• Published 28th Jul 2012
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Don't Let the Sun Catch You Crying - l0x0r



Twilight visits Canterlot and makes a new friend in Princess Luna

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Part 2d

I think Eddie Vedder said it best. Be sound.


The sun burst over the horizon, flooding the world with light. The vibrant dawn was an eruption of azure blue, rosy pink, warm yellow, and soft white. The beautiful colors mixed and blended with a thin line of clouds hovering just above the horizon, painting the sky with joyful, endless pastels. As the dawn spilled across the landscape, it seemed as if warmth and life were returning to Equestria.

Celestia must have put extra effort into raising the sun that morning, Luna mused. She watched the spectacular display through the downstairs windows of the library, noting as the streaming morning light burst through the window and spilled across the room. After a few minutes it reached the table she had been sitting at for the past several hours. With slightly bloodshot eyes she watched as the light reflected off dust motes, causing them to dance in the otherwise still and silent library.

With a wry and humorless smile, Luna contemplated just how much difference a single night could make in a pony’s life. Yesterday she had been happy. As happy as she could remember being in quite a long time. There was just something about being with Twilight that caused her cares to slip away. When they were together, Luna could forget everything else.

But the morning found her in the throes of a guilty debate that had wracked her mind the entire night, keeping her too occupied to find any solace in sleep. The cause of her restless and agitated thoughts, though not the very root, had been the letter from Celestia.

It had seemed innocuous enough when it had appeared. Although Luna had noticed a brief flash of covetousness and pain cross Twilight’s face at the sight of the letter before the unicorn could school her expression. Her smile had been forced as she excused herself and dragged away the recently returned Spike to give Luna some privacy as she read the letter.

Luna had prepared herself for the various possibilities contained in the missive from her sister. Perhaps there had been a new development back at court and Celestia needed her to cut her trip short. Or possibly it was a message asking for her advice on a point of policy or jurisprudence that Celestia felt Luna would was more experienced in. Or it could possibly even be a letter for Twilight that Celestia had accidentally misdirected.

But what Luna had found was a message that pierced her to the very core and had torn at her delicate heart. On the surface, it had been a simple and friendly update from Celestia. But Luna could easily read between the lines of what her sister had written. She knew Celestia better than anypony, and the feelings behind her sister’s words had left Luna in despair.

Celestia cared for Twilight, perhaps more deeply than Luna had suspected. And now, thanks to a simple misunderstanding, as well as Luna’s silence, her normally unflappable sister was obviously falling into a depression. A lessening of spirits likely unnoticeable by the layponies, but one which was all too apparent to a loving sister.

Celestia’s unguarded affection and longing for Twilight as a student, and as a friend, had begun an internal debate within Luna which had lasted all night. She scarcely knew what she had written in response to Celestia’s letter. Hopefully it hadn’t been anything too revealing. In addition, she couldn’t quite remember what she’d said to Twilight to appease her when she had tried to coax Luna to bed.

But what Luna did remember was sitting all night long at the well-worn library table, mentally waging a war with herself and continuously chasing her thoughts in a vicious circle. Her guilty conscience and her love for Celestia were at odds with her feelings toward Twilight and her still lingering resentment over the fact that Celestia always seemed to get whatever Luna wanted. Truthfully, the argument was simple. Whose happiness was more important, Luna’s or Celestia’s? This wasn’t the first time the issue had come to dominate Luna’s thoughts. But this time there was the added complication of considering Twilight’s happiness as well.

The solution of course was simple enough. Luna would just tell the truth, and Twilight would go back to adoring Celestia, likely only sparing the other princess the occasional burst of anger over having been befriended under false pretenses.

Luna silently admonished herself. Twilight would never act so pettily. She was far too good a pony to view Luna with resentment for too long. Certainly she’d feel angry at first, but after a while her anger would either turn to pity or apathy, and Luna wasn’t sure which would feel the worse to be the target of.

What she was sure of though, was that all of Twilight’s love, affection, and attention would be devoted to Celestia again, once she learned that the princess hadn’t really been trying to push her away. And why shouldn’t that be the case? After all, Celestia had been her teacher, her mentor, her idol, for the majority of her life. Under Celestia’s gentle hoof and loving eye, Twilight had grown into a wonderful mare and an exemplary pony. It was only natural that Twilight and Celestia would have deep feelings for one another, somewhere between those of a mentor and a student, and those of a mother and child.

What pony wouldn’t have developed similar feelings in such a situation? Spending hour after hour in each other's company, it was only natural. Even Luna could admit that Celestia was as close to perfection as a pony could ever hope to be. Her beauty, wisdom, power, kindness, and generosity were unmatched. Luna knew just how demanding it was to rule all of Equestria, how lonely it could be as an alicorn. Yet Celestia had ruled alone for a thousand years, and her generosity, her kindness, her love for life, and her love for her little ponies were all untarnished by the years. If anypony deserved the happiness of having a friend like Twilight, it was Celestia.

And Twilight … Well, Twilight was the most wonderful pony Luna had ever met; even counting those from before her exile. There was something about her that caused her to stand out from the herd. Certainly she was beautiful and powerful, but those aspects only added to her inherent charm. Twilight as a whole was captivating, but her innocence was what had first drawn Luna to her.

Twilight knew volumes upon volumes of information, but it had all been obtained through reading about the thoughts and experiences of other ponies. She’d never gone out and experienced the world in the way that most other ponies did. That had left her with a certain precious vulnerability, which instinctively made Luna want to protect her from the dangers and hurts that the world could callously visit upon a pony. Twilight seemed so strong because of her magical abilities and her knowledge, but really she was delicate. In some ways, even more delicate then ponies half her age.

Despite her wish to be the guardian of Twilight’s innocence, Luna knew that Celestia was infinitely better suited for the role. After all, her sister had been Twilight’s protector all her life. What room in such a relationship was there for Luna?

No. When Celestia and Twilight rekindled their relationship, Twilight’s heart would be too full to have any space left over for her. So Luna would once again return to being alone, the same as before, and perhaps it would be better that way. They did say that it was better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all.

Luna was used to being alone. In fact, after many years of practice, she could confidently say that she was something of an expert at being alone. Even though she hated it, she wouldn’t wish that feeling upon anypony else, especially Celestia. She well knew the feeling of being alone in a crowd, and she knew the hurt that Celestia must feel as she labored under the belief that Twilight had turned her back on her. As the dawn’s gentle light flowed over her unmoving form, warming Luna’s skin, she came to the conclusion that despite wanting to be happy herself, the only logical resolution to the problem was for her to tell the truth, for Twilight and Celestia to be happy once again. It would be better than to continue hurting both of the ponies who meant so much to her.

She had just made her vow to reveal her transgression, when Luna heard hoofsteps above her, breaking the early morning’s silence. She looked up to find Twilight frozen on the stairs leading to the bedroom, examining Luna with concern in her eyes.

“Did you sit there all night?” Twilight blurted out.

Luna’s voice was thick from disuse. “No, I … Yes. I had a lot on my mind.” She turned her head away so she didn’t have to stare into Twilight’s innocently caring eyes. She had just resolved to tell Twilight the truth only moments before, yet faced with such a sudden opportunity, Luna couldn’t force herself to speak. She wanted to tell her the truth, she really did. But she just couldn’t stand to see those ridiculously large and trusting eyes filled with the anger and betrayal that Luna knew would be her due.

“I see,” Twilight said sadly as she completed her descent down the stairs.

Luna hoped her inner turmoil wasn’t apparent in the morning gloom as she attempted to assume a pleasant façade. “You seem to be up rather early, Twilight.”

“I didn’t sleep well last night either,” Twilight admitted with a small shake of her head. “I just couldn’t get comfortable.”

Feeling that Twilight’s discomfort was somehow her fault, Luna sincerely apologized, “I’m sorry.”

Twilight quietly walked through the shadow-strewn library, coming to a stop near where Luna was sitting. Her voice was somewhat admonishing as she inquired, “I tried to stay awake last night, waiting for you to come to bed. Did you really stay down here all night long? Aren’t you tired?”

Actually, Luna felt surprisingly rested for having been awake for so long. At least rested physically. Mentally though, she was exhausted from having chased her thoughts in fruitless circles for the past several hours. She had examined all sides of her self-created dilemma so thoroughly and so often, that she was content with at last having reached a decision. So much so that for the moment, it was inconsequential that she hadn’t acted on it yet. Simply coming to a resolution was enough, for now.

Luna’s wan smile didn’t quite reach her eyes as she replied, “I’m sorry for keeping you up. I had meant to go bed, but I was so lost in thought that time slipped away from me. But for some reason, I’m not all that tired.”

“It was Princess Celestia’s letter that kept you up all night, wasn’t it? Was there some troubling news, or…” Twilight’s voice rose in anxiety, then fell into an unsure whisper as she asked the question which had obviously been plaguing her. “Maybe something about me?”

“No. Well, yes. But not what you think,” Luna unthinkingly replied, eager to reassure her friend. “Celestia asked how you were doing, and sent you her love. The rest of the letter though is what occupied my mind last night.” The parts left unwritten, but no less real, which had also concerned Twilight.

“Oh.” Twilight sounded much less distraught, and her wandering eyes met Luna’s once again. “I see. I hope that whatever it was wasn’t anything too troubling. I know that affairs of state can be complex and delicate.”

Luna rested her head on one hoof and sadly smiled. If only it was a problem of state, things would be so much simpler. “It’s nothing like that,” she assured Twilight. “It’s something more personal. Something that doesn’t really affect Equestria as a whole, just us.”

Twilight apparently misunderstood Luna and assumed that the “us” she had referred to meant Celestia and Luna alone. “Well, I can’t say that I know much about sibling relationships since I was an only child. But if you need a pony to bounce ideas off of, or just somepony to listen, I’m here for you.”

This was it, Luna’s golden opportunity to tell the truth, to reveal to Twilight the dilemma that had been occupying her thoughts for so long. To heal the breach between her and Celestia, and to return the happiness she had borrowed for a little while. All she had to do was to speak, and Twilight could once again bask in Celestia’s attention as her closest and most faithful protégé.

Luna breathed in deeply, sitting up straighter as she steeled her resolve. She looked up into Twilight’s eyes, and the words that would reveal her depravity, her duplicity, her true self, caught in her throat.

The morning’s sunlight was gently caressing Twilight’s features, causing her to positively glow with an ethereal beauty. Her face was unguarded and trusting, and her eyes … Her amaranthine eyes, clear and depthless, were guileless, caring, and perhaps even loving. Only one other pony had ever regarded Luna with such tender openness, and that pony had been Celestia. The Celestia of Luna’s youth, before so many things had gone wrong, before an unbridgeable, but understandable gulf had opened between them. Tears threatened Luna’s eyes and her heart ached with a swelling pressure. How could she possibly bring herself to destroy something as heartwarmingly beautiful as Twilight’s simple, unalloyed trust?

Luna had pledged herself to tell the truth. She knew that it would be hard when she did, and the longer she waited, the worse Twilight would feel, and the worse she’d feel in turn. But perhaps she’d waited too long already. It hurt her to remain silent, but she knew it would hurt even worse if she broke that fragile moment with the truth, and lost the trust, the faith of the one pony who unquestioningly believed in her, who truly cared for her.

Despite not being the most socially experienced pony, Twilight seemed to pick up on Luna’s distress. She flattened her ears and looked away from Luna in embarrassment, or perhaps disappointment. She cleared her throat and switched to a different, safer topic of conversation. “Well, it’s pretty early. Spike probably won’t be up for several hours. He usually sleeps in late, and the Cutie Mark Crusaders apparently ran him pretty ragged yesterday too. Anyway, I don’t think there’s much in the way of breakfast food left in the kitchen, so I was thinking of going over to Sugar Cube Corner and picking something up. Does that sound good to you?”

Luna was ashamed of the relief that flowed through her at being let off the hook so easily. “Yes. That sounds wonderful. Although, are you certain it’s alright to leave Spike alone?”

“We won’t be gone for long. I’ll just leave him a note telling him where we went.” Twilight smiled reassuringly at Luna before she turned to go back upstairs. With the other mare’s back turned, Luna took the opportunity to hastily wipe the moisture from her eyes, hoping that the sleepless night and her melancholy thoughts hadn’t combined to make them appear too puffy.

While Twilight was busy upstairs, Luna made her way to the bathroom where she quickly checked her appearance. Thankfully no sleep meant no bed mane. Although it seemed that there might be some truth to Rarity’s warning from yesterday. Luna’s eyes were circled by slightly darker rings which promised to develop into bags if she subjected herself to too many more sleepless days. Other than that hopefully easily overlooked imperfection, Luna appeared as she normally did. Just plain, simple, not exotic like her sister, Luna. She paused long enough to wash her face with some refreshingly cold water, before she returned to the library just in time to meet Twilight descending the stairs again.

“Spike’s still asleep. I don’t think anything short of a hurricane can wake him up right now. So, you ready to go?”

Luna returned her friend’s eager smile with a small, only partially fake, one of her own. “Yes. More than ready actually. It will feel wonderful to stretch my legs after so much sitting.” Luna said in an attempt to substitute over-enthusiasm for sincere happiness. She would tell Twilight the truth; she just needed time to prepare herself. She needed just the right moment to come along. A small part of her worried that the right moment had already passed, and the rest of her feared that the small part was right.

Nonetheless, Luna was sick and tired of her internal debate, so she simply tried as hard as possible to put it out of her mind as she followed Twilight out of the darkened library. The quiet morning grew dimmer as they walked, the sun passing through the narrow gap between the horizon and the clouds that had reflected its light earlier.

“It’s somewhat overcast this morning,” Luna observed with an inquiring glance at the sky. In the dim recesses of the clouds, she caught the shadowy forms of ponies flittering about above, gathering the wispy clouds together into something more substantial. “Is it scheduled to rain today?”

Twilight paused, also looking up at the white-grey clouds. “I’m not sure. I forgot to read this week’s weather plan. But it sure looks like it, doesn’t it? They probably have a copy of the weather schedule at Sugar Cube Corner that we can look at.”

With unspoken agreement, the two ponies, the only ponies in the street at that hour, began to walk toward Sugar Cube Corner again, moving a bit more quickly through the still darkened streets than they had before. By the time they had reached the whimsical building that had hosted Luna’s welcome party, the clouds overhead were thicker, covering the sky in all directions with a uniform dark grey.

The door to the bakery was wide open, and from it wafted a medley of wonderful aromas. Sugar, cinnamon, butter, and rising yeast, all mingling together to produce a symphony of fragrances, which were carried by a warm breeze coming from the well lit store. With the almost tangible promise of baked goods before them, Twilight and Luna eagerly left the overcast day behind them and stepped into the warm and inviting building.

Gone were the banners, streamers, balloons, and other party accoutrements that had festooned the shop the last time Luna had been there. In their place were counters and tables full of baked goods of every type. From simple golden-brown baguettes pouring from baskets, to sugar encrusted tarts, to turnovers oozing their sweet fruity paste stacked hoof deep atop large platters.

Amidst the myriad of baked goods stood a rotund blue earth pony with pastel pink hair and a cupcake themed cutie mark. She was in the middle of carefully sliding a tray of muffins into a covered cart which already held several other racks of pastries. The earth pony noticed their entrance out of the corner of her eye, and after pushing the tray of muffins into place; she discreetly spit out her potholder and turned to greet them.

“Good morning, Twilight! I wasn’t expecting anypony this morning …” she trailed off as she looked in Luna’s direction, fully taking in the alicorn for the first time. She immediately dropped into a hasty and awkward bow. “Oh my, Your Majesty, I didn’t realize –“

“Please, stand up, there’s no need to be so formal.” It seemed odd to be so deferentially treated by such an obviously matronly pony.

“Luna, this is Mrs. Cake. Mrs. Cake, this is Lu-Princess Luna.” Twilight introduced them, with a graceful wave of her hoof from one pony to the other.

Mrs. Cake slowly stood up, and beamed at Luna. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, dearie, er, I mean Your Majesty.”

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Luna assured Mrs. Cake with what she hoped was a disarming smile.

