//------------------------------//
// Making Friends 
// Story: Nightmares Yet to Come 
// by Detectivefish 
//------------------------------//

The weeks leading up to Hearth’s Warming passed. Slowly, in some areas, but they passed all the same. But for Trixie, those days were spent largely in concern about the eventual appearance of a certain school teacher.

And it was a few days before Hearths Warming proper that, one night, there came a knocking at Trixie’s door, from Cheerilee herself.
Trixie had been expecting rage, she had been expecting anger, she had been expecting Cheerilee to come upon her snorting fire from her nostrils (at least in some of Trixie’s more vivid daydreams). Instead, Cheerilee had just smiled warmly, as Trixie took her friend’s thick woollen cloak and hung it up. It even looked like a genuine smile.

And therefore, Trixie found herself more worried than she would’ve been otherwise.

“Can we talk?” Cheerilee had said, nicely. Trixie nodded, and led her through to her study, where the small fire was still burning gently.

“Is this about-” Trixie began, only to stop when Cheerilee nodded.

“Yes.” The mulberry coloured mare had her forehooves pressed together. “It is.”

“Ah.” Trixie announced. One of Cheerilee’s eyebrows rose slightly.

“Trixie.” She began, “you didn’t think I was going to come here, ready to do something unspeakable to you over this, did you?”

The only sound was the ticking of the nearby clock, and the crackling of logs burning, as Trixie found herself unable to look Cheerilee in the eyes.

“Oh, Trixie…” Cheerille frowned, for a moment. “Although,” she began again, “admittedly, if it weren’t leading up to Hearth’s Warming, then yeah. I would be angrier with you. Thesis should be in school.”

Part of Trixie wanted to speak up in her own defence, to point out however technically she wasn’t actually the foal’s legal guardian. She clamped her jaw down until she was certain the urge had passed, and made sure her hooves stayed where they were, lest she fall victim to the urge to hit herself for even thinking that.

“But…” Cheerilee sighed. “Since it is leading up to Hearth’s Warming…” Cheerilee gave an airy wave of her hooves.
Trixie slumped into her chair. “Sorry, Cheerilee.”

“It’s okay.” Cheerilee said, “I can get why you wouldn’t. I don’t necessarily like it one bit, but I do get it.”

Then the look shifted, and suddenly a terrifyingly dark look passed across Cheerilee’s face. “Now, this Midnight on the other hoof… if and when she comes back, she and I are going to have words.”

There was a way Cheerilee phrased that last part that suggested even the most inventive punishment Luna herself could’ve devised would be as nothing to five minutes with the mulberry mare and the products of her imagination. For a fleeting, almost instantaneous moment, Trixie briefly felt a tinge of what could’ve possibly been sympathy for Midnight. But only for a moment.

The clock continued ticking. “How is she, by the way?”

Trixie looked about, not entirely confident the filly wasn’t listening in (it was what she would’ve done). “Quiet, a lot of the time. Mostly just reads. But…”

She frowned in thought. “I think she needs friends. She does need friends. Especially friends who are her age.”

“Sensing another “but” coming in.” Cheerilee said.

“I’m just not sure how she’ll react to other foals, and I keep getting worked up about it. Things with Dinky have gone fine so far, but she’s Dinky, you know? What if her first encounter is somepony like… I don’t know, Diamond Tiara.”

Trixie had rarely encountered the foal herself, but what she’d heard of the little pink pony from Raindrops did not paint the most flattering painting there was. Not the worst pony, but there were occasions, and these were only occasions, when the foal could be a colossally spoiled brat. Trixie wasn’t absolutely sure if a spoiled alicorn was more terrifying than an insane one, and she definitely didn’t want to know.

Cheerilee just smiled carefully. “Don’t. I’m sure she’ll manage to make at least one friend. I mean, if you can make friends with somepony, how hard can it be?”

Trixie glowered, but without any real malice, at Cheerilee.

“And they won’t be bothered by her looking like an alicorn.” Cheerilee noted. “Actually, the minute they find out she’s been living with you, she’s probably going to have more friends than she could ever hope for.”

Trixie hummed at that, visions of groups of foals turning up at her doorstep, looking to hang out with Ponyville’s new unofficial Princess.
That didn’t fill her with any great confidence.





Eventually, once things were properly settled, and Cheerilee had given Trixie the date after the New Year Thesis was to show up for, the schoolteacher left, leaving Trixie glancing back into the hallway, where she saw a dark purple figure ducking out of sight.
She fought down an urge to sigh, and began thinking of the best way to break the news to Thesis.
She made a note to do it later.





“Later”, it turned out, was a difficult one to pin down. At first, dinner was “later”. And then by the time dinner had been made, it was the next day, and then the next, and the next. And with very little effort on Trixie’s behalf, the thought disappeared into the back of her mind, forgotten entirely.

In all fairness, the Twelvetide and the jubilant spirit of the season, and the utter freezing cold, had a way of making ponies forget things.

The Longest Night came, and to everyone’s great relief passed without so much as a single hint of any mad alicorns returning for round two. It had been an eerie sight as midnight had approached, and everyone in Ponyville had been gathered in the center of town, waiting patiently and growing increasingly quiet, as the hour counted down.

Several hundred ponies, including six particularly tense Element Bearers, had let out a sigh when the hour passed and nothing happened. Not even the tiniest lick of alicorn-created fire. It had been like a switch being flicked when, almost immediately thereafter a certain pink someone had declared it “party time”, and as if on cue everyone burst into laughter, song and drinking (not necessarily in that precise order, and in some cases not for very long).

The six Element Bearers, meanwhile, had just basked warmly in the thought of getting to spend the Longest Night not fighting anything evil. They hadn’t said anything, because what was there to be said that hadn’t been already. And soon after that Lyra had disappeared with BonBon, and Cheerilee had gone off to engage in some very spirited carousing (twas the season, after all), leaving Trixie, Ditzy, Raindrops and Carrot Top to bask on their own.

And of course, after the Longest Night was Hearth’s Warming itself, the night that pushed back the cold, which had more partying and celebrating (though perhaps not quite as much as there could’ve been, in the case of some of Ponyville’s ponies, who were instead content to sing quietly, and drink only a few drops of whatever was on offer, and maybe not eat quite as much as they might have, still recovering as they were from the Longest Night).

And the day before Hearth’s Warming Eve, when the snow was particularly thick and cold, Trixie invited everyone around to meet Thesis, which she thought particularly well, all things considered.

In fairness to Thesis, she had only asked that all the filly do was show up once to say hello, with no expectation or demand that she stick around if she didn’t want to.

Ditzy had brought Dinky, who’d brought a small present for the filly. Trixie had done some quick mental arithmetic (as much as she could while doing some recovering of her own) and noted that Dinky must have scrimped off a little of her own funds for Hearth’s Warming gifts for a filly she’d barely known a full month.

Twilight Sparkle had come, and mingled. And then Trixie saw she’d brought her own gift.

It was a grey donkey doll, which for some reason had been designed with blue shorts, and had two mismatched eyes, but there was a look about it that suggested it had been much loved in its life.

“She’s called Smarty Pants.” Twilight had said, while grinning a grin that Trixie would’ve described as “painfully earnest”.

“She used to be my best friend when I was your age.” The unicorn added, “and look!”

A tiny notebook and quill floated alongside the doll, “she’s even got a miniature quill and notebook, so you can pretend that she’s doing her homework.”

In her mind, Trixie scratched out the painful, and replaced it with “heartbreaking”, at the sight of Twilight’s increasingly cheerful smile.
Pretend. To do homework. Trixie made a note to double check the lock her drinks cabinet, to prevent herself getting to the special gift from herself of a very strong bourbon she’d been saving as a gift to herself, because otherwise that smile was going to make her try and down the whole thing, Lulamoon be damned. Oh, she’d locked it the minute Thesis had set hoof in her house, but she was reasonably certain if she’d wanted into it, there wouldn’t have been a thing she could’ve done to stop herself.

“Um.” Thesis began, looking at the old grey doll uncertainly. On instinct, if only the instinct to act before disaster struck, Trixie stepped in.

“That’s very…” she trailed off as she realised she wasn’t actually sure where that sentence had been going. She decided to wing it, “that’s very sweet of you, Twilight.”

She could practically feel the look Raindrops was almost certainly giving her. Twilight, meanwhile, just kept grinning that grin.

“I’m sure Thesis will appreciate it.” She said, leaning in toward the filly, who gave her a blank look. Trixie nodded, subtly, hoping Thesis would catch on.

Twilight didn’t, and just kept grinning. “Oh, and I ordered something else. Just a moment…” she disappeared out of the room and back into the front passage. After a few seconds Trixie heard an irritated noise, followed seconds later by the distinctive sound of Twilight teleporting. Before she could get out to see where Twilight had gone, there was another flash, as she returned with a small parcel held in her magic. It looked to Trixie’s trained eyes suspiciously like a book. A book disguised in wrapping paper, but a book nonetheless.

“Can you believe I left this back at the library?” she said. “I also got you this.”
Thesis stared at the wrapping paper hesitantly, and then looked to Trixie, who quickly realised she was afraid to cast anything on it for fearing of damaging the almost-certainly-a-book. Trixie tore apart the wrapping herself, and was not surprised to find a book hidden beneath.

Say what you would about Twilight Sparkle, but you knew what you were getting with her. And what you usually got was books. Trixie was relieved to see it was at least a book of fiction, and not some brain-destroying dense tome about magic, or history. Or magical history.

Thesis made a small noise that could’ve been one of interest, and this time smiled properly. “Thanks.” She murmured. Sparkle’s grin grew dangerously wide, and she made an odd squeaking noise that made Trixie want to take a few steps back.
A purple hoof placed itself on Twilight’s shoulder. “You alright?” Cheerilee asked, gently, causing the unicorn to look about.

“Oh.” She coughed, “yes, I’m fine. Why?”

“I think you might be scaring Thesis a little.” Cheerilee grinned.

Everyone looked at the filly, whose wings flapped self-consciously. “I wasn’t scared.” She declared, though she didn’t sound convincing.

“Good to know.” Cheerilee said, warmly. “And now that the presents are out of the way, I believe there was some mention of a party, wasn’t there?”





“Hey.” Trixie looked up from her drink, which she’d managed to fix up. Ditzy was smiling gently at her from the doorway to the kitchen.

