By now, the sky had become orange and the day was winding down to an end. Despite everyone suddenly being unable to digest any meat whatsoever, the city was close to full swing as cars chugged along, as sidewalks were decently populated with people passing by and looking for things to do in this final day of the weekend.
In other words: it was sunset.
Sweetie Belle wiped the sweat off her face as she continued her community service stint with Scootaloo by her side, cleaning Canterlot together. Their technique was a little innovative: Scootaloo threw bits of trash with her broom and Sweetie received it with the garbage bags.
“At this rate, Scoots,” she began after catching another one in a row, “you’ll be a hockey player in no time!”
Scootaloo twirled the broom around, smiling smugly. “What’re you talking about? Hockey’s no fun!”
Sweetie arched a brow at her. “Sure it is!”
“Yeah?” Scootaloo twirled the broom again, spinning it faster. “How?”
Sweetie smiled, having obtained a good answer. “It’s fast-paced, that’s number one.”
“...and?”
Then, Sweetie opened her mouth to say nothing, choosing to close her mouth as she failed to think of any more good answers. “Actually, well—“
Pow!
And a window above them broke, making the community helpers scream as they ran away from falling glass shards.
When that was over, Scootaloo and Sweetie removed their hands from their heads.
“What just happened?!” Sweetie shouted to no one in particular.
Then, from inside the building: “The Great and Powerful Trixie will show you the consequences of insulting my magic tricks!”
Scootaloo cupped her hand and hollered: “Hey, Trixie! You should be more careful next time! You could’ve hurt someone!”
Then, whispers and a few screams from inside.
Fuchsia appeared out of the window, sporting a clip on her fuchsia hair.“Sorry! It’s just Trixie trying out...wind magic!”
“Wind magic?” Scoots and Belle repeated together.
“Yeah!” Fuchsia said, nodding and smiling. “She’s, uh, testing it so we can show it off at our next concert—“
“Say the name!” Trixie’s voice called out.
Fuchsia rolled her eyes. “We’ll show it off in the next concert of—“ in a deep voice “—Trixie and the Illusions!” with a hand raised to the sky.
Then, she closed the window without realizing that it was not really closed, what with the lack of glass and all. When she finally realized that, she went back and drew the curtains.
Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle looked at each other, confused.
“How do you do wind magic, anyway?” Scootaloo asked.
Sweetie shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
They went back to cleaning in service to the community, though Sweetie Belle’s smile disapppeared as she looked back at the setting sun. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”
Too bad she was not prepared for a bit of trash to hit her in the face.
“Oops! Sorry, Sweets! Must’ve been too strong!”
Fuchsia frowned, seeing nothing but the curtains before her.
She turned around to see the apartment’s living room. Fallen pictures and vases, burned rugs, and a sofa split in two.
With Trixie the unicorn blushing behind one half of the sofa. “Well, how did Trixie perform?”
“Are you trying to get us in trouble?!” Fuchsia yelled, raising a broom of her own as a weapon.
Trixie scoffed. “The whole world knows about magic thanks to shimmering Sunset!” She waved her cape about, creating fake wind. “Showing myself to the world in this enhanced form will only make everyone more amazed at the plethora of tricks the Great and Powerful Trixie can now perform!”
Her bandmate was not amused, having crossed her arms. “Can you try the amazing magical trick known as sleeping?”
Knock! Knock!
Trixie yelped, scampering underneath the table. “Wh-Who’s there?!”
A cough from outside. “Uh, it’s Wallflower. Back from the gro—“
“Wallflower who?!” Trixie shouted, gaining a surge in confidence before she jumped out and landed before the door.
Fuchsia groaned as she walked to the pony. “Trixie, this is no time for a knock-knock joke.”
Trixie put one hoof on her chest, looking up towards the ceiling. “If Trixie can diversify her range of magical tricks, then she can also diversify her range of comedy—“
And she was picked up, the floor becoming distant.
“—what, what?!” Then, she threw a punch at Fuchsia’s face.
She dodged the blow, staggering a few steps back. “Trixie, could you be cooperative this once?!”
“The Great and Powerful Trixie will not be handled like a pony!” Trixie cried back.
“You are a pony,” Fuchsia said, carrying her to the kitchen.
“I am a unicorn, not a pony!” To prove her point, she lifted her hat in a glow to show her horn.
“A unicorn pony.”
Before she could be argued with, Fuchsia plopped the unicorn pony on to the counter. Placing a sharp finger right between Trixie’s eyes: “Stay there.”
