Land of Friendship and Magic

by Archmage Ansrit

A little variation before an eclipse

"You are dressed as Starswirl the Bearded! How can that not be hilarious?!" Prosperity laughed, seeing Twilight in that garb was even better Live.

"I still don't get it." Spike, dressed as a dragon, scratched his head.

"Me neither." Twilight said, her bells jingling. Prosperity had convinced her to get ready early, and help with the preparations.

Prosperity was dressed as the protagonist of a videogame, as Typhon's mild obsession with them meant that she had played a whole lot of them. The only reason it was not a full-blown obsession was that they actually got useful things out of it.

Momohime, from Muramasa: The Demon Blade. Hilariously, the name was composed of the characters for 'Peach' and 'Princess'.

Her body double, back in Canterlot, was wearing a blue dress with armor, marking her as Saber from the Fate series. The occasional noble complimented her on her bearing (Dragon meant hoard, hoard meant money, and the cherry on top was that she was Fancy Pants's guest).

Fleur was dressed as a Red Wizard, with Fancy being the Blue Wizard. Flitter kept her White Wizard robes, but the young yellow queen was dressed as a Black Wizard, using her illusion magic to make the necessary changes. It was not very hard to convince Celestia, already in the habit of sneaking around during Nightmare Night disguised like any other pony (with a size reduction to avoid suspicion), to get into a Green Wizard outfit. The Slenders went as themselves.

There were other ponies (and changelings) around in different costumes referencing things nopony else would understand, and it was hysterical.

"Oh, right, you don't know." Prosperity flicked the bell on top of the hat. "Are you familiar with the story of 'The stars that never fell'?"

"Of course!" Twilight answered, leaning back and raising a hoof to protect her bells (much like Starswirl himself did, for added hilarity). "It was my favorite story from when I was a filly. Did you know it dates back over one thousand four hundred years? I always asked my mom to- you know something I don't, don't you? You were alive when it was made."

"It's fairly transparent once you know its secret." Prosperity nodded.

The story, greatly shortened, was simple.

Two stars played in the night. One star fell in love with the bonfire, while the other wanted to join the clouds and the rain and the lilies.

The sun wanted to introduce the stars to other stars, but these new ones were, to their taste, too dull and too rude.

The sun was not listening, however, and the two stars would not give up their love.

The winds (sweet Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy, it really is transparent) and their guardians then decided to deceive the sun.

As soon as a big trouble appeared, the mist, the white snake, the clover, the shadow of the moon, a feather of iron, and a baby fire executed a plan to help the stars disappear after pretending to fall on top of the monsters that were causing the problems.

The winds helped the stars' parents to join them well outside of sight of the sun. They joined the tree and the swallow, and had more stars and birds and flowers. The two stars united with their loves, and became many in the twilight.

The stars did not need much, and joined the service of the sun, while the sun never knew that the stars never fell.

"Just how good was he at sneaking around?" Twilight mumbled to herself.

"This good."

"YAAH!" She screamed, jumping into the air after having somepony whispering in her ears. Prosperity caught her without trouble, holding her belly-up like a baby.

After making sure that her heart would not jump out of her mouth and run for the hills, Twilight turned to glare at the owner of the voice.

WK, dressed in a pony-fied version of the blue outfit Typhon wore when she first saw him.

"There are so many ways to move silently, that the book written about it is as thick as one and a half Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone books." He said, holding the aforementioned item in his hooves.

Only it wasn't in his hooves, as a certain purp-lavender mare had taken it no sooner had WK said 'one and a half'.

WK sighed internally from the relief. He had dodged a bullet there - a literal magic bullet, even.

"If you want to know more..." Prosperity dropped her passenger, although in such a way that she would land on her hooves. "I suggest asking your parents what happened."

Twilight, though confused, ultimately nodded, setting down the book on a reading stand for later.

"Now, if you excuse me, I have to get going before Big Macintosh steals the spotlight forever." WK said, then flew out the nearest window at high speed, leaving a white, black, and blue contrail. It happened whenever ponies used wind-shaping in flight, like him, or if they were just that magical, like Dash back in her foalhood days before she trained.

"Did he stop by just to scare Twilight?" Spike asked, scratching his head.