“Hey.” Trixie replied, before taking a swig from her chocolate soy-milk (it may have been a party, but she didn’t feel brave enough to risk the horror that was Lulamoon on Thesis without advance forewarning. Possibly somewhere in the realm of several years, if she could help it).

“How’re things going?” Ditzy asked.

“You mean…” Trixie motioned back to the door. Ditzy nodded, and Trixie frowned.

“It’s… it’s good, yeah.” She shuffled her hooves, and looked to the door, to make absolutely sure Thesis wasn’t standing there, or anywhere nearby.

“You’re still worried you’re going to do something wrong, aren’t you?” Ditzy said. “Don’t lie to me.”

Trixie made a noise that could’ve been one of pained irritation. “I don’t want to talk about this.” She eventually managed, “mainly because…” she looked back to the door, and then moved closer to Ditzy, “I just don’t want her to overhear me saying anything. Just in case.”
She breathed in and out for a moment, “but… yeah.”

Ditzy frowned. “Any particularly bad nightmares?”

Trixie didn’t reply. There had been more than one night already where she’d been woken up by the thought of screams and an empty bed, and more than that where she hadn’t even had to be asleep to be tormented by those visions. Sometimes, there weren’t even screams. From the look Ditzy was giving her, Trixie had a feeling she could already tell what the answer was.

“You don’t have any advice you could give me?” Trixie asked. Ditzy just smiled sadly at her.

“I don’t think I’m the best pony to be asking for advice on motherhood.” She said quietly. Despite herself, Trixie snorted.

“That’s stupid. You’re the best mother I’ve ever seen.”

“Even after the Sharpwinny t-“

“Yes.” Trixie interjected firmly. “And before you even think about saying it, that also applies to everything else.”

“Well…” Ditzy said, “I already told you to do the best you can. There’s not much else that isn’t just basic common sense for anypony. But…” Ditzy’s smile vanished entirely. There was still a sort of warmth to her face, but also a seriousness that reminded Trixie in her own way of Luna, one that shouldn’t by any rights have been on the face of someone like Ditzy.

“It has to be about her. You know that, right? Nothing else matters as much as keeping her safe, making sure she grows up right.”

“I do know.” Trixie said.

“There’s a difference between knowing and knowing. You know?” Trixie stared at Ditzy, who after a few seconds cracked a grin.

“Anything else?” Trixie asked.

Ditzy made an odd half-smile. “No, not really. But there is something I wanted to talk to you about…”

“What?”

Ditzy bit on her lip, and her wings flapped gently. “Dinky’s been asking about a sleepover here.”

Trixie had been preparing to dunk a marshmallow in her drink as Ditzy said those words. There was a gloop as it sunk into the chocolate-y abyss.

“Uh…” Trixie managed to say. “Are you okay with this?”

“Are you okay with this?” Ditzy retorted, “it’s your house.”

“My residency.” Trixie made a show of sniffing imperiously. “I’ve got a sign saying so and everything. Technically, it’s actually Princess Luna’s property, not mine.”

“That didn’t answer my question.”

“Darn,” Trixie sighed, “and here I was hoping to escape while I confounded you with pedantry. Give me a minute to think about it.”
She took another, suspiciously marshmallow-y sip of her chocolate milk. “And you didn’t answer mine.”

“I trust Dinky to behave herself in a sleepover.” Ditzy said. “I’m not absolutely certain I trust you to behave, though.”

Trixie opened her mouth to object, and stopped at the look Ditzy gave her. “Fair enough.”

Ditzy shook her head. “I’m kidding, Trixie.”

Trixie took another sip, which this time consisted almost entirely of liquid marshmallow. “I think… I think this residency is a little too small to have a proper party in. Especially if Dinky brought any of her friends.”

A thought wandered into her mind, and she made a note to ask Sparkle about it at a later point. “Maybe, in a few months… just not today.”

A noise drew Trixie’s attention, which turned out to be Raindrops entering the room, and trying to look inconspicuous as she did, which would have been wasted even without the size of Trixie’s kitchen being what it was.

“Hey.” She said, getting a nod back from Trixie and Ditzy, who took the opportunity to head towards the door, leaving Trixie alone with Raindrops.

The jasmine mare’s wings shuffled ever-so-slightly, as she looked toward the variety of cupboards. “I was wondering,” she said slowly, and Trixie would’ve said hesitantly, “if I could get a snack is all.”

“Help yourself.” Trixie replied. “You didn’t need to ask.”

“Yeah,” Raindrops’ eyes fluttered away from Trixie, “well, you and Ditzy were talking, I didn’t want to interrupt. And I wasn’t sure if you were okay with it.”

“You’re a guest in my h- my residency. Why would I mind?”

With that, and now that it was clear she had confirmation, Raindrops went over to the cabinets and started fishing out supplies.

“How’re you finding the party?” Trixie asked.

“It’s... quieter than the ones I’m used to.” Raindrops replied, a vague hint of a smile on her face. “But usually the only parties I go to are the Weather Patrol’s office parties. Any party that doesn’t have them in it is going to be quieter, by definition. Not that I’m not enjoying it.” She added hurriedly, “I don’t mind quiet, after the year we’ve had.”

“And Rainbow Dash and Cloud Kicker arguing.” Trixie supplied. Raindrops gave her an odd look for a moment, before nodding.

“Yeah. Can’t imagine what’s gotten in to her. Up until recently, she’s usually just agreed with Rainbow on pretty much everything.” Raindrops turned to look at the sandwich she’d made, and took a thoughtful munch of it.

“Maybe she took some confidence-building seminar.” Trixie suggested.

“Must’ve been some seminar.” Raindrops said.





Elsewhere, in the dark, nine figures in black gathered in their circle. The pony at the center of the circle frowned darkly to themselves.

“Hey, Prof,” Indigo Zap declared, making a show of playing with her flying goggles, “what’s the word?”

“I have unfortunate news about Wedge.” Spell Nexus intoned. There was a variety of frowns.

“Is he doing okay?” Bitter Orange inquired. The response was a deepening frown.

“Unfortunately, no. Wedge will not be rejoining us for the foreseeable future. Or indeed, ever again.”

There was a gasp from Merry. Several of the others exchanged looks at one another.

“Is he…?” she began. “I mean, did… isn’t there anything we can do?”

“No.” Nexus said, coldly. “But if you want to pay some respects to him, you may do so in your own time.”

Nexus sighed irritably. “Now, in the spirit of the season, unless there are any developments anyone wishes to bring up, that’s it for the next two weeks. We’ll meet up again in the new year.” With that, Spell Nexus’s image folded up into itself and disappeared into darkness.

“Poor Wedge…” Merry said, in the resulting quiet, staring at the ground. After a few seconds, Orange placed a hoof on her shoulder, or at least the image of Orange placed the image of a hoof on an image of Merry’s shoulder.

“Can’t be helped.” she said, not unkindly, but she still didn’t sound convinced of her own words. “We all knew somethin’ like this would happen sooner or later, ‘specially if we were going after this Trixie pony. I just figured it would be me.”

“We could at least throw a wake or something for him… or get drunk in his honour.” Kicker spoke up. “Did he have anypony, like a girlfriend?”

There was a long pause as everyone looked at one another. “I don’t know,” Merry finally said, “he never spoke much about… anything.”

“He talked about hurricanes.” Indigo Zap said, adjusting her goggles. “And weather patterns. ‘least, with me, anyway.”

“I don’t think he had anypony.” Said Fleur. “Not even any family. Just… us.”

“Oh.” Merry said.

For a long time, there was a silence, as nopony in the circle dared to look at one another.

“See you around, then.” Fleur de Lis eventually remarked, as her image started to disappear as well. “I’ve got a suspicious husband to see to.”

“Office parties.” Merry Melody grinned wearily. “But they’re more cheerful than last year’s, at least. Even if only because my boss is gone and Luna’s still here…”

“Same here, but with less offices.” Kicker said.

“What she said.” Orange muttered. “Only my usual drinking buddies are off on a wild goose chase.”

Nearby, Sard smirked. “A politician’s job is never done.” The crystal pony said, dryly. “Even our parties count as work. Especially in the current climate.”

“Have you considered a different job, then?” An earth pony in the circle asked. Sard’s smirk changed.

“All the time, Cake. All the time.”

One by one, the images of everypony started to wink out, until there were none.





For Trixie, the rest of the evening passed without incident. And soon after, Hearth’s Warming Day itself came and went with (almost) no major problems, or at least none that were truly worth calling problems.
She had been expecting, in some way, to be woken up early on the day, to have Thesis burst into the room, overjoyed at the day arriving. Instead, the little filly didn’t even wake up until Trixie was wide awake. She had considered waking her, but such thoughts hadn’t lasted more than a few seconds.
And the almost eerie level of peace continued through into the new year. Then, finally, the day came when Trixie had to face up to the problem before her.





Thesis blinked in uncertainty, and confusion. “But… why?” she asked.

Trixie grit her jaw. She could do this. She looked down, Thesis’ giant eyes staring at her. There were no tears (yet), but they were quivering dangerously.

She took a deep breath, and squared herself.

“Because you have to.”

“But…” Thesis repeated, “why?”

“For one thing, because it’s the law.” Trixie said, carefully, taking care not to add that Cheerilee would be extremely upset if she went back on her word. “And because it’s important you get a good education and spend time with foals your own age.”

Or at least foals who were the age she looked like she was. Trixie doubted there was any parent in Ponyville who’d actually leave her with any foal not even two months old. Hay, even she didn’t think that was a sensible idea.

Thesis didn’t look remotely taken with this explanation. She was pouting, or possibly trying to glower, Trixie couldn’t tell.

“But why can’t you teach me?” she asked, “or miss Twilight? Why do I have to go to this place?”

“Look,” Trixie said, gently as she could manage, kneeling down next to the filly, “the truth is…” deep breath, “I’m… not much good as a teacher. I can teach you magic, a few things about politics, and…” her gaze drifted away from Thesis for a moment, “some other stuff you might need one day, but that’s not the same as what you learn at school. I know it might seem scary, but Cheerilee will be there. You remember her?”

Thesis nodded.

“And you liked her, didn’t you?” Another nod, slightly slower than the last one. “She’ll look after you. And there’ll be Dinky. Dinky’s nice, isn’t she?”

