//------------------------------//
// The End of the B Team, part 1 
// Story: The B Team 
// by Sozmioi 
//------------------------------//


Shortly following the events of Princess Twilight Sparkle






Twilight Sparkle entered hesitantly. "Princess Celestia, you called for me?"

Celestia had already smiled at her entrance. "Come, sit. Good work with the Summer Sun celebration." She gestured with her head out the window to the afternoon sun.

Twilight smiled. "Thank you. I was worried it would seem tacked-on. Cadence never did anything like that, did she?"

"No; her role lies on the ground. Yours, in the sky, with us. Your cutie mark does mean something."

"Huh. That reminds me of something. When I saw the Tree of Harmony, it already had our cutie marks on it, over a thousand years before we were born. How... how could there even be a B-team?"

Celestia laughed. "The connection did not actually occur to us until after you had retrieved them - I had not memorized the symbols, and had last seen them a thousand years ago. Regardless, their shapes are not so precise as that. A great many ponies would fit. But yes, theirs fit better than most. Mistral's tornado, for instance, is exactly the same shape as Rainbow Dash's rainbow-lightning and Curry's letter-lightning." A short pause. "I just wrote a letter releasing them from their special service."

"Special... service?"

"Yes; they stood ready, in secret. When you defeated Discord, my sister was already bringing them from Fillydelphia, and would have arrived in half an hour."

"That... that's a big relief. But I'm glad you didn't tell me. If I'd known, I might have just given up and let them take care of it."

"Quite. And if you had known, then Discord could have found out, and the element of surprise would have been lost."

"Yeah, without that one, the other six wouldn't matter so much. Still, quite a risk, just throwing them to a group of good friends and hoping it works."

"I see you did not read their file to the end! I did not only bring the elements back to Canterlot for secrecy, but also so we could test them. Randomly selected virtuous ponies could not get a response. But they did. Not as strong a response as you have now, but if there had been need, I suspect it would have been enough."

Twilight Sparkle swallowed. That just reinforced the recent notion that the elements weren't what bound her and her friends. "If I'd read that I would have had an easier time of freeing you from those chaos vines." She pursed her lips. "How did I do at that?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow and replied, "You tell me."

"Terribly. I didn't stop and think for five seconds, and that cost us hours. For instance, once I knew to go to Ponyville, did I order a contingent of pegasi with chariots to bring me and guard me? No. If I had done that, then once I knew what to do, we could have all flown straight to the castle and down to the tree with no trouble at all."

"The skies were treacherous around the castle, but yes, you could have gotten much closer. Good."

Twilight took a moment. "I really blew it by accusing instead of asking Discord."

Celestia narrowed her eyes. "I doubt he would have volunteered that information even if you had asked nicely. And you were correct that he did do it. More serious was your attempting to threaten him, however obliquely, without checking with Fluttershy."

"Why did you free him, anyway? It doesn't seem like even you think he has been reformed."

"Not yet, and maybe never, yet we still need him. You are no longer my student, but here are three questions to consider: Of all places in Equestria, what most strongly bears the mark of Discord? How much effort do we spend on things that place takes care of on its own? How has this changed over time?"

It took Twilight Sparkle only a moment to piece it together. "Has Winter Wrap-up been getting more and more difficult, the longer Discord was sealed?"

"Winter Wrap-up is a tradition only seven hundred years old, and then was only needed every few years, Twilight. Not since the Wendigos' winter had anypony needed to restart the flow of the seasons. The Running of the Leaves is only two hundred years old. Within a thousand years, nothing would bloom unless specially woken by an Earth pony, and that would be the end of Equestria as we know it." Celestia gave Twilight an intense look. "This is absolutely secret - I only mention it now because I have secured this room against Discord's intrusions. He must not know that we need him for something so fundamental."

"He can spy that easily? What... what about the records about us and the B-team?"

"That is protected simply by its being kept in the most boring-looking place Canterlot - an archive of bureaucratic records. Speaking of which, would you like a pleasant duty?"

"Oh?"

"Deliver the letters releasing the B-team. You may bring your friends."

"What about Rainbow Dash?"

"There is no need to send Ms. Param a letter."

"Oh right, the B-team was if we fell apart as a team. Rainbow Dash's substitution was entirely separate."

She continued, "I recommend that you set out immediately."

"How can I find them?"

Celestia levitated over the letter, then focused on it for a moment. "It will guide you."

"How?"

Celestia sighed, the opportunity for the joke lost by Twilight's newfound stopping-to-think-things-through. "The address is shown on your tickets to Gallowaz' show tonight."

Twilight accepted it. "Thank you!" She trotted out and asked one of the guards, "How can I arrange for two chariots?"

Celestia smiled. It is nice to be able to release two of the great secrets I've kept from her.