//------------------------------// // Chapter 4 // Story: Alicorn Switcheroo // by Fuzzyfurvert //------------------------------// Alicorn Switcheroo Chapter 4   “Pinkamena, take a memo.”  Pinkie paused to wipe a hoof across her forehead and wick away the sweat. “The next skintight catsuit I special order from Rarity needs to be made of breathable spandex.  This latex outfit gets sweaty way too quick—plus I have a nuclear wedgie in, like, two places!”   Pinkie sighed and looked up at her target. There was a large balcony about four stories above her, sticking out from the tower she was scaling.  Once she reached it, she could put together her collapsible hang glider and fly unseen across the castle courtyard and gardens to a matching balcony on Celestia’s tower.  First, however, she needed to reach the balcony.  Thankfully, the smarty pants pony had designed this tower had left the stones pretty rough, so an even smarter pants pony on a stealth mission could climb it with help from some climbing gear.   “Once again, lack of security foresight makes me a hippity-hoppity-happy pony!”  Pinkie grinned.  She set her climbing hooks into the groove of the masonry work and pulled herself up.  “Onward and upward toward romance!”   Twenty three minutes later, Pinkie hauled herself over the edge of the balcony’s banister, her forelegs shaky from the exertion.  She let herself flop bonelessly upon her back onto the balcony floor, gasping for breath.   “Pin-pinkamena… take…’nother memo.”  Pinkie coughed as she tried to get into a sitting position.  She didn’t make it very far.  “Starting tonight, eat fewer cookies before bedtime.  Like, one less.  Maybe every other night.  I need to go on a diet!” Pinkie Pie groaned, slowly getting her hooves under herself.  “Alrighty then!  We’ll table the diet thing for later.  Right now, I need to assemble my compacterrific personal pony glider!”  She righted herself and dug into her mane with one hoof.  She fished about for a moment when she heard the soft click of a door being opened behind her. “Who dares defile Our balcony uninvi—wait, fair Pinkie Pie?  Why art thou dressed as a spy pony?”  Princess Luna, stepping out of her personal chambers and looking Pinkie up and down, tilted her head to the side with a raised eyebrow.  “Are you here to spy on Us for Our sister?  We made it quite clear that We would not be dragged down into whatever prank she is trying to pull.” “Gah!  How many ponies do I have to correct today?  This isn’t a ninja outfit!  It’s…”  Pinkie shook her head and gaped at Luna for a moment.  “You got it right!  I am dressed as a spy pony!  Whoo!  Go moon princess!” Luna blinked incomprehensibly.  “Er...yes.  Go Us.  Why are you here, spying on Us?” Pinkie giggled and yanked her compact personal glider from her mane.  “Oh, you silly filly!  I’m not here to spy on you.  I’m here to spy on Twilight and Princess Celestia.  Duh!” “Twilight Sparkle is here in the castle?” Luna blinked again, then grinned. “Good. She will be able to get Our sister to behave better than anypony. Celestia values her student’s opinion so. Perhaps Twilight will be able to determine what Our sister is up to.” “Princess Celestia is up to something?” Pinkie paused in the middle of folding the wings of her glider into place. “Is she planning a party or something fun? I saw Twilight take a big cake up to the Princess’ room.” “A bribe, no doubt.  You see, fair Pinkie Pie, Our sister has locked herself in her room, and refuses to raise her sun fully or see to her duties at court.  We believe she is planning a prank of some sort and wishes Us to cover for her.”  Luna smirked.  “We are nopony’s pawn, not even Tia’s!  She will not force work onto Us that she can well do herself.” Luna chuckled mirthlessly. She rubbed her chin while the glider that Pinkie Pie was building shaped up on her balcony.  “You said you were spying upon Tia and Twilight, correct?  What is this contraption for, if We may ask?” “It’s a one pony glider!  For us non-pegasus types!”  Pinkie grinned proudly.  “I got it at pony spy camp last summer.  Neato, huh?” Pinkie pushed the wing struts into their locked position, and then attached the steering bar.  “I’m going to use it to glide stealthy-like over to Princess Celestia’s balcony so I can spy on them from the window.  I wanted to go down the hall, but this castle doesn’t have air ducts big enough.  In fact, I don’t think it has air ducts at all!  That’s like a building code violation or something!” Luna giggled.  “We hath bribed the Canterlot building inspector.” Pinkie snorted and dropped her goggles back down.  “Well, get it fixed so that next time I need to sneak around the castle without being seen I can just use the ducts!”  