Twilight Sparkle was, for the first time in over eight months, sleeping restfully. No nightmares encroached upon her dreamscape, and her night wasn’t punctuated by constant tossing and turning. Her dreams were instead filled with vibrant colors and unbridled joy as she was flying over the world’s most beautiful sunset.

She could smell the salt from the ocean below, and feel the lingering electric charge from a recently passed thunderstorm as it tingled her fur. Her senses were alive with the feeling of the dream, and it only caused her enjoyment to soar even higher. Twilight knew very well that she was asleep, and revelled in every moment of it.

Her dreams had not been this peaceful in so long. Where once there stood terrors of the past, made ethereal by her mind, there was now a beautiful rainbow arching across the sky and filling her crippling loneliness with a nearly forgotten sense of hope. Here, the past had no hold on her. Here, she could just let it go. Soaring into the never-ending sunset, Twilight fell into a state of absolute bliss.

However, all dreams eventually come to an end, good and bad alike. A sharp knocking on her door caused her ears to twitch, both in real life and in the dream. She turned around, expecting to see more of the endless ocean beneath her, only to see Princess Luna flying over towards her.

Luna? What is she doing here…? Twilight thought as her mind reoriented itself.

Twilight blinked her eyes once, and Luna was suddenly no longer flying towards her through an endless sky, but was instead walking through Twilight’s open bedroom door. Twilight was sitting up in her bed, blinking her eyes a few more times as she tried to get the last remnants of sleep from her mind.

“Luna…? What is it?” Twilight asked, stifling a yawn.

“I apologize for waking you, Twilight, but your friends have all just arrived.” Luna let a small smile flit across her face before she walked over towards one of the windows in Twilight’s room.

“Oh, well that’s wonderful! But… why didn’t my Seneschal come to inform me?” Twilight raised an eyebrow as she watched Luna magically draw open the curtains on the window in front of her.

“Well, I suppose… she could have been the one to inform you,” Luna said softly, looking out the now open window momentarily before turning to look at Twilight.

“But?” Twilight encouraged, attempting to coerce Luna into explaining. She lightly hopped off her bed and levitated a brush over from her vanity mirror.

Luna, however, did not immediately continue. She shuffled back and forth on her front hooves for a moment before coughing slightly. “Well, erm… I just personally wanted to make sure you were doing okay.”

With a start, Twilight accidentally yanked too hard on her brush, eliciting a pained yelp. Luna’s eyes widened before Twilight turned and offered her a sheepish smile. Coughing awkwardly, she began to speak.

“Oh Luna, I’m sorry... I realize that I haven’t been the most communicative this past while, but I-”

“Please, Twilight, there’s no need to apologize,” Luna said soothingly, holding a hoof up to silence her friend before she could begin. “We all understand what you’ve been going through… It hasn’t been easy on anypony, we all know that, and no one blames you. I am just so happy to see you finally arrange a meet with your friends again.”

“Yes, I… I should probably go see them right away.” Twilight quickly finished preparing herself for her day and then donned what few royal garments she did wear. Luna quietly waited by the window, watching Twilight rush to get ready.

Once she was finished, the two left her room behind, nodding to the two royal guards who were stationed in front of the door. They walked in silence through the halls for a while, Twilight both excited and anxious to see her friends again. She had been so busy the past few months that she had not once taken the time to see them at all. Her tasks had dominated her mind, as she was wont to do in times of grief.

However, she had finally finished what she was working on. After months of living in a personal hell, and devoting all of her efforts to correcting the cards that fate had dealt her, she had finally succeeded. She had then spent a whole week preparing for today. In the excitement of her success, she sent out letters summoning all of her friends to meet with her, explaining that she had something important to discuss with them.

After all the pain and inner turmoil she had experienced, this last week had felt extremely cathartic. It was no wonder that Luna and Celestia had noticed and become worried; Twilight had spent the last many months shut up in her laboratory deep in Canterlot Castle, hardly speaking a word to anypony. Then, out of the blue, she emerges and is absolutely ecstatic, suddenly summoning the friends she hadn’t communicated with in months? Of course the other Princesses would be concerned.

