The train ride from the Crystal Empire back to Ponyville was a lot quieter and less crowded than one might expect. Few Crystal Ponies liked to leave their homeland, especially since so few of them would know anypony outside the city after their thousand-year absence, and outside of the winter sports enthusiasts and arcane academics, tourism was always a little sparse coming and going.
Yet, as this train rumbled across the open plains, its few passengers were glad for the isolation. The last few days had been… hectic. Hectic was a good word. Despite their initial goal to merely study Equestrian magic on portals, the four pony passengers had ended up a part of the legendary Starswirl the Bearded’s latest experiment in Time Magic. What had started as an attempt to help a unicorn regain her lost horn had turned into a trans-dimensional battle that nearly resulted in the destruction of Equestria itself and more. Time-displaced duplicates of the Bearers of Harmony, as well as two demonic alicorns from yet another universe had been set loose upon the Crystal Empire, and it was only the intervention of a few heroic ponies, including the alternate Bearers themselves, that prevented total disaster.
Starlight Glimmer, now resting on the train with her fellow heroic companions, had said disasters like that were distressingly common around these parts. The Great and Powerful Trixie, using her friend Starlight as a makeshift pillow in the train car, agreed wholeheartedly.
Starlight and Trixie were heading home now, traveling with three of their initial companions from the train-ride up from Ponyville. One, a red-and-gold maned unicorn mare named Sunset Shimmer, had once been Princess Celestia’s own pupil, while another, a purple unicorn with a set of large glasses resting on her face, was the mirror-universe counterpart to the Princess of Friendship herself, Twilight Sparkle. Their final friend, the sleeping baby dragon, was actually a dog named Spike on the other side of the mirror, which lay within Princess Twilight’s castle. And through the mirror, home.
As the train was nearing Ponyville, all four ponies were awake, Spike remaining stubbornly asleep. Starlight and Trixie took up one bench, while the other three took the opposing side facing them.
“Well,” Starlight said, raising a sympathetic hoof to Sunset and Twilight, “for what it’s worth, I’m sorry your study-vacation didn’t go according to plan.”
Trixie, still sleepy and likely to nod off at any moment, yawned and said, “Not a problem. Though it wasn’t a total loss. Trixie made many new fans during the celebration.” This earned her an annoyed glare from Starlight, but Trixie seemed not to notice.
Sunset, however, hadn’t stopped smiling since the day before their departure. She just chuckled lightly under her breath before saying, “While it wasn’t the most relaxing time I’ve had being back home, I did manage to get what I wanted out of the trip.”
She carefully drew out a small scroll from her saddlebag and proudly displayed it for her friends, “A spell by Starswirl himself! With this, we can actually stabilize some of the Equestrian magic flowing into Canterlot High!”
Trixie, still groggy, raised an eyebrow. “Canterlot High?”
“High School, Trixie,” Starlight added helpfully, “They’re students there.”
“Wait,” said Trixie, eyes narrowing, “Do you mean to tell Trixie that these two are school fillies? Trixie’s been hanging out with children this whole time!?”
Sunset shrugged, “Hey, I’m still an adult on this side of the portal.”
Not one to be confused, at least intentionally, Trixie sat up straighter. “How does that work? Twilight’s around my age, I think… but you’re definitely older than Trixie! Like, really old, if Celestia taught you before Twilight.”
Sunset narrowed her eyes in return, “I’m not that old.”
“It’s tru- “, Twilight began to say before a long, excessive yawn shook her whole form, “…true. The portal between our worlds seems to operate under a loose and constantly vary- * yawn * -varying time dilation effect.”
Sunset placed a hoof on her younger friend’s shoulder, “You okay Twi? You seem tired.”
“I-it’s been a long weekend,” Twilight said, patting the friendly hoof with her own. “I always get the jitters after a magical disaster back home. My REM patterns are just off; they’ll get better once I’m home in my own bed.”
“Rem?” Starlight cocked her head at an angle.
Sunset nodded, “The part of sleep where you actually dream and rest up.”
Trixie was also not one to be ignored. “So… how does this time dilap… diam… thing work?”
Starlight sighed, “Trixie, it means that over in their world, there’s a copy of everypony from this world, just a few years younger.”
“Hm,” Trixie tapped her chin, “Trixie may be perfect, but even she wouldn’t mind losing a few years here and there.”
