Rainbow Dash groaned hopelessly. It had only been a few minutes, but it felt like the sun should be setting already. Descending again, she called out to Fancy Pants, “any pony down here have any luck?”
“No, my dear. I split the search parties up into groups with at least one unicorn who knows how to shoot up a signal. If she is in Canterlot, we will find her. There are also unicorns in the palace working on a tracking spell, but that could take the remainder of the day and even part of tomorrow. If we don't find her, they will, but with how the sun is...” He finally gave in and stripped the suit coat from his shoulders. “I don't envy us if we can't find her soon.”
“Right, I'll scan around Canterlot. You guys, just find her here, okay?”
He gave her a tired grin as she ascended. “Good luck!”
Meanwhile, Discord had already covered the considerable distance between Canterlot and the Everfree Forest. Rarity plodded along beside him.
“And why are we headed this way?”
“You know of the Castle of the Two Sisters, surely?” he queried, not looking back as he whipped his tail to smack a beast hiding in the shade on the snout before it could lunge.
Rarity took a defensive stance, but relaxed as the monster dashed away. “I do...and I'm under the impression that she wouldn't have come to such a fearsome place of her own will.”
“If she teleported instinctively, she might have went there to get away from what she thought was danger. They founded the site while Luna was still growing, and it was a terribly good hideout even from me.”
“So she didn't head back to Canterlot Castle?”
“If she did, just about any pony would find her. Really, she might have teleported right to her sister and that would make this whole trip unnecessary, but you haven't seen Luna right after she gets woken up in the middle of the day, have you?”
Rarity shook her head.
“I assure you, if Celestia went to Luna, we'll find out when Luna teleports here and attempts to bite my marvelous head from my handsome shoulders.”
“After today, I think I'd like to see that.” She giggled in spite of herself and the grim situation.
“Yes, well, it's less fatal for me than you might think, so I think I might let it happen before the real punishment starts.”
“A beating from the Princess of the Night isn't a real punishment?”
“No, my dear pony, a fight with Luna is fun, even if I'm not allowed to hit back....ah, we're here.”
The aged Castle of the Two Sisters loomed before them. He took a bow and gestured toward it. “Shall we?”
Remembering the terrifying, but ultimately funny, attempt to salvage tapestries from within this wizened keep, Rarity took a moment to steel herself. “Yes, let's search this place and get this done.”
“Now, there are only a few places she should be, and I'd much prefer to find her there than search through this entire castle.” He offered his claw. “Hold tightly.”
He rolled his eyes when she glared at him. “Please.”
When she complied, he snapped and away they went.
Rarity was sickened by the brief and glorious sensation of teleportation, and her stomach did a flip when her world lurched as she came to a stop, and she scarcely had a second to enjoy the respite before Discord said, “no.”
Another snap. Another lunge. Another attempt by her lunch to come back up.
“No.”
“Wait a-”
Once more unto the breach between space and time.
Another pause just long enough for her to realize that she was losing the fight with her digestive system.
“No.”
“P-”
And one last time, only to appear at the top of a broken tower filled with books.
It was all Rarity could do to rush to the side and retch.
Discord only looked on at the empty surroundings with no amusement whatsoever. “She really should have retreated somewhere here. This was her home, even if I think it was really her home after her and that night owl sister of hers stoned me.”
As she wiped her lips with a handkerchief and shuddered, Rarity tried her best to focus on the mission. “She lived here with Luna, though, and Luna...is, her younger sister, correct?”
“I believe she may very well be. She is shorter, at least.”
She did her best to spit discretely as sickening saliva tried to fill her mouth again. “Well, how much older than Luna is she?”
“I don't know. Celestia and Luna only really came up on my radar when they tried to fight me. They weren't always in charge of an entire kingdom.”
“Well, let's hope that Celestia left a journal or something around here that might tell us about where she came from...and that Twilight didn't confiscate it when she was here.” Her friend's penchant for knowledge might be their undoing. If it was in her library (which was late for its biweekly sorting), it could take longer to find it than it would to turn the Castle of the Two Sisters upside down.