Twilight surreptitiously glanced at Luna again, confirming what she had realized was true. Luna, who normally was very reserved and held her emotions inside a deep sheath, was seemingly walking on air. Twilight thought about it and was reminded that she had been Luna’s first friend after she returned from her thousand year banishment. While all her friends were probably worried about her, Luna might have been absolutely beside herself with fear. Suddenly, it made sense why Luna had wanted to be the one to wake her.

Before she knew it, she was standing in front of the door leading to the Princesses’ personal dining hall where her friends were waiting for her. She saw Luna look towards her one last time and silently gasped. She hadn’t seen the Princess of the Night look so happy in… well, a long time.

“I shall leave you here for now, Twilight. Please, enjoy your time with your friends. I hope you have a pleasant morning with them. I will come by to see you again later tonight.” Luna smiled once again before she turned and walked down a different corridor, presumably to go and rest after her long night.

I think she should smile more. Twilight let her mind wander. That look really suits her… Oh, listen to me! I haven’t been this happy in so long. Not since…

Twilight shook her head sharply, causing her neck to pop. She took a deep breath, held it in for a few moments, and then let it out.

No! Absolutely no more thoughts about that. Today is the last day that my life will be like this. Today is the day… that I fix everything!

She activated her magic and then opened the doors, preparing herself for whatever was about to come next.

Rarity once again looked at the letter that had arrived for her the previous day. She had read it many times, and each time found that she couldn’t believe it was actually real. Describing the missive that she held in her magic would certainly involve the word brevity. The message that had been written by her friend Twilight Sparkle was simply a summon for her and their friends to come to Canterlot, without any insight of its purpose. Each one of them had received their own copy of the letter.

Her tired eyes glanced up to look at Applejack, who was positioned opposite her at the same round table she herself was sitting at. To Rarity’s immediate right sat Pinkie Pie, followed by Fluttershy, leaving two empty seats to Rarity’s left.

The four of them had arrived at the Palace that very morning, per the missive's instruction to set off from Ponyville as soon as possible. Twilight had included tickets to the Canterlot train which left Ponyville at ten that night, giving them less than a single day to put their lives in order for an unexpected visit to the royal city.

All of them had been surprised by the summons when it arrived the previous morning by mail. Over the past six months or so, each one of them had tried many times, quite unsuccessfully, to get Twilight to come out of the palace. On some occasions they would arrive to find that she was simply nowhere to be found within the castle grounds. The guards, and indeed her own Seneschal, had not even been informed of her departure on such occasions.

Other times, Twilight was just so wrapped up in what she was doing that her own attention did not even branch out to her friends. They would be there, openly trying to communicate with her, and she would continue with what she was doing while seemingly unaware that they were even there.

None of them were upset with her, however. They knew perfectly well what had happened, and the resulting fracture in Twilight’s psyche was to be expected. That being said, they never stopped trying to help her. They all desperately wanted her to move on like they all had. It certainly hadn’t been easy for anypony, but time had helped them. They were able to accept the past and acknowledge the present, allowing them to hope for the future. Twilight, however, seemed to be unable to do any of that.

None of them knew what it was she had been working on for the half-a-year she’d spent in the Palace, researching and studying. If it hadn’t been for the consistent ministrations from the two souls she did communicate with, everypony, the other Princesses included, feared what might have happened to her. However, Spike and her Seneschal, the only living beings she still acknowledged as being present, never left her side for more than a few moments.

Rarity closed her eyes and briefly rubbed her right temple, trying to stem the thoughts flitting through her mind. A little over eight months worth of worry and despondence had all coalesced into this single meet. Here she was, sitting in a waiting room in Canterlot Castle, surrounded by her friends, waiting for Twilight to enter the room and tell them her ‘big news’.

