“It’s the end of the world,” Luster Dawn whispered. All her plans had come to nothing. Equestria was going to fall into ruin, ponies would riot in the street, and she would be remembered in history as one of the architects of its ruin for her inability to prevent the disaster in front of her.
“Because you forgot to send out personalized invitations?” Phantasma asked. She didn’t sound convinced about the gravity of the situation. Given the looks everyone else in the dorm commons was giving Dawn, they weren’t impressed either.
“Exactly! How are we supposed to make sure the right ponies come to meet Princess Twilight? The Summer Sun Celebration is tonight! Even if I went to the post office now they’d never get there in time! Ponies won’t know where to go, and they won’t be ready for the celebration and the whole thing will be a flop and Princess Twilight will abandon me just like Azure Fire said she would!”
“Doesn’t everypony already know where and when the Summer Sun Celebration is?” Larrikin asked.
Dawn looked up and groaned. “It changes every year!”
“The date doesn’t change,” Ibis noted. “It hasn’t changed in over a thousand years.”
“Okay, sure, but the place changes!”
“Aw, fair crackin that it ain’t been in th’ papers fer the past week, then,” Arteria said. “It’d be devvo for your panic attack if everypony in the shockin’ country knew where Princess Twilight was gonna be.”
“The papers?” Dawn asked, confused.
Berlioz held up a newspaper. “Canterlot Times. Also in Ponyville Press but Berlioz prefers editorial content and columns in Canterlot Times. More international view, fewer stories about local disasters.”
Dawn took a deep breath. “Fine. It’s been advertised. Ponies know where and when to go. But they still didn’t get personal invitations! That’s on me! I screwed up!”
“What’s the point of the invites?” Phantasma asked.
“It’s about controlling access to Princess Twilight,” Dawn explained. “She only has so much time, and it’s important to make sure that she meets the right ponies. It’s supposed to make sure ponies who serve Equestria are rewarded. And that ponies who Princess Twilight doesn’t want to see can’t slip in.”
“I know what to do,” Larrikin said. “We can sell tickets at the door!”
“What?!” Dawn sputtered.
“Oath, now there’s a plot!” Arteria grinned. “That’s a shockin’ great idea! Can you imagine th’ kind of coin we could have blingin’ around if we skeeved a few percent off th’ top? It’d be abso brilliant!”
“You want to embezzle the money?!”
“Is that when you like, put a bunch of shiny beads on clothing and it’s super tacky but also kinda cool?”
“No, that’s bedazzling. Embezzling is when you steal money that belongs to a business.” Ibis corrected.
“Oh well, that’s fine then,” Arteria nodded. “We won’t be havin’ a business. More of a scam really.”
“Berlioz thinks it is bad idea to scam ponies in front of Princess Twilight.”
“Phantasma agrees it’s a bad idea,” Phantasma added.
“Things will work themselves out,” Ibis assured Dawn. “Princess Twilight is more than capable of managing her own time. If I might suggest a different course?”
Dawn nodded glumly.
“Just be confident,” Ibis said. “Don’t dwell on the tiny things you’ve overlooked, and instead focus attention on what you’ve achieved. You’ve made arrangements for what I’m told will be a wonderful celebration.”
“Little things can ruin big ones,” Dawn said.
“Yes. Little things like worrying too much,” Ibis said, reaching over to take Dawn’s scroll. “Even if you’d sent out the invitations you’d find something else to fret about, no? Perhaps you’d worry that some sidestreet wasn’t properly decorated, or that there was a gap in the musical schedule--”
“There’s a gap?!” Dawn gasped, trying to grab the scroll back.
“Here is what we will do,” Ibis said. “We five will go and check on the arrangements. You will go back to your room and get a nap, since I know for a fact you haven’t slept. You’ve spent the last twenty-four hours muttering to yourself and not leaving this spot.”
“But--!”
Ibis shushed her. “No buts. Sleep.”
“How am I supposed to sleep?!”
Berlioz made a sound. “Lie down. Close eyes. Stop talking. Berlioz usually finds these things helpful.”
“When I have problems sleeping what I do is I totally clear my thoughts,” Phantasma said. “The worst thing to do is worry about how you’re not sleeping and you should be sleeping and you’re running out of time to sleep and you can’t sleep because you’re worrying too much.”
“That does sound bad,” Dawn said.
“Exactly! So whatever you do, don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry,” Dawn muttered. “It’s good that it’s so nice and easy and all I have to do is think about nothing and not all that stuff that I’m worrying about now!” She groaned and rolled over on her bed.
She ended up staring at the wall. A wall covered in notes and pictures and sketches that suggested a conspiracy and went nowhere. If there was anything that symbolized her uncanny ability to overthink everything, there it was.
“Ugh. How could I have spent a month trying to figure things out and getting nowhere?” Dawn rolled out of bed, walking over to the wall and sitting in front of it. “All I’ve done is make the mystery bigger instead of finding anything out!”
She groaned.
“Is there even anything to find out?” She mumbled. “A pamphlet about Twilight not being a good enough leader. A mystery pony in a hidden chamber filled with plots and plans I didn’t get to read. Mystery ponies at the underground slave market. Missing artifacts. And as far as I can tell, none of it is connected, which makes it just so easy to figure out.”
She ran a hoof over the pinned-up papers, stopping at a newspaper article.
“New exhibit on the true history of the Pillars of Old Equestria robbed just before the official opening. Priceless artifacts stolen. Maybe it’s not even connected. Maybe it’s just a random theft. I can just feel that it’s part of the bigger picture…”
Dawn made a frustrated sound like steam escaping a tea kettle, then collapsed onto the bed.
“Why is this so hard to figure out? I can solve mystery novels before they even give all the clues! I’m like a world champion at crossword puzzles! This should be easier than any of that! Real life is messy! There should be tons of clues!”
She paused.
“...And they’re either in Canterlot, buried underground, or burned up. And with my luck the rest sank into the ocean. Maybe the real mystery is how detectives in stories ever find some of these dumb clues to begin with.”
“I hear a lot of moaning and not a lot of sleeping!” Ibis called out, from the other side of the door.
“I talk in my sleep!” Dawn snapped.
“And you answer questions in it too?”
Dawn grumbled and pulled her pillow over her face, trying to rest.
Dreaming in Equestria was complicated. Really, all dreams are complicated everywhere but they were especially complicated in a place where they had debatable reality. It would have been simple if they were just in a pony’s head, but what did it mean when dreams could be shared, and one of the retired Princesses still took time now and then to step in and visit particularly interesting dreams.
Then there was the matter of the Tantabus, which had tried to exit dreams and enter reality, like it was just a door one could pass through.
Dawn hoped none of her dreams could enter reality, because they were universally annoying or dull, sometimes in equal measure.
Tonight’s dream, for example.
“You really shouldn’t be dreaming about this,” Ibis said. “It’s just more work.”
