"Come on, Comet! You don't want to be late for school!"
Comet grumbles as she flies down the stairs, strapping her saddlebag to her side. "Yeah, yeah, I'm coming, Dad," she growls. "I just had to pick out which earrings I wanted."
"You have too many," I reply. "Seriously, you only have two piercings in your ear. At least you're better about getting your makeup on."
"This again," she growls as she lands at the foot of the stairs. "You said I could use the bits from my job how I wanted, and--"
"No time, Comet," Cheerilee says, nudging her forward. "If we don't get going in the next five minutes, you're going to be late. I have some buttered toast for you to eat on the way."
Comet takes the stack of toast wrapped in a paper towel and shoves one of the pieces in her mouth. I'd get on her for being a messy eater, but she really did have to get going. The three of us make it to the door and I open it up and...
Oh gosh.
"Whoa," Comet whispers, almost dropping her stack of toast. "Dude, that's nuts."
I sigh as I look out into the madness that Ponyville has become. Half of the sky looks too bright, while the other has checkered storm clouds spewing out rain and hail, which I know the schedule didn't call for. The ponies themselves are all running around looking like they'd all kill each other for the littlest slight, and when I poke my head out a little more to see farther, I can just spot the market in the distance where everybody has started looting. A look to my left and I spot Sweet Apple Acres. I couldn't usually see anything specific about it other than bright green treetops, but here they look like somebody has stripped every leaf off of the tree. Given that it was, you know, the middle of spring, I don't think it was the weather.
I've seen enough. I can hear somebody shouting in the distance about revolution, or something like that. As I go back inside, I see Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all running past me. They stop right in front of my house, giving me the opportunity to see that Rainbow and AJ's cutie marks are all messed up. Applejack has Rarity's and Rainbow has Fluttershy's.
"TD!" Twilight cries as she sees me. "You've got to help! The town has gone crazy!"
"Discord off his meds again?" I say dryly.
Twilight groans and facehooves. "No time for jokes. We need to--"
And with that, I shut the door in her face. Then lock it behind me. Then glance at the couch, considering if I should move it in front of the door. I lean against the door and rub my temples. "Only in Ponyville. Only here."
"So..." Comet tilts her head. "Does that mean that I'm not going to school today?"
I nod and straighten up. "Yeah, there wasn't anything important today anyway, right? No special assembly for the seniors?"
Comet shakes her head. "No, and I don't know if I'd tell you if there was."
I shrug. "Fair enough. In any case, the Powell household is officially closed for the day. The four of us are going to have some family time until this all blows over. If that's just today, great. If that spills over into tomorrow..."
"Awesome," Comet replies with a grin.
"I'd be lying if I said that I haven't wanted a day like this," Cheerilee admits. "I'd say the first order of business is a more elaborate breakfast. Waffles sound good?"
I nod. "I think that sounds like--"
* * * *
"--the worst idea I've ever heard!" Rainbow groans. "You don't seriously think that we can get Discord to control the entire Everfree Forest."
"That's not what I'm suggesting, Rainbow," I shoot back. "I'm just saying that if he can control just a few miles, we can get Pinkie's gyrocopter to where it needs to go!"
"Ah'd by lyin' if Ah said Ah liked that idea, Twi," Applejack chimes in, leading to nods from Pinkie and Rarity.
"But who knows what kind of danger Fluttershy is in?" I protest. "If Starlight..." I growl and facehoof. "Where did she even get the Party Rocket Launcher?"
"Wasn't from me," Pinkie replies. "It's a little bit on the expensive side, and only really works for niche parties."
"Like a 'destroy Ponyville and get revenge' kind of party?" Rarity said.
"Exactly."
Rainbow frowns and tilts her head. "Who would--"
"It doesn't matter!" I cut in before they can really get going. "We have to save Fluttershy and switch her cutie mark back before Starlight gets it and we're in real trouble. We have to be smart about it, though. I am not getting another face full of "vengeance pie," or whatever it is she said she shot out of there."
