Twilight looked dejectedly over the side of the silver chariot as it flew through the sky, drawn by Luna's silver armored guards.
"Cheer up Twilight," Spike said comfortingly.
"All of Equestria may be in danger and when I tried to find the key to save it I wound up spending the night rearranging my room instead."
"Well, Luna did say you needed to learn to confront your Shadow's problems instead of. . ."
"I know!"
"Well, you'll be staying in a library, isn't that a good thing?"
Twilight pulled herself upright, looking from the lamps to the blazing moon floating in the sky like a lamp mounted in a mirror of dark blue frosted glass. "Your right Spike! That's resources to prove my theory as soon as I can wrap up preparations for the festival."
"But when will you have time to make friends?"
Twilight rolled her eyes, "The fate of Equestria doesn't hinge on me making friends!"
Twilight looked up at the sign over the gate. "Sweet Apple Acres."
"Providers of the food," Spike commented as he considered his clipboard. "You'll want to talk to a pony named Applejack apparently."
"Ok, let's ..." Twilight fell silent and came to a halt as she turned toward a sudden burst of sound.
In the orchard floated a pony, her burnt umbra coat and large butterfly wings inlaid with a dozens of spirals of every color sparkling with a thousand dots of light. And on her head where a tiara or hat covered with feathers would have fit perfectly, there was instead a jarringly plain light tan cowpony hat.
'Interesting Shadow Side,' Twilight thought as she listened to pony's wordless melody. As the pony stopped singing and just looked at the tree in front of her, Twilight slowly walked forward.
"Hi!" Twilight called, prompting the pony to pirouette toward her. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, the princess sent me to oversee preparations, and I need to see ... Applejack?"
Wordlessly the floating pony closed her eyes in concentration, and a black ripple shimmered across her form as her wings faded and her coat shifted to a solid orange hue. "That'd be me. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." She declared extending a hoof.
'Fast reversion, must mean she's very used to shifting.' Twilight considered Applejack as she extended her own hoof, then lost her train of thought as the high speed hoofshake sent vibrations all the way to the tip of her tail.
"So, you're representing her majesty. What can I do you for?"
Twilight shook her head. "As I said I'm overseeing preparations for the Twilight Lament," she explained as she looked around the farm. "And according to my list you are responsible for providing the ... Is that a ... Zap apple Tree?"
Applejack winced slightly as she followed Twilight's gaze to the tree she had been singing at earlier. "No, That's a Midnight."
"Oh, I'm sorry if there's something wrong, I was just checking about the food, and I've only read about Zap Apples ..."
Applejack raised a dismissive hoof. "Don't worry, this ain't got nothing to do with the chow for the festivities, it's just that the Midnights won't finish ripening unless you sing to them shadow style and they want a different song from every pony. I'm still trying to figure what song they want from me."
"Really, that's an unusually loose causal crystallization."
Applejack blinked, "Beg Pardon?"
"Well the theory goes that for new discoveries like these, any cause can trigger any effect, but the first time sets it permanently." Twilight looked at Applejack's confused face. "Well according to Summer Dawn, not that anyone but me seems to have read her book... "
Applejack shook her head. "Well unless you know some fancy Unicorn trick for figuring out what I should be singing, I suppose we ought to be talking vittles."
Twilight looked at Applejack, then at the tree, one hoof raised to rub under her chin. "Actually ..." her horn glowed as she reached out and grabbed a bunch of twigs and leaves from the ground around them. She swirled her collection in a whirling ball of magic that rose about eight feet into the air, then released the sphere and watched the contents drop to the ground before her and Applejack. Twilight cocked her head one way then the other, then with a nod she extended her hoof and drew a circle around one patch of earth. "What songs does that bring to mind?"
"Huh?" Applejack asked, staring at Twilight a moment before looking to the ground. "It's a few twigs and three leaves in a circle."
"Try to just clear your mind, look at it and identify any music related comparisons it inspires."
Applejack raised a hoof to scratch her head as she looked down. "Well, it kind reminds me of this poster I saw in Manehatin back ... Are you sayin those trees want opera?!"
Twilight blinked as she looked at the farmpony. "No, I..."
Applejack cut her off with a big sigh. "Well, that's just typical. But I definitely don't wanna try that on an empty stomach. Care to sample the food for the festivities?"
