“Rarity!” Twilight rushed forward and hugged her old friend, ignoring the bitter cold that came with touching her. “What in the wide world of Equestria are you doing here?”
“Well it’s your birthday, silly! Why wouldn’t I want to see my dearest friend on her birthday? Oh, speaking of which…” She levitated a small pristinely wrapped package out of the hallway behind her and presented it to Twilight. “Happy Birthday.”
Twilight offered the glimmering white unicorn a broad grin as she opened the package. “Oh, Rarity. You didn’t need to do tha— My brush!” she gasped. “Oh Rarity, this is my favorite brush! I lost it years ago. How did you find it?”
Rarity tittered. “Actually I was hoping you could tell me. It all happened late one night, some five years ago, when this brute of a brush came crashing through my bedroom window and impaled itself into my favorite self-portrait. Oh, You know the one. It had that...”
As Rarity spoke, Twilight had a sudden flashback.
Five years ago? On my 500th birthday? Wasn’t that the night that Smarty Pants came in with the cake? There was the headboard incident, the drinking contest, the horrible burp,the shower, the… oh Celestia, I dropped that brush on my horn and then…”
“…uite the scandal in the Empire. Rumors spread like wildfire that I had gone into one of my tantrums again. Did you know it took me two days to convince my little ponies to come out of their fallout shelters?”
Twilight pinned her ears back against her skull and chuckled nervously. “Heh heh. You don’t say.”
“I do say, and… oh, my,” sheepishly, she looked around at the other ponies in the room. “I just walked right in and took over the conversation, didn’t I? Terribly sorry.”
She laughed at her own shortcoming, before continuing. “You know, being the Immortal and Infallible Ruler of a Glorious Empire does tend to go to a girl’s head. But that’s no excuse for rudeness! I’ll wait outside for you Twilight, dear.”
The Crystal Empress turned and walked out the door and the temperature in the room began to rise back to a comfortable level.
“Your Grace?”
Twilight turned to face her stoic friend and leader of her Arcane Guard, Quick Name.
“What is your plan?”
Twilight rubbed her chin in thought for a moment before answering. “Well, we know that the Beacon of Order is on its way here tonight. We also know that finding Princess Celestia and Princess Luna is our only hope of stopping it.”
Smarty Pants, eager to reiterate the information she and the two fillies discovered earlier, said “And the last Princess Luna sighting was in Cloudsdale!”
Princess Twilight nodded at her apprentice. “Correct, Smarty Pants.”
“The telegraph systems have been taken over by the Beacon and its corrupted ponies. So outside of an eclipse, we don’t have any means of long distance communication,” grunted General Iron Sights.
Straight Lace looked up from her desk, where she was still scrubbing away, hoping to get the vomit smell out. “Twilight, do you still want us to organize that three minute eclipse?”
Twilight started to nod, but stopped half way through. “Yes… though, thinking on the good General’s words…”
A fresh scroll and a quill filled with ink materialized before the Princess and she began to write furiously.
“Are you making a list?” asked Smarty Pants.
Twilight, focused on her writing, didn’t look away from the paper when she answered the light brown earth pony. “I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner. I’m writing a message to Cadence explaining everything that’s happened and what we’re planning. Since she’s in Cloudsdale, I’m telling her that you and I will be there soon.”
She wrapped up the message and gave it a once over for penmareship, spelling errors, and proper grammar. Honeycrisp said something, but she missed it. With a poof, she sent the letter along zipping along its way to her Alicorn sister.
“What was that, Honeycrisp?” asked Twilight.
“I said ‘I’m coming to Cloudsdale too’.” She answered with a snort.
“Why do you want to go?” Smarty Pants asked her red cousin.
“A bunch of reasons!” she counted them off one by one on her hooves. “My Pop’s always going on and on about the Rainbow Factory there, and I want to see it. This Beacon nonsense is partly my fault. No respectable Apple is gonna let some other pony fix their mistakes. Pants here is gonna need somepony with a lick of sense to help her and watch her pl—“
Twilight stuck a hoof in the unicorn’s mouth. “Okay, okay, you’re in.”
A green pegasus fluttered in between her unicorn friend and the Princess. Though she quivered slightly, she had an uncharacteristic intensity in her eyes. Shemuttered something from behind her wings.
