The White Mare

by Warren Hutch

First published 6th of December, 2013

Alternate Universe Celestia Exiles self to Everfree after banishing Luna meets Fluttershy after first rainboom

Over a thousand years ago, two royal siblings fought for the sky and were exiled, one by her sister's hoof, and one in penance for what she had done.

In the present Republic of Equestria, no one remembers them as anything more than legends and old pony tales. Save for one shy filly who fell from the sky one fine summer's day.

An Alternate Universe "What If" tale, reconstructing the beginning from a different angle.

Prologue

She should have been terrified. She should have been curled into a gangly little ball of whimpering, trembling fear and defeat on the ground. This was the sort of thing pegasus foals usually had nightmares about, to have dropped out of the nest like a baby bird.

But she wasn't afraid, and it was as much from being on the ground as anything that made everything feel righter than it had ever felt in her entire young life. The earth was solid beneath her hooves, not insubstantial like the clouds she'd grown up on, but there was still a welcoming softness beneath her tread.

All around her there was music, the songs of birds and the gentle hush of the breeze rustling the leaves of the trees, so different than the harsh whistle or the empty roar of the winds of her lofty home in the sky.

And the colors! The cloud of butterflies that had miraculously cushioned her fall had dispersed like a thousand pastel colored jewels, fluttering to and fro among the countless flowers adorning the sweet blend of greens, browns, and golds of the meadow and forests like the lights on an immense Hearth's Warming tree. It was nothing like the antiseptic whites and harsh hues of the rainbow fountains of Cloudsdale.

The soft yellow filly felt as if she could blend in here. Like she could settle happily in among the blossoms and bloom quietly rather than stick out like a cramped wing under the scornful gaze of her fellow pegasi, who constantly judged her for her weak flying and timid demeanor.

Highly attuned to scrutiny since an early growth spurt left her awkward both inside and out, she knew a thousand eyes were watching her. But this audience only looked on with the innocent curiosity of the creatures of the forest, birds and animals she'd only seen before in her favorite picture books.

Seeing them in the fur and feather was completely different, all of them so soft and cute and busy and timid and adorable and oh how she could feel her heart unfurling in a way her wings had never had the strength to up in the lofty clouds.

She began to sing, a sweet love song to this new world she'd fallen into. For the first time she wanted to be seen, to be known, to be welcomed. And she was, feeling a sense of belonging that flooded up through her hooves from the ground as the trees and the flowers and the squirrels and birds and bunnies and all of earthbound nature shimmered and danced and frolicked around her.

BOOOOOM

A thunderous boom split the sky above, snapping her out of her joyous reverie and sending the little animals scattering for shelter into countless nooks and crannies of the forest. She looked up, more amazed than frightened, as a rapidly expanding disc of coruscating colors burned its way across the firmament. A sparkling rainbow ascended from the epicenter of the blast, spiking toward the dazzling heights of the stratosphere over the distant, billowing towers of Cloudsdale.

Somehow, despite the panicked desertion of all the little forest creatures, she felt an even deeper feeling of belonging, as as if a connection had somehow been formed within her with something she had only the barest inkling of.

As the echoes faded, her consciousness returned to the here and now, and she became aware of a fearful hush that had fallen over the forest. She could feel all the tiny hearts beating with uncomprehending terror, the little bodies trembling beneath the leaves.

Her love at first sight turned instantly to compassion. She knew what it was to cringe, to flee in panic, to want to burrow out of sight and shut away the harsh, scary parts of the world. Almost without thought, she also knew she adored these little ones so much that she wanted those bad feelings to go away for them and never come back, and knew it was her duty to make it all better.

With soft beats of her wings, she began to flit to and fro, ever deeper into the woods as she cooed gentle reassurance to the little creatures and coaxed them from their hiding places. Her wandering ministrations eventually brought her to a peaceful clearing, where the animals and birds gathered around her, happy and at ease once more in her presence.

She felt a tingle on her flanks, and looked back with a smile to see a trio of pink and blue butterflies had appeared there in a sparkle of magic, confirming once and for all what she already knew.

This place was where she was meant to be.

***

The pale yellow filly didn't know how long she'd been sitting there, abiding with the little creatures of the forest after calming them down from the strange rainbow explosion. Time didn't matter, she could just stay here and commune with the natural world forever.

She became aware of another hush falling over her companions in the lengthening shadows of the afternoon. This time the mood was different, however. Not fearful, but... quiet... respectful almost, kind of like she always got around her grandsire.

The filly cocked an ear and glanced around the perimeter of the clearing, her aquamarine eyes going wide as she spotted what was doubtless the cause of the sudden stillness.

Watching from among the trees was a giant mare, fully twice as tall as the largest pony the young pegasus had ever seen in her life. Her coat was a pale pinkish white, like clouds brightly lit by the morning sun, but shaggy and unkempt as if it had never been brushed. Vast white wings lay folded across her back, and a long, shimmering horn rose from her forehead.

Her mane was an ethereal cloud of swirling colors, spiraling and twisting but never mixing, pale pinks and purples and faded greens and blues, and her tail was like a drifting aurora trailing from a body marked with a golden sun on each flank. Bits of twig and small leaves floated in the disheveled corona among motes of twinkling magical light. Save for this natural detritus, she was unadorned as any normal pony would be.

Again, the pegasus filly probably should have been afraid. She'd always been uncomfortable around ponies and this was far more pony than she'd ever encountered.

But when her wide, staring, aquamarine eyes met the mysterious apparition's glistening rose ones, her fear vanished, and a welling of what could only be called pity filled the space it left behind. An almost imperceptible smile flitted across the towering creature's face, but there was nothing in the depths of those eyes except an almost bottomless well of sadness and loneliness.

As the white giantess turned to vanish into the depths of the forest the filly clambered to her feet and called out to her. "W-wait! You... um... It's okay. You don't have to go!"

This caused the willowy creature to pause, and she looked back at the butter yellow filly with an ear cocked. After a moment's consideration, she turned to face the young pony once more with an inscrutable expression furrowing her brow.

After a long period of silence the pale mare spoke, her voice rough and low. "Nay, child. In faith I do not have to do aught but what I deem be done."

The young pegasus pawed nervously at the ground, deep ingrained anxieties urgently trying to worm their way to the surface and make her fall silent. "I... I mean... I'm not doing anything such... such that you'd be interrupting me. Just... just enjoying how beautiful it is down here and getting to know some new friends, and if you... um... you wanted to join us I wouldn't... I... I wouldn't mind if you did."

Another long stare, and the mysterious creature's faint smile returned with a bit of twinkle in the eyes as well. A gently chiding note stole into her ragged voice. "Surpassing glad I am, O young one, to be granted thy most kindly leave to tarry."

The filly blushed hotly, her ears and wings drooping as she hung her head with tears pooling at the corners of her eyes. "Oh... oh... I'm... I'm sorry. I didn't mean it like that either. You're ob... obviously a very big and important pony around here and I'm trespassing. I'm so sorry. I didn't know. I've never been to the ground b-before and I just got so carried away by how wonderful it is down here and... I-I'm sorry. I'll... I'll go."

The towering apparition approached her, and she felt the vibrations of the pale stranger's hoof falls up through her shaking legs all the way to her rapidly beating heart. The delicate, searching touch of a wing tip dried the tears on her cheeks, and gently raised her chin to look in the gleaming creature's rose colored eyes. "Tell me, child. By what name art thou called?"

She averted her gaze behind her drooping pink forelock. "I'm... Fluttershy."

The giantess cocked an ear. "Pardon?"

The filly's voice came out even quieter. "I'mFluttershy."

The towering pony bent down. "Prithee, child, speak louder. I can scarce hear thee at all."

The little pegasus let out a pitiable squeak.

The huge mare tsked and gave a slight shake of her head as she turned to walk away again. The filly bunched up her withers, spread her wings and shouted at the top of her lungs. "MY NAME IS FLUTTERSHY!"

The mysterious creature gave a start, then turned to face her with a bit more of a smirk slyly creeping across her features. She loomed over the young pegasus and extended a hoof. "'Tis a rare pleasure, Fluttershy."

The slender filly took her hoof, her own little hoof tiny by comparison. "N-nice to... to m-m-meet you. What... what's your name, if... if you don't mind my asking?"

A distant look came to the giantess' eyes. "My name had meaning once, but through the long centuries it has doubtless passed beyond the ken of e'en thine ancestors, child."

Fluttershy peeked warily from behind her forelock. "S... so you do mind my asking, then?"

The looming mare covered her mouth with a hoof as a strained coughing sound came from the back of her throat. A look of concern passed across the pegasus filly's face. "Are... are you okay?"

The giant winged pony threw back her head and let out a peal of laughter, the bright reflection of the afternoon sun traveling down the length of her horn like a lightning bolt. She sat heavily on her rump with a thud that nearly knocked Fluttershy off of her dainty hooves. The canopy of trees above them shook with the booming mirth that poured from her throat.

The pale giantess reached up with a wing to wipe one of her own tears away, although others welled to replace them. "Forsooth, child, I am quite well indeed, save for having kept so long from the company of ponies that I speak at once with the vain gravitas of a philosopher and the profound foolishness of a madmare."

She laid a wide hoof on the filly's narrow shoulder. "Thou art brave enough to tell me thy name, dear Fluttershy, 'tis meet I pluck up my own courage and tell thee mine."

She drew herself up ever so slightly. "My name was Celestia, and I suppose 'twill suffice."

Fluttershy let a tentative smile bloom on her face. "It's nice to meet you, Celestia."

The mysterious giantess smiled back, a genuine smile that pushed bravely against the sadness the filly still saw in her eyes. "Well met indeed, dear child. Well met indeed."

With that, Celestia settled down in the clearing beside the pegasus filly, as a warm breeze rustled the leaves around them and caused the butterflies to dance among the motes of sunlit pollen in the air.

Author's Notes:

This story is a "What If?" story in the mold of Trinary's "Rainbooms & Royalty" so I tip my hat to my source of inspiration.

Chapter 1

Ten summers have passed.

Fluttershy stepped out of the back door of her cottage into the splendid light of a beautiful midsummer's day, inhaling deeply as she spread her wings to bask in the sun's warmth as it climbed in the east. She smiled benevolently at the bunnies and chipmunks and other assorted little creatures gamboling on her lawn as all of her fine feathered friends filled the air with their cheerful serenade.

It was a special day, and she had a feeling it was going to be a good one.

She paused on her way to the chicken coop at a little hutch, where a white rabbit sat in the doorway chomping greedily on a large, juicy carrot. She spoke to him in a chiding tone. "Take smaller bites, Angel. You'll get a tummy ache if you eat too fast."

The rabbit huffed and dropped the carrot in an elaborate gesture of petty rebellion and scampered down the ramp of his little dwelling. Fluttershy rolled her eyes and leaned down to pick up the half gnawed vegetable by its leafy green stem. "Suit yourself. I'll see if one of the other bunnies would like the rest of this."

She suppressed a chuckle as the little rabbit suddenly wheeled and leapt past her muzzle, form tackling the carrot out of her grasp. He crouched over it possessively and cast her a reproachful glare. With a defiant look on his fuzzy little face he crammed the rest of his breakfast into his mouth, leaving the stem poking out beneath his buck teeth.

Fluttershy tsked and let out a sigh as his ears drooped and his beady eyes grew wide and round. He began to wheeze and pound frantically on the ground with a back leg. He clutched at his throat as his face went from red to purple to blue.

The butter yellow pegasus scooped him up and rapped him deftly on the back with a hoof, which caused the carrot to pop loose like a cork. She gently stroked his head as he coughed and wretched, setting him down on unsteady paws.

Having made sure his breathing had evened out, she gave him a final pat on his little fluffy tail. "I don't tell you these things just to hear myself talk, Angel. Now go get a drink of water and nibble some lettuce, it'll help your throat feel better. Okay?"

The rabbit slouched in defeat and gave her a petulant nod, glaring at the carrot as if it were the cause of his troubles. She gave him a kindly smile as she headed toward the coop. "There's a good bunny. Now I want you to behave yourself while I'm away."

Fluttershy pulled the door open to the sound of agitated clucking, which caused her brow to furrow slightly. Her normally contented chickens seemed highly agitated today.

She took a quick comb count and found that everyone was present and accounted for, and then turned to Henelope, the coop's fore-chicken. "What's got you ladies all worked up this morning?"

She flicked an ear at the reply and cocked an eyebrow. "Really? That must have been some pretty exciting "nothing" to get all your feathers so ruffled."

She looked each of them in the eye with a dubious expression until Elizabeak finally cracked. It was always Elizabeak, the flightiest chicken in the coop. The pale yellow pegasus hadn't even had to kick it up to a level 1 Stare.

Her cackled confession caused Fluttershy's brow to furrow. "Let me get this straight. You're telling me that Celestia came here in the middle of the night and laid a clutch of eggs? That's crazy cluck, Elizabeak. Ponies don't lay eggs."

She ruffled her wings and mustered her patience as the rest of the flock cackled their two bits, their eggshell thin wall of secrecy breached.

With a flick of her tail she took control of the conversation again, stilling their chicken chatter with an upraised wing. "All right, all right. Listen, it's okay. Celestia's my friend, and I'm sure she wouldn't mind you telling me about it, but I'm still not sure I entirely believe it. Where are these eggs?"

Henelope nudged Elizabeak with a pointed glare and caused her fellow hen to meekly hop down from her nest box and lead their pegasus caretaker to the feed sacks she kept stored in the corner. The flighty chicken scampered back to the rest of her sisters as Fluttershy carefully shifted the bags aside.

There in a small pile of straw lay several large, round, whitish grey stones with an angular impression of a gemstone in their surface. They were all about the size of a honeydew melon.

Fluttershy's brow furrowed in puzzlement as she looked them over in the dim sunlight filtering through the chicken wire windows. These clearly weren't eggs. She didn't really know what they might be. Well, they weren't hurting anything being there right now, and she had a busy day ahead of her.

The yellow pegasus replaced the feed sack and turned to her flock with a reassuring smile. "I don't know what this is about, girls. I'll make sure to ask Celestia when I see her tonight. I'm sure there's a perfectly reasonable explanation."

She gestured a hoof toward the doorway. "Now if you don't mind, I'd like to take some of your extras with me when I go to the trading post, please. Why don't you all go outside and look for grubs while I gather them, okay?"

With that, the gaggle of chickens rushed outside in a scattering of feathers, leaving Fluttershy alone to pluck a basketful of eggs from their nests with a pensive look on her face.

***

A short time later, Fluttershy was airborne, flying above the treetops with her little cart trailing behind her over the rolling hills and thickets of Equestria's wild, thinly settled interior. Grassy plains and the occasional lake passed beneath her hooves as she galloped through the air.

Here and there, modest farmsteads dotted the landscape, self sufficient little enclaves of independently minded ponies who favored their solitude over the hustle and bustle of the thickly settled coast. None dared come as close to the sprawling wilderness as she did.

A look of concern settled on Fluttershy's face as she spotted a pony picking their way along one of the sparse trails that she herself had shunned in favor of flying. Just seeing a land bound pony traveling alone out here was unusual, but it was even more so because the stranger was heading away from the Saddle Lake trading post, which was the only oasis of civilization on the highway from Canterville to Los Pegasus reachable without wings. In fact, if Fluttershy didn't know better, she'd think the stray pony was headed toward the Everfree Forest.

Today was turning from a special day into a downright strange one.

As Fluttershy drifted down for a landing, she got a better look at the stranger. She was a lavender mare with a dark violet mane and tail adorned with streaks of pink and purple. The soft yellow pegasus couldn't see her face behind a large, rustling, heavily annotated map, but the gleam of livid purple magic suffusing the rustling parchment and the tip of a spiral horn poking over its edge told her it was a unicorn. The stranger wore a pith helmet, and was laden with a large pack and heavy saddlebags.

The cart rattled a bit as the pegasus mare touched down, causing the unusual wayfarer to absently flick an ear, but otherwise she walked straight ahead with her nose buried in her map, seemingly quite oblivious to her surroundings. Fluttershy cleared her throat pointedly, but even this didn't stop the unicorn's progress.

When they were a mere hoof and a half apart the butter yellow pegasus spoke up. "Excuse me, ma'am? You really should look where you're going out here in the wilderness."

This produced a violent reaction on the part of the stranger, who let out a whoop of alarm and reared up and stumbled backwards on her hind legs. Fluttershy tensed in alarm, unable to help in time as the unicorn was pulled off balance by her heavy packs and toppled onto her back with a crunch. There she lay struggling like an overturned turtle, her hooves flailing helplessly as her pith helmet bounced down the trail with a hollow clatter.

Fluttershy shrugged out of her cart's harness and was quickly at the upended mare's side. "Oh dear! I'm so sorry I startled you! Let me help you up."

She hooked fetlocks with the stranger and pulled her up into a sitting position. The unicorn was about Fluttershy's age, give or take a year, with violet eyes that were currently spinning with dizziness as little white stars orbited her head.

The strange mare shook her head to clear it and met the yellow pegasus' gaze with a look of embarrassment tinging her cheeks slightly pink. "I'm sorry. I didn't expect to meet anypony out here."

An expression at once wistful and a bit cagey flitted across her lavender features. "Well, not entirely, I mean..."

A bright smile appeared on her face as she extended a hoof. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, from Canterville."

She received a perfunctory hoof shake in return. "Fluttershy."

After an awkward lull, the pegasus mare cocked her head inquisitively with a neutral expression on her face. "You're a long way from home, Miz. Sparkle. Are you lost?"

The lavender unicorn pawed at the rustling map laying on the trail at her hooves. "Um... not... exactly?"

Fluttershy rustled her wings and flicked an ear. "Well, there's nothing out here but scrub and trees. If you keep going the way you're going, you'll wind up in the Everfree Forest. And believe me, nopony wants to go there."

Twilight Sparkle's ears laid back as she climbed to her hooves, grunting a bit under the weight of her traveling kit. "That's not an accurate statement. The Everfree Forest is precisely where I'm headed."

She craned her neck to look past her saddle bags with her horn sparking to life. Her errant pith helmet rose from among the stones on the path and floated over in a cloud of magic to settle itself back on her head.

The unicorn flinched back with a mild start as she turned to face Fluttershy's steady, aquamarine gaze flashing beneath a furrowed brow. "I don't mean to poke my snout into anypony else's business, but I couldn't be any more serious when I say that nopony wants to go there, and that means you too, Miz. Sparkle."

The lavender mare swallowed hard and shuffled back a step as the pegasus' eyes bored into her. "It's terribly dangerous. There are creatures in there that are best left alone."

Twilight Sparkle rallied, her violet eyes glittering as she faced the piercing stare with a slight upward canting of her muzzle. "Like the White Mare, for example?"

Fluttershy blinked, her ears swiveling back as she took a step back herself. "Um... What?"

The faintest hint of a smirk drew back the corner of Twilight Sparkle's mouth. "You're a local, right?"

The pale yellow pegasus ruffled her wings uncomfortably. "M-maybe I am..."

A bit more of a smirk, coupled with an intense gleam appearing in the lavender mare's eyes. "Surely you've heard the old pony tales, then. A giant white mare with the wings of a pegasus and the horn of a unicorn who haunts the depths of the old forest."

The smirk became an avid grin. "Or maybe you've even seen her."

Fluttershy lashed her tail and pursed her lips, trying to maintain an even demeanor. "The White Mare is a myth, Miz. Sparkle. She doesn't exist like they say in the legends."

The unicorn's whole body tensed, and the pegasus mare felt herself nervously recoiling from the young mare's manic glare. "She HAS to exist!" She wheeled and jabbed a hoof toward the sun. "And THAT is the proof, plain as day!"

Twilight Sparkle began to advance on Fluttershy, who seized up, torn between fleeing from a mare who was clearly a few bunnies short of a warren and interposing between her and what the yellow pegasus knew for a fact really did dwell in the depths of the Everfree.

The unicorn's voice took on a stridently pedantic edge. "How does the sun rise every day and the moon rise every night? Huh?"

Fluttershy gave a nervous shrug. "I don't know. They... they just do."

The lavender mare snorted. "Right, and the clouds just move on the wind and drop rain all on their own. That's rich coming from somepony like you. "

The pegasus ruffled her wings nervously as Twilight Sparkle pressed her case. "You have to have seen the Hearth's Warming story sometime, right? Unicorns used to do it, thousands of years ago."

Fluttershy blew a loose strand of her mane out of her eyes. "The Hearth's Warming pageant is for little foals. It's... nice, but it's just a story."

Twilight Sparkle shrugged out from under her load and started fishing through one of her laden panniers. "There's no such thing as just a story, Buttershy was it? Here's an even more telling story."

She pulled a weathered tome emblazoned with a stylized unicorn head out and started flipping through it with her magic. Her attitude had shifted from confrontational to eagerly discursive. "Look! Look at this!"

She floated the book up before the bemused pegasus' face, reciting the text accompanying the pictures as if she knew it by heart. "Once upon a time in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn. The younger brought out the moon to begin the night."

She snapped the book shut, narrowly missing Fluttershy's snout. "But things broke down. The younger sister got jealous and tried to take over, vowing to shroud the world in eternal night. They fought. The elder sister used some kind of super powerful ancient magical device called the Elements of Harmony to banish her sister forever to the moon. Then she vanished without a trace not long after."

Twilight Sparkle gave a casual shrug, as if what she was saying was perfectly obvious. "Records are pretty dodgy from the times before the Republic was founded, but you'd think somepony would have taken over such an important task. But in all the records in all the archives there just isn't any mention of a unicorn or group of unicorns doing that particular job. For all the arguing and politics around the Constitutional Convention, there's not a single line of in all that legal boilerplate about who gets to make the sun and moon come up."

Fluttershy softly cleared her throat and pawed at the ground, her gaze flicking in the direction of her cottage and the Everfree. "W-well, supposing somepony like that did exist, and I'm not saying they do, then I don't think they'd want anypony bothering them, especially on the longest day of the year when they'd probably be really busy." She nodded pointedly over her shoulder toward her cart. "And... um... speaking of being busy. I really should be going, and you should too. Not to the Everfree Forest, though."

Twilight Sparkle's eyes narrowed in a searching look as she stowed her tome back in her saddlebags. "Why do I get the feeling that you're hiding something..?"

The butter yellow pegasus failed to stop herself from wincing, but rallied back with a stern glare. "L-listen, I don't really care about all of your made up stories and silly old myths."

She wavered a bit at the hurt look that washed across the unicorn mare's face. "I mean, I can tell they're really important to you."

Fluttershy drew herself up with a rustle of her wings, asserting herself like she'd been taught by a certain somepony she was definitely not going to mention right now. "But honestly they're not worth losing your life over. I can't in good conscience let you go anywhere near the Everfree Forest. I hate to threaten ponies, but I've got a friend who's a Ranger, and if you don't head back to the trading post and then go home I'm gonna go get her and then you'll really be sorry."

Twilight Sparkle hung her head and pulled her pith helmet off with her hooves. "You seem like a nice pony for somebody so obtuse, Flutterbye, which is why I am sorry... About THIS!"

With a surge of magic the helmet launched from her hooves and flew straight at the startled pegasus mare's face, enveloping her vision in darkness with a THOOMP and sending her reeling back onto her bottom. Her ears swiveled wildly as she heard the sound of galloping hooves clatter past.

Fluttershy flapped her wings as she struggled with her fore hooves to pull the pith helmet off of her face. It came loose with a pop, and she wheeled to see the fleeing unicorn racing up the path as fast as her hooves could carry her under the unbalanced load of her half donned pack and saddlebags.

The pale yellow pegasus brought her hoof to her mouth as she watched the distant figure trip and tumble down the gentle slope leading into a thicket that Fluttershy knew was the home to an extensive colony of..

"YAAIIAAH! SNAKES! SNAAAAKES!"

The frantic unicorn came stumbling out of the brush backwards, leaving her luggage hopelessly tangled among the stinging nettles and burr plants. Fluttershy winced as the panicked mare collided solidly with a birch tree, shaking the branches and dislodging a rather large nest of...

"EEAAGHHH! BEES!"

The pegasus mare watched in horror as Twilight Sparkle thrashed and twirled and staggered in little circles desperately trying to shake the beehive off the tip of her horn as its angry denizens swarmed around her with a vengeance.

