Rooftops and Reminiscence
ROOFTOPS AND REMINISCENCE
Twilight paused on the sidewalk as the door to the restaurant slammed shut behind her. Storming out had seemed like the right thing to do in the heat of the moment, but now that she had actually done it she realized she had no idea what to do or where to go. Twilight was used to having a schedule, a plan, or an objective to accomplish. Now she felt adrift in a churning tide of emotions.
She heard a commotion coming from inside the restaurant behind her. Of course Luna would try to follow her. It suddenly dawned on Twilight exactly what she’d just said, and whom she had said it to. Now that the words were out and her anger was draining away she realized that there would be consequences. How could there not be? Nopony talked to the ruler of Equestria like that. Maybe Luna had been too surprised to say anything before, but once the initial shock wore off... Twilight didn’t even want to imagine what the Princess would do to her. Or maybe she would just tell Celestia what Twilight had done, that would be even worse. Her suspension from the Academy would become a permanent expulsion, for certain, and then she’d probably be thrown out of the castle. No, she’d be kicked out of Canterlot, maybe exiled from Equestria completely.
Twilight decided that she wasn’t going to stick around and find out. She screwed up her concentration and channeled a burst of magic through her horn, disappearing in a burst of purple-tinged magical energy. She reappeared a moment later on the rooftop of the building across the street, looking down at where she had stood a moment before. A few ponies were startled by her sudden absence but most of the ponies on the street hadn’t even noticed.
A moment later, Luna burst out of the restaurant, still disguised as Phoebe. Her glasses were skewed and half falling off her face, disrupting the illusion’s full effect and causing her appearance to crack and shimmer around her as the spell tried to compensate for its focus being out of place. “Twilight?” she called out. Twilight didn’t answer, crouching down on the rooftop so she would be less visible from the street. She watched the princess turn to and fro trying to find her in the crowd. After a moment she started to gallop away down the street, calling out again for Twilight as she ran.
Twilight let her hooves slide out from under her and plopped down on the lightly-colored terra cotta rooftop. The flat expanse was lightly dusted with a layer of sand that had carried up from the beach by the sea breeze, but Twilight ignored the itchy grains that slipped into her coat and the searing pain from the tiles that had been baking in the tropical heat all day. The hopelessness of her situation was finally catching up with her and for the moment she didn’t have the strength to do anything beyond laying there and contemplating how thoroughly she had screwed up her life. Maybe she would have been better off letting those rocks crush her after all.
At the thought the memory came flooding back, forcing her to relive it yet again. Without anything to distract her, she finally let herself stop fighting it Twilight curled up into a ball on the rooftop and burrowed her face into her forelegs to muffle her choking sobs. She wasn’t sure how long she had been laying there when she heard a familiar voice. “There you are, Twilight. We should have known to check for the magical signature of your teleport spell.”
Twilight winced and froze for a moment before looking up. Luna was seated in front of her, stripped of her disguise.
Twilight sniffled and rubbed her eyes as she sat up, ready to face the music. “Princess, I-” she began. Before she could get any further, Luna took a long stride over to her and wrapped her wings around the unicorn, pulling Twilight against her and into a hug.
“We are sorry for what we said, Twilight,” said Luna. “We were trying to make you feel better, but we failed. Perhaps you have noticed that we are not very good at this sort of thing. We think that at this juncture we should attempt a new approach. Namely, that we should just shut up.”
Twilight didn’t say anything, but just buried her face into Luna’s chest and let her tears flow. They sat there for a long time in silence with Twilight wrapped up in Luna’s embrace, shielded from the scorching rays of the sun by the shadow of her wings. Twilight noticed that the Princess’ body was cool, almost chilly to the touch. She absentmindedly wondered how she had never really noticed that before. It felt wonderful against her sunburned body.
Finally Twilight was all cried out and her breathing became slow and steady once again. She felt Luna shift and pulled away from the alicorn. “Please understand Twilight,” said Luna “we did not mean any offense with what we said back there. It is just that, well, we do not really understand mortals. You’re all very complicated, a mess of contradictions a great deal of the time. Being immortal is simpler. Everything is much more straightforward, just bigger. Not that we are implying that you are small, or anything of that nature. Well, we suppose you are smaller than us in the most literal sense, not that there is anything wrong with... we think we would like to return to our previous strategy of shutting up now.”
Twilight smiled, her first really genuine one for what seemed like a long time, even if it had really only been since that morning. “That’s very big of you Princess, thank you. I’m sorry about what I said, too.”
It took Luna a moment to decipher the idiom, but when she did she grinned and rolled her eyes. “If you insist on making jokes at our expense, please try to make them a little less painful than that one. We were about to ask if you would like to take the rest of the afternoon off, but now we are reconsidering,” she said.
