"You said you haven't been able to use magic since then, correct?" asked the alicorn.

"Mhm."

"You're wrong."

Epsilon stared blankly at the alicorn. "What?"

The alicorn laughed maniacally. "That plane you described. Those gold particles. They are not manipulated by your horn, they are manipulated by your mind. A horn is a conductor rod that can send signals, however, if somepony is to think loudly enough..."

You could hear the gears grinding inside Epsilon's head as he went back to his first conversation about mind reading with Celestia. "They listen."

"Do you want to know the secret to magic, Epsilon? How I mastered it?"

"More than anything." he said.

"Clarity."

Epsilon repeated the word in a whisper a few times before responding. "What do you mean?"

The alicorn teleported in a random book from no apparent place, and began lecturing in an overly enthusiastic tone. "Magic is controlled by thought, and thought is controlled by a series of things. Emotion, speculation, experience, logic, and fantasy. Those five things generally govern your thought process. Clarity is the meditative ability to block out and ignore four of those things, and only leave logic to control your mind."

"Makes sense." he said.

The alicorn continued without registering his statement. "If you find clarity, then you can tap into the purest of magic and command it to do whatever you want it to. A horn usually makes this process unnecessary, however, if you use your mind instead of your horn, magical ability is amplified. Do you understand what you have to do, Epsilon?"

Epsilon, finally noticing that he had been pacing back and forth for the last hour or so, sat down and sighed. "I think so."

The alicorn gave him a stern look. "You are not like me, are you?"

"No. I'm not."

"Why are you still here?" she asked.

Epsilon flapped his wings violently in frustration. "I made a promise to mother, fifty years ago. To protect you from anypony and everypony. In this case? Even from her."

The alicorn looked out of the window. "So what do we do now?"

Epsilon cleared his throat and began speaking in a more formal tone. "Rarity Belle is nowhere to be found. Colonel Macintosh has informed me that-"

"I meant about you."

Epsilon just gave her a quizzical look.

The alicorn rose from the ground and closed her eyes, and tapped into the echoing traditional royal Canterlot voice she had so long forgotten. "PRINCE EPSILON ARCANE!"

The white stallion's jaw dropped immediately.

"THOU ART HEREBY RELIEVED OF THINE MILITARY DUTIES, WITH THE HIGHEST HONOUR PRESENTABLE! THINE PRINCESS DEMANDS THAT THOU SPEAKEST THE OATH OF EQUESTRIA, AND RESUME THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF THINE BIRTH RIGHT! FROM THIS DAY FORTH, THOU SHALL STAND BESIDE THINE PRINCESS, AS AN EQUAL!" boomed the alicorn.

Epsilon respectfully bowed his head, then rose. "Oh dear..."

The alicorn smiled. "Now! With that over with, I have  come to another decision."

"What would that be?" he asked.

"It's complicated. Do you know where I could find Celestia?"

Epsilon returned the smile. "As a matter of fact, I do."

The alicorn returned her attention to the beckoning window once again. "It's almost dawn. Mind doing me a favour?"

"Anything for you, princess. You know that no matter what request, it's beyond me to consider denyi-"

"Move the sun."

----------

"... So that's it then?" asked Peppers.

Spike exhaled a large cloud of smoke and spat into the air. "I guess so."

Peppers gave him a stern look. "You need help."

"There's no time for that."

"No. You really need help now, or this is going to kill you." argued the elder dragon.

Spike got to his feet and stared at the now exposed Canterlot castle. "Not before I have Luna's head. She stole Twilight from me. The problem at hoof is more important than-"

"He's right, Spike." interrupted Celestia.

Both dragons, slightly startled, looked over at the distressed alicorn. Spike softly ran a claw through her ethereal mane and sighed. "Tia..."

"We all heard your story..." said Rainbow.

Spike looked around at the camp site, to reveal all of his friends awake and listening. He had been so focused on telling Peppers about his mental struggles that he not only forgot to keep his volume down, but his eyes didn't leave the red dragon's. The facade he had been desperately trying to preserve in order to lead this group had just crumbled.

"Ah don't think we should be doin' this." said Macintosh.

Spike scoffed at him. "You can't be suggesting we stop here? We've come so far!"

"It's jus' not worth it, sugarcube..." protested Applejack.

Discord approached Spike and eyed him judgmentally. "You aren't going to last much longer."

---------

"No."

"Yes."

"No."

"You're doing it."

"You're insane.

"Move the sun, Epsilon."

"Not in a million bucking years."

"Deal with the ursa then."

"I hate you."

"No you don't."

"Can't I just lower the moon?"

"Nope!"

The two alicorns broke from their stand off and began laughing uncontrollably. The light hearted conversation was probably good for both of them, after all. Both Epsilon and the alicorn's stress had been eating away at them, and after thirty years, it was the first time things had actually started to look up.

Epsilon wiped a few joyful tears away. "Seriously, though. How do you expect me to do this?"

"You did it before just fine."

"I moved the moon. That's over ten million times smaller then the sun." argued the stallion.

"Technicalities. You'll be fine, let's go? Everything will come to you naturally."

