• Published 26th Jun 2012
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Earth & Sky - Warren Hutch



Sequel to Windfall, set three years after. Twilight & Rarity invent artificial wings!

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Part 43 - Clearing The Air

Flights of royal guard pegasi began to drop off the disheveled, shell shocked passengers of the Ambrosia after rescuing them from the airship's catastrophic deflation. To a pony, despite their finery being in tatters and their faces smudged and soot stained, they all wore expressions of extreme relief and joy at having their hooves on good old terra firma. Several were actively kissing the ground.

A cadre of the armored unicorns had winked in and formed a cordon around the Princesses, Harmony Aeronautics, and their friends at Shining Armor's command, allowing them some privacy and respite from the clamoring crowd. Twilight expended the last reserves of her magical energy to duplicate the grooming spell she'd seen the Spectacular Trixie perform in Los Pegasus, cleaning and combing Princess Celestia, Rarity, Apple Bloom, and herself in a shimmer of purple sparkles as more cameras came to be pointed in their direction.

Pinkie Pie pondered the proceedings, pouting pensively as a plethora of ponies populated the parade grounds while the paparazzi procured pictures. She stroked her chin with a hoof, watching as more and more spectators found their way down from the stands to gather on the field in merrily chattering clusters, talking excitedly about the results of the race while flashbulbs sparkled all around.

After a few moments of alliterative analysis, the pink mare brightened up, jabbing a hoof skyward. "I know just what we need right now."

Twilight cast a look toward her with a cocked eyebrow, well aware of what the answer would be when she asked. "What's that, Pinkie?" Her shared glance with the Princesses, Rarity, Fluttershy, Dash, and the Apple Sisters confirmed to her that they all knew what their cotton candy colored friend would say next as well.

The frizzy maned earth pony drew in breath and bunched up her knees in preparation to give her answer, when she was interrupted by her infant daughter Puddin' waving her little hooves and calling out in a loud squeak. "Pawtee!"

Pinkie's legs stiffened as she looked down at her tiny, burbling foal. "Chocolate and Peanut Butter! Puddin' just said her first word!"

She cocked an eyebrow of her own as she looked back at her friends with a mystified expression. "Funny, it was Tootsie's first word too. What're the odds?"

They all exchanged bemused looks as she reached up with a hoof and gave her infant daughter a gentle poke in the belly with the tip of a hoof, eliciting a bubbly giggle. "That's right, Puddin', it's time for a party! Yes it is! Yes it is!"

She started bouncing on her hooves. "A Yay for Dashie Winning the Race, Yay for Twilight and Rarity Winning the Royal Charter, Yay for Applejack and Soarin' Getting Engaged to Get Hitched, Yay for Apple Bloom and Pip Making Up and Going Steady, Yay For Princess Celestia Not Blowing Her Top Over Her Guards Having Accidents Anymore, Yay For Everypony Else Not Getting Blown Up, Glued Together, Burned, Poison Joked, Lost In a Sandstorm, Replaced by Changelings, Thrown In Jail, Getting Crushed by a Blimp or Hit By Any More Pies Than Necessary, Glad We Made It to the Pegathalon After Party Party!"

She took a deep breath, and turned to fish through her laden saddle bags, producing a brightly blue and pink striped object roughly the size of an orange, more a large grapefruit, actually. She held the sphere on her hoof, catching a pin in her teeth and pulling it free, then lobbing it high overhead with an exultant cry. "Heads up, everypony!"

It exploded about a hundred hooves up in a burst of pink and moments later it was raining multicolored balloons, streamers, and confetti across the breadth of the parade ground over the startled, then mystified, then delighted crowds of ponies below. As the brightly hued decorations rained down without sign of stopping, the other Elements of Harmony looked around in amazement. Tables full of cake and punch and a surfeit of other tasty treats seemed to have been set up out of nowhere, along with colorful blue and white striped pavilions for revelers to gather beneath.

Soarin stood unsteadily on his hooves, leaning on a softly blushing, beaming Applejack with a wing draped over her withers while the other hung limply down at his side with the primaries dragging in the grass. He gave Pinkie an apologetic smile. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Pie. I've heard all about how legendary your parties are, but right now I'm so tired I'd just pass out face first in my cake. All I wanna do now is curl up on a cloud and sleep."

The pink mare gave him a grin. "Aw, that's okay, Soarey. You'll just have to party that much more at your wedding reception." She followed with a wink to him and Applejack, causing them to share a mutual smile.

Shining Armor flicked an ear and stepped forward with a smile. "One cloud comin' up, Lieutenant."

He gave a bob of his horn and whistled to one of the armored pegasi hovering nearby. "Corporal! Go find the fluffiest, softest cumulous you can and bring it here for Lieutenant Soarin on the double." With a crisp salute the guard pony mounted to the sky.

Applejack nudged her fiancé with a sidelong smirk. "Not so fast there, darlin'. I ain't gonna let ya outta reach now I got ya back."

She turned to Twilight with a hopeful expression on her face. "I know y'said y'were tapped out, Twi, but do ya think ya got a li'l bit o' juice left t' do that cloudwalkin' spell o' yers?"

Before the lavender unicorn could reply, Princess Luna stepped forward, brushing her wingtips down the scholarly mare's back. "I got this one, Twilight Sparkle. You've worn out your horn enough for one day."

With that, the night princess' own tapering horn glimmered with scintillating blue magic, that swirled in coruscating streams down toward Applejack's hooves, momentarily making them glow and causing the blonde earth pony to hover about an eighth of a hoof off of the ground before settling gently back down on the ragged turf.

She tipped her snowy white stetson with a grin. "Much obliged, yer highness."

Luna casually waved a wing. "De nada, cowgirl. Happy to help. You kids have earned a little quiet time together from what I've heard."

Moments later, the pegasus guard corporal returned pushing a cloud that looked as if it had been crafted out of lambs' wool, which he set down on the ground with a bow to the princesses and his commander before fluttering off to rejoin the cordon.

Soarin and Applejack walked over to it, with the sky blue stallion gallantly bowing as he extended a hoof to help her step up onto the billowy surface. She in turn reached down and hooked her fetlocks with his to pull him up with her. They nestled in side by side, hoof in hoof, on the fleecy cumulous as Soarin laid his wing across his fiancée's back. She let out a chuckle and doffed her stetson, setting it on his head and then nuzzling his cheek.

He gave them a drowsy smile and a wave of his free hoof. "See everypony later."

Princess Celestia gave the couple a regal nod. "Rest well, my little ponies. And well done, you've much to be proud of."

Princess Luna nodded with a warm smile. "Yeah, sweet dreams." She gave them a wink. "Satisfaction guaranteed or your money back."

Applejack and Soarin gave a bow as the cloud they laid on began to gently ascend, rising to its natural elevation several hundred hooves up in the golden late afternoon sunlight.

The dusky princess of the moon raised a hoof to her mouth in a wide yawn. "Now, speaking of catching some Z's, it's waay past my royal bedtime, and I've got a busy night ahead of me."

The moon's regent turned an inquisitive smile to Celestia. "You don't think you could take on Moonrise Court solo for tonight and give me a chance to sleep in, could ya, sis?"