“Er… Come again?” asked Princess Twilight, patiently.
Honeycrisp stepped up and roped a foreleg around the pegasus’ neck. Looking at the Princess, she grinned fiercely. “Sandy said she’s coming too!”
Sandy grinned appreciably at her newest friend. Smarty Pants walked over to the other side of her and patted her on the back.
“Way to be, Sandy!” She turned to look at her beloved teacher. “Can we all go?”
As if sensing weakness, the three girls activated the power that all adorable fillies have. With wide eyes, they pouted as one.
“Gah!” Twilight reeled back, trying in vain to tear her eyes away from the heartwarming sight. “There should be a law agai—“
“PLEAAAAASE!” they begged in unison.
“Okay, okay! You can come, just… Meet me outside.”
The three girls giggled and pranced in place before galloping out of the room. Twilight laughed softly to herself as she turned to follow them out the door.
“Uh, Princess Twilight?”
The Princess turned to look at Spellbound, still standing at attention next to his superior. She tilted her head to the side and smiled. “Yes?”
Spellbound swallowed hard. The Princess, his Princess, stood there gazing at him as her dark hair coiled and rolled through the air around her head, like it was floating in some kind of water, or something.
“Can I come, too? I mean, I did everything you asked me to do! Maybe I can help your research efforts in Cloudsdale, or—”
“Spellbound.” As soon as she said his name, his mouth went dry and his heart soared. Oh, he could stare into those eyes all day.
“I need you to stay here with Ruby Star. Find out what she needs done and do it.”
The stallion, still a youth in the eyes of his peers, deflated immediately. His shoulders slumped and his own gaze fell to the floor.
The Princess started to turn to leave again, before remembering one last thing. “Oh and I need you to find Discord. Either one of them.”
Spellbound, momentarily forgetting his own pity party, looked up in confusion. “There’s more than one Discord?”
Twilight sighed. “Yes, there’s one from the future too. Anyway, go find a Discord and tell him that he’s in charge of Canterlot’s Defense.”
Incredulous gasps filled the air.
“Princess, you cannot be serious!” bemoaned Quick Name.
“Discord? In charge of defending all of Canterlot?” bellowed General Iron Sights. “I’d rather eat my hat than take orders from that… that…”
“Yes I quite agree, General.” The seapony, Admiral Snack Bar, huffed with agitation as he splashed around in his aquasphere. “Why, the first thing any cadet in the armed forces learns is how to fight against Discord and his nefarious tricks! Putting him in charge of defense of the capital? Treason I say!”
The murmuring ponies began to rise in volume, and Twilight was worried they were about to start shouting again. She tried to get their attention but failed on multiple occasions. She watched as Straight Lace pulled the cork out of her bottle of Emergency Meeting Gin, and something snapped .
“We don’t have time for this!” shouted the Goddess of Magic.
The Princess stomped a hoof and a peal of thunder rolled through the cramped office of the Senate Undersecretary and everypony went silent. Straight Lace dropped her gin. Rubbing a hoof along the bridge of her muzzle with her eyes squeezed shut, Princess Twilight ranted on.
“Let’s see a show of hooves, folks. Who traveled back from the future to tell me that they already beat the Beacon of Order? Hmm? Anypony? Go ahead and raise a hoof if you did, no need to be shy.”
Nopony raised a hoof.
“No? Well then, my vote goes to the God who already beat the thing. Anypony want to nominate a different candidate? No? Discord it is. Meeting adjourned.” The Princess left in a huff.
Princess Twilight grumbled to herself as she approached the doors that left the Gateway of Knowledge and lead out to the streets of Canterlot.
“Ponies. Can’t live with them, can’t banish them to the moon.”
Twilight glanced over her shoulder and saw the shimmering visage of Trixie standing on her pedestal, trying to flatten the somehow ruffled fur on her chest.
“Well, I could, I just wouldn’t want to. It’s rather messy.”
Trixie’s eyes went wide and she looked up from what she was doing to squint at the Alicorn. “You can banish ponies to the moon? Since when, Sparkle?”
“Since always,” lied Twilight, “It’s one of the perks of living in the Moon Tower.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
As Twilight turned away to take a deep calming breath, she peppered Trixie with questions. “Tell me, Trixie, any new plans to best me?”