Mrs. Cake firmly closed the rear of the cart she’d been loading with a hoof, as she thoughtfully said, “Oh, you girls must be hungry if you came all this way right before the big storm. When Princess Celestia was here, she just loved our apple cupcakes. I don’t think we have any made right now, but if you wait just two shakes, I can whip a batch up for you.”

She squeezed behind a counter, but paused when Twilight asked, “So, is it going to rain today?”

Mrs. Cake looked at Twilight incredulously, obviously surprised by the unicorn’s ignorance. “Of course it is, dearie. Today’s storm was announced weeks ago. It’s going to be a doozy, with lots of rain all morning. Didn’t you get a copy of this month’s weather schedule?”

Twilight chuckled nervously, as she examined the wooden ceiling overhead. “I uh, must have not got gotten this month’s, no.”

“Well, what about the reminders at city hall and at the post office?”

Twilight’s ears lowered in embarrassment, and she changed to examining the floor as she admitted, “I really haven’t gotten out of the house much lately.”

“You didn’t even see the leaflets the weather patrol dropped yesterday?” Mrs. Cake pressed.

“Well…”

Luna finally decided to save Twilight from further embarrassment by changing to subject. She stepped forward, drawing Mrs. Cake’s attention. “Mrs. Cake, while it is most kind of you to offer to bake confections for me, I’d hate for you to go out of your way on my behalf.” She waved a hoof toward the dizzying array of baked delights on display. “I’m sure that we’ll be more than capable of finding something delectable already prepared. Besides which, while my sister and I have many things in common, in some cases our tastes differ,” she stated with a glance sideways at Twilight.

Twilight met Luna’s gaze, and for some reason her cheeks flushed red.

Mrs. Cake waved away Luna’s argument, and cheerfully stated, “Oh, it wouldn’t be any trouble at all, Princess Luna.”

“Really, we wouldn’t want to impose upon you, Mrs. Cake,” Luna said earnestly.

“It wouldn’t be any imposition-“

“I would not like apple cupcakes!” Luna exclaimed in exasperation, her nostrils flaring in agitation. From Mrs. Cake’s shocked and somewhat frightened expression, Luna realized she’d perhaps spoken a bit too loud and forcefully. Sheepishly, in a calmer tone, she added, “I’m sure that what you already have prepared will be more than adequate.”

“Oh, o-okay,” Mrs. Cake stuttered out, still a bit shaken from Luna’s show of force.

“Honey bun, is everything alright?” a masculine voice called out. A lanky yellow stallion with an orange mane came out of a nearby door wearing a heavy rain resistant poncho and galoshes that extended nearly all the way to his knees.

“Just fine,” Mrs. Cake hastily assured him. “I was just talking with Twilight Sparkle and the Princess here…”

The stallion looked over at the two ponies and after a moment his eyes widened with surprise and apprehension. “Oh! Uh, Princess …”

“Luna,” his wife supplied in a stage whisper.

“Luna. What a pleasant surprise to have you visiting our simple store.” He looked down at himself, obviously attempting to figure out the logistics of properly bowing in his unwieldy rain gear.

Luna preempted him by warmly replying, “It’s my pleasure, Mr…”

“Cake,” the stallion replied.

He must be Mrs. Cake’s husband. Luna smiled to herself at the cute contrast the two ponies made with one another, the one tall and lanky, the other short and plump. With good humor, Luna greeted him again, “It’s wonderful to meet you Mr. Cake. And please, don’t sell your store short, it’s quite charming, and your wide selection looks wonderful.”

“Oh, well, thank you,” Mr. Cake said with unreserved gratitude.

“So, what brings you girls out so early?” Mrs. Cake inquired.

Before they could reply, a pink earth pony with voluminous hair poked her head through the door Luna remembered leading into the kitchen. “Mrs. Cake, where’s the good chocolate? Not the kind you hide from me, I already ate that. But the kind you use for brownies.”

Pinkie Pie, one of the easier of Twilight’s friends to remember, noticed the visitors to the store, and her eyes lit up. “Twilight, Lunie, I haven’t seen you guys in forever!”

Pinkie exuberantly leapt at Twilight and Luna, and pulled them into a tight embrace. A very tight embrace. So tight in fact that Luna could practically tell exactly what she’d been baking from the scent left on her coat. Sugar, flour, butter, … vanilla?

“Pinkie … too … tight,” Twilight gasped out as she tried to pull herself out from under Pinkie’s hoof. Abruptly Pinkie let both of them go, almost causing Luna to topple over from the sudden release. “It’s only been a few days since we saw you at the party, Pinkie,” Twilight griped as she rubbed at her sore neck with a hoof.

“Really? But it feels like it’s been months since we last got together.” Excitement lit up Pinkie’s face. “Oh, you know what we should do to celebrate our getting-back-together-ness?”

“Party?” Twilight hazarded.

Pinkie put a friendly hoof on Twilight’s shoulder. “That’s a great idea, Twilight. But we can’t. It’s too short notice to plan a good party, and I’m having a rainy day party later today. A pony can’t be at two parties at the same time. That’s called the party exclusion principle. It’s one of those laws of physics that nopony can break, I know, I’ve tried. But since we can’t party, we should do some baking!”

Twilight was silent for a few moments as she pondered something, before she replied, “You mean the Pauli exclusion principle?”

“Nah, that’s for fermions, not ponies, silly.”

Twilight opened her mouth to say something, but closed it with a snap, and rolled her eyes while shaking her head at Pinkie being Pinkie. With a sigh, she said, “Pinkie, maybe we could bake later. Luna and I just came over to pick up something for breakfast. We didn’t intend to stay for too long.”

“Oh, why didn’t you say so?” Pinkie asked as she bounced over to a nearby table laden with baked goods. “We’ve got cinnamon buns, honey buns, iced buns, all sorts of buns for your buns.”

“Well, it seems like you have everything in hoof, Pinkie, I’d better be going, dear.” Mr. Cake announced. “These deliveries won’t make themselves you know. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, will stay the Cakes from the swift completion of their appointed rounds,” he said while standing a bit straighter.

Mrs. Cake moved closer to her husband, and anxiously said, “Be careful out there, dear. I don’t want you to be blown away by the storm.”

“Don’t worry, I’ll stay safe, honey bun.” Mr. Cake leaned down and planted a chaste yet heartfelt kiss on his wife’s cheek. Mrs. Cake blushed a bit as she lightly nuzzled her husband in turn.

Luna found herself smiling warmly at the wonderfully domestic scene. The cakes obviously loved each other very much, and their heartfelt regard for one another seemed to overflow and spread throughout the entire store.

All too soon, Mr. Cake straightened and turned his attention to the cart full of baked goods. With Mrs. Cake’s efficient and practiced aid, he was soon harnessed and began to pull the cart out of the shop. But before he left, Mr. Cake paused on the threshold. “Goodbye dear, Princess Luna, Twilight, Pinkie, I should be back in a few hours, but if you’re gone before I get back, I hope you have a wonderful day.” He nodded his appreciation for the chorus of well wishes that answered him, and pulled the heavily laden cart out into the ever-darkening morning.

As Mr. Cake disappeared through the open door, Luna noticed the first few raindrops of the day fall and soundlessly hit the dusty ground. Still hoping to return to the library before the rain began in earnest; Luna turned her attention to the glass display case Twilight was perusing. Pinkie was busy shuffling the many flaky breakfast pastries between the display and the tables around the store.

Mrs. Cake had watched her husband until he could no longer be seen through the shadows of the gloomy morning. But she quickly roused herself and cast off her somewhat fretful countenance in favor of a more businesslike attitude. “Pinkie, the chocolate for the brownies is where I always put it.”

“Oh!” Pinkie said wonderingly. “I didn’t even look there because you try to hide it, so I was looking for it in all the places you usually hide the chocolate.” She bounced across the room and back into the kitchen crying out, “Forward, for brownies!”

The other three ponies watched her exit with similar expressions of resigned wonder. With a rueful shake of her head and a small smile, Mrs. Cake asked, “Well girls, is there anything you see that you like?” She moved over to stand behind the glass counter, helpfully waiting for them to order.

“It just all looks so good,” Twilight complained good-naturedly. Luna had to agree with her assessment. The multitude of sweet baked goods, some flaky, some moist, all mouth watering, was simply staggering.

As they continued to weigh the merits of each of the offered breakfast options, Pinkie returned from the kitchen. “You were right, Mrs. Cake. But don’t worry, next time I need chocolate, I’ll check there first, and third.” She joined Luna and Twilight in their hungry appraisal of the store’s wares. “Boy, all these look sooo good, don’t they?” she asked conversationally.

“Oh yes,” Luna easily agreed.

“Too good. I can’t decide which one I want,” Twilight groused.

Pinkie leaned in companionably and asked, “Well, what kind of taste do you want? I know when I wake up first thing in the morning, I really want sugar, and lots of it.”

Twilight contemplated Pinkie’s advice for a moment and replied, “Sugar could be good, but those baguettes smell wonderful, and I’m kind of wanting something buttery now instead of just outright sweet.”

“And light,” Luna chimed in. She hadn’t forgotten her resolution to watch her intake on her vacation. Pinkie’s earlier reference to their flanks had been a helpful reminder.

Pinkie tilted her head and thought out loud. “Hmm, something buttery and light …” Her ears shot up and she joyfully announced, “Oh, I know!” She hastily trotted around the counter and leaned down behind the glass. When she straightened, she had a basket in her mouth that she slammed on top of the counter. It was overflowing with popovers, one of which tumbled out, thanks to Pinkie’s rough treatment, and it bounced off of Luna’s nose.

“Popovers!” Pinkie cried. “They’re buttery and light, and fluffy, and so, so good.”

“Pinkie!” Mrs. Cake cried out in horrified mortification. “That’s no way to treat a customer, especially a royal one!”

“Aw it’s okay, right Luna?” Pinkie asked, popping back up over the top of the counter.

“Oh. Yes. It’s quite all right, Mrs. Cake. Pinkie Pie is our friend.” Luna glanced at Twilight, waiting for her to chime in her agreement. But Twilight remained silent, and her painfully wooden smile was at odds with the intense glare she was casting at Pinkie. After a brief hesitation, Luna turned back to reassuring Mrs. Cake. “Besides which, her suggestion seems like the answer to our breakfast dilemma. These popovers look wonderful.”

Luna used her magic to select one of the puffy pastries from the basket and floated it close enough for her to take a petite bite from it. Her appreciative smile, meant to assure Mrs. Cake that everything was fine, was completely unfeigned. Silently Luna wondered if all ponies in Ponyville were naturally adept at cooking.

“Well, I suppose if you’re alright with it dearie, then everything’s fine.” Mrs. Cake sounded mollified, but she was still shooting Pinkie a look that promised they would speak about the matter again sometime.

Luna levitated another of the popovers, sending it toward Twilight, though the pastry was so light it almost floated by itself. Twilight recovered herself enough to smile appreciatively at Luna and murmur, “thank you,” before taking hold of the muffin with her own magic. Luna could feel a shiver running up and down her spine as Twilight’s magic caressed her own. She hid discomfort from the not entirely unpleasant feeling by focusing intently on the basket of puffed pastries and audaciously selecting another popover. They were just so good, and so light, that she had to have another.

While she guiltily helped herself to a second pastry, with Mrs. Cake looking on with pride, Luna became aware of a soft pattering that was quickly growing in intensity coming from behind her. Thoughtfully chewing on the popover, Luna turned back to the still open door and found that she and Twilight had tarried for too long. The storm had begun in earnest, and in a few minutes, the rain intensified to the point that it was pounding down in loud and heavy torrents.

“Yay, rain!” Pinkie cried excitedly. “Time to party!” She hopped over the counter and quickly embraced Luna and Twilight before she retrieved a pointed party hat and a noisemaker from seemingly empty air. After fastening the hat on her head, she joyously blew the noisemaker and flung a small hoofful of confetti into the air.

“Pinkie, no parties downstairs during business hours,” Mrs. Cake reminded the exuberant party pony sternly. Well, as sternly as the obviously good-natured pony could manage.

Pinkie wilted slightly and her noisemaker deflated. “Sorry, Mrs. Cake. I forgot.” She did sound genuinely remorseful as she removed her party hat, and returned both it and the noisemaker to wherever she’d summoned them from.

“That’s alright, Pinkie. Just remember that not everypony likes having parties all the time. Especially ponies like poor Mr. Breezy after that time he came in to pick up a cake and you accidentally hit him in the eye with a frozen cream pie.”

“Yeah,” Pinkie Pie agreed mournfully. “I guess we can’t have a party right now. Even though I don’t know why some ponies don’t like parties, they’re so fun!” Talking about her favorite subject had perked Pinkie back up, and she turned to Luna with an excited twinkle in her eye. “Ooooh, you know what else is fun that ponies can do together? Baking! And it’s later now, you said we could bake later, and it’s later than now was then, so we should be good. Besides, you guys can’t leave in weather like this.”

Twilight looked longingly out of the door at the near solid wall of water, as if contemplating whether it was truly impossible to leave. There was a flash of light, and a loud rumble of thunder washed over them. With a defeated expression, she decided, “Well, I guess since we can’t go home in this weather, we could try our hooves at a little baking. If it’s alright with Mrs. Cake of course.” She silently implored Mrs. Cake with a pleading expression, but if she was looking to the older mare to save her from working in the kitchen, Twilight was doomed to be disappointed.

“That sounds like a good idea,” Mrs. Cake said warmly. “Today’s going to be slow, with everypony staying at home because of the rain. But we do need to get started on the cookies for Starlight’s birthday party the day after tomorrow. I’ll just hold down the store in case somepony does come by, but you girls can go ahead and get started on those cookies.”

Pinkie Pie squealed in excitement and bounced over to hug a somewhat downcast Twilight. “Yay! The only thing more fun than baking is baking with friends. Well, that and parties. But like Marie Ponyette said, ‘if the ponies can’t party, let them all bake.’”

Despite her being fairly certain that Pinkie had misquoted whomever she’d referenced, Luna couldn’t help but find her excitement infectious. She began to look forward to getting her hooves dirty with a bit of cooking. Though her excitement was checked by Twilight’s obvious lack of enthusiasm, which was honestly somewhat confusing to Luna. Surely baking wasn’t all that difficult. After all, Luna was fairly sure that there were lists and instructions on how to proceed. She would think that Twilight would be thrilled at the opportunity to follow written instructions.

“Well you girls have fun, and don’t forget to clean up after yourselves. Oh, and Pinkie dear, don’t forget to taste everything before you give it to another pony.”

Pinkie smartly saluted and promised, “Don’t worry, Mrs. Cake, we won’t let any baked bads get out this time.” She then quickly herded Twilight and Luna into the kitchen.

In the kitchen, Luna’s attention was quickly captured by the oven, which had tendrils of thick black smoke escaping from it. “The oven’s on fire!” she cried out.

“Of course it is, silly. How else could it bake things?” Pinkie asked as she gaily skipped over to the oven, throwing open its door with her hoof while she picked up a potholder with her mouth. A black cloud of smoke billowed from the oven, but it dissipated unnaturally quickly. Pinkie leaned into the oven and retrieved a glass dish, in which was a charred black mound of … something.

A sudden gust of wind passed through the kitchen, and the pile of ash swirled up and disappeared as it scattered into the air.

“What exactly was that, Pinkie?” Twilight asked dubiously.

Pinkie set the now empty dish on a trivet next to the sink before she cheerfully informed them, “That was just a batch of my oven cleaning brownies.”

Twilight’s eyebrow rose skeptically as she repeated, “Oven cleaning brownies?”

“Yep. It’s my own special recipe, guaranteed to get your oven squeaky clean.”

Luna angled her head a bit to examine the still open oven, and despite the billowing clouds of smoke it had been emitting earlier, the interior of the oven was spotless. “It is quite clean,” she observed.

“It’s guaranteed to clean off even the most stubborn of stains, or your bits back,” Pinkie confided to them. “But enough about cleaning, it’s time for some reading.”

Pinkie gently slammed the oven door shut with her rear hoof as she traipsed across the kitchen and retrieved a stained and battered book from the built-in shelf there. Twilight’s ears had perked and her face had lit up at the mention of reading. But upon seeing the title of the book, “Betty Hocker’s Cookbook,” her expression became somewhat pained.

