There was a chamber beneath the Retreat that Twilight hadn't been aware of, along with many of the others judging by their expressions. It was a bit annoying actually, that this had been kept a secret for some reason. Was it to protect it all in the event of their capture? Or simply because Starsy and Moondancer got a thrill out of keeping everyone else ignorant? She wanted to say the former, but she wasn't anywhere near certain enough to go with it.

Either way, it didn't matter. What did matter was the massive spell circle filling the room, which was roughly the size of the map room back in Twilight's castle. At its middle sat the crystal heart from Caverndown, and around it the three crystals they'd retrieved from Mount Chembechembe in Zebrica. The three crystals Sunset had died for.

Had Sunset known about this place as well? Twilight supposed that didn't matter either. There were bigger and better things to worry about, such as if this was even going to work in the slightest. The kind of magic that was going to be channelled through this called for more than scribbling some chalk lines and hoping it worked.

"Echo!" Pinkie shouted, giggling as her voice came back to her. "We could throw one heck of a party in here. The acoustics would be amazing!"

"Something we can agree on, finally," Octavia said to the pink mare.

"Forget your party, and forget your acoustics," Moondancer snapped at the both of them. "Just make sure you don't touch the lines!"

"Are they that delicate?" Fleur asked.

"Yes, and we have a very limited supply of it, since the source of the crystals we ground up to make this stuff was blown to smithereens!"

At least that explained where the rest of the crystals they gathered to produce the oubliette went. Grinding up those crystals and mixing them with paste would make a potent material to perform this with, and Twilight couldn't help but feel more optimistic about it now. Good job too, because many of the others didn't quite see the significance behind what they were looking at.

"Those gems are simply divine," Rarity commented. "You simply must tell me where you got them from."

"Did you not hear me say that where they come from got blown up? Along with Sunset Shimmer?" Moondancer narrowed her eyes, "Don't diminish her death by acting like we did it all for some shiny rocks!"

"Oh, apologies darling," Rarity said quickly, casting a glance at Twilight as well. "That's not what I meant to do at all."

"These are some of the most magically stable gems in existence," Starsy interrupted, possibly hoping to steer the conversation somewhere more useful. "They're going to form the lock that will keep Faust safely contained. They are a good deal more than just shiny rocks."

"Something being beautiful doesn't diminish its worth in other ways," Rarity said back to that, but seemed to want to drop the subject herself since it seemed sensitive to say the least. "So what are we supposed to do here?"

"We'll be using the Elements to empower the spell," Twilight explained quickly. "To put it simply, the more power we put into this, the stronger the oubliette is, and there is little magic stronger than the Elements."

"But aren't the Elements back with the tree?" Applejack asked. "Or are we usin' that rainbow power stuff we used to stop Tirek? Can we even still use that?"

"No idea," Twilight said with a shrug. "But it doesn't matter since I had Discord retrieve the Elements when he did what he did to the Tree." Twilight hesitated, since she didn't actually know where the Elements were. "Uh, Starsy? Moondancer?"

"Box by the door," Moondancer grunted.

"Right, thanks." Quickly locating the box by the door, Twilight opened it and lifted out her crown. "What the heck?" she said as she saw it was different in appearance, softer and less crystalline. "Why does it look different? Is this because of what Discord did?"

Luna came over and lifted a couple of the Elements out to inspect them. "They feel different too, like they're more... alive, I suppose. Most unusual. They feel just as potent as ever though."

"Rainbows to the face for everyone," Nightmare muttered quietly to herself.

"Still can't believe you let Discord mess with the Tree," Applejack said as she picked up her own Element. "Who knows what he could've done to it."

"Nothing that would hurt us," Fluttershy said back quickly. "He wouldn't do that."

"He also wants Faust gone as much as we do," Twilight added.

"Now that I can believe," Applejack laughed. "Guess I'm still sore after the whole betraying us and joining Tirek thing."

"That was years ago."

"And don't I know it." Applejack slipped her Element on around her neck and polished the gem with her fetlock. "I guess we best get to doing then. Jus' tell me where to stand and when to do the thing."

"We haven't finished the circle yet," Moondancer said coldly. "Of course I say we, but I mean I. If you'll give me a couple of hours to finish it we can get on with things."

"I can help!" Starlight offered, only to wilt under the weight of Moondancer's glare. "Or you can do it all yourself. That's fine."

"I bet she'd let Sunset help," Trixie snickered.

"Out!" Moondancer screamed. "Out-out-out! I can honestly say that the best part about all of this finally ending is that I can finally be rid of you and Twilight! Out!"

