//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Not Another Alicorn! // by LordBrony2040 //------------------------------// Chapter 4: Days End “Well, that could have gone better.” Rainbow Dash winced at the sound of Celestia’s voice. It didn’t sound all that harsh, but it was a long way from her usual melodious tone that she had almost always used back home. Cadence however, had none of that restraint. “How could you say something like that to Twilight! Don’t you know how fragile she is? I though you were her friend!” The fragile comment had her confused. Twilight was the mare who’d single-hoofedly challenged Nightmare Moon without the Elements of Harmony and walked away from their first encounter with Discord with her sanity still intact. Second bravest and third toughest pony in Ponyville was what she was; and that made her the top unicorn of both categories. Fragile didn’t even come close to describing her. Still, the harshness of the other alicorn’s tone put Rainbow Dash on the defensive. “It’s not like I meant to make her upset!” Rainbow mumbled as her ears wilted under Cadence’s glare. It was also pretty disturbing how somepony that pink could still come off so threatening. “So, do you want to handle this one, or the other one?” Celestia asked Cadence. Twilight was glad Spike had gone to the treasury for lunch when the guards had come to get her. He wasn’t in the tower to watch her cry into her pillow. The worst part of the whole thing was Rainbow Dash’s words rang true. Before Ponyville, books and studies had always been more important to her than other ponies, and even after making all her new friends, they still played an important part of her life. Twilight could remember several times off the top of her head where she had to reschedule appointments with her friends in order to complete research because of all the crazy things that happened about once a week. “Twilight?” The sound of her name being called out made the purple mare look up to see Cadence hovering in the air for a moment before she came down on the upper alcove that served as Twilight’s bedroom. “Do you want to talk?” she asked. “About what?” Cadence gave her a small but kind smile as she walked forward and sat down on the floor next to Twilight’s bed. “About what’s wrong you silly filly.” It was an offer that Twilight had to think about for a moment. Not just the offer, but what exactly needed to be asked. “Cadence…am I a bad friend?” “What?” Cadence asked as her head reared back in alarm. “Twilight, how could you ever think something like that!” “Because…because it’s true!” Twilight told Cadence before giving the alicorn all her evidence that led her to such a conclusion. Twilight told Cadence about her first sleepover, when she practically forced Rarity and Applejack to spend the night with her, her experimentation on Pinkie Pie to try and understand her unexplained abilities, the time she practically forced Rarity to make her two dresses for the Galla, and then finished with the undisclosed truth abut her Mare Do Well plot. All throughout the explanation, Cadence nodded and paid close attention while Twilight gave her ever minute detail. Then, when everything was finally done, she let the unicorn rest her nerves for a moment before replying. “So, you made two casual friends who could hardly be in the same room with each other closer, indulged your curiosity with the full consent of your friend Pinkie, got a little too picky over a gift and…okay, I’ll agree with you that you did cross the line when it came to your plan to teach Rainbow Dash humility, but I don’t see how this makes you a bad friend Twilight.” “But then why’s Rainbow Dash so angry?” Twilight asked franticly. “I thought it was because she thought that I didn’t think we could trust our friendship to reach her, but I apologized for that and she’s still mad!” Once Cadence had followed Twilight’s logic, she sighed shook her head. “Twilight, in all honesty, what you’re feeling right now…it’s my fault.” “Huh?” “How many big fights have you had with these friends of yours? Not just some little disagreements where you‘ve made up in twenty-four hours, I mean things were you didn’t talk to each other for days, maybe even weeks,” Cadence clarified. Twilight blinked at the question, then frowned at her bed as she tried to think of the answer. “Well…none. But, how is that your fault?” "When you were a filly and your parents asked me if would be a good idea to put you in some play groups with other foals your age, I told them no,” the alicorn explained. “You were so smart and ahead of your years that I thought you wouldn’t interact well with other children, and while it may have helped your education, I can see now that you’ve had a very stunted social development, and…I think that might be the root cause. I