//------------------------------//
// Preparation 
// Story: Direction 
// by Darth Link 22 
//------------------------------//

There was another moment of everypony just staring, this time in horror.

Then Rainbow Dash began flying toward the portal, only to be stopped by Celestia’s magic engulfing her.

"Let me go! I’m just going to get..."

"We can’t risk anypony else entering," Celestia said sternly. "Spike did something foolish... we don't know much about the other world, only that the ponies who gifted the mirror to us were adamant that we limit who goes through it."

"But... Spike..."

"Twilight can take care of him. I'm sure he’s fine. And what if you can’t get back? Scootaloo needs you."

That calmed Rainbow Dash down.

"...That idiot," she muttered.

"I’m sure Spike will be fine," Rarity said, although she hardly sounded like she believed herself. "After all, we don’t know what goes on on the other side of that portal. For all we know it could just be a nice, normal kingdom on the other side."

"The portal’s closed by now anyway," Pinkie said. It was at that point that everypony noticed she was pressing her hooves against the glass. And it was simply glass now.

Applejack sighed. "Then that’s it. No Twi fer a month."

"No time to mourn. We have work to do." Celestia was all business now. "I know it’s usually Twilight that does the research work among you, but I need you all to try and persevere."

Applejack brushed her hoof up against the side of her head. "Where do we even start?"

"I can bring you records of those who were known supporters of Olive Branch... that might be a start. The two guards we caught in his employ might have had other allies. We also have information on everypony who works in the castle. After you check them, I want you to start interviewing everypony they associate with. Ponies gossip, after all."

"Aw, research?" Pinkie kicked at the ground, looking very much like an unhappy foal. "I hope it’s not as boring as the research we had to do in the Crystal Empire."

Applejack rubbed the back of her neck. "Actually, Pink, we were gonna ask ya to help some other way."

"Really? Why?"

"Well..."

Pinkie sighed as she opened the next old book, hoping this could give some info on the crystal ponies.

This phenomena to which I have written this tome on is fascinating. The intro droned on. Ponies born in this condition may find themselves naturally pulling things out of thin air, traveling great distances without the use of a teleportation spell, and doing a number of other incredible feats. Once a pony learns to master these abilities, they could conceivably become even more powerful than the dreaded Discord. This power is not present in crystal ponies...

"Well, that’s no help," Pinkie said, placing the book on the guardrail of the third floor.

Seconds later, the book fell off and into an open flame.

“It was just one book," Pinkie muttered.

"It was irreplaceable!" Rarity said. "Honestly, Twilight was angry enough to see a book destroyed, but when she found out..."

"Enough," Celestia said. "You all need to figure things out amongst yourselves. Please, I’m counting on you."

"No worries, you can count on us!"

Celestia smiled. "I have the utmost faith. Now, all of you to the library... except you,” she pointed a hoof at Rarity.

“Me?”

“Since Twilight’s gone, I’m going to need to teach you the method for checking changelings. Now’s the time we’ll need it. I’ll also need your fireplace reference numbers. Now that Spike’s gone, I'll need to send messages that way.”





"Why are we doing this again?"

Scootaloo rolled her eyes at Sweetie Belle's question. Which was unsurprising, considering that Sweetie had asked that question several times already. "Well, Granny Smith told us we couldn’t get the lumber we needed, so we need to do something else.

"By going into Everfree!" Sweetie's voice carried through the trees. "I think that was what Granny wanted to avoid."

"Relax, I told ya, Zecora already warded this path after that run-in Twi had with the cockatree. None o’ the monsters will get us."

Sweetie Belle knew it was pointless to argue. She had been outvoted two to one, and now they were going to try and be Cutie Mark Crusader Balance Actors. They had all seen Zecora's method of meditating, balancing on her neck, and wanted to learn.

"Zecora said she show us how, an’ I come down this path all the time."

"If it’s so safe, why hasn’t Zecora put these things all around the forest?"

"It's too big, an’ too expensive," Apple Bloom said.

Scootaloo suddenly stopped. "Hey, how far is the castle where Rainbow Dash and the others got the Elements of Harmony?"

Her two companions stopped and looked at her. "I... I think it’s about half a mile from Zecora's hut, why?"

"Let’s go see it!"

"What! No way!" Sweetie Belle looked like she would rather be in school.

"Come on, it’ll be great! I've been wanting Rainbow Dash to take me there, but she’s been too busy!"

"What about the manticores, and the timberwolves, and the other things that could kill us!"

"Actually, I heard Twilight ask Zecora to ward that path too, just in case they needed to go back."

