//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty : To Move a Mountain 
// Story: This Platinum Crown 
// by Capn_Chryssalid 
//------------------------------//

- - -
(20)

To Move a Mountain

- - -

Fluttershy batted at her furry friend’s paw.

“Now, Angel Bunny, what did I just say?” she asked, receiving a menacing glower in response courtesy of the surly white rabbit she shared her home with. He fell back on his haunches, crossing his forelegs in an angry, grousing pout. He knew and understood exactly what she had said: that the food she was laying out was for her friends and guests, and that he could have some when they all sat down to eat. Not before. Angel Bunny being Angel Bunny, however, he was loath to wait or be told that anything was strictly off limits.

He waved a dismissive paw at her, as if to say, ‘Yeah, what-eva! I do what I want!’

Carefully tightening the rubber band around the bowl with her mouth and snapping it in place, Fluttershy checked to make sure the wax paper was securely in place as a lid. Inside was a mixture of dips for later, taken from her stock of preserves. Experience had taught her that most ponies did not like using dips that animals had been into – the odd bits of hair and the occasional fleck of dirt seemed to be a serious turn off – so Angel Bunny would just have to keep his mischievous paws to himself for a little while.

The timid pegasus gave her beloved bunny one last serious look ‘I’m serious this time!’ Then she retreated to her small pantry to bring out two pitchers of lemonade and cider. On the way back, her eyes ran across her living room, making sure everything was cleaned and in place. She was a neat pony by preference, but life and living was a hectic affair when she had so many of her animal friends coming and going, day in and day out. She always had her hooves full making things presentable when she had company over.

She felt a sense of pride as she took it all in. Her house wasn’t very large, but it was everything she had imagined as a younger filly, namely a large open lower floor and ample space outside for her animals and other charges. Her name may have been on the deed, but it wasn’t just her house; it was a refuge for animals from Everfree to Canterlot, if they needed it. It was a place ponies could leave their pets if they were out of town for a few days, and a place where the best things that made pony lands so special could flourish: the unique way ponies and the nature around them synergized.

Sadly, she had needed to shoo out many of her animals for the time being, leaving the lower floor clean and empty. Animal beds had been put in closets and boxes and a few bird cages had been moved temporarily out back. Light streamed in from the east windows on either side of a stone hearth and mantle, and at night she could light up her two hanging oil lanterns, filling the room with an amber-tinted ambiance. Fresh flowers provided a gentle scent of the outdoors and paintings and impressions of butterflies and vines gave the house a warm, natural touch. A small Equestrian national banner had been put up on the wall by the stairs, a recent addition for the Decoration Day weekend.

Fluttershy smiled, nodding once and finding everything in place.

Just in time, too, as a knock on the door elicited a gasp from the easily startled pegasus.

“J- Just a moment!” she said, raising her voice but still probably too softly to be heard. She made her way over, but Angel Bunny was faster, hopping over in two long bounds. Nudging the door open a crack, he caught a peek at the pony outside before snorting and slamming the door closed.

“Sorry about that,” Fluttershy apologized, opening the door again, Angel Bunny glowering up at her. Waiting outside with a bemused expression was a raspberry colored mare with two toned cherry blossom pink mane. Cheerilee had a checkered cloth of a bundled box held by the side of her mouth; Fluttershy relieved her of it, freeing her up to speak clearly.

“There’s nothing to apologize for!” Cheerilee told her, shooting a sweet, amused expression Angel Bunny’s way. “Nice to see you, too, Angel.”

The white rabbit rolled his little black eyes.

“I brought some sweets from Sugarcube Corner and a jelly salad,” she continued, trotting alongside Fluttershy while Angel Bunny closed the door behind the two chatting mares. Cheerilee winked before Fluttershy could reply, “I also brought the fireworks.”

“Oh but I already have plenty of snakes and sparklers-”

“I meant real fireworks, Fluttershy,” the schoolteacher said, craning her neck to retrieve a small bag from inside her green saddlebag, the same color as her eyes, alight with waggishness and the fun they would have later in the day. Putting the bag down at the end of the table, Fluttershy could see the tail ends of some of the larger fireworks ponies could buy in Ponyville.

“I don’t know…”

Jumping up onto the table, Angel Bunny eyed the explosives, snatching one out of the bag to inspect it first-paw. It was almost as long as he was, painted in blue with an arrow shaped tip. He weighed the rocket in his paws, sighted down the end of it, and nodded approvingly. 

“I just hope those don’t scare the animals,” Fluttershy worried, but cautiously smiled back at her friend. “But I guess shooting off a few won’t hurt anypony.”

“A few little pops over Ponyville… I doubt most animals will even notice it. Besides, I’ve heard that Cloudsdale’s fireworks display this year is going to be huge. We can watch it from the roof, or on top of the Apple’s barn. Big Mac and Applejack are having a get together tonight, too.” Cheerilee then took a moment to look over the table’s potluck. Fluttershy could see the other mare as she remembered that she wasn’t the only guest this year.

“So this other pony… is it Rainbow Dash?” she asked. “She isn’t going to bring those nasty jalapeno things again, is she?”

“I did ask if she wanted to come over, but she’s very busy,” Fluttershy explained. “But a friend I made in Canterlot sent me a letter that she’s in the area and wanted to drop by, so… well… it just seemed like it could be nice for her to meet another pony or two.”

“Sounds good to me!” Cheerilee replied. “So what’s the itinerary?”

“I thought we could just relax and play a few games, like Panorama and Ups and Downs… and then maybe walk around outside with the animals before the fireworks…” Fluttershy shrunk back a bit, less and less sure about her own mental plans for the day. “Unless you want to go back to town for a little while? There’s an outdoor play showing tonight. We could do that, too. Or if you want to go over to the Apple Farm to watch the fireworks instead, that’s good too. Umm, so really, just about anything is fine.”

“Relaxing sounds great, Fluttershy. Don’t worry.” Cheerilee helped herself to a cushion on the floor, sitting down with a happy sigh. “Thanks for inviting me, by the way. A little time away is just what I need! I am not looking forward to the day after tomorrow.”

“What’s wrong?” Fluttershy asked, also taking a seat.

“A dozen Decoration Day reports,” the school teacher said with a soft sigh. “I shouldn’t make it sound so…” She shook her head, not happy that she made it sound like such a chore. “You know I love my students, but grading eighteen papers across two homerooms all in one night is not fun, and I just know I’ll be getting some critical letters from certain parents afterwards.”

“Oh I’m sorry to hear that.” Fluttershy felt a pang of sympathy for her earth pony friend. She often hosted field trips for little fillies and colts about zoology and the local flora and fauna. It was rewarding but, still, trying sometimes.

“On a related topic,” Cheerilee asked, “The other day, you mentioned that Scootaloo had started helping you out?” 

“Actually, she came by earlier today to help with the chickens.”

“She’s been looking very tired in class. I was wondering if you had any idea what she’s been doing that could leave her so tired?”

“I can’t imagine. She always seems very alert when she comes by, though I really don’t understand how Henrietta keeps escaping in the first place. She’s always been troublesome, but…”

Angel Bunny lingered by the fireworks, his paws over his long ears as the mares talked.

After a few minutes, he seized on the ongoing distraction to purloin a few stalks of celery and a carrot. Fluttershy still had the dips covered up, so he had to eat the vegetables raw – a state that was not his preference. Fluttershy watched him with one eye, trying to make sure he stayed out of trouble while she and Cheerilee caught up on things.

Decoration Day was technically a day to remember all the ponies who had died in wars and who served in the many and varied guard companies across the country. Equestria was a peaceful land, moreso than its neighbors. There had been no war within the borders of Equestria in over five hundred years and the last major war outside the country that had involved ponies was over two hundred years ago. It would have been easy for ponies to forget that conflicts even existed anywhere in the world around them. Decoration Day was a time to remember those who put themselves in harm’s way, and it had extended to include pegasi in weather teams taming wild weather, unicorns who perished in controlling un-chained magic or fighting fires, and earth ponies who colonized new lands and made them safe for ponykind.

It was also a holiday when ponies could get together with friends and family to eat outside before it got too cold and enjoy displays of fireworks and free entertainment. Fluttershy had considered visiting her parents in Cloudsdale but, like almost every year, she had decided against it. Most of her family in the clouds had very different… extremely different… views on life, and very strong personalities, and they took Decoration Day very seriously. It was usually too much to take in, too fast, for the Element of Kindness. Her father was still unhappy that she had decided to live in Ponyville and not try and carry on the family legacy. Fluttershy was not one to look for a repeat of flight camp or anything else that would ‘toughen her up’ or ‘turn you into a proper flight leader.’

A knock on the door snapped her out of her thoughts and prompted a pause in the conversation.

“Oh, that must be-”

Hopping over to the door, Angel Bunny nudged it open, as he always did. Fluttershy got up, making her way over with a bit more haste than before. If Cheerilee was here, now, than that left…

Angel Bunny froze, just then, his ears folding back.

Abandoning the door entirely, he bolted, crossing the room in a few frantic leaps to hide behind the Cheerilee’s chair. Left ajar, the door swung open, revealing a plain looking unicorn pony: blush pink coat and a rust and coral colored mane. Despite being a unicorn, she also carried a bundle by her mouth rather than levitating it in the air, as Rarity or Twilight would have. Unlike Cheerilee, however, this pony wore a fashionable white traveling cloak with magenta trim. The clothes alone identified her as a visitor to Ponyville; most ponies didn’t wear traveling clothes for a trip around town.

“Chalice!” Fluttershy greeted the unicorn with a small wave, her timidity countered in large part by her familiarity with this visitor. “Please, come inside! You didn’t have any trouble finding my house, did you?” 

“No, I didn’t. Well, maybe I got a little lost, but…” She entered alongside Fluttershy, the pegasus having also retrieved her guest’s bundle. She noticed Cheerilee, and raised a hoof in greeting, only a little hesitant. “Oh, hello there.”

Cheerilee nodded and motioned to a seat at the table. “I’m Cheerilee.”

“Chalice,” the unicorn introduced herself, her horn glowing for just a moment to remove her cloak. Fluttershy had seen Chalice use her magic before, so it didn’t shock her again to see the strange black glow. Cheerilee did tilt her head, recognizing it as a very strange color, but Chalice only took a second to have her clothes hung up, and then the glow was quickly snuffed out. She didn’t like others seeing her magic, Fluttershy knew.

“I brought some fruits and cheeses,” she said, taking her seat. Behind Cheerilee’s chair, Angel Bunny still had his ears folded back, his breathing slow and his eyes narrow as he flattened himself against the floor. Chalice smiled at her host, and then at Cheerilee. “I hope you like them.”