“Hmmph menth auh gmpth rmthng mph,” Pinkie said around a mouthful of book.

“Try putting the book down, then talking,” Twilight suggested.

Pinkie placed the book down on the counter near where Twilight and Luna were standing. “Huh, that book tastes like almonds,” she commented to herself while running her tongue over her lips. “Anyway, what I said was that this is a good starting book. It’s got all sorts of recipes, including the basic one for the cookies we need to make. Once you guys make the batter, we can add the secret Sugar Cube Corner ingredients, and they’ll be perfect.”

Pinkie swept over to Luna and leaned in, placing her face uncomfortably close to Luna’s. Pinkie had adopted a rather serious expression and overtly examined the room, shifting her eyes back and forth as if she were looking for somepony while she leaned in even closer to Luna. Still glancing from side to side, Pinkie threw a hoof around the back of Luna’s neck, pulling them closer still.

In a whisper she asked, “Do you want to know what the secret ingredient is?”

Not entirely certain that she did, Luna nervously nodded nonetheless.

Still on the lookout for eavesdroppers, Pinkie waved Luna closer with one hoof, while she pulled herself closer with the other. Obligingly Luna turned her head to better hear, and Pinkie leaned in, her warm breath causing Luna to fight the urge to flick her ear.

“The secret ingredient is,” Pinkie paused dramatically in order to check on last time for spies. She lowered her head, but in a loud whisper announced, “love.” Giving Luna a slow wink, Pinkie released her and hopped in front of the very confused princess. “Now, you have to promise never to tell anypony what the secret ingredient is, Luna. It’s super duper important.”

Luna wasn’t sure just how much of a secret it was, but it was obviously important to Pinkie Pie. So with all due gravity, Luna promised, “I swear that I will never tell anypony what the secret ingredient is, Pinkie Pie.”

“Do you Pinkie promise?” Pinkie asked while eyeing Luna sternly.

Before Luna could ask what a Pinkie promise was, Twilight interrupted with an exasperated sigh. “No, she doesn’t Pinkie promise, Pinkie. She’s a princess, a royal promise trumps a Pinkie promise.”

Pinkie shook her head in disappointment, as if Twilight had just failed an important lesson. “Nothing trumps a Pinkie promise. Except maybe an oath of the moment, but really, who does those anymore?” Pinkie shrugged rhetorically, then narrowly examined Luna. “But if you vouch for her, Twilight, then I guess it’s okay.”

“Yes. She’s Princess Luna, one of the rulers of all Equestria. I think we can trust her,” Twilight replied, as if she were explaining the obvious to a small child. She went so far as to gesture toward Luna with her hoof as if to make sure that Pinkie knew which alicorn in the room they were talking about.

Luna smiled in appreciation of Twilight’s trust. But internally her mood soured a bit. She wasn’t nearly as trustworthy as the unicorn believed, and all too soon Luna was going to have to reveal to Twilight just how duplicitous she was.

Pinkie continued to examine Luna for a few seconds longer before she smiled brightly and said, “Okie dokie artichokie.” She then turned back to the cookbook she’d set down, and nimbly flipped it open with her nose. The book opened up to a well-used page near the middle, spattered with stains and crusty remnants of recipes past. “That’s the recipe. I’ll go get you guys a bowl so you can get started.”

As Pinkie moved away to hunt down the bowl and other accoutrements they would need, Luna looked at Twilight a bit anxiously. She’d made her displeasure at being forced to cook fairly easy to pick up on. “Is everything alright, Twilight?”

“Yes. Mostly.” Twilight sighed. “It’s just that this book brings back some memories. Unpleasant ones. There was a copy in the Canterlot library, and it was the first cookbook that I ever read. At first it seemed wonderful, a book that had immediate practical applications. I was so excited to try it out that I ran all the way to the kitchens. At first the chefs were really supportive of me learning how to cook, but then things got a little out of hoof. There was a little fire, and then ... well, there’s a reason why everypony in the castle calls the kitchens the new kitchens,” Twilight said with a nervous laugh.

Luna sided up to Twilight and bumped her comfortingly. “It couldn’t have been all that bad.”

“I’m never allowed to touch a pot or pan in Canterlot again, without direct supervision by a palace chef or Princess Celestia herself.”

A bit stunned at the draconian rules imposed on Twilight, Luna was silent for a moment. “Oh. Well, what exactly was the problem? It seems to me like cookbooks are just a collection of lists and instructions. I would think that a pony like you would be a natural at following them.”

“That’s the problem,” Twilight groaned. “They seem like a bunch of steps that should be easy to follow, but they’re too easy. They’re so ambiguous that they’re entirely unscientific. I mean, what is the exact measurement of a ‘smidge’ anyway?” Twilight asked, stabbing her hoof toward the line the offending measurement was printed on in the open cookbook.

“Five milliliters,” Pinkie said as she plopped down a large metal bowl. Her sudden reappearance caused Luna and Twilight to jump away from one another. Pinkie didn’t seem to notice their movement as she dumped several measuring cups, spoons, and other cooking instruments with a clatter on the counter.

“What?” Twilight asked confusedly, a delicate blush on her cheeks. Luna could feel a matching blush on her own.

“A smidge, it’s five milliliters. A pinch is two point five,” Pinkie explained. “If you have any more questions, don’t be afraid to ask. This order is super duper important to Mr. and Mrs. Cake, so I need to make as many batches as possible, so I won’t be able to help you guys too much.”

Twilight exchanged a nervous glance with Luna, neither of them entirely comfortable with being given near free reign in the kitchen. Luna the untested cook, and Twilight the pony who apparently had burned down a kitchen. “Are you sure, Pinkie?”

“Yep. I’m sure two super smart ponies like you can get this done in no time at all,” Pinkie replied confidently before she turned and retreated to the other side of the kitchen.

Twilight breathed in deeply and seemed a bit more confident than before. “Maybe today is the day that Twilight Sparkle will be able to make something sweet, something edible, something unquestioningly non-sentient.”

Luna looked at her quizzically. “Wait, what was that?”

Twilight blushed in embarrassment, and with forced bravado replied, “Never mind. Let’s get started. What’s the first ingredient on the list?”

Luna turned to the book, and through a dark smudge on the page read off, “Two cups of sugar.”

“Hmm. That’s simple enough,” Twilight commented. She lifted one of the measuring cups up and dipped it into a nearby bag that was slumped against the wall, labeled sugar. She poured the powdery substance into the bowl and asked, “What’s next?”

“A cup of butter.”

“Butter, butter, butter,” Twilight muttered to herself as she looked around the kitchen. “Ah, here’s some.” Two sticks of butter were wrapped in a purple field of energy and floated through the air and dropped onto the mound of sugar.

“Now it says to cream them,” Luna said, reading ahead. She furrowed her brow in confusion. “But does that mean we’re supposed to add cream? I don’t see a measurement for any cream.”

“I think the book is using cream as a verb,” Twilight clarified. She picked up a whisk with her magic and began to slowly, inexpertly stir the butter and sugar together. “Which means to beat into a creamy texture. So I think that we’re supposed to mix this together until it’s … well, creamy.”

“Oh.” Luna watched Twilight move the sugar-encrusted butter around the bowl, for a few seconds before she hazarded, “You wouldn’t by chance read dictionaries for fun? I only ask because that sounded as if it came straight from a reference book.”

Twilight blushed under Luna’s questioning eyes and the tempo of her whisk hitting against the sides of the metal bowl drastically increased. “Yes. But only when I’m really bored. Or when I’ve run out of other books, or when I’m taking a break from reading other books. Besides, if I didn’t, then how would I have learned words like strabismus?”

“Or antimacassar!” helpfully added Pinkie, who appeared from thin air, causing both Luna and Twilight to jump slightly.

“Pinkie, I didn’t see you come over, what are you doing?” Twilight asked, her voice made higher by surprise.

“Baking, duh. I needed to get some eggs, and I thought you’d need some too.” Pinkie jiggled her head back and forth, causing a large white egg to pop out of her impressively curly hair and roll down her forehead and off her nose. It flew across the short gap to the bowl, and landed on Twilight’s whisk, causing the egg to cleanly break in half, depositing the yolk and white into the mixture.

“Thanks,” Twilight said flatly as she levitated the now empty eggshell from the bowl.

“No problem!”

“That was rather impressive, “ Luna complimented Pinkie.

“Thanks, it took me forever to learn that trick. Like two whole weeks at least. There were eggs all over the place, which didn’t make Mr. and Mrs. Cake too happy. And that’s why I’m not allowed near unripe coconuts anymore.”

Luna tilted her head, attempting to understand what, if anything, coconuts had to do with the conversation. Meanwhile Pinkie began humming to herself and skipped back across the room to where she was busy with her own bowl.

“Uh oh, we’ve got a problem,” announced Twilight anxiously.

Luna turned to her friend with concern and asked, “What is it?”

Twilight planted a hoof on the cookbook, highlighting the list of ingredients. “It says here that we need two small eggs, and we used one extra large egg instead. We’ve deviated from the recipe!” Twilight cried as she thrust the remnants of the eggshell at Luna, stamped on the white shell was indeed a label that said “extra large.”

“Well, perhaps an extra large egg is equivalent to two small ones.”

“But what if it isn’t? What if an extra large egg only equals one and a half small eggs? I can’t find an egg conversion chart anywhere in this stupid book.” A note of panic crept into Twilight’s voice as she began to hastily flip through the pages of the cookbook.

Luna was a princess, a ruler, a natural arbiter of policies and procedures, so she was well versed in thinking outside the proverbial box. “What if we take the egg out and start over with two small eggs?”

“We can’t,” Twilight practically wailed. “I’d already started stirring before I checked the recipe again.”

Luna frowned in thought as she wracked her brain for a solution to their problem, but short of using powerful and questionably benign magic, she couldn’t seem to find a ready answer. “I suppose that we’re going to have to hope for the best, Twilight. Let us trust that an extra large egg does in fact equal two small eggs.”

Twilight seemed pained, and resignedly answered, “I guess.” She looked forlornly at the bowl and began to mix the ingredients once more, but with less energy than before. “What’s next on the list?”

Luna flipped through the cookbook until she found the recipe again. At least she was pretty sure it was the recipe. It was difficult to tell with all the smudged hoofprints all over the pages. The title definitely had the word cookie in it. Probably.

“A third of a cup of lemon juice.” It took a few minutes of searching, but there was a bowl of fruit on display atop one of the bookshelves. Amongst the fruit was a single lemon that Luna retrieved with her magic, floating it down to the counter next to the measuring cup.

However, Luna realized they had a new problem. How were they supposed to get the juice out of the lemon? She poked at the unhelpful fruit with her hoof, causing it to roll over. Not seeing any obvious solution, Luna asked Twilight, “How exactly does one juice a lemon?”

Pinkie called over from her side of the kitchen, “You’ve got to squeeze it, silly filly.”

“Squeeze it?” she asked dubiously while skeptically examining the fruit.

“Yep, like an orange, or a grapefruit, or a turnip.”

Luna looked from the lemon to Pinkie’s smiling face, and back to the lemon, her skepticism apparent. The fruit didn’t appear to be all that malleable, and it occurred to her that Pinkie might be having a joke at her expense. But she picked the lemon back up with her magic and hovered it over the measuring cup, giving it a gentle squeeze with the energy field surrounding it. However, the stubborn fruit refused to give up any of its liquids, so Luna squeezed it a tad bit harder. Still no lemon juice appeared. So Luna increased the pressure, beginning to grow a bit frustrated with the lemon. Soon the lemon had been compacted down to a fraction of its original size. And Luna was glaring at it with outright hatred.

Twilight had stopped stirring, and looked on with concern. “Uh, Luna, did you use a field which completely surrounds the lemon, or did you leave a gap to allow the juice to escape?”

Luna felt like planting her hoof in her face for having made such a foalish mistake. “Thank you, Twilight,” she said with a light laugh. “I completely forgot about a release valve. If you hadn’t of said something, I probably would have just continued to squeeze until it had collapsed into a singularity.”

With a flick of her magic, Luna opened up a small hole in the field around the lemon, and the fruit exploded through it. Thankfully, most of the blast was directed downwards and some of it even managed to make it into the measuring cup. Though a small jet of the stinging juice hit Luna in the eye, causing her to wince at the burning pain and slam her eyelid shut instinctively.

“Wow, unicorn cooking is fun!” Pinkie commented. “I wonder why there aren’t that many unicorn chefs. I bet they’d be awesome at those flashy restaurants where they make the food in front of you.”

“Pinkie, don’t you have your own baking to be doing?” Twilight asked with an unamused tone as she picked a piece of lemon rind off her nose.

“Yep, I was getting some salt, just a pinch.” So saying, Pinkie turned back to her own bowl.

Luna blinked several times, trying to flush the stinging juice from her watering eye. Eventually the burn was at a tolerable level, and she wiped away the tear that had fallen down her cheek. She turned her attention to the measuring cup, and noticed that even with the pieces of rind, pulp, and seeds floating around in it, there was still less than a third of a cup of lemon products present. “Twilight, do you see another lemon around? We don’t seem to have enough lemon juice.”

“Hmm,” Twilight vocalized. She quickly looked around, under the counter, on the nearby shelves, in the various cabinets around the room, but came up empty hoofed. “Nope, I don’t see any more lemons.”

Luna frowned in slight muddlement. Baking was proving to be much more difficult than she'd expected. “I suppose we’ll have to be satisfied with the amount of juice we have, and hope that it’s enough.”

“No,” Twilight stated with conviction. There was a strange light in her eyes as she stared intently at Luna. “We’ve already made a compromise with the amount of eggs listed. We’re not going to be short of lemon juice as well. The recipe calls for a third of a cup of juice, it’s going to get a third of a cup.”

“But there aren’t any more lemons,” Luna said unsurely. The strange energy that seemed to be running through Twilight was honestly somewhat alarming.

Twilight smiled a crooked and creepy smile as she confidently replied, “Then we’ll just have to find a substitute.”

She closed her eyes tight and her horn glowed with a surge of power. A moment later and a thick brown glass bottle popped into existence and landed on the counter with a loud thump. “Citric acid and acetic acid are both carboxylic acids, so they should be interchangeable,” Twilight commented seemingly to herself. She was completely and somewhat maniacally entranced with the bottle as she unstopped it. A pungent and biting smell assaulted Luna’s nose, causing her still irritated eye to water further.

“Are .. are you certain about this, Twilight?” Luna asked hesitantly.

Twilight chuckled darkly before she replied, “We need lemon juice, and this is the closest to it that we can get. When life refuses to give you lemons, you have to make your own.” Twilight poured the acrid smelling clear liquid into the measuring cup, and Luna watched as the seeds and detritus of the lemon peel began to dissolve. She cocked an eyebrow at the causticity of the mixture, imagining what it would do to a pony’s stomach.

But then she mentally shrugged. Twilight did have more experience with baking. And Pinkie was supervising, in her own way. Luna looked over to where the pink pony was bouncing on her hind legs to music only she could hear while somehow holding a bowl in one hoof and a spoon in the other. Surely she wouldn’t let them concoct something dangerous. Besides which, the other ingredients to the recipe would probably dilute the acid.

“Uh oh, I’d better keep stirring. The acid is starting to cook the unmixed parts of the egg,” Twilight commented, sounding calmer and more like her normal self. She began to furiously stir the concoction, while Luna turned back to the cookbook and moved on to the next ingredient on the list.

Over the course of the next half hour, they followed the recipe as best they could, but on several occasions the cookbook had demanded ingredients that simply weren’t available, and Twilight had made a few more substitutions of dubious edibility. In addition, Luna wasn’t sure if they were still making cookies. She was decidedly a novice when it came to baking, but she was fairly certain that there were few cookie recipes which called for tomatoes.

In the end, they had been left with a bowl of purplish-grey sludge which, while quite viscous, managed to bubble ominously. By this point, Luna was sure that they’d made a mess of the recipe.

“Uh, Twilight,” she ventured while staring uneasily at the concoction. She was somewhat afraid to take her eyes off of it lest it begin moving in a threatening manner. “Are you quite certain that this is safe to consume?”

