//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5 
// Story: Princess Twilight Sparkle's 505th Birthday 
// by Autumnschild 
//------------------------------//

Three ponies and a Princess walked out from under the somber cloud of ‘what-ifs’ and into the hectic atmosphere of the Senate Undersecretary’s office. Several ponies were shouting at each other around the desk in the center of the cramped, scroll filled room. Seated behind the desk was the Senate Undersecretary, Straight Lace, with her head buried beneath her hooves.
 
Smarty Pants, Honeycrisp, and Sandy stood beside Princess Twilight as they tried to make heads or tails of the situation. The tiny room, filled with scrolls and ponies as it was, was no bigger than one of the bathrooms in the castle. The shelves along the bookcase-lined walls were jammed tight with stacks of paper, books, and nick-knacks. Abandoned quills and half written notes littered the floor and a pony couldn’t get very far in without trailing paper wherever they went.
 
It was more like a janitor’s closet in size and smell. Indeed, the mop and bucket leaning against the portrait of some long dead bureaucrat, clutching a heavily dented thermos, didn’t do much to dissuade anypony of that opinion. How the room was able to hold the seven ponies around the desk, let alone the four that just walked in, only physics could say.
 
Sandy turned to say something to her friends, but they didn’t hear her. There was too much shouting from the ponies around the table.
 
A gruff looking pink pony with a close cropped white mane was currently the loudest of the rabble. “Snack Face, if you are insinuating that the might of the Equestrian Army is not up to the task of dealing with whatever this Beacon of Order can throw at- uACK!”
 
The seapony he was shouting at splashed the grumpy general with an errant wave from his portable aquasphere.
 
“General Iron Sights, we’ve been over this a number of times. My name is Snack Bar. Admiral Snack Bar of the Grand Equestrian Navy. And I’ll have you know that I was insinuating nothing of the sort. I was merely suggesting that our evacuation efforts should not bury our fellow citizens dangerously underground, far from the freedom of the open and inviting seas. Why, we should send them to the coasts where the generous and benevolent Seaponies will welcome them with open hooves.”
 
“Oh, I rather like that idea, Admiral.” Shouted a new voice over the others. All but one of the ponies  at the desk turned to face the white pegasus mare who went with that voice. Though this didn’t stop anypony else from shouting whatever it was they were going on about.
 
A notable exception was Ms. Lace. Straight Lace was the current Senate Undersecretary, and this was her office. This was her private space to get away from the workaday worries of the world, and she was the only pony at the desk not shouting. She was too busy trying to teach herself how to teleport far away from here.
 
Sadly, Ms. Lace was not going to learn how to teleport today because she was an earthpony. Instead she reached into the top drawer of her desk and pulled out the bottle of Emergency Council Gin. If she couldn’t teleport away from here, she could at least try to drink herself far far away.
 
The white pegasus from the Bucklands continued. “You know, the coast sounds quite lovely. I dare say I could use a seaside holiday.”
 
The Admiral beamed at his new ally. “Thank you Senator.” She nodded politely to him, though everypony was still shouting.
 
“Hang on a second” A surly voice that had previously just been part of the background din roared over the competition to draw the attention of the ponies at the desk who were not actively slugging back shots of Under Secretary’s Little Helper.
 
“What’s wrong with evacuating underground? It’s a time honored tradition! If it’s good enough for digging up gems and metal then it’s good enough to—“
 
Spellbound, an elite member of Princess Twilight’s Arcane Guard cut off the Senator from Farrington with his own endorsement “Yes! Look, this is Princess Twilight’s plan – To evacuate to the caverns under Canterlot. It’s not up for discussion, when she says jump, we ju—.”
 
“Yes, thank you Spellboob." said the white mare patronizingly. "We all know you’re quite infatuated with Princess Twilight, but I’m afraid that this is a representative democracy, and if we have a differing of opinion, then we’ll need to vote on the mat—“
 
The third and final senator in the room, a nervous looking unicorn from Manehatten with his back to the door cleared his throat. “Speaking of Princess Twilight, where is the good Secretary General? I’d love to do whatever it is we’re here to do and then get home before they decide to shutdown the train service.”

“I’m right here Mr. Miles.”
 
Six ponies; three earthponies, one unicorn, a pegasus, and a seapony, turned at once to face the Princess and the room fell silent. Except for the audible gulping that came from Ms. Lace.
 
The good General Iron Sights nudged an increasingly sloshed Straight Lace and pointed at the Princess. Her eyes focused, and what was a big purple blur became a big purple Princess. Ms. Lace dropped the bottle to floor with a sputtering cough.
 
It’s a well-known fact that being caught drinking on the job by one’s boss has the unfortunate side effect of sobering you right the hell up. But Straight Lace didn’t mind at this point. The Princess was here, and she was going to make it all better.
 
She shot up to her hooves and leapt over her desk and the surrounding gaggle of ponies “Oh thank the stars, Senator Twilight, I am ever so happy to see you.” When Straight Lace reached the Princess, they exchanged hugs.
 
Princess Twilight smiled brightly at her longtime companion before furrowing her brow in mock condemnation. “Isn’t it a little early to be hitting the bottle, Lacy?”
 
