Twilight attributed her comparison of this place to a tomb due to her emotions at the time – or so she'd thought. Since there was no light coming in, nor features to contemplate beyond the women around her, and worse, no way to tell the hour, it was a tomb. The outside world may as well have been another dimension entirely. With that backdrop, every second Rainbow Dash remained away seemed a hundred times longer. Applejack and Fluttershy were the most affected by this fact: the blonde was especially fidgety, although how much of her restlessness was due to the unsettling surroundings and not her missing girlfriend, she couldn't guess.

"I wish she'd hurry up," the blonde finally muttered. "Runnin' outta time."

"She hasn't been gone that long, has she?" Rarity searched their faces for confirmation that they couldn't provide. "I've lost track. It's dreadfully gloomy in here. And I feel separated from, well, everything." She reached into her purse and pulled out her phone. "I wish I could charge this. At least we'd have a clock."

"No kidding," Twilight agreed. "I didn't think a place could be so quiet. All I can hear is you girls and my heartbeat." Her gaze went over to Winter, seated on her right and just as silent as the atmosphere. "Feeling any better?"

Her posture slumped a bit. "I don't know what I feel like right now."

"Oh. I guess I understand why." Not knowing what to say, she turned her attention elsewhere. "I wonder how Cadance is doing with Ponyville." The muffled, noncommittal noises she got in reply didn't surprise her – except in Rarity's case. "What, not going to complain about Trixie being out of our sight?"

"There are bigger things to worry about now, don't you think? At any rate, I still need to recover from the trip." Her tone was slightly awkward; she also refused to make eye contact.

Applejack gave her a gentle pat on the back. "Nearly dyin' will do that to ya. I didn't much appreciate it none either, but we got here in one piece."

"I'm sorry. I think what happened to Winter happened to me. If I'd known it was coming, I wouldn't have brought you along." She looked at the pale woman for a reaction, but got none. "Mrm. Seriously, Rainbow, I wish you'd get back here." Winter twitched abruptly and looked over her shoulder, which made Twilight look as well. A slit appeared, through which the athlete stumbled. Her arms were full – mostly of bags – but two large spheres tumbled from them until Twilight shrieked and grabbed them with her magic. "It's them!" she yelled, floating the objects over. "Wow, they're screaming. Especially Celestia."

Winter, wincing at their noise, rubbed the back of her head and sighed. "She might be a little angry with me."

"Oh. Right." Twilight set the spheres a distance away and snapped her fingers.

The elder sister unfurled with a furor, hands flaring up as she stood and looked for her target. "Where is she?!" she bellowed, making everyone in earshot wince except the pale woman herself. "You! I'm going to-"

Unmoved, Winter folded her arms and looked away. "You aren't going to do a damn thing."

Before Celestia could explode again, Luna tugged on her dress. "Sister, perhaps we should get our bearings first." With a sweep of her arm, she indicated the void that surrounded them. "I fear we may be in the afterlife, given the lack of – anything, really."

"Y'all ain't dead, Fu done redecorated the throne room is all." Applejack managed to chuckle weakly. "What's in the bags, Dash?"

"I robbed like, six gas stations for food on the way back here." She sat down cross-legged amongst the group and started sorting her haul. "Wait, am I going to get thrown in prison for this?"

Celestia regarded her fearful look with mild disdain. "No. Who would jail you? Winter's killed Equestria." She took slow, unhappy steps around the room, lighting up her way with brilliant golden flames from her crystals. "You must be joking. Where did you get all this goop?"

"Blame Twilight." Winter stood up. "We need your help."

The Princess turned to face her, arms crossed. "With?"

"Undoing my damage. Twilight and I can't leave this room. The voices will drive us insane. If you're strong enough to break the magic I used, but weak enough to not hear everyone crying for help, then..."

"Oh." Her face dropped, as did Luna's. "The sludge is absorbing the noise. I had hoped one of you already fixed things." She nudged her sister in the side and sighed. "How do we get out?"

