The ponies had gathered in a large dining hall within Canterlot Castle to try and unravel whatever it was that the infernal sisters were planning. Anxious royal guards were stationed at the doors and windows, unsure of what their meager weapons could even do if the Three Sisters attacked. A set of tables and chairs had been pulled into a semi-circle with Princess Celestia and Star Swirl in the middle, setting up mystical instruments as they prepared to cast a spell.

The thread that Rarity plucked from Fizzle Hooves' robes was believed to be the key they needed to get the advantage over the Three Sisters. The spell they were preparing was one of Star Swirl's that he created to aid in his collecting of artifacts and relics. It would allow them to view the object's, in this case the thread's, history as if they were there with it. Fizzle Hooves' had claimed to have been conspiring for quite some time to achieve her goals, so Rarity may have delivered a crucial piece of intelligence if the robe was something Fizzle Hooves commonly wore and not just part of her magic school plot against Trixie.

Celestia and Star Swirl finished preparing for the spell. A crystal ball sat in the center off the floor inside a triangle drawn in chalk. At each point of the triangle they had placed an object: an antique mirror, a rock bearing the fossil of a seashell, and a petrified cross section of a tree that had been hundreds of years old.

Before he cast the spell, Star Swirl cast a simple growth spell on the crystal ball, enlarging it from the size of a bowling ball to that of a wagon wheel so that everypony could view it in comfort.

Star Swirl's horn began to glow as he placed the thread into the triangle. "This object is a mystery, so please reveal its history. Let this spell reveal its past, so its role might be known at last."

The ponies shivered in reflex as a wintry scene unfolded somewhere in the Frozen North, just a few months prior according to Star Swirl's magic.

* * *

The fierce winds of the Frozen North chilled Lucifiona to the bone, tore her garments to shreds, slashed at her flesh with shards of ice, but she did not care. In fact, she loved the pain it caused, it made her stronger. The faint voice of her host body, a purple-haired, sky blue pegasus named Storm Watcher, begged her to stop, but it was barely a whisper, drowned out by the howling winds.

Lucifiona's sisters - Baphomeena and Azazandra - shimmered next to her and Lucifiona smiled as she fed off their pain as the winds tore at them as well. Baphomeena, in the body of a red-haired, pink-coated unicorn named Fizzle Hooves, stomped her hooves and a ring of green flames surrounded the sisters and protected them from the harsh weather.

Azazandra, possessing Ravenmane, an Earth pony with pitch black hair and coat, reached back into some saddlebags and hurriedly withdrew several balls of purple string as well as a small pouch of fire opals. She held up the ingredients for Baphomeena, who began to use her unicorn host's magic to transform the string into robes.

"Really, Luci?" Baphomeena sighed. "I thought I told you to take care of yourself out here, not get yourself frozen solid. Would you have been ready if it returned on your watch?"

"I was preparing myself, sister," Lucifiona snapped. "You know the pain empowers me."

"Of course I do, Luci, but that does not mean you have permission to act like a foal," Baphomeena scolded.

Baphomeena finished the robes then used the fire opals to enchant them, empowering the garments with a protection from cold spell. She used her magic to teleport the robes onto her sisters and herself.

Baphomeena pushed back her mane and posed. "Don't we look pretty?"

Azazandra muttered, "We'd look prettier in our own bodies, not these equine forms..."

"Aww, cheer up, sister," Baphomeena cooed. "We shall reclaim what is ours soon enough. I bring good news in that regard, in fact, very good news for us indeed. It appears our little Mi Amore Cadenza, the alicorn princess of our desires, is in love. Her engagement was announced, a foalhood sweetheart named Shining Armor, who I discoverd is also the brother of Celestia's prized student. The wedding will be in the summer."

Azazandra spit, her saliva sizzled on the infernal flames. "Bah. Love..."

Baphomeena smirked. "This wedding is just what we were waiting for, sisters, the perfect opportunity to strike!"

Lucifiona's ember-like eyes lit up. "We get to crash a wedding?"

"Hah! We shall do more than crash it, sister, if I have read the bones correctly, our... influence upon certain ponies prior to and during this wedding fiasco shall lead to something delightfully wicked," Baphomeena said. "What if I was to tell you that with but a few of our whisperings, we could have our way with Mi Amore Cadenza, Star Swirl the Bearded, Princess Celestia, and her chosen student, Twilight Sparkle?"

"How?" Azazandra demanded.

