CHAPTER 3: LIFE IN PONYVILLE SHIMMERS (OVER A FIRE) - EPILOGUE

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"...The leader of this group and a famous hero of the Dragon World, 'Spyro the Dragon' was the one that answered the call that the Tree of Harmony sent out, and who defeated Nightmare Moon INSTEAD of the Element Bearers originally sent. Impressive in size, strength, and cunning for his age group, his magical and elemental levels are off the charts; by far perhaps the highest magical reading ever recorded. This makes him incredibly powerful and extremely dangerous, comparable to the likes of Tirek at full power. Full caution advised when engaging him."

Celestia's frown only furrowed even deeper as the spy finished his report, the alicorn looking none-too-pleased. "Well, at least I can take solace in the fact that he's the only one of those monsters I have to deal with." She said, voice dripping with venom, as she rose from her throne and stepped down from it. "A few beastfolk and other mortals won't too much of a problem."

The dark-gray unicorn frowned himself, still winded from magical exertion. "You'll have to get past the dragon first, and I promise you that won't be an easy task." He stated. "I had used just about every multi-cloaking spell in the book to hide; sight, scent, mana, and even pulse, and he still nearly blew my cover! The sheer strength and level of his natural aura was strong enough to tear through everything I had! I was constantly having to cast the spells over and over again just to keep from blowing my cover! And that was just his aura!"

"Your point, Stealth Step?"

The answer was given not by the stallion, but by the white unicorn mare who was standing next to the princess. "His point, Princess, is that the Tree of Harmony has given us the trump card to end all trump cards, and you plan to rid Equestria of what could potentially be our strongest ally against evil yet." She stated in a simple, logical tone.

Celestia bristled, the fur on his back standing straight up, as she poured all her willpower to keep from snarling like an animal.

The action was not missed by the mare, her secretary Raven. "Princess, with all due respect, you are making a terrible mistake." She insisted, who stepped in front of the princess as she tried to turn away. "Yes, the dragon's involvement in the original plan was unexpected, and his methods are a bit...unorthodox, but even you can't deny the results his actions have done for the kingdom as a whole!"

The alicorn outright froze, going stiff as a statue. "Results...?" She whispered...before her mane outright exploded into roaring golden flames. "RESULTS?! MY SISTER WAS BUTCHERED LIKE A HOG BY THAT MONSTER! SHE LAYS HELPLESS IN A HOSPITAL BED BECAUSE OF HIM, AND WILL BEAR THE SCARS FROM HIS CLAWS FOR ALL ETERNITY! DO YOU INCLUDE THOSE IN YOUR RESULTS?!"

The sight of a furious Celestia even had the guards, for all their training and hardened stances, trembling with armor-wetting fear. So high praise to Raven, who only flinched briefly from fear even when begin glared down by the wrath of the sun incarnate.

"A-A small price to pay for freedom and returning to your side, isn't it?!" She shouted against the roar of the flames, her brown mane quickly becoming drenched in sweat. "Yes, if Twilight and the other bearers had gone alone as originally planned, they could've freed your sister, but the Nightmare would've only been removed and set free to tempt anypony else!" Celestia's eyes blazed an even brighter yellow, turning almost white. "But thanks to Spyro, not only has your sister been freed and can still live a normal life, but he has accomplished what we could never have even dreamed of doing on our own!"

Celestia flinched as she was forced to acknowledge this fact, her flames only flickering slightly.

So Raven pressed on. "Don't you see what a miracle this is?! That dragon killed a Nightmare! Removed it from Luna, without the aid of the elements, and then completely erased it and its darkness from the world! Something that ponykind has been trying to accomplish since the days of Dream Valley itself!" She exclaimed. " It's...it's outright mind-blowing! Even Starswirl the Bearded couldn't kill one; he and the others would've been able to save his squire if they could! Now, thanks to this Spyro, the Nightmare Forces have been permanently reduced in numbers! Think about it! We could finally be rid of the darkness your ancestors cursed our world with forever!"

"And what will become of Equestria in the meantime?!" Celestia spat, her eyes losing their glow, revealing pupils that held a hollow fear and burning hatred. "How many innocent lives, both pony and otherwise, will be lost in the sea of fire and darkness their battles will bring?" She closed her eyes, forcing her anger down and letting her mane return to its original form. "I have seen the wrath and ruin True Dragon Fire will bring; I have seen the death and destruction his kind will reign upon the land! The Nightmares are a force that must be dealt with, I agree...but if we allow a purple dragon to take center field, there won't be an Equestria left when he is done."

