The rest of lunch passed quickly with Trixie and Twilight talking back and forth, sharing their life stories. Unfortunately, after lunch found them going separate ways, Trixie had her afternoon classes while Twilight found herself returning to the castle for combat training. Apparently, most students didn’t have that class.
At least, in the light of the day, Twilight knew her way and could make the trip quite a bit easier than the night before. Yes, the air still practically froze around her, but the sun helped dull most of the chill, and with the chirping birds, the whole outdoors almost seemed pleasant really. This time, ponies were out and about, tending to their business, laughing and spending time together or visiting shops. It made Stalliongrad seem more like an actual town, a city rather than some sort of icy wasteland.
It definitely helped that Twilight had enough clothes to fit in now. A lovely, downy cloak borrowed from Trixie, the softest of blue with wool lining the inside. It kept her body warm, her old saddlebags thrown over her back, stuffed with yet more things that Trixie had loaned her: books, quills, even a textbook or two that Trixie had kept over from classes she no longer took. Sure, Twilight didn’t even take one of the classes she’d now procured a book for, but you never knew.
The journey to the castle really didn’t take long. Ten minutes, all told, there and back again. Twilight had gotten directions from a fellow classmate as well, go to the square but don’t go into the castle proper. Instead, head left and out through another portcullis and straight into quite the wide field. Once upon a time, it’d been used for maneuvers with the military. With the army population here severely reduced, it’d been repurposed as a training ground for the guard and for any other ponies that were deemed worthy.
Apparently, Twilight had been deemed worthy. And by none other than Luna herself. Still, she felt strange stepping onto the field. In the distance, she could see a group of royal guards marching in their cadence. Off to the right, a circle had been crudely magicked into the ground, unicorns whipping spells at each other faster than Twilight could think. Above, Pegasi fought against each other, with training weapons but somehow looking no less deadly to Twilight’s amateur eyes.
For a while at least, Twilight let herself be occupied by the unicorns dueling. Flashes of golden light intermingled with a fiery red. Shields, teleporting to get an angle on the other, even magical blades appearing in the air. Yep, Twilight definitely couldn’t keep up with that, it almost looked like some kind of dance with how close the two moved sometimes. It took her another second to spot the helmets off on the ground near the circle. Royal Dragoons. No wonder they were so far beyond everypony else.
Somepony was supposed to be meeting her here, right? That’s what she’d been told at least. The mare awkwardly shifted on her hooves, looking around her and spotting… well, pretty much the same as she’d been seeing. Twilight frowned, letting out a huff as she looked to pop open her saddlebags. Might as well start to read while she had the chance, get caught up on the things she’s missed coming in late.
Twilight never got the chance. Magic exploded beside her, a flash of bright golden light that made her yelp and stumble to the side. Suddenly taking its place stood a yellow coated pony, with a red and yellow striped mane and tail, the former of which had been bound into a ponytail, trailing off the side of her youthful, if scarred, face.
That’s what really stood out at first. Scars marred a good half of her face and neck, deep, cutting things, over her eye, on her cheek, even on the side of her nose. Despite the way it made half of her muzzle droop, she still smiled, her cyan eyes still gleamed with happiness, intelligence too.
Eventually, Twilight managed to pull her eyes away from the mare’s face to look over the rest of her. The mare’s right foreleg had suffered the same affliction as whatever happened to her face, though the rest of her body was covered in some sort of barding so it was impossible to tell if it ended there. The barding looked like leather, treated with something that made it practically glimmer in the light of the morning.
“Twilight Sparkle!” The words were said with exactly zero doubt or questioning. An announcement of utter certainty. “Hi there!” Despite everything, this mare was… bubbly? Yes, that’s the word. A hoof came out in introduction. “Sunset Shimmer, happy to meet ya!”
Carefully, Twilight reached her hoof out and gave it a shake, with a nod of her head. “Are you my combat instructor?” she asked, magically snapping the saddlebags closed once more. “You’re not exactly who I expected,” she admitted.
Sunset just giggled, pulling her hoof back. “Well! Luna herself ‘recommended’ me! Or should I say forced me?” she asked, one hoof tapping against the bottom of her chin in thought. “Voluntold! That’s the word!” Sunset finally settled, with quite the enthusiastic nod of her head.
