A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits

Chapter 1

By CDRW

"Clover, you're not as clever as you think. Not by half," the ancient mare said softly to herself as she gazed at the Elements of Harmony, her greatest discovery.

This was something she did sometimes, come out to the old castle in the Everfree Forest and remember. Her life had been a good one, one she could be proud of, but there were still many things she wished had turned out differently. And the ruined castle was a good place to come when those regrets started weighing too heavily on her shoulders. Regrets like Nightmare Moon.

In her mind's eye, she could still see the Mare as if it were only yesterday. Her coat was as black as the deepest reaches of space. Her eyes were cold and haughty. But most of all, it was her mane that she remembered. Immaterial and vaporous, it moved and twisted through the air like smoke from a fire. Or a nebula drifting through space.

Clover sighed and reached out to touch the grey stone that had once been her element, Magic. The first thing Nightmare Moon had done when she manifested was to incapacitate the bearers of the Elements. She was one of the lucky ones. She'd woken up.

It was too late though. Her connection to the Elements had been severed, and Celestia was forced to use them on her own to defeat her sister.

She lowered her hoof and turned away. It was time for her to leave. The Everfree Forest was not a safe place anymore, and she knew that her family worried whenever she came out here. Slowly, she started to make her way towards the exit.

Out of the corner of her eye, Clover thought she saw something move, but when she turned to look, there was nothing there.

"Jumping at old shadows now are you? It really is time you started heading home," she said to herself. For just a moment, she'd thought she'd seen something floating through the air, like smoke from a fire. Or a nebula drifting through space.

"No. No. No...no. Nononono!" Twilight nearly pulled out her mane in frustration. "Isn't there one book in this Sunforsaken library I haven't read yet?" With a groan, she placed Tax Codes Throughout The Ages: Unabridged Edition back on the shelf and walked dejectedly down the staircase to the first floor of the library, to the table where she had unceremoniously dumped the contents of her backpack three days ago. She sat down, put her head in her hooves, and tried to stop thinking.

That was easier said than done though. Three days was more than enough time for her to read every book in the place that she hadn't already finished on earlier occasions, and she was starting to go stir-crazy. You had to be pretty desperate to read the tax laws of countries that didn't even exist anymore. She pursed her lips and blew, sending one of the pencils skittering across the table. It reached the edge and fell, but she didn't feel like picking it up.

Celestia's personal library was normally one of the most beautiful areas in the castle. It was filled with books of course, but also mirrors, statues, magical machines, art, and all sorts of other things the empress took an interest in. It was almost as much a collection of personal taste as a library. Now, it was in shambles.

There was a pile of books next to the table, not stacked, but tossed in a heap with loose tomes sliding off everywhere. Other volumes were scattered about the floor so thickly they made it difficult to walk without stepping on one. The cushions on the reading couch were in need of a good cleaning. She hadn't had the chance to shower since holing herself up in there, and they were all wrinkled and sweaty from being used as a bed.

One of the walls was simply a single large window like the one in Celestia's throne room. It normally gave the library a peaceful, open feeling, but today it only served to remind her that there was an entire world outside full of press ponies, nobleponies, and all sorts of other ponies who were laughing at her right at that very moment.

Twilight sighed and blew at the other pencils, trying to make them all roll off and land in the same spot as the first one. One of them spun in a circle before it started rolling, and ended up going off entirely the wrong side of the table. The next one was facing the wrong way. She tried to get it to turn by blowing on one end, but the whole thing just started rolling. It went off the right side, but nowhere near where the first had landed. She gave up when the third got caught on an eraser and wouldn't go anywhere at all.

With a groan, she hauled herself to her feet and wandered back up the stairs to the second floor where most of the bookshelves stood.

"Come on Twilight, you should just go outside," she said to herself as she stepped off the top stair. "It's a beautiful day out and you can't stay in here forever."

This was Celestia's personal library. Twilight was the only pony besides the Empress allowed in there. She opened her mouth and turned to give the pony a piece of her mind, and caught sight of herself in a mirror.

She was a mess. Her mane stuck up with all sorts of odd spikes and curls, and her coat was smudged with a disgusting mixture of dust and sweat. Her eyes were bloodshot and had heavy bags underneath them.