The silence was almost stifling, and it had been ever since they’d arrived. The whole train ride had been abuzz with the sharing of concerns and theories regarding Twilight and her mysterious research. Now, all they had to do was wait and then everything that had been wrong for the past while would finally be out in the air for all to understand.

The tension they all felt was so palpable that Pinkie Pie could have cut it with a knife and spread it on a cupcake.

Their patience was to be rewarded, however. The double door which led into the room swung open, revealing a very fresh looking Twilight Sparkle. The four ponies at the table all turned their heads to look at their royal friend, some with looks of having been startled, others with a deep curiosity.

She looks… serene… Rarity thought, her meticulous mind immediately picking out all the minor details about Twilight’s current condition.

She noticed immediately that Twilight was wearing her crown, which she thought was odd, as Twilight rarely ever wore it. In addition, she saw that Twilight had her royal shoes on which had been freshly polished, and the smile on her face seemed genuine. Even the bags under her eyes have disappeared… I wonder…

Twilight walked through the doorway and then closed it behind her with her magic. She moved so that she was positioned behind the empty seat next to Rarity, and then, with a glowing smile on her face, took turns looking each of them in the eyes.

All of the them anxiously wanted Twilight to begin speaking, for none of them were willing to be the pony who broke the silence.

Rarity glanced briefly at the rest of her friends, if only to see how they were reacting to this. Applejack and Fluttershy looked fairly surprised, while Pinkie Pie just sat there staring at Twilight with a small smile on her face. Rarity turned to look back at Twilight, only to double take back at Pinkie.

She’s smiling… She hasn’t smiled since-

Rarity’s thought process was cut off as Twilight cleared her throat. She was about to explain everything, things were finally going to make sense. Rarity could already picture the scene in her head; Twilight would start off by apologizing for how she had been for the past few months, Rarity and her friends would then say it was alright, and that they were just concerned. This would then be followed by Twilight finally opening up to them in regards to her grief!

Except, that isn’t what happened at all.

Twilight closed her eyes for two seconds. When they reopened, they were a solid white without any irises or pupils. Rarity let out a surprised gasp and subconsciously pushed herself backwards a bit, a defensive mechanism as she was unsure of what was happening. The rest of her friends did relatively the same, though she was too focused on Twilight to see what exactly they had done.

Twilight then activated her horn, her magic glowing with its normal soft, purple light. However, multiple brilliant white coronas were glowing just beyond it, stretching out in ever increasing tiers. Rarity put a hoof in front of her face and squeezed one of her eyes shut, keeping the other open to see what was happening.

Twilight then let out what sounded like a pained grunt, and the magic increased. A deep thrumming noise was felt, echoing through both the air and the floor. Rarity could feel the intensity of the spell as it vibrated its way through her body. She was about to cry out to Twilight to “Stop!” when suddenly the brilliant glow of the magic just… disappeared. Similarly, the intense vibration ceased as well, and Rarity could see that Twilight was exhausted.

The magic appeared to have taken quite a toll on her, as she was now resting with one of her hooves on the chair in front of her. All four of her legs were shaking slightly, and her breathing sounded ragged and weak. The colorless aura of her eyes had dissipated, leaving her half lidded gaze in it’s normal state. As she shook, attempting to push herself back up to her full height, Rarity noticed that the star in her crown was pulsating, a rich aura emanating out from it every few seconds.

Applejack was the first to recover, pushing herself out of her chair so hard that one of it's back legs broke clean off. She didn’t even stop to apologize and immediately went to Twilight’s side, resting a hoof over her shoulders and assisting her in standing up.

“Twi, I don’t know what the heck you just did, but we’ve gotta talk,” she said, sounding both admonishing and concerned at the same time.

“I’m sorry Applejack. I think I’ll be fine now,” Twilight confirmed as she stepped backwards out of her friend’s hooves. She wasn’t kidding, as her legs had ceased their shaking and the smile on her face had returned.