"It is quite simple, sisters," Baphomeena declared. "If I induce a sense of fear for the future in Star Swirl, he will be spurred into action. From that point, he will be but putty in our hooves, believing whatever it is I encourage him to do. We shall use him to get to the others. Cadenza is the focal point here, and she shall be next. Ooh, we can use her to get Star Swirl in a frenzy, yes, I like that. Once we have our way with her, we can then move upon Twilight Sparkle, who was quite fond of Cadenza in her youth. At that point Celestia is wide open, having seen one of her trusted friends, her precious niece, and her beloved student succumb to our corruption, in addition to whatever other evil we sow."

Lucifiona waved her wing around them. "That clears the path for this, but what of our bodies, what about the accursed one who can thwart those plans? We have been pestering you for years now to make a move, but still you wait."

"Not to worry, Luci," Baphomeena replied. "I will personally ensure that that one shall not be troubling us any longer."

"Care to tell us how, Baphomeena? You know we can not harm her," Azazandra growled.

"It shall not be us that ends the awful lineage of those that cursed us," Baphomeena explained. "At least, not entirely. As I saw the visions of how we could corrupt Cadenza and the other ponies of import, I saw that it provided an opening to get to our malefactor as well. I have watched her for all these years, watched her grow and mature, I know what her wants, her desires."

Baphomeena held up her hooves and her horn began to glow as she conjured up a rainbow and began tossing it back and forth like a slinky. "Magical knowledge is what that one desires above all, and magic I shall provide, but not yet. First we need to work on Star Swirl and the others. In the aftermath I shall move on Trixie and work my magic."

Baphomeena draped the rainbow around her neck like a scarf. "Once she is safely under my influence, we send her against the other ponies that may meddle in our plans. They will be forced to destroy her, or perish themselves."

Lucifiona grinned evilly. "And once she is gone, none shall stop us! Hahah!"

"There are still the old ones from back home that we will have to deal with, as it was foretold so long ago," Azazandra said.

Baphomeena nodded. "Yes, well, after we get through with Equestria, we shall spread enough fear that I will be more than capable of dealing with our old friends of yore. I have something special in mind for them as well."

"And if they attack us before you are prepared?" Lucifiona asked.

"They won't, I would even say they can't. They are as much bound to the prophecies as we are," Baphomeena replied. "Our encounter is fated, it can be no other way. Speaking of which, we have much to prepare sisters, let us retire from this dismal place and get to work!"

The Three Sisters shimmered and vanished, the ring of flames extinguished as they departed and quickly began to freeze back over. A patrol of armed ponies wearing heavy winter clothing, field agents for the Canterlot Intelligence Agency's Project Krustallos who had been assigned to monitor this region of the Frozen North, slowly converged on the vacant circle as the weather began to erase all traces of the sisters' presence. A pegasus agent did her best to quell the winds around the area by building a buffer out of clouds.

"I swear our equipment was picking up voices on the wind," an Earth pony field agent said as he looked around the empty tundra.

A unicorn agent, her horn glowing with magic, investigated the clearing, paying special attention to the ring of ice. "I'm definitely getting traces of magic here. Strong magic, too. Whatever it was looks to have departed."

"I don't like it, whatever it was. Let's get back to the outpost, folks, and stay vigilant," the commanding agent said. "If it is after the same thing we are, it'll eventually be back, and we must be ready."

* * *

The ponies watched in stunned silence as they saw the Three Sisters going about their plans to corrupt Cadence and the others. Trixie had to look away when the image of herself appeared on the crystal ball. She had lived through those memories twice now, she did not need to see them again. The spell ended as it replayed the events that had unfolded in the Unliving Queen's Tomb.

"Thank you, lovely Rarity, for having the impulse to procure that thread. We now know their true names and have an idea of what their goals are," Star Swirl said.

Rarity blushed. "You're welcome, but I can't really take credit for that, it was my magic."

"Indeed, there's been a lot of that going around. Something big is definitely coming," Star Swirl said. "Hopefully we will be prepared to face it."

"At least not everything is going according to the sisters' plans," Twilight Sparkle said, as she gave Trixie a hug.

"The fact they conspired to kill Trixie is quite disturbing," Rarity said. "Even worse that they used her to try and kill other ponies. Thank the stars nopony was hurt in that dreadful affair."

Trixie shook her head and shivered. "'Celestia, Luna, Star Swirl, all must die.' That's what she and her sisters kept telling me in my mind. I almost did, too, if it hadn't been for, uh, WInny is it?"

Winny nodded.

Trixie began to sob. "I did kill Nostrildamus, though..."

"It is likely that whatever their plan is once they obtain their bodies once more, that it may have disastrous consequences for the world, hence them not wanting Nostrildamus and his powers over time to remain," Star Swirl said. "I imagine they forced you to perform that deed to break whatever will you had left."

Pinkie Pie sat up. "They used Trixie because they couldn't kill Nostrildamus themselves!"

Celestia raised her eyebrow. "Oh? What makes you think that, Pinkie?"

