Meanwhile, Twilight Sparkle, librarian, heroine and element of Harmony was in mid-air at roughly the height of the stadium, having simply teleported far enough to be clear of the stadium walls. She was also rapidly accelerating towards terminal velocity as she thoughtfully composed a mental list, seemingly oblivious to the ground preparing to give her a nice friendly stone-laden hug to the skull.
"One. Acquire Elements of Harmony. Two. Get them to the girls without causing a panic. Three. Stop whatever is making poor Pinkie into a carnival ride of prophecy. Four. Figure out how to keep Angel Bunny from doing in Pinkie when he sees her. Five..."
Two purple wings snapped out from behind Twilight's shoulders as she neared the ground, turning the near-vertical dive into a sweeping glide towards the train tracks.
"Remember to open wings. Think I'll move that to number one on the next list."
Catching the easy updrafts coming from the buildings and crowds below, the newest alicorn in the Equestrian realm made her way through the crowded skies and a cluster of armored figures guarding the Friendship Express Royal Special. Fully twenty big cars sat on a sidetrack, each the height of Canterlot's luxury- even the four holding the Princesses' personal guards.
And there were two of them now. Good fellows.
"Princess Sparkle! Is the stadium safe? We've had a line of spectators at the ticket counters demanding to get out of the Empire, twenty seconds ago! Should we send in another contingent of guardsponies to protect the Royals?"
Ifffff a little excitable.
Concentrating on aiming her glide towards a level patch of ground, Princess Sparkle remembered her lessons on Being A Proper Princess.
"A Princess always speaks calmly, even when something is about to eat her. Especially then."
"Big Starlight, Orange Wedge- relax. That's an order. There was a problem with the pegasus seating and it got REALLY cold up there for a while. A few ponies ended up with mild frostbite and that's all, you'd think they'd seen a ghost when it was probably a friend covered in snow!"
"Big S" and Wedge visibly untensed as they flew to a perfect twelve-point landing.
"Then what can we do for you, Princess?"
"Oh, just call me Twilight Sparkle- please! Princess Celestia needed a few things locked up in her room but she can't leave to get them- but I've got the key. Would you two let the rest of the guards know what's going on? Send some ponies to help out with the crowds at the trains, and see if they can't move the schedule up a bit. No reason for everypony to be stuffed in there when we're going to have even more of them coming after the ceremonies are over!"
Orange Wedge brightened at the idea. "Right away, Pri- er, Miss Sparkle. You've always been great at organizing this kind of mess, we'll have twenty guardsponies down there right away. And thanks. We've had our ears up for half an hour now with no word from the stadium."
Twilight waved as she ducked into Celestia's sleeping car. "Thanks, guys! I'll tell Shining Armor you're keeping up the great work!". Under her breath, she recited "A Princess should never hesitate when it's time to delegate, check...all right..." as she looked around for the closet.
Ten seconds later with a two-and-a-half twist through the horn-lock and six sparkling bits of Harmony-laden jewels were safely tucked in Twilight's saddlebags, ready to go. Exiting the car, she found the landing strip clear of ponies as two squads trotted and flapped their way past the Guard perimeter, heading towards the milling crowd- regular ponies settling down as they put the Royal Oil on the commoner waters.
Now, this was the good part about being an alicorn...
"Preflight checklist...ready! One, accelerate to takeoff speed!", as she broke into a gallop.
"Two, charge your horn!" The alicorn's horn glowed, visibly sparking as magic flowed into it.
"Three, retract your landing gear and LIFT!" -bringing her legs up as the spell she'd been preparing discharged. For about ten seconds, the law of gravity briefly took a header and reversed itself, just for Twilight Sparkle. She soared effortlessly into the air, leaving a trail of small purple stars behind her.
"A Princess should always depart in a way that captures the heart", thought the purple streak as she flew back towards her friends. Princess lessons had been a lot more fun than she'd expected*...