Twilight wondered if she should be offended by this revelation. Surely there had been somepony that actually wanted to mentor her? And this one seemed strange to say the least. Well, she’d do her best regardless. If the Princess had chosen her, then it must have been for a good reason. Twilight did her best to smile. “Well, I’m sure that you’ll do a fantastic job, Miss Shimmer. I am super new to all this, so any help that you can give me is definitely appreciated!” Twilight perked up the best she could and she thought that she did a pretty damned good job all things considered.
Another giggle and Twilight suddenly wondered if that was all that Sunset did. But perhaps the growing headache made her shorter tempered than she normally would have been. “Well, I’ve been in the Dragoons for uh, about a decade now, so if I couldn’t fight I wouldn’t be doing much good for them, would I?” she asked, with a wink. “Scoot close, I’ll take us over towards where we’re gonna be training today. You’ve teleported before, right?”
Twilight started to answer, she really did, but the sudden yank of magic forced the words back into her throat. The world collapsed around her and the noise roared in her eyes. Vision shrank to pinpricks and nothing more around her, the darkness collapsing in. Yet, at the same time, she could see things, other things. She could see a fast moving deer, bow floating above them, locking and loaded to something.
She could see one of the castle walls pitching inwards, the great screech of stone marking the collapse of such a marvel of engineering. She could see Luna in combat, a vicious, bloody monster cleaving her way through lines and lines of enemy foes that seemed to be nothing more than gray blobs of smoke. She saw herself, channeling some great magic atop a tower, in the midst of a ritual circle that she couldn’t even begin to understand.
And yet, just as fast as all these visions had come, they disappeared once more, snuffed out and returning Twilight to the world of the living. Lovely, green grass rushed up to meet her, and she realized that she was falling flat on her face. She didn’t catch herself - no, something else did. Shimmering, golden magic surrounded her, suspending her barely an inch from the ground, so close that she could quite literally feel the blades of grass tickling her nose.
“You okay?!” Sunset practically yipped out. The magic uprighted Twilight, and she got back to her hooves again. Physically, just fine. Mentally? Head spinning just a touch. Still, the instructor pony was practically nose to nose with her already. “Oh Celestia! I really should’ve let you answer before I teleported us, that was super rude!” Sunset apologized the best she could. “I’m totally sorry, are you still well enough to go through training today? I think Luna - the Princess - would totally get it if you weren’t feeling up to it!”
Twilight brushed herself off the best she could, though she quickly realized that she had absolutely nothing to brush off of her. Despite the journey, they’d not actually touched the ground even for a second. “I’m-” she started to say, despite her head absolutely spinning. Her eyes squeezed shut, and in and out she breathed over and over. “I’ll be okay,” she tried to reason once more.
It hadn’t even been the first time that she’d ever teleported. It had, however, been the first time someone else’s magic had ripped her through that sort of space. When she did it, it was smooth, quick, instantaneous and no lingering effects plagued her. Nor did she see things in the realm between, if only-
Oh. She’d always been told that teleportation was amongst the most dangerous spells that one could cast. She’d read about it - something about the space in between being as close to raw magic, to the creation of the universe as you could get. If there was even the slightest thing wrong in your spell, you could get trapped there, in limbo, for the rest of your life. Granted, it’d be a very short life full of pain and confusion and then you’d simply stop existing.
Perhaps Sunset’s spell had let her see into that aether. Without the same protective spells wrapped around herself and in more of a side car, she’d been able to peek out into the universe beyond.
Then, Twilight had a terrible idea. A no good, awful one. What if she started to strip away some of the protective spells on her own teleports? Perhaps one or two of the more modern ones weren’t needed? Those visions, they had seemed important. The memories of them still danced in her head, almost taunting her with knowledge that she couldn’t have. Why not push the boundaries? Why not try and see more? Not always. Never always. But after some study? It was worth a try for something that could potentially hold the secrets of the future.
Sunset smacked her.
Well that brought her back to the world of the living. Her head slowly pointed over towards Sunset with a long, long look. “Did you just-”
Sunset smacked her again, though she at least looked apologetic for this one.
“Sorry! I used to do that whole thing you just did, with the zoning out and we definitely don’t have time for that today! It does mean you’re feeling better though, doesn’t it?” Sunset asked, with a big smile on her face that somehow managed to look apologetic at the same time.
Twilight would need to learn how to do that someday. It might get her out of some trouble. One hoof came up to delicately rub at her face, but she couldn’t help but understand where the other mare came from. “I do tend to zone out sometimes,” she admitted, with a little giggle. “I’m sorry, and yes, I’m definitely feeling better now. Um, sorry about that,” she apologized again.