“That’s not how it works,” Sunset smiled, “Our Trixie is in school with us. I even consider her a fr…”
“WHAT!” Trixie shot up to her hooves. Spike, asleep on the bench, snapped awake as she screamed. If there were anypony else in their car, it would have been quite the embarrassing outburst. But since the Great and Powerful Trixie did not know the meaning of the word…
“Whoa, Trixie, calm down!” Starlight grabbed Trixie with her magical light blue aura and forced the suddenly enraged azure unicorn back to her seat.
“Calm down!?” Trixie shouted, hooves waving about, “How can I be calm when there’s an imposter besmirching the name of the Great and Powerful Trixie!?”
Twilight scrunched her nose in confusion, “Trixie… she has the same name.”
Trixie, the Great and Powerful, was unmoved. “Charlatan! She can’t get away with this! Next you’ll tell Trixie that this… Fake and Not-Powerful Trixie is also a magician!”
The resulting awkward silence from this comment was deafening.
Trixie crossed her forelegs in a pout and snarled, “When we get back, Trixie is going to find this Fake-Trixie and introduce her to Intellectual Copyright Violation and Legal Counsel!”
Starlight, a worried look on her face, “Trixie? I didn’t know you had a lawyer.”
“Trixie doesn’t,” she sniffed, holding up her front hooves menacingly, “Trixie named her Great and Powerful hooves.”
Twilight frowned. “We’re not letting you beat up our Trixie.”
“Then I will have to settle for a groveling apology from her,” said Trixie, who turned to the window and said nothing more.
The train soon came to a stop at the Ponyville station, and its few meager passengers filed out without trouble. Since everypony, including Spike, was heading towards the Castle of Friendship together, their conversations continued, albeit without input from the Grumbling and Pouty Trixie.
The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky, giving the entire town a warm, fuzzy glow that tinted everything orange. Sunset seemed to quicken her pace as the light filled the town, as though it had somehow rejuvenated her. Hard fighting, poor sleep, and a long train ride seemed to fade from her, taking her weariness with it.
After a few moments, Sunset realized she’d started pulling ahead of the others. She fell back a pace to match Twilight and Starlight, leaving Trixie to sulk a few feet behind them.
“So,” she began conversationally, “What’s your week looking like, Starlight?”
“Same old, same old,” the lilac unicorn laughed, weariness tugging gently at her, “Applejack, Pinkie, and Dash took the students on a fieldtrip to Yakyakistan, so I get another day to finish paperwork and lesson plans. Last I heard, Rarity and Fluttershy were dealing with a Friendship Problem over in Canterlot, but they should be back before classes return…”
Twilight’s eyes, attuned with the clarion call of academia, lit up instantly. “Oh! Sunset said that you were the Friendship School’s new Princip- I mean, Headmare. Congratulations!”
Starlight blushed, “Oh, thanks. It’s been… an experience taking on Twilight’s old duties in the school, and the town. I wish Sunburst hadn’t been needed with Flurry Heart still. I really do rely on him as my Vice Headstallion.”
Sunset nudged her, “As your VP… and nothing else?” There was no mistaking the almost predatory grin Sunset flashed.
More blushing.
“No pony congratulates Counselor Trixie,” Trixie grumbled just quiet enough to be under her breath, but also loud enough so everypony around her would hear.
Twilight turned to look directly at Starlight in horror, a mouthed ‘Counselor!?’ on her lips.
“Hey, I know she can be…” Starlight sought long and hard for the right words, “… well, Trixie. But she’s got a big heart, and she’s loyal to her friends and her students.” She turned to look over her shoulder, a smile on her lips. “She’s my best friend, and I don’t know what I’d do without her Great and Powerful advice.”
Trixie took a short break from grumbling to smile back.
“Well,” Twilight shrugged, “I suppose it would be hypo- * yawn * hypocritical to say that Friendship isn’t a proper qualification for working at a Friendship school.”
Sunset raised one hoof to feel Twilight’s forehead, “You alright Twi? I’ve never seen you this exhausted.”
She shook her head, as much denying anything was wrong as she was shocked at how well Sunset could walk on three hooves. “It’s really nothing. I just need a good night sleep.”
Turning one final corner, the group beheld the magnificent Castle of Friendship. The towering, tree-like structure glistened in the afternoon light, its crystal walls catching the sun in a dazzling, fractal display. There was no sight like it anywhere in Ponyville. Yes, including the pillar of black smoke pouring out of the open doors.
Oh, that can’t be good, thought Sunset.
