— ✶ —
Twilight was wandering the Canterlot Palace with Luna in search of her remaining friends, pondering how many of them would be heading back to Ponyville when she spotted five-point-one colorfully-scaled figures that had already done so, and had been quite vocal about it.
Twilight was so perplexed to see Spike and his friends back so soon that she immediately said what was on her mind. "I thought you'd had enough of ponies for the day?"
Twilight hadn't known Ember for very long, but she was pretty sure that the almost sheepish look on her face was uncommon for her. In fact, whatever it was that had her looking so conflicted was bad enough that it was Spike who spoke up.
"Yeah, it just occurred to—uhh, us—that even though we lost Torch, we might know where he's going." He glanced at Ember checking for her agreement. "I mean, he has a lair or something, I guess?"
Twilight blinked. "He would, wouldn't he?"
"The dragonlands are a fair distance, even by flight," Luna mused. "And it is doubtful that he is flying, or we would have spotted him against the sky."
"Well, he must have made his initial escape by flight, at least," Twilight reasoned. "Fluttershy said there was no sign of him in her range by the time we spoke to her, and it's pretty big."
"Hold on a second," Ember interrupted. "Isn't Fluttershy the yellow one that was helping us? What kind of range are you talking about?"
"Did you already forget that I introduced her to you as one of Twilight's demigoddesses?" Spike asked, rolling his eyes.
"No," Ember insisted, hotly, clearly lying. "But that doesn't tell me anything. All I actually know about them is that one of them is made of rainbows and lightning and another one is apparently pink and sees the future—who knows what this yellow one does?"
"Ah, well..." Twilight prevaricated, considering how to describe it without making it sound as bad as it was. "Fluttershy can see through the eyes of any animal in her range." she explained. "And control them. And she's kind of made of them too, or something? I didn't actually get an explanation for last time, she was attacked by one of those dragons we asked you to punish, and she kind of came apart into forty-six squirrels."
Ember took a long moment to process that. Eventually, she turned to Spike and said, "That's weird, right?"
Spike only nodded, while Twilight said, "Stars, yes. And also terrifying."
"Do I even want to know what the others do?" Ember asked.
"Well, Rarity is a dress, you've seen that," Twilight observed, feeling that that was hard to miss in spite of the lifelike ponyquin she used as a stand-in. "And I honestly have no idea what's up with Applejack. Presumably she's a mountain or something? I'm not sure that actually makes any sense with her cutie mark, though."
"Well, she is far too solid to be any kind of fruit," Luna opined.
"She might be some kind of hard and dense wood?" Twilight suggested, doubtful. "Though I think she's heavier than even that."
Luna hmmed. "Petrified wood, mayhap?"
"That... fits, actually," Twilight mused, thinking back. "I guess it's appropriate that she would be a fossil."
"Is it?" Luna asked. "I was under the impression that she was against growing old."
"It's the other way around, I think," Twilight said, a little uncertain. "She doesn't want to not grow old. We've agreed to disagree."
"Enough!" Ember yelled, burying her face in her hands. "Why is it that the only one of them that's a rock is the lamest, most pony-like out of all of them? No—that's not the point! We're supposed to be talking about sending someone to my dad's lair to head him off!"
Twilight blinked at Ember's outburst. "We did get a bit off-topic, didn't we?" she admitted. "But there's no rush. The point we were getting to was that we can watch for him, but it's hard to say how fast he's traveling and when he'll arrive, though it'll probably take him a while. Luna and I can spend the night there as well as anywhere, but we should go find the Celestias and get them to keep an eye on it during the day."
"Um," Spike interjected. "Is sending the Celestias after him a good idea, with the scepter and all?"
Twilight shrugged. "It didn't work on them today, either because of their alicorn half or some other difference between them and real dragons, so I don't see why not."
The dragons were less convinced, all looking uneasy. "That's not really all that reassuring," Drift said, speaking up for the first time that Twilight had noticed. "What if he just needs to direct it at the giant not-the-sun in the sky instead?"