“At least it’s not a dream about how my failures will cause all of Equestria to crumble because Princess Twilight doesn’t like modern synth-pop,” Dawn shrugged. “And I don’t think this really counts. All these papers are just gibberish.”
“That’s because you can’t read in a dream,” Phantasma said, sitting where Ibis was a moment ago, on the other side of the table, which was impossibly long, in the impossibly large room they were in. It was part of Canterlot palace, but also large enough to contain the whole palace, with narrow staircases leading up to walkways barely wide enough for a pony’s hooves, like a filigree hanging unsupported in the air overhead.
“It makes doing research really difficult,” Dawn sighed. “I mean they always say things like ‘sleep on it’ like you’ll come up with some amazing revelation in a dream.”
“Shockin’ flappity shock shock blinkin’ wackadoodle?” Arteria asked. There was something strange about the way she was speaking but there was always something strange so maybe it was just Dawn’s fault for not understanding her.
“No, I haven’t come up with anything yet,” Dawn said. “I probably won’t. I’m really not resting at all, am I? You guys are going to be so mad when I wake up. And I even know it’s a dream! Ugh!” She groaned and rubbed her face.
“Maybe you’re just as stupid as always,” Azure Fire said. “You know, I always deserved to be Princess Twilight’s student. If I was trying to solve this puzzle I’d have already come up with an answer.”
“Not you. The last thing I need is a nightmare!”
“Well you know what? I’m staying,” Azure said. “After all, your friends couldn’t help you. Half of them are even bigger idiots than you are! Is it better or worse knowing one of them is smarter than you could ever be?”
“You’re really not helping.”
“Of course not. I’m just a figment of your imagination. The real me is smarter.”
“I got better grades than Azure Fire.”
“You also had no life. It’s not much of a competition when I had to divide my time between school, the duties of nobility, having a social life, and tormenting you. All you ever had to do was sit there and learn.”
“And I was really good at it!” Dawn protested.
“Good thing that’s all the Princess cares about,” Azure said. She hopped onto the table and started pacing up and down the length of it. “She doesn’t recognize greatness. Not real greatness. She should surround herself with nobility and strength. You aren’t strong in magic, and your parents are noponies.”
“Princess Twilight doesn’t care about nobility. She knows titles are just… titles. That’s why her closest advisors are her friends!”
“And look at who they are. Hick farmers. Athletes. The only one even remotely qualified is that designer, and only because she’s proven she can run a business.” Azure scoffed. “Celestia made a mistake making her the ruler of Equestria.”
“You can’t really think that,” Dawn said. “She’s a great ruler!”
“At least part of you knows what I believe,” Azure said.
“Well, I guess that’s true,” Dawn muttered. “You tried to beat it into me often enough. You think you should be in charge of Equestria.”
“Naturally. I mean, I go on about how important my father is, but let’s be honest -- I really think I should be on top. I mean, I’m a natural ruler. I have the bloodline, the poise, the connections. A bit like your awful criminal friend, but unlike her I’m not pretending I’m nobility just because my ancestors were the worst criminals in the lot.”
Dawn snorted. “I bet a pony just like you left that pamphlet in the library.” She paused. “A pony just like you. That’s impossible. It couldn’t be…”
“Are you accusing me of something?” Azure Fire frowned.
“Yeah, I think I am,” Dawn whispered. “Why couldn’t I see it before? It had to be somepony at the school. And you’re exactly the kind of pony who would join a cult!”
“That’s a terrible accusation,” Azure grinned. “It’s too bad you don’t have proof.”
“Of course I have proof! I have…” Dawn frowned.
“Nothing. Just like you.”
“I figured it all out!” Dawn yelled. She kicked her door, intending to burst into the room dramatically, but just sort of bounced off it because she wasn’t terribly athletic. She opened the door more normally and walked out with a bit of a limp. “Ow.”
Phantasma looked up. “You figured out how to fill the gap in the live music schedule? We were thinking of just having an open mic, but if you have an idea…”
“What? No. This is much more important than-- an open mic? There really isn’t somepony who can strum a guitar for a few minutes? No, wait, this is more important.” Dawn took a deep breath. “I figured out the whole cult thing!”
“Oh. Well, I’m glad you’ve stopped worrying about the Summer Sun Celebration!”
“Phantasma, please, you’re basically my best friend, don’t give me an extra panic attack on top of the one I’m already having.”
“Do you need a hug? You need a hug.” Phantasma turned into smoke for a moment and reformed already hugging Dawn. “Shhh. Just calm down and breathe slowly.”
“This is actually kind of helping. You’re really good at hugging.”
“So what did you figure out?” Phantasma asked, finally letting go.
“Okay, so hear me out. There’s a cult that wants to establish a new ruler in Equestria, right?” She didn’t wait for Phantasma to nod. “This cult was doing something in the Castle of the Twin Sisters, proving they exist. I went back to my notes and I remembered one of their books was by Stygian and Starswirl. They must have found something in the book that made them decide to rob the Canterlot Museum of History!”
“But they wouldn’t have put anything dangerous in a museum display,” Phantasma pointed out.
“You’re right. But! Why would they be in the Castle of the Twin Sisters? It’s pretty far from civilization, especially the Canterlot book stores they used.” Dawn shook a hoof. “It’s simple, really. It had to be close to something else they cared about! At first I thought it was the castle library, but they brought their own books., and there’ve been enough ponies all over the castle that they would have taken any really valuable or interesting books already.”
“There really isn’t a lot in the Everfree Forest,” Phantasma said. “There are towns around the edges, but nopony actually lives there.”
“That’s why they used the castle instead of real civilization. But they were also cautious enough that they weren’t willing to use an open room but stayed in a secret passage in the back. It doesn’t explain why they wouldn’t use tents or build their own shelter, but it’s possible they thought that would lead to discovery, or they wanted something more permanent than a tent would allow.”
Phantasma tapped her chin. “Or they didn’t want to live in a tent. I’ve gone camping a few times and it’s not as fun as you’d think. Especially in the frozen north. Mostly you just stay near the campfire and hope the other foals don’t put rocks in the snowballs they throw at you.”
“Okay, that’s a little tragic. But I’ve narrowed it down even further. There’s one -- well, there are a few actually but I’m only thinking one fits -- site of interest other than the castle, and it was lost to history for even longer.”
“...The Tree of Harmony?”
“If it was still around I’d have it at the top of my list. But the Pillars of Old Equestria were sealed in the Everfree Forest in a ring of standing stones not far from the Castle of the Twin Sisters. Since they were using books by the Pillars and stole their artifacts, it must have something to do with those standing stones!”
“That makes sense,” Phantasma agreed.
“Right! That’s why we have to go there right now!” Dawn said.
“No, see, that’s not the right conclusion to take from that,” Phantasma sighed. “We can’t just go running out there. Princess Twilight is counting on you to make the Summer Sun Celebration work, remember?”
“Oh. Right.” Dawn frowned.
