Ponyville was awakened before dawn to a sound like a brass horn. It was something of a jazzy sound, loud and thunderous, but not too loud or annoying.
Twilight and Spike both awoke to this sound, just like all of Ponyville. They couldn’t describe why, but they agreed it was a good way to wake up. They didn’t feel tired at all, even though they hadn’t gone to bed until after midnight.
After Kai had brought everyone back, Celestia and Kai had somehow miraculously managed to calm Ponyville down and assure them that the danger was REALLY over this time.
If anything good came out of the whole affair, it was that Luna had gotten a lot more supporters. Senza’s retelling of the story of Nightmare Moon, however malicious his intent, was technically correct. In a way, it was the common ponies’ fault for the events that happened back then. The ponies weren’t going to let the same mistake happen twice. Luna had been welcomed back with genuine concern and a newfound appreciation.
But as heartwarming as the night before had been, it was mostly tiring. Everypony desperately needed a break; anyone would after the universe nearly got destroyed right in front of him.
Musica had sung all of Ponyville to sleep with a seemingly omnipresent, angelic lullaby, and all had dreamed calming dreams. As Twilight and Spike looked about the house for the source of this trumpet sound, they concluded that it seemed to be coming from everywhere at once and from nowhere at all.
Twilight and Spike made eye contact and concluded the same thing most of Ponyville had by now, “Musica.”
“Of course it’s me. Who else can control all the sounds in a village?”
The voice sounded as though Musica was standing beside them, but he was probably on the Gummi ship at that moment.
Twilight rolled her eyes and spoke as if Musica were standing next to her, “It’s rude to eavesdrop you know.”
“Kinda' hard not to when you can hear a pin drop from two miles away. Besides, I tend to tune private conversations out; I can do that. I’m calling you to give you a message.
Rarity wants to go by the spa for some R&R. Dea is already there and so are Rainbow and Fluttershy. They wanted me to tell you to go join them if you wanted.
Anyways, I’m planning a concert later today, so I’ll be busy. I can hear everything but that doesn’t mean I can pay attention to everything at once. It’s kinda’ like when you’re in a room full of people … er, ponies in your case, and everyone is talking at once. You can ‘hear’ everything but not ‘understand’ everything. But if someone says your name, it gets your attention, and if there is something you particularly want to hear you can listen in. My hearing is the same, just much better.
So if you need me, just talk as if I’m in the room and I’ll answer you. Well, gotta go.”
There was a sound like a phone being hung up, and Musica was ‘gone’.
Twilight wasn’t sure what to think of that, “Don’t you think it’s a little… unnerving that he can hear all that?”
Spike thought for a few moments and finally shrugged, “Maybe a little, but he’s right. It would be hard not to if you were him. Besides, he has to fight Enforcers. It probably comes in really handy in big fights like that.”
Twilight supposed she could live with that, “Fair enough. I’m going to the spa with the girls. Want to tag along?”
Spike shook his head, “I would, but I smell something. Something great. I’m going to go investigate.”
Twilight could now smell it too, “It’s probably Matsu making breakfast. Well, have fun Spike, but we’re still expecting a letter from Kai, Sol, and the Princesses, so be on call. Have Mr. Sound-Control relay anything important.”
“Who?” but Spike realized that she meant Musica? They couldn’t say his name because he would think they were calling him, “Gottcha Twi’. Go have fun.”
And with that the two were on their way.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Tool Make: Marea Wok.”
Matsu had summoned a Wok that could have held all the water in the Ponyville pond. Matsu had decided to make everyone soup, salad, and breadsticks to eat at the concert, which was going to happen around 11:00 A.M.
“So you see Pinkie Pie, that is how you can use one kind of soup as a substitute for water to start making another type of soup. This gives the soup layers. So let’s say that you started by straining vegetable soup, and used that instead of water for making another type of soup. Then you have a layer of vegetable taste in your new soup.”
Pinkie Pie was watching every move Matsu made, “That’s so cool, but sounds really hard. You make it look so easy though.
By the way, are you absolutely sure you’re not going to go berserk anymore?”
Matsu never took his focus off his work, “For the hundredth time Pinkie, I don’t just go berserk all the time. Only a few things set me off and none of them are here right now. Besides, even if I did, Kai and Fluttershy are here somewhere, so there isn’t anything to worry about.
By the way, stop drooling. And tell those ponies to wait until the soup is done.”