“Of course. If she did, I imagine she wouldn't have been able to resist telling you five fillies at some point, so if there really is such a book it will probably be here.” He put his claw around her and snapped once more, depositing them in a room filled with books. “It might take some digging, but it really could be the best course. A pony as powerful as Princess Celestia could have teleported anywhere in Equestria, so another lead would really speed things up for us!”
“Then we best be about it. You start over there, and I'll start over here.” She quickly hurried away, and gagged without result.
Of course, it was only when her back was turned that Discord smirked. Things were definitely not going according to plan, but they oh so rarely did. He really did have no idea where she had gone, but some pony would figure it out.
After all, there were only five alicorns in circulation, and a new (looking) one showing up out of no where would turn into an absolute circus. She'd probably end up admitting that she was who she was after she had a few minutes to calm down, and someone would send the message along with magic.
Celestia would be back to normal by sunset, regardless of his efforts here.
Now he just had to work out how he could do some damage control on the punishment that was coming his way.
Maybe reading over some of these books would help...
It was in Ponyville's school house, of course, that the real stir was happening.
Though Cheerilee tried to keep order in her class, she stood no chance against an alicorn filly who no pony had never heard of.
It wasn't that her lessons were droll, really, but alicorn-mania was a phenomenon she could do little to fight. Flary would be the sixth one that she knew of.
'Flary', of course, had little appreciation for the fact that she was a celebrity.
“Oh, um...I can't fly yet, so I don't really know what it's like,” she said with an uneasy smile as she turned to chatter with her seat mate.
“But can you do magic?” the gray filly asked from beside her.
“A little bit. I mean, it's way easier than flying. These wings just don't listen,” she said, her wings spreading wide behind her.
A filly off to the side sneezed, and she blushed as she tried to fold her wings up.
“Sorry.”
“No, your wings are pretty, Flary. They'll be just the right size when you grow up,” the squeaky white unicorn said, wiping her nose with a purple handkerchief, “I'm Sweetie Belle, by the way. It's a pleasure to meet you!”
“It's nice to meet you, too.”
Introductions went around like a whirlwind after that. The pink and grey fillies were Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon. Sweetie Belle had two friends named Applebloom and Scootaloo, a yellow earth pony and orange. A unicorn colt duo, one stout and one tall, made up most of the male members of the classroom, and they were joined by Pip Squeak. A few other names were thrown around, but she found it hard to keep that many names straight in her head with everything else that was bouncing around in there.
Their attention made her blush a little, but thankfully they didn't say anything she'd actually have to answer. Giggling a little, she noticed one pony was silent.
Miss Cheerilee, the teacher who would be helping her. To betray a potential benefactor was unforgiveable, and she bowed her head in shame before the reproach could come.
“I'm sorry, Miss Cheerilee, I didn't mean to disrupt your class.”
“I'll forgive you, Flary, if you can come up here and help me with a demonstration.”
With a little bob of her head, she did so. The others quickly straightened their desks as she stepped up.
“Long division, can you explain some of the uses it might have? After all, some of the students in this class have said things like 'you don't need long division because you can't divide whole things into parts'. Do you agree with them?”
There was no accusation in her tone, though Flary suspected her teacher had an angle nonetheless.
“Well, it's really useful for...say you need to figure out...um.” She paused, searching for an example.
The memory that came up made her beam, though it was a confusing one. In what world was she bigger than another pony, let alone teaching them? “How many cookie recipes I can make with one bag of sugar.”
“And how might you do that?” The smile that came in response told her she was on the right track.
“Well, you have to know how much sugar is in the bag, and make that match whatever measurement you're using.” She thought it over. “If you know you have ten cups, and you need one and three quarter cups per batch...um...you can make five, with...about half of one left over?”
“Thank you, Flary, you may sit.” Miss Cheerilee went to the board and began writing. “Now, Flary could only guess without writing it out, but she seems to understand the process rather well. Mental math is a handy skill, but writing everything down saves us a lot of trouble, especially when we have to do multiple math problems in the course of solving one problem.”
Lesson rerailed, Flary felt a little pride as she pranced back to her unofficial seat.