“Pfft!” and Trixie stuck out her tongue.
Fuchsia shook her head as she went to the door and then opened it.
In the hallway, Walllower made a clumsy wave with one hand, holding several paper bags with the other. “Where’s Juniper?”
Fuchsia jerked a thumb towards the bedroom. “Sleeping.”
“Already?
“Montage said she’ll just wait until she magically becomes normal again,” Fuchsia then closed the door as Wallflower entered.
She took a step, approaching the room. “Well, she’s not wrong.”
Fuchsia placed a hand on a desk, giving her friend a strange look. “And how do you think sleeping early is going to turn her back?”
Wallflower blushed, true to her name once again as she faced her questioner. “Someone’s going to save the day. I should know,” and chuckled cutely, remembering the time when she made remembering a rather complicated matter.
Fuchsia gave her a blank expression in return. “That attitude is going to doom us all.”
Wallflower glanced out the window, then realized she could not since the curtains were drawn. Turning back to Fuchsia: “Sunset must be coming back home from...wherever they are now.” Becoming a little somber, she rubbed her arm, nervous.
Fuchsia smiled, looking back at the grocery bags on the table. “You’re cool with chimichangas?”
“I’m cool with it.” Then, as Wallflower yawned and stretched her arms on the way to the bedroom, she said, “Trot to it.”
“Thanks,” Fuchsia said on her own way to the table. “I hope you don’t mind if I add—“ and raised her brow, dropping the politeness. “’Trot to it’? Don’t you mean ‘hop to it’?”
Wallflower then turned around. “That’s what I said, right?”
“Nope. You said ‘Trot to it’.”
Wallflower scratched her messy green hair. “Weird. Must’ve slipped,” and she disappeared into the bed area where she could hear Juniper’s first snores as a pony.
Fuchsia brought the paper bags of ingredients to the kitchen before shooing away Trixie back into the living room. She checked the time on her phone—kicked the floor, dialed a number on the phone, and put it up, ready to berate.
“Alright, Lavender Lace!” she shouted, Juniper’s sleep not in her mind right now. “You’ve been away far too long! We need you to come over here right away!”
“Uh, I can’t...?”
Fuchsia growled. “Where are you and what are you doing?!”
“Um...charades?”
“Who plays charades half-past six in the evening?!”
“Wait...that...that looks like—yeah! A policeman! I got it, Bon Bon! Did I get it?”
Standing on the front lawn of Bon Bon’s house, Lavender Lace kept shouting at the front window, still unsure whether she had gotten the answer or not.
Behind the window, Bon Bon and Octavia were telling her, through hand signals, to get away, resorting to pointing in different directions to get the message across but to no avail.
Inside, at the dining table and under a few lights were the ponies helping themselves to another bowl of fragrant salad, one they hoped would not be whisked away by a magical portal. Lyra was done crying, eating the salad with her neck bent though her eyes were still red and her cheeks were still puffy. Sunny Flare was floating a fork with which she picked leaves and put them into her mouth, smiling at how much more delicious vegetables were today. Sour Sweet pouted, having discovered that she did not have the magic to levitate things.
“Sour,” Sunny began while glowing a fork magenta, “you must eat. We can’t let you starve.”
Sour rolled her eyes. “Says the one who doesn’t even have to touch the food.”
Sunny placed the fork down, removing her glow.. “Have you tried using your hooves?”
Sour raised a flat hoof. “You mean this?!”
“To hold the leaves up,” Sunny said, pointing at the salad with her fork.
“Oh, that’s so helpful!” Sweet said, clasping her forehooves. Then, in a bitter tone: “If my hooves were magnetic!”
While the two Shadowbolts devolved to verbal scuffles, Lyra noticed Vinyl Scratch, the fourth pony at the table, staring at her food through her thick shades.
Then, the door opened.
Everypony looked that way, seeing Bon Bon storm out to the lawn to confront Lavender Lace.
Lyra then turned to Vinyl. “Uh...” and looked at her horn, “you could use that.”
Vinyl turned back to her. She shrugged.
Lyra made a small smile. “Do you feel something strange in your horn?”
Vinyl scratched her head, then nodded.
“That something strange is...ugh, magic.” Lyra pointed at her own horn. “I-I don’t know how it really works, but I just imagine I want to move the fork above the table.” To demonstrate, she glowed her horn orange and her fork glowed orange with it. She slowly lifted it up, then put it down.
Vinyl made a silent “Ooh!”