Twilight was contemplating the cheerful picture in the cookbook of what the batter was supposed to look like, comparing it to the purple emulsion they’d prepared, dismay apparent on her face. “I’m not sure. But maybe it’ll look better once it’s cooked,” she said with forced optimism.

Luna however was fairly certain that no amount of time in the oven could redeem the fruits of their labor.

“Hey, are you guys done?” Pinkie asked as she bounced over to them excitedly.

Luna continued to eye their creation warily as she dubiously replied, “I believe so.” A large bubble slowly formed on the surface of the batter and popped with a sound that Luna could only describe as wetly malevolent.

“Yay!” Pinkie cried out ecstatically and threw two hooffuls of confetti into the air. “Now it’s time for my favorite part, licking the spoon. Well, it’s not really my favorite part, but it is my favorite part of this part. Really they’re all my favorite parts.” As she babbled, Pinkie squeezed past Luna and picked up the wooden spoon that Twilight had traded the whisk for when the batter had become too thick. Luna was still unsure how she was using spoons with her hoofs. She lifted up her own hoof and looked down at it, but it appeared as it always did, completely unsuitable for wrapping around and holding something as narrow as a spoon handle. Perhaps there was some sort of earth pony magic at work here.

Pinkie leaned over the counter and stirred the thick mixture a few times before she pulled the spoon back out to reveal that the portion which had been in the batter had for the most part disappeared. The remnants were blackened and crooked, resembling a used matchstick.

Luna frowned in confusion at the odd sight. The mixture was undoubtedly low on the ph scale from all the acids they’d been forced to include, but it couldn’t be so toxic that it could destroy a wooden spoon that quickly, could it? Not to mention that Twilight had just been using that same exact spoon only moments before, and other than a thick patina of the vile sludge coating it, it had been undamaged. The batter surely couldn’t have become that caustic in such a short time.

“Ooooh, this looks like a good batch,” Pinkie commented appreciatively. She tossed the remainder of the spoon over her shoulder, and from somewhere produced another large wooden spoon identical to the one that had been destroyed. This time however, when Pinkie dipped it into the batter, it suffered no ill effects as she stirred the concoction a few times before lifting out a spoonful of the grey substance.

“Uh, Pinkie, maybe you shouldn’t try it,” hazarded Twilight. “I mean, we followed the recipe, mostly, but still, that doesn’t look like it could possibly taste good.”

“Don’t worry, Twilight, I’m sure it tastes fine.” Pinkie assured her friend as she continued to slowly lift the spoon to her lips.

While Luna was as concerned as Twilight for Pinkie’s safety, she had an equally important question that needed answering. “Wait a moment. Why did the previous spoon wither away, but this one appear unaffected by the cookie batter?” She pointed an accusing hoof at the offending utensil.

“Because that was the stirring spoon and this is the tasting spoon, of course. How could you taste test something if the spoon dissolves?” Pinkie explained patiently.

That only raised further questions in Luna’s mind. But before she could ask them, Pinkie lifted up the spoon, and as Twilight put out a restraining hoof and fearfully said, “Pinkie, I don’t think –“ the pink pony stuck out her tongue and licked the spoon clean.

Twilight fell silent and slowly lowered her hoof as she and Luna looked on uncertainly, concerned frowns marring their expressions. For a brief moment, Pinkie appeared fine, although she did seem frozen to the spot.

Without warning, her curly mane shot out in all directions away from her head and neck in jagged spikes, while her teeth audibly gritted together in one of the most painful grimaces Luna had ever witnessed. Her eyes unfocused and seemed to drift in different directions, and her entire body began to not so much shake as violently vibrate in place. Luna was terrified that Pinkie was having a seizure or a stroke, that her and Twilight’s actions had unwittingly harmed or even killed their friend.

“Pinkie, are you alright?” Twilight anxiously asked. She took a few hesitant steps forward, but Pinkie abruptly stood stock still. Her hair fell back into its normal springy curls, and her painful grimace had transformed into a beaming smile that she focused on Twilight.

“It tastes like magenta,” Pinkie cheerfully informed them.

Twilight sighed a deep sigh of relief, which echoed Luna’s own joy at not being responsible for having irreparably harmed one of her newfound friends.

Pinkie raised her hoof to her chin and tapped it in a thoughtful manner. “Hmm, it needs something though … Oh, I know!” She ducked down under the counter and straightened up a moment later, a large scoop clamped between her teeth. “Some baking soda to help it rise,” she said through her clenched teeth.

“Sodium bicarbonate,” Twilight murmured softly to herself while tilting her head as if trying to remember something. Suddenly her eyes widened in panic and she cried out, “Pinkie, no!”

But it was already too late. As Twilight spoke, Pinkie had tilted her head and a generous helping of white powder cascaded into the bowl below.

Luna wasn’t sure what the consequences of adding baking soda would be, but judging from Twilight’s body language, it was unlikely they were going to be pleasant. Time seemed to slow down as the innocuous powder clumped into a mound in the middle of the batter. For the length of a heartbeat, Luna held out the hope that whatever Twilight expected to happen wouldn’t materialize.

But then a frighteningly loud concussion caused Luna to instinctively close her eyes and fold her ears back. When she dared to open them, she found that her ears were ringing, and that the mixing bowl had disappeared. The batter it once held had been spread across seemingly every area of the kitchen. It looked like Pinkie had been right about the baking soda though, the batter that was splattered across every visible surface was no longer a sickly grey, but a bright and vibrant magenta.

Speaking of Pinkie Pie, she was still standing in front of where the bowl once sat, its scorched outline clearly visible on the counter, the remains of the scoop still clenched in a grin that seemed even larger than before. She was covered head to hoof in the bright magenta mixture, and her mane had been blown back into a straight shock of hair shooting out from the back of her head.

Twilight was nearby, but not quite as covered by the batter as Pinkie was. However there were thick clumps of it slowly dripping from her bangs as she leveled an unamused glare at the earth pony. Luna could feel some of the warm, wet mixture covering herself as well, though she had been partially protected from the splatter by Twilight’s body. Her eyes crossed as she focused on a glob that had covered her nose. Without thinking of the repercussions, Luna swiped the batter off with her tongue, managing to get most of it. Truthfully it didn’t taste too bad, a bit salty perhaps.

“Boy, that really was a good batch,” Pinkie said, breaking the silence that had fallen over them and letting the abused scoop fall to the floor. “Did you guys see that explosion? It was sooo cool. We should totally try that again for the next party we have. We can make a lot of batches with different colors, and we can call them ‘surprise cupcakes,’ and they can literally explode with flavor! We wouldn’t even have to decorate for the party because they’d do all the decorating for us!”

Twilight was on the verge of replying, and Luna could tell that that she was upset by the way she was clenching her teeth. But before she could express her feelings for Pinkie’s idea, a worried voice called out from the main store, “Are you girls alright? I heard a …” Mrs. Cake trailed off as she appeared in the doorway, taking in the devastated kitchen. Her eyes traveled across the still beaming Pinkie, the upset Twilight, and the wide-eyed panicked but apologetic Luna, finally resting on the ceiling. Luna followed her gaze and found an irregularly shaped hole there that was probably new since it was right over where the mixing bowl once was. Mrs. Cake sighed heavily and with resignation said, “Just make sure you clean up, Pinkie.”

Pinkie regarded her employer with a serious expression, as serious as a pony could be covered in magenta cookie batter, and declared, “Yes sir-e bob, Mrs. Cake. We’ll have this place spotless by the time the cookies are done!”

Mrs. Cake smiled faintly and replied, “That’s nice dearie.” As she turned away, she shook her head, and Luna thought that she could hear the matronly pony quietly talk to herself.

Luna sincerely hoped that her attempt at cooking hadn’t just strained the relationship between Pinkie Pie and Mrs. Cake. “Pinkie, I’m so sorry that we caused such a monumental disaster. Is there any way I can make it up to you?”

As Luna spoke, Pinkie opened a drawer, removed a kitchen towel, and began to remove the worst of the batter splatter from her. Breezily she answered, “Usually I don’t get the kitchen this dirty until after lunch, so you shouldn’t feel bad. If you think about it, we’re ahead of schedule. And the first batch of cookies is done.”

A bell chimed near the stove, and Pinkie went over and opened the oven’s door. She picked up a potholder with her mouth, then removed a sheet of perfectly baked cookies from the oven. After setting the sheet down, she gazed at the golden cookies in rapt adoration. “Oh man, those look sooooo good. But I can’t have one,” she said sadly, turning around to Twilight and Luna. “They’re still way too hot.” Her mood lifted as she walked over to a nearby drawer and began to rummage around in it. “I remember the first time I tried to eat a cookie right out of the oven, and I burned my tongue on the cookie sheet. It left this really neat scar. Wanna see?” she asked brightly.

“Uh, no thanks, Pinkie,” Twilight replied. “I think we should go get cleaned up now, right Luna?”

Luna, who was being pushed toward the door by Twilight, decided to agree. “Yes, I suppose so.”

“Okay, I’ll keep on baking , you guys get to bathing.”

Twilight let Luna walk under her own power once they were out of the kitchen, passing by her to lead the way to the stair ascending to the second floor. Luna smiled nervously at Mrs. Cake as they passed, fully aware of what a sight the two batter covered ponies must present. But Mrs. Cake simply smiled kindly and a bit pityingly in response.

They quickly climbed the stairs and entered a bedroom which seemed surprisingly normal compared to what Luna had imagined Pinkie’s tastes would have tended to. Not that she had much time to examine the décor beyond a cursory inspection of the comfortable bed, the sturdy, well used furniture, the brand new hole in the floor, and the clump of magenta stuck fast to the ceiling above it. Without pausing, Twilight continued through another door and Luna followed after. She found herself in a relatively large bathroom, with a bathtub much larger than the one back at the library.

“I’ll run the bath, you see if you can find some washcloths, or maybe some brushes.” Twilight lifted her foreleg to better display a large patch of magenta. “I’m not sure just how adhesive this stuff is, but I want it off me as soon as possible.” Twilight seemed to recollect who exactly she was speaking to, and she hastily put her hoof down. She looked over at Luna almost fearfully. “That is, if you don’t mind, Luna.”

Luna smiled disarmingly at her friend. “Of course not, Twilight.”

Twilight smiled warmly in response, then purposefully approached the bathtub. Meanwhile, Luna began to hunt amongst the nearby cabinets and shelves for the proper bathing accessories. Soon the sound of running water filled the room, followed shortly afterward by a few tendrils of steam. While the tub filled, Luna discovered a stack of washcloths, all of which were pink with little yellow ducks embroidered near the corners. Nearby she also found a long handled scrubbing brush, which also had a cute young little duck pictured on the handle.

Charmed by the somewhat juvenile decorations, Luna selected a few of the cloths as well as the brush and floated them back over to the tub where Twilight was waiting.

“I located a few washcloths and a brush,” Luna informed her, freezing them in the air next to the bathtub.

“Good. I found the soap.” Twilight brandished several bars of soap and levitated them over to the washcloths and brush. They were bright yellow, and Luna noticed that they had the outlines of ducks stamped into them.

Her curiosity piqued, Luna asked, “Twilight, does Pinkie have a particular fondness for ducks?”

Twilight lifted a questioning eyebrow in confusion and replied, “No, I don’t think so. At least not more than anypony else. Why?”

“Oh, no reason. I was just curious about why everything seems to be decorated with ducks.”

Twilight shrugged her shoulders noncommittally. “Huh, I hadn’t noticed.”

The gurgling of the water as it inched ever closer to the top of the tub occupied both ponies as their conversation languished into nonexistence.

“It’ll be nice to clean this stuff off,” Twilight commented, finally breaking the silence as she wiped a trickle of the gooey batter from her forehead. “It’s starting to get cold and sticky. I hope it doesn’t stain.” She fretfully began to run her hoof through her mane, checking for any indication of discoloration.

“I’m sure if it does, Rarity wouldn’t mind dying us our proper colors.”

Twilight shot a flat glare at Luna. “I’m never trusting Rarity with dying my coat or mane ever again. Not even if there is a first-time buyer discount.”

Luna’s eyebrows lifted in surprise. Obviously there was an interesting story to be told about a previous misadventure in mane coloration. But it was also equally obvious from her expression and tone, that Twilight wasn’t going to be the pony to tell Luna about it.

Without any further comment, Twilight turned her attention back to the tub and firmly closed the tap. Tendrils of steam rose from the mostly still water, with only a few ripples spreading out across the surface.

“Well, shall we get in?” Twilight invited, inclining her head toward the bath, wearing a nervous smile.

Luna was flabbergasted for a moment, and she quickly glanced back and forth between the warm water and Twilight. The tub was significantly larger than Twilight’s, and could easily accommodate both ponies. But the thought of bathing together hadn’t crossed Luna’s mind until that moment.
Her silence had lasted too long, and Twilight’s smile had faltered. “Or we could take turns again. You can go first. I don’t mind waiting.”

It was obvious to Luna that Twilight was bravely trying to hide her disappointment. Just a few minutes previously it had been equally obvious to her how much Twilight had been looking forward to getting clean. And though she’d never bathed with anypony other than Celestia, really, what was strange about two friends bathing together?

Assuming a smile that hopefully belied the nervous flitter of apprehension she felt, Luna replied, “Oh no, it’s fine. We can bathe together. We wouldn’t want the water to get cold.”

And it would be alright. After all, it wasn’t as if they had to disrobe in front of each other to bathe. They were usually nude. A fact which hadn’t occurred to Luna much before she’d come to stay with Twilight, though it had been swimming to the forefront of her mind from time to time increasingly of late.

In addition, they were friends, good friends. And friends did things together like this all the time.

Twilight climbed into the tub while Luna averted her eyes for some reason she couldn’t name. Then she gingerly maneuvered over the lip of the tub herself. Once in the water, Luna sunk down into it as far as she was able, discretely keeping a wide swath between her and Twilight.

She pretended as if nothing out of the ordinary were happening. As if she bathed with other ponies every day, and selected a few of the washcloths, as well as a couple of bars of soap. Soon she was working up a pleasant smelling lather. Luna was simply taking a normal bath. There just happened to be another pony in it with her. A pony who she respected, and who she cared for, as a friend. A pony who was making rather distracting splashes at the other end of the tub, sending gently undulating waves of warmth in Luna’s direction. However, Luna studiously ignored Twilight’s gentle splashing, as she intently concentrated on scrubbing herself clean.

Luna began to feel comfortable with the situation, going so far as to dunk her head into the bath in order to clean out the last of the cookie dough from her mane. She’d just surfaced, sending out a wave of water in all directions, when a wretched voice spoke up, “I’m sorry.”

Surprised by the raw emotion in Twilight’s voice, Luna forgot to not look over at her friend.

Twilight was a beautiful pony no matter the circumstances. But with her mane sinuously slicked down, and with the bath water giving her coat a shimmering gleam highlighted by the shadowy light coming from the window, she appeared almost otherworldly. Even in the dimly illuminated bathroom, the glistening drops of water in her mane caught what little light there was, transforming into bright diamonds that accentuated her innate beauty. Suddenly Luna knew why ponies wished for such outlandish outfits as she’d seen in Rarity’s shop. It was so they could have a fraction of this effect. For a moment, the thoughts were driven from Luna’s mind, and she forgot everything but the light playing upon Twilight’s glistening form.

However, Twilight’s morose frown and beseeching eyes recalled Luna from the abstract appreciation she’d drifted into. “Sorry? Sorry for what?” She belatedly asked. Quickly she began to cast about for a place to rest her eyes that wasn’t quite so distracting. She eventually settled on a spot of cookie dough still on Twilight’s cheek, just below her eye.

“I’m sorry for messing everything up. I knew I shouldn’t have tried baking again. I always do something wrong whenever I try.” She said self admonishingly.

“It wasn’t really your fault, Twilight. We both were to blame. We stopped following the recipe, then things got out of hoof, and then … well, nopony was hurt, and that’s the important thing.” Luna stated, her friend’s obvious dejection emboldening her to close the gap between them and put a comforting hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.