“Curse you, Twilight Sparkle!” Trixie’s hologram sat with a huff. “Yes. Trixie has hundreds of plans to defeat, humble, and humiliate you. Dozens of them are new, since the last time you asked.”
“Anything I should be worried about?” Twilight asked nonchalantly as she casually inspected a forehoof.
Trixie grimaced as she tried desperately to not answer the question. But as the holographic steward of the Gateway of Knowledge, she knew that her cortex was programmed to always answer a question truthfully when she was able to. It usually wasn’t a problem, but then again Twilight Sparkle usually didn’t ask her questions.
“I might… definitely… have three… four that would work.”
Trixie tried tp cover her own mouth as if it would somehow stop her from offering additional information. “Would… you like to… know what they are?”
The poor hologram was panting at this point, and the constant hum that reverberated through the room was more like a dull whine as the clockwork in Trixie’s holographic projector worked against itself. One of the doors leading out into the city was gripped in a purple glow and opened on its own.
“No, you can keep your secrets for now.” Twilight tossed a wink at her old rival. “It’s been too long since I’ve had to match wits with the Great and Powerful Trixie.”
She walked out the door and it shut behind her.
Leveling her eyes at door after it shut, Trixie squared her jaw. “Just you wait, Twilight Sparkle. Just you wait.”
Standing on the steps leading into the Senate building, Twilight looked around for Rarity and the girls. It was harder to spot them than she thought it would be, what with the veritable sea of ponies moving through the streets.
“Princess! Princess, over here!”
Twilight spotted her friend, her prized protégé, Sandy, and the red barnacle-like unicorn that stuck desperately to her feathered friend, not daring to make eye contact with Rarity. They were standing on the other side of the street out of the one-way-flow of traffic.
A moment later Twilight teleported over to them.
“Hi Princess!” said Smarty Pants cheerfully.
“Hi Quick Name!” said Sandy, looking just to the Princess’ left side.
Princess Twilight looked to her left and was surprised to see the Captain of her Arcane Guard standing there looking for all the world as if he had always been there. She opened her mouth to say something, but thought better of it.
“So, off to Cloudsdale are we?” asked Rarity “It’s been years since I’ve been there. Oh, this is going to be so exciting!”
Twilight looked to her friend with wide eyes. “You’re coming too?”
“Well of course, darling. It’s the End of the World again, isn’t it? What kind of all-power Empress would I be if I didn’t see to the needs of Equestria at large?”
Twilight, genuinely taken back by her friend’s sincerity, stammered. “Rarity, that’s…”
“Not to mention that things are so dreadfully boring right now in the Crystal Empire.” The ice-cold Empress stated flatly. “Why, I’d wager that a pinch of danger and a dash of roughhousing is just what the doctor ordered, yes?”
“Princess?” asked Smarty Pants, gesturing to the countless vaguely distressed looking ponies who walked past them. “Where are all these ponies going?”
Twilight looked up and around. Every street and thoroughfare around them was filled with ponies walking towards a singular location; the castle. Some carried bags, some pulled carts. All of them looked anxious.
“We’re evacuating everypony to the shelters in the crystal caverns beneath the castle.” she said with a small sigh. “It’s the safest place to be in Canterlot in an emergency after all. Did you know that It can hold thousands of ponies and has enough food and supplies to last for weeks?”
Nopony answered, and the group fell silent as they watched as the parade of apprehensive ponies file off into the distance.
Sandy hugged herself with fluttering wings and asked the question on everypony’s mind. “Everything’s going to be okay, right?”
Princess Twilight looked down at the little green filly and gave her a brave smile. “Yes, Sandy, we’re all going to be fine. Come on, let’s get to that castle. We have a flight to catch.”
As the mid-morning faded into noon, Twilight, Rarity, Quick Name, and the three girls entered the Western Sky-Chariot Hangar of Canterlot Castle. Curiously, they were not alone.
“Mommy!” squealed Sandy. The pegasus zipped through the air and plowed into her adopted mother, Powder Puff, bowling them both over.
“Hello Sandy, off on another adventure?”
“Mmhmm! We’re going to Cloudsdale.”
“So I heard.”