Straight Lace released her Princess from the hug and turned to face the six ponies standing around her desk. “Do you see them?” she pointed a hoof at the bashful looking group.
 
“Do you see this?” she gestured to the tiny office they were all standing in.
 
“They’ve been in here bickering and shouting over each other for nearly an hour.” She sighed heavily and trundled back towards her desk.
 
Spellbound opened his mouth to protest, but Straight Lace jammed a cyan colored hoof into it. “An hour!” she shouted.
 
The room was silent until she was once again seated in her chair, at which point she picked the bottle of Emergency Council Gin up off the floor and put the cork back in it. With finality, she added, “Confound these ponies they drive me to drink.”
 
The white pegasus mare, Rosie Island, turned to look at the Princess. “A thousand pardons, Your Grace but could you, Spellbound, and your entourage step outside for just a moment while we get the room ready for the Emergency Council Meeting?”
 
Twilight nodded and turned with the girls to leave the room. As soon as Spellbound walked out the door it slammed shut behind the five of them. Princess Twilight turned to the lone stallion and said “Good work, Spellbound. Would you wait out here with the girls until I’m done with the meeting?”
 
Spellbound nodded vigorously.
 
Smarty Pants turned to her mentor and asked “Hay, wait a minute, can’t we go in with you?”
 
Twilight offered a reassuring smile to her charge and was about to answer when the door was opened by a cloaked figure. The room beyond was pitch black and smelled of burning incense, a definite improvement over janitorial supplies. Though the girls couldn’t make out the face of inside the enchanted cowl, the cyan hooves sticking out of the bottom left little to the imagination.
 
“Enter.” Said the hooded figure. The words echoed through the minds of those present and were not truly spoken. It was an unnerving sensation for Honeycrisp, who felt something similar back at the Sun Tower when they first confronted the Beacon of Order.
 
Princess Twilight walked into the dark room beyond and the door shut behind her, leaving Smarty Pants and her two friends back safely inside Equestria.



 
 
Princess Twilight had been a part of this ritual before. In fact she was its origin. However she noticed how it had changed a little every time it was necessary to summon the Emergency Council. What was once a gathering of friends in search of good council had become weighted down with pomp and circumstance. One of these decades she was going to have to reel it back in.
 
A deep magenta light began to fill the oddly cavernous room from here she stood. Where before there were bookcases jammed with papers here there was only darkness. Gone were the old stained carpet, desk, and hardwood floors. Instead it was cold stone, hewn from living rock.
 
The light continued to materialize on the floor and it coalesced into the outline of her cutie mark. Lining the cutie mark stood six ponies. Well, five of them at least. One of the cloaks looked like it was draped over an overgrown water ballon, which was clearly an aquasphere. They stood equidistant from each other and the Princess in the center. There was no wind in this dark place, nor windows or doors for that matter. It was as if everything else had faded away, and the seven ponies here were the only living things in the whole world.
 
Floating above them in the darkness were countless points of lights that looked like stars, but felt much closer. One of the stars burned brighter when a robed figure spoke.
 
“Step forward, Twilight Sparkle.”
 
Twilight sighed and took a step forward. As she did, the ponies around her began to sing. Well… not really sing so much as drone. They droned on and on in a joyless chant about the Magic of Friendship. They sang about sharing kindness and the strength of their faithfulness. As they approached the second verse, Twilight had to stop them. She had to stop them or she wouldn’t be held accountable for her actions.
 
“Okay! Well. This is… awful. Anypony mind if I turn on some lights?”
 
In a flash, the room was filled with pure white light from sources unknown. The hooded ponies gasped and blinked at the sudden brightness of it all.
 
“And, while those robes are pretty amazing –what with the talking inside my head and everything— they’ve gotta go too.”
 
Another flash and now nopony had any clothes on. As it should be.
 
“Oh my!” exclaimed Long Miles, the Senator from Manehatten, as he frantically went about trying to cover his shame. He was never without his hat and he was overly sensitive about his bald spot.
 
To his right, Rosie Island's lower lip trembled as she held back tears. 

“Rosie," Twilight sighed, "I’m sure it is a lovely ceremony, but we need to get this meeting to order.”
 
“Maybe we could do the ceremony after the emergency is behind us?” offered Admiral Snack Bar. “She really did work hard on it.”
 
The Princess gave a nod and smiled at the surrounding ponies. Rosie Island grinned appreciably at the compromise.
 
Princess Twilight closed her eyes in concentration and a large black board, a map of Equestria, and Princess Celestia’s old diary materialized into the room. Somewhere in the distance, music began to play and the six previously robed ponies began to bob and sway in time.
 
“Alright everypony,” smirked Princess Twilight as the first verse began, “let’s brainstorm.”
 



 
Smarty Pants sat staring at the locked door that led to the Undersecretary’s office.
 
“I can’t believe she just left me here.” She turned to look at Honeycrisp, who raised one eyebrow at the brown earthpony.
 
Quickly, Smarty Pants corrected herself. “Us. I can’t believe she left us here,” she laughed nervously.
 
Sandy gave her friend’s shoulder a pat “Oh this isn’t so bad. Who wants to go into a dark room filled with ponies that talk inside your head, anyway?” Her wings fluttered involuntarily.
 
