Part 38 The Connection note
The chapter begins with Amicitia being nearly satisfied with her accomplishments so far. She had worked long and hard to give others their happy endings but there was one thing she never dared to to. Her immortal mother instantly appears to wonder what her determined child could be afraid of after she had faced so many horrors to help others. The Alicorn admits that she wants to create a world where Discord will not torture everybody for 1000 years (before it backfires horribly on him) but on the other side she never wants to repeat her previous actions as Nightmare Eclipse and erase the Dark World for the sake of another world.
As Amicitia is observes the timeline, she knows that she has to stay within the rules of the universe or she might end up like her fallen brother Morning Star or D___t. Pretty soon she understands that the one person she needs to save from Discord to defeat him is... herself, Twilight Sparkle. But unlike Nightmare Eclipse she can't directly influence this Twilight to win against Discord and to erase the Dark World. Amicitia wants to create a new timeline and soon she realizes the price she will have to pay for this.
As a being outside this timeline Amicitia can introduce a new life into it and use it to indirectly influence Twilight in her darkest hour. She needs somebody to give the unicorn strength maybe even without being there with her in the maze. With the help of the Alicorn of Knowledge (Tarot of the Hermit) she is able to calculate exactly she has to do and as it is time to cast her greatest spell, she gets interrupted by... Cadence. The Alicorn of Harmony is still ashamed for her attempt to murder Amicitia but rather sombrely the Alicorn of Magic points out that she herself has done MUCH worse and did enjoy the control she had over everything as Nightmare Eclipse. Would Cadence have won the battle, then it would have had horrible consequences for her and might have turned her into a Fallen Alicorn even before Morning Star did so but that was thankfully averted with her defeat. In her mortal life afterwards Cadence did experience how horrible magic could be but also what it could do for the world and the mortals, she understood that magic merely reflects its user. Film Critique used magic to enslave an entire city and to force his will onto helpless women while Patch used magic to live long enough to recollect the Rainbow of Light and to recreate the only weapon able to defeat Discord.
So with one final declaration of trust, love and familiar dance, the Alicorn of Harmony leaves her sister behind to do what she has to do. Using all of her powers Amicitia dictates one final letter to Celestia and sacrifices herself. The result is the existence of the three interviewers. They instantly show that they have each their own personality, all related to how Twilight would be at this certain point in her life: A hyperactive and cheerful child, a brutally honest and sarcastic adult and finally an experienced and calm elder.
While they all have different personalities, they still get along just fine. After all they are closely connected spirits: of happy beginnings, happy journeys and happy conclusions. And they are not the only ones born from Amicitia's sacrifice, there is also a certain white unicorn stallion here. In his current state he doesn't have a name or any will or personality and the three have a bit of harmless fun with him. While the three represents various aspects of happy endings, the stallion exemplifies Amicitia's desire to protect and shield those close to her, he literally lives to protect others. So finally the stallion gets a proper name: Shining Armor. Already he is showing the first signs of individuality as he is clearly not to happy to add Sparkle to the end of his name.
Once he will get inserted in the timeline, he will gain a past and backstory. Even in this state he begins to show his own character. He was born specifically to give Twilight the strength needed in her darkest hour but beyond that he has his own life ahead of him. Since he is writing his own story forward and backward, he will interact with everybody's past once he meets them and they will remember the time they had spent together in the new altered past. The Alicorn of Fate and Free Will will not like this as it conflicts with both of her aspects. The original flow of fate is interrupted and minds are altered to fit the changes to the world.
As they carry Shining into this timeline, he dreams of various other versions of himself as his existence spreads all over the multiverse. The three spirits bring him very stealthily into the world, amusingly all besides Dusk wearing disguises while doing so. Inserting him just before the battle against Nightmare Moon will allow him to be undetected as everybody else's attention is on the Nightmare, his existence can affect Twilight's mind before she leaves and finally there is a very good chance that he will run into her. Since he was already born as a stallion, they have to place him somewhere near this point anyway and the three already know how important it is for Twilight's friendships to be forged in the battle against impossible odds, so he can't help her directly against Nightmare Moon or later on in Ponyville. They are also giving him the role of a royal guard and it fits his protecting personality well.
As the resulting changes are spreading over the timeline Twilight remembers her family when she is about to give up all hope in Discord's maze. So she doesn't turn into Twilight Tragedy and only falls victim to discording later on, which allows her to still react to the friendship reports. Discord is also too arrogant to keep an eye on the six, to take care of their Elements or to be worried once the bearer of loyalty is standing together with the others and so he gets his very satisfying defeat. The interviewers couldn't be more proud on Shining, just by existing he helped Twilight to overcome her darkest hour and completed the split from the Dark World timeline. They didn't see coming however that the stallion would develop a crush on a certain Alicorn fillysitter.
But for now they have a lot of other work to do. Discord did leave a lot of damage behind and the worst damage is not the property damage. The three will start to help the psychologists so these can help others and then there are countless others they could help, from Celestia to Twilight and her friends. Ironically the three spirits that are able to talk with everybody and contain all the memories of the Alicorn of Magic are only the byproducts while the unicorn stallion who has no idea how his heritage is Amicitia's prized creation. Thanks to their special abilities, they are able to restore the sanity of Celestia and the psychologists including the poor Hoof Wave. And much to their amazement Fluttershy is able to put Fluttercruel to sleep in this timeline unlike the dark one where the daughter tortured her mother for hundreds of years. This time both have a chance for a better life.