The gleaming ruler of the sun pawed at the ground uncertainly as she met her sister's gaze. "Well... I was rather hoping to retire early after today's... excitement, Luna..."

A wry, lopsided grin played across the night princess' dusky features. "The way I see it, since my Pegathalon team won the challenge, I oughta get something out of it."

Princess Celestia rolled her eyes with a slightly weary sigh tinged with a smile. "I suppose so, but I find myself wondering exactly how extensive the 'stakes' in this little 'wager' I apparently entered into with you are going to be."

Luna gave her sister a mischievous smirk. "Oh, you'll find out eventually." She winked at her sister. "Don't worry, sis, I never play to break the bank."

Her expression became earnest. "Seriously though, this isn't all just for flits and giggles, I've got a 'walk' to do that may turn out to be significant."

A nod of mutual understanding older than the castle that loomed in the background passed between them, and Celestia bobbed her long, tapering horn in acquiescence. "Very well, my beloved sister. Sleep well."

The dusky night princess gave her a grin. "That's the only way I know how. See ya in the morning."

She turned her smile on Twilight and Rarity. "You did me proud, kids. I'm psyched to see what you come up with next."

Then she turned to Pip and Apple Bloom, stepping forward to give the young stallion a kiss on the forehead. "And I'm especially proud of you, my little pony. You faced your fears, proved your worth, and it looks to this old mare that you've found the filly of your dreams."

She met Apple Bloom's eyes and shared a smile with her, before craning her neck to nuzzle the young mare's forelock. "Remember to hold on loosely, but don't let go, sweetheart."

She winked at Pip, eliciting a blush on the test pony's coltish face. "I'm not kidding when I say he dreams about you."

With that, she gave everyone a wave, and took wing toward the castle, vanishing among the lengthening shadows of the towers.

Princess Celestia ruffled her own snowy wings, giving the remaining ponies around her a benevolent smile. "Well, just as my sister has some sleep to catch up on, there is much I need to accomplish before I settle the sun and raise the moon." A mildly annoyed expression crossed her face as she blew a lock of flowing magenta out of her eyes. "And thus, I shall be taking my leave. Shining Armor, if you'd be so kind as to attend your princess."

The captain of the guard snapped to attention with a flick of his horn, but a moment later his attention was drawn, along with everypony else's, by an urgent call from outside the cordon. "Wait! Princess Celestia, wait! Before you go!"

A gruff voice called out in response. "Halt! Who goes there?"

A cluster of unicorn guards' horns flared, as the large forms of Spike and Quillina stopped short, their leathery wings flaring in dismay as the adolescent drake stepped forward to shield the larger dragoness, his green slitted eyes wide with alarm and his claws raised in submission. "Woah! Hold on! We're friendly!"

The sun princess gave a bob of her horn to Shining Armor, who called out to his subordinate. "Stand down, sergeant."

The cordon parted to allow the young dragons to approach the immortal co-ruler of Equestria, as Shining Armor was joined by Twilight at her side. Spike folded his wings and bowed deeply. "Your highness, I'd like very much to present Miss Quillina, Mistress of the Delve Ender Hoard, of the line and clan of Quarrag Delve Ender."

Princess Celestia raised a hoof and gave a courtly bob of her horn to the gilded dragoness, a benign smile on her face. "Charmed to make your acquaintance, Quillina."

The young heiress' amethyst colored eyes lit up as a blush appeared on her gleaming cheeks. The ground beneath everypony's hooves shook as she danced from foot to foot, bunching up her shoulders with glee as she let out a squeal accompanied by flickers of pink flame from her nostrils. "Oh Princess, y'all're so pretty!"

She caught herself, her blush intensifying, as she dropped to all fours and gave a classic Equestrian curtsey with only a little shaking of her wings. "I... I do beg your pardon, your esteemed highness. It... it's an honor t' meet y'all."

Celestia let out a chuckle, running a hoof through her flowing, ethereal mane. "Well, my dear, you hardly find me at my best today, but still you flatter me. Perhaps while you're visiting our fair city of Canterlot, you'd accept a royal invitation to take tea with me some afternoon under more refined circumstances."

Quillina's eyes grew wide and glistening, and she replied in a shaky voice. "You... and li'l ol' me... take... tea..." She let out a sound like a tea kettle boiling over and swooned into Spike's arms, nearly flattening the smaller drake beneath her.

He braced his legs and looked up at the princess over the dragoness' prostate form as he fanned her with a wing. He let out a small grunt as he gave his former caretaker a wry grin. "Oof... She'd be thrilled to accept your invitation, princess."

The regent of the sun gave him a wry smile. "I look forward to it, my faithful dragon. Please consider yourself invited as well."

He returned her smile with an earnest grin. "Thanks, your highness."

She gave him a nod, then turned to Twilight and Shining Armor. "Well, now I simply must be going."

She leaned down and touched the tip of the lavender unicorn mare's horn with her own. "I look forward to hearing more about your adventures this past week, my beloved student. We'll have to take some time to get together once everything's settled down."

Twilight smiled back at her. "Can't wait, Princess. There's quite a lot to go over."

Celestia gave a chuckle. "That's one of the perks of immortality, Twilight. I've got plenty of time to spare."

Her face settled from a fond smile to her usual serene expression tinged with a slight note of regret. "But none right now. Shining Armor, if you would?"

The tall unicorn turned and gave his younger sister a heartfelt hug. "See you later, Twiliy. Caddie and I will bring the fillies by, and you can practice telling the story to them. You can bet bits they'll be asking you tougher questions than her highness will."

Twilight chuckled as she smiled up at him as they disengaged. "Thanks for the warning. I'll try to get rested up before then. Give 'em all hugs n' kisses from me when you see 'em."

He gave a laugh and waved goodbye as he fell into step beside his towering ruler, who proceeded to make her stately way through the cordon of guards, taking a number of them with her as the remainder fanned out to keep the press of ponies and the pony press back from Harmony Aeronautics and their friends and family.

***

The sun was painting a particularly soothing palette of warm oranges and purples on the horizon as the spontaneous festival on the royal parade grounds remained in full swing. As the day had gone on, more ponies from the city had wandered by to see what was going on and join in, which in turn had attracted a number of vendors from Canterlot's market districts and restaurants. A large influx of revelers had come as the families and friends of the Ambrosia's passengers and crew had arrived to find their loved ones shaken but unharmed, confirming for themselves the near continuous litany of calming proclamations issuing from the palace.

The happy result of one such reunion approached the cordon of guards with weary smiles on their faces. Spotting them with her keen eye, Rarity came bustling out from beneath the pavilion that Pinkie had somehow arranged for the group, a welcoming smile on her alabaster face and a spring in her step.

The only sign that Fancy Pants had been through a catastrophic airship crash was that his ascot was loosened and his mane was a bit tousled. His wife Fleur walked close by his side, elegant as ever if a bit more angular with age, the barest smudging of her makeup telling the story to Rarity's practiced eye of a tearful welcome for her husband. The couple's youngest son Tweed lay sprawled on his father's back, completely tuckered out from all the day's excitement, while their eldest Knickerbocker skipped along at Fancy Pants' side, still in his silver grey jacket and cap from Platinum Prep.