The ponies took off in a dead gallop, even Trixie finding a sudden swell of energy firing into her limbs as she raced towards the castle. The locals, out in force normally for the late afternoon market, managed to gawk at the sight while keeping a lane open for anypony headed towards the disaster, a skill honed by years of such things going on in Ponyville. A common saying among the locals was that it wasn’t Tuesday in Ponyville if the fabric of reality hadn’t been threatened twice before lunch. Three times if the Cutie Mark Crusaders were on the loose. Four if Pinkie had a mug of coffee.
Sunset reached the gaping doorway first, and could hear some sort of crashing, yelling, even explosions going on past them. She led the charge straightaway, following the smoke down the main hallways to the throne room and the castle interior. She came up suddenly as the smoke curled around a doorway into the kitchen, if she remembered the layout rightly.
The kitchen had seen better days. Ingredients of all kind were sprayed across the countertops and cupboards, those that weren’t dangling at crooked angles. Smoke hung in the air near the ceiling, but was gathered thickest just above the waterlogged stove, besides which a small, purple dragon gasped and sagged from some monumental effort.
“Spike!”
“Sunset!” he cried back. “Y-you’re back!”
“Spike, what’s going on?” Sunset swept a calculating eye over the little dragon. Besides a few scuffs, it looked like he was okay.
Spike wiped one claw across his brow, “What didn’t happen!? I swear, those Crusaders…” His eyes snapped wide open, pupils the size of pinpricks.
That expression was never a good sign. A sheepish grin crawled its way across Spike’s face as he asked, “Um… when exactly did you need to be getting home again? Could I interest you in some dinner here first? Perhaps a bath? Another… vacation…?”
Trixie and Starlight had just swept past, chasing after whatever else had happened to the castle. Twilight caught up to Sunset just as Spike had finished talking, her own Spike running on all fours to keep up, lacking the wings of his counterpart.
Sunset could have sworn Twilight asked her what had happened, but for some reason her ears weren’t working properly. Something cold and slimy had settled suddenly into her guts, and drained all the warmth and life from her senses. It was a foreboding feeling. It was by sheer mechanics that she managed to turn and continue racing towards the library.
Books were scattered all around the vast library room, and into the halls of the castle, haphazardly tossed and piled like a whirlwind had careened through moments before. The crashing and banging had ended before Sunset and the others entered the castle itself, but all five, six once the other Spike ran after the group, could hear voices in the…
The mirror room. Oh… no…
The small room which housed the portal back to Sunset and Twilight’s world looked more like a warzone than a part of the library. The floor was scuffed in places, scorched in others. Books were thrown open and tossed about. Gears, cogs, and glass littered the floor where once there had stood a tall mirror housed in an arcane gate. Once. Past tense.
The mirror lay shattered and broken on the floor.
Beside the ruin, the Princess of Friendship, a near doppelganger of Twilight save for the extra height and addition of wings, seemed to be talking to a trio of fillies. Sunset… Sunset could not bring herself to focus on any of them. She had only eyes for the destruction of her very life, of Twilight’s very life.
The purple unicorn, in fact, had just made the final turn and looked upon the destruction herself. Glancing back, Sunset watched her friend simply freeze in place, her eyes desperately trying to understand just what lay in front of her. To her supreme credit, the Great and Powerful Trixie held a worried and shocked look upon her face. She even placed a protective, almost sisterly hoof on the younger mare’s withers.
Under any other circumstance, Sunset would have probably joined her. Or at least given Trixie the sort of praise she deserved for displaying that sort of atypical tact. But it was true that the nearly torched and cratered remains of her doorway home took up much of Sunset’s concentration.
Well, that and the tail end of the Princess’s lecture.
“… and I think you’ll find that your friendships were the real treasure all along.”
The Cutie Mark Crusaders, earth pony Apple Bloom, unicorn Sweetie Belle, and pegasus Scootaloo, smiled and cheered as one, “Thank you Twilight!”
“Now,” the Princess chuckled, “Go get cleaned up! Dinner will be in an hour.”
As the three fillies raced away, the Princess of Friendship sighed contentedly and turned to begin her next task, only to stare directly into the pinprick eyes of a very familiar, very disturbed mare.
“Ah! Sunset Shimmer! It’s great to- “
“TWILIGHT!” Sunset screamed, “The mirror!”
The purple alicorn stared, puzzled, at her fellow former student of Princess Celestia, then turned her head slowly to take in the rubble that was once a mystical portal built by Starswirl the Bearded himself.