"Whoops, kicked the hornets' nest," Trixie said with a grin that only increased Moondancer's rage. "Time to hide."

Twilight rolled her eyes and shoved Trixie towards the exit. "Stop antagonising her. We can do that just by being near her."

"Oh? And suddenly you're accepting the fact that she will never forgive you?"

"Can't hold back the ocean," Twilight replied in a low voice that only Trixie could hear. "Please stop trying to piss her off."

"You said it yourself, we hardly need to try."

"Are you sure it's safe to be here?" Fluttershy asked with a whimper. She was only saying so because she knew exactly where they were, and that it was definitely in Equestria. It was also where Starlight had accumulated some of her biggest regrets, but that was a different matter.

"We haven't seen a Mareitanian soldier anywhere near this place the entire time we've been here," Twilight said back to try and assuage Fluttershy's fears. "It seems Faust has no interest in a ruined village."

"I can hardly believe you're using it," Starlight said, her voice barely containing her distaste for the place. "Couldn't you have left it here to rot?"

Rainbow flew down low, flying on her back as she drifted past Starlight. "That ashamed of it, huh?"

"Yes," Starlight replied bluntly. "But also no. I was trying to do something I thought was good, but did it so horribly wrong." Starlight sighed and pulled her mane over her eyes to block her sight, "Why are we here again?"

"Combat practice," Twilight told her. "More specifically, I want to see how good you are in a fight."

Starlight raised her head and blinked hard at Twilight, not quite believing what she'd heard. "Excuse me?"

"We're going to be fighting our way into occupied Canterlot. We already have Moondancer to protect while doing that, so if you also need protecting, I'd rather know now. I don't think you will though, not after the way Luna described your battle here."

"I do not need protecting."

Twilight smiled at Starlight. "Good. Prove it."

"Right now?" Starlight gestured at their surroundings, "Here? Are you serious? Are you sure you don't want to get Princess Luna just so you can dredge up more unpleasant memories for me?"

Twilight said nothing for a moment, then walked towards Starlight until they were face to face. "I suffer from post traumatic stress disorder," she said quietly, leaving the others to guess what she were saying. "Quite a few mornings I wake up from nightmares, or screaming because I think I've been stabbed again, right through my chest. I can still feel the blade at times, even though I couldn't at the time. Weird huh? Of course that is on top of all the other horrible things I witnessed over the last few years, some of which I did. I don't want to talk down to you about what happened here, but since you can still look Luna in the eye, I'm sure that means you don't wake up to images of her doing her best to merely subdue you."

"But-"

"But what? I just want you to show me how capable you are in a fight. This place is already half destroyed, so what is a little more damage going to do?" Twilight leaned even closer to Starlight, "Or would you rather I just attack, and you defend yourself?"

"Fine," Starlight grumbled, finally giving in.

"Great!" Twilight said, suddenly all cheer again. With a flap of her wings, Twilight flew up and looped around so that she was a couple dozen paces from Starlight. "Do your best."

"My best, huh?" Starlight reared up, pulling her most destructive spell out of her repertoire to fire at Twilight. A huge, roiling beam of energy erupted from her horn, hurtling towards Twilight, cutting a trench in the ground as it went, and searing the front of the houses. When she opened her eyes again, Twilight was gone. "Well what do you think of that, Twilight Sparkle?"

"I said to attack me," Twilight whispered into Starlight's ear, close enough to tickle the hairs with her breath, and making Starlight shriek. "I didn't say to annihilate me."

"But it was still good though, right?"

"If we needed to reduce an immobile object down to it's component atoms, I would definitely give you a call."

"That... wasn't actually a compliment, was it?"

Twilight shook her head, "It took too long, you advertised your attack, you closed your eyes, admittedly to avoid blinding yourself, and it's not worth wasting your energy on overblown attacks like that when your opponent can easily dodge it. I think you need to try again."

Starlight teleported away, turning as she reappeared to snap a quick blast of magic off at Twilight, who batted it away with a shield. Frustrated that Twilight could do that so easily, Starlight fired again and again, each bolt of magic getting no closer to hitting Twilight than the first.

"This isn't working, Starlight, try something else."

Starlight thought desperately. Twilight could tell what she was going to do too easily, even though she wasn't trying to advertise it so much. Starlight could only suppose that Twilight's years of fighting had given her a hefty insight into it. She needed to take that away.

