.

“Yes, you’re right, but I don’t think that the guards would have made any difference with thousands of Changelings surrounding us.”

“Didn’t you see how they fought? I’m pretty sure that they would have made a difference.” Celestia shook her head.

“But if we wouldn’t have Aren, they weren’t that well trained either.” Luna groaned.

“Why do you still have to protect him after what he did?” Celestia looked down and pondered about this for a while. This reminded her of the time when Luna and Aren argued about the training of the guards. Their first argument. Suddenly she realized something.

“He didn’t” She said silently. Luna raised an eyebrow.

“I didn’t quite hear you there, sister.”

“He didn’t do it.” Luna looked confused.

“Excuse me? What do you mean with ‘he didn’t do it’?” She enquired.

“It was not him, who endangered our lives. It was his copy.” Luna wasn’t sure what to make of this. “Imagine this, if somepony uses the mirror-pond and their clone hurts somepony, then we can’t punish the original one for the crime, but we can punish him for the clone. This is the same. We can’t judge him, for what the enchantment did.” Luna groaned. Celestia was right, it’s impossible to punish the original for something that the clone did.

There was a monumental discussion some thousands of years ago about crimes committed with the mirror pond. One side would say that it would be impossible to pass judgment over somepony whose clone committed a crime. The other side said that since the mirror pond creates an exact copy of the original, that the original would do the same thing.

The discussion lasted over several years since both sides had valid points in the argument. So in the end it was decided that the usage of the mirror pond alone is illegal. If somepony would still use it, they receive heavy consequences in the form of a stay in the dungeon for a while. After a long time, nopony remembered the mirror pond and the law for it wasn’t relevant anymore. So in the end, the law got dismissed, because if somepony reads through the law book and finds something about the mirror pond, it could talk with other ponies about it and the mirror pond would be known again.

When Pinkie Pie used it some months ago, the princesses also remembered about the mirror pond again. After the situation had cleared, Celestia ordered the blockage of the passage to the pond. Pinkie Pie didn’t receive punishment because she couldn’t know what would happen. Celestia turned to Luna with relief showing in her face. “We can’t punish him for thinking about us. He bought that sphere and he also enchanted it, so he could still help us. It’s just like the discussion that you had with him after the first training session. A lot could have gone wrong, but nothing did.” Luna didn’t look happy.

“Even if nothing went wrong, he still endangered you and the Elements Of Harmony. Do you want him to get away just like that? He needs to receive punishment for what he did!” Celestia also didn’t look pleased anymore.

“For what he did? He gave half his soul for somepony, which didn’t even like him. He went comatose after that. Don’t you think that, this is punishment enough?” Her voice didn’t sound calm anymore.

“Because it was his fault to begin with. He is the reason why we got attacked.” Celestia shook her had.

“He couldn’t have known that we would be attacked. He also couldn’t know that we had to split after the scorpion attacked. If he wouldn’t have needed to go alone to make the platforms, he would have been with us the entire time, and nopony would have died.” She sighed. Getting angry at Luna wouldn’t achieve a thing, except drive them apart. “It was just a chain of unlucky mistakes. Nopony could have anticipated what would happen.”

Luna also sighed. She didn’t want to get angry at her sister. It wasn’t her fault. It was all Arens’ fault. She would do something about him, but first she had to convince Celestia of it. But now was not the time. Enough happened today, and she didn’t want to put Celestia through more than it was needed.

“I am sorry, sister, for talking to you like this.” Luna looked to the floor. Celestia just chuckled a little.

“You have nothing to be sorry for, sister. I didn’t act any better. I am also very sorry.” Celestia used her wings to hug Luna, who replied with her own wings and hug. The sisters embraced each other for a long time before they parted.

“I think it’s time to leave the camp, sister.” Celestia exclaimed with a warm smile back on her lips. Luna looked at her sister and nodded her head. Just when they wanted to go to the tent where the six friends resided, exactly those ponies walked out of it, bags packed. Twilight was the first to come out and looked at Celestia.

“We’re ready to leave.” She said with a motivated look. It seemed like something in that tent happened that made her mood go up. Celestia looked pleased at her student.

“It seems like you were able to get something of your happiness back. Tell me, what did happen in there, that you seem happy again?” Twilight looked a little nervous and laughed forcefully.

“Well, we talked about things, and I just thought that I shouldn’t think about Aren so much. I just decided that it would be better to talk to him first-hoof, before I start to judge him based on something he didn’t do.” She sighed once. “Of course it still hurts, but I got over it. We did get the assistance of Queen Chrysalis after all.” She smiled nervously. It was apparent that she was not entirely alright. There was something else.

‘But it doesn’t matter what happened, as long as Twilight is alright again.’ Celestia thought to herself. She nodded to her student. “That’s good, Twilight.” She looked over to the chariots. “You and your friends should take the right one. Just climb aboard when you are ready.” Twilight looked over to her friends and together, they went to the chariots.

Celestia walked up to Luna, and they both went to their chariot. When everypony was aboard, the chariots started their flight to Canterlot. Everypony seemed to have overcome the stress they were put through. In the journey back to Canterlot, they talked exactly like in the journey away from Canterlot, but everyone had the same plan. ‘I need to talk to Aren, after this.’

“Welcome back to Canterlot, Princesses.” A certain Purple pegasus guard said with duty while saluting. The princess looked at her guard and smiled.

“Second-Lieutenant Purple Edge. Nice to see that you made it back, safely. How was the journey?” Celestia asked nicely. The guard answered quickly.

“The journey back was uneventful. It took us approximately five minutes to come to Canterlot.” Celestia made a double take at this.

“Five minutes? How fast were you flying?”