“Hm.” She nodded noncommittedly, “Yes, I can see why that would be distressing.”
Sunset’s disbelief at her friend’s nonchalance bordered on all-consuming. “What happened!?”
Princess Twilight happily recounted, “Well, since I had some things to clear up in Saddle Arabia, I sent Spike back to help the CMC out with the activities we planned to do together. I’m sort of foalsitting. And, well, they apparently decided to make a mess of cooking lunch, and then tried to find the journal that would let them activate the portal and go see their human counterparts. There was also something about finding buried treasure, but once the fire broke out, they abandoned that plan. Turns out, every step of the way went about as you’d expect with them.”
Sunset had no words. Literally no words as she sputtered in a combined state of horror and rage. Twilight Sparkle, on the other hoof, choked back a sob and shouted, “How can you be so calm about this!? We… can we ever go home now?”
Princess Twilight’s eyes seemed to take in her younger self with a sort of focused detachment. But only for a moment, as she shook her head like a pony fighting off a sudden drowsy spell. The look she returned to her two friends was one filled with sudden embarrassment with a touch of concern and good humor. It was a complex look.
“I’m sorry,” she said, “I was just in ‘Celestia’ mode and… I didn’t think how you would be reacting to this. But I can assure you that it’s not as bad as it looks.”
Trixie took a step forward, just ahead of Twilight, and leveled a frown at the Princess. “It is clear to the Great and Powerful Trixie that this is, in fact, as bad as it looks. What baffles even Trixie is how calm you are about this, Sparkle.”
“The Great and Powerful Twilight has reason to,” Starlight chimed in as she entered the room herself, her magic holding up a small collection of strange items. In her blue aura there hung a set of bandages, a paperclip, a wad of chewed bubblegum, and a roll of duct tape. All procured from the human world, Sunset suspected.
Starlight continued, “Twilight’s been having me work on all sorts of contingency spells for… well, literally anything and everything. This was just one such spell, in case something just like this happened.”
The items began to spiral around Starlight’s horn, building up a haze of silvery light. In moments, they seemed to blend together into a halo hovering in the air, and with a sudden bullwhip-snap, the items had become a disk of pure magical energy. Sunset, Trixie, and even young Twilight stared at the effect as it lowered itself to the ruined mirror on the floor.
With a sound like an engine roaring to life, Sunset watched as the mirror’s bits and bobs bucked themselves into the air and began to snap together again. It was almost too bright to look at, too loud to listen to. But in seconds, the mirror and the magical-technological apparatus that held it together had been fully restored, landing back onto the floor with a soft click.
Sunset and Twilight both felt their legs give out. For Sunset’s part, she landed softly on the cold crystal floor and could feel it with every hurried breath, right alongside the pounding of her heartbeat. For one minute, one terrifying, soul-crushing minute, it had seemed like her life had been torn away from her. Again. And now it was back.
Emotional whiplash. Equestrian style. Wonderful.
Twilight sighed, barely holding back another sob, this time of happiness, “We… we can go home?”
Princess Twilight nodded sagely. “Yes, of course. In six to eight hours or so,” when she saw Sunset’s questioning look, she explained, “Oh, the portal is a little… unstable at the moment while it locks back onto your dimension.”
As way of demonstration, Starlight picked up a piece of broken crystal tile and tossed it under-hoof towards the mirror. Before it even reached the shining surface, the tile had simply frozen in place, and then dissolved into sand, leaving yet more of a mess to clean up.
“Okay,” Sunset said as her eyes locked with the sandy pile, “Guess that’s… good?”
“Of course it is!” Princess Twilight beamed at her guests, “Because now you can all clean up, have some dinner with me, and tell me all about your study-vacation!”
That last part gave Sunset pause, but before she could say anything, she was cut off by a certain blue unicorn stepping up to take center stage.
Trixie coughed once, “A bath and a meal would be most welcome after our adventures. But first, now that this crisis has passed and Trixie’s fans are alright…”
Instantly, the showpony rushed up to her hated rival, the Princess of Friendship, and threw her forelegs around her neck for support as she knelt with her hind legs on the ground. She let out a terrible sound as she whined, “Twilight! Why didn’t you tell me there was another Trixie!? I thought we were friends!”
“Uh, I don’t… what?” Princess Twilight appeared entirely confused by this foalish display.
“There’s a human Trixie who thinks that she’s the Great and Powerful, but I’m the Great and Powerful, and I need to go show her what’s what!” Trixie’s voice nearly cracked as she begged.