never let you go out and try to make friends when you were younger, so when you grew older, the lack of companionship might have just felt so natural that you didn’t bother to make any.” Thanks to the logical path Cadence provided, Twilight nodded at the explanation. “Okay,” she drawled. “But, I’m not really seeing how what’s going on right now is your fault.” “Your reaction to it is,” Cadence clarified. “If you were to have had as many friends as a normal filly when you were younger, then something like this would have already happened and you would know how to deal with it. What’s going on right now is just a really big fight and...well, it’s going to take a little bit of time for you two to work through it. “I can tell you care for Rainbow, and I can see her love for you written on that mare’s face plain as day when she saw you disappear,” Cadence continued. “But it’s because of the love you have for each other that your both so upset right now.” The cheeks on Twilight’s face turned red. “I’m not in love with Rainbow Dash Cadence!” Twilight’s declaration got a giggle from the alicorn. “There’s more than one type of love you silly filly! You love your parents, your brother, me, Celestia and your friends. And if I were to ask you to describe each one, they would all be so drastically different that using a single word to define them all would seem foalish.” “Well…okay, that makes sense.” “And from what you’ve written about Rainbow Dash, and from what I’ve seen…this little fight of yours is over more than just some misguided magic,” Cadence told her. When Cadence didn’t seem to be anymore forthcoming, Twilight prompted her. “Like?” The pink alicorn looked up in thought for a moment as she began speaking. “A lot of things. For example, when she was yelling at you earlier I noticed Rainbow Dash talked about how everypony else tempered themselves a bit to fit in and how you didn’t. But, she never mentioned herself either.” As Twilight cocked her head in confusion and Cadence looked down at her gave the unicorn the full explanation. “I think Dash is the type of pony who holds everypony to the same standards that she holds herself.” The extended explanation didn’t help very much with Twilight’s comprehension. If anything, it only got in the way of understanding. Rainbow Dash wasn’t anything like Twilight. One was a unicorn, the other had been a pegasus up until twenty-four hours ago. Rainbow Dash was impulsive, Twilight was methodical. If Cadence’s theory were true, Rainbow Dash would have hated her guts because they were so different. Maybe she does, Twilight told herself. What if all this time, Rainbow has resented me and is only going through the motions? We’ve never really done anything together. We don’t have any interests, and the only time we’ve ever really been around each other without the others as a reason for being in the general vicinity is… Twilight wracked her brain for an instance where she and Rainbow Dash had truly tried to connect. The pet contest that happened the other week was more of a spectator thing, Twilight had just watched Dash be her usual self until the end where she made the surprising choice of the tortoise over the falcon. The only other time she could remember doing something for Rainbow Dash was… “Cloudsdale!” Twilight exclaimed as she leaped off her bed in a bust of energy that came with her inspiration. “Twilight?” Cadence mumbled as her old friend started prancing around the room and talking to herself. A second later, the purple unicorn pulled a chalkboard from its corner and began writing an equation to prove her friendship with the other mare wasn't just some half-lie. “When Rainbow Dash had her contest in Cloudsdale, she was really nervous and needed emotional support from all her friends. So I found out this spell that lets other ponies walk on clouds so we could cheer for her!” Twilight exclaimed as she quantified the positive effect her actions. “Well, except for Rarity, I found a spell that actually gave her wings…and then she started getting all the attention, and that made Dash feel so much more nervous…before she even entered the contest…and came out at the same time as Rainbow…before her wings evaporated mid-flight and she almost…died.” Twilight stopped her calculations and dropped the chalk upon factoring in the last event. Even if she was generous and counted the presence of each friend as a positive in themselves instead of just one single good point, the fact that Rarity and Rainbow had been competing at the same time nullified their value for Rainbow thanks to Rarity’s presence. If anything, bringing everyone was a negative, since Fluttershy would have been in Cloudsdale anyway to cheer Rainbow Dash on, and Rarity’s presence removed her positive support at the competition from the equation