It had been a week since Rainbow had learned she was an alicorn, work had been weird, even though she had access to the royal accounts now she still loved her weather work, even if she felt like she had to fight with the weather commission to get her regular work schedule.
Then came the reactions from friends, Rarity had almost demanded she be allowed to sew the gown for her coronation, even when Rainbow insisted that she may not even WANT a coronation, she'd instead allowed her that IF she had a coronation then the fashionista would get first dibs on the gown.
Pinkie had been ecstatic to learn that she'd get to throw Rainbows birthday bash a week earlier, currently she was holed away redoing certain decorations and basically going wild with new, alicorn themed decorations.
Meanwhile Twilight was drilling into her during magic lessons, at which Rainbow had yet to finish lesson 1.
Rainbow panted as she dropped her concentration, the quill laid in front of her had yet to move an inch. "I think i saw it glow!" Twilight said encouragingly.
"Twilight, as much as i love the enthusiasm we both know that isn't true" the prismatic alicorn sighed, she'd been at this for an hour with no sign of even a spark of magic from her horn, to say it was disheartening was an understatement.
Knocking came to the door. "Just a second!" Twilight called out, smiling sheepishly to rainbow before opening the door to see a second pink alicorn.
"Hey Twilight, are you ready for our day out?" Cadence then looked in, seeing Rainbow "oh! So that's what you look like now, hey Rainbow dash!"
"Celestia told you?" Twilight tilted her head.
"I was in canterlot to visit last week, after we calmed down the court she didn't take long to tell us" Cadence explained. "So how's the alicorn life treating you?"
"Oh it's been great, learned hitting your horn on doorframes hurts like an ursa, now I'm here failing to move a single tartarus damned quill with magic" Rainbow growled, glaring at the quill.
"Yeah it took me a bit to learn that too, it'll come to ya in time, the first hurdle is always the hardest to get through, sorry I'm gonna have to steal your magic teacher for the day, but we've had this day planned for weeks" Cadence pat her fellow pink alicorns back. "Unless you wanna come with? I'd love to spend some time with my cousin as well as my sister in law."
"Sorry i uhhh..... need to check on Tank, gotta make sure he hasn't set fire to the place while i was gone, you know how wild tortoises can get.... heh"
"And then i left, no offence to Twilight but i heard about the Starswirl exhibit in ponyville today and knowing her that's exactly where she and Cadence'll spend the day, I'd rather not" Rainbow concluded, sighing.
Tank gave her a look. "I know it'd probably help with my magic, but i Don't even know what to say to Cadence, 'so how's the weather'? What do you say to somepony you helped with saving a kingdom only to learn they're your cousin?" Tank blinked at rainbow. "You know, i hate when you make a good point." He kept his eye contact, Rainbow sighed.
"Fiine, I'll see if they're still at the library, if not I'm not searching all over ponyville for that exhibit, I'll just finally get around to seeing wether i still qualify for the equestria games, I don't want all that effort to go to waste if ponyville isn't competing with its best flier" The alicorn bragged, the tortoise simply jumped off rainbows bed.
"I'll see ya tonight, please don't eat all your food too soon, don't want a repeat of when we went to manehattan." With that the prismatic alicorn zipped out of her house, ready to possibly face the awkwardness of dealing with family that she never knew was family.
It didn't take long for Rainbow to reach her friends library, and the flashes inside told her that somepony was in, with a steadying breath she pushed open the door, only to get flung back by a wave of water.
"Okay i KNOW Twilight would never let her books get wet!" With that Rainbow stood back up and rushed through the door, quickly finding. "Everything's dry??"
"There is ONE cure for the blue flu" rainbow knew that voice, and she KNEW he wasn't supposed to be here.
"And you didn't think to mention this earlier because?" Okay, that was cadence, that calmed her down a bit, rainbow rushed up the stairs, only to find her friend, her cousin and a blue Discord.
"It slipped my mind- oh! Rainbow dash! Oh I'm sorry, PRINCESS Sunlight Heart, how lovely for you to check up on me!" The draconequus coiled himself around the pink princess.
