The Alter Accords

Chapter Fourteen: Truth and Loss.

The moment when you tell a young filly the Tooth Fairy isn’t real. The moment when you tell a young colt that Saddle Claus is made up. The moment you show your friends you aren’t who they thought you were by changing right in front of them, they were all the same reaction. It all added up to the same thing for each of those things: shock, sadness, and the loss of trust and innocence.

All his friends watched as his wings changed in the light absorbed into him as his body became slightly less muscular and a horn sprouted from his head. The light faded and all that was left was a forest green coat, a blonde mane, and not Velox.

“Novo?” The quaking voice of Dash asked of him. “What, how, when?”

Turning and still with tears running down his face Novo looked at her and gave a sad smile before turning to Twilight. “I am going to get this off you and Rarity then change the cell door so we can leave.”

Twilight however was backing up from him. “But, you, how, are you a changeling?”

All his friends backed up from him except Pinkie and Dash, the latter of whom was now crying openly. “Is that it, you were a changeling, you came to do all those…things with me and make me…”

It broke his heart to hear her say those things and it seemed others started catching on quickly. “Velox…was that fake too? Was it all a ruse?!”

Velox inside Novo added his own tears to the one still streaming down his face as his horn started to glow. It was with hurt in his heart he seen Twilight try to shield herself with her hooves as his magic streamed out towards the collar.

The collar, accepting the magic of a unicorn, unlocked and dropped off her neck, he then went to the door and looked to Twilight. “Twilight you should be able to remove Rarity’s collar while I get the door.”

She just gave a silent nod as she went over to her friend to remove the collar. His horn glowed as it covered the door making the hinges vanish, well more merge with the frame then anything, and the door collapse forward. He didn’t move after the door was opened instead letting his friends go first, except not all of them went out quickly.

Feeling a punch in his gut as he collapsed he looked to see an angry tear streaked face of Dash walk by. “I hate you.”

The words hurt as much as the next once. “Ah can’t believe ah fell for somepony like ya. Ya ain’t not even worth a kick.”

He stayed there silently as he felt a pair of hooves try to help him up. “Pinkie leave that scumbag there, we have to find the Crystal Heart.”

Pinkie looked to her best friend with tears of her own in her eyes not able to believe that Dash would say that. “Sorry Star.”

Leaving him there she followed her friends out of the dungeon.

He wasn’t sure how long he laid there wallowing in his despair but he eventually found himself raising up and heading out as well. One thought was keeping the otherwise emotionally dead pony going, the thought to help his friends.

His first thoughts were to go to follow them to try to find the heart, but honestly he didn’t know where they went, so he changed his course to the throne room to talk to Cadence and Shining Armor.

“Excuse me you two, didn’t mean to interrupt but I was wondering if you-” He wasn’t sure what he was seeing at the moment, but he looked around the room and seen Cadence and Shining Armor fighting against Shining Armor and Cadence, while the latter two were teamed up with Cadence and Shining Armor with another Shining Armor and Cadence in reserve.

All ponies turned towards him in shock and two with hopeful eyes. ‘Those are the real ones.’ Lego called out from his inner world.

“You changelings really know how to irritate somepony you know that? But you picked the wrong avenue to do so with me.” Walking calmly towards the truthful pair of royalty he watched as the fakes rushed towards him. “In a Kingdom of Crystals you challenge a pony whom has crystals in his cutie mark, well the world won’t miss stupidity.”

That didn’t stop the ponies even as his horned started to glow. The first pair that got close to found the floor below them transmuted to form several crystal spikes that impaled them right through and no area was safe, heart, brain, lungs, all were pierced on the deadly implements. The second group tried to cast spells at him only to find those same spikes breaking down and flying towards them in a whirlwind of razor edges and blades that cut them to pieces leaving the evidence of their existence with entrails and flesh strewn about. The last group tried to change to their normal selves to fly out the window only to find saws made of crystals cutting them in half with efficient brutality, so much so that everypony still alive could see the looks of shock on their faces as they each seen their other halves fall away as they did.

