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// 12- Celebrations - Dawn 
// Story: If Chaos prevails... 
// by The Marshmallow 
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The sun arose early, as per usual during summer, and yet some ponies outpaced it. Twilight Sparkle was among them, incapable of sleeping more than a few hours due to the stress she felt. She had spent the previous thirty minutes studying the plan for the thousandth times, superfluously revising all the spells that could help her should unforeseen problems arise. As she saw the sun peeking through her window, she finally started slowly walking toward the door of her room, opening it unto a small hallway. Fancy Pants' contacts had made sure to provide them with proper accommodation, despite Canterlot being fully booked. Nothing too fancy, that was for sure, but more than enough privacy, a room for each of them, and the certainty of not leaving any paper trail behind.

"Applejack?" The lavender pony knocked on her friend's door twice, not too loudly, before slowly pushing it open. As her intention was to wake her up, Twilight was somehow surprised of finding her awake already. She was stretching a bit on the floor, just beside her bed, preparing herself for the long day ahead. For a moment she simply went on, keeping her position for a few more seconds, before relaxing and turning towards Twilight with a smile.

"Sugarcube, you're up already?" The earth pony raised a brow for a moment, looking at her friend with just a pinch of concern "I'm used to this, but you might want to rest a tad bit more!" The work on the farm meant waking up at about that time every single day. But as far as she knew, her friend wasn't used to the same regimen."The day is gonna be long, and we need you in top shape!"

Twilight sighed, part of her knew her friend was right... But the other part of her was anxiety; it urged her to perfect every step of the plan, checking every detail, and materially prevented her from sleeping until she had done so. "I'll try getting some sleep in the afternoon, once everything is alright. Now we have to check the props before too many ponies are around, and if possible I'll get some more practice for the teleportation..." her words sounded as final and confident as they could, as one would expect from Celestia's second in command.

Still, Applejack was not convinced "I'll hold you to your word, Twilight." Trying to sleep during the annual celebrations? A useless endeavour for most. But not for those, like Twilight, that can practice advanced silencing spells. "Still, it seems to me you've put some mighty effort in checkin' and practicin' already." She doubted in the whole kingdom there could be a more proficient spellcaster than her, except maybe Sunset Shimmer. If even she couldn't do it, Applejack could well have believed it was just impossible.

"Eleven centimetres", Twilight replied dryly. "My margin of error is eleven centimetres. In a laboratory, it is a lot... But in the real world?" She gave her friend a worried look. "If my magic shifts just a bit further, either the teleport fails or she ends up someplace else. Best case scenario we lose our chance or we get caught." She fidgeted a bit, "Worst case scenario, the Royal advisor..." Teleportation spells are hard and dangerous; there are reasons they only are thaught to the most capable unicorns. There have been ponies that failed one and never reappeared, or at least didn't reappear whole. Using it on somepony else? From many meters away? Without being able to directly see her? The difficulty increased exponentially at every further condition. "Let's just say we don't want anything to go wrong."

And to this, there was nothing Applejack could object "Fine", she sighed after a few moments. She then simply took her saddlebag and started to move toward the door calmly "Let's get going, shall we?"

"Make sure to take everything We probably aren't coming back here", said the unicorn, quickly looking around the room to make sure nothing of relevance was left behind. Twilight was almost certain she would never see that room again, as that night she should have been in Ponyville with her hostage already. For Applejack it would have depended on how the aftermath of their heist would develop.

"I sent the money home already" Trixie gave her the whole payment in advance. An amount of money she was hardly comfortable with, being worth about two months of bucking apples and feeding animals for just one week of much lighter work. Sure, Trixie was demanding to the point of being obnoxious, but there was only so much the magician could need for her thirty minutes show. "So I only have a few tools..." The ones she brought from home, the only ones she trusted. Those she had used in years of building mangers, fences and even the barn. "And a few apples." A light snack, absolutely essential.

The last item left a smile on Twilight's face and lightened her anxiety a little bit. "Are the apples enough for breakfast, or you want a coffee, too?", she teased, leading the way outside the door of Applejack's room, soon followed by her friend.

"A coffee sounds good!"





Walking from their apartment to the main square was, for Twilight, an almost surreal experience. The streets of the capital she was born in, always so crammed with ponies, were now almost empty. All the shops and the boutiques, closed. And if it wasn't for a cafe inexplicably open 24/7, the two mares would have had a hard time finding any breakfast.

The situation completely changed once they got close to the main square. Discord's magical barrier loomed menacingly around it, and it was set in a surprisingly smart way. Unless a pony could fly (in which case he would be easily seen), there were only eight, easy to preside access points to the area. Near each of those, there were armed guards and long ques. It was somehow surprising how early many ponies were willing to get up to take some of the better seats, especially considering regular spectators were not allowed inside the square for another two hours at least.