It was at that moment that Angel did something Fluttershy thought she had taught him better of years ago. He hissed and reared up. It was a posture she had seen before in Angel Bunny’s displays with other rabbits. He was always very assertive with them, and sometimes that involved showing his dominance by picking a fight. It had been years since he had acted like that towards a pony.

“Angel Bunny!” Fluttershy snapped, and the white rabbit turned to her with a snort.

“I’m sorry,” Chalice said, to the other two ponies. “Fluttershy, just like I said before, animals don’t really like me.”

“Angel Bunny isn’t like those other animals in Canterlot,” Fluttershy assured her, addressing her closest animal friend with a soft tone. “He’s different. Angel Bunny, what’s wrong? I was hoping you would-”

He bounced away, onto a table and out the window, nearly knocking a vase over in the process.

“Oh dear,” Fluttershy muttered, her wings drooping.

Chalice’s eyes turned down to stare at her hooves. “Maybe I should-”

Fluttershy shook her head, feeling the need to be at least a little more forceful in the sanctity of her own home. “I’ll talk to him. But you’re my guest and my friend. I think he’ll come around eventually, he just has a… way of acting around ponies he doesn’t know.”

“And ones he does,” Cheerilee commented, glancing over at the window Angel had fled through. She turned back to Chalice. “Do all animals run away from you?”

The pink unicorn nodded slowly. “I think,” she tried to explain. “It has something to do with my smell… or my magic. I don’t have any control over it.”

“Well,” Cheerilee said, reaching for the table of treats. “How about we get started on these with a game of Panorama? Have you ever played that game before, Chalice?”

“No,” the unicorn replied, “but I would very much enjoy learning to play.”

- - -

“You have such a rich, healthy mane, Miss Heartstrings! We shall make it lovely for tonight; an envy for Lords and Ladies! Please remain still.”

Lyra had to resist the urge to fidget.

Despite some lordly blood in her, she was not cut out for pomp and dress. Yet here both pomp and dress were, knocking on her door. For the upcoming… event… she had been given an exquisite chiton of woven samite and cloth-of-gold, designed and cut to her figure by one of Lord Alpha Brass’s resident tailors. She had expected that to be the extent of it, but then she and the other entertainers for the night had been taken aside for hours of preparation. They had been washed, watered, scrubbed and brushed down, and after that, unicorns had attended to them.

She still wasn’t entirely sure what they were doing to her coat and mane. There had been a chemical dusting and at least two layers of magical prestidigitation involved; she could see in the mirrors both in front of her and to her immediate left that the effect was cosmetic. Her coat had taken on a glistening, reflective sheen, almost glass-like. Her mane had a similar look, but more pronounced, deepening the greens and adding luster to the whites. The stylist was going over it a second time to firm up and keep all the little curls and coifs in place with shimmering, ethereal thread. Glancing behind, Lyra shifted her flanks and the angle of her tail, trying to get used to the ribbon that had been tied close to its base.

‘I almost look like I’m made of glass… and these clothes are Bitalian?’ she thought, recalling a famous Bitalian Princess in attendance. ‘Is this for Princess Cadance? That would explain the clothes, but not the weird crystal look.’

She took comfort in the fact that it wasn’t just her. Nearby, two other mares were also in the same state of touching up. All the entertainers and staff were getting the same treatment. It had to be part of some sort of party theme. On the subject of the party, though… Lyra felt a titter of nervousness pass through her stomach.

“This… um, party?” she asked the part-beautician part-magician. She was older, and gave the impression of having been on staff for Lord Brass for some time.

“Mmm,” the older mare muttered, using a bit of magic to add more reflection to the illusion covering part of Lyra’s mane, behind her shoulders. It tingled.

“This is, that is-” Lyra laughed, awkwardly, noticing the other two mares and their stylists and imaging how they had to be overhearing. One of them closed her eyes. Only the stoic guardmare in the room didn’t seem to care. The well-built Amazon merely stood watch, like an omnipresent statue. Or like a gargoyle, to hear some of the mares in the Gardens joke about it. What were they even needed for, here in Lord Brass’s sanctuary in the sky?

“This is my first orgy,” she admitted. “I was wondering… if ah… you know…”

“Mmm.”

“Have any of you ever been to one of these before?” she pressed on, regardless of how embarrassing it was to talk about. It was definitely better to know just what she was getting into; better a little embarrassment now than a lot later. The mare furthest away said nothing, the one with her eyes closed, but the other – a pegasus singer Lyra had overheard in passing the day before – did reply. Unfortunately, her response was an amused titter, covering her mouth with the back of a hoof as she did so.

“Your first time? That’s so sweet, but I really wouldn’t worry about it,” she said just as Lyra felt the urge to tuck her head between her legs like a turtle and disappear. “I take it by your cutie mark that you’re the second string harpist?”

“First, actually…”

“Oh? You replaced Cords?”

“Just for tonight, I think.” Lyra had learned about the pony she was replacing: another musician specializing in stringed instruments. It had hurt a bit at first, to realize she wasn’t the first one in the Gardens, but then she had learned that she was taking the other pony’s place. She still wasn’t entirely sure how she felt about that. Guilty? Proud? Nervous? Mostly that last one.

“She’s prettier than Cordelia,” the other mare added, still posed with her eyes closed as her stylist added a crystalline sheen to her eyelids.

“Thanks?” Lyra replied. “I guess…?”

“While His Lordship is hosting an orgy tonight, I can’t imagine it will be all too lively,” the singer explained. Her stylist was working on her cutie mark, two highly stylized musical notes one pointing up the other down. She raised her wings, which were as yet un-marked by magical illusion.

“So we won’t… have to do anything?” Lyra inquired, her imagination running rampant.

“Not unless you want to,” the pegasus told her. “We aren’t servants, Miss… was it Heartstrings?”

“Lyra is fine,” she replied. “Um, and you must be…?”

“Siren Song.” The other mare shared a sultry smile with her, soft red eyes sparkling, contrasting with her bright purple mane and white coat. Silver ear-rings almost touched her long eyelashes. Together with the almost complete crystallization guise, it gave her a very exotic and erotic look, which was most likely the intent.

“You’re so new, it shouldn’t surprise anypony that you don’t understand yet,” she continued, admiring her own reflection in a body height mirror. “His Lordship isn’t the only host for this event. We are his trusted and beloved cliens. We have his respect and his… his love. The Lords and Ladies he invites are Our guests as much as His. We serve them not because we must, but because we wish to, for his sake. Should any of us wish it, we can expel any guest at the party.”

Lyra blinked a few times as she processed that. Not long ago, she had played for some of Lord Brass’s dinner guests. They had been important and powerful ponies. She had expected more of the same to arrive for the… well, the orgy. She tried to imagine herself demanding the removal of some great and noble pony, her, a little pony from nowhere. It was comical. Was that really something she had the power to do, here?

“There is no need to be nervous or frightened,” Siren Song explained with a growing smile. “If anything, this is an opportunity for fun. We don’t get many stallions up here, and Lord Brass… is loving but so cruelly distant. With that Princess here, it all but makes it impossible for any of us to spend time with him. Especially with his bulldogs watching us.”

She fearlessly pointed over at the stoic female guardpony.

“Yes,” she said to herself, licking her lips hungrily. “You would do well to make the most of tonight.”

The openly salacious look on the pegasus mare’s face brought a blush to Lyra’s cheeks. Clearly, this was an event some ponies looked forward to more than others. For just a moment, she imagined Bon Bon, and wished she had come, too. This was definitely an occasion when it would be nice to have a close marefriend nearby.

“So we… don’t have to do anything?” she asked, to be sure. “Unless we want?”

“There will be quite a few pretty ponies,” Siren reminded her. “His Lordship always gives preference to the beautiful at his orgies. It makes things so much easier, you know? That way, we only need to grease the wheels with song and dance and drink.” Glancing back at Lyra for a moment, she guessed that the unicorn mare had more questions but hesitated to give voice to them.

So she explained, “But, as I said before, I doubt this party will be all that wild or memorable. Lady Euporie isn’t here to stir things up. Most ponies will probably just drink and eat and watch and talk – they come for the voyeurism rather than to participate. A few of the more adventurous or scandalous couples will enjoy themselves in the Solarium… some of us will probably find a couple handsome single stallions and have some fun as well. I know I will! And those with more exotic desires will probably retreat to the Night’s Solar and the Lunarium. I doubt we will have an event like the last, when Lady Euporie personally oversaw the festivities.”

“Lady Euporie,” Lyra muttered, recalling the young unicorn mare with the wild blue mane from the other day. She had not left a very nice impression, tormenting her aunt Chalice and threatening both Lyra and Lady Yumi.

“Unlike his daughter, His Lordship is unfortunately not a true libertine,” Siren Song said, having overheard.

“Alpha Brass doesn’t take part?”

“Lord Alpha Brass,” Siren Song corrected her. “And no. Only in the Night’s Solar. I assume.” She shrugged, and the stylist working on her tsked in annoyance. “He often comes and goes. Oh, and I believe I accidentally made a rather lewd joke!”

“So he doesn’t get involved himself? He lets Lady Euporie handle it?” Lyra guessed, and Siren nodded.

“Yes, and without her, I worry tonight will be rather stale.” The sultry pegasus songstress sighed with mock dejection. “I feel sorry for you in particular, Lyra Heartstrings. No pony can do what our Lady Euporie can with but a word and you…? You’ll be missing it.”

- - -

“I see her!” the shout came from one of the watching pegasus ponies on a cloud above the duel. She pointed off, out of sight, but only the other pegasi with the advantage of a high perch could see what was coming.

“Is that…? Is she crazy?” Another pegasus clutched her head in dismay from the roof of Sugarcube Corner.

“All I see is a cloud of smoke,” another complained, squinting his eyes. He flew up higher and his eyes widened. “Oh.”

Soon enough, all the ponies gathered behind the confectionary to watch Applejack win back her hat had their heads turned and necks craned, trying to see. Reaching behind her, Pinkie Pie whipped out a pair of binoculars to better peer into the oncoming cloud of dust. There was definitely something heading down the hill towards the road.

But what?

“Oh my gosh!” The pink pony gasped, shocked, adjusting the sight on the binoculars. “A bear!” 

“A bear?” Euporie inquired next to her.

Other ponies, overhearing the remark, started to panic. “A bear?!” “Everypony RUN!” “Not another bear.”

“No, wait!” Pinkie gasped again. “A tiger!”

“Now it’s a tiger?”

“A tiger!!” “Everypony RUN!!” “What kind of tiger?”

“Oh no! A giant penguin!”

