The first beams of light of the day entered through the window, a warm caress soothing the sleeping mare and slowly stirring her awake.
Celestia sighed contently and smiled as she felt the touch of the sun upon her weary body.
'Wait, the su- oh...' She cringed momentarily as the implications hit home, but felt a... a twinge of tenderness at the realization that her sister would rather raise the sun herself than rouse her. She must have been really tired to oversleep like that, and Luna must have turned off her alarm; a touching gesture.
Celestia opened her eyes, the view of the dawn bringing a smile to her face. The light coming from beyond the horizon reminding her that, indeed, each night had it's dawn. Just as tedious days had their dusk, each cold night had a dawn.
She closed her eyes again as she soaked in the warmth to get energy for the day ahead of her. It was mostly clear, being the day after a festivity and, more importantly, having done all of her thrice-cursed paperwork!
Oh, and the major sources of it, the nobles, were likely at home trying to sleep off hangovers the size of their mansions.
Idly, she wondered if Silver and Cloud had even gotten home, though what she remembered pointed out that, if they had not waited until they were home then, then they were likely still at the garden.
Rolling her head and getting a series of 'unrefined' yet very relieving cracks from her neck, she ruffled her wings as she prepared to preen.
A small note got her attention first, though.
Good morning, or whatever time of day you actually find this, princess.
The headache made you sleep as soon as you laid your head down on a pillow, so Luna had to carry you back to your room. I warned you about feedback, sister. I told you about it.
No. You just had to disperse the duplicates that were doing wildly different things all at once, didn't you? Just because you can take it - and worse than that - in theory, that doesn't mean that you have the practice to just absorb the patterns of mental energy like that! Need I remind you who the masters of ubiquity are? Hint: It's not you!
There's a recipe written on the back - it's for a slow-acting magic/vitality restoration potion, with a couple of things added for vitamins and stuff. Excellent against hangovers, stress, and upset stomachs, although not exactly potent in the 'restoration' portion. It even tastes great, no need for stereotypically-hideous cures.
Well, I'm going back to Ponyville - no, even if I can last indefinitely by feeding and by absorbing external magic, I do not have to worry about personality drift, since I know the spell that sends the patterns back and forth. I'm going because I can't keep the poor guards following my steps forever, since they are technically on assignment... though if they got mysteriously recalled, that would be really helpful. I'm willing to bet that you already thought of ways to shift things around, with my best guess being 'formally' asking Twilight and the others to keep an eye out or something... it's not like Ponyville needs more eyes watching over it, certainly not from them - Shining Armor alone is already excessive.
The other two are going back, since they are still needed, but now going back and forth is much easier - just say the word to the right ears.
Trying my hardest to be friendly
Prosperity
P.S.: You'd better laugh more. Who ever heard of an Element of Laughter that is reserved with it?
Huh... well, she was feeling just fine, thank you, although she knew a pony or two that were likely going through the marvels that a hangover brought.
Fine! So she knew many of them, but she was going to keep it to herself. They needed to learn a thing or two about heavy drinking, and that if they wanted to use 'sickness' as an excuse, they should have to suffer through it at the least.
Hmm... she had gotten a few ideas of what to do with her new-found free time. Maybe skating with her sister? There was also that donut store from the Gala night... oh sweet Zacherle, those donuts! She was going to have to include them in the new changes to her life.
Thinking it more thoroughly, however, she realized that Luna might need the rest. She was still not completely recovered, returning to the state she had been found in during the day, and so it was likely that raising the sun had exhausted her. Maybe it was to rest her mind and powers? Holding her own flowy aurora mane during the night was... not a significant drain in absolute terms, but if she was to rid her life of unnecessary things she had to start from as much of a blank slate as she could. If ponies thought it weird, or if she needed to make a public appearance... she would cross that bridge when she got to it.
Perhaps she should give the book another look. Or take yet another hobby, like knitting... buuuut after sneaking another peek at that book.
Who knew what secrets were hidden behind the last spell of Starswirl?
*****
(Crafting room. Creation attempt #1)
Snap. Crack.
Dang. It figures.
Hissss.
Nope. That didn't turn out well.
This baby is being difficult~!
And Ironwing's notes are a mess, although that was to be expected from one of Discord's creations, I still want better from Byakko's significant other. One would think that a pony literally made of iron - well, kind of - would be a bit more constant, but no.
Crack. Cr-cr-crcr-crack.
