Part 11: The Enlightenment

After the explosion ended, and Discord was finished for good, everypony showed clear signs of fatigue. The field the group was standing in had finally become quiet, albeit ravaged and torn by the battle.

“That… was… AWESOME!” Spike cheered.

“That was more than awesome! That was EPIC!” Rainbow Dash added.

“Hoo, doggie! I ain’t ever been this worked up for somethin’ before in mah life!” Applejack yelled.

“As much as I’d prefer not to get my hooves dirty… I did find that quite exhilarating!” Rarity said.

“That was intense!” Shining Armor excitedly stated. “In all my years as captain of the Royal Guard, I’ve never fought in such a crazy battle! Except maybe the whole thing with Chrysalis during our wedding, but I didn’t even get to fight due to being hypnotized.”

“Still, that day made our love much stronger than either of us expected it to be,” Cadence replied with a warm smile.

“D’aww, you’re right, sweetie. In fact, I think the same thing happened with this battle…” Shining Armor leaned in to nuzzle his nose with Cadence’s, which she gleefully reciprocated.

“This battle was quite the experience, though,” Cadence began. “That Discord seemed to be much more powerful than Chrysalis. On top of that, instead of feeding off of the emotions of ponies, he had the raw power to beat us all from the get-go. Why did he insist on torturing us the way he did?”

“Because he was the Spirit of Disharmony,” Celestia replied, now free from Discord’s super glue trap.

“Yes, and given that, he had a penchant for toying with his opponents instead of dealing with them outright,” Luna added, also free from Discord’s trap. “I have reason to believe that that was his biggest weakness, and also what saved us… Of course, other than Twilight Sparkle here.”

“Oh! That reminds me!” Pinkie Pie realized. “How exactly DID you come back, Twilight?”

“Oh, right!” The ghostly lavender unicorn said, realizing her promise to explain her return. “This is gonna be a long one, so I suggest we go back into the castle to get comfortable while I tell you the story.” With that, Shining Armor had begun to form an orb around everypony, but was stopped. “Don’t worry, big brother. I’ve got this one. You’ve done enough transporting for one night,” Twilight said, smiling warmly at her brother. He returned the smile, rubbing her head. Twilight proceeded to focus energy into her horn, and with a sudden flash, she had teleported everyone back into the throne room.

“Okay, so get comfortable, everypony, because, as I said, this is going to be a lengthy one.”

“We have as much time as we need,” Fluttershy responded courteously. “Please, do go on.”

“Alright, here goes,” Twilight began before taking a deep breath. “So, after I passed away, I saw myself rise out of my own body. I tried to fly back into it, but I was only going in one direction; up. I saw you guys all crying, which devastated me as I rose towards the ceiling of my home... Next, everything flashed white for a few seconds, and the next thing I know, I find myself surrounded by the most beautiful field of flowers I’d ever seen. Dandelions, Roses, Azaleas, every magnificent flower you could think of, in full bloom. There were streams of rivers that sparkled beautifully in the comfortably warm sunlight, and tons of other ponies there.”

“Sounds like quite the serene place,” Shining Armor interjected.

“It is,” Twilight delightedly replied. “So, when I got there, I found myself face to face with this pony who wore a long black robe with a hood. I couldn’t get a good look under his robe or hood at all. He seemed so… mysterious.”

“Sounds like you’ve met with death incarnate, Soul Soother,” Princess Celestia interjected.

“You know him?” Twilight asked.

“That I do, my most Faithful Student. He’s a good friend of mine and Luna’s. In our time as rulers of Equestria, Luna and I have received a plethora of visits from him regarding the deceased. He sometimes acts as a messenger of sorts. But that’s a story for another time. Please, continue with yours.”

“Right. So, I met ‘Soul Soother,’ who immediately showed that he had already known a lot about me, but didn’t take the time to introduce himself. His deep, booming voice scared me, but he turned out to be really nice. He said:

‘Twilight Sparkle, I am afraid your time has come. Quite a bit too soon, I might add. Do not be alarmed, though. I am well aware of your status as the Element of Magic, as well as the most trusted right-hand mare to Princess Celestia. I also know that you were a unicorn of unprecedented talent. Because of your status in life, I will personally reward you with a meeting with a most renowned resident of this plane of existence, who goes by the name… of Star Swirl the Bearded.’

I was overjoyed to hear him say I’d be meeting Star Swirl the Bearded! Of course, I was also wondering why he knew about me and was treating me so well even though we’d just met. I asked him how he knew all of this, and he simply said that he’d heard a lot about me. I still couldn’t wrap my head around it, seeing as nopony in the next world should have known so much about me, nor should he have been able to spend enough time in this world to ask anypony about me… I suppose with the exception of you, Princess Celestia. Nevertheless, my enthusiasm to meet a unicorn with abilities worlds beyond my own in the afterlife overpowered my curiosity, especially since it was THE Star Swirl the Bearded. I agreed to meet Star Swirl right away.”