Princess Twilight leveled an unamused glare at her trans-dimensional guests. “What did you tell her?”
They could only give back chagrined smiles.
“Trixie,” the Princess continued, “I am not going to let you travel to another dimension to… beat up a child, no matter how much she resembles you.”
“Trixie did not want to hurt the impostor,” sniffed Trixie, standing up. She turned her nose up and said, “She merely wishes to see this show-not-pony’s act and make certain that it meets the Great and Powerful Trixie’s high standards of conduct and professional excellence!”
A voice that felt like a sour note and a flat cider seemed to ooze out of the air above Sunset and Twilight. “High standards of conduct? Professional excellence? From the Lame and Unimportant Trixie? Now that’s comedy!”
Trixie, at the sound of the voice, fled behind the Princess while both human-turned-ponies leapt back from its source. Sunset’s horn immediately flashed to crimson as she readied to defend herself. In between the two, however, a strange and weird creature had instantly materialized as if from thin air.
Most, upon viewing the twisted, monstrous form of the Lord of Chaos, would be confused, disgusted, or perhaps intrinsically insulted at its alien geometries, a collection of claws, paws, hoofs, horns, antlers, and wings all grafted to a strangely serpent-like equine body. Not Sunset. Oh no. She had seen Discord before, both awake… and in her nightmares.
Her haunches hit the floor a second later, her eyes shrunk to dots and her mouth hung open in a silent scream. The statue! The one from Celestia’s garden! There it was!
Discord drifted gently over to the golden unicorn, a toothy smile on his face and an open claw seemingly ready to give a long-lost friend a friendly hoof-shake. “Long time no see, Bacon-hair! How have you been?
Sunset fell onto her back, hooves up defensively in front of her face as she began to mutter under her breath, “Draconequii aren’t real, Draconequii aren’t real, Draconequii aren’t real,” each time adding a touch more conviction to the mantra.
“So,” Discord continued as though nothing had happened, “Did you ever get over those mommy issues? I guess not since old Sunbutt’s still around.”
“TWILIGHT!” Sunset turned her head and shouted to the Princess, tears streaming down her cheeks, “Why are my foalhood nightmares talking to me!?”
Spike, the dragon, didn’t seem to notice the distress Sunset was going through, asking the Lord of Chaos, “You know Sunset?”
Discord seemed to only just notice his Ogres & Oubliettes partner, “Hm? Oh, yes. Shimmysham and I go way back. She used to come out to the gardens and complain to herself about Celestia’s teaching routines.”
The Draconequus lifted his paw, now covered in a felt puppet shaped just like Sunset, and used its flappy mouth to perfectly mimic her voice, though in a mocking tone. “Why can’t Celestia see that I’m ready to be an alicorn!? Where’s my crown!? Oh, I sure would like to free the Lord of Chaos and show everypony how amazing I am! Buy gold!
“Honestly,” he continued in his own voice, slightly miffed, “You could have taken a hint about a team-up after the third dream.”
Sunset snapped her head up, a confused look on her face. “You… you were in my dreams?” And then, sudden white-hot anger. “You gave me those nightmares!?”
“Well I was a statue at the time,” Discord twirled a claw absently, “or else I would have just asked. I swear, you were so full of venom back then, if you’d had a friend to argue with in front of me, the Disharmony generated could have gotten me out years ago!”
“YOU JERK!” Sunset was back up on her hooves, horn blazing, “I wet the bed until I was nine because of you! You gave me a gray hair when I was ELEVEN!!!”
Discord smiled smugly, as if he could smile any other way, and said, “Yes, but that’s all water under the bridge these days. Welcome to the Reformed Villains Club, Sunny!” he passed her a small card with a line of ten punch holes under the self-explanatory text, “Commit ten good deeds and you get a whole special to yourself.”
He scratched his chin and looked around. “I can’t believe Starlight of all ponies actually managed that. Well, more fool me.”
Before anything could explode, turn to stone, or generally disintegrate, Princess Twilight laid a comforting wing over Sunset’s withers. “Sunset, I know you have… some issues with Discord. Believe me,” she shot the Draconequus a disapproving glare, “Everypony does.”
The Lord of Chaos narrowed his eyes at this, but said nothing. Twilight continued, “But he’s proven to be a true friend to us, and I’d prefer it if you two could get along instead of blow up my castle…”
A bit of crystal masonry crashed down from the ceiling somewhere.