Starlight used her magic to whip up a cloud of dust around Twilight, obscuring her vision. She then fired into the cloud, and growled when she hit nothing. That growl turned into a gasp and a dive to the ground as a single blast of purple magic soared right for her.

"Now that was creative," Twilight complimented. "Against an earth pony or unicorn it would've probably been quite effective, so long as that unicorn couldn't shield itself, or dissipate the cloud."

"I'm sensing a 'but' coming," Starlight grumbled as she pulled herself up off the dirt.

"But I have wings." A powerful gust of wind blew the cloud away, blinding Starlight for a moment as it swept over her. "You're getting better though. You're creative, and you don't hesitate."

"Then how about this?" With a shout and a spell, Starlight duplicated herself, and had both versions of her run towards Twilight as they both attacked, mirroring each others spells and actions.

"The fuck?" Trixie swore as she saw the effectively corporeal illusion. "She's better at illusions than me too? Fuck you, Starlight Glimmer!"

"That's because it's not an illusion!" Both Starlight's shouted as they hammered spell after spell into the shield Twilight had surrounded herself with. "It's a duplicate!"

"So it's a living thing as well?"

"No! I'm the living one," the two Starlight's screamed, pointing hooves at each other. "Oh crap, I made it too real."

Twilight quickly solved the problem by destroying the Starlight on the right, reducing it to a poof of magic residue while the two of them were distracted.

"How did you know that wasn't the real me?" Starlight whimpered, rather terrified of the cold efficiency with which Twilight eradicated the duplicate.

"Because it was shooting fake magic."

"Oh. Right."

"Shields test!" Twilight laughed as she fired a scattering of magic at Starlight, who quickly put up a shield to block it all. She really could've made one heck of an Adept under the right situation.

"Are you crazy!?"

"I'll try not to answer that too honestly," Twilight replied with a laugh. "You've convinced me though. You can probably take care of yourself out there."

"What about killing?" Trixie asked. "Can she do that?

"I don't know, and hopefully it won't matter," said Twilight. "Between you, me, Luna, and Nightmare, I'm sure we'll cope with that being a problem."

"So that's it then?" Starlight looked hopefully at Twilight, "We can stop fighting now?"

"Yeah, we're done."

"Oh good. It felt like you could kill me far too easily at any moment. It wasn't a nice feeling."

"I give off that feeling?"

"You did seem uncomfortably confident in your ability to beat her," Trixie told Twilight. "It even gave me chills."

"Oh." Twilight shrugged, dismissing it as unimportant since there wasn't that much of a question over whether she could really beat Starlight in a straight fight. Twilight hadn't even been trying. "I guess it doesn't matter. We should probably get back and see if Moondancer's finished yet. The sooner we can finish the oubliette, the sooner we can-"

"Stop Faust," Trixie sighed with a roll of her eyes. "You've been saying that for months."

"And?" Twilight raised her nose, a little embarrassed since she had been saying that for a while now. "It's still true."

"Yeah, but you sound like a twat every time you say it now."

Moondancer was still working under the guidance of Starsy, meaning that there was still nothing to do until she was done. That was useful to Luna because as soon as Twilight returned with her friends, it meant she could collar the six Bearers and take them somewhere quiet.

"We need to talk," she said sternly once she had them in a quiet corner of the library. "While I'm sure you're all happy to be back together, and free, you seem to be overlooking a rather large and important thing. Are you even sure you're capable of using the Elements at this point? It has been some time since you were all together."

"Isn't that a bit much, Luna?" Twilight said back. The fact that Luna could stand there and say such a thing felt selfish to Twilight. Luna was only concerned about how well they could function, not the ponies themselves. "Now we're back together there's nothing we can't do."

"You say that, but I can hear the lack of conviction in your words. You're afraid that this won't work because you don't know how you all feel about each other, but rather than face that now you'd let it trip you up at a critical moment."

"We're fine," Twilight stated. She stood to leave, Rainbow right behind her, but barely made it two steps when Rarity spoke up.

"What if she's right?"

Twilight turned her head away and cursed to herself. She had hoped this wouldn't happen. She'd hoped this wouldn't happen because she had no idea how to fix it.

"We have been apart for some time, and I must confess some feelings of betrayal still lingering from those early days."

Twilight sighed and faced the unicorn. "You know why we couldn't save you, even though we wanted to more than anything."

"It ain't just that," Applejack spoke up. "It's because of what happened in Mareitania that made us all targets. Rainbow and Pinkie were lucky enough to escape getting captured, but they only wanted us because of what you did. My brother almost died because of it."