Matsu had set up his soup making outside Ponyville in a field large enough to contain his wok, but the smell had attracted a lot of ponies, and one baby dragon.
The rice rolls served earlier were easily the best food ever consumed in Equestrian history. So everypony wanted more of Matsu’s cooking.
The smell was already better than the taste of the rolls, and kept getting better. Everypony that could smell it was drooling uncontrollably. At first it had been really embarrassing, but the soup now smelled so good that nopony cared whether they looked silly or not. They weren’t about to leave that wonderful smell. A few even lost control and tried to dive into the Wok to drink it, but Matsu stopped these attempts by conjuring up walls.
“Oh be patient, all of you. This is only 300 layers deep. I’m making you a dish called 1,000 layer soup.
So just be patient and wait. There will be more than all of you can possibly eat when it’s done.”
Pinkie wiped away drool that immediately returned, “We can’t help it Matsu; it smells so good!”
Matsu still never lost his focus, “Well then, at least go to Musica’s concert first or something; this should be done by then.”
Pinkie objected, “But we’re drooling now Matsu, feed us!”
Matsu couldn’t let them go hungry, “Alright, go to the Gummi ship and ask Santo for any leftover rolls we have if you’re hungry. Your drooling is just your appetite crying tears of joy.”
Pinkie and the other ponies walked away a little disappointed.
Matsu stifled a laugh, “I never would have gotten them to leave if I had told them I already made gourmet bread rolls and Garden of Eden Salad for them to go with this. I’ll have to remember to get some Shining Cosmos Nectar for them to drink with it. Then again, if I do that the soup won’t be as good by comparison. Oh what the heck, the salad and rolls are already as good as the soup anyway.
Maybe I should make them some desert, just for being patient."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When Twilight finally arrived at the spa, she found that Rarity and Applejack were already standing in the front lobby. “Hi girls. Is everypony here already?” asked Twilight. The others hadn’t noticed her enter, “Why hello, Twilight. So glad you could make it.”
“And ta’ answer your question, we’re still waitin' on Pinkie Pie,” added Applejack.
Rarity continued, “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got here first along with Dea. They are in one of the baths now.”
Pinkie Pie bounced past them, “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go.”
Twilight hadn’t noticed Pinkie arrive, “Pinkie, how did you get here?”
“Because I’m Pinkie Pie of course!”
The other three knew there was no arguing with that.
Applejack followed Pinkie into the room where the baths were, “Well howdy ya’ll, how are ya' SWEET CELESTIA! YOU’RE ON FIRE!”
Dea was bathing in one of the tubs that the ponies often used. The only abnormality was that instead of water, Dea was bathing in some other fluid; one that was currently ablaze. The flames were short, only a few inches high, but looked red hot. It looked like she was bathing in fire.
“What? This? Don’t worry about it. I like to bath in exotic wines and perfumes. I set them on fire with my magic. Would you like to join me? This is a public bath.”
Twilight reflexively took a step away at the offer, “Absolutely not! You may be able to defy nature, but we’ll burn to a crisp if we get in that!”
Rainbow Dash emerged out of the bath nearest the new arrivals. She had been shampooing her hair in the perfumed ‘water’, and her mane was now a flowing rainbow-colored fire, “Oh, hi girls. When did you get here?”
Everypony was speechless.
Rarity finally worked up the nerve, “How are you doing that Rainbow? And where is Fluttershy?”
Rainbow frowned and looked to one of the other tubs, “Fluttershy is too scared to get in this stuff. But Dea said it wouldn’t hurt; and it doesn’t.”
Applejack walked up onto the raised platforms at the baths and noticed Fluttershy trembling in the other bath. There was no water in that bath, so Fluttershy was using it as more of a hiding place than a bath. For once Applejack couldn’t blame her, bathing in fire was a terrifying idea.
Applejack gulped like she was afraid, but nonetheless took her hat off and walked over to the edge of the bath. Cautiously, she looked at Dea for reassurance, but Dea wasn’t looking back at her. Applejack closed her eyes and jumped into the burning bath.
It felt good, and it didn’t burn at all. Dea was clapping to congratulate the faith Applejack had just demonstrated. “I told you it wouldn’t burn. My fire is my will. It doesn’t burn anything unless I want it to, and right now I want it to burn away any uncleanliness or impurities.
Even things like viruses or tumors. Anything that needs to be removed from the body. All of that stuff will burn up completely.