The earth pony shook her head and lifted the glider onto her back.  She turned, looking out over the gardens at her distant target.  The gardens weren’t nearly as big as the park in Ponyville, but looking down on it, it suddenly seemed as big as the whole of Sweet Apple Acres.  Pinkie whistled to herself and held up a hoof to test for the breeze. “Hmmmm...uh, wow…”  Pinkie giggled nervously.  “Maybe if I dived first, I could get enough lift?” “Perhaps We can help?” Pinkie paused, one hoof on the railing, and looked back at Luna.  The Princess stepped closer nodding her chin toward Celestia’s balcony.  “Tia’s balcony is higher than this one.  We fear your glider would not be able to achieve the lift needed, even if you should do a dive first.  But, perhaps if you had a boost, you would make it?” “What you got in mind, Princess?” “Well,”  Luna flexed with one arm, “We are no slouch in the Mare Toss, if We say so Ourselves.  We could throw you there, if you are willing.” “I like your style, Princess!”  Pinkie Pie giggled and grabbed her glider tightly.  Luna hefted the pink pony up on one shoulder.  “Oh hey, before you toss me, can I ask you something?” Luna paused and looked up.  “We will grant your request.” “What’s with the whole ‘royal we’ stuff?” “Tis proper for one of royal station to speak that way.”  Luna smirked smugly.  She adjusted her grip on Pinkie’s sides to angle her throw.  “Why do you ask?” “Well,” Pinkie shrugged, “it’s just that you know that nopony else does it, not even Princess Celestia.  I know you have to know how everypony talks, ‘cause you’ve been back for more than a few years now.” “True…”  Luna frowned. “It’s just that, as your friend, Luna, I thought I should say something.”  Pinkie smiled as wide as her mouth would go, which was pretty far if you asked most ponies.  “Sometimes it makes you sound silly, and I don’t want you to be laughed at.  Silliness is great, and so are laughs!  But if you are getting laughed at because other ponies think you sound silly, then it’s not great.  It sucks!  Take my word on it, cuz’ I’m the Element of Laughter!” Luna blinked slowly at Pinkie, her brow furrowed in thought.  “Er...thank you, Pinkie Pie.  We...I...will take that into consideration.” “Yay!  Now, throw me!” Luna pulled back in perfect Mare Toss form, linking her muscles in her legs, core and back.  She whipped her hooves forward and launched the pink pony across the courtyard.  Pinkie Pie shot off as if thrown by a trebuchet, and Luna grinned to herself at the beauty of the flight’s arc.  She clapped her hooves together when Pinkie passed the halfway point.  However, as Pinkie closed the distance to the opposite tower, it became clear that her aim was just a tiny bit off.  “Oh my,” Luna grimaced.  “I seem to have thrown her a bit to the left.”   ***   Twilight gaped at Celestia, her scream of shock and surprise reaching a sort of plateau of pitch somewhere at levels where only small dogs and specialized insects could hear it.  In her mind, Twilight’s tiny armies of microscopic viking ponies charged, frothing at their tiny little mouths, along with the thunderous surges of blood her heart was generating.  Their blood cells-turned-longships, set sail to destinations spread across her body to fight the inexorable erection of wings and the blush that would melt her on the spot. A part of Twilight’s mind was dumbfounded that another part of her mind was still processing that little fantasy in the midst of the current situation.  Yet another part was curious as to how there seemed to be so many parts to her mind in the first place.  Mostly, though, her mind was in a state of confusion not dissimilar to walking into a room with something to say and then completely forgetting what you had come to say.  Then standing there in uncertain silence while everypony in the room stares at you. She opened her mouth to speak, but a sort of gurgling noise was all that passed through.  It faded to a hiss, but eventually enough synapsis aligned and she was able to form basic language.  “Bwah...ah...uh? How in?  Where did?”  Twilight clicked her teeth together.  “What.” Celestia rubbed at her teary eyes with one hoof, her mind desperately racing for a way to answer her student without crushing her worldview too much.  There weren’t many options open to her, so she chose as soft a version of the truth as possible. “I woke up like this. I take it you rose this morning as an alicorn?” “Um… where do I even start with this?”  Twilight gestured vaguely with her hooves at a much reduced Princess Celestia.  “I-I wasn’t expecting—what happened to you?!” Celestia sniffled and raised a hoof to wipe her eyes.  “I’ve clocked more than a thousand years as sole ruler of Equestria, and every single day I raise and lower the sun.  