The train pulled into Ponyville Station as evening was falling. The Sun was already down behind the White Tails, and the Moon was starting to climb in the East. The air felt damp on Twilight Sparkle's face as she stepped down onto the platform, a harbinger of rain, something she could also sense in the ionization of the air. Even in the center of town, she could feel the spring and its new life all around her, a sensation that had become more and more acute over the last year and a half, since she had become an Alicorn.
It should have cheered her. It did cheer her, slightly. But slight cheer was not enough to dispel the gloom and fear that shrouded her soul, making the whole world seem washed-out by shadow. Her heart was still troubled by what had happened in that nameless little village in the Crystal Mountains, her mind oppressed by the implications.
"Hoo-wee!" Applejack whooped as she jumped down from the train. "It shore is good to see mah home town again. Ah feel like a flea that's hopped back up on its favorite dog, Ah tell yah!" Applejack's rustic accent was thicker than usual.
Twilight thought the metaphor strained, and the happy light that shone in Applejack's eyes seemed almost desperately bright. Twilight wasn't certain. Her ability to read others was in her intellectual rather than intuitive, though since her Ascension she'd experienced increasingly-frequent intuitive flashes into the nature of others. This power was still intermittent -- but she felt as if there was something wrong with Applejack.
"Wowee, you're right!" shrieked Pinkie Pie, hopping off the train and bouncing around the station like a demented equine rubber ball. "It's great to be back home! Whee!!!"
Did Pinkie seem a bit too enthusiastic? It was difficult to tell with her, of course. Her normal state of consciousness was easy to mistake for clinical mania; it was only because Twilight knew Pinkie well, and had for almost five years now, that she sensed that something was subtly wrong with Pinkie's seeming good cheer -- as if Pinke were trying too hard.
Rainbow Dash whooshed out a window. She wasn't supposed to do that; it was against the railroad's rules: they didn't like to risk having to replace the panes on their passenger cars because some drunk or silly Pegasus misjudged such a move. Rainbow Dash never cared about rules like that. She streaked up above her friends, streaming her rainbow-colored contrail, and flew happy little patterns overhead, laughing exuberantly.
At least she didn't seem to be faking it.
Fluttershy walked down the steps. She looked a little tired, but not too terribly-depressed.
She'd been energetic at the start of the return trip. Twilight reasoned that the good feelings at the victory celebration had reinvigorated Fluttershy; the former followers of Starlight Glimmer were ecstatic at their liberation and directed most of this positive affect at their saviors. From what Twilight understood of Fluttershy's amatovoric powers -- in part by analogy with Twilight's less-developed own abilities in that regard -- Fluttershy would have made a fair meal of all that ambient love.
Normally, on the trip back, Fluttershy would have basked in the love of her friends. But they'd all been in a strange mood. Most, including Twilight herself, had been depressed, quiet, and withdrawn -- unable to extend the love upon which Fluttershy fed. Rainbow Dash had been atypically-aggressive. As for Rarity ...
Rarity was the last to emerge. She did not prance down the stairs, as was her normal wont in victory. She did not trot. She did not even walk normally. She stepped slowly, her hooves dragging, her expression downcast. Her gloom was deep, and obvious.
As she stepped down to the platform, she sniffed, opened her mouth to taste it in a full flehmen. Her eyes darted about, taking in the sight of Ponyville in the gloaming. Her ears perked up and she stood somewhat straighter.
"Beautiful," Rarity said. "It is all so beautiful." Her voice was thick with an almost-desperate passion, as if she feared that at any moment all this loveliness might be taken away.
After all it had before, three times in her life, and twice in the last half year, Twilight thought. She'd shared in the experience each time save for the first, and being left out of that had only been marginally less upsetting than actually being Discorded.
Twilgiht cast her gaze about. Where's Spike? she wondered. He's supposed to meet us here. She'd sent him a wire from the train, letting him know when they'd be arriving.
As if the thought had been a summoning spell, Twilight saw the small purple-and-yellow-and-green biped running toward her through the thickening mists. "Spike!" she cried happily, filled with gladness at the sight of her foster brother.