Thesis made a non-committal sounding noise. Trixie tried smiling reassuringly.

“See? There’s two ponies you know and like already there. And you never know, it might be fun.”

Thesis looked extremely uncertain about that, and it was taking all of Trixie’s not inconsiderable efforts to hide her own doubt.
Not that she meant any slight against one of her best friends, but school was… well, school.





The sun wasn’t even very high in the sky, as Trixie and Thesis walked along the path toward the schoolhouse, but it was maddeningly, horrifically bright, and made Trixie wish she’d brought some sunglasses. Even the brim of her hat was doing nothing to keep the rays at bay, no matter how far over her eyes she pushed it.

As they walked along, Thesis keeping at an even trot next to Trixie, she noticed several of Ponyville’s own parents (or in some cases, siblings) walking their kids to school. And a not-inconsiderable amount were staring at the two of them. For Trixie, it wasn’t anything, but Thesis seemed to be doing everything she could to avoid gazes, just in case.

With the two feet of snow the weather patrol had inflicted on Ponyville during the Twelvetide now down to the barest scraps of slush and frost, at least on the streets, getting to the school house itself was no problem. Once they were near, Trixie motioned at Thesis, and knelt down in front of her again.

“Okay,” she began, trying to sound reassuring, “now, school will end at three o’clock in the afternoon. I will be here to pick you up. All you have to do is be here. If I am not there – not that I won’t be, just in case mind -” she added immediately, “you are to wait here until I do show up, ‘kay?”

Thesis nodded.

“If something happens during schooltime, like you start feel really unwell, just talk to Cheerilee. And should something really bad happen, even though it certainly won’t, listen to what she says like you would with me.”

There was an odd look on Thesis’ face as she said that, but the filly nodded regardless. After a few seconds hesitation Trixie brought the filly in for a hug.





Thesis stared at the sight in front of her. A dozen sets of eyes were all focused entirely on her. Some of them looked confused, some looked excited. One or two were leaning together and whispering, and there were the occasional glances at her wings. Her gaze met Dinky’s, and the unicorn grinned and waved eagerly at her.

“Okay, everypony,” Miss Cheerilee said, from behind her desk, “we’ve got a newcomer to the class. I’d like everyone to say hello to Thesis.”

A dozen foals echoed Cheerilee’s words, some more sincerely than others.

“So, tell us something about yourself.” Cheerilee continued.

Thesis looked at the other foals, and found her wings refusing to stay still.

“My name is Thesis.” She said. And then, once she’d started, she found herself unable to stop. “I moved to Ponyville several weeks ago with my sister, but I’ve been staying with Miss Trixie because my sister’s away and now I’m here because Miss Trixie said I had to be here.”

A lot of the foals blinked. Thesis looked at Cheerilee, who had an odd look on her face. From somewhere behind her, she heard somepony say, in what they thought was a whisper “did you get any of that, Silver?”

“Okay.” Cheerilee said, gently, smiling reassuringly. “It’s alright, Thesis. You don’t need to speak if you don’t want to.”

Thesis jolted. She didn’t? Why hadn’t Miss Cheerilee just said that in the first place?

“For now, why don’t you take a seat. I think there’s a free desk over by Apple Bloom.”

Thesis turned to look. Dinky was pointing a hoof at a yellow earth pony filly with a bow on her head, who was giving Dinky a funny look. Thesis trotted through the row of desks, trying not to look at everypony as they looked at her, and clambered on to the small seat, looking about as she did, while her wings kept absently fluttering, no matter how hard she tried to make them stop.
Nearly everypony was still staring at her. There was a cough from Cheerilee.

“Okay, everypony, I’m sure that you all have a lot of questions you want to ask your newest classmate, but they’ll have to wait until later.”

Most of the heads turned away from her. There was another, slightly less annoyed cough from the teacher, and the few remaining faces turned as well.

“Alright.” Cheerilee said, “now then…”

Thesis sat, watching as the teacher picked up a piece of chalk and began writing on the large board in front of her.
Maybe Trixie was right, she told herself. Perhaps school would be fun.





On second thoughts, maybe it wouldn’t.

Not that she wasn’t trying to pay attention, it was just she kept thinking about other things she could’ve been doing, like still reading the book Miss Twilight had given her. She hadn’t yet got to the point where trying to lift apples sounded like fun again, but if she sat there any longer, trying and not quite managing to pay attention to what Cheerilee was saying, it probably would.

She looked about. She wasn’t the only pony in the room who wasn’t uninterested. There was a pink pony with a crown thingy on top of her mane passing notes to a silver filly next to her, and there was an orange pegasus filly making silly faces at the white and purple unicorn next to her.

She sat there, trying to take in what Cheerilee was saying, something about… well, she wasn’t sure. She vaguely recalled what she’d been saying several minutes ago, but couldn’t figure out how she’d gone from that to what she was talking about now.

She waited for several minutes, to see if she’d get interested.

She tried staring at the board, to see if that helped.

She even tried listening to what the teacher was saying, but it all blurred together.

Finally, she decided there was nothing for it, and raised a hoof.

“Miss Cheerilee?”

The school teacher smiled warmly. “Yes, Thesis? Is something the matter?”

“I’m bored.” She said, “can I go outside?”

For some reason, Cheerilee just stopped smiling and stared for a moment, and though she couldn’t understand why, several of the other foals started laughing. The teacher gave them a look, and the laughter quickly stopped.

“No, Thesis.” Cheerilee said, patiently, though there was something odd about how she said it. Perhaps she hadn’t understood what she meant.

“But I’m bored.” There were a few giggles from around the room.

“Well, I’m sorry to hear that.” Cheerilee said, “but the answer is still no.”

Thesis frowned, as the teacher gave her one last look, and went back to the chalkboard.





After around an hour of Cheerilee talking about some history thing Thesis didn’t understand, she heard an odd bell going off. The teacher stopped what she was doing, as everypony else in the class practically leapt out of their desks.

“It’s recess.” Apple Bloom helpfully informed Thesis, grinning as she went. “C’mon.”

The filly was sliding off her seat as Cheerilee spoke up. “Thesis, could I speak with you?”

The earth pony filly stopped and looked between the two. “Don’t worry, Apple Bloom,” Cheerilee said, “I’m just going to have a quick word with Thesis here. You go outside and enjoy recess.”

Thesis watched as the filly hurried out of the door, only stopping to glance nervously at her before disappearing, then turned to look at Cheerilee, who was frowning at her.

“Now, Thesis,” she began, “you’re not in trouble. But…” her mouth twitched slightly as she paused, “you can’t really say things like that in class.”

“But I was bored.” Thesis repeated. Cheerilee just shook her head.

“I’m guessing Trixie and… your sister didn’t bother explaining how you’re supposed to behave in school.”

“She said I was supposed to listen to you.” Thesis murmured, “and I did. Then I got bored.”

“That’s as may be.” Cheerilee replied, sitting down as she did, “but you can’t walk out whenever you get bored, because otherwise I’m pretty sure every foal in this school would’ve walked out ages ago.”

Suddenly, there was an odd and more-than-a-little terrifying look on the teacher’s face, “and I would’ve had to hunt them down and drag them back to their desks, one by one if need be.”

The look vanished almost as quickly as it had come, and Cheerilee sighed. “It’s your first day in school, ever. I’m not going to rake you over the coals for this. Just… for now, try not to get bored in future, ‘kay?”

Thesis stared at the purple mare for a moment, not certain what coals were or why being raked over them was bad, but very certain that it didn’t sound remotely fun. “Okay.” She ventured.

“It’s a start.” Cheerilee smiled, before glancing to the door, “now, you go outside and try to enjoy recess. Though I think your classmates will probably have some questions for you.”

Her smile changed to a concerned frown. “If you have any problems, just come back inside and talk to me, okay?”
Thesis nodded.

Immediately on stepping out into the winter air, Thesis found herself face-to-face with nearly everypony in her class, staring wide-eyed and expectantly at her.

Her first instinct was to try and run, but she wasn’t really sure where there was to run to, aside from back to Trixie’s house, and she was pretty sure Miss Cheerilee would have caught up to her long before she could reach it.
“Uh... Hi?”

This turned out to be a mistake. Suddenly, everypony began talking to her. Or, more accurately, at her.

“Are you related to Trixie?”
“What’s it like, staying at her house?”
“Are you a princess? What are you a princess of?”
“Has Trixie shown you any cool stuff?”
“Can you do any cool magic?”
“Does Dame Trixie cook dinner? What’s it like when she cooks?”
“Have you met Princess Luna?”
“Hey!”
“Hey!”
“Hey!”

“KNOCK IT OFF!” One voice bellowed over everyone else’s. Almost instantly the noise stopped, and the crowd of foals parted, as everyone glowered at the voice’s source, which was Dinky. She was trying to glower back, but due to a variety of factors, such as her being Dinky, the end result was less intimidating that she hoped for.

“We were just asking her some questions.” One chubby blue unicorn, with a scissor cutie mark, muttered, kicking absently at the snowy dirt.

“You were scaring her.” Dinky retorted. “How’d you like it if the first thing you got was everypony asking you a bajillion questions?”

“I wasn’t scared.” Thesis declared, quickly, though she was more focused on her horn, which had been tingling to itself. “It was just a lot of questions.”

There was an outpouring of murmured apologies, followed by a quiet silence, until the orange filly raised a hoof.

“So, um,” the filly began, faltering when everypony turned to look at her, “can we ask you about… stuff?”

“Yes?”

“Are you related to Trixie?” asked a lanky yellow unicorn, next to the chubby blue one, in a voice that sounded particularly silly to Thesis’ ears.

“Um…” Thesis began. “Yes. I think she’s kind of my mom…”





Cheerilee had been taking a moment to herself, with the foals outside having recess. So far, things had been far less hectic than she’d been expecting.

But there was also a nagging feeling, from the fact that she couldn’t hear much from outside in the playground.

Right up until she heard several foals yelling “what” all at once.

Somehow, and Cheerilee wasn’t entirely sure how herself, she found herself falling over onto the floor from surprise.





“But you need to have a dad!” One filly, a lavender unicorn said, “otherwise how could you be born?”

“BonBon’s girlthriend Lya hath two dadth.” An earth pony filly with glasses replied. “I don’t think the hath a mom.”