Rarity swept towards them with a grand toss of her glossy mane. "Darlings! I'm ever so glad to see you all in good health and high spirits after that dreadful calamity!"

Fancy Pants gave a bob of his horn and favored her with a wry grin. "Well, I'll admit my monocle popped loose a couple of times back there, but regardless of all that I simply thought that it would be quite remiss of me to not stop in for a moment and offer my fond congratulations to Harmony Aeronautics, my dear."

Fleur leaned against her husband, a sly smile on her face as she twined one of her delicately tapered fore hooves with his. "And our thanks as well, ma chère." She gave Rarity a wink. "I imagine our bookmaker will be in quite the jolly mood when we contact him tomorrow."

The dignified stallion chuckled and leaned over to give his wife a peck on the cheek. "MmmYes, quite."

He removed his monocle and polished it a bit on his ascot as he turned his attention back toward Rarity. "And while we're on the subject of profitable ventures, I do have something of a business proposal for you, if you're willing to hear me out."

The alabaster mare raised one of her elegantly curved eyebrows. "Why ever would I not be, darling?"

Fancy Pants replaced his monocle and cleared his throat. "Well, word has come to me that your recent experiences with the Royal Blue Airship Line have been... less than satisfactory to say the least."

A small twitch fluttered Rarity's left eyelid, and her smile became a bit more fixed as she lashed her tail. "To say the least..."

The unicorn magnate pawed at the ground, an earnest look on his face. "That being the case, I'd like to offer my most heartfelt and sincere apologies on behalf of the firm, as Royal Blue's majority shareholder and newly instated Chairpony of the Board. If you can see your way to forgiving us, I'm quite certain that a relationship between our airship line and your company could be quite lucrative indeed."

Rarity blinked, and then a thoughtful look settled on her face as she tapped her chin with a hoof. "Go on, sir..."

Fancy Pants gave a slight shrug. "Well, sporting tours, for a start. Outfit an airship as a sort of mobile base camp, like a ski lodge or a cruise ship with snorkeling tours, and rent out your wings to the passengers for aerial excursions. It'd take the tourist trade by storm, I'd imagine."

His smile tweaked up a bit at the corners as he gave the alabaster mare a searching look. "And we'd have plenty of other uses for your device. Safety, for example. Just look at what happened today."

He gave his wife's hoof a squeeze as he went on, prompting her to rub her cheek against his as he wrapped his tail around his eldest son's tail. "Everypony on the Ambrosia was dreadfully lucky to have a battalion of highly trained pegasi near to hoof when she went down, doubly so when one considers we were over a major city with full emergency facilities. What if that had happened over Horseshoe Bay? Or the San Palomino desert. Or heaven forfend, over the Badlands?"

His brow furrowed a bit. "The balloon lifeboats we use now cost precious minutes to deploy, and loading them in a panic situation is the sort of problem that keeps our senior officers and safety department awake at night."

The distinguished stallion gave Rarity a warm smile. "But consider if every stateroom were equipped with one of your harnesses. And all the crew besides, thoroughly drilled in their use. If a 'ship went down in that case everypony could just fly to safety. QED."

He cocked a hopeful eyebrow. "What do you think, my dear?"

A similar smile spread across the elegant fashionista's face, and she extended her hoof to him. "I think you plead a very eloquent case, darling. I'm more than willing to let bygones be bygones, in light of a change in company leadership and one hopes company policy as well."

Fancy Pants accepted her hoof and leaned down to kiss it. "Well, considering that prior company policy seemed to be to regard you as a threat to our operations, I can guarantee you that that isn't the only thing that's going to change around Royal Blue."

Rarity set her hoof down with a winning smile. "Excellent news. I look forward to discussing the matter further, both with you and with my partner Doctor Sparkle as well as our chief engineer. I'm sure they'll have all sorts of wonderful ideas."

The unicorn stallion drew himself up with a satisfied bob of his horn. "Without a doubt. I'll be in touch in a more official capacity once all this beastly rigamarole from the Ambrosia going down gets cleared off of my desk."

He cast a warm look at his family. "But now I've got to get my lads here home and tucked safely into bed."

Fleur batted her eyelashes and kissed him on the cheek. "Et ta femme aussi, mon chèr"

A slight blush flitted across his cheeks, and he cleared his throat with a sly smile back at his wife. He gave Rarity a bow. "If you'll excuse us, my dear."

She let out a silvery chuckle and waved him away. "Of course, darling! Bon soir!"

She stepped up and gave the parents kisses on both cheeks, and planted a kiss on the colts' foreheads, which made the younger stir a little in his sleep and caused the elder brother to blush hotly and dig his hoof. They parted with a laugh, as Rarity turned and trotted back to the pavilion with her tail hiked.

Fancy Pants nuzzled his wife's cheek as they walked away, giving her a sidelong smile. "Well, that went swimmingly. Now I've only one more conundrum to solve."

Fleur cocked an ear. "Oh, and what might that be, mon petit chou?"

He gave her a smile with a spark that glinted on his teeth. "You're so beautiful I never want to part with you again, but you somehow get more beautiful every time I'm away. What ever should I do?"

The elegant unicorn tossed her powder pink mane with a peal of laughter. "Let's just say that flattery will get you nowhere, you silver tongued scoundrel."

***

Rarity returned to the pavilion with a vivacious spring in her step, where she met Twilight's gaze with a smile. "I just had the most marvelous conversation with Fancy Pants. I think things are going to start moving faster for Harmony Aeronautics, my darlings."

The others were gathered around a folding table laden with food and drink, relaxing and chatting as the glow from the firefly lanterns hanging from the shelter's peaked roof began to overtake the fading sunlight outside. They perked up their ears with interest as the alabaster coated fashion mogul rejoined them. Twilight steepled her hooves as she shifted in her seat. "Oh? What did you talk about?"

Rarity settled in to regale them. "Well, I..."

The pavilion shook as a booming voice from outside cut her off. "I'M LOOKING FOR THE OUTFIT THEY CALL HARMONY AEROPHONICS. WHAT? YES YES. HARMONY AERONAUTICS. RIGHT. ARE THEY AROUND HERE, SONNY? PRINCESS CELESTIA TOLD ME WE COULD FIND THEM OUT HERE."

A shock of recognition went through Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, Rainbow Dash, Apple Bloom, and Fluttershy as they met eyes across the table. The butter yellow pegasus gave a shuddering sigh and brought a hoof to her face as her daughter Windfall's eyes lit up. The little peach colored filly leapt out of her mother's lap and darted outside, shrieking with glee. "Grandpa!"

The mares all exchanged a glance as they climbed to their hooves to head outside. The voice boomed with incredulity. "WINDY? BLESS MY BREEZES, WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

Twilight and Rarity stepped outside with the others in tow, to the sight of a delegation of pegasi in tailcoats, each wearing a blue and white ribbon with a silver seal bearing the cloud and rainbow crest of Cloudsdale and carrying a tophat in the crook of their foreleg.

Spitfire stood with them, decked out in her dress uniform but sporting a swollen lip, a black eye, and a bandage crossed bruise on her forehead. She gave them a weary smile as they approached, returning Dash's salute with a wink.