Plus, the ‘water’ in this bath is consists of wines and perfumes that will saturate your skin with vitamins and minerals while it disinfects, anti-ages, and perfumes your skin all the way down to the pores.”
Rarity perked up at that last part.
Sitting next to the bath were two identical light brown jars. They had handles on both sides, and the rim was designed to have a grip as well. They were cylinders, each about one foot high. The only difference was that ‘Perfume’ was written on one and ‘Diamond Wine’ was written on the other.
Dea reached over and picked up a small jar. She turned it up and exotic wine flowed out of it. She meant to add some to the bath, but decided to drink some as well. What she did drink immediately burned up, so she got the taste but none of the alcohol.
Twilight’s curiosity got the better of her, “Alright, that does it. You filled the bathtub with the contents of that tiny little jar, drank out of the jar, and there is still more in it. It’s not that big of a jar.”
Dea explained, “It’s a magic jar. It can hold up to a hundred tons of anything you want, no matter how much stuff that implies; but the downside is that the jar still weighs as much as all its contents.”
Twilight noticed that Dea was moving it with one hand like a regular empty one foot tall jar, “So how much does it weigh right now?”
Dea responded matter-of-factly, “99 tons and a few hundred pounds. So does the jar of exotic perfuming oils.”
Twilight got into the bath, “I give up completely. You humans can do anything. You have defied gravity, nature, even death. You broke the moon and put it back together.
You’re telling me to bathe in fire with you? Why not? Nothing else has made since or been normal, why should we start now?”
Rarity was trying to convince Fluttershy that it was ok to get in the bath with the others, partly because she didn’t want Fluttershy to miss out, and partly to reassure herself.
“Come on Fluttershy dear, it will be alright. We all came here to relax after all these recent ordeals.”
Rainbow Dash soaked her hair again causing it to burst back into rainbow flames, “Nah. I came here cause Dea said I could bathe in fire. I mean seriously, if you can say you’ve bathed in fire, that’s worth ‘you’re totally awesome points’ for like, ever!”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Meanwhile at Castle Canterlot, Sol was busy keeping himself from becoming too bored. Some people do crossword puzzles when they’re bored. Sol had balanced the nation’s budget, updated all their scientific journals with perfectly complete information that would have taken thousands of years of research to compile, and had created a day planner for Celestia for the coming year that contained his predictions of how the market was go to fluctuate, and what policies would be best to adopt (all of which was correct 99% of the time, and never completely off).
One of Celestia’s royal guards and one of Luna’s night guards had been sent to oversee him.
“It’s amazing! How can he use unicorn-like magic to write that much at once? It’s like he giving us a whole library worth of priceless information!” The one speaking was the day guard named Jay. Jay was a white Pegasus guard with blue hair, probably named after the bird (blue jay).
“Well you kinda' have to expect it from these humans. Anyone who Luna admires has to be really special.” That voice belonged to a small fruit-bat pony from Luna’s guard. She had the same color scheme as Luna, but was fluffy like a fruit bat and was about as outgoing as Fluttershy. Her name was Lilly Moonthunder.
Jay was in awe of Sol, but a little afraid of him too, “The princesses ordered us to ‘escort’ him, but does that mean ‘escort’ like guards escorting a prisoner, or ‘escort’ like he is a king and we should bow to his every whim?”
Lilly meekly answered, “Well, um … let’s put it this way.
If he started doing something bad like… tearing the castle apart, what could we possibly do about it?”
“Nothing. Why did they leave him to us? We can’t handle him!”
Lilly looked back at the bored psychic, “Sol won’t do anything bad; Luna trusts him. Besides, it wouldn’t matter which guards they left to guard him; the whole Equestrian guard couldn’t pin him down anyway.”
Sol looked up from his writing like someone reading a book looks up to check the time.
He turned to the two guards, “It’s about time for the sun to rise. I want to go speak with Kai. Let’s go.”
The guards exchanged a look. On the one hoof, the Alicorns (Cadence and Chrysalis included) were in a meeting with Kai right now and were not to be disturbed. On the other hoof, what the hay were they going to do to stop Sol?
So they stepped aside and let Sol lead the way to the throne room.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Kai hovered in the center of the throne room, facing the throne. Cadence sat on the steps and Chrysalis stood where one of Celestia’s guards normally would. The royal sisters sat together on Celestia’s throne. Normally Luna had one of her own, but it was in her own court. Sitting together wasn’t professional, but this wasn’t technically a formal meeting.
