For the second night in a row, Twilight awoke to the sound a frightened filly whining. This time, she awoke ready for action, to fly away at a moment’s notice to escape any potential projectile vomiting. She also remembered that Corbie was afraid of the dark, so Twilight cast a light spell even as she opened her eyes.
“I had a bad dream,” Corbie said while she stood beside Twilight’s bed. “Can I sleep with you?”
This wasn’t quite what Twilight expected, and she lay on her side, staring at the filly who had her chin resting on the edge of the bed. She blinked, her vision fuzzy, and Corbie did not quite come into view, but the floating orb of light over head did reflect off of the spoon hanging around the filly’s neck. After processing the simple request, Twilight responded by lifting up her covers and grunting.
The little pegasus wasted no time, and after rising up, she placed both front hooves on the edge of the bed. Beneath her wing was something white and Twilight couldn’t quite make out what it was. It took a few tries, but Corbie boosted herself into the bed, wiggling and squirming, and then she burrowed beneath the covers.
“Who’s your friend?” Twilight mumbled in her half-awake state.
“Miss Windigo,” Corbie replied from beneath the blankets. After a bit more wiggling, her head popped out and she rested it upon Twilight’s pillow. “Mama Luna keeps her filled with something called ‘soothing herbs’ for me to help me sleep.”
Upon hearing this, Twilight sniffed, and she caught a whiff of something medicinal, but she was too sleepy to figure out what it might be. It was a pleasant smell though, soothing, a cool scent almost like mint. This wasn’t so bad, sharing her bed with a teeny, tiny pegasus foal. Corbie was soft, rather plush, and quite warm, which increased Twilight’s drowsiness. It wouldn’t take long to go back to sleep. Plus, there was that smell. It was sweet, serene, almost like a cup of chamomile tea, but better, stronger.
“This would be nicer if Seville was here—”
“Go to sleep, Corbie.”
“Just saying—”
“Sleep now, Corbie. Sleep.”
“Fine,” the filly huffed. “Good night.”
The mid-morning held a quiet lull that Twilight needed. She wanted to get out again, to do things, to get the Royal Brood outside and having fun once more. Not far away, Seville was working, his brow furrowed, and Twilight found him rather distracting. Rarity was getting ready to leave, because she had to go after receiving an urgent telegram saying that she was needed in Manehattan. Applejack too, was leaving, heading back to Sweet Apple Acres. There was work to be done and she missed her own fillies after having a much-needed break from them. Fluttershy had to go home as well, as she had animals to look after, and Rainbow Dash was already gone. Why? She hadn’t said, but she had just departed with an abrupt suddenness.
It was over. Just like after their glorious trip to Appleloosa for the Friendship Festival, everypony had to go their separate ways. Even Pinkie Pie had to go—but only for a bit—as she had to check in at Sugarcube Corner. Pinkie Pie had promised to return as soon as circumstances permitted.
At least Sumac and Pebble had returned, as promised. Sumac sat at the table with Seville, working on his schoolwork, while Pebble was playing a boardgame with Corbie and Radiance. Nuance was with Spike, and Spike was reading some Daring Do novel, much to Nuance’s obvious delight. Boomer was being well behaved, and was working on her own schoolwork.
The relative calm was shattered when Sumac tossed down his pencil, and it clattered to the table. Seville looked up for a moment, annoyed, and Sumac shot an apologetic glance in his direction. Twilight’s eyebrow elevated somewhat when she saw that the colt was chewing on his own lip, looking pensive, and distraught. Now was the time to intervene.
“Sumac,” she said, beginning her question, “is something wrong?”
“Magic theory,” he replied, grumbling more than whining.
“What’s the problem?”
“My shields.” Sumac tilted his head back and looked up at the ceiling. “I’m supposed to be so strong, so gifted, and so capable, but why are they still so weak?”
Twilight rose out of her chair, and while she crossed the room, she gave Sumac his answer: “Maturity. It comes down to maturity, Sumac. Your knowledge of shield mechanics and your raw ability are second to none. What is holding you back is your age. Give it a few years and when you gain magical maturity, I think you’ll be surprised.”
“I should be stronger!” Sumac slammed one hoof down upon the table and the sudden sound startled everypony present. “I’ve changed… I have these stupid wings now that get in the way and itch and make me sweaty and now I am always too hot, and I should be stronger!”
Halting beside Sumac’s chair, Twilight failed to notice that Nuance was staring and scowling. “You are strong, Sumac… far, far stronger than most your age. However, your patience suffers, and your anger tends to impair your ability a bit, sometimes. Anger isn’t bad, I suppose, but you fail to focus it well.” She watched as Sumac’s expression became sullen, and Twilight’s lips pursed together in concern. The colt had a good handle on his desire for power—he wanted it for all of the right reasons—but his sudden fits of pique were a constant cause for worry.