“Twilight, dear, what is going on?” Rarity asked as she got up from her chair. A similar scraping noise was heard as Pinkie and Fluttershy’s chairs also scooched backwards.

“We’re all here to help you, Twilight,” Fluttershy stated, her timid voice sounding louder than her normal squeak. Rarity recalled that Fluttershy had been able to get past some of her shyness the more she focused on helping her friends, and indeed, they all came here knowing full well that Twilight needed them now more than ever.

“I appreciate that very much, truly. But I’m fine now.” Twilight’s smile stretched just a little bit bigger. “I realize what you all must be thinking. You all came here expecting me to finally open up about what happened and allow myself to grieve properly. I know you have all been coming here every now and then to help me, and I do apologize for never explaining anything, but…” Twilight trailed off, her smile shrinking just a tad.

“But isn’t that why you asked us here? You, us, together, finally moving past the… well, the past?” Applejack asked, an eyebrow raised.

Twilight looked at Applejack and shook her head. “Nope.”

Rarity was flabbergasted, opening and closing her mouth in an attempt to say something, anything. What was Twilight meaning? This was absolutely ridiculous! They were here to help her heal, to recover from her loss! She had spent over six months in a broken state, locking herself away where nopony could assist her, yet here she was, finally talking to them, and was saying she didn’t need their help!?

“Now hold on just a moment!” Rarity exclaimed, her coiled patience for Twilight’s shenanigans beginning to unravel. “I do not believe that for one second, Twilight! You took what happened harder than the rest of us combined! Don’t forget, we were there for those first few weeks. Forgive me for saying it, but… you were an absolute wreck, dear. We all knew it; we all saw it!”

“Twilight, she’s right. We all knew what you were going through…” Fluttershy added, tentatively stepping around the table closer to her purple friend. “I don’t think… I don’t think what you’re saying is possible. If you are fully past it then that’s good, but… I’m sorry, I’ve never seen a pony recover from anything as traumatic as death in such a way.”

“Well Fluttershy, that’s because I don’t need to move past it,” Twilight said with a smile, as if it was the simplest thing in the world.

“... Beg yer pardon?” Applejack asked, incredulity spread across her facial features.

“I don’t need to move past it.”

“... Of course you do!” Pinkie Pie’s words startled all of them, even causing Rarity to jump slightly. The pink pony had been silent the entire time, and even on the train ride to Canterlot she had rarely included herself in conversations.

“No, I don’t.”

Applejack’s eyebrows knit together as she began trying to process what Twilight was saying. After a moment it appeared she had failed, because she threw her front hooves into the air in exasperation. “What do ya mean ‘ya don’t’!?”

“I knew you would all have trouble with this, which is why I cast that spell a minute ago. I’m going to show you why I don’t need to move past it,” Twilight stated, her voice taking on an edge of finality.

“Oh brother…” Applejack groused.

Rarity’s eyes went from Twilight to Applejack, then back again. Twilight, however, had turned around and opened the doors. She called out “Guard!” and summoned one of the castle’s brightly adorned soldiers into the room.

“Yes, Princess?” he asked, standing firm after he entered.

Twilight once again closed the doors before turning to respond to his query. “Sir, please lend me your short blade.”

The pegasus guard’s eyes widened ever so slightly before they quickly returned to their normal gaze. He did as he was told unquestioningly, hoofing over his blade in it’s sheath after removing the belt it was attached to from his barrel.

Twilight’s friends were not so calm in their reactions. Applejack let out a shout of “Now what’s this about!?” while Fluttershy cowered behind her. Pinkie Pie’s smile had faded entirely and Rarity had taken a step back, holding a hoof in front of her subconsciously.

Twilight glanced over towards her friends and raised an eyebrow at their reactions. She appeared to be thinking it over for a few moments while she looked between them, the short blade gripped in her magic.

“Oh. OH! You all think I’m going to… No, of course not! I wouldn’t use this on any of YOU! You’re my friends,” Twilight said, chuckling slightly at the sheer absurdity of the thought.