“You’re serious?” asked Twilight “But I’m supposed to stay with you in case-”
“We are quite confident in our ability to take care of ourselves for a little while, and we suspect that you would benefit from a little bit of time away from us, would you not? We would not even have to mention it to Celestia, what our sister does not know will not hurt her,” said Luna.
Twilight opened her mouth to deny it as a matter of course, but then she paused “Well, yes actually. I wouldn’t mind spending some time away from you... sorry,” she said, apologizing reflexively.
“We understand. We know what it is like to want to be alone once in awhile. We will be meeting Captain Reinolds at the docks to go out on his boat in a little while. You are welcome to join us or not as you see fit,” said Luna. She hesitated a moment before continuing. “Also, if this morning is weighing on your mind, please talk to somepony about it.” With that, Luna turned to go, hopping down into the side alley before turning in the direction of the harbor and walking away. Twilight watched her go, wondering what she should do with her newfound freedom. There had been some art galleries she had noticed the day before that she’d wished they’d had a moment to go into at the time. She still hadn’t eaten anything since breakfast, either, perhaps that should be her first stop. Maybe later she could go back to the museum and see if Bronze had time to give her a tour of some of the other exhibits.
Twilight’s train of thought was derailed when she happened to glance across another rooftop and noticed something. A pony, wrapped up in a light brown cloak, was hopping from rooftop to rooftop. Twilight had almost missed noticing their presence until the pony had happened to move while she was looking it the right direction. When they held still they practically disappeared against the rooftops, but sure enough as Twilight watched the pony jumped onto the next roof over before looking down onto the street below. Following the direction of the stranger’s gaze as best she could, she realized that the pony was travelling in the same direction as Luna had been a moment ago.
Twilight’s blood ran cold. Was this pony following Luna? Had they been following her before? Twilight chided herself for jumping to conclusions. There could be a perfectly reasonable explanation for the behavior. Lots of ponies wore shawls and cloaks, especially lightly colored ones, as a means of keeping cool. Plus, given how busy the streets around the marketplace were maybe this pony was just trying to avoid the crowds below. Still, Twilight wasn’t going to go anywhere without checking it out first, even if Luna had just told her to go take the afternoon off.
Rather than testing her legs hopping between rooftops, she teleported over to the roof the mystery pony was standing on the edge of, still peering down into the street below. Not wanting to startle the pony, Twilight called out from the other side of the rooftop. “Excuse me, sir? Or ma’am? My name is Twilight Sparkle, would you mind telling me what you’re doing up here exactly?”
The figure stood bolt upright at the sound of Twilight’s voice. The figure turned their head to the side, staring out at Twilight through the somewhat translucent material of the cloak. Twilight could vaguely make out the silhouette of the pony’s head but not any details. There was a pause where both ponies regarded one another across the rooftop. Neither one seemed eager to make a move, and Twilight wasn’t sure what to do next.
“I only ask because-” Twilight began taking a step towards the other pony.
The moment her hoof left the rooftop the other pony took off like a shot parallel to the street they had been watching a second before. Before Twilight could even react the pony was already leaping over the alley towards the next rooftop, clearing it in a single stride and landing in a full gallop without losing even a bit of momentum.
“Hey! Get back here!” Twilight shouted at the retreating figure. It didn’t matter how fast she was, Twilight thought to herself. Nopony could outrun a teleportation spell. With a surge of effort, Twilight warped herself next to the fleeing figure. “I just want to talk to you!” she shouted at the top of her lungs.
In response the other pony somehow broke into an even faster sprint, quickly leaving Twilight in the dust as they leaped over another gap onto the next rooftop. Twilight decided it was time for more extreme action. Gathering up what she hoped was just enough energy to stun without causing permanent damage, she narrowed her magic into a single beam and let it loose against her target. Unfortunately the beam went wide to the left, reducing a particularly unfortunate weather vane to slag.
“Okay then,” muttered Twilight under her breath, “No more Ms. Nice Mare.” Waiting until the pony leapt to the last rooftop on the block, Twilight called up her magic and teleported once again, this time to directly in front of the mystery pony. She reappeared at the edge of the rooftop overlooking one of Pensacolta’s most heavily trafficked intersections, not some tiny alley that could be cleared with a hop, skip, and a jump.
As Twilight reoriented herself and the burst of magic dissipated, she focused in the pony who was now charging straight towards her, head down and still frustratingly unidentifiable. She held out one of her hooves and shouted in the most authoritative voice she could manage, “Stop!”
Rather than obeying, the other pony leapt early, soaring straight over Twilight’s head. “Oh no you don’t!” said Twilight, leaping upward and wrapping her forelegs around the stranger’s barrel. With Twilight’s weight unexpectedly added to the stranger’s own, both ponies were dragged over the edge and began falling toward the busy intersection.