Kai was in a meditation stance, sitting on nothing. All but his head, hands, and feet were still covered in white fire with a prismic aura. The Keeper’s mantle was literally dripping white fire, which seemed to vanish when it touched anything else.
Kia spoke, “My crew and I will leave before Luna raises the moon tonight; but before that there are some issues we must settle.
First to be considered is the issue with the crack in the Keyhole.
Celestia, do you remember how the Keyhole was cracked open when we arrived?”
Celestia nodded and Kai continued, “That explains a great deal about your world.
From your perspective, moving the sun and moon, controlling the weather, and having dominion over nature must all seem quite natural and common. But, in the worlds we’ve visited, seldom did anyone have such powers, even among their strongest. Only Keepers are meant to wield such power, and yet, ponykind uses them daily. You said yourself that before you came along, the unicorns were the ones that moved the sun and moon.”
Luna corrected, “That is the Hearth’s Warming Eve story, yes. But unlike my sister and I, it took thousands of Unicorns working together to raise the sun and moon.”
Kai looked stern, “Doesn’t matter. If you’re not the only ones that can raise the sun and moon, that means the Keeper’s powers are spread out to anyone who can claim them.
The crack means that the Keeper’s powers were leaking out all this time.”
Celestia corrected, “Just anyone cannot move them anymore. The sun and moon only listen to the strongest. Luna and I have bonds with both the sun and moon that cannot be undone by any number of Unicorns. Discord was only able to move them because he did so before Luna and I defeated him. Discord also has those bonds.”
Kai repeated, “Doesn’t matter. Regardless of why you can move the heavens, it is still not something only you can do. Maybe something only you and Discord can do WHILE YOU LIVE, but still something anyone talented enough could do if you weren’t around.
Sol. I sense you. Come in.”
Sol had finally arrived, “I predicted that you would want me here.”
Kai snapped his fingers, “Sol, I just made it so that unicorns, or the like, can raise the sun and the moon again, even while the Princesses live. This effect will wear off in about a minute though. It’s time to raise the sun.”
Sol stared out the only window deep into the horizon, while stretching out his hand as though reaching for something vastly beyond his grasp. Celestia and Luna couldn’t believe it, but they could feel it. The sun was responding to Sol, wanting to rise. The sisters exchanged a look, and Luna lowered the moon. With a place prepared for it, the sun rose into the morning sky. Sol was completely exhausted, but jubilant.
The only one in the room who wasn’t surprised at all was Kai. Even Sol wasn’t sure he could do it.
Kai felt he had made his point and looked at the Princesses, “The point is that Equestria’s Keeper’s Mantle is up for grabs. You two may be the majority stock holders in its power, and thus have final say so. But it is still stock, available to anyone. No one can get the majority because you two have it; but you get my point.
Most ponies fear the Everfree Forest because nature functions on its own there, but I’m telling you that ALL other worlds we’ve visited are completely like Everfree. Well, maybe not in the respect of all the monsters, but you know what I mean.
When I give you back the Keeper’s Mantle, I want you to slowly begin expanding Everfree’s effect. I won’t force you, but it’s a good idea. You could live in a world where the sun and moon take care of themselves; where the seasons change themselves; where animals take care of themselves.
Keepers have control over the natures of their worlds.
That crack essentially put nature on ‘pause’, thereby causing the powers to leak to everyone.
That’s why ponies need to run nature manually.
I’m not suggesting that you do it all at once. If you did that it would take lifetimes for ponies to adjust. They would think that you were doing it with your magic instead of setting nature to take care of itself. They would fear you and feel betrayed, because they would not understand, and could not adjust.
I merely need you to know about this. What you do with it is your own decision.”
It was about a minute before Kai got a response. The implications of what he had told them undermined the laws of nature as they had always understood them.
Cadence was finally the one to speak, “That’s … that’s crazy. If nature took care of itself, everypony would be out of work. What would we do?”
Sol answered, “I actually wrote a few books on that subject for you. There is no limit to what you could do, but you will need to work hard to build any of it.”
Kai reassured them, “Look, we’re not suggesting you do anything in this generation. We are merely suggesting that you observe the facts.”
It was another minute before anyone spoke again, and then it was Cadence who asked the question, “Um, changing subjects slightly; why is Chrysalis here?
No offense.”