“Let’s look at this as an opportunity,” Phantasma said. “This is one of the very few times Princess Twilight will be here, and once the Celebration’s main events are over, you can talk to her about going out to the forest. She can even go with you and you can do it together like some kind of… student-teacher cult-seeking mission. There’s no good term for it.”
Dawn took a deep breath. “Yeah. Sorry. I just got really excited and ahead of myself. I still don’t know why they were trading with the derggo. I might know who one of them is but… that’s probably just personal bias talking. How long do I have before Princess Twilight arrives?”
“Plenty of time,” Phantasma assured her. “I stayed behind to wake you up if you were sleeping in late. Or if you started acting crazy and I needed to force you to stay in bed.”
“I’ve got a bad habit of doing that, don’t I?” Dawn yawned. “At least there won’t be any surprises. Princess Twilight’s scheduling is so precise you could set a clock to it.
Somewhere in the back of her mind, Dawn remembered something about the other books she’d found in the hidden room of the Castle library. She’d barely even made a note of them because they seemed like dry academic texts, but they’d been about long range teleportation spells.
Dawn had never mastered teleportation herself -- she was brilliant in her own way but magical strength wasn’t her niche. Still, she knew some of the basics simply from exposure.
A chill went down her spine.
“What’s wrong?” Phantasma asked.
“Princess Twilight will be outside the castle,” she mumbled. “Away from the wards that would prevent any kind of unwanted spell from taking effect. And she’ll be traveling a known route at a known time so precisely you could… set a clock to it.”
“That’s… what she’s going to do, yes,” Phantasma agreed.
“And if she went missing, ponies wouldn’t know. Not for hours.” Dawn swallowed. “I’ve got a bad feeling about this…”
Principal Starlight folded her hooves, thinking.
“It’s possible,” she agreed, shuffling the papers around on her desk. “But you have to admit it’s pretty far-fetched. I’m more than willing to believe you found something in the castle, and it probably is connected to the thefts from the museum. But…”
“But what?” Dawn asked.
“I think you’re sort of going down a paranoid rabbit hole,” Starlight said. “Trust me, I’ve done that myself. There’s another perfectly rational explanation for all this.”
“And what is that explanation?” Dawn sat back and frowned, folding her hooves.
“Let’s just use the simplest explanation for everything, okay? Long distance teleportation spells, a heist in Canterlot, books that would have explained some of the artifacts, trading in a literal underground market. If there’s a conspiracy here, Dawn, it’s that some ponies were using the Castle of the Twin Sisters as a place to plan a heist. They figured out which artifacts were worth money, teleported ponies in and out of the museum, and probably fled to the underground to sell to these deep-dwelling diamond dogs.”
“But that doesn’t explain anything about the cult! The book had instructions leading me to that room.”
“A cult that no one would take seriously. It could be a cover. Or, even more likely, a crazy pony who wanted to start a cult found the room, and now thieves are using it as a hideout.”
“But what if I’m right?” Dawn asked.
“You have to admit it’s sort of an extreme possibility,” Starlight said. “Even if it’s true, trying to foalnap Princess Twilight is about the worst thing they could do.” She snorted. “It always ends with a crater and ponies regretting all the poor decisions they made in life.”
“Can you at least send her a message?” Dawn begged. She stood up and put her hooves on Starlight’s desk. “Please, Principal Starlight. Even if there’s only a tiny chance she needs to be warned about it. I’ll take all the blame if the warning gets her worried about nothing.”
“I’d consider it, but at this point she’s probably already on the way. Any message we sent is going to miss her in transit.”
“...Unless we sent a courier along her travel route!” Dawn said. “That’s a great idea, Starlight!”
“I didn’t suggest that at all.”
“You were getting around to it,” Dawn said. “I’ll need to expense the cost. I, um, I don’t actually have a lot of bits lying around.”
“We’re not going to hire a courier,” Starlight said. “Dawn, you’ve planned a wonderful celebration. Go and enjoy it.”
“And then she told me to go and enjoy it!” Dawn said. She glumly sipped on a glass of punch while the latest top pony of pop, Aurora Aura, sang along to music that was only live by virtue of the fact that the huge clockwork cabinets playing the unearthly tune had been dragged on stage with her.
Arteria nodded. “Shockin’ rude that. It is a nice hang-up though. Makes me glad me mum wasn’t here to be marmalade about it.”
“...Marmalade?”
“It’s like jelly but more bitter.” Arteria glanced to the side. “Oy! Berlioz! Get me a--” she paused. “I mean, ah, next time you swing by th’ punch bowl, could you grab me a glass?”
Berlioz nodded and waved as he passed Arteria.
“That’s more polite than usual,” Dawn said.
“I realized I don’t wanna be like me mum. She’s always orderin’ stallions around. Mares too, but more in a friendly way.” Arteria leaned back in her seat. “He’s a good doggo, yeah? He deserves t’ be treated like anypony else.”
“I wish Starlight treated me with respect,” Dawn muttered. “She called me paranoid.”
“You are paranoid,” Arteria pointed out. “Course by my count, you’ve… let’s see, narrowly escaped bein’ the center course at a barbie in th’ old castle, fought an awful monster in the sewers, almost bit the bad mushie in a whole city of bad things… am I missin’ anything?”
“If we’re just counting times my life was in danger, no,” Dawn muttered. “It’s been sort of a busy month.”
“Crack-on. Busy. An’ you’ve been under so much stress yer molars should turn into diamond. You are paranoid, on account of once a week or so somepony has tried t’ kill you, and you’re due for the next swing at the cave cricket.”
“I just feel like I’m the only pony in the room who’s worried,” Dawn said.
Arteria shrugged. “If it does you a solid, I’m terrified about bein’ outside. I gotta force meself to do nothin’, yeah? Because I could run over t’ the gazebo or inside or somethin’ like that, but then I’d feel like a shockin’ trog.”
“And if I start running around screaming about cults, I’ll probably cause a riot. Or get arrested for acting like a crazy pony.”
Arteria patted her on the back. “I got an idea that’ll send your mind to th’ land of no worries and no cares. You see what I’m seein’ over there?” She motioned with her chin.
Phantasma was standing across the room, looking awkward and not quite part of any of the groups around her.
“Bet that mare over there would be appreciative of a dance partner, if you catch my echo. Since I didn’t use one of them metaphors it should be loud an’ clear, yeah?”
Dawn smiled. “Guess there’s only one way to find out.”
She stood up and made her way around the dance floor, where ponies where doing their best to move with the music.
“Hey!” Dawn said, over the pounding beats. Phantasma looked up at her. “How’s it going?”
“I sort of wish there was a cat or something for me to pet to distract myself,” Phantasma replied. “I don’t go to a lot of parties!”
“I didn’t either. I did have to take classes on dancing, though.” Dawn held out her hoof. “Want to see how well I remember my lessons?”
Phantasma grabbed Dawn’s hoof with a smile, and Dawn spun her out onto the dance floor with a flourish.