She careened over a fallen log and rolled rump over teakettle into a large burrow among the roots of an oak tree. A cloud of brownish green stench wafted into the air, while a family of skunks made an indignant but unhurried exit from their underground home. A wail of disgust and dismay echoed from the depths of the reeking hole. "AUUUUGH! IT SMELLS SO BAD IT HUUURRRRTS!"

Fluttershy brought a hoof to her face and hung her head with a sigh.

***

Twilight Sparkle sat dejectedly in a washtub by the stream that ran past Fluttershy's house, croup deep in tomato soup as the gentle pegasus poured another can down her mane, neck, withers, and back. Her hide was crisscrossed with scratches and scrapes and dotted with angrily puckered welts from a fusillade of bee stings. She winced and let out a little sob as Fluttershy gripped a long handled scrub brush in her teeth and started to work it across her back in a tight circular motion.

The pale yellow mare spoke softly out of the side of her mouth, her voice made slightly nasal by the clothespin pinching her nostrils shut. "I'm sorry if it hurts, Miz. Sparkle, but the scent just won't come out if you don't scrub it vigorously. I've got a nice salve for your bee stings, and it should make your other cuts and scrapes feel better too."

The lavender unicorn slouched a bit lower with her dripping bangs hanging over her eyes. Her voice came low and miserable. "I guess you think I'm just the stupidest pony you ever met."

Fluttershy kept scrubbing patiently, replying in an even tone of voice. "Not at all. You seem like a very intelligent pony."

She cleared her throat softly as she adjusted her grip on the scrub brush and came around the washtub to face her. "I'm really hoping you're smart enough to realize that the trouble you got into on the trail back there is nothing compared to what could happen to you in the Everfree Forest."

Twilight Sparkle seemed to deflate even further as she averted her gaze and spoke in a wretched, tiny voice. "Okay... You win... I'll go home."

Fluttershy recoiled as she saw tears begin to roll down the unicorn's cheeks and plip plop into the tomato soup. She pawed at the ground uncomfortably, the urge to hug the miserable little pony in front of her conflicting strongly with the urge not to reek of skunk and tomato, especially today, of all days. "Um... If you don't mind my asking... Why is it so important to you to find the White Mare anyway?"

The lavender mare dragged a foreleg across her snout with a sniffle and met her rescuer's gaze with tearful eyes. "It's my calling. Finding out answers... solving mysteries... discovering the truth."

She rolled sideways on her right flank to show the yellow pegasus her left cutie mark: a magnifying glass over a bright pink star burst. "Ever since I was a little filly I've been fascinated with unexplained phenomena of all kinds."

The earlier gleam she'd had in her eye returned a little as she settled back onto her haunches. "There's magic out there, Fluttershy, and not just the mundane little dweomers and cantrips we use in our humdrum daily lives. There are treasures and miracles hiding just outside our field of vision that would take our breath away if we only dared to look. There are forces at work that we can't begin to understand, and won't as long as ponies just keep their snouts in the grass and never look beyond the next mouthful."

She bobbed her horn toward the sun, rising towards its noon time zenith. "Who or What's been raising the sun and moon for a thousand years is one of biggest mysteries out there. To solve it would be... well... it would be amazing."

The sodden mare's face fell as she slouched petulantly and looked away, muttering to herself. "And then maybe my friends and colleagues wouldn't tease me anymore about being 'obsessed' or 'a loony'." Her ears drooped miserably as she looked down at the constellation of welts running down her side. "I hear it all the time, and it hurts. It hurts worse than any of these stings ever could."

Fluttershy bit her lip uncertainly as the unicorn let out a mournful sigh that stuttered into a soft sob. "And they're all gonna have a good laugh when I come back empty hooved... again, with nothing but bandages and a lingering odor to show for it."

The yellow pegasus cast a glance over her shoulder at the expanse of the Everfree looming at the far edge of her back yard. She leaned forward, and spoke to her despondent guest in a low, urgent voice. "Miz. Sparkle... Can I call you Twilight?"

When the lavender unicorn nodded she continued. "Twilight, listen. I'm... I'm going to let you in on a secret, but I need you to make me a promise."

Twilight Sparkle's ears perked at the mention of secrets, and she craned her neck forward with bated breath. "O-okay."

Fluttershy set aside the scrub brush and placed her hooves on the edge of the tub, her gaze so clear and stern that a shiver ran up the unicorn mare's spine. "I know what it's like to be laughed at, for a lot of reasons including nopony believing what you're telling them and thinking you made it all up, but I need you to swear that you won't tell anypony else what I'm going to tell you."

Twilight gave a halting nod. "All... all right. I promise."

With a brief nod of acceptance, her pegasus rescuer leaned further forward. "Well, I'm really sorry about it, but I was kind of fibbing when I said that the White Mare doesn't exist. I have seen her."

The breath caught in Twilight Sparkle's throat, a look of rapt attention spreading across her face. "What... what is she like?"

Fluttershy rubbed her foreleg with a hoof as she ruffled her wings self consciously and looked away. "Beautiful... And sad... Elusive when she wants to be... Its honestly amazing how somepony as big as a barn door who kind of glows in the dark can move so fast and disappear so suddenly. If you happen to look her in the eyes... well... it's kind of like what you said earlier about deep, ancient magic. Its like you're standing on a windswept hilltop and the horizon is looking back at you."

As she gravely met Twilight's gaze, she saw that her unicorn confidant was tearing up again, but a smile was blooming on the lavender mare's muzzle. She surged forward in the wash tub with the soup sloshing around her haunches, and threw her forelegs around Fluttershy's withers, pulling her into a tight, squishy, tomato and skunk scented hug that made the pale yellow pegasus let out a squeak and gag a little before she realized the unicorn mare was trembling.

Twilight whispered in a voice thick with emotion. "F-fluttershy... Th-thank you..."

Fluttershy nodded and gently patted her newfound friend on the back, feeling that uncanny deep connection she'd felt all those years ago well up inside her.

They disengaged finally when the pegasus mare couldn't take the smell any longer and pried her guest's hooves loose by levering her wings open. She swallowed hard to keep from throwing up a little in her mouth as she looked down at the tomato soup staining her pale, butter yellow chest and shoulders. "D-don't mention it."

With a shaky laugh, Twilight made a zipping motion across her lips. "I won't. I promise."

Fluttershy gave a perfunctory nod, and accepted a freshly opened can of tomato soup from Angel, who stood at the ready with a clothespin on his twitchy little nose and a can opener in his paws. Twilight shuddered in discomfort as the thick red soup got dumped over her horn and ran in rivulets down her muzzle and drooping ears.

Chapter 2

Once the last of Fluttershy's stock of tomato soup had been slathered over Twilight they repaired to the cool stream to scrub off with copious portions from the pegasus mare's stock of homemade soap. After they'd rinsed off and dried off, Fluttershy applied a soothing balm to Twilight's bee stings and expertly dressed her various cuts and scrapes with bandages and sticking plasters from her first aid kit.

By the time they'd finished, the sun had crept further west and it was nearly past lunchtime.

Fluttershy turned to Twilight with a wry smile and beckoned her toward her cottage after loading the unicorn mare's heavy bags into her little sky cart. "Well, we'd better have a bite to eat before we set out. It's going to take us a little longer to get there on hoof, too long to wait to get lunch there."

The lavender mare dug her hoof in the dirt of the path. "I hate to disrupt your schedule any more than I already have, Fluttershy. You should go ahead and take off. I can find my way back to the trading post by myself."

She sniffed at her foreleg and wrinkled her nose at the acrid stench that still faintly clung to her coat. "I don't know if anypony would want to be around me for very long anyway."

The pale yellow pegasus gave her a cheerful smile as they set off toward her modest little homestead. "I don't mind, honestly Twilight. Now lets go see if I've got anything good and quick in the cupboard."

Twilight gave a rueful chuckle. "Well, as long as it's not tomato soup I'll take whatever you'd be kind enough to offer."

Fluttershy giggled. "Don't worry. I'm fresh out."

The lavender unicorn sighed in response. "You've really been more than generous to a total stranger. I..."

Her companion ruffled her wings and cut her off. "Lets say 'friend' instead, okay?"

Twilight nodded with a broad smile and glistening eyes. "Yeah, "friend" is good. As I was saying, you've been more than generous, and I want to make it up to you some..."

She trailed off as a ululating shriek sounded from down the path. Both mares turned as it got closer and louder. "WHA HA HAAAAAAAAGH! ONE SIDE! COMING THROUGH! LOOK OUT!"

A unicorn pony was sliding rapidly up the path with a cloud of dust trailing from her stiffly braced hooves. Her horn was gleaming with shimmering, pale blue magic and pulling her headlong with her mane and tail trailing behind her like a muddy comet tail.

She whizzed past in a dun colored, dirt covered blur as she crossed the little hoof bridge over the stream, tore two furrows in Fluttershy's front yard as the little birds and chipmunks scattered, hooked a tight right curve around the cottage, and disappeared behind the tumbledown structure shortly before a final panicked wail, a splintering crash, and a cacophony of frenzied clucking filled the air along with a burst of high floating feathers.

Fluttershy and Twilight shared a brief, alarmed glance and then galloped around the back of the pegasus' little cottage. They skidded to a stop at the chicken coop, their jaws dropped in shock. The chickens were fluttering and hopping all over, expecting the sky to fall at any minute.

The formerly speeding unicorn's horn was embedded up to the root in the little structure's wall, and she hung limply with her legs splayed and her muzzle shoved against the clapboard, a feeble groan rising from her as the dumfounded ponies approached her.

She was wearing drab canvas coveralls and heavy hiking boots that were almost worn through to her hooves, and laden with a backpack and a tool belt from which a small pick and a rock hammer depended. A bandanna was tied over her muzzle, and a pair of cracked goggles covered her eyes. It was hard to tell what color her coat, mane, or tail were, due to the thick layer of dust that covered her from head to hoof.

Fluttershy gently nudged the prostrate pony. "Um... Are you okay?"

The unicorn stirred and started muttering invective under her breath as she scrabbled to her hooves and began struggling to extricate herself from the chicken coop wall.

Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged a glance and then grabbed hold of her and helped her pull free with a sharp crack of splintering wood. She tottered backwards a few steps and landed hard on her tail, eliciting another yelp and a few more undertone curses.

When the newcomer realized they were staring at her, she shoved her goggles up against her horn, revealing a pair of sapphire blue eyes set in grimy, off white eyesockets. She pulled the bandanna down to reveal a grateful smile, the dun colored dirt coating her face from her cheeks to her hairline making it look as if she were wearing a domino mask. "Th-thank you, darlings. I do apologize for making such a spectacle of myself."

Twilight cocked her head as they approached her. "Wow... that... that was the most powerful detection spell I've ever seen."

The stranger winced as she reached up and rubbed her forehead at the base of her horn. "Tell me about it. Honestly I haven't been dragged along by my horn like that since I was a filly."

She gave a start, then hastily unlaced and removed the boots on her fore hooves and stepped forward, proffering a pale, slightly grubby hoof. "But where are my manners? I'm Rarity."

The butter yellow pegasus warily took it, wondering if today of all days was going to be nothing but a procession of strange unicorns dropping in unannounced. "Fluttershy."

Her companion shook the newcomer's hoof as well. "Twilight Sparkle."

The dirt streaked unicorn gave them a warm smile. "Charmed. I'm sorry you have to see me in such a deplorable state." She bobbed her horn at the hole she'd punched in the chicken coop. "I'm afraid circumstances were quite beyond my control."

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow. "Yeeah... About that... Could somepony please explain to me what just happened here?"

Rarity opened her mouth to respond but was cut off as Twilight Sparkle interjected. "She's a dowser! Some unicorns have a natural talent for detecting things. It works like a magnet, a subtle pull toward the thing they're trying to find. If there's a large or pure enough concentration of it, sometimes the dowser can be physically drawn to it by their horn."

The grimy unicorn flicked an ear in mild irritation at being interrupted, but continued on with a note of pride in her voice. "Quite so. In my case I specialize in detecting gemstones."

She drew herself up further. "I'm a jeweler by trade, one of the finest in Manehattan, if I may say so myself. The secret of my stunning success, if I may be so bold as to say, are the rich pickings in Rambling Rock Ridge."

Fluttershy blinked. "R-rambling Rock Ridge? That's... that's miles away."

Rarity nodded, looking ruefully down at the holes worn in the boots on her hind legs. "Indeed it is. A horn-lock like this has only happened to me once before, when I was a young filly of tender years. It was how I discovered my talent for prospecting and manifested my cutie mark."

She gave a nod toward the chicken coop. "To be drawn here so strongly tells me that whichever of you owns this charming little henhouse is sitting on a veritable mother lode of gemstones."

An earnest look brightened the unicorn's face, reminding Fluttershy somewhat of a raccoon trying to chitter her out of the peanut butter in her fridge. "Shall we see what's down there? I imagine there's more than enough to make restitution for any damage incurred and cover the costs of excavation, and perhaps a bit of a finder's fee for yours truly. I assure you that my firm pays top bit for choice examples of potential lapidary."

With a swish of her grime caked tail she sashayed toward the hole she'd made, her dust darkened brow furrowing pensively. "Seems my horn is pulling a bit high today. The caches are usually inside rocks or underground. Now where are you hiding, my lovelies..?"

She narrowed her sapphire blue eyes and sparked her horn to life, causing the corner of the little shack to glimmer and become insubstantial, revealing a half dozen huge jewels, perfectly faceted with profound clarity and glowing with all the colors of a rainbow.

Rarity let out a gasp and dropped to her knees in the grass, her eyes wide and sparkling and her jaw hanging slack. "S-sweet Platinum's peruke! They're... they're flawless! I've never seen their like! You could... you could buy half of Manehattan and put the rest on layaway with these..."

Twilight's violet eyes narrowed pensively. "Why... Why am I thinking that I've seen them before?"

Fluttershy could only stare, ruffling her wings as she realized just what and where Rarity's spell was revealing. "Um..."

The lavender unicorn reared up and smacked one fore hoof on top of the other. "Of COURSE!"

With that she wheeled and galloped away, returning a couple minutes later with the same dusty tome she'd earlier shown to Fluttershy to support her claims about the ancient rulers of Equestria. She tossed it down in front of the revealed cache of amazing gemstones and laid on her belly beside Rarity, who still stared rapt at her spell's discovery.

Twilight sparked her horn and flipped the pages until she revealed an illumination depicting an arrangement of six jewels on a golden framework. She jabbed her hoof at the image. "There, see? The Elements of Harmony! These aren't just gemstones, they're ancient magical artifacts of immense power!"

Rarity blinked at her, and let her detection spell gutter and fade, leaving them facing only the weathered clapboard of Fluttershy's henhouse. She cocked an eyebrow, her puzzled expression accentuated by the pale circles around her eyes left by the dust on her face. "But... but what are they doing in a chicken coop in the middle of nowhere?"

The two unicorn mares traded a bemused glance, then turned their heads in unison to stare up at Fluttershy, who ruffled her wings and recoiled a couple of steps. "Um... they're not mine, really... a... a friend of mine put them there..."

Twilight rose to her hooves, her face awash in suspicion and excitement as she advanced on the nervously fidgeting pegasus. "A 'friend', huh? That raises a lot of very interesting questions, Fluttershy."

The soft yellow mare's aquamarine eyes flared as her brow furrowed, and she dug in her hooves and hiked her trailing pink tail behind her. "I can't answer them for you, Twilight. Most I don't know, and the rest just aren't any of your business."

The lavender mare took another step forward, swimming upstream against the force of the pegasus' gaze. "These are the Elements of Harmony, Fluttershy. They're the most powerful magic ever! This is big enough to be everypony's business!"

Fluttershy gave a shake of her head, advancing on the unicorn. "I'm not prepared to discuss this any further. Just drop it, okay?"

They stopped when they were forehead to forehead, glaring into each other's eyes and snorting puffs of steam out of their nostrils.

They both looked away with a start, Twilight's eyes twitching and tearing up at the corners with a shudder coursing down her spine, as Rarity politely cleared her throat and spoke up in a conciliatory voice. "Ahem... Ladies, please... Lets not fight over a silly pile of rocks."

She looked up at her horn and gave it a slight bob. "I'd feel absolutely dreadful if my nosey little gem detector and I were to cause a falling out between friends."

Twilight gave Fluttershy a sidelong glance. "Apparently she's only my friend up to a point."

The pegasus glared back. "We only just met this morning."

Rarity interposed herself between them with a genteel smile on her grimy face. "Tut tut, my dears. What say we discuss this in a civilized manner, hmm?"

She turned to Fluttershy with a gracious nod. "If I'm correct in presuming that you're the mistress of the house, I would be ever so grateful if you'd allow me to make use of your bathroom so I might freshen up a bit." She looked down at her coating of dirt and grime with a wry expression. "I promise when I'm finished I'll leave the place absolutely spotless."

Fluttershy pawed at the ground, glancing up at the sun as it made its inexorable progress across the sky, then looked back at the grubby unicorn with a strained smile. "Um... sure... That's... fine."

Rarity's eyes and smile glittered as she sashayed toward the pegasus' little cottage. "Thank you so much, darling. I'll be out of your lovely hair in a jiffy."

Fluttershy spoke up as she and her other uninvited guest fell into step behind her, exchanging seething glances. "I was just going to make some lunch for Twilight and myself. You're more than welcome to join us if you like."

Rarity's smile widened as she stopped at the door set to work removing the boots from her hind legs. "Oh, that would be lovely. I'm positively famished. I haven't eaten since yesterday."

She shrugged her pack off and began to root through it, producing an embroidered hoof bag marked with a cursive R and setting it aside, then bringing forth a small canvas sack. She unlaced its ties with her magic and levitated out a pair of large gemstones, an amethyst and an aquamarine, and floated them toward Twilight and Fluttershy. "Here, this should be adequate compensation. I think each one matches your respective eye colors quite nicely."

Both mares' eyes went wide as they took them. Twilight spoke first in a breathless tone of voice. "This... this is beautiful. You... you're really giving it to me?" The dirt caked unicorn only gave her a cheerful grin as she undid her tool belt.

Fluttershy rustled her wings. "I... I can't possibly accept this from you, Rarity."

The unicorn tossed her head as she unbuttoned her coveralls. "Pish posh, my dear. That should more than cover the damage to your chicken coop and my imposing on your hospitality like this. Besides, there's plenty more where that came from out on Rambling Rock Ridge."

The soft yellow pegasus' ear flicked at the second mention of that particular forsaken patch of scrubland. "You really dig for gems out there all by yourself? Aren't you worried about diamond dogs?"

Rarity chuckled as she slipped out of her canvas suit, revealing a sweat stained, off-white coat underneath with a large, light blue regency cut diamond cutie mark. "Not at all. The poor brutes give ponies a wide berth, especially ones of my particular coloration."

Rarity gave a shrug as she neatly folded and stacked her dirty gear in an orderly pile by the doorstep. "Some sort of superstition, I suppose. Oh they watch me from afar, but they burrow away like frightened moles if I approach. I feel sorry for the poor wretches, so I always make sure to spare a few gems whenever I dig up a cache. There's plenty out there to go around, and they do me the immense service of making other ponies think twice about going there."

Twilight had gone quietly pensive, stroking her chin with a hoof. "The... the diamond dogs must think you're the White Mare or something."

Fluttershy gave a mild start at this, pursing her lips and giving the inquisitive unicorn a sidelong glance. Rarity gave a breezy toss of her dirt encrusted mane as she picked up the monogrammed hoof bag in her teeth. "Well I don't know about the White Mare but I am a white mare, or shall be once I get cleaned up. Would you mind directing me to your bathroom, please?"

With a wary nod the pegasus led them inside.

***

Twilight and Fluttershy worked in silence in the kitchen as the dulcet tones of Rarity's singing wafted through the air, muffled by the soft patter of water running and the bathroom door. The pegasus mare's tea kettle was hissing quietly as it heated on her modest cook top next to a pot of leek and carrot soup.

Fluttershy sliced some fresh picked cucumbers on her mandoline while her unicorn companion levitated a knife and sliced a loaf of oat bread for sandwiches, stacking the slices on a plate with mathematical precision. A pretty little cuckoo clock above the spice rack ticked and tocked a steady rhythm, underpinning the tension in the air.

Fluttershy glanced at it frequently, watching the time and noting to herself that normally she would have concluded her errands at the trading post and been halfway back by now. She bit back her irritation harder with every slice of cucumber that fell to the countertop and every tick tock of the clock.

Her nerves coiled tightly and caused her wings to flare like the bristling hackles of an angry cat as her companion finally spoke up in an arch tone of voice. "So where do you keep your condiments? Or is that privileged information too?"

Fluttershy's whole body tensed as she crushed the rest of the cucumber into paste against the mandoline and rounded on Twilight with eyes and wings flaring. "There's ranch dressing and butter in the fridge! What more do you want from me, Twilight Sparkle!?"

The lavender unicorn pointed a slice of oat bread at her accusingly. "You haven't just seen the White Mare, you know her! You're twinkle picking friends with her!"

Fluttershy stomped a hoof. "So what if I am? Like I said it's none of your business!"

Twilight's eyes flared, her teeth ground, and before the indignant pegasus' unbelieving eyes her coat gleamed incandescent yellow-white and her mane and tail burst into sheets of flame, causing her to levitate a few hooves in the air on a sudden rush of convection currents. Just as suddenly the flames died out and an ash and soot stained mare slouched to her haunches on the floor with tears pooling at the corners of her eyes.

She let out a mournful sigh as she laid the slice of toast she was holding in her magic atop the stack of sandwich bread. "You're... you're right. It is none of my business, and that's why it just breaks my heart…"

She averted her gaze as she sniffled and let out a small sob. "I'm so jealous of you, Fluttershy. You're right here next to something wonderful. Something... something magical. You've got the best seat in the house, front row, center stage. I've been searching for years and haven't even found the ticket booth."

The pale yellow pegasus crossed the kitchen and pulled her to her feet by her fetlocks. "I just landed in the right place at the right time and Celestia was in the right mood to talk to somepony. There's nothing particularly special about me."

Twilight's eyes widened as she intoned breathlessly. "C-celestia?"

Fluttershy winced at her carelessness, then let out a sigh and nodded. "Yes. That's her name. She was actually 'Princess' Celestia in the old story in your book."

The lavender unicorn edged closer, her voice a hoarse whisper. "Did... did she ever talk to you about that old story? Did she ever tell you why she went away?"

Fluttershy leaned in close, speaking so softly that Twilight craned her neck and perked her ears to hear her. "She told me about it once, only once, and I cried for a week afterward. Sometimes knowing things is a burden, Twilight Sparkle. It's a sad story, one of the saddest I've ever heard."

A look of regret washed over her pale yellow face as she looked away with her mane draping over her eyes. "But it's not my story to tell you. I'm sorry, I just... can't. I've given away too much as it is, and it's not fair to her or to you. I feel just awful to be stringing you along like this."

Twilight bit back on the disappointment that welled in her eyes, and brought her chin up hopefully. "Do... do you think if you asked her nicely she'd be willing to let me talk to her someday?"

Fluttershy's heart went out to the inquisitive unicorn when she saw the yearning expression on her face, and she gave her a gentle smile. "It can't hurt to ask. Just... just don't get your hopes up too high, okay?"

The lavender mare swallowed hard and nodded. "All right. Th-thank you. I... I appreciate your honesty. You've been very kind to me, Fluttershy, more than I probably deserve. I'm sorry I've been such a horn in your side all day."

They stepped forward and hugged, and the soft yellow pegasus replied in a warm tone of voice. "Don't worry about it."

She glanced up at her clock as she rested her chin on Twilight's shoulder and bit her lip. If she was going to be ready for her visit tonight there was a lot she had to do and time was rapidly slipping away.

The two mares turned with a start at a silvery voice in the doorway. "Aww! Now that is exactly what I like to see! Two good friends getting along famously!"

Fluttershy and Twilight looked over to see Rarity standing in the doorway with her hair wrapped in clean towels and a fond smile on her face. Scrubbed clean of dirt, her coat was a cool, pristine white like polished marble, and some loose strands of her mane trickled out like rivulets of fine wine down her neck. She wore a pair of powder-blue rubber dishwashing booties on her forelegs.

She took a searching glance around the pegasus mare's rustic little kitchen. "I was wondering where you might keep your cleaning supplies, Miss Fluttershy. The ring I just left in your tub isn't the sort I'd want to put up for sale in Manehattan."