Twilight closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Wow. Ok Twilight, get it together. Get it together. You really do need to get out of here. Just pick a book at random, go out into the gardens, and enjoy the weather. After that you can come back, clean up in here, and everything will go back to normal. Not that hard."

Twilight stood in the middle of the room with her chest heaving as she tried to catch her breath.

After a moment, she gulped and waved her hoof at the window where the morning sun was streaming in, highlighting the mess she'd made of the library in a soft golden glow. "What will Celestia say when she sees all this? She's going to come in here eventually you know. Her personal library is hardly the best place to hide."

A twinge of guilt vibrated through her chest. She looked at the books and papers strewn about the floor and that twinge grew into a stab. What would Celestia say when she saw this? When she saw her?

She would probably be embarrassed. Angry even. Twilight was her personal student. Everything she did reflected directly upon the Empress, and so much had gone wrong so quickly. How could she not be embarrased to have her as a student?

Twilight suddenly felt lightheaded. She reached out a hoof to steady herself and found that she was leaning against a bookshelf.

"Calm down Twilight, you can fix this," she said to herself. "You just have to go outside. Pick a book, go outside, stop being crazy, come back, clean up before Celestia finds out, and everything will be all right. Do that and she might not banish you. That's nothing compared to memorizing the thaumaturgical breakdown of a teleportation spell."

She closed her eyes and did a few breathing exercises to try and get her pounding heart under control. When she felt a little more calm, she opened them, and was very careful not to think of anything at all.

She reached up and snatched a random book from the top shelf and then trotted over to the staircase.

She made it all the way down to the first floor before a thought snuck its way into her head despite her best efforts. What if there's a photographer hiding in the gardens?

Twilight froze next to the reading couch, one hoof in the air, and she cursed her treacherous brain. Come on Twilight, don't think about it, just go. She cast her eyes around, looking for something, anything at all to distract her from the thought of pouncing paparazzi press ponies, and they found it in the book she was holding.

The cover was illustrated with a cartoonish picture of Empress Celestia raising the sun, and the title read History of Equestria, a Foal's Guide.

"I've never seen this book before," she muttered as she opened to the first page and absently sat down on the couch.

"Once upon a time, in the magical land of Equestria, there were two regal sisters who ruled together, and created harmony for all the land. To do this, the eldest used her unicorn powers to raise the sun at dawn; the younger brought out the moon to begin the night. Thus, the two sisters maintained balance for the kingdom and their subjects, all the different types of ponies. But as time went on, the younger sister became resentful. The ponies relished and played in the day her elder sister brought forth, but shunned and slept through her beautiful night. One fateful day, the younger unicorn refused to lower the moon to make way for the dawn. The elder sister tried to reason with her, but the bitterness in the young one's heart had transformed her into a wicked mare of darkness – Nightmare Moon.

"She vowed that she would shroud the land in eternal night. Reluctantly, the elder sister harnessed the most powerful magic known to ponydom: the Elements of Harmony. Using the power of the Elements of Harmony, she defeated her younger sister, and banished her permanently in the moon. The elder sister took on responsibility for both sun and moon...and harmony has been maintained in Equestria for generations since."

Twilight digested what she'd just read in silence. Slowly, she stood up and started pacing the room while she thought. After a few moments, she levitated the book off the couch and read through the passage once more as she continued to walk back and forth.

She had never heard that story before. None of the legends or history books mentioned anything about Celestia having a sister, let alone her being Nightmare Moon, and the elder sister couldn't be anypony else besides Celestia. And what on earth were 'The Elements of Harmony' supposed to be?

Everypony knew about Nightmare Moon of course, the monster-pony who lived on the moon in a house made of cheese. Once a year she came down to Equestria and gobbled up any pony she came across. If you dressed up as one of her monster minions she wouldn't be able to find you. And if you gave her candy she wouldn't eat you, because candy tastes better than either cheese or ponies.

Nopony old enough to have their cutie-mark actually believed in Nightmare Moon. She was more ridiculous than the Boogeybuck.

Twilight pulled her nose from the book and looked at the few shelves down on the first floor. "It could be one of those books."