Sweetie glared at Apple Bloom, who shrank back a little. "...Well, I did."

"Come on! I’ll bet the castle has all kinds of cool secret passages and stuff like that!”

The unicorn rolled her eyes. “Scoots, we don’t live in a Daring Do book. It’s just going to be a normal castle in the middle of a spooky monster-infested forest.”

“Well, it’ll be cool anyway! Come on!”

“No! Apple Bloom, help me out here!”

“Actually, I think it’d be cool.”

“...What?”

“If Applejack managed to find an Element there, imagine what we’d find!”

“No, no, no...”

“Sorry Sweetie, two to one,” Scootaloo said, not sounding sorry in the least. “Come on.”

“But...” Sweetie knew there was no point in protesting. She sighed and dragged her hooves. Then she picked them back up when she remembered what else lurked in these woods.





Rarity felt like her horn was going to split in two. She pawed at its base with her hooves, screaming in pain. She barely felt Celestia wrap a blanket around her.

“Oh my gosh, Rarity, I’m so sorry!” For once, the Princess of the Sun seemed nearly as stressed as her number one student. “I forgot...”

“Forgot?” Rarity couldn’t help but snap. Tears of pain were rolling down her cheeks.

“I’m usually working with unicorns who specialize in advanced spellcasting. I forget... not everypony is used to that level of magic.”

For once, Rarity was not as concerned with her looks. She rubbed her head, mussing up her usually pristine mane, trying to make her headache go away. Fortunately, it did seem like her pain was subsiding.

“I’m sorry, Rarity,” she repeated. “If this is too much for you, I can bring in an expert to help you.”

It took half a minute for Rarity to be able to process what the Princess said. “Wouldn’t that... be dangerous? You said...”

“I know what I said. But if you can’t perform the spell, we won’t have many other options.”

“Then I need to learn the spell,” she said.

"Are you sure?"

Rarity nodded, tossing off the blanket. "If this is as important as you say it is, then I can bear it." She stopped. "I can learn this, can’t I?"

"You can. You won’t be as efficient as Twilight, you’ll only be able to cast the spell once a day for a while... but you can get it with work. Trust me, this first headache will be as bad as it gets."

"Then we need to get back to work." She lit up her horn again, and immediately regretted it as the residual pain came up again.

Celestia brought a cup of water up to her. "Have a drink, and we’ll try again in a few minutes."

Rarity took a drink, then just looked at the cup. It was a simple plastic cup, hardly something you'd expect a Princess of Equestria to use. Then again, nothing was really all that elaborate in Celestia's sitting room. A well-read novel (horror, much to Rarity's surprise) on a simple, but still nice end table next to a seat, that day’s newspaper, still untouched, a table with a candy bowl. The most ordinate item in the room was an old grandfather clock, still ticking away the seconds even as Rarity looked around.

It was then that Rarity reminded herself that she was alone, in the presence of Celestia herself. She turned, hoping to feel the lull with some sophisticated conversation, but stopped when she saw her looking off, her eyes glazed over with thought.

"Um... Your Highness?"

"Hm? I’m sorry, Rarity... and please, call me Celestia... seeing Sunset again has simply brought up painful memories."

Rarity bit her lip. She wanted to press, she had never quite suppressed the natural gossip in her, even after the Gabby Gums incident, but doing so now...

"I'm wondering how Sunset reacted to Twilight."

Rarity blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Sunset was always so prideful. She needed to be the best at every assignment I gave her."

"Like Twilight?"

"No. When Twilight did it, she did it because she wanted the knowledge. With Sunset... Sunset seemed determined to let everypony know that she could do it. She wanted others to see her as the best." Celestia took a deep breath. "Sunset had a weak ego. I tried to fix it, but any criticism I gave her she took too badly. She promised she'd get better, but it always involved her throwing herself deeper into her work. I can’t help but wonder if maybe she did think like Twilight in one regard, though... That she thought I wouldn’t love her if she wasn’t the best."

Rarity opened her mouth, but found nothing to say.

"I’m worried... did whoever Sunset’s working with convince her that I simply replaced her with Twilight? I never meant to make her feel that way. I... I always dreamed of Sunset coming back. She could have been Twilight’s sister..."

Celestia was starting to cry. Rarity, feeling awkward, nuzzled her. This seemed to snap Celestia back to reality. "I hope Twilight can get through to her. She was a good pony... once. I know that Sunset exists."

Rarity was silent again.

Celestia shook her head. "But never you mind my daydreaming. Come on, we still have work to do."

Rarity didn’t feel quite ready, but she rose to her hooves. "I suppose." A thought occurred to her. "What if the changelings catch me? Won’t the others be left defenseless if I’m replaced?"