“Gimme that!” Euporie snapped the binoculars off Pinkie’s face and brought them to her own eyes. The stormy blue mane behind her fizzled up for a moment before returning to what passed for normal: random curls and ends sticking out like an ocean’s surf. The unicorn slowly handed the binoculars back to their owner.

Pinkie quickly took another look. “Now it’s a sperm whale!”

“A … what?” “Everypony RUN!” “At least it isn’t a kraken.”

A spark of magic later and a circular reel ejected out of the sides of the ‘binocular’ revealing it to be a toy stereoscope in all but appearance. Pinkie Pie ‘aww’ed at the sudden darkness and tossed it away without a second thought. Euporie shook her head and continued to peer into the incoming dust cloud without further visual aid. When she finally saw the source of it all, her smile returned, broad and toothy.

“Awww,” Pinkie Pie groused, disappointed. “It’s just a plain ol' rampaging bull.”

This was followed by the predictable:

“A bull!” “Everypony RRRRUNNN!!” “Time to panic, I guess.”

Euporie’s formerly silent grin turned into full blown laughter as ponies caught on to what was coming, seeing it now that it was heading right towards them. Applejack had rounded up a couple heads of cattle and sent them stampeding into town. The determined – some would say crazy, others nuts – apple farmer was riding on top of the lead animal: a two thousand pound dairy bull, all muscle and bone and bad temperament. Pinkie Pie flailed around wildly, feeding the panic as ponies fled for the safety of houses, roofs, bales of hay and any other thing that they could find. One pony hid behind another pony, who then hid behind the first pony, and so on and so forth.

“I like this town!” Euporie announced, clopping one hoof into the other as if it was some profound realization. “It’s full of crazy ponies!”

“INCOMING!!” Applejack yelled from on top her family’s breeding bull. Through the smoke and dust, the front of the beast could be seen quite clearly now: twice the size of a pony’s head, with small ears that bounced at it took one muscular stride after another, snorting angrily through a copper ringed nose. A pair of large, curved white horns arced to either side of the thick skull.

“Y’all better move!” she warned, not like the residents of the town needed to hear it to get the hell out of the way. “I’m getting’ that hat back or dying tryin’!”

Behind her thundered four other cows, smaller than the bull, but doing their part to egg him on.

“I’ll just be standing over here,” Pinkie Pie said, casually, as she slipped behind her new unicorn friend turned meat shield. “Behind you.”

“I wouldn’t worry about us,” Euporie replied, turning her head to the side. “We’re not her target, after all. Isn’t that right, Antlers?”

Still standing where he had been since the duel began – the purpose of it being to make him move just an ‘inch or two’ – the Neighponese pony known as Shigure or Late Rains remained in place. He turned his head to the oncoming stampede, but otherwise didn’t give word or action to indicate discomfort or distress.

“Pinkie Pie!” a voice called from one of the second floor windows of Sugarcube Corner. “Your friend isn’t going to destroy our shop, is she?”

“Of course not!” Pinkie replied, waving up at Mrs. Cake. “Sugarcube Corner is a candy shop, not a China shop! You don’t have anything to worry about!”

“That’s good,” Mrs. Cake said, and ducked back inside, but not before Pinkie and Euporie overheard her yell, “Honeycake! Take the twins across town, would you? As in: right now?”

“Already on it, sugarplum!”

“It sounds like you’re about to get trampled,” Euporie remarked to Shigure. Only his subordinates from Neighpon were standing around, albeit well out of the way. Shiratsuyu and Yudachi had both moved off to the side just to be on the safe side, while Suzukaze took to the air, yellow eyes tightened angrily.

“Y’all better move!” Applejack yelled, her face betraying more than a little fear and hesitation now that it had come to the last few seconds. “Move! Move!”

Meanwhile, the stampede continued, right on target.

“MOVE, damn it!”

Moments from impact, Euporie giggled.

Carriage crashes were not unknown events in Equestria, though rarely at speeds of more than ten or twenty miles per hour. To the sound of one pony’s laughter, another’s frightened yelp, and one other’s curse, two thousand pounds of dairy bull went from thirty miles per hour to a dead stop in the span of an instant. In that moment, all the pony sounds, cries and howls of warning were drowned out.

More than a ton of bovine muscle and bone pounds buckled and bellowed amid a swirling nebula of dust and hooves. The back of the bull hitched right up and into the air, the back legs still kicking, hurling Applejack into the sky as well as if she’d been launched by a meaty catapult. It was followed a heartbeat later by two other thuds as a pair of smaller cows, each just shy of a ton, slammed into the halted dark mass of flesh that was the intact dairy bull.

Plaintive moos cried from the sudden impact, and behind those two, another cow crashed and bowled over the top of the others, rolling on top of them carried purely by momentum. A fourth ended up momentarily airborne, like Applejack herself, tumbling end over end before crashing down with a warbling bleat. She hit the still moving mass that was at the head of the crash, legs kicking frantically into the air.

Applejack slammed hard into the ground, skidding all the way to Sugarcube Corner’s backdoor.

Snorting dust out of her face, she groaned and tried to get back onto her hooves. A pink hoof appeared to help her up, and shying away from the assistance for only a moment, the apple farmer ultimately let Pinkie Pie help. Swaying momentarily on all fours, Applejack shielded her face and eyes from the roiling cloud of dust the stampede had kicked up. It was slow to settle, but she could see…

“That was good!” Euporie commented, clearly approving. “I did say no rules, right? Weapons are totally fine, so I guess animals are, too, though I hadn’t imagined it myself.”

“Master Shigure,” Suzukaze said, trying to see through the dust. Flapping her wings, she began to blow away the offending cloud and airborne debris.

“Seven.”

Even before the dust began to clear, the moaning pile of smashed bovines began to move.

Almost gently, one of the cows tipped over and onto the ground. Standing behind her, Shigure had one leg up and against the head of the bull, one of the horns just digging into the meat of his shoulder. Another cow was supported entirely by his back, and he shrugged her off and onto the ground by lowering his rear legs. Throughout all that, three of his four legs had not left their spot.

Applejack glanced down at a broken horn that had come to a stop just inches from Sugarcube Corner, the tip of it buried into the ground. Reaching out for it, she kicked lightly and knocked it over. It had been broken so clearly, so cleanly, that it resembled nothing less than a side of sliced sausage. Shigure shifted again, this time to throw back the unconscious bull that had slammed into him, and Applejack heard a scraping sound as the remaining horn rubbed its tip against the Neighponese pony’s shoulder.

It sounded like bone scraping on rock.

“What - what kinda pony are you?” she asked, softly, but still he heard the question.

“I am Lady Yumi’s shield,” Shigure explained, letting the bull collapse onto the ground at his hooves. “I am the Mountain of Neighpon. No Earth Pony in the world is my equal when it comes to defense.”

“Has it sunk in yet?” Suzukaze jeered, flying down lower to zip by Pinkie and Applejack. “There’s no way you can move Master Shigure! You could struggle at it all day and not even disturb a hair on his mane! A smart pony would just give up!”

“Applejack,” Shiratsuyu spoke up, as the pony she’d fought – and defeated – at the pas d’arms. “There’s no shame in-”

“A smart pony would probably give up,” Applejack agreed, shrugging off Pinkie Pie to trot forward. “That’s probably right.”

“Don’t tell me you’re giving up?” Euporie asked, frowning. “I think you can do it.”

“Ah said a smart pony would probably give up!” Applejack yelled. “Too bad! I ain’t exactly a smart pony!”

“Stupid! Idiot! Baka!” Suzukaze taunted as she flew around. “Only a brain damaged fool doesn’t know when she’s in over her head! That’s nothing to be proud of!”

“No, Suzukaze,” Shigure said, and she jerked her head around to gawk at him.

“But, Master Shigure…!”

“That was only seven,” he explained. “She has eight tries, and eight times she wishes to win back her honor. You could learn from her determination, Suzukaze. As outmatched as she may be, I would bet that the thought of seriously giving up has never crossed her mind. I am oath-bound not to move, but right now… this pony has my blood pumping. I want to see what you do next, Miss Applejack. Please show me.” 

He noticed her eyes on the moaning and mooing cattle around him.

“They should all be alive,” he tried to assuage her concerns. “I softened my stance before the impact to keep them from getting too hurt. Lady Euporie?”

“Huh? You want me to help? Isn’t that a shameful waste of my magic… moving meat around?” The noblemare flipped her wild blue mane in disgust. “But…! I want to see it, too! So, okay!”

With apparent ease, her horn lit up with a sparkling cerulean aura. A similar field engulfed the four cows and the unconscious bull, as a lattice of flashing lights and spilling sigils wheeled through the air above and below. Then, in the blink of an eye, the magical aura winked them away without a trace.

“W-where’d…?” Applejack recognized what had to be a teleportation spell. It didn’t look like one of Twilight’s, but it had to be something like that. Right? “You can…?”

“I sent them to my boring sister,” Euporie explained, shrugging in further disinterest. “I’m sure she’ll take them to the local vet. Or maybe they’ll land on her hard head and crush her. Either one is fine.”

“Ah guess I’ll have to trust ya on that,” Applejack admitted, keeping her eyes and attention on Shigure. He still had her pappy’s hat somewhere, a trophy from the pas d’arms outside Ponyville. This was her one, last chance to get it back. She’d have to check up on Hugh Heifer and the girls later. They’d more than earned the premium feed she’d promised them for all this.

Looking back, though, it had been so reckless…

Somepony could’ve gotten hurt. Hell, the intention had been to hurt Shigure, hadn’t it? A pony had to hurt him to move him. ‘He has mah hat.’ The thought repeated in her head, over and over. ‘Ah can’t lose! Ah can’t lose! Ah gotta beat him no matter what ah have ta do!’

Thinking, gathering her thoughts, Applejack didn’t notice the faint magic collecting around her.

“One more try,” she vowed. “Ah can’t mess this up. Not again.”

- - -

“Ohhh! I can not believe you! What were you thinking?”

Blueblood didn’t offer any words in response. He and Shining Armor had gone from the upper floors right to the conservatory, to change, and then outside. The stallions had hardly broken eye contact since the duel had been declared, and neither had so much ad acknowledged the pair of mares who tried to get in their way. Despite Rarity’s indignation and Twilight’s magical prowess, neither had the inclination to physically try and bar the two stallions from marching around towards the inevitable.

“Mercury!” Blueblood roared the moment they were outside the manor, hooves clattering as he and Shining Armor traversed the beautiful Bitalian stonework outside leading to the laurel maze. It took only a moment for the Royal Guard to swoop down, head bowed before the two nobleponies.

“I would recommend Sir Mercury as an impartial arbiter,” the Prince said, meeting Shining Armor’s glower.