'Those books' were the ones that couldn't be found anywhere outside this library. They were the ones that Empress Celestia deemed too dangerous for ponies to read, but were still valuable for the knowledge they contained. 'Those books' were ancient tomes of black magic, subversive ideologies, and secret histories. It was one of Twilight's greatest prides that Celestia trusted her enough to let her read them. Well, most of them. There was a locked cabinet that she wasn't allowed to look in.

She snorted. "Yes Twilight, History of Equestria: A Foal's Guide is actually one of the mysterious spooky secret history books—" She waved her hooves in the air above her head. "—that only Celestia is allowed to read on pain of being banished, and imprisoned in the place you're banished to. It just magically teleported itself out of the super-secret locked cabinet of mysteries onto one of the regular shelves where you just happened to find it. Wooooooooooooooooo!"

She flipped the book shut. "Who wrote this anyways?" Strangely, there was no author's name on the cover, or on the title page, or anywhere else in the book.

"Ok." She started pacing again. "So what we have here is an extremely suspect, but intriguingly mysterious book written by an anonymous author. It claims to be history, but reads like a fairy-tale, and the story it tells cannot be found in any other history book, even the secret ones that I'm allowed access to.

"On the other hoof—" Twilight made an about face when she reached a wall. "—the story can't be found in any book of legends or fairy-tales either, or else I would have come across it while reading those. Its only connection with anything I've ever seen is that the elder sister referenced is obviously Empress Celestia; and the younger uses the same name as, but otherwise has no significant similarity to, a fantasy monster pathetic enough that even most foals aren't scared of her.

"All of which means," Twilight said as she smiled happily. "It's obviously fiction! Mystery solved!"

Celestia didn't keep fiction in her library. As far as Twilight knew, she didn't even read it.

Maybe it had made its way in there by accident, gotten mixed in with a shipment or something. But that didn't explain why it seemed to be one of a kind. What were the odds that something like that would make its way there by chance? Did that mean it really was a legitimate book? Then why was it so out-of-the-blue different than everything else? And if it was supposed to be true, why a book for foals?

Suddenly, an idea struck her. The book looked old. Maybe it used to be a fairly common one that was taken out of circulation a really long time ago for some reason. If it used to be taught in schools a couple hundred years ago but then was found out to be untrue, that could account for why it turned up in here. If that were the case, the main Canterlot library would probably have a copy of it in their rare book section.

"All right!" Twilight exclaimed. "To the library!" She ran upstairs and replaced the book on the shelf she got it from (she couldn't remove any of the books from Celestia's library), then came back down and started hastily stuffing her things back into her backpack. She swept the pencils off the floor with a flick of her horn and crammed them into her bag along with various loose sheets of paper and the books she'd brought in with her.

Twilight was headed straight for the door when she realized what had happened. She was going outside. All it had taken was a mystery to take her mind off everything else and she was able to trick herself into walking right out of the library.

Twilight felt a vein throbbing in her forehead. Great job brain, if you're going to trick yourself into doing something it usually works better if you don't tell yourself about it!

Twilight was still standing frozen in place and contemplating the logic of self-deception when she heard a click from the door. She jolted out of her stupor in a panic and looked over as a baby dragon peered around the partially opened door and said "Uh Twilight? You have a visitor."

"Spike!" Twilight tried to get her heartbeat back to normal. "What are you thinking? You know nopony else is allowed i– EMPRESS CELESTIA!"

The familiar large white alicorn pressed the door open, stepping confidently around Spike.

"Wow, Empress." Twilight stumbled backwards a few steps, her eyes darting frantically back and forth. "What a surprise to see you here. In your personal library. That is... Heh heh. Umm." She scratched the back of her neck with one hoof as she tried her level best to melt into the floor.

Empress Celestia took a few steps into the library in that graceful, flowing walk of hers before she stopped and looked around. Her eyes took in everything, from the books scattered across the floor to the sorry state of Twilight's mane and coat. She paused and sniffed the air once, and then finished making her way to where Twilight stood.

"So this is where you've been. I should have guessed. Do you have something to say about all this?" Celestia didn't raise her voice, but Twilight cringed.

She pawed at the floor with her front hoof and examined the stones it was made out of in minute detail. "I..." Her throat felt thick and she started tracing the lines in the floor with her hoof. Maybe Celestia hadn't heard yet.