“I had to take ballroom dancing as a class one semester,” Dawn explained. “It was that or buckball and I wanted something that would keep me indoors!”
“This isn’t a ballroom,” Phantasma yelled back, as the tempo and pace of the music picked up.
“It’s the same kind of thing! Just move you hooves to the beat and as long as we stick together it’ll work out!” Dawn spun her around, letting go of her hoof and bumping her flank against Phantasma’s. She used her body to gently move her into a circling motion like two sharks approaching each other.
It really wasn’t the right kind of dance for the music. They were moving in slow, measured paces, while the beats demanded a faster, wild step. It didn’t matter. Neither of them were really listening, and when the song reached its end, they were moving in something close to a waltz, holding onto each other for support.
The tangle of sound died down to silence, and they were still embracing, winding down until they were just moving their hips from side to side.
“I guess this is that gap in the schedule Ibis found,” Dawn said quietly in the sudden quiet.
“Thank you for the dance,” Phantasma said. “That was the first time another pony actually wanted to dance with me.”
“We probably looked pretty silly out there. Most of the ponies our age actually know what they’re doing.”
Phantasma smiled. “I don’t care how we looked. That was a lot of fun. I didn’t get to enjoy festivals back home, so this has been wonderful. Thank you.” Phantasma leaned forward and kissed Dawn’s cheek.
Dawn blushed and smiled.
If the universe was fair and ponies were universally good and noble, the night would have ended there. Well, not ended. It would have gone on to be pleasant, involved a lot of hoof-holding, and maybe one or two more furtive kisses from two ponies that would be doubling their sum total experience with kissing if one of them moved on to a second peck on the cheek.
It wasn’t that kind of universe. While they stared into each other's eyes looking for the right thing to say to each other, the silence was broken by panic and screaming.
“That isn’t because I kissed you, right?” Phantasma whispered, her confidence shaken to the core.
“No.” Dawn paused. “Probably not. I’m pretty sure you did it right.”
“Wait, was it your first kiss?” Phantasma asked.
Dawn blushed more. “We should find out what’s going on,” she said, not answer that at all. She looked around and spotted Berlioz and Arteria. “Hey! You feel like running directly towards the danger?!”
“Oy! I thought you’d never ask!” Arteria shouted, grabbing Berlioz.
“There you are,” Ibis said. She was hard to miss. Even with the confusion and the ponies running around, she had the advantage of being twice the size of an average pony and a giant, possibly predatory, cat monster.
“Let me guess,” Dawn said, once they were close enough to speak over the screaming. “Princess Twilight is late and somepony started worrying.”
“Somepony was already worrying,” Ibis said. “You.”
“Well, I don’t like to say I told you so,” Dawn said. “Because I also told Principal Starlight. And other ponies. I told everypony so! I was right! Because I put it all together!”
Ibis raised an eyebrow.
Phantasma coughed politely. “Sorry for not believing you.”
“Well, you girls have earned some slack. You put up with me saying all kinds of crazy stuff. This time it just happened to be right.” Dawn smirked. “I probably shouldn’t be happy about all of this since it means there’s some kind of evil plot going on right now but it just feels great to be right about things for a change.”
“What is pony plan?” Berlioz rumbled.
“...Plan?” Dawn asked.
“Plan,” Berlioz repeated. “Pony has been thinking about this, yes? So pony must have plan to keep bad things from happening.”
“Well, um, so, funny story there. I haven’t quite figured out all the little bits and bobs of the evil plot,” Dawn said. “Are we sure Princess Twilight is missing?”
“Principal Starlight made excuses for the first hour, and then Trixie said something and started a riot,” Ibis said.
“Principal Starlight got really mad at her,” Larrikin added, padding over on damp hooves. “I think she mentioned something about foalnapping and disappearing and the end of the world.”
“That sounds about right,” Dawn muttered. “Any chance we could talk to her?”
“I just tried and there are…” Larrikin paused, thinking. “A lot of ponies between us and her. It might be a few hours before she’s free.”
“Equestria can’t wait that long,” Dawn said. “We’re going to have to save everyone ourselves!”
She said it very heroically, but for some reason her friends didn’t seem excited.
“Dawn, we ain’t exactly th’ shockin’ Elements of Harmony,” Arteria pointed out. “We ain’t heroes. We’re just a bunch of students an’ some of us have grades poorly enough that we’re only barely that.”
“Right,” Dawn whispered. “Heroic speech time.” She cleared her throat. “I’ve seen all of you do heroic, brave things. Phantasma, you helped me fight off a beholder! Larrikin has gone treasure hunting!”
“In a hole!” Larrikin added, excited.
“Ibis is a brilliant scholar and also a giant predator!”
“I am those things,” Ibis admitted.
“Berlioz was willing to face down a whole city of evil derggo to help free ponies.”
The diamond dog grunted. “It was duty.”
“And Arteria, you basically left home to go to a brand new, strange world, all because you wanted to find yourself.” Dawn smiled and offered a hoof. Arteria bumped it. “You’re all amazing people, and that’s why we can do this. More importantly, we’re the only creatures who have any idea where Princess Twilight might be, and if we don’t do it, it could be the end of the world.”
“I keep all my stuff in the world!” Larrikin gasped.
“We have to do it,” Berlioz stated, as firm as stone. “Most important kind of duty is the one that will not get done if you do not do it. Even small thing like getting cup of punch.” He gave Arteria the cup she’d asked for before the confusion had started.
“Oh hey, thanks mate!” Arteria grinned and sipped at it.
“Berlioz still bothered by derggo. If ponies are connected to bad dogs, they are up to bad things.” He rubbed his nose. “Pony knows where Princess might be?”
“I’m pretty sure this is connected to the standing stones where the Pillars were imprisoned,” Dawn said.
Ibis tapped the ground with a talon, thinking. “If I recall the maps of the Everfree correctly, that should be due east of the Castle of the Twin Sisters. It was sealed off as an important archeological site years ago, though.”
“Well, that should hopefully mean there are signs posted so we’ll be able to find it,” Dawn said. “And if not, well, how hard could it be to find a whole cult in the middle of the woods?
“It turns out it’s pretty hard,” Larrikin said, an hour later.
“Huh?” Dawn asked, looking back at them.
“You asked how hard it could be to find a cult,” Larrikin said. “Now we know! It’s not easy at all because there are all these trees in the way.”
“Unfortunately, scouting from above is impossible,” Ibis said. “The Everfree’s magic makes traversing it above tree level all but impossible, even if Arteria was willing to attempt it.”
“Oy, don’t blame me fer not wantin’ to fall off into th’ blinkin’ sky!” Arteria snapped. “I bet you’d feel the same if you were supposed t’ fly across an ocean!”
Ibis rolled her eyes. “Regardless of personal preference, doing things on foot, hoof, or paw is the only way to actually navigate.”
“There’s something up ahead,” Phantasma whispered.