“I know of him,” the Guard Captain replied, nodding once to the bowing pegasus pony. “You were squire to Sir Steel Heart and you unmasked the mystery knight of the Briar Thorn Tourney.”

The Royal Guard nodded, once.

“Sir Mercury it is,” Shining Armor consented.

“Then I shall meet you on the field,” Blueblood glanced back at Rarity, a move that only restored her pique and pressing urge to talk to him – or more exactly, to talk him out of things. “Shortly.”

“Do not be too long, Your Grace.” Shining Armor huffed, stomping off, followed by a flummoxed and unhappy Twilight Sparkle, who could only turn and shrug helplessly at her brother’s brusque behavior.

Blueblood sighed and turned, fully, to face Rarity. “Well, then,” he prompted. “You were saying?”

“I was saying,” she had to bite back a harsher phrase that came momentarily to mind. “You can not tell me that you were being anything other than rude and – and provocative back there! What were you thinking? What are you thinking?”

Blueblood grimaced as she leaned in, whispering harshly and critically.

“What are you two even fighting over?” she asked. “Have you listened to yourselves? When you go out there, I want you to apologize to him and-”

“That is something I cannot do,” Blueblood cut her off.

Surprised by just how firm he had been, over so frivolous a thing, Rarity trotted back in surprise. “And why not? I have never before seen you lose your temper like this, or behave in such a crude manner! Don’t tell me Twilight’s brother gets under your skin, so?”

“This has nothing to do with anything he said,” the Prince told her, leaning over to whisper into her right ear. “Not to me, anyway. Rarity, you are an astute and observant pony, but I do not believe you understand Shining Armor’s character like you think you do. That idiot is honorable to a fault. Do you remember when I told you there were no fairy tale white knights in Canterlot? I was wrong. There is one and you just met him.”

“You make it sound as if that is a bad thing,” Rarity countered, blue eyes darting away to disguise her confusion. “How many times have you lamented the state of Canterlot’s elite? Just the other night, didn’t you call it a nest of vipers? You should wish for more white knights like Shining Armor.”

“An honorable and just pony is a great thing, and in certain times, to be commended.” Blueblood leaned back, snorting through his nose at just how twisted the situation had become. “Shining Armor is as incorruptible as he is gullible. Unfortunately for him, the world needs black princes as much as white knights… and there is no blacker prince than Lord Cruciger and his ilk. Shining cannot be allowed to go to Prance. He’ll be eaten alive.”

He began to walk off to the grounds outside the manor when Rarity called after him, “Why not just tell him that? Why not just explain it to him? Do you really think this really the best way to do this?”

“It’s the best way to make things stick,” Blueblood said over his shoulder. “If he knocks me unconscious, it’ll be up to you to welcome our first few guests for the art festival. Tell Photo Finish I’m power napping!”

“I’ll tell her you were a hothead and a royal pain!” Rarity called out, not afraid to be overheard by any of the staff.

“Believe me! She already knows!”

- -

Blueblood loved the feel of chewings fescue beneath his hooves: it was like a luxurious green carpet, soft to the touch and inviting to the eye. Chewings fescue was good, old, Canterlot grass, mixed in some parts of the back forty with smooth stalked meadow grass and browntop. A pony could eat it, if need be, but to do so was generally frowned upon. Casual grazing pulled up roots and damaged the yard, after all, and who would want to do that? Nibbling wasn’t a faux pas however.

However, the best thing about a perfectly maintained and cut yard was that there was no dirt or mud to soil oneself. The visual appearance was essential, naturally, but there was that all important utility: no civilized pony wanted to see or interact with filth. His gardeners and staff had done such a wonderful job on the acres that surrounded his new Ponyville manor. What was about to happen now, well, it brought a tear to his eye.

“Are you crying?” Shining Armor asked, having spotted the lone droplet making its way down Blueblood’s cheek.

“I’m sorry. I – I can’t help it,” he moaned, wiping away the unsightly tear. “We’re about to ruin my poor yard.”

“You never change!” the other pony groaned, shaking his head in disgust. “This is a matter of honor!”

“Hm? Honor?” Befuddled, Blueblood bit his lower lip in apparent thought. “Oh, oh yes. I almost forgot.”

Shining Armor growled his response almost too quietly to be heard, “I don’t know how the Princess puts up with you, sometimes.”

“Which Princess do you mean?” Blueblood asked, speaking loudly and freely, all but drawing attention to every word.

“The Princess, of course.” By which he meant the one he had served under for so many years and not the one he planned to marry. “Her Highness, Princess Celestia.”

“And, wait, your question was what?” the Duke of Canterlot inquired, as they waited. “Why my Aunties stand having me around?” 

“Yes, why do they?” Shining Armor demanded to know. “All you do is… is revel in this or that! I understand that the nobility is the court, and I know that the court is a stage, but you act like a clown in motley! Carelessly foaling around with mares, or – or, when not cavorting, you are dealing in shadows and behind curtains! I could never understand why. Why you are the way you are, or why Her Highness put up with it.”

“I see...” Blueblood let a bit of the act slip, just to aggravate the other stallion. “You resent that ponies like me pull the strings of ponies like you, Knight Guard Captain Shining Armor?”

“When Cadance and I run our realm,” he swore. “It will be with honor and justice! Ponies like you will have no place there.”

“Oh! How delightfully anachronistic! A revival of King Solomare’s court,” Blueblood quipped. “Will you cut a foal in half, too? Maybe Cadance can do the honors?”

“Enough of your irreverence!” The angry Royal Guard stomped his right hoof in growing impatience. “Where are those…” he tried to recall the weapon for the duel. “Those…?”

“We are dueling with almond blancmange,” Blueblood provided. “A waste of it, by the way, but that was the chosen desert.”

Shining Armor somehow found a way to deepen his frown. “The very fact that you have committed all these sweets to memory is itself damning.”

“Much of it was not by choice, I assure you.”

Fortunately, Rarity and Sir Mercury arrived with the dueling deserts before Blueblood could try and tempt his angry fellow noble into giving compliments on his villa’s garden designs. Little Shining Armor was never one for the “frivolous.” Blueblood privately blamed it on his Terre Rare upbringing and the resultantly typical obsession with “honor” and “duty” and a generally Spartan lifestyle. The whole family would have fit in perfectly if transplanted into a bunch of pegasi, two thousand years in the past.

Only having met Twilight Sparkle was that generalization rendered unfair. He saw her, all the way until the end, trying to talk her brother out of the duel. Blueblood very nearly shook his head. She really was too nice a mare to belong to so cruel a clan of ponies. It was no compliment. If she really wanted to make inroads into protecting her family, there would be no way around having to beat down the main branch in Prance. She had the power – he was sure of it – but he could only hope she had the mentality.

After what she had made him promise last night, and after this, it was all but set in stone; they were committed, the both of them.

‘I’m doing this for you, too, Twilight Sparkle,’ he thought, watching the pair of siblings, so unlike how he and Cadance conducted themselves. ‘If Cruciger has your brother, he’ll have you as well.’

“Blueblood,” he heard Rarity’s voice, seemingly for the first time today not laced with anger or frustration.

He turned his head and saw her standing close by, also watching Twilight argue with her thick-headed honor-bound blockhead of a brother. She had on a feathered fascinator of a hat he hadn’t seen before, and like most everything she made for herself, she looked radiant in it. He saw her eyes, and her face, still frowning, and a part of him wanted to just tell her he would yield and let things die down between himself and Shining Armor. As long as it made her happy.

Sadly, that just couldn’t be. This was for their long term happiness. She’d see that, eventually.

“Try not to get too roughed up,” she said, fighting to keep looking cross. “I don’t want our pictures together to look like a well-dressed nurse and her favorite burn patient.”

He gave his best deadpan response, “Now that you’ve talked me into it, I’ll try my best.”

Kissing him quickly on the cheek, she cantered off; he took a long look at her go. At least if Shining Armor did knock him out, he could try and have some pleasant marshmallow dreams.

“Gentleponies,” Sir Mercury’s voice cut in, and Blueblood faced forward where the rather less pleasing sight of a frowning Shining Armor met him. The Prince rolled his shoulders, accepting that what had to come, had to come.

“Prince Blueblood,” the armored pegasus began the traditional introduction, holding out a tray balanced in the flat of his gilded hoof. “Are you prepared to defend your honor, sir?”

"I am," Blueblood replied, adopting a proud bearing. His eyes darted treacherously over to where Twilight and Rarity watched, and then to the manor he wanted to call his new home, bathed in the light of his Auntie’s risen sun. Dueling. All he could think about was how he hated dueling.

“Sir Shining Armor,” Mercury continued, addressing the other aggrieved party. “Are you prepared to defend your honor, sir?”

“I am, always.” Shining’s response technically broke protocol, but he seemed proud of it. He would be. It was the exact same thing he had said, all those years ago, when he had first challenged his distant royal cousin to a duel over the insulted honor of a little Lady Lord. Even then, she had been his precious and infallible Princess, Mi Amore Cadenza.

"So be it." Mercury, a Pegasus, would not normally have been given leave to attend much less to arbitrate a unicorn duel. It was not prejudice, simply the fact that a unicorn was best suited to preside over (and if needed, intervene in) a magical duel. On such short notice, however, he would do. Blueblood made a mental note to thank the guard later, no matter the outcome. It could not have been easy for him to stand as he was between his royal charge and his guard Captain.

"Honor your families and your names," Mercury concluded, presenting their pastries.

Blueblood and Shining Armor both floated out five of the small round blancmange cakes. They then turned and paced in opposite directions in silence. The Duke of Canterlot was already preparing the magic he would need in his mind. The first move should have been to teleport away and gain some extra distance. Shining Armor was more athletic and, by virtue of his being in the Guard all his life, he could be expected to be stronger and faster than a pampered noble, despite Blueblood’s private physical trainer and relatively healthy living. His magic would also likely be faster from conception to inception to projection.

Luckily, this was also Shining Armor.

He would sooner pluck his eye out than hit a pony in the back. Blueblood let that fact sink in as the countdown ended, the distance between duelists passed, his back still turned to his opponent. There was a long pause then, as Blueblood sucked in a breath.

“If I had been in your position,” he said, still not turning around. “I would have struck already.”

“I’m glad you at least recognize that much,” Shining responded, huffing in dismay. “But on the other hoof, it means you’d choose to cast aside honor for victory. That isn’t something to be proud of, Your Grace.”

Blueblood chuckled, slowly turning around to face the other stallion.

“Shining Armor,” he said, eyes narrowed and all distractions cast aside. “Why don’t you show me what an honorable pony can do?” 