since Twilight had been rooting for both of them. Then there was all the negative events that Twilight was the root of. She was unable to take her eyes off the chalkboard as she added them up, unopposed by any positive impact she had managed to make during the competition. The fact that Rainbow had won the competition in the end was a non-factor since it had nothing to do with Twilight’s involvement, and Twilight was just glad Rainbow had been carried away by her friends and gone off to hang out with the Wonderbolts before Twilight managed to screw something else up. All she had done was talk with Princess Celestia after Rainbow Dash won the… Correction, Twilight thought to herself as this morning’s information was factored in. All she had done was monopolize Celestia’s time instead of giving Rainbow Dash a few precious moments to spend with her ancestor. That earned another mark against her. “Twilight, what’re you doing?” Cadence asked, her voice full of worry when Twilight finally looked away from the chalkboard. It had a disturbing resemblance to the ‘romance calculation’ Cadence had done several years ago when she had decided to date Shinning Armor, when she thought love could actually be spelled out via mathematics. What made it even creepier was that Twilight’s calculations had ended in a negative. Negatives were never a good sign. Then, she flinched when Twilight spun around to face Cadence with tears in her eyes again. “I…I’m a terrible pony!” the lavender unicorn wailed. When her knees started to shake, Cadence bolted up and supported the smaller unicorn before she could fall onto the floor. “Twilight, that’s the most foolish thing I’ve ever heard,” Cadence said. “You are the most wonderful, caring pony anypony could ever ask for.” “But it’s true! Look!” She said while pointing towards her chalkboard. “The math says so!” Oh boy, Cadence thought as she looked down at her friend, then up to the chalkboard before turning her attention back to Twilight. “Well, how about you walk me through your equations and we’ll see if you missed anything?” Twilight looked back to the chalkboard and gulped. She didn’t want Cadence to know about something like that. Twilight also doubted she had made a mistake. The math was so simple and straightforward that the whole thing might have well of been a comparison chart if not for the fact that it also accounted for the size of the actions along with their status as a positive or a negative. Still, if there was anypony who could find something Twilight had missed, it was- Downstairs, the door slammed open to announce a new arrival. “Hey Twilight you here?” Rainbow Dash called out as the sound of flapping signaled her ascent. “You disappeared before the waiter-guy-whose-not-really-a-waiter showed up to ask what we wanted to eat, but then got all weird when I told him I wanted some carrot dogs and hay fries and stormed off. Then the cook went missing, so I just made you some daisy sandwiches mysel-Twilight, are you okay?” Rainbow Dash gaped at the tears in her friend’s eyes, then set the tray of sandwiches down on the railing before zipping over and glaring at Cadence while demanding an explanation to her friend’s sorry state. “What did you do to her?” “ME?” Cadence asked as she had to back up when Rainbow got right in her face. “Twilight was on the verge of tears when she left you!” “That was like, ten minutes ago!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “Nopony cries for ten minutes strait!” Off on what had become the sidelines, Twilight hesitantly raised a hoof to try and stop what could become something very bad. “I don’t know what you think you know about Twilight,” Cadence shouted right back at the other alicorn. “But she is a very delicate mare, and ponies like you that just run their mouth off without thinking have no business being anywhere near her!” As Twilight watched the anger on Rainbow Dash’s face blossom into a full on rage, her ears wilted. “Please stop.” “That’s bull!” Rainbow Dash responded in an even louder voice than Cadence’s previous one. “TWILIGHT IS THE TOUGHEST UNICORN I’VE EVER MET!” “She-huh?” Cadence managed to get out before Rainbow Dash’s statement detailed her train of thought. Twilight also found herself lost on that one. But while Cadence had fallen silent for the moment, Rainbow Dash capitalized on the opportunity and just kept going. “She’s brave too! And hello, magic? That’s her cutie mark and her element! She’s like the me of magic! She practices it every day, and even with her stupid schedule stuff, she drops it all in an instant if one of her friends are in trouble! She’s the best friend any pony could ever ask for and-and the most awesome unicorn ever!” Cadence blinked, not sure how to argue with that without doing even more damage to Twilight’s