The lavender unicorn’s mouth opened, then it closed.

“What about the storks?” Chubby blue asked. “Whenever I ask my parents, they said a stork brought me.”

“I was born in that forest over there.” Thesis said, pointing over at the mass of trees in the distance. Suddenly some of the foals there looked afraid.

“In- in the Everfree?” Apple Bloom declared, “seriously? Nopony goes in there.  Even mah sister barely goes there.”

“Ms. Fluttershy does, sometimes.” Dinky supplied.

“Almost nopony goes in there, apart from Ms. Fluttershy.” Apple Bloom said quickly

“And Trixie.” Tall yellow added, “and Raindrops. And the other Element Bearers.”

“But that was only once!” Apple Bloom insisted. “Foals come from the hospital. Everypony knows that.”

At this, nearly everyone began nodding, though not all of them looked especially convinced.

“So what was Trixie doing in the Everfree Forest?” Angry lavender asked. Everypony looked expectantly at Thesis.

“I don’t know, but there was something about a cult, and some kind of ritual, and I was born in the middle of the forest.”

“What about the stork?” Chubby blue asked, squinting dangerously at her.

“What is a stork?” Thesis asked in response. Chubby blue’s eyes snapped open.

“I knew it!” he declared, “I knew my parents were lying! There’s no stork!”

A white and purple unicorn filly who’d been quiet for the last few questions raised a hoof. “Why was there a cult?” she asked, in a squeaky voice. Thesis just shrugged.

“I ‘unno.”

“Maybe,” Tall yellow said, looking about as he did, “they were an evil cult, working for Corona, wanting to do evil things to Ponyville, and Trixie found out about them, and went in there to stop them.”

There was a pause, before angry lavender titled her head and asked “on her own?”

“She could have!” Tall yellow stomped a hoof, but angry lavender didn’t look sure.

“I don’t think she fought them…” Thesis said, carefully. “I think they abducted her, and Twilight Sparkle.”

There was a momentary silence. “That doesn’t make any sense,” orange said. “Twilight Sparkle didn’t even come to Ponyville until last year.”

“This was last year.” Thesis said.

There was another silence, greater than its precursor, as they stared intently at her. There was the sound of a dozen foals blinking in unison.

“Come again?” Apple Bloom asked.

“It was in November,” Thesis said. “I was born in November last year.”

Angry lavender’s expression grew angry. “What? No. No! That’s not-… it doesn’t work like that!”

There were several nods, though not everyone looked completely sure. “If you were born last year, why aren’t you still a baby?” Chubby blue asked.

“I was born like this!” Thesis declared, “I never was a baby.”

“Wait,” squeaky white squeaked, “there were some of Princess Luna’s guard near the library in November. I remember seeing them…” her cheeks began turning pink, and she started rubbing the back of her head with a hoof, “and maybe hearing Rarity talking about trying to talk to them more than I ever wanted.”

“Yeah,” tall yellow nodded along, “Raindrops said she’d seen some guards at Trixie’s house one morning, and she had trouble getting past them.”

“But-” angry lavender declared, “babies don’t work like that.”

“How would you know?” Chubby blue retorted.

“She’s an alicorn!” Orange rolled her eyes, “it works differently for them. Maybe they just grow up super-duper fast.”

“We could ask Alula.” Squeaky white said. “She’ll know.”

At this, everyone looked content, and before Thesis could ask who Alula was, they’d marched (and she’d sort of followed) across the playground to a sandbox, where a sandy coloured filly with wings and a horn was playing with the snow lying in it. She didn’t look like she’d been playing very hard with it, instead more like she’d been trying not to look like she was paying attention to what the small crowd around Thesis had been saying. As they approached, she got an odd look in her eyes, which had focused entirely on Thesis.

“We need your help.” Lanky yellow said, and her expression dropped.

“Oh.” She said.

“Do you remember being a baby?” Chubby blue asked. Alula looked between the faces staring at her.

“No?” she replied.

“But you were a baby, right?” Angry lavender asked.

“I think so,” Alula replied, nudging at her pile of snow. “What’s this about?”

“We were asking Thesis where she came from,” Dinky spoke up, “and she said she was born last year, so now we’re wondering if you grew up super-quick.”

For several seconds, Alula blinked in confusion. “You know I didn’t. Most of us went to the same kindergarten.”

“Oh, yeah…” Chubby blue said, rubbing a hoof against his chin, as he stared at Thesis.

“So what’s going on?” Orange asked, leaning in toward Thesis. “You hiding something?”

“No.” Thesis replied.

“They can’t both be right.” Apple Bloom said, looking between Alula and Thesis. “Can they?”

“No.” Angry lavender declared, scowling furiously.

“But I’m not an alicorn.” Alula said, in a way that seemed to Thesis like she wasn’t expecting anypony to actually listen.

Then what she’d actually said sunk in.

“You’re not?” Thesis asked. Alula’s wings shuffled awkwardly. “But you look like-”

“Well, I’m not. And I’m not a Princess either!”

“She totally is.” Chubby blue whispered into Thesis’ ear. “She’s just hiding it.”

Apparently Alula’s hearing was pretty good, as she snorted in response to that. “I don’t know how alicorns grow up, okay? Why don’t you just ask Miss Cheerilee?”

“Because she’s a grown-up!” Lanky yellow said, like this explained absolutely everything, and got a few knowing nods from everypony else. “And you’re the wisest foal in Ponyville.”

“I don’t know either.” Thesis said, “the first thing I remember is being born in that forest, in the dark, with nopony else around, then getting found by two guards and dragged to Trixie’s house. But I don’t know how alicorns are born, or how they grow up, because the only other one I’ve met is Princess Luna, and she… she scares me.”

There was a moment of silence. Angry lavender’s expression changed, and everypony seemed to be looking anywhere but at each other.

“So, uh… how much recess have we got left?” Orange asked.

“Several minutes.” Alula informed her.

“Hey,” Lanky yellow asked Thesis, “if you’re staying with Trixie, has she shown you any cool magic?”

Thesis shook her head. “Mostly just how to cast magic without breaking stuff.”

“Oh, like Dinky does.” Chubby blue grinned, in the general direction of Dinky, who momentarily glowered back at him.

“Uh, sort of…” Thesis said, “I can’t cast a lot of spells, mainly because I break stuff.”

The two colts present stared at Thesis in an odd way, sort of like how Trixie did when talking to Twilight Sparkle.

“What do you mean “break stuff”?” Chubby blue asked.

“Probably means whatever she’s casting spells on.” Orange said. Thesis nodded.

“I kinda broke Trixie’s table a few weeks ago when I got angry.” She found herself rubbing a hoof against her leg. “Miss Trixie and my sister had to teach me how to not smash things.”

Everypony else was staring at her again.

“What?” Thesis asked.

“Yer... sister?” Apple Bloom repeated.

“Yeah…” They continued to stare blankly (except angry lavender, who she could’ve sworn was growling).

“My head hurts…” Orange groaned.

“Wait…” Lanky yellow said, “if you’ve got a sister, why isn’t she here?”

“Because she’s not a kid?” Thesis replied.
There was a noise from angry lavender like a kettle boiling, and Thesis could’ve sworn she smelled something burning.

“I’m done with this conversation.” Angry lavender declared, and stomped off, the burning smell going with her.





Cheerilee heard the bell ring, and soon the kids began filing back into the class. She couldn’t help but notice the looks on Snips and Snails’ faces. That was the look of a pair of foals who were planning something. But there was also the irritated look on Tootsie Flute’s face, and several bewildered looks on everypony else’s. All of it gave her an increasingly bad feeling.

“Okay, everypony,” she began, “now, let’s-”

“Miss Cheerilee?” she heard Tootsie Flute ask. “Where do foals come from?”

Cheerilee felt her blood freeze. She had faced Corona, she had faced salamanders, necromancer liches and a friend driven mad by dark magic trying to kill her, but this was the sort of thing that had her waking up in a cold sweat at night. It was the kind of question school teachers (and parents) dreaded.

Fortunately, long before she’d ever been a teacher, Cheerilee had gathered an extensive variety of skills, and one she valued most was her ability to lie.

So, she put on her best knowing smile, and started doing just that.





“She was so lying.” Tootsie Flute insisted, once everyone was outside for the lunch break, and once she was absolutely certain she was out of Cheerilee’s earshot.

“Probably ‘cuz our parents would be mad at her if she told us.” Scootaloo replied, through a mouthful of sandwich.

“I don’t think she’s lying.” Sweetie Belle spoke up. “She didn’t sound like she was lying. And Thesis does kinda sound a little like Twilight Sparkle…”

Tootise threw her hooves up in the air. “But nothing she said makes any sense!”

“So?” Apple Bloom supplied, trying to look thoughtful as she munched on an apple. “How’s that any diff’rent from anything else in Ponyville?”

“She probably doesn’t even have a sister.” Tootsie murmured. “Where is she, anyway?”

“Over there,” Alula said, pointing a hoof over to the set of swings, where Thesis was sitting. Not on the swings themselves, but beside it.

“Uh-oh…” Scootaloo said. Sweetie Belle looked at her, and Scootaloo pointed.

Snips and Snails were walking toward her, with a look everypony else recognised immediately.

They were up to something.





“Uh, hey.” Thesis looked up from her Trixie-prepared cucumber and chocolate spread sandwich to see Snips and Snails (at least, she thought that was their names. It was entirely possible they were Snails and Snips) smiling at her. There was something strange about their smiles, sort of like Trixie’s.

“Hi?” she said back. She wasn’t sure what she felt about those two. They seemed weird, but they weren’t angry like that Tootsie.

“So,” Snips said, still smiling, “we were wondering if you could show us what kind of magic you could do.”

Thesis chewed carefully. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.” She said, “I don’t really control what happens when my magic goes wrong.”

Snips’ smile shrank. “Oh, okay.” He said, “sorry to bother you.” He nudged Snails with a hoof, “c’mon, buddy.”

Snails was still staring at her, with a half-asleep expression on his face.

“So, you really can’t do any magic?” he asked, not unkindly. Thesis shook her head.

“I try to lift anything bigger than an apple, I usually break stuff.”

Snails looked at her ears. “What about bananas?”