Hmm... I wish I knew where did Clover wound up hiding-slash-stuck, because like hell Clover died without us knowing. If I'm going to get any of these ready for the girls, it would be better with a magic-talent pony compatible with the Element of Magic, an 'awake' sort, because Twilight is still a 'sleepwalker' and can't call on her true powers without the physical crown, even if she is The chosen one. Power alone, even power beyond Clover's own, a good base material does not make - for this.
Trixie...
Hisssss~...
Couldn't have worded it better myself. She's still got a way to go.
Snap.
Hey, if Rarity gave me a little bit of her magic, I could work the 'vision' and 'beauty' angles into the 'mirror' one, seed a large pool of ambient magic, crystallize it and... I'd have to re-work the seal and the runes to feed it in the sub-harmonic array before routing...
Crack. Hiss...
Dang. I definitely need cutie mark magic, at the least.
Power...
And finesse.
Runes. The basic language of the world. Long story short, an idea or concept put to magic put to writing (although some times the order was switched around). Each line in the drawing, letter in the word, or step in the chain creating a sentence and a circuit and a painting or sculpture all at once, turning something simple into something so much more advanced and descriptive and complex.
Everything got taken into account, from the mathematical equations of resonance to the melodious vibrations, from the medium used to the function, from the mood to the user, even the aesthetics were an important factor when creating an array. True, in a pinch, style can slide; then again, isn't simplicity just another form of elegance? Any engineer would smile upon a system that does its job, does it in a timely and consistent fashion, and has no excesses that may hinder the functionality.
A good deal of the... deal... with magic relied on connections. There were the facts, like this crystal reacts like so and so, blue and red make purple, and so on like with any other purely Material interaction. Then there were the abstractions, like feelings and imagination. Magic in Equestria is a science and an art. Magic is similar to a living being, giving in order to receive, capable of understanding mathematical approaches, chemical/alchemical reactions, and physics... and art, and emotion, and ideas.
Snap.
Magic and Message. The intent and the info. In Equestria, it's almost like interacting with someone. You still have to do it right if you want to get anywhere, but it's a lot easier to, say, accidentally turn the school's parent/teacher dinner into a more varied and nutritious version of 'Attack of the killer tomatoes', complete with killer juice box (if you are three inches tall, anyways). A spell carelessly cast is easily undone.
Us?
Crack.
... Well said.
Not so easily; our mistakes are surprisingly well-structured and solidly-built. Starswirl said that I earned my 'Father of Monsters' credentials after the marshmallows tried to eat him - took forever to get the gunk out of his beard (hehe!). Still, it was like the shikigami-style familiars didn't count in the eyes of that weird old goat. Pfft, even with that many teachers there is bound to be a few accidents - I mean, just because you are being supervised by four guardian gods -or sufficiently-god-like beings in any case - that doesn't mean that you are immune to having Discord's creations mess up your experiment.
Why Discord made Ironwing more metal than pony I don't know. At the very least, he had the decency to make Iron an earth pony with wing-like appendages (even if they have swords instead of feathers), rather than an outright pegasus. Getting hit with the wave of magic that defeated Discord had the effect of giving Ironwing a more stable body, more like the others, but it made things... interesting.
Hiss.
Mother of Chrome...
Whelp, that's that. I can't let myself get stuck with this forever. For the record: Crafting halted; cannot progress past second stage without properly-aligned magic, substitutes available, but require re-designing of the feeder and re-routing of the sub-harmonic at the very least. Time... six hours forty-three minutes and sixteen seconds; estimated time total for completion once crafting resumes, twenty hours. Estimated time for crystallization and shaping of requisite magic, further ten hours. Man am I glad I don't need sleep that much. Current time is two PM on the doooot~... now.
Materials are fine and abundant, with previous treatments and forging done prior to my Ascension - becoming friends AND research buddies with such important figures is awesome. Pity about misjudging the timing on the Crystal Empire... the preparations were incomplete. Had we known that Moonshadow's colt was like that, envious and bitter, we could have done something - give maximum priority to the defenses and leave the airship stuff for later, get the colt a danged shrink, anything. Ah... but that is the nature of those aligned with darkness akin that of the Void - to slip right through the awareness of others; it also happened to Luna and Moony and his wife, after all. Their nature conspired against us, against them, and it was thanks to Light and Hope that Luna is back, and no matter what I will help her push up her own affinities for Light and Hope, as well as do what I can for her Void, to help her.
Main reason right there. She allowed one of her affinities to overwhelm her; perhaps she felt inadequate, or overshadowed by her sister's own Light and Hope... and the remnants of Sombra's magic, and all of the dangers of the night didn't help. Soon after her banishment, however, Celestia changed... things - laws here and there to lift restrictions on nighttime activities, encourage celebrations here and there - and then we Winds could make the changes that fell through before.