They all pointed toward the direction of the doorway. Celestia and Luna walked until they ran into the wall. "This is fine work. I did well," the latter said, running her fingertips against the ebony substance. "Hm. I suppose we'd better see what's outside."

"An awful mess, no doubt." Her muttering continued as Winter pried open a space in the wall.

The voices rushed in like a flood and battered them. They stumbled away, clutching the sides of their heads and squealing curses. Twilight moved like a shot to their side, but nobody else, despite being startled, would approach. "How loud were they?" the librarian asked worriedly.

"Seemed like half the country," Luna groaned, rubbing at her ears. "I could hardly stand it even for a moment."

"Like I told you guys, we're fucked," Rainbow interjected with hands on her hips. "What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

Brilliant terror settled in Twilight's chest. "I, uh...give me a minute. Just..." Her teeth clenched. "I..."

"I have an idea."

They all turned to Winter with curious looks. "Let's hear it, darling," Rarity encouraged. "We certainly cannot stay huddled up in here until the end of time."

"Yeah!" Pinkie agreed, her mouth full of chips she'd pilfered from Rainbow's haul. "Take charge!"

Like a ghost, she drifted through the crowd and toward the black wall. She placed her hand on it. "I have to retract the shell."

"Wh-what?" Twilight ran up and turned her around. "Winter, no! It's a miracle you're still mentally intact in the first place!"

She looked past and directed a bitter expression right at Celestia and Luna. "I was born of insanity...why not let it end me? Maybe I can trigger a powerful enough response to do something useful on the way." A grunt followed those words as Pinkie collided with her in a hug. "I knew you'd do that."

"Bad Fufu! Stop trying to kill yourself!" she scolded harshly. "Like, seriously! Stop!"

"I'm kinda with her," Applejack nodded. "Ain't no use in goin' out there when ya know you're gonna get messed up. Let's think of somethin' else."

Twilight's stomach twisted itself into a knot. "I know what this is. More punishment." She looked at everyone else only briefly, stung by their worried curiosity. Her eyes went to the pale woman. "Forget it. No changing your mind?"

Her eyes grew incredibly hard. "No."

"Fine. I'm going with you." She waved off the horrified clamor behind her and crossed her arms. "Nope. I've decided. She used some of my power to do this. I have a responsibility to help her fix it."

Winter grumbled lowly and rubbed her eyes. "As stubborn as a mule." She glanced over her shoulder and allowed her face to screw up with thought. "We should turn them back and let everyone else go."

"Again?" Luna groaned. Her sister was silent and resigned. "Very well, I suppose. But if something happens to you two, what then?"

"I'd be lying if I said I knew, but what other option do we have?" Twilight snapped her mentor back into a sphere without a second thought, then did the same to Luna. "All right. How do we want to do this?"

If she were nervous, her voice betrayed nothing. "The rest of you go once the door is clear."

"This is the worst possible idea ever!" Rarity shouted. "Why are you doing this?!"

"What can I say? We're at the end of our ropes." Twilight nodded as Fluttershy picked up the spheres. "Pinkie. You have to go."

Her grip on Winter only got tighter. "No! I got a seriously bad feeling about this!" She squealed unhappily while being pried loose. "No! Lemme go!"

Applejack grabbed her around the waist and carried her away. "Come on, Pinkie. Let 'em try for a minute, at least."

"But but but but but but!" Her chant echoed and caused a strange sort of feedback that made everyone cringe. "Ow. That felt weird."

"No use putting it off any longer." Twilight nodded once at Winter, who nodded once in return. "Yank it. Girls, get ready to run."

She dropped to her knees and placed her palms on the floor. The cord connecting her to the room withdrew, while the sludge beneath them seemed to melt. It lurched about with an awful series of squishy noises. The room uncovered itself in reverse order – ceiling first, then walls, then the floor. Rarity and Fluttershy jumped and screamed as the goop moved under their shoes. The voices flooded in just as soon as a large enough hole appeared in the ceiling.

"Get out!" Twilight ordered, already wobbly and clutching her head. Whether or not they obeyed was beyond her detection. Everything fell away in the face of the flood. "Why are they so much louder now?!"