Behind him, Snips had turned around and was looking puzzled at his friend.

“I think I’d still break stuff.”

“What about a stick?” he asked. Thesis shrugged.

“I dunno.”

Snails rubbed a hoof against the side of his head, staring at Thesis’ ear with what she was beginning to suspect was great effort. “Y’know, I was having trouble with magic a while back. ‘cuz my parents are pegasuses, so they didn’t know how to teach me. Then Miss Trixie said I wasn’t channelling it properly, and I needed to use telekinesis more so that I’d get better at it.”

“I did that.” Thesis said. “Had to practice on apples before I could lift stuff. But anything bigger is harder, and if I get angry then…” she looked down at her sandwich again.

“Sorry.” Snails said.

“’s okay.” Thesis lied. It wasn’t okay, she thought. She wanted to cast magic. Real magic, proper magic. She didn’t have any idea what real magic actually was, but she knew it was more impressive than just moving apples around. She was supposed to be an alicorn. She was supposed to be great at magic. She was supposed to know things, and she didn’t, and nopony wanted to teach her how. And now everypony was asking if she could cast magic and all she could say was she couldn’t, and it just wasn’t fair.

“Hey,” she called out. Snails stopped and turned to look at her. “Know what? I think I will cast some magic.”





Cheerilee took a sip of her tea, and leaned back, enjoying the relative calm of lunchtime recess. She was probably going to get some concerned looks from some of Ponyville’s parents either way, but she liked to think she’d handled the situation relatively well.
Then she heard the noise. Like a great tearing sound, followed by several startled yelps from outside.
In an instant, Cheerilee’s mind couldn’t help but leap to a dozen bad scenarios, all the sort of things that had kept her awake in the small hours of the morning whenever she couldn’t sleep (usually because, admittedly, she was thinking about worst cast scenarios). Fortunately, after an instant, she heard whooping and cheering, which she immediately recognised as Snips and Snails.
Sighing, and gritting her teeth, Cherilee got up. The words “long week” were not so much coming to mind as planting themselves on the sofa and refusing to leave.





Trixie trotted up the school, noting the odd parent waiting around for their foals, as the hour approached three o’clock. Some of them stared at her again, with a wary eye, in case her presence was the indication of a Ponyville problem, the kind that involved running, screaming and hiding in the basement. She occasionally smiled, and waved, which just made the wary looks increase.

She got near the small fence leading up to the building, and tried to look nonchalant, as the staring continued.

She’d planned, she’d even made sure to come up with an utterly airtight explanation that would satisfy everyone should they have asked what she was doing there, she’d double-checked it with Pokey (and definitely hadn’t docked his pay for sassing her about it). It would work, she told herself. It would definitely work.

The bell rang out, causing her to jolt, and soon a dozen foals began filing out.

At least, until they saw her.

There was a horrible moment of tension in the air, as they looked at her.

“Hi.” Trixie noticed one of her hooves was waving at them. She quickly returned the treacherous appendage to the ground, and tried to reassert her nonchalance.

“Miss Trixie?” One of them asked. It was Sweetie Belle. Trixie liked Sweetie Belle, even if she was Rarity’s sister, which was nothing to hold against her. She was sweet, and as it turned out had a surprising sense of humour not that dissimilar to Trixie’s.

“Are you Thesis’ mommy?”

Suddenly, all fell away. Trixie could’ve sworn she heard glass shattering somewhere. Everything, her future, her goals, her dreams of vanquishing Corona and becoming Vicerein Trixie all vanished, replaced by the yawning void that was the next few minutes of conversation, threatening to swallow her whole. Several foals were eyeing her cautiously. They weren’t supposed to be eyeing her cautiously. They were foals, for pony’s sake, but cautious eyeing was what they were doing.

At that moment, Trixie wished for something, anything to happen. She was even willing to consider Corona appearing and grabbing her, anything to avoid those eyes.

“Oh, Trixie.” It was the most wonderful sound Trixie had heard. It was Cheerilee’s voice. “Can I borrow you for a minute?”

“Yes.” Trixie said, with too much enthusiasm, hurrying past the crowd of foals towards the school’s door.

“Thanks.” She said, once she was sure she was out of hearing range. Cheerilee smiled a hesitant smile at her.

“So, how was her first day?” Trixie asked.

“It went well, mostly.”
“Mostly.”

Cheerilee nodded. “She was very quiet for most of the day, very well behaved, got on fine with the other foals. That said…” Cheerilee’s smile vanished. “She did try to walk out the minute she got bored.”

“Ah.” Trixie said.

“And then there was what happened at lunchtime.”

“What happened?”

Cheerilee motioned for her to follow, as she walked outside, into the playground. Trixie noticed very quickly the small crater Cheerilee was pointing at. There was what looked like a pail next to it. A considerably battered pail, as well, she noted.

“She made friends with Snips and Snails.” Cheerilee said, and Trixie noticed a slight curl to the mare’s mouth that suggested her friend was trying very hard not to be amused. “I’m not absolutely sure that’s a good thing.”

“As long as it wasn’t Scootaloo.” Trixie ventured. Cheerilee’s expression changed ever so slightly. Some months prior, she’d had what was generally known as a Bad Day, all on account of Scootaloo and a series of inexplicable and painful incidents (which had briefly left Trixie terrified of all the foals in Ponyville, until the matter had been cleared up), and while Cheerilee could never hold a grudge against any of her students for any reason (not even Diamond Tiara) it was definitely still fresh in her memory.

“Yes…” Cheerilee said, as she gritted her teeth.

“But apart from that, everything was fine?” Trixie ventured.

“Yes, apart from that, all great. But then, it’s only her first day. Maybe ask me how everything went in four days’ time.”





Thesis sat by the fence, looking at the door to the school, as Dinky and her mother stood next to her, Dinky having insisted on waiting with her until Trixie and Miss Cheerilee were done talking, something her mother had agreed on. It wasn’t long before Trixie reappeared, stopping briefly when she saw Ditzy and Dinky, before she looked at Thesis.

She smiled, and nodded. “C’mon then.”

Thesis followed after her.

“So,” Trixie soon said, once Dinky and her mother went off on their own way, “how’d you find school?”

“Some of it was boring…” Thesis said. Before she could go any further, Trixie stopped and looked at her. And then she laughed.

“Sorry, sorry,” she eventually said, once she was done. “Not laughing at you, Thesis. I’m guessing Cheerilee already explained about walking out when you’re bored?”

Thesis nodded. She’d been expecting more lecturing, but instead Trixie just kept chortling.

“Oh,” she sighed, “Cheerilee’ll be mad if she learns I laughed.”

It was several seconds before Trixie stopped grinning, and tried looking seriously at her. “It’s okay to be bored, Thesis. No-one’s going to get mad at you for it, alright?”

She smiled at Thesis. Thesis smiled back.

“Now, the important question is: Did you make any friends?”

“Well, there were these two colts, Snips and Snails, they were very nice… but Miss Cheerilee seemed annoyed about it when I showed them my magic. And there was another foal who was an alicorn but wasn’t an alicorn even though everypony else said she was...” Thesis stopped. She looked about at the buildings they were walking past. They didn’t match the buildings she and Trixie had walked past on the way to school. She hadn’t felt entirely sure at first, but now she was certain they weren’t going home.

“Where are we going?” Trixie’s smile changed.

“Well…” she grinned, “I thought that as a reward for making it through your first day of school, and doing so well, we’d get some ice cream. How’s that sound?”

There was something about Trixie’s grin that was infectious. Thesis wasn’t entirely sure how a smile could be infectious, but Trixie’s definitely was.

Plus, there was ice cream, and that was always good.





The next morning, Thesis got up, got prepared, had breakfast and walked with Miss Trixie to school, and went to the same desk as the day before, and this time very few of the ponies stared at her as she sat down.

She tried listening as Miss Cheerilee talked about math, and found that a lot of what she was saying sounded familiar, even if she couldn’t understand why. That was a fun part of the day. First recess, less so.





“What kind of name is Thesis anyway?” Tootsie Flute asked. “What does it mean?”

There was an expectant silence, as everyone waited for Sweetie Belle to chime in with the meaning. After several seconds without her saying a word, they looked at her. Sweetie Belle looked back defensively at them.

“What, I have to know what everything means?” she squeaked.

“Uh…” Alula said, “yeah. Kinda. You usually do.”

“Well I don’t know what “thesis” means.” Sweetie Belle scowled, which would’ve probably been more effective had she not been Sweetie Belle. “Why don’t you ask her?”





Thesis had been sitting by one of the set of swings when she heard the shuffling of hoofsteps behind her.

“Hi?” Dinky said awkwardly. From the looks of it, she’d been nudged to the front of the small crowd of ponies looking at her now.

“Hi?” Thesis said back. Since the day before, she’d been going over what she thought about the other foals. They seemed alright to her, save Tootsie Flute. Thesis was pretty sure she didn’t like Tootsie Flute. Dinky seemed to like her, but from what she’d seen Dinky seemed to like pretty much everyone, whereas Tootsie Flute just seemed irritated all the time. Or was she just irritated with her?

“What?”

“We were just wondering…” Dinky began.

“Tootsie Flute was wondering.” Someone who sounded a lot like Scootaloo said.

“We were just wondering if you knew what Thesis means.”

“"A statement supported by argument, or a written essay, especially one submitted for a university degree." … that’s what the dictionary said.” They looked at her funny. For some reason, she felt the urge to cough. “I wanted to know what my name meant.”

She thought about some of the stuff Trixie and Twilight and Midnight had said, and she wasn’t entirely sure the other foals would believe the story about Antithesis.

They were still staring at her, which made her trace her hoof against the floor. “I don’t like it very much.”

She stopped. She didn’t like it. She didn’t like her name. It was the only name she’d had, but… she didn’t like it. And it felt strange to say it, but at the same time it felt like something she’d always known.

“Um…” Ditzy said, placing a hoof on her shoulder. “Are you okay?”

“Yes?” She ventured, her wings flapping gently. “No? I dunno…”

“Hey,” Scootaloo piped up, “do you wanna play with us? Gotta beat sitting around on your own, right?”

Thesis thought about this for several seconds. “Okay.”