Smarty Pants nodded and turned to look back at her cousin, who was making her way down the hall.
 
“Hey, Honeycrisp, where are you going? We’re supposed to stay here with Spellbound until the Princess comes out.”
 
Honeycrisp kept walking but answered back over her shoulder. “I’m not going far, cuz. I just want to see that freaky blue ghost pony again.”
 
Sandy looked at Smarty Pants, who in turn looked at Spellbound.
 
“Freaky blue ghost pony?” asked Spellbound.
 
“She means Trixie in the Gateway of Knowledge.”
 
“Ah. Well, I don’t know why anypony would want to talk to that old windbag, but you girls go on ahead. I’ll come get you when the Princess comes out.”
 
The two fillies said their thanks and trotted off to find their unicorn companion. As they walked, they could already make out the hologram’s booming voice answer Honeycrisp’s first question.
 
“Why, the Great and Powerful Trixie is more powerful than you could possibly imagine! She is now a perfect hologram able to perform her magic and share her knowledge without your petty mortal needs like sleep or food or companionship.”
 
“Well if you’re so great, how come I ain’t never heard of you?”
 
The flickering Trixie offered only a sneer with her response “Judging by your deplorable use of a double negative, one must also assume that you ‘ain’t never’ heard of many things. Grammar for one.”
 
“Why you…” Sandy and Smarty Pants both felt the air get warmer as a small fireball shot out of Honeycrisp’s horn at the blue apparition. Trixie laughed haughtily as it passed through her and dissipated harmlessly against the magic-proof wall on the other side of the room.
 
“Another thing you’ve never heard of? Holograms. Pity really, it was an excellent shot.”
 
Honeycrisp started to charge her horn for a second attack, but Sandy hopped in front of her before she got too worked up. 

“Honeycrisp, what are you doing?” asked Sandy. Trixie answered instead.
 
“She was about to shoot another fireball at the Clairvoyant and Immortal Trixie.”
 
Smarty Pants sighed and kept her eyes on her cousin. “Don’t ask any questions in this room, unless you want Trixie to answer them. She’s the holographic keeper for the Gateway of Knowledge. It’s one of the Princess’ inventions. If anypony comes to the Senate with a question, they can ask it here and Trixie has to answer them.”
 
“But what if she doesn’t know the ans—?” Honeycrisp tried to stop herself from asking by jamming her own hoof in her mouth, but that ship had already sailed.
 
“Ha ha! There is no question you can ask that Trixie, the Wise and Spectacular, cannot answer!”
 
“Actually, that’s not true,” offered Smarty Pants. This earned her an indignant growl from the ancient hologram.
 
“She can’t answer rhetorical questions, and she can’t answer questions that nopony knows the answer to.”
 
Honeycrisp grinned wickedly “Hay Trixie, what are next winning lottery numbers?”
 
Trixie said nothing, but puffed out her cheeks with a scowl.
 
Sandy turned to face Smarty Pants “Does that mean that she might know how to stop the Beacon of Order?”
 
“Hay, yeah! That’s a great idea! Honeycrisp, we—“
 
Honeycrisp wasn’t listening to either Sandy or Smarty Pants, but was focused on trying to get Trixie’s goat. “This is great! Hay Trixie, hypothetically, if I said you weren’t so Great and Powerful—“
 
The soft, omnipresent, humming that had previously filled the room with background noise died out, and Trixie winked out of existence.
 
“Hey! Where’d she go?”
 
“Away. And good riddance, too.”
 
“Ugh, Honeycrisp!” shouted Smarty Pants “You always do this. We could have asked her about the Beacon of Order, but no, you had to go and make her disappear.”
 
“Oh come off it, Pants. She started it!”
 
“She has feelings too, you know.” Said a concerned Sandy.
 
Honeycrisp sank her lower half to the ground with a thump and rubbed her eyes with a groan. “Okay, okay, I’m sorry.”
 
Nothing happened.
 
"I said, I'm sorry."

Still nothing.

“Did… did I break her?”
 
Trixie popped back into existence, along with the humming. “No!” If holograms could look like they had been crying, Trixie would look that way now. “You did not break me, you ruffian, now go away,” and she disappeared again, along with the humming.
 
Honeycrisp’s ears flattened back against her head, and she frowned mightily.
 
“I’m… I’m really sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you. Well, I mean I… I guess I did, but I was just caught up in the emotion of it all, you know? I’m not so good at apologies, but we need your help.”
 
Honeycrisp cleared her throat and continued. “I don’t know nothing about you, Ms. Trixie. But I think that maybe you can help us. Is there anything I can do to change your mind?”
 
Trixie didn’t materialize, but her voice called out from the jewel encrusted pyramid that made up the hologram’s pedestal.  “I can’t forgive you unless you say ‘Trixie is Great and Powerful’.”
 
Honeycrisp groaned and was about to protest, when Smarty Pants punched her in the shoulder.
 
“Alright, alright.” She stood back up and said with as much flourish as she could “Trixie IS Great AND Powerful.” She stuck out her tongue as if the words tasted foul in her mouth, but it did the trick.
 
There was a sudden burst of fireworks, blastpops, and wizzmaples. When they faded, they revealed the star spangled hologram in all her semi translucent splendor. 