Two bright pink wings shot out from the stranger’s side and began flapping desperately to regain altitude. From her current position clinging to the underside of the pegasus for support, Twilight’s efforts to get a good look at the pony’s face or cutie mark were fruitless. However, the viewing angle she had from her current position allowed her to confirm with absolute certainty that this was definitely a mare she was dealing with. The pegasus kicked forward with one of her hind legs, striking Twilight’s exposed belly and causing her to double over in pain. Stunned by the blow, Twilight released her grip and began to plummet towards the street below. She forced herself to channel another teleport, converting her vertical momentum into horizontal speed. She reappeared on the far rooftop, rolling and sliding against the abrasive surface until she ground to a halt.
Trying her best to ignore the pain from her bruises and cuts, Twilight recovered as quickly as she could and stood once more to face off with the mystery mare who had just landed nearby. Undeterred by Twilight’s attempts to slow her down, the pink mare took off along the rooftops and away from Twilight. Focusing inward one more time, Twilight teleported once again in front of the mare, preparing herself to grab her with restraining hold and subdue her if she tried to force her way past Twilight again.
It seemed the mare had been ready for her. When Twilight reappeared in front of her she flared her wings and with a single powerful flap brought herself to a standstill. As she did so the sand littering the rooftops billowed upward, spraying into Twilight’s face and eyes leaving the unicorn blind and helpless. Too late, she brought a foreleg up to shield her face but the damage was done. Twilight rubbed at her eyes trying to clear them of irritation, and was only just able to detect a blur of movement disappearing down into the alley from the far edge of the rooftop. Blinking rapidly, Twilight spent as long as she felt she could spare regaining her vision before she leapt into the alley after the stranger, using her magic to slow her fall from the roof and land softly. Looking about over the deserted alley, the only hint of the mare’s presence she could find was a light brown cloak, haphazardly discarded atop a heap of trash. Galloping out into the street, she looked around, trying to catch a glimpse of the pegasus. There were at least half a dozen pink pegasi going about their business. Any of them could have been the pony she had been chasing, or perhaps none of them were and her target had slipped away while she had been rubbing sand from her eyes.
Twilight lashed out, kicking a nearby garbage pail in frustration. She’d lost her. Her only consolation was that the chase had taken both of them in the direction opposite that which Luna had been headed. This mysterious pegasus must be somehow connected to the incident at the museum and the break in at their hotel, Twilight was certain of it. But without any physical evidence there was nothing she could do about it or report to the police.
Her time away from Luna already off to a terrible start before it had even begun, Twilight decided that a walk was the best way to clear her mind. Within a few blocks, she was already feeling a bit better. She had forgotten how much she used to enjoy exploring a foreign city, having gotten into the habit of scanning crowds and passers by for potential threats. She loved magic, and enjoyed the arts of self-defense and magical combat, but taking a step back from it for the first time in months only brought to her attention how much she hated the sort of menial guard duty she’d been forced into. Stopping by a food truck for an afternoon snack, she settled onto a nearby bench for some pony watching while she ate, enjoying the simple pleasures offered by greasy fast food and a bright, sunny afternoon with nothing she had to be doing. With everything that had already happened today, Twilight found herself absolutely exhausted from her expenditure of magical energy and the accumulated wear and tear from three months as the princess’ bodyguard.
“I think I’ll just close my eyes for five minutes,” she thought to herself. Stretching out and making herself comfortable on the bench, she shut her eyes and gave herself permission to relax for the moment.
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Twilight woke with a start. The sun hung a good deal lower in the sky than it had been a subjective moment ago, and the streets had emptied of their midday crowds. Twilight realized that she must have fallen asleep on the park bench. “I probably look like some sort of crazy homeless pony,” she thought to herself. She walked over to the park’s fountain and took a look at her reflection in the water. Her mane was in a disgraceful state, tangled up in itself with clumps of hair sticking out at all kinds of awkward angles. One side of her face was all scratched up where it had rubbed against the rooftop during her recent chase, and her eyes were still bloodshot and irritated from having sand blown into them.
Seizing on a sudden impulse, Twilight dunked her head completely under the waters of the fountain. She hadn’t expected water that had been sitting out in the sun all day to be freezing cold, but she quickly pulled herself up again with a gasp. Droplets scattered around her as she shook the water out of her mane. Running a hoof through it, she tried to fix it as best she could but it would take an army of hairdressers to bring it back to anything resembling its normal state.
Twilight sighed. As much as she didn’t want to, she felt it would be irresponsible not to find Luna and let her know about what had happened with the pegasus mare earlier that afternoon. She trotted in the direction of the harbor, hoping to catch Luna and Reinolds before they went out on the boat.