Sunset just waved it off with a gesture of her hoof and stepped clear of Twilight, letting her see the space around them. A few things had already been set up - a couple of clay targets on the ground, a circle like the dueling circle from before, and a length of rope that seemed like nothing special. “Don’t apologize, let’s just get started, I only have you for fifty seven minutes now and we’re going to use absolutely all of that!
Today, we’re going to judge your base capabilities. I can’t really do a whole lot of training if I don’t know how strong or accurate or tough you are, so we’re gonna do some basic stuff and see where you’re at. Sounds good?” Sunset asked, though she didn’t exactly wait for Twilight to answer. Granted, the purple mare did give a nod.
“So we’re a good way away from everypony else now, I’m gonna launch these clay targets up in the air and you’re going to blast them. Use a low power spell just in case you miss, but try and keep some… some zip in it, alright?” Part of Twilight wondered why Sunset kept asking these questions if she didn’t want an answer, especially because Sunset already started to levitate up one of the targets.
This time, at least, she did seem to wait, looking back towards Twilight with an expectant look. “Oh. I didn’t expect you to wait,” Twilight admitted. Twilight took a few steps forward up beside Sunset, doing her best to get in a somewhat decent stance. Hooves apart, horn upwards, she could absolutely do this, couldn’t she?
“I always wait!” Sunset absolutely lied. Twilight could tell she lied, especially because right as she said that one of the clay targets launched into the air.
Go time! Twilight really did try her best, head tracking the target, keeping her eyes on track and firing a bolt of bright, amethyst energy towards it. Whatever it hit wouldn’t be affected that much, just be lit up and shoot sparkles from it. Unfortunately, she happened to miss entirely and the clay pigeon continued whizzing through the air, magic bolt going off into the distance. Total miss.
“Try again!” Sunset called out, not even giving Twilight a second to think things over. Again, a pigeon would fly through the air, just as quick, just as arched as the last one. And again Twilight would do her absolute best to murder the thing with a bolt of magic.
And yet again, the pigeon whizzed through the air uselessly, probably hitting something miles and miles and miles away. Or nothing at all. One of the two, really. With a huff, Twilight stomped against the ground, a tiny bit of frustration boiling through her. “This should be easier than it is! It’s just a calculation of the ar-”
Once more, Twilight’s words would be interrupted by action. This time, however, included the clay thing flying right at her face, way faster than the ones before. A normal, logical pony probably would have just zapped it. It would have been easiest, the least amount of power, all that good stuff.
But Twilight panicked. Realistically, this thing couldn’t and wouldn’t hurt her, but she wasn’t thinking about that. Right now, it seemed like an absolute existential threat to her and, more importantly, to her horn.
So Twilight dealt with it in the most reasonable way possible.
She exploded.
Magic flared out from her in a tidal wave of energy, scorching the grass to soot and ash, nothing more. The clay pigeon evaporated from the sudden energy, turned to nothing but dust. By all accounts, Sunset Shimmer should have had the same fate befall her as well.
For thirty feet around Twilight, the devastation reigned, her eyes were a bright white, horn glowing with energy, pulsing and sputtering. It was a silent explosion too, the expansion of magic was accompanied by no noise, no fanfare beyond the fiery cataclysm in its wake and the bright light show on the ground.
Everything within a thirty foot radius had ceased existence. The dueling circle, the rest of the pigeons, the grass itself, and probably even the oxygen molecules in the air but nopony really had any way of knowing about that.
Sunset didn’t even stand in the same place anymore. Belatedly, Twilight realized that she might have killed Sunset. The realization absolutely sent her mind into a panic, glancing around with panic in her eyes. What exactly was the punishment for killing a pony in Stalliongrad? Did it matter that it had been an accident? Knowing the laws of the land, she doubted that would even come up in her trial.
If she got a trial. She’d hurt somepony that Luna personally trusted and oh my Celestia, she was definitely going to die. Twilight whimpered and plopped her rump down against the ground, already trying to rationalize ways that she could explain this.
Turns out, her worry was for naught. With a pop of golden magic, Sunset reappeared in front of her. “Woah!” she chirped, looking around at the destruction around her. “You really did a number on this place, didn’t ya? Well, I think we definitely don’t have to worry about reflexes! Nope, seems like accuracy is the thing you need to work on!” Always upbeat, always chipper, Twilight didn’t know how she did it.