self-image. “Umm…” “Rainbow, I’m really not-humph!” Twilight stared at the hoof covering her mouth as the blue alicorn landed and kept her from talking. “Is that’s about that stupid Trixie bragging stuff again?” Dash demanded. “Okay look, I’m bad with the bragging and I get that, and I’ll tone it down from now on. But you need to learn how to start telling people how awesome you are!” As far as Rainbow was concerned, that modesty junk was just as bad as being a braggart. No, it was worse! Instead of a pony believing their own words and biting off more than she could chew, and maybe even doing enough hard work to live up to the hype one day, an overly modest pony discounted her own achievements no matter how cool they were until one day she really was the loser she sold herself as. “But I’m not!” Twilight argued. “Yes you are!” “No I’m not, look!” Twilight said before she pointed a hoof at the damning evidence. Rainbow Dash turned around and looked at the chalkboard with its nonsense that she couldn’t made heads of tails of. “What the hay is that?” she asked before looking over to Cadence. The thing obviously upset Twilight, but Rainbow just saw egghead stuff that made no sense. “Did you do that?” The question made Cadence raise an eyebrow. “No,” she mumbled, the pink princess’s earlier anger at the other alicorn gone after watching the odd interaction between her and Twilight. “And don’t ask me what it means either.” “It means I’m an awful friend and a terrible pony!” Twilight explained. Rainbow Dash titled her head in confusion. “Say what?” She looked back over to the thing in question for a second, walked over to it to try and make more sense of it, then turned around to face Twilight. “It’s just a bunch of stupid numbers!” “It’s math Rainbow, and the math says I’m a lousy friend!” “Well then buck the math!” And that’s just what she did. Both Cadence and Twilight winced as the blue alicorn raised her rear hooves and struck the chalkboard with her hind legs. Upon making contact with the offending information, Rainbow’s hooves blew the chalkboard into a thousand pieces and scattered little bits of green all around the floor. Then, while Cadence and Twilight were still just staring in confusion at Rainbow’s antics, the blue alicorn flew over to Twilight and poked her in the nose. “Twilight Sparkle is the most awesome unicorn ever!” “Rainbow?” Twilight asked “Say it!” “Ummm, Rainbow-” Rainbow Dash cut her off. “Princess order! Now say it!” “Twilight Sparkle is the most awesome unicorn ever?” Twilight mumbled. Rainbow Landed rain in front of Twilight and stomped her hoof on the ground. “Louder!” “Twilight Sparkle is the most awesome unicorn ever!” “I can’t hear you!” Rainbow shouted. “TWILIGHT SPARKLE IS THE MOST AWESOME UNICORN EVER!” Twilight yelled at the top of her lungs as she stood at attention. “Because she would do anything to help her friends!” Rainbow continued before she indicated Twilight should say it too a second after the unicorn just stared at her. “BECAUSE I WOULD DO ANYTHING TO HELP MY FRIENDS!” “And she’s the coolest magic user around!” “AND I’M THE MOST COOLEST MAGIC USER AROUND!” “And there’s nothing more important to her than her friends!” “AND THERE’S NOTHING MORE IMPORTANT TO ME THAN MY FRIENDS!” “And-huh?” Rainbow felt somepony put their hoof on her shoulder and found herself cut off when Cadence stepped forward to continue the pep talk. “And she only lets the best of intentions guide her actions.” Cadence’s more gentle words threw Twilight off, but after Rainbow eyed the other alicorn up and down and gave an agreeable nod, Twilight snapped back into her military stance. “AND I ONLY LET THE BEST OF INTENTIONS GUIDE MY ACTIONS!” “And even though she gets these silly little ideas in her head about her own self worth, she’ll listen to her friends when they’re making sense, and realize that she might not be as bad a pony as she thinks,” a gentle voice told her as a third alicorn ascended the stairs. Twilight gaped at her mentor’s appearance. “P-Princess Celestia?” The Goddess of the Sun kept her smile, but gave the purple unicorn a playful frown as she leaned down to look Twilight in the eye. “Now say it…princess order.” “You heard all that?” Twilight squeaked in embarrassment. “I came with Rainbow Dash and was waiting for her to apologize before I came in, but this seemed a little more important,” Celestia told her student before the smile disappeared. “And that isn’t what I ordered you to say.” Twilight Sparkle forced out a chuckle and took in a deep breath. Despite the length of the command, she could remember it in its entirely. Although Twilight didn’t have a photographic memory, she could always remember anything important, and everything Celestia said was important. “AND EVEN THOUGH I GET THESE SILLY LITTLE IDEAS IN MY HEAD ABOUT