“Trixie is, isn’t she?” Bright eyed and bushy tailed, she looked down her muzzle at the three fillies. “Ask me your questions and I’ll tell you no lies.”
 
Smarty Pants took a step forward. “Do you know about the Beacon of Order?”
 
Trixie’s hologram looked off into some unseen horizon. “Just a moment… No. Trixie does not know about the Beacon of Order. Tell me about it.”
 
Smarty Pants sighed “Well, it’s a powerful magical construct. It was built by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna as a weapon to defeat Discord. Back during the Age of Discord, before the Lunar Rebellion.”
 
“Interesting,” pondered Trixie as she rubbed her chin with a hoof.
 
The three girls nodded, and Smarty Pants continued “The Beacon uses Memetic Harmonization to adapt its defenses to whatever kind of attacks Discord could throw at it.”
 
“Hmm. Sounds like an effective tactic. You say that the ‘Beacon uses’ not that the ‘Beacon used’. Am I to assume that this is not for a history class?”
 
Honeycrisp swallowed hard before she answered “Well, yeah. Didn’t you feel it talk in your head earlier this morning? I thought every unicorn in Equestria felt that.”
 
Trixie stared at the little red unicorn like she had two heads. “Trixie is only going to say this one more time, Oh Unobsevant One. Hologram.” She stuck a hoof through herself to reiterate her point “I do not have a head. I am no longer bound to my long expired mortal frame. I am immortal and eternal! Beautiful in my ephemerality."
 
Smarty Pants cocked her head at that. “Doesn’t ephemeral mean only lasting for a short time?
 
Trixie squinted at the little know-it-all and her voiced boomed through out the halls. “So what? Do you want a cookie? What is your question, Trixie does not have all day!” she punctuated her command with a bolt of magical lightning.
 
Like a dam bursting, Sandy spilled everything in rapid fire bursts. “We awoke the Beacon of Order sneaking around the Sun Tower in the ancient castle of the royal pony sisters and it wants to destroy Discord, but he’s good and not bad, but that doesn’t matter to the Beacon because it wasn’t created to know the difference! And in order to beat Discord, it needs to mind control everypony in the world!"

She took a deep breath and contuned, "And it can talk inside your head so it’s really easy for the Beacon to take control of everypony and we’re really really scared and only Princess Luna and Princess Celestia can stop it, but we don’t know where they are and if we can’t find them then it’s the end of the world!”
 
The little green pegasus fell backwards as her wings buzzed frantically. The intensity in her eyes as she stared off into space was not lost on the rest of the ponies and holograms in attendance.
 
“Right. What she said.” Offered Smarty Pants with a nod.
 
Trixie grimaced. “Well. That sounds terrible.” She stood there thinking for a moment before continuing. “It uses mind control you say?”
 
“Uh huh” said Honeycrisp, “and it’s supposed to get stronger with each pony it controls.”
 
Trixie nodded to herself “Mmhmm, Mmhmm. And you say only Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can stop it?”
 
"Yes." Smarty Pants stood there staring into the distance. Suddenly, her smile threatened to surpass the physical limitations of her face. “Yes… Yes! That’s it! Do you know where the former Princesses are?” The light brown earthpony spun in a tight circle in anticipation of Trixie’s answer.
 
“Unfortunately, no. They’ve masked themselves from detection in the physical and metaphysical realms. I’m unable to detect them.”
 
Smarty’s wavy red mane deflated with Trixie’s words.
 
“But…” tantalized Trixie. “I have a lead.”
 
Smarty Pants’ hair sprung back into place and her eyes went wide. “You… you have a lead on where the Princesses are?”
 
Defying all known physical and magical laws, Smarty Pants found a way to leap up onto Trixie’s podium and shook her brusquely about the shoulders. “Tell us tell us tell us!”
 
“What manner of sorcery is this?! Unhoof Trixie this moment you… you… Trixie Toucher!”
 
Suddenly reminded of the impossibility of what she had done, Smarty Pants fell through the apparition and back down the pyramid to the floor below.
 
Trixie cleared her throat and tried to unruffled her coat, but was unable to touch her own form, no matter how many times she tried. She was not a happy hologram at the moment.
 
“Ugh. This better not be permanent. Where was I? Oh yes. 40 years ago, there was a fire in the Rainbow Factory in Cloudsdale. Rumors tell of a mysterious dark blue Alicorn who helped put out the fire and organize rescue efforts. The fire raged for several hours, but when it was finally put out, the Alilcorn vanished.”
 
The three girls listened with rapt attention. Okay, so only Smarty Pants was really paying attention. Sandy was still recovering from her minor panic attack, and Honeycrisp was too busy trying to figure out how her cousin managed to grab the annoying hologram lady when her fireballs went right through.
 
Trixie continued, “After the fire, only one pony was reported missing; The mare who had been in charge of the plant’s night shift for several years before the incident. It was reported that the mystery Alicorn knew the names and supposed whereabouts of everypony who worked the night shift and helped rescuers find each and every one of them. Some ponies think that the night shift director and the Alicorn may have been one in the same."
 
Trixie leaned down conspiratorially and looked around before continuing. “Rumor has it that when the plant’s owner asked where the night shift director was, the Alicorn reportedly answered ‘I’m fine.’ And then? She vanished. Neither pony was ever seen again.”
 