At the head of the party from Cloudsdale was a large, dappled grey stallion with a dark black mane and bristling beard that gave him a decidedly leonine quality, with jagged lightning bolts of yellowish white hair streaked back from his temples and forking from his chin. He wore a silver grey morning coat and ascot, with the crest on his ribbon forged in gold. The cutie mark adorning his muscular, spotted flank was a swirling shape around a stylized eye. He sat on his haunches with an uncharacteristically sweet smile on his face as he held little Windfall up in his huge hooves, allowing her to throw her dainty forelegs around his bull neck.

He looked up from nuzzling the filly's peach colored cheek as Twilight and Rarity approached, his eyes like icy coals of pale blue burning beneath a thick, beetled brow. The lavender scholar stepped forward, politely clearing her throat and giving a bob of her horn. "We're the principal owners and operators of Harmony Aeronautics. It's good to see you again, Lord Hurricane."

The dark thatch of the stallion's brow shot up as he gently set his relatively tiny granddaughter onto his broad back between his smoky grey wings. "WHY, IF IT ISN'T MY FLUTTERSHY'S LITTLE MAREFRIENDS FROM PONYVILLE. I HAVEN'T SEEN SOME OF YOU SINCE THE WEDDING."

Rainbow Dash nudged Fluttershy with a wing and murmured out of the side of her mouth. "Is it me, or has your dad gotten a little quieter since he got elected mayor?"

Her soft spoken foalhood friend pawed self consciously at the ground. "Um..."

A toothy smile spread across the mighty stallion's face as he spotted the furtively cringing, butter yellow pegasus mare and beckoned her over with a broad hoof. "THERE'S MY GIRL. COME HERE AND GIVE YOUR OLD SIRE A HUG."

Fluttershy let out a tiny sigh and slouched over to greet him, letting out a squeak as he wrapped a massive foreleg around her and crushed her to his chest. Her gentle voice took on a tone of long suffering after he relaxed his iron grip enough for her to breathe. "Hi Dad."

The lightning maned stallion laid his fore hooves on her shoulders and pushed her back so he could get a look at her, his smile widening as he did. "WE'LL NEED TO TALK ABOUT WHEN YOUR MOTHER AND I CAN EXPECT YOU TO BRING THE GRANDFOALS AROUND FOR A VISIT AFTER I'VE CONCLUDED MY OFFICIAL BUSINESS HERE."

His daughter's ears drooped as she replied in a weary voice. "Okay, Dad."

Lord Hurricane nodded in satisfaction. "GOOD GOOD. NOW THAT THE TWINS HAVE FLEDGED YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE TO STAY AWAY."

She looked away, murmuring softly under her breath. "Except preserving my hearing..." She pawed at the ground with a crease in her brow. "... and my sanity."

He rose to his hooves, grunting a bit with the effort of hefting his burly frame upright. He then flared out a broad wing and gently nudged Fluttershy aside. At a nod from her mother, Windfall reluctantly fluttered up from between her grandfather's wings and landed on the butter colored mare's back, as the imposing stallion focused his piercing gaze on Twilight and Rarity again. "NOW, REGARDING THE REASON I'VE COME HERE."

He cleared his throat like the rumbling of thunder as he drew himself up with a dignified expression settling on his face. "AS MAYOR OF CLOUDSDALE, I'VE COME AT HER HIGHNESS PRINCESS CELESTIA'S EXPLICIT REQUEST TO EXTEND AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY TO HARMONY AEROBONICS ON BEHALF OF..."

One of the other pegasus dignitaries chimed in in a low voice. "Aero naut ics, m'lord."

Hurricane flicked his tail in irritation. "AERONAUTICS, LIKE I SAID. WE'D LIKE TO EXTEND AN OFFICIAL APOLOGY ON BEHALF OF OUR CITY AND ITS CITIZENS FOR THE UNFORTUNATE RECEPTION YOUR PEGATHALON TEAM RECEIVED EARLIER TODAY."

Rarity stepped forward with a genteel smile and a flourish of a gleaming white hoof. "Forgiven and forgotten, my esteemed Lord Mayor. We're quite sure that once the denizens of your fair metropolis become used to more and more earth ponies and unicorns flocking to Cloudsdale wearing our harness, the welcome they extend will be much more cordial."

A murmur of unease went through the other pegasi delegates, as Lord Hurricane's dark brow furrowed in the beginnings of a scowl. "URM... MORE UNICORNS AND EARTH PONIES COMING TO CLOUDSDALE WITH YOUR... IMITATION WINGS, YOU SAY..."

The alabaster mare gave a toss of her curling violet mane, her smile widening. "Yes! Every one of them excited to spend their time, and their money, getting to know your wondrous city in the clouds and its charming pony folk, experiencing all the local color, shopping, dining, buying souvenirs, injecting who knows how many thousands of bits into the economy. If one stops and thinks, one can only just imagine how wonderful, and lucrative, it will all be for everypony involved."

The tone of the murmuring from the rest of the delegation began to shift to a more guardedly upbeat tone, as a sly smile spread across Spitfire's battered face. The Mayor's brow lowered like a storm cloud over his eyes as he chewed his lip in deep, ponderous thought. "HURRMMM... YES..." His voice dropped to a low, almost indoors worthy level of volume. "Yes..."

The dark curtain of his eyebrows drifted upward as his wall of teeth reappeared in a growing smile. "YES! AND SO IT WOULD FURTHER BEHOOVE THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE... ahem... I MEAN, THE CITY ELDERS TO GUIDE OUR PROUD SONS AND DAUGHTERS TOWARD A MORE ACCEPTING FRAME OF MIND. TO WELCOME OUR LANDSTANDING BROTHERS AND SISTERS AMONG US WITH OPEN WINGS, IN THE SPIRIT OF HARMONY THAT IS THE FOUNDATION OF OUR ECONOMY... I MEAN, OUR FAIR KINGDOM."

The babble among the Cloudsdale delegation had become overwhelmingly positive, and the dignitaries stomped their hooves enthusiastically as a cheer went up from the surrounding crowd. Rarity cast a sidelong wink to Twilight as both mares beamed up at Lord Hurricane.

Fluttershy stepped up to her father and stood on the tips of her hooves to give him a peck on the cheek. She craned her neck to whisper in his ear. "Good job, Dad. I'm proud of you."

He lowered his voice as far as it could go. "Well, if I'm willing to let my only daughter marry an earth pony, I certainly shouldn't have any problem welcoming more of them as tourists in my city."

A wry smile crossed the soft spoken pegasus' face. "Okay, then I'll get Twilight and Rarity to make an extra large flight harness so Macintosh can come along when I bring the foals for a visit."

The imposing pegasus rolled his gleaming eyes. "Fine, he's more than welcome, as long as he promises not to talk everypony's ear off." He gave her a wink and a grin, accompanied by a deep bass squeaky noise.

She smiled back, nuzzling his cheek, as stars began to appear in the twilight sky. High above, Applejack and Soarin let out a contented sigh and snuggled against one another, as the constellations of the Pegathalon's founders twinkled in the dome of the heavens.

***

Princess Luna felt the slightest tingle as she passed through the veil, her deep indigo wings sifting the subtle medium that only she and a hoof full of unknowable psychopomps could traverse at will.