MY OWN SELF WORTH, I’LL LISTEN TO MY FRIENDS WHEN THEY’RE MAKING SENSE AND REALIZE THAT I MIGHT NOT BE AS BAD A PONY AS I THINK.” The tower was silent as Twilight finished repeating everything Celestia had ordered her to. This was mostly because the three alicorns were a bit surprised that Twilight had managed to say the whole thing correctly. It was also because Twilight’s voice was a little sore, and the other three ponies needed to wait a few seconds for their ears to stop ringing. But, the silence was not to last. The lack of a breakfast, a missed lunch, and the stress of the situation finally aught up to Twilight, causing a riot in her stomach that demanded food. A blush formed on Twilight’s cheeks from her organ’s outburst. “Can I have a sandwich now?” Celestia let out a melodious laugh, and floated the tray of food over where all the telekinetic able members of the group grabbed something to eat. As for Rainbow Dash, she reached to try and get herself one, only to have the golden aura block her attempts. “Ahem, I think somepony else has something to say as well.” The comment made Rainbow Dash drop her hoof and look back to Twilight. “Twilight, I’m sorry I yelled at you back at the table. I… Okay look, this whole scheduling thing you do does get on my nerves, but its nothing next to how awesome it is to have you as a friend.” “Rainbow-” “And I think that’s why I got so mad about the Mare Do Well thing too,” she went on. Although she raised an eyebrow when Twilight shared a weird look with Cadence, the blue alicorn kept going. “One of the coolest things about you is you don’t try and change who you are in front of other ponies. You show everypony who you are all the time! You don't lie about who you are or hide things about yourself. Then you of all ponies just comes up to me and says to stop bragging?” “It’s not that,” Twilight said to stop Rainbow before she paused herself for a moment to try and collect her thoughts. “It was… Look, there’s a difference between taking pride in your accomplishments and rubbing everyone’s faces in them! I’m not saying stop bragging, you wouldn’t be you! But…well, try not to brag about the same thing for three days strait, okay?” Rainbow thought about it for a minute, then smirked at Twilight. “Deal,” she said before reaching for a sandwich. After grabbing one and re-balancing herself on three hooves, Rainbow Dash looked around at the three other horned ponies in the room and sighed. “Twi, you really gotta show me how you girls do that floaty stuff.” The description of her telekinesis made Twilight giggle. “You want me to teach you magic Rainbow?” As the three smaller ponies conversed among themselves for a few seconds over the contents of the lunch tray, Celestia’s eyes widened at her student’s words. “That’s it!” she whispered. Twilight’s ears flicked and she looked up to her mentor. “Hmmm? Did you say something Princess Celestia?” she asked after swallowing the last bit of her first sandwich. Rainbow remembering she liked daisy sandwiches was one thing, but the fact the blue mare had remembered the honey surprised Twilight. A moment later, the warm expression on Celestia’s face disappeared and she looked down to the lavender unicorn. “Twilight Sparkle, as punishment for engaging in the black arts, you are to be sentenced to teaching Princess Rainbow Dash how to fully utilize her magic as an alicorn in a responsible manner.” “Awesome!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before she let her wings take her weight and she kicked off the ground to fly over the group and land behind Twilight. “Hey sorry for doubting you Princess! Number one unicorn in Equestria teaching me magic? Twilight this is so going to rock!” The fact Rainbow Dash picked her up in a hug that put an undo amount of stress on her chest before pulling them both into the air had nothing to do with the nausea welling up in Twilight’s stomach. That feeling was the result of the words Celestia had chosen to describe her sentence. I have to teach Rainbow Dash…responsibility? Twilight asked herself as the blue pegasus pulled the two of them backwards and landed on the empty bed. I’m doomed. Cadence raised an eyebrow at Celestia’s decision. “Auntie, are you sure that’s a good idea?” “I have learned over the years that the best way for a pony to learn something is to teach it themselves,” Celestia explained to her adopted niece before looking back to Twilight. “You’ve shown a lack of foresight and judgment these past few weeks Twilight, but I know you, I know that your actions had no ill intent.” At least, it was not at the forefront of your mind, she told herself. “Your mornings will be spent in remedial classes on ethics with me, while Rainbow Dash will be your student in the evening.” As Rainbow Dash and Twilight rolled onto