//------------------------------//
// Are They Crazy? 
// Story: Nopony Can Do That! 
// by bigbear 
//------------------------------//

In the broken sky, Twilight had finally lost it.

“We have too many crises and mysteries!" Twilight ranted to Fluttershy. "I had to make a list to keep track of them, we have so many.
"Getting Princess Celestia and Princess Luna back.
"Fixing the Sun and the Moon.
"Fixing the CELESTIAL MACHINE.
"Fixing the Gates of Tartarus.
"Understanding what's up with the Elements of Harmony and if it’s anything to worry about.
"Even understanding what's happening to you, Fluttershy, and if it's anything to worry about.
"In every case we or the girls or the Royal Guard could travel somewhere, research something, talk to somepony, or try to do something to fix it!
"And everypony wants me to tell them what to do.
"It's just too much."

Twilight made a deep sigh. She lowered her head, pulled in her wings, and sulked.

"It is a lot," whispered Fluttershy. "How do you normally decide what to do first, when you've got too many things to do?

"What everypony does," Twilight sighed. "Find dependencies, determine what's time critical, decide what can be delegated. Then prioritize everything, start at the top, and work through the list." Twilight's voice was stronger. It was easy for her to fall into, "lecture mode."

"I don't think everypony does do that," Fluttershy said. "Lots just do the first thing that comes to mind, or do the easiest thing first."

"Are they crazy?" Twilight cried. "Think of how inefficient that is or how many critical things could fall through the cracks."

Fluttershy pointed a hoof at Twilight. "That's why you're the All Team Organizer."

"I do organize stuff all the time, don't I?"

"It's practically your second special talent."

Twilight took in and blew out a deep breath. She fluffed up her wings and held her head high. "Thanks Fluttershy. Let's organize the Tartarus out of this!"





Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, and Dash appeared in a flash of blue magic. At first glance, it wasn’t apparent they had moved at all. The Unicorn Circle was identical. But beyond the circle, they no longer saw the Royal Gardens. This circle was in a small courtyard, surrounded on one side by a small brick building, and on the other three sides by a pony-height brick wall. 

“This must be the outpost Commander Fairweather talked about,” Applejack said.

Pinkie bounced over to the north wall and peaked over. “And that must be what we all came to see!”

All the girls gathered at the north wall and peaked over. A half mile away, across a barren, rock strewn, depression, was a giant cave entrance in a tall cliffside. An unearthly glow flickered inside the cave.

They ran, flew, bounced, and galloped across the depression to the cave entrance. Inside, the girls could see a great shimmering shield, just a few pony-lengths away. Through the shimmering shield, the blurry silhouettes of a host of creatures moved. Some were pony shaped, but their size or proportions were... wrong. Others were huge, or had limbs where they shouldn't. Every creature was throwing themselves at the shield in a frenzy. As the girls watched, the shimmering shield flickered once, and small cracks appeared in the center. This drove the creatures on the other side mad, and they threw themselves at the shield with re-doubled frenzy.

The girls recoiled from the cave entrance. "The Gates of Tartarus could come down at any moment," Rarity called to Twilight, mind to mind. "What do you want us to do?"

"Keep sending reports as long as you can," Twilight replied. "Be ready to run to the Unicorn Circle at the outpost the moment the Gate collapses. After you get away, destroy the circle in Canterlot so nothing can follow you."

"Got it," said Rarity. "What are you and Fluttershy going to be doing?"

"Impossible things," Twilight replied.





Twilight and Fluttershy floated in broken space. 

"To strengthen the Gates, step one is to get the Moon back where it’s supposed to be," Twilight told Fluttershy, mind to mind. "It should be here." She pointed a hoof and projected a location just above the Eastern horizon to Fluttershy. "Step One A, I hold on and you fly to the moon as fast as you can," Twilight said. "I don't know how fast that is, but we need to find out." Twilight got on Fluttershy's long back, wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy's neck and barrel, laid her head next to Fluttershy's, and strengthened the hold with layer after layer of magenta magic.

"Ready?"

Fluttershy nodded.