"Well, I don't think she'd truly hurt Fluttershy," Rarity says. "I'd rather stop her sooner than later, though. Getting Discord to help in a limited capacity might not hurt. Given how close the two of them are, I can see him wanting to save Fluttershy posthaste."
"I agree," I reply. "But if we're going to get Discord's help, we need to get--"
* * * *
"--the syrup out of the pantry?"
Comet nods and hovers up to the third shelf of the pantry. "Regular, strawberry or blueberry?"
I shrug as I take the butter out of the fridge. "Why not all three? We're making a lot of waffles."
"Cool." Comet gathers the syrup while Cheerilee flips another waffle out of our waffle maker. She puts it on a plate in front of Oswald, who instantly starts digging in. I put the butter in the middle of the table and go back to the fridge for the bottle of orange juice. Thankfully we went shopping yesterday, so we should be fine on groceries for the next few days, if this lasts that long.
Once the table is set and we have a large stack of perfectly made waffles in front of us, we all sit down at the table to dig in.
"So, what should we do after breakfast?" I ask. "I'd suggest the park or something in the backyard, but we're going by snow day rules here."
"We could try out your new surround sound," Comet says with a grin.
"Not a bad idea," Cheerilee comments. "A few action movies with that could be really cool."
I nod and start buttering up one of my waffles. "Sounds like a good idea."
Thank goodness pony technology has advanced in the last last two and a half decades. There still isn't internet or computers or phones, but home theater systems were becoming a little more commonplace and accessible. Even just a few years ago you could only have a sheet or a projector screen and projector with slightly pricey reels, and that was mostly for stuff like educational videos and whatnot. You weren't picking up a copy of The Godfather. Now, thanks in part to me, we had a close approximation of TVs and DVD players. It was the craziest thing to walk into the Ponyville library and see a budding DVD collection.
Which reminds me that I still need to return the copy of Clover the Clever Throughout the Ages which was basically an action movie with a documentary title. Since the library had started stocking DVDs as the demand for them had risen, the late fees for them were a little higher than the books. Not that I could accrue late fees (a few decent donations to the library had taken care of that) but it was a popular title.
"Of course, I don't want to be in front of the TV all day," I continue. "We should bust out some of the board games."
"Oh yeah, we haven't played Go Fish in forever!" Comet says, perking her ears up. "Pluuussss there are those six packs you got from Berry Punch's bar. We could break into those.
Now, technically the drinking age in Equestria is twenty-one, but there were little exceptions like if you were at home and your parents gave you some or whatever. In any case, not a totally bad idea for a day like this.
"Well, the first thing we need to do is finish breakfast," I say as I grab myself another waffle. Then we can get started on--"
* * * *
"--figuring out how we're going to clean this up," I groan. "I'm kind of sick of repairing Ponyville's fountain."
"Which I'm still not sure why you called me in to help with all of this," Sunset replies. "I can't just drop everything and hop on over to the other side of the portal whenever you need me."
Rainbow Dash scoffs and rolls her eyes. "Come on, Sunset. The fate of the world is at stake here! It's not like you're over there curing cancer or anything."
Sunset frowns at that. "Rainbow, I work for a medical science institute. That's exactly what we're doing."
"Well hopefully this won't take too long," I say. "I just need another high-level unicorn to help me, and with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna fighting the Grootslang that Starlight accidentally let loose, you were my only other option." I grimace and point to the colorful, ominously beeping device in the ruins of the town fountain. "If this goes off, it'll destroy the cutie marks of everypony in Equestria!"
Sunset sighs and illuminates her horn as she walks up to it to do a few scans. "Well, it looks like it's disarmed by a numeric code. This Starlight pony has enough power that I can already tell that we can't just disarm it without it, but it looks like we can change the effects of it." Sunset grimaces. "But not enough to the point where it wouldn't be a horrible disaster if it went off."
"How long do we have?" Rarity asks.
"It doesn't matter! You'll never figure the code out!" a voice from behind us crows.