"All the displaced magic I've been holding back is finding us again," Winter hissed, unable to straighten up. In short order she toppled sideways and lay on the floor, grimacing. "It really wants us to put it back."

Twilight had to scream her response – at least, she felt like she had to. "I would really love to do that but it won't let me! It won't even let me move!" Her body crumpled into a ball. "Aaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

Out of their sight, in the doorway, stood Applejack, Pinkie, and Rainbow Dash, frozen by fear and confusion. "Sh-should we help them?" the athlete asked.

"We shouldn't even still be here," Applejack replied anxiously. "But damn, I can't just leave 'em!" A tap on the shoulder made her jump. "Rarity?"

"I could not agree more." She stepped aside to allow Fluttershy to join their group. "Still..." Watching Twilight and Winter contort in apparent agony robbed her of her voice for a moment. "This is terribly hard to watch."

"Th-they need a hug," Pinkie whined. Applejack had to keep her from bolting over. "What? We can't help them? They need us, AJ!"

"There might be some things only they can do." Fluttershy squeaked as they all looked over. "U-um...n-not that I'm saying I don't want to help, just that we might not be able to."

"I th-think I'm dying," Twilight moaned weakly. Thought was squeezed out of her brain until only whispering remained. "O-ow..."

"I liked having friends like you," Winter mumbled, hardly able to speak. Her body wriggled along the carpet, eventually ending up next to the librarian. "Maybe it was more than I deserved."

"Please stop talking in past-tense, it's really depres-" The word flattened out into a long, throaty groan of pain. She had to gasp to draw enough breath to speak afterward. "I just went blind."

Winter nodded, her eyes closed because they too had become useless. "They're heavy. We're being crushed."

Rainbow and Applejack were needed to hold Pinkie back now. She caterwauled as loudly as they'd ever heard her, but the women on the floor had no idea she was even there. "I ain't likin' this much," the blonde called. "Maybe we need ta..." Suddenly, they were screaming too. "Fuck it! I done had enough!" She released the baker and ran over with her to Twilight. "Twi! Say somethin'!"

"Fufu!" Pinkie dropped prone beside her and looked into her face. Her ears rattled with the shrieking, but she kept trying to shake Winter out of her apparent panic. "Fufu! Stop!" Not even with Rarity's help could she make the pale woman be still. Applejack and Rainbow had similar issues with Twilight until they finally backed off, wincing from being struck with random fists.

"Damn! She hits hard for an egghead!"

"What are we supposed to do?!" Fluttershy yelled.

Abruptly, they were still and silent. While trying to roll them over, Applejack and Pinkie found them to be as stiff as statues. "What just happened? Fufu?"

The hair on the dressmaker's neck was standing up. She stumbled to her feet and backed away. "I think we need to leave."

"Fine, I'll carry one. Pinkie, y'all carry the other." Rarity's frantic motions of denial made the blonde's face twist. "What? Ya said we needed ta go."

"Yes, but we can't take them with us." Something icy and searing flowed through her veins; it was like panic, but much more intense – and extremely unfamiliar. An overriding demand to keep her hands tightly shut blared in her brain. "It isn't safe."

"Dude, we can't. They're..." Rainbow choked on her words for a moment. "I think they might be dead."

"I can assure you, they are not dead." As desperate as she looked, Rarity was unable to make herself run out alone. "At least back up!" Her eyes darted around. "Wh-what is that noise?"

Everyone's ears pricked, but nobody else detected anything. "What noise?" Pinkie asked, head tilted. She caught Rainbow and Fluttershy squirming, scratching furiously at their shoulder blades.

"Itchy?" the shy woman breathed. "N-now it f-feels like my skin is on fire!"

Applejack stood up and took in the situation. "Are y'all havin' a nervous breakdown or somethin'?" She yelped loudly when a pricking sensation began to assault her fingers. Pinkie did the same a few seconds later. "What the hell?!"