“But it’s just so frustrating!” Twilight cried, throwing her hooves up, accidentally knocking Luna’s hoof aside and splashing her with a rather vigorous spray of water. “I should be good at this. I’ve studied dozens of cookbooks. I’ve read all the biographies of the greatest chefs and culinary groundbreakers in Equestrian history. I know every facet of the evolution of the modern pony meal, but I can’t bake a stupid batch of cookies!” She growled and furiously rubbed her head, musing her mane, before she flung out her hooves and dramatically cried to the world in general, “Why can’t I bake a stupid cookie?!”

Luna thought she heard a distant thump and Pinkie’s muffled voice, but ignored it as she used her hoof to brush her bangs from her eyes where they’d fallen following Twilight’s last wet outburst. “Well, how often do you practice baking?”

“Practice?” Twilight lowered her hooves and regarded Luna quizzically. “I don’t have time to bake. I’m usually far too busy studying, so I pick something up, or get Spike to make it.”

“Well, perhaps that’s the problem. Maybe you simply need more experience actually baking and you will improve. Like if you picked up a musical instrument. All the knowledge in Equestria wouldn’t make you a good player unless you practiced.”

Twilight cut her eyes away and grumbled, “Yeah, I’m not too good with musical instruments either.”

Luna looked down into the depths of the bath water sadly and shifted her weight. “Anyway, I’m just as culpable as you. I’m sure that Pinkie Pie meant well when she invited us to help, but it was apparent that you felt cooking wasn’t your forte. I should have respected your opinion. Especially since it turns out that it isn’t my forte either. Perhaps even less so, since I lack even your understanding of the culinary arts. That actually was my first time attempting to bake anything.”

Luna’s heart fluttered when she felt the water shift as Twilight leaned over and gently nuzzled her cheek, drawing her back out of her funk.

“I guess we should both practice our baking then and get better,” Twilight softly said into Luna’s ear before pulling back a little from the now blushing princess. A blush rose on her cheeks as well, while she looked away from Luna’s unconsciously sultry eyes. “So, that was your first time?” She asked breathlessly.

Thankful for the change in topic, Luna admitted, “Yes it was. And despite how it ended, I’m glad that my first time was with you.” She smiled at Twilight, and couldn’t help but notice that the spot of batter on her cheek was still there, and just how close their faces were. She could practically feel Twilight’s soft breath on her nose.

Twilight glanced up at Luna shyly. “Well, I’m honored that your first time was with me, too.”

Her earnest gaze accentuated Twilight’s inner beauty, and acting on impulse, Luna leaned forward to remove the one spot of imperfection. With a deft and tender swipe of her tongue, she licked the errant bit of batter from Twilight’s cheek. It was sweeter than when she’d sampled it before, but that might just have been due to Twilight’s natural flavor.

As she pulled back, Luna met Twilight’s shocked and confused eyes. The poor unicorn’s face was flushed dark red. “There was some cookie dough on your cheek,” Luna explained.

Twilight raised her hoof up to where Luna had licked her, still apparently stunned. “I … oh. Uh, thanks,” she awkwardly stammered out.

Luna hoped that she hadn’t overstepped her bounds as a friend. Perhaps she’d inadvertently stumbled into impropriety. If so, then most likely the best course of action would be to quickly move on and pretend that the friendly lick hadn’t happened.

“Well, I feel remarkably clean, so I believe that’s enough bathing for me.” Luna began to climb out of the tub, picking up a couple of nearby fluffy, duck covered towels with her magic.

“Yes, that’s a good idea,” Twilight hastily agreed. “We should definitely get out of the bath and go see what Pinkie’s doing. She’s probably wondering what’s taking us so long,” Twilight rambled a bit as she literally leapt from the tub toward the other side of the room, away from Luna.

Luna had paused to watch Twilight’s frantic actions as the unicorn began to vigorously rub herself dry. With a barely audible sigh, Luna lifted herself out of the bath. However, she noticed that her tail was weighed down with something heavier than mere water. She turned her head to get a better look at her rear, swishing her tail back and forth in the process, and found a small green reptile latched onto the end of it.

Considering the circumstances, Luna thought that she handled the situation quite well. She jumped into the air, her horn brushing the ceiling, and swung her rear hard enough to hurl the offending creature off her tail and across the room. Just before it slammed into the wall at an assuredly terminal velocity, it was plucked from the air by a familiar magical aura.

“It’s alright, Luna, please calm down,” Twilight pleaded as she lowered the green animal onto a stack of towels. Luna noted that its beady eyes asymmetrically blinked, seemingly unperturbed by its harsh treatment. She was still hovering near the ceiling, reluctant to alight and discover what other creatures might be lurking in the bathroom.

“It’s just Gummy, Pinkie’s pet alligator. Nothing to scream about. He doesn’t have any teeth, so he’s perfectly harmless,” Twilight explained as she cautiously approached the still spooked Luna.

Luna hadn’t screamed. Much. And it was perfectly normal for anypony in her situation to give out a dignified yelp of alarm. She was however mollified by Twilight’s tone, and began to descend, careful to keep Twilight between her and that creature. “An alligator? What pony in their right mind would keep an alligator as a pet?” she demanded.

Twilight shrugged her shoulders. “Well, she is Pinkie,” she said, as if that simple statement explained everything. And perhaps it did. “Luna do you … not like reptiles?” Twilight asked, turning her head to ask the alicorn who was narrowly watching Gummy over Twilight’s withers.

“Who does?” Luna asked rhetorically while frowning in distaste and suspicion at the deceptively small alligator. “Who can tell what those cold blooded creatures are ever thinking?” The alligator again blinked one eye, then the other, its expression unchanging otherwise. It could be contemplating lunch, or it could be plotting the demise of all ponies in Equestria, starting with Twilight and herself.

“Don’t worry, Luna, I’ll protect you from the big, mean alligator,” Twilight condescendingly promised with a roll of her eyes.

Her pride bruised by Twilight’s playful verbal jab, Luna stood up straighter and stopped cowering behind the other pony. She feigned disinterest in whatever reptilian activities the alligator was engaging in as she haughtily replied, “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. I’m sure that your services will be adequate. And rest assured, when we come across something that frightens you, I’ll protect you as well.”

Twilight thought for a moment before offering, “Well, I don’t really like snakes.”

Luna energetically pointed a hoof at Twilight and triumphantly exclaimed, “You see! Even you dislike reptiles. They can’t be trusted. Even ones as seemingly innocent as …” Luna swung her hoof to point at the spot where Gummy had been, but his perch atop the towels was vacant.

“Where did it go?” Luna asked with a shade of panic tingeing her voice. She stood on tip-hoof, ready to take off once again, as she hastily scanned the room for signs of the green menace.

“I’m sure he just got tired of being around a new pony and went back to wherever he sleeps,” Twilight reassured Luna.

“Yes, you must be correct, undoubtedly.” Luna continued to scan the room discretely, falsely agreeing to Twilight’s naive assessment of the situation in an attempt to lull the alligator into a small sense of security. If it believed it had won this round, it would likely be less anxious to go on the offensive. “But we should get back downstairs anyway,” she said to hasten Twilight.

The two ponies quickly finished drying off, then drained the bathtub and cleaned the spilled bath water. As they headed downstairs, they carefully avoided the hole in the floor, as well as the ominous lump of magenta on the ceiling above it, and Luna continued to keep an eye out for the diminutive alligator.

Mrs. Cake was no longer behind the counter as they walked through the store. There were the sounds of loud stamping and wet cloth being removed, accompanied by the quiet murmur of pony voices coming from an area of the shop that Luna hadn’t been in yet. Likely Mr. Cake had returned, and Mrs. Cake had gone to help him out of his cart and clothes.

Inside the kitchen, Pinkie was happily humming as she pulled a final sheet of cookies from the oven and set it on a clean area of the counter. She expertly wielded a spatula and with a finesse Luna had to admire, transferring the cookies to a nearby cooling rack where dozens of identical cookies already waited.

“There you two are,” Pinkie greeted them as soon as she’d spit the potholder out. “I was wondering what you two were up to when I heard that scream.” Luna blushed and looked away. She hadn’t really screamed, it had been a shout at most. “But I was in the middle of putting this last batch in the oven, and besides it didn’t sound like the bad kind of scream, so I decided to leave you two alone in case it was the good kind of scream. Because I know when I scream, I don’t like to be interrupted, unless it’s a good kind of interruption, or if it’s the bad kind of scream where somepony’s chasing you because they don’t want be friends or something.”

Twilight seemed much more capable of withstanding the deluge words from Pinkie, and obviously ignored the entirety of what she'd just said.

With casual curiosity, she asked, “Pinkie, how’d you get clean?”

Her attention called to it by Twilight, Luna noticed that while the kitchen was still in shambles, Pinkie herself was spotless, which was odd considering that she’d borne the brunt of the batter explosion.

“Why? Am I not supposed to be?” Pinkie reached out a hoof and scooped up some of the stickily congealed magenta goo from the wall and flung it into her own face. “Is that better?”

“No, what I meant was …”

Pinkie picked up another hoofful and smeared it in her hair. “How about now?”

Twilight shook her head in exasperation and tiredly replied, “It’s fine, Pinkie. Anyway, all the cookies are finished for Starlight’s party?”

“Yep, all baked or accounted for. They just need to cool, and then Mrs. Cake can decorate them. I wish I could help her, but Ponyville ordinance 11 subsection 1 says I can’t decorate cookies, even with adult supervision.”

Luna could see that Twilight was itching to ask Pinkie about the particulars of why they’d made a law against her decorating a baked good, but Luna had come to realize that when it came to Pinkie, on occasion ignorance might be bliss. Unless of course you were willing to be confused and led around in circular conversation. With that in mind, she looked around for something to steer the conversation in a new direction, and noticed through a nearby window that the rain was merely pattering against the pane instead of its earlier pounding.

“It appears the storm is lessening,” she observed.

Pinkie bounced as she eagerly replied, “Yep. I had a nose twitch and an ear flinch a few minutes ago, so the rain should be over in an hour. Give or take a leg shake.”

“Well, while we wait for the rain to let up, we’ll help you clean up, right Luna?” Twilight said.

“Of course.”

Pinkie Pie appeared genuinely touched. So much so that she stood still and looked tenderly at Twilight and Luna. “Aw, you guys don’t have to. I’m used to cleaning up the whole store all by myself.”

“We insist,” replied Luna firmly. “After all, it was our actions which caused this mess, so it is our responsibility to clean it up.”

“That’s right,” Twilight backed up Luna, stepping closer to her to show her solidarity.

“Well, if you guys want to,” Pinkie sprung across the room and threw open a cabinet revealing several kitchen towels and other cleaning supplies. “Then let’s clean!”

In a few minutes, all three ponies were cleaning the kitchen in earnest. Luna found that it wasn’t all that difficult, merely time consuming. The batter had landed in the strangest places it seemed, and it was somewhat challenging hunting down every globule and splatter.

At first Luna had carefully emulated Twilight, gingerly picking up a kitchen towel and dampening it in the sink, then carefully squeezing out the excess moisture. The damp cloth then was able to wipe away several globs of cookie batter before having to be rinsed out once more. She did everything slowly and with exaggerated care, using only the barest whisper of her magic. Her previous attempts at dealing with household chores hadn’t ended all that well, and she’d experienced enough explosions for the day already.

However, as she grew more comfortable with the mechanics of cleaning, Luna became confident enough to control nearly a dozen of the kitchen towels at the same time. She would have attempted more, but between her dozen and the four Twilight had claimed, they’d exhausted the supply in the cabinet. Luna did find it a bit difficult to focus her attention in twelve different directions; she was a bit out of practice. But if a few of her washcloths sat idle for a few minutes, or doubled up on one particular spot, neither Twilight nor Pinkie commented on it.

Pinkie was happily humming to herself as she cleaned the floors, holding down a damp towel with her forehooves and leaning on it as she ran back and forth across the kitchen. She had claimed the floor and the lower parts of the counters, while Luna was responsible for the tops of the counters and the walls, and Twilight focused on the ceiling.

They worked in companionable silence for several minutes until Pinkie’s energetic humming burst into song.

“Oh you gotta clean, clean until it gleams.
And while you clean you gotta sing
Clean, clean everything, who knows what you’ll find
Just scrub, brush, and wipe, don’t sit there and gripe
But clean till everything shines
Just sing and you’ll be done in no time!”

Luna wasn’t sure of the veracity of Pinkie’s song, but with the three of them cleaning together, soon the kitchen was cleaner than it had been when they’d arrived.

Unfortunately, Twilight wasn’t as clean as the kitchen. There had been quite a lot of batter on the ceiling, and while she’d cleaned it, some of it had fallen, covering her head and back in a spattering of magenta.

As she and Luna were wringing out the last of the damp kitchen towels, Twilight craned her neck to examine her back. “Great, I need another bath,” she observed unenthusiastically, with her eyes narrowed and her ears flat.

Luna was loath to return to the alligator infested bathroom, and had been careful to avoid dirtying her coat again. However, out of friendly obligation, she offered, “I could go with you if you like.”

Twilight smiled at her with wan appreciation. “Thanks, but I’ll just go rinse off real quick. There’s no reason for both of us to go up, I’ll be done in a few minutes. While I’m up there, I’ll take care of that spot of batter too.”

“Alright, then,” Luna replied with gratitude evident in her voice.

Twilight walked across the kitchen and disappeared through the doorway. When she was out of sight, Luna let out an involuntary sigh.

“You know, you need to tell her,” Pinkie remarked.

Luna jumped a bit at how close the earth pony had gotten to her without her noticing. Caught flat-hoofed, and with her heart racing, Luna blurted out, “Tell her? Tell her what?”

With a serious tone Luna felt was ill suited for the bubbly pink pony, Pinkie replied, “Whatever it is you need to tell her. Some secrets are meant to be kept, but others are meant to be told. Losing a friend’s trust is the fastest way to lose a friend forever. I know that Twilight likes you, so I’m sure that whatever it is you need to tell her, she’ll be able to handle it.”

Pinkie looked at Luna with sad compassion. “But if you wait too long, then it might be harder for her to forgive you, and you might lose her, forever. I know how hard it is to tell somepony something awful.” Pinkie reached up and put a comforting hoof on Luna’s shoulder. “Just remember, we’re your friends too, and we’ll stand by you no matter what.”

Her eyes took on their usual mischievous glint, and the warmth returned to her voice as she continued, “Unless you deliberately hurt Twilight, or you turn into Queen Meanie again, or unless you start canceling holidays and stop giving us reasons to party. But other than that, I’ll always be there for you. Except when I can’t thanks to that darn party exclusion rule. You should really get around to fixing that. I mean you control pretty much everything right? So I bet you can bend the laws of physics to make them a bit more fun if you really wanted to.”

Pinkie launched into a tirade of other natural laws that could be bent to make the world a more interesting place, including clouds which rained chocolate instead of water, but Luna’s thoughts drifted away from Pinkie’s monologue. She was deeply touched by Pinkie’s support, as well as her sage advice, even if it was wrapped in inane commentary. Luna eyed the hyperactive pink pony with a new appreciation. Underneath the bubbly and gregarious clown was a pony with unplumbed depths.

By the time that Twilight came back downstairs however, Luna was beginning to question her earlier assessment.

“… so with all that gravity, we could make the most super-duper-tastic waterslide ever. EVER!” Pinkie declared as she shook an unresponsive Luna who had taken a seat on the kitchen’s floor.

Her unamused face greeted the refreshed Twilight, and the unicorn was quick to loudly say with exaggerated cheer, “Well, it looks like the rain’s stopped, so I guess we’ll be going, Pinkie.”

“Awww, do you have to?” Pinkie asked, still hanging off of Luna.

“Yep, we only came for breakfast, and we should really be getting back to the library.” Twilight used her magic to lift Pinkie up and off of Luna, setting her down a few feet away.

“Oh well. I guess if you have to go, you have to go,” Pinkie stated. “Bye Luna, bye Twilight.”

Luna stood up and faced Pinkie. “Goodbye, Pinkie Pie. This was a … unforgettable morning. Thank you.”

Pinkie leapt across the room and tackled Luna in a hug. “Aw it was fun for me too. Feel free to come back anytime.”

With a hesitant smile, unsure of just how much Pinkie Pie she could handle, Luna extricated herself from the other pony’s grip and quickly left the kitchen. As she and Twilight walked through the store, they passed by Mr. and Mrs. Cake who were busy putting away the now empty sheets that had been in Mr. Cake’s cart earlier.

“Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Cake, thank you for having me,” Luna called out to them.

“Anytime, dearie,” Mrs. Cake called back with a smile and a wave of her hoof.

“Don’t forget to tell your friends about us,” Mr. Cake added.

As they left through the door, Luna murmured, “I think they all already know.”

Twilight bumped Luna and Luna turned to see a playful smile on her face. “Surely you have more friends than the ones in Ponyville.”

Luna pretended to think for a moment before she saucily replied, “Maybe one or two. And don’t call me Shirley.” The joke was as old as she was and caused Twilight to groan. But they shared a good-natured chuckle at just how bad the joke had been.

As they stepped into the street, the mood turned a bit somber though as they looked up to the sky, which was still a ceiling of near featureless grey. The spent storm clouds continued to hover thickly over Ponyville. Luna and Twilight paused on the doorstep of Sugar Cube Corner, neither of them anxious to step into the puddle strewn quagmire the streets had become.

“That was certainly a torrential downpour,” Luna observed.

“Yeah, but I wonder where the weather ponies are,” Twilight replied, scanning the sky above. “They should be up there clearing away the clouds so the sun can start drying all this out.”

Luna raised her eyes to the heavens to try and catch a glimpse of winged ponies overhead, but it was difficult to pick them out amongst the dark clouds. After searching for a few moments, she noticed a ribbon of rainbow darting from cloud to cloud, marking a circuitous route from the edge of the storm to its center. Before she could point it out to Twilight, Rainbow Dash had swooped down from the dense clouds and effortlessly alighted only a few feet away from them.

“Hey Twilight, hey Night-I mean, uh, Luna,” she greeted them, as she pushed up the goggles she was wearing to rest on her forehead. Her multihued mane was slicked back and her coat was covered in perspiration or moisture from the clouds. With a small but satisfied groan, she stretched first one wing, then the other, continuing to slowly flap them asymmetrically as she spoke. “Man, I love to fly and all, but I’ve been going at it since before the sun came up today.”

“I didn’t think you woke up that early,” Twilight quipped.

Rainbow Dash was oblivious to Twilight’s tone as she turned her head to preen one of her wings for a few seconds. When the feathers were back in their rightful place, she turned back and hotly replied, “I don’t. But Cloud Kicker, Drizzle, and Sunburst all reported in sick today, so we were underponied for this storm. The rest of us had to pick up the slack, and it wasn’t easy, let me tell ya. I’ve been on perimeter duty all day, keeping the edge of the storm clean. You know what it’s like trying to keep the anvil squished down while getting hit by downbursts all the time?”

Twilight blinked in slight astonishment as she replied, “I can’t say that I do.”

Rainbow Dash walked over and lightly poked Twilight in the chest with her hoof to drive home her point. “Well, it’s not fun. In fact it’s pretty dangerous. You’re supposed to have three ponies in a lasso formation to keep control of the perimeter for a storm this size. I was able to pull it off solo only because I’m such an awesome flier. If it had been anypony else …” Rainbow Dash whistled as she lowered her hoof shaking from side to side before slamming it on the ground, “Splat!” She kicked up a splash of mud, which coated her hoof, and Rainbow Dash gingerly tried to shake it off.

Clearly unimpressed by her friend’s boasting, Twilight asked, “So are the clouds going to be cleared away soon, or is it going to be overcast all day?”

Rainbow Dash gave up on trying to shake the dirt off her hoof. “Actually, the clouds were supposed to be cleared by now, but we had some nasty wind currents from the Everfree Forest the last couple of hours, and all the weather ponies are beat from trying to keep everything under control. So we’re taking a break for a bit, and I’m here to get something sugary to keep me going. After that, I’ll clear the sky, and then, it’s nap time.”

Rainbow Dash took a few steps past them toward Sugar Cube Corner when Luna asked Twilight, “Those clouds seem quite dense and far too difficult to be managed by just one pony. Do you think Pink Gin’s spell of transparence could be used to clear away some of the cloud cover?”

Twilight considered for a brief moment. “Well, Pink Gin’s spells were developed for fluids, so they should work on clouds. But I think that Mint Julep’s dissipating spell would probably work better. Although it does take longer to cast.”

“Oh, I’m not familiar with Mint –“

Rainbow Dash turned around and pushed herself between Luna and Twilight. “Whoa, whoa, whoa. Are you guys talking about using magic on those clouds? On my clouds? No way! It’ll be a sunny day in Seaddle before a pegasus’ job gets done by a unicorn, or an alicorn, or a whatever-icorn.”

“Dash, we just want to help,” Twilight replied, backing away slightly as Dash began to hover and infringe upon Twilight’s airspace.

Rainbow Dash swooped back and forth between Twilight and Luna and confidently declared, “When it comes to weather, there’s no magic that can beat a pair of pegasus wings. Watch this!”

Luna expected Rainbow Dash to bolt off into the sky. But instead she almost leisurely flew up to the clouds, kicking out her legs as if she were trotting on thin air. Once she was in the clouds, Luna lost sight of Rainbow Dash, but after a few short seconds, a streaming rainbow streaked out of the cloud cover. It banked sharply, causing a flash of light, and a few of the lower hanging clouds exploded into water vapor.

Rainbow Dash paused and checked to make sure they were watching, then launched into a series of high speed, complex maneuvers that simply defied description. They produced a shockwave with lightning bolts bursting from it , clearing a large fraction of the remaining clouds. Luna could feel her jaw drop from the display of aerial acumen and maneuverability.

Dash then began to fly between the remaining clouds at high speed, slaloming between some, and grabbing others while she flew around them, causing them to spin like fluffy tops. As she darted amongst the dizzily moving clouds, Rainbow Dash began to energetically buck them. For the next few minutes, the sky was filled with a whirling tempest of spinning clouds, bouncing off one another, being split asunder by a streak of rainbow and an expertly placed azure hoof.

Quite soon Celestia’s sun was once more shining happily down upon Ponyville. The sky was clear save for a hoofful of pegasi who flew around in a dizzy and disorganized manner, unexpectedly upset from their resting places by Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow Dash sedately descended, and though she was obviously out of breath, with a cocky smile she asked them, “How was that?”

“It was amazing,” Luna said, her voice full of admiration. “Your movements were so deft, so precise, yet so fleet.”

Rainbow Dash rubbed a hoof against her chest and nonchalantly examined it. “Heh, yeah. I’m awesome.”

Twilight rolled her eyes before she tartly replied, “It wasn’t exactly ten seconds flat this time, was it?”

“Hey, sometimes it’s not all about speed. Sometimes an artist has to take her time. Did you see my Fantastic Filly Flash, or my Buccaneer Blaze? Not just anypony can pull those off at the drop of a hat.”

Luna gushed, “Yes, those were quite impressive, especially the one maneuver that … where you …” she couldn’t find the words to describe it, and her hooves flew around trying to demonstrate it, but Rainbow Dash seemed to know exactly what she was trying to say.

“Oh yeah, the Buccaneer Blaze,” she said with pride. “It’s no Sonic Rainboom, but it’s still pretty cool. After that though, I just kinda went freestyle. You know, just focused on the basics.”

“Your basics are most impressive, especially your ability to pitch so quickly and steeply. Tell me, have you had your wings enchanted, or is it your own natural ability?”

“Enchanted? You mean like use magic on my wings?” Rainbow Dash stretched out her wings and looked back at them questioningly.

Luna was a bit surprised at Rainbow Dash’s apparent ignorance of the practice. A thousand years ago while it hadn’t been ubiquitous, it had been used by quite a number of pegasi. “Well on any part of your body really, but yes. You could enchant your wings to make them stronger or more rigid for banking at high speed or for long distance gliding. Or you could enchant your body to make it lighter for better maneuverability, or certain parts heavier for a more impressive dive. Most of the spells are fairly easy for a practiced unicorn to create for you. In fact, Buck Fizz used to make extensive use of enchantments for his tricks.”

Luna blushed a bit as she admitted, “I bring it up because on occasion I enchant my own wings to supplement my natural ability, but I’ve never been able to bank quite so tightly as you just did.”

Rainbow Dash’s eyes had grown larger and more luminous as Luna had spoken, and she eagerly burst out, “You knew Buck Fizz? He was like one of the best fliers ever! He used magic in his stunts?” Dash turned to Twilight and roughly shook her in excitement. “Twilight, why didn’t you ever tell me? Think of all the awesome moves I could pull off with magic.” She gasped and began to shake Twilight even more forcefully. “If I could get my speed up, I could even pull off a double rainboom, do you know what that means?”

Twilight’s horn glowed as her head bobbled back and forth in Rainbow Dash’s grip. She telekinetically lifted her friend away from her and brushed herself off. “I thought you didn’t want magic interfering with your flying. You seemed pretty upset earlier.”

Rainbow Dash hovered as she moved her hooves from one side to the other. “That was weather, this is stunt flying. Those are two completely separate things, Twilight.”

Twilight still seemed upset for some reason as she visibly calmed herself down before replying, “Well, while I was aware that pegasi once used talismans enchanted by unicorns, the practice fell out of favor following the rise of the naturalist school of thought which –“

“Yeah, yeah, naturalist, smaturalist,” Rainbow Dash said dismissively. She flew over and gently hugged Twilight’s neck with one leg, throwing the other hoof out in front of them. “Don’t you see, Twilight? I’m already awesome, but with your magic plus my wings, that equals like, double awesomeness.”

Twilight sighed heavily and lowered her head in annoyance at the futility of trying to educate her friend. “Fine. When we get back to the library, I’ll start researching spells that can help you fly better. But didn’t you say you were getting something to eat? Luna and I were on our way home.”

Dash’s stomach loudly growled and she let go of Twilight to ruefully rub her head and laugh a bit.

“I too am hungry,” Luna admitted. “Although I’m afraid I’m not in the mood for anymore of the fine goods from Sugar Cube Corner.” The memory of the exploding batter was fresh in her mind, leaving a slight distaste for baked goods.

“Hey, why don’t we head over to Chez Hay?” Rainbow Dash suggested. “We can grab something to eat and you can tell me about how cool Buck Fizz was.”

“That sounds most agreeable,” Luna replied. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve had the opportunity to discuss flying.”

Twilight shot Luna an indecipherable look, but obviously wasn’t pleased with the decision, though Luna couldn’t tell why. Nonetheless, even though she sighed, Twilight followed after them as Rainbow Dash led the way through town.

She flittered around Luna and Twilight, racing ahead excitedly, then slowing down to wait for them to catch up. “So, did you really know Buck Fizz? That’s so cool! Did he really do the Buck Knot? A lot of ponies say that it’s a myth because he’s the only pony to ever pull it off.”

“Yes I did, and yes he did,” answered Luna. She was amused by just how excited Rainbow Dash was. Dash even did a few aerial back flips in simulation of Buck’s Knot. Luna found herself smiling at the simple joy Rainbow Dash exulted in.

“Wait a second, you didn’t know who Star Swirl the Bearded was, but you know who Buck Fizz is?” Twilight broke in. “They were contemporaries. In fact Buck Fizz is older than Star Swirl.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and let out a loud, “Pft. Like I could remember some ancient unicorn. Buck Fizz though, he had a statue in the Garden of Greatest Fliers up in Cloudsdale. It’s the Junior Speedsters’ job to go by every week and clean up the statues, since they’re clouds and like to drift away. After you have to hoof-sculpt somepony’s mane like a hundred times, you start to remember who they are.”

Twilight appeared upset over Rainbow Dash’s casual dismissal of unicorn history, and Luna was quick to change the subject.

“Yes well, Buck Fizz was indeed quite an impressive flier,” Luna said, turning her attention back to Rainbow Dash. “When he flew, he left behind him a trail of lighting filled clouds. And when he performed his knot, he’d start out at a high altitude and dive straight down to pick up speed. At the bottom of his descent, he would begin to make extremely tight kulbits, one right after the other, stringing them together in a giant loop, creating a large knot in the sky. After he’d closed the knot, he would pull it tighter and tighter until it compressed down so far that it exploded back out across the sky with a burst of lighting that lit up the night from horizon to horizon.”

Rainbow Dash had listened to Luna’s recounting with bated breath, completely engrossed in the story. “That’s so awesome,” She squeaked out when Luna had finished. “If I pulled that off, there’s no way the Wonderbolts wouldn’t take me. I’d have to rename it something cool though, like the Dashing Knot.”

Twilight broke Rainbow Dash’s enthusiastic rambling by flatly observing, “Oh look, we’re here.”

Luna had been so engrossed in reminiscing that she’d failed to notice that they’d walked through the center of Ponyville and all the way to Chez Hay. The streets they’d passed had been mostly deserted thanks to the morning’s rainstorm. However the restaurant was apparently popular since there were already a few ponies visible in it through the large windows. A rather severe, slicked back pony with a stylish moustache stood in the open doorway in the process of mopping up the mud that had been tracked into the entryway. He came to attention as they approached and surreptitiously kicked the rag he had been using out of sight.

“Table for three?” he asked with a hint of an accent.

“Yes please,” Twilight answered for the group.

“Right this way.” He picked up a trio of menus and led them into the restaurant. Soon they were safely ensconced at a small table partially secluded from the other diners, but next to one of the large windows, which was allowing the sunlight to pour in. The maitre de left them, and Twilight began to peruse the menu. Rainbow Dash however hardly glanced at it before she turned her attention back to Luna.

“So, Buck’s Knot. How was he able to do it? I mean I know how he did it, but how did he do what he did? Nopony can pull a kulbit tight enough while going into a vertical loop. The closest was Golden Dream when she made the Golden Daisy.”

Luna tilted her head in remembrance. She hadn’t known Buck Fizz too well, but they had met on multiple occasions, and she wracked her memory to recall as much about him as possible. “Well, Buck wasn’t the fastest pony, nor was he the most maneuverable. But he was certainly one of the most experimental fliers in all Equestria. At least a thousand years ago he was. While most ponies simply focused on attaining more speed,” Rainbow Dash laughed half heartedly and looked away for a moment while Luna spoke, “Buck Fizz focused on the opposite, what happens after a pony stalls.”

The maitre de reappeared and interrupted their conversation. “Are you ready to order?”

Twilight snapped her menu shut. “I’ll have the tulip and romaine salad.”

“I’ll take a sunflower sandwich with extra sprouts,” Rainbow Dash said uncaringly.

Luna hadn’t even glanced at her menu and was caught flat hoofed. She blurted out, “I will have the same.”

The stylish earth pony nodded and collected their menus, silently leaving Rainbow Dash to return to what was important.

“Stalling?” She asked incredulously.

Twilight helpfully supplied, “That’s when lift is no longer provided as the angle of attack for an airborne surface increases. It’s part of the Bermulli principle that -”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it,” Rainbow Dash said with a dismissive shake of her head. “It’s when you angle up too high and you can’t fly anymore. Trust me, Twilight, when they were talking about flying, I paid attention. Mostly. Of course when you’ve got a pair of these, most of it is second nature anyway.” Rainbow Dash flapped her wings to illustrate her point.

Rebuffed, Twilight crossed her hooves and leaned back in her seat.

Luna wanted to say something to wipe away her frown, but before she could, Rainbow Dash spoke up again. “But I don’t get it. How does practicing not flying turn you into one of the greatest fliers ever?”

“From what I understand, Buck was interested in learning how to fly while not flying, to borrow your expression. You see, he was convinced that even in a stall, it was possible for him to continue to maneuver. Apparently, he was eventually able to discover just how to accomplish that.”

Rainbow Dash leaned heavily on the table, and commented, “I still don’t see how stalling would help him any.”

Luna also leaned forward, becoming engrossed in discussing the dynamics of flight. “To put it simply, Buck’s Knot is a series of maneuvers that use high speed stalling. Buck Fizz came up with a technique that allowed him to vector his thrust in such a way that even at extreme angles, where normal wings would be useless, he could control his flying and pull extremely tight turns.”

Rainbow Dash’s attention was caught and she asked, “But how is that possible?”