She traced a spiral, a tightening gyre, toward an imposing palace at the center, a towering spire ringed with galleries and promenades and soaring buttresses hung with ornaments of gold and crystal.

The structure was ringed round by gardens and orchards, from which the sounds of laughter, at once joyous and mocking in tone, could be heard. The princess paid them no heed as she passed over the lush treetops, knowing in her fashion that they were nothing but phantasms.

Overlooking the fruit trees, a jagged battlement with no gates or sorties or doors of any kind circled the palace, the cold barrels of bombards jutting between the sharp crenellations. She touched down beside one, her silver shod hooves clacking softly on the flagstones, her mane of stars undulating on its own wind as she cocked her head to examine the brutish weapon. The steel was cracked and splintered, but held its shape out of habit, like a shattered clay vessel that had reassembled itself.

Luna tapped her delicate chin with a hoof, then bent her tapering horn toward the bombard. It crumbled soundlessly at the slightest touch, prompting her to give a sage nod. She perked her ears up as a voice, mournful but with the slightest hint of hope in its tone, echoed from an ornate doorway. "Is somepony there? Anypony?"

The moon's regent turned toward the dark opening. "There is."

A gasp echoed from the depths of the palace, followed by the same voice, now imperious yet tremulous. "You... you may approach the throne."

She perked her tapering ears, straining to hear the faintest addendum. "Please..."

Luna's dark wings rustled as she folded them, stepping through the archway as she intoned in an even voice. "As I am bidden, so shall I enter, in keeping with the custom and duty of my office."

Her hoof steps echoed in darkness, winding through halls festooned with faded tapestries and busts of pink stone and crystal, depicting a mare through her years from foalhood to young adulthood. Presently, her path led her into a large, vaulted hall, a fantasia of crystal chandeliers and sweeping taffeta curtains, arranged around a tall dais surmounted by a throne of apple sized diamonds arranged in the fashion of a tiara.

The young mare depicted in the gallery sat huddled atop it, clad in a billowing gown of gold and samite, her lavender and pearl mane streaming from beneath a glittering diadem that matched her throne. A spiral cone protruded from the center of the crown, and a pair of wings made of lace feathers protruded from the dress' saddle. A look of weary misery hung on her features, as she stared dully into space.

Her ears perked up at the click clack of silver shoes on marble, and she shook off her reverie as she surged to her hooves. Her glistening eyes went wide as she saw who her dusky visitor was. "P-princess LUNA?"

The ruler of the night smirked and gave a curt bob of her horn. "Yeah... Me. Care to chat for a bit, Diamond Tiara?"

They were in the Ponyville Schoolhouse, with the young mare wedged into one of the student desks toward the front, still clad in her elaborate gown, and Luna seated behind the teacher's desk gazing levelly at her over steepled hooves.

Diamond Tiara took a nervous glance at her surroundings and bowed her head. "It... it's an honor, your highness, that you'd visit me in my dreams. I guess this is a dream..."

Princess Luna gave an airy wave of her hoof. "Yeah, it is. Looks like a classic "Overdressed for School" scenario."

She cleared her throat as she drew herself up with a stern look clouding her dusky features, planting her hooves on the desktop and standing as she flared her dark wings. "Anyway, the reason I came here is to find out what the deal is with all these schemes you've been ham-hoofedly running against Harmony Aeronautics."

Diamond Tiara cringed. "S-schemes?"

The night princess nodded. "Yeah. You hired that bunch of hockey goon griffins to rough my colts up."

Her eyes narrowed. "Bad idea there. Harmony Aeronautics were flying under my patronage. Any harm done to them is a personal affront to me. Pip Squeak in particular is one of my favorite little ponies. If he'd been hurt at all I probably woulda gone medieval on your little pink rump. So thank your lucky stars that he wasn't, and that the rest of them came out okay."

She gave a toss of her etherial mane. "But moving on, there's also the matter of you setting those two fruit loop unicorns loose on Equestria. It didn't take much digging for me to find out that Flim Flim Flam used to work for you, and that he'd been dispatched personally to Cutica to rattle the bats in his brother's belfry."

Luna flicked an ear and continued. "And last but not least, your little run for the border on the Ambrosia endangered a whole shipload of innocent ponies, and on top of that you opened up a window for her royal grodeyness the changeling queen to slither back into the kingdom. Nice going on that one."

They were in the middle of a howling, dun colored wasteland, amidst twisted rock formations and clouds of stinging grit. Diamond Tiara dropped to her belly with a wail of despair, as the scouring wind stripped her regalia away in shreds from her shriveling body, leaving her a gaunt figure of skin and bones sprawled helplessly on the cracked earth. Her sunken eyes bulged wild with terror as black, hole pocked mockeries of hooves burst from the ground, grasping and tearing and pulling her down into a shifting sinkhole.

She reached out a trembling hoof toward the looming monarch of the night, tears streaming down her cheeks as she let out a pleading sob. "Please... I know I'm a terrible pony. I know I'm a bully, and a brat, and a blackmailer, and a bitter little witch."

A blasé expression settled on Luna's face as she raised a foreleg and examined the sheen on one of her silver horseshoes. "Yeah, that pretty much covers it, for the letter B at least."

Only Diamond's head and reaching forelegs were above the quicksand, as the clawing hooves pulled relentlessly downward. Her voice rose in a desperate squeal. "But I wanna be better! Please! I wanna fix things! That's all I ask! Let me fix things! I'm begging you, have mercy! "

A grave expression settled on the moon princess' face, and she drew herself up to her full height. With a single beat of her wings, the howling sandstorm dispersed, leaving the air cool and still. The sky opened up to a deep, velvet blue black, laced with bright constellations over the looming rock towers. She leaned her head down and met Diamond Tiara's gaze with a cocked eyebrow. "Have mercy? I'm not doing any of this to you. This is your nightmare."

They were standing on a streamer and balloon draped stage in a high school gymnasium. Diamond Tiara stood in a pool of marinara sauce and cold spaghetti, the utterly ruined remains of a silver lamé and taffeta gown stained red and clinging to her shivering frame as pasta slithered through her mane and over a badly skewed gold crown. A single, cruelly mocking laugh echoed from the rafters, as she blinked in the harsh glare of a spotlight, and turned to meet Princess Luna's steady gaze. "I... I've hurt ponies who didn't deserve it, j-just because I thought I was more important than anypony else. I've done... I've done a lot of bad things, just because I thought I deserved to do them."

The regent of the night ruffled her dark wings. "And do you think you deserve the chance to make things right?"

They were in the barnyard of Sweet Apple Acres dressed in bunny suits. Luna cast a dubious look upward at the floppy ears of the hood she was wearing as Diamond Tiara hung her head, her own costume's ears drooping mournfully. "I don't know. Probably not, but if I could it'd be worth more to me right now than all the money and all the prestige and all the tiaras in the world."

They were back in the wasteland, but it was different. The rocks and sand were whitish grey, the formations more jagged than windblown, the air uncannily clear. A vast blue sphere, like a globe wrapped in wisps of gauze hung overhead. They sat side by side, looking up at it, the princess a dark shape against a stark background, Diamond Tiara enveloped in a cumbersome white suit with tubes leading from a heavy backpack to a glass sphere enclosing her head, bunny ears and all. An Equestrian flag hung unmoving from a pole driven into the ground behind them.