"Sorry!" replied Spike. "I got wrapped up in hoofball stats and lost track of the time. I know I should have been here sooner. I ran," he added by way of explanation. "And got these for you all." He tossed furled umbrellas to Twilight and Rarity, who caught them in their auras; then he tossed one more each to the other four mares. He had not bothered to bring one for himself.
"No problem, Spike," said Twilight. "Our train just pulled in anyway." She smiled. Spike was reassuringly part of her normal life, of home and family and friends and routine research, as opposed to meglomaniacal mages who wanted to rip away everything that made her who she was, whether from a mad hunger for power or in pursuit of an insanely egalitarian ideology.
"Thank'ee kindly," said Applejack, "but Ah don't need no umbrella for a lil' sprinkle like this, no more'n a muskrat needs water-wings." She passed the umbrella back to Spike in one forehoof.
"Yeah, I don't need one either," added Rainbow Dash. "I'm way too awesome. I fly through thunderstorms for fun -- think fast!" She passed the umbrella back to Spike, chucking it from one wing like a dart, though at a relatively safe speed, and aimed to miss both head and body.
Spike looked briefly worried, but plucked it out of the air with one dextrous hand.
"Good catch!" cried Rainbow, laughing heartily.
"Mac and I have been practicing," Spike informed Rainbow Dash. He looked at Applejack. "Your brother can sure throw some hard passes."
Applejack smiled, and Rainbow Dash got a mischevious expression. Pinkie grinned, then glanced away as if at some imaginary audience and said "Meh. Too easy."
Rarity, who had simply been staring with fascination at Spike since he arrived, finally spoke up.
"Spikey-Wikey!" she burst out, startling both Spike and her other friends. "Your scales are ... simply ... fabulous!
"Well gee -- thank you, Rarity," Spike replied with a slight blush. "You -- you're looking lovely yourself."
The statement was not entirely true, Twilight reflected. Rarity was exhausted, travel-worn and had a rather disturbingly-intense expression as she regarded Spike. Still, Twilight thought, I suppose that to Spike, Rarity is always beautiful. Briefly, two images -- one of a cool, deadly dark-blue Alicorn mare with a mane full of starlight; the other of a blue-haired yellow Human stallion with desire in his eyes -- drifted before her mind, accompanied by the usual confusion when she thought too intimately of either of them, let alone of both of them at the same time.
I'm supposed to be brilliant, thought Twilight. So why is my own heart sometimes such a mystery to me?
She regarded Spike, who was dreamily meeting Rarity's gaze. I'm not sure that it can ever really work -- he's eight years her junior, not yet fifteen, and of another biological class than her own -- but at least for now, he knows whom he loves. I wish I could be so certain.
"The way your skin glistens in the lamplight, Spike," Rarity continued. "It's so splendid! So real, and yet almost ethereal!"
"Um -- thank you again, Rarity. It's because my scales are damp. From the mist," Spike explained, starting to look a little uncertain, probably because Rarity was being overly-enthusiastic even by her own rather flamboyant standards.
"Your scales are wonderful," Rarity said, reaching out with one hoof to hook Spike into a hug. Her motion was rough.
Caught by surprise, Spike made a small startled sound, a sort of half-choked query.
"You're so handsome!" With that, Rarity lifted him and bussed him firmly on both cheeks, ignoring his lack of response. She was about to kiss him full on the lips, when she finally got a good look at his expression. What she saw seemed to shock her out of the frenzy that had claimed her.
"Oh," Rarity said, flatly. "Oh." Her face crumpled, and she put Spike down. "I'm so sorry, Spike. That was -- I should get back to the shop. I have work to do. Goodbye." Her voice increasingly choked with emotion as she spoke, and that last "goodbye" was almost a vocalized sob. Her eyes were brimming with tears, and she quickly turned away. She actually galloped off toward the Carousel Boutique, clearly wanting to get away from this situation as fast as possible.