Twilight arrived at the dock a few minutes later, quickly finding the spot where the Tranquility was usually moored, but the boat was gone. Twilight caught the attention of Windy Sails, a mare she had met a few days before who was doing some maintenance on the yacht a few spaces down the pier. She asked if Windy had seen Luna and Reinolds take it out.
“Yes, Ms. Sparkle, they left around a half hour ago. I think they just mean to float around out in the bay for a little while. In fact I believe that’s them out there,” said Windy Sails, pointing to a sailboat about a quarter mile away that had dropped anchor and was bobbing gently with the current.
“Thank you, Windy,” said Twilight, and looked out over the water pondering her options. Teleportation would be the most direct way onto the boat, of course, but a quarter mile was a long distance for a single hop and after all the energy she’d burned teleporting around rooftops that afternoon the prospect of doing so made her horn ache. She knew a few charms that would let her walk across the surface of the water, but that was tricky and uncomfortable in the best of times, like walking through knee-deep mud. Looking at the the bobbing and undulating surface of the water she ruled that out as well. The way her luck had been going today she’d probably get smacked in the face by a wave and lose her concentration halfway out, and the water in that fountain had been freezing.
Remembering how cold the water had been suddenly gave Twilight a burst of inspiration. She worked through the magic the idea would require. She’d never heard of any pony trying this before, but theoretically it was sound. Besides, she knew she wouldn’t be able to shake the thought until she experimented with it. Stretching her senses as widely as she could, she wrapped a large volume near the surface in a magic field. Once she had a firm grasp on it, she began pulling energy away from the water, sucking heat from it like soda through a straw. The water crackled and churned as ice crystals started to form, rapidly coalescing into one larger ice floe. The water expanded as it froze, and the newly created ice platform bobbed up to the surface.
Twilight gave a little squee of pleasure at the results of her hoofiwork. She quickly calmed herself down after her moment of satisfaction. It wouldn’t be long before the laws of thermodynamics reasserted that ‘iceberg’ and ‘tropical sun’ were not things that went well together. If she was going to try this she needed to move. Backing up to give herself more space, she took a running start and leapt off the end of the pier. As she landed on the ice she realized that she hadn’t taken one minor detail into account; ice is slippery. Her hooves scrambled for purchase on the slick surface, but she continued to slide towards the edge of the ice. Out of desperation, she used her telekinesis to grip the edge she was sliding towards and yanked it upward.
The entire platform tilted as she lifted, and she found herself sliding uphill. With an assist from gravity slowing her down, she was able to brace a hoof against a outcropping of ice and come to a stop. Gently lowering the edge of the ice back into the water again, she carefully stood up. So far so good, but she could already see the surface of the ice shimmering as it began to melt. Water began to pool on the surface, and Twilight knew that these pools would absorb sunlight more efficiently than the surrounding ice and heat up, which in turn would melt the surrounding ice more quickly, which in turn mean more pools of water, and so on until she ended up swimming in the bay, in water that thanks to her would be just above freezing temperatures.
She could create another ice floe further out, but she doubted she’d be able to build up enough momentum to jump over to it. Instead, she reached off the side of her ice sheet that pointed in the direction of the distant boat and began to repeat her new trick, slowly fusing the seawater to the existing ice to create a path in the direction she wanted to go. She redirected the thermal energy into the ice behind her, allowing it to melt and break apart. In this fashion she gradually made her way out onto the water, extending her ice bridge, sliding forward, and letting it break apart. As she got the hang of it she allowed the platform to shrink a bit, keeping it just large enough to be stable when the occasional wave hit the side. It took her the better part of 15 minutes, but soon enough she was near enough to the boat to wave to Captain Reinolds.
“Permission to come aboard, Captain?” she said with a grin.
“Granted!” he replied, extending a foreleg to help her pull herself up over the railing.
Twilight looked around the deck of the ship “Where’s Luna?” she asked, “I thought she was with you.”
“She’s in the cabin napping,” he answered. “She’s worried about you, ya know.”
“Oh, before I forget, have you noticed a pink pegasus around today? After Luna left to find you I ended up chasing a suspicious mare who I think might have been watching her from the rooftops. She was wearing a cloak so I could only see her wings,” said Twilight.
“Haven’t noticed anypony, but I’ll keep an eye out. I’m sure we’re fine out here. We’ll see her coming if she tries to get close,” said Reinolds. “Wait, if you only saw a wing then how are you so sure that the pony was a mare?”
“I really, really, don’t want to talk about it,” replied Twilight. “Trust me, she’s a mare.”
Reinolds looked at her with a quizzical expression on his face for a moment, then he shrugged and turned back to working the sails as the wings shifted. Twilight looked around the boat. It was a 25 foot sailboat, not counting the bowsprit that jutted out from the front and came to a point a couple of feet in front of the ship’s prow. It was a lot for one pony to manage, especially a unicorn who couldn’t really use magic, but Reinolds handled it like a pro. Once he was satisfied with his work, he plopped down onto a chair next to a cooler and motioned for Twilight to take the chair next to his.