That brought Twilight up short. "That... is very possible," she admitted with some hesitation. "We could send Celestia Candesca since her celestial body is invisible, but that may not matter..."
"Why not test it, then?" Luna suggested matter-of-factly, to the confusion of all.
"Test it?" Ember said, rolling her eyes. "If we had the scepter to test, none of this would matter!"
"No," Twilight said, realizing where Luna was going with this and looking down at Ember, or more specifically, her claw. "But we have the ring, which seems to be its equal."
Ember reflexively brought the ring to her chest clutching it warily. Looking down at it, she asked, "Do you think that would work?"
"It's worth a shot."
— ⭗ ✹ —
Corona and Candesca had been on their way to speak with the the guard captain about the new status quo when Twilight, Luna and the dragons found her and explained that they wanted to attempt to use the Ring of Ashmund on them in place of the scepter in order to ensure that they wouldn't be vulnerable to it.
"That is... an interesting suggestion," Corona said, sharing an uncertain glance with Candesca. "I agree that it is a worrying concern, but I must admit, your proposed solution makes me uneasy."
"It is not that we do not trust you," Candesca added, trying to be reasonable. "But I would be much more comfortable if it was one of us making the attempt."
Ember predictably didn't like that suggestion, but to the Celestias surprise, she didn't immediately object with the vehemence they expected. Instead, she fingered the ring while she considered it, staring the Celestias down.
It took a while, but after one deep breath of preparation, she made her decision. "Fine," she begrudgingly ceded, removing the ring, though she didn't hand it over quite yet, closing her fist around it instead. "But you're going to have to actually give me your word that you'll return it."
The Celestias were not appreciative of having their motives questioned, especially given how Ember had come to be in possession of the ring in the first place, but they graciously nodded, not particularly scandalized. "Of course, Empress," Candesca said, stepping forward. "I do so swear that I shall use it only as proscribed and return it post haste."
"And I want to hold onto your crown while you do it," Ember added.
"Ember!" Spike objected, but Candesca raised her hoof to quiet him while she considered the demand. Truthfully, it wasn't much of a concern at all, as her crown and the rest of her regalia was nothing more than manifested sunlight, but she did get the message.
"I understand," Candesca said, sitting and bowing her head so that she could remove her crown with her hooves. "The ring is your sign of office, so an equal exchange is required."
Ember nodded and took the crown, only opening her hand from the fisted grip she had on the Ring of Ashmund once it was fully in her grasp.
A normal pony might have rolled their eyes, but Candesca took the ring with care, if not quite reverence. The ring was, if nothing else, a powerful artifact and a work of art in its own right; made of bone banded with gold, every surface of it had been carved into an incredibly detailed relief of dragons on a landscape. No doubt the work had been done when the ring was larger, but it was impressive regardless.
Still, cognizant of Ember's general lack of patience, Candesca wasted no time in levitating the ring up and placing it over her horn, which it didn't quite fit due to the horn's tapered nature, nor did it change to accommodate the size of it.
For all the many years of experience with magic she had that weren't technically her years of experience with magic, she felt nothing. She tried concentrating on herself, on Corona and on both of their celestial objects with no luck.
Pursing her lips, she considered the dragons. Ember, of course, would likely not be any happier about Corona attempting to use the ring on her than the Celestias had been about the inverse, but there was an obvious candidate.
"Either the ring does not work on us or it does not work for us," Candesca explained, shaking her head. "Would you consent to my attempting to use it on you, Spike?"
Spike had been watching Ember fidget with Candesca's crown, but he quickly shifted his attention. "Oh—uhh—sure, I guess?" he said, producing an exasperated look from Ember.
The dragon empress needn't have concerned herself; Candesca felt no more while directing her will at Spike than she had anything else. Once again, she shook her head. "Nothing," she said, levitating the ring off her horn.
"I must admit," Carnelia spoke up, the quiet, hissing sibilance of her voice a surprise to the Celestias. "I appreciate that the ring seems only useful to us."
