//------------------------------//
// The Lodger 
// Story: Ruler of Everything 
// by Sixes_And_Sevens 
//------------------------------//

One Month Later…
Rumble awoke to the smell of frying eggs. He grumbled to himself, rolled out of bed and trudged into the kitchen. “Morning,” he said.
“Good morning!” Button said, far more brightly than anypony had a right to be at six in the morning. “Are you excited?”
“I haven’t had my coffee yet. Emotions are not available right now.”
Rumble settled down at the kitchen table. It had been a couple of weeks since the two stallions had moved in together. Button was a pretty good roommate, if you could ignore the mechanical clutter that piled up everywhere. He was a good cook and he didn’t snore.
Both of them had elected to move out of their childhood homes -- Button wanted to give his mom and her marefriend some space, and Rumble just wanted to stop living in the same house as Cloudchaser. Thankfully, Button had known one Miss Tea Cozy who’d had some rooms to let, and the two had settled in reasonably comfortably.
Button took the coffee pot off the stove and poured two cups, served the eggs up onto plates, and took the other seat at the kitchen table, still beaming incessantly. Rumble glanced around the table. As he had suspected, Button's tail was actually wagging.
Rumble looked at him through lidded eyes as he took a sip of his coffee. Button’s grin only got brighter. Rumble rolled his eyes. “Yes, alright, it’s exciting. I’m looking forward to getting back into the TARDIS.”
“Have you thought about where you want to go?” Button asked. “I’m hoping for a real alien planet, or maybe the chance to meet an AI.”
Rumble shrugged. “Sure. Sounds good.” He yawned and blinked the last of the sleep from his eyes. “I’m gonna go for a fly,” he said. “See you at the train station later?”
“Wouldn’t miss it,” Button said.
“Yeah, I know. As though you’d miss a chance to see Sweetie Belle again.”
Button spun around. “And what’s that supposed to mean?”
But Rumble was already out the door. Button frowned for a minute before it melted into a goofy smile. “I mean,” he mused. “He’s not wrong…”





Up at Sweet Apple Acres, meanwhile, Dash was on her fifth cup of coffee, her hind hooves hammering out a rhythm on her chair.
Granny was doing her best to hide her amusement at the situation. Big Macintosh sat next to Dash, casting awkward glances her way as they tried and failed to figure out how best to calm her down. They kept coming up blank, so instead focused on trying to enjoy their waffles.
Apple Bloom was the only one really doing anything to help. Sitting across from Rainbow, she patted the older mare on the hoof. “Look,” she said. “Y’all are gonna be jus’ fine, ya hear? This proposal’s got it all, there ain’t no way she’ll say no.”
“Unless she does,” Rainbow said. “What if I’m going to fast for her? What if she’s not ready for this? What if I’m not ready for this?”
Apple Bloom nodded. “Those sure are... concerns you got there,” she said. “But ask yerself -- how likely are they, really?”
Rainbow gnawed at her lower lip.
“You want me to walk y’all through th’ proposal again?” Bloom asked, her voice soothing. “Would that help?”
After a moment, Rainbow nodded.
“Alright. After breakfast, you ask AJ to look at somethin’ you found out in th’ orchard. You start leadin’ her up to Ma an Pa’s grave, all roundabout-like, while th’ rest of us three sneak up there an’ hide. Then when y’all get there…”
“I pull out the ring, and you three come out of the underbrush,” Dash said, nodding. “Yeah. Yeah. I know. Good plan. Great plan. Romantic. Perfect for Applejack.”
“Course, when y’all marry into th’ family, yer gonna have t’ change yer name,” Granny said conversationally. “Can’t have no Apple family members without Apple names.”
“Granny,” Apple Bloom snapped. “Stop teasin’ her! She’s gonna have a nervous breakdown as it is.”
“Zap Apple,” Rainbow Dash said, her eyes unfocused. “Good. Good name. Romantic. Perfect for Applejack.”
Apple Bloom gave her grandmother the stink eye. The old mare just chuckled and turned back to the waffle iron.
“‘Nother coffee,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Any more coffee an’ y’all won’t be able to talk straight enough to propose,” Bloom warned.
“She’s askin’ our Applejack to marry her!” Granny said. “‘Straight’ don’t enter into it!”
“Granny!” Bloom said
There was a creak on the stairs, and the kitchen fell silent. After a moment, Applejack walked into the kitchen and paused, one hoof still in the air. “Uh. Mornin’?” she tried, looking around, nonplussed. “Is there, uh, somethin’ Ah oughta know about, or…”
With a wild scream, Rainbow Dash stood up and threw the ring box at Applejack’s head.	
Applejack swatted the box away as a reflex, then looked at Rainbow, perplexed.