“Shhh!” Dawn put a hoof to her lips and made some quick signs with her hooves that were less obvious and direct.
“...What does it mean when you swoop your hoof around to the left and waggle it?” Larrikin asked, eventually.
Dawn groaned. “It means you flank left and stay low! Didn’t anypony else study traditional EUP hoofsignals for operating behind enemy lines?”
“I don’t have hooves,” Ibis pointed out.
“That’s besides the point!”
“Dawn and Phantasma ponies go first in middle,” Berlioz said. “Bat pony stay in trees and watch from above. Sphinx circles around. Larrikin stays out of way.”
“That’s… well, it’s sort of similar to my plan. But what about you?”
“Berlioz will wait for opportunity.”
“...What does that mean?” Dawn frowned.
“Trust Berlioz. Pony made good plan. Go.”
Dawn groaned and started creeping along, catching up to Phantasma. The umbra pony didn’t even break twigs when she stepped on them.
“So what did you see?” Dawn whispered.
“I saw something red,” Phantasma pointed.
“Where? I can’t even make out colors with how dark everything is.”
“It’s up ahead. Just follow me and maybe we’ll sneak up on it.”
They moved together, a little like the dance before, except now it was Dawn tripping over herself and wishing she was as graceful as Phantasma, who she was absolutely sure was cheating and using some kind of umbra pony magic to just pass through branches and brush instead of letting thorns catch her coat or spiderwebs tangle in her mane.
The brush suddenly opened up, and they were standing on a winding path through the trees, broken branches piled up at the sides and the brush torn up.
“Look!” Phantasma pointed.
A pony in robes was facing away from them, standing on the trail and looking around.
“...What do we do now?” Dawn asked. Berlioz hadn’t actually suggested what to do once they’d gotten where they were supposed to go.
The robed pony looked up, the empty eyes of their mask staring at them for a long moment.
“Get her!” Dawn yelled, charging at the pony with absolutely no plan at all. They were slow, backing up one shaking step in surprise before trying to turn and run. By then, Ibis was standing further down the path, wings half-spread and looking even more massive than usual.
The robed pony skidded to a halt, and Dawn slammed into their backside with enough force to make both of them tumble to the ground and roll all the way to Ibis. They tried to scramble up, and Ibis gently pressed them down with one massive paw.
“Don’t,” Ibis warned. “We have some questions.”
Dawn stumbled to her feet. “Just give me one sec, I think… I might be a little dizzy.” She spun a little when she tried to take a step. Phantasma caught her and steadied her.
“Oh! Are we gonna ask them questions now?” Larrikin asked, phasing out of the brush from total invisibility. It was less like she’d stepped out of a blind spot and more like the bush was suddenly her. “Can I be the bad cop? I want to do the mean growly thing!”
“What we’re going to do is unmask this mystery pony and finally solve the identity of the real mastermind behind this!” Dawn declared, grabbing the pony’s mask and pulling it free to reveal…
An older stallion with a white mane and wrinkles everywhere except the sort that would have meant he’d smiled once in a while.
“I have no idea who this is,” Dawn said, confused.
That only seemed to make the unmasked pony angry. “No idea who-- I’m one of the most important ponies in Equestria!”
“Ibis?” Dawn asked, glancing up at her and winking.
The sphinx was about to say something, then smiled. “I’m sorry. I’ve no idea. Maybe they’re a janitor in the palace? I’m told the staff there are very important ponies, but they do stay out of the public eye.”
“A janitor?!” The stallion yelled.
“An important pony wouldn’t be out in the middle of the woods,” Ibis said. “Therefore, logically, you’re someone less important with an inflated opinion of themselves.”
“I’m guarding the trail against scum like you,” he growled. “And I am important! I’m Black Gold! I’m one of the richest ponies in Equestria! I could buy your whole down and have it bulldozed!”
Ibis pressed down a little harder, and he wheezed.
“I wouldn’t do that, though,” he gasped.
“You’re going to tell us everything,” Dawn said.
“You idiots are too late. Even if you weren’t just a bunch of foals up past your bedtime, you couldn’t stop us now.” Black Gold grunted. “And besides-- HELP! SOMEPONY! WE’RE UNDER ATTACK!”
He looked up at Ibis smugly.
“There are at least two other ponies within earshot,” he finished.
“Guess I wasn’t the first one to pounce.” Arteria said. She dropped down from the trees, a pony on her back, bound and gagged with spiderwebs. Her pet star spider crawled happily over its prey, making soft chittering noises. “He might’ve nabbed a few nips on th’ way over. This little one got excited wrappin’ him to go.”
A third pony landed next to the group. His mask was badly dented, and he was groaning and barely moving.
“Needed to distract pony,” Berlioz rumbled, stepping back onto the path. “Was going to throw rock. Heard screaming. Threw rock at pony instead.”
“You just threw a rock at him?” Dawn asked.
“It was a big rock,” Berlioz said, with a shrug.
“While I am an expert in mathematics, even Larrikin could sum to three,” Ibis said. “As we aren’t going to take you with us. What you say next will determine if we-- Larrikin what are you doing?”
Larrikin looked up. Their mouth was full of hoof, which was attached to one of the unconscious ponies. “Uphing?”
“That is not nothing! You are not allowed to eat him.”
Larrikin spat out the hoof. “But we’re in the Everfree forest! Something’s gonna eat them anyway, right?”
“Not if they tell us what we want to know,” Ibis said. “I would suggest speaking quickly before I change my mind.”
“There. Just like th’ shockin dreg gabbed,” Arteria whispered, pointing. “I can hear ‘em chattin up ahead. Can’t make out th’ words from here with all th’ funny echos from the trees. Like a shockin’ mirror maze of sounds out here.”
“We need to figure out a way to get closer,” Ibis said.
“I might be able to do something,” Phantasma said. “Just… give me a second.”
Her body collapsed into knee-deep black smoke before swirling up in a cloud around them like a dark cloak.
“Is that okay?” Phantasma whispered, her voice coming from all around them. “I think I can keep you hidden as long as you move slowly.”
“This is perfect!” Dawn said. “Arteria, you lead the way.”
“Crackin,” Arteria nodded, creeping forward.
There was light up ahead, and Arteria stopped and pointed, leading them off to the side and into the brush. She picked a path to a good vantage point between two tall trees, Phantasma’s dispersed form hanging like a curtain in the space they made.
“Sweet Celestia,” Dawn whispered.
The standing stones had been decorated with red and gold cloth, and fires were burning in bronze braziers forming a circle around the site. It was almost like a second festival happening out in the middle of nowhere, complete with revelers who were working around the six largest stones, carving something into them with hammers and chisels. So maybe less like a party and more like a job site with extra decor and everypony dressed in robes and masks.
“You should get an eye exam,” Larrikin said. “That’s not Celestia. That’s Princess Twilight.”