their stomachs to lay next to each other on the bed, Cadence looked back to Celestia. “Um, Auntie… I know Twilight has an incredible talent. But, you know the old saying. Those that can do, those that can’t teach. But those that do, can’t teach.” “Hey!” Rainbow Dash grumbled as she unfolded her wing and used it to cover Twilight’s back. “Twilight will be an awesome teacher!” The other mare‘s actions made Cadence’s eyes shoot up, but she decided not to draw attention to it. “Rainbow Dash, take it from another former-pegasus, magic is a headache to learn.” Rainbow Dash seemed to ignore the other alicorn’s comment, and simply yawned before shifting around in the bed. “Well, I suppose it would be best to let the two of you have the rest of the day to prepare for yourselves,” Celestia told them. “Twilight, I will also need to approve whatever curriculum you decide upon before it is implemented.” “Princess Celestia! Princess Celestia!” a voice cried out from outside the tower’s door, its tone suggesting a level of panic reserved for the end of the world. The princess in question simply sighed. “And it would appear my scheduling adviser has recovered from his mental breakdown sooner than I had hoped,” she grumbled before turning to Cadence. “I might need you to fill in on a few public appearances for me today.” Cadence groaned. “Okay. But if he tries to stick me with the royal pet walking duties again, you’re on your own.” As the two princesses made their exit, Twilight’s mind was already going over all the things she would need to teach Rainbow Dash magic properly. While Twilight used her horn to gather materials for writing a checklist, her mind assaulted her with the horrid possibilities of what Rainbow Dash would be like as a student. An image formed in her mind, where Twilight stood with her back to the class of one while using a pointer to bring attention to a certain part of magical text written up on the chalkboard, the chalkboard that was covered in spit wads and Twilight herself had a paper airplane stuck in her tail. Oh come on Twilight, it can’t be that bad, she tried to assure herself. But, the image didn’t simply disappear with her reassurance. So, Twilight furrowed her brows in thought and remembered a time when she had first been Celestia’s student. “So Twilight, what would you like to learn today?” her mentor’s voice asked in her head. That’s how I’ll do it, Twilight reasoned. If she started with things that Rainbow wanted to learn about, it would be easier to keep her attention and interest. Then I could move onto the less interesting stuff once Dash has a base of knowledge to draw from. She might actually LIKE learning magic by then! “So Dash, what would you like to-” “Zzzzzzzzzz,” the blue alicorn snored. After a night of almost no sleep, the mentally exhausting morning, and finally getting some food, sleep had come in moments of laying down on Twilight’s comfortable bed. Twilight sighed an shook her head. I wonder if its too late to ask for a prison sentence. It was well past sundown as Rainbow Dash trotted down the empty hallway of Canterlot Castle, feeling better about herself than she had all day. Although she knew from personal experience what wonders a little rest could do, it was more than that. For the first time since talking to Princess Celestia (she still had a little trouble thinking of the ancient sun goddess as her 50th great grandmother) that morning, everything felt…right. Twilight wasn’t in trouble. Okay, well, she was, but it wasn’t the kind that would ruin her life. If anything, her so-called punishment just made Rainbow Dash all the more happy. She was going to be learning magic from Twilight! That was like…like having Spitfire as her personal flight instructor! Dash stopped as a sudden realization hit her with the last thought. Can I do something like that? She was a princess now after all. Being a princess gave her super authority powers. If she told Spitfire to do it… No, Dash decided after letting that particular scenario play out in her head. It might have been cool to dream about, but just throwing her authority around like she was better than everypony else was a really a douche kind of move. Not cool at all. Deciding she’s done enough thinking on the subject, Rainbow Dash looked around the palace some more or something to do. It has been real awesome the way Twilight hadn’t woken her up from the long nap she had taken, but six hours of unconsciousness had completely destroyed her sleep schedule. After Twilight had gone to bed and Luna had raised the moon, the palace had practically shut down. The only thing Rainbow had seen while wandering around were a few of the cleaning ponies getting their work done when they wouldn’t be underhoof, and a few guards doing patrols. She had thought about doing something