I wheel around and bare my teeth when I see Starlight Glimmer herself, levitating herself in the air with a smug smile on her face. "Starlight, give us the code! If you don't--"
"I already know what it does," Starlight says smugly. "You'll never stop it. Soon the cutie marks of everypony in Equestria will be destroyed!"
I light my horn, ready for a fight. I glance over at Sunset to see if she's helping me, but she's just doing something to the bomb. Hopefully she can get it disarmed without the code. I can only trust that she knows what she's doing, despite the fact that she hasn't been a unicorn in decades. With nothing else for it, I shoot a beam of magic at Starlight to test her defenses. She casually waves it away with a spell of her own.
"Is that the best that the all high-and-mighty student of Princess Celestia herself can do?" Her face twists into a mock pout. "Or are you not feewing wew today?"
I narrow my eyes and crack my neck. "I haven't even gotten started yet."
Before she can say anything else, I teleport behind her and fire a spell at her before instantly teleporting away. Starlight is still blocking my first attack by the time I've shot the second one at her. It hits her square in the side, and she flies back, but by then I've already teleported to her other side and hit her there.
"No! Stop it!" she cries as I hit her with another spell. "You're cheati--"
I teleport above her and shoot a powerful spell down at her. It hits her before she can react, and she smashes into the ground so hard it leaves a Starlight-shaped hole in the ground. One more thing to fix, I guess. I grab Starlight in my magic and wrap some magic around her horn to stop her from casting any more spells.
"You give up yet?" I growl.
Starlight chuckles and rolls onto her back. "Fine. I can't beat you with magic. That doesn't matter." She motions to the bomb. "You'll never figure out the code."
"You might want to tell us," Sunset said, plucking a hair from Starlight's mane and fusing it with the bomb. "Like you said: we can't stop it, but I've managed to change it so that it'll make all cutie marks become permanently attached to anypony whose DNA is fused to the bomb." Sunset points to the single hair. "Which in this case means you."
Starlight's pupils shrink to pinpricks, and she lets out a little squeak. "Okay! Okay! I give up! The code is--"
* * * *
"--one... two... three... four... five!" I smirk as I land on a chance card. It's the first time I haven't landed on one of Comet's properties in quite a while. I'm running out of money. At least she doesn't have houses on most of them yet. "Alright, let's see what I got," I say as I pick one up from the stack.
"Probably something that will make the next chance card one of us gets horrifying," Comet replies with a nasty grin. "Let's be real, Dad, you haven't had the best luck in the last twenty turns."
I raise an eyebrow. "Is that so? We'll just see about that." I look down to the card. "Cause a short in the housing market. Go to any property you own and place a house on there. If you pass Go, collect 200 bits."
"That's not fair!" Comet roars as I do all of that. "There isn't even enough room on the card for those many words!"
I shrug as I put a house on Canterlot Castle. "Well, you'll just have to think of something good when you land on a chance card, won't you?"
Comet narrows her eyes as Cheerilee stifles a giggle behind her hoof. "Just you wait," she growls. "You'll be sorry then."
Monopoly is so much more fun when you make up your own chance cards.
I organize my small pile of bits as Cheerilee presses the button to roll the dice. She gets double threes and pushes her horseshoe to Trottingham Avenue, which is unclaimed. She pushes a stack of bits to me, and I hand her the card.
Yes, I introduced Monopoly to Equestria thanks to my second book. Sue me. There were some rule adjustments to make it so that it didn't take a hundred years to win, and thus cut down on the strife, but it was a modest success that I didn't bother to get any royalties from. It's not like I needed the money.
Comet pushes the button and gets a seven once it's her turn. As she pushes her crown piece forward, her nasty smile grows as it becomes clear she's going to land on a chance card herself. I shake my head as she slowly pushes her piece onto the square, relishing whatever torment she has in store for me.