He went over to the royals and bowed his head. “Sir Novo Bright Star at your service.”

Shining Armor, a captain who has fought before had seen death before so recovered the quickest. “Thank you Sir Knight and well met.”

“How could you?!” Cadence asked him eyes full of tears. “Those ponies even if they were creatures that ate love will now never have the chance to know true love. What did they do to you?”

Shiny tried to calm his wife as the transmutation pony just looked at her with dead eyes. “They made me kill myself and took my heart from me.”

In her distraction from the shock of that statement her magic failed for a moment causing the barrier to lower just enough for Sombra to stick his head in with his horn glowing darkly but not for long as the barrier came back up causing the Unicorn king to lose part of his horn when the barrier cut it off.

Seeing this, Star looked to where the horn piece of the king fell. “I wonder what happens when you cut a piece of shadow…” For some reason he knew he should be cautious however during that walk up to the throne room he knew that had something broke inside him, he knew what it was, but now that it was broken he just, couldn’t care anymore. There was nothing but curiosity now, nothing but knowledge for him.

He felt a hoof on his shoulder as he was trying to leave and he turned to see Cadence there. “You’re hurt.”

Looking over himself for a moment he could see no sign of injury. “You are mistaken. I am fine. Now I have to go check that out.”

Shining Armor watched Cadence watch the unicorn leave and he could tell her heart hurt just from her face, he could tell it was a great amount of pain like she felt only a few times before. She looked over to him he watched her hoof move to her chest.

“Sweet heart.” Her knight moved quickly over to her embracing her in his arms. “He had so much love in him before I could feel it, there was a great amount and now…there is nothing but pain, something happened, something that hurt that pony to make him like that.” She started to cry against him as he held her. “I thought he was just a callous and cold killer, but I looked harder with my talent and he meant what he said, he had to kill off his love against his will, why would any pony do that?”

Shining Armor knew the answer; the problem was he knew how his wife was going to react to it. “If what you say is true, then I think I know why.” His wife looked up at him in hope and he felt horrible he was about to use the one thing that was a part of her to destroy it. “Love made him do it.” He saw it, the pain and the horror of that statement that took over in that moment. “If Sombra told me right now to destroy myself to save you, I would and I wouldn’t think twice to do so, because you are my everything.”

It was all the knight could do to hold her now.

On the way to the specimen site he had caught glimpses of the ponies he had saved at the cost of himself, a flash of cyan overhead, a fleeting look of yellow, running orange, white and purple that was gone before he finished turning his head, but most of all was the sad look when him and the Pink pony locked eyes. For some reason he felt as if he should cry when she gazed at him with emotion on her face but he couldn’t do so.

He had a job to do and couldn’t afford to do that. Their safety and the safety of all the crystal ponies are what matters now, nothing else. Emotions, his own safety, his limits, and his mind, not a single bit of it mattered if Sombra was going to win, and he was ready to sacrifice what little he had left.

It took a good half hour to walk to the edge of the bubble, he knew he could fly but he didn’t want to waste energy on a transformation, in retrospect he was not sure if his choice was the correct one. “Bubbling dark energy that is spreading and consuming other crystals near it…Lego, Velox, thoughts.”

‘I know little of dark magicks so I have nothing to contribute.’ Came the Pegasus from within.

Lego was silent for a good bit as Novo felt him watch through his eyes. ‘It seems to be almost a dark transmutation, of which you are the specialist, your judgment is top priority and as such I will only add supplemental knowledge where it applies.’

A part of Novo wanted to remark how dry Lego’s already dry voice had become, even more so as it matched Velox’s and now his own in its intensity. “I see, alright then, it’s a type of corrupting transmutation, and since it seems to react in a negative fashion against the bubble that the Princess has erected I suppose it as a destabilizing or apathy type of magic, chaos to destabilize harmonic. Hate to love.”

‘Break it down then, even if it’s just broken it shouldn’t radiate as much if it’s in smaller pieces.’ Velox called to him without the fire it normally would have.