"Not that 'we' aren't a big enough problem all on our own," Ember added with a certain bitterness as she traded Candesca's crown back for the Ring of Ashmund, which she quickly donned, noticeably relieved to have it back on her hand.
Eventually, though, Ember's attention shifted back to the Celestias. "And that brings us right back to where we were," she said. "So are we going to do this or not?"
Corona and Candesca shared a pensive look. In truth, there seemed little risk left as the chances that the ring would affect them but not be usable by them was low, but even so, the risk was lower here and now than it would be when facing the scepter.
Just when Candesca was about to accept, Corona stepped forward. "Very well, Empress. You may make the attempt on me."
Before Candesca could even object, Ember furrowed her brow for just a moment and shook her head. "Nope, doesn't work," she quickly concluded.
"Very interesting," Luna said, scratching her chin in thought. "Though mayhap not entirely surprising, in hindsight, nor entirely reassuring."
"Oh?" Twilight prompted with interest while Corona and Candesca were still processing that the test had been done just like that and everyone was moving on.
"Yes," Luna responded. "They may have developed draconic features due to the heart's fire they inherited from Discord, but it would be questionable to claim their actual flesh draconic."
Twilight considered that for a moment. "So their inability to use the ring is the more important data point, then?"
Luna brightened at that. "Ah, indeed. Yes, that is indeed more reassuring, as it involves the magic directly."
"Still, though..." Twilight mused, considering Corona and Candesca, who were tempted to roll their eyes, but, of course, did not.
"We will, of course, be careful," Corona said, projecting unconcerned serenity as best she could—which was rather well if she didn't say so herself. "Retrieving the scepter will be our priority, and we may not even manifest."
"Nay," Luna interjected. "T'would be best if you do manifest, sisters. He has already failed to use the scepter on thy manifest forms; our main concern is that he might direct it instead to thy celestial ones."
The Celestias blinked. "Fair enough," Corona said, nodding and feeling that just maybe they were being a little overzealous over the matter. Then again, very little could be said to be too much preparation when faced with the issue of an artifact capable of mind control unlimited by sight or distance. "I suppose the only thing left is to head to the map room so that Empress Ember may show us where her father's lair is."
— ✶ —
It turned out that Ember had not done a lot of high-altitude flying before coming to Equestria. Under normal circumstances, this seemingly minor bit of information might never have come up, save for the fact that as a consequence, she didn't actually know what the dragonlands looked like from the sky and it took the whole group a significant chunk of the afternoon to actually find it. Eventually, Corona, as the alicorn of light, had put together a spell to show illusions of vistas from ground level so that Ember could narrow it down, but even that was not fast.
"Is something wrong?" Luna asked Twilight as the two of them left Ember and the Celestias behind in the map room once they'd finally located it.
Twilight pressed her lips together in consternation. "Not really," she said, then immediately contradicted herself. "It's ridiculous."
"Oh?" Luna said, prompting her to continue.
Twilight rolled her eyes, mostly at herself. "I'm just a little jealous—no—envious," she said, correcting herself, then went on to say, "I told you, it's ridiculous."
Luna raised an eyebrow at this. "Envious?" she questioned, curious. "Of my sisters?"
"Well," Twilight said, taking a moment to think. "Of Corona specifically, I guess. It's just... I wouldn't be able to do that spell myself since the stars don't produce enough light to make up a ground-level point of view from the reflections. I don't have any particular need to, especially since I could just drop a star somewhere if it was really necessary; it's just a random irrational thought."
"Irrational or not, your feelings do matter," Luna reminded her.
"I know, I know," Twilight said, trying not to be dismissive but not doing the best job of it. "Though come to think of it, I wonder what Candesca's celestial sight is like? Obviously she doesn't produce any visible light, but I don't actually know if she produces infrared or if it's entirely radiant heat, and whether or not the latter would contribute to her sight. It's her magic, so I think it would? Even if it does, though, I imagine it'd be pretty blurry."