Celestia's shadow fell over her student as the she stepped closer, and Twilight suddenly realized just how very warm it was in the library. Warm enough that droplets were starting to form on her forehead.

Twilights eyes started to burn, and she didn't trust the tightness in her throat.

The lines in the floor blurred and started to quiver and there were ten agonizing seconds of silence in which Twilight did her very best to hold the tears back. Finally, Celestia sighed and said, "Oh Twilight. You know this isn't the answer."

With a sob she threw herself against her teacher and buried her face in her mane, a privilege that, if she'd been thinking clearly, she would have realized had probably never been extended to any currently living pony. "There were fireworks and now they're all laughing at me!" She hiccupped. "Why did it have to be fireworks? I can't stand fireworks."

Celestia curled her leg around her in an embrace and she said softly, "They didn't know Twilight."

Twilight squeezed her eyes as tight as she could and shivered. For most ponies, the day they got their cutie-mark was one of the happiest of their lives, but hers was different. She had been in the middle of an entrance exam for Celestia's School For Gifted Unicorns when there was a large explosion and flash of light like the world's biggest firework. For some reason, she'd blacked out, and when she came to, the first thing she saw was her brand new cutie-mark. The second was the bodies of her parents and the examiners. Nopony ever found out what caused the explosion.

"It was an accident Twilight. Most of them don't know about that, and the ones who do know weren't laughing."

Twilight pushed her face deeper into Celestia's mane. "There were press ponies there and, and they took pictures! Now everypony in Canterlot knows, about h-how I embarrased you."

"Twilight." Celestia's voice took on a stern edge and she pried Twilight away from herself so she could look her directly in the eye. "I decide what embarrasses me, not you, and certainly not the newspapers." After a few moments, her expression softened. "You don't need to worry about the press ponies anyways. I had a talk with them and they won't be printing anything about that."

"Really." Celestia paused and sniffed the air, then shook her head a little and went on. "Now," Her voice became all business, "You need to pull yourself together. I have a new assignment for you."

Twilight, suddenly conscious of how inappropriately she'd been acting towards the Empress, stepped back and stood up as straight as physically possible. "Yes, Empress Celestia. What do you need?"

"I need you to go clean yourself up and prepare for a trip. We are having difficulty finding qualified staff for some positions on the this year's Summer Sun Celebration committee, so I need you to go out and find ponies who can help." Celestia smiled and winked at her. "Preferably ponies who aren't from Canterlot. After all, a national celebration should involve the entire nation."

"While you are doing all that," Celestia continued, "I have an even more important task for you."

"If anything were to happen to me, you will be the pony who takes over and makes sure that Equestria holds together. Being able to get along with and understand other ponies is an essential skill that you need to develop, and will be one of the main focuses of your graduate studies. Now, I need you to go and start preparing for your departure immediately. You leave this afternoon."

Suddenly, the library didn't feel warm any more. In fact, it felt like the entire palace had frozen over, her mouth included. All she could do was stare at Empress Celestia in shock.

Celestia didn't say anything more, simply returned Twilight's gaze with a look of perfect equanimity. After a few moments of waiting, the Empress lifted her nose and sniffed the air.

"What is that smell?" She turned to look at the reading couch. "Twilight have you been–"

"NOPE!" Twilight suddenly found herself able to move once again. She bowed deeply, and bolted for the door. "Right. I'll just be going then now! Thank you Empress Celestia!"

***

Twilight groaned with pleasure as the hot shower trickled through her coat. For a few seconds, the water turned grey as it washed away the dust that had accumulated during her three-day spell. It boggled her mind how a pony could get so dirty without going outside. Maybe she could convince the Empress to let the occasional servant into the library to do some dusting.

She was doing her very best not to think about what Celestia had said. That was a headache waiting to happen and she knew it.

Twilight used her magic to pick up a bottle of shampoo and squeeze it into her mane. It had an absolutely amazing smell of lavender to it.

The Empress had a habit of dropping multiple conversational bombs at once. Twilight had though she'd gotten used to that over the years, but this one was a doozy!