Stupid timeline, so finicky about changes and stuff.
Still, that is precisely what I need about it to get my dues.
After all, once something has fulfilled its purpose, it is only polite to put it back. Or, seen in another way, if you are overcharged, you can demand a refund of the excess, or to get your payment's worth.
Geez! I'm rambling! This is a video taken for documentation purposes, not a V-Log! Well, it is, but this video was just supposed to be about the creation of this thing.
Clang.
Which doesn't even work. Yet.
Prototype or not, all adjustments will be a matter of calibration - barring some huge yet undetectable mistake, this is the final product for all intents and purposes.
Meh. See you next time. I think I'll tour the dreamscapes for a while.
Cli-
*****
(Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville, teatime)
"Yes, Dash." Prosperity answered with a raised eyebrow. "If the phantoms are going after him, and he was friends with ponies, it stands to reason that they would fight to help him - and yes, he was very involved in the training process, at least a part of it, and nearly all of mine."
"Good." Dash nodded. "That means I can get stronger, and be actually useful."
"The fastest flier in Equestria, feeling inadequate?" The words might have been considered mocking, but the tone was genuinely concerned. Prosperity set down her tea and leaned just a touch closer.
"That thing with the dragon a while back was... not my best moment." She replied, wings and ears drooping. "I was in way over my head, and my friends almost paid for it."
"Ah." Small, noncommittal sound of comprehension to draw further explanation. No movement; no distraction.
"See, there's this treat- oh." Rainbow nearly smacked her forehead, but settled for just rubbing it gently. "Right, dragon, you keep bringing it up. Anyways; we get sent 'cuz Twilight's got some authority, and sending guards or the princess-...es is a big no-no unless things are actually going bad - though Princess Celestia never took her eyes out of the cave while we were in there so that she could see if she had to jump in."
Rainbow paused, inhaling deeply.
"M-hmm." Small confirmation, softly delivered to indicate attention and patience. Small nod, then back to focusing on her.
"But I didn't know that." She sighed. "I thought that what little of the letter I actually listened to meant that the prin- that Princess Celestia believed we were awesome enough to go tackle a dragon."
Rainbow allowed her head to fall on the table, a disgruntled groan escaping her.
"To be absolutely fair, some of the most successful adventuring parties in the history of Equestria were pretty small - including yours, just so that you don't forget - heck, we kept ours small whenever we did things. That, and the current captain of the Royal Guard gives me the vibe of being able to handle a regular dragon solo." Prosperity offered, straightening her posture, slightly shifting her dress (a simple floral sundress) as one of Dash's ears flicked in her direction.
"But those guys get training, and never go without gear if they can help it." Dash said from her position on the table, remaining silent for a moment before straightening again. "I kicked that dragon so hard I had to get a healing spell to be able to feel my hooves again, and then I was on the ground, with a huge dragon about to eat us."
"Celestia would have given him a reprise of Tiamat's defeat before that ever came to pass, you know?" Prosperity said, pausing a second only to take a dainty bite out of one of the honeyed biscuits that accompanied her tea. "There would have been epics written about that, but it was simply a brutal, merciless, no-holds-barred beat-down until the foolish bag of scales was no longer able to throw around any of her powers - the sealing was when things actually got interesting."
"I already said that I didn't know that." Dash scowled, but the dragon across from her simply allowed the glare to roll off her scales. "All I knew was that we were going to be roasted snacks just because I was punching way above my weight."
Ah, right, Dash knew a thing or two about hoof-boxing, too.
"I mean, I realized that my friends were about to pay for my mistake." Dash sighed, virtually deflating. "I told them that I would take care of it, and just put them in danger in the first place."
That was a powerful conflict right there. Her loyalty towards her friends and the hit to her ego likely made her think her actions through more often.
"I take it that was why you didn't just charge in ahead of everypony else?" She just wanted to see if her deduction held any water.
"Yeah... I remember the tales, because they're so strange, you know? See, Thunderlane is great with lightning, and can even get them out of white clouds with his magic - I think one of his parents is a hot-shot Lunar Guard that shoots over miles, but that was second-hoof and might not be one-hundred-percent right." Rainbow shrugged. "Trixie could call up a small thundercloud with her magic, but that's it, small. Typhon? Every weatherpony has heard of how he could just wave and lightning would blast anything he wanted, even without clouds on the sky; I even saw it myself, a few days ago. That was one part, not repeating my mistake like with the dragon or Discord, with the other being how he talked to the p- to princess Celestia - like an old friend, but without the creepy mocking tone and zero sarcasm Discord had. So I asked myself: 'What would a smart pony like Twilight do?'"