"I think he just wanted to do something and took the opportunity; us Pillars have been waiting for this night since forever ago." Prosperity shrugged, then, to help disguise the true meaning of her words further, she added. "Typhon introduced us to a human holiday that is a near-equivalent of this one; Halloween. We've been getting into disguises and eating metric tons of candy each year since the first one, but this is the first time I've celebrated it in Equestria with ponies that actually know who and what I am."

"Really? Since all that time ago? What kind of things did you do? Anything memorable?"

"Well, we have this... artifact, of sorts, that can switch your gender, so the others tried out their favorite costumes without care for the gender of the source. This dress used to be Typhon's, but then there was an incident because of some lecher and some... hormonal imbalances; there was fire - lots of fire - and now he avoids being a woman during the last days of the month."

"A gender-flip artifact?! That's amazing! And you used it for costumes?!" Twilight was starting to, as Spike would say, 'nerd out', but a shudder from Prosperity interrupted them.

"Not just that. See, as I grew up I absorbed parts of the human mindset, for the most part. Ponies are much more liberal in certain aspects than humans. Everypony I was involved with was even more liberal than that."

"Huh?" Spike was confused, the meaning having sailed right over his head.

"Wait." Twilight was perceptive, and noticed that Prosperity was getting rather pink. "Did they...?"

"I still do not know what to wear." Wind Whistler shifted from side to side, trotting down the hallway. "The date by itself may not hold much cultural significance to me; however, it is still a celebration that I like to share with all of you."

"You'll find something, don't worry; there is plenty of time still." Clover placed a calming hoof on his shoulders. "Why won't we go see what 'she' is wearing? Maybe somepony gave her an idea, which you can then mirror - like that time you went as a king and she was your queen."

Whistler just laughed as Clover gave him a conspiratorial nudge to the ribs. Then they opened the door to the bedroom.

"Hello, do you like the costume I chose?" A grey pegasus mare laid on her side on top of the bed. The two by the door stared, dumbfounded.

"That's not a costume." Whistler blinked as he stated numbly. "That's lingerie."

"Dang, I guess I'll have to... take it off." Windstorm pouted cutely, then batted her eyelashes. "Can somepony lend a lady a helping hoof?"

"If you insist..."

"Yes." Prosperity said with a shudder, holding her arms close to her body. "They are still my family-analogues; just thinking about it freaks me out."

"I thought you were an adult dragon already." Twilight quirked an eyebrow.

"Do you want to think about your parents' 'extra-special nights'? Or entertain the thought of Celestia having a paramour? And then having them switch roles?" Prosperity countered, pointing with her claw - without letting go of her arms.

Predictably, Twilight shivered, to the point of trotting in place to try to shake off the thoughts.

Prosperity took a stance, one of her claws hovering over the hilt of her very real sword.

Twilight wondered just how often did she take that size for her to not be rusty as all get out. (The answer was more complicated than simply shrinking in size periodically, but it was neither here nor there).

Somepony in the audience coughed.

The claw grasped the sword, pulling it free of its scabbard in a smooth, silent motion. The blade gleamed and traced lines in the soft light of the lanterns as it moved back and forth, then, it was sheathed carefully and slowly, letting it noiselessly return to its resting place.

Click! The sword was back the way it was.

The scabbard struck the pumpkin, squeezing it slightly and making the cut sections pop out, leaving behind a crude, yet no less impressive, carved face. It was basic, with triangles for eyes and nose, and a wedge mouth. It was still carved in three seconds.

Cheers.

"How in th' hay didja make cuts like these?" Applejack asked, eyeing the strangely neat corners.

"I asked the sword to ask the pumpkin to be split more nicely, plus magic."

"You asked." Twilight deadpanned - it wasn't enough that nopony knew that she was wearing a faithful reproduction of Starswirl's cape and hat, Prosperity had to be just as infuriatingly obscure as Typhon. It made sense, really, and it was simply obvious, but she would like an explanation as a teacher would give it.

"Yeah! You would be surprised of how far some politeness can get you." Prosperity nodded sagely. "It was the reason the sword gleamed like that. I have had a lot of time to refine the process."

"I guess it's easy to forget how old you actually are."

"Age has nothing to do with anything, but I have put a lot of time and effort into things."

Magic had both its science and its art, with the art side being very heavily reliant on focus and connections. The connections were drawn by others, with meanings decided by convention; if one could chose the relevant symbolism, they could control the perception of reality of others. If she said that the blade represented a cut, then that was what everypony around her would take it for.