Cheerilee sat, waiting. Recess was supposed to be when she relaxed, if only for fifteen to thirty minutes. But she was feeling tense. She chalked it down to apprehension after the day before. So far there’d been no screams, no shouts, no explosions or property damage. Just the utterly normal sound of foals at play. As it was meant to be.

After several seconds of contemplation, Cheerilee decided to ignore the implications of what she’d just thought.





The rest of the day passed without incident. Lessons followed, some on subjects Thesis found interesting, others which she didn’t. Math proved mildly interesting, but on more than one occasion Thesis found herself staring at what Miss Cheerilee was saying, only to find it somehow was familiar, but when she raised her hoof to try and explain this, or tried to think about it too hard, the knowledge vanished, leaving her feeling foolish.

Geography, arts and crafts, language all barely held her attention. History sounded slightly interesting, until she found out it wasn’t apparently about fights and battles, of which Equestria didn’t seem to have much, but instead deals and politics and apparently lots of ponies standing around talking about stuff at each other and signing things. And she was very disappointed when it turned out Miss Cheerilee did not teach magic. In fact, none of her lessons mentioned anything about magic of any kind.

Of the other foals, she found she liked some, such as Snips and Snails (even if the later seemed a little too interested in Trixie sometimes. She wasn’t entirely sure what he meant when he said Trixie was “hot”, but it definitely sounded weird to her), and Scootaloo, who occasionally swapped sandwiches with her (especially when Trixie put in too much cheese in her sandwiches), even if hers were sometimes surprisingly hot. She was increasingly sure she didn’t like Tootsie Flute much, and the feeling seemed to be returned in kind.

Then there were other foals, like Pipsqueak (who was tiny, and had a really weird accent, and seemed to giggle a lot whenever he was around Dinky. And she seemed to giggle a lot around him), and Rumble, and Diamond Tiara, who seemed to spend most of her time bothering Scootaloo, just generally being a jerk, but who largely ignored her. On the plus side, when she did notice Thesis, she didn’t seem particularly bothered by her being an alicorn. In fact, she didn’t even seem to notice at all.

Despite the slowness of the lessons, the days passed. Tuesday gradually became Wednesday, which eventually became Thursday, which after an eternity became Friday.





Even she could notice there was an energy in the air, as it approached three o’clock on Friday. Some of the other foals were fidgeting as Cheerilee maintained her usual cheerfulness, Scootaloo in particular seemed to be a one-pony state of fidget, and it was maddening to sit through just by proxy, the way her wings occasionally flittered as the clock hand slowly crawled upward. Not flapped, but flittered. She was creating a small breeze behind her, her wings were flapping so much. Which wasn’t really what anypony wanted when it was so cold anyway.

Thesis was excited too. Her first weekend. Well, not her first ever weekend, she supposed, but it was different now. It had been Thursday evening over dinner, a small affair of mash and what Trixie had referred to as “stuff” that she’d been told Friday was the last day of school.

And then after several minutes of explanation, Trixie had more adequately explained that Friday was the last day of the week. She’d still have to go back to school on the following Monday (and then Trixie had muttered something in prench).

But that was still two whole days without school. Two whole days. It sounded unbelievable. Two days. Everypony had spent recess talking about what they were going to do, and some of them had even asked her if she wanted to join them.

So there she was, sitting at her desk watching as the hand ticked upward, and Cheerilee explained something about plants (or was it farming? Farming plants? She was wondering if even Miss Cheerilee knew what she was talking about at that point, but the thought of asking that felt wrong somehow. Ponies would probably laugh at her again).

Finally, there was a loud click at the minute hand reached the top. The bell was almost drowned out by the cheering, as her classmates rushed toward the doorway, jostling and bustling as they retrieved their cloaks.

Thesis waited for the crowd to thin out, since she had no cloak (and didn’t need one. Where nearly everypony else talked about the cold, she just thought it wasn’t that bad. Maybe that was something about being an alicorn, but it didn’t explain why Alula needed a cloak. She’d tried asking, but Alula had just made that face everypony made when somepony called her a Princess.)

As she stepped outside, she noticed Dinky waiting for her again, waving a hoof madly in case Thesis somehow didn’t notice her. She walked over to her, and then saw her friend frowning at something.

“What?” she asked.

“Who’s that?” Dinky asked. Thesis turned to look at the subject of Dinky’s inquiries.

Standing there, a short distance from her, was Midnight.

In an instant, Thesis came trotting over to her, smiling.

“Sis!” she said, before wrapping her forelimbs around one of the mare’s front legs. So busy was Thesis doing this she didn’t notice the long pause before Midnight responded to the act.

“Little one.”

“You were gone forever!” Thesis exclaimed.

“Not forever,” the mare replied, “just longer than expected.”

“It felt like forever. You missed the Twelvetide. And Hearth’s Warming. And New Year’s.” She blinked, as a thought occurred to her. “Did you get me anything?”

Midnight paused. “I apologise, little one, but there was not a great deal of opportunity where I was to purchase gifts.”

“Oh.” Thesis murmured.

“And it would’ve been hard to purchase a gift for you without knowing what you might have wanted.”

“I guess…”

For a long time, she held on to the mare’s legs, just in case she tried slipping away. “How’d you know I’d be here?”

“I am your sister.” Midnight stated. “I will always know where you are. But three in the afternoon, on a weekday, the deduction was obvious.”

“So why where you gone for so long?” Thesis asked. Midnight stared away from her.

“Complications arose. And ensued, and were overcome.” She said, before looking back down at Thesis. “How have you been finding education?”

“It’s okay…” Thesis said quickly. “I think I made some friends.”

“I noticed.” Midnight said, as she glanced over toward where Dinky was standing, looking at the two thoughtfully.

“That’s Dinky.” Thesis explained, “she’s nice. Trixie teaches her magic sometimes, though it doesn’t look like magic to me. And there’s also-” she stopped, as she saw Midnight staring at something. She looked, to see Trixie standing there, an odd expression on her face.

“You.” She said to Midnight. “When did you get back?”

“Earlier.” Came the reply.

“Hi, Trixie.” Thesis said, waving in case she hadn’t noticed her. Trixie smiled at her, but there was something definitely off about it, even before it vanished the minute she stopped looking at her. Thesis looked between the two ponies, who were staring at one another.

“Is something wrong?” she asked. She wondered if Trixie was angry about her sister being gone for so long. Then she wondered why she wasn’t asking about it, if that was the case.

Apparently Trixie didn’t hear her. “I suppose you’ll be wanting your sister back.” She said.

“That’s her choice.” Midnight responded. Trixie looked to Thesis.

“So, what do you want to do?” she asked.

“I don’t know.” Thesis replied, “but I’m kinda hungry.”

Trixie made another face. “That’s…” she began, “that’s not what I meant. Would you rather stay with me, or go back with her?”

“I don’t know.” Thesis repeated.

“Well,” Midnight spoke up, “why don’t we go back to Lulamoon’s house, and see if you’ve reached a decision by then?”

“Okay.” Thesis murmured.





It wasn’t long into the walk back through Ponyville before Thesis began excitedly telling Trixie and Midnight about her day, managing to talk enough to make up for both of them being silent, her earlier hesitation suddenly forgotten, buried under the thought that maybe she could get them to be more cheerful. Once they reached Trixie’s residency, she hurriedly scurried up the stairs, leaving the two alone.

“So,” Trixie began, “are you staying long? I was going to make dinner, but it was just going to be for me and Thesis. Since, you know, you didn’t exactly mail ahead to say you were coming back.”

Midnight just gave her a look, or what Trixie decided was a look. She marched closer to the mare.

“You are staying, right? Not just running away and leaving her again?”

Before Midnight could say anything, there was the clump of trotting hooves, as Thesis came down the stairs again, carefully holding several things in her magic. Namely, the things she’d been given for Hearth’s Warming.

“Look,” she declared, “Miss Twilight got me a book, and this.”

Trixie knew she had seen some strange sights in her time, but the sight in front of her was definitely a new one. Midnight was staring at the bedraggled doll that was Smartypants, as it hovered in front of her in Thesis’ grip.

“She’s called-”

“Smartypants.” The mare said, her voice eerily low. “I know.”

“Yeah.” Thesis stopped at that, and looked up at her. “Are you okay?”

For an instant, Trixie could’ve sworn the mare looked lost and confused, as she stared at the donkey doll. But only for an instant, as her eyes closed, and when they reopened the look was gone.

“I’m fine.” she stated, her voice calm and level again.

Trixie coughed, then smiled warmly at Thesis. “Thesis, would you mind giving us a moment alone? I need to talk with your… sister about some things.”

Thesis looked hesitantly between them, then nodded. Trixie walked off into her study, Midnight following behind. In her study, Pokey was shuffling a few papers.

“Pokey?” Trixie said, before she’d even got through the door. “You’ve got an early Friday.”

For a moment, he looked back and forth between the two of them, and then set the papers down, and without a word walked out of the room, as fast as equinely possibly. Once he was gone, Trixie began casting a few noise suppressing spells on the door, just to be absolutely certain, before she turned to face Midnight again.

“What was that all about?” she found herself asking. Midnight just breathed in for a moment.

“I must be more exhausted from my journey than I knew.” The dark blue mare replied.

“Right.” Seconds loudly ticked past, before Trixie resigned herself to the fact she wasn’t getting any answers on that front. Not that she’d really been expecting any to begin with. “So, what are we going to do?”

“The first course of action should be getting Thesis some dinner. Beyond that…”

“Beyond that, I think we should really talk this out.” Trixie stated, firmly. “Somewhere little ears won’t accidentally overhear.”

Midnight nodded. “How has she been?”

Trixie glowered at the mare. She wanted to ask how she could even consider asking, but she bit it down. There would be time to be angry later.

“Fine, fine,” she said, waving a hoof dismissively. “Quiet, mostly. Reads a lot. Relatively well behaved for her first week at school, and she’s not broken anything that can’t be replaced. Only one or two incidents of night-time freak outs.”

Her gaze turned harsher. “And I might just be seeing things, but she seems to have a budding abandonment complex. Can’t imagine how that happened.”

Midnight continued to remain silent.

“You say I can’t look after her. Then you move to Ponyville. Then you up and leave for no reason.” She realised she was gritting her teeth. “Right now, I don’t care what your reasons for doing any of this are. I don’t care if you’re doing it of your own free will or being blackmailed or controlled. I do not care. If you really do want to look after her, really do, then prove it, or so help me… so help me I swear I will do everything and anything I can that is within my power to get her away from you forever. Are we clear?”