like pranking the guards or messing with the servants, but the way they all bowed and scraped when she walked by made Rainbow Dash decide against it. Having another pony bow to her just because of a horn kind of creeped her out, and she doubted any of the ponies she messed with would respond how she wanted to some harmless fun. “Man, isn’t there anypony in this place who isn’t going to-oh wait, Princess Luna!” The sudden realization had Dash flying through the halls for a few minutes before she got in her head to ask a guard for direction to where the Princess of the Night was, then she found herself on the palace balcony that overlooked Canterlot, Ponyville, and a good bit of Equestria. The location made it the perfect place for the magic telescope Luna was currently using to check up on her subjects for any problems before she headed out into the night. “Um, Princess Luna?” Rainbow Dash spoke when she stepped out onto the balcony. “Hm?” she turned around after a moment, and her eyes widened a bit upon seeing Rainbow Dash. “My word…Tai said you looked like A…ah, yes, Rainbow Dash wasn’t it? We encountered one another on Nightmare Night. You were missed at breakfast-or dinner for you I suppose. Twilight Sparkle said you needed your rest.” Rainbow Dash blinked at the disjoined sentences. “You okay Princess?” The question had Luna shaking her head. “Apologies, when we saw you on Nightmare Night, your features were mostly obscured. Seeing you such as this…well, no matter. To what do we owe the pleasure of thy company?” “Oh, I was just wandering around and got a little lonely, and well, no one else is awake this late, and then I remember your up all night so…I thought we could hang out. I mean, if you’re not really doing anything that is. But…hey, what exactly is it you do at night anyway?” The rather chaotic jumble of sentences had Luna staring at the younger princess for a moment, then her eyes softened when she translated it into something understandable in her mind. “Your company would be most welcome,” she said as a memory from played itself out in her mind. She remembered that like Twilight, Rainbow Dash had also been willing to approach her towards the ends of the festivities in the hopes of pulling a prank. Although the children had stopped fearing her…in a way, the fact that the brazen young mare had been willing to try and do such a thing to royalty… It seems the centuries and diluted bloodline hasn’t stopped her from inheriting some of Tia’s bad habits. “And in answer to your second question, we do a bit more than raise the moon and paint the night sky,” Luna said, the last part coming out as a grumble at the bad memories it brought to mind. She had seen the star charts from when Celestia had been in charge and the travesty of that work still left a bad taste in her mouth. What was worse was the fact the modern astronomers were lodging complaints about how Luna was restoring the night to what it should be instead of Celestia’s imitation that had become the norm while she had been sealed in the moon. “Tis our duty to oversee the safety of our subjects while they slumber, both in mind and body. We were simply making sure the creatures of the Everfree stayed within the forest boundaries before moving our attentions elsewhere. A thousand years of our absence has made the wilds a bit…restless, so the last year has been rather hectic. Tis still a bit early for our dream walking, in which we ensure the peaceful slumber of our nation’s citizenry.” Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened when she finished translating Luna’s words. “You get to fight monsters? That is so cool! The heck with listening to old stallions and mares bitch about everything all day, I want to tag along on your job!” With the onslaught of praise for her work, Luna couldn’t help but blink. “Pardon?” “Hey can I take a look through that thing?” she asked before walking up and taking a peek through the telescope, then she adjusted the thing and grinned. “Cool I can see my house from here. Hmm, is that mail in my…great, I forgot to tell Derp-Ditzy to keep my mail at the station.” Luna leaned down so she was on eye level with Rainbow Dash. “Might I see?” When Rainbow backed off, Luna look a look through her telescope and gasped. “My, that is a truly spectacular abode Rainbow Dash.” “Thanks, built it myself,” she said with pride. The deceleration left Luna stunned for a moment. “You built that? On your own?!” Rainbow Dash blinked at the fact Luna was making such a big deal about it. “Well, yeah. Dad was a bigwig cloud architect before I was born and he sort of retired. You grow up around that stuff and you just pick it up I guess.” “But enough about that boring stuff! Let’s find a monster! Oh this’ll be so awesome! Hey, can we fight a hydra? There was this one