"Remember what she said in the tomb, 'innocence has the power of purity'? That's why they didn't just do to Trixie what they've done to their other victims. They needed to manipulate her, control her, so that some magic mumbo jumbo still considered her innocent," Pinkie Pie explained. "The same magic that gave Nostrildamus his powers likely protected him from the forces of evil."

Trixie sadly shook her head. "I lost whatever innocence I had after she got her hooves on me, but I agree. Um, Princess, I remember her telling me a lot of weird things about who I really was. Things like that I was 'Brightdawn the Lightbringer reborn' and I was a 'hero of destiny.' She also said I was like her sister, and we were the same. Something about not utilizing my heritage, too, and having a lineage that made me hard for her to break. Those are things I can remember her telling me about myself."

Celestia, as matron of her magic school, was quite familiar with the various unicorn family lines that were strong in magic, but she couldn't recall Trixie's being that powerful. "Hmm. This would seem to imply you are the descendant of a powerful bloodline. Do you know of any famous unicorns in your family tree?"

Trixie shook her head. "I don't think so, but I've always known I was great and powerful." She smirked at Applejack, who rolled her eyes in response. "But whatever it is, Fizzle Hooves, I mean, Baphomeena, sure knows about it."

"This gives us a simple enough lead to follow at least," Twilight said.

"There must be something to it, remember how she talked in the tomb? She did say Trixie was special," Rainbow Dash said. "Said some weird stuff to the future Twilight, too."

Winny spoke up, "Baphomeena told my mum she and her sisters were cursed, and that she had cursed my mum with the worst kind of curse by stealing all that she was, and Baphomeena knew why that was so bad because it had been done to her and her sisters."

Luna mused to herself, "Who would have cursed the sisters, and why?"

Applejack pushed back her hat and scratched behind her ears. "This don't make a lick of sense. If they wanted the three of y'all dead as part of one their lil' plans, why didn't they just blast you in the tomb? Or right now, 'cause they can shimmer in and out wherever they please, I reckon."

"It's because we threw a monkey wrench into their schemes," Pinkie said. "They thought they had everything planned out, but Trixie didn't perform the dark deeds they had tasked her with, and we didn't kill her like they wanted. They probably just don't know what to do."

As the others discussed why the Three Sisters had let them live, Trixie stared at Twilight. She hated to admit it, but she was a tad envious. Twilight had a loving family, great friends, an amazing magic teacher, her brother had just married a princess, and Twilight wielded the Element of Magic to boot. Meanwhile, Trixie had spent the last week as a demon's plaything. Life was unfair.

Eventually, it was thought that whatever the Three Sisters had planned, the schemes involving the ponies had failed and it was unlikely the sisters would return, at least not for some time. Which meant they now had to focus on the sisters' future plot to reclaim their own bodies, although the ponies were not sure how to proceed on that one. Celestia and Luna determined that the best course of action would be to pursue one of the few leads they had been provided: Trixie's family history. If the sisters were truly worried over some power they believed Trixie wielded, Celestia and Luna were determined to discover what it was.

Celestia, Luna, Star Swirl, Twilight Sparkle, and Winny left with Trixie to research her family line. Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Applejack headed out into Canterlot for smoothies. Alone, Rainbow Dash headed for the bedroom of the Unliving Queen.

She took a deep breath, and knocked on the door. A weak voice said, "Come in..."

Rainbow entered and dragged a chair over to the bed. The Queen smiled at her. "I figured you would want to see me."

Rainbow looked at the Queen's weak, damaged body then glanced away. "Well, yeah, Twilight. I mean, you tell me something like that as you're about to... 'die,' I guess."

"I was prepared to destroy all of you that day... I was crazy... until I saw your face, Rainbow Dash," the Queen said. She sighed and tears formed in her eyes. "Long ago, before I came back to the past and became," she looked down at her body and scowled, "this, my Rainbow Dash and I shared a beautiful moment in Star Swirl's tower. It really kept me going, kept the goodness in me alive. For years, I clung to that memory. Then the memory of that memory. Then it was gone, the darkness took that from me as well..."

The Queen reached for Rainbow's wing, then let her hoof drop. "She told me that she loved me. Despite being furious with me for abandoning her and my friends, despite everything she endured while fleeing from the corrupted Cadence's minions, she still loved me. When Pinkie was about to put that crystal in me, I had this nagging feeling. I had to know, and so, I called for you. You said the exact same thing I had told her: 'I know.' That... that really made me happy."

Rainbow smiled. "Twilight, I..."

"I was really hoping you would come see me, Dash. When I saw my daughter today, I saw that the time I spent as the Unliving Queen would have a lasting effect on at least one life. The things I've done, Dash, they would chill your soul, break your heart in two... I've got one hoof in the grave, the other in hell," the Queen sadly said.