“So were you hoping I wouldn’t notice that you completely ignored what I just said about Luna being worried, or do you just not want to talk about it?” he asked.
Twilight sighed and sat down. “We didn’t really have the best day. I know she means well and everything, but she can just be such a stupid jerk sometimes,” Twilight said. She looked around like she was expecting Luna to be standing right behind her, but the two ponies were alone out on the water. “I mean how can a pony with so much power and experience be so oversensitive and clueless?”
Reinolds sat back in his chair and closed his eyes, completely content below the tropical sun that was starting to cast long shadows as it descended towards the horizon. “She’s a weird one, I’ll give you that. I think it just comes with the whole immortal alicorn thing. Even Celestia has her moments.”
“She does not!” shouted Twilight, sitting bolt upright. Reinolds motioned for her to lower her voice. “No, she does not.” repeated Twilight, more quietly than before.
Reinolds was unfazed by Twilight’s outburst. “I know you think she’s pretty much perfect, Sparkle, but trust me when I say she has her moments. Did you know that she once set the royal kitchen on fire because she couldn’t figure out how to use the oven?” a distraught Twilight couldn’t believe what she was hearing, and set back in her chair to sulk as Reinolds went on.. “Listen, Celestia and Luna are both great rulers, but when they try to get down into the nitty-gritty details of mortal lives they just can’t process it the way you or I can. You’ll get used to it eventually.”
“But I don’t want to get used to it! None of this guard duty stuff was ever supposed to happen! I’m supposed to be in a classroom or a library somewhere learning more about magic or friendship, not following Luna around making sure she doesn’t get into trouble. I figured that I could just wait it out but after this morning...” Twilight let her voice trail off.
Reinolds opened one eye and glanced over at her. “The museum this morning. Yeah, that sounded rough. Speaking of which...” he opened the cooler besides him and pulled out a pair of bottles. “When a newbie like you sees some action in the line of duty, it’s their superior’s obligation to buy ‘em a couple of drinks. Official royal guard protocol, you know.” He popped the cap off of both bottles of beer and hoofed one of them over to Twilight, who took it.
“You know, technically I’m on duty right now,” said Twilight “I shouldn’t really be drinking.”
“Is that so?” asked Reinolds with mock curiosity. “Well, technically, I don’t actually care. Cheers.” He tapped his bottle against Twilight’s and took a swig. After a moment’s hesitation Twilight followed suit. She had to admit that after the day she’d had the beer tasted awfully good.
The unicorns shared a quiet moment looking out over the ocean before Reinolds spoke again. “So, falling masonry. That must have been scary.”
“Yeah,” said Twilight. She paused for a moment. “Actually, you know what’s weird? When it was actually happening, I don’t think I was scared at all. I mean it’s scary when I remember it but at the time it all happened so fast it’s like there wasn’t really time to realize that I should be scared. All that I really remember thinking... Never mind, it’s stupid.”
She expected Reinolds to press her for details, but he stayed silent. For a long while, neither pony spoke, they both just looked out over the water. Twilight began to worry that she’d somehow said something wrong. Had something happened in the past to Reinolds that had scared him, and now he thought Twilight was making fun of him? Twilight wondered if she should apologize, or-
“You know, about 15 years ago my unit was stationed right on the edge of the griffon territories,” said Reinolds, interrupting Twilight’s train of thought. “I don’t know if you remember, you were probably too young to be following international affairs, but things had gotten pretty tense between our kingdoms. Eventually, the diplomatic types sorted everything out but for a while there’d be skirmishes between our forces on the border every once in awhile. Well, we ended up getting into it with bunch of griffons who were scouting on our side of the border. One of the ponies I knew took a hit from a spear that tore open his... Well, he was hurt pretty badly.” Reinolds took another sip of his beer. Twilight stared at him, but Reinolds didn’t turn to face her. “Anyway, I had to get him back to the medics at our base, about a mile away. So I started carrying him back. I got around three quarters of the way back, before he asks me to put him down. I did, and he grabs my head and pulls me down to tell me something. Of course, I expect him to say ‘tell my mare that I love her’ or ‘take care of my foals for me’ or something like that, but instead what I hear is ‘Sarge, I think I left the mess oven on, you gotta remember to turn it off for me when we get back.’”
Twilight giggled despite herself, and immediately felt awful for doing so. “I’m sorry, that isn’t funny at all,” she said. Reinolds just smiled.
“I don’t know about that. When we meet up for drinks these days we laugh about it too. All I’m saying is that odd things go through your head at times like that,” said Reinolds. Silence descended over the two ponies again for a long while.