“… more than it already is,” she chuckled, slightly embarrassed.
Sunset took a deep, shuddering breath. And then another. And another. After about five minutes, she’d calmed down enough to lower her horn.
“Alright, sorry. Kinda… I kinda lost my temper there.”
Discord seemed appeased. “Apology accepted. You can make it up to me by treating me to a night on your town. I suggest someplace with carnies, naturally, so Trixie feels at home.”
Trixie huffed, but said nothing.
“Yeah, not gonna happen,” Sunset chuckled. “With Starswirl’s spell, we’re actually aiming to reduce the amount of chaos going on over there.”
The Lord of Chaos gasped, claw over his heart. He looked like Sunset had actually stabbed him in the chest. “Princess Twilight!” he snapped angrily, “I demand this… this Mad Pony be committed immediately! Did you hear what she said? Such flagrant disregard for Chaos!”
The Princess, however, hadn’t heard him. “Starswirl? Starswirl was there?”
Sunset, ignoring her foalhood nightmare’s indignant cries, swiftly lifted the spell scroll in question from her saddlebag, a pleased smile on her face. The younger Twilight, however, cocked her head to one side, and gave the Princess a concerned look.
“Uh, Princess? Didn’t you receive Sunset’s letter?”
Sunset also took note of this, her original concern at Princess Twilight’s obliviousness having been scattered from her Discord-shock.
“N-no?” for once the Princess appeared flustered. “Why didn’t you use the journals… oh, I suppose we can’t use them while they’re stabilizing the…” she glanced towards her scaly little brother, “Spike? Did we get a letter?”
The purple dragon had it clutched in his claws. He swiftly brought it over. “Sorry, it arrived when things were… more hectic.”
Princess Twilight snatched the letter up with her magic, cracked the crystal-heart shaped seal, and began to read. As her eyes scanned the page, her breathing began to quicken. Even from their vantage point, Sunset and Twilight could see her eyes shrink down to near-dots. Discord merely read the letter himself, looking over the Princess’s shoulder. Trixie smiled at her rival’s discomfort. Starlight glowered at Trixie.
When she dropped the letter, Princess Twilight’s breathing was ragged, and her eyes had started drifting away from one another, giving the alicorn a rather crazed look. Starlight Glimmer, stepping past Trixie, leaned in and asked, “Um… Twilight? You need a paper bag?”
“No. No,” she replied, eyes still… uncrossed, and voice cracking slightly, “No, n-n-n-o, no, no, nope. This is fine, this is all fine. It’s fine. It’s… it’s fine because everything got fixed in the end and nopony got hurt and the timestream is intact and Midnight Sparkle almost got loose and am I rambling?”
Trixie answered, with her usual casual tone, “Yeah, a little. Like a four-out-of-Pinkie.”
A flash of green light, and another letter scroll, this time on pink parchment, dropped out of the air and onto the Princess’s head. She snapped it up and open in her purple magical aura. Seeing it was a short message, she automatically began reading out loud.
“Dear Twily,” her voice came out quick and slightly higher pitched than before, “Sorry about the late letter, but Shining and I fell asleep on the chariot (you know how that is*)…” she muttered through the next part, before roaring back to an ear-splitting shriek, “FLURRY WAS KIDNAPPED!?”
The Princess swung her head about in a wide arc, magical energy bursting from her horn. Even Discord took an apprehensive step back as wild gouts of purple magic fired into the air. But in moments, the power coalesced into a sphere of light. The sphere seemed to condense for a moment, before it heaved and flashed outward, instantly filling the entire castle interior.
The assembled ponies, Draconequus, dragon, and dog-turned-dragon were blinded only for a moment. As their eyes readjusted, they could see that the entire castle had remarkably organized itself. Every book appeared back on its shelf, the chipped and scorched crystals had been repaired, the smoke cleared out. The kitchen was probably fully restored as well, Sunset thought, assuming this was a contingency spell the Princess had prepped like the last one.
The castle may have been magically repaired, but it was clear that the Princess of Friendship was slightly broken, if her gibbering, cackling, evil laugh and uncrossed eyes were any indication.
“Everything is fine!” she screamed in the most convincingly ‘fine’ voice imaginable. “Go get clean! Dinner is in an hour! Then we can talk about how you almost destroyed the universe! Isn’t that exciting!? Heh, ha ha! HA! HA! HA!”
She even squee’d.
This… would be an interesting night.