“The normal speed of a chariot lies on approximately 400 hoofsters, per hour. If we made the journey to the clearing in three hours, It means that we are about 1200 hoofsters away from the Clearing. If I made it back in five minutes, it means that we were flying at around…” He made a pause to calculate. “Something around 14.400 hoofsters.” Celestias’ eyes widened.

“14.000 hoofsters? That sounds unreal. How were you able to handle the gravity and the wind resistance?”

“I am not sure, your majesty. I didn’t feel a thing. I think that those barriers might have something to do with this.”

‘I never heard of barriers that are able to block gravity. This animal truly is smart.’ She looked at the guard. “Where is High-General Aren?”

“High-General Aren was brought to Canterlot Hospital and is currently stationed in the emergency.”

“Is he alright?” Celestia asked worried.

“His condition isn’t worse than before, but since we don’t know anything about, why he is in this condition, we can’t guarantee anything. The only thing the doctors can do is giving him life support. We also don’t know when he will wake up.” The guard paused a second. “Or If he will wake up.” He looked to the ground.

Celestia looked at the ground. That’s right, it wasn’t sure if he would even wake up. ‘Wait a moment. What did the copy of him tell us in the hive?’

‘I did that again?’
‘Right he said that this was not the first time, and if he woke up from all the times before, then he will most surely wake up this time too.’ Celestia got a smirk on her face. “I think we can scratch the if. He will surely wake up. It’s just a matter of time. Until then, he has to be replaced.” Purple Edge crooked an eyebrow and started shuffling nervously.

Celestia noticed this. “Is there something you want to tell me?” The guard looked even more nervous than before.

“Permission to speak freely?” He asked, and the Princess nodded. “I don’t know anyone that could replace High-General Aren in training.” Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“I’m listening.”

He shuffled again. “Well, we never made that much progress in that short time. On top of that, it feels like I really belong to a team. We all stand up together, to fight an overpowered foe. Ponies that were fighting with each other before, are now the best friends. Everypony has the same goal, and I think.” He made a short pause. After he didn’t continue, the princess got impatient.

“Yes?” The guard shuffled further, but then sighed.

“I think our normal training doesn’t cut it.” Celestia was a little taken aback.

“Why do you think?”

“You saw how we acted on the first training session. I don’t like to admit it, but we really fought like civilians. It’s just… What point has training if you forget about it in the situation you are training for?” He asked Celestia, who thought about this for a while.

“You make a valid point, Second-Lieutenant.” She walked around him and up to the gates of the castle. Before she went in, she turned around. “I will consider your point, when I make my decision.” With that said, she walked into the castle. Purple Edge let out a long and loud sigh. After this, he fell down and began hyperventilating.

“I shouldn’t have been this disrespectful towards the princess. She could have had me suspended for this.” He looked with wide eyes to his hooves. “I just hope this doesn’t come back to bite me.”

The guards were all gathered in the throne hall. It is two days after the return of the princesses.

“What do you think, do they want this time?” asked a green unicorn his purple pegasus neighbor.

“Well, I don’t know. Maybe it’s about training?” He shrugged. The unicorn nodded.

“Could be. Somepony needs to replace Aren while he is incapable of training us.” Then the princess of the sun walked to the front, to her throne. Every guard in the hall saluted before their goddess. With a hoof, Celestia showed her guards to ease, and the guards complied by standing comfortably.

“My dear royal guards. You have surely all already heard about the circumstances, concerning High-General Aren. As you already know, he is comatose and somepony needs to continue training you until he is deemed fit to return. Concerning your substitute-training, I have already found a worthy replacement.” The guards shuffled nervously.

“I have heard, that you don’t think that your old training is sufficient enough, and I took that into consideration.” She made a little pause. “Since no instructor partook in the training, I think that no normal instructor is sufficient enough, for this special training. So I decided to pick a pony that was part of training, to be your new instructor.”

‘Oh no. I knew that I would regret that. I need to get out of here.’ Thought Purple Edge. He slowly submerged like a submarine and made his way into the crowd behind him. Nearly at the door he heard it.

“So I want a certain guard to step forward.”

‘Oh damn, I’m too late.’

“First-Lieutenant White Side. Could you please step forward?” The purple guard stopped in his tracks.

‘Did she just say White Side? Man I’m lucky.’ With a sigh he moved back to his old spot in the crowd. The Princess spoke again.

“White Side. I deem you fit to be the co-instructor for training.” White Side saluted.

“It would be an honor your majesty.” He said dutifully.

‘White Side is a good guard. I really am happy for him.’ Purple Edge sighed silently, and the guards applauded until the princess held up her hoof to tell the guards to be quiet once again.

“As the main-instructor I currently only deem one pony fit. Second Lieutenant Purple Edge, would you step forward please?” His eyes widened, and he cursed silently under his breath.

‘DAMNIT!’ Slowly he walked forward and raised his hoof.

“It would be an honor your majesty.” He sighed inwardly. ‘What have I gotten myself into?’ After the applause died down, Celestia had one more thing to say.

“I have one last announcement. Second-Lieutenant Purple Edge has shown extraordinary potential in battle, and I think that the rank of a Second-Lieutenant doesn’t fit him. So I decided to promote him, to the rank of a Captain.” There were slight murmurs in the crowd. Yes, he was good in battle, but that does not mean that he deserved to get promoted two times. On top of that, he will instruct them in training. Can he do that?

After some reluctance, the ponies slowly applauded. It was clear that they were not sure about this decision. The Princess dismissed every guard and many guards looked at the purple pegasus with discomfort. Why him?

“Seems like we have a lot to plan, captain.” White Side walked up to his side. Purple Edge looked at him and sighed.

“Yes, seems like I have a lot of work to do.”

Author's Note

Sorry for the shortness of this chapter, but i really couldn't fill in more without going to the next stage of the story.