“...Is it weird that I was a little disappointed?” asked Twilight. “I mean, my friends and I beat Nightmare Moon and Discord with the help of the Elements of Harmony. The idea that I was going to be killed by a bunch of rocks was just, I don’t know. It just seemed wrong. They’d all be so disappointed in me if I went and did something like that.” Twilight took another long pull from her beer. “You know, I was supposed to meet my father for lunch in Canterlot a couple of days before we came down here, just to catch up. He had to cancel though, had to go out of town on business at the last minute. I remember worrying that if I died down here after that, he’d feel like it was somehow his fault, as dumb as that must sound. He’d never forgive himself for cancelling that lunch, not ever.”
Twilight gave a forced-sounding chuckle. “Listen to me. I guess I inherited that from him, feeling responsible for things that aren’t my fault. Do you know what they said when they got the letter from Princess Celestia saying I was suspended from the Academy and assigned to guard duty? My parents, I mean. They told me I should take this opportunity to meet some cute guard stallion and start a family instead of burying my muzzle in books all the time. I get making the best of a tough situation, of course, but they’re just... I just... I can’t...” Twilight petered out, unable to figure out what she was even trying to say.
“Well, what do you want to do? After this is over?” asked Reinolds.
Twilight was silent for a moment. “You know, I can’t remember the last time anypony asked me that question,” she finally said. Both of them sat in silence for a while longer. “I don’t think I know anymore.”
“Look, Sparkle, you’re probably the most talented mare I’ve ever met. You can do, well, probably just about anything that you want. But you need to figure out what that is. Otherwise some other pony will decide it for you, and it doesn’t sound like that’s working out all that well or you right now.”
Twilight turned to the captain and glared at him. “What are you trying to say, that Celestia and Luna have just been taking advantage of me this entire time?”
Reinolds shook his head. “All I’m saying is that they don’t know what’s going to make you happy. I think the two of them love you, and they both want you to be happy, but they can’t tell you how to make that happen. They can only help give you the tools to figure it out yourself. So stop moping and figure it out.” The sun was about to begin setting in earnest, and Luna’s internal clock would rouse her any moment to begin raising the moon.
Twilight turned the Captain’s words over in her head, unsure of what to make of them. Celestia had taught her everything she knew about magic, and if it hadn’t been for her Twilight might never have met her dearest friends in Ponyville. She had always assumed that the Princess had some grand destiny in mind for her and was grooming her for the responsibility she’d have to take on. Whether or not she would be happy with the job had never even crossed her mind. In retrospect, it was an embarrassing oversight.
“Captain?” said Twilight hesitantly. “...Thanks”
“Don’t worry about it, it was just one beer. You’re welcome to grab a drink from the cooler whenever you’re aboard,” replied the Captain.
“No, I mean-”
“I know what you meant, Sparkle. You’re welcome.”
Twilight was still trying to come up with an appropriately snarky reply when she heard the sound of somepony stirring in the boat’s cabin. A moment later, Luna emerged and yawned sleepily before noticing Twilight.
“Ah, Twilight Sparkle! We are glad that you chose to return here. We hope you enjoyed your time off. Please excuse us for a moment, for it is time for us raise the moon and set the night sky on its proper course.” With that, Luna spread her wings and took off into the evening sky. Twilight watched, enraptured as Luna called forth the primal magics of Equestria, pulling the moon upward into the night sky and setting the constellations in their proper paths. No matter how many times she saw it, Twilight was still amazed by the display.
Luna returned to the deck of the boat Reinolds and Twilight were watching from. “We thank you for waiting for us, Captain. We hope you were not unduly inconvenienced by our sleep.”
“Not at all, Princess,” said Reinolds, bowing before the diarch. “Twilight Sparkle arrived not long after you retired, and I had an interesting and fruitful conversation with her.” Reinolds turned his head to Twilight and winked. “Isn’t that right, Sparkle?”
“Yeah. I mean, yes, it was quite thought provoking,” said Twilight. “Luna, I believe there’s been a new development in our case. I think that we’ve been under observation by a particular pegasus for some time now.”
“Hast thou delivered a description of the suspect to the police?” the Princess asked.
“Well, I don’t really know if I got a good enough look at her to-” began Twilight.
“Nonsense! Any information about the suspect which you can provide will surely prove most useful. Captain, please take us to shore. We must notify the police of this development at once!
Captain Reinolds saluted the Princess and busied himself with the ropes and sails, redirecting the boat back towards the docks.
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An hour later, the three ponies sat in the local police station, which seemed to be strangely quiet for a city of this size. Twilight had just finished describing her rooftop encounter with the pink pegasus mare to the officer on duty, who seemed skeptical.
“So, this mare didn’t ever actually say anything that could be construed as a threat?” he asked.
“Well, I guess not,” admitted Twilight, “but she was acting very suspicious and ran off when I tried to confront her.”
