Original subtitles

[male voice] The best elements within us can spread light

and virtue and I know ponies who represent them all:

strength, bravery, healing, beauty, hope and sorcery.

Myself and these Pillars of Equestria were gathered together

by another to maintain and share the light

of these powerful ideals.

But we soon came to believe the pony who brought us together,

only wanted that power for himself.

Cast out and alone, this power-mad pony

turned to darkness to satisfy his thirst.

Transformed into a Pony of Shadows,

he returned for revenge, to extinguish the Pillars' light

and rob the world of hope.

To stop him, the Pillars and I must make a grave sacrifice.

But we shall leave behind a seed in hopes that one day

it will grow into a force to stand against the darkness

for all time.

We must now face the fiend with the only plan we have.

"I only hope it will be enough."

That's the last entry.

And maybe Starswirl's final words before he vanished.

♪ My little pony, my little pony ♪

♪ Aaaahhh ♪

♪ My little Pony ♪

♪ I used to wonder what friendship could be. ♪

♪ My Little Pony ♪

♪ Until you all shared its magic with me. ♪

♪ Big adventure! ♪ ♪ Tons of fun ♪

♪ A beautiful heart! ♪ ♪ Faithful and strong! ♪

♪ Sharing kindness ♪ ♪ it's an easy feat ♪

♪ And magic makes it all complete! ♪

♪ To have my little pony ♪

♪ Do you know you're all my very best friends? ♪

♪♪

I've always wondered what happened to Starswirl.

This is quite a discovery, Sunburst.

So it's genuine?

You can verify that this journal really belonged

to Starswirl the Bearded?

Indeed.

From the looks of it, the last thing he wrote

before facing the Pony of Shadows.

Uh, so, the Pony of Shadows was really real?

It appears so.

We never met the other Pillars and we were too young

to understand the danger they faced.

Applejack: Hold on a second now!

All those legendary ponies were real too?

And they went off with Starswirl to face the Pony of Shadows

and then none of them were ever heard from again?

Ah, yeah. Weren't you listening?

But what happened to them all?

They must have defeated the villain,

since Equestria's still full of light and hope.

But how? And where did they go?

My Olde Ponish is a bit rusty,

but I wonder if the answers can be found somewhere

within the pages of this book.

Well, I just happened to be an expert in Olde Ponish.

I mean, I've practically memorized every ancient text

about Starswirl there is.

Seriously. All of them.

We have fond memories of our old teacher.

If you could discover what happened to him,

we would be most grateful.

Solving a thousands-year-old mystery could take forever!

Think of the research, the re-reading, the re-re-reading.

You might find you need help.

Luckily, she's got a whole bushel of helpers right here.

Totally!

Uh, how long will all this research take, exactly?

Let's get this back to my library.

I'm sure we'll figure out what happened in no time.

[excited chatter]

♪♪

[yawn]

Figure it out yet, Twilight?

Wha-WHAT?

What did you figure out?

You figured something out?

[slurp]

What is it?

Nothing.

I mean, Starswirl was a genius, obviously,

but forget Olde Ponish.

There's parts where his hornwriting

is like another language!

Agh!

Twilight, we've been studyin' and referencin'

and cross referencing for three days straight now.

Ugh. I haven't spent this much time reading

since the last Daring Do book came out.

Perhaps it is time to take a break.

This mystery is over a thousand years old, after all.

Another day or two won't make a difference!

Two days?

I don't want to waste two seconds.

♪♪

I'm close to an answer.

I can feel it.

"Hearg sylfum se Ponhenge," What's that?

The Temple of Ponhenge?

You can read that?

The hornwriting's pretty sloppy,

but it's nowhere near as bad as mine.

"Toward dol grimlic of fola firgenbeorg?"

At the base of Foal Mountain...

"User endemest scield... "

Our last stand.

Well, that sure sounds like a clue to me.

♪♪

This is it.

Ponhenge.

I can't believe it.

I've never seen magical runes like these before.

Have you?

Uh uh.

I don't think anypony's seen any of this for a long time.

[thud]

It'd take a whole team of ponies to clear away all this brush.

Even then, I'm not sure we'd find out

what happened here a thousand years ago.

You're right.

I suppose it was a long shot.

Cheer up, Twilight.

Finding a whole set of ancient ruins is pretty impressive.

Maybe you could write a paper on it!

I guess I hoped we'd get here and the mystery would just

magically be explained.

Uh, Twilight?

[gasp]

♪♪

[whoosh]

♪♪

Starswirl?