Twilight let her rear sink to the floor, her legs no longer capable of supporting her weight. "You- If I had known they were going to come after you I would've done something, no, anything to protect you and your families!"

"We aren't blaming you, Twilight," Fluttershy said in a near whisper. "We know you wouldn't have let this happen if you could've stopped it. But that doesn't change that it did happen."

Twilight held her breath, then let it escape slowly. "I d- I don't understand. Are you blaming me or not? Even if you say you don't, it feels a lot like you are."

Rainbow laid a hoof on Twilight's shoulder in support, "Are you guys for real? You're seriously saying that it's Twilight's fault this happened? Luna and Celestia are more to blame than she is! Flitter getting captured and telling Faust all about you deserves more blame than Twilight does!"

"Flitter was only captured because Faust wanted to learn about me," Twilight said weakly, correcting Rainbow because Flitter deserved none of the blame. "I think I get it. You aren't blaming me, but you think I'm responsible, and that's why you feel betrayed."

"Not me!" Pinkie chirped in an attempt to break the somber mood. "You wanted nothing more than to get our friends back after they were captured, but Luna and Celestia talked you out of it because of how totally impossible it was."

Twilight laughed and shook her head, "No, Pinkie, it's fine." Twilight raised her head and cast her magic to summon the Elements from downstairs. She placed each one on their bearer, and finished with placing the crown upon her head. "I wondered why the Elements didn't seem to have any reaction to us picking them up earlier. I guess I know why now. What can I do to fix this?"

Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy looked to each other, but found no answers. Was there a way to fix this?

"How about an apology?" said a voice from the entrance to the alcove they were in. All of them looked to the newcomer, finding it was Spike who made the suggestion. "If you did something wrong, you should apologise, right?"

"But Twilight didn't do anything wrong!" Rainbow argued. "Have you all lost your minds or something? Faust is the one responsible for all we've been through."

Twilight smiled as she pulled Spike over to her and held him in her legs. "No, Rainbow, he's right. I'm not saying I did anything wrong either, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't apologise." Twilight smiled as she drew in a cleansing breath, and prepared to make the apology of a lifetime.

"I'm sorry this happened to all of you. I'm sorry that you four were taken by Faust, and that you had to suffer through all you did. I'm sorry we didn't come to save you, even though Rainbow and I wanted to. We even tried after Equestria fell, but Faust had already taken you from High Rock, so I'm sorry we were late. I'm sorry that Faust wasn't handled better so this didn't happen."

"There, she apologised so-"

"I'm not done." Twilight smiled at Rainbow, "I'm sorry to you too, that you've had to fight so much in a war we could've prevented, and I'm sorry that you got hurt doing it. I'm sorry that I had to stop you saving our friends, even though loyalty demanded you to do it. Thank you for sticking with me through all of this."

Rainbow froze, dumbstruck. Her chest shuddered, and she quickly had to rub a tear away. "Aww, jeez..."

"I'm sorry to you too Pinkie. You risked yourself and your sisters in an attempt to get our friends back, and I'm sorry that you felt the need to do that. I'm also sorry that in the end you never got what you started out for. I'm sorry that you had to fight, and that the things you saw and went through made you stop fighting. Nopony should see the things we have."

"Hey, it's okay. It all worked out in the end, right? And I even got to meet Azure because of it." Pinkie frowned and rubbed her hooves together, "Sure we lost ponies, and it hurts that we did, and I will never forget them, but I guess that's what happens in war. I forgive you, Twilight. I forgive you because I never blamed you."

There was a spark from Pinkie's Element, and it started to glow with a soft inner light. A second later Rainbow's did the same, then Fluttershy's. Applejack and Rarity shared a look, and with a nod they silently forgave Twilight, lighting their own Elements up. The only one that remained dormant was Twilight's.

"Perhaps the one that needs the most forgiveness is yourself, Twilight," said Luna.

"Forgive myself?" Twilight laughed bitterly, "How does one do that again?"

Pinkie sprang up, standing on her hind legs with her front ones in the air. "With a little help from your friends of course!" She jumped on Twilight, tackling her to the ground and nuzzling the alicorn playfully. She was joined a second later by Rainbow, then Applejack, Rarity, and Fluttershy, creating a laughing pile of ponies.

Twilight laughed too, holding them close and keeping them there, and as her Element lit up she decided it was good to be forgiven, and even better to be loved.

"I think I can only describe this as being dizzying," Starlight said of the completed spell circle. "I mean, I'm pretty good at magic, and I can barely work out half of what's going on here. I can see a bunch of stuff about binding, and something about seeing what you're thinking, I think, but the rest of it? No idea."