Luna gave the young earth pony mare a wistful, sidelong grin. "Well, I never thought I'd be saying this to you, but I kinda know where you're coming from."

They were in a cherry orchard at night, the stars twinkling overhead as a gentle breeze rustled the leaves. Countless, ruby red cherries gleamed in the light of a cool blue moon.

The princess laid her wing across Diamond Tiara's withers. "Okay. You'll get your shot, kiddo. As far as anypony knows, Queen Chrysalis was responsible for all the attacks on Harmony Aeronautics in some bug brained scheme to get back at Twilight Sparkle and Rarity."

The young mare's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped as Luna gave her a wink. "It certainly makes more sense for her to want to drag the Ambrosia into the Badlands to stage a mass ponysnatching than it does to force a whole airship full of witnesses to ride along on a run for Mexicolt. Just sayin' ..."

The dusky princess reached up and gently pushed her companion's mouth closed, leaning in with a gaze suddenly grown cold as the sound of distant thunder rumbled. "But keep this in mind, filly. I know the way it all actually went down, and I'm gonna be watching you. Keep your hooves on the straight and narrow, keep your snout clean, and try not to be such a pain in the rump, or else I may reappraise my opinion on just what you deserve. Capisce?"

Diamond Tiara gulped, and nodded hastily. "I... I'll try my best, your highness. I promise!"

A sly smile settled on Princess Luna's face. "Good girl."

She climbed to her hooves, craning her neck to give the pastel pink mare a peck on the cheek. "Now if you'll excuse me, I gotta go give the horoscopes something to natter about. Ciao!"

The young mare sat up in bed, smacking her lips and blinking her bleary eyes as she looked around the cozy little room she'd been convalescing in, streams of early morning sunlight stealing through cracks in the curtains and filling the space with a pleasant haze. She met her hostess' querying gaze with a groggy stare, as Cherry Jubilee craned her neck in through the doorway. "Wh-what?"

The red headed mare gave her a warm grin. "Chow? As in, y'want some? I just pulled a batch o' cherry vanilla muffins outta th' oven t' cool, and I can fry ya up a couple eggs if'n ya like."

Diamond Tiara shook off the last cloying traces of drowsiness and threw aside the covers, her four hooves tapping lightly on the hardwood as she rolled out of bed. She trotted over to Cherry Jubilee and took the elder mare's hoof in her own. "That sounds wonderful, but I've got a bigger favor to ask you. Can you help me get a train ticket to Ponyville? I promise once I get there and sort some stuff out, I'll pay you back tenfold."

Jubilee gave a snort. "Aw shuck's darlin', Red n' me would be glad t' front ya a ticket, and I'll pack ya lunch for th' trip, even."

The young mare smiled at her as her eyes glistened with moisture, and she surged forward to take the older earth pony into a hug. "Thank you! I'll never forget this."

***

Chrysalis' natural dark coloration had served her in good stead as she skulked and scuttled through the shadowy back alleys of Los Pegasus, flitting from trash pile to garbage can to dumpster unobserved by anything but pigeons and rats. At this late hour, there were certainly no ponies ahoof.

Days ago she'd squirmed for a seeming eternity through the air ducts of the municipal dungeon, her aortic nodes chilled in her thorax at the prospect of her shell hardening and leaving her wedged tight, to expire like a matter eating cockroach or be recaptured by a miserable pony HV AC technician. She allowed herself the briefest, quietest triumphant cackle as she finally extruded herself from a chimney on the roof, her rearing, clawing gesture toward the heavens a bit undercut by the floppiness of her uncured carapace.

After her shell had finally solidified and her wings had dried, she'd taken flight, intent on setting out for the distant Badlands and her wretched hive, but only managed to glide down to a nearby compost heap behind the dungeon and then scuttle out through a gap in the chain link fence into the city. Her wing muscles were no longer capable of sustained flight.

Since then she'd been miserable. Starving, as always, although that had been blunted a bit by shedding extra mass. She paid for it, however, in that her smaller size made it that much harder to stay warm in the cool of the evening. Fall was coming, and when the accursed ponies started spreading snow all over the place she knew she'd really be in for it.

Growing weary and turning up no better shelter, she found an out of the way corner behind a shuttered newsstand, building herself a tiny tent out of a discarded "Mariety" magazine. She let out a tiny sniffle and curled in on herself, cursing her fate and ponies in general.

As she took a final glance around her, her flickering gaze landed on an advertisement in the classified section of her shelter. Her ears perked up as she read it, flipping it off of her back and spreading it on the damp ground before her with her hole pocked hooves.

She sat back on her bony little haunches and considered, a slow, thoughtful smile spreading across her chitinous face as she tapped her chin. She bent her head down and sliced the ad out with the tip of her bladed horn, scooping it up with her tongue and swallowing it for safe keeping in her thoracic sac.

Chrysalis gave a slight snicker, tentative but hopeful, and galloped away into the night.

***

The sound of leg irons jingled hollowly in accompaniment to the sound of tentative hoof falls across the marble floors of a seldom used hallway in the depths of Canterlot Castle. Steadier, marching hoof steps accompanied them, striking a steady beat that drove the unsteady tempo of the chains onward.

A pair of heavy wooden doors opened in a glimmer of unicorn magic, filling the dark corridor with a harsh glare of white light. A single window set in the domed chamber beyond allowed a shaft of sunlight to burn its outline on the flagstones. Shining still brighter, however, was the occupant of the simple throne that sat atop a raised dais beyond the the spotlight cast by the window.

Princess Celestia's wings and coat shone like morning light on snow, her gold ornaments and tiara gleaming from the pale illumination she produced. Her expression was inscrutable, her level gaze fixed on the two sad creatures who were led into the secure audience chamber and brought to stand before her.

They were almost indistinguishable from one another, save for one who seemed slightly younger and had a tendency to squint. Both were scrawny and rawboned, an impression enhanced and made more pathetic by their bruised, bandaged, stubbly grey hides and the almost comically oversized black and white striped smocks they wore. Each also wore horn locks, a padlocked cone that took the place of a standard magic suppressing safety cork. The two shuffled along, ears back, eyes down, posture slouched, and denuded tails tucked between their legs. Both were desperately wondering weather the darkness of the corners were shadows or scorch marks on the walls.

Four more unicorns, burly specimens with charcoal grey coats and bronze armor, shepherded them to the patch of sunlight on the floor and bid them stop with a jab in the withers from a spear levitating over each prisoner's head.

The leader of the four guards drew himself up and spoke in a strong voice that echoed in the chamber. "Flam Flim Flam, a.k.a. Professor Destiny, and Flim Flim Flam, a.k.a. Doctor Insanity. Brought before you for judgement, as it pleases your highness." He followed up with a bow, his three comrades following suit. Another poke with the spears caused the unicorn brothers to stiffly bow as low as they could.

The prisoners flinched as Celestia's voice rang out. "Rise. And leave us, guards. I'll summon you when I need you."

With another curt bow, the four royal guards spun on their hooves and marched out of the chamber, drawing the doors closed behind them.