Twilight slowly got back to her hooves again, inspecting Sunset with quite the closeness. It couldn’t have been a clone or something, right? Twilight wasn't a murderer. That meant she wasn’t going back to jail. Oh thank the Goddesses. “Sorry,” she squeaked out.
From the outside, Twilight looked like something of a mess. Hair messy and half exploded on its own, horn literally smoking, coat fritzed up and looking like she’d gotten the worst static shock of her life, and tail mimicking her hair in the same way. It didn’t help that she sat in the middle of a crater, quite the blast radius around her. She might have been impressed had she not been humiliated.
Sunset, however, seemed absolutely impressed! She let out a low whistle as she looked around the space beside them. “You really did a number on the ground, didn’t you?” she asked. “I’m impressed! I don’t think I’ve seen somepony do that in like, years. Back in my own training, I think!” she mused, with another nod of her head. “Look, don’t worry about it, okay? I know you’re feeling worried and all, but it’s okay! These kinds of things happen, and it’s why I took you really far away from everypony else. See?” she asked, gesturing around them.
Absolutely true, too. Twilight hadn’t realized it before, but they were on the other side of the castle now, maybe around the back of it? Had she not been totally absorbed in Sunset’s words, she might have noticed it before. The part where the two of them stood still looked like the normal practice field. But over to the right, directly behind the castle, she could see the start of the gardens.
Twilight didn’t know so much could grow up here. Despite the cold, despite the snow, the gardens still exploded with color. They were blues and purples, whites and all sorts of cool colors, in low planters stretching out in a pattern that Twilight was sure was beautiful if she could see it up close. Somehow, they’d even managed to grow a hedge maze on the far side of the gardens. That shouldn’t be possible up here, but Twilight imagined that magic could make anything possible.
At this time of day, a small army of gardeners tended to the plants, each dressed in the same uniform as they continued watering, tending, clipping, pruning, all sorts of tasks that would keep the plants healthy. An urge poked at Twilight’s mind, an urge to head over and take a look; how could one not want to? The royal gardens of Stalliongrad. Something so amazing made in the most hostile of places. A work of art.
And Twilight got slapped again.
“You were doing the thing again! Sorry!” Sunset apologized, taking a few steps back just in case.
But, there wouldn’t be any explosion, any overreaction. Instead, Twilight just laughed. Maybe it was because she’d had a hell of a day already, maybe it was the outflow of magic earlier that left her filled with endorphins and not much else, or maybe it was just getting slapped three times, but Twilight absolutely laughed.
Probably to the point of seeming at least a little deranged. Though, it likely helped that Sunset had started to laugh with her. Not quite as loudly, but still there. The other mare stopped first, speaking up once more. “This has been the weirdest day of training I’ve ever done! And we haven’t even started training! I’ve never had a mare blow up on me but wow, you sure are an exciting one, aren’t you?” she asked.
Twilight’s laughter slowly petered out, a small shake of her head chasing the last bits of laughter out. “I’m sorry!” she apologized, mimicking Sunset’s chipper tone for once. “This has been a really weird day for me too. It started with me getting arrested and now I’m the Princess’s personal student. I’m sure you can understand that I’m totally weirded right now. I swear I’m not usually like this,” she promised.
Sunset just waved a hoof. “It’s okay! You’re fine, this has been really exciting and that’s awesome. We’re going to have plenty of sessions together, I mean, three times a week for forever if I can help it! No, wait, that’s a lie. Not forever, because I need you to graduate at some point!” Sunset came over, draping a hoof over Twilight’s shoulders and pulling her closer, giving a squeeze and all.
“You got it all out of your system now? Cause we definitely need to keep going!” Sunset added, with another squeeze around Twilight’s barrel. “Though, I guess I’m gonna have to get us more equipment, huh? Least I know how strong that horn on top of your head is!”
One last squeeze and Sunset scooted away once more, Twilight clumsily smoothing down her hair. “All good,” Twilight agreed, with a nod of her head. “Do you need any help? I can maybe fix it. Maybe.” The second maybe sounded even less sure than the first, and the more she looked around herself, the less sure she felt. “Want me to give it a try?”
Sunet seemed to consider it for a second before shaking her head. “Sure, why not? You got some crazy magic, might as well see what you can do!” A pop of magic and Sunset appeared some dozen or two yards away, outside the circle of destruction. “Go ahead!”