Smarty Pants stood on trembling legs. “That. Is. AMAZING! We have a lead!” She turned to face the other two fillies. “Girls, do you know what this means?!”
 
Sandy, still on her back, smiled sheepishly. “It means we’re going to Cloudsda—“
 
“IT MEANS WE’RE GOING TO CLOUDSDALE!” Interrupted Smarty Pants. “Come on girls, let’s go get the Prin—“
 
At that moment, the wide doors leading out of the Gateway of Knowledge and into the streets of Canterlot slammed open, and a gray unicorn stallion ran through the room and towards the House of Commons.
 
“What the hay was that all about?” asked Honeycrisp.

Smarty Pants flattened her ears against the back of her head. “That was Quick Name.” She turned to look at Honeycrisp who was still looking as confused as ever. “He’s the head of Princess Twilight’s Arcane Guard.”
 
“I wonder where he’s going in such a hurry?” asked Sandy.
 
Trixie shrugged and said,  “He’s probably going to see Twilight Sparkle and HEY!”

 The three girls ran off after Quick Name.
 
Trixie sighed and went back to trying to smooth out the fur on her chest. As the girls turned the corner and out of her field of vision, she harrumphed. “Not even a thank you? How rude.”
 



 
Quick Name threw open the door to the Undersecretary’s office with his magic and ran in. “Princess Twilight, there’s… I’m not familiar with the kind of thing I’m seeing here.”
 
Twilight put down the roll of tape and turned to look at her old friend, protector, and close confidant. She looked back at the activity in the room. Rosie Island beamed as she stood there with her newly affixed cardboard tube horn. Straight Lace was still humming the chorus of the song they had just finished singing while she painted Princess Celestia’s cutiemark on Rosie’s derrière.
 
To her right, General Iron Sights stood stiff as a board and sweat dripped down his face. He was trying desperately to be somewhere, anywhere else. But, like all other earthponies before him, he couldn’t teleport. Instead he stood there as the others slathered him in navy blue paint and taped cardboard wings to his back.
 
Princess Twilight sat down and tapped a hoof to her chin. “You know, this seemed like a much better idea while we were singing.”
 
The other ponies stopped what they were doing and looked around the room. The world was in danger and they were playing dress up. Apologies were muttered, towels were given, and cheeks were reddened with embarrassment.
 
The three fillies slowed to a trot and walked into the brightly lit stone room, wondering all the while where the old Undersecretary’s office with the scrolls and the desk and the mop went to. Before they could ask any of their questions, Quick Name shared some very bad news.
 
“Your Highness, there’s trouble at the telegraph office.”
 
Princess Twilight’s developed a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach as she turned back to face Quick Name. “What sort of trouble?”
 
“When I reached the building, it had already been barricaded by guard forces. Apparently, the incoming telegraph operators started shouting about the Beacon of Order and attacking co-workers. Somepony got out and alerted a unit of the city guard. By the time we arrived, the building had already been cordoned off and surrounded.”
 
“What?” asked Princess Twilight, “How is that even—”
 
Smarty Pants gasped. “The Beacon of Order controls other ponies through mind control, right? Well what if the Beacon is able to spread its mind controlling message in other ways besides talking to them? Like what if it’s able to spread it through—”
 
Princess Twilight’s eyes widened in alarm as she finished Smarty Pants’ thought for her. “The telegraph lines.”
 
Magic burst from her horn and an instant later the room was minus onePrincess.




 
Twilight Sparkle burst back into reality at the city guard barricade in front of the telegraph office. The scene was one of eerie joviality. Scores of ponies from the nearby train station or adjacent market square had gathered to watch events unfold. Ignorant to the dangers that lurked inside the telegraph office and they had gathered to gawk at the commotion.
 
At the first the Princess went unnoticed, until she approached and subsequently passed the barricade’s perimeter. A guardsmare addressed her “Princess Twilight?! I must ask that you to get back behind the perimeter. This is no place for a—“
 
She ignored the guardsmare and continued straight ahead. As she walked, she began to glow ever so faintly and she phased right through the wall in front of her.
 
“Horseapples.” Finished the guardsmare. She turned to face her fellow guardsponies. “Look alive ponies, Princess Twilight has entered the building, I need a rescue team assembled, STAT.”
 
There was nothing out of the ordinary about the inside of the telegraph office, aside from the lack of ponies. Princess Twilight stood in the main room where ponies would queue up and wait to send their messages. There was a sign detailing the different rates and services. Two bits for a short message, five bits for three, and ten bits for notary services.
 
Across the room, she could see that the four stations where telegraph service ponies would have been standing to assist folks on any other day. Beyond the stations on the back wall were two doors -one on the left and one on the right. The right door lead to the alley behind the building. The left door lead to the back office where the telegraph operators worked. Disconcertingly, she could hear the ‘rata tat tat’ of several telegraph machines.
 
The Goddess of Magic took a deep breath and cast a cone of silence around herself. The world became still. Hearing no sounds and no noises, she could no longer hear her own breathing or the beating of her heart. It was not a spell she enjoyed casting, but it was necessary, considering the threat she faced.
 