Her hostess pawed at the floor and nodded toward a small closet by the door. "It's all in there. But honestly, you don't need to worry. I can take care of it. Besides, lunch is just about ready, and we really should be quick about it if we want to get down to the Saddle Lake trading post before it gets dark."

Rarity gave a toss of her towel bound mane and floated every bottle, brush, and cleaning implement in the house from the place Fluttershy indicated, turning to march back to the fretting pegasus' bathroom with a flick of her glittering horn. "Nonsense! It's the longest day of the year, or just about. Plenty of time to leave everything spit spot. Just keep the soup on a low simmer and save me a couple sandwiches. I'll be out in a trice."

Fluttershy stared after her with a twitch animating her left eye, then winced in annoyance as the cuckoo clock sounded the mid-afternoon hour.

Twilight gave her a pat on the shoulder as she sparked her horn and levitated plates and silverware from a nearby cupboard. "I'll set the table."

The butter yellow pegasus let out a sigh, then crossed her kitchen and pulled open a drawer to get out a table cloth. Her ears laid flat and her teeth clenched on the fabric as a sharp rapping sounded from her front door.

She spat out the mouthful of checked gingham, unleashing something between a sigh and a growl. "What now?"

Author's Notes:

I'm completely thrilled at the wave of interest and positive feedback that's resulted from somehow landing in the Feature Box. As a way of saying THANKS! I'm posting this chapter early to try to keep that momentum going.

I really appreciate folks dropping by to read my stuff. I'm especially glad when they enjoy it.

Chapter 3

Another knock sounded as Fluttershy reared up to unlatch the upper half of her door. She took a moment to compose herself and soften the exasperated frown on her face, then swung the top part of the door open and gently lifted off, hovering and craning her neck over the sill to peer outside.

A blonde earth pony mare with white freckles on her ruddy orange cheeks stood on her doorstep with a winning smile on her face. She was dressed in a dapper red and white striped vest with a starched collar and black cravat, and had a pair of weather beaten suitcases hanging like a set of panniers across her back.

Her grin widened as she tipped a straw boater in greetings. "Howdy do, ma'am. Am I addressing the lady of the premises?"

Fluttershy's brow furrowed. "Er... yes?"

The smiling pony reared up and leaned on the sill of the half door, wedging her fore hoof in next to the hinges to preclude it swinging shut. The hovering pegasus was forced to recoil a bit as the mare began to speak in a rapid-fire patter. "Greetings and salutations! I represent Apple-Smith Seed Suppliers (incorporated), a family owned purveyor of the finest domestic and/or agricultural seeds, bulbs, root stock, and saplings in all of the great Republic of Equestria. Fruits and flowers, whatever your needs, you can get it all from Apple-Smith Seeds (incorporated)."

Fluttershy pursed her lips. "Um... I don't... really have time for..."

The brash salespony kept rolling, turning to cast an admiring glance across the bemused pegasus' homestead. "I have to say you've got a pretty little spread here, prettier than anyplace I've seen yet in this neck o' the woods. Have you ever considered the aesthetic and practical value of adding a beautiful apple tree to what you've got goin' here?"

She ducked down and brought a sample case up from the doorstep, plunking it down in place on the door sill before Fluttershy could even blink, let alone slam the door. It came open with a snap, revealing a tray full of saplings and grid of cubby holes each containing samples of large and succulent looking fruit, glistening and sparkling with faint preservative magic.

The blonde mare leaned around the side of the densely packed wall of product with an avid smile and continued. "Apple saplings and seeds are an Apple-Smith (incorporated) specialty, lovingly tended in our greenhouses outside Manehattan and guaranteed to give you an excellent yield when full grown."

A slightly dubious look came to her face. "Or, if you're the sort that doesn't like apples, and I'll be honest with you I haven't met a pony yet who is, I've got pears, plums, peaches, persimmons, pomegranates, cherries, quinces, kumquats, lemons, limes, oranges, grapefruits, tangerines, tangelos, and much, much more all in a variety of varieties to suit all palates and planting plans."

Fluttershy interjected with a slight huff. "I'm sorry... I don't need any kind of trees, thank you... I really..."

The salespony slammed the case shut and swapped it for another with lightning speed, like a Las Neighgas dealer collecting, reshuffling, and dealing a fresh hoof of cards. "Of course not, what with you living so close to this majestic forest and all. You strike me as the sort of filly who likes her flowers. Well take a gander at these beauties and just imagine how your garden will grow and glow if you give 'em a go."

She popped open the second case to reveal a tiny garden of multicolored blooms, with a densely packed rack of seed packets hanging from the upright part. "Yes ma'am, a feast for your eyes and your taste buds! You'll get the full value of your bits back in a bumper crop of bounteous blossoms, believe you me."

Fluttershy glanced across the rainbow of blooms, letting out a gasp as her eyes lit on a lurid blue flower among the other samples. She hovered back a couple of wing beats and jabbed a hoof at the azure blossom. "Where did you get that ?!"

The sales pony nodded towards it with a slight hint of wariness furrowing her brow and a slight scrunching of her muzzle. "Um...It's... It's a beaut, isn't it? You've got a good eye, my mare. That particular specimen is so new to our luxurious lineup of spectacular seeds that our... um... our marketing department hasn't even come up with a name for... it... yet..."

The pegasus' aquamarine eyes bored into her as the sales pitch trailed off on the blonde mare's lips. "Where did you get it? When did you pick it? Tell me!"

The freckled pony cleared her throat nervously and gave a wavering smile. "Well... Okay, I'll be honest with ya, I found several patches of it growing in those woods yonder. A-about yesterday afternoon, I guess. I'm something of a seed finder as well as a seed seller for Apple-Smith (incorporated), y'see."

She gave a shrug, trying to regain her momentum. "It figures ya wouldn't be interested in a locally grown plant, but one pony's weed is another pony's treasure. Consider our range of exotic orchids and... HEY!"

She reared back in shock as Fluttershy lunged forward and slammed the case shut, then shoved it off of her door sill, where it landed with a crunch at the indignant earth pony's hooves. Her clearly enunciated uptown Manehattan accent lapsed into something a bit coarser and closer to the teeming pony metropolis' waterfront . "WHAT'S TH' BIG IDEA?"

The blonde pony braced her hooves on the sill and snorted twin puffs of steam out of her nostrils, her apple green eyes flaring in anger and her ears laid flat back beneath her straw boater. She met Fluttershy's gaze with a snarl. "If yez broke anythin' in this case then ya just bought it, missy!"

Fluttershy jabbed a hoof at the fallen case. "That blue flower is Poison Joke, you silly pony! Who knows what it's going to do to you!"

The sales-mare's face went pale behind her freckles and she backed away. "P-poison wha?"

The butter yellow pegasus tsked and dropped to the floor behind the lower half of her door, pushing it open and advancing on the unsettled earth pony, who in turn took several steps backwards, her sample cases forgotten on the stoop. Fluttershy's face was grave as she beckoned to her with a jerk of her head toward the doorway. "There's no time to explain! The effects could set in any minute! We need to get you inside and into the bath right away!"

The itinerant seed seller continued to back down the path to the pegasus' cottage. "F-fuggeddaboudit! I just had a friggin' bath last S-saddiday."

Twilight Sparkle appeared in the doorway with her head cocked in curiosity. "What's going on out here?"

Fluttershy turned her head and called to her past her ruffling wings. "Twilight, I need you to go into the kitchen and look in the cabinet over the sink for a foal food jar full of little green pellets. It's got 'PJ Cure' written on the lid. Take it to the bathroom and have Rarity fill up the tub, then dump it all in when it's about half full, okay?"

A look of wide eyed consternation settled on the lavender mare's face as she stared past her hostess down the path. Fluttershy's gaze whipped around and she brought a hoof to her mouth as she caught sight of the blonde earth pony sales mare. Her striped vest was hanging on her like it was several sizes too large, and it seemed that she was at least a hoof or two shorter than she was a moment ago.

The seed seller's voice trembled as she met their gaze. "Whassamatta? Wha... whatta yez s-starin' at? I... I ain't..." Suddenly, her boater plonked down over her eyes, settling on the bridge of her nose. "EY! WHO PUT OUT TH' LIGHTS?!"

With that she reared, thrashing her forelegs frantically, then wheeled and bolted. As she ran she dwindled, her dapper outfit billowing and crumpling around her until it flopped empty to the dusty hoofpath, left behind by a rapidly scooting straw boater from beneath which a reedy wail and the patter of tiny hooves issued.

Fluttershy took wing, barking forcefully over her shoulder. "Twilight! Get going!" Galvanized out of her bemused reverie by her hostess' commanding tone, the lavender mare spun on her hoof and scrambled inside.

The butter yellow pegasus sailed after the fleeing hat like a hawk, planting a hoof on the brim and stopping its headlong flight before it skittered over the edge of her hoof bridge and into the creek. A squeaky voice cried out in panic underneath as it tugged to get away. "Help! Somepony slipped me a mickey! I can't see nothin'! What's goin' on? Help! Help! Heeelllllp!"

Fluttershy kept it pinned with her hoof and crouched down beside it, whispering softly in as soothing a voice as she could muster. "Calm down. It's okay. You aren't in any danger."

There was a pause, and then an angry trill came from inside the hat. "'Sez you! It's all dark n' smells like sweat n' pomade in here!"

The pegasus flicked an ear and cleared her throat impatiently. "I'm trying to help you, but you have to calm down. Nopony is gonna hurt you. Now listen carefully, um... I don't think you ever mentioned your name."

Another pause, and the reedy voice replied cautiously. "Th' name's Applejack."

The butter yellow mare let out a breath and kept her tone even. "I'm Fluttershy. Nice to meet you. Now listen carefully. I'm going to pick up the hat, so don't be alarmed, okay?"

She slowly lifted the boater up from the boards of her hoof bridge, and gave a gentle smile to the hoof tall pony crouching underneath. Applejack blinked in the light, and looked up, her eyes bulging white around pinprick green irises and her legs going stiff like four table legs as her ears and tail drooped. "Cheese n' crackers! A friggin' giant! Yaaaaaaiieee!"

With a whinny of stark terror she spun on her hooves and darted across the bridge as fast as her tiny legs could carry her. Fluttershy lunged for her, landing on her belly with her hooves clapping on empty air as the diminutive earth pony evaded her and galloped into the tall grass beyond.

The frustrated pegasus slapped a hoof to her forehead with a sigh and lurched up onto her haunches. She brought the hoof down to her lips and let out a loud, trilling whistle. A moment later she was answered by the keening of a falcon, who launched from one of the treetops around her cottage and circled in to land on her withers.

Fluttershy rolled her eyes and nodded toward the winding trail that rustled through the grass to the accompaniment of a piping, long winded scream. "Be gentle, okay?"

The raptor gave a nod in response and vaulted from his perch, ruffling her long, pink, frazzled mane with his wing wash. He flew like an arrow with speckled fletching and dove into the overgrown grass of the meadow, then came up an instant later pumping his wings with a tiny orange shape thrashing and kicking and wailing in the grip of his talons.

Fluttershy took wing herself and jerked her head toward her cottage, beckoning him to follow her. She lashed her tail in irritation as the sun crept inexorably across the sky above.

***

Some time later, a full sized earth pony mare sat slumped in Fluttershy's tub, a sheepish look on her face. "I can't thank yez enough fer fixin' me up, Miz Fluttashy. I feel like a real prize chump fer losin' my marbles n' gallopin' off like that when ya were just tryin' to help me out."

The pale yellow pegasus stood on the bath mat with a soft, fluffy towel tucked under her wing. She let out a weary sigh and pawed at the rattan beneath her hooves. "Don't worry about it, Miss Applejack. It just seems to be how things are going for me today."

Twilight and Rarity, who were standing in the doorway observing, both exchanged a chagrined glance at one another. The pale mare cleared her throat uncomfortably as her fellow unicorn bit her lower lip.

Applejack turned to face her rescuer, laying a dripping hoof on the edge of the tub as an earnest expression creased her brow beneath sodden strands of her blonde mane. "Well I really owe yez one. If I'da been off all alone someplace when I shrank up I'da sure been in deep dooky."

She shook her head with a rueful chuckle as her gaze ran along her foreleg, as if she was making sure it was still the proper length. "Boy, am I gonna get th' works from my Mom n' Pop when I get back home n' tell 'em 'bout this. They always worry 'bout me when I'm out on th' road." She rubbed a temple with her forehoof. "And I just know my brudda ain't gonna shut his big yap about it neither. Yak yak yak, that's all that big palooka ever does."

Her freckled cheeks compressed in a broad, open smile. "I knew I was in luck when I spotted yer house from th' road. I figured I was gonna make a sale, not that yez would be yankin' my tail outta trouble. Alls I knew was I had a real good feelin' about this place deep in my gut, like I had a pal here I didn't even know about."

Fluttershy blinked at her, her own brow furrowing in mild bewilderment. Now that Applejack mentioned it, she could feel an inkling of that unexplainable sense of connection welling inside her even now. Her expression settled into a gentle smile as she reached out a hoof and laid it atop the earth pony's. "If you want to thank me, then promise me you'll stay out of the Everfree Forest from now on, okay? It's dangerous for ponies to go in there."

She glanced over her shoulder at Twilight, who wore a pensive expression on her face.

The blonde mare let out a sigh. "Yeah. I guess I shoulda never gone in there in th' first place."

She gave Fluttershy a weary shrug. "Truth is, this is one o' da thinnest sales beats in all of Equestria. Mosta th' farmers out here are growin' rocks, and even tho I make some bits from sellin' seeds fer food gardens, I have a tough time meetin' my quotas. So I'm always on th' lookout fer some new stock t' bring back, t' make it worth it fer my family. I just figured if I went in to th' woods just a little ways n' took a look around, I might come out with somethin' good."

Applejack let out a sigh that changed to a wry chuckle as she slipped her hoof out from under her pegasus rescuer's and laid it on top as another grin lit up her features. "Well, I guess I turned up bupkus fer all th' trouble it got me, but I think I found somethin' good out here, or more like somepony. If promisin' t' never go back there makes evertything jake, then no problemo. I'll just find someplace else t' scrounge fer seeds."

Rarity cocked her head with an inquisitive expression on her face as she leaned a bit in the bathroom doorway. "If you don't mind my asking a personal question, darling. I get the impression your parents are fairly prominent in the family business. Why are you even out here hoofing it door to door in the first place, let alone on a sales route that isn't very profitable?"

The blonde mare gave another chuckle accompanied by a shrug. "I guess yez could say I'm chasin' rainbows. Literally."

A dreamy look settled in her green eyes as she reminisced. "I was at my aunt n' uncle's starin' out th' window one day, wonderin' what I was gonna do with myself when I grew up, and all of a sudden there was this huge BOOM!" She splashed in the tub with her hoof for emphasis. "And I saw this amazin' rainbow pointin' like a big arrow outta town, with this big ring o' colors kinda deal spreadin' out in all directions."

All three mares faces went blank with shock as she told her tale, their eyes going wide and their legs stiffening beneath them.

Twilight stared into space with a look of wonderment. "R-ring of colors?"

Rarity murmured under her breath. "Huge b-boom?"

Applejack nodded sagely. "Yeh. I knew it was a sign that somepony up there knew what I oughta do, and th' answer I came up with was ta go out on th' road, just like my Gramma an' Great Grandpap an' generations o' my family have always done, sellin' seeds an' never puttin' down roots." She bobbed her head down at her flanks. "An' that's why I got apple seeds for a cutie mark."

Fluttershy ruffled her wings as her ears laid back. "A... a sign?"

They all exchanged a mystified look as the blonde earth pony cocked a dubious eyebrow at them. "What?"

Before anypony could say anything further, a sharp rapping came from the yellow pegasus' back door, accompanied by a sandy voice muffled by the intervening rooms and walls of the cottage. "Fluttershy? Are you home? Hey! It's me! Open up!"

The pegasus mare's expression of stunned disbelief disappeared beneath a furrowed brow, as she shouldered past Rarity and Twilight and trotted to answer the new arrival, murmuring under her breath in consternation. "Rainbow Dash? Now what could you possibly want?"

Author's Notes:

Bada bing!

Upon consideration and aligning in agreement with those who found AJ's Hooflyn accent slathered on a bit too thickly, I twiddled the knobs on the dialect-o-mat and turned down the dis's, dese's, and dere's, among other things. I also just now made a duel mixed metaphor using spreadable condiments and electronic devices in reference to my use of phonetic dialects.

Hopefully this will improve everyone's reading experience going forward, as regards to Miss Apple.

Chapter 4

Fluttershy opened her back door to face one of her oldest friends, a lean, cyan colored pegasus clad in a blue-grey tunic and polished steel half-barding. The patches on her shoulders, which depicted a lightning bolt superimposed over a dark cloud from behind which the sun was peeking, proclaimed her a member of the Equestrian Sky Rangers.

The uniformed mare raised the shaded visor on her streamlined, airfoil crested helmet and met the butter yellow pony's aquamarine gaze with an indignant maroon glare. "Where have you been? You were due down at Saddle Lake hours ago!"

Her reclusive friend gave a soft huff and rolled her eyes, her general irritation finding its release in her own tone of voice. "Well I couldn't help it. It's just been one thing after another today."

The sky ranger pursed her lips, dubiously studying Fluttershy's face. She then sat down abruptly on her haunches, pulled off her helmet, and tucked it under her wing, revealing a tightly braided, multicolored mane running into her collar.

She heaved a weary, irritated sigh. "You too, huh? I've been busier than an overweight hummingbird at a wing flapping contest since I clocked on at HQ this morning. I'm gonna be hock deep in incident reports when I get back to my desk tonight."

She blinked in dismay and glanced down at her stomach as it growled loudly, and met her old friend's eyes with a flick of an ear. "And to top it all off you made me miss lunch."

Fluttershy cocked an eyebrow at this, letting a slow breath out her nostrils at her fellow pegasus' casual abrasiveness. "Oh? And how exactly is it my fault you missed lunch?"

Dash crossed her forelegs in front of her and tsked. "Well, I knew you'd be coming in today, so I figured we could grab a quick bite at the lunch counter together, but then you didn't show, and I didn't wanna start without you, so I waited. And waited. And then you still didn't show..." Her voice dropped off to a low mutter. "...and I started to worry about you."

A gentle smile tweaked at the corners of the butter yellow pegasus' mouth as she cocked one of her ears. "Hmm? What was that?"

Her rainbow maned friend snorted. "I said I had to get back out on patrol. I only get an hour for lunch, for pony's sake, and like I said it's been totally cyclonic today."

Fluttershy's smile appeared in earnest as she beckoned her old friend and sometimes protector inside. "Well, you're in luck, I was just about to have some lunch here if you'd still like to join me."

A grateful grin appeared on the patrol pony's face as well as her stomach grumbled in chorus to her reply. "Well, that's more like it. Yeah, I think I could technically call this patrol duty since I came up here to find you."

She ruffled her wings and paused to hang her helmet on a peg next to the door in Fluttershy's mud room as the butter yellow pegasus initiated some small talk. "So what's been keeping you so busy today, if you don't mind my asking?"

Dash sighed ruefully as she set about unbuckling the straps on her armor. "An endless parade of strays and kook calls. I spotted somepony's tracks and the remains of a campsite on the outskirts of Area E, and spent a couple fruitless hours buzzing the treetops looking for 'em."

She grunted and arched her back, rolling her withers and cracking her neck after shrugging out of the polished steel shell and setting it carefully on the floor among Fluttershy's feed buckets and gardening tools. "Then I get word from the blinker about this rock farmer north of the Ridge who says this screaming unicorn mare 'skated' across one of his rock patches at an excessive rate of speed. So I spend a couple hours checking that out and listening to the old coot yammer on about how she damaged his crop."

The rainbow maned pegasus unbuttoned her collar and followed her hostess deeper into the cottage. "Then when I touch down at the trading post, of course I wind up talkin' to Pinkie 'cos how does anypony avoid that, and she tells me about another unicorn who set out this morning with a load of camping gear strapped to her back, who was... get this... hunting for the... White... Mare..."

She trailed off as both pegasi walked into the cottage's modest dining area to find Twilight Sparkle, Rarity, and a freshly dried off and dressed Applejack setting the table and laying out the soup and sandwiches. The lavender mare's ears perked up as she set down a plate bearing a stack of oat bread topped by a single piece of toast. "What? The white what now?"

Fluttershy pawed at her floor with an expression equal parts wry and sheepish as she met her old friend's flummoxed gaze. "As you can see, I've been kind of busy too."

She turned to her passel of uninvited guests and gestured toward her fellow pegasus. "Ladies, I'd like you to meet Ranger Dash. She's a friend of mine who'll be joining us for lunch before we all go." Her jaw clenched a bit and her left eye twitched a little as she finished her introduction.

The patrol mare started to sputter and jabbed a hoof at Twilight. "Y-you!"

The unicorn froze with a nonplussed expression on her face. "Me?"

The cyan pegasus reached inside the lapel of her tunic, then pulled forth and unfolded a paper place mat bearing the visage of a purple unicorn in a pith helmet with pink streaks in her mane next to a cutie mark pictograph of a magnifying glass over a pink star, crudely drawn in crayon over the black printed word puzzles and connect-the-dots of a foals' activity page.

The patrol mare tapped the center of the picture, making the paper rattle. "Are you or are you not the mare in this picture?"

As one, Rarity, Twilight, Applejack, and Fluttershy squinted and cocked their heads sideways, studying the image with bemused looks on their faces. The elegant white unicorn narrowed her eyes thoughtfully. "Well, she's more of a lilac or lavender than that... grape color the... ahem... artist used there."

Twilight cocked a wary eyebrow, edging around the table away from Rainbow Dash as the sky ranger crammed the place mat back into her lapel and advanced on her. "Wh-what if I am?"

They circled the table faster as the patrol pony drew herself up with a gimlet gleam in her eye. "Then you're under arrest for aggravating... uh... aggravated trespassing in a protected wilderness zone."

Fluttershy ruffled her wings. "Um... Dash? Twilight? Could you both s-stop... um..."

A note of desperation and fear entered Twilight's voice as she and Dash's pace increased from a fast walk to a trot in tight circles around the table while the others looked on in bemusement. "What? I never even made it to the forest!"

The pegasus mare's wings flared angrily as she and her quarry shifted from a trot to a canter. "Don't lie to me! You're only gonna get yourself in worse trouble! I found your campsite this morning!"

Fluttershy lashed her tail as her frown deepened. "Girls... Could we maybe talk this over calmly?"

Dash let out a grunt of surprise as she collided with Applejack, who was suddenly standing in her way with her green eyes flaring. The blonde earth pony puffed out her chest and hiked her tail as she faced down the angry patrol pegasus. "Back offa th' filly, flathoof. I'm th' one yez lookin' for. That was my campsite."

The cyan mare glared back at her. "Oh yeah?"

Fluttershy pawed at her carpet. "Dash? Miss Apple. Um..."

Twilight spoke up, her ears laid back in shock. "Ap-Applejack. You don't have to..."

The freckled earth pony gave a small shake of her head. "Yeah I do! I ain't gonna sit by and let yez take th' rap fer somethin' I did."

Her eyes narrowed as she leaned into staring down the nonplussed ranger, giving her a little forehead to forehead shove. "But I don't recall seein' no 'No Trespassin'' signs anyplace."

The rainbow maned pegasus shoved back. "It's in the loopty loopin' middle of nowhere. Who's gonna put up signs?"

They both grunted angrily as they pushed harder and harder, with Applejack sneering through gritted teeth. "If it's so friggin' important then th' feds oughta put 'em up. Otherwise it's a bum rap!"

Dash snarled back. "I'll rap YOUR bum, Freckles."

Fluttershy pleaded in a strained voice. "Ladies... will you..."

Rarity chimed in, rapping a hoof on the floor as she spoke up in an arch voice. "Well! I for one will be writing my congresspony about this flagrant display of abusive authority, not to mention the excessive general rudeness."

The fuming pegasus patrol pony reared up and planted a hoof in Applejack's chest, shoving her back as she turned and pointed an accusing hoof at the pale mare. "Pipe down, you! Bits to bagels you're the unicorn that tore up Farmer Pie's geode field this morning."

Rarity cleared her throat as her ears laid back. "Well, I was hardly in control of where I was going at the time."

Dash scowled at her, jostling chest to chest with Applejack as Twilight cowered behind the lanky earth pony. "Well, now you can go and see the judge. In fact, I'm just gonna cut to the chase and run the whole lot of you in for..."