Princess Twilight was sitting in a huge cage made of some strange metal that shifted between blue and purple depending on how the light hit it. She looked calm, but Dawn had known her long enough to see the signs that she was just holding back frustration and either a panic attack or screaming fit of anger.
“They do free eye exams at the school,” Larrikin whispered. “They made me go when I said I had trouble reading but it turns out I was just lazy, not blind.”
“Shh!” Ibis hissed. “They’re talking!”
“I don’t understand how you managed this,” Princess Twilight said. “I know for a fact that none of you are particularly powerful unicorns. Teleporting me here against my will would have required a huge amount of magic. So what is it? The alicorn amulet? A pact with some evil being from Tartarus?”
“You dismiss us so easily,” said the pony in the reddest and fanciest robe. “That’s always been the case. You think we don’t matter.”
“All of my little ponies matter,” Princess Twilight corrected. “If I’ve done something to offend you, I apologize.”
“It’s too late for that,” the obvious leader hissed. “You had your chance. You could have refused to take the throne. You could have listened to ponies who know better than you, ponies who should be ruling Equestria!”
The leader removed their mask, and Dawn gasped.
“Prince Blueblood!” she hissed.
“Oh yes, I remember reading something about him Who’s Who in Canterlot,” Ibis said. “As I recall his title is entirely hereditary and comes from Old Unicornia rather than anything from modern Equestria.”
“Some of the oldest of old money,” Dawn confirmed. “But why would he do this?”
“I jes wanna know why th’ Princess doesn’t blast her way out of that cage like a bomb-beetle in a vole’s den,” Arteria muttered. “She’s shockin’ good at blastin’ things from the gab I’ve caught full across m’ ears. Even better’n Principal Starlight.”
“Good question,” Dawn said. “But… that cage. From the way the metal is gleaming, it must have come from Tartarus! The cages they use completely block off the magic of anything locked inside them.”
“How would they even get one of those?” Phantasma whispered.
“Well, step one is going to Tartarus, and step two is finding a cage big enough for an alicorn and dumping out whatever’s already inside.”
“Whatever’s inside?” Phantasma asked. “Like… a beholder?”
Dawn sighed. “Yeah. Exactly like that. I guess we know where that came from now.”
“Fool!” Blueblood yelled, and everyone in the shadowy vantage point quieted to listen to him. “We used the cooperative magic of the old Circle to get the strength to teleport you!”
“The ponies who moved the sun and moon before Celestia and Luna took up the task,” Ibis provided quietly.
“We know,” Dawn said. “And I think we could figure it out from context even if we didn’t.”
“I just like providing perspective and exposition,” Ibis mumbled, her cheeks turning red.
“Using magic from those vile dogs feels awful, but it should be effective,” Blueblood continued. “We’re going to drain your magic and use it along with these artifacts to open a portal to Limbo.”
“Why?” Twilight asked. “There’s nothing in Limbo. It’s a space between spaces.”
“Both of us know that isn’t true,” Blueblood said. “There is power there. And a more useful prison than Tartarus.”
“You have no idea what you’re doing,” Princess Twilight said. “You’re just going to cause a disaster, and then my friends and I are going to have to stop you.”
“Your friends aren’t going to do anything,” Blueblood said. He smirked. “I’m afraid they’re unavailable.”
“If you hurt them, I swear I will--”
“Oh calm yourself down, you foal,” Blueblood snorted. “They may be commoner trash, but they don’t pretend to a throne or titles. On occasion they have even done some good. I merely arranged for them to win vacations and getaways far from Ponyville. While you’re here in a cage they’re enjoying walks on the beach at night, a safari in Zebrica, and a trip to Prance, which I expect that white nag will find disappointing and shallow, just like she is.”
“Don’t you dare talk about Rarity like that!” Twilight snapped.
“That’s not much of an evil plan,” Larrikin muttered. “I want somepony to distract me with a trip to an island paradise.”
“So when are we gonna actually stop ‘em?” Arteria asked.
“When we figure out how,” Dawn said. “There’s too many for us to just rush in. We’ll just get caught. We have to be tactical about this.”
“Unlike your last plan of yelling ‘Get her’ and running right at them?” Ibis asked.
“Pony not good at tactics,” Berlioz mumbled. “Pony usually like to run up into danger and try to ask it to fill out forms.”
“That’s barely even happened more than a few times,” Dawn mumbled.
“Once is too many for Berlioz,” he said. “Berlioz has plan. Good plan.”
“Okay, so what are we doing?” Dawn asked.
“This is a terrible idea,” Dawn muttered to herself, through her mask. The robe was hot and uncomfortable and didn’t fit particularly well. Berlioz’s plan had been simple enough -- disguise herself, then just walk in and try to get Princess Twilight out of the cage.
It made sense. If there was one good thing about the whole cult thing, it was that they were totally anonymous. All she had to do was seem confident and keep moving and everything would work out.
The cultists didn’t seem to notice her careful approach, and she made her way to one of the standing stones, where they were still engraving symbols into it.
Dawn stopped to look at it. It was exactly the same kind of runes she’d seen in that deggro city. One wasn’t quite the right shape. She leaned closer to look. “Wasn’t there a triangular dot over this one?”
“At least somepony is paying attention,” A familiar voice huffed. “Yes. There’s supposed to be an accent mark there. Geode, fix that.”
Another masked cultist had been standing behind Dawn.
“It’s only the most important night of our lives,” the mare said, audibly rolling her eyes. “You’re all lucky she was here to take care of this or else it could have totally sputtered out! Now I’m going to have to inspect all of these again myself to look for more stupid mistakes.”
“We’re working in poor lighting, with a time limit--” one of the chiseling ponies complained.
“You’re a unicorn! You can make light!” The, apparently, leader -- or at least the pony snippy enough to act like she was in charge, created a ball of blue flame and let it hover next to the stone. “Don’t make excuses. That’s what those pathetic commoners would do. You’re a noblepony. That means you make things work!”
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to intrude,” Dawn said.
“No, no, you don’t have anything to apologize for,” the leader said. “Check the other stones with me. You have a good eye. Were you on guard duty?”
I nodded.
“Naturally. It’s not like anypony is going to find us. If we work quickly enough we don’t need guards, but some ponies are being paranoid,” she scoffed, leading me to the next stone.
Dawn, because she was smart but not wise, decided it would be a good idea to lean into the conversation to try and get more information.
“How long do you think until we’re finished?” Dawn asked.
“Only a few minutes more, if these foals haven’t made any mistakes,” the leader said. She ran a hoof over the stone. “This one looks fine.”
Dawn nodded. “And then we’ll get everything we deserve.” She wanted it to sound cool and like she was foreshadowing some kind of twist, but she just sort of sounded like a nervous filly.
“Exactly,” the other pony said. They moved to the next stone, close enough to Twilight’s cage that Dawn could get a look at it. There was no obvious way to open the lock, which looked distressingly like a skeletal dragon’s talon holding the door securely shut.
“What?” the leader asked.