- - -

“GO Applejack!”

“Yeah! You can DO IT!”

Despite the vocal praise, Applejack couldn’t help but hide her face behind a hoof. Somehow, while everypony’s backs had been turned, Pinkie Pie had darted off and found a cheerleader’s outfit. Donned in frilly white and pink skirt and a tube top, waving a pair of bright pink pom-poms, she was currently bouncing up and down, providing ample drooling opportunities and fanservice for the hoof-full of ponies who had remained after the stampede. 

Worse still, she had gotten that crazy unicorn from before into it, too. 

Tucking into a ball and landing on Euporie’s shoulders, both ponies struck a pose. “A!” Pinkie exclaimed from the top. “J!” Euporie chimed in from the bottom. “APPLEJACK! GOOO TEAM!”

“Wait, what team?” the unicorn of the pair asked, looking up.

“Our team!” Pinkie cheered, jumping down.

“If this is ‘our team’ how come my shirt says RD on the back? And why is it so tight around the-”

“Details, details,” Pinkie explained, clasping the other pony around the shoulders. “The important thing isn’t how tight your clothes are-”

“You sure about that?”

“The important thing,” Pinkie repeated, “is how you cheer from the depths of your heart!”

Momentarily forgotten, the two dueling earth ponies exchanged apologetic looks.

“Your friend is certainly… energetic,” Shigure said, politely.

“Yours, too,” Applejack replied, but the Neighponese retainer shook his head.

“She’s not a friend.”

“Then why…?”

“For Lady Yumi, of course,” he answered like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Why else would he do anything?

“Hmmm!” Euporie commented from the sidelines, twirling a baton around one foreleg. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think our Little Miss Applejack was stalling for time! Maybe she’s low on ideas?”

“Oh! Oh! I’ve got TONS of great ideas!” Pinkie Pie declared, raising one hoof in the air and waving it excitedly, like a certain lavender schoolfilly eager to get called on in class. “So many I don’t know what to do with them all!”

“Well, go ahead!” Euporie invited her to contribute, still spinning the baton around without paying it any real attention. “This is a no rules duel, right? There’s no rule against giving good advice!”

Zipping over to where the apple farmer stood, one eyebrow raised in bemusement, Pinkie Pie started whispering in her ear. The more she heard, the more Applejack’s expression fell. Eyes half lidded, she could only draw back and stare at her pink friend. Was she serious?

-

In her mind, she could picture it:

Applejack stood, feather in her mouth, trying to tickle her opponent into submission. Needless to say, it wasn’t working all too well.

“You ain’t ticklish, are ya sugarcube?” She grumbled, feather between her lips.

Shigure shrugged. “Only under my hooves.”

Hooves firmly planted on the ground.

“Horsefeathers.”

-

“Oh! I’ve got it! You can…”

-

The carrot-flavored cupcake dangled from a line attached to an old fishing rod. Sitting on the roof of Sugarcube Corner, Applejack sat hunched next to an out of place tackle box, wearing a wide brimmed hat full of spare hooks and gaudy lures. She also had the misfortune of wearing a life jacket, because… safety first? What the heck kind of idea was this?

Two stories down on the ground, Shigure looked up at the cupcake, grabbed the line, and yanked her down to fall flat on her face.

“Ah really don’t think this’ll work,” she muttered into the dirt.

-

“The life jacket was in case of a tidal wave. Anyway! Another idea!”

-

Applejack hammered a sign into place above her cart: FREE APPLES

No sooner was it in place than a swarm of ponies, not one of them the one she wanted, converged on her clamoring for free food. Swiftly buried beneath the deluge, she counted herself fortunate to still have the life jacket from the other bad idea.

“Ah don’t think this’ll work,” she said, pushing her way out of the press of hungry ponies.

-

“OH! I’ve got it!”

-

Blinking, Applejack glanced back and forth.

Around her, a dozen ponies waited for their cue to start dancing and singing. On the side, Pinkie Pie was encouraging her on to try and get a beat going. Then all the ponies would join in as her chorus and they would march along and sweep up everypony in town, Shigure included! Nopony could resist a good group song!

“Um… everypony dance or… something?” Applejack scratched her head. “Um… Ah can’t think of anything here, sugarcube.”

-

Applejack ran to the middle of town, yelling into a wristwatch just above her right hoof. “Big Apple! Show-time!”

Without preamble, a huge metal hoof burst out of the ground! It was followed by a gigantic leg, and then another, as a huge mechanical mechapony burst out of the network of secret tunnels beneath Ponyville. In moments, the Big Apple stood tall over the toy sized buildings of Ponyville, and Applejack piloted it from inside an overly elaborate and frankly confusing command center. All around her, dozens of lights blinked in blues and greens and reds, gauges spun and spat steam, and levers covered every square inch of available space.

Sitting on the pilots seat, Applejack had only one thing to say.

“Uhh… why do I have a giant robot?”

-

“Oh yeah, they don’t exist yet. I forgot!” Pinkie Pie ‘hmm’ed, taking special mental note of the lack of giant mecha in the real world. “Well, I’ve got lots more ideas! For this next one, all we need is a giant whoopee cushion, some gak, and Sapphire Shores…”

“I’ve got an idea, myself,” Euporie spoke up, tossing the baton through the air. “Use this.”

Halfway to Applejack, the unicorn’s magic turned it into a much more wood-like form. Hitting the ground, it slid around and came to a stop right next to Applejack’s hooves. When it did, she got a good look at it. It had been turned into wood, and the top half of it was also wrapped tightly in some sort of fabric. She realized what it was right away.

A spark later, and the torch took flame.

“Go ahead,” Euporie told her, a malicious grin at odds with the cheerleader’s outfit she still wore. “No rules, remember?”

Pinkie Pie stared down at the lit torch with wide, blue eyes.

Applejack, hardly even thinking about it, reached down and picked up the burning flambeau. Just like with Pinkie Pie, she could see herself using it. Except this would work. This would actually work! Nopony would just stand there and get burned! Old Antlers had managed to take everything she had thrown at him. The adapted apple bucking kicks hadn’t worked. Her lasso tricks had been useless. He’d boasted that if there were something like eight of her, then maybe he would move, but even a stampede of cattle hadn’t budged him.

Fire.

Fire would move him.

“Do it,” Euporie whispered, but Applejack could hear her as clearly as if she had been in Pinkie Pie’s horseshoes, right next to her. “You want your hat back, don’t you? Hesitation is so unseemly. So unattractive! Don’t think about it. Just do it.”

Holding up the torch, Applejack could see her opponent – her enemy – through the flickering flames. The crazy unicorn was right. What was she doing thinking about it?

“Applejack.”

The apple farmer turned her eyes to the left, where Pinkie Pie sat on her haunches.

“That’s not a fun idea,” Pinkie said, tentatively reaching out to take the torch away. “I think you should try something else.”

“Pinkie!” Euporie cried from the sidelines, distraught and seemingly hurt by the party pony’s words. “You don’t like my idea? But what is she going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Pinkie admitted, plucking the torch out of Applejack’s hooves, “but I know she’ll think of something!”

For a moment, the other earth pony was silent.

“You spoke highly of her earlier and you are not prone to exaggeration,” Yumi said, spearing the prone apple farmer with a disappointed scowl. “I expected more. This is like watching a donkey kick a wall.”

“Shut yer yap!” Applejack spat, bracing her front legs to pull herself up.

The foreign mare narrowed her eyes and nodded to one of her servants. Without warning, something spun through the air to land inches from Applejack's face. She flinched involuntarily, eyes opening to see what had almost hit her. Apple Bloom saw it too, though she hadn't been able to see what it was as it flew through the air.

It was a spear.

“Applejack?” Pinkie asked, whispering.

“Yeah,” she finally said, smirking. “Ah’ll think’a somethin.” Green eyes drifted back to the unicorn in the cheerleader’s outfit. “Thanks anyway, sugarcube.” Then back to Pinkie. “And you especially.”

Nodding, torch in hoof, Pinkie Pie bounded away without another word.

Clopping her hooves together - her empty hooves – Applejack let out a long, slow breath. This was it: she had one last chance to move this Neighponese rock in the shape of a pony and win back her hat. Her father’s hat. So far, her track record was one of failure after failure. By all rights and reason, no pony would have faulted her for wanting to just give up and go home.

Instead, she began to run.

- -

“Come on, Applejack!” Pinkie Pie’s exclamation was much quieter than usual. “Come on!”

A peach colored blur shot by as Applejack picked up speed, circling her opponent. When Pinkie had seen her start, she had started to worry. Applejack had tried a trick like this before, using her lasso and circling around and around. This time she was just running. Running and running.

‘Come on, Applejack! You can do it!’

Next to her, balancing the still burning torch on the tip of her hoof, Euporie chuckled.

“You know,” she began to say, as Applejack shot past again. “When one ant can’t carry her burden alone, another helps out. I wonder if that’s what ponies call the ‘magic of friendship’?”

“What do you mean?” Pinkie Pie asked, not quite understanding the question.

“Oh, nothing important,” the unicorn remarked, always grinning.

Pinkie Pie turned her attention back to Applejack and Shigure, butterflies in her stomach (which was odd, since she didn’t remember eating any, but maybe they’d gotten into the cookie dough?). Even she wasn’t oblivious to the fact that nothing Applejack had tried so far had worked. Amid the circling dust left in Applejack’s wake, Shigure remained as implacable as always.

At first, Pinkie had just assumed he was super-duper confident in being able to take anything anypony threw at him. That wasn’t it, though. He was watching everything Applejack did. He just didn’t talk much. Even now, she could see him following Applejack with his eyes as she circled him, well out of reach.

“So much running!” Euporie commented with a chuckle.

“She’s quite fast.” White Dew, the other earth pony from Neighpon aside from Antlers, had moved to stand near the two mares. He cupped a dark brown hoof to his chin, considering the fight. Pinkie Pie had befriended both him and Squalls in the hospital, and he had talked about Applejack fairly often and how she had surprised him. Evening Squall had also come closer, a lingering magic clinging to his horn, probably in case he needed to put up a protective barrier.

Cool Breeze, meanwhile, lurked on top of a cloud, still smarting from being chided by her master.

“Going faster won’t change anything,” Evening Squall spoke up, his dark red eyes knowledgeable. “Nopony can generate the force required to move Master Shigure against his will. It isn’t possible.”

A little dejectedly, White Dew nodded. “That’s right. Miss Applejack has made remarkable strides, but… but I don’t see how she can make him move by running fast.”

“It just isn’t possible,” Squall repeated.

Pinkie Pie shook her head, not wanting to hear it. “She said she’d think of something. So she’ll think of something!”