Aren’t I entitled to a little personal time?”  Celestia looked down at the floor.  “Can I not spend that time as I choose to?  Even if it is being a touch over dramatic and crying in a closet?” “Well,” Twilight shrugged, “you can do whatever you want.  You’re the Princess.  But that’s not what I meant.  I mean, you’re not…” Twilight’s eyes flicked about as she tried to phrase things delicately.  “You’re not deific?  Is that the right way to say it?  You’re kind of more mortal-ish than normal, Princess.” “And you, Twilight, are looking decidedly less so.”  Celestia rose from her seated position and stepped gingerly out of the armoire.  Twilight stepped back and looked over her teacher’s new form.  Celestia looked like a regular unicorn pony— if that unicorn was a runway model from Prance.  She still had the long, elegant legs that went on forever and did wonders for the fertile imagination of young unicorn fillies.  Though shorter than Princess Luna or even Cadence, Celestia was tall and graceful by anypony’s standards.  Her horn was a normal size, and she completely lacked wings.  Even her mane was obeying standard physics by actually being hair for a change.  “Alicorn looks good on you.” “I-I-I just miscast a s-spell in my sleep!” Twilight stammered, backing up until her dock bumped into Celestia’s desk.  “This is j-just a modified wings spell mixed with a glamour spell…I think.” Celestia walked past Twilight toward her desk.  “You don’t sound confident about that, Twilight.  I’ve taught you better than that.”  She pulled her chair back with some difficulty and climbed up into it.  “What...er...flavor of icing is on this cake you brought?  I’ve not had breakfast yet.” “Vanilla and lavender.  Your favorite.” “You remembered?”  Celestia raised an eyebrow.  “How sweet!  I know I can always trust on my Twilight to make the day better.” Celestia grabbed a fork off the cake platter and and stabbed the confectionary treat in front of her with gusto. She opened her mouth before pausing with the realization of what she’d just uttered.  Celestia jerked her head back and looked at Twilight, her eyes wide.  “I didn’t mean it like that, Twilight!  This isn’t a problem you have to solve or anything!” “But!” “No buts!”  Celestia dropped her fork and hopped out of her seat.  She trotted back over to her student and reached up to touch Twilight’s chest.  “This is too big for any pony to go it alone, Twilight.  There is certainly a mystery to get to the bottom of, but I cannot in good conscience allow you to do it by yourself.  We will need to work together on this, understood?” “I-I-I...um, er...ok?”  Twilight frowned down at Celestia uncomfortably. “Where should we start?” “I believe,” Celestia turned and looked toward the stalled dawn, “that we should get the sun up and moving again, if we can. I can’t do it myself, but perhaps you might be able to?” “I’ve never raised the sun!  I wouldn’t even know where to start with something like that!”  Twilight sat back suddenly, knocking Celestia’s couch back a few inches with a loud squeak.  Twilight gulped down a lungful of air and started to breath quickly.  “How am I supposed to do that when I miscast spells in my sleep?  I’m incompetent at best!  I should go back to magic kindergarten!  I’ll be lucky if I don’t blow up a school building again!  I am a complete fail-” Twilight froze.  Her heart stopped and her tiny viking pony army froze in place with her, their widdle axes and shields raised.  Her lungs hitched between suck and blow.  Every part of Twilight, down to the smallest cell and atom paused at the curious sensation of Celestia’s hoof slapping her across the muzzle. The heat-death of the universe waits for nopony, however, and time quickly restarted itself. Twilight blinked, looking at Celestia with wide, disbelieving eyes. “Never.  Say.  That.  Again.”  Celestia narrowed her brow, but her face was deathly calm.  “You are Twilight Sparkle.  You are the pony that saved me and Equestria from the Nightmare and Discord and the changelings.  You do the impossible with frightening regularity.  You are my most faithful student, and I will not hear anypony speak ill of you.” Twilight managed to free her jaw, but not all of her body had gotten the memo to come out of frozen shock. “I will show you how to move the sun, Twilight.  If anypony can do that, it is you.  I have always had faith in your skill and strength.”  Celestia dropped her eyes to her hooves and shuffled nervously.  “Sorry about the slap.” Twilight choked for a moment more, but she nodded mutely.  She forced her lungs to start up again and slumped the rest of the way to the floor.  She looked up at Celestia.  “I’m the one that should be sorry.  