Fluttershy's wings flared, as a look of wild eyed, teeth gnashing rage contorted her mild yellow face. "You... are all.. going... to... SIT DOWN!"

The room fell silent as they all turned to face her, and met with a blazing, aquamarine Stare that reached in through their pupils and yanked the plug right out of their psyches, causing them to deflate like balloons as all around manes, ears, and tails drooped in dismay.

The glaring pegasus mare marched over to one of the seats at her table, pulled it out, and sat down with elaborate poise. In a rapid rustle and scraping of chair legs the others hastily did the same, although their postures were much more abject as they took their places.

Fluttershy's expression softened into a strained smile as she lifted the lid and dipped her ladle in the pot. "So!" She said brightly with only a slight twitch in her left eye. "Who'd like some soup?"

They all held their bowls out with nervous smiles stretching across their faces. The yellow pegasus served them all, and was just about to pour a measure into her own bowl when the doorbell rang with a cheerful DING DONG!

Fluttershy flicked an ear in irritation, then stiffened in her chair, letting a trail of soup dribble across her tablecloth as her eyes went wide in dawning confusion. "Wait a minute... I... I don't have a doorbell."

She got up from the table and trotted to the front of her cottage as the other mares shared uncertain glances. A moment later the yellow pegasus opened her door to see a grinning pink earth pony dressed in a blue and white waitress' uniform.

The newcomer gave a little hop, jostling the stacked bakery boxes balanced on her back. "Hi there, sugarcube! I brought you dessert!"

Fluttershy blinked, taking as step backwards as she ruffled her wings uncertainly. "Pinkie Pie? What are you doing here?"

The pink pony rolled her limpid blue eyes as she came in the door, the yellow pegasus receding before her in spite of herself. "I just told you, I brought dessert, although I don't blame you for wanting to hear it twice."

She carefully placed the cake boxes on Fluttershy's couch as she kept talking in her bright, cheerful voice. "Which is pretty funny, because I actually brought two cakes."

She patted the larger one with a hoof. "Here's your order: one extra large chocolate vanilla chocolate layer cake with strawberry buttercream frosting." She nodded toward the smaller box with a smile of satisfaction. "I had so much fun baking it last year I made it a little friend so we could enjoy a slice together when you came in to pick it up. Well, that and my right nostril was twitching a little today, which is Pinkie Sense for 'make extra cake'."

A slight pout furrowed her brow. "But you didn't come in to pick it up, so I figured I'd better bring it out to you 'cos obviously you were running late and running late for a special, once a year cake order, or even worse missing out entirely, is something I wouldn't wish on my worst enemy, and since I don't have any enemies that means I wouldn't wish it on anypony ever, especially a good friend like you!"

Fluttershy blinked, swimming upstream through the vibrant pony's verbal onslaught and reeling at the amount of time that was bound to slip away now that she was in the mix. "Wh... Well, thanks, Pinkie. I really appreciate it, but... um… who's running the lunch counter right now?"

The pink mare gave an airy shrug. "Gummy's covering for me."

***

Many miles away at the Saddle Lake Trading Post, a tiny green alligator wearing a little apron and a paper hat hung by his jaws from the lazily rotating check wheel in the window between the counter and the kitchen area. He blinked his glassy eyes, one after the other, as a gruff voice called out ."Hey, could somepony freshen up my coffee over here?"

***

Before Fluttershy could respond, or even process that answer effectively, Pinkie raised her snout and sniffed intently at the air. "Hey, is that leek and carrot soup I smell? All this schlepping baked goods over treacherous, isolated wilderness paths sure helps me to work up an appetite." She picked up the smaller cake box by it's string and made a beeline for the dining area with a thoroughly boggled yellow pegasus in tow.

As she hove into view in the doorway to Fluttershy's dining room, three of the four mares sitting at the table starting in on soup and sandwiches looked up with a shock of instant recognition in their eyes, and spoke almost in unison. "Pinkie Pie!?"

The aforementioned mare gave them a smile and batted her eyes as she set the cake box down beside the soup pot and plate of sandwiches. "Hiya, everypony!"

Fluttershy came in behind her and walked around the gathering of ponies to take her seat, an expression somewhere between bemused, confused, and disabused of anything making sense working itself out on her soft yellow countenance.

Twilight Sparkle's violet eyes narrowed as a pensive look of her own settled on her face. A moment later they went wide with astonishment as she pointed a hoof at the new arrival. "I know you! You're that loopy waitress from the luncheonette who wouldn't let me just eat my breakfast in peace."

Pinkie gave a small toss of her head as she took a seat, picked up a stray bowl, and started ladling soup into it. "Well duh! Everypony around here knows me. And the minute you sat down at the counter I could tell by the look on your face that you were just dying to tell somepony your story, so I knew I just had to hear it. Never let anypony leave without a full tummy and a smile on their face, that's my motto!"

She met the lavender unicorn's baffled gaze with a gentle smile of her own as she scooped up a slice of oat bread and started to slather it in butter, followed by a generous sprinkling of sugar from the sugar bowl. "And once I finally got enough donuts in you to get you started I thought it was pretty neat, you hiking up to the Everfree Forest to look for the White Mare and all."

She cocked her head inquisitively and batted her eyelashes. "So, did you find her? Is she really eighty hooves tall with golden feathers coming out of her ears?"

Applejack chimed in with a chuckle in her voice. "Wait, seriously? Don't tell me yez buy that booshwah."

Twilight's brow furrowed in a scowl, her soup spoon suddenly bending into a right angle in the glow of her magic. "Are you guys making fun of me?"

The blonde mare's ears levered back in alarm. "Oh, uh... No. I mean, all I ever heard is The White Mare's an old pony tale, like Bighoof or Nightmare Moon. But if yez got info that says otherwise I... I'm willin' t' have an open mind about it."

Rarity rolled her eyes and murmured under her breath. "Oh bravo. Nice save." This earned her a fuming glance from the freckled salespony.

Slightly mollified by Applejack's response, Twilight directed her ire back toward the pink earth pony.

Taken slightly aback by the amateur crypto-hippologist's glare, Pinkie shook her head slowly with a solemn expression on her face. "Oh no! I thought your story was so incredible that I told it to anypony and everypony who sat down at the counter after you left. Most of them thought it was pretty funny for some reason."

She nodded toward Rainbow Dash, who paused midway in lifting a spoonful of soup from the bowl to her lips and flicked her gaze warily between them. "Ranger Dashie here took it seriously, though. She was so impressed she had me draw a picture of you to help her remember it."

Twilight slouched petulantly in her seat her voice brimming with sarcasm. "How... helpful of you." She glanced down at her bent spoon as it clanked on her bowl at an awkward angle. She cast a sheepish glance at Fluttershy and reapplied her magic to straighten it… mostly.

Pinkie set about buttering and sugaring another slice of bread after polishing off the first one. "Well, I do what I can, but if you really want somepony to help you find the White Mare, I'd ask Dashie here. She patrols the edges of the forest all the time to keep all the nasty weather and monsters from getting out. She might have seen her once or twice."

Dash replied with a deadpan expression. "Can't say I have, Pinkie."

The lavender unicorn and cyan pegasus' gaze locked in suspicion as they warily raised spoonfuls of soup to their lips in unison and watched for any funny moves on each other's part.

The pink earth pony bobbed her frizzy maned head toward their unwilling hostess. "Oh, okay. Well you could ask Flutters here too. Actually, she knows way more about the White Mare than anypony in the world."

Fluttershy glanced uncomfortably around the table, practically ducking behind her teacup as she raised it in a slightly shaky grip. "Well, I wouldn't say that."

Pinkie rolled her eyes. "You're too modest, sugarcube. Who else knows what kind of cake the White Mare likes, for example."

She paused as everypony at the table stared at her, tapping a thoughtful hoof on her chin. "Oh, I guess I know what kind of cake she likes, 'cos you have me bake a big one for her every year.

At this, two mouthfuls of soup and a mouthful of tea blew over the table in atomized clouds of mist.

Twilight and both pegasi rounded on Pinkie Pie with wide, staring eyes, mouths agape, and muzzles dripping. Applejack and Rarity traded a bemused look, the earth pony having rapidly pulled her bowl of soup out from under the spray of spittle as it descended gently onto the table. The pale unicorn looked down at her own bowl, wrinkled her nose slightly, and pushed it away with a small huff.

Twilight stood and planted her fore hooves on the table, her voice rising with incredulity. "You buy her cake? Every year?"

Dash wiped her muzzle on the sleeve of her tunic as her face clouded over. "That... that's ridiculous, Pinkie. She gets that cake to celebrate midsummer with all her little critter buddies, don't you Fluttershy?"

The pink mare shook her head. "Nuh uh. She told me herself that chocolate isn't good for a lot of animals when she caught me putting chocolate chips in the bird feeders down by the lake."

Twilight looked as if she were about to launch her horn from her forehead like a rocket. "She likes chocolate?"

Dash banged a hoof on the table. "It's for that bear who hangs around her place all the time."

Pinkie shook her head again. "Noperoonie. Harry's gluten intolerant, and anyway he'd probably prefer something with honey in it like baklava or pineapple upside down cake even if he wasn't."

Applejack glanced at Rarity. "Do yez ever get the feelin' ya ain't completely in th' loop?" She received a puzzled shrug from the alabaster colored mare in reply.

Pinkie crossed her hooves in front of her chest and nodded sagely at the dumbfounded mares around her. "Therefore, by process of elimination, my good Dashie, she must be getting it for a big group of ponies. Of course, present company excepted, there just aren't any groups of ponies of any kind out here in the sticks, so it's probably for one big pony, since she couldn't possibly finish the whole thing herself before it went all stale and crumbly and yuck."

She made a small grimace of distaste before drawing herself up in rhetorical triumph. "Therefore, it simply must be for the White Mare, who the legends say is ninety hooves tall with flippers and a beak for eating marmalade. Q.E.D. Q.uite E.specially D.elicious!'

Her demeanor shifted instantly from smug preening to bubbly glee as she hopped in her chair. "Ooh! And speaking of large groups of ponies and delicious cake... I almost forgot! I baked an extra cake that you all can share with me! Oh, this is fantastic! I haven't had a proper party in a dog's age." With that she turned and lifted the lid off of the cake box she'd brought into the dining area and brought out a scrumptious looking little confection frosted in pink with thick white piping.

Twilight stared reverently across the table at it. "Is... is that the sort of c-cake the... the White Mare likes?"

Applejack rubbed her hooves together and licked her lips. "Well, it's th' kinda cake I like, which is any kind yez got."

Rainbow Dash cast a scathing glance at Twilight and Pinkie Pie, and then abruptly got up and walked around the table to Fluttershy's side. With gritted teeth she whispered in the soft yellow mare's ear. "You and me need to talk. In private. Now."

With that she spun on her hooves and headed for the back door, lashing her tightly braided tail behind her.

Fluttershy took a helpless glance around the room, biting her lip with her ears laid back, and then got up and followed her old friend out of the room as the quartet of mares remaining began to slice up the cake with relish.

Chapter 5

Dash rounded on Fluttershy with flaring eyes once they'd gotten into the pale yellow pegasus' back yard. All around the little animals who'd been gamboling there sensed the tension between them and scattered, taking up watchful positions in the various nooks and crannies the fences, trees, and foliage provided.

The rainbow maned mare began to pace back and forth, her expression darkening as she kept her gaze trained on her old friend's pensive face. She came to a stop and faced her, bracing her hooves in the grass. "So what exactly have you been telling those ponies?"

Fluttershy lashed her tail uncertainly and cocked a tentative eyebrow. "What...? About the White Mare?" Her brow furrowed. "I didn't tell Pinkie Pie anything. All I ever told her was that the cake was for 'a friend'. Somehow she inferred the rest from random guesses and recipes. You know how she is.

Dash rolled her eyes in spite of herself and gave a slight nod before leveling a searching gaze on her old friend. "What about the unicorn?"

A puzzled expression washed across the yellow pegasus' face. "What about her?"

Resentment clouded the patrol pony's cyan features. "Well, all I'm saying is it kinda hurts that you open up to her and not to me." She flared her wings for emphasis. "We've known each other since we were little. It's not fair! You... uh..."

She trailed off, blinking, and looked down to see a tortoise slowly rubbing his forehead against her hind leg. She ruffled her wings and shoved him away with her rear hoof. "Not now, Tank."

Fluttershy's ears levered back and she pawed at the ground, ignoring the tortoise as he made his determined way back to Dash's leg and resumed his slow motion display of affection. "I didn't tell her anything that I didn't tell you when we were fillies."

She pursed her lips slightly with the barest narrowing of her eyes. "Except that she believed me."

The chromatic maned patrol pony winced and let out a shuddering breath, her ears drooping as she bowed her head. "Okay. I guess I deserved that one. I..."

Fluttershy gave a toss of her mane and huffed. "I honestly don't understand what you're getting so upset about. You've never seemed to care about my trips into the forest or the friends I might have met there."

She drew herself up with a cocked eyebrow. "And speaking of which, since when is the Everfree Forest a 'protected national wilderness zone', hmm? You said it yourself, it's in the middle of nowhere."

Dash's face became stern, and her ears levered back as she replied in a clipped tone. "It's protected. Don't change the subject."

Fluttershy ruffled her wings and her expression hardened in turn. "Oh? That's the first I've heard of it. If anypony deserves to be 'run in' for trespassing, it's probably me."

She stomped a hoof for emphasis. "And maybe I'm not changing the subject, since we really seem to be talking about how much we trust each other with our secrets. What exactly haven't you been telling me? Hmmm?"

At this Dash's wings flared and her neck stiffened, and she bit her lip as she cast a glance around the greenery of Fluttershy's back yard. Her gaze settled on the distant treetops of the Everfree Forest, the sun creeping slowly toward the western horizon overhead. She met her fillyhood friend's aquamarine eyes again, her own maroon eyes glistening as she let out a long breath through her nostrils.

When she spoke again, there was a tremor in her voice. "L-look, you wanna know why I joined the Rangers and spend all my time skimming storm clouds out in the 'middle of nowhere' when I could be out making a name for myself in stunt shows or the racing circuit? The real reason?"

It was Fluttershy's turn to wince, and she peered out from behind her draping pink forelock with tears starting at the corners of her eyes. "B-because you... you wanted to look after your poor, crazy friend who hit her head on the ground too hard and decided to live there with the squirrels and her hallucinations? Rainbow, I'm sorry... I..."

She stopped as the patrol pegasus held up a hoof for silence, and then spoke with an earnest expression on her face. "At first, maybe that was the reason, but that's colors over the cumulous, and this isn't about who's guilty about what, okay? I'm long since done with blaming myself for knocking you off that cloud, and you shouldn't blame yourself for my career choice." She gave a small chuckle and a guarded smirk. "At least not directly."

Dash stepped forward and took Fluttershy's hoof in her own. "I should rephrase the question. Do you wanna know why I stayed in the Rangers, after it turned out you were happy down here and could handle yourself just fine without me lookin' out for you?"

The pale yellow mare could only nod haltingly, her face pensively curious. A relieved smile blossomed on Rainbow Dash's face as she leaned in close, her sandy voice nearly dropping to a whisper. "Because I found out that you weren't crazy at all, and her highness sure isn't any kind of hallucination."

Fluttershy's eyes went wide in astonishment as Dash gave her a wink and turned so her Sky Rangers shoulder patch was presented. She craned her neck and whispered to it. "Sol non occidat super fidem."

Before her fellow pegasus' wondering eyes, the black cloud and lightning bolt faded, revealing the full disk of the golden sun. In the banner, the words "Sky Rangers" shifted and changed to read "Royal Guard".

Fluttershy stared at the patch as her old friend grinned at her. After a moment, it wavered and reverted to its original appearance, the storm cloud reappearing and obscuring most of the sun. Dash grinned wider. "Like it? A bunch of our unicorn colts in the Archive Service whipped 'em up for us."

The butter yellow mare ruffled her wings and spoke in a mystified voice. "What... what does it mean?"

Dash's expression became serious. "It means that thanks to you I found my real calling. They recruited me about a week after I started volunteering to fly the Everfree beat."

Fluttershy cocked her head, still struggling to parse what her old friend was telling her. "Th-thanks to me?"

Her rainbow maned companion nodded. "Yeah. They've known about you and her highness for a long time. When they found out about you and me, they couldn't get me sworn in fast enough. You're important to her highness, so you're pretty important to us."

The pale yellow mare blinked her eyes and shook her head. "But... but who are you? I... I mean, who are they? I've never heard of any Royal Guard. Celestia's never mentioned them."

Dash ruffled her wings and glanced over her shoulder at the sun. "Long ago, back when her highness abdicated and went to hide out in Area E, she never ordered the Guard to stand down. So they stayed at their posts, passing the tradition down through the years while Equestria changed and everypony forgot all about her highness and them. When the old guard was disbanded, they blended in to the services the new government set up when the Republic was founded, with most of us pegasi going into the Sky Rangers."

Fluttershy's ears laid back and her eyes flared as her confusion took on a bit of rancor. "But... why didn't you ever tell me this?"

Dash laid her hoof on her friend's shoulder. "Orders. We don't stick our snouts in her highness' business, we just wait in the wings and look out for her. She wanted to be left alone, we leave her alone."

She stepped forward and took Fluttershy into a hug, the yellow mare stiffening slightly before relaxing and returning the embrace. "I wanted to tell you, I wanted to tell you sooo bad. But I wasn't allowed to unless you opened up to me first. Which I guess is why I was so cheesed off about you spilling your raindrops for this nosey unicorn."

The rainbow maned pegasus gave her a squeeze. "It's such a flippin' relief to finally tell you. I've been caught in a crosswind over this for so long. I hate keeping stuff from my friends."

Fluttershy let out a tiny sob. "It... it means a lot to me to know you don't think I'm crazy anymore."

Dash shook her head. "Even if you were crazier than a fruit bat you'd still be one of the best ponies I know, Fluttershy. But yeah..."

As the soft yellow pegasus sniffled and blinked the tears out of her eyes, her attention was caught by a glimmer of multicolored light visible through the chicken wire of her henhouse. Her ears perked up as the little shack's denizens exploded from the entry and tumbled down the ramp into their yard in a frenzy of clucking and flying feathers.

She nodded towards the chicken coop as Dash turned with perked ears of her own to see what the commotion was. "Speaking of keeping stuff, there's something I think you should see."

***

Moments later the two pegasus mares stood in the cramped space of the henhouse, the cyan patrol pony staring in amazement at the pile of stone spheres her old friend had revealed beneath the feed bags.

Dash nervously pawed at one of them. "So... so you say her highness left these... things here last night?"

Fluttershy shrugged. "Well, my chickens say she did, but I have no real reason to doubt them."

After a few moments of contemplation, she spoke up again. "Twilight Sparkle says they're something called the 'Elements of Harmony'. Ever hear of those?"

Dash drew in a sharp breath and flared her wings, accidentally bonking her soft spoken friend behind the ears. She took a couple hasty steps back as Fluttershy winced and rubbed the back of her head. "The... the Elements of H-harmony! Wh... Why would her highness hide the Elements of Harmony in your chicken shack?"

Fluttershy furrowed her brow. "So you have heard of them."

Her cyan colored companion nodded, keeping her eyes fixed on the spheres. "I've been briefed. All of the Guard have. The colts in the Archive call them Artifact A. They're the most powerful magical doodads known to ponykind. That's about all they know, though. Totally black box, step back and call for back up, board up the windows, don't even tell your pets type stuff."

The yellow pegasus flicked an ear. "Well, they were certainly powerful to enough to pull Rarity, the other unicorn who you threatened to arrest, all the way from Rambling Rock Ridge by her horn."

Dash glanced through the chicken wire of the windows toward Fluttershy's cottage. "So she knows about them too, huh?"

Both pegasi flinched, batting one another on the head with their wings as a chipper voice broke the pensive silence. "Know's about what? Oooh! Those are the biggest eggs I've ever seen! Fluttershy, did you get an ostrich? I heard they can be trained to give ostrich back rides! Can I ride him? Or her, I guess since she's laying eggs. Pretty please with sugar and a cherry and sugar cherries on top? Do ostriches like cherries? I bet they do 'cos they're small enough to swallow without getting a big unsightly bulge in their neck. By that logic I bet they don't like watermelon much, of course if you got a melon baller you could..."

Dash wheeled on the frizzy maned pink pony leaning in through the doorway, scowling as she rubbed away the little stars that were springing from the back of her scalp. She barked out an interruption to the rambling, one mare discussion of fruit and large flightless birds. "Pinkie !? What the hailstones are you doing in here?"

The ebullient waitress craned her neck back and plucked one of two paper plates, each bearing a generous slice of chocolate, vanilla, chocolate layer cake with thick pink icing, from her withers and placed it on a flattened hoof to proffer it to her. "You were missing cake! Nopony misses cake on my watch!"

The rainbow maned patrol pony took it with a huff and fixed the pink pony with a level glare. "Pinkie Pie, I want you to listen very carefully. I need you to make me a Pinkie Pie Promise that you won't tell anypony about these uh... these eggs, okay?"

Pinkie passed the second slice to a bemused Fluttershy and then cocked an eyebrow at Dash. "I don't see the point in that, sooner or later they're gonna hatch and we'll be flank deep in ostriches anyway."

Dash ground her booted hooves on the wooden floor of the coop as she strained for a rationale. "Um... b-because..."

She cast a desperate glance at Fluttershy, who took a bite of cake in response and chewed it slowly with a "You got yourself into this, you get out of it." expression on her pale yellow face. The cyan mare scrunched up her nose and pursed her lips, then finally blurted out an answer. "It's a national security thing, okay!?"

Pinkie rolled her eyes thoughtfully. "OoOOOooh! Okay!" She gave the beleaguered ranger a conspiratorial grin and tapped the side of her nose. "Protecting our strategic ostrich reserve. Gotcha..."

She started doing an elaborate pantomime as she solemnly intoned an oath. "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye."

A beat later Applejack poked her head in the doorway beside the pink earth pony. "Stick a what in yez what now? Whatta yez gals doin' in here anyhow?"

Pinkie drew herself up with a knowing expression on her face. "I can't tell you."

She gave a broad wink to Rainbow Dash, who slumped to her haunches, balancing her slice of cake on one fore hoof as she slapped her forehead with the other and let out a growl. Pinkie gave a little hop as she glanced back at a tray containing a cooly clinking pitcher of fruit punch and some paper cups balanced on the blonde salespony's withers. "Oh good, you brought the punch. Let me get that, sugarcube."

Applejack nodded. "Yeh. I mixed it up just like you said to, but I had ta refill Miss Fluttershy's ice trays before I brought it out."

She glanced around the increasingly crowded chicken shack as Pinkie took the tray off her back and started pouring punch. "Hey Miss Fluttershy, I couldn't help but notice ya keep chickens. Y'know, Apple Smith (incorporated) has a fine range of boidseed and animal feeds, and I could send yez some free samples thru th' mail when I get back to... Woah. What's th' deal with those crazy bowlin' balls?"

Pinkie shook her head as she passed Fluttershy a cup of punch. "Still can't tell you. Sorry."

She leaned over toward Applejack and held up a hoof beside her muzzle in a stage whisper and nodded in the butter yellow pegasus' direction. "Don't tell anypony I told you this, but you should probably ask her if she'd be interested in buying some watermelon seeds. Just a tip. I can't say any more than that without compromising national security."

Dash's face went red, and she downed her punch with one gulp, scarfed down her slice of cake in a couple of messy bites, and crumpled the plate and cup between her shaking hooves. Scowling through the pink frosting splattering her face, she stood with stiffened legs and jabbed her hoof toward the door. "Out! All of you! Out! Get back in the house!"

***

The rainbow maned pegasus had managed to wipe the frosting but not the scowl off her face as she paced back and forth in Fluttershy's living room with the quintet of other mares warily watching her from the pale yellow mare's couch. "Okay, I want you all to listen up and listen good. As of now you are all confined to these premises until further notice, understood?"

Rarity drew herself up indignantly. "What? You're arresting us? On what charge?"

Applejack cast a scathing glance at Ranger Dash. "This is about those bowlin' balls in the chicken coop."

The pale unicorn arched an eyebrow. "Bowling balls? Well, they're definitely high carat but I'd hardly call them 'bowling balls' darling."