“Uhh, Twilight, I’m more worried yer... gonna use it on yerself,” Applejack reasoned, trying to calm down Fluttershy while not taking her eyes off the sword wielding Princess.

“What!? Why would I ever do that!?” Twilight cried out, a tinge of fear coloring her words. “Do you know something I don’t!?”

Everypony was silent in the room, not daring to move a muscle or say a word. Even the guard seemed nervous, as Rarity could have sworn she saw him gulp. Slowly, she put her hoof back on the ground.

“Twilight… Why did you take that guard’s weapon?” Rarity asked finally, deciding that the tension was more dangerous if left unhandled.

“Well, I… Urm… Just… Let me show you,” Twilight stuttered, nervous from the reactions of her friends.

Somewhere in there she must still be stuck in the past… Rarity thought to herself. Only a grieving mind would not have considered what she just…! I mean, did she really think that taking his blade would be just a casual thing?

Rarity didn’t have any time to further think on the matter however, as Twilight immediately levitated the sword out to be right above the center of the table, removing it from it's sheath in the process. She then adjusted it so that the blade was pointing directly down. All eyes were on the blade, even the guard’s, who was no longer able to just stand idle. Twilight then tilted her horn sharply and sent the blade sailing straight down.

Thunk!

It embedded itself deep into the wood, the blade sinking half of it’s entire length into the table. Twilight let the action sink in and glanced around at the faces of her friends, seeing a range of responses from shock to curiosity to blatant confusion.

She then repeated the stabbing, a few inches to the right. Then again to the left. Again and again she stabbed the table, viciously tearing into it’s wooden anatomy with the blade. She knew she was probably dulling the weapon, but she didn’t care. Both the blade and the table would forgive her in the end.

“Twilight, that’s… that’s enough,” Applejack said, her face now covered in worry. She stopped watching the weapon’s movement and instead turned her attention to the pony who was wielding it. “Twilight… it’s okay.”

“Hmm? Oh, okay.” The blade stabbed one last time into the table before Twilight let go of her hold on it, leaving it quivering in the table like a butter knife stabbed into a block of cheese. “Well, it’s all for demonstrating my point anyways. This is why I don’t have to mourn.”

It was evident that none of them believed her. Her actions were insofar entirely irrational, and seemingly had nothing to do with anything they had been discussing up to this point.

“Twilight…” Rarity began, before being silence by a raised purple hoof.

“I implore you to listen. Everything will make sense in just a minute.” She then turned her attention to the guard and asked him to return to his post outside the room. He obeyed immediately, and only after he had closed the doors behind him did she turn back to her friends.

She quickly removed her crown and placed it on the table so that it was facing her. Rarity wasn’t sure when it had happened, but she now realized that the gem in the crown had stopped pulsating. It was back to it’s normal appearance. Well, almost normal. It began to glow in a purple light as Twilight started to cast a spell on it.

The magic flowing around the crown then burst off into five different chunks and each settled a small distance away from where they had originated. They then grew and got brighter, becoming more opaque to the point where it was impossible to see the table through them. Twenty seconds went past, the five blobs of magic shaping themselves and solidifying until, at last, they stopped glowing. In their places sat the remaining five Elements of Harmony; Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity, and Loyalty.

All eyes looked upon the Elements, which were now resting casually upon the table as if they had always been there. Twilight smiled, a slight smugness crossing her features, before she then looked at each of her friends one last time. They all looked back, genuinely curious about what was going to happen and what this could possibly have to do with the defiled table.

“Once I cast this next spell, everything will make sense. You will all understand why I ruined this table; you will all understand what I’ve been working on for so long. But… more importantly...” Twilight swallowed, a sudden look of longing stretching across her face. “You will all understand why there’s no reason for me to mourn.”

Rarity followed Twilight’s gaze and saw that she had been looking directly at the Element of Loyalty the entire time she had been speaking.