Rainbow frowned. "Twilight, what are you trying to say?"

The Queen sighed. "I'm going to kill myself. Do what is right. It's the only way out of this."

Rainbow turned and shook her head in disbelief. "Twilight, no..."

The Queen smiled weakly. "Spike... Good old Spike.. I did something to him, something horrible. You remember that phoenix pet of his, Pee-Wee? He used him to find a way out of the undeath I had cursed him with. When Pee-Wee's renewal cycle came, Spike ingested the ashes. As the phoenix was reborn, Spike was destroyed. Philomena's cycle is coming soon. I am going to end this."

A tear fell down Rainbow's cheek. "Twilight..."

"Dash, I would like you to keep an eye on my daughter, In Hoc SIgno Vinces - Winny. Keep her out of trouble, make sure she lives through whatever this Fizzle Hooves has planned," the Queen said.

Rainbow shook her head. "Twilight... If she's your daughter, you need to be here for her."

The Queen sighed. "My powers are gone. Fizzle Hooves was right. This is the worst kind of curse. Trapped in an empty husk of a body... I want to be there for my daughter, for you, my friends, Equestria... but I can't be. I am nothing now. Nothing but memories of evil deeds. A grim reminder of darkness. I... can't live like this."

Rainbow saw a glow out of the corner of her eye and turned towards the door. Shining Armor and Mi Amore Cadenza were standing in the doorway, her horn was glowing. Using her love magic, she collected the tears of the two friends and they formed into a crystalline heart. Rainbow Dash fled out of the room.

Shining Armor glanced at Cadenza as he moved to try and catch Rainbow.

"Let her go," Cadenza said.

Shining Armor walked over and sat on the bed, the Queen looked up at him and grinned. He looked down in sorrow at the thing that used to be his baby sister. "We're not going to let you kill yourself," he finally said.

The Queen noticed the wedding band on his horn, "You got married?" Shining Armor nodded. The Queen cried, "I never even got to see it..."

Shining Armor touched her hoof. He shivered, it felt cold as ice. "Twily-"

The Queen interrupted, "Do not call me that! I lost all rights to that name long ago!"

Shining Armor sighed. "Then what am I supposed to call you? The Unliving Queen? You're my sister, Twily, and you always will be."

He wiped at her tears. "I hear I'm an uncle now, I guess."

The Queen smiled. "Have you seen her? She's beautiful. She has dad's mane color and mom's eyes. I think, it's hard to tell with the.. traits she inherited from me..."

"She sounds lovely, Twily. You need to be here for her." Shining Armor said as he held her hoof.

The Queen shook her head slowly. "I am nothing now."

Cadenza sat next to Shining Armor. "No, you're not." She used her magic to place the crystalline heart in the gaping hole on the Queen. The magic of love and friendship energized the Queen, she gasped. The darkness that had infested her mind seemed to part and she felt a strange warmth budding within. It reminded her of seeing a rainbow on a warm, spring afternoon. A peaceful sensation, one that brought forth memories of her youth. Memories of dancing in the rain on a cool summer's day, of chasing after the rainbows with her foalsitter Cadence in a futile attempt to claim the pots of gold.

Cadenza smiled. "You've always had power, Twilight. Not just in magic. You've had the power of friendship. Rainbow Dash truly loves you, you saw that here tonight when, even though you are but a shadow of the true Twilight Sparkle, she came for you. She cares for Twilight, she cares for you. That is the one thing that Fizzle Hooves couldn't take away from you. Love."

As the Queen listened to the words of Cadenza, she felt a change within her. The dark thoughts of death faded and were replaced by a deep, burning desire. She felt a sense of purpose that she hadn't felt in years. She knew she couldn't just give up. She had to fight, to stand by her friends, her family, her loved ones. The Queen sat up and embraced her brother and sister-in-law. "BBBFF, Cadence, thank you. Let us go find my daughter, I want very much for you to meet her."

Cadenza smiled happily. "Welcome back, Twilight Sparkle."

As they walked in search of In Hoc Signo Vinces, they witnessed four shooting stars streaming down from the heavens, far, far to the north. They seemed vaguely familiar to the Queen. She had seen them before, she was sure of it, but she could not place them. The thoughts faded as they found her daughter and the others in the Canterlot Archives.

The Queen put her leg around her brother and proudly brought him before her daughter. "Shining Armor, meet your niece, In Hoc Signo Vinces. Daughter, meet Shining Armor, your uncle and my BBBFF."

"BBBFF...?" Winny asked.

The Queen smiled, leaned up against her brother, basked in the warmth of his body. She sighed in contentment. "Big brother, best friend forever..."