//------------------------------// // 2.3 // Story: How Hard Could it Be? // by Richardson //------------------------------// Examination 2.3 Once more, the currently somewhat blasted and pock-marked roads of Ponyville were filled with the terror buzz of tiny wings and the rickety crashing and creaking of a wagon well past the point that it should have been retired. Scootaloo slalomed through the remains of Luna's last stand against Tirek, having completely forgotten about slowing down for their new teacher they had left behind. Ponyville had suffered worse in recent history, and everypony had escaped the mad fight just fine. Already, the sounds of reconstruction filled the air with a hammer chorus of building. Sunbeam winced with each ache of her cracked ribs and fractured wing as she chased the crusaders through the improvised maze that reconstruction efforts had turned Ponyville into. Taking that hit for Twilight had been the right thing to do and gave her former student enough time to talk Discord back over to their side, but that didn't mean that it didn't hurt! And she still didn't know how to explain to Twilight how a 'normal' pegasus took a hit that should have vaporized any 'normal' pony... Wincing away, she couldn't watch as Scootaloo hopped the old Cutie Wagon off of a ramp and up and over a new sewer pipe being laid down for the town. It had been one bay-burning, mountain-cracking, river-shifting throwdown of epic proportions. And it had at least shut up most ponies over the legitimacy of Luna's rule. "Girls, Slow DOWN!" Boy, it had been terrifying fun. Scootaloo skidded to a halt outside of the main gate of Twilight's pal- 'Fortress of Friendship' in a cloud of dust and pebbles. Her venerable old scooter rattled loosely as she stepped off of it and hung her aerodynamic new helmet on the handlebars. "So, does anypony know how to get Twilight's attention when she's way up there?" She looked up to the lower levels of the building high above, hanging at least ten stories up in the lower branches of the crystal tree it was built and grown into. "Ah think Ah know just the way to get her attention." Applebloom started taking deep breaths as she threw her helmet off. "Just cover yer ears and cheer with me. Ya'll know when." One deeper breath, and.... "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, CRAZY TROUBLEMAKERS!" "Yeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Twilight popped back into reality several hooves over their heads with a yelp and a crackle of energy that sparked off of her horn. Her wings flapped wildly as she realized that the grand nemesis of flighted ponies everywhere, Mistress Gravity, had yet to take notice of her antics after sleeping in from overworking herself tearing down broken mountains in The Last Stand. A state of affairs that was quickly put back into order, and put Twilight on the ground. "Geee, um... Ponyfeathers. Sorry 'bout that there, Princess. We just didn't know how to get ahold of you up there." Applebloom sheepishly said as the trio rushed to help Twilight back up to her hooves. A groan of pain answered her. It was a valid response to a gravity-induced meeting in Twilight's Grand Guide of Social Etique! Little hooves helped her as Sunbeam ran up to them from behind, panting and wheezing. The elder mare slumped onto the Crusader Wagon in a huff of exhaustion and depleted magic. "You girls move... huff... gasp.... pretty fast." "Weeeelll, I spent a few years practicing." Scootaloo instantly drawled back as she got underneath Twilight and pushed the aching alicorn upright with her back and wings. "I'm not even as strong as that Zipporwhil kid." Sunbeam snorted. "Just so you know, I don't know if you know yet, but landings like that never stop hurting." She panted to Twilight before trying to push off of the wagon and get back upright. Under 500 pounds of heavily built mare, it stood little chance and splintered with a squeak of shearing metal. "Oh, no." Applebloom sighed, and didn't even look back. "Don't worry yerself. That wagon was gonna die soon anyway." Twilight shuddered beside her as another faint current of overcharged magic ran over the alicorn's horn. "Ya okay, Princess?" "Don't call me that. Please don't call me that. After Tirek, it isn't so endearing." Twilight instinctively yelped as another jolt lifted her up into the air up for a moment, startling the trio. Sunbeam's concerned look went unnoticed behind them. "I mean ugh! I wish Princ- Celestia was here. I need a plan for dealing with the magic she left with me before it gets more out of hoof. I don't know if I can help you girls at the moment. Just because I've just gotten a castle-" "Fortress of