"Like I said, we need to go." Rarity ushered them toward the doorway. "Come on! Come on! Hurry!" Just as they reached it, a source of light from behind made them stop and look.

Twilight and Winter were upright, eyes shining. Their faces were blank, and they still seemed like statues, but something around them was moving that the girls could just barely detect. The air around and above them was warped and bent, like heat haze coming off a highway in the summer sun, and had a very faint whitish glow. The longer their sight remained on the two women, the more terrified they felt until their legs took over and propelled them outside and down the hallway.

"I see it." Winter moved a hand through the empty air deliberately.

"Me too." Twilight copied her motion. What they saw were bright filaments of light – millions of them, all converging where they sat like a massive spider web. Whenever their fingers passed through one, it would break for an instant and reform. "Everyone. Everyone. Now I have something to aim at." She looked at the crystals on her hands as they pulsed with light. "I'm going to need what you took, please."

"Okay." Instinct drove the pale woman – or something close, at least. They stood up and held hands, placing their crystals in direct contact with each other. Twilight's magic seeped through her veins and into her palms before returning home. "It burns a little."

"I bet." The librarian's eyes glowed more fiercely. "So much power." Grimacing, she focused on the tendrils and tried to grab them, like she were using telekinesis. A raspberry pulse escaped from thousands of points on her skin and followed some of them. But not all. "Not enough..." She reached into herself and called on all her strength. "Need more. Wait..." To her shock, she found a bottomless well of might. Panic set in again. "Too much! Too much!" Shrieking with terror, she tried to pull away.

Winter wouldn't let her. "Relax."

"Okay, okay." Another million bolts of raspberry light traveled along the tendrils in the air. "Better. Need more. I've got more...I've got so much more."

Her eyebrow cocked at the change in tone. "Twilight?"

She had been looking up at the ceiling, mouth open as if in shock. After Winter spoke, she looked down and into her face. "They were right to build you."

The blue glow departed, leaving her eyes to shine with confusion instead. "Why are you saying this?"

A cackle slipped out, not inherently evil, but disquieting all the same. "I could rewrite the planet." Her eyes were still alight, but their fire was changing color from white to her own shade of magic. "I wonder how she knew I had so much power?"

Winter squinted with uncertainty and gripped Twilight's hands a little tighter. "Focus. There are people to save."

Somehow she managed to slide her fingers free and turn away. "Watch!" A snap of her fingers sent out another series of pinkish pulses. "Two million, give or take a few. All changed. Instantly. It's nothing to me, Winter. I'm not a Princess, I'm a goddess."

The chorus of anguish lost a lot of its potency with her action. "I can't say I disagree with you." She looked around until Twilight began to walk in circles. "What are you doing?"

"I can't control it!" she snarled, glaring over with bared teeth and bulging eyes. Haze flowed off her in waves as the light from her eyes intensified. "I can't learn to handle this. I can't even learn to quantify it. I'm dangerous."

That was enough. She started to approach slowly. "Twilight..."

"Get away from me." When she bristled, the emotion was manifested in increased magical shimmer. Winter wouldn't stop coming, so it grew and grew until the power leaking from her body began to fracture the stone. A massive crack formed under her shoes and raced toward and up the nearest wall. "You can't stop me. I can't be stopped. I won't be stopped. I have to be stopped!"

Stilled by her frantic shrieking, Winter paused. Twilight was shedding so much magic that the building shook around them. Dust from the ceiling fell like snow. One of the stained glass windows behind the throne gave way with a deafening shatter.

"I am the end of the world," she moaned in stereo. "Of time and space. Of existence." She raised her hands slowly to the sky. "I am the embodiment of—what?"

Winter had used her speech to dart over and grab her by the wrists. Black ropes slithered out of her palms and pressed their tips against her crystals. "I'm going to help you calm down."

Twilight flashed a bitter sneer. "Are you planning to hit me again? I'll pull you apart, molecule by molecule. I'd advise against it."

"No. I have a better idea." Squeezing tightly, she covered the jewels with the black gunk. As soon as their contact was complete, it began to absorb magic at an alarming rate. "Agh! It burns!"