my friends ran into a few months ago at a bog, and I never did get to teach it not to mess with ponies!” Luna blinked at the sudden assault of odd requests. “We do not think our sister would take kindly to the fact of you being put into danger so soon after your…promotion.” “I took you on, remember?” Rainbow Dash reminded her with an accusing hoof. The point made Luna scowl at the memory of events it brought. She had remembered her last day as Nightmare Moon perfectly. She remembered how the demon had wanted to kill the ponies in that forest. A thousand years of battling the monster for control of her body on the moon had given her some say in how things were done. Luna had raged against it after the landslide nearly ended their lives, and kept the thing from doing more than setting up harmless roadblocks after that. “That...thing was not me,” Luna told Rainbow in a tone that wilted the other alicorn’s ears. Rainbow Dash gulped and nodded. “Right, sorry. I know you’re not…sorry.” “A slip of the tongue,” Luna said with a nod to the smaller alicorn before she turned away to look out over her kingdom again. “You are forgiven.” “Thanks P-Lu.” Luna’s neck stiffened. “W-What?” she asked before looking back to Rainbow Dash. “What did you just call me?” “Princess Luna?” Rainbow Dash asked. “No you called me…is this Tia’s doing?” she demanded. “Did she tell you…” When the other alicorn just trailed off, Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow. “Are you okay?” “No, even her sense of humor wouldn’t be cause for that,” Luna mumbled before she looked back at Rainbow Dash. “Look at me!” Rainbow Dash gulped when the princess of the night got right up to her face and bent down low enough to look eye to eye. As Luna stared at her, Dash felt…exposed. She became more nervous than when she was at the best flyer's competition and everyone had been watching her. She couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think! Then, Luna broke eye contact and Rainbow Dash gasped for air. While she was recovering, the darker alicorn circled Rainbow’s body and inspected every inch of her before settling on her cutie mark. A few more seconds of study, and Luna headed towards the door. “Thank you for your company tonight dear niece, I am sorry for losing my temper for a slip of the tongue,” she apologized. “If you would like to visit me on the morrow, I promise to be much better company. Now if you would excuse me, I must speak with my sister.” Rainbow Dash aid her goodbyes, then cocked her head in confusion. She was going I and me at the end there… Naw that was probably just me being all weirded out. Luna stormed through her sister’s private quarters before knocking open the doors to her bedchambers loud enough to bring her older sister out of the dream she was having. Luna’s eyes caught sight of the larger alicorn dancing in a land made of chocolate before the dream vanished completely and Celestia raised herself from her bed. “Sister?” Celestia asked as she fought back a yawn. “Is it time for dawn already?” “WHAT DID YOU DO TIA?” Luna demanded. Behind her, she saw the four palace guards walk into the first room on trembling hooves. No doubt they thought this would be another coup attempt by Nightmare Moon. At the moment, Luna didn’t give much of a damn if this spawned a million fanciful tales of a second ‘nightmare rebellion’, or whatever tripe the idiots who called themselves historians came to dream up in the next thousand years. Celestia was a bit more caring. She looked over Luna’s shoulder at her guards and waved them off. “Everything’s fine, leave us.” As soon as the doors to her bedroom were closed and warded against eavesdropping, Celestia looked back to her sister. “Is something wrong sister?” “I was having a conversation with my new niece and discovered something very interesting,” Luna told her as she frowned at her sister. “Now, tell me. What did you do?” “Sister, I’m still a bit confused. Is something wrong with Rainbow Dash?” “DID YOU THINK I WOULD NOT SEE?” Luna shouted as she reared up and placed her forelegs on Celestia’s bed. “That I would be so blind not to notice?” Celestia frowned. “You mean the resemblance? I’ll admit there is some-” “While a change of hairstyle would make her the mirror image of your daughter, we have both seen uncanny amounts of physical resemblance in in our ponies for the past four and five thousand years! I looked past the blood and the bone and into her soul!” The declaration sent Celestia’s thoughts racing while Luna continued on. “All my way here I have tried to find an explanation that would make sense. There is only one twisted school of magic that I know of that could do such a thing. But I know you of all ponies would never stoop to such levels. So tell me I am wrong. Tell me! What. Did. You. Do?”