“How is Star Swirl, dear Twilight Sparkle?” Luna asked with curiosity.

“Oh, he’s fine! Not much of a conversational kind of stallion, though…” Twilight kindly replied. “Now, where was I…? Oh: Soul Soother took me to this seemingly-secluded area in the large garden that was surrounded by a forest. When we got to Star Swirl, he seemed to have already been waiting for me. He took no time to introduce himself, as he figured I already knew who he was. Within the first day there, he’d already taken me on as… an apprentice, of sorts. I tried to get to know him a little better, but he wouldn’t answer any questions that didn’t have to do with magic or spells. I assume that was because he’d already known, or at least had a feeling about the problem with Discord before I did because the first thing he said to me was:

'I will be perfectly clear with you, young unicorn; now is not the time for idle chatter. You must be prepared to ward off any dangers that may lurk about. Almost immediately following your falling ill, I had arranged this meeting in the case of your departure from the living world. I did so in order inform you that, should you make your trip here, you would immediately become a student of mine. I have watched you and heard many great things about you, Twilight Sparkle. From what information I have been given about you from our friend, I am aware that you are quite the gifted mare with unrivaled potential. However, your untimely visit to this world could possibly have drastic effects on the world of the living. Now let us begin with your lessons.'

Other than his mention of dangers lurking about and what effects my death COULD have on this world, I had no clue why he was being so hasty. No matter how much I questioned him on it, he wouldn’t answer with anything other than, ‘in due time.’ But, when I asked him what I was going to be learning from him so suddenly, he told me that it was an extremely important spell, and that I needed to demonstrate the strength of my teleportation spells before he taught it to me, so I did.  As it turned out, he taught me how to teleport myself to anypony in that world, no matter how far, with surprisingly little effort, using a pony’s emotional energy as a sort of mental destination point.”

“Whoa!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed. “That sounds amazing!”

“It is,” Twilight replied.

“So… what kinds of emotions did you have to um… lock onto to use the spell?” Fluttershy quietly asked.

“At first, I was only able to lock on with happiness, which was easy considering that almost everypony there was so cheerful. Almost as cheerful as Pinkie Pie, if I do say so myself,” Twilight answered. Pinkie Pie giggled in delight at the thought that there were ponies who shared her energetic disposition. “Anyway, I learned the spell very quickly. By day two, I was already able to lock on with ponies with… less-than-cheerful outlooks on their afterlives.”

“There are ACTUALLY ponies there that are NOT happy with paradise?” Rarity asked in surprise.

“Shockingly, yes,” Twilight responded with as much surprise as the white unicorn mare. “Some ponies generally didn’t seem to want to be there. I suppose it shouldn’t be as shocking as it was, because a lot of the ponies there with resentful, indifferent, or melancholy feelings were—“

“Rese-wuh? And the other two words?” Spike asked in confusion.

“Angry, uncaring, or sad, Spike,” Twilight answered. “Anyway, a startling amount of the ponies feeling those ways… were young fillies and colts, some of which didn’t even have Cutie Marks...” Everypony took a collective gasp.

“Oh my, how awful!” Rarity said, appalled.

“I know… It hurt so much to find out such a thing, especially by practicing the teleportation spell using their feelings… I almost couldn’t stomach having to use these ponies as tools for my training, especially after finding out some of the reasons they wound up there…” Twilight began to tear up, looking down in grief.

“How did you find the courage to keep going?” Cadence asked with worry.

“I… I almost didn’t. Star Swirl is a strict teacher, and when I’d try to engage in conversation with the ponies I’d teleported myself to, he’d appear right behind me and teleport me back to our training area to continue. Towards the end of today, the third day I was there, I was getting fed up with sending myself to all those sad ponies without being able to talk to them for longer than a few seconds. I was ready to tell him I wasn’t going to torture myself or anypony else like that further if I didn’t have a reason for doing it. But then, Soul Soother came to us, saying that something horrible was going on in the living world and that Equestria was in danger.”

“So the feller musta known about Discord…” Applejack realized.

“That’s how it appeared. Before I even got to ask, he conjured a portal that showed us what he was talking about. I saw Discord breaking free from the statue we imprisoned him in and then going directly to Canterlot to snoop around during my funeral. I was horrified that he’d escaped again, but surprised that he didn’t start causing trouble right away. So many thoughts were racing through my head about what he had planned, and how you were going to handle him without me…”

“We were tryin’ ta figure out the same thing,” Applejack replied.

“Yeah, we spent a good hour or so trying to figure out how we were supposed to protect Equestria and continue our lives without you…” Pinkie Pie began. “But none of us could come up with a way that played out for the better. But then we realized that since you were gone, Discord might have broken free again…”

“And unfortunately, that turned out to be true…” Rainbow Dash stated with annoyance at the thought of Discord.

