Heartwarming / The Power of the Equinox

• By the time the wedding ceremony is about to begin, Celestia has stopped being angry at Twilight over the rehearsal to the point that she becomes surprised and upset to learn that Shining Armor has marked his sister off the guest list. She decides to talk to Twilight after the ceremony and clear up the misunderstanding between them.
• Even after she witnesses Dimmed Star killing many Royal Guards and nearly Shining Armor as well, Cadance — who has been trapped in the crystal caves for a few days as well as injured in two legs and nearly eaten by Dimmed Star — spends the following night studying laws in order to defend Dimmed Star at the latter's trial, all the while trying to find clues behind Twilight's transformation. She really wants her former charge back.
• There are a couple of instances at Dimmed Star's trial.
  • When Twilight Velvet is all but forced by Hasty Vote to wake up Dimmed Star, briefly seeing Dimmed Star as a filly version of Twilight Sparkle causes her to tearfully embrace her chained and transformed daughter. Waking up to this, Dimmed Star — who felt her first regrets upon seeing her parents' anguish over what has become of her — is touched by her mother's love.
  • When Dimmed Star is on the verge of a panic attack when she learns that she nearly killed her brother, Celestia pulls her into a comforting hug, assuring that it was not her fault. Despite her reservations in regards to Celestia, Dimmed Star accepts her consolations.
    • Celestia's gesture actually prevents the Entity from gaining any leverage over Dimmed Star's mind. Gandalf really is right about small acts of kindness keeping evil at bay.
• Dimmed Star's relationship with Spike in general.
  • When Rarity asks from Dimmed Star if she's angry at Spike as well, Dimmed Star can't find from herself any hatred toward the little drake and becomes worried about how he'll react to her new appearance.
  • When Spike and Dimmed Star first meet, he doesn't recognize her as Twilight at first. However, after Rarity encourages him to give a chance to the dark mare who's on the verge of tears, he takes a closer sniff of her. Recognizing under burnt fur the ink and parchment Twilight smells of, he tearfully hugs her, bringing her to tears as well.
  • Upon returning to Ponyville, Dimmed Star decides to be a responsible parent and let Spike be a kid, so she starts taking his chores for herself and gives him a chance to enroll in Ponyville's school for the sake of making friends of his age.
• When Cadance becomes sad from learning that Twilight has changed her name, Luna comforts her by assuring her that Twilight still lives somewhere within Dimmed Star and urging her not to give up on the hope of getting Twilight back.
• Business Savvy tells that his deceased son Dream Gavel always wanted to join the Royal Guard even though his father wanted him to go into the family business. After Gavel went behind his father's back and was accepted into the Guard, his mother was very happy for him. As furious as Business Savvy was, he was proud as well.
• When Pinkie Pie admits to Dimmed Star that she and the rest of the girls don't know how to break the ice with the dark mare, she bursts into tears while calling herself a bad friend. Dimmed Star assures her that she's not a bad friend and asks if she wants to hang out with her. Pinkie immediately brightens up and starts spending more time at the Golden Oak Library.
• Dimmed Star bonding with Scootaloo. After the filly starts spending more time in the library with Dimmed Star, Spike and Pinkie Pie, she feels the sense of belonging to a family which she hasn't felt since her formerly loving adoptive parents became a gambling addict and an abusive drunk.
  • Upon learning that something might have happened to Scootaloo, Dimmed Star rushes to her house to find her. Upon searching Scootaloo's room, she's sure to teleport the filly's belongings away so that they won't be destroyed by her Ink's caustic properties.
• When Spike is bullied by Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon, Rumble fetches Cheerilee to scold them. He then offers to share his lunch with Spike — whose lunch Diamond Diara knocked to the ground — and Dinky.
• Cheerilee provides several examples. Despite her fear of Dimmed Star, she immediately accepts Spike to her class, and she later expresses concern over the little drake living with the violent mare. When she's about to be killed by Brutus, her refusal to miss seeing her students grow up or let them go astray like Brutus gives her enough strength to repel him.
• Some of the flashbacks Brutus has while at death's door are heartwarming in a tearful way. He first met Vibrant Glow by becoming her seatmate at school, and the shy colt accidentally touched her hoof. In the next flashback, they're sleeping together while looking forward to being married. After the sad flashback in which they grieve over their deceased infant, they're looking for a foal to adopt. After Scootaloo nearly hits Brutus while driving her makeshift scooter, the couple learns how the small-winged pegasus (who has chosen not to go by any name until her adoptive parents give her one) is short of friends and unlikely to be adopted until she becomes an adult. They promptly decide to speak with and adopt her without taking time to speak with the other candidates. Reliving these memories is what finally gets Brutus to own up to mistreating Scootaloo and killing Vibrant Glow.

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