Oh, Twilight…

Twilight dug deep into her soul, activating all the magic that she had available to use. She knew that at this point her eyes were once again glowing, bright and colorless, but it didn't really matter as she was not seeing with them anyways. No, her senses had long since dropped from her range of perceptics.

Instead, she was feeling her surroundings. Her magical presence had filled the entire room and she could tell just by observing the area at a glance that her friends were incredibly nervous. It was understandable though, as this was something that they had never seen before.

She stretched her magic out further and found what she was looking for; there before her was the six Elements of Harmony.

It was hard for Twilight to describe just what she was seeing as she observed the Elements. She wasn’t looking at things with her eyes per se, but rather looking at their magical nature. When she put her attention on a pony or an item, she was looking at it’s power, it’s life force, it’s state of being. In this way, the world tended to cast a dark blue hue on itself in areas that were lacking in magical energy. Ponies and other living beings, on the other hoof, offered a wide array of colors and impressions, varying in brightness and intensity.

The Elements of Harmony were, when considered in this fashion, equivalent to an entire ocean. The light radiating from them was pure white, like a beam of sunlight before being distilled into a rainbow. Again, Twilight wasn’t looking at them with her normal eyesight, but she still felt the desire to squint just from glancing near them.

Gently, she reached out with her spell and touched all six of the Elements. She immediately was assaulted by their power, each one attempting to exert all of its weight and energy. This wasn’t unexpected, as Twilight had already known they would attempt to overwhelm her. She physically grit her teeth in response to their effort and spread all four of her legs into a more stable position. Her mind began running back through her notes and data about the Elements so that she could begin the next step.

The last month or so of her research had been devoted entirely to the Elements themselves. Nopony had ever been able to properly identify their power or their nature, so they were an unquantifiable resource. Equestria had called upon them more than once to handle a threat, and each time they went above and beyond the call of duty in their output. With a single thrust of their will, they had banished a demonic alicorn to a celestial body. A god of all things chaos had been entombed in stone by the Elements merely flexing in his direction, while they simultaneously repaired the damage he had done to the entire world.

It was an undeniable datum; the Elements of Harmony were quite possibly the most powerful thing in existence, and the pony who understood them better than any other was Twilight Sparkle, the bearer of the Element of Magic. She didn’t understand them nearly as well as she’d have liked to, and in truth, she was well aware that she had barely even scratched the surface of the knowledge she could gain from them. That being said, she was the only pony who knew even a bit of what they were capable of, but that was all she needed for what she was going to do.

Her extensive study of the Elements had taught her a few things, but the most important of which was that they had some inherent defensive magics installed inside of them. The Elements were powerful, yes, but only if they were all together. They intrinsically knew this and had, as a natural part of themselves, countermeasures for any scenario where something bad might have happened to one or more of them. It was this bit of magic inside the Elements that Twilight was needing more than anything else.

With her goal clear in her mind, she dug deep inside of the power that the Elements were exerting upon her. She knew that she couldn’t use the Elements as they were right now, because there were only five bearers. She could feel that the Elements themselves were also aware of that fact, and that they were trying to fix it themselves. However, there wasn’t anything they could do about it without Twilight’s help.

Deeper and deeper she dug, like a drill going to the core of their magic. Finally, she found what she was looking for: a thin band of magic that signified the energy they reserved for defensive measures. She grasped hold of it and then, with all of her strength, tugged.

It felt like she was trying to lift a massive boulder from the bottom of a lake. Slowly it bent in her direction as she, through sheer force of will, pulled it out of the core of the Element’s magic. As soon as she had it near the surface, she gave it one last powerful yank and felt the defensive magic break free of everything else.

A few things happened. First, the magic Twilight was wielding and bending into spells became so strong that she was unable to even quantify it’s max capability. Second, she became aware that only about ten seconds had passed since she had begun. Third, the Elements had stopped forcing their will against hers, returning to the peaceful state that they used to be in at all times.