“I see…” Twilight began. “Soul Soother only showed me what Discord was doing, so I didn’t hear any of the conversation you had. I did see Discord finally show up here after he spent some time spying on you. From there, I saw the fight you got into with him up until the point where he’d knocked out Pinkie Pie and used her to attack Rarity, Applejack, and Shining Armor. At that point, I’d seen enough and was thinking the worst… but then it dawned on me as to why I needed to learn the teleportation spell; I needed to lock onto the feelings of sadness, frustration, and anger you guys were showing mixed with Discord’s indifference towards how he was treating you.”

“But how did that allow you to transcend the barrier between this world and the next?” Celestia asked.

“That’s something I’m not entirely clear on myself… According to Star Swirl, the spell was powerful enough to pass through the existential barrier, but not without help from ponies in the living world. I needed some sort of spiritual and emotional anchor to keep me here. Soul Soother added that the spell was likely only able to cross the barrier under two conditions. One: if the pony you’re teleporting yourself to is close to you and is in dire need of you, and/or Two: if your bond with the pony- or ponies, in this case- in the living world is exceptionally strong. He also said that the spell only worked temporarily in cases such as this, and that, if my bond with you all was strong enough, I’d have a maximum of 24 hours before I was transported back.”

“In all my years, I’d only heard of such a spell…” Celestia murmured in deep thought. “But I’d never thought it to be possible…”

“That is most wonderful!” Luna cheered. “Is it possible for you to perform this spell more than once?”

“That, I’m afraid I don’t know…” Twilight answered worriedly. “I wasn’t able to get a full explanation about the capabilities of this spell due to having to get here as soon as I could, but anything is possible, right?” The lavender unicorn smiled, optimistic.

“Well, while we don’t know if you’ll be able to do this again, how much time do you think you’ve been here?” Spike asked.

“Hmm… I’m not sure…” Twilight wondered.

“You have been here for approximately one hour and fifty-six minutes.” Luna stated matter-of-factly.

“How did y—!” Spike was about to ask.

“I am the Princess of the Night, dear Spike,” Luna began. “I have been raising and lowering the moon long enough to know the exact time and position in which it will be,” she said with a wink and a smile.

“I’m sorry, but… Twilight, were you finished with your story?” Fluttershy asked considerately.

“Hmm… yeah, I think I covered everything I needed to.” Twilight responded.

“Well in that case, how about a PARTYYYY!?” Pinkie Pie shouted, bouncing with glee.

“Maybe later… I’m *yawn* beat,” Rainbow Dash replied.

“Yeah, getting some shut-eye definitely seems best after a fight like that.” Shining Armor agreed. “Oh, that gives me a question: Twiley, seeing as you’re a ghost and all, do you need sleep or feel fatigue?”

“In the other world, yes, but, from my experience there, I’d say not nearly as often,” Twilight answered. “I was able to stay up for two days straight, and felt like new after only maybe two hours-worth of sleep. But seeing as I’m here, and I haven’t slept in a while, I do feel pretty tired.”

“Well then, that settles it,” Applejack began. “We’ll get us some rest, then wake up as early’s we can so we can spend as much time with Twilight as possible.”

“Aww, you don’t have to do that,” Twilight said, touched by Applejack’s suggestion.

“Oh, but we must!” Rarity insisted. “We only get to spend this one day’s worth of time with you until…”

“9:27 PM, by my calculations,” Luna interjected.

“…and we will make absolutely sure we spend every second of it together,” Fluttershy finished with a heart-warming smile.

“I’ll even clear my schedule for tomorrow to hang out with you,” Princess Celestia added, also warmly smiling.

“As will I,” Luna added.

“Us, too,” Shining Armor and Princess Cadence said in unison. Twilight was almost unable to speak as she was already weeping with joy at her friends’ magnanimous offers of their time.

“That means… *sniff* so much to me… I… I can’t thank you enough for thinking about me…” Twilight said in a quivering voice through her tears.

“N-not to make this any s-sappier for you, Twilight, but…” Spike began with his claws folded behind his back, digging one of his feet into the floor as if he were squashing something, with a bashful look on his face. “…I was wondering if you’d… let me sleep in your bed with you…?” Twilight all but lost it at Spike’s innocent question, hugging him tightly while sobbing loudly, bringing everypony else in the room to tears as they moved in for a group hug.

“You guys know I hate… *sniff* being sappy…” Rainbow Dash tearfully began. “Why do you all keep doing this to me? It’s gonna ruin my rep… *sniff*” Everypony managed to laugh a little at Rainbow Dash’s semi-joke. The group hug-and-cry lasted a few minutes. When it subsided, everypony said their goodbyes and went back to their respective homes in order to rest up for what they would make the best day ever…

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