"Well well, would you look at that? A chance square!" She picks up one of the chance cards and sloooowwwly looks down to read it. She sucks in air through her teeth and gives me a pained look. "Ooh, not great, Dad. Not great at all."
"Just get it over with."
"If you say so." She clears her throat. "Mutant parasprite attack in Ponyville. Each opponent must pay a hundred bits for each house and two hundred for each hotel for repairs. If unable to pay, the piece is taken off of the board." She shakes her head and puts the card down. "Wow. Bad luck. Didn't you just put a house down?"
"Yeah, yeah," I grumble as I toss three hundred bits into the bank. "Chance cards have a way of coming back to bite you."
"I don't know what you're talking about, Dad," Comet says as she watches Cheerilee pay out two hundred bits. "The cards fall where they may. The only thing I'm worried about is--"
* * * *
"--getting this stupid box open!" I sigh and facehoof. "Fluttershy, are you sure you can't get Discord to fix everything?"
Fluttershy shakes her head. "Sorry, Twilight. Whatever Starlight did is messing with his powers. He says all he can do is make sure the fire tornadoes don't burn everything down, but other than that, his magic can't make them go away."
I thunk my head on the table, then glare over at Starlight, who we have bound and gagged in the corner of the main room of the library. She somehow gives me another smug look, and I turn back to my friends. "Well, I think getting the box open is our best bet to fixing the space-time continuum. The Tree of Harmony wouldn't have given it to us if it couldn't fix things. I hope. I'm not sure how much longer Discord can hold the tornadoes back, and Celestia, Luna and Cadance are still fighting Sombra, and Sunset..." I glance over at her and flinch back. Sunset rolls her eyes.
"You said that the slime would evaporate before it started burning my hair, and the ghost has been banished back, so we're good there."
I exchange an uneasy glance with Rainbow. "Yeah... totally. It's been banished back to its own dimension."
"I tried, Twilight, I really did," Rainbow whispered to me out of the corner of her mouth. "Pinkie Pie and I did everything by the book, and you know how much I hate doing that!"
"We'll figure it out later," I grumble to her. "Maybe opening the box will fix that, too."
"Ah think we just halfta figure out where these keys are," Applejack says, poking the side of the box. "These here are obviously keyholes, and since there are six keys and six of us, and the Tree of Harmony took our Elements, it's not hard to imagine that the six of us halfta give it the keys."
"Yeah, but I haven't gotten any keys dropped on my doorstep in a long time," I growl. "I don't even know what they'd look like!"
"Twilight, calm down," Rarity says. "I understand that you're frustrated, but there's no need--"
"Of course there's need!" I cry. "If we don't figure this out, life as we know it will be over! Maybe life itself will be over!" I run over to one of the bookshelves and start grabbing random books. "Maybe it's in one of these? The Art of the Metaphysical Ferret Myths?" I flip through the pages. "Nope, they're not in here!" I toss the book behind me. "Maybe this one? Pre-Celestial Street Art? Nope! Not this one either!" I throw it behind me, narrowly missing Fluttershy's head. "Or how about this? The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide! Well, Discord hid the Elements in here once. Maybe the keys are in here?" I flip through it and shake my head. "Nope, not here either!"
I toss it behind me, not noticing that it's flying straight toward the box. The second it gets a few inches away, it's bathed in a bright white light, and just as I turn around, the book turns into a shiny gold key that instantly slides into the box.
"Uh..." Sunset blinks. "I guess that worked."
"That was the book that I read the night Nightmare Moon came back," I say softly. "That was the night we all became friends."
"Of course!" Pinkie Pie cries. "It's a friendship box! It must want us to use friendship items as keys!"
I smile confidently and grab the box in my magic. "Then that's it, girls! We just need to find the friendship items that fit into the box, and then it will open and hopefully fix everything!" I turn toward the door, ready to seize the day. "Now all we need to do is--"
* * * *
"--pop this sucker in and relax." I take the bowl of popcorn off of the counter and place it on the couch in between Cheerilee and Comet. I walk over to our movie shelf and take out our copy of Die Hard. Thankfully, making everybody a pony doesn't change it all that much, so it's mostly the movie I grew up loving. I set it up, then take my spot next to my family.