“Really?” asked Princess Twilight skeptically.
Powder Puff giggled. “Word travels fast around the castle.” She threw a wink to Quick Name, who immediately began to busy himself with preparing a large chariot for their trip.
“Uh huh.” Concluded the Princess.
Powder Puff’s white horn gave off a brilliant glow and a small white box floated over to Rarity, who grabbed it with a magical aura of her own.
“I packed you all a lunch. Can’t save the world on an empty stomach, after all!” she smiled sweetly at the assembled ponies.
“The chariot is ready, Princess.” Instructed Quick Name with a curt salute.
“Okay ponies, let’s find us a Princess.”
Twilight’s entourage walked over to the chariot and started filing in. Quick Name climbed in first, followed by Honeycrisp, who practically wrapped herself around one of the stallion’s back legs in her effort to get as many ponies as possible between herself and The Frostmare.
Smarty Pants was next on chariot. “Come on, Sandy!” she called out to her friend.
Sandy gave her mommy one last big squeeze, and then fluttered away “Coming!”
Rarity and Powder Puff exchanged a brief hug and the crystal white unicorn made her way onto the chariot, pretending not to notice the fearful look in Honeycrisp’s eyes.
The Princess took a step towards the chariot, when she felt a hoof tap her on the shoulder.
“Princess? Another word, if you’d be so kind?”
Twilight turned and smiled at her Chief Pastry Chef. “Of course, Powder Puff.”
The two ponies took a few steps away from the rest of the group, and Powder Puff looked Twilight in the eye with such unusual seriousness that Twilight felt she might wilt under the chubby mare’s scrutiny.
“Princess, Sandy hasn’t been to Cloudsdale since she left the orphanage. She didn’t care for it there. I’m counting on you to be there for her if she has any… problems.”
“Of course Powder Puff. You have my word I’ll take care of her as if she were my own foal.”
Powder Puff kept her stare fixed on the Princess’ face, looking for any sign of deceit or weakness. Finding none, she smiled.
“And take care of yourself too, dearie. You look like you haven’t eaten days.”
Happy to be back on familiar ground with the chef, Twilight grinned. “Hay, that’s not fair! You fed me waffles this morning. It’s a wonder I’m not a big fat ball of fur the way you feed me.”
“Yes,” smirked the pudgy baker as she started off down the hall back towards the castle proper, “will wonders never cease?”
Twilight scrunched up her face in thought. Did Powder Puff just say what she thought she said? She looked down and began to absentmindedly poke at her midsection.
“Twilight, if you’re worried about your figure, I’d be happy whip up something sliming for you when we get to Cloudsdale.” Rarity tapped a hoof to her chin. “Perhaps something black... With a corset?”
Twilight groaned at the good natured ribbing and turned to get on the chariot. She sat down in the center of the chariot and her horn gave off a soft hum as it and chariot both began to glow. Like a shot, the chariot took off into the air towards their destination.
As they flew, the wind began to whip and roar around them. Just as the sound was getting to be unbearable, a purple bubble expanded from the tip of the Goddess of Magic’s horn, and the air inside the chariot was as still as any spring day at Sweet Apple Acres.
The first hour of the flight was uneventful. The two ancient rulers chatted about their various kingdoms. Sandy desperately clutched one of Quick Name’s forelegs because she was terrified of heights. Honeycrisp gripped one of Quick Name’s backlegs because she was terrified of Rarity. Quick Name suffered in silent dignity.
As Twilight talked with Rarity, she couldn’t help but noticed how intently Smarty Pants watched the two of them.
“Yes, Smarty Pants?”
“Oh. Uh, nothing. Sorry.” The little filly looked away and tried to hide under her wavy red mane.
“Nonsense, dear,” dismissed Rarity as she ran a brush through her deep purple mane “You’ve been gawking at us talk this whole time. Come now, what’s on your mind?”
“Are… are you the Rarity that was friends with Twilight and Fluttershy and Applejack and Pinkie Pie?”
“You forgot Rainbow Dash, darling, but yes. I was good friends with all of them. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you see…” Smarty Pants grabbed her mane with one forehoof and started petting it with the other. “I’m, uh. Princess Twilight told me that you were mad at Pinkie Pie for marrying Fancy Pants.”