“Alright then.” The green glow of his horn had very little saturation of color in it almost gray as he aimed it at the crystals. “Let’s get to work.”

“Come on Dash I am telling you, he and Velox share the same body but are two different ponies.” Pinkie told the flier as she landed for a break grabbing a water bottle to drink quickly, she and the others had been flying and searching for the changelings only to have been told they were recently dealt with.

“He betrayed us Pinkie, he used me, used me to get his jollies and now…” She could see Dash choke up as the words never came though plenty of tears shown unshed in her eyes. “It doesn’t matter, what he did to me is nothing, however cheating on me and AJ by using us…no, there is no forgiving that.”

It had been nearly the same answer she had gotten from the working mare except add lies to the speech as well. “Dash, Novo does love you but Velox loves AJ, he didn’t cheat its-”

“It’s cause he is two ponies? Yeah right, I bet he just told you that so he could have a chance to hop onto your saddle as well.” Dash had heard enough. “If you want to be his friend fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you when he bucks you and doesn’t care anymore.”

With that and a sonic rainboom later she was gone even as her tail and leg was twitching. “Rainbow, you didn’t see his eyes, he cares for you and AJ so much its killing him, you have to see that or you may lose him.”

Twilight had overcome the door of her deepest fears; she was heading up the spiral, or was it down, with Spike on her back. She would have normally found this fun but her thoughts were disturbed. She had watched him change form before them, becoming another pony. Had he been that pony and the other all along, what would Lego think, maybe he knew, maybe he was those two as well.

Feeling the stairs vanish from below her she quickly reverse the gravity spell and landed on her hooves. “We are here Spike. There it is, the Crystal Heart. We have to hurry the barrier is weakening.”

Looking outside she could see the sky change rapidly from sky blue to dusty red in flickers as she hurried to the platform where the heart was. Spike hadn’t gotten a chance to jump off her back as she stepped on the platform and the alarm spell that was on it went off. Sombra could hear this but thanks to the weakening of the barrier he didn’t need to be inside the barrier to trap them, using his dark magic he connected to the trap to seal the pony and her assistant up but knocking the Heart out of the barrier of dark crystals and out of their reach.

Looking all around them Twilight panicked. “Oh no, I was too busy thinking about Vel-Nov-Star that I wasn’t paying attention and rushed right in. How foolish can I be?”

She tried to teleport both her and Spike out of the trap only for it to suck them back in. “Twi, what are we going to do?”

Twilight didn’t know, she couldn’t teleport them out and she didn’t know how to defuse the trap safely, if only somepony was on the outside they could take the heart to Cadence.

A memory came to her just then it was during one of her visits to Velox while he was in the hospital right after Pinkie and the Timberwolves incident.

“How are you holding up, I came to see if you needed any replacement books.” She had asked him with a smile on his face even as he still had many tubes stuck in various places on him.

Reaching over to see some of the books she brought she seen him wince and rushed to help him only to be waved off with a chuckle. “It’s ok Twilight, all in all it’s worth it.”

“How can you say that? You almost died and yet you are laughing as if you got a great present.” She was genuinely concerned for his mental health when she seen him laugh at that.

He got a faraway look on his face. “Somepony once told me, ‘The past is history, the future a mystery, but right now is a gift, its why it’s called the present.’ Problem is I like to share my presents and with no friends to share with, well my gift goes to waste. My pain right now, means I have friends to share with later, so some pain now means happiness later as long as my friends are ok.”

That smile brightened up her day and she felt like she understood him a bit better on that day.

That nice memory was ruined suddenly as it came with a realization and an image from her recent past, the look of a crying stallion Pegasus then a unicorn followed by the hurtful looks and words they had given him. “Oh no, what have we done?”

“What’s wrong Twilight?” her number one assistant asked worried.

Looking around she knew there was no safe way to disarm this trap. “Spike it’s going to be up to you, after I free us, I won’t have much magic left so you have to get the crystal to Cadence no matter what.”