“Yeah.” Lyra smirked. “It’s gonna be crazy if a lot of us become unicorns. Everything will float, and I’ve heard that they could also do magic spells.” She gulped, shuddering. “I don’t want to think about that, though.”
Vinyl stopped smiling as she pointed at the fork and then at Lyra’s mouth.
“I’d rather eat like an actual horse,” Lyra said. “If I have to get over being a pony, I might as well jump in.”
Vinyl rubbed her chin. Then, pulling her head back, she looked at her own salad.
Her horn flickered magenta, and then stabilized into one continuous glow.
A leaf hovered into the air, glowing, too.
Vinyl made another silent “Ooh!”, this time turning it into a grin.
Lyra smiled. “You got it!” Then, turning to Sour Sweet. “How’re you doing?”
Sour Sweet faced Lyra with a mouth messy with dressing. Sarcastically: “Smashing, thank you very much.”
They heard the door close, Bon Bon huffing and puffing back inside. Octavia, who had watched it all from the window, went to her. “Are you alright?”
“Alright?!” Bon Bon lashed out. “Who knew charades almost caused an international incident?!”
“Almost,” Octavaia said. “Be grateful that—“
Beep!
Bon Bon sighed, picking up her phone to read the new texts. “What now?”
The first text in question was beside a picture of Luna’s face. MCHS Club: This is Principal Cadance using Luna’s phone. Something will happen before sundown. I can’t tell you what, but whatever you do, don’t panic. We’ll see if we can prevent or at least control it, but none of us are entirely sure. I’ll be sending texts like this to everyone else Luna contacted.
Then, the next text:
I repeat. Do not panic.
In the school library, Cadance held Luna’s phone and began texting to the Shadowbolts, striding around in the spacious facility. Then, she looked up mid-text, seeing she was about to bump into Principal Celestia.
The alicorn was staring wistfully to the sky past the dome, looking through the panes both complete and broken. Under the orange sky, her ethereal mane glistened in its flutters.
“Are you still OK, Celestia?” asked Cadance, looking straight at the pony’s eyes which were level with hers.
Celestia made a swift turn of the head towards her. “I still can’t believe how lucky we are.”
“I know.” Cadance stared at the sky as well. “Granted, it is easy to miss the sun when you’re not aiming for it.”
They shared the moment of silence together, both appreciating the sky.
“How confident are you with what you have to do?” Cadance asked further.
Celestia sighed, muzzle lowered. “I have memorized every last word that our princess selves have written to us, and I have familiarized myself with everything I need to know with advanced magic.” Her eyes widened, staring at the floor which reflected the sunset’s brilliance. “It’s unbelievable how fast I was able to cope with it all, but I know I still have much to learn.”
“And not much time,” Cadance commented, checking the time on her phone.
Then, she walked to the vice principal herself who was sitting down at one of the computer stations in the middle of the library. She was covering her eyes from view.
Cadance halted. She glanced back at Celestia who then nudged her head towards her sister.
Taking the signal, Cadance sat down on an adjacent chair. With a heavy breath: “Luna, are you sure you’ll turn into a pony very soon?”
Luna lowered her hand, bringing her eyes back to light. “Absolutely.” She turned to the sky. “Aside from the rising difficulty of speaking normally, thou hast certainly heard us—“ and neighed on accident, then covered her mouth.
Cadance shivered, yet kept her cool and composure, resisting the urge to run away from the neighing vice principal.
Luna placed a hand on her shoulder, heard hoofsteps, saw Celestia trotting up to her.
A white hoof on Luna. “Sister, you’ll be fine. We’ve rehearsed this.”
“If only that would truly give us certainty!” Luna blurted out, fighting the tears threatening to flow. “We shall soon become responsible over numerous planets, stars—entire galaxies!” Luna then held on tight to Celestia, clinging to her neck. “Celestia, it does not matter how many times we have studied the princesses’ instructions. We are about to take on the greatest endeavor nobody in this world’s entire history has ever taken before!“
Celestia made a slow blink, batting tears of her own.
Luna’s voice trembling: “This was not what we had signed up for when we desired to become principals over this school!”
Then, the cling turned into a hug.
She did not whimper, but the tears did flow.
Celestia replied with a bow of her head, letting loose her tears.
All their tears mingling on the floor.
“It wasn’t, Luna,” Celestia whispered in a choking voice. “It w-wasn’t.” Then, slightly raising her head with a soaring voice, “But, we’ve always bounced back. At worst, we’ll be stuck like this for weeks, and at best—“
Luna whinnied.