I-- I've wanted to meet you my whole life.

I can't believe you're here!

♪♪

I don't think he is here.

I don't think any of them are.

♪♪

[evil laughter]

You summon me at your peril, Starswirl.

Once I defeat all of you, this realm will embrace the darkness

as I did so long ago.

♪♪

[evil laugh]

Drawing me here will only make me stronger.

You will never defeat me!

We did not come here to defeat you.

♪♪

What are you doing?

We came to contain you.

Aaaaahhh!

Well, you did ask for a magical explanation.

♪♪

Uh, what just happened?

It looked like Starswirl cast a spell

that banished the Pony of Shadows.

Of course! Powerful magic like that

would leave an impression on this place.

Bringing the book back here let us see what happened.

Which was what?

Starswirl and the rest of the Pillars sacrificed themselves

to save Equestria.

It's amazing to think one of the greatest mysteries of Equestria

was solved with a musty old book from an antique shop.

But I wouldn't say the mystery's solved.

Starswirl's spell was one of the most powerful feats of magic

in all of history.

It'll take years of study before we fully understand it.

I think I understand Starswirl's spell!

I know I've finished one of Starswirl's spells before

but this one was on a whole different level!

Was it an explosion of magical feedback?

An evocation?

A kind of incantation?

It's Starswirl, so the possibilities are endless!

And once Starlight set me on the right track

with his crazy hornwriting--

I mean, he was a genius,

so I guess we can forgive a little messiness --

I went through the journal again and it's amazing!

Twilight, darling, we understand you're excited,

but that's all we understand.

What exactly is so amazing?

Only how Starswirl and the other Pillars

sent the Pony of Shadows to limbo!

They did what now?

They used their magic to open a portal between worlds,

to limbo and pulled the Pony of Shadows inside.

[poof]

Darling, your diorama!

I made more.

Starswirl thought the only way to trap the Pony of Shadows

in limbo was for the Pillars to take him there.

So they got stuck too.

The Pony of Shadows must have been really awful

for them to do that.

I suppose being trapped for all time with a super-duper bad guy

in limbo might be OK if you were doing the limbo,

but that's still pushing it.

The thing is, I think I can get them out.

Twilight, are you serious?

You can save the most legendary ponies of all time?

I don't know.

Opening portals between worlds didn't work out well for me.

Are you sure it's safe?

First of all, you opened portals through time.

And second of all, Starswirl wrote the spell

you used to do it.

If he'd been here, he could have stopped it.

Equestria would be safer with him in it.

We have to save him.

But you'd be savin' all the Pillars, right?

And they disappeared ages ago.

That's the thing about limbo.

It isn't one place or another.

It's in between, so time stands still.

If we can pull them out, it'll be like they never left.

I actually built another model to demonstrate--

Agh!

[bang]

What can we do to help?

If I'm right, we need to find items that are connected

to the Pillars in some way.

You mean, like, stuff that belonged to them?

How would we know what to look for?

Or where?

Luckily, Starswirl took a lot of notes.

My compatriots are as varied as the realm itself

and hail from every corner of our land,

bringing with them artifacts and talismans of great power.

Um, Twilight, what are you doing?

I'm not doing anything!

Rockhoof's shovel!

Flash Magnus' shield!

Mistmane's flower!

Meadowbrook's mask!

And the blindfold Somnambula wore

when she faced that nasty sphinx!

I guess we don't need to figure out who should get what!

♪♪

Professor! It's a Mighty Helm headpiece!

Maybe it belonged to Rockhoof himself!

Legends don't wear helmets.

This belonged to a real pony.

Applejack: Oh, I can guarantee

Rockhoof was as real as you and me.

[laughter]

And I suppose that ravine was dug with his trusty shovel

to save the village from an erupting volcano.

Probably.

I love old legends as much as anypony,

but a pony strong enough to save a village from rushing lava

with a shovel is preposterous!

[crack]

[rumble]

[shouts]

[grunt]

[crash]

I can't believe you just did that.

You saved us!

I bet if you told somepony else the story,

it might sound preposterous.

♪♪

I suppose some stories might be true.

And Rockhoof's appears to be one of them.

[slap]

OW!

You keep those hooves to yourself, dearie!

This place has been in my family for generations

and I'm not about to let some whippersnapper

take the last good piece of it.

Time was, ponies came from far and wide to see these gardens.

But that flower's the only worthwhile thing left.

♪♪

♪♪

Perhaps it just seemed like your gardens were worthless,

but a little pruning can work wonders.

Of course you will have to look after

more than just one flower now.