The Flim Flam brothers kept their eyes on the floor as their immortal sovereign's hard gaze passed over them. Presently, she spoke in a voice bearing the gravity of millennia ruling both the sky and the land. "Flam and Flim Flim Flam, you stand before me having brought harm and distress to your fellow ponies, through both action and inaction. You have willfully destroyed public and private property. You have cheated at a challenge that you yourselves laid down to ponies who accepted it in good faith. And you have abused the trust I placed in you by sponsoring you in the Pegathalon. Each transgression is an affront to my personal honor and prestige."

Her voice rose, cracking slightly. "I have not been so angry for centuries. Every crime you committed while flying beneath my banner. Every one of my faithful servants you left broken in your wake. Each wrong filled me with greater and greater wrath."

One of the brothers took a tentative, jingling step forward, his voice trembling as he spoke. "It... it was all my doing, your highness. My brother Flim was an unwilling accessory to my madness. Have mercy on him, please."

The other shoved ahead of him. "E-enough. Your highness, my brother Flam wasn't in his right mind, he can't be held responsible for... ow, quit it!"

The his sibling started shoving back. "Shut up, Flim. I'll be the one who..."

They fell back on their haunches, covering their ears as best they could with chained forelegs as the Princess' voice cracked the air. "SILENCE!"

Her voice quavered as they huddled together, meeting her gaze with terror etched on their face. "I only have one th-thing I wish to know..."

Celestia's lower lip began to tremble, as crystalline pools of tears welled at the corners of her glistening eyes. "H-how could you? How... how could two of my beloved little ponies do such... such terrible things?"

With a ragged sob she brought her hooves to her face and wept.

Flim and Flam stared, dumbstruck, as Equestria's eternal sun goddess, she who gazed with boundless warmth and affection upon all ponies, be they humble or grand, large or small, good and kind or mean and petty, was reduced to tears by their actions.

It was worse than either of them could have imagined.

After the past week, stewing in fear of a thousand terrible punishments as they convalesced in a prison hospital, all of the feverishly anticipated banishments, imprisonments, petrifications, and incinerations paled in comparison to this. They threw themselves to the floor, blubbering uncontrollably as they crawled toward her on their bellies with shaking, pleading hooves extended.

Flam sobbed. "P-please your highness. Please, don't cry!"

Flim moaned. "We never meant it to be like this!"

Flam choked. "We're sorry we were such horrible ponies!"

Flim sniffled. "We promise we'll be good ponies from now on!"

They looked up through bleary, bloodshot, tear soaked eyes as Celestia looked down upon them, wiping her own moistened eyes with wing tips. With a sigh and a weary smile, her horn began to glow, enveloping the wretched unicorn brothers in the golden light of her magic. She lifted them up and brought them to her, enveloping them in her snowy wings in a silent hug.

After a few moments, she set them down again on wobbly hooves before her, folding her wings as she composed herself with a long, shaking breath. She looked at them with her rose colored eyes and spoke in a clear, even voice. "It is my hope that you can learn to be better ponies. I forgive you, Flim and Flam. For all your faults, you are still my beloved subjects."

The princess gave a regal bob of her horn. "And thus it is with great regret that I sentence you both to twenty years hard labor."

The Flim Flam brother's jaws dropped as she ruffled her wings and rapped her hoof on the dais. "Guards, please see these stallions conveyed to the Equestrian National Rock Farm."

As the armored unicorns marched in, the wretched siblings dropped to their knees and groveled, ecstatic smiles lighting up their haggard faces.

Flam bowed. "Thank you, your highness. Thank you!"

Flim scraped. "You're too kind to us! Bless you!"

They kept bobbing their heads effusively as they were picked up and carried out.

Flim perked up his ears with an earnest look on his face.. "We'll do our best! We'll make you proud!"

Flam stretched out a hoof toward Celestia. "We promise to write! Thanks again!"

The immortal regent of the sun hung her head, shaking it with a sigh as Flam's voice sounded from the hallway. "She's the best princess ever!"

After a few minutes, a silvery voice sounded from the shadows behind the throne. "Well, that's one thing those two doofs are right about... You're pretty awesome when you want to be, Tia."

The darkness in the corners coalesced, resolving into the dusky shape of Princess Luna, who gave a yawn, then stepped up beside her sister and laid a wing across her withers with a sidelong smile. "I'm proud of you, sis."

Celestia gave her sibling a warm smile in return. "I hate having to do that sort of thing. I hope that yours was easier."

The moon princess gave her a cryptic grin. "Oh, it was. Mine should mind her P's and Q's. We'll just have to wait and see."

The sun's ruler's ears drooped. "Hope springs eternal. At the very least, the difficult ones make you appreciate the good ones all the more."

She gave her sister a weary look. "Still. I think I'd like to take a break from 'interesting' for a while."

Luna's grin widened. "I've got an idea for how we can unwind a little..."

She gave her sister a wink as she met her querying gaze. "Ring of the Neighbelung? Tonight?"

Celestia gave a snort, and covered her snout with a wing, then smiled broadly in return. "Oh, absolutely!"

***

Silver Spoon trotted briskly up the path to the riverside cottage she shared with her husband, her blue galoshes squeaking on the rounded river stones that wound through what the young couple called a lawn but was essentially riverbank. She wore a formal, high collared tunic, now unbuttoned at the neck, and strands of her pale grey hair had frayed loose from her tightly braided bun.

The dark grey earthpony drew up short with a gasp, her glasses sliding down the bridge of her snout as she stared over them with her pupils shrinking to pinpricks. She took a shaky step forward, her voice barely above a whisper. "Y-you?"

The powder pink mare standing forlornly on her porch pushed back the hood of her riding cloak, confronting her with a mostly familiar face. Her expression, a melange of hope, regret, and stark terror, was unfamiliar. She gave a wave of of her hoof. "H-hi."

Spoon's ears laid back as she recoiled. "D-d-diamond Tiara? Wh... what are you doing here?"

Her estranged friend bit her lip, working up her courage for a long silence punctuated by the chirping of frogs. Eventually, she muttered a reply. "I came to say I'm sorry."

The bespectacled mare cocked an ear at her. "What?"

Diamond Tiara raised her voice in a wail of bitter remorse. "I came to say I'm sorry! You were my only friend, and I turned around and ruined everything for you just because I wasn't the one in the spotlight."

She threw herself at Silver Spoon's hooves, gazing up at her as tears rolled down a face contorted with emotion. "I always thought my cutie mark meant I was the most important pony in the room, and that I could treat ponies like horseapples because of it. Now I know that treating ponies that way means I wind up the only pony in the room, and it's terrible."

The pastel pink mare looked away, staring out over the ripples of gold cast across the river's surface through red rimmed, stinging eyes. She rubbing a foreleg across her nose with a sniffle and continued in a low, miserable tone of voice. "But I deserve it. I'm a horrible, selfish pony. Even now I'm going on and on about how lonely I am, when you were the one I hurt. I don't blame you if you just want to shove me in the river and watch me float away. You're better off without me anyway."

Diamond choked back a hiccup. "I know I blew it a long time ago, and talk is cheap, and this is all too little too late."

She pawed at the boards of the deck. "I'm... I'm sorry. It's all I can say. It's all I've got that's really worth anything."