"You could, of course, ask," Luna said.
Twilight waved the idea off. "Where's the fun in that?" she said with some humor. "If it comes up, maybe. Though speaking of things that came up..."
"Hm?"
"Ember said she hadn't done much flying in the dragonlands," Twilight reminded her. "That implies that she'd done some."
"That does follow, yes," Luna acknowledged.
"Spike and the others didn't go through some kind of hormone-enhanced group-molt, did they?"
"Ah," Luna said, understanding. "No, I imagine not. That is unfortunate."
"I know, right?" Twilight agreed. "It sounded so interesting!"
Luna nodded along. "And you were so proud of his harem, too."
"Well, of course I was!" Twilight said. "Why wouldn't I be?"
Luna turned her head to look at Twilight. "You're not going to stop, are you?"
"Nope."
— ✶ —
It took Twilight longer than she'd like to admit to remember that with Applejack and Rarity taking the ex-crusaders home, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy being pegasi with no particular appreciation for Canterlot and Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, it was very possible—even likely—that none of her friends actually remained in the palace to be found.
"Should we just... go, then?" Twilight eventually asked, having ended up back on the balcony overlooking the west castle courtyard where the coronation had been supposed to happen. The ex-dragon-lord's armor was still there, covered in a mountain of banana cream pie that was being shoveled into bins by a mixed group of palace maids and royal guards. Out on the rooftops of the city, a few dragons remained, but at their new size they were barely worth the mention, most having gone off to no doubt make what they would of the new status quo.
Luna briefly took to the air with a few flaps of her wings to get a look around the skies of Canterlot, then touched back down next to Twilight. "We may as well," Luna agreed. "If I were to guess, I would assume that Fluttershy went to find Rainbow Dash after splitting up with the dragons and they left together. They are friends, are they not?"
"They are," Twilight confirmed, unfurling her wings and stretching. "I just feel silly losing Fluttershy like that when we'd just found her, but she's good at that. I'd feel awful if we left and she was still here, though."
"There is little danger in that, I feel," Luna reasoned. "If she is still here, then she shall see us leaving through the birds."
"Are there any birds?" Twilight asked, taking another look out over the rooftops. "I kind of imagine most of them have been displaced, if not worse—and now I'm remembering that whole mess again."
"A fair few, up on the mountain," Luna reassured her. "And I doubt that dragons so large have been hunting pigeons. I would be more worried about them eating the mountain itself."
Twilight blinked. "Well, that's a terrifying image," she said, stopping to think. "In fact, I'm going to mail her about it as soon as we get back to Ponyville."
"Would it not be simpler to go find her now?" Luna asked.
Twilight looked dubiously back into the empty palace. "We were lucky enough to find them once; I'm sure it'll be fine for a few more hours. Besides, we're going to need to have an early dinner if we're spending the night over in the dragon lord's lair."
"We do not actually need dinner, you realize?"
"Does that mean you don't want to go on a date?"
"You are right, the mountain shall be fine for a few hours more."
— ✶ —
The former dragon lord's lair was unimpressive, even with the recently added sunroof, Twilight decided. Oh, sure, it was a large cave full of gold and gemstones and there was even a pool of lava on the lowest levels large enough for Torch to have bathed in before being downsized, but that was just about it.
"You know," she said, trying to judge if the lava pool was natural or not. "I have to admit, Ember kind of has a point."
"Oh?" Luna asked. She'd had to stay behind at dusk for court, but she'd quickly caught up. "I believe she had many, a few of them even good."
Twilight considered that. "Well, I do appreciate that dragons are much more manageable at that size, but that's technically really not her idea, is it? It's from an old dragon empire—not that there's anything wrong with that."
"Not entirely," Luna debated, playing Discord's advocate. "I believe she implied that size was a sign of station in the empires. If she upholds her claim that she shall not be 'passing out years and inches like treats,' then that will be something worth crediting her for."