She covered her mouth, escaping the hug.
Then, glowed.
Celestia and Cadance stepped back with their hooves and feet, shielding themselves from the brightness
Then, there was no more glow.
In the vice principal’s place was a dark blue alicorn with a flowing mane and flowing tail that both resembled the night sky with its stars, lying on the floor.
Cadance placed a hand to her head, checking the closest exit. She wrested herself away from a quick leave and continued texting the Shadowbolts.
Luna’s eyes shot open, seeing Celestia sideways.
Her irises shrank.
“It has happened, has it not?” she asked Celestia.
And the Princess of the Day answered the Princess of the Night, “Yes, sister. It has.”
Luna stayed there, staring at open space for a good while.
Whirled her head to the sky.
Still orange, still sunset.
Then, Luna’s eyes and horn glowed white.
Celestia galloped to her, horrified at what came upon her.
The glow subsided.
Luna gasped as she got up on her four hooves perfectly. She placed one on Celestia’s shoulder. “We could feel it, sister. It is terrifying.”
Celestia held her close. “You can feel the universe?”
Luna shuddered, avoiding the sky. “Without even l-looking, we could sense and surely manipulate the entire solar system—“
And both sisters blinked at the same time, their faces becoming stiffly scared.
Cadance looked up from her phone, placed a hand over her mouth in shock. “It’s happening, isn’t it?”
Celestia swallowed, unable to bring the words out of her mouth at first. Then:
“The sun’s stopped moving.”
Luna swung her head round to face Cadance. “As well as everything else in the universe!”
Cadance blinked, taking in all the certainly helpful information for just a few seconds.
She pressed the Send button on her phone.
Sending the text to everyone Luna had contacted.
Cadance felt her breathing quicken, her blood pressure rising as she looked at the door and then at both alicorns. “Aren’t you supposed to do something?!”
Luna placed a hoof to her chest. “B-But if we move everything at this very moment, everyone shall take note of it and realize what danger they are all in!”
Celestia then looked at Luna, with eyes halfway berserk. “We should at least try! What use is hiding the truth when everyone might die?”
Luna hesitated, about to hyperventilate
Then gritted her teeth, planted a hoof on the floor, cracking it, too.
“Let us do this, sister!” Luna shouted.
“Oh, we will!” Celestia yelled.
They spaced their hooves on the ground, closed their eyes, and glowed their horns blue and yellow, the lights’ intensity rising as the library rumbled and tremored, books falling off and chairs tipping over.
Cadance saw her hands glowing cyan as she was pulled towards the alicorns. “Wait, n-not—“
Phone dropped to the floor, cracking the screen.
Cadance was slammed against both ponies.
A bright white light consumed them.
“Ouch...ah!”
Pain shot through her hands and her head as Cadance slowly opened her eyes, discovering that she was lying down on the floor.
Looked around. Saw the computers, the bookshelves, the door to her right.
Cadance was definitely in the library although it was an untidy one now with books, chairs, and and even a few tables strewn on the floor.
She raised her hands into view.
Though dirty and bruised, they were still hands.
Rubbing her sore head: “What...just...happened?”
“Ah.” Luna’s pony face came into view, her flowing mane visible. “Thou hast been awakened.”
The not-yet-a-pony principal felt weightless as she was levitated in a yellow glow, letting out a short scream at suddenly being lifted.
Then, she was back on her two feet, reeling from the landing.
She dusted her shirt and pants off, then, seeing the alicorn sisters again—“Wh-What did you do? Did you save the world?”
“Actually,” Celestia said, mustering up a smirk, “you’re on your way to saving the world.”
Cadance blinked. “What?!”
Luna, still with a serious face, turned her head up towards the sky. “See for thyself.”
Thus, Cadance looked up.
The sky was still orange though a bit darker.
Celestia took a step forward as she began: “For some reason, our combined magic has attracted your magic growing inside you—“
“Growing inside me?!” she yelled, pointing at herself. “Was I about to become a pony, too?!”
“You would’ve,” Celestia replied, maintaining a calm demeanor; her ebbing mane added to it. “However, you gave up much of your magic, not only preventing you from becoming a pony yet but also allowing us to create a worldwide force field.”
“Force field?” Cadance repeated, surely experiencing a doozy after hearing what she just heard about magic and ponies and what not. Then, recomposing herself, “What are you protecting it from? Radiation? Quasars? Space magic?”