“Applejack!” Rainbow said. “Uh. Wife me. Please?”
Granny burst out laughing. Mac buried their face in their waffles. Apple Bloom shut her eyes, unsure of whether to laugh or sigh.
Applejack looked from Rainbow Dash to the small ring box on the floor several times. Realization dawned on her face and a slow smile spread from ear to ear. She started laughing, a deep belly laugh that about shook the rafters.
Rainbow sat frozen. Oh no. No no no. This had all gone wrong. Did Applejack think this was a prank? Or was she laughing at the very idea that Rainbow might propose to her? She needed to go, but she was petrified.
Applejack picked up the box and opened it, her laughter subsiding as she looked within. Her face softened. She pulled out a single silver earring, decorated with a sky blue feather.
Rainbow was just getting up the wherewithal to run away when Applejack came over and pulled her into a tight embrace. “Of course Ah’ll wife y’all, sugarcube.”
“...You’re never gonna let me hear the end of that, are you.”
Applejack chuckled. “Not a chance, you beautiful blue featherhead.”
Granny let out a whoop of joy, and Apple Bloom began to applaud, her smile stretching from ear to ear. Big Mac sniffled and dabbed at their eyes with a napkin, too overcome to say a word as their sister and her fiancée kissed.
Applejack pulled away eventually, a playful smile on her lips. “Well,” she said. “That certainly was somethin’ to experience before breakfast. On th’ subject of which… Granny?”
The old mare held up a hoof as she fussed over a plate. Eventually, she handed over a plate heaped with waffles and whipped cream and syrup, scattered with apple slices arranged into hearts.
Applejack chuckled. “Subtlety, thy name is Granny,” she said drily.
“Hush up an’ let me be happy for y’all,” the old mare scolded.
Applejack sat down, pulling an unresisting Rainbow over to her side. She glanced at Apple Bloom. “Ain’t you meant to be meetin’ yer friends later today?”
“Yeah,” Bloom agreed. “Not fer awhile, though. Ah can stick around fer another couple hours.”
“Less’n there’s a reason you’d want to kick all us outta th’ house,” Granny threw in.
Applejack went pink, and Big Mac nearly spilled their waffles. “Grenadine Smith, you dirty old mare!” Apple Bloom howled, putting her hooves over her ears.
Rainbow Dash merely smiled vaguely and took a bite of waffle.





Morning in Canterlot was an overcast affair. That suited Starlight Glimmer just fine. Her head was still pounding from the late night she’d had with her friends the night before. She wore sunglasses to shield her eyes from the brightness of the world around her, as well as to disguise their redness. She hadn’t looked in the mirror that morning for fear of what she might see in it, so her mane was almost certainly a fright. However, she considered that a quantum superposition that hadn’t yet been collapsed, and she was content to leave it that way until the hangover had subsided fully.
She sat alone at a table near the back of her favorite coffee shop, The Grounding Wire. Before her sat a cheese danish and the special of the week, a Graduation Cappuccino. She really didn’t want to be here. She really didn’t want to be awake. Given the state of her head, she didn’t particularly want to be alive. However, she’d staggered home the night before and found a note sitting on her nightstand detailing a place and a time.
Starlight had never been one to resist a mystery.
There was a mare sitting across from her, she realized. Starlight hadn’t seen her arrive, but she was there, nonetheless. Her pink mane was pulled back and braided. She wore a hideous scarf and a pair of thick glasses. Starlight wrinkled her nose. Clearly this was a student. “Come back during my office hours,” she mumbled.
“Bonjour, Starlight,” Fleur de Lis murmured.
Starlight removed her sunglasses and blinked at the other mare through sticky eyelids. “Huh,” she said. “Didn’t know you’d enrolled in the CMA, Fleur.”
Fleur sighed. “A simple disguise, but an effective one,” she said, taking off her fake glasses and setting them on the table.
Starlight grunted.
Fleur leaned forward over the table. “Do you know why I asked you here, Starlight?”
Starlight considered this blearily. “GUIDE... wants my magical expertise?” she guessed.
“Were that the case, I would have been sure to contact you well before you got a wooden mouth,” Fleur said drily.
“Uh… wha?”
Fleur tilted her head. “Have you not that expression here? What is the Equestrian phrase, a 'hang-over'?”
Starlight nodded, accepting the point. “So… you’re trying to recruit me?”
Fleur snorted. “You don’t seem as though you would make a good subordinate. An officer, perhaps, but you would rankle at the rules we must obey. Better to leave you here, I think.”
Starlight struggled to think of a third reason and came up empty.
Fleur tapped the table with a hoof, staring into Starlight’s eyes. Her gaze was sharp and probing, but it was not unkind. “In your debrief,” she said, “you mentioned that the Valeyard intended to keep you alive for something.”