I keep freaking out about stuff like this when you’re...well, when stuff like this happens. I mean, I don’t always freak out but you...er, um, I mean…”  Twilight groaned and buried her face between her hooves. “It’s ok, Twilight.”  Celestia reached out and gently stroked her student’s neck.  Twilight’s new energy mane sparked and held Celestia’s hoof, crackling with pinkish lightning all the while. Twilight murmured under her breath apologetically.  She shuffled her hooves nervously and looked up, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.  She sighed and smiled up at the older mare. “Why does it feel so right to look up and see you above me, my Princess?”   Celestia opened her mouth, but she couldn’t seem to find her voice.  She blinked, then started to flush.  Twilight’s simple addition of ‘my’ before her title felt like something far greater than just a two letter word.  Surely she was Twilight’s Princess, but it didn’t feel like Twilight was addressing her as her leader.  It felt more like the way she sometimes thought of Twilight as her student. Celestia was still trying to find her voice when there came a thud from the balcony loud enough to rattle Philomena’s enclosure.  Celestia jumped, her coat bristling along her spine, and she and Twilight turned as one toward the source of the sound. ***   Pinkie Pie groaned softly.  Her head felt really heavy and all poundy-woundy.  She didn’t feel like she was splutted against the stone wall of a Canterlot castle tower, but, then again, Pinkie wasn’t sure what that would feel like.  Pinkie Pie certainly hoped -- should she ever get splutted against a tower wall again -- that it felt like she was laying in the softest bed ever and being gently prodding by tender hooves. Pinkie giggled at the sensation of one of the hooves touching her just under the elbow. Ok, so definitely NOT splutted against a wall.  Yay!  Another hoof brushed over Pinkie’s shoulder, making her grin and snicker.  It wasn’t ticklish like her elbow was. Pinkie just liked the way the touch felt on her fur. “Pinkie Pie, your shoulder isn’t ticklish.  I can tell you’re awake.” Twilight’s voice had the soft, authoritative tone that really got Pinkie hot and bothered.  She kept her eyes closed.  When Twilight thought Pinkie wasn’t listening, she’d turn up the sternness that most other ponies thought made Twilight sound annoyed.  Pinkie liked that extra stern tone.  She could imagine doing all kinds of fun stuff when commanded by that voice. “Pinkie…” Oh Goddess!  There it is!  I’ve had so many dreams that start like this!  Pinkie smiled and chuckled again. She finally opened her eyes and did a double take when she saw the mares standing by the bed.  Above her, a much taller and even more alicorn-y, Twilight Sparkle was fixing her in place with a proper glare.  Opposite of Twilight was a mare that looked super-like Princess Celestia, except she only had pink hair, wasn’t alicorn-y at all, or wearing a tiara. “Whoa!  I have had dreams that start like this!” "Pinkie..."  Twilight shook her head.  "Now isn‘t the time for this!  How did you even get in here?" Pinkie giggled until her ribs hurt— which happened a lot sooner than it normally did.  "Hehehooooowwie...that hurts.  Um, I used my spy glider?" The mare that looked like a really good Princess Celestia impersonator gently put her hoof on Pinkie’s shoulder.  “Are you in much pain, Pinkie?  I can call...the guard to...er...wait.  No, I can’t do that.”  She frowned down at herself. Twilight then put her hoof on the fake Celestia’s shoulder.  She jerked it away a second later, like she thought the shoulder was gonna be hot to the touch.  If this is a dream, they’ll start making out right about now.  Then they get in the bed with me!  Pinkie grinned and kicked her hooves playfully.  It was like when she was waiting for a warm cookie; she knew it was coming, she knew it was going to be sweet and gooey and it was going to get in her mouth and get all over her face.   It was going to be...it was…  Why aren’t they kissing?  Am I actually awake?  Dang!  Ah, poop!  Twilight is talking and I wasn’t listening! “...the sun has to come up all the way.”  Twilight gestured at Pinkie with a hoof.  “Pinkie will be fine for now, trust me.” “If you’re sure.”  The look-alike looked back at Pinkie, a small frown on her lips. “If we don’t raise the sun, we’ll have a full blown riot on our hooves, Princess.”  Twilight sighed.  “Things were already getting tense out there when I arrived at the castle.” “Yeah!  Everypony at the gate was chanting ‘Twilicorn! Twilicorn! Twilicorn!’”  Pinkie giggled and winced again.  “Pretty soon this is going to turn into one of those special scavenger hunt parties where there isn’t a list.  