"It's probably best you stay ignorant," Starsy told her. "This has taken us months to research and create, and we don't have the week spare needed to explain every intricacy of it all."

"That felt like an insult."

"That's because it was," said Trixie. "Him and Moondancer seem to enjoy passive-aggressively insulting people."

"And do you at least give something as good back?"

"Not always," Trixie admitted, averting her gaze.

"Not important right now," Twilight said to the both of them. "This is going to be one of the largest and most power intensive spells ever cast, so I really think that you should be thinking about that instead."

"Right." Trixie nodded firmly, then shrugged. "So how are we doing this?"

"I have no idea."

"You can start by taking your designated places," Moondancer told them, looking to the crowd of other ponies in the room in the hopes they would do the same. All of them did, finding that their positions around the circle were marked with a copy of their cutie mark. Except for Twilight and Trixie, whose positions were marked by their initials. Clearly the effort required to recreate their marks wasn't high on Moondancer's list of things to do.

"Um..." Starlight raised a hoof, "I can't find where I'm supposed to go."

Moondancer pointed to a space filled with an image depicting the sun symbol of Sunset Shimmer's cutie mark. "Don't scuff it, and don't go thinking you're an even half way decent replacement for her, because you're not!"

"I wasn't trying to be," Starlight said back as she took the position originally meant for Sunset. Having to step into a dead pony's shoes, and then getting explicitly told you weren't that pony, was weird and totally unnecessary. She decided to say nothing more on what was clearly a touchy subject.

"I expect this works much like a regular enchanting circle?" Luna asked as Moondancer and Starsy made some last second checks. "Touch your horn to it and pump magic into it?"

"Essentially yes," Starsy confirmed. "We've designed the circle to require as little additional input as possible, so all you have to do is work on squeezing as much magic out of yourselves as you can."

"What about myself and the other Bearers?" Twilight enquired since she wasn't sure if she was here as an alicorn or a Bearer at this point.

"I've been told that the Elements tend to use you as a focus," Starsy said, pausing what he was doing to ask some very pertinent questions that should probably have been asked before now. "Was I informed correctly?"

"Uhhh... I suppose so, but I don't think it's quite that limited. If you want me to act as their focus I suppose I can, although I feel like that's expecting a lot of me."

Luna smiled sympathetically at Twilight, feeling the smaller alicorn's unease. "The Elements will know what to do. Trust them."
"I do, but that's a lot of magic that's going to be going through me, and we can't be sure as to exactly how that magic works any more after Discord did what he did."

"Trust them," Luna affirmed. "They won't harm you."

"Alright then." Twilight took a deep breath, still not feeling particularly confident about it, but sure that there was only one way forward at this point. Three other alicorns, three unicorns, and the other Bearers were counting on her to make this work, and she wouldn't let them down. "How do we begin?"

"We'll begin when you're ready to channel the power of the Elements," said Starsy, an excited grin on his face. "Oh, one more thing. This is probably going to get very bright, so you all might want to close your eyes once we get going." He nodded at those that were crowding around the doorway to watch what was going on, "You included."

"Aww," the filly whined, "but awesome magic!"

"Awesome magic is not worth having to read by touch for the rest of your life," Starsy scolded. "Close your eyes."

"Booo! Fun free zone!"

"There is nothing happening here that has anything to do with fun!"

Fleur cleared her throat, stopping the filly before she could make a comeback. "Starsy, was it? I feel I should inform you now that the filly is a giant pain in the ass, and that you should ignore her."

"Hey! That's not fair!"

"It's also true." Fleur smiled at Starsy, "Please, continue."

"Right," Starsy said, missing the point entirely, and not caring anyway. He waved at Twilight, "Miss Sparkle, when you and the other Bearers are ready, you may begin."

That was definitely easier said than done. Twilight eyed her friends as they closed their eyes and focussed on their Elements. Elements that were no longer the same. Not exactly at least. Would it feel different to use them? Did they have more or less choice about what the result would be? Could they really do this?

Twilight was given her answer as the Elements of the others lit up. If they could do it, then she could as well. Closing her eyes, Twilight reached out for her Element, and found herself being bathed in a calming sensation that made her gasp at how sudden it was. The other surprise was the sensation of understanding she received. The Tree had accepted all the things she'd done, whereas before it had nearly rejected her for what she'd done in Mareitania. It was willing to at least meet her halfway since she had at least tried to act in the best interest of Harmony, even if things didn't always work out.