“That hardly means she’s guilty of something, though. She may simply be a more reclusive pony, or she may be just a bystander who saw the Princess and decided to fly up to the roof to get a better view of the Princess, or-”
The officer’s words were cut off by Luna slamming her hoof down onto the table they were seated around. “Now see here, if Twilight Sparkle says that this pony was behaving oddly, then she was! We will not sit here and listen to you question her integrity or observational abilities. Your office will file this report in exactly the manner as it was dictated, and will devote all of your energies to finding this pegasus. Unless you have some new development or lead to report?”
The officer was clearly shaken by Luna’s outburst. “Oh, no Princess! I’ll file the report exactly as you say!”
Despite his conciliation, Luna glared across the table at the police pony. “Where is your superior officer tonight? We would like his assurance that thy report will be treated with the respect it deserves.”
“He isn’t here right now, Princess,” said the officer. “All of the other law enforcement ponies are out of the office right now, I was just left here to mind the station.”
“This is unacceptable!” Luna said forcefully. “We were told we have full access to thy resources to determine from whence the attacks upon us have come. Where are your officers now?”
“Oh, I guess you wouldn’t have heard,” said the police pony. “About an hour ago, there was a major break in at the Smithponian museum.”
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I usually put my thoughts on the latest chapter down here, but on this one, I got nothing. It's the longest chapter I've written so far but it came pretty easily, go figure.
Huh, I was hoping Twi would tell her off a bit more thoroughly about the whole guard duty punishment.
1076662
She told Luna off pretty good for general bitchiness at the end of the last chapter, and the guard duty thing was never Luna's idea to begin with. Plus, Luna clearly wanted to reconcile with her early on in the chapter, and I'm sure Twi's thinking over what Reinolds said to her on the boat. Wasn't really the right time.
1076706 Oh certainly, I'd just like to see her tell someone off about it.
1076724
Guess you'll have to wait a few chapters and see what happens...
Good to see that the evil plot is picking up speed. The attempted reconciliation was well done in that things are about as strained between them, but at least they don't hate each other's guts anymore. When Luna strong-armed the guard into filing a report, was that another way to apologize or a carry-over from the royal wedding? Either way it works great.
1076750
Maybe not an apology per se, but at the least a demonstration that she has Twilight's back and believes in her abilities. And yeah, having beaten down Twilight emotionally for a couple chapters now, I'm happy to be shifting towards the parts of the story that made me slap the "adventure" tag on it in the first place.
No doubt an ancient plate and ash tray were stolen.
1076776
HOLY CRAP MAN HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY HAVE KNOWN? PUT SOME SPOILER TAGS AROUND THAT!
But... well... yeah, duh
1076831
We are indeed, and thanks!
Blasted cliffhangers! *summon Rarity's fainting couch*
This is the. Worst. Possible! THING!
'Kay, I'm done. Happy your updating again. Love it all!
Ah so the McGuffins are stolen finally. And Twilight's right, immortals blow, never let them rule because then you can never be rid of them.
It's good to see Twilight working through her issues, and Luna at least recognizing her cluelessness. Now, one is a magical unicorn at a cross-roads in life, the other is an immortal princess on vacation... Together, they fight crime!
1077239
I dunno, they seem to do a pretty good job with Equestria's government. It's just a matter of knowing what they aren't good at and delegating appropriately. Celestia is pretty much the textbook benevolent dictator, though I certainly won't claim that she's perfect.
1077395
I'm happy to be moving on from the Ponies With Issues portion of the story to the They Fight Crime parts.
At least part of the increased introspection of the last two chapters is your fault, by the way. Your last post spent 5 weeks marinating in my brain while I wasn't writing and at the very least it influenced Twilight's rant at the end of chapter 9
1077471
Excellent... I quite enjoyed the introspection myself. Your story made me think about the affect the Princesses have had on Twilight in some new ways, and new insight into the characters is always welcome!
everyone is speeding up with the chapters... wtf?
THEY'RE GOING TO RELEASE OROUBORUS!!
I loved this chapter!
Great work. a few typo's, but it's minor.
Keep up the great work!
1087330
Continuing her non-friendship magic studies. She's still in touch with her Ponyville friends.
1077832
Might have something to do with the Pony Writing Month thing EQD's doing. Or in my case just a sudden spike in free time during the last weeks of summer before autumnal craziness kicks in
1078291
They're certainly going to try, although there's a few chapters to go before things escalate to that point
1087352
*Shrug* More for me to read then.
Aaaah the plot thickens
eeyup my guess is that twilights would be coltfriend is injured and the professor is dead maybe or they were both knocked out or somfink
It's really good, but I got a few issues. First off, the all-powerful goddess of the moon can't handle a little trash-talk in a no-holds-barred fight? I understand she didn't expect that, but to take it so personally is just bewildering.