Calmly, she walked towards the door on the left, already planning out the phases of her experiment. Just before she entered the next room a piece of parchment and a quill pen popped into existence behind her head. She was going to do this right and she was going to take notes. The quill moved of its own volition as she entered the room.
 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF PRINCESS TWILIGHT SPARKLE
EXAMINING THE BEACON OF ORDER
EXPERIMENT ONE: ESTABLISHING A CONTROL GROUP
 
In the next room, twelve outgoing telegraph machines were manned by twelve different ponies. Twilight prided herself on knowing and befriending as many ponies as she could, and she recognized a number of faces, even though their eyes stared ahead dull and lifelessly. None of the ponies had yet to see her or at least acknowledge her presence in any way she could discern visually or magically.

Directly ahead of her eight ponies tapped away at the outgoing telegraph machines. Off to the right, four ponies wore headphones plugged into the incoming telegraph machines as they furiously transcribed coded messages back into the written word. Twilight knew she’d need to get those papers after this was over. So far the Beacon had been several steps ahead of her. If she could get those documents, then maybe they’d be on even footing for once.
 
A beam of purple energy shot from her horn and hit the closest outgoing telegraph machine operator. She didn’t want to hurt her little ponies, and the blast would do little more than administer a small shock to the system. She braced herself for the coming fight.
 
Instead, the pony that she hit with the beam stopped what she was doing and immediately collapsed into a pile. The Princess gasped in alarm, and though she didn’t hear it, it was apparent that others did.
 
She watched as they faced her and motioned in her direction. It was unnerving to see them move and act so deliberately while their eyes still stared off, unfocused into the distance. Instead of attacking the Princess, the ponies stood there and tried to talk with the Princess. When talking failed, she felt one of the unicorns probe at her magical mental barriers. She smirked.
 
It was going to take a lot more than that to get into her head. She zapped him with the same blast that incapacitated the previous pony, but when it hit him nothing happened. Puzzled, she tried again, and again there was no result.
 
Oh. Oh right. Memetic Harmonization. The whole defensive adaptation thing.
 
She laughed to herself, though she didn’t hear it. As four of the ponies lined up to approach her at the same time, she mused on a new hypothesis. The Princess conjured up an age spell, and a prismatic burst of energy hit each of the four. When the dust cleared, there were two unconscious toddlers on the ground and two ponies still came at her. Though one of them was now a toddler, the other was completely unaffected. 

As the two remaining ponies approached her, she hit them both with an anger spell. Interestingly, there was no discernible reaction in the ponies. She went through several other emotive spells. Happiness, love, sadness, giddiness. There appeared to be no change in any of these cases. She nodded to herself and updated her notes.
 
MY SEARCH FOR A CONTROL GROUP CONTINUES. FOR SIMPLICITY’S SAKE, I AM GOING TO REFER TO THE PONIES THAT FALL UNDER THE CONTROL OF THE BEACON OF ORDER AS CORRUPTED PONIES. I SEE NO OTHER WAY TO MEANINGFULLY IDENTIFY THEM AS A GROUP AND I BELIEVE THE TERM ACCURATELY DEMONSTRATES THE DIRE NATURE OF THEIR CONDITION.
 
IT APPEARS THAT ANY SPELL THAT AFFECTS A CORRUPTED PONY’S PHYSIOLOGY CAN INCAPACITATE THE VICTIM. UNFORTUNATELY, ONCE A SPELL HAS BEEN USED AGAINST A CORRUPTED PONY SUCCESSFULLY, THE BEACON’S MEMETIC HARMONIZATION REDUCES THE VIABILITY OF FUTURE APPLICATIONS OF THAT SPELL TO A NEAR ZERO SUM.
 
INTERESTINGLY, MULTIPLE CORRUPTED PONIES CAN BE AFFECTED BY THE SAME SPELL AT THE SAME TIME, IF, AS STATED PREVIOUSLY, IT IS THE FIRST TIME THE SPELL HAS BEEN CAST ON ANY CORRUPTED PONY.
 
WORRYINGLY, THIS WILL MAKE FIGHTING AGAINST THE BEACON THAT MUCH HARDER, AS I CAN ONLY IMAGINE THAT INDEPENDENT UNICORN ATTACKS AGAINST CORRUPTED PONIES WILL STRENGTHEN THE WHOLE OF THEM. OUR BEST EFFORTS AGAINST THIS NEW MENACE WILL REQUIRE STRICT COORDINATION AND CONTAINMENT.
 
Twilight felt an odd sensation in her left forehoof and looked down. The remaining conscious toddler had begun to gnaw on her.

Ew.
 
Instinctively she teleported the toddler away and into a crib that she materialized into the room. The toddler was out by the time it hit the mattress. Twilight groaned in frustration.
 
Great. Just great, Sparkle. There goes teleportation. Now they’re all immune to it.
 
She looked away from the napping toddler, and noticed that the rest of the ponies, even the previously unaware incoming message operators were furiously carving something into the floorboards. It appeared to be a perfect circle that was inlaid with complex runes in shapes and patterns that…
 
Wait, is that... A summoning circle? Oh horseapples, it is!
 