"Well ..."
Not waiting for an answer Appjack had already sprinted to a hearby triangle which she rung loudly. "Soup's On Everypony!!"
"I ate too much," Twilight moaned as she walked into town. "Who's next on the list?
Spike looked over his scroll. "Well there's a Pegasus named Rainbow Dash who'd supposed to be handling the placement of the clouds."
"Right," Twilight commented as she looked up to the sky, then her eyes widening. "She's not doing a good job."
Above the central ponyville square sat a large glowing cloud, jagged multicolored sparks dancing across it's quivering surface, to signify the rainbow arcing into it's top.
"Oh no, Lamp venting." She looked around the sky. "Blast it, where's that sky captain, she's supposed to be taking care of this sort of thing."
"Don't worry, it should handle itself in a minute." A voice intoned from behind her.
Twilight pivoted and looked behind her. A blue Pegasus with a wild rainbow mane sat on a cloud a foot above the ground casually polishing an apple.
Twilight stared at her. "This is serious!" She declared angrily.
The Pegasus casually responded "I know," as she took a bite out of her apple. "That's why I'm waiting."
Twilight looked back to the cloud. "For what?"
The Pegasus took another bite of her apple, and chewed a few times before swallowing. "There's a five minuite window. During that window, the number crunchers say there's a coin flip's chance that ... Ah, four minutes twenty five seconds," She concluded as she tossed away her apple and stood.
Twilight turned to follow the Pegasus's gaze skyward. Suddenly a great arc of multihued darkness arced through the sky, slamming into a second cloud floating about thrity feet away from the cloud holding back the bright rainbow.
"Wait, so there's a local patern for the lamps venting rainbows of darkness right five minutes after rainbows of light?" Twilight asked.
The Pegasus rose into the sky with a few flaps of her wings. "You catch on fast." Abruptly the Pegasus shot forward, shooting into a superfast figure 8 patern around the two clouds, then shifted into a superfast loop around both in the opposite direction for nearly a second before flying right up to twilight and dropping casually to her hoofs. "Five, four, three," she counted while pulling out and putting on a pair of sunglasses, "Two, bang."
As the clouds continued to slowly drift together, suddenly a spark of rainbow lightning jumped from the first cloud to the second, igniting a growing cascade of light and dark arcs leaping between the two clouds, then a moment latter the arcs of power climbed between the two rainbows like a gigantic jacob's ladder, their intensity growing all the time before with a fierce crack the two rainbows slammed together and vanished in a burst of light and noise.
"Oh yeah," the Pegasus commented with a big grin as she took off her sunglasses.
Twilight shook her head. "Ok, you're Rainbow Dash right?"
With a grin the Pegasus responded, "The one and only!" She looked appraisingly at Twilight and added, "So you've heard of me?"
Twilight looked up to the sky. "I'm Twilight Sparkle, I was sent to check up on preparations and I'd heard you were in charge of the sky."
"Oh yeah, no worries am I right?" She responded with a smirk.
Twilight looked at the scattered clouds in the sky. "While handling that venting was impressive, that doesn't guarantee that this level of cloud shielding will be sufficient."
Rainbow scowled. "Are you saying I don't know my job?"
Twilight shook her head. "No, I'm saying that because the lamp's so close to a full shutdown it's overall venting likelihood is going to increase dramatically."
"Yeah I've heard that, that's why I set the triple cover pattern up there, no worries," Rainbow commented with a little wave of her hoof.
"Worrying is my job!" Twilight declared as she looked skyward again. Suddenly there was a slight boom and a burst of darkness through the clouds.
"Wow," Rainbow commented, raising a hoof to scratch her head. "Never seen separated vents so close together before. Ok, I can kick the cloud shielding up a few notches easily enough."
Twilight sighed and smiled. "Thank you, that's a big reassurance."
With a laugh Rainbow Dash gave her a light tap on the shoulder. "Funny, Twilight Sparkle." With a few flaps of her wings she rose into the air. "I can't wait to hang out some more!" She called as she shot upward.
"Hmm, Two new friends already," Spike commented as he looked to the rapidly reshaping clouds in the sky.
Twilight directed a weak glair at the young dragon. "That's not why ... Never mind, what's next on the list."
"Town hall, Decorations," Spike read.