Twilight spoke up with a lecturing tone, “Well, in essence, when he was at the bottom of his dive, and at his fastest, Buck Fizz could enter into a high speed stall, and continue to have control over his flight. I would expect that it could be explained by taking into account the change in fluid density as his wing's changed their angle of attack, affecting the pressure of the air he was traveling through while the force he was generating for the most part would remain constant and –“

“Yeeeahhhhh,” Rainbow Dash again interrupted. “I have no idea what you just said, Twilight. I’m sure that all that sciencey stuff is important to you eggheads, but I’m a hooves on kind of pony.”

Twilight began to sulk again, and Luna was quick to attempt to support her friend, even if she only had the vaguest understanding of what Twilight had been explaining. “She’s right though. The key to Buck Fizz’s stunts was his ability to stop flying, but keep control, and that’s much more difficult than it sounds.”

The conversation was put on hold once more as their food arrived, and Luna discovered that she’d ordered a rather monumental sandwich, which towered over the relatively small plate. Rainbow Dash quickly wolfed hers down, but Luna was unsure of where to begin with the high calorie meal. She took a few moments to examine it, before she leaned forward to nibble at it. Twilight glared at her salad and stabbed at it with her magically controlled fork.

Rainbow Dash, being the first to finish, was also the first to speak. “So if this stall, but still flying technique is so great, then why didn’t anypony else use it?”

Luna could already feel herself filling up after a few bites of the admittedly delicious sandwich. “I don’t know. I would have thought that Buck Fizz’s research would have been continued since it was so revolutionary. But obviously it wasn’t.” Luna looked to Twilight for a possible explanation. She’d come to expect the purple unicorn to take full advantage of the opportunity to educate her fellow ponies, but this time Twilight remained stubbornly silent.

With a shrug, Luna turned back to Rainbow Dash and theorized, “Perhaps because his stunt flying was so successful, Buck Fizz kept his secrets to himself. I don’t know the exact specifics of his techniques, I suppose nopony does anymore, but I do know how he accomplished them in a general sort of way. Buck Fizz flew with a wide assortment of enchanted talismans that he had worked into his costume. One of which allowed his remiges to become as stiff as steel, and another that allowed him to angle them at quite an unnatural angle from the rest of the wing.” Luna unfurled one of her wings to point out the particular feathers she was describing. “With the correct speed, and just the right conditions, and the proper curvature of his wings, Buck Fizz was able to put himself into a stall at will, then pull himself out of it just as quickly. I admired his skills, and actually attempted to emulate his style of flying, but I never had much opportunity to practice, and to be honest, I’m an indifferent flyer. While I’m quite capable of flying for very long distances, I can’t perform stunt flying on a level anywhere near the level of the Wonderbolts or a pony such as yourself.”

Rainbow Dash fluttered up from her seat in excitement. “Aw, I bet that’s not true at all. Your problem is that you’ve been focusing on all this theory about how flying works and you haven’t put enough flight hours in. Flying isn’t something you can learn from a book, it’s something you gotta feel.”

“Do you really think so?” Luna couldn’t help the excitement that bled into her voice. She hadn’t been exaggerating when she’d labeled herself as merely an adequate flyer. The idea that she could possibly outperform Celestia when it came to aerobatic flying was enchanting.

“Heck yeah! With me as your coach, I’ll guarantee that you’ll be the second best flier in Equestria, right after me of course. Why wait? We should go grab some sky time right now and you can show me some of that fancy flying magic, and I can give you a few pointers.”

“Didn’t you have someplace else to be?” Twilight asked in a somewhat angry tone. “A nap or something?”

“Eh, I can catch a nap anytime,” Dash said dismissively.

“Are you certain you don’t need to rest?” Luna pressed. “You have been flying all day already, and under quite severe conditions.”

Rainbow Dash did a short aerial back flip, narrowly missing the ceiling of the restaurant. “I’m good to go, see? I’m plenty rested and refueled from lunch. Let’s go!”

Luna looked over at Twilight to find the unicorn shooting Rainbow Dash a somewhat angry glare. Not sure why Twilight was upset, but not wanting to see her in such a state, with concerned eyes and an unsure frown, Luna asked her, “Is it alright if I go?”

“Sure! Of course it is. You’re a grown mare, you can make your own decisions,” Twilight replied loudly, turning to stare intently at her salad she hadn’t eaten so much as shredded.

“Well, if you’re sure …” Slightly uneasy, Luna rose from the table. Rainbow Dash sped out of the restaurant, and Luna eagerly followed, though at a much more sedate pace. Once outside she unfolded her wings and took to the air.

Luna hadn’t flown for an extended period of time for quite a while, so she was looking forward to her time with Rainbow Dash. As the pegasus sped ahead, Luna flapped her dark wings and climbed up after her. After several minutes of steady flight, they eventually came to a stop and began to tread air far above the empty fields on the outskirts of Ponyville. There weren’t any other ponies at their altitude, only a few wispy clouds that had begun to develop from the remnants of the morning's storm.

Below them, Ponyville and its environs were spread out in a carpet of green interrupted by streams and stands of forest, from which erupted tiny pony-built buildings. Sweet Apple Acres, with its ordered rows of trees and other crops, seemed to spread across a wide swath of the land below them, stretching all the way to the curvature of the horizon.

“Okay, this should be high enough that we don’t get bothered by anypony, or accidentally crash into anything. Now show me your moves, PL.”

“PL?”

Rainbow Dash crossed her forelegs and explained, “Short for Princess Luna. Anyway, show me what you’ve got.” Luna wasn’t sure what exactly Rainbow Dash meant by her ‘moves,’ and the other pony noticed her hesitancy. She swooped closer to the princess and comfortingly said, “Just relax, PL. Let’s start off with seeing how fast you can go. Speed’s the key to most of the really good tricks.”

Luna looked down at the tiny Ponyville below them, and took a deep breath. She pointed her head down and retracted her wings, falling into a dive toward the picturesquely green pastures below. She could feel her mane and tail stream out behind her, and she tucked her head down and hooves in, picking up speed. In a few seconds she’d dropped several thousand meters, and the ground had grown larger and larger, until through her narrowed and watering eyes, Luna could distinguish individual trees and even the way the long grass in the fields was swaying in the breeze.

She slowly extended her wings and gracefully pulled out of her dive. Unused to the stresses pushing down on her, Luna began to pump her wings and flew level for a few seconds before she angled up into a long, gradual curving ascent. With the pressure bearing down on her lessening, Luna turned her head to find Rainbow Dash, and found a long streak of stark blackness filled with points of starlight trailing out behind her. It was as if somepony had torn a hole in the pale blue sky, letting the darkness of the night through. Continuing her climb, Luna slowly spiraled up to where Rainbow Dash was patiently waiting for her.

“Well, you’re not the fastest flier I’ve ever seen, but I think you’ve got enough speed to pull off a few cool tricks,” Rainbow Dash bluntly informed her. Before Luna could begin to feel crestfallen though, Rainbow Dash began to look around searchingly. “Uh, wait right here.” With a characteristic burst of speed that continued to surprise Luna, she dashed over to where the thin clouds had begun to reform and began to shove them together. In a few minutes she’d shaped them into five tall fluffy pillars which she moved around until they lined up in a relatively evenly spaced row.

She darted back to Luna and bled off speed by making a couple of tight circles around the princess. “Okay, now we’ve got ourselves an obstacle course. The good old fashioned slalom, great for working on high speed turns. Now, PL, all you gotta do is to weave in and out of those clouds. Simple, right?” Rainbow Dash explained, wiggling her hoof to demonstrate the maneuver.

It did seem like a simple enough task, and with a regal grace, Luna leaned forward and beat her wings, picking up a little speed. With fierce concentration she carefully navigated the slalom, precisely flying through the dead center of the gap between each of the clouds. After the final cloud she continued her turn and flew back to where Rainbow Dash was treading air and observing. “How was that?” Luna called out to her.

“Eh, it was okay. But try it again, and this time go faster, and bank when you turn, really throw your body into it.” Rainbow Dash spun in a tight circle, illustrating what she meant by putting one’s body into it. She was banking so sharply that her wing tip pointed at the ground and her hooves pointed toward the horizon.

Not wanting to disappoint her newfound coach, Luna lined up with the clouds once more, and with a heavy pump of her wings and a short dive, gained much more speed than her previous attempt. Her heart began to speed up as the clouds quickly loomed in front of her. She twisted her body in imitation of the steep bank that Rainbow Dash had demonstrated, and shot through the gap between the first two clouds. She was flying too fast though and nearly overshot the second gap. She slowed down a bit as she twisted her body in the opposite direction and barely missed kicking the third cloud. This time she anticipated the third opening between the clouds and banked too hard, causing her to lose even more speed before she lined herself up with the final gap. She ended her slalom with much less speed that she’d started it with, and sedately flew back over to Rainbow Dash.

Before she could ask how she’d done, Rainbow Dash congratulated her, “That was way better. But you need to work on keeping your speed up, and moving your body without thinking about it.” Rainbow Dash shot over to the clouds and pushed them all closer to one another. “Do it again, but faster,” She yelled over to Luna from the other end of the line of clouds.

Luna’s eyebrows shot up in surprise. She was already breathing harder than normal from the last run. But she knew that Rainbow Dash wouldn’t be pushing her if she thought Luna couldn’t accomplish her task.

Trusting in Rainbow Dash’s faith in her, Luna gained a little altitude, then dived as she pumped her wings to propel her to a speed just shy of leaving a contrail. This time the clouds shot toward her, and as she leaned into the first bank, she noticed that she no longer felt as if she were flying through the air. Instead it felt as if the air was flowing around her, she wasn’t fighting against it to stay aloft, rather it was holding her up and pushing her along.

In a flash the first two clouds passed, and before they were even gone, Luna had smoothly shifted her body and blasted through the second gap. Another twist and another cloud behind her, though she did feel a wet and cold spray on her tail. Keeping up her speed, Luna powered through the final opening, and as she did she acted on impulse and continued her bank, turning it into an aileron roll. She transitioned that into a large loop that took her up to Rainbow Dash. Her heart was pounding, her adrenaline was surging, and Luna couldn’t keep the wide smile bourn from exhilaration from her face.

“Wow, you’re a fast learner,” Rainbow Dash complimented her, obviously impressed. “You did that run almost perfectly. You just nicked the third cloud, but with a little more practice I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it.”

Luna was panting heavily, unused to such exercise, but she replied, “It’s easy to learn when the lesson is this … fun.”

Rainbow Dash laughed. “I know, right? There’s nothing like pulling off a stunt perfectly, knowing you’re only barely in control, and one wrong move can send you crashing into the ground. But when you pull off something amazing, something nopony’s done before, and your heart’s racing, and your blood’s pumping, and you look around and everypony’s going crazy over how awesome you are, it’s the best feeling ever.” She said while wearing a somewhat goofy grin.

Having tasted a shadow of what Rainbow Dash was describing, Luna could only reply with a lopsided grin of her own and a quiet, “I can imagine.”

Dash’s eyes sparkled as she focused on Luna once more, and they shared a brief unspoken connection. Two ponies terrified of failure, but ever striving for success.

Dash was the first to break eye contact. She embarrassedly rubbed the back of her mane with one hoof and tried to sound a bit more serious. “So, about these enchantment thingies that help you fly better …”

“Oh yes,” Luna said, recollecting their earlier conversation. “Well, for me, it’s easy enough to cast spells on myself. But most pegasi would store a spell in a tangible object and activate it when they needed.” Luna cast about, but she hadn’t brought anything with her on their flight. It appeared that Dash hadn’t either, with the exception of the goggles that she’d pushed up to ride on her forehead. “Your goggles for instance.”

Dash raised a questioning hoof to her eyewear. “My goggles?”

“Yes. I could store the spell in them and then you can activate it on demand. Though it will only last for a short while, and would have to be recharged if you wanted to use it again.”

“Oh.” Dash pulled off her goggles and looked at them speculatively. “So you can make me stronger, or faster, or what?”

Luna mentally ran through her repertoire of spells, thinking of ones that could be adapted for their purpose, and would benefit Dash’s flying. Casting several aside for their complexity, or only slightly beneficial results, her eyes lit up in excitement as she remembered Sundowner’s spell for frictionless surfaces. It didn’t truly create a frictionless object, but it did greatly decrease the drag of an object through a fluid environment.

“I have just the thing,” Luna excitedly informed Dash. “Just hold the goggles out like that.”

Dash held her goggles up in both hooves uncertainly., while her wings continued to rhythmically pump, holding her up in the crystal blue sky. Luna smiled at her reassuringly before she closed her eyes and gathered a substantial amount of magic within her, concentrating it in her conductive horn.

Humming with energy, Luna reached out with her senses and explored the magic surrounding her. It was easy to find Dash, she was the only other living thing in the area, and living things had a way of twisting up the currents of the naturally occurring magic in the environment. She exhibited the normal magical aura for a pegasus, as if somepony had gathered together several streams of wind and had tied them together. Though Luna did notice that Dash ‘tasted’ differently than any other pegasus she’d encountered. Beneath the insubstantial torrents that flowed around her, there was a core of familiar light and heat. A tiny portion of Luna recoiled from the power that had imprisoned her so long ago, but the rest of her embraced the element of loyalty as one of her saviors from the darkness within her own soul.

Concentrating, Luna searched through the currents that represented Dash and located the small bubble caused by her goggles. Because they were ordinary, non-magical goggles, Luna couldn’t ‘see’ them with her magic, but she could ‘see’ their outlines as they interrupted Dash’s normal flow of magic. Her target acquired, and with more than enough power built up in her body, Luna concentrated on the steps not only for Sundowner’s frictionless spell, but for Pink Gin’s spell of binding as well in order to embed the spell in the goggles and make it voice activated.

With a surge of energy, Luna wove the two spells together and released them, opening her eyes just in time to see the eyewear in Dash’s hooves sparkle with dark violet energy. The glow around them faded in a moment, and Luna let her unused energy dissipate away from her. “There, that should do.”

Dash looked from her goggles to Luna, seemingly unwilling to put them back on. “What exactly did you do to them?”

Remembering that Dash was a ‘hooves on kind of pony,’ Luna kept her explanation simple. “I gave your goggles a spell that should allow you to fly faster, or at least not use as much effort while you fly.”

Dash nodded appreciatively but still looked unsold on the idea. “So, how do I turn it on?”

“You say the verbal command, ‘Excelsior!’”

Dash snorted and broke into peals of laughter. “Excelsior? That sounds so dorkish! Why can’t you eggheads ever come up with something cool?”

Luna could feel her cheeks heat up in embarrassment as Dash wiped her tears of hilarity away. “I thought it would be beneficial to use a word you wouldn’t be likely to say. Besides which, I thought it was fitting considering the nature of the spell.”

Her laughter seemed to have overcome Dash’s earlier reticence. “Yeah, yeah,” she said with a large grin as she donned her goggles once more, letting the rest on her forehead again. “So do these need to be over my eyes to work or what?”

“So long as they’re touching you, the spell should work.”

“Cool.” Dash seemed uncomfortable again, but she took a deep breath and with confidence said, “Okay, let’s do this. Excelsior.” She flapped her wings a few times, then looked over at Luna in confusion.

“You have to say it like you mean it,“ Luna explained, feeling a bit better with the small payback for Dash’s earlier mocking.

“Seriously?” Dash somehow slumped in midair and sighed. “Fine.” She snapped into a heroic pose, her eyes staring into the distance, one foreleg flung out before her, the other bunched up near her body. “Excelsior!”

Dash’s wings flashed with a brief sheen of white light which transformed into a whirl of rainbow colored sparkles that highlighted her remiges. Without warning, Dash shot off in a blur of rainbow light. Luna had to turn quickly to keep her in sight as the excited pegasus launched into a series of aileron rolls, sudden dives, and unbelievably steep climbs. For several minutes the stream of rainbow she left in her wake tangled around itself before Dash swooped over to where Luna was waiting for her.

“This is amazing!” Dash shouted with excitement. “It’s like there isn’t any air, like I’m flying through nothing at all!” She circled Luna several times in the blink of an eye. “This is so great, thanks Luna!”

Luna could feel her heart swelling with happiness over her efforts being so well received. With a large, almost sappy smile, Luna replied, “You’re welcome, Rainbow Dash. I’m glad you like it.”

