"I'm sorry, darling, but I'm afraid I didn't hear you right. You hope? This is no small matter, Fluttershy!" Rarity told the yellow pegasus forcefully.

"Yeah! The fate of Equestria depends on this!" the others agreed.

Fluttershy rounded on them, eyes blazing. "You think I'm doing this to save Equestria? Well then, sorry to disappoint you girls, but I'm doing this to save our best friend, not Equestria-"

"Slow down now, Fluttershy. You're basically saying that whether Equestria survives or not isn't important as well? We live here! It's just as important as Twilight!" Rainbow Dash interrupted, folding her wings and landing in front of the other pegasus.

"Twilight needs me, Rainbow Dash! You can't just let down a friend of yours even if something else big is at stake!" Fluttershy snapped, her temper rising.

Rainbow Dash was just about to retort in response when suddenly, Rarity's voice cut her off. "No, my dear Fluttershy. Twilight needs us, not just you. Right, girls?"

"Yep!" the others chirped, excluding Rainbow Dash.

"And you, Rainbow?" Rarity narrowed her eyes at the rainbow-maned pegasus, raising an eyebrow questioningly.

"Yes, right, whatever you say," the pegasus grumbled, her expression unreadable.

Fluttershy's eyes were now brimming with emotional tears as she pulled the others into a group hug. "Thanks, everypony," she whispered, hugging them even tighter.

"We're friends, sugarcube; it's what friends do for each other. Anyways, Ah'm pretty sure that all of ya agree to our Fluttershy being the Bearer of Divinity, right?" Applejack said just as they finished up with the group hug and pulled away from each other.

Everyone nodded.

"Alright then, my little ponies. Shall we begin, Luna?" Celestia glanced at her younger sister, who nodded in response. As if on cue, they immediately intertwined their horns, closing their eyes. A bright flash of light then blinded the group, slowly fading away to reveal a now glowing Fluttershy, whose eyes were a pure white.

"Ugh," she grunted, shaking her head as her eyes once again adopted their normal greenish-blue color. She folded her wings and immediately hurried to help up the exhausted Royal Sisters, both lying on the floor.

"Are ya two alright?" Applejack rushed forward to help her as they managed to ease the Princesses into two nearby seats.

"Yes, we're fine. Fluttershy, how do you feel?" Celestia shifted to look at Fluttershy, who was now experiencing the occasional magical twitch.

"I guess I'm fine," the yellow pegasus answered, going through another magical twitch. "Well, besides these twitches," she added half-heartedly, sinking into a chair of her own.

Luna chuckled. "Magical twitches are a normal thing that you get when your body takes in and tries to adjust to a large amount of magic," she explained, "they don't do much harm... well, except being plain irritating to experience."

"Exactly," Rainbow Dash suddenly chuckled, "Fluttershy doesn't look too hot to me. In fact, she looks pretty irritated."

"You and your jokes, Rainbow," Fluttershy sighed, rolling her eyes.

"It'll be fine, darling. As soon as you learn how to tame this energy better, it'll be a piece of cake defeating King Sombra and getting Twilight back," Rarity assured her.

"Cake? Where?" Pinkie jumped up in excitement as she hopped around the library in her wild search for the "cake" that Rarity had just mentioned. It seemed that the discovery of the seventh element - or more specifically, a weapon to use against King Sombra - had lightened her mood tenfold; her mane was now curly and poofed up just like normal.

"Wait a minute," Applejack gasped as she suddenly realized something. "What 'bout Princess Cadance? Princess Celestia an' Princess Luna don't got much strength in them to contact her about her new role!"

Celestia gave the orange mare a tired smile. "It's all taken care of, Applejack. Before casting the spell, I managed to leave her a message regarding her temporary ascension with my magic. She should receive it back at the Crystal Empire if everything's fine."

"If everything's fine," Rainbow Dash echoed. "What if everything's not fine?"

Applejack chuckled. "Oh, Rainbow. Why would ya ever doubt Princess Celestia's magic? She is an alicorn, y'know."

"Right," the rainbow-maned pegasus mumbled, embarrassed.