"Gosh, we haven't watched this movie in forever," Comet says, grabbing a hoofful of popcorn.
"Well, one of the great things about this film is that it never gets old," I reply as I give Oswald a small bowl of popcorn for him to munch on. "I could watch it a hundred times and still love it. Thank goodness the pony version is as spot on to the human version that it can be."
"Totally," Comet replies, taking a small bowl of popcorn for herself. "I'm so glad that this is one of your Earth stories, because I'm not sure you guys would have allowed me to watch it otherwise."
"Possibly not," I agree.
Of course, the characters in the film aren't using guns like in the real Die Hard. Pony weapon technology definitely hasn't advanced to that point. There are some gunpowder weapons that are starting to be developed, but nothing usable quite yet, and certainly not for public purchase. The characters are using wrist-mounted mini crossbows.
This is the life, isn't it? Here I am watching a fun movie with my wife, daughter and pet phoenix while Equestria may be burning around us. Eh, I trust Twilight and her buddies to figure everything out. They always do. Well, I had to help them out a lot with Tirek and Chrysalis and sort of Discord, but other than that, they tend to handle things pretty well by themselves.
As we get further in the movie, a smile spreads across my face as a certain part comes up. I glance over at Comet, who is grinning as well. Cheerilee just facehooves.
"You don't need to say it every time we watch this movie, you know."
"Yes, yes we do," I insist while Comet nods in agreement. "Come on, it's tradition."
"Yeah, Mom," Comet chimes in. "It's not like your students are around to hear you." She motions to the TV. "It's almost here!"
Cheerilee sighs and rolls her eyes, but nods. "Fine. I guess it is a relaxation day."
"Excellent." I turn back to the movie. "Alright, are you all ready?" The other two nod, and as it comes up, we all shout as loud as we can.
"YIPPIE KIYAY--"
* * * *
"MOTHER F--"
"Rainbow, no swearing!" I growl.
"I'm sorry, but I've tried everything!" she groans. "I've tried stuffing just about everything that I own that has even a remote connection to you girls, and nothing has worked!"
"I got that, but we'll find something," I insist.
"It has to do with your Element," Pinkie Pie says, throwing her foreleg around Rainbow's shoulders. "Like how mine was my party cannon and Rarity's was pieces of the dresses she made us that one time and Fluttershy's was the sign of her animal sanctuary and Applejack's was the rope she--"
"I know, I know, I was there," Rainbow growls. She throws her closet open and starts pushing through the few clothes she has. "Why can't Princess Celestia and Princess Luna deal with all of this?"
"Rainbow, I told you it's because they're fighting whatever the heck a Gojira is," I reply. "Getting this box open is the best way to save the day!"
"I know, but--" Rainbow's eyes widen. "Of course!" She snatches a badge off of one of her old Wonderbolts uniforms. "My old wingpony badge! That was the day I saved all of your girls from becoming multicolored splotches on the ground!"
"Probably could have phrased that better," Fluttershy muttered.
"Great, this has to be it," Rainbow replies as she walks up to me. "Now we just gotta--"
Somehow the ground around us shakes, even though we're in a cloud house. We all fly around, and of course, when Rainbow falls back, her badge flies out the window behind her.
"No! We have to get that!" I cry. "Everypony who can't fly to the balloon!"
"Calm down, Twi," Applejack says as we rush out of Rainbow's house. "It can't have gone that far. It's a metal badge. It's not gonna bounce."
"Unless somepony caught it and is running away!" I point out. "Or a mockingbird found it! Or one of the Cutie Mark Crusaders who's gonna use it to--"
"My sister just turned thirty-two," Rarity says with a frown. "I don't think that they'd do anything like that. Besides, she's still on her honeymoon, remember? Even if she were here, I think her and Button have better things to do than pick up random badges."