Twilight blinked at them both. "You mean the Elements of Harmony?" Dash gritted her teeth and flinched visibly at their mention.

Applejack looked at her. "The what of huh?"

Pinkie shook her head solemnly. "Still can't tell you."

The lavender mare held her fore hooves apart and gestured something about a hoof wide as she replied to the blonde earth pony. "They're flawless gemstones about so big, which are reputed to be the most powerful magical artifacts in Equestria."

Applejack shook her head. "Nah. These were white bowlin' ball things about three times that big."

Twilight cocked an eyebrow and stroked her chin pensively. "Really? Hmm. I need to check my notes."

She made to get up and was stopped by a pointed hoof and a glare from Dash. "Stay right were you are, pencil head."

Applejack gave her the stink eye. "Ya still ain't charged us with nothin' yet, flathoof."

Rarity brought a hoof to her mouth, her sapphire eyes going wide. "Oh dear, they aren't stolen, are they?" She cast a searching glance at Fluttershy. "You seem like such a nice, kind pony. Tell me you're not a jewel thief."

At this, the soft yellow pegasus spoke up with a shake of her head. "No. Nopony stole anything."

The pale unicorn breathed a sigh of relief and laid her hoof to her chest. "Oh thank goodness. Trafficking with jewel thieves would be just terrible for my reputation in Manehattan."

Fluttershy gave her a slight nod."No, the owner of those... things left them in my chicken coop last night without my knowledge."

She turned a sharp gaze on Rainbow Dash, whose expression became a bit sheepish. "And while we're on the subject of lacking knowledge, maybe if you settled down and stopped barking orders and explained to everypony what's going on, then maybe they'd all be more co-operative, don't you think Dash?"

The chromatic patrol pony flared her wings and replied in a petulant voice. "I don't know what's going on, Fluttershy."

Her soft spoken friend gave a small shake of her head and flicked an ear. "Nopony knows what's going on, Dash, but there's no reason to take it out on everypony like that."

The cyan pegasus let out a weary sigh and ran a hoof through her rainbow mane. "Okay... Okay, Fluttershy. I'll play it your way."

She composed herself and turned to face the others with an earnest look on her face. "All right, all I can say is that the objects in Fluttershy's chicken coop are extremely powerful, extremely ancient magic artifacts, and the fact that they're in there without anypony knowing why is kind of a big deal. I need to contact my superiors to find out how to proceed, and since you all are witnesses, they're going to want to talk to you, and will also want to swear you all to secrecy in the interests of national security."

A pensive silence filled the room as the others mulled over what she had said. Dash glanced out the window at the lengthening shadows and the orange cast of the sunlight outside, and then turned to face Fluttershy. "Speaking of contacting my superiors, could I borrow the biggest mirror you've got. I need to send a heliograph to HQ before we lose the light."

With a silent nod the pale yellow pegasus led her back to her bedroom where they took the mirror off of her vanity and carried it outside. Dash took it between her fore hooves and launched skyward with powerful beats of her wings.

Fluttershy looked up from the ground below, absently petting a little squirrel's head as she watched her Sky Ranger friend angle the mirror towards the distant, hazy smudge that was Cloudsdale and proceed to flash a series of signals. She squinted her sharp, aquamarine eyes as a tiny speck of light at the pinnacle of the cloud city blinked red in return.

Dash touched down shortly thereafter with a grave look on her face. She met Fluttershy's gaze with a furrowed brow. "They're calling a Code Spooky, which is, like, reserved for all Tartarus breaking loose. I've been ordered to stand guard over Artifact A and you and the rest are confined to the premises until backup arrives."

She gave her old friend an apologetic look. "I hope you don't mind a lot more company. They'll be here by sundown." Fluttershy stared at her in confusion as silence fell between them as a wind picked up, rustling the grass.

They both gave a start and turned as Pinkie Pie's shrill voice called from the back door of the cottage. "Hey you guys!"

Dash rubbed her temple with the tip of a hoof. "I really wish she'd stop doing that."

Fluttershy turned to face her with a lashing tail. "What is it now, Pinkie?"

The pink pony pointed inside. "There's this black and white striped pony at your front door. She seems really upset and everything she says rhymes. I dunno if she's rhyming 'cos she's upset or upset 'cos she can only talk in rhymes, but you better come see her."

Fluttershy traded a confused look with Dash, who gave her a nod and went over to the chicken coop, where she snapped to attention in front of the door with flared wings and an impassive, watchful stare on her cyan face.

The pale yellow pegasus wheeled and trotted inside after Pinkie.

Chapter 6

Fluttershy reared back at her doorstep with a gasp. "Z-zecora? What happened?"

She'd known the zebra mystic for a long time, as far as a near recluse might know an even more reclusive hermit, and she'd never seen her like this before. Normally, whenever their paths crossed in the murky glades of the Everfree, the zebra was cordial but slightly aloof, with a seemingly bottomless well of poise and a palpable air of exotic mystery about her.

Now Zecora stood with piteously drooping ears and tail, a quivering lower lip, and shaking knees, bowed beneath a disorganized heap of lumpy bundles and hastily lashed together furniture. Her white stripes were a shade paler, especially around her face, and her eyes were reddened and dripping with tears.

She gave a bow, which nearly threatened to tip her burden in through the doorway. "S-solemn greetings, dear Fluttershy, this day I c-cannot help but cry. The Shining Lady has cast me out, and now I wander in fear and doubt."

The yellow pegasus' ears edged back as she blinked at her. "Shining Lady? You... You mean Cele... um... the White Mare?"

The despondent zebra nodded, straining to keep from rolling backward as she corrected the angle of her listing baggage. "Yes, the same. Among you ponies she is called that name. She came to my hut, commanded I pack, and said leave my home and never come back."

Fluttershy brought her hoof to her mouth as her pupils shrank. "But... but why? I... I don't believe it! She... she would never..."

Zecora leaned forward with a look of urgency washing across her tear stained face. "All these things I say are true, and she told me a message to give to you. She... AYAH!"

She let out a squawk of dismay as her heavy load of belongings rolled forward and collapsed on top of her, pinning her to the ground as loose bottles and jars spilled out and rolled across Fluttershy's floor. The pegasus backpedaled with her wings flared in alarm as a large metal cauldron bounced out of the mass of bundles with a hollow KLONG, rumbled across the room, and knocked over one of her end tables.

As the last rattle of debris died away she looked down with a furrowed brow as the gold bracelets jingled around a twitching striped foreleg sticking out from beneath the pile, then set about freeing the buried zebra as the others came trotting out from the living room with perked up ears and curious faces. They pitched in with the rescue at a few terse instructions from their hostess.

***

A short time later, Fluttershy had everything as straightened out as she could manage, considering the circumstances. She'd ushered Twilight, Applejack, and Rarity back into the living room with minimal protest from the three mares.

A brief glance out the back door window showed that Dash was still standing guard by her chicken coop, neck straight and tail hiked while Pinkie relentlessly tried to break her stoic, deadpan expression with a succession of extravagant funny faces. It was beginning to get dark outside, so hopefully the pink mare would get bored with her game and come inside before she wound up with a set of cyan colored hooves clamped around her throat.

With everypony else accounted for, she returned to the kitchen, where she'd left Zecora with a hot mug of tea clutched in her trembling hooves. She dragged the other chair in her tiny breakfast nook around so that she could sit down facing the shaken zebra.

Fluttershy's voice was soothing and gentle as she spoke. "Okay, Zecora. I'm happy to put you up here, and you can stay as long as you need to, but I'd really like to know what um... what she said for you to tell me." She cast a glance out the window at the darkening sky above, then met the zebra herbalist's wavering gaze.

Zecora took a sip of her tea and gave a halting nod and a fragile smile. "You have my thanks, for being so kind, and helping me out while I'm in this bind."

Her face became grave as she set her mug aside and took Fluttershy's hoof in her own. "Here is what she said to me, as she drove me from the Everfree. She cannot see you at the break of day, and is adamant you stay away. Nopony must go into the wood, this she commands for our own good."

Fluttershy recoiled, her ears laying back and a look of hurt disbelief washing across her face. "Wh-why would she s-say that? Why wouldn't she tell me herself?"

Zecora shook her head sadly, a shrug jingling the gold rings around her neck. "This very question I dared to ask, before I packed a single flask."

She hugged herself as a shiver ran down her striped back. "She looked at me with eyes like burning coal, and I became in my heart like a frightened foal. It took me back to how I felt, when lions stalked me on the veldt, first distant roar then nearby rustle, and you dare not breathe or move a muscle. I bowed before that fearsome gaze, and begged her pardon for my impudent ways. She left me cringing on my floor, as she turned away and said no more, save that I hurry on my way, and pray that morning would bring a new day."

Both mares gave a start as Twilight Sparkle's voice sounded from the kitchen doorway. "Well that sounds pretty ominous, don't you think?"

Fluttershy twisted in her chair and cast a glare at the interloping unicorn as she flicked an ear and gave a huff. "Twilight, this is a private conversation."

The lavender mare pawed hesitantly at the ground and bunched her withers sheepishly. "I... I realize that, but I've been thinking about everything that's been going on and after hearing what your zebra friend just said..."

Her unwilling hostess rustled her wings in irritation and cut her off. "Look, I realize you're a curious pony, and I know that the White Mare is kind of an obsession for you, but you really need to..."

Twilight cut her off in turn as she marched across the small kitchen with the ancient tome she'd shown Fluttershy earlier knifing through the air behind her in a cloud of purple sparkles. She slammed it emphatically down on the table and flipped it open. "No, YOU need to listen to me. Everypony needs to listen to me.This isn't me being nosey or obsessed. This is more important than anything that's happened in Equestria in a thousand years."

Taken aback by the young unicorn's forcefulness, both pegasus and zebra looked on in silence as she flipped to a page illuminated with a picture of the Mare in the Moon surrounded by a quartet of sharp pointed stars.

This she tapped with a hoof. "There's a prophecy in this book, quoted from even older sources, that says that one day Nightmare Moon will break free from her imprisonment and return to take her revenge."

Twilight, Zecora, and Fluttershy turned to see Rarity and Applejack standing in the doorway as the brash salespony's scoffing voice drew their attention. "What, is Nightmare Night comin' early?"

The lavender unicorn stamped a hoof and floated her tome over to shove it in the earth pony's freckled face, following it across the room with a hiked tail and folded ears. "Yes! And this time no amount of candy is gonna keep the Nightmare from gobbling us all up."

She flipped it around and began to recite from it, her avid gaze playing across the moldering pages. "'On the longest day of the thousandth year, the stars shall aid in her escape, and she will bring about nighttime eternal.'"

She snapped it shut, nearly closing it on Applejack's snout and causing her to flinch back. "Based on my calculations, and adjusting for the conversion from the old Neighgorian Calendar to Republic reckoning and accounting for leap years, that would make it highly probable that tonight is the night."

She rounded on Zecora and Fluttershy with a dramatic lash of her tail and pointed a hoof past the stricken zebra toward the darkness outside. "Which if it is, then we ALL better pray tomorrow's a new day, because right now we might be looking at the start of a night that lasts forever."

The room fell silent, save for the soft thrumming of Twilight's horn, as they all stared at her with nonplussed looks on their faces.

Suddenly, the dimly lit room was awash in a harsh, cold white glare as several searchlights from above poured in through the windows, accompanied by the whoosh of a host of wingbeats overhead. Rarity and Applejack both let out a scream and jumped into one another's hooves as Twilight, Zecora, and Fluttershy scrambled out of the breakfast nook and clustered with the terrified mares in the kitchen doorway.

A sharp rapping sound came to the front door, followed by a commanding voice. "Open up! This is the Sky Rangers!"

Fluttershy broke loose from the group of startled equines and trotted hastily to the door, her wings rustling nervously across her withers. She pulled open her front door to another torrent of searchlights, and was met by a pair of Sky Rangers silhouetted in the glare from above, a blaze yellow mare and a sky blue stallion, their faces impassive beneath their mirrored goggles and streamlined helmets.

What seemed like an army hovered over the reclusive pegasus' cottage, dark shapes outlined like black cardboard cutouts against the dying red embers of the passing day, wielding intense beams of light that crawled in sharp circles across the ground and sparkled in the shrubs and trees like winter stars.

Fluttershy swallowed hard and fought the urge to slam the door and go hide under her bed, bringing years of patient training by her erstwhile mentor to bear in the face of such an overwhelming display of force. "Y-yes? H-how can I help you?"

The mare gave her a terse nod. "Greetings, citizen. I'm Captain Spitfire, this is Lieutenant Soarin. We're responding to an urgent signal from one of our rangers, one Ranger Rainbow Dash. Would you happen to know where she might be?"

Fluttershy gave a halting bob of her head in return. "Um... Yes, she's out back guarding my chicken coop right now."

At this the stallion to gave a brief snort as his mouth pulled back in a smirk. Captain Spitfire gave him a sharp sidelong glance and cleared her throat, causing him to straighten up and reassume his stone faced expression. She tapped a hoof on the doorstep. "Take us there if you would, citizen."

When they went around back, they found a red faced Dash standing with gritted teeth, bristling wings, and something between a thousand mile stare and blue murder in her eyes as Pinkie hopped in a semi-circle around her singing verse 27 of "99 Bales of Hay in the Loft".

The cyan pegasus patrol pony almost sobbed with relief as she rounded on the newly arrived Sky Rangers, snapped to attention, and threw them a sharp salute, knocking her frizzy maned tormentor on her rump with a backward sweep of her wing as she did so.

Captain Spitfire gave her a nod of acknowledgment. "At ease, Ranger Dash. What's the sitrep?"

Her rainbow maned subordinate dropped into a more relaxed stance and cocked her head toward the clapboard shed behind her. "Subject F discovered what is alleged to be Artifact A in this structure early this morning, and believes that PC One personally concealed them there for reasons unknown."

The blaze yellow pegasus captain cast a glance at Fluttershy and Pinkie as the pink mare insouciantly bounced back onto her hooves, then met Dash's gaze again. "How many other ponies know about this?"

The rainbow maned ranger nodded toward the cottage. "Besides myself, Subject F, and Miss Pie here, three other civilians."

Pinkie chimed in in her chipper voice. "And don't forget Fluttershy!"

Dash flicked an ear in irritation. "Fluttershy is Subject F."

The pale yellow pegasus blinked. "I am?"

Pinkie gave a little hop. "Ooh! Does that make me Subject P?"

Dash and Captain Spitfire exchanged a glance, and the senior ranger gave a flick of her closely bobbed, flame-like tuft of a tail, ruffled her wings impatiently, and rolled her eyes. "Sure, whatever."

The pink earth pony beamed at them. "Great! I love getting letters!"

Both Spitfire and Rainbow Dash glanced sharply at Lt. Soarin as he let out another half suppressed snort.

The ranger captain tsked, pointedly ignoring him, then pushed up her goggles, meeting Fluttershy's gaze with a businesslike expression on her face. "Can you show me where you found the objects in question, citizen?"

The gentle pegasus nodded and beckoned her to follow. "In here. I haven't touched them since my chickens showed me where they were."

Spitfire's brow furrowed as she fell into step behind her. "You talk to your chickens?"

With that, the two mares went inside the coop, as Dash and Soarin blocked Pinkie from following with upraised wings that crossed with the metallic "schinng" of two blades. The pink mare pouted for a moment then gave a breezy shrug and turned around, assuming a comical imitation of their alert posture and serious faces.

Fluttershy blew into the lantern she kept hanging in her henhouse as a night light for her little flock, shushing them gently as they fussed and clucked on their perches. The fireflies within awakened and started to let off their soft, luminous glow as she lifted it off its hook and held it over the corner where the mysterious collection of stone spheres lay.

Captain Spitfire regarded them with a cool, appraising eye. "So... These are supposed to be the Elements of Harmony, huh?"

Fluttershy nodded earnestly. "Yes, according to Twilight Sparkle and Rarity."

The ranger fixed her with a probing gaze. "And who are Twilight Sparkle and Rarity?"

The pale yellow pegasus fidgeted under her scrutiny. "Um... my friends, I guess. Both unicorns. Rarity has a gem finding spell that showed them as a pile of big gemstones, which caused Twilight to look them up in this old book she has that said they're the Elements of Harmony. When I told Rainbow about it she said they really shouldn't be here and the fact that they were was a serious problem, and that's why she called you guys."

Spitfire's face was impassive as she continued to stare the soft spoken pegasus down. "So why do you think they were put here?"

Fluttershy pawed nervously at the ground. "I don't know. Ce- Celestia's been acting really strangely today."

The captain flicked an ear. "Have you spoken to her highness recently?"

The younger mare shook her head. "No. Not since last week. But we were supposed to meet tomorrow morning at sunrise for a little get together we hold every year on midsummer morning. I was planning on asking her about them then." Her ears drooped. "But she cancelled that for some reason."

Spitfire cocked an eyebrow. "How do you know she cancelled if you haven't spoken to her?"

Fluttershy's expression became grave. "She sent word through a zebra I know named Zecora, who's lived in the forest for a good three years now, but who Celestia banished from her home just today. Again, I don't know why."

The blaze yellow ranger captain ruffled her wings uneasily as she turned her gaze back to the Elements, her brow furrowing in deep concentration.

Fluttershy bit her lip, mulling some uneasy thoughts of her own before she broke the wary silence again. "Um... I don't know if this helps or not, but my friend Twilight thinks it might be because Nightmare Moon is returning. She said there's an old prophecy in her book that maybe says it will happen tonight."

At this Captain Spitfire blanched, her wings and tail going rigid as her amber brown irises and pupils shrank to pinpricks. She spoke in a harsh edged whisper as she stared out past the hex patterned chicken wire of the windows at the spotlights of her cadre in the darkened sky above. "Code Eclipse Black..."

Fluttershy took a step back as she saw the military mare begin to tremble. After a pause Spitfire shook it off and met her gaze once more, her expression hardening into a mask of steel. "Right... I think I should talk to your friends, Miss Fluttershy." She rapped her hoof on the floorboards with a note of finality in her voice. "Now."

Moments later the ranger captain was striding out the doorway of the chicken coop with the soft yellow pegasus fluttering to keep up. She barked at her subordinates as she passed. "Dash, come with us! Soarin, guard this chicken coop with your life!"

The sky blue stallion tsked, rolled his eyes, and snapped to attention by the henhouse door with a sharp salute to his captain. Dash suppressed a snort and shot him a smirk as she fell into step behind Fluttershy and Spitfire.

Pinkie stayed behind, rearing up with a look of wonderment as she waved a hoof in front of his stoic expression. "Wow, do all you Sky Rangers take chickens this seriously? I mean c'mon, they can't even fly."

Dash trotted back with an exasperated huff, grasped her frizzy magenta tail in her teeth, and dragged her along toward the house.

***

Night had fallen completely when the back door of the little rustic cottage flew open and Captain Spitfire came stalking out with a resolute look on her face. Dash was close on her heels, awkwardly flapping her wings and half walking on her hind legs as she buckled her helmet on. "Cap, you gotta let me come along. I'm a Royal Guard! Loyal as they come! It's my duty to do everything I can to protect her highness!"

Spitfire gave a terse shake of her head. "No can do, Dash. Based on your personal connection to Subject F I think it's better you stay here and keep an eye on her and the rest of them. If this is Code Eclipse Black the last thing I need is a bunch of civvies blundering around Area E in the dark. I need you to keep 'em from doing anything stupid, okay?"

She nodded toward Soarin. "And anyway, Lt. Soarin will be staying put too. Artifact A is too important to leave unguarded. Now go spell him for a minute while I give orders to the rest of the task force."

The blaze yellow mare strode to the center of Fluttershy's back yard and reared up, blowing a loud whistle that rang out through the dark summer night. "YO! HUDDLE UP!"

Spitfire stood at attention as one by one the squad leaders touched down and gathered around her along with a concerned looking Lt. Soarin, who trotted over from the chicken coop and took up a position at her side.

She drew herself up and spoke out in a clarion voice. "Fillies and colts, there is a high likelihood that we've got a Code Eclipse Black on our hooves."

She paused, ruffling her wings as a concerned murmur went through the assembly of military pegasi. "Therefore as ranking officer of this task force I am taking the step of ordering us to break cover and form up ranks. We will then proceed to Structure C of Area E and report to her highness for further orders. Understood?"

As one the stallions and mares of the Sky Rangers flared their wings and puffed out their chests, boldly calling out in the affirmative.

She gave a nod, then turned to Soarin. "Lieutenant, I'm gonna detail you and Ranger Dash to guard this compound and the civilians in the house."

She pursed her lips as she noted a slight sag in the sky blue stallion's wings, and glanced over at the rainbow maned mare who wore a similar expression of disappointment. "I want to be perfectly clear, you two are not just guarding a chicken coop. You're guarding the most powerful magical artifact in Equestria and our princess' personal protege, the only pony her highness has spoken to in a thousand years. This is by no means sleet duty. Understood?"

They both reared up and snapped off a salute in her direction with resolute looks on their faces.

Spitfire returned their salute and smiled proudly as she flapped her blazing yellow wings and rose into the air. "Right. Lets make good on those oaths our great great great great great grandfathers and grandmothers swore! Sol non occidat super fidem! "

All the rangers raised their voices in unison as they lifted off behind her. "SOL NON OCCIDAT SUPER FIDEM!"

Dash let out a sigh as she glanced down at the patches on her jacket, which gleamed gold and transformed into the insignia of the Royal Guard. She and Soarin stood at attention and held their salute for their comrades as the column of armored pegasi winged their way through the night sky, their searchlights playing across the treetops as they made for the heart of the brooding expanse of the Everfree Forest.

***

Hours had passed, and the assembly of ponies inside the rustic little cottage had reluctantly settled in for the duration. After an initial period of awkward tension among them, they began to relax with one another and tried to make the best of their situation.

Applejack and Zecora were the first to warm up to each other's company. When the blonde earth pony and zebra discovered their mutual, keenly held interest in botany and horticulture they were soon whiling away the time talking excitedly about the obscure plant species to be found in the Everfree Forest.

Pinkie eventually declared that if they were going to stay up all night some kind of snack was in order, and commandeered Fluttershy's kitchen to bake a batch of cinnamon rolls to go with the pot of coffee she put on to brew. Drawn by the activity, a bored Rarity joined her, and soon their merry laughter was drifting through the cottage to the accompaniment of clanking bowls and cookie sheets.

Fluttershy, who'd been wandering from grouping to grouping making sure everypony was comfortable considering the circumstances, took the piping hot, sweetly glazed results of Pinkie and Rarity's labors along with two steaming cups of joe up to the attic room of her cottage, where she found Twilight Sparkle and Rainbow Dash talking as they sat watchfully by their hostess' highest window, gazing out at the darkened Everfree Forest and the starlit sky overhead. The full moon had risen and was climbing slowly across the heavens, the darkened pattern of the Mare in the Moon brooding on its face.

As she climbed up through the attic trapdoor, a concerned look flickered across Fluttershy's face as she thought that Twilight's raised voice meant they were yet again bickering over something. Her expression softened to a quiet smile as she heard excitement instead of rancor as the unicorns words came into focus. "... was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen in my life! How did you do it?"

Dash's multicolored tail braid lashed idly across the floor as she rubbed the back of her head. "I... Honestly I still have no idea. I know it's all about hitting the right speed and angle, but beyond that it seems like it was a once in a lifetime fluke. I've spent more than a few weekends trying to do it again with no luck so far."

They turned as Fluttershy softly cleared her throat. She craned her neck to lift the tray of coffee and cinnamon rolls off of her withers and set it down between them. "Are you two talking about the Sonic Rainboom?"

Rainbow Dash nodded as she scooped up one of the cups and spoke out of the side of her mouth as she took the sugar tongs in her teeth and plunked a succession of cubes from the bowl into the fragrant coffee. "Yeah. Turns out Twilight here got her cutie mark because of it too. What are the odds, huh?"

The lavender unicorn picked up her cup in her magic and blew on it, not bothering with cream or sugar. "I was climbing on one of the bookshelf ladders in the Canterville Public Library, just goofing around while my big brother and his girlfriend worked on a geography report for school. I nearly fell off when the Rainboom went off overhead. I knew I was seeing something incredible, and I felt this amazing feeling of... I don't know... connection with something bigger and stranger than regular, humdrum, everyday life."