“All of this work… all of this study… all of these endless hours of reading books and practice.” Sumac’s voice was low and had a waver to it. “I just feel that I should have a bit more to show for it, that’s all. I’m sorry for my outburst. I’ll get back to work now.”
Unseen by both Twilight and Sumac, but noticed by Spike, Nuance’s face contorted into a swollen, misshapen scowl of frustration.
The plan, such as it was, was to go out with a minimum of guards, for a more intimate outing. A matinée was planned, followed by a good walk around the lake for exercise. Nuance was still rather weak, but he had high spirits, and Corbie claimed to still be starving after eating a light lunch. These were minor worries that Twilight knew could be dealt with. Radiance offered no complaints, said nothing, and showed no signs of having a problem.
Plans were good, plans were great, plans were how one took back the world from the creeping forces of disorder and chaos one tiny step at a time. A good plan would take you places, even if you weren’t sure how to get there, and could keep one motivated during rough times. A plan could make or break a pony. The purple pony princess paused, pondering her plan, perplexed, she thought about a plan she had made thousands of years ago to study a strange book with Sumac. That plan had gone to pot and she had been forced to wing it to make it back home.
Then again, that had been Eternity’s plan, and everything had gone the right way, and Twilight knew this for certain, because local reality still existed. Now that, that was some planning, and Twilight knew that at some point, she had to get off of her plush, princessly plot and do some plotting if she ever hoped to step up her game and be like Eternity. Oh, and the things she had to plan, to plot… the Royal Brood needed fixing. A nation needed liberty, peace, and a promise had to be kept, that the future would continue to exist, in spite of whatever it was that Grogar was planning.
Beyond that, Twilight needed to sort out her own circumstances with Seville and Pinkie.
It was a game of plans; Twilight had to out-think Grogar, while still making progress in her own life, even as she was still helping to run a nation. Grogar had helpers, like Catrina, Belladonna, and Dark Desire. Twilight had something of a minor-major epiphany, and she came to the realisation that now, she had the age required, the years of experience needed to combat Grogar. In her old life, she had vim, she had vigour, but she didn’t have much else. Now, she, Celestia, and Luna had the many thousands of years necessary to form elaborate plots that could hold back Grogar. This realisation was comforting, empowering, and life altering.
Once more, Eternity had cheated, and the clever mare had figured out a way for Twilight to advance, to grow, to gain the experience needed to win this war, and she had done so by manipulating time just a teeny, tiny bit. Twilight now had spent multiple lifetimes getting the education she had needed, the hooves on learning, she had spent eons studying magic under the greatest source of magic that had ever existed, or would ever exist.
Such was the power of a plan.
Upon exiting her castle, Twilight’s plan suffered an ignoble death, expiring with the sound of a sonic rainboom. She craned her head upwards and saw Rainbow Dash, who had no doubt been waiting for her to come out with the Royal Brood. With Rainbow were several other Wonderbolts, and an impromptu show had begun.
There was an over-excited squeal of delight from Radiance that made Twilight’s ears lift.
All around Twilight, residents of Ponyville were looking upwards, eyeing the sky, and even some of the guards now had their attention focused skyward. There were five of them up there, and Twilight wondered how Rainbow had pulled this together at what had to be a moment’s notice, because Rainbow was not a pony that made plans, she just did things on a whim, which drove Twilight nuts.
It seemed as though the matinée was cancelled, but Twilight was dead-set on getting some exercise. She led everypony down the steps of her castle, fearful that the little ones might take a tumble because they were too busy looking up, and they paid no attention to the stairs they stepped on. A blanket was already spread out over the grass nearby, along with a bucket filled with ice and bottles.
Rainbow Dash was the very best sort of friend, Twilight knew.
The sight and the spectacle of a Wonderbolts show was enough to wow anypony, and even Nuance seemed to be enjoying himself. He was sitting with her, with one of his tiny, thin forelegs curled around her own, and his head was tilted back so that he might have a better look. The look upon his face was one of wondrous enrapturement as the dazzling display continued and Rainbow Dash performed feats of death defying derring-do.
Out of all of them though, Radiance was having the best time. He clapped his hooves often, bouncing in place, and was unable to sit still. No doubt, the little earth pony colt longed to fly, and Twilight wondered if he wished that he had wings. Most earth ponies were hesitant to leave the ground, and some of them hated it. Twilight glanced over at Pebble for a moment, and then thought about how some of them adjusted to it, even if they were uncomfortable with it.
“She’s about to do a Buccaneer Blaze!” Radiance squealed, his voice squeaky with excitement. “There she goes! There she goes! She’s doing it!”
