Flashback time again. Turns out Dawn's attack on Filly!Twilight and fight with Shining Armor was the straw that broke her enrollment at Celestia's school.
Present Dawn steels herself for her upcoming Purging of Twilight by staring off a city rooftop, and a too-long-absent Hardy, as weirded out as I am, gets her to step away, curious about the rumors that Dawn is going to actually help Twilight out. Dawn notes that 1) she still wasn't going to kill Twilight and being a princess will mean helping those you don't necessarily like, 2)Twilight's still not quite herself and Dawn wants Twilight to be fully cognizant of her fate, and 3) Dark!Twilight is way too powerful to take on.
The gang gathers to examine the Elements, and Hardy notes that they still match their "previous" Bearers' cutie marks, but Dawn reminds them that the things change shape and will most likely do so again once she activates the Element of Magic. Best Pony inquires further, speaking what has been on my mind this whole time: even before the complications of zebras and dark magic, what exactly was the plan for the Elements? They plan to stop whatever Mathos has planned, but not with the Elements, and surely Canterlot isn't going to be attacked twice... right?
Dawn tells them of Canterlot's history as a mining town for crystals, and that most of the mines are still sealed off:
...oh for fuck's sake.
Honestly, the increasing references up to this point- many of which I've glossed over so far- swung back and forth between cool window dressing for a revenge tale and just distracting. But now the long-delayed keystone plot point is revealed in the same way? Suddenly I'm snapped back to the other side of the proscenium, as though this was parody. Oddly fitting, perhaps, that it seems as ridiculous out of universe as it does inside.
Well, let's get the chapter over with... Dawn reveals that the unicorns were never able to destroy the balrog, and Star Swirl the Bearded himself gave his life to seal it back in the mines. But surely, once woken up, the Elements of Harmony will be able to take care of it for good. After a moment of sheer gobsmackitude, Candy continues to go along with the plan- after all, having come this far, don't they want to see how the story ends? (Got me there, mare.) And Razor, the would-be Bearer of Loyalty, goes to her side as well...
...but the other three's suspension of disbelief has been broken as well. Hardy has been all right with mostly winging it and the changes they've had to make to their plans, but if they unleash a fire monster on Canterlot and the Elements don't work after all, there won't be any option left. Laurel can't help but think of the children, and things have just gone to far for kind Cherry. Dawn, for all of her ego and rage, knows when to stop pushing:
"But Dawny you said─" Candy began.
"Maybe it won't be necessary," Dawn cut her off. "This whole thing has a test by Princess Celestia, a test designed to see if I could come back from adversity. Once she sees that I've passed the test, once I go to her and lay all my accomplishments at her feet, she'll take me back anyway. She will. She has to."
Twilight waits for said appointment outside her palace, the streets devoid of all but her and her number one assistant- and the still-recurring voice of dark magic. Twilight reflects on her sudden fall from the talk of the town to feared and shunned by even her remaining friends- and out of the blue tries warning Spike against giving into his own darker impulses in the centuries after she is gone, since none of it will last anyway, before trying to distract herself with trivia.
"Countess Mercedes" arrives in a zebra-drawn carriage and Twilight prepares to head off- but not before Pinkie, Rainbow and Fluttershy race outside for one more goodbye. Turns out they weren't cowering in fear, just waiting for Twilight to come to them. And with their support- with the bonds of friendship and love that she knows anew will outlast more visible trappings- Twilight is far more able to resist the dark voice in her head as she rides off....