Luckily, the two of them had backstage passes, and after a quick inspection of their saddlebags, they were allowed in the still empty square. Crossing the barrier didn't give Applejack any special feeling, as it had no effect to the touch. On the contrary Twilight, as a well-trained unicorn, could easily perceive the magic imbalance it caused, although the feeling passed as soon as no part of her body was in contact with it. Then it was time to cross the square, and since it was impossibly large, it actually took them more than five minutes to get to the backstage, where another pair of guards checked their passes, and finally they were inside. A large portion of the technical staff was there already, but only the first few performers were already preparing for their own show. Trixie? they were quite sure she wouldn't show up until the early afternoon at the very least. Good: that meant they had all the time they needed.

Unwilling to lose any time at all, Applejack trotted quickly towards the props for Trixie's show, most of which they had built themselves in the past few days. Considering they weren't professionals, they did a wonderful job. Sure, the fact their employer knew exactly what she needed and had a pretty clear idea of both the design and the functioning helped a lot. The practical sense of the apple farmer and the many spells Twilight used did the rest. All the spells that Sunset had called useless over time, and that in her opinion Twilight should have avoided learning to focus instead on more battle-focused ones, came in handy now: with just a pinch of magic, she could paint the props and cut the wood with incredible precision. Being them relatively easy spells that most unicorns could learn with the appropriate training, she didn't even reveal too much of her magical talent, managing to still be fairly inconspicuous.

While Applejack started by giving a look to the props, to be sure it was well oiled and working to perfection, Twilight moved quietly towards the stage, climbing the stairs with a relaxed demeanour. she shouldn't really have been going there, but as usual, the right amount of confidence made sure nopony thought anything strange was happening. Once she found herself back in the open, the empty square looked even larger, even more impressive, and thinking it would be completely full with ponies in just a few hours (and that many more would be looking at the show from their windows) was quite the overwhelming thought. The crowd would probably help her get away but also introduced many unpredictable variables. variable she didn't have time to consider right there, as her priority was moving towards a hidden trap door quite near the very centre of the stage. The magic box containing Pinkie Pie was going to be placed exactly there, and she would have easily snuck out of it ending up in the backstage, just to reappear a little later leaving the audience in awe. But Twilight was there to make sure that she would not return on the stage, and instead be brought back to Ponyvillle with her.

Twilight horn lit, and a measuring tape emerged swiftly from her saddlebag. After imagining the box exact position to make the trick work, she quickly determined the exact point in which she would have to focus her magic. After putting away the tape, she focused a very basic levitation spell on a few air molecules, essentially keeping them as still as she could. Given the very little amount of magic required, the magic around her horn was barely noticeable, and so she could walk back to the backstage without worrying too much. The next step was going to the exact place she would have been that afternoon and focusing on the place where she would have to teleport Pinkie. Two little, unassuming carvings on the floor, made days earlier, made this part quite trivial. The difficult part was memorizing the feeling of extending her magic towards the air that would in a few hours be replaced by Pinkie Pie, and then have that exact point connected to her target to have the teleport spell working to perfection. Once again, after making sure that nopony was directly watching her (and since the chosen position was close to a corner, she didn't have to wait much), she could fully lit her horn to have those few molecules of air being teleported to her desired target. She knew the feeling very well: she had managed to practice it day after day, practically perfecting all the details of the spell. She repeated it a few more times, to imprint it even more deeply in her mind... But then there was little more she could do. A few more performers were getting there, and a few more members of the technical staff were getting on the scene, making the whole ordeal less safe. It was finally time to go back to Applejack, helping her checking all the props one more time.





Fluttershy woke up at the melodic singing of a choir of birds.  According To Rainbow Dash, the singing was the only good trait they had. More then birds, they were a Cronenbergian hybrid between hummingbirds, much larger predatory birds and some kind of clocks. Fluttershy still thought they were kind of cute, though. The only thing that made her shiver was seeing Discord twisting their wings to set the correct time for the 'alarm'. That sight had hunted her throughout the first two nights, but now she was somehow used to it, so she turned to them with a smile.  "Good morning little friends!"

As she got more and more used to her new environment, she wasn't at all startled by the bizarre appearance of her room. Sure, discord tried to make it as cute as feminine as he could image, but Discord's taste in it was quite apparent. Not a single surface was regular, not a single decoration was normal or tasteful, and extremely flattering paintings and statues of Discord himself were everywhere. She mostly ignored them, and she arose from the bed starting to walk towards the bathroom. She preferred to have a shower before breakfast, which took her no more than fifteen minutes.

Once her fur was dry and her mane was properly styled, she could simply get out of the room. Rainbow Dash was already waiting there, with her mane as ruffled as it usually was, trying to display through her expression and her body language a certain nonchalance. "Morning, 'Shy!"