"My mages have finished devising some wards that can sense changelings. I’ve sent some workers to Ponyville to install them at your Boutique as we speak. I apologize, Rarity, for not discussing that with you first, but time is of the essence," she said in reply to the unicorn’s shocked expression. "If any changeling even tries to enter, they’ll be paralyzed in place."

"What about my friends? Are they getting these too?"

"They will soon. But my workers are trying to do things as discreetly as possible. Nopony outside the five of you will even know they’re there. I’ll have to arrange for the Apples and the Cakes to be away for a day. Maybe I’ll ask them to cater a royal party... but nevermind. One problem at a time. Let’s go through the process again..."





How does Twi do it?

That thought was haunting Applejack as she shifted through yet another set of files. The four remaining ponies had split into two groups, each taking half the stack of ponies Celestia wanted them to investigate. She had partnered with Rainbow Dash, while Pinkie and Fluttershy conducted their work at the next table. She opened the top one up. Another Canterlot citizen, who lived in one of the poorer districts, who was seen attending several of Olive Branch's rallies.

"Let’s see... works at a restaurant in town. We better interview him, his boss... maybe I better make a list."

Rainbow Dash arched an eyebrow. "Applejack... Twilight’s only gone for a month. You don’t need to start acting like her."

"I am not actin’ like Twi! I never act like Twi!"

"Really? Big Mac says you got pretty crazy organizing the Apple Family reunion."

"Well... kinda..."

"’Kinda’? I heard the whole family had to practically tie you down to stop you from turning Granny Smith’s quilting into some sort of sweat shop."

Applejack felt the heat rising in her cheeks. "Yeah, well, Twi’s never steered us wrong yet. I reckon we try ta do things her way."

Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Whatever." Despite her disinterested tone, she pulled a piece of parchment in front of her and picked up a quill with her teeth. "What’s this guy’s name?"

"Silver Tray," Applejack said. "Home address is..."

Three minutes later all the pony's basic details and a list of the ponies they would interrogate were written down. Rainbow Dash let out a groan, making sure it sounded extra obnoxious, a skill she had spent a considerable amount of time honing. "How many of these are there?"

"Including the ones Pinkie an’ Fluttershy have? ‘Bout fifty. An’ that’s just th’ supporters. I think another hundred and fifty were th’ workers in the castle. If we don’t get anything from them, there are another six hundred an’ fifty to..."

"And we have to look into all of these guys?" She buried her head in her hooves. "This is going to take forever!"

"Not all of ‘em, just until one gives us a lead." Applejack sighed. "If any of ‘em leads."

Rainbow Dash blinked. "You mean we might be doing this for nothing? Then why are we wasting our time?"

"Well, you gotta better idea?"

"...No," Rainbow Dash said, crossing her forelegs and kicking at the ground. 

"Come on, Dash, don’t be like that. I’m gonna need you to be doin’ most of these."

"What? Why aren’t you doing it?"

"Dash, I gotta farm to run. Even with two perfectly fit ponies, me an’ Big Mac have our hooves full this time o’ year."

"Well, why me?" Rainbow Dash was in the air now, flying back and forth, trying to burn off some of this angry energy.

"Rare’s work schedule gets pretty unpredictable and you know it. She might be able to help ya, and might not. I think Fluttershy’s too meek to be doin’ this on her own, and Pinkie is too... Pinkie. Ya can get yer work done quick, so yer gonna have more free time. Sides, you can get ta Canterlot an’ back quick with no chariot or train."

"Come on, Applejack, I’ve got a foal to take care of!"

That caused Applejack to stop and look at her. It was easy to forget, even after all this time, that her friend was now, for all intents and purpose, a mother. "Well, it can’t be that hard to get somepony to watch her. Granny and Big Mac can..."

"AJ, I’m already canceling time with her to be here. I want to see her more than an hour a day, which is about all the time we’ll have together if I'm doing all the work."

"I know, but..." Applejack stopped, then sighed. "Look, Dash, this is important. Not sayin’ that Scoots ain’t important too, but she won’t be safe until whoever Sunset was workin’ for gets caught. Ya know that."

Rainbow Dash had the distinct feeling she was being guilt tripped into something, but she couldn’t argue with Applejack's logic. Still...

"Do you have to be there the whole harvest? Can't you..."

"I’ll be taking as much time off as I can, I promise. But I’m gonna be countin' on ya."

She scoffed. "Fine."

"Good, now let’s get these written up. Sooner we do, th’ sooner you can get back ta Scootaloo."