Epsilon let out an exaggerated sigh and made his way out onto the balcony, followed by his fellow alicorn. Once there, he lied down and closed his eyes as he did the previous time. To his surprise, he was immediately taken into the same obscure universe as he had entered fifty years ago. Now, however, he was met with a familiar presence. He knew exactly who it was.

Epsilon reviewed the golden pool before him. This time, the three balls were in different positions. The smaller orb was on top, the medium sized orb in the middle, and the larger orb was to the left of the medium orb. Assuming that the princess had already moved it half way in order to make it easier, he decided to focus on getting in the 'peaceful' state that she described.

He channeled his own mind and obsessively categorized all aspects of his thoughts, choosing carefully which emotion or experience caused what. It felt wrong, to look at himself as a third party conscience. He dismissed it, and after he was pleased with his organized brain, with a small spell he sealed away the thoughts temporarily, leaving only logic and reason in their place.

The effects were immediate.

Epsilon could feel the entire world around him. He could tap into the minds of ponies hundreds of miles away. He could levitate entire buildings that stood on the other side of the planet. He understood magic. He was magic. Magic was him. But he had a job to do.

He returned his focus to the massive orb that represented the sun. Not knowing what exactly he was supposed to do, he reached out to the sun with the same magical grip as he did the moon many decades before. The sun, however, was not a big rock. It was made of gas. To Epsilon's frustration, his aura fell straight through the sun and came out on the other side, managing to grab onto a confused asteroid.

He let go of the interfering rock and studied the sun carefully again. He could feel it touching his forehead, and it was hot. It was like air, but air that had somehow caught on fire, and the fire itself had also somehow caught on fire. He stuck an ethereal hoof inside the sun a second time to confirm it's molecular properties. Definitely just like air.

Ideeeeea!

Instead of trying to grab onto the sun this time, Epsilon focused his magic directly behind it. Slowly but surely, he began swirling around the particles inside the golden pool until he had a nice spiral. As he expected, the sun was drawn into the whirlpool's gravity, and began following it at a steady pace. Epsilon made sure to keep it just far enough away so the sun didn't lose any of its mass to the black hole he had just accidentally created dangerously close to earth.

Eventually, the sun found it's way to the correct position above the medium sized ball. Now finished, Epsilon calmed the whirlpool and dissipated the raging black hole. As soon as he had finished, the universe around him dissipated to reveal the same setting as last time.  It was still pitch black of night, and the princess was staring at him impatiently. Epsilon grinned evilly.

Good plan. Now, to execute.

With a mighty leap, Epsilon flew into the air and opened his eyes a familiar scorching white. He spread out his wings dramatically and levitated in place, slowly rising as his black hole ripped and tore through the cosmos, dragging the persistent star along with it. He gently floated back down to the balcony as he finished, and looked at his companion to find her mouth agape.

"How did I do?" he asked.

The princess coughed and regained herself. "Unusual, but effective."

Epsilon reviewed the sky a second time. "Aren't you going to lower the moon?"

"I have a better idea."

Effortlessly, the alicorn mare fidgeted with the annoyed moon and moved it into her desired position  - directly in front of the sun.

----------

"Spike. It's okay. We can handle this." offered Celestia.

Spike growled. "It's not enough."

Celestia sighed. "I can control the elements of generosity and magic. I'm sure Discord can handle laughter easily, it suits him. You need your rest, I don't know what I would do if-" she was interrupted as daylight overtook the camp, and assaulted her eyes violently. Thinking it was over, she began to speak again but stopped as the moon made its way to the sun, blocking it, and Celestia immediately fell to her haunches. "Oh my..."

Spike surveyed the solar eclipse above him. "What?"

"We have to leave. Now." ordered Discord.

Applejack stared blankly at Celestia and Discord. "What do ya mean? What's so special about tha sun gettin' blocked by tha moon?"

Celestia lowered her head and spoke in a solemn monotone. "The last time Luna created a solar eclipse, it was meant to represent a death threat to me. It led to the confrontation between Nightmare Moon and I, and if the Elements of Harmony hadn't aided me... She would have fulfilled that promise."

Spike pieced together everything, and a switch flipped in the back of his mind.

"No."

At this point, the entire group turned to the purple dragon. He had pure hatred in his eyes. He no longer wanted a peaceful solution. Luna had crossed the line. Spike bellowed a deep yell, and with it, released a massive tower of green and purple flames into the air above him.

Celestia approached him calmly. "Spike..."

"I have already lost one pony I loved to Luna, I refuse to let it happen again! I am done playing this foalish game of hers! Let her take my life and my sanity! We are going to Canterlot right now!" demanded the raging dragon.

Discord looked at him and shook his head. "I don't think-"

Spike slammed his foot to the ground to interrupt the draconequus. "You are coming with me, or you can take your leave. That goes for all of you. This ends tonight."

Celestia and Discord nodded and shot each other a worried glance. The following silence spoke louder than any voice could have as everypony prepared for what might be their last journey. As Spike took off first and began to ascend, he was met with a powerful red claw to the throat. Using all the strength he could muster, Peppers slammed Spike onto the ground and stood angrily above him. This was followed quickly by Macintosh running over towards, and delivering a painful buck to Discord, knocking him unconscious. Peppers lowered his snout to meet Spike's gaze and whispered into his ear.

"Can't let you do that."