"Probably could have phrased that better," Fluttershy muttered.
"Maybe Scootaloo, then!" I cry, a piece of my mane going out of place. "You know how much she worships you, Rainbow! If she saw something of yours, she could give it to her daughter as a toy!"
Rainbow pats the hair back into place. "You're freaking out, egghead," Rainbow grumbles. "Just because she followed me everywhere, became my sort of adopted sister, started the Rainbow Dash fan club, and named her daughter Lightning Dash doesn't mean that she worships me or would steal random stuff of mine. Besides, I... what the tartarus is that?!"
I turn to where she's looking and see a gigantic airship flying into the middle of town square. Oh gosh, not another thing!
"Rainbow, you and Fluttershy look for that badge. Rarity, you take the box. Everypony else, let's go see if this is something else that we need to stop!"
"Got it, Twi!" Rainbow says.
The rest of us land, and Rarity leaves with the box to go look for the badge. The airship lands, and the ramp opens, flattening what's left of the fountain.
Sheesh.
I can't see what's inside through the smoke, but after a moment, a unicorn in black armor walks down the ramp, a nasty look on her face. I notice that she has a broken horn. This can't be good.
"Good evening, ladies. I am Tempest Shadow." she growls. "I am here as an emissary of the Storm King. He will be taking over your pathetic lands. I advise that you submit without delay and give him your magic. If you do not, he will burn your cities, salt your fields, and take your magic by force."
I smirk at her. "If."
Tempest shifts uncomfortably for a second, but her glare returns. "You are fools if you insist on fighting. You--"
A scroll pops up above me, and I catch it in my magic. "Hold that thought." I clear my throat and begin reading out lout.
'Twilight, out country is under attack by somebody calling himself the Storm King. We have made peace with the one called Gojira, and he is helping us fight him. Frankly, he's kind of kicking ass. We're mopping up a bit, so we should be able to finally come to Ponyville to see your progress. Remember: Starswirl's journal is key!"
I grunt and shake my head before looking up to Tempest. "Well, you were saying?"
Tempest's eye twitches, and she turns around just in time to see the ramp going back up as the airship takes off.
"Wait! The Storm King was going to give me my magic back!" Tempest cries, beating on the side of the ship to no avail. "Power is all that matters!"
"No! Don't you understand?" We all turn and see Starlight running up to Tempest. She grabs Tempest's face and pulls her close. "Friendship is true power! I didn't know that until now, but Sunset helped me understand!" I glanced over at Sunset who just shrugged. Guh.
"I guess that's good," Applejack said.
"Who are you?" Tempest groans.
"I'm somepony who didn't see the light! Do you have any idea how my life would have been better with real, true friendships? Do you have--"
* * * *
"--any threes?"
Cheerilee shakes her head. "Go fish."
Comet grimaces, but takes a card from the top of the pile.
"I think you might be in trouble, Comet," I say as I put a slice of homemade pizza down and wipe my hand on a paper towel. "I think I have a good idea of what cards you have."
Comet glares at me. "Just get it over with, old man."
"I'm hurt," I say with mock indignation. "In any case... do you happen to have a princess in your possession?"
Comet mutters something under her breath that I'm sure isn't very family friendly, but slides said card over to me. I pick it up and put all of my cards face up on the table. "And I'm out."
"Well, I guess you finally had to win one," Cheerilee says, gathering up the cards to begin dealing them again. "So that would be five for me, nine for Comet and one for you, then."
"I have plenty of time to come back, thank you very much," I insist. "We haven't even had dessert yet."
"Well, if that's the end point, you might want to hurry and win nine more times," Comet says, glancing back at the oven. "The pie is going to be ready in fifteen minutes."
"Yep, we'd better." I quickly organize my cards and look to Cheerilee. "Do you have any fives?"
"Hey, left of the dealer!" Comet says.
"Fine, fine."
"Good." She gives me a nasty grin. "Dad, do you have any fives?"
For goodness sakes.