Fluttershy smiled. As much as the blue mare tried to play it cool, for a friend that had known her for most of her life, she was quite easy to read. The fact that for her standards she woke up so early every day was an easy giveaway, and so was the fact that she seemed even more protective of Fluttershy than she usually was "Dash... Are you still worried about this whole..." The timid mare looked around her. That weird, weird room was by itself already a lot to take in. And it was certainly far from being the weirdest or more worrisome "Thing?" Having to marry the King later that day, and probably having to live the rest of her life with him was probably what she was worried about. But on Fluttershy face, there was still the same calm smile "We'll be fine, I promise!"

"No, I'm not." She tried to deny, a bit flustered, but she wasn't very convincing. Not even to herself. she sighed "I mean, yes!" Little use denying it. "Who wouldn't?" A week certainly wasn't enough to take all of this in, and she had no idea how Fluttershy managed to pretend it was. "I mean, I will be fine. Always. I'm tough like that." And she started bragging. What was the point she was trying to make, again? Oh, right! "But I'm not the one marrying... Him!" Rainbow didn't think she would be 'fine' if that was the case. They had gotten to know him over the past week, and now even her kind of agreed he wasn't a complete monster. But from that to be somepony one would want to marry? "You don't have to do that, 'Shy!", she pleaded; hope and grief present in equal measure in her voice.

Fluttershy looked at her for a few moments. It was not easy to find an answer to this. At first, she thought that Cloudsdale would be doomed if she refused the marriage. now she was sure Discord would never do something like that. And although she wasn't in love with him, she had gotten used to the idea. She kind of felt like refusing now would be some kind of betrayal of his trust. And, on the other hand, after everything Rainbow Dash had done for her throughout their lives, she thought that through her new positions she could have ensured her a good life. She deserved it. "It's for the best."

Rainbow Dash wasn't as good as reading others, and sometimes she regretted this fact. She had tried to talk her out of the marriage day after day and still hadn't managed to understand what kept her from agreeing. Love was out of the question. Fear from Cloudsdale's fate, at this point, was out of the question too. And it wasn't even the lack of a chance to run away. Security around the castle was, for the most part, so lax they could have snuck out and run away easily. But she had finally a new hypothesis, one that could possibly hit the mark. Kindness! "Do you feel sorry for him?" She sounded a little bit more aggressive than she would have wanted. But out of all the ponies in Equestria, in her opinion, she was the one less deserving of that kind of compassion. Sure, she went through some rough patches in his life... But his god-like powers and his authority over the entirety of Equestria seemed a pretty sweet deal. And for loneliness... He had a great friend in Pie. Wasn't that enough? Since no answer came from Fluttershy, she just went on "Hear me out. We don't even have to cancel the wedding. There is a mare that is actually in love with him, and who is already much closer to him than you are. And they even seem a pretty good match, being about the same level of weird!" She didn't even have to say the name. it was quite obvious that description fit Pinkie Pie perfectly. "You could just swap!"

The two mares jumped, as a giggling figure appeared from literally nowhere. "You are making that sound a lot easier than it is!" The poofy mane and her pink colour left no doubts about her identity. Her way of inexplicably appear was also quite her style. "It's not that I would dislike that, but..." She blushed a little bit, and looked for a moment to the ground, before moving her gaze back to the duo. "He will never see me like that."

And Fluttershy had now accepted it as one of the many sad facts of life. But Rainbow? She wasn't so sure "You will never know if you don't try!" Her voice was full of confidence, as she pointed out what the right course of action was. And, to be fair, she had still plenty more arguments, plenty more ways of convincing the mare to toughen up and try to take Fluttershy's place. She had been thinking about that for days, after all, and she wasn't going to surrender before trying everything she could.

Pinkie replied with a smile, and a small giggle "Yes, I'm sure you would know about that..." There was irony in her voice, but not straight up sarcasm. More than malice, it was a resigned declaration they weren't in a very different place. And by phrasing it like that, the real meaning of it could easily go above Fluttershy head, while hitting Rainbow hard.

And just like that, Rainbow Dash was defeated. She opened her mouth, but she couldn't think of any snarky remind. She couldn't think of any remark at all. Pinkie was right, maybe if she had a bit more courage, Fluttershy would be hers. Had they been in love, engaged, married... They wouldn't even have been sent in front of Discord. In many ways, it was her fault too. And even now, she didn't have the fortitude to confess her feelings.

"By the way, breakfast is ready!" And now the pink pony was back to be as cheery as always, as if the previous conversation never happened. And with a moderate trot, she led the way toward the stairs, briefly turning back towards the two with a smile "Let's go, before it gets cold!"

And little could they do but follow her.