With a silent shout, lightning roared from the tip of her horn and hit each of the ponies. Some went down, four stayed up. The circle was almost complete. She cast a simple fixit spell onto the circle, and the wood floor healed itself of its arcane carvings. Realizing they’d have to start all over again, all but one of them opted to charge the Princess instead.
 
She dodged each blow as they came, choosing to not hit back in case their adaptation included physical attacks as well. Besides, she had plenty of magic up her sleeves. She extended her will onto all three of their faces, and two of the ponies grew mustaches. One of them fell over, but the other two pressed on.
 
While dodging a clumsy left hook, she noticed the smell of something burning. The one pony who wasn’t fighting her had set a corner of the room on fire. It wasn’t hard to do, what with the dry paper supplies and machine oil stored in the room. The whole building was going to go up like a tinderbox.
 
Thinking fast, she sent a bolt of eldritch might into the two ponies attacking her, and they both dropped to the ground. She dropped her cone of silence and the rush of various sounds including her own heart beating in her ears caught up to her.
 
The lone pony slowly walked towards the fire, chanting “Order over chaos. The Beacon will save us. Order over chaos. The Beacon will save us.”
 
The Princess hit her with a ziplip spell, and the poor thing fell to the ground. Gathering her notes as well as her thoughts, she frowned as the fire spread all along the back wall, fully consuming the translated messages from the incoming telegraph stations.. She wouldn’t have time to save the papers and get everypony to safety. Cursing to herself, Princess Twilight wrapped up each of the unconscious ponies in magical auras and exited the building. 
 
Once outside, it was apparent the jovial atmosphere from earlier had evaporated, burned off by the fire that even now tickled the roof of the telegraph office.
 
As she lowered the twleve unconscious ponies to the ground in front of the emergency medical ponies the city guard had on standby, she released those poor corrupted souls from the magical spells she put on them. Mustaches disappeared, lips were unzipped, and toddlers grew to adults in the blink of an eye.
 
She turned to scan the building for anypony she might of missed. As she reached out into the ether, she again felt the prying presence of the Beacon of Order, scanning the ley lines for any sign of her. Sensing that the building was empty, she quickly pulled her innerself back into the physical realm.
 
Overhead, a group of Canterlot Weather Patrol ponies hauled in some rainclouds filled to the brim with water to douse the flames. As they worked to combat the flames, the Princess turned to the Guardsmare who had previously tried to stop her from entering.
 
“Holly Berry, you are aware that there is a general evacuation order, are you not?”
 
The pony looked nervously at the irked Goddess. “Err… Yes, Your Highness. Though I received the order no more than an hour ago.”
 
“Ah. Well then, can you tell me why all these ponies are standing around out here, instead of being evacuated to the shelters beneath the castle?”
 
“It’s uh… not my department?” Officer Berry answered hesitantly.
 
The Princess said nothing, but her twitching left eye said everything.
 
Holly Berry stood still for another second before deciding that not being turned into a frog was the better part of valor. She spun around and ran into the crowd of ponies - guard and civilian alike - and began organizing their evacuation efforts.
 
The Princess began organizing her notes when she heard a small, pained voice. She looked down and tried to identify the source of the sound. Then, she spotted him. The first pony she hit with the static shock spell. He was lying on the ground, being treated by medical staff, but he was still trying to get her attention. She leaned down and gave him her ear.
 
 “It’s taken Ponyville.”
 
“The Beacon?” asked Twilight.
 
The stallion nodded as best he could, but it looked like it took a significant amount of energy to do so.
 
“It has control of the telegraph lines. It has a train, heading south towards Hoofston. It… it…”
 
The Princess nodded emphatically. “Yes? What else?”
 
“It’s coming here. Tonight. It wants your power to... fight… Discord.” With that the poor stallion passed out, and two emergency aid workers got him loaded onto a stretcher to go along with the others.  Princess Twilight blipped once more out of existence.




 
Back at the Undersecretary’s office, the room was once again its original size, with ponies gathered around Straight Lace’s desk. Mercifully, instead of shouting at each other, they were engaged in idle conversations. The General and the Admiral were having a spirited discussion on the potential application of strategic pie launching facilities located in designated bakery platforms out at sea. Mr. Miles and Ms. Island were discussing which of their children they were most proud of.
 
Quick Name said nothing as he stood guard over the room, and Spellbound fidgeted with his guard uniform nervously. Sandy and Straight Lace struck up a conversation about shortbread recipes, and Smarty Pants was going through a stack of old scrolls. Honeycrisp had left the room to go bug Trixie some more, and she was the only one not there when the Princess teleported back in with an exasperated grunt.
 
Smarty Pants leapt up and ran to her mentor and offered her a hug, which was gladly returned.

“Was I right? Was it the Beacon?”
 
“Yes, Smarty Pants, you were right.”
 
The little filly spun around in a tight circle, giggling to herself. She loved being right.
 
“Though I’d rather you weren’t this time. Several ponies were hurt, and the telegraph office is burning down as we speak.”
 
Smarty Pants stopped in her tracks and eeped, offering a barely audible apology.
 
Princess Twilight walked to the desk. “I have it on good authority that the Beacon of Order is on its way to Canterlot. It’ll be here tonight. I don’t know what kind of force it has with it, but I do know that it’s taken control of Ponyville.”
 