Sitting down, Euporie watched, intently, smiling happily.

‘Come on, Applejack!’

Pinkie Pie winced at the fluttery feeling in her stomach. Forget butterflies for a moment – she thought back on if she’d eaten anything funny. Well, she ate a lot of funny things, but was there anything weird or bad, too? Those peanut and cream cheese brittles had been pretty funky. Then there had been the spicy mustard and dandelion chips. Those had been super funky.

Applejack raced past again, kicking up more dust.

As she did, Pinkie felt that pang again, and with it came a moment of (relative) clarity. It wasn’t something she’d eaten.  That feeling in the pit of her tummy wasn’t food. It was Applejack.

It was Applejack doing something.

“Oh!” Pinkie Pie bounced up, seeing it. The feeling was funny, but not strange, now that she remembered it. “I know this feeling!”

“What feeling?” White Dew asked, but a cry came from the duelists, and all eyes turned to them.

“That rock smashing feeling!” Pinkie Pie replied, landing on his back. She pointed. “Look!”

With a rebel yell, Applejack had broken from her rapid circling, changing course to crash head-long into her invulnerable opponent. Shigure watched her charge with intense azure blue eyes, one cobalt hoof shooting up to intercept her. The few remaining ponies that made up the crowd held their collective breath, expecting another painful crash. Ponies watched in pairs from open windows, from clouds and rooftops, and at least two from behind a light fixture.

With a clop, Applejack’s hooves came down on Shigure’s leg –

Vaulting over him, like a rodeo clown clearing an angry bull, she spun once head over shoulders. Her legs tucked in, a posture White Dew recognized, given his sharp intake of air. At the exact same time, all four of her hooves hit the ground.

“Not bad,” Shigure barely had time to say.

And then the ground heaved and bucked back, a thick crack forming from Applejack’s impact point. The lines races across the ground, forming a circle – the same circle Applejack had worn into the ground with her running. With a thunderous crack, the last of it parted and met, forming a complete, continuous circuit.

Applejack reared, two legs in the air, and stomped down HARD.

With a howl of splitting, grating stone on stone, the circle shifted, one end sinking and the other end rising. Chips of rock and clumps of dirt spat angrily out from the excavated earth as the circular cracks became a warping bowl. Applejack yelled, a raw inarticulate cry, rearing up again and stomping down. The force drove her part of the bowl down, and the other part up, until it seemed to take on a life of its own: tipping almost to ninety degrees.

And still, against that crumbling vertical wall, Shigure stood with three legs planted in place.

“A- ah…!” He grimaced, eyes wide, and the grip of his hooves finally slipped.

When he did, whatever force was holding the now vertical bowl of stone and dirt together slipped with him. It came apart all at once with a sound like a dropped glass. The implacable, seemingly invincible blue earth pony fell silently amid the detritus, burying him and Applejack alike.

It had taken all of two seconds, and the lot behind Sugarcube Corner now sported a half excavated crater. At least, Pinkie figured, it would be easier for Mister Cake to put in a pool for the twins. Then she found herself running towards the devastated and broken ground with Squalls and Dewy. The former’s magic lit up, projecting an orange colored disk into the pony-tall hill of dirt and rock. White Dew lend more muscle to moving the debris, knowing there would only be so much time before any buried pony ran out of air. Pinkie plunged her hooves into the dirt alongside the two Neighponese ponies, easily moving away rocks half her size. 

Her ear twitched, and her elbow itched. Just a little closer –

Grabbing hold of an orange hoof, Pinkie tugged, and Applejack followed, gasping for air. She was more brown than tangerine now, with bits of rock sharing space in her mane with irate earth worms and bits of sheared roots. None of it detracted from the look of triumph on her face, breathless, but there.

“You did it!” Pinkie cheered, crushing her friend in a bear hug. “You did it, Applejack! That was SOOO COOL!”

“Truly impressive.”

Both mares turned, seeing Shigure in a similarly filthy state. He had been in the very center of the crush, but appeared unhurt. In fact, he was smiling in approval. White Dew and Evening Squall stood by his side, having dug him out. He nodded, happy that he had fulfilled his vow and his honor, but still lost.

“I admit my defeat,” he said. “You have more than earned your hat back. It is my trophy no longer.”

“Master!” Cool Breeze objected, jumping down from her cloud. “Return the hat if you must, but do not call it defeat! Your defeat is Lady Yumi’s as well! It is already unbearable that we have so shamed her, but you… you can not lose, Master! Not you!”

“A pony should not regret an honorable loss, Suzukaze,” Shigure told her, shaking his head to throw bits of dirt out of his greying mane. “I would only ask how the idea came to you.”

Pinkie helped Applejack to her hooves and the apple farmer explained, “It was the cracks under you. When I apple-bucked you before, it made cracks in the ground, but later, when I had the torch… I noticed they were gone. What happened to them?”

Applejack leaned heavily on her friend, but kept upright.

“It was like a tree, healin’ itself,” she continued. “But the ground doesn’t just do that. That was how I knew. You must’ve fixed it, and what you did before, you probably countered my apple bucking with your own. I just got ta thinkin’ … if you could do it, maybe I could do something like that, too.”

“All that running,” White Dew said. “It wasn’t running at all.”

“I was hittin’ the ground just like when I apple buck a tree, or when I used it on you, sugarcube,” Applejack replied, but kept her eyes on Shigure. “Whatever sorta power you were getting from the ground, I had to do somethin’ ta mess with it.”

Shigure nodded, his smile broadening.

“In ancient pony times, before the migration, one earth pony was honored with the title of Mountain. It was our counterpart to the unicorns Archmage and the Pegasi’s Winds. My own skill is nothing in comparison to the legends of old, but like Lady Yumi’s father, I follow in that tradition. An earth pony’s roots run deep.” 

The sound of one pony’s hooves clopping heralded Euporie cantering over.

“Awesome!” she said, laughing cheerfully. “I am truly impressed! Genuinely impressed! What a wonderful first day in Ponyville!”

“Oh! That reminds me!” Pinkie gasped, pointing at both Applejack and Euporie at the same time, somehow keeping from falling flat on her face. “We need to throw a party for both of you!”

“I agree. But, how about,” Euporie suggested, smile sly. “You throw a party for your friend, and I throw a party for you, Pinkie Pie?”

“For… for me?” Pinkie asked, eyes wide and beaming. “Really? But I usually throw Welcome to Ponyville parties for other ponies…”

“As long as there’s a fun party to be had, I don’t think it matters,” the amiable unicorn replied, a glint in her amber eyes. “It’ll be a special welcome party for me, and a special my-new-friend party for you.”

“I’ll put it together while you focus on Miss Applejack’s victory party,” she added, and Pinkie Pie nodded eagerly.

“Okay! Deal!”

“Good!” Euporie clopped her hooves together excitedly. “Just… one thing… how many pretty ponies would you say there are in town?”

- - -

Shining Armor knew that many ponies had described him as ‘groomed for command of the guard.’ It was somewhat rude to think that his place in the world was anything but the fruit of his own efforts, but at the same time, he recognized that the description wasn’t entirely inaccurate. For years after the Magic Academy he had been apprenticed to the High Mage and Court Magister, Lord Rune Stone. He had squired for Lord Aegis, the Silver Shield of Equestria. He had entered the Guard at an almost unprecedented young age, and yes, he was the son of Lord Crescent Moon and Lady Twilight Velvet.

Excellence had been expected, along with rightness, correctitude and virtue. These were the hallmarks of the gentry. It was not hubris to claim that his own hard work counted for his Captaincy of the Royal Guard as much as birth and connections. It was not pride to expect ponies to respect that fact.

His Grace, Prince Blueblood, was the antithesis of all that.

Still, Shining Armor would not have begrudged the royal fop his laziness, his entitlement, his callousness towards mares, or his dismissiveness towards the common pony. He was willing to be the bigger stallion and forgive the Prince his lack of chivalry, his irreverence towards the Princesses and his niggardly manners. Blueblood was as he was. What Shining Armor could not stand, and what he could not forgive, was insults towards his fair fiancée and bride to be. Not then, when they had been colts, and not now, when they were grown stallions.

Not ever, would Shining Armor let that be without challenge.

He took a forceful step forward, five round blancmange cakes cloaked in magical steel. The flickering barriers around them caught the light and shimmered like polished diamonds, reflecting in innumerable facets. Turquoise eyes bled off excess magic as his training kicked in.

“I hope you are ready, Your Grace,” he gave that last word of warning, and attacked.

- -

Rarity had only one serious duel to her name. It was a monster of a duel to be sure, against one of Equestria’s most infamous mares, but she was hardly what one would call an old hoof at the subject. For the most part, she only had Twilight’s training, her small body of prior experience, and some literature she had read over the last couple weeks. She saw, immediately, that Shining Armor was not like Antimony.

For one, he went right for the jugular.

Four of the shimmering blancmange cakes shot forward like bullets, the crack of their rapport hurting her ears. Her heart skipped a beat as she saw Blueblood’s surprise. He hadn’t been expecting such a quick attack. It was faster than even Antimony’s own diamond-enchanted cupcakes had been.

The Prince flashed to light a moment before the cakes hit him.

Shining Armor frowned, pivoting and erecting a purple shield to block the incoming cake from behind. Invulnerable behind it, he took his time retrieving the four cakes he had thrown. All four were still encapsulated in barriers of their own, buried into the ground. Rarity could see that they had punched cleanly into the ground, leaving perfectly circular depressions in the immaculate turf.

Antimony would have pulled the cakes back quickly and set them circling about her. Shining Armor felt no such urgency. He was probably more aggressive than Antimony, but from the look of it, he was physically slower. Safe behind his translucent purple bubble barrier, the guard Captain was in no hurry to either protect himself or press an attack before he was ready.

“I had heard that you teleported at the Gala,” Armor said, watching his opponent with cool disdain. “At first, I had dismissed it as barracks gossip, but there you are. I remember you puking all over yourself the last time you tried to teleport.”

“Not one of my finest moments in school,” Blueblood remarked, tapping his back right hoof against the ground. Four cakes floated around him, and his blue eyes turned to them, missing the one that had been wasted on Shining Armor’s barrier. “And now I only have four left. So sad.”

“A teleport behind to a blind spot is the most simple of moves,” Shining Armor lectured, shaking his head. “A novice move, really.”

“I’ll have to try something else,” Blueblood replied, sighing.

“Feel free to try!” Shining, having recovered his five barrier- blancmanges, advanced again. The projectiles shot forward again with a loud ‘crack!’ ‘crack!’ and Blueblood had to scramble and backpedal to escape.