Friendship!" Scootaloo yelled, startling everypony. Twilight's overcharged magic surged once again, bursting from her from her horn in a sunset mixed blast of light as she unintentionally teleported herself and her audience onto the main landing balcony of the Fortress of Friendship. "Whoa!.... Do it again!" "Let's not, and just mark it down on the checklist that we did, instead." Twilight babbled before licking a hoof and putting out the smoldering tip of her horn. A realization struck her as she saw her strung-out state reflected in the facets of her home and the eyes of her audience, and she once more slowly worked through her breathing exercises. Her wings drooped from their twitching and erect state to fall to her sides limply as she sighed a moan of relief. "Look, just... I'm only 'Princess' when Council is in session, okay? I can't be the Princess of Friendship if everypony is bowing and scraping to me. No titles, and no special treatment for me, can you do that?" The Cutie Mark Crusaders nodded together while Sunbeam slyly smiled and took on her sappiest, sweetest, most irritating tone of voice that she could. "Oh, of course, your worshipfulness." "Hey!" "Yes, your friendshippiness?" "You're just doing that to annoy me?" "And break the tension, yes." "Stop it!" Sunbeam smiled challengingly. "Make m-mmph!" The crusaders backed away slowly as Twilight sighed and carefully set Sunbeam's magically disconnected mouth on the ground. The elder mare glared and muffledly cursed her former student, snorting as she frowned in irritation. Twilight gasped as she realized how badly she had freaked her students out, and tried to slide the mouth out of sight. "What? She told me to make her stop!" "Right, uh... Ah don't think that's what she meant, Twilight." Applebloom nervously began. "So, uh, are our e-val-unations still on?" If it wasn't for the fact that it was somepony's mouth on the ground, seeing it pout like that would have been pretty funny to her. "Oh! Sigh, I did promise, didn't I? And I can't put it off, either. Sunbeam came because I asked her to. I shouldn't break my promise to you four just because I'm not done moving in. C'mon girls, I think I have just the room for what we need." Twilight cursed the utter destruction of her schedule caused by the chaos of the attack. She let Sunbeam sneak behind her to pick up her mouth again, smirking a little as the pegasus tried to fit it back onto face as the crusaders filed through the archway into the upper foyer. It was pretty funny to watch the way that her eyebrows danced in frustration. "Don't you think you should give her mouth back, Twilight?" Sweetie asked as they trotted into the dark hallway beyond the foyer. The windows weren't in a good position to pick up the noonday sun, and didn't provide much of the outside illumination for the group of ponies. "I know she's being mean to you, but... Trixie took Pinkie's mouth, and it wasn't fun then." Twilight's smile slowly drooped as she realized she was taking her frustrations out on Sunbeam, her ears falling flat to join the depressed corners of her mouth in shame shortly afterwards. Her sun-streaked magenta magic took Sunbeam's mouth from her grasp and gently pressed it home firmly, and fused it back into place. Mind you, her relief at putting things right went sour fairly quickly when the first thing the pegasus did was stick her tongue out at her. So she stuck her tongue out right back at her. Only fair, right? Sunbeam picked up the corners of her mouth with her wingtips and started making noises at Twilight. "Nyeaaah!" "Nyeaaah-Nyeah!" Twilight slobbered back as she assumed the same pose and upped the ante. "GIRLS!" Scootaloo shouted in frustration from beside the door. "What are you, two?" Sunbeam made a show of having to think it over. Not that she had to, of couse. Nodding firmly, she quipped back with a vengeance. "Yup. One." She pointed at Twilight, who rolled her eyes. "Two." She pointed at herself. "There are two of us, therefore we are two and two is us." Literal logic was useful for playing with somepony's mind. She waited patiently as Twilight opened the door deeper into the pal- Fortress of Friendship, loving the way that she had wound up the alicorn enough that she was mocking her under her breath. "Ever wonder why I'm so Cra-ZY? Just look at her." Twilight most certainly didn't pout in an un-princessly manner. "Well, couldn't you two grow up, or something?" Scootaloo sarcastically asked as they stepped into the big central ring corridor around the Fortress. Sunbeam snapped back with a worried look on her face. "Don't ask somepony to grow up. It's the worst fate anypony can endure. Sort of. I wish I had never grown up, or