Her expression remained unchanged, but Midnight nodded. “I’ll take her back to my house,” she said, finally. “Give her dinner, and then we will talk on this, properly.”

She turned to look at Trixie. “On Thesis, and other matters.”

[]iAt least have the courtesy to be smug, Trixie fumed to herself. Be snide, be obnoxious. Gloat. Hay, be angry. Don’t be whatever it is this is.

“Fine.” She sighed. “But I’m choosing the location, alright?”

“Agreed.”

“It’s Berry Punch’s bar. You’ll know it when you see it.”





Midnight had been quiet on the walk back to their house, through the light scattering of snow, even when Thesis had tried asking her questions. The few responses she’d gotten were short, and soon enough Thesis decided there was no point asking more questions.
Even she could tell there was something up with her sister.
Once they got to Midnight’s house, she hurried up to the spare bedroom, and put Smartypants on her bed. She considered going downstairs to see what her sister was doing, but decided against it, and instead picked up her book and began reading.





“What is this?” Thesis asked, looking at the arrangement of trays in front of her. Up front was a strange thing which looked like a very tiny pizza-thing, with what looked an awful lot like melted cheese coming forth from the middle, still bubbling and gooping as she looked at it. Nearby was a large pile of mashed potatoes, covered in butter, and a large array of salad next to it.

“Dinner.” Midnight stated. “I may have gone overboard in the preparation.”

Thesis looked at the thing in front of her, and sniffed it. It bubbled again, and she recoiled. Something about it just didn’t look right to her, and made her want to bat it away.

“Is something the matter?” her sister asked. Thesis looked up at her.

“I don’t think I can eat this…” she murmured. “What is it, anyway?”

“It’s a quesadilla.” Midnight informed her. “Or an attempt at one.”

There was the sound of a cheese bubble popping, causing Thesis to jolt.

“Alright,” Midnight’s horn lit up, “I will dispose of it, and you can instead take the mashed potatoes. How does that sound?”

“Better…” Thesis admitted, as plates moved about in Midnight’s hold. “Sorry. It just… something about it…”

“From an incident Shining Armor recounted, Twilight Sparkle has her own peculiarities about melted cheese.” Midnight said, before taking a large bite out of the tortilla. “It seems you have inherited them. Which is hardly anything to apologise about. Now, do try and eat up, little one.”





Thesis lay on the one sofa in the living room of her sister’s house, and tried not to move much. After the amount of mash she had eaten, she was now feeling incredibly tired, even though it was barely half past six in the evening. Occasionally, she felt a weird feeling in her stomach.

“That was enough mashed potato for three ponies.” Midnight had observed, as she had begun washing the dishes. Thesis hadn’t dared to suggest they must’ve been three ponies who didn’t like potatoes very much. Once she was done with the cleaning up, Midnight went over to the small fireplace that took up one wall, and began a fire. Once it had begun burning properly, she put a small barrier in-between the fireplace and the floor. Even though she hadn’t been feeling the cold much, Thesis did like the sudden increase in temperature it brought.

“Alright, little one,” Midnight declared, “I’m going to go meet with Lulamoon. I should be back in an hour, at most.”

Ignoring the feeling in her stomach and back as she moved, Thesis got up. “Wait,” she called out, “you just got back, and you’re already leaving again?”

“No.” Midnight replied, “I just explained to you that I will be back soon.”

“Like you were back soon wherever you went?” Thesis asked. “You’re just leaving me on my own again.”

Slowly, the mare knelt down next to her. “It will only be for an hour, while Lulamoon and I try to talk through some matters. Two, at the very most. Then I will promptly return. I promise you.”

Thesis just grunted in response. “I am sorry about leaving you for so long, little one. If I had realised it would cause such problems… but I had no idea it would have such an impact on you.”

Finding it difficult to look at her, Thesis turned away. “Hurting you was never the intention, Thesis. And from now on, I will not be disappearing unexpectedly. I will be here, for you.”

She turned to look at her again. “You mean it?” The mare nodded.

Slowly, Thesis began to smile. “Apart from going to talk with Trixie.”

“But only for an hour.” Midnight repeated. “And that is assuming talks do not break down before then.”

“Couldn’t I just stay with Miss Twilight?” Thesis asked, “or maybe with Dinky and her mom?”

Midnight shook her head. “I do not know them. And I highly doubt Dame Doo would be kindly disposed to do me any manner of favour, even if I were not a stranger to her.”

“I could ask her.” Thesis tried.

“Little one…” Midnight said, “that would be very manipulative. Which would be unfair on Dame Doo, and wrong.

“Sorry.”

“I know you are afraid of being alone, but this is Ponyville. The chances of something dangerous happening are incredibly slim. All you have to do is be brave for an hour. Can you be brave, little one?”

Thesis only murmured.

“That’s a start, at least.” Midnight said.





It had been half an hour of pacing about her residency before Trixie decided she wasn’t going to wait, and headed out toward Berry’s Punch Bowl. Determined and more than a little angry, she marched into the cold night air.

Hopefully she wasn’t there yet, and Trixie could try to enjoy a drink before she arrived.

She didn’t want to be angry. She wanted to be thinking about other, nicer things, starting with the fact it was the weekend. She wanted to do weekend things, like sleep in, and meet her friends, just hang out and relax for once, and not deal with annoying two-faced backstabbers.
But that was the situation she was faced with.

Berry’s bar was warm and inviting, especially after several minutes trudging through the slush and snow, which was getting thicker by the minute. The worst parts of winter were apparently passed, but the weather patrol apparently still insisted on a thick layer of snow anyway, refreshed just in time for the weekend. Several ponies were already present, either gently toasting near the fireplace, or just having a convivial drink. Trixie even noted Cloud Kicker sitting at the bar, enjoying a drink of something, a rare sight. In fact, she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen the nervous executive of Ponyville’s weather patrol in the bar. Or, indeed, if she’d ever seen Cloud Kicker in there before (or, now that she thought on it, that they’d ever talked very much). But there she was, having a drink, if not looking like she was having the greatest time ever, it had to be said.

Not that Trixie was doing much better. The nervous mare apparently noticed her, and smiled at her.

“Hi, representative.” She said, brightly (or tried to. There was something about her smile that was just a little too forced to be true, even if someone overlooked her frazzled mane and tail). “Nice seeing you.”

“Nice seeing you too.” Trixie smiled back. “How are things?”

Cloud Kicker’s wings fluttered, and her smile followed suit. “Oh, they’re… th-they’re fine, yeah. Great.”

“Really?” Trixie’s eyes narrowed, “because I’ve heard there’s been some arguments between you and Rainbow Dash.”

For a moment, only a brief flickering moment at that, something flashed across the pegasus mare’s face which looked an awful lot like terror. “There’s no arguments.” She said, “everything’s great with me and Rainbow Dash. Is this Dropsy? S-she’s just fussing.”

Trixie managed to get her face to stay neutral at the sound of what she was going to assume was a nickname for Raindrops, one that she almost certainly didn’t like. “Alright, then. I mean, I could understand if you were having a problem with Rainbow Dash, you know.”

“N-no.” Cloud Kicker blurted. “I’m just having a drink to relax is all. O-or trying to, at any rate.” She nudged at the drink, which Trixie noted seemed barely touched, with a hoof.
“Not doing so great.”

Trixie looked across the bar, and her eyes met those of Berry Punch, who was frowning at the despondent weather worker. She looked back to the mare.

“Well,” she said carefully, “it was… nice talking with you.”

“Yeah.” Cloud Kicker nodded, which Trixie took as leave to flee, and moved over toward Berry, who was still glancing at Cloud Kicker.

“That’s one of the weakest drinks I have.” The earth pony bartender frowned, “it barely counts as a pick me up, more of a light prod in the ribs. And she’s still barely touched it.”

Berry shook her head. “Wondering if I should start charging rent on that glass, see if she’ll ever actually drink it.” After a second she looked back to Trixie. “So, what can I get you, representative? Bourbon?”

Trixie cocked an eyebrow. “Representative? Aren’t we friends, Berry?”

“Only when your tab’s paid up.”

“I’d like the fact I saved Equestria to be taken into account.” Trixie retorted.

“First off, that was a year ago. Can’t keep riding that one forever. Second of all, wasn’t a team effort? I seem to remember there was something about four or five other ponies being involved. Might’ve heard of one of them. She’s called Cheerilee.” Berry produced a glass and a drink all the same.

“Maybe when you and yours actually defeat Queen Nutjob for good, we’ll see about heroic discounts.”

Trixie took a starting sip from her drink. “Sounds fair.” She said. “Salut.”

“Not that Kicker’s the only one hoarding her drink.” Berry sighed, “there’s her over there.”

Trixie turned to follow where the mulberry mare nodded, and whatever good buzz her bourbon might have provided evaporated at the sight of Midnight sitting at a table, a small drink of something sitting in front of her.

Sighing, and then drinking as much of her drink as she could in one gulp, Trixie walked over to the table and sat down. There was no avoiding it now. The hall was filled and the band ready to play. Now it was time to dance to the music of diplomacy.

“Lulamoon.”

Trixie grit her teeth. As far as omens for how the next several minutes were going to go, that wasn’t the best. And she really wasn’t sure why she’d been expecting differently.

“How long have you been sitting here?” she asked.

“Ten minutes, maybe twenty.” Midnight said, but she didn’t sound absolutely certain. Trixie eyed the mare’s drink, wondering just what she’d ordered.

Then she remembered why they were there, and like a lamp being lit, the anger came back.

“Let’s just get down to why we’re here, alright?” Midnight gave no response, so Trixie decided to press on. “Thesis is not some cloak you can just hang up on a peg whenever you can’t be bothered to deal with her. You finagled her away, and then you just dump her to run off and do whatever it was? That’s not happening. You wanted to keep her in your clutches so badly, you are damn well gonna look after her.”

“I know.” Midnight said.

Trixie’s train of thought stopped, if only for a moment. Despite everything, she found herself feeling a small pang of curiosity. “What in Equestria was it that was so bad you had to go away for so long in the first place, anyway?”

Midnight nudged the glass slightly. “A pony I know… knew had been injured.”