She continued as a cinnamon roll rose up in the grasp of her magic as well. "My brother's girlfriend found me up on the top of the shelf with my snout pressed against the window and got me down, she's a pegasus too, by the way. I think you'd like her, Fluttershy, if you ever decided to come to Canterville you'd be welcome to stay at my parents' place with me, and I'd be happy to introduce you."

The pale yellow pegasus rustled her wings self consciously as Twilight took a bit of her cinnamon roll and let out an appreciative "mmm" sound. Her hostess pawed at the floor as she met Rainbow Dash's wry gaze. "Well, I don't travel a lot, really, but if... if I did I guess I'd be happy to accept your hospitality."

The lavender unicorn took a sip of coffee and smacked her lips. "It'd be the least I could do for imposing so much on yours.

She gave a shrug and got back on topic. "Anyway, back to the story, as soon as my little hooves touched the floor I was off like a shot, making a beeline for the science and applied magic section where I proceeded to pull every volume I could find on meteorological anomalies. From there I wound up with a stack of books that was taller than me about all sorts of unknown phenomena. One of them was about celestial magic of the ancients, which is where I first read about the White Mare. My cutie mark came in the exact moment the librarian stamped the due date on the card at the checkout desk for the first of many times to come."

Fluttershy sat down on her rump, a look of wonderment on her face. "That's... that's amazing. I'm sure that Rainbow already told you about how she and I both got our cutie marks because of the Sonic Rainboom."

Twilight nodded, dunking her roll into her coffee. "Indeed. And don't forget what Applejack told us about the big rainbow that helped her decide to become a traveling salespony." She cocked her head thoughtfully. "And now that I mention it, I seem to recall that it struck a chord with Rarity as well when she described what she saw."

Dash took a thoughtful pull from her coffee cup. "Weird..."

She looked out the window to see Pinkie Pie prancing across the lawn to deliver a cup of coffee and a couple cinnamon rolls to Soarin as he stood his vigil by the chicken coop. She pursed her lips with a bit of disapproval at how quickly he broke guard discipline to chow down on the tasty baked goods.

After a few moments thought the rainbow maned mare turned to her pale yellow hostess with a cocked eyebrow. "Hey Fluttershy, did Pinkie ever tell you her cutie mark story? About the rock farm and the Rainboom and how she vowed to dedicate her life to making everypony as happy as she felt when she saw it?"

The soft spoken pegasus nodded. "Her 'origin of Equestria' story? Yeah, I've heard it a couple times."

Dash rustled her wings. "That's six, give or take. Huh..."

Twilight's cup shook a little in her magical aura as she set it down. "That's... well, I'd say that's definitely an unusual phenomenon. Six fillies spread across the face of the Republic receive their cutie marks at the exact same moment in time as a result of the exact same event. That's... uncanny."

Fluttershy pawed at the dusty floorboards of her attic, the feeling of connection between her and the other two almost palpable. "There's something going on here, girls. Something bigger than all of us... Some... thing..."

She trailed off as her sharp pegasus eyes spotted a large flash of light in the midst of the Everfree Forest. Shortly afterward there was a loud pop and flash and a tumult of chirping and scattering leaves in the heart of a large sugar maple that stood at the edge of her back yard, followed by a panicked mass exodus of the squirrels, birds, and flying squirrels that made their home there.

Twilight and Dash's head whipped around to look as her pupils shrank and she gave a sharp intake of breath. The rainbow maned ranger peered into the starry night. "What? What happened? What did you see?"

The butter yellow pegasus shook her head. "I... I don't know. It was a... a flash of light, like... like lightning. Then I... Oh!"

Dash got to her hooves, her wings rising from her back, as a spiraling trail of amber light rose up from the distant edge of the forest. "That's a Sky Ranger distress flare! What the hail... stones..."

They crowded to the window, as a succession of flares rose up at irregular intervals along the perimeter of the vast forest, some bright and clear over the nearby hills and some barely visible over the far horizon. Ranger Dash's wings unfurled farther as she reared up to grip the windowsill. "What the hay is going on !? They're scattered all over the place!"

They all let out a cry of alarm as a blinding amber flare exploded from the center of the maple tree, illuminating the figure of a pony thrashing upside-down among the branches, before shooting up through the top to wind a corkscrew of light through the sky and burst high above. Yet more little tree dwellers emerged in a chirping, fluttering panic.

Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy dove out the attic window as Twilight reared up, planting her hooves on the sill and craned her neck for a better view as she watched them go with her eyes wide and her jaw hanging loose in shock.

Chapter 7

Applejack, Rarity, Twilight, Pinkie, and Zecora galloped out the back door of Fluttershy's cottage, gathering around the maple tree's base as the pegasus mares dove into the shaking, shivering canopy and set about extricating the pony that had suddenly appeared among the branches. They fended off a few disoriented, panicked kicks before she exhausted herself and fainted, allowing them to work her free and bring her down to the ground, where they laid her on the grass among the other's hooves.

Dash drew herself up and called out to her fellow ranger over by the chicken coop. "Soarin! Bring that lantern over here!"

The stallion flicked his tail and maintained his steady, stiff necked position as he spoke with a note of bitter chagrin on his voice. "No can do, Dash. My orders are to guard Artifact A. You know the regs."

She stomped a hoof and snarled in reply. "Artifact A can get bucked off a cloud! We've got a squaddie down over here and if you don't bring us that light so help me Hurricane I'll twist your tail off at the root and use it to floss out that wind tunnel between your ears."

Soarin dithered for a moment, before Fluttershy reared up and bellowed in a voice like thunder. "NOW!"

Galvanized into action, he ducked inside the henhouse and came galloping over, flapping his wings, with the lanterns handle clenched in his teeth.

They all let out a gasp as the light fell on the tattered, slightly charred ranger uniform the dazed mare was wearing. Dash glanced at the soot stained cutie mark on her ice blue flank and let out a gasp. "F-fleetfoot..."

Fluttershy wheeled and started galloping toward the cottage, calling over her shoulder. "I'm getting my first aid kit! Make sure she's comfortable but don't move her around too much, especially her neck and wings. I'll be back in a second!"

After a moment Zecora followed her. "I'll look through my bags to see if I've got anything that can help, it's worth a shot!"

Applejack rushed after them. "I'm gonna go get some water!"

Pinkie joined the race back toward the cottage, uncharacteristically galloping instead of her usual hopping gait. "I'll get some blankets!"

They were back in a trice, the others standing at the ready with their burdens as Fluttershy crouched down to examine the fallen ranger. At the pale yellow pegasus' direction, Twilight sparked her horn and gently levitated her off the ground on a cushion of magic, while Rarity used her magic to gingerly unbuckle Fleetfoot's blackened helmet and goggles and lift them away, followed shortly afterward by her steel barding and her jacket, carefully eased off over limp wings and sprawling limbs.

The pale blue coat of her face and the places her armor and uniform had covered contrasted sharply with the line of dark soot left by her helmet from across the bridge of her muzzle to her chin, and scratches and bruises marred her barrel and legs as well as a a greyish singeing of the hair where it was exposed. Several of her pinions were bent, it would be a while before she flew again. Otherwise, Fluttershy found no evidence of breakage or internal injuries or any other sort of serious harm as she gently probed the mare's sides and articulated her legs and wings.

Zecora crushed an anise seed pod from her bag beneath Fleetfoot's nose, bringing her rapidly back to consciousness. Her eyes fluttered open and stared into space as the faces of the ponies around her reflected in them in the dim firefly light.

Dash crouched down to meet her glazed, distant gaze as Soarin hovered on his hooves in the background. "Sergeant! Talk to me! Fleetfoot! What happened?"

A bit of focus returned to the stricken mare's grey green eyes. "R-rainbow Dash? Where am I?"

The chromatic pegasus fought back the urge to grab her comrade by her wing sockets and shake her. "You're back at Fluttershy's cottage. Tell me what happened!"

Fleetfoot's eyes became clearer, then welled with glistening tears as her face screwed up in anguish. "She... she dismissed us. Her... h-her h-h-highness just disbanded the guard."

Dash's wings flared as she whipped her head around to meet Soarin's equally disbelieving gaze. "WHAT?"

The weeping pegasus mare thrashed and rolled onto her flank, propping herself up with one foreleg as she brought the other to her eyes to wipe away the stinging tears. "We m-made it to her castle without a hitch and went in. We found her in the throne room, it was just where the old maps said it would be."

Her eyes became distant again as her voice faded to almost a whisper. "I... I saw her. Standing and staring at the moon. She... she was... I can't describe it. She was like a dream."

The icy blue pegasus began to tremble. "C-captain Spitfire stood p-proud and reported for duty while we all bowed to her highness. I couldn't help but peek up at her. The... the look on her face... Like we'd made a rain cloud out of her roof. The ground was smoking around her hooves, and her eyes were red around the edges and looked like they'd shoot lightning at you if you had the thermals to make eye contact."

Fluttershy edged forward, her ears laid back in consternation, and took the shaking mare into a hug. She'd never seen Celestia angry, and in fact was having trouble envisioning it. She wanted to say something, to comfort the stricken ranger, but she couldn't think of anything to say.

Fleetfoot hugged her back as if she were clinging to a bit of flotsam in a storm tossed sea. "She told us to go h-home. She said that if all of us went against the Nightmare we'd be like sparrows in a cyclone. Captain Spitfire begged her pardon, and said that it was our duty to serve her, and then she begged... I mean really begged, for her highness to let us protect her."

The ice blue pegasus clutched at Fluttershy tighter as her face clouded over and her voice cracked in despair. "Her highness stomped her hoof, and I wasn't sure if it was the ground or my knees shaking so much, and then she raises her voice in this shout that I can still feel ringing in my ears. She says by her command the Royal Guard is disbanded forever, and then she says 'Begone!' And then it's nothing but bright light and burning hot and then I'm tail over teakettle in a tree and it's all I can do to light up my distress flare."

Tears began to wash in streams down her cheeks and dribble out her nostrils. "A-and that's it. That's it for all of us. After a thousand years of watching and waiting, she... she just... tells us to b-buzz off." She wailed and buried her face in Fluttershy's shoulder as the gentle pegasus looked helplessly at her companions.

Dash ground her hooves in the grass as she stood with her wings flared and shaking, her eyes gleaming with an anger belied by her voice, which was cold as the wind at the edge of the stratosphere. "That's... that's not right. That's not right.That's not how it's supposed to be. How could she do that to us? Why would she do that to us?"

Applejack cleared her throat nervously and pawed at the ground. "I dunno, it kinda sounds like she doesn't want anypony gettin' hurt."

The rainbow maned ranger ground her teeth and stomped. "Too late for that! Waaay too loopty loopin' late for that!"

She jabbed a hoof toward Fleetfoot. "Look at her!"

Then she pointed at Zecora, who'd been wistfully staring toward the darkened outline of the forest against the starlit horizon. "Look at her!"

She turned again and pointed at Fluttershy, who was beginning to tear up as well. "Look at her, and tell me again how nopony's gettin' hurt!"

The pale yellow pegasus drew in a stuttering breath as Fleetfoot continued to tremble in her embrace while she gently rocked her and stroked her mane. "She... she must be trying to protect us. That must be it."

Dash reared up and stomped with both hooves. "But what about the ponies who want to protect her? Huh? What are we supposed to do, just sit here eating flippin' cake while the Nightmare just snuffs her out?"

Fluttershy's face hardened, and she gave a slow shake of her head. "No..."

She met her friends gaze, both newfound and old alike, and instead of being cowed or recoiling from the intensity in her eyes they were drawn in by them. "You're right, Rainbow. Celestia is my friend and my mentor too. Don't think for a minute she's not hurting deep inside over the things she thinks she's going to have to do tonight. And if there's anything I won't... I can't allow, is somepony hurting if I can do anything about it."

Rarity cleared her throat and took a step forward. "Well, it sounds like this Celestia person is willing to sacrifice herself on our behalf. It's the least we can do to give our all for her in return."

She gave Fluttershy a fond smile. "And even if we didn't believe in The White Mare, our generous hostess here has been so kind and patient with us, we owe it to her to back her up on this."

Pinkie gave a little hop and nodded toward the rainbow maned Sky Ranger. "I agree with all of you! Especially what Dashie said! I never thought I'd hear myself say this, but there's a time for cake, and there's a time to step up and help save Equestria from eternal night. Then time for cake can come after that, with a couple extra slices for being heroes! 'Cos heroes who save Equestria from eternal night definitely deserve an extra slice and I want in on some o' that action!"

Applejack flicked an ear as she looked into the faces of the assembled mares. "Okay, great. So what exactly are th' five of us gonna do against this Nightmare creep when she's s'posta be able to pulverize a whole friggin' unit of Sky Rangers and gives th' mare who hikes up th' sun every morning th' heebie jeebies?"

Twilight stepped forward, her eyes gleaming. "Correction. Six of us." She met Fluttershy's gaze. "Unless you still think this isn't any of my business..."

A slight smile played across the gentle pegasus' lips. "I think stopping eternal night from falling is everypony's business. It seems like for whatever reason, we're the one's who're in the right place and the right time to do something about it."

At this, Zecora spoke up, her brow furrowing with uncertainty. "But what can you do? You are all so few."

Twilight bobbed her horn toward the chicken coop. "Well, the Elements of Harmony were the weapon that the Celestia used to banish Nightmare Moon a thousand years ago. We should take them with us."

Applejack turned toward the henhouse, stroking her chin thoughtfully. "Yeh, but if the bowlin' balls are th' White Mare's ace in th' hole, why did she stick 'em under Miss Fluttershy's chickens instead of keepin' 'em up her own sleeve?"

A pensive silence fell over the group, leaving the sound of Fleetfoot softly sobbing within the little circle cast by the firefly lantern, and the chirping of crickets filling the darkness beyond.

Fluttershy finally raised her gentle voice to offer a thought. "Maybe... maybe she's afraid to use them. Celestia told me about banishing Nightmare Moon once, long ago. It broke her heart into a million pieces. It's why she gave up being a princess and went to live in the Everfree Forest. Maybe... Maybe it hurts too much for her to have to use them again, and so she left them with me so she wouldn't be tempted to."

Applejack's brow furrowed. "That's nuts! Nightmare Moon's nuthin' but bad news, why would she even bat an eye about puttin' that candy gobblin' jerk's lights out permanent-like."

Twilight chimed in, "Because Nightmare Moon used to be Princess Celestia's little sister."

This caused Rarity to bring a hoof to her mouth. "Oh dear... I... I understand. My little sister Sweetie Belle might be annoying sometimes, but I'd never, ever want to harm a single hair on her precious little head."

An uncharacteristically solemn look had settled on Pinkie's face. "Yeah. My sisters are about as dull as dishwater, but I love 'em to pieces and I could never banish 'em to the moon, even if they'd probably be totally thrilled about all the moon rocks they'd find up there."

Applejack pursed her lips. "Yeah, I'd fall t' pieces too if I had to send my little sister up th' river." Her eyes flashed as her expression hardened into a look of earnest resolution. "But I'd do what I had to do if she'd gone bad and decided to put th' big chill on everypony else. I love my family, but other ponies love their families too."

Dash met her gaze and gave a respectful nod. "Well said, Applejack. You would have made a good Royal Guard."

She turned to Fluttershy, whose expression had become pained at the thought of breaking Celestia's heart a second time, and laid a hoof on her shoulder. "Maybe we don't even have to use Artifact A on the Nightmare. She knows what they can do and what they did to her. Maybe if we just wave 'em at her she'll just turn tail and flit."

Appljack tapped her hoof impatiently and flicked her tail. "And what if she calls our bluff, huh? We gonna beat her with positive thinkin' n' rainbows?" She rolled her eyes. "Fugeddaboudit."

Dash sent a pouting glare at the blonde earth pony. "Hey. You got a better idea, freckles?"

The salespony shrugged. "Nope, but that ain't gonna stop me from pointin' out flaws in this one."

The ranger narrowed her eyes. "Y'know, there's a difference between bein' a realist, and just standin' there bellyachin'."

Applejack narrowed her own eyes right back. "Oh yeah? Well there's a difference between knowin' what yer doin', and just flappin' yer gums."

Pinkie was suddenly between them with her forelegs around their necks, smooshing their faces to her chest. "Aaand there's a difference between hot sauce and whipped cream, but they both make great dessert toppings and they both wind up the same place eventually. So lets quit with the quibbling and quarreling, climb that big mountain of ice cream, and make the best sun day we can."

Dash and Applejack stiffened, then both hung their heads and exchanged a wan gaze as they groaned at the pink earth pony's heinous pun. Detente arrived with a mutual nod of understanding as they extracted themselves from her grasp.

Fluttershy got to her hooves and helped Fleetfoot unsteadily to hers as well. She turned to the zebra mare, who stood among the small herd of ponies with a frightened bunch to her withers. "Zecora, can you stay here and take care of this pegasus, as well as look after my other little friends? I'd really appreciate it if you could."

The striped mare stepped forward and took charge of the despondent ranger with a halting nod, allowing her to lean against her with a wing draped over her back. She cast a wan gaze at the chicken coop and bird, bat, and squirrel houses standing on posts and hanging from all the nearby trees. "Animal care is not my forté, but I can look after them while you're away."

Dash reached up and ruffled Fleetfoot's mane. "Just sit tight and let the reserves tag in for ya, Sergeant."

With that she wheeled toward the chicken coop. "Okay, lets get the rocks and get rolling!"

She balked as Lieutenant Soarin stepped forward and threw up an interposing wing. "Uh... I can't let you take them without authorization, Ranger Dash."

The rainbow maned pegasus let out a snort of annoyance and reached up, tapping on his steel helmet with a hoof and producing a loud clanging that made the sky blue stallion wince. "Hel-LO! Did you leave your brain in your hoof locker so you could cram in a couple more slices of pie up there? The Guard is disbanded, any orders are null and void, and we are all currently A.W.O.L. from our official posts."

Soarin's wings drooped as his lower lip quivered for a moment, but he rallied back with a defiant look in his eye. "Well if that's the case, why are you bothering to try to help the princess when she clearly doesn't want it?"

Fluttershy stepped up at her side, her head held high. "Because a pony's got to do what a pony's got to do." She caught his full attention with a level gaze. "And you've got something else much more important to do right now."

He pawed at the ground, hunkering down a little between her intensely earnest expression and Dash's angry glare. "What might that be, citizen?"

The pale yellow mare turned and waved a hoof at the flickering amber flares hanging over the perimeter of the Everfree Forest. "Your fellow guards are in trouble. You need to go find them and help them." She gave him a solemn nod. "It's what Celestia would really want you to do."

Soarin pursed his lips. "Well, after tonight I'm not sure I give a bucket of sleet what her highness wants, but I owe it to my team to help 'em out." His expression softened as he met her eyes with a rueful smile. "Do you mind if I borrow your first aid kit? Judging from Fleetfoot here I'm probably gonna need it."

She gave him a gentle smile in return and picked the satchel up in her teeth, passing it to him with a nod. "Of course."

He slung it across his back and gave them all a salute, then took to the air, heading for the nearest distress signal splitting the velvety dark night with a streak of amber alongside the rising moon.

Twilight Sparkle stiffened as she watched him recede, and let out a small gasp as her eyes went wide. "Girls? We really should get a move on!" She pointed urgently with a fore hoof at the moon. "Look at that!"

They all looked where she was indicating, with cocked heads and flicking ears and bemused expressions.

Dash ruffled her wings with a relieved chortle. "You had me going for a minute, Twilight. I expected the Mare in the Moon to suddenly be gone."

The lavender unicorn shook her head and pointed more emphatically. "No, not the moon! Those four stars! Do you see them? 'The stars shall aid in her escape!' One of them is going to cross over the top of that flare in a second! Do you see it moving?"

The assembled ponies gave a chorus of gasps, echoing Twilight's, as they saw what she was talking about. A quartet of unusually bright stars were sliding toward the moon from between the four points of the compass at an ominous, languid pace.

A frantic expression settled on Twilight's face as the slightest twitch of growing stress pulled at her right eyelid. "The clock is ticking!"

Chapter 8

After a few moments of hurried preparation they set out, galloping beneath the stars along the winding path through the field behind Fluttershy's house toward the expectant blackness of the Everfree forest. Each carried one of the mysterious white stones in their saddlebags, along with other hastily gathered necessities for a trip into the unknown. They paused at the natural gateway formed by a pair of large, gnarled trees.

Dash turned to her fellow pegasus, her brushed steel barding gleaming in the moonlight. "All right, Fluttershy. You know these woods better than anypony alive. Lead the way."

The pale yellow mare ruffled her wings and took a cautious step forward, peering into the gaping maw of shadow before her and seeing nothing but vague, threatening outlines within. She'd never ventured into the forest at night, at least never without the softly gleaming, protective presence of Celestia at her side.

But now it was only her and five other frail, fallible little ponies, going forth in a desperate bid to come to the aid of her mentor. She pawed at the hazy line formed by the cold light of the moon and stars above shining upon the dirt of the path beneath her, working up the courage to take the first step on a very urgent and unexpected adventure.

Fluttershy became aware of a two softly glowing lights in her peripheral vision, one a purplish pink and one a pale blue, accompanied by the low thrumming sound of unicorn magic at work. She looked to see Twilight and Rarity smiling expectantly at her, their shining horns surrounding them with a cheerful light.

She felt the solid thud of earth pony hooves beside her, and turned to meet Applejack's earnest gaze. The blonde salesmare gave her a stern nod. "This is probably th' dumbest thing any of us ever did, but I got yer back. Let's do this."

A light, springy bounce of hooves on her other side made her turn to face Pinkie Pie. The frizzy maned waitress hopped in place, like a pink basketball being dribbled in anticipation of charging the hoop. "I laugh in the face of danger! But then again I laugh in the face of danishes, so take that with a grain of salt. Or don't, 'cos salt doesn't really taste good on danishes. Not even cheese ones."

Fluttershy smiled at them all, and felt that uncanny connection stronger than ever, stronger even than the feeling of safety she felt at Celestia's side. She drew herself up with a confident nod to her friends and beckoned them with a flick of her tail. "Follow me."

With that, they galloped headlong into the dark forest.

***

They came to a stop at the edge of a yawning chasm full of roiling mists. Across the way, the shattered spires and crumbling walls of an ancient castle stood, barren and stark like bones rising from the tangle of vines and scrub that choked its foundations, the shadows filling every vacant window and archway with a brooding air of menace.

The little band of mares had braved many dangers as they sallied forth on their expedition through the forest.

They had picked their careful way down treacherous cliff faces where a wrong step could potentially cause a deadly avalanche.

They had walked on tip hoofs and kept low as a huge carnivorous beast that shook the ground with its tread and caused the bushes to rustle and snap stalked past on a nocturnal hunt, the wickedly curving stinger of a giant scorpion tail arching beneath the treetops.

They had woven cautiously through the dense thickets and clattering groves of gnarled trees that seemed to leer hatefully at them with ghost lights flickering in the knotholes and crannies of their weathered trunks.

They had slowly forded a wide, chilly river, not daring to make a ripple if they could help it lest they draw the attention of a towering serpent who seemed preoccupied with grooming a flowing mustache that draped from the end of its snout.

All of these terrors, however, paled in comparison to the blank face of the moon that greeted them as they stepped out of the deep shadows cast by the trees and into its cold, unblinking light. The familiar profile of the Mare in the Moon was completely gone.

Twilight's ears levered back against her head as she stared up at it, the pale celestial orb hanging reflected in the wide irises of her eyes. "G... girls? D-d-do you see what I see? Or d-d-don't see up there?"

Dash lashed her tail as she hovered over her companions, her brow furrowed intently as she stared up at the vacant moon. "Looks like we got here just in time."

Applejack pursed her lips as she scanned the edge of the chasm. "Ya seem to be workin' from a totally different definition of "gettin' there" than I am, flathoof. How do we get across?"

Fluttershy pawed at the ground. "Celestia and I always just flew over."

Pinkies voice came from a few yards away. "Hey guys! There's a rope bridge over here!"

Rarity trotted over to join her, and the two mares craned their necks over the ledge. The alabaster unicorn gravely shook her head as her pale blue light illuminated the ancient support poles that framed the bridge's entry. "Well, half of one at any rate."

Rainbow Dash gave a nod and reached back to root through her saddlebags, bringing a forth a cardboard cylinder that she held between her fore hoofs as she tugged at a tab at its end. It flared with a bright, glaring white light that made the shadows around them flicker. Gripping it in her teeth, she turned to Fluttershy and jerked her head toward the chasm. "C'mon, lets see if we can find the other half and connect 'em up."