"Go!"

With a single beat of her mighty wings, Fluttershy exploded forward. The cosmos roared with a sound like thunder and a great glowing cone of yellow and pink flared behind her. It rivaled the sun in intensity and was visible from The Crystal Empire to Appleloosa.

Twilight felt her eyes crush into the back of her head. All breath left her lungs. And for all her Earth Pony strength and Alicorn magic, she was positive she was going to slip off Fluttershy's back, fall into the cone, and be reduced to a whisp of smoke.

But the way she lay on Fluttershy, Twilight's empty crown touched Fluttersy's massive petryal. The purple gem from the Element of Magic recognized both of its physical homes, and both of its worthy bearers. It created a bridge between the two ponies, and power flowed from Fluttershy's seemingly infinite reserves into Twilight. The Elements made sure their was no danger of the two ponies becoming separated. Power flooded into Twilight. Suddenly the impossible felt possible. She opened her eyes. The stars in front and behind had collapsed into small clusters. The stars to the sides were long strings from the front cluster to the back. She looked for their destination, the Moon. In a moment, it went from the size of a two bit coin, to a world that filled her vision. They were here. Step One A was done. On to One B.





The girls made plans near the entrance to the cave that housed the Gates of Tartarus. “Rarity, you and Applejack should retreat to the outpost," Dash said. "Get the Unicorn Circle warmed up. I'll keep watch here. If the shield falls, I bet I can fly faster than any of those monsters can travel and get to the circle first. I'm not sure you two can out gallop everything that could come out of here."

"What about me?" Pinkie asked.

"I'm not sure how you get anywhere, Pinkie," Dash said. "You just do what comes naturally."

"Okie dokie lokie," Pinkie said. "I always do."

"Can't say I'm crazy about us splitting up," Applejack said. "But I ain't got a good argument against your plan. Come on Rarity."

Dash watched the shield in the Gates of Tartarus flicker again. More cracks spread across the face.

"Oooooo... Pretty!" Pinkie called.

"What's pretty about the shield collapsing?" Dash asked.

"Not the shield, silly, Fluttershy!" Pinkie pointed a hoof at a great yellow and pink cone that spread across the sky and disappeared over the horizon to the East.

"Go get'm girls," Dash said. "I hope you’re fast enough."





On the Moon, Twilight scanned around with her magic and noted all of the places where the Moon was tied to the CELESTIAL MACHINE. With Fluttershy's power and the perceptions granted by the Element of Magic, Twilight gently unhooked those ties, until the Moon was unconnected and existed outside the bounds of normal space and time. Step One B down. Step One C next.

"OK Fluttershy, we need to light up the rainbow, just like we did for the mountain of shadow crystals," Twilight said.

"Around the whole moon!?" Fluttershy cried.

"Yup," Twilight said. "It's one of the impossible things."

Fluttershy descended to the lunar surface. She hung upside down, with her two fore-hooves on the surface. Twilight was still clutching to her back. The two ponies reached through their connections into the Elements and made their wishes known. Rainbow light flooded out onto the surface, and they could both feel when the field covered the moon. Step One C, was completed.

"How is it going at the Gates, Rarity." Twilight thought.

"I was about to call out to you," Rarity replied. "The shield is flickering and is cracked so much, it is more not there than there. I can SMELL Tartarus, even through the field. Dash and Pinkie are watching the Gates. Applejack and I have prepared the circle if we need to make a quick escape."

"Good idea Rarity. Call if there is any news."

"Now Fluttershy, time for the biggest impossible thing so far," Twilight said. "You need to push the moon into the right place!"

"I was afraid you were going to say that," Fluttershy replied.

"Are you really afraid?" asked Twilight.

"No, and that's what scares me." Fluttershy sighed. "Let's do this."

Twilight kept a hold on the back of Fluttershy. She filled her mind with images of the rainbow field supporting the Moon. 

Fluttershy filled her mind with images of flying hard and pushing great objects. She did a fore-hoof stand on top of one of the places the Moon normally connected to the CELESTIAL MACHINE. Once she was settled, she began to beat her powerful wings.