“I was just… worried that she might escape,” Dawn said, thinking quickly.
“That’s a wizard lock. She can’t just pick it. Of course you should know that.” They turned to face Dawn square-on. “And come to think of it, aren’t you a little short to be part of the Circle?”
“It’s just a little chilly,” Dawn said, laughing a little. “It makes things… shrink.”
A blue aura wrenched the mask from her face, leaving her exposed.
“Buck,” Dawn whispered.
“You!” The other pony hissed. She removed her own mask.
Dawn gasped in surprise. “Azure Fire! My weird dream was prophetic and not just my subconscious bullying me!”
“Of course you’d be here,” Azure Fire said. “Following Princess Twilight around like some kind of pathetic puppy.” Her horn lit up with baleful blue light. “It’s time to show you why I should have been her student.”
“I think it would be great if we all calmed down and really thought about what we were doing,” Dawn said, backing up a step and scraping at the ground with her hoof. “I bet if you stopped right now, we could just walk away and nopony has to get hurt.”
“You’re outnumbered, what, thirty to one?” Azure asked. She laughed. “No, I don’t think we’re going to make any deals.”
“Well, at least I tried,” Dawn said. She threw a hoofful of sand into Azure’s face.
Azure yelled in surprise, as one does when they’re suddenly blind and their eyes are filled with grit. Dawn bolted the other way, scrambling for Twilight’s cage and trying to pry the lock off.
“Luster Dawn, what are you doing?” Twilight hissed.
“I was hoping you’d say something more like ‘I’m sorry for doubting you,’” Dawn said, throwing spells at the claw holding the bars shut. “Come on, you stupid thing!”
“Dawn!” Twilight snapped. “Just get out of here, please! There are too many of them!”
“I can do this!” Dawn shouted. “Trust me for once!”
“There’s no time!” Twilight yelled. “You have to--”
Twilight cried out, falling to her knees and shivering, her coat paling and turning ashen. Her horn pulsed with light, the shape of the corona warped and twisted like the magic was being pulled out of her.
The runes on the standing stones lit up with the same magenta light, rising from top to bottom like cisterns being filled with energy.
“Behold!” Blueblood cried out. “Our new ruler!”
The artifacts at the base of each stone hummed and sang with energy, each one providing a different note to a chorus that made the air vibrate until it started to shake apart, a tear ripping across the fabric of space.
“Everypony focus!” Blueblood yelled. “Focus on the form of our salvation! Form the darkness into its final shape!”
Dawn fiddled harder with the lock, and the first claw of the talon popped open, uncurling from the bars. Before she could even start on the second, A too-familiar blue aura surrounded her, levitating Dawn into the air and slamming her down into the ground outside the circle.
“Her trust has always been misplaced,” Azure growled. “She didn’t trust the nobility -- the real rulers of Equestria -- to make decisions. She forced us out of everything!”
“Keep them busy!” Blueblood yelled. “Members of the Circle, join hooves and magic and focus!”
The cultists, all of them save Azure Fire, closed in around the rift, circling it and forming an unbroken ring. Their magic flared out, muddling together in a multicolored, shifting mass.
Dawn shivered at the sight. “You’re literally trying to usurp her rule. Why would she ever trust you? It just proves she was right!”
A ring of blue flames surrounded Dawn, keeping her from moving.
“Why don’t you stay there and lick her hooves on your own time?” Azure said, tossing her mane dramatically. “Watch the rise of Equestria’s newest unicorn, made custom to order!”
Something tore its way out of the humming hole in space, formless and black. It was boneless and somehow wet like a tentacle, changing every moment, until it touched the ground. It was like it was thrown into a forge. White-hot flame flashed across the oil-slick, leaving pure white fur in its wake.
“Yes!” Blueblood yelled. “A new ruler! The kind Equestria really needs!”
That one hoof struggled like a pony pulling themselves out of a pit, a second joining it.
Azure Fire turned to watch with a triumphant smile, and a dark shape dropped down from above, Arteria’s hoof slamming very precisely into Azure’s cheek.
Azure’s head snapped to the side and she fell like a sack of potatoes.
“Well this is all tops and bottoms,” Arteria said. “I was sort of hangin’ my bat on clocking her turnin’ off this light show.”
“Okay, listen carefully,” Dawn said. “The ritual has already started. You need to--”
“Ibis already gave us the notes,” Arteria said. “While you were lollygaggin an’ catchin up with old friends, She was decodin’ the runes.”
“Wait, she knows how to read them?”
“Pretty sure she knows how to read everythin’,” Arteria said.
“How dare you touch me!” Azure growled, getting to her hooves. Her robe flashed with blue flame and burned into ashes. “I’m a noble! You’re a nobody!”
“Ah, funny thing that,” Arteria smirked. “I happen t’ be a Duchess meself.”
“You’re obviously not nobility. You’re not even a unicorn!”
“Oy! That’s shockin’ tribalist, ain’t it? I’m plenty fine enough nobility!”
“Arteria, stop arguing with her and do something!” Dawn shrieked.
“I am,” Arteria smirked. “I came here t’ laugh at her.”
Azure yelled and threw a bolt of fire at her, Arteria dodging it without even putting apparent effort into it.
Dawn groaned in frustration.
“Hey!” somepony whispered, very loudly. It didn’t make sense to whisper loudly but to be honest Larrikin rarely made sense to anyone but themselves. They stepped out of the grass, which wasn’t tall or full enough to actually hide her, but still somehow did. “I came to rescue you!”
Dawn looked at the ring of supernaturally hot flame surrounding her. “...I appreciate the thought, but--”
“Don’t worry, I’m extremely damp,” Larrikin assured her, stepping through the flames and sizzling, steam raising off of her. “Ow! Okay, it still stings!”
“Okay, now you’re in here, great,” Dawn mumbled. “Now there’s half as much space and just as much fire.”
“...Maybe I didn’t think this through,” Larrikin admitted. “No, wait, I know just what to do!”
“And that is?” Dawn asked.
“Stand back,” Larrikin said.
Dawn looked around. “How?”
Larrikin didn’t answer. Instead, her mane started moving like she was underwater. A moment later, a rush of murky swamp water rushed out of her, the flames dying down.
“Hurry!” Larrikin croaked. Dawn rushed over the smoldering line, and didn’t notice the kelpie wasn’t following until a moment after that. She pulled Larrikin out before the flames roared back into place.
“Are you okay?” Dawn asked.
“I always feel terrible after doing that,” Larrikin said, her voice scratchy and dry. “I could really use a drink.”
“I’ll get you the best bottled water from Prance,” Dawn promised.
“That sounds great,” Larrikin sighed. “I’m just gonna rest here a bit and… pull myself back together. I feel like a string bean without the bean.”
“Dawn, over here!” Phantasma said, waving. She was clinging to one of the stones like a dark mist.
Dawn ran over, and the veil parted to reveal Ibis.