Chrysalis politely responded, “None taken. I’m also curious why Kai wants me to hear this.”
Kai turned his attention to the Changeling, “Celestia and I made a deal before I became Keeper.
It’s a deal I suggested and one I’ve made many times.” Celestia bit her lip, wanting Kai to just say it and get it over with. She was clearly unnerved by what she knew was coming.
“Long before coming to this world, Senza and I made a deal, one that all the people I appoint to be Keeper are included in.”
Cadence, Chrysalis, and Luna screamed, “YOU MADE A DEAL WITH SENZA!?”
Celestia spoke up for him, “It’s less a deal and more a threat, actually.”
Kai nodded sadly, “Senza won’t actively try to kill anyone (excluding those indirectly killed by war, and that number kept to a minimum), but in exchange…
In exchange.
You have to forget you ever met us.”
Celestia gave a sorrowful sigh, and the other Alicorns didn’t have a clue what to say.
Chrysalis finally managed to gasp, “What?”
Kai stayed calm, “When we leave, Celestia and I will cast a memory spell over all of Equestria. No one will remember anything that happened because of us or because of the Enforcers. We will be a chapter of your history that never happened, and you will continue with your lives as if we were never here. Only Celestia and Luna will remember us, and that only because they will get the Keepers Mantle. This is what happens in all the worlds we visit.”
Chrysalis flew up an inch from Kia’s face and screamed, “Then it was all for nothing! You and your crew gave my changeling the love they needed to revert, and will soon revert me also. But if I don’t remember where I got the love from who’s to say that I won’t just revert? I could rebuild the Changelings if I don’t remember what happened!”
Cadence gasped, “You wouldn’t.”
Chrysalis answered, but didn’t stop looking at Kai, “Kai gave me a change of heart. I’ve realized that I was wrong, and that I should have done things differently. But if I forget all the things that happened in the last two days, then I might revert to my old self.
In more ways than one.”
Kai put a hand on Chrysalis’s shoulder, “You are my friend. I believe in you.”
Chrysalis thought carefully for a moment.
Even if she forgot Kai, she didn’t think she would forget Cloud or the Mare’s Clan. Why? Because she had meet them before Kai’s crew had arrived. Kai said the spell would make everyone forget all that happened AFTER their arrival.
Plus, Cloud had told her to talk to Luna first.
Chrysalis looked at Luna, but she didn’t know what to say.
“Princess Luna, Princess Celestia, I would like to hope that I remain the way I am now after Kai leaves, but in the event I do not, I only request that you remember how I have proven I can be.”
Luna thought for a moment, “Celestia, let’s watch over Chrysalis after Kai leaves.”
Celestia wasn’t as accepting, “If she does revert, I will defend my little ponies from her, even if I must destroy her. I hope that it will not come to that, but that is what I would do.”
Luna looked back at Chrysalis, “I missed the events of the royal wedding, but from what I’ve seen of her, Chrysalis seems like she just wants a chance. She comes across to me as being desperate, and I can’t help but feel sorry for her. I wouldn’t let her hurt Equestria either, but I’d like to give her the benefit of the doubt if possible.”
Chrysalis said nothing, but was thinking about these things.
Desperate? That’s how she came across? Why? She was so outgoing, why would Luna think…
Of course, Cloud. Cloud had told her to ‘talk to Luna first’. In the past two days, every time Chrysalis had meet Luna, she had always talked to Luna first, even if it meant making a fool of herself. This meant that, from Luna’s perspective, Chrysalis was somepony who respected her authority, always went through proper channels, and was desperately trying to please her and just wanted some help in exchange.
In short, Cloud’s advice had caused Chrysalis to act just out-of-character enough to get on Luna’s good side. And it was now paying off since Luna was sticking up for her.
“Very cleaver Cloud; you irritating trickster” Chrysalis muttered under her breath.
Kai touched down so that he was standing, “That’s all I needed to discuss with you. This is your world, so now that you are well informed, what you do with it is up to you. You handle Equestria and leave the Enforcers to us.”
Kai lightened up, “Well I’m sure glad that’s over. Being serious really isn’t the strong suit of anyone in my crew. We can be serious if the situation calls for it, but we’re all pretty laid back usually. Come on, let’s all take the day off. Musica will probably throw a concert, and Matsu’s cooking is to die for. Let’s go!”
And with that Kai magically whisked the four Alicorns, the two guards, Sol and himself to Ponyville in an instant.