"Damn you! Not again!" Her power hissed bitterly at being split, but Winter continued to maintain her hold. After a minute, she stopped struggling. "I feel weird." The building around them settled down, although a chunk of the ceiling came loose and crashed down nearby. "They need me still."

The pale woman, now hunched over in pain, could barely nod in affirmation. "I'll hold this...this, for you." Her body felt like it was being dipped into molten iron. "Hurry. Please."

Twilight bared teeth again, this time in concentration. "Thank you."

Another, grander pulse of raspberry light emerged, encompassing both women on its way out of the castle and to the far corners of the country. It was the last thing Winter saw before losing consciousness. The sludge remained connected, however, sucking up excess power until it hardened and broke with a loud crack. After falling backward, the pale woman lay on the floor, motionless, with waves of what Twilight swore was smoke wafting off her skin.

"I reckon we're alive."

"No, really?"

Fluttershy poked Applejack and Rainbow Dash to prevent them from bickering any further, then squeaked in terror when they looked at her. "S-sorry. What was that light?"

The blonde shrugged. "I dunno. Least the castle stopped shakin'." They all got up off the floor and dusted themselves off. To their left was one of the double doors that lead out to the garden. Pinkie approached and opened it.

"Hey! All the people are back!" she said, waving out the doorway. "Hi!"

Rarity bounced on her feet and clapped. "They did it! Let's go back and check on them!" The building issued another loud noise, although it sounded and felt far away. "And we'd better be quick about it before this place falls on us."

Everyone fell in behind her as she lead the way, using her magic to provide light. The halls were now full of disoriented people on the floor, groaning and groping in the dark. Rarity couldn't help but pause and check on most of them, which delayed their journey by nearly an hour. Pinkie felt no need to hide her restlessness. "We gotta gooooo," she whined, nudging the dressmaker with her elbow. "Come on!"

"Darling, we can't just leave these people-" The lights coming on cut her off. Stunned, they all looked around. "-in the dark. Never mind. Perhaps Twilight and Winter are already fixing the castle?"

"Let's go see." Rainbow went on, zipping through the hallways. Pinkie ran after her, yelling about being left behind. When they reached the throne room, they found a pale, unsettled-looking Twilight seated on the red carpet next to Winter, still on the floor.

"Yay!" Pinkie hugged Twilight first, then frowned at the pale woman's body as Rainbow came over. "Uh, is that smoke?" She fanned at the faint gray wisps hovering over her body. "What the muffins is going on here?"

"I nearly had another nervous breakdown." Once the baker let go, she examined one of her palm crystals in the light. "She used the goo to suck up magic until I felt in control again. I think it might have killed her." Her head dropped. "I'm afraid to touch her, really. What should I do?"

Pinkie had already pulled her partially upright and into a hug. "Fufu? Hellooooooo?" There was no response. "Hey! Sleepy! Get up! Nap time is over!"

Rainbow gawked briefly at the night sky through the hole in the ceiling before looking at Winter and Pinkie. "Damn, Twi. How strong are you?"

"Don't ask." Twilight stood up and walked a few steps away. "I feel so weird. Calmer. More...I don't know, mellow."

"Did you smoke a joint?" She snickered at the angry look. "You're such a prude."

"Hey! This is no time for jokes! I can't believe I just said that. But it's true!" Pinkie's words finally made the other women come over and look at Winter. "Is she...?"

"I'm not sure." Twilight touched one of her porcelain cheeks. "Wow, she's burning up."

"Man, I can't even tell if she's breathing." Rainbow bent down and peered. "Was she on fire? What's with the smoke?"

"No idea." The silence in her brain made her pause, then looked around with confusion. "Um...where are the Princesses?"

"Fluttershy stuffed them in a supply closet!" Pinkie's face went blank as she pictured them, still in there. "Uh oh. They might be stuck." With a shrug, she gently shook Winter until the motion became more like rocking. "Hey, wake up. The world's saved, but we can't have a party if you don't show up." Her lips began to tremble. "Fufu?"