Had the introduction of Discord's chaos, true chaos, done this? Was the Tree no longer stuck looking at the world through the narrow window Faust had given it? Had disharmonious actions for harmonious results become something it could tolerate now? Twilight suspected she would never really know as the Tree probably had a far greater degree of freedom in which it could now make its own choices, and dictate its own actions.

Could it kill? There's a question Twilight thought she'd never have to ask. She had a feeling that the answer would be if it had no other choice. Right now it had that choice, and it chose to go with what they were doing. It knew what Faust had suffered through her imprisonment, and had no wish to do something even remotely as cruel.

Twilight bowed her head and touched her horn to the enchanting circle as the power of the Elements filled her, using her as a vessel. That part she was familiar with. The difference this time was that before their change controlling the Elements was like directing a spray of water from a hose, being rather linear in its purpose. Now it was like trying to channel a river that could follow any number of paths, and hoped you enjoyed the ride.

The circle lit up in a rainbow as the Elements filled it with power, and with a shout from Starsy the rest of them applied their own magic to it. Theirs was like a candle compared to a blowtorch though, in comparison to the power the Elements were providing. They could probably have propped the entire thing up on their own.

The room filled with a dazzling display of multi-coloured lights as the spells written into the circle were activated, and the crystal heart at its middle spun rapidly as it absorbed the magic being pumped into it, along with the three crystals that surrounded it, orbiting it rapidly as their own enchantments were written into them. Then all at once they lit up as the enchantments were completed. The oubliette was finished.

After a minute the light died down, and Twilight found herself lying on her side, having apparently collapsed at some point after the spell was finished. She really didn't remember getting there though, and she felt thoroughly wrung out.

"Closing my eyes did nothing!" Trixie groaned from nearby. "All I can see are colourful blobs floating around."

"That was rather intense," Luna agreed. "More importantly though, did it work?"

"I'm afraid one of you will have to tell me that," said Starsy. "All I can say is that it at least looks like it worked."

Twilight pulled herself up onto her front, and blinked rapidly to remove the afterimages plaguing her vision. When they'd mostly gone she looked at the oubliette, finding it sat where it started, but floating above the ground with the other crystals slowly orbiting it.

"How can we tell if it did work?" Twilight asked Starsy. She did try to probe the oubliette with her magic, but the sting of pain from her horn told her to leave it alone for now.

"The only way to be totally sure is to test it," Starsy replied after a few seconds.

"And how do we do that?"

Starsy gave Twilight a look. "By testing it," he said slowly.

"Yes, okay, but test it on what?"

"On me."

"What!?" Twilight shouted, and she was far from alone doing it as several of the others did as well, although the loudest by far was Moondancer.

"Why would we do that? You can't be serious!"

Starsy smiled warmly at Moondancer, seeing the tears in the corner of her eyes as she tried to comprehend his words. "I am serious. I'd always intended this from the beginning. Despite everything, I do still love Faust, and this gives me the chance to be with her. I know I'm not the real Starswirl, but in the oubliette I could be. We could be together again."

"But what about us?" Moondancer squeaked. "What about me?"

"I am sorry, Moondancer, but my mind is made up. Besides, the spell is incomplete without me. The oubliette would contain Faust, but she would be trapped in a white void. I need to go in there to build the world she'll inhabit, otherwise she'll never stop seeking a way out, and might even find one. I need to do this."

B-but..."

"Let us return to the observation area. There's something I need to do before you place me within the oubliette."

A solemn air had filled the Retreat as they filed back up to the observation area. Even those that had only just met Starsy knew something serious was going on, and maintained a respectful silence for those that had known him longer. The only one truly upset though, was Moondancer. The others realised that what was happening was for the best, more or less. They at least wanted to respect Starsy's wishes.

"So he's really the mind and personality of Starswirl the Bearded?" Starlight asked in a whisper as Twilight filled in her and those less in the know about who and what Starsy is. "And he really loves Faust? I almost hate to imagine how that came about."

"His cock must be as big as his leg to please somepony her size," Summer said airily. She blushed as she realised what she'd just said out loud. "Sorry."

"While I can neither confirm nor deny anything concerning how well hung he is," Twilight said awkwardly, "it must have worked somehow because Starswirl is Celestia's father."

"You're joking, right?"

Twilight shook her head, "Not in the slightest. Faust herself said it, and Starsy confirmed their relationship."

"Hold on," Starlight said, remembering the other alicorn in the room, "what about Princess Luna. I thought her and Princess Celestia were actual sisters?"