"That's fair," Twilight acknowledged, walking up to the lava pool. Even at a distance, she was shedding stardust from the heat. She definitely wouldn't want to be here in the daytime, though the star she'd put in her peytral earlier that day would prevent most mishaps.
"What I mean, though, is that she has a point about dragons not actually doing anything with all their power and immortality." She gestured at the cave, pool of lava and all. "I mean, look at this place; it's a hole in the ground—literally! It's not even a nice, comfy hole. It's a dry, bare, sandy hole without even a place to sit down and eat, and this is where the leader of the dragon race lives?"
"It does lack artistry," Luna agreed. "Though one cannot expect all peoples to place value in the same sorts of things, especially if they do not need them."
"I guess, but there doesn't seem to be anything like that that they do value," Twilight argued, stepping back from the lava pool and turning back to the rest of the lair. "Except food, maybe, and even that seems to usually be a matter of quantity over quality.
"It's not like I'm condemning them as a race or anything; it's all societal," she added. "Spike certainly has an appreciation for aesthetics and the Ring of Ashmund shows well enough that the dragon empires did too. I got the impression that the empires were really into that sort of thing, actually."
Luna nodded, having seen some of that herself in the star that Twilight had given her, though that was still a bit of a sore subject between them. "Yes, though remember: the dragon empires weren't just dragons."
"That is a point, for all Ember implied otherwise in her speech," Twilight mused. "Still, they were in charge and prideful to a fault; I don't think it's unreasonable to infer that they valued the arts."
"Perhaps," Luna said. "Though recall, they may have also been driven to differentiate themselves from the austerity of the alicorns."
"I suppose," Twilight said with a shrug. "Still, it gives me ideas."
"Oh?" Luna prompted.
"Well, your sisters did want to sponsor Spike and the rest to be a sort of group role model for dragons, and I called dibs on the construction," Twilight reminded her. "I can only assume that Ember's new title is only going to give the idea more weight."
"...'Dibs'?" Luna repeated. "I believe I understand the meaning in context, but dare I ask?"
Twilight paused mid-step just as they were reentering the main room of the lair. "Well, you can ask, but I don't actually know where that one comes from," she admitted, scratching her chin.
"That may be a first," Luna observed.
"Speaking of 'dibs,' though..." Twilight considered the massive piles of gold and gemstones that had been shoved out into the corners of the cavern. "Are we just going to leave all this here?"
Luna cocked her head to the side in question. "Were we intending to steal it?"
"Is it really stealing if it's the property of a criminal?" Twilight asked.
"Yes," Luna immediately answered.
"He tried to mind control your sisters," Twilight reminded her.
"Still a crime," Luna refuted.
"Is it, though?" Twilight said.
"Yes," Luna repeated.
"We don't actually know the laws of the dragonlands," Twilight observed.
"Stealing is generally a crime everywhere," Luna declared.
"You may be giving them too much credit," Twilight asserted. "Also, you raided Rainbow Dash's pantry back when we weren't talking to each other. This is basically the same thing."
"Rainbow Dash's pantry was in Equestria," Luna reasoned. "Therefore it was ours to begin with."
"By that logic, this is all Ember's now, then," Twilight countered.
"I do not see how stealing from the new dragon empress is any less stealing" Luna observed.
"I meant more that it should be confiscated on her behalf," Twilight explained. "I don't actually have any use for thousands of tons of gold and gemstones—which is a weird thing to say, but still true."
"Actually, given the influx of dragons, such a cache would be very useful to Equestria," Luna pointed out. "It is not a terrible idea."
Twilight blinked. "But you just said...?"
"That it would be stealing, yes," Luna acknowledged. "I did not say that we should not do it. Actually, I believe the term is 'looting' if done on behalf of Equestria, though there may be a more politic word for it now that I have not yet come across. There is just one problem."
"Just one? The aforementioned dragon empress?" Twilight guessed.
"No," Luna said, turning to gesture at the sheer volume of the hoard. "Actually getting it all back to Equestria."