Spike stared in the direction in which she had departed, jaw dropping in literally open-mouthed astonishment. "What just happened?" he asked, of everypony and nopony in particular. He turned to his five remaining friends, who seemed scarcely less shocked at the scene they had witnessed. "What did I do wrong?" His voice was stricken.
Twilight was silent, uncertain of what to say.
"Nothing, Sugarcube," Applejack replied, her green eyes soft and compassionate, her tone gentle. "You didn't do nothing wrong. We had a rough time of it up north. Rough on all 'a us. Rarity just took it a mite harder than us, that's all."
"What happened up there?" Spike asked, now plainly worried.
"We met us one plumb mean mage," Applejack replied. "Mean and loco. Twah can fill you in on the details -- prolly will have to, in order to write up her report. Ah bet she can explain it a lot better'n Ah can."
"Will Rarity be okay?" Spike asked.
"Ah don't rightly know for sure," Applejack said first. Then, as she saw the fear show in the little Dragon's eyes, she added: "But Ah 'spect she will. As you've prolly noticed, Rares is a whole passel tougher than she mostly lets on."
"Should I go to her?" Spike asked. "Help her?"
"I don't think so," said Twilight, finally coming to a decision on the matter. "I would imagine that Rarity's rather embarrassed about the way she just behaved. Right now, you should probably give her some space to feel better about herself."
Spike's expression showed that he plainly did not relish this advice, but he nodded. "I suppose so," he assented grudgingly.
"Twah," interjected Applejack. "mebbe somepony should check in on on Rarity, though. Just to see how she's doing."
"I'll do it," volunteered Fluttershy. "May I see to my animals first, though?"
"Sure," said Twilight. She knew that the love of her animals would recharge Fluttershy's own empathic powers, rendering her more able to help Rarity.
She turned to Spike. "You can come with me and help me organize my detailed report to Celestia."
She had, of course, dashed off a quick message to her Most Beloved Former Teacher as soon as she had gotten back to "Our Town," detailing Dashie to fly it to the nearest telegraph operator. It had been a very simple message:
FOUND STARLIGHT GLIMMER LEADING THRALL CULT IN CENTRAL CRYSTAL MOUNTAINS STOP DEFEATED HER FREED THRALLS STOP SG DANGEROUS WARLOCK CAN REMOVE CUTIE MARKS EVEN FROM ALICORNS STOP WILL SEND FULL REPORT FROM PONYVILLE ON ARRIVAL STOP END
Twilight hoped that it was enough to ensure that Starlight Glimmer could not take the other Alicorn Princesses by surprise (as she did me being the implicit continuation of that thought).
On the train ride back, Twilight had a nightmare of coming to Canterlot to find Celestia and Luna helpless victims of the Spell of Sameness, while a smirking Starlight sat on Celestia's throne, declaring herself to be the new rightful ruler of all Equestria. Waking, she knew it to be nonsense -- the Royal Pony Sisters would be far from helpless, even in that situation, and the Guards wouldn't just submit to some random warlock -- but she still feared the worst, feared that Starlight had other powers as yet unrevealed.
For Twilight had a strong suspicion of from where Starlight Glimmer had developed the Spell of Sameness. And if she was right, all Equestria was in terrible danger -- perhaps not now, but as soon as Starlight had recovered from her defeat, prepared her next plan. Starlight might have bided her time longer in the mountains, ruling her petty little despotism, but Twilight had ruined that. Twilight's failure to capture Starlight meant that Twilight's own actions had only made the danger to the Realm all the worse.
Spike looked briefly mutinous, casting a glance toward the direction in which Rarity had departed, then subsided.
"Bye for now, girls," said Twilight. "I have a report to write. I'll see you all tomorrow at my castle."
Her friends said their farewells, and then Twilight -- Spike riding atop her back, holding an umbrella -- trotted off to their home.
The night darkened, the mist turned to cold rain.
And somewhere, out there beyond that rain, Twilight knew that Starlight Glimmer was lurking -- and preparing to strike.