Rarity blinked in equal parts confusion and surprise. “My goodness, that was so very long ago.” She turned to address her oldest friend, a look of hurt in her eyes.. “Twilight, do you tell all your personal students the awful truths of my distant past?”
“No! That is… ugh.” Twilight winced. Wracking her brain looking for a solution, her eyes flew open and she smiled broadly. “Perhaps it would help if I properly introduced you two.”
Twilight coughed slightly into a hoof and sat up with regal purpose, facing Smarty Pants.
“Lady Smarty Pants, may I present to you The Crystal Empress Rarity Belle, Ageless Guardian of the Northern Wastes, Former Bearer of the Element of Generosity, and Owner of the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville.”
Smarty Pants took Rarity’s proffered hoof in a dainty hoofshake.
“A pleasure.”
“Likewise.”
Twilight turned to face Rarity, her poise maintained.
“Your Grace, may I present to you, The Lady Smarty Pants, The Most Faithful Student of Princess Twilight Sparkle, Direct Descendant of Duchess Pinkie Pie, Duke Fancy Pants, Lady Fluttershy, Mr. Big McIntosh, and Distant Niece to Ms. Applejack.”
Rarity’s grip on the little girl’s hoof tightened ever so slightly and she widened her gaze considerably to take in the girl, as if for the first time. “Truly?” she whispered.
Still managing to hide ever-so-slightly behind her mane, Smarty Pants nodded. “You’re not mad at me, are you?”
Rarity released the girl’s hoof and brought her own to her chest. “Mad at you? Darling, why would I be mad at you?”
“Because you were mad at my really-great grandma and my really-great grandpa for getting married.”
“Sweetie, that was so long ago. I could never be mad at you for that. And look at you! You’re simply adorable! Why, now that it’s been brought to my attention I don’t know how I didn’t notice it sooner. There’s so much Applejack in you. And Pinkie Pie. Oh, and the way you hide behind your mane like that...”
“Fluttershy.” finished Twilight.
Rarity laughed her chime-like laughter and began excitedly clapping her front hooves together. “Oh, this is so exciting! We should go to the spa! I’ve so dearly missed my spa dates with Fluttershy.”
The icy-white crystal unicorn hoisted the light brown filly into the air with her magic to get a better look at from every angle. “Twilight, do you think this Beacon of Order fellow can wait long enough for us to stop by the Ponyville spa? It’s simply been ages.”
Twilight frowned. “Ponyville’s… not an option right now.”
Rarity set the girl down and turned to face her friend. “I recognize that tone, Twilight Sparkle. What aren’t you telling me?”
There was a moment’s hesitation, long enough for her to take a deep breath, andthen Twilight told Rarity everything she knew. How the girls awakened the Beacon. How Discord appeared from the Future to warn her. How she can’t look Beyond the Vale without the Beacon finding her.
As she talked, she described how the fight in the telegraph office went down. What the Beacon did to ponies to corrupt them. Rarity learned of Ponyville’s fate, and the impending fates of Hoofston and Canterlot. She was told everything.
As they spoke the joviality of the riders was bled out of them far above the surface of their treasured world. When Twilight finished there was a lull in the conversation. Were it not for the near-constant fluttering of Sandy’s panicked little wings, there’d be no sound at all.
“So that’s what we’re up against then, is it?”
Twilight nodded.
Rarity took a deep breath of her own and scrunched up her muzzle before she let it out with all the grace and charm of an enraged hog. “Oh, when I get my hooves on that Beacon, I’ll… I’ll…”
The fillies in the chariot shared a shriek of alarm, as they watched the unicorn’s stature shift and change to match her emotional state. The soft crystalline hairs of her white coat bristled and fused together like a jagged coat of clear rocky armor.
Her luxurious purple hair no longer bobbed and weaved happily with her movements, but clung to the nape of her neck and the top of her head like an oversized helmet. The tail of the Ageless Guardian of the Northern Wastes began to ice over from the tip. Where it brushed the floor a trail of frost was left in its wake. Rarity’s horn grew another foot in length, and hooked barbs of ice began to sprout out of the horn in random directions.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of her change was the hollowing her voice and the dimming of her eyes. She sounded far away and everywhere at once, and the girls trembled at the bitter cold that seeped into their bones. And then just as suddenly as the change had begun, it was over.