The Pillars knew how to define what the relevant symbolism was, and thus, they could define how others viewed... virtually anything, really. It was a power, and thus, neither scary nor awe-inspiring - those, again, where concepts applied by external observers. A rock was just a rock - it had the potential to become a weapon, a material in the construction of a castle, or a sculpture, but it was none of those things... yet.

It was yet another illusion of the mind of the imaginative.

Power was simply power. It could not corrupt - unless it was actually tainted by an external will, or it caused an actual damage to its wielder.

Power was simply power. It came with no more responsibilities attached than those one swore to uphold to obtain it - no promises made meant no responsibilities.

Now, that power in the hands - or hooves - of just any random Joe on the street? That was scary. Joe could be the one that decided to abuse that power, little by little, until Joe was a tyrant that was far removed from what it appeared he used to be. By the same token, Joe could also turn out to share Typhon's viewpoint on others - brothers and sisters sailing on the river of life, enjoying their own journey, and thus should be respected - and aided - as you would your brothers and sisters (thus taking a responsibility towards others entirely of his own volition).

Prices? Oh, those were very real. The price for the power being that she had to be very careful, lest it get turned on her, or let it get carried away and have it do something that she did not desire.

Heck, the power of illusion was control over perception, period. The reality of the illusionist became the reality of the illusion, to the point that 'real illusions' were a possibility - illusions that had an effect upon the world itself. The price? If an illusion was countered by illusion, then the caster lost control over their own perception, leaving them at the mercy of the second illusionist.

"Where did you learn to use a sword like that, though?" Spike asked, bringing her out of her daze; he had no real opinion of the older dragon, but she seemed to treat him like a little nephew - possibly because he was still considered a baby in the dragons' life cycle, while she was much older (and crazier, by her own admittance, no less).

"My... boyfriend, you could say." She rubbed her arm sheepishly. "He's this guy... well, he taught Typhon martial arts and... stuff."

"Seiryu, you don't have lungs in this form, so how in the name of Chlorophyll did you manage to sneeze?!"

"Starswirl the Bearded is only the most important conjurer of the pre-classical era." Twilight huffed after the umpteenth erroneous comment about her costume.

"He created more than two hundred spells! He even has a shelf in the Canterlot library of magic named after him." She didn't see that Prosperity mouthed 'five hundred and eighty-seven, give or take'.

"Maybe I should start up a pony group to teach ponies about history. I bet everypony will love it!" Twilight was starting to have a dangerous gleam in her eyes... just like Starswirl himself once an idea took root in his brain.

"Yeah, his work before the unification is the most well-known, particularly his Treatise of the Three Tribes." Prosperity interrupted her. "But it was his post-restoration and post-Harmonia work what you'll find most interesting. Most of it was kept secret, you know."

I was currently in a bit of a bind. I was trying to prevent a pair of enormous pincers from closing on my body, you see. Not too big of a struggle, since I did have armored gloves available, and I was powerful enough...

The problem being that this freakishly large antlion brought friends in the form of a huge worm/lamprey/leech hybrid known as the Abyss Worm and a boatload of centipedes.

I'm a heavy hitter. If I want something dead, it's dead. Problem is, so's the whole place - more often than not, since so few 'contestants' were courteous enough to NOT use area-of-effect... effects, or the common sense to not be enormous enough to warrant me using my strength and powers indiscriminately just to hold them off.

I came across a large natural cavern during my tunneling, and the centipedes had enough earth magic to shake things up - normally not much of a concern, given how localized and focused the energy was, but the cave was large and didn't give me the image of stability I wanted in my underground dwellings. I was split between holding the gym-sized cave of soft rock stable with Seiryu's magic, holding off the pincers with my hands, holding myself off the floor of the cave to avoid the periodic discharges of magic, and trying not to get cornered. I couldn't just leave, since I was almost sure that these centipedes would keep tunneling upwards.

I may be currently below the Everfree, but Ponyville was literally within spitting distance.

I can spit very far, alright?

In any case, I needed to do one more room to draw the Nightmares out for my experiment.

I had my supporters and all, but white changelings were rubbish at offense for the most part, and yellows had trouble with things that saw through vibrations like I'm almost a hundred percent sure these things did. I was not about to ask a pony - most of the ones that I would even consider to call for battle were in other cities, protecting them. I had yet to ask around...

Well, I guess I should find help among my fellow humans... hopefully someone whose powers are more focused than mine.

I have terrible luck with locations.