She was already charging up her horn with power even as the dragon’s eyes grew wide. “But Twilight, this is your test.”

“That doesn’t matter anymore; there are things more important than that now, it’s up to you Spike.” With that she released the charge in her horn with a shockwave that shattered the crystals and shorted out the plate below them leaving her drained and unable to hold herself up anymore. “Go.”

Cadence had passed out in his hooves. The emotional drain that she had just experienced was too much and it took what strength she had left from her causing her to drop the barrier as the captain watched the darkness attacking something at the edge of where the barrier was. Whatever it was it didn’t put up a very good fight as it only took a minute before whatever it was had stopped moving and the darkness took it.

Sombra was now moving towards them only to growl loudly when everypony heard the next words. “I have it, I have the heart!”

Dash, AJ, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy were all on a balcony as they heard the dragon call out. “I have it, I have the heart!” However they all felt helpless when they saw the dark crystals rapidly approaching the palace.

“No, I won’t let us go down like this.” Dash called out as she started to flap her wings, prismatic energy starting to form on them. “I hate the jerk but he taught me how to do this and I am going to use it.”

She had been practicing on her down time at the Appaloosan farm and was getting better at it, it took some time to form and didn’t always work, but she could get Level one to work for her.

This time was no exception as the water formed a tight seal around her wings as she smiled. “Hold still ugly, I got something for ya.”

Flapping her wings a few times to get a steady rhythm going, she then launched them forward one last time and released parts of the current sending out a buck shot of pellets at the smoke pony.

Sombra took form for a moment with a smile as he pulled something from the shadows to use as a shield.

This scene would be the source of many nightmares to come for Dash as her perceived great victory and awesomeness came with rapid meaty thuds and blood splatter as the evil king used the green unicorn he had defeated at the edge of the bubble to shield himself and block the bullets.

Dash couldn’t remember every screaming as loud as she was before then.

Spike had jumped and was falling with the heart only to be caught by Sombra in his magic. “Yes, finally this empire and the world will be mine.”

The raspy hissing voice spoke and sent shivers down the dragon as he gulped and feared the worse. “I think I read that in a Daring Do book, thought it was abit generic then and that hasn’t changed.”

Spike looked over to see in an aura of magic that also held him, held their former friend blooded with many holes in his back. “Oh Celestia, Novo what happened?”

Sombra laughed evilly as he pointed to the prismatic mare whose wings dripped water. “She shot at me with some kind of water magic and this unicorn was kind enough to be the king’s shield.”

He felt sick knowing that Dash had did that even by accident and it was only made worse by the dual laughing…wait dual?

Novo was laughing with him as tears streamed down his face. “I guess you find it funny my shield, to know another pony’s magic will cause your downfall, it’s ok though she is one of the elements and part of my future harem.”

The blonde unicorn just shook his head. “No, no, it’s not that.”

“Oh do tell what is so funny before I cast my spell to end this futile resistance.” The smug gravel like voice demanded of him.

Novo ending his chuckling smiled at him. “It’s just funny cause her bleeding me will let me bleed you.”

Sombra barely had time to look surprised before the blood running out of the transmuter took on a glow and became iron spikes shooting up into the king. “What sorcery is this?”

The question was answered as his grip on his magic vanished and all three of them fell towards the ground with the echoing taunt of the one who stabbed him calling out. “Its transmutation, and there is a lot of iron in blood.”

Spike couldn’t believe he had seen a smile on the ponies face as they both fell with the heart.

Twilight had managed to come down to where her friends were just as she watched Novo stab Sombra with his own blood, she had picked up her pace as she knew something bad had happened earlier when she heard Rainbow Dash scream, however it wasn’t easy when running nearly on the Mana Zero Condition.

‘No casting till I gather some more strength, casting on MZC can kill a pony if they do too much.’ She watched as her assistant fell along with her friend. ‘No, I don’t have the strength to catch them!’

She didn’t have to as Cadence had flown forward quickly to catch Spike on her back, the heart and Novo in her magic before landing on the fake crystal heart Twilight and her friends had made crushing it and setting down her passengers as a pony in the crowd remarked that the crystal princess had returned.