"Maybe she's just asleep." Rainbow sounded less than sure, but perked up when the rest of their friends arrived – with Celestia in tow. "Hey! What took you?"

"We had to extract some people from a closet," Rarity sighed. Behind her, Fluttershy blushed with embarrassment. "Good to see everyone up and-" During her pause, they all walked over and looked at Winter. "Never mind. Is she all right?"

"We don't know." Twilight peered up at Celestia for a moment. "Where is Luna?"

"Trying to round up the castle staff." She too looked up at the hole in the ceiling. "Another nervous breakdown?"

"Almost." Forlornly, she looked at Winter once again. "She took on all that power. The more I think about it...no wonder she's smoldering. There was so much. Like a bottomless volcano." A persistent itch around her crystals distracted her. "I guess...well, I guess she finally got what she wanted, in a way."

Applejack shed her hat and held it to her stomach. "Ain't right." Her tone made Celestia turn and look. She stared her down. "Ya know what I mean."

The Princess acknowledged this with a nod before returning her attention to Twilight. "I have a lot of explaining to do. To a lot of people."

"None of that stuff matters right now!" Pinkie kept trying to rouse the pale woman, looking sadder and sadder with each passing second. "Help me wake her up! Anybody got an air horn? Cymbals? The video of Dashie when she was drunk on Hearth's Warming Eve last year?" She ignored the athlete's annoyed glare as she searched her friends' faces. "Anything?!"

"I think it's over." Twilight was still scratching at her hands. "Ha, of course it would be me that finally did it. I'm still a Princess slayer."

Pinkie meant to refute her, but it wasn't looking good. The smoke had faded, but there was no movement. For a while, she gazed sadly at the woman in her arms. "Fufu's kinda cold now. I..." Unable to finish, she hung her head. Not long after, she gently set her down, stood, and shuffled away.

Rainbow Dash summed up the mood with one blunt word: "Damn." She walked over and looked down at Winter. Everyone else but Twilight soon joined her.

"I would be lying if I said I weren't a little unhappy," Celestia admitted. "Luna was right. Our creation became something much more than we'd planned."

"Geez...feels like just yesterday I was offerin' her a ride. Then she ups and saves my life, then all of Ponyville." Applejack squeezed her hat and grimaced. "Least I can do is pour one out for her when I get home."

"That would be a waste of good cider."

The gathering gasped to varying degrees, but everyone stumbled back in shock as they looked down. Winter's icy eyes were open, but she seemed in no hurry to rise from the floor. "I feel like I ate an entire city. Or six." At last she sat up, rubbing her forehead and glancing at those standing around her. "I feel Twilight. I must have succeeded, then?"

Pinkie spoke on behalf of them all, emitting a high-pitched squeal that would have grated had they not been so relieved. She clamped on in a hug so tight her shoulders protested in pain. "Fufu! You're alive!"

"Sometimes I get sleepy when I'm full." As her arms rose to return the embrace, she noticed something wrong with her palms. "What is this?" In the light, her black crystals displayed flashes of blue when she moved them.

"We're just glad you're okay," Fluttershy said, hands clasped and smiling.

Behind them, Twilight only briefly acknowledged Winter's awakening before staring back at her hands. "Great! But, uh, I've got a problem here."

Her tone wasn't terribly upset, so they ignored it while helping the pale woman rise. "What's up?" Applejack asked, although she failed to turn around and look.

"If you'd look, you'd see." Once they finally did, the sight provoked another burst of gasping. Two happily wiggling black ropes dangled from Twilight's palms. She looked at them, dumbfounded, then at her friends, who were equally as dumbfounded. "Winter! Why do I have these?!"

"I don't know." She pointed her palms to the ceiling and produced a stalk of ebony from each. These too swayed back and forth as if very pleased with themselves. "I still have mine."

"Wait, does she have to eat people now?" Rainbow's question, although genuine, earned her an extremely bad reaction from the crowd, save for Winter and Celestia. She threw up her arms as if in self-defense. "What? I'm just asking! It's a totally legitimate question!"