With a nimbleness belied by his large build, the Prince weaved away from the barrage of cakes, projecting two of his own. They arced around, and Shining Armor ignored them. His barrier was hemispherical and covered all angles. Blueblood’s cakes skimmed the surface, looking for a weakness, avoiding splattering in the process. All while he frantically jumped and scrambled, manicured hooves kicking up clods of dirt and staining his white coat with brown and green.

“He has to time an attack to when the shield lowers,” Rarity said, mostly giving voice to her own thoughts rather than expecting to take part in any sort of ongoing commentary.

“That wouldn’t work,” Twilight replied, watching the duel; her earlier aggravation displaced by fascination and a desire to analyze what she was seeing. “Shiny’s shields are selectively permeable.”

“He can pass attacks through his barrier without dropping it?”

“That’s right,” Twilight said, frowning. “Shiny’s barriers are supposed to be the best in Equestria. He won’t drop his shield and there’s no way through it.”

“But that… that hardly seems fair!” Rarity protested, on Blueblood’s behalf. “How can anypony beat that? There must be some way through!”

Twilight thought for a moment. “Brute force could do it.”

Rarity thought instantly of Antimony’s display: smashing one of her enchanted pastries through a stone pillar. That mare didn’t lack for brute force. Blueblood, on the other hoof, had never demonstrated any sort of powerful telekinesis. He was capable enough, but she didn’t imagine he would be winning the magical dead-lift any time soon.

Unlike her duel, there also wasn’t anywhere to hide here.

Blueblood came to an abrupt stop, teleporting away from a fast moving blancmange. For a moment, it seemed as if he had vanished entirely, as everypony searched for the tell-tale ‘pop’ that came from a unicorn teleport. Even Shining Armor paused to glance around, spinning around in a circle before craning his neck and looking up.

Up.

To where Blueblood hung high in the air, along with a blanket of grass and dirt he had teleported with him. For the first time, encountering something really unexpected, Shining Armor grunted and guarded himself. His bubble shield glowed fiercely in response to its caster’s emotional state.

“What’s he doing…?” Rarity asked, shielding her eyes with a hoof. “He’s so high up.”

“He’s accelerating,” Twilight deduced.

The mass of falling debris shattered as something punched through it at high speed. The small black blancmange rained down like a meteorite, slamming into Shining Armor’s shield with gravity and spell assisted force. It was far too much to be the result of just dropping it.

“That wasn’t his cake!” Twilight explained, impressed. She turned to Rarity. “Don’t you remember my demonstration from before? Teleporting conserves momentum.”

“He hit Shining with his own cake?” Rarity realized, but her good cheer quickly evaporated. It wasn’t enough.

Shining remained safe behind his barrier, glaring up at the sky.

“Tricky,” he admitted, his mouth turned down in a frown as he shot three of his other cakes up at Blueblood. “I’ll just attack from more than one angle!”

“What were you aiming at?”

Shining spun, surprised by the voice and how close it was. Blueblood wasn’t in the air, he was behind! Instinctively, the Royal Guard twirled around and counter attacked. This time, he got a good look at Blueblood’s trick. The Prince leaned to the side, letting the cake fly close –

And then he blinked.

A half second later, and Blueblood teleported back in the same place he had left, but backwards. The cake he had been attacked with came with him, and continued on course before Shining to reassert control over it. It crashed, hard, into his barrier. Hard enough that it splattered into an unrecognizable mush.

“I always was a better dancer than you, Knight Captain,” Blueblood quipped, turning around. “Remember how you used to trample all over poor Cadance’s hooves?”

Shining Armor snarled, but before he could retort, the debris from above hit the ground all around him. It wouldn’t have been of note, except that it also splattered all over his barrier, covering it in gunk. Fescue and meadow grass clung to the purple bubble along with a layer of moist, rich dirt and displaced turf. Blueblood cantered backwards, well away from the mess.

“Of course! It was all to blind him!” Twilight exclaimed, clopping her front hooves together in bookish excitement and newfound realization. “You counter a solid barrier by blinding it!”

Rarity leaned forward, a little miffed that Blueblood hadn’t already tried to capitalize on his advantage. “And when he drops it to get rid of the grass and dirt…!”

“More tricks,” Shining Armor remarked, growled, and another shield sprung up around his muddied one. Only when that was in place did he drop the inner barrier, the dross and bits of lawn falling harmlessly onto the ground. Except –

Shining’s eyes widened, as he suddenly side stepped.

One of Blueblood’s blancmange cakes narrowly missed hitting him as it fell.

“How like you, to fight dirty,” Shining Armor commented, scowling down at the cake that had very nearly ended the duel in Blueblood’s favor. Watching, Rarity barely managed to contain a groan at the near miss. The cake had been hidden among the mess that had fallen on the shield, and dropped directly above. Nopony had noticed it.

“That was close,” Twilight said, and Rarity couldn’t be sure who she was rooting for in that moment. Or at all, really. She clearly hadn’t wanted the two stallions to duel at all, but now that it was underway, who did she want to come out on top?

There was no question on Rarity’s mind, at least.

“That was so close, darling!” she yelled, pumping a hoof. “You’ll get him next time!”

Blueblood blushed a bit, scratching behind his ear with a hoof. “That was pretty clever, wasn’t it?”

He abruptly bounced back and away, as Shining Armor crashed down on all fours. In midair, his bubble shield was just that, a true bubble, but it retreated away from the ground to allow him to land safely. Following behind him, his three remaining blancmange cakes struck, shooting forward and then back to their master like lances.

“You’ve noticed your sister isn’t exactly cheering you on, Shining,” Blueblood remarked, lip curling as he levitated up a strip of turf to escape behind.

“All the encouragement I need, I have in my heart!” he replied, spinning around to keep Blueblood in his field of vision. A line of earth ripped open as one of his cakes missed their mark.

He had to be careful in his attacks. With only three cakes left, he always struck with two from different angles, to make it harder for the Prince to use one of his teleportation-redirection tricks. Watching the two stallions move, Blueblood constantly circling to try and keep out of Shining’s frontal field of vision, and the Guard Captain constantly shifting and turning to counter, Rarity could see how it was playing out. Blueblood was able to avoid the three cakes, but he was already breathing heavily.

“Enough jumping around!” Shining Armor snarled, slamming one hoof down and into the ground.

What had seemed like a momentary loss of cool quickly proved to be more: a purple ripple emanated from the point where Shining Armor had brought down his hoof. The radial barrier shot out along the ground like a wave, like a pebble dropped in a formerly calm pool. Caught unprepared, Blueblood stumbled and slipped, falling onto his side with a grunt.

“I have you!” Shining roared, pouncing.

Jumping, he unleashed his three cakes again. Blueblood teleported away, frantic, but when Shining landed a second time, he sent another rippling barrier through the ground. Immaculately trimmed grass ripped out in bunches and far from the fight, Rarity could feel a tingle in her hooves. So much closer to the impact point, Blueblood staggered, very nearly blown off out of his horse shoes.

“Blueblood!” Rarity yelled, not caring that it was proper decorum to watch a magical duel in relative silence. “Get out of there! Teleport!”

“The mare wastes her breath, I fear,” Shining Armor laughed, but then Blueblood vanished again, from a prone position on the ground. “You have to set hoof to the ground sooner or later! And when you do-” 

“Why set hoof to the dirty ground?” Blueblood’s voice came from above. “I have such fine turf below me right here.”

The Duke of Canterlot was standing right on his barrier.

“Get off of there!” Shining growled, two of his cakes blasting right up and into the midsection of the royal unicorn.

He realized his mistake, just a second too late.

Blueblood did another micro-teleport and returned the two cakes, splattering both against the barrier. Only one glittering, barrier encapsulated blancmange remained in the Royal Guard’s arsenal. It hovered close to him, within his barrier, quivering in time with Shining Armor’s frustration and anger. Three of Blueblood’s weaponized cakes floated around his head, like points on a crown. He stood on two legs on top of the Captain’s shield, waiting.

“I get it,” Twilight explained, for Rarity’s benefit. “Shiny only ever projects his attacks from inside his barrier. Inside, to outside, and then back inside. By covering part of the shield directly, it makes it easy to predict where the attacks will come from. Closer is actually safer, as long as you have a way to block an attack!”

“And standing on top of the shield means he can avoid that thing on the ground!” Rarity realized.

“If Shiny doesn’t have a name for it already, I think ‘Rippling Rampart’ would be… what?” Twilight suddenly noticed Rarity staring at her. “Yes, I came up with a name for it! So what?”

“Nothing, darling. Carry on.”

Twilight pouted. “It isn’t nerdy at all.”

“I never said it was.”

“Blueblood… do you think you’re safe up there?” Shining Armor asked, directing the attention of the two mares back to the duel. “That because I only have one of these things left, that you’ve beaten me?”

“It would be nice of you to give up,” the Prince quipped, his hooves making little ripples in the barrier where he stood. “But I’m not betting on it happening.”

“I could simply drop the barrier.”

“And I have three delicious blancmanges to give you if you do.”

“I only need one good shot,” Shining reminded him. “And at a closer range, I won’t miss. I know how fast you can teleport.”

“Are you sure about that?” Blueblood inquired, mockingly. “I could be only using, say, one percent of my true power.”

“You’re as cocky as always,” Shining Armor replied, grimacing. “A trace of skill has only made it worse. As long as I’m behind this barrier, you can’t do anything to me and you know it.”

“Well, that’s true,” the other stallion admitted, slumping his shoulders. “I could never break through one of the famous Shining Armor’s shields. Your little sister possibly could, but me? No. No. Never.”

“Then you admit it?” The Guard Captain glared up at the Prince. “You’ve put up a good fight, but you admit you never had a chance. Ask for forgiveness, and we can end this farce.”

For a long moment, Blueblood was silent.

“Forgiveness?” he finally asked, eyebrows raised in bemusement as Blueblood stared down at Equestria’s barrier magic prodigy. “That's sort of funny. Why ask for forgiveness… when I can just beat you here and now? Knight Captain Shining Armor!?”

The Royal Guard felt something shift underhoof.

Not far from his right front hoof, the ground flowered open and a small black shape popped out and up. The almond blancmange floated in front of his chest for a moment – just a moment – just long enough for Shining’s horn to try and conjure up a new shield inside his current one. It was too late.

The almond blancmange exploded, spraying the inside of the barrier with cream, sugar, starch and magical numbing agent. Protected, ironically, by the barrier he stood on, Blueblood hopped off and onto the ground. Turning around to regard the sputtering, splattered, sticky shield… he kept the three blancmange cakes rotating around his head.

With a wet splat, Shining Armor’s shield petered out.