"Oh, that's easy, then," Twilight told her.
"I know that I taught you how to store mass in your demanifest form before," Luna recalled. "But I wasn't aware that it still worked now that you manifest out of starlight or that it would work for quite this amount of lucre."
"I don't think it does," Twilight said, considering that. "Which is why it's a good thing I literally just looked up portals at the Canterlot Archives earlier today."
Luna hmmed. "That is fortuitous, yes, though on second thought, we would also need a place to put it."
"Funny how that works," Twilight mused. "We had one problem, solved it, and yet we still have one problem."
"That does seem to be the way of things, yes," Luna mused. "I am unsure if it is, in fact, possible to have zero problems, and I wouldn't wish it anyway."
"Oh?" Twilight, said, looking at Luna. "Why is that?"
Luna met her eyes with a smile. "Because it would mean not having you."
Twilight blinked. "That is both incredibly sweet and also a little insulting."
— ✶ —
Fortunately for their governmentally-sanctioned larcenous endeavors, Twilight and Luna had all the time in the world with nothing else to do at the former dragon lord's lair. Unfortunately for such endeavors, Twilight's experiments were not going smoothly.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think I'm going to have to drop a few stars in here to get anywhere," Twilight concluded with a huff.
Luna found that hard to believe. "Really?"
"It seems like it," Twilight said, kicking over a pile of gold bits. "Have you noticed how stifling it is in here?"
"'Tis a bit on the warm side on account of all the lava, yes?"
"Not like that," Twilight said, lighting her horn and feeling the lair out with her magic. "This place has been the home of a single, active, powerful dragon for a long time. It's so full of draconic magic that I can barely get mine to stick—essentially the opposite of what I did to Rainbow Dash's unfinished tower the other night that made it so comfortable and enabled me to use dream magic there. It's not enough to interfere with actively cast magic, but it's enough to make teleportation harder and long-term things like portals are pretty much out. It's also probably why it feels so..." Twilight struggled to put it into words. "Not-home, even though it's night."
"Like someone else's territory," Luna suggested.
"Yes, exactly," Twilight agreed.
"And I suppose that you could create a portal inside of a shield as you've been doing for your dream magic, but having a portal inside of a shield is not useful."
Twilight rocked her hoof from side to side. "Pretty much, though I also wouldn't want to hold a shield for very long in this place. It really is quite strong—and I think it's sticking to the gold and gemstones in particular."
"Well, they are of the earth," Luna reasoned. "It might even explain why they are such an integral part of dragon diets. Curious, though..."
"What's curious?" Twilight prompted.
Luna waved it off and gave a shrug. "Just that Celestia's magic also seemed to favor gold as well, even before she became part dragon. Mine—or most likely both of ours, I suppose—works best with silver, which was an association that certainly did not help matters a thousand years ago when ten silver bits made one gold bit."
Twilight scoffed. "Silver's more generally useful anyway," she said. "It's antimicrobial and actually more electrically conductive than gold; the only reason gold is so popular is because it's colorful and doesn't tarnish and I just realized how that sounded as soon as it came out of my mouth."
"Quite," Luna said, shaking her head with the barest of chuckles. "Sadly, I could not enchant every silver bit merely for the sake of pride and image."
"Well, you probably could have," Twilight jokingly mused. "One tiny mote of stardust in each one would probably have done it."
Luna rolled her eyes. "Yes, because having stars in ponies has worked so well."
"I mean, it kind of has?" Twilight said, thoughtful. "It's awkward for me personally, but when you look at the big picture, even accounting for tribalism and things like that, I'd say that pony magic and cutie marks have done far more good than harm.
"Besides," she added. "I'd be much less shy about looking into the memories of a bit in order to settle a crime than a pony."
"Ah, yes, I can just imagine adjudicating a court case of Equestria vs. Five Hundred Bits for being involved in money laundering," Luna joked. "They would hardly be able to defend themselves."
Twilight blinked. "Wait, wouldn't that actually be a case against me?"