made Her Fluffiness here grow up." Sunbeam ruffled Twilight's mane, ducking the swat from the alicorn's wings. "Yes, Princess Celestia asked me to grow up." "Well, I hate to break it to you, but the Princess was a big butthead on this one, trust me. Especially the way that she left. You know, I just realized that she probably left because she figured that out." Sunbeam countered a little too snappily, leaving Twilight spluttering incoherently. She sighed, and seemed to deflate a little as she fell behind. "She was so rarely happy these past few years. Letting her guard down around you was one of the few times she could relax. The only times I can remember ever seeing her happy lately was the night she sicked you and your friends on the Gala, the buildup to Cadance's wedding, and that whole mess around your coronation." Twilight didn't say much as she walked along ahead of them. "Don't grow up. If you have to, grow old, children. Growing up means you have to be 'mature' and 'responsible' and an 'example to others'. You'll always have to hide who you are, even if you enjoy doing what you do." Sunbeam said glumly as she picked up the pace and came alongside Twilight again. Twilight scrunched her muzzle frownily as she thought over Sunbeam's words. Words that were ringing all too true in her ears as she started stomping and tried to ignore them. They came up upon an otherwise nondescript door with a small number of chairs and an endtable, unmarked and nameless. She stopped, harrumphing as she did. Sweetie cut her off before she could say anything, hopping up onto a chair. "Hey! Don't fight, fighting sucks!" "We're not fighting! We're playing with words! Sharp, pointy, ouch words!" Twilight protested. Sweetie frowned further and stomped her hooves on the plump, plush cushions. "Well, apologize! Friends don't fight!" Twilight and Sunbeam looked each other in the eyes, contemplating. Were they really getting so worked up over their mutual friend? Twilight couldn't tell, and that worried her more than she cared to admit. "Sorry." "Sorry." "So, uh.... don't mean to rush and all, but what about that whole... test... stuff- things?" Scootaloo reluctantly asked. "Oh, right. Well, you first, Scootaloo. Yours should be fairly easy to test, if kind of time consuming. Then Applebloom, since she'll probably be messy. Then Sweetie Belle last because she'll probably need me in there in case of a-" Twilight's horn sparked once more, feeding back into her body. Hooves wriggled in the air as she was lifted up off the ground. Fur fluffled, feathers ruffled, and Twilight jittered in midair before crashing back down again. "-Surge." "Are you okay?" Sunbeam concernedly asked her as the crusaders backed away a bit. "I haven't seen a surge that bad since your first year." Twilight bit her lip in worry, answering once she found a diplomatic way of voicing her concerns. "Remember what I said about Princess Celestia leaving me some of her magic? Well, it's more along the lines of three quarters of her magic. She teleported in while Prin- Luna was briefing us on her plan for dealing with Tirek and passed it to me so that he couldn't find her, then teleported back out with the remainder. My body still hasn't gotten used to the extra magic yet, so it's giving me fits. I know that since she still has some of her magic the rest will eventually regenerate, but- urk- but- nngngnnh!" Twilight trailed off as her horn zapped her several times. Her slowly blending magic enveloped her whole body in a telekinetic envelop and levitated herself up off of the floor involuntarily as she was struck by another surge. Hooves and wings flailed through the air as Twilight struggled to find a grip on something, anything. Sunbeam stifled a chuckle out of politeness as a disgusted groan of somepony far too used to something that shouldn't be escaped Twilight as the junior alicorn found herself upside down from her random movements. "Oh dear, let me help you." Sunbeam remarked with equal parts mild horror and genuine concern. Pulling her down proved to be rather remarkably difficult as reaching into the telekinetic field instead only pulled the elder mare up into it as well, sticking her to Twilight tightly. "Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear." "Welcome to my new Tuesday. Hope you brought some coffee, we'll be here a while." Twilight remarked, just before the field collapsed from holding two ponies at once and sent them dropping back to the floor harmlessly. "I hate these." "Well, that wasn't so bad. Kind of fun, actually, like a fairground ride." Sunbeam replied as she brushed her extravagantly long mane back into place with her hooves. "Shall we begin, then?"