“Yes, the Crystal Heart as returned.” Cadence spoke to the crowd not in a loud voice, but in a voice that with no doubt they could all hear. “Use the light and love inside you to ensure that King Sombra does not.”

Twilight from her place up on the palace watched as she sent the heart to its resting place where they had put the fake heart up for display for all the crystal ponies to bow to. When each of them did she could see that their bodies became like jewels, faceted and Rarity’s dream of sparkly.

With the roads starting to glow she could hear the surprise in the shadow king’s voice. “No, stop!”

With amazement she watched as the magic suddenly surged from the streets below all towards the Heart. What resulted was a spectacular display of power that shattered each shadow jewel it encounter as well as illuminating every pony it touched giving them all a crystal sheen even if they weren’t already one. It also styled her hair and others hair for some reason she didn’t quite know.

Most of all and perhaps the most satisfying was that as it reached Sombra, she watched it melt his shadows, destroy his armor to pieces and send his horn flying, or what was left of it as it overtook him all before shooting a brilliant beam of energy into the air creating an aurora of colors that matched the colors in Cadence’s mane.

She felt energized from all the positive love energy that had surged through her that she teleported right down to hug Spike and Cadence. Well that was her thought except there was one pony whom wasn’t currently a crystal, and he seemed to be having trouble breathing.

“Oh no, Novo what’s wrong.” She ran asking both the downed pony and the Princess over him.

Cadence face took on a somber tone as she looked at her sister in law. “Twilight…he is hurt bad and his mana is nearly gone.”

“But, the heart, I was nearly out of mana too then it went WHOOSH and I felt all powered up again when I started to look like this.” She could hear the clopping of hooves and somehow without looking she knew her friends had joined her.

Cadence looked to the pony whom was between them and a tear rolled down her face. “The heart amplifies love Twilight, it reflects the heart. Filled with pure goodness it will give energy while it will destroy a heart that holds evil in it. However a heart filled with pain isn’t good or evil, it’s just hurting and so it didn’t do anything for him. I am sorry Twilight.”

She felt a ripple go through her as Cadence said that. It was not the ‘I am sorry that I took the last cookie’, it wasn’t the ‘I am sorry that I used up all your ink for a letter’, nor was it ‘sorry of not arriving to a test on time’. It was the sorry with no buts, just a sorry to not have anything else to say or do.

“H-hey Pinkie.” The voice was weak as if it was tired and it belonged to Novo.

Pinkie moving quickly came over but all the ponies there came closer. “Hey Puddles, or is it Coffee right now?”

“Did I help out everypony? I can’t really see, I think Sombra cursed my eyes, everything is kinda dark right now hehe.” They knew he wasn’t lying as his eyes couldn’t seem to focus at all on anything.

Pinkie gave a rapid nod as tears rained down off her face onto him. “Y-yeah, you did. You gave that meany a good one two with those spears.”

“Good. Hey Pinkie.” When she gave a noise that said she was listening as she didn’t trust her voice. “I don’t think I can play the hero anymore. I have nothing left to give to save others. Our body is shot, our mind is split into three, our heart is broken and gone. I…I am just tired, I think I am going to take a small power nap, recharge and hope I find more to give to save others, I need to change their stars, I am a Starshifter after…after…”

They all stood there for a moment before Twilight’s heart started beating rapidly as she understood what it was she was seeing and said it almost afraid if by saying it out loud it would make it truly real. “He isn’t breathing.”

Pinkie broke down crying as did Fluttershy and Rarity. Cadence went to the embrace of her husband who had followed the girls down, and Spike stood there as if what he was seeing wasn’t really happening.

Dash rushed over and started to rubbing at the unicorn’s body even as the color was rapidly washing from his coat to be replaced with a uniform gray a sure sign that a pony was dying. “No…no no no no, you can’t do this, you can’t just be a hero and die like this after giving a speech like that, it’s not fair, come on.”