“Hay yeah I like it. Just thinking of all the great stunts I can make better with this is getting me pumped.” Dash finally flew still as a thought occurred to her. “So how long is this supposed to last?”

“I’m not sure,” Luna admitted. “I’ve never done and enchantment like this for another pony before, and the time limit is dependent upon both my own strength, as well as yours.”

Dash did a spontaneous loop as she replied, “Well, I guess I better get as much out of it as I can then. But first…” She shot over to the clouds that had begun to drift away and quickly remade the obstacle course, but with the clouds even closer together than before, and she’d made a new cloud in the shape of an empty circle she situated perpendicular to the other clouds. “Do it again, but faster. And this time you have to dive through the donut before you hit the slalom.”

Energized by Dash’s faith in her, Luna didn’t question whether she’d be able to perform the stunt. Instead, she squared her shoulders and dived down toward the clouds, gaining enough speed to leave a dark trail of night behind her.

For the next hour or so, Dash danced across the sky, testing the limits of her newfound speed. Meanwhile, Luna continued to work on her maneuverability by running the obstacle course over and over, pausing only when Dash came over to rearrange it to make it more challenging. Each time the azure pegasus would tell her, “Good, but do it again, and faster.”

By the end of the hour, Luna was covered in sweat and gasping for breath. Dash must have noticed how tired Luna had become because after arranging the clouds one final time, she called up to Luna, “Okay, this’ll be the last run for today, so make it awesome!”

Luna looked down at the course. It seemed simple enough, a slalom of ten clouds preceded by two ‘donuts.’ However the ‘donuts’ were at nearly a ninety degree angle from one another and were far too close for comfort.

“RD, are you sure about this?”

“Relax, PL, you got this. I’ve been watching you fly all day. You’re better than you think.”

Luna examined the course once more, and still the angle between the two ‘donuts’ looked physically impossible. No pony could make such an extreme turn midair. But … Perhaps Dash was right. Perhaps a pony never really knew their limits until they surpassed them. A part of her mind pointed out that made no sense whatsoever, and the rest of it pointed out that she’d already started to dive.

She passed Dash as she dove, picking up speed, squeezing her body tighter and tighter to cut down on air resistance. The ‘donut’ that had appeared fairly small from her previous height grew until it filled her entire vision. Just as she hit it, Luna threw open her wings and arched her back, desperately trying to make the turn. She could feel the air catch her wings and try to wrest them away from her. Muscles all along her back flexed and strained as she pulled her momentum from one direction to another. Feeling the strain all the way to her hooves, Luna shot through the second ‘donut.’

Immediately she faced a cloud pillar and using muscle memory she threw her body sideways into a bank without even thinking about it. She sliced through the first and second gaps with ease, when she noticed a bright rainbow zoom in and easily catch up to her, slaloming through the clouds in the opposite direction from Luna. Every time they came to a gap, Luna and Dash would pass within inches of one another. Weaving in and out at such a high speed, dodging her friend as well as the clouds, adrenaline pumping and her blood surging, Luna couldn’t help but throw her head back and laugh, though she was traveling so fast that nopony could hear it.

Distracted by all the fun she was having, Luna failed to bank as sharply as she should have, and instead of passing the final cloud, she plowed straight through it, covering her in a brisk dew and scattering it into a thousand tattered pieces. But that imperfection in her performance didn’t matter. Dash was still with her, flying just below Luna. She shifted her weight and effortlessly sailed into a barrel roll over Luna’s head. Not to be outdone, Luna launched into a barrel roll of her own, and soon the two ponies were flying in a rolling scissors. A rolling scissors that turned vertical as Luna followed Dash’s lead and they dove toward the ground. They quickly picked up speed and tightened their spiral until they were once again mere inches from one another. Spinning around each other, the tips of their wings nearly touching the other pony’s.

Suddenly Dash broke the formation and shot away from Luna. Confused, Luna looked down and noticed that the ground was much closer than she’d thought. She too leveled off and bled speed as she traveled away from Dash on a course that took her through Ponyville. She looked over her shoulder for signs of her friend and caught sight of the trail they had left behind. It was a ribbon, a double helix of starry night and bright, vibrant rainbow. It was a rainbow in the dark, a truly impressive sight against the blue sky of the afternoon.

Dash had slowed down to the point she was no longer leaving a trail, and Luna lost the azure pegasus amidst the pale blue sky. But she looked ahead and noticed she was approaching a park, and underneath a large tree was a familiar purple unicorn.

Luna alighted nearby and suddenly noticed just how sore her wings were. She achingly stretched them as she began to walk toward Twilight. Without warning, Rainbow Dash landed next to her and excitedly said, “Hey, PL, that was awesome! Give me some hoof!” Dash held out her hoof expectantly and hesitantly Luna raised her own. Dash tapped her hoof against Luna’s. “Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about. What’d I tell you? A little more practice and you’ll be the second best flier in Equestria in no time.”

“Well, it looks like you two are having fun,” Twilight said archly as she walked toward them.

“You know it, Twi,” Rainbow Dash eagerly replied. “Today was so awesome, I got to learn a new trick, and practice more stuff than I ever have before, and I got to coach a princess. It was so cool.”

Dash eagerly looked around to make sure that everypony was excited as her, but then she did a double take. Her carefree laughter stopped and her face transformed to outraged realization. Luna turned her head to find what had caused such an abrupt transformation, and found dark yellow pegasus with an orange mane carrying a basket in his mouth and trotting alongside a light blue unicorn with a dark blue mane.

Dash sprung into the air and pointed an accusing hoof at the stallion, shouting, “Sunburst, you said you couldn’t fly today because you broke your leg, again!”

Sunburst turned his attention from his delightful companion to where Rainbow Dash was angrily flying. Upon seeing her, his eyes dilated and with a gasp he dropped his basket, and left it behind along his confused date as he quickly flew in the opposite direction. Luna could swear that his coat had turned from yellow to grey in an instant.

“You get back here!” Rainbow Dash yelled. A rainbow shot away from Twilight and Luna as Rainbow Dash rapidly ascending into the sky after the departing pegasus stallion.

“Well, that’s something you don’t see every day,” Twilight commented evenly as they watched the departing Dash. She looked at Luna and said, “Are you ready to head back yet?” There was a strange undercurrent in Twilight’s tone that Luna hadn’t heard before, but put her on edge. Absently, she wondered what Twilight had been doing in the park while she and Rainbow Dash had been flying.

While they walked side-by-side back to the library, Luna could tell that Twilight’s mood had soured. She was obviously upset over something, and for the life of her, Luna couldn’t figure out what it was. They passed a few minutes in tense silence as Luna waited for Twilight to reveal what was on her mind, but eventually Luna realized that she would have to be the one to take the verbal plunge.

“Twilight, are you alright? You seem upset.”

“Upset? Me? Why would I be upset?” Twilight rhetorically asked as she increased her pace a bit, forcing Luna to take longer strides to keep up.

With an uncertain voice, Luna replied, “I don’t know. You just seem … angry over something.”

“Well excuse me for not being as carefree as some ponies. We can’t all be so flippant when it comes to life. Some ponies actually have more important things to do than to fly around all day, lazing around on clouds like Rainbow Dash.”

“What does Rainbow Dash have to do with anything?” Luna asked in confusion.

“Nothing. Everything,” Twilight clarified with a frustrated toss of her head. “You two seemed to be having such a great time together, talking about flying, and flittering around all afternoon. I didn’t want to interrupt you. Since, you know, I don’t have wings, so I couldn’t’ possibly have a clue what it’s like to be a pegasus like you two.”

Luna began to have an inkling of why Twilight was so upset. She smiled with bemusement at Twilight’s foalish emotion as she admonished, “Twilight, just because you don’t have wings is no reason to be angry at Rainbow Dash, or me.” She ruffled her wings just a bit in order to relieve some of the tension in her back.

Twilight finally turned to look fully at Luna, and in a voice loud enough for half the street to hear, she hotly declared, “I’m not angry with you, or her! I’m j-“

She bit off what she was about to say, mid-syllable, and her eyes widened in surprise. She raised a hoof up and covered her mouth with it, whether to keep what she was about to say inside, or because she’d made a shocking discovery, Luna wasn’t sure. Luna waited for her to continue, as did several nearby ponies, who’d stopped what they were doing to witness the latest antics of the town’s librarian. But they lost interest when all Twilight did was to search Luna’s face speculatively for a few seconds before she turned and silently began walking toward the library once more.

Her fiery anger had transformed into a contemplative introspection so quickly that Luna had no idea what was going through the other pony’s mind. Belatedly she realized that Twilight had gone ahead without her, and she raced to catch up.

“Are you certain you’re not mad?” Luna asked again. She hated seeing Twilight upset, especially when the cause for her temper might be Luna herself.

“No, I’m … I’m not,” replied Twilight very distractedly, seeming to be lost in her own world.

Luna was about to press her friend on the fact that there was something she was obviously thinking about heavily, but before she could ask Twilight about her strange mood swings, something out of the corner of her eye caught her attention. Luna felt a flood of instinctive dread as she turned her head to quickly find what had attracted her attention, but all she saw was a busier than normal corner of the Ponyville market, crammed with Ponyville residents. Luna wasn’t sure what it was she’d seen. It had been a familiar movement, or perhaps a face she’d seen often enough before for it to leave a rather unpleasant sensation in its wake. But there were few ponies that Luna actively disliked, and none of them lived in Ponyville.

Twilight was apparently so lost in her thoughts that she hadn’t noticed Luna’s odd jerk of her head, or the depression in the road until she tripped over it. Twilight’s momentary stumble drew Luna’s attention, and she put the partially glimpsed whatever it had been, and the accompanying unpleasant sensation out of her mind. It had likely been a trick of the light, or possibly the many hours she’d been awake finally catching up to her.

Anxiously, Luna looked over her friend, but Twilight seemed unharmed from her near fall, just very preoccupied. The rest of the journey to Twilight’s tree was short and silent. Each pony lost in her own thoughts.

“Good morning,” Spike greeted them with a yawn as they entered. It was easily apparent that he’d just woken up based on his hooded eyes and the rumpled sleeping cap he was still wearing. Obviously Twilight wasn’t the only one who was keeping later hours thanks to Luna’s visit.

“Good afternoon, Spike,” Luna cheerfully replied.

Twilight grunted in acknowledgement, then apparently came to a decision. She turned to Luna and said, “I need to go ask Rarity about something. Do you mind being by yourself for a bit?”

Luna was feeling quite weary from her sleepless night, and action packed day, but she gamely offered, “I could go with you.”

“No!” Twilight hastily said, then in a lower tone explained, “I mean, no, thank you Luna. But I need to talk to her about something … personal. Something private. Really private, and I need to speak with her alone.” Twilight tried to remove the sting from her words with a strangely awkward and nervous smile.

“Oh.” Luna had to admit that she was disappointed. She had hoped that she and Twilight had built a friendship where Twilight could feel comfortable sharing everything with her. But then she felt a stab of guilt at her double standard. After all, Twilight wasn’t the only pony keeping secrets from her friend.

Some of her emotion must have made itself known on her face because Twilight’s expression softened and she seemed truly apologetic. “Though if you really want to, you’re welcome to come along Luna.”

Luna didn’t want to force Twilight to change her plans out of pity, and quite honestly she was quickly fading. “Oh no, you go on ahead, Twilight. I’m actually quite fatigued. I think I’ll just take a short nap while you’re gone.” Luna tried to ignore the obvious relief that spread across Twilight’s features at her decision to stay behind.

“Hey, if you’re going to Rarity’s, can I come?” Spike asked. His cap had disappeared and he seemed infinitely more awake and eager than he had a few moments before.

Twilight shook her head. “Not this time, Spike. I need you to catalogue the books we have in sections K through M and P through T.”

Spike deflated and moaned, “Oh man, that’ll take all day.”

“Sorry, Spike,” Twilight said apologetically, walking over to nuzzle her number one assistant. “But it would be a really big help if you did this for me. And, just for you, I’ll see if Rarity has anymore star sapphires that I can bring you.”

The mention of the jewel perked Spike right back up. “A star sapphire? Well, I guess I could go visit Rarity tomorrow. I wouldn’t want her to think that I’m desperate or anything by showing up every single day.”

“Oh no, we wouldn’t want that,” Twilight agreed with a playful roll of her eyes.

Luna let out an involuntarily large yawn that she was only barely able to hide behind a discrete hoof. “Oh, excuse me. I believe that my body is attempting to inform me that it’s time to rest. If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll go turn in.”

“Good night, Princess,” Spike said. “Or morning, or afternoon, or whatever time it is.”

“Sweet dreams,” Twilight simply wished. Luna could feel her eyes following her as she made her way up to the bedroom.

Twilight’s room was bathed in sunlight, and though there were many personal items tucked away around the room, nothing was out of place. Luna flew up to the bed, and found it’s impeccably made sheets glowing in the warm light from the window; she easily gave into their inviting allure. She slid between the sheets and buried her face in the pillow, blocking out Celestia’s sunlight, and breathing in the scent that had permeated the fabric. The comforting smell which belonged uniquely to Twilight. In a few short moments, lulled by the warm bed, the soft sheets, and the faded presence of the bed’s owner, Luna fell into a soft slumber.

The welcome rest though was short lived. After perhaps an hour, when her eyes had begun to twitch behind her tightly closed eyelids, Luna began to fitfully toss and turn. Soon her voice, spurred on by her dreams, broke through her sleep long enough to let out a whispered word or softly murmured broken phrase. As her dreams deepened, Luna began to thrash wildly about in the bed, clearly having unpleasant dreams of the demons that haunted her.

She finally awoke with a frightful gasp and she nearly leapt from of the bed. Luna was sweating and her heart was racing, while her mouth was painfully dry. She’d had a rather bad nightmare. In fact one of the more unpleasant ones since her return from the moon. It was rapidly fading, but she could still remember it had been about Twilight and Celestia laughing unpleasantly and she’d been back on the moon, or maybe incased in stone, unable to move or speak, only to watch and, and, and it was gone. Whatever terrible vision she’d seen had slipped away as silently as it had arrived, leaving nothing behind but a general sense of disquiet and dread.

There was a shuffle of hooves and Luna turned her head to find Twilight standing quite close to the side of the bed, concern filling her impossibly deep eyes. “Are you alright, Luna? I came to wake you up because it’s almost time to raise the moon, and you were thrashing around, murmuring in your sleep.”

Luna raised a hoof and brushed the hair from her face as she asked, “I didn’t say anything unusual, did I?”

The delicate blush that played across Twilight’s cheeks as she refused to meet Luna’s eyes informed her that yes; she’d said something quite embarrassing.

“Oh no, nothing intelligible.”

“Good.” Luna agreed to go along with Twilight’s little white lie as she climbed out of bed.

The dream had left a lingering unpleasant feeling, and Luna felt trapped, as if something catastrophic were about to happen. The walls of the library were too close, and they were closing in on her. She shot a glance out of the window for relief, and found that he sun had traveled far while she’d slept and was now touching the horizon. Night was on the cusp of descending, and the thought of the crisp night air flowing around her body, soothing her heated thoughts, filled Luna with the urge to race outside. “I’m sorry Twilight, but I need to get some fresh air.”

Twilight stepped closer and quickly offered, “I’ll go with you.”

But this time it was Luna’s turn to rebuke her friend. “No. I feel that it would be best if I were alone for a little while,” Luna stated more harshly than she intended.

Twilight’s face fell, and she appeared crestfallen as she sadly replied, “I understand.”

Luna’s heart went out to Twilight, but a vague memory of horrible laughter shot through her mind, and she could no longer endure the stuffiness of the room. Not bothering to traverse the entire library to get outside, Luna burst out of the glass doors leading to the balcony. She paused long enough to impatiently raise the moon, uncaring that the sun was still in the sky, and both celestial bodies would be visible at the same time.

With a graceful leap, and despite her still tired wings, Luna took to the sky. She was too scared to look back as she flew into the darkening night.


Special thanks to Dawning the Mask, Lambotrist, and Pyrite, for continuing to hound me until I got it right.

Sometimes I think I listen to too much pearl jam, so I go listen to some soundgarden.