The first wing beats were futile. The mass of the Moon cared not for their efforts. They were as gnats that crawled upon it. Their scales were too divergent. But with each beat, Fluttershy redoubled her efforts, and even the mass of the Moon is vulnerable to an exponential power curve. The first movement of the Moon was almost imperceptible. It could easily be mistaken for a slip or fatigue. But the next wing beat doubled the force again, and the movement of the Moon was perceptible... real. With every wing beat from then on, the Moon accelerated. Twilight held the Moon together with rainbows and navigated. Fluttershy provided neigh infinite pony power.

"On my mark we stop pushing here, fly to the opposite side of the Moon, and push there to stop it in the right place," Twilight called. She projected the place through their connection. "Two full beats on the opposite side, no more."

"Got it," Fluttershy replied.

"Counting down, 3 beats to go, 2 beats, last beat..." Twilight said. "Stop pushing."

Fluttershy stopped pushing on the Moon, made a half turn, and the next beat of her wings sent them rocketing along the rainbow covered surface. The force that had been moving the entire Moon, propelled two ponies halfway around the lunar globe in the blink of an eye.

"Here!" Twilight yelled. Fluttershy made a half turn towards the surface, did a fore-hoof stand among the rainbow glow, and made two mighty wing beats, each twice as powerful as the last.

Then Fluttershy turned away, and Twilight willed away the rainbow shield. The Moon was exactly where it would have been, if Princess Luna had raised it on time and the CELESTIAL MACHINE was moving it across the sky.

"Rarity, what's happening at the Gates?" Twilight called.





The luminous shield that seals the Gates of Tartarus flashed, and when Dash could see again, it was glowing brighter than before and had stopped flickering. However the cracks remained. 

After the flash, the creatures on the other side of the shield stopped their attacks. The Gate was strangely quiet. Then there was a roar by every creature on the other side, and they resumed their attacks. There was a sound of rocks being crushed, and the shield surged toward the opening of the cave. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie recoiled, but kept watching. When the shield finally stopped moving, it was half as far from the opening as it had been before.

"Pinkie, tell Rarity that whatever Twi and Shy did helped make the shield stronger, but the creatures are not giving up and time is running out."





Above the Moon, Twilight was on a roll.  "Great, Step One is done! On to Step Two."

"More impossible things?" Fluttershy responded.

"Pretty much the same impossible things, only on a larger scale," Twilight said. "Now we need to move the Sun."

"Eeep!" Fluttershy cried. "But you said even Celestia doesn't actually move the Sun."

"True, but Luna doesn't actually move the Moon either," Twilight said. "And look what we just did." She pointed a hoof at the partially risen Moon. "It's not as crazy as it sounds," Twilight continued. "OK, any other day it is that crazy, but not today. Today, you, and I, and the Elements are not just anypony."

"I am nopony," Fluttershy whispered with determination.

"Because today we do things nopony can do!" Twilight smiled. "But I said moving the Sun was not as crazy as it sounds. Because I was keeping very exact track of how hard you were pushing the Moon. I had to, in order to make sure it ended up in the right place. And I confirmed that with every wing beat, you pushed twice as hard as the beat before. Princess Celestia once told me that the Sun is about 27 Million times more massive than the Moon. She should know, she raised them both for a thousand years. If after each beat, you push twice as hard, how many beats will it take you to push over 27 million times harder? "

"A lot?" whispered Fluttershy.

"Twenty five." Twilight was grinning like a mad mare. Math was fun! "Can you make twenty five extra wing beats?"

"I can!" cried Fluttershy.

"Let's go move the Sun!" exalted Twilight.





Discord slithered out of a crater on the Moon and looked up, following the rapidly retreating cone of yellow and pink light. He stomped on the Moon. It didn’t move. “Hmmm. Better than I thought.”

He raised a claw and snapped it. Nothing happened. He snapped his claw rapidly a dozen times. Still nothing. “This can’t be good.” He raised both arms up, brought them dramatically down, and snapped both claws at the same time. Discord finally disappeared.