“Rainbow Dash, he has no magic in him anymore, and he can’t even breathe on his own.” Twilight couldn’t bear to tell her that he wasn’t coming back, she could only tell her what was happening in that way to try to distance her own emotions from what was happening.

Moving to pull her away she felt her hoof slapped away. “NO! If he doesn’t have any mana I will give him some. If he can’t breathe then somepony can breathe for him. AJ you know CPR right?”

Twilight was about to tell her to stop that there was nothing she could do when she seen Applejack move over and start to perform the procedure as she pressed her forehead to the base of his right below his horn. “Dash stop.”

“Twilight you know healing magic right, heal up his wounds, we can still save him, please!” The unicorn wanted to believe in Dash, she wanted to believe they could save him, even if the science told her otherwise.

Moving over to him her horn started to glow as she started to close each wound one by one as she could hear her orange earth pony friend counting with each press of her hooves against the barrel of their friend. Long seconds came when she was just breathing in to fill his lungs before another round of counting and pumping.

Dash was still connected to his forehead pumping what mana she could into him, but Twilight could see the rapid well of tears as time moved on and no sign of the pony making a recovery.

Cadence came over while they were all busy and saw it, something that no other pony was paying attention to. “Rainbow Dash what is that?”

The cyan mare had pulled her head back as all her friends looked at her and they could see it now: that prismatic thread. “T-this, Novo and I were going to ask T-Twilight but.”

“A Love Line!” Twilight called out before looking to Princess. “Cadence!”

Her horn was already shining with her power. “Right.” Dash was about to ask what was going on when the beam of energy from Cadence struck the line and sent a jolt of pure love into her, well it didn’t really, instead it just reminded her of the love she already had and something else.

She could feel all of Novo’s love as well burning through the pain that she and the others had caused.

All of the those gathered felt and seen the Heart give off another pulse as a wave of energy rushed through them all, and the downed pony before them. As it did not only did his wounds vanish, but his color was restored as he took on crystal sheen.

“He’s breathin’!” Came the voice of Applejack as all of them looked to see the barrel expanding and contracting as Novo steadily and easily was breathing.

Both Dash and AJ collapsed onto the pony that had just barely survived releasing tears as they both thanked Celestia, Luna, and Cadence that he hadn’t left them.

With Bright Star in the condition he was in, even if he was healthy and out of the woods of danger, was determined by his friends to be in no condition to travel, and honestly he had no say in it considering he had not awaken yet. So when time came to head back to Canterlot to report on the progress Spike had sent the message that they couldn’t as the protector Knight was hurt and couldn’t travel.

This of course prompted a momentous occasion as all three rulers and Princesses would gather when Spike had delivered up the letter that Celestia and Luna were personally coming up north to see them.

When they had arrived and after the customary greetings, Twilight was pulled to the side and into a separate room to learn the results of her test. Luna asked where the sleeping knight was and was led to Novo’s room. After a few minutes had passed she called in Pinkie Pie and Cadence and that was the last anyone had seen of them.

When Twilight had finally come out explaining she had passed her test, the grip of song magic had caught them and even drug Pinkie from where she was before to randomly pop up like only she could to join in.

“Turns out you were prepared for this!~” The ponies sang out loudly. They were all hugging each other dearly before they noticed the solar ruler smiling and giggling at them.

“That was very touching my little ponies, but I believe my sister is ready for us in our sleeping companion’s chambers.” Her voice, while calm and soothing, did immediately get their attention.

As they arrived they looked over both of the remaining Princesses who were standing near the bed of the sleeping unicorn. Celestia took her place next to her fellow rulers before looking over all those gathered and closing the door.

When all the ponies were motioned to take a seat they did before at least the Sun raiser spoke. “My little ponies, my sister Luna was charged with determining if Bright Star here was a danger to anypony, as such I had her come to his room to read his dreams and thoughts as well as through them to his past, everything she can if you would. She also called in others to talk to and to understand him better; we will all listen as she tells us what we need to know. Luna if you would.”

