Dawn was still hours away when Twilight Sparkle slammed her quill down in frustration. Scrolls and star charts littered the castle observatory floor. Star Swirl's ancient treatise on celestial magic lay open beside calculations that refused to align.
"This doesn't make sense!" She pushed her mane back from bleary eyes. "Every unicorn recorded the same alignment, but their magical effects were completely different!"
Beside her, Spike snored softly on a cushion, oblivious to her academic crisis.
Twilight stood, stretching her cramped legs, and moved to the balcony. The night was crystal clear, stars gleaming above like diamond dust on velvet. The Celestial Alignment would happen tomorrow night, positioning stars in a configuration not seen for a thousand years, and she was determined to understand its magical significance. But the historical accounts contradicted each other at every turn.
"Celestia's beard," she muttered. "I need air."
The sleeping Ponyville streets were silent as Twilight trotted toward Sweet Apple Acres. Her thoughts churned with each hoofstep. Star Swirl reported the alignment amplified unicorn magic. The Crystal Empire records said it enhanced healing properties. Pegasus histories spoke of extraordinary weather manipulation. They couldn't all be right... could they?
"Couldn't sleep either, huh?"
Twilight jumped, startled to find Applejack leaning against an apple tree at the orchard's edge.
"Applejack! What are you doing awake at this hour?"
The earth pony gestured to the orchard with her snout. "Apple trees get restless before the Celestial Alignment. It's like they know something big is coming." She chuckled softly. "Granny Smith always says trees are wiser than ponies sometimes."
Twilight followed her friend into the moonlit rows of trees, their leaves gently rustling despite the still air.
"I've been up all night trying to understand the Celestial Alignment," Twilight admitted. "The historical records don't agree on what it actually does."
Applejack nodded sagely. "No surprise there. Fancy unicorn magic rarely makes sense."
Twilight rolled her eyes. They reached a small clearing where Applejack had laid out a simple blanket. She settled down, patting the spot beside her.
"Apple family tradition," she explained. "Night before the alignment, we watch the stars."
Twilight gratefully sank down onto the blanket. Above them, the stars blazed in magnificent clarity.
"See that cluster there?" Applejack pointed with her hoof. "The one that looks like an apple hanging from a branch? We call that the First Harvest. When it reaches its highest point, that's when the sweetest apples should be picked."
Twilight squinted upward. "You mean those stars there? That's actually part of what astronomers call the Scholar's Crown. It's used to mark the beginning of the academic year."
Applejack shrugged. "Maybe to unicorns. To the Apple family, it's always been the First Harvest." She pointed to another pattern. "And those stars there form the Orchard Keeper, watching over our trees."
Twilight was about to correct her again, then paused. The stars Applejack indicated included several from what Twilight knew as the Ancient Alicorn, but also incorporated others that weren't part of any constellation in her astronomy books.
"That's interesting," Twilight said instead. "Some of those stars are part of the Ancient Alicorn constellation, but you're seeing a completely different pattern that includes other stars too."
"Ancient what-now?" Applejack raised an eyebrow.
"It's a constellation representing the first alicorns. But you're right—from here, with the stars you're including, it does look like a pony watching over an orchard."
They fell silent for a moment, gazing upward.
"Granny Smith taught me all the apple constellations," Applejack said finally. "The Cider Press, the Winter Storehouse, the Seed Bearer... each one tells us something about tending the orchard. When to plant, when to prune, when to harvest."
"But those same stars guide unicorns in their magic studies," Twilight said thoughtfully. "And I bet pegasi use them for weather patterns. We're all looking at the same stars, but seeing completely different meanings."
Applejack nodded. "Makes sense. I know navigation by seeing which way the apple stem points in the First Harvest. Rainbow Dash probably sees some kind of racing track up there instead."
"The Ancient Alicorn's crown points to the North Star," Twilight agreed. "Different patterns, but they both help us find our way."
"That's the funny thing about stars," Applejack said softly. "They're so far away, just tiny dots of light, but somehow they help us make sense of things down here. Different for each pony, but important all the same."
Twilight looked at her friend with new appreciation. Something clicked into place in her mind, pieces rearranging themselves like the stars above.
Applejack smiled. "Just like our Elements. Different for each of us, but all part of the same magic."
They sat together in comfortable silence, watching the stars wheel slowly overhead.
"Thank you," Twilight said finally.
"For what? I didn't do anything special."
"You showed me the orchard in the stars when all I could see was a textbook diagram." Twilight's voice was warm with gratitude. "Sometimes I get so focused on finding the one correct answer that I miss how many different right answers there can be."
As dawn approached and the stars began to fade, Twilight gathered her scrolls in the observatory. She spread them out side by side—unicorn records, pegasus weather journals, earth pony almanacs—and saw them with new eyes.
Different patterns. Same stars.
Walking back to her castle in the early morning light, Twilight felt a new sense of peace. Tonight, when the alignment occurred, she wouldn't be frantically calculating magical resonance patterns. Instead, she would invite her friends to the castle roof to stargaze together.
And in that sharing—that alignment of friends under the vast sky—perhaps they would find a new magic in the stars.