You just grab whatever isn’t nailed down!  Those are fun parties, but I don’t think the ponies outside realize how heavy the stuff in the castle is.  I mean, it’s all so big!” Pinkie snorted and groaned in pain.  “Just like Twilight!  Not that I think you’re heavy, Twi.”  Pinkie grin-maced.  “I mean, it’s ok if you were fat. I like a mare with meat on her bones!” “Pinkie, shut up.” “Who doesn’t like a plump filly, really?”  Pinkie groaniggled.  “Besides, who am I to talk?  Have you seen my flanks recently?  I got the Pie family hips, that’s for sure.” “Pinkie!” “Yes, Mistress!”  Pinkie clapped her mouth closed and wiggled her backside into the bed.  There was that firm tone again.  Maybe she was dreaming.  Alicorn threesome was still a possibility. Twilight glared at her with those big sexy eyes and pinched the skin between her brows with her hoof.  “Pinkie, please, stay here and let me and the Princess figure out how to get the sun up, ok?  Then we can fix whatever is going on with our bodies and get back to normal.” Pinkie nodded mutely.  Twilight continued to glare at her for a moment, but after a moment her look softened and she sighed.  “Thank you, Pinkie.” “Just relax here, Ms. Pie.  I’m sure Twilight will figure out a way to set everything right once again.”  Princess Celestia’s stand-in smiled at her in a perfect imitation of the way the real Princess would.  “I can...er, Equestria can always count on her in times of need.” Twilight blushed and stood straighter.  “Uh, yeah.  I do...that.  But don’t you think we should get the sun up properly?”  She smiled nervously and gestured toward the balcony.  “If you need us, Pinkie, we won’t be far.” “Okidoki!  Ow...I’ll be here, on the bed, ready and waiting, unable to get away if a pair of capable mares wanted to spit roast-” “Pinkie Pie!”  Twilight blushed harder, her cheeks burning a bright crimson and her new mana-mane sparking with pink and magenta lightning.  “Lay here and be quiet!  Please!” Pinkie clamped her hooves over her snout to drown out her giggles.  Hooves pressing against her muzzle, she waffled between muffled guffaws and pained whimpers.  Twilight and the Celestia impressionist turned away and headed toward the balcony that Luna had thrown her at.  Geez, I hope I didn’t leave a huge crater in the wall.  The Princess would not be happy with that. Of course, Pinkie stroked her chin, if I am dreaming, there won’t be a crater, right?  But then my ribs wouldn’t be all ouchie—but then again—if I wasn’t dreaming, why would Celestia be a unicorn and not all alicorn-y?  She’s still pretty cute as a unicorn, though. “I’m so confused right now.”  Pinkie Pie groaned. She lifted the sheet and gently prodded her sides with her hooves, flinching as she grazed some tender spots.  “I guess that works the same as a pinch, right?  So...I’m not dreaming.” Pinkie frowned disappointedly.  She pulled the sheet back up to her nose so that only her eyes and ears and mane poked out, like she did when she played bed-gators with Gummy.  Or when she wasn’t feeling well, like when she ate too many of Mrs. Cake’s special sugar cookies.  Or when she was disappointed, like she was right now.  Pinkie sighed, eyes following Twilight and the pretty unicorn walk close to each other.  The unicorn mare swayed as she moved, periodically brushing against Twilight’s side.  Twilight, in turn, stumbled away from the other mare, wings jumping and spreading slightly with every bump. One eyebrow raised slowly.  Twilight was blushing and smiling like a nervous school filly, and the one that looked a lot like Celestia was doing that same forced laugh that the Princess did sometimes.  They moved apart slightly, then fell back into step with each other and walked slower.  Her eyebrow kept climbing.  They would speak, make eye contact for a second and then look away.  Their tails bobbed up and down more than usual, rising ever so slightly in time with the eye contact. Pinkie gaped, her eyebrow reaching Applejack levels of raised. “Sweet Faust!  Why is Twilight being all lovey-dovey with a Princess imposter‽”  Pinkie Pie clenched the sheet in her hooves.  “Celestia isn’t going to like this!” *** Drums beat out a pounding rhythm.  Torches were lit and the call arose from the mass of ponies in full viking gear.  Once again, it was time to board the longships and set sail for plunder.   Their eyes were set on the wood in her wings and the fire the Goddess caused low in her gut.  One viking with a great ursa major skin cloak and a pink stripe in its purple mane stood above the others. The cloaked pony blew into a ram’s horn.  “The time has come, ponies of Valhayla!  Our Goddess calls, and we answer!” The crowd roared in response, stomping their hooves and waving their period-accurate swords and shields around.  