Celestia moved from what would be center stage if it was a play to let the Moon Alicorn start. “It seems what we have been told is only the partial truth my ponies. Velox, Novo, and Lego are all one pony.” There were a few gasps and almost a few looks of betrayal but that was quickly silenced. “Or at least they were. Sometime recently something happened to split Bright Star’s mind into three, I could recount what it is, but…it is a personal matter between him and another pony and it wouldn’t be right to share something of, ahem, that nature.”

Seeing a moment of uncomfortable silence Cadence levitated a glass of water over to her. “Here you go.”

“Thank you Cadence.” Sipping the water she set down the glass before she continued. “Back to what was being said. From what I can see in the memories he does possess or rather remembers, little over five years ago the earth pony that would later be known as Lego would wake up, confused and with no memory of where he was or who he was. The history of this pony is as you know it up till Cascade Nights death, it was at that moment that the pain of her loss caused Lego to change and for the form which later would be Novo to come to existence as he knew it.” The story continued covering some of the pony’s travels as well as his attempted suicide before his final change.

They all heard the recount of how he was searching all over the world for a way both to recover his memories and to explain how it was he could change as he did. Not every bit was covered by when the time to mention Ponyville popped up not a single pony missed the connection, though one spoke up quicker than the others.

“He was looking for help and was afraid to share because he thought we would hate him for being something similar to a changeling?” Twilight was the one who spoke up about the connection first, solidifying all their responses with a gasp.

Luna gave a solemn nod with a look of sadness to her face. “This pony here before us has walked a road of loneliness and solitude after being ostracized and forced to cast those he thought family and friends away as they sought to harm or use him. If he was an Alicorn I would say he would have likely become another Nightmare moon if not being as strong willed as he was and driven to be the starshifter Cascade Nights told him he was to be.”

Rarity was the next to speak. “A lot of little things are starting to make sense, why he only had one bag, why there was only ever one of them at a time ever seen, why they always seemed to have a good amount of knowledge about the other, but most of all have the same kind but distant feeling to them.” The ponies in the room nodded in agreement as she continued. “It was also as if he was still searching for something, something he was missing by didn’t know where to look. I noticed it a few times when he seemed to be looking a million miles away or lost in thought. I thought: here is a pony who was trying to plan out his next fashion show, metaphorically speaking of course.”

There was a round of giggles as they all got the meaning even if it was put in away only Rarity would have come up with. “So the time came when my sister and I learned of his transformative powers when he had been locked up in jail as Velox, I had cast a scrying spell as myself Applejack and Twilight Sparkle left the area. It viewed everything that happened as he changed to free himself to go face his old friend.”

“Star is a pony who takes what he says and means it; especially with regards that he would rather himself be hurt if it means his friends or others will be ok.” Pinkie was the one who called this out causing Dash and AJ to both look away. “It was why he got hurt in the Everfree. I had been sneaking around and seen him change, he could have left me there in the forest to be eaten but instead did his best to save me, even after I, after I…” Pinkie was tearing up and they all seen her mane flatten and dull. “Even after I shot him with my cannon when he surprised me.”

That was part of the tale none of them had heard up until now, in fact none of them ever knew how he had gotten the chest injuries and broken ribs except when he would say: ‘Got it in the fight.’

The elements all gathered around the pink party pony and hugged her, hating to see her like this. “When he woke up, at first he didn’t remember who he was rescuing, but he said, he didn’t remember much of what happened but he didn’t think it was a bad way to go if he had to pick. Then when I was telling him I was sorry he started to remember when I told him the truth, he still forgave me! I shot him and hurt him and he still forgave me and told me even knowing he wouldn’t have changed anything if it meant I was safe.”

“From what both Pinkie has told us that was confided in her as well as Cadence in her talent for reading love, we have determined that there are three ponies residing in one body now, so that is the truth.” Looking over to the bedridden pony she frowned. “But his heart was broken twice over and his spirit is no longer what it was. His body is healed but it’s those shattered pieces of his hearts that are keeping him asleep.” Luna sighed and looked over to Cadence to take over the speech.