She gave a start as she felt a hoof tap against hers, her ears perking up as she heard Silver Spoon murmur to her. "Bump."

Diamond Tiara's head whipped around and she met the silver haired mare's earnest gaze. She looked down at her over her glasses, a faint, lopsided grin on her face and tears in her eyes. The penitent mare stared back, glancing down at her hoof as she felt another tap, and then back up with a look of dawning amazement. "Bump."

She scrambled to her hooves, and the two bumped the knees of their forelegs, as they spoke in unison. "Sugar lump."

They spun their bodies so that their cutie marks touched. "Rump!"

Silver Spoon gave a sob as she took her old friend into a tight embrace, as Diamond Tiara broke down and wept freely into her shoulder, rocking her back and forth as the river rustled softly in the background.

***

A cheer went up, shaking the rafters of the Ponyville train station, as Soarin and Pip stepped off of the train, accompanied by their beloved Apple sisters.

A sizable crowd of well wishers and family had gathered, complete with balloons and banners and streamers once Pinkie Pie disembarked. Raindrops and Rumble hovered overhead with the entire Ponyville Weather Patrol, pumping their hooves and whooping enthusiastically. Big Macintosh stood patiently among the milling herd of earth ponies and unicorns, a benign smile on his face. He was hitched to the Apple family surrey, which was particularly shiny today, and carried the wizened figure of Granny Smith, as well as his infant twin foals Bud and Blossom, who'd come along to welcome their mother and big sister back from their trip. Pop Squeak and his wife Euphonia, Pip's beaming parents, were there to greet their son and fawn over Apple Bloom.

Despite the small size of the station, it took the triumphant stallions of Harmony Aeronautics and their mares quite a long time to make it out to Ponyville's main square. Finally, Caramel and the Cake family had shown up to greet Pinkie, and with a sly wink to her friends, the energetic mare had called for a party at Sugarcube Corner, leading most of the mass of celebrating ponies away and leaving the Apples and their significant others free to surreptitiously make their way back to Sweet Apple Acres.

Soarin took a deep breath, gazing fondly at the clouds above as he walked with a wing draped across Applejack's withers. "Sweet sky sisters, it's as amazing as I thought it would be to finally be back home."

The blonde farm mare gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Eeyup. You don't ever appreciate yer ol' front porch when yer steppin' off it as much as ya do steppin' back up on it after bein' away."

He let out a chuckle as he nuzzled neck. "Well, I've been away my whole life. I'm just about ready to drop to my knees and kiss the ground."

She smiled back, a slight blush spreading beneath her freckles. "Why don't ya kiss an earth pony instead?"

He laughed and craned his neck to take her up on her offer, and there they stood in the road as the others traded smiles of their own and continued on past.

Pip was walking next to Big Macintosh, looking earnestly up at the huge stallion as Apple Bloom hovered at his side, a smirk on her face. The young, spotted pony had a slight tremor in his voice as he spoke. "... and so in conclusion I just wanted you to know that your dear sister has my utmost respect, as does your entire family, as a point of fact, and that I can promise you on my honor that I will endeavor to never cause her any further upset as long as we remain a couple."

He gave the towering earth pony a nervous grin with a wavering glimmer across his teeth, as some beads of sweat appeared on his brow. His eyes widened in alarm as he stammered out an addendum. "OH! And even if for some reason we were to separate in the future I would still continue to strive to not cause undue emotional distress."

His smile became more fixed, as the sweat beads multiplied across his forehead. "I mean, not that I would leave her unless she sent me away. I mean, I'd sincerely never desire for that to be the case and would try my best to not precipitate such a decision through any action or inaction on my part."

Big Macintosh responded with a flat stare at the smaller stallion, the impact of his massive hooves making a steady cadence on the road out of Ponyville as he slowly worked a stick of straw from one side of his mouth to the other. Apple Bloom gave Pip a peck on the cheek and a smack across the flank with her braided tail. "Aw, don't get yerself all in a tizzy, sweetheart. Big Macintosh knows all that."

The young handymare drew herself up and cast a pointed look at her elder sibling with a flick of an ear. "And he knows if'n he ever touched a hair on yer purty head he'd wind up in a hoof crafted hurt locker. Don't ya, big brother?"

The slightest of grins appeared on the hulking earth pony's face as he walked along. "Eeyup."

The young mare and her beau both paused, the rest of the groups ears perking up curiously, as a voice called out her name. "A-APPLE BLOOM! AAAPLE BLO-HOO-HOO-HOOM! "

Before she was completely aware of what had happened, the redheaded earth pony found herself in the tight embrace of a pastel pink mare clad in a drab traveling cloak, who sobbed and blubbered into her shoulder as she rocked back and forth and lashed her lavender and pearl streaked tail. "Ohhh. Ap... Apple Bloom. I owe you my life! If it wasn't for you, I'd be a dried out vulture chow in the Badlands! It's all thanks to you!"

The tearful pony threw back her head and wailed toward the heavens. "I hate you sooooo much, Apple Bloom!"

A shock of recognition washed across the handymare's features, followed by a deadpan expression beneath a furrowed brow and a voice dripping with controlled wrath. "Diamond Tiara, I dunno why y'picked now, of all times, t' show yer face here in Ponyville, but if'n ya don't get yer hooves offa me in about five seconds, I'm gonna fetch y'all an old time country style rump buckin' th' likes o' which mama's will pass on 't their youngun's as a cautionary tale fer generations t' come."

She reached up to shove her away, but was stopped as another voice called out to her, grabbing her surprised attention. "Hi Apple Bloom. Sorry about this."

Silver Spoon stood a short distance away, giving her a sheepish grin and a wave of her hoof. She pushed her glasses up and self consciously cleared her throat. "We... we're... working through some stuff. She's a little... emotional right now."

Apple Bloom glanced between her, and Diamond Tiara a few times, a slightly puzzled smile blossoming on her face. "Well, howdy there, Spoons! I reckon if'n yer not holdin' a grudge against her fer what she did, I can let go of any bad feelin's on my part."

She squirmed in the sobbing mare's embrace. "And speakin' o' lettin' go."

Silver Spoon walked over and tapped Diamond Tiara on the shoulder. "Come on, DT. We were gonna go see your Dad. Then we'll call Cat's Cradle and see if we can go visit your Mom."

The pastel pink mare disengaged with a halting nod, composing herself. "Right. Right."

She drew herself up, and laid a hoof on Apple Bloom's shoulder. "I'll never forget what you did for me, Apple Bloom. I hate you with all of my heart forever. Take care."

The red headed mare cocked an eyebrow, sharing a sidelong glance with Pip. "Yer... welcome? Y'all... take care... too..."

Diamond Tiara gave her a warm smile, and trotted away down the street with Silver Spoon at her side. Apple Bloom cast a thoroughly nonplussed look to her family, exchanging shrugs, and they continued on their way home, their confusion giving way to an immense feeling of joy and relief when the wrought iron gate of Sweet Apple Acres hove into view.

Author's Note:

Further Author's Note: Thanks to the tropers in question for making the change to the entry that initially put a burr under my saddle, so to speak. You guys sincerely rock!

As I said before, your upkeep of the page about this story on TV Tropes was part of what drove me to take this thing to completion. :twilightsmile:

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