"You don't know that for sure." Raven objected.

"My final decision still stands." The princess concluded, turning away from her secretary and looking out one of the grand throne room windows; the town of Ponyville was visible in the distance, appearing so simple, small, and innocent, completely unaware Equestria's ultimate threat was within its borders. "Send these orders to the three captains of the Royal Armed Forces; I want three squads of all three races with no less in two hundred guards patrolling Ponyville's borders at all times. I also want a dozen agents hidden within the town's population to record and report everything that goes on."

She materialized the scrolls with the orders on them and handled them to Raven. "I already have a team from the Canterlot Arcane Table studying the spell the Tree used to reactivate the World Gates, as well as the means it granted 'Spyro' to slay the Nightmare; if we are lucky, we can find a way to stop the Darkness without destroying half the planet to do so." She stomped her hoof in finality. "Until we find a way to send it back and close the portal behind it, that beast is not to set one foot outside of Ponyville; if he tries to leave, then force him back in by any means necessary. Is that clear?"

In the end, the unicorn could do nothing but sigh in defeat and nod her head.

"Crystal." She said solemnly, taking the scroll with her own magic and leaving the throne room, with the silent Stealth Step following. Celestia used her magic to close the doors, taking a deep sigh as she did so.

"I'm retiring to my chambers for the day." She told the guards. "Postpone all scheduled matters of the Solar Court until tomorrow and inform the guard that I am not to be disturbed until then."

They barely had time to nod in confirmation before the alicorn teleported away in a blink of golden light...

...but not to her chambers as she had claimed.

When Celestia opened her eyes again, she found herself surrounded in darkness. She frowned, and with a flash of her horn, thousands of giant purple crystals lit up as the caverns beneath Canterlot Mountain lit up for the first time in centuries. Celestia remembered these caverns well; it was once been a prosperous mining community run my a family of nobles called...what was their names again? Oh yes, the Diamond Hoof family.

She frowned at the memory; Lord Diamond had been as greedy and selfish as they come, with no regard for anyone else's life but his own. Hence the sheer rage he went into when she had ordered the mines to close when the founders discovered that the mining was weakening the mountain, thus threatening the entire foundation of Canterlot itself. He had fumed and spat and cursed and stormed like a rabid animal, until he finally rampaged out of the room, cursing Celestia's name over and over again. In hindsight, she should've found it suspicious that he suddenly moved his entire house and all his belongings out of Canterlot only a few days later, but it was only thanks to Nova Sparkle, an inspiring astrologist, who overheard at the local tavern that Diamond had started up the mining again in secret and warned Celestia, just in time to prevent the entire mountain from collapsing. Lord Diamond was stripped of his title and banished from Equestria, and Star Nova was rewarded the former lord's estate and wealth, thus paving the way for House Sparkle.

As for the caverns themselves, they had been abandoned and most of them filled with stone, all known entrances sealed off...but a few caverns remained clear, forever sealed away from the surface and untouched by civilization since Diamond's time.

Making it the perfect place to hide something very large and very dangerous from the world.

Celestia swallowed as a cold yet burning fear filled her heart as she saw it; a fear ancient and permanently fused into her mind. Even after all this time, it still blazed with power. A dark, horrible, sheer overwhelming power; it was enough to make her horn vibrate, and push against even her own alicorn magic with enough force to crush a mortal pony into a bloody paste.

And to think it was only a small piece that had been broken off...

There, laying across a large round pedestal the size of a swimming pool, it lay motionless, and yet was more dangerous than anything she had faced before: more than Discord, more than Tirek, and even more than its successor in Ponyville:

A horn.

A single dragon horn, laying motionless on its pedestal, or just half of one...but even half of it was larger than the Ursa Minor itself, looming over Celestia like a great wall of solid bone; the dragon it once belonged to was the largest she had ever seen, dwarfing even the mighty Dragon Lord Torch...and even now, after all these years, it radiated a dark and horrible power; one that enveloped the chamber in a wicked darkness so black and thick with was like tar, broken only by crackles of red and purple magical discharge.

The same colors that the horn itself was: starting purple at the broken base, but bleeding into a dark bed as the tip.

"I do for sure, little pony..." Celestia growled, her eyes turning hard and cold as steel. "...more than you could even begin to comprehend..." She turned away and quickly left, leaving the relic of the past alone once more; the sheer darkness in the room was effecting her already, making her eyes flashed between purple and round to orange and silted.

"...because it seems they share other qualities besides that of their color."