"Half sisters. Luna has a different father."

"Really? Who?"

Twilight looked at the back of Luna's head, the twitch of the blue alicorn's ears telling her that Luna was listening, so she decided that discretion was the better path here. "That's not for me to disclose." Not least because finding out that Sombra was Luna's father tended to weird ponies out.

"Oh come on, you can't just dangle that in front of my nose!"

"It's not for me to say," Twilight reaffirmed. "Ask Luna if you must, or Nightmare if you really want to, but you're not getting anything more out of me."

"But Luna's scary," Starlight whined. "To me at least."

"Tough. Anyway, the point of all this was that Starsy wants to be with Faust, and her being with the pony she loves will placate her a bit too, and they can have their sort of happily ever after together, trapped in an entire world inside a crystal. End of problem. I hope."

"Sounds too easy."

Twilight snorted, "It's been anything but. Anyway, shush up."

"So what do you need to do?" Luna asked as they arrived in the observation area.

"A couple of things," Starsy responded. "The first involves what will happen to this library after I am gone." Starsy pointed to a drawer in one of the desks lining the window to the outside, "If one of you could open that and take out the bronze medallion within?"

Luna did so, taking a minute to root through the contents of the draw before finding the medallion, picking it up by the chain it was on. "What would you like me to do with this?"

"I'd like you to put it on Moondancer."

"Huh?" Moondancer said dumbly. "Why do I need it? What is it?"

"This medallion confers to you all the rights as custodian of this library." Starswirl smiled at Moondancer as Luna slipped the medallion over her head. "Starswirl's retreat, along with everything in it is now yours to use as you see fit, and I could not think of anyone better suited for the task. Protect the knowledge, share it with others, the choice is entirely yours. I wish you luck, whatever it is you do."

Moondancer held the medallion up on the flat of her hoof as tears slid down her cheeks, meeting a smile on the way down. "Thank you, Starsy, I- Thank you."

"As for the second thing..." Starswirl waved a hoof up at the large armillary sphere dangling from the ceiling where it had been perpetually spinning for the last millennia. At first nothing seemed to happen, but after a moment it slowed, more and more until it was still, the various rings sitting parallel to each other and the floor. The centre orb split, bathing the room in a golden light that came from within.

"What the heck is that?" Trixie asked as the source of light left the orb to float down into Starsy's outstretched hoof. "It feels weird."

"This is the Gift of Life, given to Starswirl by Faust so very long ago so that he might continue their mission to bring balance to the world. A more terrible source of trouble there has never been before. I want you to put it into the oubliette with me."

"I don't wish to overturn your choice," Luna said quickly, "but why? Surely such a thing is capable of much good in the right hooves. It might even cure those poor souls we found in the Everfree Castle."

"Perhaps," Starsy admitted cautiously, "but it's so very hard to know whose hooves are the right ones. I thought I was once, but considering my failures with the sirens and changelings, I was wrong. It's best that it be put somewhere it cannot cause any more harm. It'll also aid me in building the world inside the oubliette."

Luna sighed bitterly, "Of course it will. Is there anything else you need to do?"

"No, I am quite ready. All I will say is that it has for the most part been a delight working with you for these past few months, and it has certainly been a delight seeing you again, Luna, and meeting you, Moondancer. I wish you all the best of luck in your upcoming endeavours, and thank you for following my wishes for Faust."

"Amen," said Trixie. "So how are we doing this? You never told us how."

Starsy rolled his eyes, "That is rather dependent on you, unfortunately, and upon a unicorn I barely know anything about beyond her having severe social issues."

"Moondancer isn't that bad."

Starsy frowned at Trixie, then glanced at Starlight. "I wasn't talking about Moondancer."

Trixie wilted under the gaze of both Starsy and Moondancer, "Heh, my bad. Surely you can see why I might have made that mistake though?"

"Not at all. Anyway, the spell you need is written into the three crystals orbiting the heart. All you need to do is to concentrate your magic on one of the crystals each, and let them do their job. Unfortunately, that will take time."

"How much time?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

"A few minutes. Ten at most."

Twilight nearly choked on her tongue at hearing that. "Ten minutes? We've got to keep Faust distracted for ten whole minutes? Are you kidding me?"

"As I said, it could be less."

Twilight sat and groaned into her hooves as Fluttershy patted her back. "Ten whole minutes. I think we'll be lucky to last two."

"Come on Twilight," Trixie said with sarcastic cheer, "you just gotta believe in yourself!"