Twilight took note of how she felt at this moment. She felt like she was separated from the world, in more ways than one. She felt like life itself was a simple creation, and that she was able to observe it start and end all in the same moment. Glancing one way showed her what could happen, and what might be. Glancing the other way showed her what had happened, and what could have been.

Her senses settled on a moment that was very bright, sometime in her recent past. It was filled with a magic she could use, unlike the rest of the world. She softly touched it and felt it begin to pull on her soul, coaxing her to enter inside of it. Before it sucked her in fully, she threw her gaze back to where she had been and saw her four friends still stuck there.

With a quick burst of her energy, she filled the room that all four of them were in with her magic and pulled their very essences with her, just before she lost sight of them. She had never done this spell before and hadn’t realized just how quickly it would work. Next time, she’d be sure to grab the ponies she was taking with her before she activated the final step of the spell. At least it had all worked out in the end regardless.

Her world suddenly filled with light and she felt herself slipping out of her state of heightened awareness. Gradually she began to step back to her normal consciousness, her body feeling as if a fresh wave of water had just cascaded around her. She took a deep breath and it felt fresh and crisp in her lungs.

Opening her eyes, she found herself standing once again in the very same room she and her friends had been in before. However, things were slightly different. She looked around at the others and saw that each one was looking a little disoriented. Rarity had even fallen to the floor and was busy separating her face from the cold marble.

One by one, each of them stood up, stretching their bodies and looking around. Twilight could tell they were trying to figure out what had happened, and she wanted to wait for them to realize it for themselves.

A gasp filled the room as Applejack’s eyes looked at the table. They then darted to Twilight, seeing her beaming smile before they looked back down.

“W-What the…” she stuttered, unable to articulate her thoughts into words.

Fluttershy and Pinkie had settled at just looking profoundly shocked, their eyes locked on Twilight. Rarity, it seemed, was having a hard time figuring out what had occured.

“Twilight, what… what happened?! I don’t… I don’t feel so good…” Rarity said, one hoof pressed against her stomach.

“Rarity, look.”

“Look at what, Applejack?”

“The table.”

“The… table?” Rarity’s eyes glanced at it for a moment, and her eyebrows knit in confusion. “Why, what about it? It looks perfectly fi-”

Rarity gasped as what she was currently seeing finally sunk in. Her eyes widened and she fumbled backwards ‘till her rump bumped into the wall. She began darting her eyes around the room, looking at everything.

Twilight merely turned and opened the doors to the room, once again summoning the guard who she had gotten the sword from earlier. The guard trotted into the room, his blade back in it’s sheath and once again strapped around his barrel.

“Yes, Princess?” he asked immediately after entering.

“This is going to sound strange, but did I ask you for your weapon a few minutes ago?” Twilight asked, a mischievous smile dancing around her lips.

All eyes in the room darted to the guard, waiting for his response. Everypony somehow knew exactly what he was going to say. There was a slight intake of breath as the tension in the room grew. The guard, which gave his Princess a momentary look of confusion, shook his head.

“No, Princess. You did not.”

“Thank you. You may return to your post.”

He nodded and once again stepped back into the hallway, Twilight closing the doors behind him before she turned to face her friends. Her eyes first glanced over the rest of the room, seeing all the physical proof of what she had accomplished.

The chair which Applejack had broken was now fixed, and the table had even been entirely mended. The Elements of Harmony, which previously had been upon the table, were now missing. The Element of Magic was once again on Twilight’s head, and the rest of them were simply nowhere to be found.

“Twilight, you…” Fluttershy began, but was unable to keep going.

“You just…” Rarity continued, but she too couldn’t finish the sentence.

Applejack merely gulped, pulling her hat off of her head. All eyes then turned to Pinkie Pie as she said the words none of them seemed to be able to force out.

“You sent us back in time…”

Twilight simply smiled back at her before speaking. “Now I think you should all realize why it is I don’t have to mourn. You see, I’m not going to move past Rainbow’s death. No… I’m going to bring her back.”