"Research." Prosperity nodded, and yelped slightly when Twilight chose that precise moment to enter the establishment.
Said pony just walked over to the counter and asked Mrs. Cake for something to eat.
"Alright, I know that saying that word doesn't actually summon her, but that was some freaky timing, I swear." Dash said, blinking as if to make sure she wasn't seeing things.
"You were saying?" Prosperity tapped the cup.
"Oh? Ah, yeah. I learned my lesson; I knew enough to know that just jumping in was a bad idea, and I had to see just how bad. That's just part of it; I found some odd stuff, and I can't see why somepony didn't see it before."
"The books mention Luna all the time, I know; I am a librarian." Prosperity paused a second to wave at Twilight, then placed her free claw on the elbow of the arm that held the cup - lecture pose number five. "I think the Elements did something, ensorcelled her name, encouraged ponies to remember how Luna was instead of what she became, something."
Dash looked at her with curiosity.
"Remind me again how many mobs of adoring fans did you get after saving Equestria not just once, but twice?" Prosperity pointed out, while pointing with the teacup, and Dash's eyes widened. "They have something resembling a will, not quite a mind, and they help out even while they are dormant."
Dash looked down at the cup in front of her - frankly, she had forgotten about it - and simply flicked an ear in Twilight's direction as acknowledgement of her walking up to them.
"Hey, girls, what was that about the Elements?" Twilight asked, then tried to backpedal. "Not- not that I was eavesdropping or anything! But I couldn't help but hear it..."
"They have a will, not quite a mind."
"Why us?" Dash said before the other two had a chance to keep going. "Don't get me wrong, I get that we're different - hay, I can do the Sonic Rainboom, Fluttershy out-Stared a bucking cockatrice, and Twilight's the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria, maybe even the world."
"Aww... come on, Dash." Twilight blushed and shrank on herself a little. "There have been many other great unicorns that did many great things, too."
"Twilight, you were about to go into the Everfree, alone, just so nopony else would have to." Dash pointed out, and they both smiled at the memory.
"Precisely." Prosperity allowed the cup to clink against the saucer, then placed one claw over the other on her lap - pose number four. "If you are wondering if you were chosen because you were special, or you are special because you were chosen, don't. Rainbow, you would rather take a danger on yourself than let your friends go into danger, and sweep up the lost and the wandering in your intensity. Twilight, even at the peak of your antisocial behavior, you could not stomach the thought of a pony suffering, and want nothing more than letting others know how wonderful it is to have friends. Answer this: Where do you think that comes from?"
Dash sighed, apparently from relief, and Twilight's face was starting to give off appreciable heat.
"We can discuss that kind of topics some other time. You want to learn our secrets? Sure, why not? You were chosen to be the Elements of Harmony; you are good ponies looking to help out your friends." Prosperity nodded. "Clover would approve."
'And Typhon loves ponies a whole lot. You girls almost as much as them. He would offer, and I bet that he would make something to help you - not that I wouldn't help, but he's the one with the crazy ideas.'
"Learn- Dash, what is this about?"
"Dash wants to protect you using her own hooves." Prosperity answered before Dash had the opportunity to be at a loss for words and make a fool of herself.
Twilight blinked. Dash waited for a reaction.
"I- I can't say I'm surprised." Twilight wound up saying. "I want to tell you that it's too dangerous, that you don't have to do it, but then you'd tell me the exact same thing, right?"
Now Rainbow Dash blinked, then gasped as she realized what she meant.
"The more the merrier." Prosperity smiled. "I need to take care of other things first, though. Feel free to have the Heroic Boomerang argument without me, though."
"The what?"
"'No, it's too dangerous; I'll do it'. 'No, I'll do it; I'll never forgive myself if something happened to you'. 'No, I'll do it; you have so much to live for'..."
The ponies shared a look, Dash opening her mouth, Twilight giving a nod towards the dragon.
"We all know that you will decide to go together in the end." Prosperity added. "If there is one thing I consistently loved about my education, was the insane amount of stories I had access to. Don't bother arguing; I have most likely seen it enough times to know to expect you two."
"I'm too stubborn to let Twilight convince me to stay away."
"And I'd be lost without my friends; plus, we are stronger together."
'Ah, then that means this Twilight is smarter than one from a 'prime' or 'alpha' timeline. Good.'
"Great! That makes everything so much simpler! I'll get back to you in a few days. Who knows? Maybe we will have a few surprises..."