“Ah. Ah.” The Guard emerged, another shield, circular and purple, protecting his face and upper body. His breathing was labored and strained. “Ah. I. Ah. I was…”

He took a step forward and fell to one foreleg.

“A heartbeat too slow…”

One cream splattered foreleg.

“Those shields of yours are formidable. They always have been,” Blueblood said, comfortable enough to let the cakes around his head fall to the ground. At they hit the grass, each one turned back into a clump of mud. “Which was why the cake needed to explode: to make sure some small part of you got hit.”

“Ugh…” Paralysis had already begun to set in, and Shining Armor could do little more than narrow his eyes and glare at the other stallion. Sir Mercury rushed over to check in on the Captain.

“All that time, the cakes you had with you were fakes?” Twilight asked, passing the four clods on her way to check on her brother.

“There was no way I could hit him with his barrier up,” Blueblood told her. “From the start, I buried all but one, waiting for when he would get close enough.”

“We didn’t notice, with you scrambling and bumbling around so much!” Rarity exclaimed, running up to give him a quick hug. She paused at the last second, turning up her nose. “Honestly, that was so reckless of you! And you’re positively filthy. I’ll hug you when you’re clean.”

“What? I don’t get a kiss?” He made a show of checking his legs and torso. “I have a clean spot… somewhere…”

“Tricks… dirty tricks,” Shining Armor managed to groan, his chin to the ground. Twilight was already lifting him up in a magical field. “How could I lose to that?”

“You lost because you don’t fight dirty,” Blueblood explained, walking over to the hovering unicorn. “In fact, I believe the very concept of ‘dirty fighting’ never entered your mind for even an instant. You are a good, honorable, charitable, upstanding knight of Equestria. And, my friend, you are going to return to Canterlot that same good, honorable pony. You are going to marry my adopted sister, and you are going to stay away from Prance and the Terre Rares there.”

“My honor-”

“You lost to me,” Blueblood cut him off, pressing a hoof into the Guard’s chest for emphasis. “On your honor you had to go, but now, on your honor, you can’t go. It’s called getting an ‘out’ that saves face. You’re to take it.”

Shining Armor, still fighting the paralysis, was slow to acquiesce.  “But…”

“Twilight Sparkle,” Blueblood answered the unspoken question.

Her name instantly recaptured his attention. Shining Armor’s eyes lit up as he stared at the Prince, and then at his little sister. The bookish unicorn found her hooves suddenly very interesting. Still, she effortlessly held her brother up in the air with her magic.

“Twilight Sparkle will confront the Terre Rare,” Blueblood said, letting everypony hear. At Rarity and Shining Armor’s shocked expressions, he smirked. “You Canterlot Rares are my subjects. Obviously, I would want an ally of mine in Prance. Part of my scheme to take over Equestria and become an alicorn, you see?”

Twilight and Rarity both elbowed him at that.

“What?”

- - -

Twilight Sparkle didn’t want to say as much, but for all Blueblood’s confidence in her, she had only a vague, half formed notion of how to confront her distant cousins in Prance. Antimony. Cruciger. Polished Jewel. Chalice. Alpha Brass. Was she to simply try and overpower them in honor duels? Having seen Blueblood and her brother fight, she was fairly confident she could hold her own, or even beat, either stallion. Shiny used brute force, and she was… well… stronger than him when it came to that.

How much worse could the other Terre Rares be?

But then, Blueblood had just shown that brute force alone wasn’t enough. He used trickery and quick thinking to win, or, as her brother described it, to “compensate for being a ponce.” Twilight thought of herself as a smart cookie, as the expression went, but her track record of coming up with magical improvisation on the fly was probably only about fifty-fifty. A duel wasn’t a library or a laboratory with nice, controlled conditions. Messing up just a single spell could cost her the fight, or worse, her life.

Besides all that theory and speculation, the fact was that Twilight didn’t really want to fight anypony in the first place. Maybe, if nopony else, she would have to fight Lord Cruciger. The family as a whole respected strength and ability – their very creed was ‘merit first, not birth.’ To save her family, to replace Cruciger, she would have no choice but to prove herself in the way her family values most. Magic.

‘Silly Twilight! You’re the Element of Magic!’ she chided herself as she walked. ‘There’s nothing to worry about!’

‘But,’ she reasoned. ‘If I had dueled with Antimony, right off the bat, I’d have gotten caught in her illusions.’

‘And you’d have broken out of them, just like Rarity did!’

‘I wish Spike were here. He was always a good sounding board.’

‘What, and I’m not?’

“Twilie?”

“Oh, sorry,” Twilight said, snapping out of her little mental debate. Trotting alongside her, Shining Armor’s expression softened with concern. He had bounced back pretty quickly after losing the duel, his issues regarding Blueblood overshadowed by his worry over his little sister’s chosen path. It had taken some convincing to make sure he well and truly understood that this was her choice, and not something Prince Blueblood had tricked her into accepting. He had not ‘put her up to it.’ It was how she was going to save her family: the close family and the extended one, too.

“I just have a lot on my mind,” she explained, apologizing again. “I didn’t mean to ignore you or… were you saying something?”

It reminded her that she wanted to clear up that whole ‘Cadance is Lady Cadenza’ thing. How had she not gotten that?! She had been told about the wedding on her birthday, but her brother and her old foalsitter? It wasn’t too squicky, but it was going to take some getting used to. 

“This business about Prance,” he said, and Twilight sort of wished he had been able to dismiss the pair of guards he took with him. There was something creepy about the way they stared at him. And her. “Twilie, once you start down this road, I’m just afraid it will lead to bad places. What you’re talking about is… is deposing a head of the family. I don’t think it’s right.”

“If we don’t do something, then Lord Cruciger will appoint another pony to run our family here in Canterlot.”

“So what?” Shining asked, shaking his head in dismay. “This is politics, Twilie. You hate politics!”

Twilight hung her head a little, knowing he was right.

“Let the power hungry ponies fight over it. It isn’t your business. It isn’t mine either, except that I have to go – or, had to go, anyway.”

“It is our business,” Twilight corrected him, frowning at him with violet eyes. “Dad made it our business. Don’t tell me we have to let him fight his own battles.”

Shining clearly felt the temptation to argue the point, or some point, but his mouth closed a moment after opening. He stopped walking, and Twilight did, too. There was a pony on the road back into Ponyville.

A mare.

Standing in the middle of the road, her mane was brick and cherry red, bundled up in a bob, her mane cut prim and short. Her coat was a dry cream white, a shade less pure white than Shining Armor’s own. A functional, velvet traveling cloak with a stylized ring of outer lining in bands of stars on night sky covered her torso, just barely touching the ground. It also made it impossible to see her cutie mark. Below the steel clasp that held the mantle in place, a small jade and moonstone medal hung from her neck. By the bulges under the cloak, she also had saddlebags hidden beneath.

“Please excuse the interruption,” she said, but did not smile. Her face remained frozen in a neutral, bored expression. “Twilight Sparkle. Shining Armor.”

“Ah!” Shining’s own face lit up with recognition. “Lady Eunomie!”

The mare dipped her head in respect. “I am honored you remember me, Sir.”

Twilight didn’t recognize her at all. “Shiny? Who is this?”

“My name is Lady Eunomie,” the mare said, inclining her head again. “I have come on behalf of my Lord Father with a proposal.”

“Your father? Who…?” Twilight asked, but as she did, the name clicked something in her memory. Her studies. Eunomie… and… Euporie… was it?

“Lord Alpha Brass,” the pale mare replied.

“Twilie,” Shining said, gently nudging her. “Did father’s letter to you make mention of him sending somepony you can trust? I did not want to say as much in front of the Prince, but we do have friends and allies within the main family.”

Twilight did remember…

You must understand this, Twilight: we will not be going to Prance and we will respectfully decline Lord Cruciger's invitation. If you receive an invitation from him, or from any of our extended family outside Canterlot, you are to politely decline. With one exception.

But, who….?

Two final things. First, you must not let the Princess catch wind of this turmoil. The family must not be seen to lose face. Second, earlier, I mentioned an exception, a pony you can trust who is not from our branch of the family. I can not name him in this letter, but he will send somepony contact you. I have told him to use a name you will recognize.

Eunomie choose that moment to speak up, “On meeting you, I was to say: ‘I am a friend of the family’ and call you ‘Twilie.’ You were to understand the reference.”

“You?” Twilight could only say, as she tried to collect her thoughts. “You’re the one?”

She could hardly believe it, but her father’s letter had mentioned a pony she could trust, not from their branch of the family. She had expected it to be someone from the scattered Neptunium branch, not one of the Bismuth descended main family! Certainly not one of Cruciger’s own children and grandchildren!

“My adopted father wishes me to express his undying love of the Canterlot branch of the family, and his devotion to you,” Eunomie continued, despite Twilight’s befuddlement. “He abhors violence, and wishes to mend relations within the family. We must solve the succession without bloodshed. That is his wish.”

“All well and good,” Shining Armor agreed, raising a hoof. “I think all good ponies want that. But the question is how?”

“My father has a proposal,” Eunomie answered, but with little emotion. “Lord Crescent Moon no doubt considered the benefits to the family of Lady Sparkle wedding the Prince. As you are returning from his estate, I can only assume you have already started to explore this possibility. However, my father would present you with a counter offer.”

She held out her hoof, finally cracking a ghost of a smile.

“He wishes to join our houses. He wishes the branches to reunite, in peace, and you, Lady Sparkle…” Eunomie bowed her head deeply to the Element of Magic. “He wishes you to be his wife on the passing of Lady Olive Branch. In one swift stroke, the conflict is resolved, and you and he will head the Terre Rare in its entirety. Her Serene Highness, Princess Cadenza has also consented to give her blessing to the union. Will you not accept?”

Twilight felt her mouth move, but no words came out.

It was too much, too fast. Alpha Brass, proposing? Uniting the two branches of the family? Was this… really the answer? A way to protect her family, her family’s honor, and more: to make her family and the main family one and the same? It was all she had been hoping for, laid before her. It was the solution to the problem. 

She thought, briefly of Alpha Brass. She had last seen him at her birthday party, in Canterlot, among the rest of the family. He was handsome, charitable and philanthropic, popular and said to be very knowledgeable. He had funded numerous libraries and museums across Equestria. He was also married, to a much older mare. The same mare that was Eunomie’s biological mother. If she was passing, if Alpha Brass was about to become a widower, then he wasn’t a bad choice, by any means. At least when one looked at it from a purely pragmatic point of view.

This was it. This was the solution, laid out before her.

All it would take, all Twilight Sparkle had to do, was say one simple word: “Yes.”

And all her problems would disappear, like magic.