"Say that again when I'm a bloody smear on the floor of Canterlot castle."

"It'll be fine," Luna interjected. "Between our magic and our armour, we will hold her off for as long as it takes, and protect Trixie, Moondancer, and Starlight until it is done."

"I'll be there too," said Shining. "I can't fight Faust, but I can deflect at least a few spells."

"Shining, no," Cadence protested. "She could kill you with one hit if she wanted to!"

"Then at least I'll have gone down fighting to save the world."

"Maybe a cloaking spell," Starlight suggested before Cadence could say anything else. "Faust won't attack us if she doesn't know we're there."

"That's just going to take more time," Twilight grumbled. She shook her head and dismissed it all with a wave of her hoof. "We can discuss that later. Right now we need to get Starsy into the oubliette so he can finish it. After that, there's only one thing left for us to do."

"I imagine there's considerably more than one," said Luna, "but I think we all know what you mean. Moondancer, Trixie, Starlight, you may begin when ready."

"Why us?" Trixie asked back.

"Because you're the ones doing it in Canterlot, so getting a bit of practice in might help. Now get to it."

"Fine." Trixie pointed her horn at one of the crystals orbiting the heart, and reached out with her magic to grab it, followed shortly by Starlight, and far more reluctantly, Moondancer. The three crystals stopped their orbits, and moved so that they formed a triangle around the heart, one at the bottom, two at the top. As soon as they were in place, the heart started to rotate as complex runes started to form in the air around the oubliette.

"This doesn't seem like it's taking that long," Rainbow observed as they sat watching the proceedings.

"This bit doesn't," Starsy told her. "It's the spell designed to grab Faust and get her into the heart that takes the time to form. For a being like her, it takes a lot of power to do."

"Oh. Nuts."

"Quite."

They kept watching as things went on, and a noticeable build-up of power formed around the oubliette, that started to crackle as arcs of magic jumped off it to the ground, and between the crystals.

"I do believe it's almost ready," Starsy announced. "Which also means it's time for me to go." He smiled at the ponies around him, "Farewell, all of you, and best of luck in stopping Faust and rebuilding Equestria."

They all chimed their goodbyes, even those that barely knew Starsy, then shielded their eyes as the oubliette flared with power. When it died down and they uncovered their eyes, Starsy, along with the Gift of Life, was gone.

"I guess that's it then," Luna said after a few moments. "The oubliette is now complete, which means it's time for the final part of this venture to happen. I shall go inform the Emperor of our success."

"And I'll tell Chrysalis," said Cadence. "No doubt she doesn't wish to fight hungry."

"Then let us be about it."

Twilight nodded, preparing to go inform the zebra council, and the Sultan, but found herself watching Moondancer for a moment as the mare wiped her tears away. Moondancer hadn't lifted a hoof in battle, and yet had lost two ponies dear to her. Life really was cruel at times.

Twilight sighed and stood, saying a quick goodbye to everypony before she went. Hopefully this could end soon before they lost too much more.

"This was way too much effort just to help Starsy get laid."

"Shut up, Trixie."

This was everything Starsy had hoped to avoid leaving Faust in; an endless white void. As empty and soulless as the abyss itself. A place where only madness could breed. It was also going to be his home, once he'd made some adjustments.

Raising a hoof, Starsy smiled, pleased as he changed from a simple illusion to something more solid and living. It seemed that his theory on the oubliette not caring on the difference between an actual soul or a construct like himself, was paying off as it made him alive, while total exposure to the Gift of Life did the rest.

Taking a deep breath for the first time ever, Starsy found himself giddy with anticipation. He and Faust would finally be together again, where they could live in peace and happiness in each others company. Maybe even try having a family. To do that though, he needed to create somewhere for them to be.

Raising the Gift of Life into the air, Starsy tapped into its power, using it to bring shape and form to the empty space around him. Hills, streams, trees, animals, and everything a world needed sprung up around him as fast as he could think of them, topped off with a sky reaching to the distant horizon. A sun formed, warming his face with a sensation he'd only remembered from the real Starswirl. He could see the appeal.

An entire world to inhabit, all to himself and Faust. It was almost too good to be true. True it was though, although there was still something missing, and that was Faust herself. Hopefully they didn't take too long getting her in here. They had a lot of time to make up for after all.

Author's Notes:

Proof that I'm still here, plodding away slowly. I've run out of buffer now though, so you get the next chapter whenever it is done. Whenever. It's pretty lengthy, and I'm not exactly writing it very quick as you may have noticed. Someday though, it will be complete.