You've given me back my family's legacy.

The flower you wanted seems like a fair trade for that.

♪♪

I can't believe Flash Magnus' shield

ended up in the Dragon Lands.

Good thing you brought the Official Equestrian Friendship

Ambassador To The Dragons to help you navigate our customs.

Like our favorite sport: gorge surfing!

Whoo hoo! HA HA AH AH!

[cheering]

OK. That was awesome!

Dragon Lord Ember commanded us to make peace with ponies,

but it doesn't mean you can surf in our spot.

[growl]

Whoa! Fellas.

As the Official Equestrian Friendship Ambassador

To The Dragons, I have to say, that's not very friendly.

Well, what do you know?

The puny, pony dragon's sticking up for his pony pal.

Hey! That's an ancient pony artifact.

Hooves off my gorge board!

I found it in the desert and finders keepers.

It isn't yours.

Huh. It sure looks like mine.

But, I might consider racing you for it.

No problem.

Um, no.

I mean you.

Heh heh.

[jeering shouts]

[raspberry]

[gulp]

On your marks...

Get set...

Surf!

[panicked shouts]

I won? I won! WOOO-HOOO!

Give up the shield, Garble.

Lord Ember only commanded us to be nice to ponies.

She never said anything about pony-loving dragons.

Since Dragon Lord Ember commanded you

to make peace with ponies, you can't very well

attack one of their friends, can you?

I guess we'll find out!

[grunt]

[shout]

Ugh. Why is he always hiding behind ponies?

I wasn't hiding when I beat you down the ridge.

You fell.

Wow, you must be slow, if all Spike had to do to win

was fall down.

I'm faster than you.

Doubt it.

Fine.

I'll race you back to the top.

If you win, you can have your pony junk.

But if I win, you'll leave and I get to give it to him!

Fine. I'm pretty sure I could beat you anyway,

but with that heavy hunk of metal on your back,

it'll be a snap.

Huh? Oh, yeah. Thanks for the tip.

[clank]

See ya at the top, loser!

Hey! That's mine!

Finders keepers, remember?

See, because that's what you said to them

when they first showed up and--

♪♪

Just remember not to turn away from them, Cattail.

Flash bees can get pretty aggressive.

I guess that's why none of the other bayou animals

can get to the water.

Wouldn't it make more sense for you to wear the mask

that calms the bees?

It would... if I didn't have to fly up here to move their hive.

There!

Now the other bayou creatures can get to the water

without the bees feeling threatened.

You know, you didn't have to help with this.

I would've lent you the mask anyway.

I know.

But I couldn't leave without helping.

I don't think anypony can find anything in there.

I wouldn't give up hope just yet.

This old blindfold was stuck in the drain.

Weren't you looking for a blindfold?

Oh, yeah!

I can't believe I'm going to meet Starswirl the Bearded,

you know, outside of my dreams.

I can't believe you're actually going through with it.

What do you mean?

I'm all for pushing the envelope, obviously,

but this is pretty out there for you, Twilight.

What's "out there" about saving the most legendary ponies

of all time from a thousands year-old prison?

Well, nothing when you say it like that.

Unless "the most legendary ponies of all time"

knew what they were doing and we shouldn't mess with it.

I'm sure Starswirl and the Pillars did the best they could

back then, but magic has come a long way,

mostly because of the work they did.

That's true. And you did get your wings

from finishing one of Starswirl's spells.

Exactly.

But, then I messed with one and nearly destroyed the universe,

so...

Starlight, Starswirl the Bearded is the greatest wizard

who ever lived.

The chance to have him back in Equestria is worth the risk.

Spike: That's good news.

Otherwise, we'd have brought this shield for nothing!

Applejack: I hope you don't think you're the only one

to find her artifact, because this here shovel says otherwise.

Honestly, you two.

Not everything is a competition.

But Mistmane's flower is by far

the most attractive of the artifacts.

You're just saying that because you didn't have to scuba dive

in a pit of green slime to get yours.

Or move a Flash Bee hive.

Good work everyone.

Let's do this!

[zapping]

♪♪

[crashing]

What-- What has happened?

It worked! We brought you back.

To where?

You and the others have been trapped in limbo

for over a thousand years,

but I figured out how to get you ho--

What!?

No, no, no, no! You must undo what you've done!

What? Why?

I mean, I don't think I can.

You cannot bring us back!

But I did.

I brought all the Pillars back.

You cannot bring only the Pillars back.

[thunder]

[screams]

♪♪

[evil laugh]

Oh, no...