“I am so glad Princess Celestia invited us to Canterlot for the Spring Equinox Celebration,” Twilight said as she stretched out her wings. “With everything that’s been going on recently I really needed a break.”
“The timing was rather fortunate, for multiple reasons,” Moonwhisper replied. “There’s the obvious fact that you’ve been running yourself ragged between running the school and preparing yourself for the transfer of power from Princess Celestia. Beyond that, however, it’s probably for the best that the school is closed for the week. If it wasn’t going to be closed anyway for the equinox, I was going to recommend instituting a temporary curfew and partial lockdown for the week.”
“What? Why?” Twilight asked.
“Cockatrices.” Moonwhisper replied. “According to reconnaissance reports, their migration route is going to take them uncomfortably close to Ponyville. Granted, it would be highly unusual for any of them to stray out of the Everfree Forest and into the town itself, but if some of the students were to sneak out to that clubhouse of theirs, for example…”
“I see your point. Well, luckily all the students should be back home by now so it shouldn’t be an issue.”
A sudden knock on the door of their suite put a temporary end to their conversation. “Are y’all two ready? The party’s just about ready to get started,” Applejack said as she opened the door. “It’d probably be best that we don’t keep Princess Celestia waitin’ long, neither. Ah overheard Pinkie Pie askin’ her about some fancy drink they’ve got her called expresso or somethin’, and the look on Princess Celestia’s face reminded me a little too much of when Rainbow Dash found out they sell bottles of rainbow juice”
Moonwhisper and Twilight shared a panicked glance. “Princess Celestia wouldn’t really…I mean, she knows that Pinkie Pie and caffeine are two things that should never mix, right?” Twilight asked nervously.
“While it wouldn’t necessarily be my place to speculate on Princess Celestia’s motives, I will point out that she has invited Discord to the Grand Galloping Gala on multiple occasions for the purpose of her personal amusement,” Moonwhisper replied. A brief moment of silence followed before all three ponies present made a mad dash for the door in hopes of averting catastrophe.
*********
“-and that’s why Rainbow Dash isn’t allowed to order tiramisu at Sugar Cube Corner anymore,” Pinkie Pie explained as she and Twilight stood amid the ruins of the Canterlot Castle ballroom.
“So Rainbow Dash can’t handle caffeine…but you’re perfectly fine with it?” Twilight asked.
“Yeah, Twilight, I have coffee all the time. I mean, I live in a bakery and coffee’s used in loads of cakes and pastries and other yummy things. Honestly, I don’t even get what the big deal is, coffee’s never made me act weird or anything. Not like –”
“Hey guys I just had an idea do you think I could do a Sonic Rainbow indoors it’d be hard to get the momentum but I bet I could pull it off if I flew in circles what do you think would happen whoops gotta go bye!” A practically vibrating Rainbow Dash seeming appeared out of nowhere beside Twilight and Pinkie Pie before blasting back into the air in a multicolored blur.
“Dang it, she’s got away again!” Applejack yelled in frustration. “Twilight, if y’all are done jawin’ we could really use some help corrallin’ Rainbow before she breaks somethin’ else!”
As Twilight flew off to try and help immobilize her friend, Spike and Moonwhisper watched the chaos unfold from the side of the room. “Aren’t you going to help with that?” Spike asked.
Moonwhisper shook his head. “Most of the takedown methods I could use would carry an unacceptably high risk of injuring Miss Rainbow Dash in the process. As such, unless Twilight requests otherwise or the situation escalates to the point that Twilight’s safety is compromised, I intended to simply stand aside and observe.”
“Heh, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say you were actually enjoying watching this whole spectacle.” Both Spike and Moonwhisper immediately spun around to see Greater Good standing next to them. “Of course, the great Captain Moonwhisper would never –”
“You know, I could probably throw you out of one of those windows and Princess Celestia wouldn’t be all that upset about it. Not after the stunt you pulled with setting up that impromptu summit,” Moonwhisper said.
“Hmm, you’re no fun. Anyway, I’m just popping in to let you know that I’ll be dropping off a small present in Ponyville soon,” Greater Good said.
“And by present you really mean…” Moonwhisper replied warily.
“An unidentifiable magical artifact of unknown origin and power,” Greater Good replied. “We picked it up when we raided a store that was believed to be dealing in magical artifacts without a license. You know the type; creepy little curio shop hidden in the back of a dark alley that sometimes looks lite its boarded up and abandoned even though you swear you went into there the previous night?”
“And who’s proprietor may or may not be Grogar in disguise, I’ve read the reports. Honestly, as nice as it is to live in a society this trusting, I sometimes wish ponies would be a little more suspicious when coming across a mysterious store that accepts payment in favors,” Moonwhisper said. “Now, regarding this mystery artifact, is there any possibility of it being dangerous?”
“Well, there’s always the possibility of that,” Greater Good said before noticing the furious death glare he was receiving from Moonwhisper. “But as far as we can tell that’s not the case. It’s old, whatever it is, and so far we’ve been able to determine that its fairly powerful but otherwise stable. There’s nothing to indicate that whoever made it was playing with dark magic or anything like that, either.”
“So why not just leave it with whoever you usually coerce into dealing with this sort of thing?” Moonwhisper asked. “I was under the impression that you maintained a pool of expendable independent researchers for this exact purpose.”
“Usually you’d be right, but I’m tapped out right now. Between the improvements the Princesses have been making to Canterlot security and the excavation they’ve started at Hollow Shades most of the ponies I’d lean on for this are already busy,” Great Good said.
“And so you’re dumping your problem on me, then,” Moonwhisper said.
“What? No, no, of course not,” Greater Good replied. “I’m dumping the issue on Princess Twilight; you just happen to live with her.”
“You know, if he needs a magical doohickey researched, Twilight is a pretty good pony to ask,” Spike said. “She knows just about everything there is to know about magic, plus she’s got almost everything written about it in her library.”
“There, see?” Greater Good said with a grin. “My choosing Twilight to assist in this matter was an entirely logical decision not at all motivated by a desire to irritate you for my personal amusement.”
Moonwhisper glared silently at Greater Good for several seconds before responding. “You know, I sometimes wonder what would have happened if Twilight and her friends had even blasted you with the elements. Do you think you’d turn to stone or just be annihilated by the force of the magic?”
“Oh Moonwhisper, never change. And by that I mean never develop a shorter temper than you already have. On a related note, I’m going to head out now. It looks like Princess Celestia just noticed that I’m here and there’s at least a half-dozen conversations that she’s going to want to have with me that I’d prefer to avoid. Toodles.” With that, Greater Good scuttled out of sight with surprising speed.
“I get I don’t have room to talk since I hang with Discord on a regular basis, but you have some really weird friends,” Spike said.