It was Luna who took another step forward. “It is an illusory force field you have helped cast.”
Instead of replying with words, Cadance replied with nothing but a continued look of shock on her face.
Also of confusion since she did not understand what “illusory force field” meant.
Celestia slowly trotted to Cadance, her horn getting awfully close to the principal’s head. “I apologize in advance for doing this, but I believe this is the only way you’ll understand.”
She placed the horn on Cadance’s forehead.
It glowed.
Cadance opened her eyes.
And saw Earth floating serenely in space. She looked down and saw that she was standing on nothing but space. Everywhere else, in fact, was space as far as she knew—she could not comprehend anything further since she was screaming, “Aaaahhh!”
Felt something on her shoulder.
She calmed down, seeing it was Celestia’s hoof.
Principal Celestia glowed her horn. “Cadance, look back at the planet.”
Cadance was in a trembling fit, nervously looking back down at her shoes and saw that she was still standing despite the lack of a surface.
Then, accepting Celestia’s request, she looked at the planet.
Slowly, a tint of yellow appeared all over Earth until it formed a yellow force field enveloping it.
“That’s a part of what happened while you were knocked out,” Celestia said. “It’s projecting an illusory sky, able to shift the weather and the temperature to match whatever it is displaying. It’s strong enough to fool even the most powerful telescopes from detecting everything else.”
“What do you mean ‘everything else’?”
Celestia sighed, looking at the principal up and down. She took a silent while, and then: “You are standing at the center of the solar system.”
Cadance stepped back from the pony, clutching her own head as the gravity of it all dawned on her. “No...it really is happening and—“
“Look the other way.”
And in her apprehension, she looked the other way.
There, she saw the moon a little to the side as well as the other planets. Among them was the sun, its position resembling more of a gas giant than that of a mammoth star.
Cadance skipped a heartbeat at the sight. “How’s that even possible?! The sun’s mass should be attracting the Earth and the other planets and the—“
“Yet it doesn’t,” Celestia said.
The principal stopped, then turned to Celestia.
The alicorn sighed. “Magic isn’t defying the rules of physics, Cadance.”
“Then what is it doing?!” she yelled, holding her hands out in fear.
Celestia stared hard at her eyes. “Magic is rewriting them.”
Silence.
A long silence.
The first thing Cadance did was sit down in space, Celestia now towering over her.
The princess looked down on the frightened principal. “I hope that this is temporary. If they don’t come back in time, then what Twilight Sparkle wrote to us would end up coming true.”
Cadance shivered, arms wrapped around her knees. “And that is…?”
Celestia looked down, seeing the stars below. “The world staying magical.”
“Wha?!”
And Cadance staggered on her two feet, realizing that she was back in the library.
Luna was levitating a chair, staying occupied by rotating it and seeing how much she could show off. Then, she dropped it and turned to Cadance and Celestia. “Ye have come back.”
Cadance nodded, visibly shivering, her legs buckling.
Luna sighed. “It has begun, then: our duty to wield the sun and the moon until help arrives.”
“That is so,” Celestia said, trotting to her side.
Luna tilted her head and gave her sister a light push. “What we have not mentioned is that we feel younger in this new figure.”
Celestia nodded, then gasped. “That’s because we’ve become...immortal!”
Luna’s eyes went wide. “Well, then. That is an interesting development.”
Cadance looked at the both of them and—
“Leave us alone,” Luna said, extending a hoof to her. “I believe that all of this and more has warranted a much-needed talk between sisters.”
Cadance pursed her lips, picking up Luna’s phone. “When shall I come back inside?”
“In about thirty minutes,” Celestia replied. “You can stay in my office. There is some canned beans I’ve stored there in case of emergencies.”
The last principal standing felt intimidated at being commanded by a magical pony princess who had supreme power over the sun, and so, with a short “Thank you”, she walked out of the library and closed the doors.
Leaving behind the two alicorn princess sisters, their manes and their tails flowing about and shining under the dimming sky.
Luna then faced her sister. “Celestia, if this shall not be resolved, does that mean we shall live forever?”
“I don’t know.” Celestia looked up at the sky. “What I do know is that if we stay like this, we’ll outlive everyone else. Our parents, whatever children we can still have, all our wonderful friends...” and then, looking at the closed doors, “Cadance….”
Luna choked.
Hugged Celestia again.
She hugged Luna back.
In that embrace, under the pressure of the sun, the moon, the planets, and so much more—with the prospect of lonely immortality—
In that embrace, they cried.