There were so many different ways that didn't make sense it was practically a physical paradox. Why her? Why not Prince Blueblood, or better yet, Princess Cadance? They actually had a claim to the throne.

On the surface it was obvious why not. Well, it was for Blueblood at least. He was an ass. But Celestia could have taken a bigger role in raising him and teaching him to be a decent pony. Hay, Celestia spent more personal time with Twilight than she did with him. It wasn't like he was a stupid pony either, just insufferable. Who knew what kind of pony he could have been with a little work? Not that Celestia was lazy or anything. She was just always busy.

Princess Cadance on the other hoof... Well, she was a princess through and through. Apart from her strange obsession with tiaras, she seemed the perfect fit for the job.

Twilight shook her head. There was a sudden stinging in her eyes and she realized she'd forgotten to wash the shampoo out of her mane. She closed her eyes and stuck her face into the jet, rubbing at them until the stinging went away. Then she just stood there and let the warm water run over her head and down her neck.

Either one of them was certainly more qualified than Twilight at the very least. She was Celestia's personal student in magic. She was an important pony, but only because other ponies seemed to think that she had the Empress's ear. It was always something like, 'Twilight! I have this wonderful idea for bringing those Hoofington ponies back into line and I was hoping you put in a good word with Empress for me!' The constant sucking up left her with a bad taste in her mouth. Dealing with ponies was definitely not for her.

Cadance certainly didn't have that problem. She loved everypony and everypony loved her. She was even an alicorn like Celestia. Sort of. Princess Cadance had both wings and a horn, but Celestia was more than that. She was a Goddess. Immortal and unchanging.

She raised the sun every morning, lowered it every evening, and brought out the moon every night. The heavens themselves danced to her every whim. Without her there was no sun, no moon, no day or night. Without her, there was no Equestria. Everything and everypony would perish very quickly with no sun to give light and warmth to the world.

There was another thing that didn't make sense. Celestia was immortal. Why would she name an heir at all? Even if she were to somehow–Twilight shuddered at the thought–die, Equestria would die with her.

The whole thing made no sense! No sense at all! How could anypony condense that much not-sense-making into so few words?

An eternity of practice probably helped. And she must have had some reason. Celestia always did, though few ponies ever learned what they were in the end.

Twilight sighed again. "Are you really trying to understand the mind of Celestia? If she wants you to know, she'll tell you eventually. Just stop thinking about it and do what she says."

After toweling herself down, Twilight set about brushing her mane and tail. Normally she hated that part of her daily ritual because it felt like such a waste of time, but today she found herself falling into an almost trance-like state as she used the brush to tease out the tangles that had accumulated over the last three days. Between the repetitive stroking and the gentle tugging on her scalp she actually found herself starting to relax. Before she knew it, she was done and looking like a brand new pony.

She did her best to check her reflection in the fogged mirror and said, "Right. Time to get to work." She took a deep breath and then opened the door calling out "Spike! Are you done packi–AAGH!"

There was a sudden pain in Twilight's right hoof as she stepped on something very hard and pointy.

She looked down at the offending object and saw a small action figure of a dragon covered in spikes. An offendingly familiar action figure that had injured her hoof on more than one occasion.

"Behemoth!" She hissed at her nemesis and kicked the toy against the wall. Then she yelled, "Spike! I thought I told you Starswirl wasn't allowed in the apartment anymore!"

Starswirl–named after the bearded one–was the daughter of the Captain of the Guard, and often came over to play with Spike. She never went anywhere without her action figures, and was always forgetting them in inconvenient places that were dangerous to the hooves of unsuspecting ponies. Twilight had permanently banned Starswirl from her apartments after a similar incident had made her drop a beaker full of hydrochloric acid.

Twilight felt really bad about the whole thing. Starswirl was actually her own age, but was...a little bit slow. Ok, a lot slow. Apparently she was born premature and it had caused problems as she grew up. Either way, she didn't understand why Twilight wouldn't let her in anymore and she had the most guilt-inducing puppy-dog stare imaginable.

"Spike?" Twilight trotted out into the living room. There were her bags, half packed and lying on a couch, but no Spike. "Spiiiiike!"