Trixie stared at the mare for a moment. “That’s it?”

“Badly injured.” Midnight continued, “a stray blast of elemental magic, from what I understand. There was a great deal of uncertainty as to whether he would even recover.”

She took a sip from the drink. “He did not. So there were arrangements to see to.”

“Oh.” Trixie said, numbly. There was a horrible silence. “What was his name?”

“Wedge. Wedge Hurricane.”

Trixie could only stare at that. Hurricanes were relatively rare in Equestria, unless somepony in a weather patrol really messed up, but in places where there were no weather services, especially over oceans, they could occur with some frequency. She had certainly been through more than one in her childhood in Neigh Orleans, but the idea that somepony would be interested enough to have one as their special talent…

“That’s a pretty cool name.” She eventually managed.

“He was not quite as impressive as such a name would suggest.” Midnight said, “he was a very quiet pony, who just liked studying weather patterns.”

There was another long pause. “A quiet pony, and a nice pony. He didn’t deserve what happened to him.”

Trixie stared at the mare for a time. She had come to Berry’s expecting a tense argument, shouting, possibly even at least some fighting, though she’d have been damned if she was going to be the one to start it. And she was still angry at the pony sitting in front of her, unbelievably angry in fact. But after someone said something like that, it was hard to only be angry. Which was all the more irritating.

“How long have we known one another?” Midnight asked.

Trixie thought on this. “About… eight years. Give or take? I think it’ll be nine by summer. Why?”

“Eight years.” Midnight simply said. “Eight years, I worked at Canterlot, in one way or another, not counting the six months working for Vicereine Puissance.”

Trixie frowned. There were only three viceroys and reins at any one time (well, by technicality. There were only three seats, one for each of the three tribes, but if they married then their partners shared the title, as was the case with Twilight Sparkle’s parents). But the name didn’t sound familiar to her. And after the last year, she’d made a point of knowing as much about the Night Court and its members as she could (barring interruptions, of which there were admittedly a lot).

“Puissance…” she mused, rubbing a hoof against the side of her head. “Which one’s she?”

“The head of the house Optiebeurs-Golo. The late head of house Optiebeurs-Golo.”

Trixie continued rubbing, until a few vague memories from many years before surfaced from the depths of her memories. “Oh, right. Puissance. From that big corruption scandal several years back.”

That really did bring back memories, of one of the few times she’d seen Princess Luna truly angry. She hadn’t really been paying much attention to all that had been going on at the time (in her defence, she had been much younger at the time), and Luna hadn’t exactly been chatty about it, but the memories stood out all the same. And she had read up on it more recently. Seemed the late Vicerein had been up to all manner of things, some technically not quite legal, and some flat out fully illegal, up to and including falsifying evidence against her own daughter, all of which had come pouring out of the woodwork after her passing. So many things that apparently Luna had been, and probably still was, considering stripping the entire house of the viceroyalty.

She looked at the dark blue mare sitting across from her. “You worked for that mare?”

“Not by choice. It is difficult to refuse a vicereine, after all. And only for six months.”

“I must’ve blinked and missed that.” Trixie mused. “Or maybe I was enjoying myself too much to notice.”

“It was shortly after the departure of Abacus Cinch.” Midnight supplied. At the mention of the name, Trixie felt a chill down her spine which had nothing to do with the outside temperature, and shuddered.

“I remember her…” Abacus Cinch. That was a name she hadn’t hoped to hear again. In her mind, she could see the mare, a major functionary in the castle staff, of pale blue hue and dark purple hair, staring imperiously at Trixie over her glasses, like she was something an animal had dragged in, something particularly foul and disgusting. “She hated me.”

“In fairness,” Midnight stated, “she hated everyone and everything that couldn’t help her reputation.”

Trixie nodded. “What happened to her, in the end? I can’t remember.”

“A blackmail scandal. Details of workplace bullying. Nothing particularly dramatic, by Canterlot standards. At least not those of the last year, but Princess Luna found out and she was asked to resign.”

Trixie nodded. If she recalled correctly, that would’ve been six or seven years ago. “And then you got found by Puissance?”

“I suspect Cinch had been working for her already, in some capacity, even if only an unofficial one.”

Trixie furrowed her brow in thought. “Hold on. Luna put up with you for eight years, but a Vicerein only managed six months? What happened? Were you your usual charming self, or even worse?”

“You know,” Midnight said, frowning, “I’m still not absolutely sure. Puissance never expressed any dissatisfaction with my behaviour or my work, and I didn’t interact with anypony whom she might have found to be unsavoury company. And before I could inquire as to the reason behind this act, there was the fire.”

Trixie hummed. That one, she did know about. A vast fire had destroyed the house of a vicereine, claiming her life in the process, something that had made the news across Equestria. Even as a much more self-absorbed youth, she’d read up on that one, splashed as it was across the front pages of the Equestria Nightly (and, as it happened, a lot of the inside pages as well). Apparently a great deal of important art and artifacts and goodness knew what else had been destroyed in the blaze, the sum total of which had been incalculable.

“You were there?” she asked. “You didn’t cause it, did you?”

Midnight gazed levelly at her. “I was on the estate grounds when it happened, in the servant’s wing. The fire began, as far as anypony could determine, in the Vicereine’s study. I woke up to everypony screaming as the Optiebeurs-Golo mansion burned to the ground.”
The mare stared for a long moment. “It is something to be said for that mare that her staff were so well organised, there were very few fatalities. Outside the vicereine, some of her security, and her bodyguard.”
Midnight’s expression turned ponderous. “A very unique pony, that one. You would understand, if you had seen her.”

Trixie shook her head. “Was there a point to this story?” she asked, sharply.

“Eight years.” Midnight repeated, “eight years of work. Of breaking off all contact with others. Eschewing friends and relationships of almost every kind, for work. For the sake of my job.” Trixie decided it wasn’t worth pointing out that in those eight years she’d found the time to follow her around everywhere. Logical counterpoints were to a pony in a funk as the words “calm down” were to Pinkie Pie.
“And at the time, each step, each decision made sense.” The mare paused. “Yet when I look back, I find myself lost. Do you know how that feels, Lulamoon?”

Trixie murmured something. She found herself thinking of Tambelon, and what had gone on there. The desperate alliance with Corona, the Tyrant Sun herself, and how they – she – had been the one to break it, expecting the fallen alicorn to turn on them the first chance she got. Only she had been outraged at them, even hurt. And afterwards, when the demon ram Grogar had been fighting Corona and Luna, they’d sworn to one another they’d made the right choice.
“Do you believe that?” Ditzy’s words from that day echoed in her memory.

“I…” Trixie reluctantly sighed. “A little, yeah.”

“Eight years. Destroyed in a day for a foal I had known less than a week. A good-natured foal, and a sweet foal. One who needed protection, from more threats than just the obvious… but I am still lost.”

Trixie frowned. The anger was rising up again. She wanted to point out Midnight had brought that all on herself. Oh, how she wanted to do it. Diplomacy be damned. Consequences be damned.

But then she saw the look on the mare’s face, which was astonishing in and of itself, since there was one beyond disappointment or vague irritation. And in her mind’s eye she saw Ditzy looking at her, with a curious expression.

“Dammit,” she thought to herself. She was Trixie Lulamoon, Knight of Equestria. Representative of the Night Court of Princess Luna to Ponyville. She had to be the better pony, much as at that point she really didn’t want to. But she’d spent the last year having to deal with what happened when she let herself give in to the pettiness.

And more to the point, there were still other, more important things she wanted to spend her time thinking about than whether someone else was going to come after her in revenge, regardless of their reason.

“Alright,” she said, “here’s the deal. A truce, between you and me, for Thesis’ sake, and only for hers. Break it, or abandon her again, and me and my friends fall on you like an avalanche.”

Midnight stared at her for a long while, slowly breathing in and out. “There is little I can do to make amends for what I did.” She said. Trixie began to speak, but the mare held up her hoof. “But that does not absolve me of any responsibility to try all the same.”

“Does that include undoing the bureaucratic snarl you made?”

Midnight tapped a hoof against the table. “That would take time. Several months, in fact. It was a very comprehensive tangle. I think I was very determined that no-one, myself included, be able to undo it in a hurry.”

Trixie shook her head, and took another swig of her bourbon, hoping the buzz would put down the rising anger. “What is it with you? What is your deal?”

Midnight stared at her. “My “deal”? If you must know…” she took a deep breath, then her gaze met Trixie’s again. “I am actually a shard of Tirek forcibly implanted in a pony, having travelled back in time to assure my success in conquering Equestria.”

There was a sudden, all-consuming silence, Trixie staring in slack-jawed horror, as Midnight's expression remained coldly focused. Even the sound of the rest of the bar seemed to vanish from existence.

“I…” Trixie said, numbly, “I don’t believe it… that is the stupidest thing I have ever heard!”

Midnight looked down at her drink. “This is why I do not joke often. I never know when it’s right.”

Trixie said nothing until she finished her glass. A joke, at a time like this. Luna give her strength...

“Well, the Tirek bit I could’ve believed. I’ve seen stuff like that, so it wouldn’t be a stretch…” though privately she had to think that if someone was going to be something like that, they could probably do better than just spending their days being an annoying bureaucrat. “But… come on. Time travel. Where’d that come from?”

“I panicked.”

Maybe it was the bourbon already working its magic. Maybe it was because it had been a long day and a longer week. Maybe it was the sheer insanity of the situation, and everything that had led up to that point, but Trixie found herself suddenly breaking out in laughter.

“Though now, I am curious.” Midnight frowned, “if that was implausible, what is not? Would you have believed me if I said I was a changeling, perhaps? One of Discord’s spawn? A refugee from another world, brought here by magical mishap? What story is too outrageous to not be true?”

“I believe…” Trixie sighed, as she wiped a tear out of her eye, “I believe you’re an ass. You’re most definitely an ass. And stop changing the subject. Do we have a truce?”

Part of her wanted Midnight to say no, to refuse. Another, the annoyingly reasonable part that seemed to be still in there despite Monseuir Bourbon’s best efforts, chimed in that she probably wouldn’t.
“I…” Midnight began.

Whatever her answer was, Trixie didn’t hear her finish, as at that moment there was a horrific noise from the front of the bar, as at that moment, the front door to Berry’s exploded inward.