Cadence’s horn started to glow as a soft rose light filled the room and various threads were all sent out from everypony to others. “Each of those threads are a type of love, from family love, to friendship, to even romantic and true love. Each color represents each type. Family is blue, Friendship is green, and romantic is red, while true love is white. However hate is represented in black.”

All the ponies and Spike even looked at all the various connections, even if Spike tried to hide the red thread that connected his chest to the fashionista, who didn’t seem to notice. Instead all eyes were on the shifter pony on the bed and the lines that came from him.

There were many lines coming from him, most of them were the green of friendship leading to each of the ponies there even the princesses themselves if but in a weaker form. However there were two bright white threads that connected from him to the Pegasus and the earth pony whom everyone in the room was looking to.

Both of their eyes were wide as they seen it, however the white wasn’t exactly stable. Neither was any of the most of their threads. Pinkie Pie’s thread was the only friendship thread that was a steady green, the others of the elements threads green were flecked with black as it ran through them, the same could be said for the true love threads of the two ponies it was connected to.

“Princess, w-what does this mean?” The farm pony had to ask as she touched the thread connecting to her as parts of the black ran through it.

Cadence came over to her and pointed at the thread. “Look, do you see how there is black flecks in the thread?” When she nodded Cadence continued. “It means hate is creeping into the love. It’s coming from both ends and if it’s not removed will remove the thread eventually as hate will do for any love.” They all watched as the Princess of Love closed her eyes and gulped heavily. “When Novo came to the throne room, he killed the changelings attempting to assassinate Shiny and I.”

“WHAT?!” Was called by nearly everypony even Celestia though Luna didn’t as it seems she was told about it in her investigation.

“It’s true. Changelings were working with Sombra for some reason and were attempting to either kill or knock me out so Sombra could get in; we aren’t sure which it was.” Cadence came over to look at the sleeping pony with sadness in her eyes. “He killed them with no emotion in his heart or at least that is what I thought. I called him cruel and asked him why he did it. He told me that the changelings made him commit suicide and that they took his heart. He was right too, I sensed in him such a great well of love but it was completely destroyed with pain and suffering, the likes I have never felt before.” Petting the blonde mane she looked over to the two who had his love. “The only time I have ever seen that is when a pony lost their true love to death, I have never felt a pony have two true loves even if he was two ponies in mind, it didn’t matter, their combined suffering was…there is no words for what it was and it’s still there. It’s what is tainting his end of the connection, but it’s not the only source.”

Both AJ and Dash turned their heads away as did the other three ponies and Spike. “You all feel betrayed and lied to.” Came Luna’s voice to which they nodded. “You all feel as if he purposefully kept this from you to hurt you.” Again they nodded. “You resent him for not telling you and feel as if he should pay some of that back in his own suffering?” They started to nod but stopped shocked that they wanted to nod. “I felt that way too, right before I became Nightmare Moon. I couldn’t let go of my feelings of jealousy and felt as if my sister left me to fade away. I was hurt and tired of being hurt, I could have withdrawn into myself and told no pony of my secrets and feelings and kept a mask on but instead I lashed out.” Looking at each of them as she spoke she finished with one important sentence. “What you are feeling now, is what Bright Star has most likely felt each and every day of his life since he has woken up with no memory, except he keeps it inside instead and where yours is focused on him, his feelings are at everything.”

Twilight rose up and looked towards the three princesses “So what do we do?”

Celestia looked towards each of them as they sought the answer of her words. “You all must learn to forgive, both yourselves and others. If you wish to free the black stain of hate from your friendships with him and restore the love to its pure state, you must forgive, you must forgive yourself, you must forgive him, and you have to help him realize that he also must forgive.”

Author's Notes:

This was a rather emotional chapter I would say. Not going to lie, as I was writing it I remembered some painful memories of my own and I think they may have embedded themselves into the writing a bit might just be me thinking that though.

*Sniffs* I-I need some ice cream

Brain....I will bring the spoons.