Starlight glanced down at her danish. She could still feel Fleur’s gaze.
“Have you any idea why?” Fleur asked softly.
Starlight shrugged, taking a bite of her pastry. “I’m powerful,” she said, covering her mouth with a hoof. “And I’ve been known to be… very emotionally-driven in the past. It must have wanted to try and manipulate me into doing something.”
“Have you any idea what?”
“He mentioned something about what he’d do ‘when he was done with this universe’,” Starlight said, glancing up at Fleur again for a moment. “Perhaps all he wanted was a battery to help him get into the next branch of the multiverse. I really don’t know.”
Fleur sat silently for a long moment. Starlight did not meet her eyes again.
“I see,” Fleur said at last. “In which case, I suppose this is somewhat academic. The Valeyard is gone, and can manipulate you no longer.”
“Yes,” Starlight said. It wasn’t technically a lie. Whatever was lurking at the edges of her dreams certainly wasn’t the Valeyard. She could feel that, somehow. All the same, she really ought to mention it to Fleur.
She really ought to mention it.
“I don’t suppose that GUIDE has a secret alien hangover cure?” Starlight asked, glancing up at Fleur over her cappuccino.
Fleur gave a slight smile. “That depends. How do you feel about eating worms?”
Starlight made a face. “Yeah, never mind,” she said, looking around for a napkin. When she looked up again, Fleur was gone, the sound of the bell over the door the only hint that the mare had departed.
Somewhere deep inside Starlight Glimmer’s mind, something smiled.





Not too far away, Celestia entered her private dining room. Luna was there already, staring out the window, swirling a glass of red wine absent-mindedly around in her aura.
“Good morning, Luna.”
Luna blinked and glanced at her sister, nodding at her.
Celestia tilted her head. “Bit for your thoughts?”
Luna considered that for a long moment. “Do you ever find yourself realizing that the world has changed? While you were so busy living your life, every other creature has been doing the same, and when you look around…”
“The world you see isn’t the one you remember,” Celestia finished.
Luna nodded.
“Well, yes. Of course,” Celestia said. “Sometimes I forget how old Kibitz has grown since he first came to work at the palace. Sometimes I get turned around wandering the palace because I forget that the East Wing was remodeled after Tirek’s invasion. Once, I’m sure you recall, I asked if Smart Cookie could be brought to court to advise me on a difficult question, neglecting to realize he’d been dead fifteen years.”
Luna snorted softly. “Yes, I remember that well.”
“What brings on this mood, Luna?”
Luna sighed. “It is… difficult to conceive that there are new Bearers,” she admitted. “That the ones who freed me from the Nightmare… no longer hold that power. It should feel freeing, I think, that it has been so long since I returned.”
“But it doesn’t?”
“I…” Luna shook her head, frustrated.
Celestia nodded. “I see. You know, when Sunset Shimmer returned, I felt much the same way. Conflicted might be a good word for it. Frightened of my old mistakes coming back to bite me. Hopeful that I might finally be able to face up to them. Terrified that I couldn’t rise to the occasion.”
Luna pursed her lips and nodded.
“I was paralyzed with indecision. But a very smart mare came to me in my darkest hour and reminded me that what was past was past, and the future was dependent on what I chose. And she told me that she would always be there for me.”
Luna’s expression slowly melted into a small smile and she sat down across from her sister. “A smart mare indeed,” she said. “Smart, attractive, funny, incredibly talented in all respects…”
Celestia’s face was a picture, but after a moment it melted into a soft smirk. “And oh, so humble.”
They chuckled for a moment. Then Celestia’s face went serious. “Are you truly so worried that you will fall to the Nightmare’s wiles again?”
Luna considered. “Honestly? No. I recognize it for what it is, now. But it still feels as though a safety net has been pulled out from under me. These new Bearers seem so… inexperienced.”
“Compared to what?” Celestia asked. “Twilight and her friends went into the woods on the strength of an old book of fables, while you and I had no more to go on than the Doctor’s word. They’ve already destroyed the Nightmare once.”
“... I suppose,” Luna allowed. “But it still feels as though we’re entering a new era, doesn’t it?”
“I hope not,” Celestia said. “We already had to change all the calendars after Twilight’s ascension.” She smiled. Luna returned it after a moment.
Celestia reached out and patted Luna gently on the hoof. “Perhaps it will be a new age,” she said. “But that need not be a cause for alarm. Your return, dear sister, heralded such a change as well.”
Luna dipped her head, conceding the point. “Thank you, Tia. That does put this in perspective.” She looked out the window again, where the pale shade of her moon still kept watch over the world below in the morning light.
It looked like it was going to be a lovely day.