They turned as one to board their ships, but they all came to a halt at the sound of cleared throat. “Um…excuse me,” Twilight Sparkle stepped into the fire light of their viking camp and cleared her throat again, “but hasn’t this visual metaphor gone on long enough?  We can’t spare the processing power right now for this little part of us to let its...er, our, imagination run wild.  The Princess is right there, for cryin’ out loud!” The vikings turned to look back at her, then looked at each other. “I guess so.” “Sounds legit.” “What about the wingboner?  Celestia is going to notice it at any second!” A general murmur of consensus went through the crowd, causing Twilight to sigh.  “Ok, I suppose that still needs to be addressed.  But no more vikings!  That metaphor is so over.” “Uh...cowponies, then?” “Let’s be gangsters!  Then we get magical tommyguns!” Twilight shook her head, refocusing on Princess Celestia.  The Princess stood, fidgeting  nervously, at the edge of her balcony door.  She looked outside at the sun as it sat unmoving on the horizon.  While her attention was elsewhere, Twilight willed her wings back down.  If this lasted any longer, she was going to have to seriously look into the phenomenon that caused them to spread and become stiff when she became excited. Princess Celestia sighed, looking back at Twilight.  “The transformation has left my magic is too weak for this, Twilight.  You are the most powerful magic user I know, aside from my sister, so you are going to have to do this for me.  I’ll stay inside, but it might be better if you step out onto the balcony to perform the rising.  I always find it reduces my distractions when I’m not surrounded by walls.” “You want me to go out alone?!”  Twilight gulped, falling into a seated position.  “I’ve never raised a sun before!  What if I mess up?  What if I bring it crashing into the planet?  I could kill everypony!” “Twilight,” Celestia reached out her hoof and rested it against Twilight’s chest, “calm down.  You can do this.  I’ll be right here, guiding you every step of the way.” Celestia smiled up at Twilight, her hoof lingering on her student’s chest for a few more moments.  “I have faith in you.” Her hoof is so soft and warm.  Twilight flushed, nodding slowly.  “Ok...ok.  I can do this.  Equestria is counting on me, right?” She took a deep, steadying breath and let it out slowly through her nose.  Twilight climbed resolutely back to her hooves and took a moment to center herself.  She looked back out onto the balcony Celestia used when raising the sun day after day.  The enormity of the responsibility she was about to take on was overwhelming.  But with the Princess’s guidance, she at least had a chance of surviving the experience.  “How do I start? Celestia gestured toward the balcony.  “Step out and clear your mind.  Feel the breeze and the light, and the solidity of the stone under your hooves.  We’ll start with basic meditation.  You remember that lesson, don’t you?” “Only like the back of my hoof!  You drilled me for weeks on end.”  Twilight giggled away some of her anxiety.  “I suppose this is essentially long distance telekinetic manipulation?” “Essentially.”  Celestia grinned proudly, stepping back to let Twilight out of the room.  “When you are centered, I want you to start by feeling the stones, then the lines that connect the balcony to the castle, then the pillars that connect the castle to the mountain and then at last the weight that anchors it all to the world.” Twilight rolled her eyes.  “The easy stuff first, huh?”  She stepped out into the full light of the sun, squinting in the sudden brightness.  Her mind shook off the last hooks of anxiety and fell into a calmer state.  She was Twilight Sparkle and she was on the job, here to help her mentor, the most important pony in the world. Twilight closed her eyes against the light and braced her legs firmly against the balcony.  She wasn’t sure how this was going to work.  As a unicorn, magic was her life, but the “natural” magic of the Earth and Pegasus tribes was something she’d never experienced.  It wasn’t like she was a real alicorn.  She just looked like one.  Right? She took another deep breath and let it out again, just like the Princess had shown her when she was a fresh student all those years ago.  Her mind grew quiet and her world shrank, until all was just Twilight.  It was as if she were adrift in some vast ocean.  No, that analogy isn’t quite right.  It’s more like I’m standing on some sort of endless plain.  Wait. She could feel the plain under her, feel it stretching in all directions and going down and down and down until she could sense some churning motion even further below.  