“I’m glad you’re here,” Ibis said. She was scratching at the stone with a claw. “I need you to make a rune exactly like this one on the next monolith.” She pointed.
“Why don’t we just move the artifacts?” Dawn asked.
“Because disrupting the spell isn’t enough right now,” Ibis said. “We need to reverse the flow and send it back to Princess Twilight. If we do it correctly it should invert the spell effects precisely.”
“...I trust you,” Dawn said. She looked up at the rune.
“Berlioz is getting the one across the way,” Ibis said. “The third will be the tipping point. You know how it is, Rule of Threes and all that.”
Dawn nodded and bolted for the rock, grabbing one of the chisels at the base and hammering it into the stone.
Then she looked into the rift. The form had pulled itself almost entirely free now, the features still blurred but in the unmistakable shape of an alicorn, nearly identical to Celestia, but identical in the same way a painting or sculpture was. It reflected what was in the creator, and here Dawn could only sense anger, a hot, burning rage.
“Guess they’re not much for originality,” Dawn muttered, adjusting her magical grip and striking the rock again.
The tone in the air changed with every hit, like she was striking a tuning fork.
“I hope I’m doing this right,” Dawn muttered, hitting it one last time.
The temperature in the air flashed hot, like she was standing in front of an oven. The ponies in the circle cried out and fell back, robes turning black around the edges from heat. With their focus lost, the magic they’d been shaping fractured around the edges.
The mostly-formed face turned black, hate-fulled eyes to face Dawn. The pupils burned like fire pouring out of coal.
The alicorn was sucked through the rift and back into limbo, the portal snapping shut with a rush of flame. The cultists fell to the ground, the backlash from the collapsing spell knocking most of them out. Most of them. Unfortunately some of the more wordy members managed to stay conscious.
“No!” Blueblood screamed. “You ruined everything!”
“You ruined things for yourself,” Princess Twilight said. “Your plan would never have worked.”
“We almost had a perfect leader!” Blueblood hissed. “She would have established order!”
“Equestria grew out of your kind of order a long time ago,” Princess Twilight said, firmly. “Maybe you’ve forgotten the whole point of Hearth’s Warming if you don’t even know that.”
Blueblood growled, looking like he was going to say something else, and collapsed, finally passing out. The claw-lock on Princess Twilight’s cage spasmed like a dying spider and fell off, shuddering and jerking on the ground until it finally went still.
Princess Twilight nudged the door to her cell open and spread her wings, taking a deep breath and smiling. “That feels much better already. I think I’ve already recovered nearly all of my magic.”
“That’s good news. Some bad on top of it though.” Arteria landed next to Dawn. “Lost your old school chum in th’ trees. Too many weird echoes for me to get a shockin’ trace on her.”
“If she’s in the middle of the Everfree Forest, she’ll end up back in town and begging for a nice warm prison cell before long,” Dawn assured her. “Thanks for keeping her busy.”
“Well, that’s th’ old noblesse oblige or whatever they say in Prance,” Arteria said, elbowing Dawn gently. “Gotta oblige meself to keep jackinape noblesse like that strumped up tart from hurtin’ th’ good ponies like you.”
“I couldn’t have put it better myself,” Twilight said.
Princess Twilight was resplendent on her throne. Most ponies hadn’t known anything was wrong until long after the Summer Sun Celebration, but the almost total arrest of the nobility in Canterlot (with some notable exceptions in the case of ponies like Fancy Pants and Jet Set, who managed to be noble by birth and character) was something that couldn’t be kept out of the press. Or the courtroom, which was going to be full to bursting for at least the next year with appeals and hearings.
Today wasn’t about that, though. She’d managed to clear her schedule for something very important.
Luster Dawn and her friends were standing before her, dressed in the finest clothing Princess Twilight’s favorite designer could manage to get together in only a few days. Thankfully her schedule had been rather empty with the nobility otherwise occupied and the holiday over.
“Phantasma Gloom,” Princess Twilight said, and the umbra pony stepped forward. It was difficult to tell where her dress ended and her coat began, the silk fading smoothly from the same color as her coat to a ghostly, translucent white.
“Ibis.” The sphinx bowed her head and took one step towards the throne. Her outfit was simple, little more than a toga and jewelry, but it gave her the appearance of a scholar and philosopher.
“Berlioz.” Somehow, Rarity had managed to put the diamond dog in a suit, probably thanks to her experience with Spike. It was understated and well-fitted, and it was impossible to tell if he liked it or was merely putting up with it.
“Arteria Carpals.” The thestral strutted forward. She’d avoided a dress, and was instead in the sort of suit that had been popular a few hundred years ago, all ruffles and frills. It still fit her, somehow.
“Larrikin.” It was amazing that Rarity had managed to put up with the kelpie dripping on things long enough to make clothing for them, especially with her measurements changing every day. There was ribbon and living mistletoe woven through her mane and tail and a loose silk shirt that seemed to repel water somehow.
“And of course, Luster Dawn.” Dawn grinned from ear to ear and walked forward with a polite curtsey. The dress she wore was deliberately similar to Twilight’s first Gala dress, a clear nod from Rarity that made the Princess smile.
“All of you have done a great service for Equestria,” Princess Twilight said. “You put your own lives at risk to save us from a threat we could never have foreseen. As everypony here knows, many members of the nobility attempted to stage a coup against me during the Summer Sun Celebration, and these six brave creatures stopped their plans in their tracks.
“Facing this threat was disheartening. I thought that everypony -- that every creature in Equestria knew they could come to me with concerns and criticism. Instead, some ponies felt that I wouldn’t listen to what they had to say. They believed me listening to more ponies, having more points of view, would keep theirs from being important.
“What they wanted was to replace me with a pony who would only listen to them, no matter how good or bad their ideas were. They didn’t succeed, and their titles have been stripped and their holdings seized. While the latter will be tied up in court until guilt or innocence has been decided, I find that I am able to replace some of the vacated noble titles.”
She cleared her throat, picking up six scrolls with her magic and unfurling them all at once.
“I hearby declare all of you members of the Equestrian nobility, with the rights thereof.” She passed the scrolls down to the six waiting creatures. “As Ladies and Lords of Equestria, I expect you to continue to serve the realm and each other with the same friendship and courage you’ve already displayed.”
She paused and smiled.
“Though you might want to save any really dangerous missions for after you graduate. Now, for the first time, let us greet you as the noble ponies you are.”
The ponies watching the ceremony burst into applause. The six friends looked at each other, and it was almost perfect.
Dawn took one more step forward. “Princess, there’s just one little thing.”
“Yes, Dawn?” Princess Twilight asked.
Dawn wiggled her eyebrows.
“Now?” Twilight groaned.
Dawn nodded.
Princess Twilight sighed and got off her throne. She started shuffling from side to side, quietly singing.
“You were right and I was wrong and I’m doing my ‘Dawn Was Right’ dance…” Twilight mumbled.
Now it was perfect.