"Whose answer I really don't want to think about!" Twilight yelled. "Princess, what happened to me? You made this stuff, what did it do?"

She tapped her chin in thought. "It absorbs magic, but in that process it uses the energy to replenish itself if some of its volume is lost. Hmm. If it becomes too saturated and can't soak up more..."

"It made more of itself to continue absorption." Winter dismissed the stalks. "I can only hold so much. Perhaps it seeded itself in Twilight and grew when it ran out of room inside of me."

"B-but I don't want this!" Twilight shook her hands and squealed when the sludge wouldn't retract. "Winteeeeeeer! Help!"

The pale woman folded her arms and didn't even try to hide her amusement. "Talk to it, not to me. It has a voice. Start a conversation."

"Oh, ha ha. This isn't funny!" Her face went blank as she realized that Winter was serious. "Terrific. Uh...please go?" It slunk back into her palms as if scolded. "Oh. I guess politeness counts for something."

"I told you." A pause came as she conversed with her own sludge. "Mine is very happy. It seems to think it had a child."

The librarian slammed her hands onto the sides of her head and shrieked, "It can have babies?!"

Rarity stared at the scene. "Goodness me. There are no words."

"No kidding. Now I know how Dashie feels about all this gooey gunky junky junk," Pinkie muttered. Everyone else nodded their agreement – including Twilight. "Whatever! Right now I just wanna go home and snuggle Gummy. My brain feels funny. Not funny funny, even! Just weird."

"Amen ta that." The blonde donned her hat again and smiled. "Let's get outta the way. City's gonna need some serious tendin' ta. And we should be gettin' back anyway ta handle our own business."

"I couldn't agree more. Let's go home." Twilight glanced suspiciously at her palms as she allowed her wings to spread. "Princess Celestia, you and I need to have a serious talk at some point. I'll be in touch." She motioned for everyone to get ready before looking at her mentor. "Until then, leave me alone."

Twilight flew out of the hole in the ceiling, carrying Rarity and Applejack along behind her. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy flew out last. Winter, however, remained where she was. After watching everyone else go, she turned to Celestia with angry eyes. "I had a lot of time to think, and I came to one conclusion. I hate you," she said bluntly. "I think I hate you a lot."

The Princess was not really surprised. "I understand. There are things we did to you, most of which I am not proud of. But we thought them necessary. In hindsight we were incredibly wrong, and I apologize on Luna's behalf as well as my own."

"Your apology is meaningless to me." A black blade slid out from her right palm, much like the one she used to kill the Princess. For a moment, she contemplated it, then sent it away. "But your fate is in their hands now, not mine," she said, motioning toward the dark Canterlot skyline outside the broken window. "I am going home. Twilight's advice applies; do not bother me unless you have a damn good reason. That goes for your sister as well."

Before Celestia could respond, Winter's black wings snapped out smartly and carried her off into the night sky.

Getting the country up and running again was a process that stretched on and on. Even two weeks later, things were still rather hit and miss in larger cities, but progress was at least steady. Ponyville had no such problem; Twilight and Winter's immense power had the town back to normal in no time. As cities like Manehattan and Trottingham trundled onward toward normalcy, the little hamlet was already miles past mundane.

At least physically. There was still tension – the civil war had stopped, yes, but people were split about their government's covert history. Both sides had sent envoys to the library tree, where they held audiences with the two Princesses. The librarian, still unsettled by the presence of the black goo inside of her, wanted little to do with politics and declined to speak with them. Winter issued a doctrine – with Twilight's input and approval, of course.

And their message was simple: "Cease hostilities and negotiate," she had said. "Or we will make you cease them."

This afternoon saw the resumption of Twilight's weekly tutoring sessions. Winter couldn't decide for whose benefit, really: the children being taught, or the teacher. She perched herself in a chair in the public space off to the side to watch.