Twilight only really had a vague idea of how she could do this. It’s stuff that she’d tried on a small scale before, but never on anything larger than a glass of water. The concepts had to stay the same on different scales, right?
It just meant knitting time into something not quite straight and linear. By all accounts, it should be impossible to do on a pony, they were too complicated for anypony but the Princesses and Starswirl himself, though the latter had long since disappeared.
Twilight closed her eyes, her horn starting to glow once more. She’d need to be careful, just moments before, she’d expended more magic than she’d meant to. On the bright side, Twilight happened to be something of a special type of unicorn.
To be specific, there were two main types of unicorns. The first were the standard, the ones that most ponies thought of when they saw a unicorn. They had power, and sometimes a lot of it, but it was focused on one particular thing or in a small area. Take her brother for instance - he couldn’t pump out nearly the raw energy that Twilight could but his shields could lay so intricately that even she couldn’t pierce them most of the time.
He also got the added benefit of being able to light a candle or do the dishes. Twilight had tried that once, and she’d blown up the fireplace and shattered all their porcelain. Her mother had never forgiven her for that, no matter how much she tried to say otherwise.
Twilight’s type were rarer. That didn’t make them better, just different. Twilight had a deep well of magic that she could reach into, and it came out like a firehouse. She’d had to train for many, many years just to hold a quill or read a book, something that came by default to most other unicorns.
But at least she could do these sorts of things. They were flashier, sure, but could a pony like her do surgery? No. Fix a watch? Not even a little. Cons and pros, ups and downs.
For now, Twilight focused. Her magic started to expand around her in an orb emanating from her horn and capturing anything that it passed over. Magic signatures lit up in her mind’s eye, the most prevalent her own from the explosion earlier.
Within the bright amethyst of her magic signature were others too - a golden one over there from where Sunset had popped out of being, a splotch of blue and green from ponies doing something earlier that Twilight couldn’t discern. This acted like an imprinting sort of deal, not seeing the past.
It did mean that she could revert some things at least, mostly small damage to inanimate objects. Like a cloth getting ripped, or a plate getting shattered. Those things took a flood of magic, and Twilight figured that if she could do it for those small things, making grass not be burnt counted as well. RIght?
Another deep breath. Okay, yea, she could totally do this. And hey, it might impress Sunset too, another reason to get it done. Her magic stopped it’s inexorable march of movement at the edge of the circle around herself, nearly a perfect, sculpted sphere really, above and below the ground. Though, it’s not like there was anything to fix underneath her.
An overglow coated her horn, another layer on the already overcharged horn. It made her head ache all over again, but ever so slowly, she started to pull the magic circle back in. On the way back on, she laced it with the spell from earlier. Really, it was a particularly clever piece of magic. At its base, it was just transformation. Everypony could do basic transformation, turning coins into buttons and the like - temporarily for those, of course. Twilight just added another element, the dimension of time in addition to the physical three dimensions.
Time made it a great deal more difficult than the physical dimensions, but it could still be pulled and pushed around with magic. It just used more. So as the circle pulled back, time would pull back with it. The dark, burned ground replaced itself with green, fresh, even sparkling with morning dew grass. The clay pigeons even reformed as the magic dragged over the spots where they’d sat along with the dueling circle that was etched into the ground.
Twilight’s horn glowed all the brighter again, and her headache became near head splitting. She could make it all stop if she just let the magic go, if she let it flow outwards and break the spell, the glow would stop, the searing headache would follow it, but she was devoted now.
Besides, the circle had already made it half of the way back to her and the less area made every inch easier. She sucked in a deep breath, holding herself tight to the spot. Finally, it touched against her hooves, the sphere closing up into something marble shaped right around her horn.
Spell done, Twilight slumped over, smoke trailing from her horn in a lovely spiral shape. She gasped for air, but didn’t fall to the ground. The piercing pain slowed to a dull ache now, barely in the back of her head as a reminder of the stupid amounts of magic that she’d channeled. A step forward would show that the places where her hooves had planted still burned away to a crisp, black ash, but the rest of the field looked perfect, barely touched from a few hours ago.
With the smallest of smiles, Twilight looked up towards Sunset, gesturing to the grass around her in a miniature ‘ta-da!’ sort of gesture. Sure, it was probably diminished by the fact that she quite literally sucked in each breath, but the gesture totally counted regardless.
Sunset continued to show her niceness by giving a clap of her hooves and an appreciative nod of her head. “Wow, that was really something, Twilight!” Sunset called out, ambling her way back towards the center of the circle.