And, for what little it was worth, that lesson went peacefully. However, she did notice more ponies were whispering or looking at her than actually following along.
Cheerilee, too, noticed the lack of full focus, but she knew that she was lucky to have gotten this far without a mini-riot.
Truth be told, she had a feeling that even if her students were staying quiet that no pony was really working on anything except questions for Flary, and she really needed to find some pony who was looking for her.
Hopefully, this wouldn't be a part of some Equestria-shaking danger or chaos. Alicorns often seemed to be at the core of Equestria's problems, and Flary was a little young for such things.
“All right, my little ponies, class is dismissed early today. Flary, you come with me and we'll be able to get you back to where you're supposed to be.”
Flary nodded slowly and managed a quiet, “yes.”
“Wait a second, Miss Cheerilee.”
“Yes, Applebloom?”
“Why not let her stay here and play with us until you find out where she needs to go? We didn't really get an opportunity to get to know her or anything.”
Though the correct answer to this inquiry was a definite no, the fillies and colts assembled into a powerful chorus.
So motivated, she could do little to really argue with them. Though she could fall back on her authority, her students weren't necessarily untrustworthy...
The fact that they weren't grown up enough to really consider the consequences of their actions, however, gave her enough pause.
“Okay, but every pony stay around the school until I come back. Pinkie Promise,” she said with such a solemn tone that everyone in class snapped to attention.
Even Flary tried to follow along with the oath, but at best she managed to approximate the motions (save actually putting her hoof near her eye) and mumble along.
The other students, at least, would try to follow it and it's not like an alicorn could actually get lost in sleepy old Ponyville.
“Okay, I'll be back as quickly as I can. Remember your promises!” With that, she dashed away.
Flary felt an odd mixture of utter anxiety and happiness. These fillies and colts really weren't so bad. They were a little too interested in her, but a proper servant of Discord would have turned her in already.
“How do you know so much about long division?” Sweetie Belle asked with naked awe as they funneled out of the school.
“Ah, well, I...I think mommy taught me once.” It was an easy lie. Really, lies were far too easy for how terrible they were. A good filly ought to be honest.
She remembered doing math in much grander places than this schoolhouse, but those memories didn't make much sense. In most of them, she was towering over ponies who were Miss Cheerilee's size!
“Well, I know you're a little young, but I think your cutie mark's gonna be for math. I didn't get any of that long division stuff until you and Miss Cheerilee talked it out,” Scootaloo commented as they stepped over to the playground, “and you did some of it in your head!”
“Well, I mean...” Her flank shouldn't be blank. “Thanks, Scootaloo.”
“No problem!”
As long as she could remember, there had been a sun back there. But that couldn't be true, of course, because she was a little pony.
She twisted backward to glance and tried not to gasp in surprise. It really was blank. The revelation that she was a blank flank (again?) did nothing to calm the thoughts swirling around her head.
In fact, it just made her head hurt. And that was when she noticed the sun hanging low over Canterlot, and felt a horrid sense of dread to go with the thankfully fading pain.
Some pony with a sun for a cutie mark was supposed to be keeping the sun where it belonged. No, she reasoned, it was a group of unicorns who worked together to move the sun or moon. One pony alone could not do it.
A helpless filly like her could not do it.
When Diamond Tiara invited her over to the swings, she let the thoughts drain out of her head. Fillies didn't worry about things grown ponies should be handling.
What she did worry about was how swinging was really fun, and it gave her an excuse to not be asked a hundred questions by every pony.
When she worked herself up to as high as she could swing, she leaped off and glided downward.
The cries of surprise from every pony who was witnessing her flight made her giggle as she clumsily turned herself around to come in for an easy landing.
“What? Gliding's easy with wings like these,” she said with confidence as she spread them to their full width.
“Flary's awesome!” cried Snips. Or was it Snails? The other one of the duo quickly cried his agreement. The rest of the class quickly joined in chattering about her.
No matter who was praising her, she decided that the play castle and its slides would be her next conquest!
Turning away from the sun with utter confidence that some pony else would solve the problem, she threw herself full force into playing.