"If i knew you were here i would've stayed home!" She growled, trying to push discord off. "What's he doing here?"
"He's sick and was just about to tell us the cure" Cadence lifted discord off of rainbow before casting a spell over her. "An anti sickness barrier, just incase he's contagious, now, the cure?" She turned to discord, eyebrow raised.
"Ah, yes, you simply need the petals of a certain flower..... on the other side of equestria" the three alicorns deflated. "Oh don't be too glum, it should be less than a days trip, though in my state i doubt I'd be able to make the flight, so we'll have to make some arrangements."
"What kind of arrangements?" Rainbow dreaded the answer.
"This isn't SO bad" Cadence tried, panting. "I've been meaning to take a nice long fly"
"A good flight does help clearing your head, but NOT when you're pulling a sick draconequs on a way too heavy chariot" Rainbow interjected, the only alicorn of the three not gasping for breath.
"You're one to talk.... You're the most in shape" Twilight glared at her over cadences back.
"I'm an athlete, it's kinda a prerequisite!" She growled at her friend.
"How HAS getting re qualified for the equestria games been going?" Cadence grasped at the chance to change the subject.
"It's been..... going, the games commission have been fighting on if they could even let an alicorn compete, i was planning on going to see if they finally decided if you weren't at the library" Rainbow was rubbing at her neck with her hoof now.
"You should've gone, we could handle thi-" Twilight couldn't finish her sentence as all three alicorns were stuck in place, midair.
"We're heeerre~" sung discord as the chariot descended, dragging the three princesses with it. "It's at the top of that hill, and it's going to get dark soon so you'd better hurry"
"Are you SURE we can't leave him here?" Rainbow growled as she managed to unhook herself from the chariot.
"No, Fluttershy wouldn't be happy with us if we did" Twilight responded as she helped Cadence out of her harness.
"Come on, let's get this flower, cure discord and spend some quality family time together, all three of us" cadence smiled softly, even if her mane was matted with sweat.
And so the three began the trek up the large hill, quickly reaching the plateau, where there was nothing but a green pillar. "Are. You. KIDDING ME!" Twilight shouted. "No flower! None! Discord just took us on a wild goose chase!"
"Uhh twilight? You might wanna look up." Twilight followed her sister in law and friends eyelines and sure enough the pillar was actually the stem of a titanic pink flower.
"........oh"
"Okay! You two can grab this flower and we can get the heck outta here! Something about this place doesn't feel right." Twilight and Cadence nodded, igniting the magic in their horns, soon the flower was being lifted in twin magical glows as its roots began to give way, dirt and rocks crumbling down into the mountain.
"Almost... got it!" The two grunted as the last of the flowers roots gave way, allowing it to float freely through the air. "Now to get this to doscord and-" Twilight was interrupted by a massive roar coming from where the flower once stood. "What now?" The purple princess groaned.
From the hole left by the flower arose a giant serpentine creature whose mouth split open four ways in a ground shaking roar. "It's a tatzl wurm!" Cadence shouted as the beast tried to snap at her, only to be met with a magical blast to the face.
"Stay away from my sister!" Shouted twilight, only to barely dodge a tail swipe, not noticing as she flew straight into the path of its mouth.
"Stay away from MY sister! Roared Cadence as she blasted the wurm away, flying up to Twilight. "You okay?"
"I'm good" she smiled, neither noticing as the tatzul wurm descended from above, jaws open wide, until a giant flower was swung into it, encased in a violet light.
"Stay away from my family!" Rainbow panted, horn glowing and sweat dripping down her face from effort.
"Rainbow! Your magic!" Twilight exclaimed.
"Not the time, it's coming back!" With that Cadence flew aside, blasting at the returning wurm, Twilight following as they coralled the beast with blasts of magic back into the hole before blocking it off.
"What a relief, lets get this thing back to discord before it comes back for more!" Twilight exclaimed, taking the flower from rainbows magical hold as the three galloped down to the chariot, only to hear a certain draconequs laughing.