Twilight could appreciate the Buccaneer Blaze for technical reasons; it was a complex move that was entertaining to watch, but she was more engaged by the physics involved. Rainbow Dash, in the midst of said Buccaneer Blaze, dealt with gravity six or seven times greater than normal, and most ponies would pass out or succumb under these conditions. Rainbow pulled through—in fact, she showed no signs of the strain at all—which made the sight all the more amazing to witness. Twilight was certain that at the worst point of the maneuver, all of the blood had to be in her best friend’s hooves, and very little was left in her brain, but that was okay, it wasn’t as if Rainbow got much use from her brain in the first place.
“How does she do that?” Radiance asked while he prodded Pebble, his fellow earth pony.
“She’s Rainbow Dash,” Pebble deadpanned. “She probably bucks gravity harder just getting out of bed than most of us will do in our lifetimes.”
“Here comes the Flying Backbreaker!” Sumac shouted, and his wings unfurled from his sides while he pointed upwards with his left front hoof.
Tensing, Twilight always worried when Rainbow did this, as it was dangerous. It was a move forbidden to all of the other Wonderbolts, because most ponies who did it died doing it or were left paralysed. It was a massive burst of acceleration, followed by a thirty-five degree turn to go backwards, going from belly to the ground to back to the ground. The action tended to whip out the hind legs, and frequently snapped the spine of a pegasus pony trying it just above the pelvis. Cringing, Twilight watched, but was almost unable to do so.
With effortless ease, Rainbow did the Flying Backbreaker, she went streaking off, and even somehow snapped off a rainboom as she did her death defying, spine shattering thirty-five degree doubleback turn. It was awe-inspiring as much as it was terrifying. As amazing as it was, as awesome as it was to witness, Twilight knew the truth: Rainbow Dash was going to have a sore back for the next few days, and would probably be seen in the spa.
Overhead, the Wonderbolts were slipping into formation, a flying V-wing. Twilight was distracted by something brushing up against her, and when she looked, she saw Seville, looking sheepish. There was something about his eyes, something wonderful, and it made her heart go pitter-pat. For a moment, the display above was forgotten. Twilight wanted to unfurl a wing so she could place it around Seville’s neck, to hold him closer, but wings in general were hot and itchy and she wasn’t sure that she wanted Seville to be hot and itchy, because it was rather warm outside and just the right conditions for a pony to be hot and itchy already.
Twilight wasn’t sure what to do with her pegasus complications…
The Wonderbolts were contrail weaving now, creating broad, vivid bands of colour intertwined in the sky, and overhead, a heart took shape. Twilight lifted her head just in time to see it, and she could hear Corbie gushing about it, though she did not make out the words that the filly was saying. From the ground, it looked as though the Wonderbolts were flying so close together that their wingtips were touching.
When the heart was completed, a cheer went up, a loud, boisterous sound created by the residents of Ponyville, and it took Twilight Sparkle several long seconds to realise why they were cheering. Her little ponies… they were cheering for her. A self-conscious rush of sphincter-clenching terror overtook her and when she looked around, blinking, she could see quite a few ponies staring not at the sky, but at her and Seville.
Word traveled fast, perhaps too fast, or maybe she was just being oblivious again.
Feeling a tug on her leg, Twilight looked down and saw Nuance looking up at her. Her heart gushed for a moment, she felt terrible about his swollen face, and his ears were splayed back against his head. He appeared to be about to say something, though he looked a little hesitant. She waited, attentive, wondering what he was thinking.
“You should kiss for them,” Nuance whispered.
“Why?” Twilight asked as her wingpits suddenly became sweaty.
“To let the peasants know that everything is okay and that you are happy,” Nuance replied, and there was no trace of malice in his voice. “Most of them are just big foals… that’s what Mama Luna says, and they have the same wants and needs as us little foals.”
Twilight contemplated the meaning of Nuance’s words, knowing what she knew about him, the Royal Brood, and how they all liked to watch their parents kissing. The appeal of watching the various royal families became apparent, things gained clarity, and Twilight knew that there was some truth in what Nuance had said: ponies just wanted to know that everything was okay that whatever crisis was taking place had been settled.
Every aspect of life had to be made somewhat available for the public to scrutinise, it seemed, and being a royal meant giving up most of your privacy. Turning to face Seville, Twilight began to wonder if she could do it, if she could endure this, and all that came along with it. If she settled down, if she had foals, it would create endless complication, just as it had done for the Royal Brood. Falling in love was an invitation to disaster, and for the very first time, Twilight Sparkle understood, she knew, she gained a sudden, almost painful clarity of why Celestia had been terrified about falling in love with Gosling. Twilight now faced that same terror, and her first instinct was to run away, to seclude herself inside of her castle and never come out ever again.
Romance was perilous, and creating a family was a hazard.