I gotta say, this feels like two separate stories so far.
So why am I thinking the next chapter is going to open with Twilight discovering that Bronze Bell is dead?
The idea that Celestia and Luna are immortal has always bugged me. I don't think it makes sense.
Can't wait to read the next chapter.
Im the third most powerful telekinetic on the planet. The suspect is strong and fast enough to jump roofs.
Better try to wrestle her.
Also, now that there might be ponies trying to kill me, a nap on a park bench will do me good.
Wing hug!
It was the perfect counterpoint to Twilight's worries and the previous fight.
On another note, a deconstruction of ice magic. If such a thing were real, that's how I imagine it would work.
The Celestia and the oven incident is delightfully funny considering her responsibility to the sun.
what a terrible waste of a weather vane
(
wink wink, nudge nudge.)
also I noticed a slight typo:
for*
I don't even know why I point these out anymore they aren't really inhibiting to the story
Awww, awkward!Luna is adorable.
"However, the viewing angle she had from her current position allowed her to confirm with absolute certainty that this was definitely a mare she was dealing with." I started laughing at this. It's a lovely kind of understated humour.
Hey, I think Reinolds/Twilight would be an awesome ship. Doesn't he count as a "cute guard stallion"? Eheheh.
"She had always assumed that the Princess had some grand destiny in mind for her and was grooming her for the responsibility she’d have to take on"
you nailed this prediction :P
1724455 That's my thoughts exactly.
Are you absolutely, definitely, 100% sure she's a mare, Twi?
Pretty irrelevant when someone is tailing a head of state and runs from their security, then assaults their security in their attempts to get away. Of course, Twilight is pretty much straying into criminal negligence by shrugging the event off and getting herself some greasy food instead of immediately reporting it. That was pretty silly on her part.
So three things I'm going to guess at (1. The pink pegasus is the pony the captain hooked up with at the bar (2. The pony that was hit with the spear is the guy with the scar at the gym the one who wouldn't talk about it (3. The brake was to steal the plate and bowl and will be used in an attempt to bring back that Serpent guy that they want to control it to kill celestia and Luna and take over equestria. So how'd I do? Oh and hi Eakin been awhile buddy sorry iv had this on hold for so long iv been reading and doing a lot of stuff recently I got a new story up check it out bud. /)
1429730
the two stories thing is probably because while one continues the first they really are two stories, also this Luna clearly had some very fresh wounds still, Twilight basically rubbed each one with salt
Eeeeeeee!
Unfortunate? Oh, I'd say that weather vane got off lightly compared to some of its colleagues.
Congratulations, Twilight, now you are thinking with portals.
I have no idea when this was plotted - although comparing comment dates to airdates, it would've been pretty close at best - but my first thought when pink wings showed up was "Cadance?"
DWK cracks open a can o' beer
Wasn't one of those girls who flirted with Reinyolds, a pink pegasus?
And I'm calling this now, Bronze Bell is determined to do the forbidden ceremony with the Ouroburos!
in another of my favorites, "princesses can't cook", Celestia makes an oven explode!
This story continues to know how to push my buttons.
What was it you were saying at 782533 about Twilight never backing down from a fight? She didn't even run when she thought she was going back to magic kindergarten.
Maybe you shouldn't be wielding supreme executive power and representing an entire species.
Maybe you shouldn't have the power to sentence them to immortal torture.
Says the one hugging the pony she was trying to murder three months ago.
Is that true? Does it even mean anything? Or is it just what you tell yourself whenever you don't get along with "mortals"?
I don't get it.
That's our Twilight. Never taking things too seriously, no matter the stakes or who's depending on her; and never turning down a drink.
Well, first you wanted to be with Celestia and learn everything there was to know about magic and everything else. Then you decided you'd rather stay in Ponyville and be with your friends. Then you decided to leave Ponyville...why, exactly?
In all the books she's read, she's never heard of the happiness paradox?
1076706 1076750 1076767 1077395 1077395 2793744 3051287
You see two ponies who had a rough start now starting to understand and warm up to each other. I see an abuser who went too far with a particular target, and now tries to win them back with elaborate indulgence and "love bombing" without changing her underlying attitude.
Was there any point at which either of them seemed to actually hate the other?
I figured it was just a continuation of the running theme since the first chapter that the Princesses don't really understand the country they rule, and resort to yelling and demands to try to compensate.
1087352
I trust that by now you realize now what an unsatisfying non-explanation that is for a direct, off-page reversal of her establishing arc. Does questioning her friendships hit such a nerve because she still hasn't reconciled that decision with herself? Is it the same phenomenon as the fight, where she seems to behave wildly out of character, then "recovers" and can't account for her actions?
Weather vane sighted.