The Crystal Empress was back to her beautiful self and the only sign left that anything out of the ordinary had happened was the lingering cold in the fillies fur. Rarity summoned a brush out of thin air and sat on her rump to brush the frost out of her tail.
Blushing furiously at her uncontrolled outburst, she tried to change the subject. “S-so! Who knows a fun game to pass the time, hmm? Girls?”
Smarty Pants stared at Rarity with equal parts astonishment and wholesale curiosity. “How did you do that?! Can you teach me how to do that?”
“No games then?” asked Rarity, obviously ignoring the over-eager little pony. “All right, how about a song?”
“N-no! No singing, p-please!” stammered a still terrified Honeycrisp.
Rarity gave the little trembling unicorn a half-lidded stare. “Alright, little one, out with it. You’ve been terrified of me from the moment I first laid eyes on you. Running about all higgled-piggledy when I walked into the Senate. Have I wronged you in some way?”
Angry at the her fear of the immortal mare, Honeycrisp spat back at the icy monster. “You ate my dog!”
Rarity stared at the bizarre little pony with a blank expression. “I ate your dog?”
Honeycrisp leapt forward and pointed an accusatory hoof at the former element of generosity. “You’re the Frostmare!”
Twilight Sparkle smacked herself in the face with a hoof.
“Ah! I see. You’re an Apple, aren’t you.”
Honeycrisp nodded. Bolstered by family pride, she released her death grip on Quick Name’s hind leg.
“Jolly Green told me that you live in the Everfree Forest, and that you cast your frost magic on our apples when you’re angry!”
Rarity leaned in to face Twilight, who was rubbing her muzzle. “Jolly Green?”
“Current patriarch of the Apple family.” Whispered Twilight “He’s also an insufferable a—“
“But, Honeycrisp” said Sandy, “Rarity lives in the Crystal Empire. It’s hundreds of miles from Sweet Apple Acres.”
Honeycrisp puffed out her cheeks in indignation. “So? She could use her magic to—“
“Are you even listening to yourself, Honeycrisp?” asked her earthpony cousin “That thing we saw in the Everfree Forest was black and tendril-y, not white and crystal-y. Sure there was that frost magic, but any unicorn can do ice magic.” With a casual shrug, she added “Even you.”
Filled with competing emotions, Honeycrisp fumed. “Even me? Even me, Pants?”
Honeycrisp didn’t need a know-it-all earthpony telling her what she was doing wrong. She could feel the heat burning in her cheeks and her hair catch alight as she threw a punch at Smarty Pants. She was only vaguely aware of Smarty Pants’ protests and she kept on swinging.
The little red unicorn was a little hot under the collar and quick to anger, but nothing lit her fuse quite like somepony poking fun at her magical shortcomings. It wasn’t like she wanted to be a unicorn. She felt something cold and soothing wrap around her, but she raged on.
What good was a unicorn on a farm anyway? She couldn’t buck like an earth pony. She couldn’t haul like an earth pony. Worst of all, she couldn’t grow anything like an earth pony. It wasn’t until she heard herself sobbing into an unfamiliar purple mane before she realized she was crying at all.
Rarity nickered softly as she patted Honeycrisp on the back and the young mare cried into to her mane. She worked to cool the young mare down with her magic and calm her down with her words and actions. Soon, Honeycrisp’s magically flaming mane died down and her hair returned to its usual color and texture.
Twilight removed her protective bubble around Smarty Pants and frowned. “Are you all right?”
Smarty Pants nodded, though she rubbed the sore spot on her chin from Honeycrisp’s first punch. It was the only one that got through before the Princess put up the barrier, but it hurt. However making Honeycrisp cry hurt more.
Quick Name studied the interaction between Rarity and Honeycrisp as Sandy clung desperately to his left foreleg. Rarity lowered the girl back to the floor of the chariot, and she grumbled as she wiped the tears from her pink eyes.
“Feeling better?” asked Rarity.
“I’m fine.” She lied.
“You’re lying. I can tell.”
“So?”
“So I see that you’ve got some trouble controlling your temper. And your magic.”
Honeycrisp turned her back on Rarity and tried her best to ignore her.