"Ha haaaa she went to the ends of equestria for me! Against such danger all for me!!!" Discord danced, his colouring back to normal and moving far better than he should with his 'sickness'.
"You. Were. FAKING!!?" the purple alicorn shouted as she got face to face with the chaos spirit.
"I swear i have a good explanation" he raised his paw and claw in a placating motion
"We're listening." Twilight growled as she landed by the two pink alicorns.
"Well you see, i was in my thinking tree, where i do all my really deep thinking, and i thought to myself" as he spoke a tree shot up beneath him as he coiled around its branches. "Twilight SAYS she's your friend, but she never writes and never visits."
"I Don't even know where you li-" Twilight was silenced as he pinched her lips.
"Maybe now that she's a princess maybe she thinks she's too good to be friends with dear old Discord" Twilight was about to interject when Discord once again interrupted, this time with a clothespin over her mouth. "How do i see if I'm still friends with one of the most important ponies in equestria?" At that he wrapped his tail around Twilights midsection, lifting her up. "By seeing if you would go to the ends of equestria for me of course, and you PASSED! CONGRATULATIONS!" At this he released twilight, shaking her hoof before placing a half heart necklace around her neck, placing one that appeared around his own next to hers to complete the heart, it depicted Discord and Twilight, half of Twilights face covered by Discords claw in a thumbs up. Twilight growled at the draconequs, lifting away the necklace with her magic. "Oh why the anger Twilight? I thought you loved passing tests! I hope it's not because my test put a damper on your little visit with cadence, is it? Made it so there was no time for you two to spend together?"
"You didn't put a damper on our visit at all" cadence chuckled.
"I/he didn't?" The two turned to cadence, shocked.
"Sure, spending the day at the starswirl exhibit would've been more relaxing, but relaxations the last thing i need, Don't get me wrong, life in the crystal empire is fun, but it's gotten a bit predictable, I've enjoyed the excitement today, plus i got to spend time with both my favourite sister in law AND my cousin i never knew i had" Cadence grinned, turning to Rainbow dash.
"Plus if it weren't for this little.... trip i don't know WHEN i would've finally learned how to do magic!" The prismatic maned alicorn smiled as she tapped at her horn. "Though, maybe next time we start a little smaller than a giant flower"
"Yes, well it was a totally amazing day, it was a blast" Discord pouted, crossing his arms, only to stumble as the ground began to shake and behind Discord the Tatzl wurm erupted from the ground. "BY THE HAIRS ON MY TAIL WHAT IS THAT??!?!?!" Discord exclaimed, coiling around Twilight as the beast snapped at the four until its head shook and then it sneezed all over discord before retreating, the barrier put up by Cadence protecting the three alicorns. The effect was immediate as Discord was tinged green, many spots appearing all over his body.
"I think it's pretty clear that Cadences visit didn't go quite as intended, but i learned that as long as you're with good company, even the most chaotic day can bring everyone closer together." Twilight dictated as spike wrote in the diary that the friends shared. "Wouldn't you agree discord?"
Said draconequs was currently laying on a sofa within a plastic bubble, sneezing into a tissue. "Yes, twilight" he coughed out.
Applejack approached the bubble, still giving it a wide berth. "Now I'm not sayin' ya got what you deserved."
Rarity quickly walked up beside her. "Well i am, YOU GOT WHAT YOU DESERVED!" she shouted at the sick chaos spirit.
"Now now, he's learned his lesson, isn't that right my little patient." Fluttershy admonished her friends as she pushed her hoof through a glove to stroke Discord within the bubble.
"I'm so glad you're back from your trip Fluttershy, just you being here is making me feel better already, but could i just trouble you for one, tiny little thing?" He raised his paw, pinching his fingers together to show how small it would be.
"NO!" Twilight shouted immediately.
"What? I was just going to ask for a teeny tiny glass of water." Discord smiled sheepishly, twilight groaned at his words.