I toss her the cards and glance at the oven. "Still thirteen minutes left, huh? Well, I guess I really have to think about how I'm going to do this." I look down at my cards and slooowwwllly begin shuffling them around. "Hmm. I wonder if I could ask... no, that would be silly. But if I... well, I could..."
"Daaaaad, you're stalling!"
"Have you ever met your father?" Cheerilee says, raising an eyebrow at Comet. "You should have seen how much he stalled the first time we played Life. Wouldn't take a spin for ten minutes because he knew that I'd win in the next turn."
"That's pure fiction," I insist. "The spinner got misaligned, and I wasn't going to spin with a faulty spinner. The fact that your mother was two spaces away from the end was completely incidental. Could have happened at any point in the game, if you think about it."
Comet rolls her eyes as Cheerilee gives me a flat look. "Just go, TD," Cheerilee says.
I frown and tilt my head. "Why? I think we're having an enjoyable conversation, and I need to keep my honor here. You think I stall when I know I'm about to lose. I think that's pure poppycock. Any my own beloved family is accusing me of this to boot. How injurious. I think--"
* * * *
"--we finally did it, girls."
Thank goodness. I guess the box is the new Elements of Harmony. Though, given that my mane and tail are now twice as long and that I look like I was dipped in glitter, I think I prefer the Elements. Too late for that now, I guess. The other girls don't look much better than I do if Starlight, Sunset and Tempest's expressions are anything to go by.
"Well... I supposed that fixed everything," Rarity said, grimacing at the sight of her tail. "We won't have to spend the bits to repair the fountain."
"There's that, I guess." I sigh and plop down on the ground. Somehow I feel like I just ran a marathon. I'm not quite as young as I used to be. "But there's still the question of what to do with this." I take Starswirl's journal out of my saddlebag. "Princess Celestia said that it was the key to everything. Something about an unfinished spell of his."
"What would the spell even do? Does it say?" Rarity asks.
"Oh, I dunno." I sit up. "Let's see. A mark of one's destiny, singled out alone, fulfilled.' I don't know. Maybe something to do with--" My eyes widen. Wait a second, that's it! I understand now! I know how to fix the spell!" I grab a pen from my saddlebag and begin writing. "From all of us together, together we're friends. With the marks of our destinies made one, there is magic without end!"
That's when the box opens up again and shoots out a beam of magic that wipes me off the face of the earth.
* * * *
I look out the window and see that everything seems to be fixed. Nothing looks like it's about to crumble around us anymore, so that's good. Blue sky, shining sun, and nobody looks like they'll kill each other. I push aside my empty pie plate and stand up.
"Well, looks like everything is fine. Might as well go see what all of the fuss was about."
"Might as well," Comet agrees. "Maybe we can find out if I have to go to school tomorrow."
"Pretty sure you do," I reply. "Doesn't look too dangerous out there, but we'll see."
I walk over to the door and open it up, with Cheerilee, Comet and Oswald following close behind me. Most of the ponies seem to be flocking over to the library, so okay. We'll see what's going on there. We don't have to get too close to notice that it's... uh, changed a bit. It still looks like a tree, but it's a little taller, and the wood looks shinier. Sturdy. Not like crystal, or anything like that, but more like a castle than anything. A tree castle. Huh. Twilight is on the ground, with her friends, Spike, Celestia and a few mares I don't recognize standing around her. Twilight groans and slowly sits up.
"Wh-what happened?"
That's when the wings pop out.
So she's an alicorn now.
And I guess the tree is her castle, or something like that. Everybody else looks shocked, but Celestia has a massive smile on her face.
I look over to Comet and Cheerilee, then shake my head.
"Nope." I begin herding them back to Manderley. "There's still pie, and we haven't broken into the ice cream yet. You know, with sprinkles and caramel and hot fudge and whipped cream and a cherry. And we haven't watched The Dark Knight in forever, have we?" I glance back to Twilight, who has just noticed her new feathery appendages. "Yeah. Let's not get involved."