Working together, the two pegasus mares managed to locate the other half of the collapsed bridge and haul the two sides together, splicing the frayed ends with some high test cable from the Sky Ranger's emergency kit. With Fluttershy and Dash watchfully hovering overhead, the rest of the group made their way gingerly across the fragile, swaying span. Gathering on the far side, they trotted warily in through the ancient ruin's front gate into the overgrown courtyard beyond.

A distant sound of rumbling thunder echoed dully overhead as black tendrils of cloud snaked across the sky, spiraling toward a point over the castle.

***

Their hoof steps echoed on the cracked marble like pebbles clattering down the rocky face of a mountain, heralding a catastrophic landslide. Otherwise, all was deathly still, the very air seeming like it was holding its breath. The stars gleamed brightly overhead, illuminating the purple depths of the sky beyond the skeletal silhouettes of the castle's roof beams.

Twilight's voice was tiny, as if it she were speaking from far off even though she was all but huddling against Fluttershy as they all glanced furtively around the imposing ruins. "Where do you think she might be?"

The pale yellow pegasus replied with an undertone of uncertainty. "I don't know. Whenever I came to see her it was usually in the gardens she keeps outside the east wall. She never invited me inside the castle."

Most of them let out yells or squeals of alarm as a booming voice echoed against the crumbling walls around them. "That was because it is dangerous in here, tonight even more so than you mortals could possibly imagine! WHY did you come here?"

They wheeled, and saw her standing at the head of a grand staircase that was collapsing under the weight of the dirt and weather streaked marble of its own steps. Her pale, shaggy coat gleamed like a white hot poker in the moonlight, and her ethereal, multicolored locks flickered and danced around her head like fiery auroras. Her red rimmed, rose colored eyes flared as she descended with hoof falls they could feel all the way up their legs, the stones cracking and crumbling beneath her heavy tread.

Twilight's eyes went as wide as saucers and she pointed a shaking hoof at her, each successive breath wedging in her throat and causing a pileup as she tried to speak. "It's... hahhh.... it's haahhh... the... hmahhh...Whahhh! The Whahaaahhha hah hah. The whah mhhaahhh!" She let out a giddy, giggling wheeze before her eyes rolled back into their sockets and she toppled over like a flipped table with her legs held rigidly in the air.

Rarity let out a cry and was at her side in an instant, propping her up on frantic fore hooves as she shook her. "Good heavens! Breathe, darling! Breathe!"

She fell silent with the others, huddling back behind Fluttershy with her overwhelmed fellow unicorn hugged tightly to her chest as the towering creature came to a stop, regarding the little pegasus with a melange of anger, fear, and sadness playing across her features.

Fluttershy gave a tiny squeak as the giantess reached out a trembling hoof and lifted her chin, barely sparing the others a second glance. "Why are you doing this to me? Why did you not obey my wishes and stay away?"

The young mare smiled shyly up at her longtime mentor. "Because you taught me so much and gave me the strength and confidence to help whoever I could when the need arose. For probably the first time in a thousand years, you need somepony at your side. Maybe more than ever before."

A sob caught in Celestia's throat. "You... you are too little, and too late. You might think you are helping, but you have no idea the heartache you are causing me by coming here. I must face the Nightmare alone."

At this Twilight snapped out of her hyperventilating fit and shook out of Rarity's supporting embrace, clambering shakily to her feet. "A-alone, maybe, but not unarmed!"

She all but tore open her satchel, dumping one of the white spheres they'd carried through the dangerous wood onto the moss covered marble at the towering creature's hooves. "We brought you the Elements of Harmony! You can use them to defeat your sister again!"

Fluttershy's eyes flared as she rounded on her. "Twilight! Think about what you're saying!"

The lavender unicorn blanched to a pale shade of iris, and offered the incredulous White Mare a weak smile and a strained chuckle as she half crouched in an awkward bow. "I... I'm sorry. But... um... they can't hurt to have, right?"

Celestia took several staggering steps back, her mouth hanging open as one by one the little ponies turned out their bags and laid the softly gleaming white spheres before her. "You... you..."

Her eyes flared as the tips of her mane and tail flickered with tongues of flame. "YOU FOALS!"

Her face contorted in desperation and dismay as she glanced up at the crack of thunder that answered from the growing black clouds spiraling overhead, then looked back at the cringing little huddle of mares before her.

She fixed Fluttershy with a smoldering gaze. "The reason I hid the Elements in thy chicken coop is because I CANNOT USE THEM! My link to their power is severed since the night I wielded them to banish my treacherous sister! They are as dead to me as thy misguided ancestors who crowned me a princess lo these many ages ago!"

Fluttershy looked up at her, using all the courage she could muster to look her in the eyes. "But..."

Celestia emphatically shook her head. "No! You do not realize what you have done! I do not want to even think of what would happen if the Nightmare got the Elements of Harmony in her wicked clutches. As if Equestria were not doomed enough! I cannot allow it!"

Striking with the suddenness of lightning, she reared up with flaring wings and brought her front hooves down like a pair of sledgehammers, shattering the spheres into thousands of gleaming, multicolored shards. The six mares stared in wide eyed disbelief as the pieces rained down upon the cratered marble floor in a ringing cascade, bounced, scattered, and lay still.

The towering mare stepped over them and bent down to take her stunned protege in a brief hug. "I had hoped to spare myself this pain, of having to see the look on your sweet face as I said farewell, but alas it seems it is my lot to suffer. Goodbye, dear Fluttershy."

With that, she stepped back again and sparked her horn to life, its golden glow intensifying as spheres of sparkling light enveloped them all and lifted them off their hooves.

Twilight's voice rose in panic. "She's gonna teleport us!"

Dash shouted in desperation. "Wait, your highness! Don't do this!"

Fluttershy reached out with her hooves. "Celestia! P-please!"

The ancient, immortal recluse closed her eyes and looked away. "I am sorry. It is for the best."

A bolt of crackling energy so black it seemed like a mote of concentrated blindness slashing across everypony's vision slammed into Celestia's chest, sending her plummeting backwards with the force of its impact. She crashed into the staircase with a tremendous crunch, and lay still with splayed wings in a cloud of dust and loose white feathers.

The spheres of the teleportation spell flickered out and dropped Fluttershy and her companions back onto their hooves with a jarring clatter, and they turned as one at the sound of a mirthless, gutteral laugh, like the growl of a panther, coming from behind them.

The spiral of black clouds overhead irised open to reveal a starry void, and a dark winged silhouette descended from the hole in the night sky, thrown into sharp contrast but not illuminated by a cascade of lightning bolts that lit the underside of the vast blot of a thunderhead like blue flames.

A deep, feminine voice coalesced from the gloating laughter. "I would say I missed thee sister, but clearly my aim hasn't suffered much from a thousand years of exile."

The creature that alighted on the weathered flagstones was of the same towering height and impressive wingspan as Celestia, with an ebon horn of equal length to the reclusive giantess' pearlescent one, but otherwise she was a study in terrible opposites to the mare who had banished her a millennium ago.

She was glossy and sleek, like highly polished obsidian glass, and went girded in elegantly sharp edged armor that glittered like icicles in the strobing lightning. Rather than the gentle sadness and familiarity that Fluttershy had come to know in Celestia's gaze, the monster's turquoise eyes were slitted like a predator's, and the cold light of a sort of manic aggression danced madly in their deepest depths.

Nightmare Moon drew herself up imperiously and brought a hoof to the metallic peytral on her chest. "Behold, o unworthy subjects! Your TRUE ruler... has... returned?"

She trailed off, a note of uncertainty edging into her sonorous voice as she looked around the ruins of the castle for the first time. "But... something is amiss. Where are the stout walls and proud banners? I see nought but crumbling piles of stone and veils of ivy. Where are the clear fountains and bounteous gardens? I see nought but fetid pools choked with slime and tangles of thorns and brambles."

The dark figure advanced as the six young mares shied back in terror. "Where is my sister's court with all their pomp and pageantry? Where are the clever courtiers and learned mages? The proud knights and stallions at arms? The matriarchs, mavens, and mares-in-waiting? The trumpeters and troubadours? All I see is a small rabble of lowly peasants before me!"

Fluttershy recoiled into the midst of her small huddle of friends as the ancient enemy of day leaned in to Stare into her wavering eyes. "What has happened to my realm while I was gone?"

The Nightmare looked up sharply as Celestia's rough edged voice sounded behind the six little ponies, accompanied by the clatter of broken shards of marble as the elder sister climbed painfully to her hooves. "No longer your realm nor mine, sister."

Fluttershy caught the barest glimpse of something peeking out from behind the hatred burning in the dark giantess' turquoise eyes. "T-tia? You look terrible. What happened to you?"

In a flick of an ear it was gone again. "What have you done with your crown?"

Celestia met her long lost sibling's gaze as she made her unsteady way down the rest of the stairs. "I cast it aside after I banished you to the moon for your betrayal, sister."

Nightmare Moon's jaw dropped and her razor sharp wings drooped down at her sides. "Wh-what?"

She composed herself and gave her former co-ruler an archly deadpan look. "You're kidding... You're kidding, right?"

Equestria's erstwhile sun princess shook her head slowly. "I'm afraid not. Our former subjects have long since forgotten us, we are but legends and old pony tales to most of them now."

The tiny stars sparkling in the Nightmare's nebulous mane flared brightly as cold flames appeared in her eyes and her sharp pointed teeth clenched. "How dare you? How DARE you?"

She reared back, pointing an accusing hoof at Celestia. "You cast me into the moon for trying to take sole possession of the throne, and then once you have it you have the bottomless gall to dethrone yourself as soon as I am gone?"

The White Mare's eyes flashed with a manic gleam that flickered like a candle flame in their depths. "How dare YOU play the aggrieved one? You drove me to this! This is YOUR fault!"

Nightmare Moon brought her hoof down as thunder pealed overhead, causing the little ponies between her and her sister to flinch as they crouched in terror. "I spent a thousand years frozen in limbo, set like a mosaic into the face of my moon while your accursed sunrises trickled past like sand grains through an hourglass. All for nothing! It's not FAIR!"

Celestia's mane crackled and flared into coruscating whirls of red, orange, and yellow, her shaggy coat glowing like steel in a forge. "I spent those years living like an animal in the ruins you made of our palace, seeing to it that both sun and moon rose over a land that doesn't even remember our names. Do not whine to me of fairness!"

The swirling, sparkling nebula of the Nightmare's mane began to spiral like a funnel cloud over her indignantly raised head. Her voice deepened into a primal growl as her turquoise eyes flared with the piercing brightness of the lightning that crackled along her smokey tendrils. "I'm going to cast you into the sun, where I hope you burn in agony for eternity. Then I shall untether it from this world and send it hurtling into the outer darkness. Then, when my light is the only one that shines upon Equestria, I shall rule this realm as unchallenged Empress of the Eternal Night!"

Golden fire flared around Celestia's horn as she pursed her lips and gave an almost casual flick of her head. Huge slabs of the shattered marble staircase behind her, wreathed in the shimmering yellow glow, wrenched themselves free and flew at the shadowy creature, striking her with pile driver force before she could even let out a startled yelp. She flew across the vaulted hall, a limp silhouette among a hail of alabaster rubble, and slammed into the far wall, causing it to collapse in a heap beneath a bloom of billowing masonry dust.

The pale giantess ruffled her wings as she strode purposefully forward, a hopelessly grim expression on her face. Her gruff voice came with a coldness that belied her fiery aspect. "I'm not going to waste my breath talking about what I will do. By the powers, I see now that it is what I should have done lo these many centuries ago."

She paused, a distant look in her gleaming eyes, as Fluttershy reared up before her, her soft yellow wings spread wide as if to block her. "C-celestia, no! You... you mustn't! She's your sister!"

The towering alicorn's face softened ever so slightly. "Step aside, child. You know nothing of what transpires here."

Fluttershy didn't move, holding her head high as she gazed up at her mentor with tears starting to roll down her cheeks. "All I know is you're hurting each other, and you have to stop."

Celestia lashed her flaming tail. "As I said when first we met, filly, I do not have to do aught but what I deem be done."

Her own flickering red gaze intensified as fixed her protege with a forceful Stare. "Now... step... aside..."

The soft yellow pegasus hiked her tail and stood her ground, in spite of every instinct begging her to give way, to shrink back with a bowed head and an apology. The strident pleading of her shy, submissive heart was silenced as she felt the hoof falls at her side, and felt the presence of her friends standing around her once more.

Applejack peered out from beneath the brim of her straw boater with earnest green eyes. "Nothin' doin'! Ya don't treat family that way! All I'm seein' here is a stupid slap fight between two dizzy dames that oughta know better."

Twilight Sparkle raised her head and fixed the White Mare with a disdainful gaze. "I would have thought that two immortal demi-goddesses would be something more than a pair of bitter, squabbling old nags. I must say I'm very disappointed in you Celestia."

Rarity gave a toss of her mane and looked up at the hermit princess with a cool gleam in her eye. "You're both being terribly selfish. Forgiveness is a gift to both sides of an argument. And it certainly shows much more class than brawling like hooligans in a condemned building."

Pinkie hopped solemnly in place as she kept her limpid eyed gaze steady on the giantess' face. "Being angry is no fun at all! You should think about all the good times you had together rather than staying sad or mad about stuff that happened in the past! Or even better, have some new good times to give you more to remember!"

Rainbow Dash rose above them in a hover on her cyan wings, her smoldering glare fixed on her former ruler. "It's bad enough that you and your sister each turned on your own flesh and blood, but you're both letting down Equestria BIG TIME fighting like this. All we ponies in the guard wanted to do was look out for you! We kept the faith for a thousand years while you moped in the woods like a big baby foal! Then you just shove us aside like a spent rain cloud! Well I think that stinks on ice, and you better just check before you wreck, princess!"

Celestia quailed ever so slightly before the intense Stare of the six young mares who stood before her. She spluttered, a slightly plaintive note in her voice. "B-but... But I only did what I had to do... I..."

She looked up sharply at the sound of masonry sliding and clattering, to see the Nightmare unearthing herself from the rubble pile and lurching to her hooves, her ebon hide marred by grey dust and her gleaming armor dented and awry as she weaved on shaky legs.

With a final glance into Fluttershy's pleading face before averting her eyes from the gentle pegasus' steady gaze, she gave a small shake of her head and vanished in a spherical burst of golden light, appearing behind the brave little phalanx of mares. She flicked her tail as she advanced on her estranged sister, muttering half to herself. "Enough… I will not stand to be lectured by mayflies..."

The light eating blackness crackled around Nightmare Moon's horn as she narrowed her slitted, turquoise eyes and spat a pointed tooth on the ground before Celestia's advance. "My… My magic has waxed greatly with my wrath. You cannot hope to defeat me with my moon and stars ascendant above us!"

The White Mare scowled at her, the flames licking through her mane going brighter as she narrowed her eyes in return. "Shut up!"

With that she surged forward with a mighty beat of her wings that nearly blew Fluttershy and her friends off of their hooves with their backwash. She flew at the dark giantess and laid into her with all the force of her earlier onslaught of hurled marble slabs, striking her foe's ebon horn with a lashing hoof and dissipating the magic before it could be used to strike back.

The six mortal ponies wheeled and stared in horror as Celestia proceeded to brutally savage her sister, bludgeoning, beating, and biting with horn and hooves, wings and teeth.

Screeching in rage and shock, the Nightmare tried repeatedly to muster her dark magic, only to have it broken into tatters by a swift, resounding blow to her horn before it could fully manifest. Her sibling foe was fighting for keeps, bringing all the savagery of her rough life in the Everfree to bear.

Soon, the shadowy mare gave out and fought back on pure instinct, biting, gouging, and kicking her pale reflection as they rolled and thrashed in the dust and rubble amid flying feathers, scraps of ethereal gossamer, and splattering divine blood that smoked and hissed as it struck the stones.

Fluttershy's face contorted in anguish, and she rose above her cohorts on her soft yellow wings. She shouted at the warring immortals, louder than the thunder that cracked and split the roiling sky above. "STOP IT! STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT STOP IT! STOP HURTING EACH OTHER!"

Her five friends and allies looked around them as the scattered shards of the Elements of Harmony began to gleam with multicolored light. They felt a buoyant feeling in their chests, that flowed to the tips of their hooves, horns, pinions, and every follicle in their manes and tails and lifted them off the ground as the mysterious connection between them vibrated with a growing surge of primal power.

Fluttershy's eyes glowed like beacons as that power expanded inside her, using her to give a voice to its clarion call. "You... have to... LOVE ONE ANOTHER!"

The shattered Elements of Harmony exploded into a blinding cloud of glowing, rainbow hued butterflies that filled their vision, fluttering their coruscating wings as they swarmed and whirled like a glittering cyclone. It spun and shimmered, enveloping the grunting, struggling, bruised and beaten alicorns before they even knew what had befallen them.

The winged colors swirled and coalesced into a purifying burst of all encompassing white light.

Chapter 9

Fluttershy awoke to the sight of glowing pink butterflies, or at least something shaped like them, hovering over her in a scintillating cloud. She realized she was laying on her back with her wings splayed open on the ground, staring up through the skeletal roof supports of the grand hall at a twilight sky somewhere between night and day. The ephemeral shapes eddied and drifted on a warm breeze as she heard low groans and stirring around her.

She lurched up to a seated position and blinked groggily as she took in her surroundings, and saw her five friends laying beneath their own clouds of butterflies, each a different color. Dash's were bold red, Applejack's were warm orange, Pinkie's were bright blue, Rarity's were rich purple, and Twilight's were a vibrant magenta.

Fluttershy climbed to her hooves and called to them. "Um... is everypony okay?" Her little halo of gleaming pink motes dispersed to a wider radius around her.

Twilight's shaky voice sounded in reply. "What happened?"

Applejack let out a soft grunt as she rolled over and retrieved her hat, flipping it back onto her head. "Anypony get th' number o' th' wagon what hit us?"

Pinkie was back on her hooves as if she were spring loaded. "Oooh! It must have been haulin' a load of butterflies when it jackknifed! Pretty!"

Rarity dusted herself off and looked around with an appreciative nod of her head. "Indeed. It's quite beautiful, isn't it?"

As the ponies gazed in silent awe, their respective clouds of fluttering, glimmering shapes spread out and mingled in the vaulted space over them, filling the air with a serene kaleidoscope of color and light.

Dash's sandy voice broke through their reverie. "Yeah yeah, that's neat and all, but what happened to the princess, or Nightmare Moon for that matter?"

Twilight spoke up again, pointing a hoof toward a polished spot on the floor where two slender figures lay beneath a canopy of ethereal butterflies. "Look over there!"

The six young mares approached them slowly, their expressions showing a range of confusion and curiosity as they gathered in a small circle around them and stared. Fresh amber yellow and pale blue-white flowers were inexplicably sprouting from the pitted flagstones wherever blood from the battling immortals had fallen. The two creatures lay embracing one another, their wings draped loosely across the floor and their horns meeting over a patch of fragrant, gleaming blooms.

They were long legged and graceful in proportion, but not much bigger than normal ponies compared to the giantesses who'd shaken the old castle with their bloody battle. One was a soft indigo with a sky blue mane and tail and had a crescent moon on a field of black dapples for a cutie mark, the other snowy white with pink tresses, and bore a golden sun on her flanks. The dark one wore a small black tiara, silver shoes, and a black collar with her lunar cutie mark as a crest in silver, while the other was unadorned. Both their coats were smooth and unblemished, their manes glossy and soft as silk threads, flowing and pooling on the weathered flagstones around them.

Fluttershy recognized the cutie mark on the pale one at once, but couldn't quite believe it. Here was her vast and ancient mentor, looking so small and graceful like a sleeping fawn, and seeming barely older than she herself was. She reached out a tentative, shaking hoof and gently nudged the supine pony. "C-celestia?"

The delicate creature stirred with a soft groan, and brought her head up unsteadily, blinking with heavy lidded eyes. "Fluttershy? Was... was I dreaming...?"

She trailed off as the other mare snuggled in tighter, sighing dreamily. "mmm... Prithee, sister, just a few minutes more..."

Celestia's eyes grew wide and white as her rose colored irises shrank around pinprick pupils. With her gaze locked on the other mare's face, she stretched out a shaking hoof and patted her on the tip of her dusky muzzle, then patted her again, and then again, each time as if she could scarce believe what her senses were telling her just a moment before.

The indigo alicorn scrunched up her face and squirmed. "ugh. Stoppit. Don't make me smite thee..."

Her turquoise blue eyes snapped open with a full body flinch as her sister let out a bellowing scream that shot skyward like an auditory firework and burst into an explosion of exultant laughter. Before she could get her bearings she found herself yanked up and crushed to Celestia's breast, face slack and limbs flailing as inarticulate cries of profound joy continued to pour out of the snowy winged mare's throat like water from a burst dam.

As the six young mares watched in rapt silence, a look of stunned realization washed across the darker mare's face, and she stared at her own hooves for a moment before pushing her pale counterpart back to foreleg's length to stare slack jawed in amazement at her moistened, quivering features. "T... Tia?"

Celestia swallowed hard and choked back a sniffle, her eyes and nostrils gushing freely as a beatific smile lit up her features. "Oh Luna. Please... P-please tell me that this isn't a dream. You of all ponies would know."

Luna's face contorted as elation and anguish fought for dominance beneath misting eyes. "No... no d-dream. None at all. This is r-real. The nightmare is over. It's really o-over."

They fell into one another's tight embrace once again and buried their faces in each other's shoulders as she gave a sobbing cry. "I missed you SO much, big sister!"

Celestia's voice sounded like a sigh of sweet release from all trouble and toil. "And I missed you, little sister."

They held tightly to each other for some time, before they finally parted and took a look around them. Luna took note of the cloud of multicolored butterflies above and spoke in tone of solemn curiosity. "But how has this come to pass? I sense the Elements of Harmony at work, but thou and I were quite unfit to wield them in our madness."

Celestia turned and cast a tearful smile at Fluttershy and her friends. "It was you, wasn't it?"

She stood, and after helping her sister to her hooves, walked slowly over to where her young protege and sole friend in her millennium of solitude stood. They looked deep into each other's eyes,a much easier proposition now that Celestia was only a couple of hooves taller than Fluttershy.

She beamed with gratitude and love as she took the pale yellow pegasus into a heartfelt hug. "I'm so sorry for all the things I did and said tonight. I had quite succumbed to despair. In a thousand years, I never imagined that my beloved sister and I could be made whole again. I never imagined that the shy little filly I chanced to befriend in spite of myself would remake my world with her Kindness."

After a few minutes they disengaged, and Celestia turned to the others. She took an awestruck Applejack by the hoof and smiled. "You are Honesty, and you spoke the truth about my sister and I. After thousands of years, one would think we'd have known better."

With that, she pulled the blonde salesmare into a hug, that the bemused Manehattanite returned with a gentle smile. "Fugeddaboudit, toots. Just try talkin' out yer problems with yer sister mare ta mare insteada tryin' ta pulverize each other next time."

Celestia gave a soft chuckle and a nod, then turned to Rarity. "You are Generosity. Know that you've given Luna and I a gift beyond all reckoning."

The alabaster unicorn blushed and gave a small curtsey. "I have a little sister as well, your highness. I know full well what a treasure that can be. You're quite welcome."

The pale alicorn gave her a courtly bow in return and then stepped forward and kissed her on both cheeks.

She then directed her attention to Pinkie Pie, who hopped higher and higher as she approached. "Ah, sweet Laughter. You've made us both happier than you could ever imagine."

The bouyant pink earth pony almost knocked the giggling alicorn back on her hooves in a big, bouncy, jostling hug. "Well, I can imagine quite a bit, sugarcube, and I hope you enjoy all of it with whipped cream and a cherry on top! Seeing you both so happy makes me even happier!"

Celestia got loose with a little bit of difficulty and turned to Rainbow Dash, who eyed her warily as she faced her erstwhile princess. "And here is Loyalty, one of the elements that I must strive hardest to make amends with."

Dash took a startled step back as the white winged alicorn took a knee and bowed to her. "I owe you and your comrades in my ever faithful guard my deepest apologies. I am unworthy of the honor you have given me, and can only beg your forgiveness."

The rainbow maned ranger pawed at the ground. "Um... I... Does this mean the Royal Guard is um... un-disbanded? 'Cos if it is I don't think you're supposed to be the one bowing here..."