As Celestia's personal student, Twilight had her own set of apartments. With a living room, kitchen, a bath, and three bedrooms (one of which had been converted into a laboratory), it wasn't as luxurious as a lot of the accommodations in the palace, but it was plenty large enough for her and Spike.

A quick search was enough to prove that Spike wasn't anywhere to be found inside.

"Where did he run off to? SPIKE!" Twilight went to the front door, threw it open, and dashed into the hallway outside where she promptly bowled into Spike.

The little dragon went head over heels backward and landed tail-first on a gift-wrapped package he'd been carrying.

Spike groaned and stood up. "Well, it was a gift from Moondancer, but..." But the gift, which had once been some form of yellow pastry, was now smooshed all over the carpet in a mess that would probably take the caretaking staff hours to clean up.

"Moondancer? Isn't it her birthday today?" She vaguely remembered getting an invitation a few days ago. "Why would she send me a present on her birthday?"

"Umm, Moondancer isn't–" Spike lifted one finger and tried to say something, but Twilight cut him off.

"Never mind, we don't have time for that right now. How is the packing coming along? Did you make sure to include Roads and Railways? We might need that one."

"Oh, and Starswirl left one of her toys here again. I thought I told you that the two of you have to play outside from now on."

He reached down into the mess and plucked a surprisingly clean envelope from the outside of the package. "You should at least read the card."

"Oh Spike," She rolled her eyes. We've got stuff to do and the last thing I want to do is read a card sent by somepony who's such a suck up that she sent me a present on her own birthday."

"Celestia told you to try and make friends too," he pointed out. "Besides, he went to the trouble. It's only polite to read it."

Twilight paused, confused. "Wait, Moondancer is a buck? Really? That's a girl's name."

It was Spike's turn to roll his eyes. "Sheesh Twilight, you've met him like five times."

Twilight grabbed the envelope with her magic and walked back inside the apartment. "There's hundreds of ponies in the palace Spike, and I've met each of them at least once. That doesn't mean I'm going to try and remember all of their names." She pulled down a copy of Predictions and Prophecies from a shelf and slipped the card inside to protect it, then placed it in her pack along with as many more books as the laws of physics would allow it to hold. "Anyways, I'll read it later. This job takes priority. Could you please find Roads and Railways for me?"

Spike sighed and went to get it, and Twilight made a mental note to give him a lecture about that later. Sometimes it seemed he was sighing about something every other minute, and it was a little bit rude.

"Moondancer huh?" she said quietly. "He must have had a hard childhood with a name like that.

She shook her head to try and clear her mind. This was no time to get distracted.

"You know," she said as she trotted over to the bookshelf and gave it another once-over to see if she'd missed any she might need. "I have a good feeling about this trip."

"Oh I'm going to Canterlot to Sing! Oh I'm going to Canterlot to sing! I'm gonna make the mountains ring because I'm going to Canterlot to sing! Hiya mister unicorn!" Pinkie Pie waved to a red unicorn while she bounced as fast as she could along the road to Canterlot. He said something back to her, probably, but she had already left him in the dust and never heard it.

It was her third day of travel and she was starting to get a little tired, but every time her legs told her to slow down, the letter in her pack thundered through her head like a giant party parade and all of a sudden her legs decided that they didn't want to slow down, they wanted to party! How could anypony be tired at a time like this?

She wasn't tired. In fact, she was so not-tired that she needed to read the letter again. Pinkie Pie reached into her backpack and pulled it out.

That was actually a much more difficult trick than it sounds, because she didn't bother to stop bouncing while she did it. But with the aid of some rather tricky acrobatics that involved a cartwheel, a backwards hoofspring, and a few kangaroo-like jumps on her hind legs, she pulled out the piece of paper and unfolded it.

"Wait." Pinkie didn't wait. Well, she didn't stop hopping, but she didn't read the letter either. Something was missing...somepony.

She already knew what the letter said. She'd read it so many times that it was in danger of coming apart at the creases. If she wanted to she could probably recite it backwards to the tune of the Equestrian National Anthem. What she needed was somepony else, somepony new she could read it to.

Up ahead, someone was coming into view around a bend in the road pulling a gypsy-wagon-house-wagon thingy the same way she was going.