A wave of concern washed over everpony present. This was ill news indeed.
 
“Additionally, the Beacon has commandeered a train in Ponyville, and has sent it south to Hoofston where it can establish a base of operations in the southern part of the country. To make matters worse, we have no way of warning them because…”
 
The concern morphed into dread, and the Princess continued.
 
“Because the Beacon has taken control of our nation’s telegraph lines. This means that its influence can spread at a much faster rate all over Equestria. Without access to the telegraph lines we’ve lost our primary method of communication. We need options. What do we got?”
 
There was silence. Soon, the silence erupted into panic.
 
“I have family in Hoofston!”
 
“Without the telegraph lines, how can we—“
 
“Tonight? The Beacon of Order is going to be here toni—“
 
“Can’t we just give him Discord and be done with it? What has he ever done for us anywa—“
 
“Nono, I think our idea was good before! Someone help me get these cardboard wings back o—“
 
A sharp whistle cut into the din and the room went silent. Quick Name cleared his voice and offered a suggestion.
 
“Princess, if I may.”
 
“Of course, Quick Name.”
 
“Princess, twenty years ago, before we had the telegraph, when the Emergency Council needed to send a warning message to all of Equestria, we used eclipses of various length, did we not?”
 
The Princess smacked herself in the head. Of course! It was so simple! Years ago, before the advent of the telegraph, and long after dragon’s fire fell out of use due to ethical concerns, the Solar and Lunar Courts would create a solar eclipse. The length of the eclipse would tell ponies all over the world what kind of emergency it was and whether or not they should come to Canterlot’s aid or…
 
“We can use a three minute eclipse!”
 
Smarty Pants tilted her head to the side, trying to wrap her brain around the new concept. “Huh?”
 
Princess Twilight smiled and felt the burden of helplessness float away. “I can’t believe I forgot. Years ago, whenever there was an emergency like this…”
 
Sandy’s eyes went wide “There have been emergencies like this before?”
 
General Iron Sights laughed and ruffled the green pegasus’ mane. “Sure have, missy! Seems like there’s some big catastrophy that threatens the whole world every now and again. The last one was a little over a decade ago. Why, I bet you weren’t even a twinkle in your mother's eye back then, haha. You should thank your lucky stars for that, though. It was a doozy.”
 
Sandy fixed her mane as best she could and muttered “I’m fourteen years old…” but the General didn’t hear her. The Princess continued her explanation.
 
“When the need was great, we here in Canterlot could send a message by creating an eclipse. A three minute eclipse means ‘don't talk to strangers, get indoors, and wait for the all clear.’
 
“What’s the all clear?” asked Smarty Pants.
 
“It’s another eclipse. That one’s only a minute long though.”
 
“That’s great, Princess!” offered Spellbound as sincerely as he could. “Though that doesn’t do anything about stopping the Beacon, it just warns the rest of Equestria. What next?”
 
Princess Twilight lowered her head until it almost touched the ground. “I don’t know, Spellbound. We need Princess Celestia and Princess Luna to stop the Beacon. Unless we find them, I don’t know how we’re going to do.“
 
“Princess?” ask Smarty Pants. She scuffed a forehoof along the floor as she continued. “We uh… we have a lead on Princess Luna.”
 
The Princess' head shot back up “You do? Really? She galloped over the short distance to pick up the little earthpony, and she began to shake her up and down excitedly. Up. And down. And up. And down. Over and over again.

“Smarty Pants, you sneaky little thing you, why didn’t you tell me sooner? This is great news!”
 
Smarty Pants tried to answer, but instead her face changed from a delightfully light shade of brown, to a decidedly queasy shade of green. The Princess noticed a bit too late
and set her back down on Straight Lace’s desk.
 
"Oh dear." said Twilight

“Hork!” gurgled Smarty Pants
 
“Oh my!” whispered Sandy
 
“Oh no!” shouted Straight Lace
 
Say what you will about the constitution of earthponies, but when they throw up all over the place, they really throw up all over the place. Needless to say, it was a good thing there was a mop, a bucket, and an immortal Goddes of Magic in the room because anything less wouldn’t have got those stains out.
 
Laying there, prone on the desk and waiting for the room to stop spinning, she offered four words.
 
“Cloudsdale… Rainbow Factory… Fire…” and she fell unconscious.
 
Just then a hyperventilating Honeycrisp ran into the room, barreling past Quick Name and wrapping herself around Princess Twilight’s foreleg.
 
“FROSTMARE! IT’S THE FROSTMARE! SHE ATE MY DOG AND NOW SHE’S GONNA EAT ME!”
 
The rest of the ponies in the room stared at the strange little unicorn. But as they did, they all noticed  an icy draft waft in from the door.
 
“Hello everypony, I… I’m sorry does anypony else smell that? That awful vomity smell. Mixed with body paint and… waffles?"
 
Princess Twilight turned the face the familiar voice with a perplexed smile on her face. “Rarity? Is that you?”
 
The Crystal Empress stood to her full height, looking ever the same as she always has, except for her crystalline coat and mane. When she spoke, vapor left her mouth and with each word the room felt a little colder.
 
“Well of course, darling, who else would I be?”