“You know I used to have problems controlling my magic. And my temper too.”
Honeycrisp didn’t say anything but she sat up a bit straighter, betraying her interest in the subject.
Rarity dried her mane and offered the little pony a compassionate smile. “Well, I know just how to pass the time then. Who wants to hear a story? Perhaps the story about how I became the fearsome ‘Frostmare’ of Apple legend?”
Honeycrisp winced at the appellation, but Rarity continued with her usual grace. “And, as luck would have it, it’s also a tale of how I saved the Crystal Kingdom Empire and my friendship with Pinkie Pie at the same time."
Twilight cocked an eyebrow at her old friend. “Aren’t you laying it on a bit thick?”
“Oh please Twilight, who doesn’t like a story with a little… dramatic flair thrown in, hmm?”
Rarity cleared her throat, and began to tell her tale.
With a resounding bang, Discord re-entered the world of the now. With a splash, he entered the Rainbow Fountain on Princess Cadence’s side of the Celestial Courtyard. He screamed a girlish squeal of pain as spicy liquid rainbow splashed in his eyes.
He flopped around in the light-emitting spectrum of pain juice until he managed to roll to his left and fall out of the fountain. With a grunt he got to his knees and snapped two claws together. In an instant, the entire Celestial Courtyard was vaporized to ash. He sank to the ground and rolled onto his back.
Moments passed and he was able to blink the rest of the awful spiciness out of his eyes. Looking up at the sky, he screamed for a second time, only this time it was curses instead of screams of pain. The events he saw in the future were coming to pass. And so far, it looked like it was his fault.
His vision was blocked by fog that extended all around him throughout the whole of the courtyard. He smacked himself in the face. Of course vaporizing a rainbow fountain was going to create fog.
He rolled to his feet and stood in the ash, the hauntingly familiar feeling of the cobblestone subfloor under his feet gave him pause. He looked skyward huffed a mighty breath upwards through the fog. An opening to the sky cleared, and his eyes widened.
The sun and moon were about to form an eclipse.
He started running.
As he cleared the courtyard’s main entrance into the Millennial Ballroom, he nearly bowled over two ponies running in the opposite direction.
“Discord!” Spellbound called out in surprise as the draconequus kept running and phased through him and Ruby Star.
“Can’t talk now, need to stop the eclipse, ta ta!”
“No, Discord, wait!” Ordered Ruby Star. She spun about on the ballroom’s polished floors and tried to gallop after him, even though her momentum carried her the other way.
“Look, I’m always happy to see fans and sign autographs for 50 bits apiece, but I really must be—“
“Princess Twilight sent us to find you!” shouted Spellbound as he scrambled to keep his balance. He grabbed onto Ruby Star, and the two ponies collapsed in a pile.
Discord rolled his eyes and snapped his claws again. Two pink poofs later, and he was running down the hall with a pony under each arm.
Addressing Spellbound, Discord asked “Alright, Blue, you found me. What did old Sparkplug want?”
From under his other arm, Ruby Star answered. “The Senate Emergency council has put you in charge of Canterlot’s defense.”
Discord slammed to a halt and dropped the two ponies to the ground. He spun around and stared at Ruby Star. “Seriously?”
“Seriously.”
“They put me in charge of defending the capital?”
“Yes, sir.”
A tiny part of Discord’s mind exploded. If Spellbound or Ruby Star were at all curious about the smoke wafting out of his ears, they were too polite to say anything about it. Discord shook his head and blinked several times. Somewhere in the distance, a pane of glass broke.
“Alright, I’ll take the job.”
The two members of the Arcane Guard, helped each other to their hooves and shared sigh of relief.
“Red, Blue, you’re both with me.”
“We have names, sir.”
“And I’m… orange, not red.”
“No time, Red. We need to stop that eclipse at all costs!”
Ruby Star and Spellbound exchanged a look of confusion. “We do?”
They turned to look back at Discord, but he was already off and running down the hall. “We do!” he called out over his shoulder. “And after that, we need to get ready for the dragon attack!”
Spellbound looked back to where Ruby Star used to be standing. “Did he say dragon attack?” he asked the empty air.
But his pretty orange partner was no longer standing there. She was already running after Discord.