The wagon stopped moving and the pony pulling it poked her head around the side. She was very nice looking blue unicorn with a tall, pointy, star-spangled hat and matching cape. She looked a little surprised to see Pinkie, but that wasn't anything to worry about. Most ponies were surprised to see her. Even her family was surprised to see her! Pinkie bounced towards her as fast as she could, waving the letter in one hoof.

"Hi, I'm Puppysmiles!" She stopped in front of the mare and gave her the biggest, sunniest smile she had. "Actually, my name's Pinkie Pie, but I've always wanted to say that. What's your name?"

The unicorn's mouth moved up and down without making any sounds, but after a second or two something seemed to click in her head. She reared up dramatically on her hind legs–a move that Pinkie couldn't help but admire because she was still harnessed to the wagon and that couldn't have made it easier–flourished her cape, and said in a loud voice, "You do not recognize The Great and Powerful Trixie when you see her? Foal! Did you grow up on a rock farm?"

Pinkie Pie thought her heart was going to stop. "Wow, you guessed right on the first try! Nopony ever gets it on the first try! Are you a wizard?"

"YES!" The Great and Powerful Trixie made a sweeping gesture with her right leg, and with a puff of smoke and blast of fireworks she appeared right in front of Pinkie, no longer attached to her wagon. "The Great and Powerful Trixie is the most powerful unicorn who has ever lived! She travels across Equestria performing the most spectacular feats of magic anypony has ever seen!" Trixie planted all four hooves on the ground and struck a pose with her cape fluttering in the wind and another burst of fireworks exploding behind her.

"Oh!" Pinkie suddenly remembered the letter in her hoof. "Well, I was bouncing along the road to Canterlot singing 'I'm going to Canterlot to sing, I'mgointoCanterlottosing, I'mgonnamakethemountainsringbecauseI'mgoingtoCanterlottosing,' because it's a beautiful day out and I just felt like singing, and then I started thinking about why I felt like singing, other than it just being a beautiful day out of course, and–" She took a breath. "–and that made me think about the letter in my backpack, so I took it out of my backpack just like this—" She reached into her backpack and pantomimed taking out a letter and unfolding it. "—and I was going to read it but then I realized that I already have it memorized so there was no point in reading it to myself, so then I looked for somepony else to read it to and BAM, you were right there! It's like destiny brought us together!"

The Great and Powerful Trixie simply stared at her while she tried to catch her breath. Then, without a word, she walked back to the wagon, slipped into the harness, and started pulling as hard as she could. Unfortunately for her, it is difficult to outpace anypony while pulling a wagon, and Pinkie Pie wasn't just anypony.

"So you wanna know what it says?" Pinkie bounced in circles around The Great and Powerful Trixie, vaulting the wagon tongue on each revolution.

"Oh don't be such a grumpy-pants! We're friends now!" Pinkie waved the letter in her face. "When you hear what it says, you'll be just as super-duper excited as I am."

"Dear Miss Pinkamina Diane Pie, It is wonderful to make your acquaintance. A few months ago, one of my recruiting stallions was passing through Ponyville, and he tells me that he heard the most divine, angelic voice coming from the local bakery. He tells me that he unfortunately didn't have time to stop and greet the singer because he was on his way to a very important meeting, but he did inquire about her and found out her name. Anyways, to make a long story short, he has urged me to extend you an audition opportunity, which I am doing right now. If you so desire, there is a spot open for you on the fifth. I look forward to receiving your response. Sincerely, Sapphire Shores - Sapphire Productions 139 Sapphire Street, Canterlot."

Pinkie hopped a few more hops before she realized that The G&PTrixie wasn't at her side anymore, even though she was being very careful to not hop faster than she was walking. She turned around and saw The Great and Powerful Trixie–All right, that's it! I'm just calling her Trixie!–standing still as a post, mouth gaping wide enough to swallow small birds.

Pinkie Pie walked up to her and waved her hoof in front of Trixie's face, and was rewarded with a blink and a jerk of the head.

"You mean to tell Trixie that you, you have an audition with Sapphire Productions?"

That seemed to bother Trixie quite a bit. She started pacing back and forth, unmindful of the wagon pivoting behind, her and talking to herself under her breath. After nearly a minute, and with some energetic (and not very nice) gesticulations at the sky, she came to a stop in front of Pinkie with a determined look on her face.