She could smell the dirt, taste the water that ran under the ground and hear the plants growing slow and steady. “Spread your wings, Twilight.”  Celestia’s voice was soft and near, vibrating throughout the immense plain Twilight stood on.  “Feel the breezes and the sky, feel the stillness along with the gusts and gales of the atmosphere.” Twilight willed her wings to spread, and it was like she had removed the bars on some caged animal, for her mind expanded along with them.  Her plain now had a sky and it went up and up and up and was churning and turning in great spirals and long curves.  It was chaos compared to the earth below, but it was not wild without purpose.  She could feel the clouds as they drifted by, smell the rain as it fell and sense the patterns hidden in the chaos as it was guided by the hooves of ponies and the will of the world. “Now focus on the light, Twilight, and the warmth and the presence above you.” Twilight inhaled again, releasing the breath and opening her eyes.  The light was no longer blinding.  It felt soft and welcoming.  She looked up at the sun on the horizon, but the sight did not burn her eyes.  That astral body was a gigantic yellow-orange orb that she could see in unbelievable detail.  There were spots that were slightly darker and streaks of almost-white fire that arced off the surface and crashed back down again. “What am I seeing?”  Twilight’s voice came out in a hushed whisper.  “How am I seeing this?  The sun never looks like this.” “You are seeing it as it really is, Twilight.”  Celestia spoke from behind her.  “Reach out with your magic.  Feel it.  It won’t burn you, I promise.” She did as her teacher asked, and reached for the sun.  It was warm, warmer than anything she had ever felt before.  The heat washed across her coat without harming her, despite its intensity.  It was like holding foam in her hooves, weightless and fragile as a soap bubble but somehow solidly fixed in place.  “I...I feel it.  I feel it!  Princess, is this how you move the sun?  This is wonderful!” “I knew you could do it, Twilight!”  Celestia clapped her hooves happily.  “Now, slowly move yourself.” “What?” “The sun stays where it is, Twilight.  It is the focal point, and you must move around it.” “Ooooookkaaayy…”  Twilight swallowed nervously.  “How do…?” She stiffened, feeling a hoof on her side.  Her senses exploded with the being of Celestia in a way she had never experienced before.  One moment she was in her own world of the sun, the air and the earth, and then the next, there was Celestia.  She couldn’t see her with her eyes, but she could feel every inch of Celestia’s sleek, smaller frame.  She could smell the scent of her mentor’s coat and mane, feel her other hooves as they stood next to her.  It was like she was extension of Twilight’s own body. “Like this.” Twilight let out a gasp, the feeling of a tiny thread of magic passing into her, registered in her mind.  It was nothing compared to the influx of magic she was feeling from the world around her, but it held the knowledge of millenia.  Just like that, she knew the secret.  She knew how to move the world and the sun, and how the whole of reality worked.  It was effortless now that she knew what she was doing. The sun obeyed her command and drifted up in the the early morning Canterlot sky.   “You did it!”  Celestia laughed and clapped her hooves again, breaking the connection.  The larger mare shivered at the severing and blinked as her senses returned to normal and the world was once again separate from her.  Twilight rubbed her face with her hoof, turning to look back at Celestia.  When suddenly she was connected to her mentor in a new and interesting way.  Celestia threw her arms around her neck and pulled her into a hug. “Oh sweet Goddess!  You did it, Twilight!  I am so proud of you!  I knew you could do it for me, I just knew it!” “Um…”  Twilight felt her blush come crashing back with a vengeance.  “Princess, somepony might see you out here.” “Yes.  You might want to take you PDA inside.” Twilight and Celestia blinked at each other, then turned as one.  Floating just past the edge of the balcony, his long serpentine body twisted into a lazy ‘S,’ was Discord. “That is, of course, unless you want your love life to be the talk of the town before lunch.” “Discord?”  Celestia narrowed her eyes at him. “What do you want?”  Twilight frowned, flaring her wings to block the chaos spirit’s path to Celestia. “Oh, look at you, Twilight Sparkle!  Finally wearing your big pony pants, are we?  Congratulations are in order!”  Discord summoned streamers and party balloons from the aether with a chuckle.    “Let’s step inside, my dear.  The three of us have much to discuss.”