Celestia kept her head low. "I don't know. I'm in the same unfamiliar territory as you are, and I haven't been a princess for a thousand years. Perhaps we should just work things out pony to pony before we let titles complicate things."

Dash pursed her lips with a brow furrowed in thought. "Well... I think I can see my way clear to givin' you another shot, but you have to promise to personally apologize to all my buddies in the Guard. You broke a lotta hearts tonight when you sent us scattering to the winds."

She held out a hoof, which Celestia eagerly took and held. "Thank you."

She lunged forward and took the startled ranger into a hug. "I promise, on what undeserved grace I have remaining, to try my best to make it right with your comrades."

Dash squirmed out of her embrace with a blush on her cheeks, and snapped off a salute to her long awaited sovereign as the others shared a wry smile.

The white mare turned to face Twilight Sparkle, who seemed like she was ready to start hyperventilating again as the legendary creature approached her and extended a hoof. "And finally, the Element of Magic makes it all complete. Here is meaning. Here is belief. Here is significance. Here is knowledge that there is more to life than mere existence, that the connections between ourselves and the world around us are what make things truly special."

Twilight numbly took her hoof as Celestia bowed her head and touched horn tip to horn tip. "I owe you an apology as well, for being such a disappointment. I hope you can look to what you and your friends have done for Luna and I tonight as proof positive that miracles can happen."

The lavender unicorn began to bounce on her hooves. "Oh yes!" She started pronking gleefully around the bemused alicorn, tossing her head with abandon. "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!"

While Celestia was making the rounds giving her thanks to the other ponies, Fluttershy had noticed that the pale immortal's newly restored sister was hanging back from the group and watching with a subtle hint of forlorn sadness tinging her features. She knew that expression quite well for as often as she'd worn it growing up.

She sidled up to the dusky princess and tentatively extended a hoof. "Um... Princess Luna, right?" She gave her a gentle smile. "I'm Fluttershy. It's a pleasure to finally meet you. Welcome home."

Luna just as tentatively received the pale yellow pegasus' hoof with a courtly bob of her head. "Well met, Lady Fluttershy."

Her expression took on a wistful air as she looked over at her sister mingling freely among the others. "'Tis surpassing marvelous, is it not? To be back here in my accustomed place once more after so long in exile."

Luna looked down with a bemused expression as she noticed that Fluttershy hadn't let go of her hoof yet. The soft spoken mare gave her a searching look. "It seems like you're still a little sad about something."

After a moment's uncertain pause, the indigo alicorn gave the slightest bob of her horn toward her older sibling as Celestia got swept up into Pinkie's embrace. "It was always so easy for her. A thousand years in the wilderness and yet there she is, going forth among our little ponies and making friends. I have never been quite able to learn the knack of it."

Fluttershy gave the returned princess' hoof a squeeze. "I was never really good at meeting ponies and making friends either. I think you and I might have a lot in common. I learned how to do it, and the more friends I had the better I got at it."

She met Luna's eyes with an earnest expression. "I'd be more than happy to be your friend. And I bet all the others would too." She punctuated her offer with a smile accompanied by a cheerful squeaky noise.

The dusky alicorn's turquoise eyes welled with fresh tears even as they lit up with a shy smile of her own that gleamed against the indigo of her muzzle. "Oh... I... I would like that very much, dearest Fluttershy. Do... do you think it truly possible?"

They looked over as Twilight Sparkle's gleeful exultations sounded out in the still air. "Yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes!"

Fluttershy and Luna shared a sidelong grin and a giggle into their hooves as Celestia beamed over at them.

All of the ponies, both mortal and immortal, stopped and fell silent and watchful as the shimmering cloud of lazily drifting butterfly forms began to move with a purpose, sweeping into a scintillating trail of fluttering light and color and circling their little group once, twice, and then a third time before rising high into the air and streaming out of the castle.

Twilight Sparkle looked over to the restored sisters, her face rapt with curiosity. "What... what's happening?"

Celestia shared a glance with Luna, then nodded toward the archway outside with a flick of her horn. "Follow them. Quickly!"

They hurried out of the ruins at a gallop, drawing up short at the edge of the ravine outside. There, the little band of ponies watched as the glimmering winged shapes wound down through the mists, which parted before them to reveal a grotto in the depths that lit with a crystalline light as the butterflies went inside. The clear shafts of luminescence took on the colors of the rainbow, flaring and coruscating before fading gently to stillness as the last of the ethereal stragglers vanished into the cave and were gone.

Princess Luna spoke up in a solemn tone to the young mares around her and her sister. "Behold! The Elements have returned to the Tree of Harmony from whence they came. This is a thing that few ponies in the entire history of our kind have even been worthy of seeing."

Twilight crouched down at the lip of the crevasse, craning her neck as far as she dared as she whispered in amazement. "Incredible! My research never said anything about the Elements' origins."

Rainbow Dash's brow furrowed as she lashed her tail. "Does that mean they're gone forever?"

Celestia brushed at the young pegasus' multicolored mane with a wing tip and gave her a smile. "Not at all, for all of you embody the Elements more than any gemstone ever could. Should Equestria ever have need of them again, they won't be hard to retrieve."

Rarity lashed her tail gently as she gazed into the ravine. "It's still a pity. With a little work they would have made excellent settings for necklaces, or maybe even a tiara of some sort."

The white mare chuckled and shook her head. "I gave up tiaras long ago, my generous friend."

Luna drew herself up, a look of sudden decisiveness on her delicately chiseled face, "And thus I shall as well! I have as little use for mine as my sister does for hers if we are no longer rulers of this realm."

With that, she levitated her crown off in a cloud of shimmering blue magic and cast it into the ravine, followed closely by her ebon torc and silver horseshoes. She ruffled her wings with a satisfied sigh and pranced in place with a broad grin on her face. "Forsooth, it rather feels as though I have lifted Mount Canter from my back than merely parted with a few vain adornments."

Celestia brought a hoof to her face to stifle a laugh, then laid her wing across her younger sibling's withers. "We may not rule Equestria any longer, but we still have our duties, Luna."

She bobbed her horn toward the sky, where the moon hung at its zenith while an orange glow on the eastern horizon showed the sun was patiently awaiting its turn. "I don't think I quite have the strength to do it alone. Do you think you can help me, sister?"

The dusky former princess smiled over at her. "There is little I would savor more, sister."

With a nod they took wing, rising above the six mares who'd freed them of their torment in a slow, lazy double helix, their horns gleaming brightly with gold and pale blue magic. As they hovered in the warm summer breeze that rose over the treetops of the Everfree, the purified moon sank gently over the western horizon as dawn broke in a celebratory blaze of pink, yellow, and teal.

Fluttershy noticed Twilight weaving a bit on her hooves and hastened over to support her with a bracing wing. Her brow furrowed as she looked the lavender mare over. "Are you okay?"

The grinning unicorn exhaled with a chuckle. "I'm fine. Just a little overloaded with wonders right now. I'm ready to pass out but I don't want to miss a single moment." She leaned over and nuzzled Flutterhsy's neck. "And I have you to thank for all of this. If I'd have known the Everfree Forest had this up its sleeve, I'd have come here sooner, and never leave."

The soft yellow pegasus smiled back. "I know exactly how you feel. Right now, I pretty much love everything."

They turned to face the alicorn sisters as they touched softly down among their rescuers again. A golden glow surrounded them all as the first rays of morning sunlight streamed over the trees and through the jagged shapes of the old castle.

After they'd enjoyed the warm breeze rising from the ravine and basked in the sweet sound of birds calling from the forest for a few minutes, Applejack pawed at the ground, tilted back her hat, and looked around. "So now what?"

Pinkie Pie had been grinning non-stop, as if she were savoring her smile so much she was reluctant to release it too soon. She finally let it go and bounded into the air with a bubbly cheer. "There's a whole extra large chocolate vanilla chocolate layer cake with strawberry buttercream icing just waiting back at Fluttershy's place!"

Celestia drew herself up, her eyes lighting up as it seemed like Pinkie's smile had migrated to her face. "Oh wonderful! Just when I thought things couldn't get any better!"

She turned to her sister and nudged her with a wing as a quizzical expression flitted across the younger alicorn's face. "I think you're going to find a lot to like about living in this day and age, Luna."

She sparked her horn to life, and without further ado they vanished in a succession of golden white bursts.

In the grotto below, a bloom of scintillating colors flared as the mists faded away in the bright morning light of a new day for the magical land of Equestria.

Epilogue

Applejack stood on the platform of Manehattan's train station, peering from under the brim of her slope cap as she watched the sweeping suspension bridge for the telltale trail of billowing white smoke that would foretell the arrival of the express train from Canterville. She reached up and raised the collar of her canvas jacket as a cool autumn wind blew by, scattering gold and brown leaves among the hooves of the bustling crowds of ponies who went about their business around her.

Her ears perked up at the sound of a silvery voice calling out to her from the stairs that led down to the taxi stand. "Yoo hoo! Applejack! Darling!"

The blonde earth pony turned with a smile as she saw an alabaster hued unicorn mare clad in a stylish, dove grey trench coat and cloche hat ensemble weave her way deftly through the milling herd with a large pastry bag trailing in her wake wreathed in shimmering blue white magic.

She waved a hoof in greeting to her friend as she stepped forward to meet in a brief hug. "Ey! Rarity! Howyadooin' ?"

The elegant jeweler gave an urbane roll of her eyes as they separated. "Busy as a whole bushel of bees, darling. Ever since the story hit the news I have been positively withers deep in orders for tiaras from all the fashionable mares and fillies in town."

Applejack shook her head with a huff. "Now that I just don't get. Why the heck would all those uptown society types be so crown crazy? Especially since our gals have made it more n' clear that they're cashin' out of the princess biz for good."

Rarity let out a knowing chuckle. "You don't get it because you're not superficial enough, my dear. Most of them stopped reading at the headlines."

She swept a hoof through the air with a flourish as she spoke. "'Legendary Magical Princesses Discovered !' is all it takes to grab their imaginations and send them galloping off with visions of the opulence and pageantry of the ancients dancing in their heads a like a carousel. What their former hignesses have to say about the whole thing doesn't matter in the least."

A wry grin settled on her pale features as she shrugged. "I'm sure the fad will pass soon enough, but it doesn't hurt for me to make hay while the sun shines, as they say."

Rarity cast a glance over her shoulder and brought the bag around between them, releasing a plume of steam as she opened it and levitated a large cinnamon raisin bagel toward Applejack. "And while we're on the subject of food, here! I brought along a little snack from Schmear's in case anypony were feeling peckish after their trip."

She produced a sesame seed bagel for herself and bit daintily into it as the blonde mare accepted her offering with a grateful grin. "Thanks, doll. Ya didn't hafta."

The pale unicorn dabbed at her muzzle with a napkin and gave a small toss of her mane. "Pish posh, darling. It's nothing. Now eat it while it's hot, it'll keep the chill away while we wait."

Applejack took a big bite, savoring the plump sweetness of the raisins and the piping hot freshness of the bread, and gave her companion an even wider smile. "Mmm. Love 'em when they're fresh. Ya gotta let me take yez t' Marinara's for a slice someday."

Her ears perked up as an idea hit her. "In fact, howsabout we all swing by there for lunch after we wrap things up today. It'll be my treat."

At this Rarity cocked an eyebrow. "I'd be more than delighted, of course, but are you completely sure you want to do that, darling? You do recall both Pinkie Pie and Celestia will be there. We may have to order in pizza from another pizzeria once the two of them get on a roll."

Applejack let out a chuckle and rolled her eyes. "No problemo. I got th' moolah ta cover it."

She drew herself up proudly and gave her companion a sidelong grin. "All those samples Zecora sent back with me from th' Everfree totally knocked their galoshes off at Apple-Smith (incorporated). They landed yez truly a big, fat bonus and a promotion t' boot. Yer lookin' at the brand new chief acquisitions agent for all of Central Equestria."

Rarity let out a little squeal of joy and threw a foreleg across the beaming earth pony's withers in a brief congratulatory hug. "Oh darling, I'm so happy for you! Your family must be so proud!"

Applejack took another bite of her bagel and nodded with a wry expression on her face. "Yeh. My mam n' pap were thrilled, and my big bro was talkin' my ear off about it for days. My little sister and her cousin wanna tag along next time I head out there so they can get their cutie marks for seed findin'."

The pale unicorn gave a knowing nod accompanied by an eye roll of her own and a slightly pained expression on her face. "My own sister's of that age as well. She's so intent on her flank I'm surprised she doesn't bump into things any more often than she does already."

She let out a sigh. "She's got this little pegasus friend from school who hasn't quite mastered flying yet, but instead of focusing on that she keeps egging Sweetie on to try all sorts of random things in the hopes of spontaneously discovering their marks."

A thoughtful look settled on Applejack's face as she finished her snack. "Y'know, we oughta innerduce my sis n' cousin to yer sis and her friend. Apple Bloom can be a pain in th' flank sometimes but she's otherwise a pretty level headed kid. I bet they'd all get along pretty good."

Rarity finished her bagel as well and used a napkin to brush away the crumbs and stray sesame seeds with a flourish of magic. "Oh that would be ever so charming, all of the little dears crusading for their cutie marks together. I simply can't think of a single drawback to that idea. I'm sure they'd all be fast friends."

A plume of smoke in the distance caught her attention, trailing across the bridge over the grime and weather streaked engine of the Canterville Express. She bobbed her horn towards it. "Speaking of sisters, and friends, it looks like the train is coming."

Applejack squinted upward at a distant V shaped formation of winged shapes high overhead that kept pace with the approaching locomotive. She gave a nod with a wry smirk crossing her freckled face. "Yeh. I think that's our gals all right."

A few minutes later the train pulled in, sending clouds of steam whirling across the platform. The clang of the bell and the hiss of the brakes echoed over the murmur of the crowd as the PA system crackled to life. "Now arriving on track 4, the Canterville Express. Please stay clear of the doors to allow passengers to disembark."

The doors rolled open and a stentorian female voice drowned out the announcement and caused a startled hush to fall over the ponies on the platform. "BEHOLD, CITIZENS OF MANE HAT! THY RIGHTFUL RULERS HAVE RETURNED! COMMENCE GROVELING AT THINE EARLIEST CONVENIENCE!"

All eyes turned to see Luna standing rampant on the steps of the train, wings flared and hoof held high overhead. She was dressed rather like a movie starlet from Applewood who wasn't really making much effort to travel incognito, in a dark plum colored jacket with a black turtleneck, accented with a string of large pearls around her neck and a moon flower corsage pinned to her lapel. She topped it all off with a matching broad brimmed hat and a pair of elaborate, sequin lined sunglasses. As the surrounding ponies looked on in amazement, she began to blow kisses with her fore hooves.

Celestia loomed behind her with a slightly miffed expression on her face, dressed somewhat similarly but in pastel gold and white, leaving off the extravagant sunglasses and adorning herself with only a modest gold chain necklace and a large, bright yellow carnation on the lapel of her blazer.

She tsked and prodded her sister in the rump with a hoof. "Oh knock it over, Luna. Thy jest is becoming hoary with age."

The dusky alicorn blinked and cast a quizzical look over her shoulder. "I thought the phrase was 'knock it off'."

Her pale sibling rolled her rose colored eyes. "I'd be glad to do either to you if you don't get out of the way so the rest of us might disembark."

Luna gave a dismissive toss of her sky blue ponytail as she flounced down onto the platform with a spring in her step. "Oh fie upon thee, thou pooper of parties. Welladay, our journey is over, so I shall indeed step off. Cease thy shoving, sister."

Her gleaming smile appeared as she gazed over the rims of her dark glasses. "But soft, here do our most excellent friends Applejack and Rarity approach to bid us welcome!"

The two sisters exchanged brief hugs with the Manehattanite mares as one by one the rest of the Exemplars of Harmony, as Celestia had taken to calling them collectively, stepped down onto the platform.

Twilight skipped down first, clad in a dark windbreaker under her utilitarian panniers, her ever-present notepad and a box camera hovering in close proximity to document everything. Her face positively glowed with the same avid grin she'd been wearing for weeks, ever since she'd had the immense satisfaction of personally introducing The White Mare and Nightmare Moon to her friends and colleagues back home.

Pinkie Pie came bouncing after her, wearing an "I MH" teeshirt and a Hooflyn Dodgers ball cap along with saddlebags that already bulged with souvenirs from their recent stay in Canterville,

Fluttershy stopped in the doorway and instinctively cringed back at the sight of the milling, staring crowds. She wore a simple, hoof knitted shawl over her modest saddle bags, with a drooping sun hat adding to her long pink forelock as a bulwark against eye contact. Doubt welled inside her as she fought back the feeling that she looked hopelessly rustic to the big city ponies who crowded the train platform. It had been a long time since that many ponies' eyes were on her.

There was one pony's gaze, however, that did nothing but fill her with confidence. She met Celestia's backward glance and drew herself up with a resolute nod, stepping down with a hiked tail and head held high. She came up beside her mentor and exchanged hellos with Rarity and Applejack as the pale alicorn laid a snowy wing across her withers.

Rainbow Dash brought up the rear clad in her pale grey Sky Rangers dress uniform, her vigilant gaze scanning the their surroundings for any signs of trouble. She noted her comrades circling among the high, scattered clouds overhead and gave a guarded nod.

They all fell into step around the two alicorn sisters as they set out at a trot toward the baggage claim area where burly earth pony porters were unloading luggage from the rear cars of the train.

Applejack took the lead, gently but firmly shouldering aside any ponies who lingered too long in their way as the astounded Manehattanites watched the little procession make its way toward their bags. "'scuse me. Comin' thru. Move it or lose it, buddy. One side. Ey, we're walkin' here! Spread out, ya crumbums."

Her freckled cheeks bunched in an amiable grin as she called back to them. "So, how was tha trip?"

Luna gave a little hop on her hooves as they walked, flapping her dusky wings enthusiastically enough to widen their passage through the jostling crowd a bit. "'Twas surpassing marvelous! Like flying and sitting at leisure all at once. They had a cart selling a wonderful sort of baked good known as a do-nut."

Celestia gave a regal nod. "Yea verily, those were quite delectable indeed."

Rarity gave a slight huff of disappointment. "Ah... well I suppose we can save the bagels I brought for later."

The former sun princess perked up as the magical aura around the floating pastry bag shifted from light blue to gold. "Oh! I'd be glad to try a few. What is a 'bay gull'?"

She let out a cry of amazement as several of the baked goods floated up out of the sack. "Forsooth! They are not birds at all, but do-nuts made of bread instead of cake! Truly the wonders of this age are without cease."

Pinkie executed a bold leap and caught one out of the air before it could be drawn into orbit around Celestia, chomping it down in a couple bites. "Mmm. These are good, but you should try 'em with cream cheese. They'll blow your mind!"

Celestia looked with alarm at the bagels floating around her before Twilight murmured to her out of the side of her mouth. "Figure of speech..."

The former diarch relaxed with a nod of understanding and proceeded to take a bite, chewing contentedly with a broad grin on her delicately chiseled face.

Applejack chuckled and shook her head as they finally reached the porters and took possession of their luggage. "Don't stuff yez selves too much, gals. We're gonna take yez out for pizza at th' best joint in town after we get done takin' care o' business."

Rarity chimed in with a vivacious smile. "We've got all sorts of wonderful places to visit and things to do while you're here."

Luna's eyes lit up enthusiastically. "Excellent! I am particularly excited to partake of this 'Night Life' that Lady Pie has been expounding upon to me of late."

Pinkie grinned as she calculated an attack vector on another of Celestia's bagels. "It's gonna knock your everlovin' socks off, Lulu."

The former princess of the moon glanced uncertainly at her hooves before Twilight leaned over with another helpful interjection. "Figure of speech..."

Luna nodded sagely as she set her hoof back down on the tiles. Her eyes glistened a bit as she spoke. "It pleases me greatly that ponies now gather and revel through the night 'neath my stars and moon."

Celestia polished off a second bagel and laid her wing across her sister's withers while pulling a gently smiling Fluttershy closer with the other. "There is so much that has changed since we have been away. I think it will take another thousand years for us to take it all in."

Applejack chuckled and beckoned them on. "Well, now's as good a time as any to get started. Lets go catch a cab!"

Rarity fell into step beside her. "I've got two already waiting, darling." She smiled vivaciously over her shoulder at the others. "Come along, my dears. The meters are running!"

The procession of ponies stopped short at the sight of a trio of steel armored pegasi waiting for them by the black and yellow checked wagons. Captain Spitfire stood at the fore, flanked by Lieutenant Soarin and Sergeant Fleetfoot. They snapped to attention as all the cab pullers stared in wonderment at the alicorn sisters.

Rainbow Dash dropped down from her watchful hover over her friends and marched over to meet her Ranger comrades with a terse salute. "Captain. Lieutenant. Sergeant." She leaned forward and spoke to them in a low voice. "I thought we all agreed we were gonna be discreet about this until we hashed everything out with the top brass and the Secretary of Weather."

Spitfire gave her a stern glare with a barely hidden glint of envy, and then turned her attention to the alicorn sisters as they approached. "Your highnesses, we're here to ask you one more time to reconsider."

The sisters gave one another a sidelong glance. Celestia shook her head sadly. "And once again my sister and I beg your forgiveness, O faithful ones, but we must refuse. The thrones have grown much too cold for us to sit upon after all these years."

Fleetfoot spoke up, a tear tracing a line down her cheek. "But... but the guard would support you all the way!"

Luna's shook her head sadly. "In a coup? Believe me when I say this, child. It would not end well." A haunted look came to her eyes. "Not at all."

Celestia nodded in agreement. "We've made our decision. If you would honor us, then remain steadfast in your duty to Equestria and its ponies."

Captain Spitfire's face was impassive as she gave a rigid bow. "As you command, your highnesses."

The pale alicorn gave a sigh and a bob of her horn. Spitfire and Soarin took to the air, ascending rapidly and wheeling in a long arc over the skyscrapers of Manehattan.

Sergeant Fleetfoot lingered a moment before averting her pleading gaze with drooping ears. "I... I'm sorry I spoke out of turn, your highnesses."

She unfurled her wings to take off, but was stopped as Celestia reached out her own pale wing and with a delicate touch brushed the tear away from her cheek. Before the startled Sky Ranger knew what was happening her former princess stepped forward and took her into a hug.

She spoke in a gentle voice to the despondent pegasus mare. "If my sister and I, who have lived for thousands of years, can let go of the past, then you should be able to as well my little pony. Live for today. Live for the wonderful future that is being built all around us. That is my charge for you, dear one."

Fleetfoot stepped back and looked reverently up at her with glistening eyes, self consciously sniffling into the sleeve of her jacket before bowing deeply. "I'll do my best, your highness."

With that, she took off, hurrying to catch up to her comrades.

Applejack spoke up, tapping her hoof on the street and shaking her head with a chagrinned look on her freckled face. "Ya know they ain't gonna ever gonna stop askin' yez."

Celestia gave her a wistful smile in return. "Some journeys just take more steps than others."

Luna brushed a dark feathered wing down her sister's rosy pink mane, then nodded in agreement. "Indeed. Let us go and take our first step on the new road we find ourselves upon, sister."

***

The taxis carrying the former princesses and their companions pulled up to the curb and let them off. After settling up with the cab pullers and signing a couple of autographs, they took a moment to gaze up at the towering, verdigris colored statue of a robed and crowned mare rearing up to lift her torch bearing the ancient flame of harmony over Manehattan harbor. They drew in close to allow Twilight to snap a picture by the massive sculpture's tail and hooves, levitating her camera a proper distance away in her magic as she joined in with the group, before heading into the historic office building adjoining the equine colossus' base.

Soon they found themselves milling in the threadbare lobby of a drab government office as a beige earth pony clerk with a pink mane stared at them with wide eyes and a slack jaw from behind the reception desk.

After a long, awkward interval, Fluttershy cleared her throat, glanced at her companions and reached up a hoof to ring the brass bell next to the logbook.

*ding*

The silvery chime seemed to snap the clerk out of her shocked reverie and she shook herself into focus, pushing her glasses up with the back of a hoof before giving them all a tentative smile. "Um... W-welcome to the Equestrian Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization. How... how might I be of assistance today?"

Celestia drew herself up proudly and laid her wing across Luna's withers as they stepped forward. "My sister and I would like to apply for Equestrian citizenship!"

THE END