Twilight did her best to smile at the other mare, the thin sheen of sweat covering her no longer so easy to ignore. “Thanks,” she answered, looking down beneath herself. The spots, however, vexed her. Not enough for her to cast the spell again, but definitely enough for her to be ever so minorly annoyed at their existence. They should have fixed too, darnit.
“You okay to keep training or did that take it out of you?” Sunset asked, looking over the grass once more. “Cause I was going to totally test your strength next but after that I’m not really sure that I need to. I was also gonna teach you some pretty basic self defense spells, but uh, after seeing that I think I have to re-write the curriculum. Or probably steal most of it from Luna. Sorry, I haven’t actually worked with one of your kind before!” Sunset explained, then quickly went on.
“Is that offensive? I mean, it’s honestly just awesome!”
The ache had nearly disappeared entirely now, only taking a couple of moments really. Magic worked funny like that. “It’s not offensive,” Twilight answered, with a giggle of her own. “It’s just the way that things are. I also wouldn’t mind taking a break. I can keep going, but this really has been exhausting,” Twilight admitted. It’s not like her magical stores were exhausted, but her horn still smoked and that meant bad things could happen if she kept going. The last thing she needed to do was give herself a burnout on the very first day of school. “Also, I think I need another shower before dinner.” Twilight looked down at herself as she spoke, soot still staining her coat.
Sunset clapped Twilight on the back again, pulling her close for a tight squeeze. “Sounds good to me. Same time uh…” she looked up at the sun, like that’d somehow give away the secrets of time. “Wednesday?” she proposed.
It’s not like Twilight could argue with that scheduling, but the way that Sunset carried herself was just so darned infectious! “See you then,” Twilight promised. “And don’t worry, I got my own transport!” she swore.
One last wave towards Sunset and Twilight would teleport. It didn’t get her all the way back, but it got her to the front of the gates, enough that she could pleasantly walk her way back down to the dorms to save her horn. Next time, she’d do it without some of the wards.
And next time, she’d remember to come to training without wanting to blow up the field. Sunset wouldn’t hurt her, she just had to remember that.
Twilight shrugged her saddlebags off and the mare went out looking for Trixie. Time for a long, long shower.
Luna hadn’t slept well. She normally didn’t these days what with so many things going on. Yet today was worse than normal, she tossed and turned for so long that all told she only managed about four hours of actual sleep. She could work with that, not perfect, but doable.
A certain mare vexed her mind, along with the realization that she’d have to start teaching somepony for the first time in nearly a decade. Her last student had gone well, quite well until an accident that had left her scarred. Quite honestly, Luna had sworn off students altogether when it occurred, but now she found herself falling into the same old habits.
And now she dressed with the realization that she’d gone back on yet another promise she’d made herself. Those seemed to break by the week these days, what a shame really. A gown covered her body, a midnight blue one that matched her coat, the bottom of it turning into a lovely gauzy thing, sparkling with glitter. Other than that, it was fairly simple, a loose gown with her cutie mark on the front of it.
What would she teach this mare? Her old lesson plans were still valuable, but they were warlike in nature and for some reason Luna didn’t particularly feel like that was what was needed here. Maybe something about dream magic? Dark Magic?
That hadn’t worked out well two students ago, even if said student had made a wonderful statue in her garden. Maybe that could come later. Bah, she had started to overthink this already, hadn’t she? She still needed to get breakfast, have evening court and see her council before Twilight’s first lesson as well. So much to do, so little time.
Luna strolled over towards her balcony, looking out over her beautiful city. The sun had just set over the horizon, painting it in the most wonderful of twilight colors, purples and reds painting the sunset. Mere minutes till the moon would poke it’s lovely head out as well, minutes that she’d spend watching her children go through their days.
She smiled as she saw her ponies laugh and play. There, a group chatting as they exited some expensive restaurant, dressed to the nines. Another there, getting off work and pushing his way into a bar. Still another wearing masquerade masks on their way to a party that Luna envied.
And in the back of her mind, the constant, fearful reminder that this could all end in a tsunami of flame and destruction. That thought reasserted that she had to think of something to teach Twilight, something that could be useful in stopping whatever-
Why not introduce her to it?
That’s a nice thought. Share the gift of prophecy with her newest student, perhaps Twilight would be able to see the future the both of them could change. Perfect.
With newfound confidence, Luna would slip away. Time for breakfast.