"The Great and Powerful Trixie has decided! She shall accompany you to Canterlot...to, uh, cheer you on."

It was Pinkie's turn to freeze with her mouth gaping open, and she did a very good job at it. But eventually she had to say something. "I always knew I'd make lots of friends out here, but I had no idea that I'd get one like you so soon."

"Err, yeah. Friends." Trixie scratched the back of her head and gave a very stiff smile that showed too many teeth. "It's like destiny brought us together...right?"

Pinkie Pie had an urge, an urge that was getting stronger by the moment, and she couldn't hold it back any longer. She bounded forward and gave Trixie the biggest hug she had in her little pony body.

"Hurghk! Unhoof Trixie!" She flailed her legs in a vain attempt to push the pink party pony away. When Pinkie Pie finally let go, Trixie lifted a hoof to her heaving chest. "That hurt! Don't do that!" She looked at Pinkie angrily, sighed, and just started walking down the road to Canterlot.

"Oh we're going now? That's great!" Pinkie Pie walked along beside her for approximately half a minute before she started getting antsy. "Can't we go any faster? We'll never get to Canterlot if you keep plodding along like that."

"Trixie is conserving her energy so that she can arrive in Canterlot with enough energy to put on a good show."

"If you're hungry you can get your own food. The Great and Powerful Trixie isn't made of bits you know, and she doesn't have anything to spare for freeloaders."

"No, The Great and Powerful Trixie will not perform the pony pokey while she plods! And she is not plodding!"

Fluttershy flittered up to the work harness hanging above the mantle-piece with a feather-duster in her mouth and attacked the dust that had gathered on it with surprising ferocity. The dust returned the favor with a counter-attack on her nose. Her resulting sneezing fit only bought it a momentary respite though. After spending a whole day cleaning, that harness was the very last and most important thing. She wanted it to be perfect when he got home.

She swept away the last of the dust and turned to look at Angel Bunny on the floor by one of the walls. "There, all done. Do you think he'll like it?"

He dropped the rag he'd been pretending to wipe the baseboards with and just gave her a hard stare.

"Oh." Fluttershy landed and looked around her. Everything, from the floors to the walls to the indoor animal houses was sparkling clean. It wasn't just the inside either. She'd fixed up all the animal pens in the yard, weeded the garden, trimmed the tree, and so much more. She didn't think the cottage had looked this new even when she'd moved in. Her stomach sank as the realization set in. "You're right. I got a little carried away didn't I? He won't even be home for a whole other week and I'll just have to do it all over again."

"That's right, I promised you a treat if you helped." Fluttershy tried to cheer herself up with the thought that she wouldn't have to re-do everything. Some of the cleaning she'd done would last a week. Right? "Why don't we just go in there and I'll make you a nice fruit salad." She started walking towards the kitchen, but paused when she heard somepony knock at the door.

"Is Rarity here already? I thought we didn't have our spa visit until this afternoon." Fluttershy motioned for Angel to head into the kitchen. "I'll be there in just a minute." Angel gave her a look that said she'd better be and walked off while Fluttershy turned around and headed to the front door. "I hope I didn't get the wrong time and miss it. That would be terrible."

She reached the door and opened it to see a pegasus dressed in a green army uniform on her front step.

"Excuse me Ma'am." The pegasus took off his hat as he addressed her. "You wouldn't happen to be Mrs. Apple would you?"

"Yes," Fluttershy said as an unsettling feeling stirred in her stomach. "Is this about Macintosh? He hasn't been delayed again has he?"

The stallion wouldn't meet her eyes, and the feeling in her stomach migrated to her chest and started squeezing. "No Ma'am." He replaced his hat and reached into the breastpocket on his uniform to pull out a letter. "I'm terribly sorry."

She looked up at the army stallion for a second before she opened it and started to read.

Dear Mrs Apple,
I regret to have to inform you that a report has been recieved from the Ministry of Military Affairs that 6183498, Private Macintosh Apple of the regiment Arimony Sundancers, has been reported missing in action and presumed dead...

A Still More Glorious Dawn Awaits

by CDRW

Chapter 1