"I said what I said," Luna teased.
— ✶ —
"And now I've come full circle," Twilight observed, standing next to a pink-rimmed portal to the small slice of home that she had established in Rainbow Dash's unfinished tower in Ponyville that was sitting in the middle of three watermelon-sized stars.
"How so?" Luna said, looking up from writing in a notebook she'd asked Twilight to create as an initial test of using the stars for dream magic in the cave.
"Well," Twilight said. "I was just thinking that we wouldn't need to find someplace to put the hoard if I knew how Pinkie Pie gets half of Ponyville into a single house for her parties now. I started out trying to understand Pinkie Pie without even knowing that earth pony magic was a thing; now I'm an alicorn with more power than I know what to do with and understanding Pinkie Pie is still a pie-in-the-sky aspiration."
"That is not an aspiration, Twilight, it is a nightmare," Luna deadpanned. "The sky is the only place we are safe from her; please do not invite her to change that."
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Nothing I say is going to... actually, given the power of puns and Pinkie Pie's association with invitations, I'd better not finish that sentence."
"Speaking of puns," Luna mentioned. "Perhaps one would be able to solve this?"
Twilight bit her lip. "Something about liquid assets, maybe?" she speculated, mostly to herself. "I'm not sure how that would help any more than actually dumping it in the Everfree lake would, though."
"It is unfortunate that Celestia obliterated it so," Luna said, thinking back to when they'd been followed out of the desert of dreams by an ancient dragon woken by the starless starbeast, Gemini. "Knowing what we do now, the site of the old castle would have no doubt been a very fertile bed for your dream magic."
"Or yours," Twilight pointed out. "You did just as much as I did there, after all, and the desert of dreams may be made of stars, but both the moons that went into making you had the same powers over dreams and nightmares."
"Do we know that that is actually required?" Luna asked. "Much of what you've discovered seems to apply to any especially saturated environment, and you did connect the phenomenon to earth pony magic."
Twilight puffed up her cheeks in a pout. "That's not how magic is supposed to work, though. There should be rules and logic to it."
"It might be how it works if you have enough of it," Luna reasoned. "Though technically, puns are a kind of logic."
Twilight pursed her lips in distaste, then sighed. "I'm not sure there's actually any distinction since all pony magic comes from the stars anyway," she said.
"It should be interesting to see what my sisters can do there, then."
— ✶ —
For all that they were on watch for the former dragon lord to show up at his lair, Twilight and Luna did still need to sleep, and they'd gotten used to a more normal schedule as of late. Somewhat ironically, as Luna was the one with the actual job, they decided that she should sleep while Twilight stayed up until dawn.
It was a few hours into the early morning when Twilight realized that they were all being stupid.
Yawning and bleary-eyed, Twilight went through her portal to Ponyville and grabbed the first guard she could find, which involved sticking her head out the door of Rainbow Dash's unfinished tower to speak to the guard that was on duty.
"Princess!" the guard saluted,
Twilight wasn't sure if the salute was strictly necessary since she still didn't think she had any kind of military rank, but she really didn't care right now. "Um—yes," she said. "Look, I need you to go to whoever's appropriate and get them to put together a squad to go through the portal inside and keep watch over a certain dragon's lair."
"Ah, yes, your highness!" the guard responded, then hesitated. "A—uh—dragon, you say?"
Twilight dismissed the guard's concern with a wave of her hoof. "It's no big deal," she said. "You know what Empress Ember did to the dragons yesterday, right?" The guard nodded. "Right, well, the one we're watching for is the old dragon lord, but he's only foal-sized. He might have other dragons with him, but all I really need is for someone to come let me know if you see him."
"Of course, your highness!" the guard said, saluting again before galloping away.
It wasn't long before the guard returned with ten more, half of them pegasi, which Twilight led through the portal and explained the situation to.
Within fifteen minutes, Twilight was levitating her sleeping marefriend up to the second level of the unfinished tower and slipping into bed beside her.