"Now, before we begin, we may as well talk about the...situation. No point in pretending like it isn't happening. First off, Winter and I are going to ensure the war doesn't start up again." She paused and looked over with a smile, as did her students. "Secondly, yes, the rumors are true." A stalk of ebony slipped out of her left palm, which she displayed for everyone. "I'm still not used to it, but Winter had to give me this to save us. Again. She tends to do that."

The pale woman smirked at Twilight's remark, but said nothing.

"Anyway, if you feel worried, we can talk after our lesson. Now then, it's time for math!"

The unhappy groan that followed was the point Winter checked out mentally and went back to reading, although she did keep an eye on Twilight. Once the children left – Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom stopped to give her a hug, which made her smile – the librarian sat with her.

"It talks to me," she murmured. "Before I go to sleep at night especially. But it doesn't have a voice."

The pale woman nodded. "I know. How do you feel?"

"Great! Stronger. Like..." Twilight paused and looked at her forearms. "What is it doing to me, Winter? I've already lost five pounds. Is it eating me?"

"No, it's making you strong." Winter looked at her own arms and flexed one. "Like it did me. All it wants to do is protect you."

"Huh. It does feel like an internal hug sometimes." Minutes passed as she contemplated. "I mean, I still have to eat and sleep normally. Will that change too?"

"I'm not sure."

"Ha. Just one more thing to put in the 'I'm not sure' column. I'm not sure about the sludge. I'm not sure what's going to happen to me. I'm not sure what's going to happen to Equestria." Twilight's hands waved around as she ranted. "What is there to be sure about?" Winter's bright smile made her tilt her head. "You look chipper all of a sudden."

"There are a few things. I – we – stopped a war. I think we should be happy about that."

"True. What else?"

"Not as many people hate me as I thought."

"Well, they don't have much choice. The alternative to what you did would have been so much worse." Twilight settled back and sighed. "Of course, if I'd failed in changing them back..." A vicious shake of her head killed any retroactive panic. "Forget it. You're right. The silver lining is pretty big."

"There's one more thing." Winter looked out the window at the gentle snowfall. "No offense to our friends; they mean a great deal to me, but I was always going to feel alone. I'm too strange to really fit in."

The librarian folded her arms and scowled. "Hey, now! How many times do we have to tell you, you're never alo—wait, was? What changed?"

Winter took her by the wrist and looked at her palm. "The one thing that was always going to separate me from everyone else. Now you have it too. I can't feel alone any longer when there's two of me." She let go and looked away. "Not to mention the large amount of you I sucked up. We've become the same person, almost."

"Huh. You've got a point." Twilight summoned the goo and gazed at it. "But we're totally different otherwise. We're not twins."

"But we're not just friends anymore, either."

"Yeah..." They stared at each other for a while. "Um, you don't mean anything, uh, romantic, do you?"

Winter raised an eyebrow. "Are you really asking me this?"

"Aha! Ha. Uh...just checking." She coughed a few times. "I understand. I'm going to need help getting used to this gunk for a while. You're really the only one I can count on as far as that goes." They were silent again. "Well, what are we now? Best friends?"

"No, Applejack and Pinkie fit that title more closely. I think we may be—hmm." Winter frowned and looked back out the window. "I'm not sure I should say it."

"Go on. What are you thinking?' Twilight nudged her persistently when she refused to reply. "Come on, talk. You know what happens when you clam up and get emotional."

"Shotguns and mass transmutations." An awkward sigh came and went. "Perhaps we are sisters now. In a way."

"Wow." This concept needed some mulling over, and she went to it immediately. A few thoughtful moments passed. "Through experience? I guess you're right."

"Hmm." She kept her eyes on the window at first, then looked back to ask a question. "Is that bad?"

"No! No way. I've just...well, I love Shining, but I've always wanted to have a sister, you know? Like Applejack and Rarity. To see what it's like."

They shared a smile that lasted for quite some time. Winter considered everything she'd done – before and after coming to Ponyville – and almost frowned. Almost. The reason she didn't was an old feeling made new again by a new concept: family. It struck her like the word 'home' once did, but in a far more potent way.

She also considered Twilight's words and smiled even brighter. "Let's find out."